Full model details and pricing range is unknown at the moment but we’re now one step closer to launch of the Viliv S10 multitouch convertible. Dynamism have put up their pre order page.

Pricing starts with a 60GB HDD and XP at $699 which appears high for a device that isn’t much more than a 10hour version of the Gigabyte Touchnote that I’m using to write this. SSD versions start with a 32GB Windows 7 version and go right up to the 64GB version with the 2.0Ghz CPU and built-in HSDPA. Clearly pricing is going to be much much higher for that version so we’re probably looking at the $700 – $1200 range here folks. Lets hope it’s a little less at the high end!

As I said, full details aren’t known and availability is stated as ‘soon’ but we have been promised one of the first samples so you can expect an extensive live review session when it turns up here at UMPCPortal.

For a reminder on the specs, a gallery, some videos and related links from around the internet, check out our product information page for the Viliv S10.

I’m looking at this and wondering if Microsoft and HP simply jumping on the wave of tablet hype and trying to break through with some viral marketing. There’s no real information available being given on this tablet so I can only assume it was a marketing move.

It looks like a 10” tablet with multitouch capacitive screen running Windows 7 and not dissimilar to a device I had hands-on with tonight.  It’s not a bad thing at all and I’m happy to see it but I wish this crazy tablet marketing race would end now.

Don’t expect too many details to surface on this one very soon but we’ll do our best to try and find out what’s going on here. Maybe it will appear in the Intel keynote at CES tomorrow.

The Eee PC T91 is one of the few netbooks we really track closely now at UMPCPortal. Most others have drifted off into the forest of 10”. 1.5KG ‘high-end’ netbook land so it’s nice to see some news on it. This time it’s about the multitouch touchscreen version.

With Win 7, 32GB of SSD (no word on the speed of that yet) and XP Home Premium (I assume that the touchscreen drivers will be tablet-enabled) you’re getting quite the deal at a pre-order price of $549.

I’m a big fan of touchscreen laptops and have really got used to flying around the UI of the Gigabyte Touchnote with a two-handed multi-touch-mousepad and screen approach but I still wonder how much extra the multi-touch would bring me. I guess it depends on the type of gestures that are included.

There’s no word on availability yet.

Specifications, images, videos, links for the ASUS T91 available in the product database.

Source: Lilliputing.

One of the guys from the Viliv Boys’ Blog has put Windows 7 on a recently aquired OQO 02, and claims to be thoroughly enjoying it. The interface definitely looks cramped on the OQO 02’s 800×480 screen, and despite some initial issues it sounds like everything is functional. Just goes to show that a great UMPC will never die, even if the company behind it shuts its doors.

We had a brief lapse in WNRs over the last few weeks but hopefully everything will get back on track. Let’s see what’s been going on in the netbook space.

• How To Install Windows 7 On Almost Any Netbook — Gizmodo’s John Herman has put together a nice guide for squeezing Windows 7 onto a netbook. As the article mentions, XP is rather old and Windows 7 will get you a nice jump in the user experience area. Because it is still in the RC phase, it is free to download and use for a while.
• More convertible touchscreen netbooks coming — Jkk has found another upcoming tablet netbook, the Fujiyama E-PC E-1001. Kind of sounds like a knock off of Fujitsu and Eee PC, but competition in the tablet netbook space is definitely a good thing for consumers.
• ASUS 1005HA Netbook Is a 1008HA With Removable Battery — Kevin C. Tofel points out that Asus’ soon to be released Eee PC 1005HA is essentially the 1008HA [Portal page] but with a removable battery. There are a few other differences as well; non-glossy screen, slightly slower CPU, no BT, but it uses a nearly identical looking chassis (albeit a bit thicker) and picks up an additional USB port for a total of three.
• Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2: Hands On Video — Xavier from GottaBeMobile has a nice hands-on video of the new Lenovo S10-2 [Portal page] netbook. The new netbook isn’t too much different from the previous S10, but it is a bit thinner and can be equipped with a 3G module for $50. Xavier mentions that he wished that the S10-2 had a matte screen like the first version of the netbook.

