When you read about the TN70 in the umpc and netbook community you’re likely to hear references to the T91 and the Sony Vaio P along with words like ‘ugly’ and ‘cheap.’ You probably won’t hear much mention of mobility but if you’re thinking about mobility, umpcs and tablet PCs I encourage you to pause for a moment and take a closer look because this bargain basement device (that I’m calling a UMPC) has surprised me by turning out to be well designed and very, very usable. If you think back to the Wibrain B1/i1 you’ll remember a similar story. It certainly didn’t look attractive and the reason was that Wibrain designed something to be usable rather than marketable. The same is true of the TN70. It’s a very usable and very good value device.
Before I get my first impressions down though I have to do a comparison to Kohjinsha SA1. When I bought it 2.5 years ago it cost me over 1000 Euro, ran on the Geode LX500 CPU and served me well until I ran out of patience with the slow processor. The TN70M costs less than half and brings a swivel touchscreen, way over double the processing power, hd video decoding, a fingerprint reader, rotation sensor, optical mouse, web cam, expresscard/34 slot and a much much better keyboard. It even has the same, great battery life. If you’re buying pre-tax, you’ll pay just 337 Euros today. That’s without an operating system but if Windows 7 release candidate runs, (i’ll be testing that today) then why bother with the OS. 405 euro is the price including tax. Seriously, if you’re thinking about a cheap netbook for mobile duties, stop! This Clevo is more mobile, more flexible, more usable than any netbook in almost all mobile scenarios except long-term desktop use.
Let’s put a few things in perspective though. It only has an 800×480 resolution screen so you’ll be experiencing dialog box problems. You’ll also hit problems with some software installs until you switch to a higher, non-native resolution. It’s also pretty ugly. A large screen frame houses useable controls but makes it look like a toy, especially in the white coloring.
In our 1hr live evaluation last night we discovered the following:
The keyboard is good. Better than the Kohinsha SC3. Not as good as most netbook. It only has 1 shift key.
The fingerprint reader works and the software captures password too.
The mouse pointer on the frame is a very good optical type which gives you great control in two-handed or tablet mode.
Has strong Wifi reception. (b/g modes)
Appears to have about 5hrs battery life (although the battery indicator doesn’t show times)
Has a soft touchscreen with a good level of palm rejection. The screen is matt but has a typical milky appearance in sunlight.
Includes a rotation sensor (although the drive software appears to be broken on this model)
Is as fast as any 1.3Ghz Menlow device for browsing. Sub 10-second average page load times.
Includes a hard drive with a max throughput of 28MB/s
Was silent for the whole 1hr testing session
Has a removable back allowing RAM, HDD and PCI-express mini slot.
Speakers are of acceptable quality.
Microphone level seems low (tested with Skype)
Initial CrystalMark test result:
The graphics driver is extremely old and causes crashes on flash full-screen so i’ll leave you with some images and run down to the studio to install Windows 7. Wish me luck!
We see no point in ignoring the real facts. ultra mobile PC is a term in decline and has been for the last 18 months. Despite 2009 seeing more UMPCs than ever before and customer numbers remaining solid, the keyword trends are changing. We’ve held up well and, to be honest, have been one of the longest lasting businesses in the ultra mobile PC market so I don’t feel too sad about it but I think there’s a crossroad coming up. I actually think the market itself, the sales numbers and number of new products is on the up and that mobile internet-based productivity is a hotter topic than ever so while the term ‘UMPC’ is dying off, its soul continues. I’m certainly not experiencing a lack of things to write about!
The question is, how do we, UMPCPortal and the ultra mobile PC community of bloggers, manufacturers, resellers and fans, adapt to the change in keyword fashion and the increasing number of options in the MID, smartphone and netbook market? How do we best position ourselves to be able to help and assist new people coming into the market and to grow and improve in the future?
It’s getting close to decision time on UMPCPortal and we have some choices. We’ve always covered the high-end of smartphone ‘computing’ to the smaller and lighter end of netbook computing so if we were starting afresh, our name would reflect that wider coverage. On the other hand, there are a lot of people that come here because of the name!
