Back in April, I published my thoughts on how MIDs could raise the bar for high-end PMPs. I wrote the article after I saw some interesting notes on the video hardware that was going to be included in Poulsbo (now called the System Controller Hub, the chipset that accompanies Z-series Atom CPUs.) When I got the Kohjinsha SC3 a few weeks ago it was the first chance I’d had to test a Menlow based device (Atom Z-series + SCH) so one of the first things I did was to download a high-end WMV file and play it in media player. I also downloaded Quicktime and the Klite Pack to get some H.264 support. What I saw was less than impressive.

At the same time, Jenn at Pocketables.net was doing similar tests with her SC3 and to cut a long story short, between us and the feedback of forum members and readers, we’ve ended up in a position where we’ve only found one commercial software package that will enable just one of the built-in hardware decoding features. H.264 [See Jenns article about 1080p on The Willcom D4.] On one hand its a poor result and a major disappointment. There’s no single player available that can support playback of all HQ content and if your content is wrapped up in DRM (iTunes films for example) there’s no support at all. It all sounds like quite a sad story. On the other hand the H.264 part of the story is good (no, excellent – 15mbps H.264 anyone?) and it looks like there’s more to come if Poulsbo can be unlocked further with the right software.  (article continues…)

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Jenn from Pocketables  shows us a press release from Fujitsu making official the latest iteration of the Lifebook UMPC. We already knew most of the details regarding the Atom based U2010, but the press release has shed light on a few new bits of info. The U2010 will be available in five different colors: Ocean Black, Pink Gold, Cool Silver, Fuchsia Red, and Luminous Blue. Fujitsu is also saying that the U2010 will run for 8 hours on its extended 4-cell battery, or 9 hours with the 4-cell battery and the announced 64GB SSD option. The U2010 looks to be shaping up to be a good sequel to a pretty popular line of UMPCs. Lets just hope that press released 9 hour battery figure is true!

Direct From Japan, the guys I bought the Kohjinsha SC3 from, just pinged me with an unboxing video of the Kohjinsha SX3, the 8.9" touch ultra mobile PC based built around the Intel Atom platform. Again, Kohjinsha have squeezed in features that you won’t find on many other mini notebooks, let alone netbooks because this one has a DVD writer built in. Yup, its the same size as an Eee but has a DVD writer built in!

We also have some CrystalMark scores which show almost exactly the same results as the SC3 but remember that this one has the 3-cell battery rather than the 2-cell you find on the SC3. I don’t have any battery life figures yet but i’m expecting 3.5hrs with Wifi off and 3 hours with Wifi on. Official figures state 4.5hrs.

Other features include the 1280×768 hi-res LED-backlit screen, dual cams and ExpressCard slot. All in 1.2KG.

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If I remember rightly, the Aigo MID is going to available in some Asian shops tomorrow. UMPCFever, however, have already had it for a few days and although it’s not coming to Europe or America, the Gigabyte version will so we can get some good ideas about performance of hardware, browser and multimedia functions from this.

UMPCFever have made some notes in English mentioning that the software build is much better than in previous versions they’ve seen. (Phew!) The UI appears to be very good (see video below)  and I’m pleased to see Bluesoleil in there. I hope it makes it through to the Gigabyte version.

In the notes, the browser and multimedia features are said to be "well organized and pretty good performance" although there’s no detail yet. We’ll have to wait and see as UMPCfever will be putting out more details test notes in the days to come. Lets hope those video drivers and codecs are all present! I’ve been testing H.264 on the SCH (chipset) today and it’s impressive when you get it working with the right software. More about that later. Video below.

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I’m still tracking as much as I can in the Mobile Linux world to try and bring myself up to a point where I can report with a respectable level of knowledge. Everyone I talk to though, seems to have differing opinions. Its an incredibly fragmented sector and I completely understand those that are simply ignoring all the fuss going on at the core level and focusing on the high-level, OS-agnostic application development environments.

Over the next three days we all have a good opportunity to learn more through the Mobile Linux Conference that is taking place within the Linux World Expo. That’s assuming that people are going to report from it but with all the hype going on about Android, Apple and others, I’m sure there’s going to be some serious focus on it. You can track Exhibitor announcements through this page where you’ll already see some news. I’ll be tracking it continuously over the next three days so if anything significant crops up, i’ll make sure I relay onto the front page here.

LinuxDevices.com have pulled out the important info about the keynote speakers and sessions which include one from Ram Peddibholta, the Director of Open Source Technology Center, Intel who will specifically talk about Moblin and Atom. I wonder how that will be received among the attendees, most of whom will be be coming from the smartphone world. Intel is a new player here and it’s going to be a tough sell for them.

Source:LinuxDevices.

It takes some courage for a small company like VIA to go head to head with Intel so you have to hand it to VIA for putting this video out. Apart from the fighting-talk in the first 30 seconds, it shows the 1.3Ghz Nano (I have this confirmed) against the 1.6Ghz Intel Atom (Diamondville.) in a 1080p HD video test. I recognized the video being used (Try it – Robotica) and checked it out on my Akoya/Wind. Sure enough, it doesn’t play perfectly. Not surprising as it’s about 9Mbps of 1440×1080 video.

If the Nano is doing this in CPU-alone then I’m really impressed because the 1.3Ghz Nano is perfect for 7" UMPCs.

Here’s the video. Meet you all outside for the fight later :-)

More info on the Nano range and performance here. Information on the VIA Openbook, the reference design that the Cloudbook Max is based on, is available here.

Finally, a MID in it’s final form! UMPCFever got hold of a retail version of the Aigo MID.

There’s no news about performance or battery life at this stage but we’re in contact with them to try and get the details for you. I believe this goes on sale at the end of this week.

Aigo MID specifications.

UMPCFever photo report.. (translated)

The Aigo MID is based on the same design as the one that Gigabyte are using for their M528 which which I tested recently and will be on sale in the western world sometime very soon.

Jenn, now a Willcom D4 owner as well as an SC3 owner, has her first impressions up. As expected, the battery life isn’t good at all with the tiny standard battery returning 1.5 hours of use. Its efficient of course, but that’s not really enough is it. I really don’t understand how any OEM could convince themselves that it’s acceptable to expect people to buy a second battery.

Apart from that, the device seems to be performing well enough with Vista on the 1.33Ghz CPU.

The Willcom D4 never felt right to me from the word go and this review doesn’t change my opinion.

Review at Pocketables. Specifications and more links on the D4 information page.