OK, the Everun won’t give you 30 hours of reading time and is 150gms heavier but come on, in 2008 we’re going to see tens of devices that beat the Kindle in terms of VFM. I know its not about the specs and more about the marketing and placement but next year when Intel and VIA introduce their hand-top devices the Kindle is going to look like very poor value for money.

Ubuntu should take note of the amount of air-time this is getting and make sure a few ebook reader options are available at MID launch.

• Everun ebook article.
• Everun Full review.
• Happy ebook reading Everun customer.
• Mobileread discussion on the Everun.

News via.

I really couldn’t resist doing this. Apologies to everyone connected with the Kindle! OK, the Everun won’t give you 30 hours of reading time and the device I’m holding there (Raon Digital Everun) is 150gms heavier but come on, in 2008 we’re going to see tens of devices that beat the Kindle in terms of VFM. The Everun is a full PC (OK, maybe that’s a disadvantage to some) but for around $599 (*1) you can get a 6-hour, 6GB SSD 30GB HD version with Wifi, bluetooth, bright (colour!) screen, […]

At last! JKK has found an official reference to the ASUS R50 UMPC that I wrote about last week. It received a CES innovation award. There isn’t much info about why the award was given anywhere so I’m getting the feeling that its more a PR exercise for anyone daring enough to preview their new equipment before CES in Jan but its good to see that its official now. ASUS are obviously pushing hard into the ‘sub’ sized market now. R2HV, R2E, EEE and now the R3 and R50.

The press release confirms that the R50 is a 1024×600 device, has GPS and 3G/3.5G but there’s no mention of WiMax so maybe, due to the recent WiMax partnership problems, manufacturers are dropping back to EVDO and HSDPA solutions for 2008. There’s a mention of a digital TV tuner and the info-pen stylus. I wonder if its got the same invisible magic as the ‘digi-pen’ of the R2E!

If it’s using the same platform as the R3 that was revealed at IDF, it’s a Menlow-based device and, based on the size, I’d say its going to have a 20-25Wh battery. If all is well and good with the design and Intel’s Menlow platform is performing as it should,  it should come in with 4-5 hours of battery life making it an Interesting choice in the handheld area. I have been told, although its not official, that it doesn’t have a keyboard and as ASUS are calling it a UMPC, it might even be a Windows-based device and not based on Moblin, Intel’s Linux platform but you never know. All this is just best-guess efforts at the moment and we’ll have to wait for a few more months for final confirmation. Maybe there are two devices. The R3 low-end device based on Moblin and a high-end R50 device with Windows. All the information I have so far is in the new ASUS R3 / R50 specification page.

Latest R3 / R50 news.

JKKMobile – ASUS R50A UMPC. Official ASUS info.

Sorry about the lack of presence here over the last 24 hours. I was at the UMPCShop.nl open day and took the opportunity to visit friends in Holland.  There’s nothing major to report but I got a nice interview with Martin Day, the director of international channels for OQO where I asked him about the lack of touchscreen and HSDPA. I’ll put that video up in the next 48 hours.

I also got to talk to one of the European distributors for UMPCs, Mobile Point, who are going to try and get me some info on a Gigabyte refresh device. Which is funny because I’ve just seen that Yodofu has posted info about an M704 device in the forums here. This 1.2Ghz version could be the one. I’ll have to wait and see.

I met Mark from PocketInfo.nl and a handful of UMPCPortal fans and it was great to chat UMPCs for 4 hours. It really made me think that we should get more sessions together with distributors and reseller’s. At the very least we should make a bigger UMPC meet-up next year at CeBIT! Does anyone know how much the booth babes charge per hour?

I’m off to play with an iPhone now. Not very exciting for those of you that are Stateside but believe it or not, I haven’t had hands-on yet. I’ll take the camera, 605 Wifi and Everun and see if I can get some browsing comparison videos done for Carrypad. Shame I don’t have the N800 any more but I’ve signed a loan form for the N810 already so that should be turning up as soon as the demo devices arrive at Expansys.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Software is important right? I mean, without software, even the best hardware platform in the world doesn’t stand a chance which means that x86 is going to get left behind unless this trend changes soon. Everywhere I look I’m reading about mobile Internet and location-aware searches and geo-aware social networking and widgets and tailored applications and small footprint operating systems and friendly user interfaces. I’m hearing how the mobile device will bring the next billion people online and how its worth 6bn dollars. Its great…but its all related to smartphones.

