Back in Feb, I listed a set of devices that should be high on your list if you’re thinking about mobile microblogging. It included MIDs and UMPCs. As the market for mobile social networking, mobile web search, mobile content creation, location based services and lifestreaming (my rough definition of Mobile Microblogging) gathers steam we’re seeing more and more devices coming into the segment and it’s mainly from the smartphone sector. UMPCs and MIDs aren’t getting a look-in. In fact, in my latest list, below, you won’t find a MID or UMPC.

Smartphones with bigger, higher resolution screens and high-end processors are appearing on the radar almost every week. Smartphone-based mobile software development is increasing too as more and more mobile device application stores tempt developers with easy-to-use, rich SDKs and APIs, a channel that reaches right down to millions of users devices and a good cut of any earnings.

What’s really interesting about the Mobile Microblogging phenomenon is that very little software development is happening for today’s Intel MIDs, the very devices that were targeted into this segment. Intel have stopped work on the Moblin OS for them and they’re effectively UMPCs. You could even argue that there are no Intel MIDs any more! They are being totally left behind in both software and hardware until Intel push the reset button when Moorestown MIDs with Moblin hit the market. Until then, it’s desktop operating systems for MIDs and UMPCs.

You won’t find an easy-to-use, small-screen, GPS-enabled search service on Windows. You can’t even link Google Maps to a GPS on the browser. Forget the thought of a compass helping with augmented reality, an accelerometer, an FM receiver with RDS or, if you’re into internet photography, a half-decent snapshot camera. There’s no application store either. Only on smartphones will you find the creative software and hardware that is driving the mobile microblogging market and making it exciting, fresh, competitive and, quite frankly, desirable.

Moblin-based MIDs do have a chance as do Maemo 5 based devices but you won’t find any on the market yet so it’s going to take time for the developers to warm to those platforms. Come back in 2010 to discuss that!

Apple and Android have done a lot for the new generation of mobile internet devices and usage scenarios and so it should be no surprise to see smartphones dominating this Mobile Microblogging segment to the point where UMPCs and MIDs don’t get a look-in. UMPCs and Netbooks still have big  advantages for general purpose, day-to-day productive computing but if mobile creativity is your thing, there’s nothing better than the new generation of smartphones.

One could argue that smartphones have grown into the MID segment but for me it was always about usage scenarios rather than device categories. As Intel said, communication, location, entertainment and productivity. It’s a shame that Intel’s MIDs aren’t living up to their own hype yet. (see my recent Moorestown article for thoughts about 2010)

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Clearly the person leaking the Dell MID information to the NYT has no idea what’s going on there and has probably just walked through one of the research labs at Dell and got a bit over-excited. I’m sure if you got to walk through Apple’s lab you’d see a few Google Android-based devices too.

‘Could be scrapped’ or ‘may begin selling the device later this year.’ That’s called ‘evaluation’ I believe.

‘Dell may use chips based on designed licensed from ARM Holdings PLC.’ Shock!

‘Dell has considered selling the product through cellular carriers’ Now there’s a new idea to consider!

Justin Scheck of the New York Times didn’t exactly get a ground-breaking factual story and yet it got to  #1 on Techmeme

Nokia, Microsoft, Apple, Samsung, ASUS, Acer, Sony and many others will be doing exactly the same as Dell right now and evaluating the market for a non-voice Internet device using Android, Maemo and Moblin with ARM or Intel cores running HSPA or WiMAX technologies for Web, Navigation, Ebook, PMP and Gaming. Mobile Microblogging is a huge topic and the company that makes the first device to dovetail with this market stands to win a good lead. My money is on Nokia for Europe and Apple for US to be the first major players but because of the diversity of users, locations and applications, there’s an opportunity for many others out there.

