Thoughtfix is obviously desperate for that HTC Shift! He’s put together a list of resellers, prices and availability info which is going to be useful for others.

So far he has the following but if you know of any more, drop him a note in the comments on this post.

• Dynamism (the people with my pre-order). $1499. No release date.
• Clove Technology. £669 + VAT. (with disclaimer) No release date.
• Inkino. £995 + VAT. Expected Oct 1, 2007
• MobilePlanet. $1499. “In October” as per their Forum
• Elite-Electronix. $1449. October 18, 2007
• Negri Electronics. $1898. October 19, 2007
• The Tablet Store. €1199 ($1610 local) Expected early Q4

We know its going to launch at GITEX between the 8th and 10th of September so there’s only a few weeks to wait until all the details will be revealed.

Early on in the Kohjinsha K600/SH6 story we were seeing the A110 800Mhz CPU being listed but when it came to launch, the devices turned out to be using the 600mhz A100 CPU which was a little dissapointing. The 800Mhz devices do exist though and Snave of the MyKohjinsha blog has got his hands on exactly that. Its an 800Mhz version of the Vye PC S37 that I mentioned last month. Again, the screen and keyboard impress but there’s the ongoing problem of 2-hour battery life. I know I know! It could be good enough for some people but I can’t get over the fact that this is the Intel UMD 2007 platform and we should be seeing 3-4 hours battery life. If Kohjinsha can’t produce a device that takes advantage of the McCaslin features then why bother with McCaslin? Do they want Aero that much? I really think that Kohjinsha have some sort of design problem on their hands and I wish Intel would kick them into shape because people are losing faith in Intel’s UMPC efforts right now.  The S37 could be a real HTC Shift alternative if it had the 4 hours battery life, especially if the Shift launches with an 800×480 screen that many people regard as second-best.

As far as the specifications go, the S37 that Snave is testing has the 800Mhz processor, 1GB RAM, 100GB (5400 RPM, 2.5″) drive and the same specs as the other SH6 devices. Thrown into the offer you get a HUGE Vye Computer Advert Logo which is not something I’d like on my UMPC and I don’t think many others will want to see it either. Snave also has an issue with the logo along with a strange SD card and WiFi problem that I don’t see on my SH6. I’m guessing he has a little fault on his hands there. The price quoted is £800 ($1500 direct conversion which would translate to about $1200 local price) which, if it had 3.5 hours battery life wouldn’t be a bad price for a big fast hard drive, great keyboard, best-in-class screen and sub-1KG size. 2-hours battery life is another matter though and will fall short of many peoples minimum requirements. Sure, you could add the extended battery but then you’ve added another 20mm depth and a few hundred grams to the weight.

Whether anyone can actually tell the difference between the 600 and 800Mhz version is anybody’s question. It would take someone that’s don’t a lot of work with the 600Mhz SH6 to be able to tell the difference and to report the real-world effects to potential customers. (hint hint!)

MyKohjinsha blog – Initial impressions of the Vye S37.

Full specifications of the existing (600Mhz) S37 here. 

Quickly. Before I go to bed…I just found this via HongKongPhooey.

Steve Litchfield (AllAboutSymbian) posted a head-to-head review of the HTC Advantage and the Nokia E90 back in April (what!!! Most people haven’t even heard of these devices yet and its August!)  I’m testing the E90 right now (and I’m finding it difficult to let go) and both GottaBeMobile and jkOnTheRun are testing the Advantage.

The result of Steve’s tests is too close to call. The E90 wins in his test but he’s got the Windows Mobile 5 version and hits the same problem as I did when I tested it….

640 by 480 pixels, 5″ diagonal, gorgeously bright, but Windows Mobile 5 interface remains designed and optimised for 320 by 240 pixels, so everything seems over-large

Both devices are incredibly capable. The E90 is the best phone/Internet convergent device I’ve ever tested but if you value the FIE, neither the E90 or Advantage 7500 will satisfy you and I’d recommend dropping back down to a feature phone and buying a UMPC as a companion device.

AllAboutSymbian E90 vs 7500.

