That might not be cheap enough if you ask us. $500 is not far short of what you’d probably pay for 500 Amtek T700’s with Windows licenses.  Those UMPCs retail for anything up to $1000. The Pepper Pad 3 retails for $630 so I imagine if you buy 500 of those you’ll get them for well under $500.

The H9 UMPC is a Linux based device which isn’t a major problem in itself but it creates a few marketing hurdles and as its RISC-based there will be even more hurdles – software development could remain fairly static unless a community of developers is built. Only Nokia and Pepper Computer have succeeded in creating communities based around RISC-based Linux distros and even Pepper pulled out of that market when they introduced a much more sensible x86 version of their Pepper Pad. Nokia/Maemo still has a very active development community for its RISC platform and we guess that’s largely due to the Internet Tablets unchallenged market positioning and the Nokia brand. If someone dropped an x86 version of the N800 then you’d probably see a speedy gathering of Linux fans and developers following shortly after. Luckily for Nokia, that’s probably not so likely at the moment. x86 brings a lot of size, heat and power requirements.  Only the CoreFusion System On Chip and the low-end AMD Geode processors could enable a Nokia Tablet sized Linux UMPC.

So in a nutshell, unless they’ve done a superb job on developing the software interface, we don’t think this one has got what it takes.

Via Pocketables.

Hugo Ortega has a great new video and I’m totally jealous of him! He got an interview with a Samsung Q1 toting John Garden of the Scissor Sisters. That’s a fantastic band.

I won’t give any of the details away because you should watch the videos. I will mention though that I used the Paceblade P7 as a MIDI sequencer last year and though it would make a superb musicians tool. This is from the Paceblade P7 review. 

Another niche sector that might see advantages with the Easybook is the electronic music sector. The Easybook makes a great portable composition tool and midi sequencer. We tried Cubase VST (an older version of Cubase) and it worked fine. Plug in a USB-midi mini keyboard like the Edirol PCRM1 and you’re away. With an spdif output (hopefully available via a docking solution) it also makes a high quality music playback device. For smaller bands and mobile composers, the Easybook makes a great tool. Watch out for the loud but terrible sounding internal speaker and invest in a good pair of headphones though.

Yeah yeah. I know it sounds like I’m trying to cuddle up to famous musicians all over the world but honestly, I enjoy music and I enjoy UMPCs. There’s a lot to be said about music and UMPCs working together. Having said that, if there are any famous UMPC users reading, please send me some pictures of you using your UMPC and I’ll put them in a gallery and cuddle up to you even more!

Does anyone else feel that these Far-Eastern dictionary designs would make superb UMPCs? More examples here.

This is that latest from Sharp. The RD-9100MP. The specs aren’t interesting but the design is.

Via Aving.

Graham Jones has posted a short report about mobile blogging in meetings and why it doesn’t happen in the UK.  He thinks its because the UK is about a year behind in the adoption of new technology. As an English ultra mobile nutter myself [Kimberly. I think I share the passion of an Ultra Mobile Lifestyle! ;-)] I think I’m qualified to talk about this. So I will.

Graham is right. The UK is behind but I think it has more to do with just availability of the technology. It appears to me that there’s two other reasons that need to be considered. Firstly, there’s the incredible cost premium that the Brits have to pay on their tech. I’m an Englishman that lives in Germany. Every time I go home to visit I’m shocked at how much the average Brit is paying for marketing. You can walk into any shop and have a wonderful experience (the UK supermarkets are, in my opinion, the best in the world for enjoyment – I love ’em!) but my God you have to pay for it. Everything from beer to PC’s is marketed through the roof and consequently the prices float much higher. I’ve just written about the shocking cost of the Medion UMPC in the UK. This is a classic example from the tech world. Its Rip-off-Britain again. [I’m beginning to feel like a real journo now.]

The second point is that Brits are just a little too shy to do something different and to stand out. Taking a Tablet PC into a meeting could be seen as showing off, as one-upmanship or simply as a target for joke comments which the Brits are extremely good at dishing out. (Piss-Taking is the technical term here I think!)  Brits are a little bit too polite to do something that might be considered out of the ‘circle of acceptance.’

So unfortunately, the UK market is always going to be slow. Germany is similar. Change doesn’t occur quickly here (which is one of the reasons I love this place. They still have independent bakeries and butchers and little corner shops.) The only markets I know of that are slightly different are the Swedish, Finnish and Dutch markets but there’s not enough people there to really make manufacturers sit up and take notice.  The end result of all this is that I suffer. I can’t get devices. I have to pay more money and I feel like a weirdo when I video myself blogging in hotel grounds at -6 degrees with an Ultra Mobile PC. Ok. I deserve that last one!