My personal thought it that there needs to be a split between professional, productive devices based on desktop operating systems and aimed at the high-end and specialist end of the market, and consumer focused devices running consumer-friendly operating systems. MIDMoves is one place we could do the consumer stuff while leaving the professional stuff here. With a common forum and product portal, it could work as two front doors to a great customer learning experience with a common community and product information database.
What do you think? There are nearly 400,000 people that visit here each month so it’s important I try and do what’s best for new and existing visitors. If I lose too many visitors, everything comes crashing down. If we increase visitors, we stand a better chance of improving the site, our contacts and our coverage in the future. We also increase our chances of having a real voice and representing what the customers REALLY want. What YOU want.
What do you think is best for the future of UMPCPortal and the ‘UMPC’ community?
The Kohjinsha SK3 that we reported on yesterday has been formally launched for the Japanese market at a local price, including taxes, of about $730. Before I put some thoughts down though, here are the full specs:
We’re clearly looking at the evolution of a good quality ultra mobile PC here. The SC3 was well built and had an excellent (arguably the best in the market) screen making it downright stunning for 720p playback and very useful for high-end navigation duties. The SK3 will be just as good if it has the same screen. The size reductions are quite considerable considering it’s got a swivel screen and the weight reduction to 720g is class-leading for a 7 inch ‘laptop.’ It will be noticeable if you’re using it with one hand. The local price of $733 seems reasonable considering the huge array of connectivity options that the SK3 offers. Finally, it looks Kohjinsha might have changed the keyboard slightly. If i’m not mistaken it’s taken cues from the Everun Note keyboard and enlarged the main character keys. This will help a lot.
On the negative side we can’t ignore the extremely disappointing battery life figures. 3.2hrs battery life on a Jeita-based test is nothing exciting at all and will translate to between 2 and 2.5 hours, possibly less under heavy load. The battery pack is a tiny 17wh and there’s no indication of an extended battery option. This alone is going to be the deal breaker for many. Add the fact that it’s running a 4200 1.8 inch 60GB hard drive too and you’ve got too very significant reasons not to buy this and to wait for the Viliv S7 (much much bigger battery and battery life, bigger keyboard, ssd options) or even to go for the Viliv X70 and buy a portable keyboard.
Kohjinsha have a habit of creating impressive designs but losing focus on battery life. Two years ago when the SH8 was released I expressed disappointment at the 2hr battery life. That was 2 generations of device ago. Then, the SC3 was released and it was at that point we decided to run a poll. Under 3% of people found 2hrs to be an acceptable battery life. It looks like the SK3 won’t be much better and with new UMPCs turning in 5hr+ battery life, it appears worse than ever before.
We’ll be tracking specs, links and details in the SK3 information page. There’ are already a set of images in the gallery.
Dynamism have just announced a special pre-ordering offer for all three of the Viliv X70 EX models.
Express Model Pre-Order Special:
Free Upgrade to 1.3GHz from 1.2GHz
Free Car Kit
Free Leather Pouch
Free Matte Filter
Premium Models Pre-Order Special:
Free Spare Standard Battery
Free Car Kit
Free Leather Pouch
Free Matte Filter
To be honest, the X70 was good value without this special offer but this makes it even more irresistible. The car kit and leather pouch are excellent quality. I haven’t tried the matte filter but as the X70 has a glossy screen I’d say its going to be worth having too.
The Viliv X70 EX Premium Air has a long battery life, reasonable processing power and built in 3G so it didn’t take me long to start messing about with it as a mobile broadcasting solution and that’s the focus of Version 6 of my mobile reporting kit. Live video.
I spent some time testing different webcams, microphones and configurations and have come up with a 2KG setup that will allow you to do live, mobile broadcasting over Ustream with reasonable quality. The total cost of the solution is under $1000 and the setup can not only be used for live streaming but can be used as a complete Ultra Mobile live blogging solution.
