actfind

Qualcomm are showing off a couple of mobile platforms at CES.  They aren’t UMPCs or even x86 devices but they’re certainly Mobile Internet targeted. On the lower image, the platform known as ‘Ancorage’ (Also shown above next to an iPhone) is running Windows Mobile.

Both this demonstrator and the ‘Fairbanks’ variant are running the ’snapdragon’ platform which I wrote about recently. Its a Ghz-capable platform utilising the scorpion, Cortex A8 ARM architechture. HTC and Samsung have already shown interest in this and I personally think its going to be going head-to-head with Intel’s Menlow. Take a look at some MIDs that have been shown at CES. The target markets are exactly the same.

Gigabyte MID on Menlow platform.

Qualcomm are just showing these off as demonstrators of their mobile platform and it looks like they’re made by Inventec but the focus is clear - Mobile Internet!

Laptop and Accessories
UMPC Laptop
Laptop Notebook
Laptop Carry Cases Bags
Laptop Accessories

Computer Products
Computer Mouse Track Balls
Desktop Memory
Laptop Memory
Computer Speakers
Computer Headsets
PC WebCams
USB Flash Disk/Drive
HDD Enclosures and Storages
USB Hubs
Card Reader

Thanks to MobilX.hu, the Amtek U560 UMPC sample arrived today, well ahead of expected availability early next month.

I’ve been making notes in this forum thread so feel free to join in with the questions. I have also prepared some videos for a post tomorrow where I’ll give my first thoughts. So far I’m impressed. It’s got a fair bit of chubbiness but it’s a curvy and efficient little device and has strong video qualities. 

I’ll try and do a live session about an hour before Steve Jobs starts his presentation tomorrow. (15th)

Again, thanks to Mobilx for the loan of this.

Laptop and Accessories
UMPC Laptop
Laptop Notebook
Laptop Carry Cases Bags
Laptop Accessories

Computer Products
Computer Mouse Track Balls
Desktop Memory
Laptop Memory
Computer Speakers
Computer Headsets
PC WebCams
USB Flash Disk/Drive
HDD Enclosures and Storages
USB Hubs
Card Reader

A new viral marketing  campaign has surfaced for a product that appears to  suggest modular mobile  computing.

Best guess: A  Mini phone with display, cpu  and radios in a compact flash size package  (or  PCI-e?)  that docks into a range  of  lifestyle devices.

You can find the website here but note that you can find a big list of job openings here which indicates that this product might not  be ready for launch just  yet.

JKK has some  more thoughts on this over at JKKMobile.

Laptop and Accessories
UMPC Laptop
Laptop Notebook
Laptop Carry Cases Bags
Laptop Accessories

Computer Products
Computer Mouse Track Balls
Desktop Memory
Laptop Memory
Computer Speakers
Computer Headsets
PC WebCams
USB Flash Disk/Drive
HDD Enclosures and Storages
USB Hubs
Card Reader

I’ve retro-fitted my TV with a new Internet, streaming media, uPnP-capable, portable device solution. Its not Apple TV or anything big and cumbersome like that, its the device that didn’t make the MID grade. The Archos 605 Wifi . I’ve entered a new world of uPnP and online TV on demand. My productivity has gone through the floor. Its great!

I bought the 605 WiFi last November to test its mobile Internet capabilities and it failed miserably. From a MID perspective it was slow, unsatisfying and only had WiFi. It has been in the cupboard-of-shame ever since.

Until last week that is, when my wife briefly mentioned getting a flat screen TV in the bedroom. Not being a big fan of the TV-in-the-bedroom concept I threw the idea away. Those wifey types are crafty though aren’t they. Damn them! Only 24 hours later I was watching Cranky Geeks in my bed on a UMPC and the seed sprouted. Wouldn’t it be nice to watch it on a flat screen TV on the wall in the bedroom.

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

My wife should be in marketing. The subliminal type.

What if I could put a PVR up here and get all my videos and English TV [we live in Germany] and start syncing video podcasts into the server and… and, and, and. (You know how those thought-chains get out of hand right?)