Only 30 minutes ago someone asked me to test out the Dreamcast Megadrive emulator on the Everun. Five minutes later I had it up and running. In ten I had posted the first video (thanks to the Nokia E90 and Shozu) and now I’m hooked!!

I tested out Audacity this evening too. It rips live audio streams OK. No hiccups.

The Everun gets better every day!

JKK is a man of few words indeed. Here’s another one of his famous no-bull photo essays and this time he’s showing the SH6 splayed over the desk. You could have seen a similar thing on my own desk today as I took the Everun completely apart to get the LCD panel (Samsung, LED back-lit, 280nits) and Touch layer (unknown, USB connected) details.  

 
I don’t like the look of that hammer!

I had a quick chat with JKK about the Kohjinsha after seeing these pic’s and although JKK had no problems getting it apart, it wouldn’t be something the average user could do. Looking at the images it appears to be built in a similar way to the SA1 which was also a pain to get apart. Replacing the hard drive is possible (160GB being the biggest you can drop into this at the moment) but its a long-winded and difficult process.  Here’s my ‘how-to’ on replacing a hard drive on the Kohjinsha SA1.

More images of the naked SH6 at JKKMobile.

Frank, another UMPC blogger found this… He blogged about it here and called it a ‘European solution.’ He might be right because this year has been a terrible summer. My BBQ rate is down to once a week when it should be at least three times per week! A wind solution would need to be a lot bigger than this one though. According to the designers web page it takes 12 hours of wind to store enough power to charge a mobile phone. Mobile phones run on batteries of about 3 watt/hour. […]

The Vye S18 is also known as the Kohjinsha SA1F00V (I think its that one) which is basically the original Kohjinsha SA1 with a touchscreen, much improved keyboard, 1GB of RAM, a HUGE 120GB hard drive and Windows XP Pro.

What Laptop in the UK have just reviewed it and are quite happy with it…

Don’t come to this machine expecting it to replace your current laptop as it simply isn’t designed to be an everyday machine. Instead, if you find you need the resources of a full operating system and need to write emails or documents on the go, this is a viable alternative.

That’s a totally fair comment but I would definitely add a mention of the 4 hours battery life, fast SD and CF slots, bright screen and tiny size. Although the device has been out for a while its still in the running if you need a mini notebook for inputting data.

I reviewed the original Kohjinsha SA1 when I had it earlier in the year. I gave it the thumbs up then even though it had a sub-par keyboard. With the improved keyboard I definitely give it the thumbs up now. For more detailed info and links to images and news, check out the full specification page on the product portal. Vye PC distribute in the UK and the reseller list can be found here.

There are two excellent reports from well-respected mobile device bloggers out today and both tests focus on performance. Along with the input speed tests, the Hugo meter and the umpc buyers guide these should be on the list of essential reading for anyone new into the UMPC scene.

First up, browser speed testing. Jenn of Pocketables took a clutch of 8 mobile devices and put the browser through speed tests on a number of sites. Not only did she look at UMPCs but she took an iPhone, Mylo,  Pepper Pad 3, Archos and and and… The results are interesting. Take a look at the dedicated sub-UMPC devices and you’ll see that the Pepper Pad 3 really shines. Its the only one that’s running on an X86 platform. (I’ll say no more!) You can see the full set of results and explanation at Pocketables. I will run through a few more of these tests and send the results to Jenn so that she can add to the table. I’ll test the Everun (AMD LX900), Nokia E90 (Ti OMAP 2420), Q1b (VIA C7) and Kohjinsha SH6 (Intel A100.) next week.

Which brings me nicely on to the next test. Frank has taken four mobile x86 processors and put them through a performance test.  I think its a floating point test which is not exactly the VIA C7’s forte but it gives some idea of the relative performance of each CPU. As expected, the….no I won’t give the game away. Pop over to UltraMobilePC-Tips to have a look. Again, I’ll try and contribute to Franks results with the AMD LX900, Intel A100 and Pentium-M at 1.2Ghz results on Tuesday or Wednesday next week although sometimes these results can be misleading. For example, I doubt there’s much floating point mathematics going on in a browser page-rendering engine. (Although someone is bound to prove me wrong in the comments below!!)

In the meantime, here’s another comparison. That’s a normal size notebook PC there!