Using the method described here, I’ve just tested the Medion / Gigabyte / Tango Wings UMPC keyboard speed. (Feet up on the sofa.)It’s as I suspected, about 0.4 times my normal typing speed.

Here’s the list of UMPC keyboards that I know about so far. Where do you think the Q1U will fit in? Having tested it, I think it will be faster than the Medion but not as fast as my favorite sofa surfing keyboard, the split keyboard on the PepperPad 3.

Can someone with an OQO Model 02 run the same test for me?

1. Full size desktop keyboard – 1
2. Eleksen Fabric Keyboard – 0.6 (chippy) 
3. Kohjinsha  SA1 UMPC (keyboard) – 0.55 (chippy)
4. PepperPad 3 (split thumbboard) 0.5 (chippy) 0.54 (jenn) 
5. Medion RIM 1000 & Gigabyte U60 0.42 (chippy) 
6. Sony UX (keyboard) – 0.37 (jenn)
7. OQO Model 01 (keyboard) – 0.34 (jenn)
8. i7210 + On screen keyboard (TIP) – CE 0.3 (chippy)
9. DialKeys on Samsung Q1 – 0.27 (jenn)

This entry written on the Medion UMPC.

A quick note about some new features I’ve built into the portal today. Firstly, there’s more details on the screens in the UMPCs. People have been asking about light-touch/heavy-touch/digitisers so I’ve added that info to the specification pages. About 60% of the devices have details added now and i’ll add the rest as the information becomes available.

The other change relates to ‘families’ of UMPCs. When you look at the specification page for a device that is either in a range of models from the same family or has a related OEM or branded model, you will see a link in the top-center of the page that, when clicked, will show you the related devices in a comparison window. (You can also use the underlying URL if you ever want to link to a product set in your own article or blog.) I plan to add model variants for the UK, North American, European and Australian markets to start with, For example, there are at least 5 variants of the Samsung Q1 Ultra.in the US so this facility will make it easier to find all members of the family. I’ll add the model numbers to the product overview page in the next few weeks but unfortunately, until I get the JavaScript changed (not my forte!,) the variants will all show up as the same model name.

If you have any suggestions as to how the product pages can be improved further, fire away in the comments below. 

Have a great weekend everyone.

Unfortunately, there’s no indication of the real-life performance of the Fujitsu in this mini hands-on review but there’s a general positive feel (which I’m getting from a lot of reports of the last few days) and some good hints about the keyboard.

The built-in keyboard, though small – a 14 mm key pitch, according to the publicity, with a fairly generous 1.3mm keystroke travel – proved relatively easy to use, even for my fat foreign fingers

There is confirmation that there’s no Bluetooth module and a word or two about sizing.. Apparently the unit ‘slipped handily into my jacket pocket.’ As I said, the reviewer seems fairly positive which is good because I think the Fujitsu UMPC is going to be a UMPC that many people will want to get their hands on. Its gone straight in as the 5th most popular UMPC in the product list. (based on the last 7 days traffic.)

In other news about this device, jkk found an image of the docking station. Its a real docking station with a VGA port, 4 USB ports and an Ethernet port. There’s a few other images there too.

Full details of the Fujitsu UMPC on the U-Series specification page.

Literally, during the time that the last post was posting, I received an email to tell me about a new online UMPC shop. I don’t post about shops unless there’s something to report and so, here’s the report.

The Gigabyte UMPC will be available soon in Europe for 100 Euros less that the equivalent Medion branded version. As I said before, Medion have something to worry about now. Where’s the differentiator? Why should I go to Medion instead of UMPCShop.nl? UK buyers could even hop on a ferry for a weekend in Rotterdam, pick up a UMPC and get home with money left over (Medion want to charge a silly £799 (1170 Euros) in the UK.) As far as I know, PCs are often sold in Holland with English keyboards and OS’s. I’m in touch with UMPCShop.nl and will bring you info on language, European availability and accessory info ASAP. The other thing to report is they’ve broken a new price record for UMPCs in Europe. They are offering the standard ASUS R2H for €759. That’s over 100 less than I’ve seen it for. Is it a special offer or an indication that products are being re-positioned? They’ve also got the Amtek T700, the Nokia N800 (good price) the Raon Digital Vega and the Samsung Q1.

Its nice and encouraging to see more specialist retailers coming online. Especially when they might be able to send me devices to test. Dag UMPCShop.nl!

Some of you asked on the forums to compare the P1610 and Q1 Ultra performance wise. Since the only benchmarks we have are those courtesy of Lazion in CrystalMark, I ran that on my P1610. Keep in mind that my machine has only 512mb ram compared to the Q1U’s 1gb.

