I have no problem agreeing with what InStat are saying in their latest report. "Embedding a wide-area wireless modem into devices addresses the frustration many users have with the coverage of Wi-Fi." For me, wireless wan connectivity is an absolute must for a ultra mobile PC and anything without it is just portable between hotspots but I do also understand that there are problems for OEMs too. Adding 3G to a product requires more certification expense, assembly-line options, adds cost and is difficult to research on a global territory basis. This is why you see OEMs like Raon Digital offering base systems that resellers can tailor for their own customers. It’s also why Intel have a modular 3/4G option in their Menlow platform.

There are also people that aren’t quite as mobile as others using multiple WLAN locations as hot-desks or even working within a single hotspot area. Tethering and USB sticks also provide an option but as carriers get their backbones ready for this new class of netbook and UMPCs and as 3G USB stick margins drop, they will start demanding that devices come with 3G built in. If OEM’s want to get their devices into these potentially huge sales channels, they need to comply.

The InStat report also covers ultra mobile PC market predictions. Unfortunately there aren’t any hints as to what they think the market is worth and even what a ultra mobile PC or UMD is. For what it’s worth, I don’t think there’s going to be too much growth in the traditional ultra mobile PC market (productive, 6-8" screen, lightweight mobile computing hardware running desktop software) this year due to lower-cost netbook options and fairly static vertical markets and solutions but if you look at lower down in the market at 4-5" devices, there’s something starting to happen. Viliv, Raon, UMID, Fujitsu, Wibrain, Lluon and others are all in with new devices. Some may call them MIDs but when they running Windows and looking exactly like the Origami marketing dreams of 2006, you’ve got to consider them as UMPCs.

Report summary (PDF)

Via Center Daily

The sun is shining out in Pocketables land. I can almost see Jenn’s smile radiating from here, 7500 miles away on the other side of the planet. She’s got the Vaio P and the unboxing and testing has already started.

Unboxing photos’s here.

It looks like the usual stack of Sony apps and try-me-ware is installed so Jenn will probably have some cleaning-up to do before the first impressions come out. She has the 1.3Ghz, 64GB SSD version. I’ve used a similar set-up on the OQO 2+ so if the SSD is fast on the Sony, I know the Vista experience should be bearable for casual use. Certainly if you keep the device in standby, it should be fine for whipping it out of the handbag and checking Google forthe local nail parlour ;-)

Setting up the Sony Vaio P.

More info on the Sony Vaio P here.

I can’t really let the day finish without mentioning the Techcrunch Crunchpad. Although it’s a relatively  big and non-mobile tablet, there’s a few things to mention.

Mike Arrington’s original focus for the design was web activities so it’s not suprising he’s gone for a PC-based solution. Web-based activities are getting to be some of the most CPU-intensive daily tasks that people do so a strong CPU is a must-have. The VIA Nano is, clock-for-clock, likely to be much more powerful than an Atom so a  good choice for processing power but with it’s relatively high thermal power rating, it’s going to need some cooling. That means fans and airflow space in the chassis. Not a good sign for bedtime browsers! Having said that, the low-end of the VIA Nano range at 1Ghz might be just right and I’m sure there’s scope for lowering it further if necessary. This would be a nice win for VIA if they can pull it off.

Why didn’t Techcrunch go for an ARM-based solution? It would allow for a much smaller and longer-battery life design. Maybe it’s because the high-end of ARM isn’t quite up to performing at the sort of levels that consumers expect? 5-10 seconds per web page load is probably just out of the reach of one of the latest ARM-based platforms.

The battery life is going to be a problem too. With a 4-cell, 2200mah-per-cell (a high-end, heavy-sounding  2p2s 7.2v) battery pack he’ll be looking at the  4-hour range with that huge screen. The backlighting budget will probably run to 5W and I’m sure that when you’ve added the relatively high-end CPU in and connected it to a Wifi hotspot, you’ll be draining 10-12 watts average. Possibly more when you’ve got flash content taking up CPU cycles. As many others have commented today, it might be better to settle with a 1024×600 8.9″ screen and maybe reduce the battery capacity to  save weight. It wouldn’t be perfect in portrait mode but landscape mode would be fine and you’d probably save 2W in backlighting and 300gm in weight. Overall though, you would probably lose battery life. It’s a tough balancing act.

Aesthetics play an important role but as we can all remember from ‘Origami’ in 2006, so do keyboards. I could write for hours about that but I’ll just say that if you need sales numbers, you’ll probably want to think carefully about the form factor and include,somehow, a  physical keyboard. The T91 or T101H from ASUS might bite Techcrunch in the bum unless they can get excelent on-screen keyboard software and some good early reviews about it.

