As promised, here’s the video over view of the Viliv X7 Android Tablet.
Key feature here is the big, 21wh battery and of course, that good quality Viliv engineering. They are ‘targeting’ $399 with 3G but we’ll have to re-visit that nearler launch in March/April

What would CES be without a good tease? We don’t have any more information than in the pictures but we’re definitely meeting with Viliv at an early stage at CES to find out more about the X7 ‘Anywhere Connectivity’ Android tablet and the X10 and X70. We suspect the latter is a re-design of the original X70 EX using Oaktrail and Windows 7 but as we said, there’s no information available at the moment. The X70 EX was ultra mobile PC of the year for us over at UMPCPortal in 2009 so we’re expecting good things. The X10, a 10.2 inch Android tablet is touted as having ‘longest’ battery life and is likely to be a development of what we saw at Computex.

All will be revealed in the first few days of CES so keep it tuned to Carrypad.

We caught a sniff of a hint that an Android device was in the works when we met Viliv at CS in Jan and here it is. A 10 inch slate-style device with the usual high quality Viliv design and materials that turns out to be one of the best we’ve seen here at Computex. (It’s in the running with the MeeGo tablet and the Huawei S7 for me right now.)

The X10 runs on a Samsung 1Ghz Cortex A8-based CPU and, even in the early stage of the software build looks fast. Check out the brochure image for a few more tech details. The X10 is being penciled in for Q4 and Viliv appear confident that they will get marketplace and Google applications onto the device for launch. I asked about price and the only hints I could get were that it would come in at a price below the Viliv S5. We’re looking at the sub $500 bracket here which of course, is a figure you could probably work-out yourself!

Viliv have also worked on a Windows 7 version of the X10 and I’ll have some information about that in a later post.

Check out the video below where I take you round the device, demo a fast racing game which looks great on the 1366×768 screen, show you the Aldiko book reader and  talk about some of the specifications.

More X10 Android pictures in the gallery.

Viliv is showing off a new product, the X10, at Computex. LaptopMag got their hands on the X10 for a short while and sound rather excited about it, calling it a potential “incredible iPad alternative”.

The X10 is your familiar slate form-factor and has a 10” capacitive touchscreen running at 1366×768. Avram Piltch of LaptopMag points out that the 1366×768 screen size is a 16:9 aspect ratio, meaning it’ll be better shaped and more detailed for your widescreen movie collection than the iPad’s 1024×768 screen which is 4:3 and is subsequently quite poor for widescreen movie viewing.

No word on exactly what is powering the X10, though it was shown playing smooth 720p playback, and Viliv says it’ll do 1080p as well – this could be Tegra 2 hardware. 1080p playback would be pointless on the X10’s 1366×768 screen if it weren’t for it’s HDMI out port. Along for the ride is an SD card slot, USB slot, and front facing webcam as well. Piltch reports that the device is running Android 2.1 at the moment, but that it’ll be running 2.2 by launch, according to Viliv. The unit shown had WiFi, but there will purportedly be a 3G option. Battery life is being quoted as on par with the iPad at 10 hours – Viliv has been pretty good about keeping their battery figures realistic in the past.

Be sure to jump over to LaptopMag’s site for more images and two videos of the device.

No word on pricing or availability at this time.

The last time we saw Viliv’s P3 DAP was at CES 2010, now it seems they are calling it the P3 Prime and they have recently unleashed a bunch of promotional graphics for the P3 Prime on their Korean site. Now we’ve got an official specs list for the device (which again asserts that it will handle 720p playback):

• 3.7” AMOLED display @ 800×480
• 8/16/32GB storage options with Micro SD slot for expansion
• WiFi b/g, FM radio and DMB receivers
• TV-out and mini-USB ports (specs sheet says mini, but that may be a mistake — would presumably be micro), accelerometer
• Option of Windows CE or Android OS
• 105 grams, 9.8mm thick
• 31 hours of audio / 11 hours of video playback

There is also a handy chart of supported file types, depending on which OS the device is running:

No word on pricing, or if you’ll be able to get your hands on one through an official channel, in the US.

