Not much to read on the linked article below but there are some nice pics from the Yukyung Viliv S5 launch party. Welcome to one of the first XP-based MIDs (or is it a UMPC!) I’m eager to get my…
Not much to read on the linked article below but there are some nice pics from the Yukyung Viliv S5 launch party. Welcome to one of the first XP-based MIDs (or is it a UMPC!) I’m eager to get my hands on the Viliv S5 for a full test ASAP. Images via the Korean website below.
Thanks Keobuk2
Theres a new Sony teaser ad live on the Sony New Zealand website which promises a product that will change the way you look at laptops. It could be the product that went through the FCC a few weeks ago.
Theres a new Sony teaser ad live on the Sony New Zealand website which promises a product that will change the way you look at laptops. It could be the product that went through the FCC a few weeks ago.
Sony teaser site says “revolutionary new VAIO” coming January 9th - Engadget
So the Viliv is really launching! We’ll try and get some info about the US release dates because the last time we spoke to them they were talking about a U.S. release.
3G for Europe too please Viliv!
So the Viliv is really launching! We’ll try and get some info about the US release dates because the last time we spoke to them they were talking about a U.S. release.
3G for Europe too please Viliv!
Viliv S5 MID launch party set for December 23rd.
Japan’s population is about 128 million people so to say that one in 25 will buy a MID in 2012, just over 3 years away, seems a little surprising. Even more surprising is the prediction that, together with 18 million…
Japan’s population is about 128 million people so to say that one in 25 will buy a MID in 2012, just over 3 years away, seems a little surprising. Even more surprising is the prediction that, together with 18 million smartphone sales, the MID/Smartphone segment will form about 40% of the total handset market meaning MIDs would be 10% of the total handset market. However, the definition of a MID that has been used seems slightly off-mark and puts the average screen size at 3.5 inches. I could understand an average of 4" but 3.5"? Too small for 800×480? Cue Touch HD owners…
The concept of MID is defined in this report according to five conditions, which are Mobility, Always-On, Embedded 3G+, Display Size, and Full Browsing. This report emphasizes that in order to offer mobility while being differentiated from Fixed Wireless Access (FWA), MIDs have to be embedded with 3G+ cellular chip. When mobile WiMAX is vitalized, MID products that cover voice services based on VoIP and offer mobile broadband might hit the market.
Source: Research and Markets
Via TMCNet (Nov 20th)
Kevin Tofel of JKOnTheRun is going solar. He plans to run the iPhone for 30 days via a solar-powered battery pack. Good work Kevin. I’ve responded on my Solar-UMPC blog.
The Solar UMPC Blog: Taking the iPhone off the power grid..
Kevin Tofel of JKOnTheRun is going solar. He plans to run the iPhone for 30 days via a solar-powered battery pack. Good work Kevin. I’ve responded on my Solar-UMPC blog.
The Solar UMPC Blog: Taking the iPhone off the power grid..
Engadget just posted a piece linking to the PR that confirms the rumored subsidized Acer Aspire One [Portal page][review] deal. Acer has signed AT&T as the carrier and the Aspire One will sell through Radio Shack for $99 with internal 3G…
Engadget just posted a piece linking to the PR that confirms the rumored subsidized Acer Aspire One [Portal page][review] deal. Acer has signed AT&T as the carrier and the Aspire One will sell through Radio Shack for $99 with internal 3G starting December 14th. AT&Ts 3G network is HSDPA based. When we had the Aspire One for review, we noted the SIM card slot hidden under the battery, unfortunately the 3G radio was not yet being built into the netbook.
Acer Aspire One goes official on AT&T’s 3G network - Engadget.
As much as I hate seeing concepts that we don’t yet have the technology to create, I manage to remind myself that the market needs goals to shoot for, otherwise there won’t be innovation. That, and it is an excuse…
As much as I hate seeing concepts that we don’t yet have the technology to create, I manage to remind myself that the market needs goals to shoot for, otherwise there won’t be innovation. That, and it is an excuse to look at some really cool looking gadgets… even if you have to pretend that they exist.
Jkk has highlighted some interesting MID concepts from an Intel sponsored design contest in the Czech Republic this year.
I really like this concept. Actually this one could potentially be produced. See the projected keyboard? Technology like that exists and can be bought today. Infrared projection keyboards have been on the market for a few years, but have had very limited adoption because of their many pitfalls, such as low visibility in highly lit settings, and no tactile feedback for key-presses. I suppose this device looks pretty cool, but its practicality would be limited to the software that powers it. If the interface could be designed so that all functions can be reached through the use of the touch screen, then it could be viable. It wouldn’t make sense to allow the only text input to come from the projected keyboard; what would the point of a mobile device be if you had to sit it down somewhere to use it? An on-screen-keyboard would suffice for short text entries (URLs/IMing, etcetera), then you could fold up the keyboard projection armatures for some serious writing. I think they would need to increase the typing experience on the projected keyboard before bringing something like this to market.
