I stumbled across an interesting looking little program called GMA Booster while browsing the MicroPCTalk forums.

Apparently devices which have 945GM/GME/GMS/GSE or 943/940GML/GU Express chipsets are ULV versions of what is normally called the Intel 945 chipset (and can be found in many of the netbooks and UMPCs out there today), and they all feature the same GMA 950 graphics, but for the ULV chipsets, GMA 950 is underclocked to help improve battery life among other things.

A nifty little app called GMA Booster (website no longer exists) steps the GMA 950 graphics back up from 133/166 MHz, to the level that is found in non-ULV version of Intel 945, 400MHz. The nice thing about this is that it seems to be a simple instruction set sent to the chipset; it doesn’t change any voltage levels, and isn’t pushing the clock speed higher than it is designed to go, just up to its regular level.

Interested in knowing if your UMPC/Netbook/MID uses GMA 950 and could benefit from GMA Booster? Just hit up the Portal and navigate to your device, check the Graphics category on your device’s Portal page to see if it uses GMA 950.

I tested GMA Booster on my VAIO UX180 and the HP Mini 1000 [Portal page] to see what difference GMA Booster could make. I ran Crystal Mark and compared the graphical test scores before and after using GMA Booster to push the graphical core up to 400MHz.

Sony VAIO UX180

HP Mini 1000

As you can see, using GMA Booster to put GMA 950 up to 400MHz increased the graphical performance (as rated by Crystal Mark) by a little more than 20% on both devices. While 20% isn’t huge, I think it could be noticeable depending upon what you are doing on your device. It probably won’t translate to a direct 20% performance increase in the graphical applications that you are using as there is more that factors into graphical rendering, but again it could help the performance. Other benchmark programs which more specifically rate graphics capabilities might note a bigger improvement in scores.

GMA Booster is ‘donerware’ as the dev calls it. It is basically free, but you need to download it again after a week to keep using it. If you donate you will receive a serial number to alleviate that hassle.

Download GMA Booster

If you do venture out and give GMA Booster a try, why not comment here and letting us know how it works with your device?

Most of you will already know that Dynamism are starting the pre-order period for the Viliv S5 today. Presale begins 1:00 PM Eastern time on April 27th. The first shipment is expected May 8th.

If you’re still in two minds about it, take a look at this new video from Michael Brito of Intel. He’s done an ‘Un Geek’ video presentation with the S5. You’ll see Tweetdeck, iTunes and a good demo of the on-screen keyboard in use. If you have questions, join myself and JKK at 2030 CEST today where we will be live with the S5 and other devices and will be able to answer your questions in a live chat session. (Go to UMPCPortal.com/live)

More information on the Viliv S5 including links to all the important articles, reviews, image galleries and news items, in the Viliv S5 product page.

Video source: Inside Scoop.

With twice the battery life, half the weight and half the price of UMPCs of 2006, the advances in ultra mobile PC technology have been amazing. Here’s a video summary of what’s happened in the last 3 years.

Just imagine what’s possible with Intel’s Morestown platform and ARM-based platforms from Ti, Qualcom and Nvidia. In 2010 we’ll be seeing devices hit 250gm with slimmer designs and true, all-day on battery life.

Obviously it’s a sure-fire way to attract eyes to a product. ‘What was that? A new iPod?’ but take note of that optical mouse. When done well, these little controllers are excellent for navigating on hi-res screens.

It  looks like a UI overlay on top of Windows XP.

Hardware specs aren’t disaplyed but clearly this is going to be an Atom Menlow based device based on the size.Its quite thick but no thicker than a Viliv S5.

• 5″  800×480 screen (touch)
• 3G
• BT 2.0
• GPS
• USB, VGA, RJ45 connectors
• 4700mah battery (That looks like it might be sealed. One assumes a single cell at 3.7v giving 17wh. About 4hrs of active usage with a well-built 1.1Ghz/1.3Ghz Menlow platform)
• Optical Mouse pointer

What I don’t see:

• SD/MiniSD slot
• Keyboard

Via: Hualu UCG501 Mobile Internet Device. (Thanks Squirrel)

Source: Aving.

Here’s my overview and opinion on the UMID MBook M1 in 12 points and a seven minute video. It highlights what I think are the most important things you should be thinking about if you’re looking to buy it.

Negative

• Build quality. Plastics and part fitting is poor. Some creaking and poorly fitted casing components. *1
• Table or handtop use. Neither are perfect. If the screen folded back further it would be far more comfortable to use in hands. Too light for tabletop touchscreen use.
• One shift key is awkward in handheld mode. Strange layout for some keyboard characters.
• Wifi and BT default to off after standby and can not be individually enabled.
• No direct usb or headphone port
• (Not in the video) No mouse control other than touchscreen which can be fiddly with Windows XP.

