We doubt that you’ll want to sit through the 90 minutes of recording that JKK, Sascha and myself made yestrday evening in one go so we’ve split it up into two parts. The first part covers the Benq S6, The Fujitsu U2010 and a good discussion about why we should all get behind Ubuntu Mobile. Part 2, to be posted tomorrowon Tuesday, includes some great discussion about netbooks.
Download here, stream now by clicking the play icon or pick the podcast up via the RSS feed below.
A few weeks ago we told you about the VAIO UX280 that was modded with the 1.2GHz U7600 ULV processor and scored an impressive 30,069 in the Crystal Mark benchmark program. This time it is a UX490, the latest UX model, which was modded with the U7600 and the Crystal Mark scores are something to behold. MicroPCTalk forum member Ahn did the modification to another forum member’s UX490 (computercowboy), which involved removing the 1.2GHz Core 2 Solo CPU, and putting in its place the 1.2Ghz Core 2 Duo U7600 ULV. After putting the unit back together, the unit scored an incredible 45,999 in Crystal Mark!
Take a look at the graphs comparing the UX280 U7600 to a factory UX490 and the modded UX490 U7600. The biggest reason that the UX490 U7600 scored a higher total than the UX280 U7600 is the zippy 32GB SSD (compared to the UX280’s 40GB HDD). As you can see in the graphs below, the UX490 U7600 did some serious work in the FPU category and scored much higher than the UX280 U7600. I’m not quite sure what factor caused the large jump in FPU score. The most likely bet seems to be the contrast of SSD vs. HDD, but to my limited knowledge, FPU is all done on the CPU so the SSD shouldn’t have a large affect on the FPU score. Does anyone have any other guesses?
I think I can say for sure that computercowboy’s UX490 is the fastest (non-overclocked, thanks Brett) ultra mobile PC out there, and probably has a higher power:volume ratio than many full sized computers out there. Are there any challengers to compete for the throne?
That’s Ultra Mobile Devices to you and me and it’s a term I rather like. Anyway, back to the story where ABI Research tells us that the UMD market, comprising Netbooks, MIDs and UMPCs. (Don’t ask us which definitions they’re using!) will reach, wait for it, 200 million units by 2013.
The interesting prediction is that by 2013, MIDs (Lets assume they mean small, handheld PMP-style Internet devices) will surge to meet 68% of that figure and netbooks sales will drop back to second place.
I agree with the general underlying opinion that MIDs and Netbooks will be the big sellers with UMPCs (as pro-mobile devices) remaining niche but the big question is ‘when’ and ‘how’ will MIDs take off?
Source: ABIresearch. Via Vunet.
Update: I’m currently live on UMPCPortal.com/live testing this out if you fancy seeing it in action.
Update: Live session summary below.
Today, One of the Canonical mobile team members released details of a new distribution based on Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid) aimed at ‘MIDs’ with screen sizes from 7-9″
After a simple download and copy to a flash drive the Q1 Ultra booted straight into a live linux session running in RAM and everything seems to work out of the box. Touch, brightness, wifi, BT and more. This is exciting. There’s a full software suite withthe Moblin browser (Firefox + grab and drag), on screen keyboard, Open Office, Pidgin, Thunderbird and of course, through the package manager, a whole lot more. [Video after the break]
Jkk has managed to find a short story on the ‘Nebraska Library Commission Blog‘ that mentions a list of libraries in the state that are getting hardware courtesy of the Gates Foundation:
The Nebraska Library Commission is proud to announce that the following 48 Nebraska public libraries have been awarded WiFi Connectivity Grants, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Each library will be receiving a Linksys WiFi Router and a Dell laptop or Samsung Q1 Ultra UMPC.
Interesting to say the least. There isn’t much detail on what the Q1Us will be used for at this point, or specifically which model they received, but I would imagine they would be a good tool for taking to the shelf and referencing books without having to return to a stationary computer to look up Dewey Decimal information. A few pictures of the Q1Us and some other donated hardware can be found at this flikr page.
It is nice to see a ultra mobile PC in the recent sea of netbooks. UMPCPortal forum user SlickRick has come across the NOVA Side Arm 2 (Chippy jokes in his mini blog, “…not ARM based!”), a new ultra mobile PC which easily reminds me of the Panasonic CF-U1. It looks thinner than the CF-U1 but I still wouldn’t call it pretty; it is certainly an industry machine rather than consumer, which makes it odd that some of their photos have a high-school-age girl showing off the product. The keyboard actually looks pretty nice, as long as your thumbs can cover the whole thing. Check out the full specs page, the important stuff is below:
I can’t say the 800×480 resolution is very thrilling, but for an industry computer with lots of proprietary software I guess it isn’t that big of a deal. The rest of the specs look pretty good, especially 10 hours of battery life, but this may be with a secondary battery attachment, as it sounds like this will be a module oriented UMPC. With integrated GPS and 3G this could be a great geocaching device.
Are we entering a new era of mobile computing where the ultra mobile PC could be the only computer you ever need? The processing module you can take anywhere? Raon Digital are breaking into exactly that category of converged mobile devices with the new and interesting Everun Note. Here at UMPCPortal we’ve been lucky enough to get hold of one of the first samples out of the door for some long term testing but after 4 days of hard but enjoyable testing, were ready to bring you the full review.
Read the full story
Update: Full review now available.
While I continue to work on (read: enjoy!) completing the full review of the Raon Digital Everun Note, you can enjoy some of the images that I’ve dropped into the gallery.
50+ more images in the gallery.
I’ve also added a ton of testing notes in the forum along with an
FAQ which will probably answer your questions.
Full specifications in the database.
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