The S5 is very much a PMP-style device but provides for fast Internet browsing and good media playback capabilities. There’s a 3G option possible (depending on territory) and a 24wh battery that is said to provide 5-6 hours of video playback. Given that the Gigabyte M528 can do 3 hours on a 10Wh battery, there’s no reason to doubt that. I’ll get the details into the database as soon as I can but for now, check out the presentation video I made. I like this one a lot. No keyboard but totally pocketable.
Keep an eye out later for a video of a new device, the S7. Its bigger, has a full keyboard, swivel touchscreen, has huge battery life and is very very slick!!
Update: I’ve just uploaded some new pics into the gallery
I was invited to do a presentation video with Jeff Moriarty of Intel yesterday. Here’s the result. I don’t expect to be getting any daily TV show offers as a result but it was a lot of fun.
If you click through to the large version of that image you’ll see a big list of all the MIDs that are here at IDF. I haven’t seen all of them yet but in the center of the entrance hall, most of them are displayed. I had a bit of hands on but there’s so much going on here right now it’s difficult to get into any detail.
The U2010 is lighter than expected but oh so sweet. Running Vista unfortunately. The Pink WiBrain is a shocker, the Benq really does have a lovely UI (the best i’ve seen yet on a MID) and the Compal/Gigabyte/Aigo is for me, still the most usable form factor.
The others should arrive later today so I’ll be keeping a look out for them and will probably see them in the event that starts at 1800 here.
Later today there should be a video up that I made with Intel about an hour ago where go through some of the MID devices. It’s being edited right now but i’ll send a link over Friendfeed as soon as I have it.
At about 4am on Saturday I’ll be waking up to start my journey to San Francisco for the Intel Developer Forum (IDF)which starts the following Tuesday. I should be there about 20 hours later after I’ve made my way to Frankfurt and done the two-part flight via Portland. I really hope there are charging points on the plane!!
IDF is Intel’s 3-times yearly event that brings together partners, developers, journalists and exhibitors and presents them with a 3-day Intel-fest of the latest advances, products, methods and technologies. For readers here it means that we’ll be able to get the latest information about Intel’s UMPC, Mobile Internet Devices and Netbook platforms, get involved in Ultra Mobile conversation with other attendees and even get some training in the areas of software and hardware design. Article continues…
Follow my Friendfeed for micro-updates and of course, UMPCPortal.com for news. The live page will be open and I’ll try and join in with the cam as often as I can.
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.
Forward Concepts, the company that last week produced one of the first detailed studies on a ‘Mobile Internet Device’ product category have been interviewed by Electronics Supply and Manufacturing about the report and have brought some good questions and information about the segment to the surface. For example, I didn’t know (or had I forgotten?) that HP are developing a MID, that Qualcomm are working on 15 products and that TI are working on ‘at least a dozen.’ I don’t expect that all of these designs will reach the market but even a handful from each company will knock Intels ecosystem back a step or two. Forward Concepts also predicts that the MID market will grow to 40 million units in 2012 with North America, Europe and Japan each generating roughly 20% of the sales.
What is a MID? What is a UMPC?
Forward Concepts puts this proposal forward for the definition of a MID and UMPC: [after the jump…]
There’s been a suprising lack of information from OEMs and resellers on the MID products during Computex. Or perhaps it isnt suprising. The netbooks mean more to the bottom line than MIDs this year!
Intel realyed a snippet of news this afternoon via their ‘Chip Shots‘ blog. In a speach on the 4th, Anand Chandrasekher gave an update on the situation. Apparently everything is going to plan. OEMs are making progress and the software ecossytem is building steam. Sounds like a bit of PR-fill to me!
Building on the Intel® Atomâ„¢ Processor launch at Shanghai IDF, Peter Chen, general manager, BenQ Technology Product Center, and Masatsugu Shinozaki, executive vice president and general manager, Car Information System Division, Hitachi, Ltd., discussed how the companies are working to bring new entertainment and information experiences to market through their respective upcoming Mobile Internet Devices. Chandrasekher also highlighted a support from a range of software vendors around the world, including a new collaboration with Wind River Systems through development of an open, extensible Moblin-based Linux platform for MIDs.
Joanna Stern, queen of netbook-land it seems, has published her full review of the MSI Wind and given it 4.5/5 on the morning that it officially launched. Good timing MSI!
The review covers pretty much every aspect of the device from design to battery life (Mmm, battery life. Why the cheap, low-cap batteries MSI? It could have been a lot better) and is the must-read if you’re considering the device, which, if the stats on UMPCPortal.com are anything to go by, is a huge number of people.
If
