Tomorrow morning at 9am in Boston, the Mobile Internet world expo and conference starts. The conference program will cover both technical and commerical issues and there will be keynotes from people like Tim Berners-Lee (WW Consotium), Emily Nagle Green (Yankee Group) and Rich Milner of Google. I havent found any streams or blogs yet but i’ll be keeping a close eye on the blogosphere and reporting anything of interest here. Update: There should be a demo of Android. Hopefuly a lot of questions will be answered this week. One thing […]

But it looks like it could be a bit of a wait.

Judging by the number of blogs by people that have ordered OLPC XO Laptops today it looks like its going to be a very successful program. You pay $399 for an OLPC which, in my opinion, is a far more interesting device than the Eee PC, and one device goes to you, another goes out via the normal route to the underprivileged. Its a great idea. I’m trying to get hold of one through an import route but it could take time. I heard that they won’t be shipping until after Christmas but that may only apply to orders going in now.

I was chatting to Rodfather who has ordered one today about the LX-700 processor. If I lock my Everun down to 400Mhz, I effectively have XP running on the same platform as the XO Laptop. Its fast enough for browsing and even basic media playing. I even use it like that when I’m browsing and playing MP3’s. Remember, the AMD Geode can handle DiVX very well indeed. Even at 400Mhz. As for battery life, a system based on such a platform should return about 6w drain giving nearly 4 hours on the high-end battery. However, the XO Laptop has the very low power screen and Wifi solution. I’d say that you’re looking at an average drain of around 5W which is going to return over 4 hours with the Wifi on. (assume 22wh battery)

I guess it’s time to drop the XO Laptop in the UMPC product database!

Update: Laptop magazine have a nice report from the receiving end of a Give one, Get one story.

Info about ordering is available here.

The OQO Model 02 is almost the ultimate mobile Internet device. Its capable and stylish, but very expensive! If it had 3G built-in I’d say it was the best mobile Internet device every but (at the moment) it doesn’t come with 3G built-in.   I had three weeks with the OQO Model e2 (known as the Model 02 in North America) and have just finished my full review over at UMPCPortal. OQO Model e2 full review. View details of all Ultra Mobile devices in the ultra mobile PC product database. […]

The OQO Model 02 was launched in the first weeks of 2007. In September the range got an upgrade with faster processors, more memory and an SSD option. Finally, at the end of September, it’s available in Europe as the OQO Model e2 range. Through Expansys, the main distributor for the OQO in Europe, OQO agreed to send one over for a 3-week review period. Its a 1.6Ghz model with 1GB RAM and a huge, 120GB hard drive and comes with a DVD RW docking station and an extended battery. […]

Since I contacted the German 3rd-party mobile resellers, the bundling offers have been removed. I’m hoping that they’ve just realised that the Shift isn’t a voice-capable UMPC and are now trying to fix their back-end systems to be able to display a ‘phone’ that doesn’t do voice! Expansys have got it covered in the UK though. They are offering the Shift with various data plans, like the Web-Max unlimited 02 deal. 12 months at 30 quid nets you ‘unlimited’ data (3GB fair) and brings the price down nearly 200 pounds to 645. If you don’t fancy slumming it with the iPhone users on the 02 EDGE network though, you can go for a Vodafone connect package that should bring you HSDPA capability and again, a nice discount. The Vodafone connect 250 looks good. 250MB per month for a year. I use a 200MB Vodafone package with my Q1b and Everun in Germany and I rarely go over the limit. Obviously Vodafone aren’t giving the same incentive as O2 though, you only get 145 pounds off the Shift with the Vodafone deal.

One little bit of extra info on the Expansys site now though, the availability date has slipped to 30th November.

HTC Shift information page.

JKK found another video. This one is of the WiBrain B1 and its in Korean (I think!)

Video via JKKMobile

I’ve had some correspondence with WiBrain and they tell me that the B1 will be launched this year. The official launch specification is as show below but there is no price available yet. Regional availability is also unknown. There’s also a (rather huge) press photo here.

More information on the B1 on the product page. (UMPCPortal)

Last month I tested a Novatel Ovation HSDPA USB stick which was a very nice bit of kit indeed but it’s not much use is you haven’t got HSDPA signals or contract so Novatel have now launched an EVDO Rev.A version which looks like it’s got some even nicer specs because as well as having 3mbps down/1.8mbps up capability, its got a GPS and micro-SD (up to 4GB) slot included. The U727 weights just 30 grams and is barely bigger than the average memory stick and for mobile users would […]

The OQO Model e2 photo-set is complete and and available in the gallery now.  I also added some side-by-side shots with the Everun.

There are plenty more images in the OQO E2 gallery.