I just wanted to drop you all a note to let you know we’ll be doing a MeetMobility podcast in a few hours. At 1200 GMT+1 on Meetbobility.com/live you’ll find Sascha, JKK and myself talking our usual mobile computing talk with a focus on what happened (or didn’t!) at CeBIT. We guess you guys in the US are still going to be tucked up in bed but don’t worry, it will be recorded and will probably be available by the time you hit that power button. (The reason we have to do it so early is because it’s late in Taipei and that’s where Sascha is.)
Following our podcast and dovetailing in very nicely is the Mobile Tech Roundup Podcast. James, Kevin and Matt will be doing their first live podcast a few hours after us at 0800 Central time (1400 GMT+1) You can catch these guys at UStream.Tv/channel/mobiletechroundup
In this video from Webciety, at CeBITSascha Pallenberg (Netbooknews, Meetmobility), Joanna Stern (Engadget), JKK (JKKMobile,MeetMobility), Carmen S. Villadar (What’s Up Android) and Arno Glompner (Blackberry) talk about the Challenges of Mobile Work. Unfortunately I had to sit in the studio so couldn’t make the panel but next year, I’ll at least be in the audience to heckle!
Two important points I picked up from the Video:
Home and work life is now interleaved. That’s clear right? There’s no 9-5 for many people any more and even if there is, there are private things that get slotted into 30-second breaks in every work day.
The cloud is not mobile. This is something that many people forget. The cloud is great. Mobility is great but the two rarely go together seamlessly. This is extremely important.
If I had just 30 second on this panel I would have brought up the following point:
The biggest challenge for future mobile internet users will be the choice of scaling down the desktop environment for mobile use or scaling up the mobile environment for desktop use. There has been a huge shift in the last two years. The mobile web didn’t really take off as new phones proved it was OK to browser full-fat websites but because of sensors and applications and time-slicing, there is now a mobile web world that you can not re-create on the desktop.
I’ll be updating my 2007 ‘What’s the FIE‘ article to reflect this very soon.
CeBIT is a little different for me this year as I’m staying home on ‘baby alert.’ Assuming my wife doesn’t go into labor early I’m going to make the most of it by taking the opportunity to get some good overview coverage going. I’ll be working in the studio covering news as it comes in and then, every two hours I’ll be pulling together a 10 minute update for MeetMobility. The MeetMobility team are already on the ground in Hanover, we’ve tested all the equipment and we’re ready to go. More information on our live sessions at MeetMobility…
CeBIT is a little different for me this year as I’m staying home on ‘baby alert.’ Assuming my wife doesn’t go into labor early I’m going to make the most of it by taking the opportunity to get some good overview coverage going. I’ll be working in the studio covering news as it comes in and then, every two hours I’ll be pulling together a 10 minute update for MeetMobility. The MeetMobility team are already on the ground in Hanover, we’ve tested all the equipment and we’re ready to go. More information on our live sessions at MeetMobility…
We’ve just had word from Archos’ German PR company that Archos will announce two new Android Tablets at CeBIT.
…wird ARCHOS zwei brandneue kostengünstige Android Tablets, die speziell für den Gebrauch zu Hause designt wurden, vorstellen.
My translation: Archos will introduce two brand new, good value Android Tablets that are specially designed for use in the home.
So we know about the Archos 7 (I’m hearing rumors that the design doesn’t follow the same lines as the Archos 5) but what will the other one be? Archos 9 Android Tablet? Will they beat Apple to the 9 inch market?
One down-side to the news is that it looks like we won’t see any 3G-enabled tablets being announced.
Welcome to this week’s netbook roundup. In this space every Monday I’ll highlight netbook news items that might not need their own individual posts but may still be interesting.
Rumor: Verizon and HP Readying Subsidized Netbooks Cheap netbooks due to subsidizes from cell phone carriers are fairly common outside the US, but it seems like HP might be teaming up with Verizon to offer a discount on a netbook if the consumer wants to start a Verizon contract. If this comes to fruition, we’ll probably see a USB WWAN card offered with the netbook, but I think most of us are hoping for a more elegant internal solution.
Update: It looks like we got the model name wrong. It says S32 on the product info sticker underneath the device!
Kohjinsha weren’t present at CeBIT but we found a few of their products on the Taiwan Excellence stand. The SX3 was there (Sascha and JKK have a video of that that they will post soon) but I took the time to take a closer look at the SC32 having heard that the pricing has been slashed and that a 3G version is now available in the UK. You can see in the video how Kohjinsha have implemented the 3G module. After we did this video we popped off the battery but couldn’t see a SIM card slot so I can’t guarantee that this is how it’s happening with the KJS-UK version. Looking at their spec sheet (PDF) it shows images of a removable 3G card so it could be the same. We’ve got a query out with KJS-UK to confirm this.
With the built-in 3G module and rotating screen, this could make an interesting car navigation device or photographers tool (great screen, geo-tagging with the GPS, good storage, fast SD slot) but with just 2hrs battery life (standard battery) its difficult to use it as a long-term mobile device.
More details, along with our review and images are available on the SC3 information page.
Everything is packed, I’m on the train, connected and in contact with team ‘MeetMobility’ (JKK and Sascha) for the start of our CeBIT 2009 coverage. This year we’re sponsored by our friends from Mobilx.eu so make sure you check out their website (i’m expecting them to put up prices for the Viliv S5 and UMID M1 very soon) while you’re waiting for the next post. You can also check out the latest ‘micro’ blogs which will fill you in on what’s going on in the background. Check out the center column on the front page for more information on the twitter accounts to follow and see my latest updates
As we mentioned in our Meet Mobility podcast on Saturday, the hype doesn’t feel as big as it was in previous years but we definitely have enough to cover. Asus Eee PC T91 and Viliv UMPCs are at the top of my list but there’s plenty more on the list too.
Saschas Taiwan highlights: (some in German)
Eee PC T91
Acer Aspire One D150 and ‘Slim’
Eee PC 1000HE (Chicklet keyboard)
Gigabyte M528
Gigabyte. 10 inch devices. Interesting slim netbook.
Samsung. MID. NC20, NC10. VIA Nano UMPC.
ASUS. T101.
MSI. Slim netbooks.
Intel Pavillion
Viliv S5, S7, X70
I’ll also be keeping a close eye on the ‘midphone’ segment too. Big, slider-style WVGA smartphones is definately a trend we saw at MWC and I hope it continues.
We expect to hit the showground by 3pm for a snoop round. Intel have a booth tour shortly after that so there’ll be a good chance to see what they’ve got set up in their MID wall. Thanks for watching and enjoy the show.
