Engadget seems to have gotten some nice hands on time with the Eee S101 [Portal page]. Their impressions were pretty lite, but identical to some that we have heard in the past. Of course the most prominent aspect of the S101 is its (relatively) high price tag of $699. Then there is that dubious tiny right shift key which couldn’t be more annoying to type with. However they did seem to like the multi-touch trackpad, the screen, and the thinness of the S101. Swing by Engadget to see the hands […]

It has been a busy week for the HP Mini-Note [Portal page]. Following in the trail of the Eee PC dropping to $299 in retail stores, Liliputing shows us that the HP Mini-Note 2133 can now be bought for $299 from Amazon. The biggest news is that it looks like HP is reading a new Mini-Note model. The HP Mini-Note 1000 is reportedly going to have a 10" screen (larger than the 2133’s 8.9" screen), weigh 2.25 pounds, and be less than 1" thin. Images that have been discovered show […]

Would you consider a PC an essential item in times of emergency? A growing number of people rely on their laptops for important documents, photo storage and communications but even the latest efficient laptops are big and power-hungry. MID’s on the other hand, take about one quarter of the power of a modern laptop, run a complete Linux operating system, a rugged storage module and cram in all the comms required to connect with public and private networks or device. Its one of the few classes of PC device you […]

Jenn (Pocketables) picked up the latest information on the Archos 5G and Mi PC from a few sites yesterday and it seems that Stuff magazine got some deets wrong. Pff! You can never trust these professional publications ;-) The Archos 5G is 249 Euros with a 19 Euro/month. 500MB data limit then throttled. Unsibsidised it will be 449 Euros, exactly where I would expect it to be. The Mi PC (based on the Compal MID that you see in the Aigo and Gigabyte models) will also 249 euros on a […]

Three problems with the, otherwise very interesting, Aigo MID.  1) Its not available without import (although it seems DFJ are doing a good job exporting it around the world.) 2) It hasn’t got 3G built-in. 3) The software is a little bit….mmm…beta? Problem 3 can be solved by hacking the existing OS (see this huge ‘Hacking the Aigo’ thread in the forum) or by installing XP. I’m hearing from a number of sources that XP drivers are starting to filter through and that a release could be available as early […]

According to my stats, 5.77% of vists to the UMPCPortal are from people with screen sizes of 1024×600, 800×480 or 800×600. Those screen sizes are almost exclusive to the ultra mobile PC (MID, pro-mobile, netbook) class of devices so its got be close to a 1:1 relationship. I wonder if that same 5.77% statistic will appear if I put a poll here. {democracy:6} Look at the growth of the 1024×600 screens. Its not just cross-sector growth either. The 800×480 graph isn’t going anywhere!

USI have just sent us details of the USI MID-160 tablet-style Atom-based MID. Linux Devices reported on it a few days ago but it looks like they didn’t have the latest images. Pictures first, details afterwards… Close-up and details follow.

Intel has just published a list of the currently and nearly-available MIDs along with regions and store names to help you track one down. It would be nice to see more regions and more products but this is a great start and I hope they keep up the process of publishing info like this. Customers are crying out for it! You’ll find the Aigo (China), Benq S6 (Italy), Clarion (Q4 in the U.S.A.) Fujitsu U2010 (not in Europe) Kohjinsha SC3 (Japan, APAC), Lenovo U8 (China-only), Panasonic CFU1 (projects only) and […]