Hardware
What I’ve done is taken the X70 EX and the car kit. I’ve mounted part of the car kit onto the leg of the tripod so that the ultra mobile PC can be clamped in. It provides a sturdy screen at a good height when sitting on a chair in, say, a conference room. The X70 EX has Wifi and 3G included. The 3G is HSUPA capable which puts it in the 1Mbps max upload class (assuming you have the right coverage)
I’ve added a 4-way USB hub to the X70 and then plugged in a Philips SPC900 webcam (manual focus) and Samson USB mic. The Philips cam has been chosen because the drivers seems to be very efficient and can produce 20fps VGA framerate while still doing automatic white-balance. Many other solutions I’ve tried including the built-in cam, drop to below 10fps and lower when using the automatic white balance features. Auto-focus would be nice, as would optical zoom and a quality sensor and optics but for the price, the Philips cam does well.
Software
One of the ‘tricks’ I use on the live video sessions is to avoid the use of the browser-embedded video capture software in the ‘flash’ control panel. The CPU requirement is high, the quality is poor and there’s very little control. Instead I use the standalone Flash Media Encoder (FME). It’s an application that takes audio and video inputs and allows you to stream to a media ‘relay.’ More details on this can be found here. On a desktop machine it can be used to broadcast very high quality VP6 or H.264 encoded video but on a ultra mobile PC is can be used to fine tune the broadcast for a good balance between quality and CPU load.
Unfortunately you can’t control the end-user stream with the FME so you still have to run the Ustream Broadcast Console. The wonderful advantage of this is that you don’t have to run the broadcast console on the same PC so you have three options.
1) Run the broadcast console on the same PC Not recommended as it takes a lot of valuable CPU and doesn’t do much except start and stop the broadcast (unless you want to add text and links overlays.)
2) Run the broadcast console on another PC. This could be on another laptop that you have with you or on a remote desktop machine that you access via a remote desktop solution.
3) Get someone else to handle the broadcast console on a remote machine, anywhere on the internet.
The Ustream broadcast console automatically detects that you’re streaming via the FME and allows you to switch directly to that stream. If the stream drops out it gives you the option to drop back to a local video source. It takes some playing with to understand the architecture but its very flexible once set-up.
Settings
After doing some testing with various settings I settled for a total 550kbps average broadcast bandwidth by using the VP6 encoder at 500kbps with a 20fps VGA (640×480) frame rate and size. For audio I used a 48kbps MP3 audio track. If you’re broadcasting music, you’ll want to pump this up to 96kbps or more.
550kbps is a good rate for 3G broadcast on HSUPA. 50% utilisation is a reasonable expectation although you must expect to get some frame loss as the quality of 3G services varies wildly based on usage and position.
Example broadcast.
This broadcast was recorded by Ustream at their servers (not at the source) while broadcasting over Wifi. It gives you a good idea of what the end user will see.
It’s re-sized to 80% of full frame size.
Once again, this is not recorded at source, it’s what the end user is likely to see. I hope it streams OK for you for the Ustream server and apologies for my appearance!
640 x 480 is arguably too big for web-embedded broadcasting but if possible it’s worth doing as when you ask Ustream to record the stream (a single button press on the broadcast console) they’ll be capturing better quality that you can use and post-process later. If you find the upload bandwidth isn’t available though, switching to QVGA and dropping the bitrate to under 300kbps, 15fps, is going to work in most situations.
Using the solution for one-man live photo / text blogging.
To do live video and live photo and text blogging on the X70 EX might be asking a little too much but if you’re not into doing live video, here’s another possible arrangement. Using a Canon Digital Camera (possibly others too) you can replace the video camera and then use the Canon Remote Capture software from the PC. Doing this forces an immediate transfer of the image to the PC where you can drag it into LiveWriter or your favourite blogging software (I prefer LiveWriter as it does some nice image re-sizing) and update a live blog. With a USB keyboard plugged in you can type your text as you go along too.
Other thoughts
The X70 EX will run for about 4 hours over 3G in this setup. That’s one 30wh battery powering the cam, mic, 3G and PC. It’s amazingly efficient. If you need more power though, get the X70 EX car kit which has a car adaptor in it. You can then run the solution from a 12V car battery or general purpose Li-Ion battery. You can even use a 24w solar panel to keep the whole system topped up for a whole day’s broadcasting. If you’re using 3G, make sure its a true flat-rate connection!
The solution is very mobile when in use. By grabbing the neck of the tripod, the unit stays well balanced when walking. You’d need to find a good USB mic solution that could be mounted to the tripod but this shouldn’t be very difficult. I can see myself having some fun with this a IFA in Sept as I walk around the booths!
