er! where are they? The UMPC’s on the market are more than capable of being a main office ‘CPU’ but without a docking solution, there’s no way to do it. Here’s 1500,-Euro to the first manufacturer that can meet my specs. Honestly, I will buy it as soon as it becomes available because its exactly what this ultra-mobile working house husband needs!
I still use a 750Mhz desktop at my main office because I’m doing nothing more that writing documents, web browsing, listening to music, some technical drawing work and a bit of low-quality live TV. I’m writing this journal entry on a 900Mhz pentuim III notebook with no problems at all so I don’t see any problem replacing these two devices with a more powerful, more portable PC that just happens to have a 7″ touchscreen built-in!
Jeffrey Graebner found it was possible to use his Tablet Kiosk eo as a main PC but without the docking solution he found the screen and battery life to be a disadvantage. So if I wanted to buy a ultra mobile PC as my main ‘CPU’ (not storage) today, what would I need and what are my solutions? Lets assume I have $1500
The ‘Carrypad concept UMPC‘ was a specification for a home companion PC which specified a ‘reduced’ OS and an advanced 600Mhz processor. For full office life, I think the original Carrypad concept (lets call it the Carrypad Home Companion now) needs to be enhanced slightly up to Carrypad Office Companion specification.
Full destop OS capability (x86 architechture)
1Ghz processor (for some photo editing, audio editing, video cutting and full-capability office applications)
Docking station.
512MB ram (for multiple concurrent applications / Microsoft OS)
40Gb disk
5-7″ screen
Price (complete with dock) under 1500,- Euro
Now I know that a notebook PC would satisfy all that for around 700,-Euro but I don’t need a full keyboard and 12″ screen all the time and I really want to be able to leave a monitor, speakers, mic, USB drive, TV, power connected to a central point so that I can drop the device in and out of docked mode instantly. In addition , I want the ultra-mobility that I’ve already experienced first-hand.
The Microsoft Origami ultra mobile PC and the ultra-mobile tablets are the main contenders here so lets look at whats available:
Tablet Kiosk Eo/Paceblade Easybook – No docking solution available
Samsung Q1 – No docking port.
ECS H70 – Not available outside Asia
Asus R2H – Not available yet
Motion Computing LS800 – Over budget
Sony UX – Over budget. Screen too small.
OQO – Over budget. Screen too small.
I think that covers all the possible solutions but i’m open to suggestions.
So, like the original Carrypad ‘Home companion’ concept, there’s nothing that really fits the Carrypad ‘Office Companion’ concept either.
What I think could be the closest match today is the Paceblade Easybook / TK eo device. We know that there is a dock on the way. We know that there are 6-cell battery solutions on the way and we know that the device can do digital audio and TV-output.
So here’s my $1500 quid Paceblade. If you can offer me a black eo, docking station and extended battery for that price, i’ll order one tommorrow (unless ASUS or ECS or any of the other rumored ultra mobile PC manufacturers beat you to it!)
Regards
Steve / Paine
Steve, the extended battery should be herein a few days according to what I have been told by Tablet-kiosk. The docking station should be here within a month.
What, speifically, are you looking for in a docking station?
There are a number of “universal” USB docking stations available. They may, or may not, however, meet your required specifications.
Do you need PCMCIA slots?; video?; audio input/output connections?
Just curious.
Thanks Ctitanic for the info. I’ve heard similar stories but the resellers can’t confirm anything yet.
r.wildman. Good question and one I discussed with someone last night. The docking station only needs to be a simple port replicator that holds the device in a desktop reading position. PCMCIA would not be needed as USB2.0 covers all my in/out data needs expect ethernet. Analogue interfaces needed are: VGA, audio (spdif would be nice for the eo.) and TV. Important is the ability to quickly grab and go with a running device.
$1500EU? That’s getting into OQO territory. Screen might be a bit small but has the rest of the functionality.
Hi Anon.
Yes. I’ve looked closely at the OQO but apart from the screen being a bit too small, if you add the cost of the adapter cable, the stand its way over budget (2200 Euro if you take tablet edition). Also take into consideration that it can’t do TV-out, runs a Transmeta processor, only has 8MB video ram, has no digital audio capability and has only bluetooth 1.2 I find it a little under-spec compared to an eo.
So what you’re saying is that we need a lovechild between an eo and an OQO then. :)
If the PepperPad3 was just a bit more powerful (1Ghz proc or current with usable mpeg4/divx acceleration) or a bit cheaper ($500 USD) I’d be buying it. For now, I’m just waiting. Not going to be an early adopter this time.
-Josh
Hi Josh.
The form-factor of the Pepperpad is geared more towards home/car situations and for those tasks, I really think it hits the mark there better than anything alse i’ve seen. Lets wait and see what apps get ported to it!
As regards the Carrypad Office Companion, I really think that the eo/easybook are perfect but without a docking solution, I won’t buy one. I’m also interested to see the Mo-bits devices too. With the CX700 chipset it gives you mpeg-4/wmv-9 hardware decoding. (assuming one can find software that supports it!)
Chippy,
If I get a PepperPad, I’ll be porting -everything- to it. Ok, everything I run. :) I’d likely dump an image of the hard drive and then install my own OS including trying to see if XP would work on it.
If the EO had a built in keyboard, it would be fine too. I’m not terribly fond of losing precious screen real estate to a virtual keyboard.
But as I said, I’m holding out for a bit to not get bitten by a buggy expensive product.
-Josh