What a hectic few hours!  I’ve had DHL at the door with the Archos 5 Mini Dock, a tweet from Pocketables alerting me that the new firmware is available and the whole lot has been captured in a video. I’ll say no more than this:

• Mini-dock = Bargain!
• YouTube HD on TV = Fantastic!
• IR RF keyboard and mouse = Total TV laziness.
• Mini keyboard and mouse = Mini ‘Web’ PC under 500gm and 300 Euro!

It looks like some hard drives with no external power won’t work but I tested a few USB SD-card adaptors and it worked fine. Questions remain over 3G sticks.

As for the firmware, there are a lot of improvements. Check the updates page for details.

More images in the gallery.

More information about the Archos 5 Internet Tablet here.

Update: TV interference is purely due to trying to record a CRT. For a better look at TV-out put using an HDMI dock, Check out Charbax’s video here.

Help your UMPCPortal! Buy the Archos 5 Mini-Dock through our affiliates.

• ARCHOS Mini Dock für ARCHOS 5 / 5g und ARCHOS 7
• Archos Germany ordering page for 8GB (not in stock – see selection boxes on page.)
• ARCHOS Mini Dock for ARCHOS 5 & ARCHOS 7
• Mini Dock at Amazon US (Not available at present)

A company called Innovative Convergent Devices has put info up on their website about a new device called the Vega, which purportedly will be an Android 2.0 powered slate device which will come in your choice of size: 7 inch, 11 inch or up to a whooping 15.6 inch.

Check the specs (likely subject to change):

• Android OS
• 7/11/15.6 inch resistive touchscreen at 1366×768
• Nvidia Tegra (probably the Tegra 600 or 650, which are both Arm 11)
• 4 hour battery life
• 512MB of RAM
• 512MB of memory (expandable through MicroSD)
• Bluetooth and WiFi b/g
• Options for 2G or 3G data module
• headphone jack and webcam
• dual microphones
• accelerometer

And one other thing listed on the spec sheet that is rather odd: 262,000 colors (6-bit) which seems sort of low for a device that claims to be usable for HD content.

The press release on IDC’s site says that the device will be released through “Tier 1 inch carriers in the US, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East, which should mean that the device will be subsidized. They are also set to show off a demo unit at this year’s CES (Jan 7-10) and hope to launch in the first half of 2010.

There is a lot of talk about the Vega being a “no compromise inch product that consumers really want, however, I don’t know about you… but I’d call a slate device with no physical keyboard and a resistive touchscreen just that: a compromise. Your thoughts? Let us know in the comments.

[GottaBeMobile]

I want to update you all on the devices I’ve been testing recently. It’s a super range of advanced devices that represent the best in the smartphone, MID and ultra mobile PC market. All four are advanced, fun and productive mobile devices.

Nokia N900

Possibly the most advanced device of the four is the N900. It runs one of the newest and most powerful ARM-based platforms out there with one of the newest mobile operating systems. From what I’ve seen, the Maemo teams have done a great job in preparing an operating system for today’s web-focused user. Nokia have also done a a great job in tying it together with some amazing hardware. Camera, keyboard, screen, GPS, accelerometer, FM TX/RX, consumer IR, keyboard, speakers, Wifi, BT, 3G, voice along with strong quality materials and an attractive, if slightly understand, design.

Users considering the N900 need to consider the following important points.

• Battery life. With all that power, it’s easy to end up with a device that can’t do anything after 2pm!
• Applications. While the developer community is active and passionate, there’s relatively few people out there. Android, iPhone and Windows Mobile will provide you with a better application suite at the moment.
• Despite the lack of applications, much of what you need is already built in to the N900. From exchange support to Skype and of-course a full desktop-standard web browser with full Flash 9 support.
• Price. The N900 is up there with the Droid, iPhone 3GS and HTC HD2. (See my post about WVGA phones for more information)
• One-handed use. The N900 is a two-handed device because most of the user interface only supports landscape mode. This can affect use in ultra-mobile situations.

Unfortunately the backlight has stopped working on my test device now but I’ve managed to get together enough material and make enough notes that I can answer most of your questions on it now. Don’t forget to check out my previous articles and videos on it before you fire-away with queries though.

All N900 articles from UMPCPortal including overview, unboxing, real-world testing notes, video performance and more.