If you are a regular reader of sites in our end of the blogosphere I’m almost sure that you are aware that the iPhone 3GS has now been released by Apple. While not a drastic change from the original, the 3GS boasts speed improvements that claim to make it twice as fast as the iPhone 3G. Chippy mentions that the iPhone 3GS is ‘the most important MID’ out there right now, and it is inevitable that people will compare many of the upcoming Moorestown devices to the iPhone 3GS. MIDs run lots of different software, amd while we won’t be able to do direct application comparisons, one of factors that we can most easily compare is the speed in which a MID can load a webpage. AnandTech put together a table which stacks the iPhone 3GS up against some of best smartphones out there.

It is easy to see the ability of the iPhone 3GS to quickly render websites, and the iPhone 3GS has set the bar that upcoming Moorestown MIDs will match and hopefully surpass.

Check out the full article at AnandTech for additional tests.

The CommunicAsia expo is happening in Singapore right now and Samsung have taken the opportunity to show off a previously ‘leaked’ product, the Omnia Pro B7610.

Like the HTC Touch Pro 2, it’s got a slider keyboard, an 800×480 screen and Windows Mobile. it’s got a 5mp camera and an 800Mhz CPU. 800Mhz sounds quite hefty but the CPU architecture details aren’t known yet so don’t get too excited about this being the ultimate pocketable browsing device.

It’s said to ship with WM6.1 but Samsung have promised an upgrade to WM6.5 which should keep this device current for a good year or more. While some of you might not like Windows Mobile, I still find it a productive and relatively open environment with a great software ecosystem. It should also be capable of running Opera Mobile 9.7 too which is one of the most advanced mobile browsers out there.

One more thing. The screen is a 3.5” AMOLED type which will provide great indoor color saturation but may not be the best choice for outdoor use. Expect a release in Q3 or even Q4 and keep your fingers crossed for 720p recording and the high-end processor that could make Opera Mobile a truly slick mobile browser experience.

Via Akihabara News

More thoughts on pocketable communications solutions from the smartphone bracket in this article.

Jkk has tons of video coverage of the now finished Computex 2009. Here he has an interesting 17 minute video of a Q&A with Intel’s General Manager of the Ultra Mobility Group, Anand Chandrasekher. Jkk also rounded up a list of all the people in attendance, as follows:

• Our very own Steve ‘Chippy’ Paine
• Joanna from LAPTOP
• Johannes from NewGadgets.de
• Frank from SomewhatFrank
• Charbax from TechVideoBlog.com
• JKK from jkkmobile.com (working the camera)

An interesting watch if you want to understand how Intel is handling the upcoming Moorestown platform and have a chance to see and hear from some prominent members of our blogging community.

Jkk seems to have gotten his hands on many of the MIDs shown at Computex this year. Here you can see him checking out the Dmedia M0, which is a MID that looks pretty nice on the outside, but is unfortunately running Windows CE. One surprising thing is that there seems to be a decent 5MP camera on the back of the unit. There is also WiMAX and GPS. Though it looks like the touchscreen is resistive, and there is a very apparent iPhone UI ripoff as the top layer of the devices interface. I’m doubting that this think will go to international market in this form. Jump over to jkk’s site to catch the specs list.

A quick look around the iPhone 3GS ‘Tech Specs’ page reveals plenty of info about battery life, screen size, resolution, and a number of other info, but we have yet to see any info on the RAM or CPU speed which claims to make the iPhone 3GS “twice as fast’. Even when asked directly, they refused to say exactly.

It seems a bit strange for them to be doing this, but I have a theory. You may have read my article a short while back questioning the rumors that said that Apple would release a touch oriented slate style device at WWDC. In that article, I mentioned that the App Store has been a huge part of the iPhones success, and Apple wouldn’t be releasing anything that runs the iPhone OS with specs that would ruin app compatibility. So, I feel that Apple has done some work to ensure that apps stay cross compatible with every device of their touch series.

