Akihabara seemed to have missed the fact that the Sotec (Onkyo) BX 407A4 is actually a device that many of us have been waiting for. It’s a rebadged UMID M2. Or Kohjinsha device. Or Inventec device. We’re not sure who the design owner is right now but if Inventec are manufacturing for Onkyo as we suspect then it probably means that the M2 is ready to go. About time!

The Onkyo Japan website gives the following information:

• Intel Atom 1.2Ghz
• 512MB RAM
• 32GB SSD
• 1024×600 screen (touch)
• Windows XP
• Wifi b/g
• BT2.0
• 1.3MP web cam
• Optical pointer
• JEITA operating time (idle) 7 hours.

Clearly there’s a left-right mouse button on the left of the screen frame too. Note that the RAM is only 512MB which is OK for basic Windows XP Home use with three or four apps running but will disappoint the heavy users amongst us.

As for pricing, local Onkyo price is 64800 yen which is about 740 dollars; higher than we would like to see. Availability is unknown.

Onkyo BX websales site. (You’ll find a few other recognizable devices there too.)

We’ve got an email out with UMID to try and clear up the status based on this information.

Thanks for the tip Thomas.

Customers and bloggers spend a lot of time feeding back what they think about UMPCs and MIDs. Wouldn’t it be great if the same happened from the other direction? I mean it’s a given that everyone in the smartphone and netbook business should be buying up a few MIDs and UMPCs so that they can analyse the designs, scenarios and potential. Right? If Apple haven’t got a lab full of UMPCs and MIDs then I’ll eat my motherboard!

One company that is now providing feedback and that should be praised for their openness is AMD. Patrick Moorhead, VP and member of the ‘Office of Strategy’ of AMD has just kicked off an 8-part blog series called “Will MIDs and UMPCs Inherit the Earth? inch It started yesterday with an introduction (and a hat-tip for myself and our podcast partner over at Meet:Mobility, Sascha. Thx Patrick!) and will go on to present general thoughts on MIDs and hands-on feedback with 4 mobile and handheld devices. The UMID M1, Viliv S5, Viliv X70 EX and Archos 5 Internet Tablet.

In Part 2 today we’ll get a feel for Patrick’s thoughts . Let’s hope that they are positive and influence AMD to take some of that cash and re-build the momentum that was lost when the Geode project was put to one side. AMD have publicly said that there isn’t a successor to Geode but maybe the Bobcat and Brazos projects gives us some clues. How about a gaming-focused UMPC?

One of the big questions for me is ‘What Operating System’?’

Stay tuned to Patrick’s blog here on the AMD website.

Spot the difference. On the top, the Eking S515 available in China and through Mobilx in Europe. On the bottom, the PsiXpda (that’s Sye-Ex P-D-A) which has just been launched by PsiXPDA in England.

Yup, they’re the same device which is excellent news. Why? It means activity, availability and competition which is great for everyone. Lord knows we need some movement in this market.

PsiXPDA has been set-up to bring mobile computing to high end users according to Ewan Spence, a partner in the company. We did some work with Ewan on MIDMoves last year where he tested out a number of mobile devices in his ‘elements’ tour. He’s also involved with writing content for All About Symbian and a number of other websites.  One could say that he’s a blogger that has brought a mobile device to the market where others have failed!

I spoke to Ewan earlier about the project and asked him about target markets, numbers, prices and the future and he was very clear to point out that this device isn’t intended to be a huge mass market product. “10’s of thousands inch is the target here which, across a market of over 1 billion people, shouldn’t be too hard. It’s not going to be the only PsiXPDA product either. There’s room for more although Ewan wouldn’t comment on anything particular. We guess that they’ll be spending quite a lot of time going round CES and, hopefully, keeping track of UMPCPortal.

The PsiXPDA will be available from next week in Europe with the same specs as we’ve got for the Eking S515. The operating system will be Windows XP (sensible move in our opinion) and there will be an unlocked 3G modem pre-installed. Pricing is set at the 500 UK pounds mark which includes UK taxes. For a device with 3G included, that’s not bad at all. US pricing is not yet set although if you drop the 15% tax off the UK price and convert to dollars, you probably won’t be far off. PsiXPDA are also looking at Linux options.

On the question of categorization, Ewan held back from using the ultra mobile PC term preferring to call the device a ‘Pocket computer.’

One other snippet of information we managed to get out of Ewan was that there’s a docking station coming. We were wondering what that port was for on the bottom! They are expecting it soon and apparently it’s a fairly simple affair with 2xUSB and a VGA output. That’s all that’s needed so if it’s well priced it’s a must-have.

Our unboxing of the EKing branded version of the device is here. Full specifications and information on the PsiXPDA website as is the contact point for orders.

You may have seen the Kohjinsha dual screen netbook concept floating around the web recently, but apparently they are actually going to be putting this thing on the market. The unit will go on sale as the Kohjinsha DZ, and at first I saw this unit as novel, but after seeing it function on video I realize that this could really be useful for some people out there.