At first I thought about MythTV but having done that project 4 years ago and having spent way too many hours on it I started looking for a simple solution. What I needed was a simple solution and that’s where the 605 WiFi thought came in. I had done a successful impromptu test in the UK with High School Musical (oh how the kids loved me) and a 5-hour music mix on new years eve. The 605 had worked easily and flawlessly. I remembered that there was a DVR station add-on with SPdif and S-Video output and it was beginning to sound perfect. This wasn’t going to be a HD setup but seeing as I didn’t have any HD sources it would probably be fine.

Using the battery docking station I was able to rig it up on a test TV (the main TV in the living room) and start messing around. I fired-up a uPnP server (TwonkyMedia on my favorite distro, OpenSuse 10.3) in the cellar and BANG! there was everything. Working, with a nice UI, my SMB shares, Internet widgets and….wait a minute, there was YouTube in full-screen glory. Cranky Geeks too. The thing that suprised me the most though was that the browser was enjoyable. Using it on a TV like this puts the slow browser into perspective. The last time I had really looked at searchable info on a TV was while waiting for page 26 of 52 to come round on the Teletext road traffic site. Opera on the 605 Wifi is light-years ahead in comparison and this change of context made it incredibly impressive. After installing the Archos PC-based podcast sync software (it would have been nice to have this as an application on the 605 itself) I was soon catching up on old Diggnation and CrankyGeeks episodes. Awesome!

But now I have another problem. The Archos 605 Wifi is a better playback device than my Mini-ITX PVR that I built 4 years ago. It boots in 5 seconds (current PVR takes 3 minutes as it is diskless and boots over the network) it’s silent and it supports uPnP which is so much easier than SMB or NFS shares. The best thing is that it’s highly portable. I probably won’t use it myself as a PMP but I know my daughter will love it in the car. I still need to add the DVR station accessory which gives the ability to use a remote control and do recordings but I plan to order that ASAP for even lazier on-sofa Internet action.

I think we can call that a success…

Oops! The wife. She wanted a new TV didn’t she. I wanted Cranky Geeks in bed and my solution, the 605 Wifi, is now installed in the living room and I don’t want to move it upstairs. Do I buy a second 605 Wifi or do I go for something else.

[Here comes the UMPC part.]

I was looking at the prices of the LCD and plasma TV panels and thinking - mmm. Expensive. And thinking… ‘What about getting a simple PC panel and feeding it data through the VGA connector.’ What about using the Everun and the docking station with a DVB-T module. Mmm. A tad under-powered for this applications. Looking at the WiBrain B1H sitting on my desk I remembered the DVD-capable docking station and the WiBrain’s ability to stream well from the Internet….Bingo!

So that’s where I am right now. The 605 is working well in the living room, i’m ordering the PVR station and am starting to work on the WiBrain. The WiBrain will be tested with a USB DVB-T stick and Sage TV. I’ll use the VGA-out dongle for testing and when the docking station comes out, I’m going to connect the DVB-T sitck to that, add some powered speakers and connect permanently to a LCD monitor. If it works, the WiBrain B1H will be the smallest XP-based media center possible and a really tidy solution.

I’ll be blogging about the WiBrain PVR project on UMPCPortal so stay tuned over there for progress reports and if you have any suggestions or ideas, please let me know.

More information available on the Archos 605 Wifi in the database.

Laptop and Accessories
UMPC Laptop
Laptop Notebook
Laptop Carry Cases Bags
Laptop Accessories

Computer Products
Computer Mouse Track Balls
Desktop Memory
Laptop Memory
Computer Speakers
Computer Headsets
PC WebCams
USB Flash Disk/Drive
HDD Enclosures and Storages
USB Hubs
Card Reader

I hadn’t actually realised that ARM were NOT in part of Google’s Open Handset Alliance but I guess, as a company that focuses on licensing designs out to third party’s, they are slightly more removed from the end product than most. They will be getting a little bit closer next week though as they’ve been inviting people to see Android running on their cores at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Could we see, for the first time, a Webkit-based browser and multimedia playbock on a Cortex A8-based device? I really hope so as it’s going to give indications of how fast the experience is going to be.

Image from the unofficial Google Operating System blog

Android+Cortex v Ubuntu Mobile+Silverthorne. These two combinations of CPU and OS will be the ones to watch out for in terms of Mobile Internet devices in 2008.

UPDATE: ARM have issued a press release that confirms the news. The ‘visually stunning’ Mobile Internet Devices (their words!) will be on show and will be using Cortex A8 processors.