I’ll have to mention that I haven’t yet been able to test the iPhone 3GS, but here is my initial theory. Apple may have doubled the RAM in the iPhone but kept the CPU speed the same; they want to keep the double RAM a secret. Why would they do this? The previous iPhone 3G has 128MB of RAM that gets allocated around the system to where it is needed. If a heavy app uses too much RAM, it crashes because the phone doesn’t have any more RAM to offer it, as it is being used up by the rest of the system. By doubling the RAM, they have plenty of space to allocate to the system, and a much larger space to load and run applications. The RAM speed remains the same (and the CPU) which means that app performance (while it is actually running) will stay the same, but with the increased quantity of RAM, more data can be loaded to the RAM at once, increasing the speed in which applications load. This is important because Apple doesn’t want any of the touch devices to run applications better than any other, ensuring compatibility between all.

Apple understands the success of their App Store. In the WWDC keynote, they mentioned that they have 50,000 applications, over 1,000,000,000 downloads of apps, and an install base of 40,000,000 users, across all generations of the iPod Touch and iPhone. Those numbers are insanely impressive, and as I stressed in the aforementioned article, they are not about to ruin compatibility of their precious app store. If they just doubled the CPU speed and double the RAM, developers would have a new performance bar that they could develop for. This means that an application might be designed specifically for a theoretical, more powerful iPhone, and yet it wouldn’t run well on their older devices, totally breaking the trend that the current app store has had since it was released: complete interoperability between all devices regardless of generation. But here is the really tricky part… why keep it a secret?

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A few minutes after the iphone 3GS announcement yesterday I tweeted that it was still the most important MID out there. Despite some ridiculously lame announcements (MMS and tethering for example) the fact that the processor has been upgraded, that a compass has been added along with video capability, that there’s a turn-by-turn navigation offering and the introduction of a ton of ebooks into the store highlights that it can stretch its wings across nearly all the segments that mobile internet devices should be in. Internet, gaming, photography, communications, ebooks, navigation and media playback.

The fact that it’s capable of all these things (albeit in ‘standard definition’ and with carrier-tied 24month contract) makes it important to watch. Imagine what’s going to happen within the iphone developers ecosystem. The creativity contained within it is incredible and we’re going to see amazing applications, new usage models and a ton of new user-created data.

But…

It’s still not quite the MID most of us are looking for. Keyboard, hi-res screen, 720p recording, hi-def playback, video-out (wasn’t this supposed to be in the new OS?), removable battery, processing power, camera flash, Adobe flash and a general dash of openness are going to be big issues for pro-mobile types and that’s why it doesn’t really challenge devices like the UMID, the S5 or new devices like the Compal KAX-15 or the rumoured Nokia N900. Looking to 2010 and Moorestown/Moblin 2 the iPhone is going to look positively low-def if what’s promised comes true.

It looks like the hardware problems are solved and we could have our ideal MID tomorrow but that software ecosystem is key to gaining a fan-base, developers, word-of-mouth marketing and, quite simply, sales. Moblin and Maemo need to attract some of that creativity otherwise we’re left with some good hardware and a set of basic applications. App stores, stylish hardware, compelling API’s, unique features and attractive brands are a must.  The iPhone may not be the MID that any of us would create in our dreams but it’s still the most important MID out there.

Jkk seems to be getting his hands on all of the cool stuff at Computex. Another short video showing a very solid looking Moorestown based MID. It seems to have a very sizable screen which covers much of the real estate on the front of the unit. It looks thin and well designed. Though the unit that jkk got to check out was just a prototype, I have to say that it is looking quite nice. I can’t wait for Moorestown devices to hit the market; we’ll be seeing great devices like this providing a wonderful FIE to users… as long as they nail the software, and I’m hoping that screen is capacitive!

Back in 2007, we saw the original EB MID reference design as seen above. As it was announced on their site, they called it the EB MIMD (Mobile Internet Multimedia Device). It was a slider device with a hardware keyboard and it was based on the Menlow platform. This device was never picked up by an OEM and turned into a marketed product, despite its impressive appearance.