Positive

• Smallest, most powerful notebook style pocketable pc available.
• Extremely fast to boot, resume and start programs due to fast ssd
• Good quality touchscreen with stabilisation software/drivers.
• Powerful enough for Skype video capability out of the box. Good webcam.
• Excellent battery life. (I’m currently running a full start-to-finish web browsing battery life test as I write this.)
• While not perfect in every scenario, can be used successfully in every scenario. A flexible device.
• Silent, cool operation.

Overall it’s one of the best ultra mobile PC devices available on the market and a great step forward for UMPCs but there’s still a lot of room for improvement.

More information, links, videos, gallery in the UMID information page.

[*1 I am told that this is a retail UMID Mbook and not a prototype as I mentioned in the video. JKK has a similar problem with the one he bought from Ebay but there’s still a question about whether I have one of the pre-recall versions here.]

Smaller than I thought it would be and looking well designed (as always with Samsung devices) it’s the Samsung Q1-EX being reviewed by VIA’s ‘How To Be Mobile’ crew.

LaptopMag reviewed this recently and weren’t too impressed that the split mini thumboard was missing but as I said before, I think this one is targeted at a specific industry segment where it will fit perfectly with dedicated software. It may not be the perfect consumer ultra mobile PC but I’m eager to test it out with my ‘business’ hat on and see how the VIA Nano and VX800 chipset perform.

Previous articles on the Q1EX here. Full spec from Samsung here.

Source: HowToBeMobile

Update: All specs and details now in a new Crunchpad product page.

I was one of the ‘doubters’ that questioned the Techcrunch Tablet. I questioned what Mike Arrington said in his first information post. If all you are doing is running Firefox and Skype, you don’t need a lot of hardware horsepower, which will keep the cost way down. inch  We all know that’s not true because rich Web browsing is one of the most CPU-demanding applications there is. Now, 8 months later, you’re looking at an Intel Atom powered device with a 12 inch capacative screen. The $200 price target isn’t looking so achievable now and I’m sure they’re now having a big battle with the weight/battery life equation. The article doesn’t give much away so lets take a fun minute or two to make some estimations about weight, battery life and price.

More images at Crunchgear

Lets assume they’ve dropped a 1.1ghz or 1.3Ghz Intel Atom inside with the SCH (UL11 or US15) chipset. The 800Mhz version won’t provide enough headroom for YouTube, Hulu and Skype in my opinion so it has to be the 1.1 or 1.3Ghz versions. From our testing with various MDs we know that these can idle, without screen but connected to the internet, in a minimum of 3W of power. The 12 inch screen will add a big power drain to that though. Unless they’ve gone with a Pixel-QI or similar low-power screen, you can add 2-3 Watts to the overall power envelope bringing the average drain close to 6W. Real-world battery life will have to be above 2hrs to get anyone’s attention (remember they are targeting in-home use) so a 15wh battery is likely. Given that, the weight is going to be about 700gm. As for price, if they can shift a 50,000 or more, they’ll probably be able to hit $399. I’m basing this on the fact that the Benq MID, a device built on almost exactly the same Intel and Linux technology but with a larger screen) sells for Euro299 from TIM, the mobile carrier in Italy. So here’s my guess on the missing specs:

• Intel Atom 1.1Ghz
• 512MB Memory
• 4GB Flash
• 15wh battery providing 2.5 real hours (‘up to 4 hours’ in marketing-speak!)
• Weight 700gm (the maximum, in my experience, for a one-handed experience.)
• Price (USA) $399
• Reminder, these aren’t official specs.
• Availability July 2009.

So despite having a 12 inch screen, it could come in at a very portable 700gm, about the same weight as most UMPCs. Is it a ultra mobile PC though? Considering that it won’t be any larger than the PepperPad (image right. The PepperPad was built for the same target market, but failed to get much interest in consumer markets) It’s going to be a tough decision for Techcrunch and a big risk due to the better capabilities of similarly-priced netbooks and Mike knows that (see one of his comments in this article where he says it ‘may never happen’) but the device looks slick and there’s a lot of Techcrunch fans out there. Source CrunchGear Software design: Fusion Garage More comment at Techcrunch who say that more information will be available in about a week. Note, the name ‘CrunchPad’ comes from one of the photos of the packaging. This may be a project name.

I had a nice update call from Mobilx this morning where we talked about a number of things. MBook, Aigo and Mifi were discussed (more about those later in the week) but top of the list was the Gigabyte Touchnote shipment which has almost reached Mobilx HQ.

Mobilx have already confirmed easy 3G upgrade possibilities and appear to be impressed with the improvement in quality over the M912. Price is set at around 560 Euros.

As soon as the Touchbook hits the ground at Mobilx HQ it’s being forwarded to us for testing so i’ve reserved Thursday and Friday (European) evenings for a live session. Stay tuned to twitter to keep up with the latest info about the live session. I’ll also post an article here with the final announcement.

Keep up to date with specs and links in the Touchnote product page.

P.S. If you’re at TheNextWeb conference in Amsterdam next week, i’ll have the Touchnote with me and will be happy to let you check it over.