Laptop and Accessories
UMPC Laptop
Laptop Notebook
Laptop Carry Cases Bags
Laptop Accessories

Computer Products
Computer Mouse Track Balls
Desktop Memory
Laptop Memory
Computer Speakers
Computer Headsets
PC WebCams
USB Flash Disk/Drive
HDD Enclosures and Storages
USB Hubs
Card Reader

I’ve decided that I’ll work away frm the desk today so I’ve packed some sandwiches, the N82 and Everun and I’m going for a hike. The plan is to kill the battery on the N82!

I’ll be taking pics and uploading to Flickr (as is the law when you have a cameraphone) and i’ll also be testing out the Nokia Sports Tracker app with live tracking. My username is Chippy if you want to follow me on the Sports Tracker website. Ill be running IM via gizmo and probably throwng in a few twitters and maybe a YouTube vid for god measure.

Hopefuly I can create some map mashups on the way. Follow my working day at UMPC-Moblog.

Update: Show over. Nothing to se here due to the pathetic battery life of mobile phones under load. I’ll have more to say about this in the post i’m about to write as I sit here in the park.

Laptop and Accessories
UMPC Laptop
Laptop Notebook
Laptop Carry Cases Bags
Laptop Accessories

Computer Products
Computer Mouse Track Balls
Desktop Memory
Laptop Memory
Computer Speakers
Computer Headsets
PC WebCams
USB Flash Disk/Drive
HDD Enclosures and Storages
USB Hubs
Card Reader

If there’s one thing that always annoys me in the UMPC category, it’s a wasted chance. Be it poor design, poor software or poor hardware. If there’s one thing that annoys me more than that its when a company makes the same mistake twice. Even worse than that is when the device in question is high-quality in every other respect. Because of this I find the SC3 the most frustrating device I’ve ever owned. I want so much to love it and take it into my daily life but….

Last week I highlighted some reseller pricing that was appearing for variants of the Gigabyte M704, the UMPC with the 1.2Ghz CPU and 7" 1024×600 screen in a casing that’s smaller than even the HTC Shift.

The M704 is now expected to be in stock at the beginning of July and the confirmed Euro-price, based on real Gigabyte retailer prices is just Euro 745. If you’re looking for a slider or 7" 1024×600 UMPC, this is very competitive compared to the 1200 Euro Shift and 1100 Euro Samsung Q1, especially as you can get a real docking station for just 60 Euros. DVB-T and GPS snap-on modules also exist as the M704 is built on almost the same hardware as the U60/Medion UMPC that I tested out last year.

It’s currently showing as a Windows XP-based device which is strange considering it falls into a device category that Microsoft won’t sell XP licenses for after June 30th. If it gets forced to run Vista, it won’t be a pleasant user experience and will kill the device in review scenarios so I hope Gigabyte have bought up a stack of licenses they can use in the future. As it is, with its nice accessory range and useable processing power, its quite the Euro-deal for a UMPC.

Laptop and Accessories
UMPC Laptop
Laptop Notebook
Laptop Carry Cases Bags
Laptop Accessories

Computer Products
Computer Mouse Track Balls
Desktop Memory
Laptop Memory
Computer Speakers
Computer Headsets
PC WebCams
USB Flash Disk/Drive
HDD Enclosures and Storages
USB Hubs
Card Reader

Once again, we sadly have to report that OEMs are trying to squeeze Vista on low-end UMPCs. I’m also hearing that ‘unoptimised drivers’ excuse again… [Deep breath...Gooosefrababa]

Akihabara have done some testing on a Willcom D4 1.3Ghz Atom-based UMPC which they say has a "Beautiful design, ergonomic, a well thought out keyboard, multiple positions, touchscreen…"

The device appears quite large in comparison to say the Gigabyte M528 MID and reminds me of the Raon Digital Everun which isn’t a bad thing because I’d be extremely happy with an Everun that used this design and ran Windows XP. Vista, however, is just going to end up embarrassing Sharp and Intel as it appears to do in the video that Akihabara have produced.

Laptop and Accessories
UMPC Laptop
Laptop Notebook
Laptop Carry Cases Bags
Laptop Accessories

Computer Products
Computer Mouse Track Balls
Desktop Memory
Laptop Memory
Computer Speakers
Computer Headsets
PC WebCams
USB Flash Disk/Drive
HDD Enclosures and Storages
USB Hubs
Card Reader

Doody, A nickname I feel I’ve mentioned before in the last few weeks, has been testing the MSI Wind and logged the whole series of tests in the MSI-Wind forums. The tests results include a hard-disk test, PCMark 05, 3D Mark 03 and a battery life test.