Looks like Viliv is working on a slick custom shell to go on top of Windows CE to make it feel like a DAP, though all information at the moment is pointing to a choice between Viliv’s custom Windows CE interface and straight up Android.

Have a look at the early P3 Prime from CES 2010:

In addition to the S10 Blade [Portal page], N5 [Portal page], and the P3, Viliv quietly showed the HD5 PMP at CES 2010. Viliv claims that it will be able to play back 1080p content, even with the .mkv container, which is nice because .mkv supports stuff like multiple audio tracks and subtitles. While the player itself won’t have an HD screen, it does have HDMI output, potentially turning it into a portable home theater library/player, not unlike the SmartQ V7. There isn’t a lot of detail yet about the HD5. It’s looking like Viliv is shooting for more of a PMP than a MID with this device, but maybe they’ll surprise us with some WiFi. It it’s powerful enough to do 1080p video, it would be a shame to not see some MID capabilities. We’ll have to wait and see, but for now, this is what we know about the device:

• 5 inch capacitive LCD (800×480)
• Windows CE 6.0
• 8/16/32GB SSD
• SDHC slot for up to an additional 32GB of memory
• Optional DMB tuner
• Size: 83(W) x 130(H) x 13(T)mm

Pricing and availability info is nowhere to be seen at the moment, but it looks like GeneratoinMP3.com got a short close up of the unit at CES 2010:

[youtube]3IzOPdrBsxU[/youtube]

I’d love to get out an do another Solar Computing Tour in 2010 but I’ll have to plan it carefully. Our new baby is due in March so maybe I can pull a long weekend together in late August but we’ll have to see how things go.

It doesn’t stop me thinking about solar computing though and in this post I’m going to compare a set of devices and some technologies that will be important for the job of Solar PC 2010.

Before I do that I want to highlight a few things that really haven’t changed much in the last 3 years. It’s a sad story of minimal progress.

• Solar panels – NOTHING has changed. They’re still expensive and inefficient.
• Battery Tech – NOTHING has change. They are still expensive and use the same technology as before.
• Operating system choice – Nothing has really changed. If you want to work efficiently you need to choose the same OS as you use on the desktop. Mobile operating systems have come a long way but there are still too many potential roadblocks for the average productivity user. Windows 7 is nice but compared to XP it’s less efficient which in my book, makes it the best choice for efficient and productive mobile computing.
• Screen technology. Outdoor users are still fighting the sun with LED backlights although this is a great step forward from the CCFL backlighting I used in 2007. Transflective screens are coming in 2010 though. See below.
• Weather – Ah, there’s something that hasn’t changed much either! Still, constant chaos. (Thank goodness!)

Read the full story

In addition to the S10 Blade [Portal page] and N5 [Portal page] that Viliv showed off at CES 2010, they also have a new PMP device called the P3. I wouldn’t be mentioning any old PMP, but this one has WiFi and runs Android (and Win CE as well, for reasons unknown), making it potentially a capable MID. Despite what appears to be a speaker at the top of the device; the P3 is not a phone.

The insides are ARM Cortex A8 which is running at 800MHz, and Viliv says it’ll be able to handle 720p playback and .mkv files which is pretty sweet, however, the resolution of the capacitive OLED screen is only 800×480, and there doesn’t seem to be any way to output content at an HD resolution, but maybe Viliv will announce something at a later time (there is a dock connector on the bottom). It will be available in capacities of 8/16/32GB of flash storage and also has a MicroSD slot for further expansion. A vibration motor (presumably for touch feedback) will be included in addition to an accelerometer.

Naturally, jkk managed to get his hands on the Viliv P3 while he was at CES, have a quick look below:

[youtube]AptY1tiMlmQ[/youtube]