Fast forward two years and we are presented with the new vision of a MID reference design by EB. This newer reference design is now based on the next generation Moorestown platform and that means it will be trying for always-on phone/entertainment/FIE functionality and pocketability. While the original 2007 EB MID reference design looked great on the hardware end, it didn’t seem like EB was pushing much on the software side of things.

With this most recent MID reference, it is clear that EB is trying to leverage the reference hardware along with a strong Linux based OS and interface framework. It is quite important toe note that EB realizes that a MID isn’t going to fly without software that really complements the hardware. Luckily it seems that EB already has a software vision for use with this product and I’m happy to report that from the spec sheet we can see that the device will use a “high resolution” 3.97” capacitive touchscreen, and it will also have haptic feedback. In addition to the capacitive touchscreen, the unit will have WiMAX or HSDPA connectivity as well as GPS to support location based services and navigation.

While this all sounds great, it is still up to a company to pick up the reference design, have it tailored for them, then have it brought to market. I’m hoping that we see that happen and that this design doesn’t get left unchecked, as it seems happened to the original.

I’ve been careful to point out in the past that Moorestown and Menlow will overlap and continue to be available as two separate platforms in the MID space. While a version of Moorestown will support XP, it won’t be the version that we’re seeing touted for smartphones. Even Intel were careful to point out that you won’t see the same power envelope with Microsoft products so clearly, Moorestown is initiall a cut-down or special ‘crafted’ platform that only works with Moblin.

Menlow is that platform that continues to be offered for use in UMPCs and note here that Intel appear to accept now that Moblin V1 isn’t going to be the primary OS for Menlow based systems. I think it’s fair to say that Menlow and Moblin V1 failed and even distracted the market for ultra mobile solutions until it got back on course recently with XP versions of the original MIDs. I’m even hearing and seeing Windows 7 being promoted for UMPCs and if OEMs can keep the licensing costs low and ssd speeds high, it will make a great solution.

So that brings us to the Compal KAX-15, the only Menlow-based device that was announced within the Intel meetings. It was shown in the Ultra Mobility keynote and JKK got straight over to the demo device and gave us the full details in a video. (below) Before that, the specs.

It has a sliding/tilting keyboard that is similar to the HTC Shift but on a smaller scale. It’s a bit bigger than the original Compal MID that Aigo and Gigabyte used but that is probably due to a bigger battery. Compal will be aware that the battery life on their JAX-10/KAX-10 is no longer competitive in the UMPC space.

• Screen size: 4.8”, 800×480
• CPU: Z515 with 800Mhz and 1.2Ghz bursting. (Which I think means that designers can build around the TDP of the 800Mhz part but i’m not 100% sure. Sounds just like speed stepping to me)
• No mouse controller
• Dual web cams

I think it’s fair to say that this is in the running to be the next Aigo MID. Personally I find it a better form factor than the UMID M1 but we’ll have to see about battery life.

We’ve been following the interesting developments of the CrunchPad, which aims to bring an intuitive and inexpensive web tablet into the hands of consumers. When it was first announced, the idea seemed wild, but as time goes on, the CrunchPad is looking better and more concrete every time we hear about it. Previously we’ve seen an earlier prototype of the CrunchPad on video, but we are now seeing for the first time, an all new, beautiful looking device that TechCrunch says is almost ready for production.

They moved to an aluminum case in place of plastic, vying for strength at the cost of increased price, but it also allows the device to be more thin, bringing the overall thickness to just 18mm. After watching a recently unveiled demo of a slightly older prototype, I’m really hoping to see the CrunchPad’s software evolve further. The idea is wonderful, but if they don’t craft the software with masterful precision, I’m doubting they will get the experience they are targeting if they are relying on a passive touchscreen.

Head to TechCrunch for more images.

This just in from a meeting I had with Intel this evening.

At the Ultra Mobility Event at Computex tomorrow, we’re going to see live demonstrations of 2 or 3 Moorestown devices.