The hard disk transfer speeds look very good in comparison to devices with 1.8" drives and that means that with XP, application load-times should be fairly swift. The battery life was measured while doing all the benchmarking and represents an extreme scenario. 2 hrs and 19 minutes. In general, adding 30% to a full-load test result like this will give you the real in-use battery life which in this case is 3 hours. Not exactly the leap-forward in battery life that some people were expecting but in-line with our expectations. Considering that the netbook platform of Diamondville/954 chipset is very much the same as the Stealey/945 chipset seen on 2007 UMPCs, its no real surprise. If you were to add a 10" screen and 2.5" drive to a Q1 Ultra, you’d also be up at near 10W average drain.

I haven’t been able to analyse the PCMark results yet because i’ve asked Doody to see if he can run the CrystalMark test which will give us a good breakdown and like-for-like comparison with the results that Ctitanic keeps track of.

The MSI-Wind continues to be the #1 most-viewed device on UMPCPortal. Details and specifications in the product page here.

Laptop and Accessories
UMPC Laptop
Laptop Notebook
Laptop Carry Cases Bags
Laptop Accessories

Computer Products
Computer Mouse Track Balls
Desktop Memory
Laptop Memory
Computer Speakers
Computer Headsets
PC WebCams
USB Flash Disk/Drive
HDD Enclosures and Storages
USB Hubs
Card Reader

The MSI Wind seems to be doing the UK rounds at the moment and I’ve just been looking at the VR-Zone review. Its nice to see the internals (really!) and I’m really impressed with the silky black version. However, their power drain testing is somewhat strange. They’ve measured the power drain at the mains outlet and then used that to calculate what the device will draw when on battery.

What they should have done is measured the current and voltage after the AC adaptor because those little blighters usually add 30% to the power requirement. If they’d done that, they probably would have seen a minimum power drain closer to 7W rather than 9.8W. Based on other devices I’ve tested, that would return an average 10W drain in normal use. Given an average capacity netbook battery , that would give a usable 3 hours of battery life but there’s a little surprise on the Wind battery. MSI are using a relatively small 3-cell battery with just 24wh of power which is 25% less capacity than the smallest Eee PC battery. Expect no more than 2.5 hours out of the Wind in normal wifi-on use and close to 2hrs if you’re pushing it. Oh well, at least’s it’s better than the 1hr 15mins that VR-Zone predicted.

Laptop and Accessories
UMPC Laptop
Laptop Notebook
Laptop Carry Cases Bags
Laptop Accessories

Computer Products
Computer Mouse Track Balls
Desktop Memory
Laptop Memory
Computer Speakers
Computer Headsets
PC WebCams
USB Flash Disk/Drive
HDD Enclosures and Storages
USB Hubs
Card Reader

Maybe I should have waited a few more weeks to write that article about how the smartphone platform is developing into a mobile computing platform. I said that it could be months before we see any sort of reality but today Qualcomm have demonstrated an Inventec OEM mini-laptop running on a Snapdragon ARM-core processor.

There aren’t any pics available at the moment but the notebook is said, in this article from PC World, to be "small and streamlined." Not surprising because Nvidia also showed their new Tegra platform sitting inside an EEE PC casing today and apparently the complete motherboard was just 45mm x 45mm.

The most interesting thing though are comments related to Windows Mobile 7.

Microsoft Windows Mobile 7, which is made for chips used in mobile phones, will be more laptop friendly than older versions of Windows Mobile, said Luis Pineda, senior vice president at Qualcomm, on the sidelines of a news conference in Taipei.

Windows Mobile 7 could be a key for the mobile phone industry in the future if they hope to take a bite out of the growing market for mini-notebooks such as the Eee PC that have 7-inch to 10-inch screens, weigh less than 1 kilogram and connect wirelessly to the Internet.

I have no problem with a netbook running Windows Mobile 7 as long as the applications are as rich as they are on the desktop. I’m sure many others will be happy too and if the device does the job, for the same price but returns a much better battery life[1] ARM-based devices are going to have a lot of advantages.