Samsung Omnia Pro (B7610)

The global roll-out of the Omnia Pro B7610, a WVGA slider smartphone running on Windows Mobile 6.1 with an 800Mhz ARM11 CPU has been a very staggered, uncoordinated affair, typical of the way Samsung works independently in its different regions.  The only reason I’ve got it is because it was one of the best sliders available when I decided it was time to start watching the high-end smartphone sector very closely. The HTC Touch Pro2 was available but as the Omnia Pro was new in the market (I’m still one of the only people to have written detailed English-language posts on it) so I went for it. Despite talk of the Droid, the HD2 and the N900, It’s still one of the best WVGA sliders available right now and with a recent price drop, represents excellent value but it’s disappointing that the Windows Phone upgrade has delayed the launch in most areas. I’m actually waiting for the Windows Phone upgrade before I do my full review on it but I can tell you that the screen is stunning, the keyboards (hard and soft) are great, the camera and camera software is amazing (i’ve tested it in detail against my current camera favorite, the Nokia N82) and Samsung have done a great job with the Touch-Wiz software. It extends wide and deep into Windows Mobile and is not just a user interface, it’s a subsystem and front-end application suite too. As a day-to-day phone (rather than MID) the Omnia Pro is actually better than the N900. It has longer battery life, is cheaper, has nearly all the end-user features of the N900, has more software and the correct focus on voice calling for most people. It is much slower all round and the browser quality is a big step down from the class-leading one you’ll find on the N900 but for 390 Euros (lowest current price in Europe) it is better value than the N900 for most people.

I’ve been focusing heavily on the Omnia Pro in a side project called ‘MyOmniaPro‘ If the B7610 slider interests you, there’s no better resource than the one I’ve created over there!

Viliv S7

The Viliv S7 has been an extremely hard device to review. My wife is simply in love with it and has even nicknamed it ‘Willy’ (That’s Villy in  her German accent!)  The result is that I can’t prise it out of her hands for long enough to be able to write about it. Fortunately, Ben, the co-editor here at UMPCPortal, did an excellent full review for our friends at Pocketables.net and has covered everything I could have ever said about it. I will be writing up an article which focuses on the unique features of the S7 (power/weight/battery life ratio, 3G, convertible touchscreen) but for the time being, take it from me that the Viliv is a solid device, has amazing battery life, great return-from-standby speeds, reaches the usual build-quality standard that we’ve come to expect from Viliv and is a lot of fun to use. Out of the box it’s a much faster device than the U820 and I’d argue that it’s more productive than the Sony Vaio P-Series. Viliv needs to know that the white finish isn’t getting many fans from the male-sector of our readership and as that makes up the most of our readership, maybe they should think about toughening up the looks a bit. The white-leather case just makes the matter worse!

One last note on the S7: Speaker quality and volume…WOW!

Archos 5 IT

If there’s one device that’s proven to me recently that there IS a market out there for dedicated MIDs and that my 3.5 year-old Carrypad idea still has legs, it’s the Archos 5 IT. It also highlights something else that I believe and that’s that ARM-based devices will have the upper-hand in the MID market during 2009. That will carry through until Moorestown finds its feet in late 2010.

Combining a great browsing experience, high-quality YouTube experience, one of my favorite mobile Twitter applications (Twidroid,) good media playback, 32GB storage, WiFi and Bluetooth on an interesting mobile operating system with some interesting applications it shows how the ARM platform has really come of age in the ‘full web experience’ market.

I wouldn’t recommend this as a pro or business-level product to anyone but for those looking for social and entertainment activities at home, in the car, on holiday and in the coffee-shop, I don’t think there’s a better device out there. Only gaming is missing from the line-up of web, music, video, navigation (could do better) and social internet capabilities. At 230 Euros for the 8GB version with Wifi and Bluetooth it sets a new pricing level for MIDs and I’m excited to see what follows. The Dell Streak certainly looks like it could be a better device (keyboard, camera) but the price is still unknown.

When you read about the Motorola Droid/Milestone and the great web experience on that, remember that the Archos is faster and more comfortable due to its bigger screen. It also plays YouTube videos like no other device in the smartphone, MID, netbook or even low-end laptop category. I haven’t bought the TV docking station for this but I’m very close. The DVB-T adaptor is on my list too.

