Kaz911 has managed to get some hands on time with the HTC Shift (is it at IFA in Berlin today?) He writes some impressions on his latest blog entry.

My initial impressions are that it is a really solid device. Much better than I anticipated. The screen tilt stuff works well and you can position the screen as you like. The screen supports is really only 800 x 480 but supports 1024 x 600 resolution – but at 1024×600 it can seem a bit “muddy to look at”

Check out the post for more info including pricing and availability.

Packard Bell, one of the two companies that have taken the VIA Nanobook reference design, have today launched the Easynote XS.

I guess the announcement was made at the IFA but I’ve picked up the press release from the Packard Bell website. I suspect others have already reported this by now too!

They call it a ‘notebook’ and quote 3-hours battery life with WiFi On which is less than I was hoping for but its 50% better that is competitor, the Kohjinsha SH6. Its running Windows XP home edition, a sensible choice, up to 1GB of RAM and 30GB of HDD. The price is not shown on the press release (PDF) and I can’t find that info anywhere yet.I’ll update when I get a price. I’m expecting it at around the 600 Euro mark. The press release has no info about processor or screen details but I assume its the same as the information we already have.

Have you ever tried going mobile without a mobile phone? Its impossible and will be for some time. A mobile phone is a small, efficient comms device that can be carried 24/7 and as it develops, there’s a lot more to the mobile phone than just voice. As I lie here inside my tent waiting for the Li-Ion battery to charge (looking good today for 4 hours of UMPC energy) I have some time left on yesterdays charge to detail something that I’ve already written about many time and summarised in one of my handful of posts back in Feb 2006. The diagram below shows the smallest device that you can perform certain applications on. For example, email and RSS reading along with IM and microblogging sits perfectly on a mobile phone. Photo editing needs an bigger screen and processor.

Here’s a more detailed breakdown of applications and uses that need to be split between a mobile phone and a portable x86-based computer. A lot of this if obvious but has been confirmed by the way i’ve been using the devices during the Solar UMPC tour.

The challenge for the future is to bring features from the right column into the left column. Some of the won’t fit until screen technology advances to the point where we have roll-out 5″ colour touchscreens. Thats 5 years away at least. Do you have anything that you would add, remove or modify on this list?

This one is worth wasting some battery life over (see Solar-UMPC.com !)

Engadget have just run a story about a new Nokia device. Completely touchscreen!

Announced at Nokia’s GoPlay even this morning so we know its for real and planned for 2008.

The screen dimensions look very wide. Like an E90 screen.

Unfortunately I don’t see any specs but there’s a video available in the Engadget news story. I’ve watched a small segment and it looks sweet. Is it a completely new operating system? Based on Tablet OS or Series 60?

Anyone managed to pick up anything from the video?

Samsung just took the wraps off of their new Deluxe MIT UMPC. This one looks like a new and improved version of the older one they used to show.The design is pretty  innovative, notice how the keyboard folds and has game controls and a touch pad on the other side. Much better then the weird swiveling screen of the predecessor. Shame this probably wont see a release in any other place than Korea.

“SEOUL, Korea (AVING) — Samsung Electronics unveiled its compact UMPC ‘Deluxe MITs(model: SPH-P9200)’ at the Samsung 4G Forum 2007 in Korea market. As a successor model of SPH-P9000, it can connect to wireless internet and VoIP phone via Mobile WiMax. Running on Windows XP, the SPH-P9200 adopts 5-inch touch screen, folding QWERTY keyboard and 30GB HDD.”

[via AVING.NET]

That makes it confirmed. A recent article from the official GITEX newspaper has a quote from Vishnu Vardhan, HTC executive director for the Middle East and North Africa that clearly states they will unveil the HTC Shift  at the upcoming tradeshow. Mark your calendars everyone, September 8th will be HTC Shift day! (Click the image to read the full article.)

[via the::unwired]

Matt Miller has been using the HTC advantage as his primary device for 10 days. Wow! Well done Matt. Using a UMPC for 10 days is one thing but a Windows Mobile 6 device is on a different level!

There are two problems with the HTC Advantage that I see. 1) Its not a phone you can use 24/7 and therefore you will need another mobile phone. 2) It doesn’t give you the FIA. I wouldn’t be able to sit here by the Rhein, write this blog, update my mashup, log into my forum and delete the Russian spam or edit my photos if I had the Advantage and that’s why I’m using a small mobile phone and a UMPC. Matt says in his review that the browser is ‘MUCH better than Internet Explorer Mobile’ but I don’t think that would be good enough for me. Especially in 640×480.

Still, the Advantage has its Advantages and this could be a good inbetweeney device for a log of people. Check out Matt’s review here.

Hugo Ortega has taken some time out of his vacation to provide us with the answers to the HTC Shift questions readers sent him. The article is pretty long so I direct you over to GottaBeMobile. It is a 800×480 screen though. How disappointing :-(.