All in all I think Techcrunch have set themselves tough targets for the device. While not impossible, I suspect it will be more expensive than planned, will have so-so battery life and could be a little too heavy for most people. They’ll need to convince an investor that they can sell hundreds and hundreds of thousands in order to hit the parts budget and that convertible netbooks or MIDs won’t be a threat.

Fingers crossed for Techcrunch though. I’m enjoying watching the project, am hoping it tends towards a 9″ device and I and wish Techcrunch and VIA every success with it.

While Jenn prepares mind and body for some MID Moves action at fun park in southern California, I’m getting ready for my own MID  action. The OQO 2+ (64GB SSD, 1.8Ghz, OLED screen version) arrived today and its siting on a table right now in ‘desktop’ mode.  I think it’s fair to say that this is one of the most transparent Vista experiences I’ve had on a UMPC. The 1,8Ghz drive, 2Gb of RAM and fast SSD are really working well together.

I’ve written up a few notes at MID Moves already and there are some piccies being put into the gallery but let me just highlight a few points here.

Overall performance – Excellent.  Vista is useable and apps start quickly.  YouTube full-screen isn’t very good.

Battery life – So so. 2hrs with Wifi on. 2.5 at 800Mhz. 3hrs wifi off.  This is with the small battery. I was hoping for  more.

Screen – High quality.  Not that much better than the best we’ve seen before (Wibrain, Q1 Ultra) but still, the best I’ve seen.  I instantly noticed the restrictions of the 800×480. Interpolated isn’t that bad though. Probably the best interpolated mode i’ve seen.

3G – Can’t test as its locked to EVDO at the moment. So much for Gobi ‘global’ 3G chipsets.

3G is now working. After finding another layer of setting in ctrl panel,  switching to HSDPA, disabling  spring  and verizon software, ticking a box and entering my APN (!) it’s  working. Actually to fair, now that it’s set up, its an easy one-click connect.  HSDPA is working and it’s giving me 700kbpsupload which indicates HSUPA but havent  been able to see any  high speed  downloads yet.

Noise and heat – Dissapointing fan noise. Fan is on all the time and can get very loud. Heat isn’t an issue though so I imagine there’s scope for some tweaking of the fan settings. Maybe it can be made silent at 800Mhz. Update: setting  the heat/noise  bar in ctrl-panel  helped this somewhat. I will do mroe  testing and report on this later.

Disk speed. Good. 50MB read. 37 Write. (max)  This  isn’t  high-end in terms of SSDs  but for the system, it’s probably about as good as it needs to get unless you want some high-speed hibernation action.

I tested the video performance with the Coral Reef Adventures WMV demo supplied on the device. It’s a 1280×720, 6.5mbps WMV9 and the OQO handles it with ease averaging just 50% CPU using Windows Media player hinting to me that there might be some hardware decoding going on somewhere. The OQO even handles it when locked to 8000Mhz which I’ve never seen on any other Silverthorne based device. I moved on to test a 16mbps (average) 1080P file and at this point I found what I think is the reason why all the video is working.  Cyberlink Power DVD V7 is installed. I’ve tested it in the past and seen H.264 working well but i’ve never seen WMV working so well and i’ve never seen H.264 play in Windows Media  player like it’s doing here. Considering this has HDMI out, it could make an amazing portable video player.

Feel free to ask questions. I won’t be monitoring the comments all the time but i’ll make sure I dedicate 30 minutes to answering the questions later. Unfortunately I wont have time for a live video session tonight as I need to prepare for MID Moves activities tomorrow but i’ll be pulling together more thoughts over the week and will be able to present you with a full review soon after.

Thanks to the Intel, OQO and the MID Moves project for the time with the device.

Specs and info on the OQO 2+ here. Feel free to add your thoughts at the bottom of the specification page as a reference for others.

There are still some devices  winging their way over to  Europe but I was lucky and got the  OQO 2+  delivered this morning. Within 1 minute of closing the door on Mr UPS, I was  filming….

I’ve turned on the device and tested through to see if everything is working and the first thing I’ve set up is a new grab-and-go desktop at home…

So far I’m impressed with its processing power and (64GB SSD) disk speed. The Vista experience is fine and I’m easily able to multitask with multiple apps. The fan noise is a bit annoying though. Hopefully that will be fixed before this device goes on sale!

