So Mix06 in Las Vegas is ending today and so far they have had a few speakers and items about up and coming products including the UMPC.

Set up at Mix06 are product booths including one that shows off Ultra-Mobile PCs. According to some of the news, the ultra mobile PC booth was an extremely popular place to be between conference talks and alot of people were snapping pictures of the things.

I was searching around for some info and pictures about the ultra mobile PC from Mix06 and came across this photo on [url=http://www.robzelt.com/blog/default.aspx]Rob Zelt’s[/url] [url=http://flickr.com/photos/58774112@N00/]flikr[/url] account of what I assume is a TabletKiosk V-700.(I can’t tell the difference between it and the PaceBlade in pictures alone.)

[url=https://www.umpcportal.com/modules/xcgal/displayimage.php?pid=78][img]https://www.umpcportal.com/origami/images/blueumpcpic.jpg[/img][/url]

So this is the first real picture I’ve seen of any of the UMPCs with different colors besides white and black. We have been wondering about how many different colors there will be and talked a little about it in this forum post [url=https://www.umpcportal.com/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=85&forum=4]here[/url]

There was also some info up at [url=http://www.whatisnew.com/blogs/dailynews/archive/2006/03/22/7649.aspx]Whatisnew.com[/url] showing a Car & Driver WPF demo on a ultra mobile PC and Bill Gates talking about it during his keynote.

Hopefully some more pictures and information from Mix06 comes out about the UMPC. In the meantime however, there is evidence that there will be a few different colors as there is also a little red ultra mobile PC icon at the official Microsoft ultra mobile PC section as well. Read the full story

We received a press release today stating that [url=http://www.dyknow.com/]DyKnow[/url], a leader in interactive education, has been selected by Microsoft as one of 10 Independent Software Vendors to Participate in the ultra mobile PC ISV Early Adopter Program.

This program allows DyKnow to ready its software for Microsoft’s new Origami/Ultra-Mobile PC devices. DyKnow Vision and DyKnow Monitor have already been tested on the UMPC’s operating system. The [url=http://www.dyknow.com/products/]products section on Dyknow’s site[/url] has some pretty cool demos and information so check it out.

Read the full press release below… Read the full story

I normally dont bother about breaking news in this journal but this one is worth putting out as a simul-post with Origamiportal.com where I post news and participate in the forums. For comments, discussion and further information as it is uncovered, I advise you to go to Origamiportal.com.

Mobits Bobos confirmed as an Origami UMPC
Today I’ve had an email response direct from Mobits confirming that the Bobos device that I reported about in Origamiportal.com is an ‘Origami product.’ and that there is a 7″ and a 5.6″ variant.

Don’t get too excited just yet as these are products waiting for a customer to take them into tooling and production. Mobits, however are saying that they expect ‘MP’ (Mass Production) in August which shows a certain level of confidence that this device is going to make it through to customers.

The MoBits company has (or is part of) another company called Mobitia that has a website with more information on their prodcuts, a few other interesting devices and details about a common device chassis which has been developed.

Mobits UMPC’s
Also shown is the Adam/Bart, Victor and Irene variants of an 8.4″ device which, might not be Origami but its so close as to be a direct competitor. These devices utilise Transmeta, Via or Intel processors (Interesting that transmeta is included.)

Details can be seen of the carrying case, the handstrap, the stand and the cradle. Also given as options are camera, h/w codec card (I assume this means TV/Video codec) and fingerprint reader. There’s also an option for a 6-cell, 52w battery thats double the power of Origami batteries.

Origami with keyboard?
Another image is showing the Bebos 5.6 and two variants of a device called the Beacon. One is a 5.6″ variant and the other a 7″ variant. These two devices appear to have keyboards which will please a lot of people looking for that in their UMPC.

The carrypad dream moves a step closer to reality!!

We’ve got a ‘simulpost’ with Chippy’s [url=http://blog.carrypad.com]Carrypad blog[/url] for you this morning with news about the Mobits Bebos device.

As we reported on Saturday, Mobits appeared to have a few Origami-like deivces in development. Today we’ve had an email response direct from Mobits confirming that the Bobos device is an ‘Origami product’ and that there is a 7″ and interestingly a 5.6″ variant (pictured top).

Don’t get too excited just yet as these are products waiting for a customer to take them into tooling and production. Mobits, however, are saying that they expect ‘MP’ (Mass Production) in August which shows a certain level of confidence that this device is going to make it through to customers.

The MoBits company has (or is part of) another company called [url=http://www.mobitia.com/index.htm]Mobitia[/url] that has a website with more information on their prodcuts, a few other interesting devices and details about a common device chasis which has been developed.

Details on more MoBits devices below… Read the full story

I’ll be honest, I haven’t had much experience with tablet PC development. So after getting hyped up about this whole Origami ultra mobile PC thing I decided I should probably download the Tablet PC SDK and look at how programming for it is different than development using a regular mouse interface.

So I started going through the sample code (For my purposes I focused on C# at first) and have learned a couple things about Tablet programming that I hadn’t known before.