Qualcomm are expecting device to be available before the end of the year.

[1] While these ARM-based CPUs run at lower power requirements, the biggest power drains on netbooks are actually screen backlighting, storage and radio power. Advantages for ARM-based devices in 2008 could be significant, offering an estimated double, in-use battery life. Towards the end of 2009 though, Intel is expected to have the Moorestown platform available which will narrow the margin to very small levels.

Laptop and Accessories
UMPC Laptop
Laptop Notebook
Laptop Carry Cases Bags
Laptop Accessories

Computer Products
Computer Mouse Track Balls
Desktop Memory
Laptop Memory
Computer Speakers
Computer Headsets
PC WebCams
USB Flash Disk/Drive
HDD Enclosures and Storages
USB Hubs
Card Reader

The AMD Geode LX has been seem in mobile devices for at least two years but they haven’t had anything new since they upgraded the LX800 to the 900 last year but it now looks like they have something…

This mininote by Malata, reported by Aving [translation link] is said to be using a "saemteuron" which I assume is a bad translation of Turion or Sempron. Hard to tell. The GPU is said to be an RS690. We’re trying to work out what’s going on here. It could be a new ultra low power Griffin-based platform.

Laptop and Accessories
UMPC Laptop
Laptop Notebook
Laptop Carry Cases Bags
Laptop Accessories

Computer Products
Computer Mouse Track Balls
Desktop Memory
Laptop Memory
Computer Speakers
Computer Headsets
PC WebCams
USB Flash Disk/Drive
HDD Enclosures and Storages
USB Hubs
Card Reader

Yes, the ultra-mobile PC sector can be ultra-flippin’ niche at times. Here’s a gaming-focused UMPC that includes a 3D screen!

It appears to be a proof-of-concept by a company called Masterimage who have developed a 3D screen that can be used without glasses. [ref] Apart from that its fairly basic UMPC-territory with a 4.3″ 800×480 screen, 512MB RAM and a 30 or 60GB hard drive running XP on a VIA C7-M at 1.2Ghz. Apparently the joystick feels quite good although the screen looks like one of those ‘3D’ postcards.

I’m not feeling the vibe with this one. Maybe you have to be there to appreciate it!

Laptop and Accessories
UMPC Laptop
Laptop Notebook
Laptop Carry Cases Bags
Laptop Accessories

Computer Products
Computer Mouse Track Balls
Desktop Memory
Laptop Memory
Computer Speakers
Computer Headsets
PC WebCams
USB Flash Disk/Drive
HDD Enclosures and Storages
USB Hubs
Card Reader

A number of Acer Aspire One articles came to my attention last week that I have only just got round to reviewing. The first article from PC Professionale includes a video showing the internals of the Aspire One. There are a couple of important points to note (that come from a translation by Blogeee.net) which are the SIM card reader and easy-to-access 3G slot module slot. The 3G module slot definitely raises the interest level for me.

The second article is a fairly detailed in-depth review from Laptop Magazine who appear to be impressed.

• Keyboard big enough for comfortable touch typing. Bigger keyboard than Eee PC 900.
• Good low-light web cam. A web-cam that doesn’t work in low-light situations is quite often, useless for most people so it’s good to see this.
• Two SD cards slots. One adds memory to system storage in a seamless way. A great idea.
• ‘One of the thinnest and lightest we’ve tested.’ For Ultra-Mobile folks, this is important.

The Aspire One is not only the favorite on the Portal here but it’s fast becoming my favorite netbook too. The design looks good, size and weight are more ultramobile than most netbooks and the Linpus Lite build is getting very good feedback.

Finally, if you’re thinking about the Aspire One and want a final thumbs-up, check out this fairly simple overview video from ShinyMedia. Its all thumbs up from them!

