Medion USA has quietly put up a webpage for the new RIM 1000 unit announced at CES. The price is listed as $999, higher than expected by most news sites who were given the $900-$800 price range. The unit is configured with a Via C7-M 1.0 Ghz processor, a 30GB hard drive and 768MB of RAM. Aside from the typical features, the Medion unit has a SD card slot, webcam and microphone array similar to the one found on the Samsung Q1. It is also the only UMPC to include a Firewire port. The most anticipated feature of the device still remains the split slide-out QWERTY keyboard – something the original UMPCs were criticized for not having.

The page lists the unit as out-of-stock due to overwhelming demand, however we know it’s going to launch sometime during Q1 in Germany, then later in the US. Medion lists the UMPC as having the Vista Home Premium system. There is no information available on whether the docking station is included, or if there will be built to order units. Stay tuned for more information on this device.

This is a bit earlier than expected but Digitimes are reporting that a 7″ UMPC device will be ready for Q2

HTC’s second UMPC, which the company prefers to call a “Mobile Office Device,” will have a 7-inch display, the sources noted.

If this is a real UMPC then its something to watch out for. We’ve got our money on a VIA processor. Maybe the John CoreFusion system on chip. Keep those Google alerts tuned in!

Digitimes via Pocketables.

Earlier today I posted a live mobile blog over at Carrypad. I was up a hill in Bonn where it was bloody cold. I took the 500Mhz Kohjinsha SA1F00A and managed to write a blog, take pictures, make a movie and post it all to my server without any problems whatsoever. Don’t let anyone tell you that UMPC’s aren’t for multimedia! While I agree that it was pretty painful watching a 30 second movie render and compress in about 6 minutes, the overall effect of having everything I needed there and then saved a lot more than 6 minutes. And yet, Microsoft seems to think that only Windows Vista Premium PC’s should edit videos. Poppycock! Here’s a short list of the tools I had with me today to do the sub-zero multimedia blog. Total weight was about 2KG (4.4lbs)

• Kohjinsha SA1 sub-1kg Ultra Mobile notebook. $1000
• Nokia 6280 3G phone – Free with contract.
• Canon S2IS – $300
• Tripod – $25

And now look what a Vista upgrade will cost me

• New UMPC – Minimum $1700 (Lets assume I can get a P1610d + extra battery for this price.)
• Vista – $200

Nearly $2000 to do the same thing. I realise I’m not your normal home user but what I’ve done here is exactly what many UMPC users would like to be able to do.

Steve / Chippy

Technorati tags: umpc, mobility, moblogging, Vista, blogging

Where’s Chippy? N50 41.230E7 12.408 321m -5 degrees.   I was rather hoping for some snow but there’s only a light dusting here. I’m in the car at the moment:     …but now its time to go outside ad take a few pics, make a short movie and get this sent.     The Kohji is performing well. As you can see, it’s overcast but the screen is easily bright enough. I’m connected via my 3G phone (Bluetooth) and there’s nearly 4 hours of battery left at 90% capacity. […]

OSnews has a nice review of the N800.  Its unfussy but seems to highlight quite a few important points.

• Poor YouTube compatibility. Flash video support is so important these days.
• Mpeg4 playback not supported
• Camera position isn’t optimal.

The review also mentions wasted screen space which is something that’s often seen. The simple browser on my Nokia 6280 wastes space too and it annoys me no end. UI design is critically important and this is highlighted in another review I’ve seen on the N800.

Sean Luke has written The Nokia N800 – And Its GUI Shortcomings From a Newton Developer’s Perspective. Its a really interesting and detailed read and I learned a lot from it. It rips apart the GUI and analyses in detail how things could have been better. Right down to icons and wasted space (again!) I highly recommend reading the article.

To be honest, I’m a little disappointed with the N800 now that I’ve read the reviews. I was hoping for full screen Mbps-class video and full support for complex web sites but it’s just not quite there with the N800. The question keeps coming into my mind – should we really bother with RISC based PC’s any more. x86 devices are getting more and more efficient and I think it would be better to spend effort on design rather than all the time need to port software. Take the Pepper Pad 3 software for example. Its Fedora Core 4. No messing around with porting. Just install most packages straight from the Pepper server. If you could do that with the N800 then maybe someone would have time to improve that GUI.

More N800 review links here.

Steve / Chippy.

Not as much of a reason to celebrate as DirectX 9 support by VIA but good news anyway –  AMD will boost the clock on the LX800 by about 30% and introduce the new CPU as the LX900.

Currently the Pepper Pad 3, Raon Digital Vega, Kohjinsha, Uren and HiPadII are the only AMD Geode UMPSc on the market and through various reviews we’ve seen that although they run XP well, there are limitations. For example, Flash Videos and Skype Video can be slow.

Raon Digital are working a new AMD-based version of the Vega so it will be interesting to see if this has the new CPU. It already makes a great CarPC but if the new model boost the power and includes WiFi and Bluetooth, it will make a good UMPC better.

Digitimes via Pocketables.

JKK has created a nice table of UMPCs and put some really useful data about battery life and Vista capability in that’s not on the Carrypad product portal. Shock! Horror! (I’ll be sorting that out in due course – Steve)

Points to note are:

• The R2H is the only UMPC in the list with a Vista upgrade program
• The Samsung Q1B and Q1P have the best battery life. (Q1P info here)
• The i7200 series devices forces a low processor clock on battery power
• T700 is ugly!

There are some good comments on the Origamiproject forums too.

So you like the look of the Origami Experience on Vista but don’t fancy the cost and compatability worry of an upgrade?

Take a look at this. Its a video demo of a StreetDeck skin made specifically for UMPCs.

If you use the StreetDeck ‘lite’ version (without maps) you’ll be able to get this running for around $120 which, considering you can upgrade it to be a full navigation system and that you’ll benefit from a huge development community, seems pretty good value.