Mtube, one of the reasons that I finally decided to resurrect Carrypad to cover Internet gadgets and devices, is looking very interesting over at the UltraMobileLife blog today. As I suspected, its got a small VGA screen and according to another report that came through DigiTimes, it runs Linux. It weighs 150gm and has 4 hours battery life which is frankly, quite amazing. Almost unbelievable as the battery cant be more than 10wh in capacity meaning that the whole device would be running at an smartphone-class average of 2.5w. This […]

The marketing team responsible for VIAs ultra mobile devices have started a weekly news videocast. This is good. A 3 min video update of the important news is sometimes all we need so VIA, keep up the good work. I’m actually thinking of doing a similar thing myself but can’t find the time!!!

You can find the videos, presented by Tim Brown, on the VIA marketing teams YouTube channel and in the UltraMobileLife blog.

This weeks video gives a sneak peak at the Mtube device. An intriguing little Internet gadget. Tim says in the video that they will be publishing more detail info on the device tod……hold on. Its there already! UltraMobile life have detailed info on the Mtube Internet device!

I’m a big fan of the x86 platform when it comes to mobile Internet. To me it’s simple, if the Internet is written on x86 platforms, how can we expect it to look the same and keep up with the latest techniques when its used with ported software? However, this is the mobile Internet we’re talking about here. A new and different world where customers are just starting to move beyond the idea of SMS’s. Right now, today, even a basic, cut down, tailored and slow experience is something new […]

On Ultra Mobile PCs, there’s no question that a screen resolution of 800×480 is the starting point. In fact with Vista requiring 1024×600 minimum, one can argue that you can’t even go below a 7″ screen size before things get a little bit too tiny. 200 pixels per inch is a good upper limit for the average person. But what about mobile devices that want to offer the full Internet experience just as you get it on the desktop? Most sites are written for 1024×768 screens but I’ve found that […]

Eddie VanDerBeck from the GBM team has been testing out the Flipstart UMPC, a device that recently received a price cut down to the more realistic entry-level of $1500.

I watched the video to see if Eddie had any opinion on, what I believe is very poor battery life with the standard small battery shown in the video. With this standard 20W/hr battery you’ll get something like 1.5 hours of mobile Internet. The Flipstart actually ships with a large-capacity 40whr battery which would double those figures. Unfortuately he hasn’t tested that part yet but I’ve asked the question in the comments section of his post on GottaBeMobile.

More Flipstart review links in the UMPCPortal ‘River of Links.’

It looks like HTC have released a new set of HTC Shift photos. I’ve picked them up and put them into the gallery.

About 10 months ago I put Carrypad.com on ice and continued my work under the UMPCPortal banner. Things have gone exceptionally well and UMPCPortal is now one of, or,  according to a Google search for UMPC, THE most popular news and info site for UMPCs. Thanks to everyone who’s helped with that process and long may it continue. During the last 10 months we’ve talked a lot about sub-UMPCs, ARM-based devices, consumer Internet web pads, smartphones and MIDs and recently we’ve seen a lot of activity indicating that there’s going […]

It looks like VIA is enabling the jump straight into 3rd gen consumer internet devices. The Mtube is being shown on VIA’s UltraMobileLife blog and it looks like a highly targeted media player and browser. I mean why would you call a device the Mtube unless it primary focus is online media? It seems likely that its a Linux-based device because the ‘thing’ will have to sell in the $200 to $300 bracket if its that tightly targeted. A $50 Microsoft licence would be too expensive unless they’ve struck a […]