As you can see, the P1610 performs two times better than the Q1U according to the program. There you have it. Keep in mind that these are just benchmarks…

Here’s a link to Frank’s Q1U vs Q1 page: Link

It looks like the Gigabyte U60 UMPC is ready to roll and according to some reports, it could be heading towards Europe and America. This was certainly in their plans when I spoke to them at CeBIT in March and it looks even more certain now. Worrying, perhaps, for Medion as they’ve had a lot of delays on their version of this design and are only just starting to ship to customers.

Pocketables reports that the first batch of 500 UMPCs for the local market (Taiwan) will be made available next week and shortly afterwards there will be a global rollout.  It appears that Gigabyte sells mainly through online distribution channels so the price comparison sites are likely to pick this up as soon as it happens. Pocketables also reports the news that they are teaming up with the local telco, Chunghwa Telecom, to provide a 3.5G bundle. Looking at the images provided by VIA I’d say that they are just bundling up a HSDPA USB dongle similar to the one I tested here. Its also not clear if Chunghwa are going to subsidise the U60 like carriers normally do with mobile phones. So far I’ve only seen one second-tier/virtual cellular provider doing this and so if it was being subsidised by Chunghwa, it would be the first example. To me, the acceptance of UMPCs by cellular carriers is a very very important step. At that point you can be sure that production capability is ramped up, 3rd party investment is secured and confidence in the future of UMPCs is there. It also means competition and subsidised prices for the end-user which is always good.

The new UMPC info is a one-liner: “The motherboard maker said it will launch another UMPC model in the second half of 2007.” Keep an eye out at Computex for prototypes or announcements on this one as it looks like they are working closely with VIA. (VIA Technical Forum will take place at Computex, Taipei on the 6th June. New device announcements are expected.) 

Lastly, Gigabyte says that the UMPC market has a chance to reach 2 million units in 2007. Of course it does! There’s a chance someone might drop a cheque for 1 million through my letterbox today as a Fathers day gift! What the chance though? My estimate for 2007 was near 700,000 units and here’s my hyperlinked source! There are some more estimates here and here (not mine I hasten to add but at least Richard Brown of VIA has explained why he supports the 10% by 2010 prediction.) that reach up to the heady heights of 25 million units.

Hyperlink to News Source:DigiTimes

….and it includes a UMPC.

We, the all preaching UMPC community, often talk about mobile usage scenarios and how the UMPC is the most capable and efficient device for the job. Often these scenarios include time and money-saving aspects and prove how the UMPCs can work to make this possible. Today I came across a totally new scenario though and its one that I think could really be one of the killer scenarios of the UMPC ecosystem.

Let me explain. I’ve often talked about accessories and docking stations. I honestly believe that a UMPC can be used as an office PC and that only independent analysts and advisors can promote it because there’s just too much for manufacturers to lose if they suddenly find that they’ve promoted the UMPC to a point where its killing sales of traditional notebooks and desktop PCs. To that end, I’ve prepared a photo shoot of a scenario I think will push UMPCs into the most private corners of a persons life.

Take a look at the following and tell me what you think. Will it light the UMPC touchpaper or am I missing something?

Click here to view the future of personal computing.

Matt Millers ‘year of Linux’ article today reminded me to post something about what’s going on in the Mobile Linux world. I posted last week about some progress with RedFlag (who appear to be close to releasing a useable distro) and the start of an Ubuntu project for a Mobile and Embedded distribution. There’s no more news on RedFlag today but I have been following Ubuntu’s team through their mailing list and Wiki. The main thing I’ve noted is that Ubuntu are really just starting on this and although Nokia and Intel are involved, its going to take a while to get a useable product out. Activity on the mailing list is high but the release schedule runs alongside Ubuntu 7.1 (Gutsy) which isn’t due until October 18th. That means you won’t see it in commercial MID devices until 2008.

RedHat (not RedFlag!) has also chipped in this week with news that they will develop their Sugar GUI for mobile devices. Sugar is the interface used on the OLPC XO machine (One Laptop Per Child) and is already available for download but the announcement at RedHat’s partner summit indicates a long development phase. CEO Matt Szulik said:

“You should not expect we’ll give you a finished product in 15 minutes around the Sugar desktop and Sugar client,” he said. “Customers are at an interesting stage to make decisions about what their next-generation client strategies will look like. “

Interestingly, CRN.com feels that Sugar could be a rival to a possible Google desktop. I’m not sure if CRN realise that both Google and RedHat are major investors in the OLPC project. Its more likely, I feel , that the XO would be stripped down, loaded with a consumer GUI and repackaged into the Google tablet that many people predict. Another thing I note about RedHat is that they don’t seem to be involved with the Intel-led MID ecosystem at all. No Gnome Mobile & Embedded Initiative (GMAE) participation and no Mobile Internet Device Innovation Alliance (MIDIA) participation either. I wonder why? Could it be that one of the other sponsors of the OLPC project is AMD?