I’m just about to pack the car for the journey to the UK so I doubt i’ll be online until I get to the HTC press conference tomorrow where it will finally be time to get hands-on with the HTC Shift. (And maybe the HTC Omni?)

Just for some fun last night I tested Ustreaming through the Everun with a new webcam I have and would you believe it, it worked a treat so I’ve slightly modified the reporting kit to version 2.0 and included live streaming capability.

The main changes from V1.0 of the Ultra Mobile Reporting Kit are that I’ve upgraded from the Kohjinsha SA1 to the VyePC Mini-V S37 (McCaslin based, 800Mhz, 1024×600 screen) and added the Everun and the webcam. I don’t have the HSDPA modem (that’s built into the Everun and available as a CF card on the Vye S37) and I don’t have the battery charger. (I’ve found some exceptionally good batteries and I will be taking two sets of those.) so the whole lot, that’s 2 PCs and 2 cams, still fits into the same bag as before.

In a word, superb. It was such a pleasure to be using all that modern technology could provide in a 4.5KG package. The Kohji performed perfectly, the S2 IS too and I didn’t charge anything all day. I was able to roam completely cable-less.

I spent most of yesterday (Sunday) refining my Ultra Mobile CeBit reporting kit which will be based around the Kohjinsha SA1, a T-Mobile 3.6mbps HSDPA / Hotspot contract and a Canon S2 IS digital camera / videocam. The final kit weighs in at under 5KG and should provide me with all day reporting capability. I really don’t think you could get much lighter than this with currently available tech and to be honest, I’m quitelooking forward to showing it off!

Missing from the kit at the moment is the TabletKiosk Powerbank which I will pick up at the show and the Philips SBC ME 570/00 microphone that I ordered. Missing from the image are three AC adaptors just in case I have battery problems but if the power bank works it should be able to run or charge everything here and I can leave them behind at the hotel.

The plan is that I can use the Kohji for pulling in photo’s and videos from the Canon via USB or the SD card slot where I can then use them in reports made using LiveWriter. Using the Canon remote capture software I should also be able to do near-live image posting and commentary from relevant keynotes using LiveWriter and the Windows XP Publishing wizard. (Intel will launch Santa Rosa and I’m expecting the Samsung Q2 ultra mobile PC to be part of that.) In interviews I plan to use a mic connected to the Kohji and simple MP3 recording software.

Unfortunately I don’t think the Kohji is up to the job of video and having tried a Stickam solution this afternoon, the results are not that glorious due to the lilmited processing power in the SA1. I’ll stick to using the Canon for offline videos as it does a nice job and VGA and QVGA resolutions in M-JPEG format.

I’ll write a bit more about the HSDPA modem at a later date but in summary, while its lovely to have access to the 3.6mbps HSDPA network, I don’t really think I need the modem. What I really need is an HSDPA-capable mobile phone. It would be much easier to have it on the belt and available via BT2.0+EDR. When the 2 month trial is up on this I’ll take it back and look for an E65 or 6110 Navigator as my new ultra mobile PC partner.

I’ve put a few images up in the gallery and knocked out a rough video that’s available on YouTube and in a much better quality 1mbps WMV download or stream here.

If you think I’ve missed anything out or am making a big mistake by not taking a hip-flask of Brandy I’ll be happy to hear from you. Drop a comment or two in below this article. You can follow my CeBit progress through TWITTER which is now also displayed on the front page of the portal (right column.)

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