Laptop and Accessories
UMPC Laptop
Laptop Notebook
Laptop Carry Cases Bags
Laptop Accessories

Computer Products
Computer Mouse Track Balls
Desktop Memory
Laptop Memory
Computer Speakers
Computer Headsets
PC WebCams
USB Flash Disk/Drive
HDD Enclosures and Storages
USB Hubs
Card Reader

It looks like Engadget had a slow news day on Sunday as they highlighted the full-fat video presentation I’d prepared for the visitors here. “Gigabyte M704 unboxing video excites reviewer, may put you to sleep” was the title. The cheeky monkeys! Fortunately, people that are actually interested in UMPC’s appear to have got something out of it and see that it’s quite an interesting UMPC. The refresh over the U60 has turned this tiny 7″er into a rather useful and good-value device. Where the 1st-gen Gigabyte U60 had an 800×480 screen, this one has a far more useful and much brighter 1024×600 screen and where the mouse pointer on the U60 was difficult to use, this one is far more useable. Add the noticeable performance improvements that the 1.2Ghz CPU brings over the former 1Ghz version and the device has turned from borderline option to serious top-5 ultra mobile computing choice.

I’ve been using the M704 non-stop for the last 3-days and can’t really find any show-stopping problems with it. The fan could be quieter, the keyboard could do with a backlight, a little more styling would help and a weight reduction down to sub-600gm would help with the long-term two-handed use that is often the case due to the nice split-keyboard but that’s about it. The XP-based system (it’s a special Gigabyte build optimised with larger font sizes and pre-installed software which, as I understand it, means it can be sold until Jan 2009) is swift enough for all browser-based work and most media files. I was surprised to see a 6mbps WMV file playing with very few frame drops in the Nero8 demo software. Battery life is a true, working, 3 hours. The slider mechanism seems to be tighter than the one I tested on the Medion UMPC (version) the WiFi is strong and with the docking station, it turns it into quite a nice low-end home PC. I’d even argue that the M704 is more suited to netbook-style operations than netbooks themselves as it’s half the size, 75% of the weight and is far, far more fun although that really depends on how much typing you want to do.

Old and new. Gigabyte U60 and Gigabyte M704. Note the control key changes.

In Europe, the pricing seems to be very competitive. Certainly in Germany, if you buy an M705, you’re getting a device that’s more useful than a Q1 Ultra for about 75% of the cost but it’s double the cost of most netbooks here Sure, you get the touchscreen, 60GB disk, XP, Bluetooth and ability to add the GPS and DVB-T modules and docking station, but you’re still paying a few hundred Euros for the extra portability and niche nature of this device. As for U.S. pricing, we’ll have to wait and see what the local pricing is.

Laptop and Accessories
UMPC Laptop
Laptop Notebook
Laptop Carry Cases Bags
Laptop Accessories

Computer Products
Computer Mouse Track Balls
Desktop Memory
Laptop Memory
Computer Speakers
Computer Headsets
PC WebCams
USB Flash Disk/Drive
HDD Enclosures and Storages
USB Hubs
Card Reader

James says we should jump on this and Matt highly recommends we should download it. If you’ve got a compatible device that is! Opera Mobile 9.5 will be available as a public beta for Windows Mobile on the 15th July. Its based on the same browser engine as the desktop 9.5 version which has quite a fast rendering engine. (I had some issues when I tested 9.5 Desktop with javascript-heavy pages recently though. I hope that doesn’t filter through to the mobile version because it will impact a lot of the web applications.) The mobile version also has some nice small-screen and finger enhancements too.

I’ve got an option to test out the HP iPAQ 214, the 275-Euro, 624Mhz, 4″ VGA, Wifi, Bluetooth, Windows Mobile 6 PDA and as before, I’m wondering if Opera Mobile 9.5 would turn it into a MID. It’s not 800×480 but at 275-Euro, it might make a nice pocketable companion device for a feature phone. I think i’ll take up the offer. It might be good to side-by-side it with a MID anyway.

Laptop and Accessories
UMPC Laptop
Laptop Notebook
Laptop Carry Cases Bags
Laptop Accessories

Computer Products
Computer Mouse Track Balls
Desktop Memory
Laptop Memory
Computer Speakers
Computer Headsets
PC WebCams
USB Flash Disk/Drive
HDD Enclosures and Storages
USB Hubs
Card Reader

Thousands and thousands of people been testing the Medion Akoya Mini out for the first time in Germany, Austria and Holland over the last few days and I’m sure there have been quite a few photo galleries, unboxing videos and first impressions. I’m one of those many and as most of the owner-reports will have been in German or Dutch, Iit makes sense that I put my own thoughts out in so that people get a feel for how the UK version might be (there’s no confirmation on this BTW) and how the sister device, the MSI Wind might perform.

