I’ve just had the European price for the HTC Shift confirmed. The Tablet Store, an authorised HTC Shift reseller in Munich, Germany, has told me that the price they’ve posted today is based on real pricing and not just guesswork. How does 1199 Euro sound? It sounds pretty damn competitive to me and Samsung might have to rethink their pricing structure, especially for the Q1b HSDPA and Q1 Ultra HSDPA models. The TabletStore are gearing up for a late October / Early November availability of the HTC Shift but we know how these things go don’t we! US customers should expect to see similar pricing in dollars and availability at around the same time but that’s just my estimate.

 For official launch date, look to GITEX in Dubai. I’ve had a couple of tip-offs on this and have made enquiries on the back of it. HTC and at least one of their big distributors will be there and I think through the feedback I’ve had, one of those ‘well I can’t say you’re wrong…’ type of answers, I can safely say that the HTC will launch between the 8th and 10th of September. The other launch option is one week later at the Intel Developer Forum but there’s no indication that HTC will be there.

Regarding the unknown screen resolution issue, it seems that no-one knows for sure. All the way up the reseller line through the distributor and back to HTC, no-one is giving an answer. Maybe the screen resolution specification is still to be decided. Even if Hugo Ortega gives us the detail from the prototype he had, it might not be the final spec.

All the specs we have so far are in the product database. Follow HTC Shift news as it happens through this RSS feed.

Nokia E90, Nokia 6280, Everun UMPC in pockets.

Samsung Q1, Everun, portable PC!!

Aving have published some photo’s of the latest incarnation of the Samsung SDI fuel cell which is supposed to be able to run a laptop for 30 days. (8 hours per day, 240 hours at, lets say, 20W average is near 5KW/h. Wow!) Unfortunately its nearly as big as a small UMPC and there’s no real details about what’s inside it. I don’t want to sound negative but having looked at the Samsung SDI fuel cell website it looks complex (expensive) and physically bulky. Its going to be a long time before it gets down to consumer prices and even longer for it to reach UMPC battery sizes. Don’t think that bigger battery power is going to give you higher processing capability either because heat dissipation in the silicon is a problem regardless of how much battery life you have. Battery friendly operating systems and components are the key for the next few years at least.

Mind you, if it proves worthwhile for a notebook PC then it might kick the battery industry into speeding up research. I always have the strange feeling that they don’t really want to increase battery too quickly life due to the rather bad effect it would have on their profits. Call me skeptical Steve!

More images over at Aving.net

Yesterday the HTC Shift. Today the Fujitsu U1010. Hugo is working very hard this weekend.

I’ve just finished watching the video and updating the product page and have some notes to share here. The thing that strikes me first about the U1010 is how much case volume there is for so little screen. In addition, the screen is so small and the resolution so high that test visibility could be an issue. Especially as this is a device form factor that lends itself to desk use. If you look at the Everun’s screen you’ve got a 4.8″ diagonal but only an 800 pixel wide screen. The U1010 is only a little bigger in terms of screen space but has smaller pixels. 211 PPI. No as much as the Sony UX but still, very high.  Specifications-wise there are no surprises apart from one big one. A heavy touch screen. And a car adaptor. Question mark. How’s that going to work because you can not use your finger on the screen and there’s no way you want to be getting the pen out or using a keyboard while you’re driving. Seems very strange to me. The mounting unit is HUGE too. Wouldn’t actually fit in my car. I guess we’re talking lorry, bus and taxi here.

One thing I noted is that Hugo called devices running on the A110 processor ‘sluggish.’ Yes, compared to a UMPC running windows XP Tablet Edition on a Pentium-M, they are sluggish. This will also apply to the HTC Shift too and I really wish OEM’s wouldn’t let their marketing departments decide on the OS although in this case, with the tiny heavy touch screen it is going to get all the help it can get so maybe Vista is the right choice.

Personally I think the U1010 is too big and too small at the same time. The package is too big for a  pocket therefore you will have to carry it in a bag. The screen is too small for a 1024×600 resolution. Why not trade up to the 7″ screen and fuller keyboard of the Kohjinsha SH6 (lets assume they finally complete an 800mhz version of the SH6 and fix the battery life. There are rumors…) or the VIA Nanobook (buy two!) or the HTC Shift if you need HSDPA. The U1010 isn’t actually that small if you put it side my side with other devices. Look at a size comparison. Mind you, if you want good pen input on a mini convertible UMPC, this is the one!

About the battery. Hugo says its a 2.5 hours device. That’s not bad although I have heard reports of 2 hour WiFi-on battery life. I wasn’t expecting a long battery life on this device anyway as its only got a 19W/hr battery. That’s 0.6 of the capacity of the battery on the Q1 Ultra although 4 times the capacity of the battery on the Nokia E90 – a reminder that UMPCs still have a long way to go on improving battery life. Mind you, this is a mini tablet PC. If you want a good mini inking device, this is the one!

Like the Kohjinsha SH6, this one could be a good choice for digital photographers and mobloggers although you’re going to need an extra battery which is going to make it much bigger. Maybe it will find a home in some student situations. For note-taking and then slinging it onto a backpack its got huge appeal but the cost could be a major issue. And of course, those that value the design and size over other features will obviously go for it. The biggest user-set that I can think of though is…the inking fans. Actually, people that want keyboard AND ink in one device. Like on the P1610, good quality inking to be the main attraction here unless you just have to have the smallest notebook PC in the world!

Check out the GottaBeMobile Fujitsu U1010 video in full.

I’ve been looking forward to this. Matt Miller and James Kendrick have been using the HTC Advantage 7501 this week and have had a great discussion about it on the Mobile Tech Roundup podcast about the device. ‘Incredibly useful’ said James. ‘This could serve as a UMPC’ said Matt.

