At some point in the future, the PMP has to merge with an important element of the Ultra Mobile PC, namely, the browser. TV/IP services are becoming too important to ignore and anyone who focuses their product at over-the-air broadcasts is going to miss out on ‘world wide TVnet.’ and the advantages is brings to the consumer and the supply chain. The browser will become a critical part of TV just as it is a critical part of the UMPC.

The size and technology of PocketPC, UMPC and PMP devices are overlapping now (Nokia N800 Digital Cube I-Station S43 Raon Digital Vega Uren V1 Sharp EM One) and the wireless technology is here. All that is needed is a few compelling services to choose from and a reasonable data plan similar to Three’s X-Series in the UK (which sadly, doesn’t allow tethering.)

How about Joost? We’ve seen the technology running on UMPCs and just a few days ago, the Joost organisation announced that they had struck a deal with Viacomm. (MTV, Paramount Pictures.) Catchplay is another one to take note of although it hasn’t actually launched yet. This one is interesting becuase VIA and HTC are behind it.

Next week in London, the IPTV World Forum takes place and there’s a huge number of carriers and providers listed in the speakers list. Not many end device manufacturers though and no sessions on ultra mobile devices which is a real shame. Put a set top box in someone’s hand and you can give them ads or sell them content more of the time. Are they all expecting the mobile services to only work on a mobile phone? Its possible but I think people are going to be captivated when they see these services running at on a 5″ screen. Its going to carry a huge amount of Wow and when combined with the sale of data services, maps and bundled with a high-end browser and media player you’ve got a very impressive platform.

Interesting exhibitors from the exhibitor list:

• Tatung. (Remember the Tatung ‘UMPC’.)
• Divx. (Their Stage6 Divx content site works really nicely with the LX800-based UMPCs. Here’s a demo I made using the Pepper Pad.)

The Joost team do not appear to be taking part in the forum or expo. You can bet they’ll be there though.

Here’s a nice question: Would you hand over your browsing history and GPS co-ordinates in exchange for free ad-supported mobile TV?

VIA are promoting the VN896 Direct-X9 capable chipset for the C7-M as a solution for ‘Ultra Mobility’ on their website at the moment. Interesting.

I’m not aware of any devices using this chipset yet but I get the feeling we’ll see something soon. Vista drivers are already available (and recently updated here.)

It will be important to keep a sharp eye out for devices at CeBit and to try and find out what sort of power envelope the part has. Unfortunately, despite the Direct-X 9 support, the chipset doesn’t enable Aero (as far as is known) but because of the Vista drivers, it gives hope that the Video experience is going to be improved through the use of the on-board Mpeg2/4/WMV9 hardware decoders. The other minus-point for the chip is that its not an integrated north/southbridge like the VX700 integrated chipset. Board designs using this would be bigger than with the VX700.

Launch article here.

I like reading the reviews at Pocketables. Jenn takes a slightly different tack than we do with our reviews here and often comes up with a slightly different focus.

This review of the Kohjinsha SA1 is no different because where I didn’t find the keyboard issue too much of a problem, Jenn finds it a major issue saying that it doesn’t even justify the bulk it adds. The keyboard is, to be frank, pretty crap considering that this is 2007 and the book about basic keyboard engineering must have been written over 20 years ago. It could be so much better but you have to carefully consider and weigh up the advantages of having an ultra mobile device like this against a bigger, heavier device (assuming you need a keyboard) because there is no other option out there at this size and weight. You also need to consider how long you actually need to type for. This article, for example, will take 5 minutes to type and another 5 minutes to format, add image, spell check, post, preview and go live. The typing part is 50% of the time taken and if I use the Kohjinsha, that would take another 5 minutes (The typing speed on the Kohji is around 50% that of a normal keyboard.) It would add 30% to the time to make a blog but to be honest, there are many situations where I’d be happy to type for an extra 5 minutes just to be able to have the extra hour battery life, minimal size and sub-KG weight. Its a trade-off that part of every UMPC purchase decision. The only way to come to a conclusion is to read read read! Read Jenn’s review here and go though some of the other reviews and opinions available through the ‘river of links.’

Now you’re listening aren’t you!

We’ve been discussing a UMPC meeting in the forum over the last week and although it doesn’t look like we’ll mirror the great success of the UMPC and Tablet PC meet-up at CES, there will definitely be a good showing of devices.

