The Viliv S5 that has been sent for review and MIDMoves SXSW duties has just cleared customs in Germany which means it’s highly likely that we’ll not only do a live MeetMobility CeBIT roundup podcast tomorrow but also a live testing and Q&A session with the brand new Viliv S5. Ben and JKK also have the Sony Vaio P so we’ll add those two into the mix. Sascha from Netbooknews.de will be around too. It’s going to be a long long night of mobile computing fun so join us at 2000hrs CET, tomorrow on UMPCPortal.com/live or JKKMobile.com/live

UMPC Fever has gotten a Viliv S5 [Portal page] and already have some videos up. There are also lots of good unboxing pics up over at UMPC Fever, have a look! (auto translated by Google). The S5, as you will recall, is a MID device that has been very popular according to our Portal charts. 

Here are the specs of the device as shown in the video:

• Intel’s 1.33GHz Atom Z520 processor
• 1GB RAM
• 60Gb hard-drives
• hardware 1080p HD video acceleration
• 4.8 inches 1024 x 600
• 22.9wh battery (~4 hours WIFI on)
• GPS
• Windows XP Home

Take a look at the unboxing video first below:

Video language is not in English but the text is.

Next, see the hands-on video.

Mobile Computer Mag had a chance to check out a prototype model of the upcoming Asus T91 tablet-netbook [Portal page] and they captured a great hardware overview, with commentary, on camera. Have a look below:

Something interesting that we see in this video is a SIM slot built into the device. As they mentioned, it isn’t clear yet if this is something they are testing, or something that will be available when the unit launches (we’re hoping for the latter). I’m excited to see the convertible tablet form factor making its way down to netbooks. It seems like a low cost tablet-netbook could be a great way to expand the tablet-PC user base. It is also good that one of the first of these that we are seeing is coming from a reputable netbook maker, Asus. It seems like it will still be a balancing act to get a good price:quality ratio compared to current netbooks when you consider the fact that you need to get the touchscreen and swiveling lid on the unit.

If you are interested to see what the software end of the netbook will look like, don’t miss this post.

[Liliputing]

From the Nokia N82 to the Medion Akoya Mini Netbook. Its hard to imagine you can fit 6 more computing devices in the middle. Here’s the line-up of devices at UMPCPortal at the moment and in this 10 minute video I give you a lightning overview of how I use them at the moment.

Also available on YouTubeand in WMVand H.264 (choose on page) formats. Again, this is how I use the devices at the moment and of course, no normal person would have this many devices at one time! More details on the spcification pages: Nokia N82. Nokia N810. Compal MID (thanks Intel). Wibrain i1 (thanks Mobilx) Raon Digital Everun Note. Kohjinsha SC3. Medion Akoya Mini.

Digitus USB Webcam

I ordered one of these earlier this week and it should be here tomorrow. The idea is to try and use it for live video work with UMPCs. It’s got auto focus and a LED lamp but the build, lens, sensitivity and drivers are all unknowns. If everything works out, it should work out well for handheld UMCP and live Ustream work.

Product details here. I paid 30 Euro on Amazon.de for it. Don’t order until i’ve tested it

Update: Mads has done some research into snake-cams. Thanks!

A great great video from our podcasting partner Sascha, from netbooknews.de who’s just been interviewed by Robert Scoble.

An article on Wired yesterday alerted me to something I’ve been waiting for for a long time. High Quality H.264 videos on YouTube. [Update: YouTube have now announced a widescreen player.] Medium quality stereo H.264 vidoes have been available for some time using the fmt=18 trick [example] and you can even download them with an easy-to-use Firefox toolbar add-on but the availability of the 1280×720, possibly original-format versions, is a great step forward and with a tweak of that download toolbar, you can download them too which allows netbooks and other ultra mobile PC’s to play the files that would otherwise struggle trying to play  through the built-in H.264-enabled flash player. (Video below)

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As you might have seen from the initial hands-on review, the Aigo MID brings a new level of Internet browsing to the pocket.

The results beat a previously tested set smartphones and other pocketable ‘Internet’ devices by an average 9 seconds per page. In terms of Internet browsing performance, it blows the N800/N810 out of the water and even the iPhone only averages 20 seconds per page over WiFi. [Aigo averages 12 seconds] The only pocketable device that gets close is the new Archos 5 with an average, over a similar set of tests, of 15 seconds.

It does pretty well on video playback too with higher-bitrate files really taking advantage of the high-quality screen. Its just a shame that the media software is so basic. In my opinion, Video, Search and Browsing are the most important elements of a MID’s capabilities so lets see how the Aigo P8860 performs. Videos and notes below…

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Thanks to Mobilx.eu I’ve had the Aigo MID for a few weeks now. I put a fairly lengthy post up a few weeks ago explaining where this device fits in but now it’s time to give you an overview of it in action.

Here’s the video, made with very little preparation so you get to see a few problems with the device too.

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Back in April, I published my thoughts on how MIDs could raise the bar for high-end PMPs. I wrote the article after I saw some interesting notes on the video hardware that was going to be included in Poulsbo (now called the System Controller Hub, the chipset that accompanies Z-series Atom CPUs.) When I got the Kohjinsha SC3 a few weeks ago it was the first chance I’d had to test a Menlow based device (Atom Z-series + SCH) so one of the first things I did was to download a high-end WMV file and play it in media player. I also downloaded Quicktime and the Klite Pack to get some H.264 support. What I saw was less than impressive.

At the same time, Jenn at Pocketables.net was doing similar tests with her SC3 and to cut a long story short, between us and the feedback of forum members and readers, we’ve ended up in a position where we’ve only found one commercial software package that will enable just one of the built-in hardware decoding features. H.264 [See Jenns article about 1080p on The Willcom D4.] On one hand its a poor result and a major disappointment. There’s no single player available that can support playback of all HQ content and if your content is wrapped up in DRM (iTunes films for example) there’s no support at all. It all sounds like quite a sad story. On the other hand the H.264 part of the story is good (no, excellent - 15mbps H.264 anyone?) and it looks like there’s more to come if Poulsbo can be unlocked further with the right software.  (article continues…)

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It takes some courage for a small company like VIA to go head to head with Intel so you have to hand it to VIA for putting this video out. Apart from the fighting-talk in the first 30 seconds, it shows the 1.3Ghz Nano (I have this confirmed) against the 1.6Ghz Intel Atom (Diamondville.) in a 1080p HD video test. I recognized the video being used (Try it - Robotica) and checked it out on my Akoya/Wind. Sure enough, it doesn’t play perfectly. Not surprising as it’s about 9Mbps of 1440×1080 video.

If the Nano is doing this in CPU-alone then I’m really impressed because the 1.3Ghz Nano is perfect for 7" UMPCs.

Here’s the video. Meet you all outside for the fight later

More info on the Nano range and performance here. Information on the VIA Openbook, the reference design that the Cloudbook Max is based on, is available here.