It has been a while since we’ve seen anything about the Nova Side Arm 2, but I have some info on the rugged business oriented UMPC. We already got the basic spec rundown of the Side Arm 2:
800 x 480 7 inch palm rejection touch screen
Intel Atom 1.1 GHz Z510 with US15W chipset
1GB/2GB of RAM
4GB disk on module, Micro SD card
8GB/16GB/32GB DOM solid state storage optional per slot (2 slots)
60/120GB HDD or 32/64GB SSD
PC express card
2 USB 2.0 ports
SD card slot
GPS
802.11 a/b/g
Bluetooth V2.0
3G (optional)
Up to 10 hours battery life
Specs are nice, but here we can see the true nature of this device which is meant to be highly modular and be compatible with lots of different work applications. (click to enlarge)
Check out all of those configuration options. You could potentially load the Side Arm 2 up with 134GB of SSD storage and 120GB of HDD storage right out of the box. Normally I would curse a company for putting a memory card slot under a battery, but they took some time to think about it, and solved the issue by making the battery plug in, allowing it to move and uncover the Micro SD card slot and SIM slot without having to power down the computer.
The SA2 seen here, has a different keyboard configuration than some of the other shots that we’ve seen of the device. Nova says that this will be touch-typeable (2 hands instead of thumbs), which would be great, but I’m not sure how easy it will be given the size of the device.
Gizmodo just got the specs on the OQO Model 02+ ….
Note it’s got the same 800×480 screen. Atom 1.33 and 1.8Ghz versions. XP and Vista options. Looking good OQO. More details as we get them.
No specs and not even 100% confirmation that this is the Vaio P but Engadget seem to be confident that they’ve snapped the first photo-of-an-image of the new Vaio P.
I’ve corrected the image perspective although it’s still not perfect. The original must have been taken at a strange angle. You can see it at the link below along with the rest of the images.
Our podcast partner, Sascha, from EeePCNews.de (which has just relaunched as netbooknews.de) reports that he’s secured some new info on the Sony UMPC.
Wie ich schon auf Eeepcnews.de berichtete, wird der Sony Vaio P eine Atom Z520 CPU (1,33 Ghz) aufweisen, 2GB RAM, HDD und optional SSD, GPS, UMTS und das alles zu einem Preis, der sich wohl im Bereich um die 700 Euro einpendeln duerfte.
The Sony Vaio P will run on an Atom Z250 (1.33 as we’ve tested on the WiBrain i1 and Kohjinsha SC3) with 2GB RAM, an HDD and optional SSD, GPS and UMTS with a price around the 700 Euro (970 dollars) mark reports Sascha. The 2GB RAM hints at Vista (or ‘Windows 7 ready’.) Apparently, the Asian source indicated that the image, now confirmed as photoshopped, is actually very close to the real-deal.
In addition to the above, a new teaser has appeared in Japan Hong Kong. With these teasers appearing at different times in different places and with strange placeholders on Sony websites, you have to hope that the quality of the product is better than the marketing program which seems somewhat dis-jointed from a web perspective. Even the launch dates seem to vary between the 7th and 9th of Jan. The first CES press events are on the 6th Jan with the Sony ‘invitation only’ Press event planned for 4:15pm on Press day, the 7th in Las Vegas.
This video, taken at the Viliv launch event in Korea, shows some nice detail about the cube user interface on the Viliv S5.
It’s an interesting way to tackle the problems of using a desktop OS with a finger. Of course, when you get past the UI you’re dealing with the same old problems but these sort of layers could make XP more attractive and friendly to MID buyers and yet still give the power users the back-end they require to do productive work.
YouTube user ’59hjh’ has other videos too. The video playback demo shows KMPlayer dealing with a 16mbps 720p file and outputing it to an HD screen with no problems at all. The browser demo shows, as we’ve seen before on the Atom-based devices, a top-notch mobile Web experience.