Brits need to start demanding less packaging, less advertising and simpler distribution chains. Get out there and try new stuff and don’t be afraid to whip it that old tablet out in your next meeting!

There’s always room for one more N800 review. The N800 is a device we like, especially as the price of Microsoft UMPCs seems to be heading north since CES and Nokia seem to be one of the few manufacturers who are working from the bottom up rather than Vista down.

Spicy Gadget Roll has a lengthy review up with some good images and videos and comes to similar conclusions as others. The main negative points are that flash performance needs to improve (its highly possible that it will in future releases of the operating system) and that video support is lacking. (Canola to the rescue?)

New observations for us are that the speakers are great: “Nokia put a lot of love into these speakers, they are ridiculously good.” and  that you can leave the device in an active standby mode (WiFi on) and get huge battery life: “When left connected to a WiFi access point with display off, I got roughly 10.5 hours“

It would be a 10/10 review but we have to take one point off for technical accuracy. Thoughtfix proved that you can plug 2x4GB SD cards in the N800 for 8GB storage joviality.

Thanks to Spicy Gadget Roll.

List of Nokia N800 reviews.

“Rip-Off-Britain” is an oft-used saying by journalists in the UK. Its time for Origamiportal.com to use the term too. Stand by.

In the US, the Medion UMPC is being sold for $1000. In Germany, its getting a 30% price premium but in the UK its going on sale for a unnecesary $1572 (£799) that’s 57% more than in the US and double what Arima, the OEM, were expecting. 

This is just anoother example of Rip-Off-Britain [we feel like proper journalists now – ed.]  If Arima where expecting them to sell for $800 then they’re probably knocking them out for $700 to Medion. The average markup on a US consumer notebook PC is around 5%. We expect the markup for UMPCs is something like 25% but can someone please tell us why Medion expect to slap what appears to be a 100% mark-up on the unit in the UK.

In addition to this sneeky move, Medion have also decided not to mention the docking station, just like in the US. In fact on the German website, where the docking station was previously listed, it has been removed along with the Nero DVD software package. So not only do they want to charge Europeans between 30% and 57% more but they’re not even going to throw in the docking station. That’s just a kick-in-the-nuts too much. Is anyone going to buy a UMPC that’s got DVDMaker and WindowsMovieMaker blocked, appears not to be able to play videos though Origami Experience and Windows Media Center and doesn’t include the Docking station.

Our advise is to the Brits is to think about a shopping weekend in New York and make contact with someone over there through the forums! Send a postcard to Medion and VIA while you’re there.

I’ve been in bed for the last three days with something nasty and about the only thing I’ve done is use the Pepper Pad 3 to check email and Bloglines. They should sell these things to hospitals!

It doesn’t look like there’s been much news though. A RISC-based Linux Pad seems to be about it. Personally, I’ve been mulling over the Vista-on-UMPC question. Its just not worth it at the moment and I wish the manufacturers would concentrate on XP and the OS for the next 18 months. If they don’t, the prices of UMPCs will continue to rise. I’m totally in agreement with Thoughtfix

One other thing before I drug-up again, 1024×600 on the Kohjinsha – which I’m using now because the Pepper Pad doesn’t have any offline blogging tools – is very very good. The Geode appears to be much better than the Intel devices at running non-native resolutions. I’m now convinced that a 1024×600 native res on a 7″ screen is the way to go.

Steve

 Remember this one?

The PMG Quadpad / Paceblade P8 / Akori Ak8  / Press Digital C1 (phew!) got some airtime more than once last year as people re-discovered it thinking it was a UMPC. At the time it was already over a year old and ran a VIA C3 processor. It was close but not really up to that standard of other UMPCs around at the time.

This 8.4″ 4:3 format touchscreen Ultra Mobile is aimed at industrial applications but with all those buttons, it could do a pretty good job as a carputer. The extra vertical space will really help a lot of apps and provides space for an on-screen keyboard.

So where, were we? Oh yes. It got an upgrade to a C7-M ULV processor bringing it up to UMPC 2006 spec – still very useful for XP users. The CPU upgrade isn’t showing on many suppliers websites but Paceblade have already updated theirs.

The Carrypad data sheet has been updated to reflect the new info.