Dustin has just made a new blog entry over at Microsoft’s Origami Project site, and it contains some interesting info.

First off, he is excited about the pre-orders for the TabletKiosk coming through in a couple weeks and the availability of the Samsung device in May. Dustin feels good about both devices and likes the design and hardware buttons of the TabletKiosk and the design, weight, and speakers with the Samsung.

The last paragraph is where it starts to get exciting, as Dustin mentions they will be running some contests soon and giving away some cool free stuff, and I for one, love free stuff (especially if they are giving away one of those dope Microsoft orange hats).

Lastly, there should be a new Touch Improvement blog by Origami Project member Sears soon, and a Pimp your ultra mobile PC soon as well! I’m already imagining my ultra mobile PC decked out with spinners and a two-tone cherry red/canary yellow paint job. Read the full story

Pictured above is the new Averatec AHI ultra mobile PC concept device that was announced yesterday. Looks a lot like a SideKick to me, but some of the rumored specs are quite appealing.

Set to launch this fall, the price is expected to be between $600 or $1090 (€500 or €900) depending on options. The AHI will be equipped with WiFi, GPS, camera, 3G, 30 GB HardDrive, a six hour battery life, and a touch screen. Having a touch screen suggests that this device will be running Windows XP Tablet edition, even though the picture below (from pdafrance.com) displays Home edition in the specs.

[img]https://www.umpcportal.com/origami/images/averatec3.jpg[/img]

The device measures in at 7.3 x 3.5 x 1.3 inches and weighs 24 ounces, which certainly makes it an Ultra-Mobile PC. I haven’t heard whether it will come Microsoft Touch Pack equipped, which would make it an Origami device, but either way this device is quite promising (if the rumored specs are true): very good battery life, keyboard, light-weight, 3G connectivity.

Another pic below… Read the full story

Steve, from carrypad.com has created a new ultra mobile PC products section that covers the new Origami Ultra-Mobile PC devices, mini notebooks, and mini tablet devices. Check it out here.

Each device listed has basic specs like RAM, CPU, HD, and screen size, and the more info section for each device goes more in-depth and provides links to external reviews and articles on the device.

Its a great reference for anyone interested in learning about all the different devices out there. Read the full story

[Update – 14th April – All product data has now been entered into the website.]

The product list that I had was gettting quite popular and had a few outstanding requests from users. I’ve re-worked the site over that last two weeks and the new version has just gone live.

The new feature of the site is product-specific web pages which contain as much information as I was able to get my hands on. This includes specifications, images and informational links to news items, reviews, videos and manfacturers. Sorting capability has also been added.

The issue of prices and availability is still outstanding. I’ve have the capability to do this, but becuase of a lack of real-time price partners and regional issues, I still need time before I make it live. I’ll consider putting up MRRP prices in the meantime. Search facility will be added soon along with product-specific RSS feeds.

Updates will be added as I see them and as they come in from external sources. If you have information, spot errors, or have a product that you’d like represented on the site, please send me a mail.

Happy Easter!

Steve.

The first news is that we just hit over our 1,000th post in the [url=https://www.umpcportal.com/modules/newbb/]forums[/url]. So thanks to everyone that has signed up and chatted about the UMPC. It will be exciting when the devices start getting released because we have a large group of people here to help others in their questions and purchasing of the devices.

Secondly, We reported earlier that we had been featured on a UK show called [url=http://gadgetshow.five.tv/jsp/5gsmain.jsp?lnk=401&section=Links&show=s4e10&featureid=132]The Gadget Show[/url]. Matt9m5 was kind enough to record the video and we have it hosted in our pic/vids section [url=https://www.umpcportal.com/modules/xcgal/displayimage.php?pid=79]here[/url]. so check out what OrigamiPortal looks like on television and watch Chippys name in lights.

And lastly some sad news in case no one had noticed yet, but we have cancelled our [url=https://www.umpcportal.com/modules/tinycontent/index.php?id=1]podcast [/url] this week due to not having enough time this week because of work. But we will be back with show #5 soon.