I’d like to find a higher-quality USB web camera with, if possible, built-in white balance, auto focus, brightness etc. Maybe even zoom and an LCD preview screen. I’m wondering if there are any digital cameras or digital video cameras that can be used in this way. If anyone has any information on this, please let me know.
I need a new keyboard. My Samsung Ultra Mobile USB keyboard appears to be broken so I’m looking at the Aisonic 800M right now. The integrated mouse control is a must-have but can I find one anywhere? Nope. I’ve written to the manufacturer to see if I can buy some samples.
The Ultimate Live Reporting Setup?
While I was thinking about keyboards, I thought about just using my netbook with Synergy keyboard and mouse sharing over a Bluetooth PAN. The advantage of this setup is that you have one keyboard, two PC’s, two screens and the ability to live stream, run the broadcast console AND live blog using a USB-connected camera. It would add 1-2KG to the setup (netbook + cam) but wow, you’d be the ultimate one-man band live blogger!
Alternative solutions.
As an alternative to using the X70 EX on it’s own, you could use a netbook or, for more processing power and the ability to connect a web-cam, a digital cam and to do live video and simultaneous live blogging, a full power laptop. You won’t be able to mount the netbook on the tripod so you’ll lose a lot of mobility but as a laptop solution it should work fine. Choose a 3G-capable laptop with a good keyboard. Something like the Samsung NC10 3G or Eee PC 1000 GO range which offer good battery life too. Overall though, with the car mount, the 12V charger, the built-in 3G and light weight, I think the X70 offers one of the best solutions for mobile use.
As for streaming platforms, Ustream works well but I’m looking to try out Livestream.com soon. They have been working in the Ultra Mobile space recently (and demonstrated a mobile internet streaming solution at Computex) so maybe they have some good ideas. Their basic ad-supported streaming service is, like Ustream, free.
Previous versions of the ultra mobile reporting kit.
Charbax has posted a very good video of a working Archos 9. A couple of points to highlight are the optical mouse and the width which would create a heavy lever-effect when holding in one hand; a problem i experienced with Pepperpad 3 a few years ago. I’m also surprised that there is no HDMI output.
Jkk has tons of video coverage of the now finished Computex 2009. Here he has an interesting 17 minute video of a Q&A with Intel’s General Manager of the Ultra Mobility Group, Anand Chandrasekher. Jkk also rounded up a list of all the people in attendance, as follows:
An interesting watch if you want to understand how Intel is handling the upcoming Moorestown platform and have a chance to see and hear from some prominent members of our blogging community.
You may have seen the Viliv S5 navigation demo from the guys over at Streetdeck recently; now it’s the Viliv X70’s turn. The X70 [Portal page] is larger than the S5 [Portal page], and has integrated GPS as well as 3G data. That means that everything needed to run the great looking Streetdeck software is already under the hood. With the car kit that Viliv has made for the X70 and the Streetdeck software, it looks like the X70 could work wonders as a navigation device. The power of using a full fledged PC as your navigation unit really shows over that of a simple dedicated GPS device. As you watch the demo below, take a look at the map as Chuck drives the car around. You can practically watch the map turn in real time as the car turns. Most of us using dedicated GPS devices are probably used to seeing the screen update every one or two seconds. With the X70’s relatively huge screen, you can bet that it will be easy to operate the Streetdeck interface and see all of the necessary navigational information. Take a look at the video below, the first few mins are a short overview of the device and car kit; the in-car demo starts at 6:30.
When you read about the TN70 in the umpc and netbook community you’re likely to hear references to the T91 and the Sony Vaio P along with words like ‘ugly’ and ‘cheap.’ You probably won’t hear much mention of mobility but if you’re thinking about mobility, umpcs and tablet PCs I encourage you to pause for a moment and take a closer look because this bargain basement device (that I’m calling a UMPC) has surprised me by turning out to be well designed and very, very usable. If you think back to the Wibrain B1/i1 you’ll remember a similar story. It certainly didn’t look attractive and the reason was that Wibrain designed something to be usable rather than marketable. The same is true of the TN70. It’s a very usable and very good value device.
