I love the idea of this new EM One device made by Sharp. Its so close to being my old Carrypad dream that I have to write some of my personal thoughts and first impressions down if only just to clear my head!

What immediately strikes me as odd and remains my main outstanding query is Windows Mobile 5 running on 800×480. This is something that the DualCor cPC was supposed to be able to do but no-one ever really got enough information on it to know if it would work with 3rd party applications. I need to find out more about this. Putting this issue to one side for one moment, lets talk about the other specifications and features and then compare it to similar devices in the market.

Read on….

If you would have asked me one year ago if I thought I would continue my Carrypad blog I would have said something like ‘No Way. The Boss is bound to catch on that I’m spending too much time logged into Blogger.com.’

Here’s something I wrote on the very first post:

..because of device overlaps, physical constraints and a tendency for many technologies to evolve towards the smartphone, a new device segment is being created.

Six months after writing that I took a redundancy package and now, exactly one year later Carrypad is registered as a company and its on the verge of re-launching under a new domain name and covering one of the biggest electronics fairs in the world. Its scary…

…but extraordinarily satisfying.

Thanks to everyone who has given support in the last year. I promise I’ll try my best to bring you even better UMPC news, reports and reviews in the next year.

Regards

Steve / Chippy

Matt Propst at Propstm.net wants to know what my ideal 24 hours with a UMPC would be.

——————————————————-

[UMPC is in the dock by the side of my bed. I’m sleeping. Its a time when UMPCs are $500. So maybe 2-20 years from now?]

0800 Resume from standby. Iceland Acid Jazz Radio is streamed with a gradually rising volume.

0830 Grab UMPC and hit the home button to see my Google personal page and some nice informative emails from Samsung to tell me that the Q3B is coming in a few weeks and would I like to do a long term test? Second email is similar from Apple. Third from Sony wanting to take me to CES. Message pops up to say I didn’t get enough deep sleep last night. Get up.

Turn on BT speakers in bathroom, UMPC finds speakers and streams radio while I’m showering.

Reminders timed for 0900 pop up and I realise I have an errand to run for my mate. The address is already in outlook and via Autoroute I’m able to transfer it as a destination address. The route is being planned.

Weetabix, Toast, Tea. Grab the UMPC and go to car. Dock the UMPC and watch the Origami Experience pop up with integrated Autoroute. Latest traffic report plays, BT connects to car audio system and mobile phone. We’re off.

LemonJelly is playing and the sun is shining. A spam message pops up. I hate you Mr Spam. Weather report looks good for tonight. Arrive at destination deliver the ‘goods.’ Mate IM’s to say thanks. He was watching me via the Autoroute server. Sneaky sneaky.

Home, dock. Work work work on the 3 screen Aero setup. 5 blogs about new products. Stats check. Damn slashdotted again! Decide to go out and work in the park so I chuck the UMPC in the sideshow enabled bag and wander to the park listening to Tosca on the Vista Sideshow shades. Trip over kerb. Samsung calls and wants to know if I’m free to pick up the loaner today. Image pops up in my Sideshow shades. Nice but sorry guys. Busy today.

In the park the screen switches to sunlight mode and I’ve got a nice 6 hours battery left. I flip open the solar shade and watch the drain reduce to 1W. 22 hours battery left!

After 2 hours in the park, blogging and updating product databases a reminder pops up about the awards tonight. Dr Ortega simultaneously emails to say he’s flying in and there’s another email saying its black tie. Holy shit. Where am I going to find…..thanks Google Local Search. After a quick call they ask for my measurements so I send the 3d scan (which tells me again that I’m 5% over-weight) and they fit me up. It will be ready at 4pm.

Suddenly a huge dog tears past me and smashes into a guy on a mountain bike. Everyone looks OK though. I replay the Ever-Cam and sure enough, it caught it on two of the auto-follow cams. I offer the videos for insurance purposes and send them over to him. Park keeper arrives to shoot dog. Not really. I made that bit up.

4pm suit pick up and payment via near-field transfer on the Q3 sideshow module.

Shopping list is still outstanding so I send it over to my usual store. They don’t have the olives so I do a local check. The usual drama ensues. Should I take the nearest option at $5 more or drive to the supermarket and save a fiver. Finish shopping at local shop. Pick up suit.