I’m wondering how different the 7500 and the 7501 is because I was underwhelmed by the HTC Ameo (7500) when I tried it for 30 minutes earlier this week. You can’t hold it by the keyboard. The browser is terrible (No Opera as default on the Ameo) and the screen fonts look really fat and clunky. It doesn’t look very nice either because the 4:3 screen is a very old looking size ratio. I admit though that I didn’t get a chance to try out GPS and the whole world of great 3rd party apps that exist for Windows Mobile. The ViewFlow and 8GB Microdrive would make a difference too along with the 624Mhz processor and graphics co-processor. Mmm. Maybe I need a second test!

Its actually quite funny because I’m having a great time with the E90 so here we are, UMPC and TabletPC fans having a lot of fun and productivity with devices that don’t fall into either category! I’ll be writing up my thoughts about the Nokia E90 in the next couple of days but in the meantime, listen to the MoTR podcast here.

HTC Advantage 7500 specs here. 

Hugo is right, the HTC Shift is an extremely significant device in the UMPC story. It’s also a significant device in the PocketPC story too which I wasn’t really expecting. If you haven’t watched the GottaBeMobile video, do so now! It looks as gorgeous as it did when we first saw it presented at IDF. Smooth lines, good finish and great symmetry. There’s no way you’d know that it houses a full keyboard from looking at it either. Its so slim. Wonderful. I want one ASAP.

I’ve just spent an hour going back and forth through the video and have a large number of thoughts and questions which I’ve put down here as a reference. The main question I had as I went through the video was about the native resolution. Having watched the video and read Hugo’s comments on the GottaBeMobile blog, I’m still not 100% sure. The 1024×600 certainly looks good in the video but its difficult to tell. Is the 640×480 PocketPC mode centered in an 800×480 screen? Staying with the PocketPC side of things we have to ask ‘What version of Windows Mobile is it running?’ The device doesn’t have voice support apparently but it did show a SIM icon on the WM control panel. Can anyone work out if its WM5 or WM6 and what version it is? More questions about the dual-CPU operation center around hardware sharing. Can it multi-process? I doubt it. Do both processors have access to all hardware? Disk sharing? HSDPA sharing? SD card sharing? And what about that 7 day battery life? Small PocketPC’s use around 1W of power. That battery looked something like a 30W/hr battery (what was the exact battery capacity Hugo?.) There’s no way you’re going to get 7 days of operation out of it. A screen and WiFi alone take 2-3watts. So maybe 8 hours of use in PocketPC mode? 7 days standby is more likely. There are other questions related to the dual CPU too. Can you shut down Vista completely and run PocketPC mode?

Picking out the specs: VGA out (does it work in windows mobile mode?) SD card slot (does it go all the way in for readyboost users. How fast is it?) headset (or is it a headphone-only like Q1) socket, 1Gb RAM (expandable?) Fingerprint reader, mouse pad (very small isn’t it) stereo speakers (that sounded good) 1.3MP cam.

More questions Hugo. Perhaps you can check these for us:

• Screen brightness. Better than Everun/Q1 Ultra? Gloss or anti-glare?
• Case, accessories in the box. Extended battery available?
• Availability?
• Price!!
• HSDPA chipset details (is it quad band?) Can you get these from device manager for us?
• Hibernation took 3 min’s in the video. I assume this is a problem and not normal. I saw it on my i7210 once. Painfully slow!

As I write this, Hugo is sleeping (probably well earned!) but I’m going to email the questions to him as a nice surprise for when he wakes up in the morning! Well done again Hugo and GottaBeMobile for a nice overview and again, if you havent seen it, take a look now.

HTC Shift specifications, images and more news items on the product page here.

This has to be UMPC scoop of the year. Hugo got hold of the HTC shift for a few days and had the chance to test it out and make a video. At last we have some REAL info on the device.

I’m just about to watch the video (that’s downloading painfully slowly!) and the first thing I’ll be looking for is the screen res. Is it 1024×600? ]

Dual CPU eh! Wow. I’m guessing HTC were forced into this position through having to supply a phone-capable device for their carrier partners but there could be other reasons. Battery life. User interface etc. It will certainly give us something to talk about when we discuss the crossover point between smartphones and UMPCs.

Full details over at GottaBeMobile.com.

I’ll be updating the data sheet on the HTC Shift (and will probably have to adapt the database to accommodate a device with two processors!) when I’ve watched the video.

Edit: Its not clear that its 800 or 1024 width screen. Shock: Cellular data only. Why? Soft touch screen. Always good!

Update: I just finished recording a live Ustream stream using the Everun over HSDPA. It works! 6 hours should be possible with the extended battery. Thats about 700gms in weight. Frame rate could be better but I think I might be able to tweak some things to improve that.

See below for final video.

Something that was on my list last week but went straight to the top when I saw Josh Bancfroft’s photo of Justin from Justin TV. The reason it got onto my list in the first place was a short conversation with JKK of JKKMobile and something Josh twittered:

Justin.tv uses an off the shelf Sony Vaio subnotebook, with EVDO revA on Sprint. Gets 7 hrs of streaming with the ext. battery.

Now I think I can beat that on size weight, price and battery life by using the Everun UMPC. I’m testing it out today over an HSDPA connection and members can follow it here on… I was testing it out earlier on UMPCPortal.com/live and it worked quite well. My only problem is that it didn’t work with my flat rate HSDPA connection. Battery life looked like 3 hours on the standard battery. Not bad considering it weighs 500g and can be put on a belt!

Here’s an introduction video. I’ll add a conclusion when i’ve finished the testing.

And here’s an early test using HSDPA. (This is the actual stream recorded via UStream.)>br/>