I’m just about to pack the car for the journey to the UK so I doubt i’ll be online until I get to the HTC press conference tomorrow where it will finally be time to get hands-on with the HTC Shift. (And maybe the HTC Omni?) Just for some fun last night I tested Ustreaming through the Everun with a new webcam I have and would you believe it, it worked a treat so I’ve slightly modified the reporting kit to version 2.0 and included live streaming capability. The main […]

WOW! It just gets more impressive every time I see it. What you see there is a full PC motherboard. Amazing.

For a working demo of the prototype, see this video. For a size comparison with Menlow, there’s an image in the gallery.

Mobile-ITX is due to go out to OEMs around the end of the year which could make CeBIT and Computex very interesting indeed!

Thanks to Epiacenter.

That R2E that was spotted a short while back is now official. Asus appear to have announced it in Italy according to a translation of a notebookitalia.it news item

Its the same design as the original R2H but now includes the 800Mhz Stealey processor, the GMA950 GPU, 1GB of RAM and an 80GB drive. Its also sporting HSDPA (2100MHz)which, for the price of 1200 Euro, puts it right in the HTC Shift / Q1b HSDPA territory. The GPS is still included and they’ve retained the 800×480 screen. The R2E comes with Windows Vista Business. Availability is expected at the end of October.

Its a shame they didn’t take the opportunity to drop in the 1024×600 screen from the Q1U.

Full story at Notebookitalia.(translate link)

I did it again. I had a good moan about something and the following day somebody proves me wrong. Lets call it the exception that makes the rule shall we?
UK UMPC pricing doesn’t seem so bad now after Zak, a UK-based member here, spotted this bargain at the PC-World web-site. £199 can buy you the 900Mhz Advent U1A ‘laptop’ Click the image to see the details.

This is the Celeron version of the Founder Mininote / Tablet Kiosk Eo v7209 which is retailing for $1100!! It doesn’t look like it has the full docking station but those are on offer at TabletKiosk for $59 which is also a good price. The battery life isn’t fantastic (around 2 hours) but even so, I think I could justify buying one of these just for in-car or sofa use. Don’t expect these to be around for much longer as I guess its an end-of-life product.

Here’s my full review of the Pentium version of this model.
And an image gallery.

PCWorld UK site here.

OLPNews asks the question: Would you help out the OLPC project and buy two XO Laptops with one going to charity or would you buy an Eeepc?

Easy peesey lemon squeezey. I’d buy the OLPC for the cool tech. That dual-mode ultra low power screen has got to be worth it on its own! I don’t care if it’s black and white. Its better than no screen at all in the sun and when the wind blows for the fist time and the keyboard on the ASUS dies dues to sand ingress, you know you’ll be able to continue with your emails and web browsing.

Of course I’d have to spray it another color. I cant see myself toting around a green and white PC around. A no-brainer I do believe. Mind you, there is that girl in the Asus ad sending me an email saying ‘buy me.’

[Chippy types] w w w . a s u s . ……

Full article at OLPCNews.

The poor old Brits get such a bad deal when it comes to technology pricing and the OQO is a classic example. In the U.S the base model was reduced to $1200 $1299 (about 650 quid) and yet in the UK its the equivalent of over $2000. A 66% premium. That’s just silly and its one of the valid complaints put forward by What Laptop who have just published their review.

They think its the best UMPC they’ve reviewed to date ( out of 5. The Sony UX, Samsung Q1 Ultra, Medion (ahem) and Vye Mini-V S18) but, well, here’s what they’ve got to say.

With small dimensions and good usability there’s no doubt this is the best UMPC we’ve seen to date. However, it remains far too expensive for many people to buy in addition to a laptop, and it’s simply not comfortable enough to use as a full-time replacement.

It will sell though. At least for a short while. I can see it doing well in London where price takes second place to fashion but after the slickers have bought it, what next? The price really has to come down, especially as the cool-as HTC Shift is coming in at a hundred quid less including the all important mobile enabler, HSDPA.

WhatLaptop OQO Model e2 review.

UltraMobileLife have found a video of the Nanobook that was made in Boston at the Embedded Systems conference. The video was done by the guys at Epiacenter.com)

Spot the Mobile-ITX prototype too! Its the one we got the video of back at Computex. The mobile-ITX board is much smaller than an iPhone. How about that as the basis of an Apple UMPC?

I was just looking for the HTC Shift on the Expansys ‘coming soon’ page and it’s gone! Its now shown as being available on the 6th November for 910 of those British pounds (1300 Euros.)

Expansys own the company (Portix) that is importing the HTC device directly from HTC so this data is probably first-hand and fairly reliable info.

As for US-prices, I would expect it to translate over to a $1300 list price but there’s no confirmed info yet.

All HTC Shift info and news.