Maybe I just missed it before, but this thing is also a convertible, and while it doesn’t have a touchscreen, the screen will still spin around like you’d expect. See toward the end of this promotional video from Kohjinsha’s site.
Looks like the DZ will be running Windows 7 Home Premium, an AMD Athlon Neo CPU, 160GB HDD, 1GB of RAM, and have BT/WiFi.

If I was shopping for a new netbook for blogging, I’d seriously consider the Kohjinsha DZ. If you’ve ever had to write a paper while referencing other sources on a single screen, you know it can be a major pain to flip back and forth between the two. I’ve got a dual monitor setup at home, but if you need this same functionality on-the-go, the DZ can actually provide that in a netbook sized package. Have a look at the impressively designed DZ screen below. There are no goofy steps to go through, just slide and you are ready to work.

The only issue is that you are getting a unique feature, and you are going to have to pay for it. The Kohjinsha DZ will apparently be sold in Japan starting December 11th for ¥79,800 which is aprox. $925 or €617. Hopefully we’ll see some importers pick this one up to make it easy to purchase in the US and abroad.

via Liliputing and Netbooked

If you’re relatively new to the ultra mobile PC scene, the name ‘EKing’ probably doesn’t mean much to you. They arrived on the scene to rescue the failing Wibrain brand and took on production of the i1; an ugly but very productive UMPC. In the last year they’ve also been working on new devices and the S515 [specifications] is one of them. We’re not sure who’s manufacturing this as it’s also been spotted as the Digicube Z8. There’s also a hint of Viliv in the packaging and marketing but at the end of the day, it’s a new ultra mobile PC and it needs checking out.

The S515 surprised me when I first unboxed it. The black and rubberised finish, keyboard and build quality are way better than on the silver one I saw at IDF and I was very pleased to to confirm that there is a good quality mouse pad integrated into the frame. Performance with the Windows 7 build was quite impressive too. On the negative side, this is an 800×480 screen (not WSVGA as indicated on the box) which, while near perfect for web browsing and mobile video, becomes a problem when you try to run desktop operating systems on it. A 1024×600 screen would have been better. Lets hope that we can find a nice Linux-based small-screen optimised distribution that works on this Menlow platform because at 50-100 Euros, a Windows XP/7 license is going to be a significant portion of the overall cost of the S515.

[Note: EKing S515 supplied by Mobilx. Check out their web page for latest pricing]

As always, there’s a potential show-stopper. In this case, as with many other device we’ve reviewed, it’s the battery life. Is there still no global agreement that anything under 3 hours is a problem? The 2.5 working battery life of this (as I’m seeing right now) is a figure that many will balk at.

The PC-based architecture of the E-King brings the usual advantages of browser quality/choice, USB support, Windows application compatibility and processing power and for some, this is right at the top of their list. For those people, the Eking is worth looking at.

More information, specifications, gallery and links here. Stay tuned for first impressions and a review.

Sony might have stopped updating the VAIO UX series ultra mobile PC a while back, but the amazing guys over at MicroPCTalk certainly haven’t. In what is being championed as the masterpiece of the forum, a modded UX490 (the lastest UX model from Sony, released November 2007) features nearly every major mod that the community has come up with over the last several years. [original thread here]

The Viliv boys pointed out that Dynamism will be selling a limited edition* pink UMID M1 [Portal page]. Though the UIMD M2 is due out sometime soon — I guess the more colors, the better!The pink UMID M1 is $50 less ($449) than the black low-end UMID M1 that Dynamism sells. Unfortunately no, they aren’t giving you $50 off just because its pink… the pink one has a slightly slower CPU the Atom Z515 at 1.2GHz (vs. 1.3GHz for the low-end black model, or 1.33GHz on the high-end black model). Everything else, however, is the same as on the low-end black model: 8GB SSD, 512MB of RAM, and Windows XP. From the images it is a bit tough to tell exactly how glossy or matte the pink version is, but it appears to be more on the matte side of the spectrum, similar to the black one that I looked at.

*Dynamism has the pink M1 down as “limited edition inch, but it isn’t exactly clear whether it is the pink M1 itself which is limited, or the deal currently running that includes a free pink pouch and 4GB MicroSD card.

The Archos 9 has had the #1 spot in the Portal for some time now, it’s pretty clear that people are excited for it, despite the fact that it may be a slate.

Unfortunately for everyone out there looking forward to the Archos 9, you’ll have to wait a little bit longer. We had been expecting the Archos 9 to be released on October 22nd as we had heard at IDF 09, but we’ve watched that date come and go and been scratching our heads since.

I’ve recently contacted Archos about availability of the Archos 9, and was told that pre-orders made through www.archos.com should be shipping in “early December inch. Retail store availability (Amazon, Walmart, etc.) is expected in Q1. That’s all we’ve got to go on for now; sorry for the folks that have been holding out, but hopefully you’ll get your hand on this device before something else comes along and catches your eye!