This next one is basically a smaller and slimmer HTC Shift [Portal page]. If the hardware evolves enough that we can see a sleek design like this with decent performance and battery life, I think it will make a great MID. The form factor really has a lot going for it, but the problem is finding the right size for the keyboard. Some people felt that the HTC Shift’s keyboard was right between touch-typeable and thumb-board size, and that is a major problem. As for the Windows 7 image on the screen of the rendered MID… I think it would make more sense to use a custom OS.
The main thing I want to see in upcoming mobile tech is the use of capacitive touchscreens. The iPhone and iPod Touch line have the most consistent touch recognition of any touchscreen I’ve ever used, and in general have a lot of advantages over the current standard that is resistive touchscreen technology. I have always hated having to use a stylus to navigate the GUI of a device because they made the interface based on old principles. I feel that in the future we will start to move away from styli on mobile devices (they will certainly stick around for tablet PC folks, and graphic artists), and that is a change that I welcome with open arms.
My country-mates, the Germans, are quite the netbook nuts. They love a quality, good-value product (don’t we all!) and they’re also pretty damn good at doing their research. Sascha, the top man at EeePCNews.de is getting huge numbers at his German…
My country-mates, the Germans, are quite the netbook nuts. They love a quality, good-value product (don’t we all!) and they’re also pretty damn good at doing their research. Sascha, the top man at EeePCNews.de is getting huge numbers at his German language site as a result of all this. When he goes live with a netbook unboxing he can count on about 300-500 concurrent viewers. I tried joining the live video and chat once and it was impossible to answer questions as the chat session was a constantly moving stream of messages. Its mad!
So how much would Germans pay for their dream netbook? Sascha is asking his users right now and after 1000+ responses, it’s clear that the sweet spot lies somewhere between 300 and 400 Euros. Thats $400-$530 at todays Dollar rate. (Max $430 if you take the local taxes off.) I’m not certain but it feels a little higher than the prices U.S. customers would pay. Any comments from the U.S. crowd on that?
I’m guessing the Black Samsuing NC10 for Euro 349 would be the absolute killer price and product here in Germany right now. Am I right German readers?
Umfrage: Der ideale Netbook Preis | Eee PC News.
Here’s a quick tip for those of you that, like me, use F11 a lot and get stuck when it’s not there (or under a FN-Key as it is on the Everun Note.) Remap it with a simple plugin! - Remap…
Here’s a quick tip for those of you that, like me, use F11 a lot and get stuck when it’s not there (or under a FN-Key as it is on the Everun Note.) Remap it with a simple plugin! - Remap Firefox’s Fullscreen Shortcut.
Via Liliputing.
Gizmodo have just completed a browsing speed and accuracy test with three high-end windows mobile devices using Pocket IE and Opera 9.5. The results should hardly be a surprise. There isn’t a single reasonable result among them with page load times well over a minute in many cases and very few of the devices rendering the pages well.
In the test, Gizmodo used the Sony Xperia, HTC Fuze, Samsung Omnia and Samsung Epix. Some of the newest WM-based phones you can buy.
Opera 9.5 appears to have turned in a better level of quality and speed than Pocket IE but there’s still a bunch of ‘fails’ in there which would turn off anyone thinking of relying on the given combo.
We’ve done similar tests here in the past which have proven that, on average, with some of the best ARM-based devices you can find and under good conditions, average page load times are twice as long when compared to on low-end ultra mobile PCs. We’ve even done some extensive Opera Mobile 9.5 testing and can confirm that while it does render well, it needs a lot more horsepower underneath it than the average smartphone can provide. Nothing in the smartphone world, including the iPhone, comes close to the speed and accuracy of even the lowest-level UMPC or Intel-based MID so once again I hear myself saying; If you or your business relies on fast, accurate access to Web-based resources through a browser, don’t risk problems or waste time by using a sub-standard solution. Don’t try and push everything onto one device. Buy a dedicated device. If not for the speed and quality, do it to preserve battery life for your important voice calls!
Take a read of the article and the HUGE bashing that WM gets from author, Matt Buchanan. Its a fun read!
Source: Gizmodo Via Friendfeed
I’ve just added a drop-down menu on the top-right of all news pages which takes you directly to the product information for each of the 200+ devices in the database. Hope you find it useful.
Dynamism kindly provided us with an Asus R50A [Portal page] to take a look at. It is a slate UMPC with a 32GB SSD, 5.6″ screen, 1GB of RAM, 3G connectivity, and the less power hungry 1.3GHz Z520 Atom CPU. Will the R50A cut it as a quality UMPC? You’ll have to wait for the full review to find out. For now have a look at the unboxing below and read some initial impressions.
The Asus R50A manages to be true to at least half of its “Rock Solid - Heart Touching” slogan. The R50A feels solid in the hands and it is fairly well made. The 32GB SSD helps reaffirm that this unit is designed to be mobile in and in the user’s hands. The joystick mouse doesn’t move like that of an video game controller, instead it moves like the stick on a PSP, it moves left and right while staying on the same plane, as opposed to actually tilting from one side to another. Even after much practice with the thumb stick on my VAIO UX180, this thing will take some getting used to. This is the first slate UMPC that I have used, so it is a new experience for me; having to do my regular computing tasks without a keyboard. Going through Vista’s handwriting recognition training makes the recognition pretty darn accurate. The screen isn’t too smooth to write on unfortunately, and the stylus is small… too small for a UMPC that doesn’t have a keyboard.
