Microsoft have issued a patch that fixes a battery drain problem on ‘portable computers’ running Windows XP SP2.

Dailytech have reported it here and Microsoft give the details on this knowledgebase article here.
There’s no specific talk about VIA or UMPC’s on the MS posting but it could cover the USB-related CPU state problem we’ve seen on the Eo.

[Update: This has now been tested and it doesn’t help on Eo’s. Thanks Ctitanic for testing. His report is [url=http://ultramobilepc-tips.blogspot.com/2006/05/power-drain-fix-from-microsoft.html] here[/url]]

I know there are owners watching Origamiportal so please, if you’re reading this and you have an eo, try this patch and let us know if ‘perfmon’ reports C3 states on the VIA processor. Check your battery life in idle to. This fix has the potential to take an Eo from 1:20 to nearly 2hrs lifetime at idle.

Thanks to rainwalker for posting the info in the forums. Post your test results in his new thread [url=https://www.umpcportal.com/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=395&forum=7]here:[/url] Read the full story

Microsoft have issued a patch that fixes a battery drain problem on portable computers running Windows XP SP2.

Dailytech have reported it here and Microsoft give the details on this knowledgebase article here.
There’s no specific talk about VIA or UMPC’s on the MS posting but it could cover the USB-related CPU state problem we’ve seen on the Eo. Unfortunately you people with Tablet Kiosk eo’s in the U.S. seem to be asleep as I write this so I can’t get it tested. (Paceblade Easybook P7 ships in Germany today though!)

I know there’s a few owners watching this journal so please, if you’re reading this and you have an eo, try this patch and let me know if ‘perfmon’ reports C3 states on the VIA processor. Check your battery life in idle to. This fix has the potential to take an Eo from 1:20 to nearly 2hrs lifetime at idle.

[Update: This fix does not work on the Eo. Test and reports on this here. ]

Thanks to rainwalker for posting the info in the Origamiproject forums.

Keywords: UMPC, Eo, Power

After a month hiatus from the podcast world, everyones favorite ultra mobile PC Cast #5 is finished.

In this episode we feature a quick overview of the devices that have been released and discuss their pros and cons. We go a little into the battery issues the eo has had and the fixes. There are updates on the Origami Program Launcher Theme Creator and more random excitement.

Subscribe to the show through Itunes by clicking

Or subscribe directly to the XML RSS feed

Or just download the [url=https://www.umpcportal.com/origami/podcasts/OrigamiPortal.com_-_UMPC_Cast_5_-_Pros_and_Cons_of_the_UMPC_Systems.mp3]MP3 directly[/url].

And if you just want to catch up on the old shows, they are all available in the [url=https://www.umpcportal.com/modules/tinycontent/index.php?id=1]Podcast Section[/url] Read the full story

[img]https://www.umpcportal.com/origami/images/sony%20umpc/vaio_uxsmall.jpg[/img]

David Ciccone from [url=http://mobilitytoday.com/news/006482/sony_ux_umpc]MobilityToday.com[/url] sent us an email about the Sony UX ultra mobile PC that is going to be released in June.

According tho Mobility Online, the Sony Vaio UX specs will be

* $1,799.99
* Availability June
* 4.5 inch 1024×600 touchscreen
* Windows XP Professional
* 1.2GHz
* 512MB
* 30GB
* 802.11a/b/g
* Bluetooth
* dual cameras
* battery 3 to 7 hours
* weight 1.1 pounds

[url=http://jkontherun.blogs.com/jkontherun/2006/05/more_sony_ux_pi.html]JKonTheRun.com[/url] also got some updated pics and info including this picture of the device:

[img]https://www.umpcportal.com/origami/images/sony%20umpc/sony_umpc_ux_small.jpg[/img]

According to the [url=http://www.learningcenter.sony.us/assets/itpd/notebooks/promos/vaio_summer06/index.html?dcmp=vaioaol&hqs=ar_ux_teaser]official teaser trailer that’s been running[/url] we will have more info tomorrow about the device. Read the full story

This weekend was a good one for ultra mobile PC fans. Especially keyboard loving ones like us!

Eo battery problem fix?
Firstly there was the news from TKK in the Origamiproject forums that he’s getting much much better battery life from his Amtek-unbranded Eo/Easybook UMPC. It looks like Amtek have provided him with a device that is either modded or updated becuase he’s having no problem getting over 2 hours with normal use. Discussion and comparison of drivers and hardware details continues on Origamiportal.com. This is great news for Eo owners because there’s now a possiblitly of a swap-out rather than just having to return the device. It also good news for us here because it means our ultra mobile PC power predictions and VIA C7 power analysis was correct.

New Carrypad-like device.
Secondly, I was speaking to the CTO of Coxion in Finland who, apart from making me jealous with his talk of cheap 3G unlimited data plans, was telling me about the existing CE-based WebBook (pic above.) Its aimed at ‘vertical markets’ but the core design is even closer to the Carrypad concept than the Clio NXT which we were investigating. He might have also whispered in my ear that they were looking into an XP version of this which puts it right in the middle of the Origami camp – with a keyboard!

Nokia, Google and Tablets.
The third great bit of news, and this is really significant for the consumer market, is that Google is teaming up with Nokia to provide ‘a version’ of the Nokia 770 internet tablet with Google Talk software pre-installed. The Nokia 770 has been knocked for being underpowered in the past and Nokia have, for a long time, been public about the fact that they are looking at bringing a new internet tablet to market with a keyboard. Could this be the upgrade that will boost the Nokia 770 into more advanced ultra mobile PC territory?

