I’ve been upsetting all sorts of people today as they try and finish off their stands. At one point I tripped over a bit of carpet and ripped it up off the stand. They weren’t happy but its OK. They didn’t sell anything with a screen res of below 10″

By the time I found the Beijing Peace East Technology Development Co. Ltd crew I was feeling sorry for everyone. It was getting late and all of them had a lot of work to do. That didn’t stop me asking about the H9 though. Apparently its going to mass production at the end of the month.

Here’s a few snaps of the brochure. I don’t think there’s anything new in there. I’ll go back and hassle them on Friday I think.

More info on the H9 in the product database.

Take a look at this….

I think its a pre-production sample of a VIA-based UMPC. It was sitting in the industrial PC section of the ASUS display but what I found really interesting were the specs.

The 3.5W quoted there is a typical VIA C7 specification and that tally’s with a VIA-based UMPC rumor that’s been going around.

I like the design (it would be a step-up from the Kohjinsha.) It doesn’t look very industrial either! Its on the list for further investigation.

A few more images in the gallery

This seems like logical progression to me. Digital Cube are working on a UMPC, it will be consumer focused and will run the AMD Geode processor. I’ve just had a chat with them and they’re obviously in the early stages because they’re still looking for design input from customers. Tomorrow I will see a mock-up of the device and try and convince them to include a slide out thumboard.

I got one finger press before security kicked me off the stand. I managed to get some pictures though.

More images in the gallery.

The keyboard is nice. Smaller than the Pepper Pad 3 but with a lighter (better) action. There’s about 20 demo devices, some gaming setup and a lot of security people!

3G data connectivity seems to work up to about 100km/h but above that it pretty much unusable. As we come into stations I’m connecting up and using Google blogsearch to pick up the latest news. So far I don’t see anything about UMPC’s.

The train carriage is full of people using 15″ and 12″ notebook PC’s but I think I’m the only one with a PC and a drink on my seat -tray one the few able to get online every now and then.

I expect to be arriving at about 12:30 (in about 3 hours) where I am supposed to meet with a film crew for the German national TV station ZDF. They called me and asked to film the ultra mobile Internet reporting kit so I hope everything works smoothly!

Most of the readers here can probably skip this post!

Ref ECS H70 UMPC: its not new!  I’m just taking the mickey out of the websites that didn’t do their homework when they reported that the H70 was a new UMPC. Unless I’m hugely mistaken, the H70 was actually one of the first ever UMPCs to be announced. Well, at least we all know who to follow for UMPC news now don’t we!

So, as promised, here’s the H70 review, specifications and gallery and I have to say, its still a great UMPC with one of the best docking solutions around.

Next stop CeBit where, apart from the Q2, something quite exciting is going to be happening tomorrow.

Direct from the Origamiproject (ooh guys. You really should change that name ;-) ) forums:

Hi all, I emailed the Averatec sales department and here is their reply:

Our Ultra Mobile UMPC has been pushed out until Q3

This could be the longest pre-launch warm-up in the history of UMPC’s.

Thanks Jerry.

Why don’t Samsung ever give people information directly? I’ve just looked to check for new devices on my local comparison engine and there, staring me in the face, are 18 online resellers offering the VIA C7 based Q1b with HSDPA support. Or should I say, the Samsung Q1B Pro 770 Barto HS (NP-Q1BV001/SEG.) Samsung, your naming is getting stranger and stranger.

The device has been listed for 6 days now and the price is sitting at a minimum 1270 Euro. One supplier has even dared to give a delivery time – 5th April 2007.

Remember that this has the LED-backlit version of the Q1 screen and battery life runs easily into the third hour. Some of the specifications mention the Intel GMA900 GPU but I’m guessing that’s an error. I thought the C7 only had VIA V4 bus available which means VIA chipsets only. I could be wrong though.

• 7″ WVGA SuperBright Touchscreen Display, 800×480.
• 1024 MB DDR2-RAM
• 60 GB HDD 1.8″

1300 Euro isn’t bad for a full HSDPA-equipped PC. Consider that the Windows Mobile 5 HTC Advantage is 900 Euro and that the Flybook V33i broadband and P1610 are near the 2000 Euro mark. 1300 is a very good price and as a knock-on effect, the original 60GB/1024MB Q1 price has dropped by 100 Euro. I wonder if we’ll see this appearing in T-Mobile/Vodafone shops at a subsidised price with a 24-moth HSDPA contract. I guess we’ll find out from the Samsung stand at CeBit tomorrow.