Its a bit difficult to tell what’s going on here as there’s no information and no indication as to how long this has been up but I’m guessing its pretty fresh. Has anyone seen it before?

The image is on the front page of the Averatec France, German and Dutch sites next to what translates as ‘We’re working on new products.’ The image gives us a clue that the UMPC they were working on will take the same form as the original prototype that impressed a lot of commentators before it was delayed. The new target timeframe for launch was Q1.

Averatec have told us by email today that the product is not yet available. A one-liner that at least confirms that they are still working on it!

Fingers crossed for yet another UMPC choice in March. 

What’s the point of this? It should be a UMPC docked in there, then you wouldn’t have to have an ugly trail of cables leading to a noisy old desktop PC.  My solution is on the right, looks better, costs less, is ‘grab-n-go’ capable.

Ah the wonders of wood-grain and glass tables for lifestyle tech photography!

To all UMPC designers: Please think about grab-n-go. The docking station enables low-end desktop replacement which means new markets which means new money. You can also put PCI-express in a docking station (frustratingly, the i7210, i7209 already has it but it only extends to the PCB.)which means external GPU gaming goodness. Even just breaking out a PCI-express slot might be good enough if you have one of these.

Via Aving.

That’s a horrible title. Sorry! What I mean is, “RISC vs x86. Does Intel have an answer?” But I don’t like question marks in my titles.

As has been mentioned before, the RISC/X86 race is something that will be important for consumer-grade UMPCs. If the software development teams can move forward fast enough, they might reach the level of browser capability needed to satisfy people looking for Web2.0 type support. On the other hand, if someone can get the power requirements of a PC (x86-based solution) down to sub 5W drain levels in a reasonable price bracket then very little software development work will be needed. Desktop OS’ will plug straight in.

VIA and AMD have their low-power range but Intel seemed to be concentrating on a slightly different balance of low power and capability. Their ULV solutions for 2007 don’t appear to be the solution for even sub 10W UMPCs but 2008 could be different. There’s the ‘1/10th power’ CPU and the Tolapai System on Chip solution. There’s also the sub-Pentium CPU that was mentioned by Samsung

Maybe Tolapai or the ‘Sub-Pentium CPU’ is what this article is referring to. Intel’s Paul Otellini talks about a new chip (not a CPU.) CNN reports that “The chip will meet the demanding power, space and performance requirements of handheld devices and will be available later this year.”

Paul also says:

“Virtually every computer and handset manufacturer is struggling to figure out how they’re going to compete with Apple’s iPhone,” Otellini said. “If we get the power and performance [of the Intel chip] right, it’s going to be a killer combination.”

The iPhone concept of desktop OS on small device is exactly what we’re talking about in the race between low-power RISC architectures and desktop x86 architectures. If Apple have already enabled Web2.0 on RISC then everyone else has to work hard in the next 12 months to catch up with Apple. Opera 9 with Flash Mini integration could be one sticky-tape solution but tighter integration is needed for long term customer satisfaction.

Its a question I’m ready to put to Intel next week. I don’t expect a straight answer but if I ask the right questions and give it enough thought, maybe I can deduce the answer.

Via ilounge

Holy sweet mother of…..Engadget got the scoop on a new Samsung Q2. I’m just trying to digest it. Wheres the mouse button?

Keyboard! Mouse Button!

I’m tracking everything on the datasheet here

It looks fantastic. What a spec list. Its totally unconfirmed and pricing is unknown but fingers crossed for a CeBit 2007 launch. Keyboard a-la Pepper Pad could be a real winner. Mouse button is included (was missing from the Q1) and there are images showing a docking station. Processor and GPU specifications unknown. 300nits screen and 4 hours battery life.

This is just a quick test to see if I can blog from the bus with the Kohji.

A quick image:

All seems fine.

I’m off to T-Mobile to set up an HSDPA contract.

Steve.

James Kendrick has made a 20 minute video overview of the new Vulcan Flipstart. In the video he shows the secondary display and thumboard and talks about 4 or 5 hours battery life which is impressive and explains why the total weight of the unit is over 800gms. The battery must be over 30W/hrs for that sort of life.

I like the window zoom facility, it offsets my worries about the PPI (pixels per inch) being too high. I calculate about 210 PPI which is about the same as the Raon Digital Vega at native resolution. The Sony UX is much tighter. over 250PPI which, in my opinion, is too much.

So what about availability outside the U.S? Is there a CE (European Conformity) sticker on it James? Can you ask Vulcan if they will support other radio types? And of course, please try and confirm pricing. $2000 is sounding pretty expensive considering there are other Pentium-based UMPC options out there. In fact, if I just tap into the new comparison engine here (which is going to be launched tomorrow) I can bring up the other Pentium-M options. Here’s a screen-shot of the comparison (click to view.)

As Pocketables commented yesterday, its pretty funny that the Flipstart website still shows a teaser and the invitation to ‘be the first to know.’ I know from my site stats that quite a few thousand people already know about it. Psst. Don’t tell Vulcan. The website is open now.

Vulcan Flipstart specifications with gallery and news links is now available.

Vice President of Corporate Marketing for VIA, Richard Brown has a personal blog over at Brown Knows (geddit?) and if you’re following VIA’s UMPC (they like to call them UMDs) progress its a good place to pick up the latest news. Richard posted his brief thoughts (in two parts)on segmentation of the UMPC market which gives us some clues, perhaps, as to how VIA might see the market. I’m reluctant to say that this is VIA’s view of course because this is Richards blog, not VIA’s. Read on…

This is the start of a new phase for PMPs. People are actually starting to ask about full Internet browsing capabilities on PMPs.

The Archos 704 WiFi is a high-end PMP/PVR that’s rumored to be released on March 16th. [update: There’s a rumor that it will be announced today – 6th March.] There’s a 7″ 800×480 touch screen, 40GB hard drive and WiFi on board. The OS is tailored for the device and the pricing is rumored to sit between $550 and $750 dollars. This is the kind of device that could really capture the consumers interest but not if it doesn’t support Ajax, Flash and Java as is being reported. That really cuts out all of the web-based application sites and limits you to on-board applications. So far, the only device at the price bracket that I’ve seen handle media and full Internet well is the Pepper Pad 3. Unfortunately the design of the Pad 3 isn’t really targeted at the Uber-PMP crowd. Maybe they should re-design it into something smaller (5.6 or 6.5″ 800×480 screen would be my choice) and take away the keypads and provide them as optional plug-in wings.

Its going to be quite a race between x86 and RISC-based consumer devices. On one hand you have full desktop PC capability but a high technical spec requirement and on the other, you have sub-optimal applications on a highly power-efficient hardware platform.  One of my main thoughts today on this topic is about software development. Who’s interested in developing software for low-end x86 UMPCs? Who’s interested in developing software for high-end smartphones, PMP’s, and navigation devices? I guess there’s more manpower in the latter.

 Update: Engadget says that the 704 is official and will sell for $549 (80GB)