Not a converged, voice-capable or 100% stable device but if you’re into mobile gadgets, this is probably the best Christmas present you could give yourself this year. Go for a low-end SSD version and drop a 16GB Micro-SDHC card in for the best value.

Coming up soon.

We’re looking at the Eking S515 (review unit secured. arrival in the next week), the Viliv S10 (review unit probable. Timescale unknown), Wits A81 (we’re 50:50 on this one as we need to buy it to review it), UMID M2 (need to chase a few people about that one) and Evi Group Pad (contact made. Review unit likely at end of November) and praying for the Dell Streak to just turn up at the door here! We’re also working on the HTC HD2, Motorola Milestone and KAX-15 and as always, waiting for a iPod Plus.

Thanks to the Intel Insider program I was able to take part in the Mobile Dev Camp in Munich last week and what a great day it was. As with Hamburg and Amsterdam (I really must visit a Mobile Dev Camp in a country that speaks my own language soon!) I was blown away by the skill and focus of the developers and the quality of the presentations. I’m not a developer myself but I learnt a lot. I’m sure others did too.

Overall I came away with the impression that, as with Dev Camp Amsterdam, Europeans are slightly more focused towards Android than iPhone and are even continuing with Windows Mobile Symbian work due to numbers of end-users and the fact that a lot of people in Europe started in mobile software development before the iPhone boom. Switching operating systems isn’t cheap so a lot of the early software dev teams are still working with Symbian and Windows Mobile.

There’s also the feeling that the browser is coming of age. Four things seem to be driving the trend.

1. The growing number of mobile platforms and end-user devices means it becomes more expensive to cover everything.
2. Improvements in browser technology, in particular javascript engines, mean that in-browser code is now able to provide a better user experience.
3. Improvements in mobile CPUs also mean that in-browser code can be executed quickly.
4. HTML 5 elements provide a way for developers to get more creative in the browser.

Improvements in browser and platform technology was at the core of the first talk I attended. Stefan Zaunseder and Christian Schilcher from GISCAD who have both spent a lot of time researching the best technologies to use to present detailed mapping information via SVG. Should they use a client application or should they use a browser?

From the statistics they presented it appears that we’re now reaching a crossover point where, on smartphone devices, in-browser performance is finally reaching levels that can satisfy an end user. Interestingly enough it matches a lot of my own testing that indicates that the latest mobile cores and the latest browser technologies are now able to offer the end user an enjoyable way to use web-based applications without costing too much in size and battery life. Until now, this just hasn’t been possible.

Again, matching my own smartphone platform tests, it seems that the iPhone 3GS browser is leading the pack on the ARM platform. [As a quick sidenote to that topic I can say that although the ARM-based browsers are getting good, the best of the browsers on the best ARM platforms are still a long way away from the X86-based performance we see in Intel’s ultra mobility platforms. In my own javascript tests I’m seeing 3-5x more javascript performance at the same clock speed between Intel Atom and ARM A8 cores. Stefan, if you’re reading this, check out the Viliv S5!]

The second talk of the day came from Simon Tennant of Buddycloud. The subject quickly went to depths of Android coding that I’m not capable of following but I did pick up on one aspect Power efficiency. I personally have a problem with chatty protocols over 3G but BuddyCloud are using XMPP (as are Google and others) which they say gives them a full day of connected battery life on a regular smartphone. That’s interesting because although I haven’t tested extensively, I’m finding that Skype is an absolute no-no as an always-connected service over 3G. The protocol is effectively a multi-link P2P service and extremely chatty. I hope Skype find a way to improve that. Until then I’ll be looking for clients that use XMPP!

Simon had a nice slide which highlighted 5 tips for developers. Note how important he thinks power management is. I totally agree. Power management must be a core consideration for developers now.

The third session was from Simon Schoar who has a number of applications in the Android marketplace. He spent a good hour giving tips about what and what not to do when releasing an app. If I ever get into the Android application developer game (and believe me, I did think about it a few times at MDC09!) then I’ll be getting in contact with this guy.

Mobile phone software development is still very much an ARM-based activity. With effectively 100% of smartphones being on the ARM platform it’s hardly surprising but in my talk about device segmentation I bravely (and partly in German for the first time ever) tackled the subject of device segmentation. I tried to highlight the changing crossover point between devices on ARM and Intel ultra mobile platforms and to show how small the current X86 devices have become using a big set of devices I took with me. I also highlighted some applications that I think don’t really fit onto a smartphone very well. Media playback, ebook reading, navigation and web browsing were my main examples and you can see those functions in the image below.