I’m afraid I don’t have time to do a written review of my Windows 7 experience with the U820 but I can say that it’s good. So good that I took some time this morning to quickly go over the device and how it works with Windows 7.  Highlights for me (over the Vista build I was running) are:

• Improved boot-up time
• Cleaner, quicker, more reliable log-in using fingerprint reader
• Divx and H.264 support out of the box.
• Hardware support for H.264 decoding out of the box
• Great battery life (between 2 and 5 hours depending on use)
• Vastly improved on-screen-keyboard experience

Windows 7 really does spell the end of XP on UMPCs in my opinion. The only question now is, cost. How much will a touch-enabled version of W7 cost?

The video below is relatively long at 19 minutes. YouTube’s HQ processing may take time so check back later if you want an HQ version.

Note: This video edited and processed using Windows Live Movie Maker Beta with the YouTube upload plugin on the U/B50N.  The render time is much longer than with the old version of Movie Maker (in this case, way over 1hr to process 19 mins of VGA MJPEG 14mb/s source video) but the editing and posting process using this method is very very simple. I’ll have to do some more testing to see if  it’s a valid option for UMPCs.

Thanks to Conics for the loan of the Loox. They have the 2GB version with an SSD option so check it out.

Update: I’m writing aditional notes in the forum here.

If you had dropped by the live page earlier you would have seen me having some fun with the new publicly available release of Windows 7 Release Candidate 1. I’ve been testing it on the Gigabyte Touchnote T1028M and the Kohjinsha SC3 today and so far I’ve been impressed by how smoothly the install process has been. On both devices, almost everything is working and on the SC3, even the tablet features are available.

Gigabyte T1028M Touchnote.

I have a modified Touchnote netbook here with 3G, 2GB and SSD and it appears that most things are working out of the box apart from the 3G driver (fixed with standard drivers) the screen brightness and battery indicator. Smart Manager, the touch control panel, doesn’t install but Wifi, BT and WWAN can be enabled and disabled via the FN keys.  Installation was smooth and quick (expected with the SSD) and the touchscreen worked immediately.   The WiFi needed a Windows update but after that it was working perfectly. Standby, hibernation, SD reader, USB, WLAN, LAN, audio, multitouch pad, BT. Even H.264 and Divx videos work out of the box which is a real bonus. I haven’t tested the ExpressCard/34 slot but I’m not expecting a problem there.

Kohjinsha SC3.

The SC3 is based on the Intel Menlow platform which includes the Z-series CPU and the US15W chipset (AKA Poulsbo – Exactly what you’ll find in a Sony Vaio P) It also contains a VIA wifi module, GPS hardware and, as with the Touchnote, an ExpressCard/34 slot. The SC3 required some drivers from Kohjinsha but after installing all missing hardware, only the redundant DMB module doesn’t work. As a bonus, after I installed the Pen-Mount touch drivers, the Tablet features of Windows 7 were enabled which means floating tip, handwriting recognition and a few other features are now available. With rotation working perfectly and a very usable OSK, the SC3 has suddenly turned into quite a usable little tablet device. Slower than with XP but faster than Vista and with all the additional features that were missing from XP. One thing I really love about Windows 7 is that it connects with the hardware decoding on the chipset and due to the built-in H.264 codec/filter, it can play 1080p out of the box. I tested a 12Mbps H.264 1080p video and it was working extremely well with only a bit of tearing to distract me. Unfortunately, the HDD on the SC3 is as slow as an old dog and there’s still the 2.5hr battery life to contend with. Windows 7 isn’t a magic wand!

In terms of overall performance, Windows 7 has slowed both machines down slightly from their previous XP installations but with more going on in the background, that’s to be expected. On the other hand, its a much smoother and quicker experience than Vista and the trade-off could well be worth it, that is, if you have a fast disk of 32GB or more, 2GB of memory (to be safe) and the money for what will be quite an expensive OS. Clearly Windows 7 is a nicer working environment and I’m sure that after a while on the Touchnote I’ll find myself locked-in to those little extras that make all the difference but I can’t see myself using Windows 7 on a UMPC or MID simply because of the drive footprint, memory footprint and the number processes running. Which begs the question, what happens when XP is gone? I still don’t see a Microsoft option for UMPCs and MIDs beyond 2010.

