I’m out on a little tour today and I’m testing out some Geotagging and Google map software. UsingRoboGeoo, a Samsung Q1, a Nokia 6820, a Canon S2IS, and a Garmin Etrex GPS tracker I’ve been able to cycle round Bonn taking pictures and tracking my journey. I’m now sitting in a Biergarten (as you do) and I’ve just downloaded the track, the images and using RoboGeo, have created a Google Maps mashup of the event with embedded photos. Its something I plan to use on the Solar UMPC tour.
Later I’ll edit up the video and post it along with a better explanation of the process. In the meantime, enjoy the map.
Everything is possible! UMPC Geotagging images on maps from a Biergarten.
Now its time for me to finish my beer and head back up the hill. More photos, tracking and tagging on the way.
Samsung have created an in-dash UMPC concept device which looks like its running Windows XP Tablet Edition. This will get CarPC’s completely banned from the highways for sure.
This is not something for you’re likely to see in your local auto shop as its probably part of a tailored solution to be offered to car manufacturers. Note the number of buttons on it compared to a standard UMPC, the web cam and the Intel Core 2 Duo sticker!!!
Hugo Ortega has posted a video of his unboxing of the OQO Model 02 UMPC. This is the ultra-tiny 5″ 800×480 screen VIA 1.5Ghz device. Not only is it one of the smallest UMPCs out there (AND its available with Windows Vista) but its got a very nice, very cool docking station. A video review of the OQO is promised and I’m looking forward to it.
It looks like Hugo has an XP version of the OQO. When will that Vista version be ready? I’m guessing soon because the first ever VIA / Vista UMPC is due here in just a matter of days. The Medion Shop in Germany is showing a delivery time of 7 days.
I’m working on a review of the Q1P but in the meantime, I’ve put together a video overview of the highlights and lowlights of the Q1P. The Q1P is the Pentium version of the Q1, had a 60GB HDD and 1GB RAM. In the video I highlight the CF performance (poor), the ‘mouse’ button, the Bluetooth stack (nice), and some other points that I think its important to point out. Overall I like the Q1P but I really question its value for money. You’ll hear that at the end of the video.
High-Q WMV version available here or watch the Stage6 version below. (You might be asked to install a Divx plugin.) There are also some new gallery images available.
jkOnTheRun have just served up their 6 millionth plate of mobile goodness and are celebrating. Why not! That’s a huge amount of text. At about 240 words per page that’s over 1 billion words served! [maths check someone?]
Enough of the celebrations now. Get over there and grab something because its contest time. ‘Geekapalooza’ is the name of the game. Dynamism, Microsoft, iCube, Verizon Wireless and Vaja Cases are sponsoring the event.
I have no idea how many pages have been served on UMPCPortal but I know one thing, your (pushed) emails are killing the vibrator on my mobile phone. Let it burn!
This project has been in my mind for months now and I’m really happy that its now going ahead. Its a challenge. Its going to be fun and its going to test UMPCs to the limits. How mobile and power-efficient are they? Can you really use one for a week without charging it from the mains? How much energy can you get from the sun? That’s what I’m planning to find out on the Solar UMPC Tour with my sponsor VIA Technologies and my energy-advising solar fanatics, Select Solar UK.
Bike, Tent, UMPC, mobile phone, camera, GPS, UMPC and hopefully, sun, will join me down in south Germany some time in the next 8 weeks for an on-the-road real-life test. During the tour I’ll be continuing to run my business and will be journaling the whole event, flat batteries and all, on a new blog.
The new blog – Solar UMPC – will have all the information about the project and will also be the place where I detail all my planning, research, testing and problems along with photos, videos, maps and Solar UMPC related information and news. I hope to see you over there and as I mentioned in my first post, if you have advise, please let me know. Now if you’ll excuse me for a while, I need to go and buy a bike!
Steve Litchfield, a man who knows a fair few things about Smartphones, has put the Nokia E90 and HTC Advantage together and written up a very good comparison table that should help anyone looking at these two devices.
Nokia E90 and HTC Advantage
For me, its all about the keyboard, the PPI (pixels per inch) and the browsing experience. Steve gives both keyboards 6/10 (although I’d give the E90 an extra point because it looks like it would make a better sofa and bed-surfer,) he doesn’t mention the PPI and on browsers, he says that both devices cant handle flash. I dare say they’d have some problems with many other rich web sites too. Client side processing load is getting heavier these days and nothing in the ARM-processor world seems to be catching up.
Which one would I take? Neither. Both clash with my 3 device strategy of small smartphone (for 24/7 use) UMPC (for rich browsing, video, better text entry, meeting, sofa, bed and mobile desktop duties) and a desktop PC (for data storage, photo/video work, static office, fast text input and content creation.) No space for an uber-smartphone or notebook in my strategy.
Are you using a 2, 3, 4 or even 5 device strategy? Would these devices fit into it?
I recently sold my Kohjinsha SA1 UMPC that had been my mobile companion for about 3 months. It was really an amazing little machine. Fast SD card slot, Excellent WiFi sensitivity, one of the brightest screens I’ve seen on a UMPC and that class-leading battery life of over 4 hours. The keyboard wasn’t perfect and the swivel screen is a bit of a novelty considering it wasn’t a touch screen model but overall it was a fantastic companion.
Data Evolution obviously think so too and have taken it into their product line as the Cathena UMPC. (Is everyone happy that it’s a UMPC now or are we still arguing over that touchscreen element?) I was wondering where I’d heard that name before and when I took a look at the other products I realised why. They are the owners of the very nice Clio NXT design and also recently bought the rights to the AMD PIC, a low cost desktop computing solution. I don’t have the Cathena in the database but you’ll find the same specifications in the Kohjinsha SA1 page along with a gallery and my review.
One other thing to note about the Cathena – they’ve brought the entry level price down significantly. The base model is apparently now a good-value $799 making it the third sub $800 Windows-based UMPC on the US market. If you’re in Europe, the only place I know of to get it is either via Dynamism.com or import from Sarutek via the MyKohjinsha blog.
