I’ve got the Archos 9 in my bag and I’ll get some more content up on it later but for now I can tell you that it’s a solid device, looks great, has an accurate optical mouse (really necessary for a two-handed device) and appears to have more battery life than I expected.
On the negative side the HDD appears to be a bottleneck in performance with applications starting up slower than I’m used to on the SSD-based UMPCs and MIDs I’ve tested in the past. It’s also a relatively dense device in terms of weight.
It’s only an early hands-on of the Archos 9 (they’ve got to get those first articles out quickly these days) but Gizmodo ends up with a positive vibe about the device. No word on battery life, performance or tablet features but there’s a hands-on video walkthrough. (Below)
Engadget report with some excitement yesterday that there could be a new Nokia Tablet coming. A device has been spotted at the FCC with the codename is RX51, an ID that has already been seen in Maemo kernel builds.
The diagram is pretty much all there is to go on right now apart from the fact that it’s got, as expected, a cellular radio inside. Some people are speculating on a Nokia World release in just a few weeks, others on availability for the Maemo summit in October and others on a release just before Christmas.
Kicking me back into life after 3 weeks away from my desk is this special Meet:Mobility podcast about the (possible) Apple Tablet.
JKKMobile, Sascha, Warner, Xavier, Ben and Brad provided some really interesting thoughts and commentary on what the device might be like and where it will be targeted. At the end of the podcast I ask them all if they would buy one based on the current rumors and there’s a very very interesting response that tells me that the Apple Tablet is a hugely risky product!
Meet:Mobility Round-Table Podcast – The Apple Tablet | Meet:Mobility.
One of the reasons that some sites covered the T91 as one of the first tablet netbooks is because Gigabyte doesn’t quite market their T1028M as a netbook (which is one of several similar devices that have come before the T91); instead referring to it as a TouchNote. Though just because they don’t market it with the netbook term doesn’t mean it isn’t priced and built to compete. In fact the TouchNote has a faster CPU, and an optional 1366×768 screen resolution (among other things) making it a worthy contender, and it looks like you can start to buy them for $599 in the US.
While the Gigabyte T1028M more directly competes with the upcoming Asus Eee T101H [Portal page] with its 10.1 inch screen, you can always look toward the Gigabyte M912X [Portal page] if you really want an 8.9 inch screen and Dynamism can hook you up here in the US.
As just revealed by our short little poll, many of you really looking forward to the Asus Eee T91 (so are we!). Asus just recently officially announced that the Asus Eee T91 would be released on the 15th and Dynamism says that they are expecting their shipment on the 31st. The first model available will have a slick black casing and will cost $499 from Dynamism. Seems like the T91 will be in high demand and low supply upon initial release, Dynamism recommends pre-ordering quickly if you want in on the first batch.
Nothing like waiting months for an official announcement only to get two sentences through twitter! Oh well, I suppose this is as official as Asus will get for now. As you can see above, the Asus North America twitter account has tweeted to let us all know that the T91 [Portal page] will be available on July 15th in limited quantity. And I suppose that’s really all there is to it. Good luck securing one from the ‘limited quantity’. (Points for the video game allusion in the title)
You’ve undoubtedly seen coverage of Viliv’s solid S5 [Portal page] and X70 [Portal page] UMPCs lately. They have been topping the popularity charts here at ultra mobile PC Portal over the last several weeks. Viliv seems to be on a roll, after churning out both the S5 and X70, Viliv is starting to push out the Viliv S5, a 7 inch tablet style UMPC.
The Korean version of their website has recently been updated with some content promoting the upcoming Viliv S7, and while a release date hasn’t yet been announced, it shouldn’t be too much longer before the S7 lands, judging by how quickly the S5 and X70 were released in relation to each other.
Viliv claims that the S7 will offer users 9.5 hours of basic computing, or 7 hours of video playback. The whole package will be under 800g making the S7 quite portable. There will be three different models of S7 (similar to the Asus Eee T91) which will all ship with Windows XP, a 1.33GHz Z520 Atom CPU, and 1GB of RAM. The three models will differ in little more than HDD/SSD option, and one with a DMB receiver. Those models are as follows:
I-LOG HX: 60GB HDD ($583)
I-LOG 3X: 32GB SSD ($639)
D-LOG 3X: 32GB SSD / DMB receiver ($679)
*USD prices calculated from listed KRW price using current exchange rate.
Any of the three models can be equipped with WiBro (the Korean version of WiMax).
As for an international model: the English Viliv site shows the S7 as having all the same specs, though there will be a choice of WiMAX or HSDPA for 3G connectivity.