I’ll be keeping W7 on the Touchnote, working through the Windows 7 features and trying to fix the important battery indicator and screen brightness. If I can fix that i’ll be using it as my daily notebook unless I find other problems. As for the SC3, its there, its working. I don’t use the SC3 because of the slow HDD and short battery life so that’s that for the time being.

Before I sent the VAIO P [Portal page][review] back to its home I dropped the beta of Windows 7 on it to see how it would handle the upcoming operating system. As you may have heard around the web, Windows 7 seems to be a bit more snappy than Vista, making it feel more like XP while keeping the nice new features. You may have read in the performance section of the VAIO P review that turning on Aero in Vista brought some very visible sluggishness; well I can’t say that has changed in Windows 7, but it did score a bit better on some preliminary benchmarks and it handled boot/standby/hibernate a good deal better than Vista.

One particularly nice thing about Windows 7 was that it pulled down some updates for the VAIO P right as it was installed. Automatically through Windows Update it let me know that there were a few driver updates available for the chipset (in addition to standard Windows updates) and a few moments later I had them installed. Now that is service!

The biggest improvement from Vista to Windows 7 is the decrease in boot times:

Compare that to the Vista based boot times and you’ll note an increase that nearly runs across the board:

In addition to improved boot times, the VAIO P scored higher with Crystal Mark when running Windows 7. While the Vista based test scored the VAIO P at 27879, I was able to get Windows 7 to score right around 30400. I was glad to see that the VAIO P was able to break 30k even though Windows 7 seemed to handle the SSD a bit more slowly than Vista. This seemed odd to me because Windows 7 is supposed to deal with SSDs more effectively than previous versions of Windows. However Windows 7 in still in beta so they may still be tuning that facet of the OS. But as I mentioned, despite the slight drop in SSD score (Windows 7 running around 10k while Vista scored 11447), it still scored higher than Vista. Aside from a slight increase in all other areas, there was a largely noticeable jump in the OGL score. Vista has been noted to have poor OGL rendering as I believe it emulates the XP version. Whatever the case, it looks like they’ve gone back to the XP version, or brought the component up to speed as I seem to recall OGL scoring over 2000 as opposed to 135 under Vista.

I’m looking forward to the day when Windows 7 will be offered on a computer like the VAIO P instead of the more bulky Windows Vista.

Intel’s IDF in Beijing is nearly over. Yes, it started while most of us slept and because it’s only a one day event, there’s not many announcements. Media coverage on Intel’s website is low-key but I’ve found the press release and press kits and summarise below.

Overview.

The Intel press release includes some items worth mentioning (my emphsasis added:)

Mobility Keynote
During his keynote, titled “Mobility’s Next Wave of Growth,” Chandrasekher demonstrated the first live demo of Intel’s next-generation Atom-based MID platform, codenamed “Moorestown.” Chandrasekher provided a sneak peek into the low-power innovation of the platform by showcasing a greater than 10x idle power reduction compared to today’s Atom-based platform in a side-by-side demo. This dramatic reduction is made possible through a combination of new power management techniques, a new partition optimized for the MID segments and Intel’s Hi-k 45nm manufacturing process.

Due by 2010, the Moorestown platform is comprised of a System on Chip (codenamed “Lincroft”) that integrates a 45nm Intel® Atom™ processor core, graphics, video and memory controller, and a companion input/output (I/O) hub (codenamed “Langwell”). The platform will be accompanied by a new Moblin software version that is optimized to enable the rich, interactive, PC-like Internet experience along with cellular voice capabilities.

Intel also announced two new Atom processors for MIDs: the Z550 and Z515. The Z550 extends the performance of the MID product line to 2GHz with Intel Hyperthreading technology support, setting a new standard for the highest performance processor in the under-3-watt power envelope. The Z515 incorporates the new Intel® Burst Performance Technology (Intel BPT), which enables the processor to run at 1.2GHz when performance is needed in existing small and sleek MID form factors.

These new Atom processors further extend customer choices to enable the best Internet experience in pocketable MIDs. Chandrasekher also announced several new MID designs for the China market.