I’ve come across a small problem with the 3G. My plans to ditch my cable broadband for a week have been scuppered due to the 3G being locked to EVDO. In theory the Gobi chipset should handle global 3G bands and types but it looks like its either been locked down of that the firmware isn’t complete yet.
Update. we’ve fixed that problem now. HSDPA is working fine.

I’d tether via bluetooth but the Toshiba bluetooth software refuses to talk with my Nokia N82 meaning i’m left with very few options. OQO are trying to find a solution as I type!

The screen is obviously extremely high quality although not as nice as I expected. I think i’ve been spoilt by high-end screens on the Wibrain and Q1 Ultra and the brightness and contrast isn’t far off what i’m used to on those devices. Still, i’m comparing against the best here and it’s easily as good.

Wifi-On, in-use battery life is looking like 2 hrs. With some tweaking I’m expecting this to stretch to 2.5 hours (browsing at 800Mhz isn’t a problem when you’re on the go) and with a spare battery weighing just 150gm it’s no problem to carry a spare.

Built quality is fantastic; just as it was on the previous OQO E2/02. The keyboard is excellent and the finishing is very stylish. The slider is smooth and they’ve even kept the pulsing LED inside the power adapter connector so you know it’s connected to the mains. Smart!

I’ll be writing more about the OQO as I go along but for the rest of today i’ll be preparing and testing. Tomorrow I attempt a 5-country tour so I’ve got a few things to prepare!

Update: More images available here.

Is it because it’s Sunday?

A few days ago Engadget posted a rather sarcastic item about the Loam F7. Actually it was spot-on from the consumer perspective because, quite frankly, it looks cheap. The hilarious part of the story comes when they post about the Viliv X70, a device that has similar specs.

Maybe we’re just hot for sleek, thin, ultra sexy renders of handheld computing devices, but we dare anyone to call the unit pictured above unsightly (and mean it). Shortly after showcasing its swiveling S7 at CES, Viliv has taken the wraps off of its X70 Atom Communication MID.

Apart from the fact that we highlighted this nearly three weeks ago (our fault for not tipping them!) it seems that they’ve fallen in love with an Origami device. Check the specs at Gadgetmix.

• Atom Silverthorne 1.33GHz processor
• choice of SSD: 8GB/16GB or HDD: 30GB/60GB
• Windows XP or Linux
• 1GB RAM
• optional WiMax module (mobile broadband)
• Bluetooth 2.0+EDR and WiFi b/g (no ‘n’)
• Weight: 660g
• built-in GPS (Sirf Star 3)
• SDHC slot
• dimension: 210(w) x 117(h) x 22.5(d) mm

Apart from the 22.5mm depth, it’s nothing different.

Mickey-taking aside, it does prove that people are susceptable to a nice design, whatever it is. There’s always been a possibility that a ultra mobile PC or MID would berak through and this article from Engadget underscores that.

Viliv uncovers gorgeous X70 Atom Communication MID – Engadget.

The first of the MIDs are arriving at the doors of MID Moves doorsteps and one of the first to get attention is the OQO 2+ with it’s OLED screen and 1.8Ghz Atom CPU. Jenn has pushed out some benchmarks already and you can instantly see the advantage over lower-clocked Atom CPUs. In fact, that ALU figure is higher than I expected. Disk results there look fairly average so I’m wondering if Jenn has the HDD version. Actually I’m hoping she has the HDD version!

As I type, Jenn is twittering [follow her mutterings] in the background so although it must be past her bedtime, I know she hasn’t been able to put it down yet!

Source: MID Moves

P.S. Jenn has the Benq S6 too. It’s the cheapest MID on the planet. Euro299!

Specifictions and details in the database: OQO 2 Plus. Benq S6.

I took a walk to the horses this afternoon; a live media-walk for MIDMoves to test out some geographically-tagged capabilities on the big Web thing. Tracking is nothing new. Location-based tweets and near-live video posts are nothing new. Putting it all together in a media-rich way and being able to show it live is something different though. It highlights the difference between a smartphone and a PC-based MID or UMPC. There’s just no way you can tie all the components together and post-process it into a presentation like this with a smartphone. Having access to full-screen Web2.0 applications and smooth multi-tasking was the key here. There’s lots of improvements that can be made but this is a great step forward for live, media-rich tracking.

Move and zoom the map below and click on the icons for videos, audio recordings, tweets and images.

View Larger Map

Source: MIDMoves.com
Thanks to Mobilxfor the i1. Ipokifor the live tracking app.

Source: MIDMoves.com Thanks to Mobilx for the i1. Ipoki for the live tracking app.

Watch out next week for a very special live geo-media tour on MIDMoves.