The only reason I write this is that I’m looking for a GPS-aware search and mapping program for my handheld PC and I’d like it to be as thin and network-aware as possible to fit with my browser-based Internet life. I’m not talking about a navigation package like PC Navigator because that’s yesterdays Gigabyte-sized client-side technology. Old databases of information coupled with a limited and static POI database is no good for me. I need to be able to find a new pub by its current name and not by its old one. I need to find out the menu in a restaurant and not just its phone number. I need to be able to find out if people recommend a hotel and not just how many stars it has. I need to find out what’s playing in a Cinema and not just its address and yet the only apps that do this are being built for smartphones.  OK, there are some mash-ups, Google Earth and Streets and Trips available but try using them on a UMPC with limited resources and try using them in Europe. London, England has zero points of interest in Windows Live Search!

Of course its obvious why this the case. There are a mere 10’s of thousands of UMPCs being carried around and arguably, none of them are pocketable. There are probably millions of GPS-enable smartphone’s out there now so of course software developers want to focus on that first but its getting to the point where Microsoft Windows, and not just Vista, is looking like a dead-end choice for any sort of consumer mobile device. XP could have been quite a nice core for a mobile device but with very little effort going into overlay software or mobile applications its doomed.

Geo-aware applications aren’t the only important elements of software in a mobile device I know but its becoming a very important one and i’m sick of having to trawl through endless useless bits of 3rd and 4th party mashup software. Streets and Trips 2007/2008 is the closest I’ve got to the functionality but its a desktop application, not optimised for small screens and the local search feature doesn’t seem to extend into mainland Europe yet. (Helloooo Microsoft. We’re here! All 0.5 Billion of us!)

Unless Microsoft takes the opportunity to roll-up a huge number of advanced features into an XP-based version of Origami Experience then I’m finished with Microsoft on my handheld PC. My working and social Internet life is 90% browser-based now so, for mobile activities, i’m ready to make the jump to Android or Moblin as soon as I can.

Almost a year ago, we heard about new Marvel ‘Monahans’ processors that were capable of Ghz+ speeds. It turned out that the Ghz figures where only test speeds but even so, the 800Mhz of the Monahans PXA 320 was pretty impressive. A version of the chip is going to appear in the Ipaq 214 at 624 Mhz (capable of 30fpx H264 at VGA res apparently…very tasty!) and I’m going to be keeping an eye on that PocketPC very closely. Especially is Opera Mobile 9 launches soon. Today we’re hearing about […]

Is there no stopping the ASUS attack on the mobile computing market! JKK reports about new info direct from ASUS (global) which includes the previously known, HSDPA and Stealey (A110) processor info. New information today shows that it has a ‘glare-proof’ screen. Their ‘magic’ pen has re-surfaced too.

The DigiPen stylus also has an eraser end and mouse control buttons so that users can now navigate a wide range of applications with single-handed ease!

That’s exactly what they said last time and it turned out to be nothing but a normal stylus! The RAM figure is a bit confusing: "1GB on board, 1 x SODIMM socket for expansion up to 1280MB DDRII-667 DRAM support"

UMPCShop.nl has preliminary specs and pricing up at 1250 Euros. I’m actually visiting them tomorrow (don’t forget their open day if you’re in Holland over the next 2 days) so i’ll be asking for details and a test device. When I get final confirmation of specs, i’ll update the product page.

Asus R2E website.    JKKMobile news and images. 

According to Expansys, the Nokia N810 will be available in 2 weeks (30th November) for 320 pounds in the UK. There’s no information available yet from Nokia online shops, Dynamism or the price comparison engines that I tried. As I post this, Thoughtfix is getting ready for another live show. Tune in! http://ustream.tv/channel/thoughtfixs-live-show More information and specifications. View details of all Ultra Mobile devices in the ultra mobile PC product database. From N800 to Flybook V5, its all there!