[b]1: There is a Power Management SDK. [/b] Now call me naive, but for some reason this hadn’t even occurred to me in a mobile Windows device. I have programmed code on mobile gaming devices and obviously there are things you can do to make sure your game doesn’t continually suck battery life by not having it constantly load things and managing certain types of memory and that all seemed like a no brainier. However in all of my programming for Windows systems I didn’t once think about creating applications that wouldn’t eat up memory on a Notebook computer.
I constantly use intensive applications on my notebook with it unplugged and I have thought before, “Man I wish my battery didn’t go so fast.” So, this only makes sense.

Read more below… Read the full story

I can’t believe i havent written about this device yet. It was because of this device that I started analysing my mobile computing needs, making notes, lists and eventualy turning them into the Carrypad journal. Me and some of my colleagues sat having our mid-morning cuppa and I was boring them with my quest for a mobile device (again) and how i’d found this JVC XP741 device. I knew I needed a keyboard and from the possible choices (OQO, Libretto etc.) it had stuck out from the rest simply becuase of its price. 999 Euro – a good 500 cheaper than the nearest competitor. I showed them the printout and a whole new level of interest in my quest was born. We decided we needed to see it in the flesh.
Off we went to ‘MediaMarkt’ where we found the sister device. The 841. It looked great and had a DVD drive in addition to the 741 specs. However, what we thought would be a tiny device, turned out only to be ‘small.’ We left without a purchase. Back at work, I did a further comparison of the two devices and found out that the 741 was in fact a lot smaller than the 841 simply because it did’nt have a DVD drive.
If the 741 had been in the shop, I would have bought it there and then and never have ponderd over the Carrypad. But it wasnt! After that I was concentrating on the Carrypad and never looked back at the XP741. I was far too interested in the Nokia 770, the OQO and the rumblings of an ‘Origami’ project by Microsoft.

XP741 is a UMPC.
Today, I was scanning Geizhals again (mental note – don’t spend Sundays browsing price comparison sites!) and, I re-visited the device specs. Somehow, having seen the Origami’s, this device appeals again. It really is an Origami with a keyboard and putting the specs side-by-side shows an extremely close match.

Processor: Pentium-M ULV 1.1Ghz (same as origami spec)
Chipset: Intel 855 GME (same as Origami spec)
8.9″ screen (outside Origami spec – but see overall dimensions below!!!)
40GB Hard drive – Check!
256MB memory (expandable to 768) – Check!
Wifi 802.11b/g – Check!
Weight – 900g (1000g with battery) – check!
1024×600 resolution – better than origami
Price: Euro1000 – check!

What it lacks – Touch screen, touch pack and bluetooth. It also only has XP and obviously not tablet edition.

But wait – look at the dimensions of this thing.

Samsung Q1 ‘Origami’ 228 x 25 x 140 mm 7″ screen
JVC XP741: 225 x 29,5 x 152 mm 8.9″ screen

Its got an 8.9″ screen and the overall dimensions are the same as the Samsung Q1!! It also has a pc-card slot and flexible battery options. For an extra 200grams or so you can clip on the supplied extra battery and get a confirmed 5 hours life. 5 hours! Linux is known to run on it and in my opinion it even looks cooler than any Origami to date. If I was in the market for an Origami-like device, i’d buy this with a bluetooth dongle and be very happy!

James Kendrick did a great review of the device back in May 2005. He loved it.

“The JVC Interlink XP741 is awe inspiring, jaw dropping gorgeous”

“The JVC Interlink XP741 is a beautiful, capable computer that can be easily carried virtually anywhere.”

Hold on a minute. Did I say May 2005. Thats an Origami-a-like nearly one year ahead of Microsoft for the same price. What have they been doing for the last year. Did it really take that long to develop the touch software.

Take a look here for specs and google images for some nice pictures.
Just a re-run of the dimensions then:
Samsung 228 x 25 x 140 mm 7″ screen, 800×480
XP741:225 x 29,5 x 152 mm 8.9″ screen, 1024×600

Its not a carrypad so its not really for me but if you’re in the market for an Origami-like device, this could be your dream. The price seems to be a special at the moment as the list price is over Euro2000! and it is only available online in Germany at Mediaonline. Actually, having checked it out on a number of US comparison sites, I can’t find it. JK, in his review, said it was an import. Mmm. Maybe i’ve just given a little German secret away.

[img]http://origamiportal.com/origami/images/new_umpcs/BoBos-5.6.jpg[/img]

MoBits were mentioned by VIA in a press release relating to their C7-M a few weeks ago and a sunday morning browse at their web-site today revealed some ultra mobile PC devices.

Take a look at the [url=http://www.mo-bits.com/english%20index/product/english%20product1.htm]English product pages[/url] and you’ll see the Bobos, the Adam, the Acorn and an unlabeled picture of a mini-laptop.

read on… Read the full story

PBJ has [url=http://www.smartcaddie.jp/index_content.html]updated their site[/url] with a new flash video about the PaceBlade Japan Smart Caddie UMPC/Origami device.

It’s really short and doesn’t reveal anything new except that more info will be released on March 24th (and this is the [url=https://www.umpcportal.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=30]2nd time they’ve led us on in the past few days[/url]). But hey, the flash video has some kickin’ background music so we recommend you take a few seconds and check it out.

“The future arrives first to those who carry Smart Caddie.” Read the full story