Sony UX teaser video.
Finally, and again very significant news for the consumer ultra mobile PC market, is that Sony have a new ultra mobile PC device in the wings. With a keyboard and a smart design!
Its a Sony Vaio UX and it looks stunning. There’s no specification available yet, so everyone is watching the Sony website and teaser video for more information. Jkontherun is watching closely too.

The new devices will go into the ultra mobile PC product portal today and of course we’ll be updating it with important news links as we get them. The all-product RSS news feed is available here.

The ‘Carrypad’ journal was born out of a desire for a mid-range ultra-portable PC. Something like the Psion Netbook perhaps. Or the Sharp Zaurus or the Nokia 770. We called it the Carrypad concept device and it goes something like this:

• 5-7″ 800×640 Touch Screen
• Mini Keyboard
• Wifi, BT2.0, SD slot, USB2.0
• 600mhz advanced processor
• 3 hour battery
• Min 10GB storage
• Reduced OS
• Price$600

As you can see. The spec is nothing thats going to flatten an Origami ultra mobile PC device but its what we consider to be the sweet spot in the market now that smartphones are becoming more popular and pocket PC’s become less useful.

One device that’s been in the pipeline for a while is the Clio NXT window CE device. It comes very very close to the Carrypad concept and on top of that, the award-winning design looks pretty good too.

The Clio NXT is a re-design of the original Vadem Clio by the new owners Data Evolution. Its been in developement for a very long time but the specs still look like they have a chance against today’s low-end laptops and ultra mobile PC devices if the price is right when it’s released.

Included are all the wireless connectivity options you’d expect (take note DualCor,) a keyboard (should keep newspaper reviewers happy,) a good sized screen (slightly bigger than the Carrypad target size of 5-7″) and instant-on operating. It runs Windows CE.Net 5.0 which does include native Word and Excel file support. There’s no hard disk included but as 4Gb SD cards are so cheap now, you need to think hard to find situations where you’d need more.

On the negative side we have to say that playing videos could be a problem on the
Intel PXA255 processor at 400 MHz. You’ll get a 320×240 Divx at about 800kbps running (VHS quality) but nothing more than that.
It also looks like the price won’t be right either as, having read a number of forum threads, it looks like its being aimed at ‘vertical markets.’ Target price at the moment seems to be around $1000 which won’t work in the consumer world.

Its dificult to talk negatively about such a great design but in our opinion it needs to be 20% smaller all round, have a better processor (624Mhz Xscale would be fine thanks!) and priced at the $700 mark to have a fighting chance in the current market.

Steve / Chippy.

[update: A lot of people have reported that the wifi becomes effiectively unuseable after doing this change. We have also found out the ‘JKK’ has a rather unique Amtek 700 in his hands. Even Amtek are suprised at his good battery life statistics and we have now put Amtek in touch with JKK so that they can work together to see why JKK’s Amtek 700 has such good battery life.]

Top marks to Origamiproject forum member ‘JKK’ who posted that he was getting 2 hours web surfing without doing anything except enabling power-save mode on the Wifi hardware. He didn’t need to disable the USB bus as we’d been doing in previous tests.

I went straight onto the Origamiportal IRC channel as soon as I saw the post where I spoke to John Tokash. He has just finished a set of tests and sure enough, it worked! Its reduced his battery drain at idle down to 13watts (from 17Watts) giving him about 20 mins extra battery life at low-use.

Tablet Kiosk aren’t off the hook yet though as there’s still a few issues with this ‘fix’

As far as we can see through our testing though, enabling this setting reduces the Wifi power so you might lose range. John also had an initial problem seeing his wifi networks after a reboot (and again after rebooting with the power-save turned OFF again) but after removing and re-enabling the hardware, it seemed to work OK. We tested standby and that worked too. The other issue is that we still don’t see the important CPU C3 sleep state being used.

John is now going putting is Eo through a long-term battery test with the Notebook Hardware Control program. NHC is showing 13.2W drain with a lifetime of 1:44. JKK has also told us that he’s not seeing C3 states but he’s getting 2hrs.

Here’s the details on how to apply the fix:

Right click on your Wireless Network Connection, choose Properties. In the Properties dialog, choose Configure. Choose the Advanced tab of the Configure dialog. Set Power Save Mode to enabled. Hit OK.

Thanks once again to JKK for posting and John Tokash for testing and as always, there will be updates if we make significant steps forward.

Regards
Steve.

The [url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/11/AR2006051101865.html]Wahington Post[/url] just ran a story comparing the Q1 against the TabletKiosk eo and which is better.

The review starts out good enough just comparing the features and then the reviewer says, “The Q1 lasted only 1.75 hours on a single charge, and the EO lasted about 2.25 hours”. This is strange since so far the battery figures we’ve seen have been reversed with the Q1 getting better battery life than the eo.

They also say, “In addition, you can connect to a second monitor with either machine, which lets you extend your desktop, use the external display alone, or show the same screen on both displays” which isn’t possible on the eo right out of the box.

so I am assuming either they got the machines mixed up or they have a review system with a bigger battery and different options at the Washington Post. But besides that, it’s a nice feature comparing review. Read the full story