Dash back home (avoiding huge traffic jam on the north bridge thanks to live re-routing.)

Later…

Taxi picks me up and I sit in the back and watch the pre-amble speach streamed by at least 20 video bloggers. 2  are just filming the crowd. One of them picks out a table of good looking women. One of them gets recognised (by the Q3) as Gisele Bundchen’s daughter Gaille. I check my seat number against hers. No luck.

At the table everyone’s streaming to everyone else. The whole room is conferenced up with a mesh video network. I choose Gaille’s table and watch. She spots me and smiles. PM’s me to call back later and puts a champagne glass in front of the cam. Teaser.

Three awards later the bubbly is flowing and some bright spark has transferred over an alcohol test to my Q3. Very funny. The multi-sensor gives me a top score and then it turns out it wasn’t a game after all. I’m advised not to drive tonight in big red letters. Two others at our table get the same message within seconds. Police software tactics are getting worse. I thought they had a law about social engineering methods.

Midnight. UMPC does its usual song and dance about syncing up for the morning and not being able to decide about what home PC to take the new films and music from. I set a reminder to myself. Must get rid of the old servers. Gaille calls to let me know she’s given me access to the home cam…

Jenn of Pocketables is doing marvelous job of keeping up with the frankly, annoying numbers of Sony UX model numbers. Trying to keep the product database up to date with Sony UX info has been rather hard work but I think I’ve manage to incorporate at least some of the new devices now.

Sony UX280P (Americas)

Sony UX380N (Americas)

Sony UX390N (Americas)

Sony UX1XN (Europe)

Big big apologies to the rest of the world but I have not (and probably will not) be putting all the other variants in. Sony has made the job so difficult that I’ve had to just pick these devices based on my current readership demographics. I even had to adjust my database design to accommodate all the regional pricing and availability info.

I’ve also added a feature on the database. You can now get a ’10 latest UMPC’s’ view here.

I need to get this on RSS don’t I!

This is the second 800×480 Windows Mobile device to be seen in the last week but where the Toshiba G900 has a 3″ screen yielding a squint-inducing 350DPI, the EM One has a 4.1″ screen like the Nokia N800. The DPI on this is a much-better 250DPI and it has some really fantastic specifications. Pocket PC lovers the world over are going to be excited about this.

EM stands for E-Mobile which is an Internet service provider in Japan. The device is manufactured by Sharp and it is being launched to coincide with the the start of E-Mobile’s HSDPA Internet access service at the end of March.

The specification list includes a very nice looking dual-sliding keyboard, the 524 MHz Marvel XScale CPU and a graphics co-processor, Mini-SD, HSDPA cellular data, touchscreen, ‘mouse-like pointing device’, ‘Net-Walker’ scrollwheel selector, RGB output, 4 hour battery and a docking station that allows you to connect it to a TV. Could this be the first PocketPC that could actually be used as a desktop computing module? With the included Opera Mobile browser, there’s certainly enough functionality in there for some advanced and maybe even Web 2.0-like browsing.

Local price will be around $800 but around the $330 mark with a 2-year data contract making it competitive will all UMPCs and giving it the advantage of a ‘hidden’ price when bought with a data contract.

The dual-sliding keyboard is a very smart design feature.

Here are the detailed specs from the press release.

• Model Name: EM ONE
• OS: Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 Software for Pocket PC Japanese version.
• CPU: Marvell PXA270 520 MHz
• Graphic Chip: NVIDIA GoForce 5500
• Memory:Flash Memory 512MB/SDRAM 128MB
• Screen: 800 X 480 dot 4.1 inch 65,536 colors ASV LCD (with backlight)
• Communications: HSDPA, IEEE802.11b/g, Bluetooth 1.2
• Camera:Approx. 1.31 mega pixel (effective pixels)
• Audio: Internal Speaker (Stereo), Mic
• Connections: miniUSB port (host function compliant), cradle port, RGB adapter port, headphone jack (flat), AC Adapter port
• Memory Card Slot: miniSD
• Dimensions: Approx. 140(W) X 70(H) X 18.9(D)
• Weight: Approx. 250g (with battery pack and stylus pen)
• Usage Time: Approx. 4 hours

More images from the Sharp/EM One website where you can see the very impressive introduction video.