I also highlighted where Intel are moving to, the expected sizing of Moorestown devices and how the Moblin platform could cover everything from smartphones to netbooks. When I highlighted the numbers involved I couldn’t help but notice a few people start to make notes! It’s something to think about because as Moorestown and Medfield platforms feed-in and Moblin develops into a mature OS with a quality application delivery and monetisation process, just a  5% penetration into the smartphone / mobile internet and netbook market means many millions of end-user devices! Imagine what the numbers are going to be like if it penetrates further. Intel like to quote a total addressable market of over 400 million devices. ABI research say much the same. Keep the Intel Atom Developer Program in mind, people!

Thanks to all the organisers and sponsors of MDC09. I’m looking forward to speaking to you all again soon.

@Chippy

More MDC09 information can be found here (German, translation.)

The Boy Genius Report has their hands on a pre-production version of the Motorola Droid, and has a pretty thorough preview of the device which is running Android 2.0. Sounds like 2.0 brings some much desired improvements, and it’s good to hear that Verizon won’t be touching the Droid in terms of software. I still have nightmares of terrible proprietary Verizon interfaces locking down functions that a phone was supposed to supposed to support (cough*bluetooth*cough), though I still squirm a bit seeing that ugly Verizon branding.

I don’t find the phone itself to be too attractive, especially the keyboard, but with a huge, high resolution, capacitive touchscreen, the Droid looks like it’ll be a nice MIDphone, and certainly goes to show that smartphones are really heading in this direction.

What do the readers say? Would you prefer to have your MID separate from your phone, or have a nice MID that is also a phone?

It is just me or does it seem like Android is the hot thing right now? Motorola and Verizon have been teasing the internet for the last few days about their upcoming Droid phone which is powered by Android (of course). Well the joke is on them as the Droid page seemed to have accidentally popped up ahead of schedule and the folks over at the Boy Genius snagged screenshots of the pages before they had a chance to take it down. Check the Droid’s specs:

• Slider with physical keyboard
• Runs Android
• 3.7 inch, 16:9, 480 x 854 touchscreen
• 5MP camera with 4x zoom, autofocus, and dual LED flash
• 550MHz CPU
• Included 16GB Micro-SD card
• GPS
• Bluetooth and WiFi

There aren’t too many other details at this point, but with a faster CPU than most Android phones to date, and a 16:9 screen, the Droid is shaping up to be a nice MIDPhone. Engadget also has a video from the site showing the Droid in a 360 view, head over to check it out.

I’ll be back to work on Wednesday but until then I’m taking a break with my family over in sunny (really!) England. Thanks to Three UK I’ve got 3G connectivity both on the smartphone and via my Mifi and it has given me the ability to really test the Nokia N900 [info] and Archos 5 Internet Tablet [info] in real-world mobile and home scenarios that have ranged from a night out with the lads to car-navigation, photography, Skype, sofa and bed-surfing, presence and day-to-day email and website management duties.

Read the full story

My mobile tech interest feels reinvigorated, thanks in part to the recent efforts of Archos. You may recall my recent article about Apple causing me to lose my faith in other tech companies. But after seeing all of the recent fun that Chippy seems to be having with the Android based Archos 5 [Portal page], I must say that thinks are looking up in my mind.

Simply put, the Archos 5 looks like a substantial contribution to the MID field, rather than another stab in the dark from a clueless tech company that seems to churn out experiments rather than real, usable products. It will be devices like the Archos 5 (once it comes down a bit in price) that introduces less tech-savvy consumers to the MID a device which acts as a mobile companion rather than just a phone, or just a media player.

Beyond the Archos 5, I’m also looking toward the Archos 9 [Portal page] with much anticipation (and it looks like I’m not the only one, the Archos 9 is currently topping the Portal charts). While a keyboard-less device without even a capacitive OSK would normally worry me, I’m happy to see that the Archos 9 is reportedly coming to market for a reasonable $499, and I’m hoping to augment the device with one of my favorite Bluetooth accessories, the iGo foldable BT keyboard. We’ll see how that goes once the Archos 9 actually rolls out.

Thanks Archos, you’ve helped me get over a mobile tech depression, and given me something exciting to look forward to!