There’s a huge amount of commentary going around about Android and the Open Handset Alliance. Rightly so as I think as its got potentially huge repercussions for the mobile phone and mobile Internet industry.

One of the more lingering thoughts I’m having is about Intel. I’ve been wondering why Intel are in the group and whether it was for their radio silicon or their x86 silicon. It turns out that its because of the latter. In a very brief entry on Intel’s Chip-shot blog they have this to say:

Intel has joined Google’s Open Handset Alliance. The Google Android software running on Intel-based, low power processors will provide a great platform that brings a full Internet experience to mobile devices. Longer term, this could bring more choices in applications and services to handsets, and more device options to consumers.

And that’s all it says. No mention of WiMax at all. Could we see Android on MID’s in 2008? Its certainly possible (JKK thinks so too.) although it sounds like there will be a wide range of devices and I’m sure many of them will be based on the ARM architechture.  Peter Choo of HTC describes a "3 inches by 5 inches" device that sounds remarkably similar to the ‘swivel’ UMPC I had my hands on at CeBIT. If Intel have smartened up the design and made it smaller to enable it to be used as a phone, it could be it! Take a look at the video and think "navigational controls at the base", "The bottom end of the handset, near the navigational controls, is slightly beveled so it nestles in the palm." and "The screen also swivels to one side, revealing a full keyboard beneath." [Quotes from a Forbes.com article about  the ‘Dream’ Gphone]

Hi-res WMV version here.

In my article about the Swivel I had this to say:

The mouse button and keys appear at the bottom of the keyboard but when the keyboard is rotated away, the mouse button protrudes from the side. Of the three devices I played with, this was my favorite. I wasn’t a fan of the twist design before but having played with it now I think it makes a better two-handed UMPC than the Q1 Ultra.

With an Android stack and application suite, the Menlow chipset could be clocked right down solve any thermal issues and at the same time dropping the drain rate for the CPU and GPU returning a much more useable battery life.

Could ‘Dream’ be the first x86-based smartphone?

Dan (Thoughtfix) has written an article about ‘Internetting’, which is a word he’s using to define the process of migrating applications from the PC to the Internet. Its a process very close to my heart (and funnily enough, something I started and wrote about exactly one year ago.) and I’m down to only two applications that I use locally now. Lets talk about Dan’s article first though. He lists a good selection of popular desktop replacements including Gmail, Reader, PhotoFlexer but the key to his message is portability. There’s nothing nicer, or easier, than picking up any net-connected PC (yes, there’s an issue in the ‘net’ part of that equation I know. See below.) and knowing that you can access your data, email, applications just as you would normally. In the coming years, when swapping between multiple PCs becomes the norm, do you think people, especially consumers, will have the time to install and configure email clients, IM clients, office applications and others on multiple machines? No. If the consumer can pick up a PC and know that if its got a browser, its got their app’s and data on it then it makes the whole process so much nicer. Coupled with the important fact that many of the services are free AND you don’t have to worry about point upgrades and security patches, its a compelling solution. Oh, and on the subject of security, my opinion is that users are pretty poor at security. Before I started blogging, I was an Internet security consultant and I learned a fair bit about user-end security. There’s a more potential for security failures (and backup failures) at the user end than with a company who’s job it is to provide the security and backup. Of course, there are, and always will be, failures but that’s a risk that you have to assess and work out a recovery plan for but in general, for consumers, there are security advantages with storing info online.

There are other issues to consider of course and the main one is..yes, the Internet connection. I, like many other people, am lucky enough to live in an area where WiFi and 3G is freely available. At home I have a 384kbps modem in my pocket (my mobile phone) and I my main handheld PC has 3G built in. I’ve even got a USB stick which will self-install and run HSDPA on any PC. Yes, i’m very lucky. Others aren’t so lucky but what my setup shows is that there are possibilities. At home, WiFi is common and Bluetooth tethering (connecting your PC to the Internet via a Bluetooth connection to your mobile phone) is getting easier. When near-field pairing arrives in the next Bluetooth standard it will be even easier but the better option will be built-in 3G and WiMax. Intel are proposing that all UMPCs built on Menlow will have WiMax or 3G and in a few years we’ll be more connected than ever. This problem of having Internet connectivity is starting to retreat. It does remain a critical issue for many in the meantime though. Projects like Google Gears and Mozilla 3.0 are looking at how to solve this with offline solutions.

The second problem comes with large chunks of data. While interacting with text is fast, when it gets to images and even videos, there are serious time-delay issues to sort out. On a normal broadband connection, images are OK but on a basic 3G connection, working with images on the Internet can be frustrating. This is why one of my remaining desktop app’s is a photo editing app. I’m even having an issue moving my blogging tool online because of image editing so yes, some apps dont work that well but seeing as most operating systems have basic image editing built in now, the problem isn’t a big one. The second application I’m having problems with is video editing. Unfortunately I record in M-JPEG which is a huge fat format and requires compression before uploading. That can’t be done on my mobile PCs. I’m looking for an MPEG-2 recording solution though and hoping that, with some in-cam editing, I can directly produce uploadable cuts that can be sequenced and titled online. In theory, the online editing of video could be a nice solution for low-end mobile PCs because the processing can be done by a powerful machine but this bandwidth issue is a big bottleneck so I think editing is going to have to remain an offline activity for a long time yet. At least video storage and playback from the net is possible.

So, just to close, here’s a couple of other Web2.0 lists. The first is a student-focused one but has a lot of useful info in it. Read the comments for even more tips. The second is the biggest list I could find. Its almost too big!

Web2.0 backpack

AllThingsWeb2.0

GottabeMobile – Internetting.

Warner Crocker of GottaBeMobile has just posted his ink show on the Vye S37 UMPC / ultra portable / sub-notebook device. [full specifications]

He didn’t find the keyboard good enough for touch typing but he’s surprised how fast Vista is running. There’s lot more in the video too. Take a look at the full video over at GottaBeMobile

I also have an overview video available in the full review here.

JKK, someone I worked together with to produce the UMPC-X design, has just finished a design for a slate UMPC.

That’s a nice looking 7″ screen design and it reminds me of the US701 [Gallery] which a lot of people had positive thoughts for. If you’ve got thoughts about this one, JKK is asking for feedback on his blog. My immediate thought is about weight. A slate, in my opinion, needs to be well under 1KG (2 lbs) because its often used with one hand. Would JKK have the same problem as HTC have with the Shift and have to put a small battery on it?

JKK Design Series: The Slate.

Yes, I’m a little skeptical of this haptic technology development from Nokia. They’re calling it Haptikos. Its going to make touchscreen keyboards fun just like zooming graphics do on the iPhone but at the end of the day, it doesn’t actually make anything faster. Even Nokia say so themselves:

“Funnily enough, although you think you’re typing faster than normal because of the feedback, in actual fact you’re not,” said Takala, “There’s just some sort of mental satisfaction that comes from typing with a tactile response.”

There are still going to be issues to sort out.

• Feeling/centering on a key before pressing it is not possible.
• Keyboard still takes 50% or more of screen space.
• Fingers still hide keys.
• Predictive text technology still needed to improve speeds.

If you’ve used Dial Keys, imagine using it with vibration feedback. Would it make it more productive or efficient? I doubt it. Haptikos will be nice, i’m sure about that and, like the iPhone’s multi-touch, many people will talk about it and enjoy it but we must not forget about all the other issues. That screen real-estate issue is the biggest one that needs sorting. Slide-out 2mm-thick haptic touchscreens could be an option over thumboards.

Via GottabeMobile

Original: Red Ferret Journal

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