The 901 is ussemed to be the Atom-based version of the 900 which makes sense but isn’t 100% confirmed yet. There aren’t any more details to accompany the images either but I feel sure we’ll see more of this and many other Atom-based devices at Computex in a few weeks. It looks nice apart from the shiny plastic buttons up by the battery. I’m sure it’s going to look even better in black though.
Blogeee.net have a whole load of images so check out their site.
Thanks to Expansys last week, the UK prices and specs for the MSI Wind were revealed but the only US prices we had until now were import prices. Today, LAPTOP magazine has revealed the US-local specs and pricing and rather than charging similar prices for both the Linux and Windows versions of the Wind as in the UK, the MSI US marketing team are choosing to offer an Eee PC 900 12G (Linux) competitor at $399 with the 80GB drive, 512MB and Novell SUSE Linux. If you want XP you’ll be paying $150 more and getting an additional 512MB into the build. It doesn’t seem to be worth $150 but there could be additional specifications that haven’t been revealed through the LAPTOP magazine article. I’ve been using Suse Linux for about 8 years and have always been very happy with the desktop interface and the ‘YAST’ system management tools. I even ran it on my work-supplied Pentium 1Ghz notebook with 512MB RAM for 2 years and only went back to Windows when I started getting into UMPCs. [more after the break]
Update. It appears that we might have stirred the sales and marketing groups into a re-think. The M528 3G pricing has dropped to 1199 AUD overnight which is a much more accpeptable pre-order, early adopter, Australian market price.
Update 2. There’s some back-pedalling going on with pricing following our story. Gigabyte say they haven’t agreed any pricing yet. Details here.
Interested in mobile Internet devices? You know, the ones aimed at the consumer with consumer features and consumer pricing? Then read on… Tegatech, a well-respected ultra mobile PC retailer in Australia has recently signed a deal with Gigabyte for the distribution of it’s UMPCs and MIDs in Australia and New Zealand and has sent out an email to it’s media contacts announcing that my favorite MID, the M528 is on their books. A quick look at their website reveals that, yes, the M528 is listed, still looking very desirable, with a nice 8GB flash drive, the 3MP auto-focus cam, an 800×480 touchscreen, 11Wh battery, built-in GPS, 3G radio and an 800Mhz Intel Atom processor. With a pocketable size, a pocketable weight and that slide out keyboard it’s a dream device for many. So what’s the cost? [After the image]
Expansys have put their pricing up for the 10″, XP and Linux versions of the MSI Wind.
The XP Home version based on the 1.6Gz Diamondville (assumed) Atom processor, 10″ LED-Backlit, 80GB (2.5″) hard drive, 1GB of RAM, Wifi, Bluetooth and a 1.3MP WebCam is available for pre-order for 350 pounds. The Linux version is 30 pounds less. By Expansys pricing, this puts it at only 70 pounds (about 25%) more expensive than the 4GB Eee PC. The XP version of the wind is even the same price as the Linux version of the HP 2133!
Looking across Expansys Europe, the German price (for the UK, XP Version) is 459 Euro’s which makes the Packard Bell Easynote look expensive at 499.
Update: US price (UK version export through expansys-usa) is $610.
At these prices, I think the MSI Wind might take the cheap mininote crown, especially with the girls! Interested parties can make their way over to Expansys. (Affiliate link.)
Specifications and details available on the MSI Wind product page.
Worth highlighting from the PMP perspective is the news that Intel Atom along with the Poulsbo will enable a full HD playback experience. While reviewers have yet to see this in action, Intel are talking about 1080p playback performance [PDF] and have also announced that Real Networks will produce an optimised (chipset and finger friendly) player and codec-set for the platform. [News]
I’m an Archos 605Wifi owner and it handles most content well but I certainly cant feed high bitrate or high resolution H.264 into it. As for the Internet aspect, it’s what I’d call ‘entry-level.’
Add the following features to the video playback capabilities and I think you’ll have something that raises the bar for high-end PMP’s so high that Archos and Cowon will have to introduce new models based on new hardware platforms in order to benefit from this growing portable Internet and media player (PIMP?) market. My prediction is that we’ll see Archos release an Intel-based MID within the next year. Anyway, here’s the list of features that needs to be considered.
Take the Gigabyte M528 for example. When (not if) I buy one I’m going to be getting a device that is essentially a Nokia N810 and Archos 605 Wifi on steroids. Both of those devices have value on their own but if you add the two together and throw in a 3G modem, you get far more than the sum of the parts. It moves the PMP into the realms of social media networking, one of the fastest growing segments in the Internet today. Yes, the price will be high on day one but the features, as far as I’m concerned are worth shelling out some beans for. HD playback, 3mbp auto focus camera, GPS, 3 hours battery life, 3G, keyboard, hi-res touchscreen and a Firefox 3 browser. Oh come on, this is just portable gadget heaven isn’t it?
