[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

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

I have been working over the past couple of days finishing the first theme for the forth coming theme creator.

The first “official” theme from us is an ipod type theme. For this particular theme I kept the default icon shadowing and changed every other component. We removed all of the default button outlining and added only blue highlighting to both the titlebar and applicaiton buttons to give it more of an ipod menu feel.

Here is a pic of the default Program Launcher theme for comparison with the new theme shown above.

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

And with one of the default backgrounds during the animation:

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

As you can see, we are making headway in at least starting to see how we can create new themes and getting it running under the theme creator (which is more like a packager/emulator than a creator).

We have also been playing around with different button shapes for our next theme.

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

We will be releasing the ipod theme with the [url=https://www.umpcportal.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=74]Origami Theme Creator[/url] beta in the next week or so. It will have all of the included theme naming properties functional when it is released so people can tell where each new theme came from.
Until then enjoy the pics and thanks to [url=http://blog.tokash.org/]John Tokash[/url] for installing these themes and taking all of the shots. Read the full story

Good news for Europeans looking for ultra mobile PC availablilty today.

This morning, we had an email from UK-based Pocket PC Solutions confirming that they will be distributing Tablet Kiosk products in the UK.

PocketPC Solutions is pleased to announce that it has been appointed the UK agent for TabletKioskâ„¢ USA, a leader in Tablet PC and exhibit-centric computing solutions. PocketPC Solutions will be responsible for marketing, distributing and enhancing the TabletKiosk range throughout the UK.

All TabletKiosk products, including the newly announced eo v7110 Ultra-Mobile PC, are now available at PocketPC Solutions, www.pocketpc-solutions.co.uk, with prices for the eo v7110 ultra mobile PC starting from £699.99.

The price shown is inclusive of UK VAT.

I understand that they have the first Eo to arrive in Europe at the moment but the Eo stock has not arrived yet. Its possible that Tablet Kiosk could hold back on delivering more stock until they’ve got a plan for tackling the battery life issues but the latest info is that the devices will be delivered by ‘mid June.’

Cross-border sales within Europe should also be possible.

Steve / Chippy.

Update: Since 2006 there has been a lot more Linux news on the portal. Click here to see all linux/umpc related news items.

Well done Jtokash!

John succesfuly booted Damn Small Linux on an Tablet Kiosk Eo last night and got the gui up and running.
Unfortunately the gui didn’t scale well and a lot of hardware support was missing (USB mouse didnt work, touch didnt work) but it proves Linux boots and X runs.

Since yesterday, we’ve found a new set of links that refer to linux-on-tablet sites. (see forum)

At the moment, i’m waiting for someone to take the first screenshot and also try to run knoppix with these boot options:

knoppix nomce fb800x480 xmodule=fbdev

Its known to work on some tablets while booting from USB.

Further info in the Origamiportal linux thread and thanks to Origamiportal for the cool Linux-ultra mobile PC graphic!

Regards
Steve / Chippy