Right out of the box, Vista is causing some serious issues. Right now I’m running the unit with the lowest possible graphical settings from Vista, and performance is still pretty bad. Vista is really obviously going to be a major bane to this otherwise good piece of hardware. I’ll see if there is any hope of putting another OS on it.
Any questions? Drop a line in the comments, I’ll try to answer them here or follow up with answers in the full review coming in a few weeks.
As I was browsing the CES exhibitor list late last night a came across the T10L tablet device. I didn’t have time to post about it so I pinged it across to the guys at GottaBeMobile who have put the details up on a post.
As you can see, it’s based around Intel’s low cost platform. At just over an inch thick and at 2.6lbs, its nicely proportioned too. Could this be another cheap Vesa-mount PC or a Grab and Go dockable desktop? I see quite some potential for devices like these if they can be slimmed down a bit. Under 1KG and 20mm think with 5 hours battery and a $400 price tag (why not - its a netbook with a touch layer added and the keyboard removed!) would make it very attractive portable browser and e-book reader and, given a good range of docks and mounts could ignite a consumer slate market. The netbook platform and 200 nits brightness figure really hints of low-cost to me so i’ll be interested to see who picks this up.
We’ll get this one in the DB later today if we can gather all the info. Amtek specification page is here.
Admittedly, its not difficult to imagine a scenario where less CPU cycles result in less power drain and this method isn’t going to magically extend your battery life by much but its nice to see the theory tested to the extreme.
SecTheory.com took a notebook PC, a couple of browsers and measured the battery drain on the Top 100 Alexa sites. They then took the worst offenders, that is, the ones that took the most power drain, and blocked script and ads using NoScript and AdBlock Plus. The results were quite significant. On a Dell Inspiron B130 notebook, with a 1.5GHz Celeron M processor and 1 Gig of ram, running fully patched Windows XP SP2, the power consumption when browsing the worst offending sites dropped by 11W, a 20% reduction. If its a 25W TDP CPU we’re talking about here, I can believe the results because browsing website has grown to be a very CPU intensive task.
The effect would be much less on netbooks and UMPCs but I would expect the same test to save 1W average which is about 10% - about 15 minutes for a device with a standard battery. Of course, its not really normal to be picking the worst offending sites and continuously hitting them either. Under normal browsing use, you probably wouldn’t notice any difference but there’s something else you need to be aware of.
Script not only takes CPU and battery life, it takes time. Time to execute, render and in some cases, time to fetch the remote code. By disabling script you significantly improve browsing speeds on low power devices and by definition, you save battery life. I tried it a few weeks ago with the noscript plugin and I’ve seen many comments on UMPCPortal from users that also use the technique. It really works! You lock yourself out of application sites like Google reader initially but it doesn’t take any effort to enable exceptions for these sites as you go along. No more hung page loads waiting for remote sites to time out. No more of those terribly annoying auto-start video ads that make browsing on a low-end PC a misery. There’s even an improvement in security. Its a win-win-win!
Try it. Install the noscript plugin and see how you get on. Yes, I risk killing all of my advertising income if everyone does this on all their devices and I’m sure there are bloggers out there that will read this and cringe but I trust you’ll only use it on your netbooks and umpcs and put the exception in for your favorite sites! Long live the choice between simple html and web2.0!
Source: Sectheory.com
PC World report that netbooks make up most of the Cyber Monday top-10 sales list on Amazon.com. It it’s not just on Amazon.com that it’s happening. Germany and the UK are two other netbook-crazy countries where netbook interest is leading, not just the computer segments, but the whole consumer electronics segment. The Samsung NC10, for example, is the number three most-viewed device in the popular German price comparison engine, Geizhals. That’s number three out of over 300,000 consumer products including DVD’s, phones and LCD TV’s. At number 10 is the Eee PC. The Wii appears at number 11 and the first notebook appears at number 35.
Anyone care to take a guess at how it might look in 12 months?
If you weren’t aware that TechCrunch are planning to make a cheap tablet-style internet browsing device, a MID if you like, you might wonder what the hell the author of this anti-netbook article is talking about. In my opinion, it’s a rather hopeless attempt at putting down netbooks in order to prepare some space for a new web-browser product they are planning. it’s terribly off-target and badly-researched - "A typical Netbook has a 7 inch screen, an Intel Atom or Via Nano processor" (There hadn’t been a 7" netbook hit the blogosphere for months and as for the Nano-powered devices, we’d like Mike Arrington to show us one!) and "iPhone or iPod Touch, with a tiny 3.5 inch screen, has a vastly better browsing experience than any Netbook (it’s faster too)." Give the article a read here.
I’m all for the TechCrunch tablet and MIDs like it but now that I’ve seen how badly educated TechCrunch are about the computer hardware market, it gives me more reason to believe that they don’t understand exactly what hurdles they are up against with their MID. I’ll never forget what TechCrunch put in writing before: “If all you are doing is running Firefox and Skype, you don’t need a lot of hardware horsepower, which will keep the cost way down.”