If you’re a PMP fan, maybe an Archos or Cowon owner, I’d love to hear your opinion. What aspects of the current PMPs will MIDs have a problem with. Community? Price? Battery life? UI?
In a week where we’ve been bombarded by news (or Pyrotechnics as Richard Brown of VIA, calls it) from the Intel IDF, it’s important to remember the other side of the fence. Over in smartphone, pmp and pocketPC land, things are happening just as quickly. The PR machine isn’t as big but the products could be just as capable.
GigaOm interviewed Qualcomm’s Dr. Sanjay Jha , COO and president of its CDMA technologies division last week and put a few interesting Ultra Mobile related questions his way.
Stacey Higginbbotham asked the following:
When will these [snapdragon-based] devices come out, and how does this compete with Intel’s Atom processors for ultra-mobile PCs?
Sanjay replies: Devices using Snapdragon will come out in the second half of this year, before or after Christmas. And I wouldn’t say we’re competing with Intel because we want to focus on a pocket-sized device that you can carry with you. Intel’s specifications for Atom are focused on a device with a 7-inch to 9-inch display.
I think Sanjay needs to do a little bit more research. 20 manufacturers are licensed (as ARM might say!) to produce MIDs and all should produce devices before Christmas. Nearly all of the devices will fall smack-bang into the pocket-sized market so Qualcomm, you DO have competition.
ARM-based MIDS will come and i’m sure we’ll see them with longer battery life and smaller designs than with Atom but will they be powerful enough to handle the a full browser and all the media that a user can throw at them?
Via ElectronRun
Something had to give last week. Despite two of us hitting CeBIT (representing UMPCPortal and JKKMobile) there was a serious lack of time to get much posting done. UMPCPortal was my primary blogging platform and Carrypad suffered which is a real shame because my heart is so much more with consumer Internet devices than 7″ mini-notes.
I think I can summarise by saying that for me, CeBIT split into two threads. The mini-note thread (boosted by the Eee PC 900 announcement) and the Intel mobile Internet devices thread. It’s the latter that’s the focus here because Atom, the Intel processor brand that will be used in these devices, is all about consumer products. From TVs, fridges and cars through to ‘netbooks’ and ‘nettops’ (intel expressions) with PMPs, PNDs, dedicated Internet tablets and eventually in late 2009 or 2010, the smartphone. The processor is focused on size, power efficiency, heat and price, not processing performance. In addition to the Atom processor there’s a big push to make a new operating system platform. Moblin is the Linux-based core OS that Intel is developing and we’ll see this appear on many of the Atom-based products.
Here are a few examples. Firstly, (and my personal favorite right now) the Gigabyte M528 MID. Its a pocketable mobile Internet device with a finger-optimised and attractive user interface, 3G, cameras, flash storage and a slide-out keyboard. Pricing is said to be 699 Euros and it will include GPS, 3G and a 3mp auto-focus camera. I’ve written extensively about it over at UMPCPortal. Check out some of the videos and hands-on reviews.
Using the same Compal design but targeted at the Asian market is the Aigo branded version of the same device. Both devices have the same hardware but use different user interface layers over the Moblin core linux.
A similar ‘slider’ device is the A-Bit MID. This one is targeted for a global launch according to A-Bit. Specs are very similar but it might have a slightly more powerful processor and larger battery. Final specs aren’t available at this stage. Look out for a presentation video on this at UMPCPortal in the next few days.
The LG device was at CeBIT but it’s not a mobile Internet device, apparently. LG want to position it as a productivity or professional device and will offer it with Windows Vista and will call it a UMPC. A similar approach is being made by Toshiba too. Their pocketable device will also run windows and will also be called a UMPC. Strangely though, the Toshiba device doesn’t have a keyboard.
Coming this summer!
Overall it looks very positive for consumer devices coming out of the Atom stable this year. We should expect to see 10 appearing in summer (before August) and another 10-20 coming out in the latter part of the year.
Clockwise from top: Gigabyte, Clarion, EB (probably under another brand), Lenovo (Asian market) Toshiba UMPC, LG UMPC, Digifriends, Aigo, ASUS, Benq.
For more details on Atom and the Intel MID plans, check out the Atom/MID article on UMPCPortal.com. Most of the devices are in the Carrypad product database and the ultra mobile PC Product database.
Note: UMPCPortal is having performance issues right now.
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