Clearly this is going to affect Menlow but it sounds like Intel have accelerated the Moorestown program. I don’t have any info as to whether Microsoft products will run on the platform so that will be one of my questions tomorrow.

More information over at the MIDMoves project blog that I’m working on this week.

After all of the coverage that the Viliv S5 [Portal page] has seen lately, it is about time that its bigger brother, the Viliv X70, gets a little bit of face time. James Kendrick from jkOnTheRun has a nice video showing off the brand new Viliv X70. The X70 as I mentioned is a Viliv UMPC that is larger than the Viliv S5. The X70 has a 7” screen as compared to the S5’s 4.8” screen. While the sizes are different, the internals are very similar, with both devices running Atom. The X70 that James is checking out has an SSD as well as 3G connectivity. The X70 has many of the same connectors as the S5 as well including the host port that allows it to be used as a USB HDD while plugged into a different computer.

The X70 also comes with a great looking case that is themed like the one designed for the S5 (sharp red inside). There is a physical connector built into the back of the X70 that locks it into the case from the back. The cool thing about the case is that in addition to protecting the X70, it can also fold back and lock into a stand position.

The X70 looks quite nice and it made me realize how big this device could be when James said that it reminds him of “…a thinner, lighter, svelte Samsung Q1”. The return of the UMPC? What do you think?

The Q7 may not be a UMPC but there’s a lot to like and a lot to learn from the device.  It highlights the difference between professional and consumer devices very well so in this article I’ve mixed a review of the Q7 with some thoughts about consumer web tablets.

The Smart Devices Q7 has a slow, incomplete web experience, no Flash or AIR, poor video quality, very restrictive ARM11 core, runs a partially re-translated Chinese version of a year-old Ubuntu ARM port, doesn’t have a keyboard, is not good for outdoor use, needs a dongle to get Bluetooth working and has some twitchy touchscreen characteristics. Despite all these scary issues, i’m still using the device many times a day.

Full Q7 specifications available here.

Read the full story

What looks like a reasonably well designed handheld Linux-based tablet, the Chinese made Zhongyu S101, is probably not the device many people are looking for based on the information coming out of Engadget China today. The Marvel PXA CPU (based on ARM V6 architecture I believe) isn’t going to be much faster than the platform you’ll find on a Nokia N810, the software stack is going to be all in Chinese and the cost is going to have to be very low to beat sub $250 offers I’m seeing on the Nokia N810. On the positive side the USB dock is a good idea, there’s a possibility that Maemo or Android would run and some consideration has to be given to that SIM-card slot (I can’t find any information on the cellular service it might support.) but its likely that a second-hand N800 or even a new N810 is going to be a much more interesting option for westerners. I think we’ll leave this one to the Chinese!

Via SlashGear. Source Engadget Chinese (translation)

Looks like a Chinese OEM called Routon has two upcoming MIDs that will run on Android and provide users with 3G connectivity. Slashgear covered the P760 during CES but Routon just recently showed a very similar looking MID, the P730, which will drop off the hardware keypad of the P760, but be otherwise identical. Routon hopes to bring both MIDs to market in May. Both MIDs look like nice little web companion devices:

• 677MHz Samsung S3C6410 CPU
• 256MB of RAM
• 4/8GB SSD
• 4.8” 800×480 touchscreen
• WiFi B/G, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR
• DVB tuner optional
• GSM/EDGE optional
• EVDO CDMA (up to 3.1Mbps)

If Android really ends up powering these MIDs, battery life is decent, and price is reasonable, they could be a hit. Let’s just hope that Routon find some overseas distributors for the devices. One interesting thing to note: on the spec sheet found at Slashgear, the device is listed as having an ‘iPhone socket’, probably referring to the charging connector… I don’t think Apple will be too happy about that. Head over to Slashgear to see some renders of the P730 and P760.

[Slashgear]