Fujitsu P1610, Tablet Kiosk i7209, Amtek T700, PepperPad, Kohjinsha SA1, Raon Digital Vega, N800 (if I can get it fixed in time!) and possibly a ‘secret device.’ The meeting is open to manufacturers, designers, bloggers, resellers, journalists, product managers…well actually anyone that has an interest in seeing and talking UMPCs. I’ll also be celebrating the launch of UMPCPortal.com (if it all continues to plan) and will be happy to sponsor that lovely German beer for the evening.

We’ll meet on the 16th March (Friday evening) in a place yet to be decided. 2000hrs is the planned meeting time. Exact location to be announced.

If you’d like to come along, please enter your details in this forum thread and enable notification (at the bottom) so you get all the updates.

Here’s a blog to watch if you’re interested in Ultra Mobile PC’s. Wendell Wenjen is a “product development manager of ultra-mobile consumer electronics devices at a large Silicon Valley semiconductor company” and his blog is nicely focused on consumer product marketing and Ultra Mobile PC’s. I wonder which large Silicon Valley company he works at. Well, seeing as this blog entry talks exclusively about his products that appeared on the Intel Ultra Mobile Computing stand at CES, I think we can safely make the obvious assumption.

“I’ll continue to add more comments about these and other devices as they get closer to introduction.” he says. This is an interesting statement considering Intel don’t sell consumer electronics products. I assumed that these UMPCs were technology demonstrators but maybe Intel have sold the designs to a manufacturer. I’m all ears and will be looking out for Wendell and his devices at CeBit in a few weeks with the following questions in hand:

• Why are Intel, chip technology experts, making UMPC products?
• When can we expect to see the next wave of ULV Core 2 Solo processors in UMPCs?
• Is Tolapai going to develop further into something that can be used in UMPCs?
• Operating Systems on RISC processors (for example XScale that you sold to Marvel) are advancing at quick pace. Symbian Series 60 and Windows Mobile 6 and Maemo are good examples. At some point in the near future the functionality of these mobile operating systems is going to satisfy most consumers looking for mobile computing solutions and bring battery life, size and weight advantages that x86 systems will not be able to match. Where will Intel position its . [This is a question I ask myself time and time again. Windows Mobile, Symbian and Maemo will enhance over time to bring better end-user functionality on a fit-for-purpose hardware architecture. Windows Vista is stuck with an 8GB HDD, 1GB memory, and x86 processor requirement in a market where battery technology improvements are not filtering quickly enough through to end devices.]

In other Intel-related news today, Engadget talks about the Intel Crestline GPU. This is part of Santa Rosa which is due soon. Unfortunately, the first version of the device is nothing that can be used in UMPC’s and ULV CPU’s that are able to use these chipsets won’t be available until late 2007. For the time being, the most important Intel development we need to keep an eye on is Ultra Low Voltage Core 2 Solo processors. U2100, U2200 and the Celeron M 523 which are scheduled for Q3. This brings me to a correction I need to make on a previous article I wrote which talked about 1.6 and 1.7Ghz low power processors. Having just done some more research I’ve found out that the Celeron M 520 and M 523 (1.6 and 1.7Ghz) CPU’s are not ULV processors that can be used in UMPCs. Apologies to those that were getting excited about 1.6Ghz UMPCs!!!

UMPC CPU 2007 update. (with correction)

The docking station and Pentium-M processor hint at something a bit more than the average UMPC, something that could justify the extra cost. Connect a keyboard and screen, just as you would with a normal PC or docked notebook and the Tablet Kiosk i7210 transforms itself nicely into a full-format system. Does it have the power to perform in both ultra mobile PC and MiniPC scenarios? I’ve had the i7210 for a few weeks now and have explored just about every angle.

The smallest notebook PC in the world, the most energy efficient and the quietest also has the lowest CPU clock-rate

This is getting silly. At Christmas, my ‘desktop’ i7210 UMPC stopped working. Earlier this week I dropped the Kohjinsha and killed the hard drive and today I’ve just killed a Nokia N800. As I went to put it down on my desk it slipped from about 10cm high. I didn’t even consider it a problem until I turned it over and saw the faded, almost colour-inverted image on the screen. I’m so annoyed. It does proves one thing though, UMPCs are fragile and a slightly rugged UMPC is clearly something that needs to be near the top of the list when making a choice. The trouble is, there aren’t any in the sub $2000 bracket. Roll on the TabletKiosk v7112XT.

Now seems like a good time to mention the Boxwave Flexiskin that Ctitanic took a look at over on Ultra Mobile PC Tips.

Update: Before I even sent this post, my Wife called to tell me her notebook screen has broken. Is there some sort of sunspot activity this week?

TGIFriday.