Once again, thanks to everyone for helping us build this website and for all of the new users that have signed up and not yet posted feel free to post a little about yourself in our [url=https://www.umpcportal.com/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=84&forum=4]New Users thread[/url] or chat about your feelings on the ultra mobile PC devices. Read the full story

Today has been a big day for the Samsung Q1 in Korea.
First according to [url=http://www.umpcbuzz.com/blogs/umpc_buzz/archive/2006/04/12/8419.aspx]UMPCBuzz[/url] the website [url=http://www.telecomskorea.com]telecomskorea[/url] is reporting that Samsung is going to release a VIA version of its ultra mobile PC for $700.

I was unable to log in to see the information but the google news item stated, A company official said on Wednesday, “The Via chip-based ultra mobile PC can be priced at slightly over $ 700. The model name is not decided yet.”

So there is no other news to back this claim up, but if true that is good to hear.

Also according to the [url=http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2006/04/13/200604130023.asp]Korean Herald[/url] the Q1 will be released on May 1 in Korea under the name Sens Q1. The device is also expected to have a price tag of almost 2 Million Won or $2,000 dollars. So a bit more pricey than the VIA units so far a nd apossible reason why Samsung may be creating a VIA based system in the future.
Read the full story

[img]https://www.umpcportal.com/origami/images/origamicarshot.jpg[/img]

Thanks to Marix for letting us know that Richard Morton over at [url=http://www.origamicar.com/cs/blogs/origamicaro/archive/2006/04/10/16.aspx]OrigamiCar[/url] just got a chance to install his new OrigamiCar software on a ultra mobile PC unit.

The version shown in the photos is an early build of the software, but apparently the build ran well on the 256 MB of RAM contained in the unit.

There is also a great picture of Richard wearing a bright orange hat with the windows logo that they made him wear while they took a picture of him, so go check it out.

Read the full story

Last month, I posted journals about CPU comparisons and power utilisation in ultra mobile PC and Origami devices. VIAArena have now published a nice article by Van Smith from Vans Hardware with even more details about the C7-M ULV processor including the all-important battery life tests that I couldn’t find for my article.The tests were done using laptops but from these results we can calculate likey ultra mobile PC battery life figures.

Importantly, It gives us the first test result that confirms, as we expected, that the VIA C7-ULM processor would be the best choice of processor for ultra mobile PC devices under normal work conditions. The Celeron, didn’t do at all well in this test.

VIA’s midget processor extracts an amazing 7.31 hours of runtime out of a budget notebook using a 48.8 Watt-hour battery! The Pentium-M does pretty well, but still falls nearly an hour short of the VIA C7-M ULV processor.

UMPCs – 4 hours at minimum load.
By using a VIA C7, the results show 7.31 hours of min power draw. The maths are quite easy there because the CPU clockrate has a minimal effect on battery power at idle or low-load operations. As Origami devices have about 24 watt-hour batteries, the expected life is a little over half of that with the 48 watt-hour battery.

UMPCs – under 2 hours at full-load.
The full-load VIA example is just as interesting. The laptop tested gives 3.2 hours using a 48W battery. If you take into account the smaller disk drive, small screen and lower clock processor of an Origami CPU, I think you’ll see about 55-60% of that figure for your VIA-based UMPC. That equates to about 1.8 hours under full-load. Using a Celeron, that figure will be about 1.3 hours.

UMPC’s – 2.5 hour films.
In the real world, watching a film for example, you’ll be making sure that your films are under 2.5 hours long with a VIA-based UMPC. If you’re a Celeron user, I hope you’re a cartoon fan!

Remember that the VIA processors have lower processing performance than Pentiums but for the average user, the C7-M ULV looks like the best choice for UMPC’s

Here’s looking forward to the real first side-by-side ultra mobile PC battery life tests.

Take a look at the report. Its a really good read. Well done and thanks to Vans Hardware.