S7 is still on the roadmap
Expect to see the S5 at CES along with two other Atom-based devices. We’ve been in touch with Yukyung Technologies and they tell us that the S7 will be appearing in working form. The S7 is the very interesting pro-mobile ultra mobile PC we had hands-on with at IDF (see specs and video) and looks like it matches rumoured Sony ultra mobile PC specs.
X7 7″ slate on the way
The S5 is derived from the X5 PMP so it makes sense that there will be an Atom-based variant of the X70 tablet-style PMP shown on the right. There’ll be a working prototype of it at CES codenamed X70-Atom. For a slate 7″er to be well received in the consumer market it’s going to have to have something special so we’re looking forward to seeing what it’s key features are.
It looks like Yulkyung’s ViliV products are going to be ones to watch at CES. The designs and specs look extremely attractive so far and the prices that they talked about at IDF, very competitive. The only thing that remains is to find out about US and EU availability. For what it’s worth, I’ll certainly be encouraging Yukyung to get these devices out into these areas ASAP.
This is hardly a suprise given that we spotted this at IDF but its great to get confirmation. We’re hoping to get hold of one for the MIDMoves tour. Fingers crossed.
Dynamism very kindly lent us this Asus R50A for review.
Note: The unit is said to be pre-production. As you will read in the review below, the hardware seems final except the speakers aren’t functioning. The software build is where the flaws seem to be. ultra mobile PC Portal reader Arthur, who owns an R50A, says that he doesn’t have some of the software issues (such as multiple radio connection apps) that I experienced with my unit. He also sent over his Vista Index score which I have posted below (my unit’s Vista Index didn’t seem to be calculating correctly).
Overview
Have a look at the R50A [Portal page] slate ultra mobile PC from Asus. A pretty nice piece of hardware that unfortunately lends itself to some poor software integration. I’ve been testing the ultra mobile PC for a few weeks now and regret to say that I am not impressed with it as a consumer device. Lets have a run-down of the specs first, shall we?
5.6″ 1024×600 gloss touchscreen
1.33GHz Atom Z520 CPU
1GB of RAM
32GB SSD
Windows Vista Ultimate
3G HSDPA
Bluetooh/WLAN
GPS
If you are interested, have a look at my R50A unboxing. Here is a quick excerpt of my unboxing impressions:
The Asus R50A manages to be true to at least half of its “Rock Solid – Heart Touching inch slogan. The R50A feels solid in the hands and it is fairly well made. The 32GB SSD helps reaffirm that this unit is designed to be mobile in and in the user’s hands. The joystick mouse doesn’t move like that of an video game controller, instead it moves like the stick on a PSP, it moves left and right while staying on the same plane, as opposed to actually tilting from one side to another. Even after much practice with the thumb stick on my VAIO UX180, this thing will take some getting used to. This is the first slate ultra mobile PC that I have used, so it is a new experience for me; having to do my regular computing tasks without a keyboard. Going through Vista’s handwriting recognition training makes the recognition pretty darn accurate. The screen isn’t too smooth to write on unfortunately, and the stylus is small… too small for a ultra mobile PC that doesn’t have a keyboard.
Right out of the box, Vista is causing some serious issues. Right now I’m running the unit with the lowest possible graphical settings from Vista, and performance is still pretty bad. Vista is really obviously going to be a major bane to this otherwise good piece of hardware.
Hardware Tour
Front (left to right): Left and right mouse buttons, quick launch touchscreen menu button, Windows Media Center launch, user log off page button, sleep button, camera, mouse stick, biometric fingerprint scanner, arrow key d-pad + center enter button.
Left side: Micro SD slot, power slider, proprietary USB accessory connector, wrist-strap anchor.
Bottom: Microphone hole, air vents (intake).
Right side: Wrist-strap anchor, proprietary VGA connector (behind door), battery ejection switch, USB 2.0.
Top: Camera button, air vents (output), A/C adapter, mini-USB port, hold switch, air vents (intake), antenna connector, stylus silo.