Originally seen Via Engadget.

I’m pleased to say that, after a few emails back and forth, I’ve now got a Press Pass for CeBit next month. Thanks to CeBit for reconsidering the application! Now the real planning starts and the first thing to do is to find out who’s going to be there, what the details of the press conferences are, what the rumors are and arrange the meetings.

I’ve updated the rumor list and from that I’ve created a list of products that could be at CeBit.

UMEC ELT408
Not many details available. (some here.)

Samsung Q1B/HSDPA
Announced in July 2006, this model is still unlaunched in Europe. It is expected in Germany and the UK.

Raon Digital Vega II
Raon Digital mentioned last year that they were thinking about a new version of the Vega.

Flybook V5
Shown at CES, Jan 2006. This Flybook is due for release shortly. No further information is available at the moment. New article here

Digital Cube I-station S43 Netforce
This is a CE-based navigator with some focus on Internet and browsing activity. Available in Asia but rumored to be launching in other territories soon.

Amtek T770
Demonstrated at CES 2007. Info here

Beijing Peace East Technology Porient H9Not much is known about the Porient H9 and H10 at this stage. Will be demo’d at CeBit.

Unfortunately VIA won’t be at CeBit but Microsoft and Intel will along with Nokia (E90) One of the Euro distributors for HTC will be there too.

I-mate, Averatec, Mobits and Vulcan also don’t seem to be exhibiting.

If you’re going to be at CeBit and you fancy meeting up to talk about or demo products, please contact me. If you’re going and you just fancy some UMPC chit-chat, then lets meet one evening to talk pro’s, cons and German beer-fueled UMPC ideas! 16th (Friday) or 18th (Sunday) is OK for me. Leave a note in this forum thread if you’re interested.

Regards

Steve.

One of the problems with UMPCs is that they are small and portable and they go everywhere and get placed in dangerous positions. I’ve had the Pepper Pad 3 in the bath, the Kohjinsha balanced on top of the TV and the i7210 on the top of a microwave oven. This morning the Kohjinsha was on the sofa and as I went to open it up it slipped out of my hand and fell to the hard floor I have in my lounge. I looked at the screen and saw a bubble in the middle of the screen gradually fade away like a final heartbeat. Because I had opened the lid, it had started to resume and the disk had been spinning. Now, the only sound it makes is a click….click….click. The drive is dead.

Fortunately everything else is OK. Including the screen. It boots from my DSL USB stick and works as normal so my loss is now your gain, readers, because I’ve had to take the device apart to pull the HDD out and now you get the naked images and a How-To! I’m relieved that it really is a 2.5″ drive inside because it means a replacement will be easy and cheap. I’m also relieved that I do most of my work online and via network drives and that there was no important data on the disk.

Read on for the How-To

Remember the i-mate ultimate we wrote about just a couple of days ago? Well the device is back – with a quick look from MobilMania. Sure enough we now know for sure the screen swivels so you can use the phone (or “mobile office” as HTC would call it) in PDA mode or a pseudo laptop mode with the large hardware keyboard. With a HSDPA and a 520mhz Intel processor, this device is slightly less powerful than the HTC Athena Advantage. The outside of the unit previewed has an elegant gold finish along with an 2.2″ OLED display which displays basic information such as the time, calls, SMS messages received. The 3.8″ VGA (640×480) display is on the inside of the clamshell and can be rotated to transform the device to resemble a PDA form factor. Although the unit presented is running Windows Mobile 5, it is expected to ship with Windows Mobile 6 Professional (aka pocket PC phone edition). The system also packs in 128mb of RAM, a 2 megapixel camera, Bluetooth and WiFi, FM radio (not a hidden one) and a 1400 mAh battery. Although lacking a GPS module, the device will be a strong competitor to the E90, especially if WM is your thing. Look for a price of about 700-800 Euro when the device launches. We think the device wasted a lot of its potential by not including a wider screen – looking forward to see how the keyboard is though. Say i-mate, how about a review unit? ;)

via Engadget