I’m going to take it from two angles. First, a general look to see how the device sizes up for the average buyer and secondly, a look at the mobility features which are important to many people reading UMPCPortal. Before I start, a word about the average buyer. It looks like the average buyer will range from young to old, from home to office and from work to play but in most cases I think buyers are computer-literate and realise that this netbook isn’t ideal as a primary computer. I spoke to a Mother of five in the queue at Aldi when I bought it and she was buying one for her son who needs it for studying. I saw a 50+ guy with one under his arm and since I’ve had mine, all the family have expressed interest for different reasons. My brother thinks it might be good as a second, travel-light work PC. My wife also thinks it will be good for her health company presentations and my mother’s eyes lit up when I told her it would connect to a normal monitor and keyboard and that it was more powerful than the big, noisy, hand-me-down she was using to check her emails in the spare room at home! I suspect this profile matches over 90% of buyers and for these users, the Medion Akoya Mini is near-perfect. As for the mobility users and the others (with big fingers or high expectations,) there are major issues. This isn’t an Ultra Mobile PC. Let me take you through my first impressions and you’ll see why.

Laptop and Accessories
UMPC Laptop
Laptop Notebook
Laptop Carry Cases Bags
Laptop Accessories

Computer Products
Computer Mouse Track Balls
Desktop Memory
Laptop Memory
Computer Speakers
Computer Headsets
PC WebCams
USB Flash Disk/Drive
HDD Enclosures and Storages
USB Hubs
Card Reader

JKK knows the Eee PC’s like the back of his hand so if you’re interested in the 901 at all, head on over to his site. He’s got one with him on holiday (!) and plans to start testing and reporting. His first words are:

Battery life is goood.. looks like easy 5 hours on my use.
Eee 901 has the best battery life compared to other netbooks

The question is, is it much better than the Eee PC 900 16G that’s going for $399 on Amazon.com?

Laptop and Accessories
UMPC Laptop
Laptop Notebook
Laptop Carry Cases Bags
Laptop Accessories

Computer Products
Computer Mouse Track Balls
Desktop Memory
Laptop Memory
Computer Speakers
Computer Headsets
PC WebCams
USB Flash Disk/Drive
HDD Enclosures and Storages
USB Hubs
Card Reader

This tickled me. A post on Friendfeed a short while ago…

“As the iPhone begins to resemble and be used like a computer, we will have to contend with challenges like crashing and battery life.” [Steve Rubel]

He’s right. Many people still assume that smartphones have excellent battery life compared to UMPCs. The reality is slightly less exciting if you use both devices for mobile Internet activities on a regular basis.

Apart from having a little giggle, the comment also reminded me to check up on the reported iPhone 3G battery life and compare it with my figures. I came up with an interesting article from AnandTech who have completed a browsing test which resulted in a dead iPhone in just over three hours. That’s much less than the 5-hrs quoted by Apple. It’s not even the most power-hungry test you could do on an iPhone. Try doing some Voip, live tracking or even IM with some music playing in the background and you’ll have a dead iPhone in under 2 hrs. Well, you would if the Iphone would let you run 3rd party background tasks!

3G radios, GPUs, displays are all going to take a lot of power whether they’re on a UMPC or a smartphone. Add 3rd-party software into the mix and you find that if you want the FIE on a regular basis, there’s no substitute for a fat battery!  As I mentioned in a previous article, 10wh is about your minimum battery size for any serious mobile Internet device in 2008 and 2009. The battery in the iPhone is only 5wh (possibly only 4wh according to this article.) 

In perspective, the iPhone 3G is still an impressively efficient device. 1.5W maximum power drain makes it one of the most energy efficient MIDs around and it’s still leading the way in the consumer-oriented market. In 2007 we were seeing best-of-breed UMPCs taking 9W to do similar 3G browsing tasks. Later in 2008, the differential will shrink to just 2 or 3watts and in 2010, the differential will be close to zero but in all cases, you still need that big battery if you need the FIE for long periods between charges. For now, the multi-device strategy still seems to be the best for you pro-mobile users.

Laptop and Accessories
UMPC Laptop
Laptop Notebook
Laptop Carry Cases Bags
Laptop Accessories

Computer Products
Computer Mouse Track Balls
Desktop Memory
Laptop Memory
Computer Speakers
Computer Headsets
PC WebCams
USB Flash Disk/Drive
HDD Enclosures and Storages
USB Hubs
Card Reader