The 2Ghz Atom processor doesnt surprise me. These step improvements will continue to happen. The Z515 is interesting though. There’s already a 1.1Ghz part and an 800Mhz part, this two-speed 800Mhz/1200Mhz part should allow for some nice ‘turbo’ features but i’m not sure how different this is from speed-stepping on the 1.3Ghz version. More information on the Z515 is available from an Intel fact sheet [PDF].

Intel Atom processor Z515 delivers performance on demand by incorporating the new Intel® Burst Performance Technology (Intel BPT) which enables the processor to run at 1.2GHz when higher performance is needed in existing small form factors. Intel Atom Z515, in conjunction with Intel US15W SCH, supports 533MHz DDR2, 2GB max memory addressing, and HT. This processor also supports Intel UL11L SCH. Intel Atom Z515 delivers high performance while consuming 160mW average power and 80mW idle power.

New MIDs.

Obviously i’ll be looking deeper into this part of the fact-sheet. New devices from Aigo, Compal and Fujitsu will be interesting to watch.

Intel Atom Processor-based MIDs Continue Momentum — Chandrasekher announced a number of new designs targeting the China market including Aigo*, BYD*, CZC*, Dragon*, Eking*, ESL*, Gemsta*, NFS*, and Techfaith*. Additionally, Intel indicated that its customers are expressing strong interest in the two new Z Series SKUs. As examples, Aigo*, BYD*, Compal*, CZC* and Fujitsu* have already committed to building products based on these SKUs.

Windows 7 support.

Support for Windows* 7 and Moblin v2.0 on Intel Atom Processor based MIDs and Netbooks — Intel Atom processor-based MIDs and Netbooks will support Windows* 7 Starter and Basic editions in the second half of this year in addition to support for Windows* XP Home and Windows* Vista Basic. For Linux, Chandrasekher mentioned that both MIDs and netbooks will be moving to Moblin v2.0 from Moblin v1 today.

Does this imply that Windows 7 / Atom support will be restricted to Starter (three concurrent programs) and Home Basic (emerging markets) versions initially?

There are some more notes in the ‘factsheet’ here (PDF) and it looks like information is being updated on the ‘Press Kit’ page. I’ll continue to monitor for more information and report back anything interesting.

Assuming Aigo increase the SSD size, would it actually be usable on the 800Mhz Atom? I doubt it.  I wonder if Compal are planning to drop the 1.3ghz CPU in.

Aigo MID To Be Running Windows 7 This Year on Flickr – Photo Sharing!.

Smaller memory footprint, faster boot, better UI and longer battery life. Windows 7 is not only going to be interesting for the laptop and desktop, it’s shaping up well for Netbooks and UMPCs too. Vista always offered better touch and natural input mechanisms but it was a struggle to run it on Ghz-class devices. The reports coming back from Windows 7 pre-beta testers point towards a much more usable system on these devices.

I’ve put a few links to some early reports below but the one I wanted to concentrate on and the one that raised my eyebrows even higher than last weekends ‘TWiT podcast was a post from Ian Dixon at TheDigitalLifeStyle.com. Ian’s website focuses on media centre and related topics but he’s had a Q1P for a while and when he got hold of Windows 7, he went ahead and installed Windows 7 on the Q1P with some really positive results…

[Audio recording below...]

Read the full story

I don’t see encouraging information coming from the Window 7 chit-chat at All things Digital. I was hoping for hints of a slimmer system, a componentised architecture perhaps, ‘mobile Internet’ and ‘handheld’ keywords but all I can see is the word ‘Multitouch’ everywhere this morning. New hardware requirements, a complex software layer. Gates says:

There’s a lot in Windows 7, and our goal is to produce fantastic PCs with our hardware partners.

Windows 7 is not the optimised platform we are looking for in handheld land. I guess there are plenty of other options to look forward too though. I hear that the Moblin-based Ubuntu Mobile distribution for Atom and Stealey hardware (not Ubuntu Remix for netbooks – that’s something else that’s quite interesting.) is just about to move into Release Candidate status so I’m far more interested in that right now.