10 minutes of well researched and produced information on the Fujitsu U810 is what you get in this, the first video from ‘The Canadian Public‘ who appear to be setting up a public TV station. Watch out for the tips on screen colour balance, a nice demo of the LED lamps and demos of video, YouTube and office software. Definitely one to watch if you’re interested in the U810 at all.

I’ve been following up some interesting information that came out of an interview with Intel’s Donald MacDonald (right) recently. It appeared in the Bangkokpost website and gives hints about a second consumer-focused mobile Internet platform within Intel.

Up until now we’ve been following Menlow (comprising the Silverthorn CPU and Pulsbo chipset) with an occasional glance at Tolopai which looks like its targeted at more industrial applications. The new name on the radar for those interested in MIDs and UMPCs is ‘Canmore.’ From what I’m reading, it looks like Canmore, a ‘system on chip’ design, was targeted at set top boxes but might be used in mobile Internet markets too. Of course this make sense as MID’s two focal points are Internet and media. An X86-based CPU with media focused co-processors makes perfect sense.

When "Canmore" makes its debut at the upcoming CES in Las Vegas, the SoC will be the first consumer electronics-optimised SoC based on Intel architecture, pairing a powerful IA processor with leading-edge A/V processing, graphics "and more" to help deliver greater performing, Internet-compatible devices, he said.

OK, there’s no mention of mobility there but the article also says this:

Intel Corporation is preparing to enter the mobile Internet market with the imminent launch of a highly-integrated system on a chip (SoC) that is based on its x86 architecture. The company has been talking to "essentially everyone who’s in the handset business who wants to put a genuine Internet in your pocket."  That was the message from Intel’s vice president of sales and marketing Donald MacDonald, who promised some "interesting disclosures" at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in early January.

This is totally confusing. No mention of Menlow at all and yet Menlow is exactly what Intel have been talking about as the platform for Mobile Internet Devices. Apparently, Paul Otellini mentioned Canmore at the Fall IDF and said it might have a CPU based on Silverthorn. Here’s what TheRegister reported:

Otellini mentioned the chip’s AV pipeline, GPU, I/O components and a security sub-system – with a low-power x86 core, possibly based on the 45nm ‘Silverthorne’ CPU Intel is developing for UMPCs and mobile web gadgets.

The security sub-system does sound very set-top-box oriented but a mobile Internet and media device has a very similar profile? Looks like we’ll have to wait until CES in Jan for the next set of confusing info! Until then, add ‘Canmore Intel’ to your Google Alerts!

But maybe not to ‘normal’ customers yet!

According to OLPC News, Morgen Collet has received a G1G1 XO Laptop and posted the photo evidence on Flickr. It gives hope to all the people that ordered early but be aware, Morgen works for a company involved in the development of software for the OLPC. It’s likely that it’s a special delivery. However, there’s a ton of photos and it show’s what people should see in their packages once they start arriving.

They’ve included the LiFeP0 battery (the higher capacity, 20wh, of the battery options) but there’s no yo-yo charger.

How long do you think the XO Laptop battery will last in normal wifi-on browsing mode? 5 hours, 7 hours, more? When I first wrote about the 2B1/XO, I had a figure of 10 hours but later, I learnt that the XO could idle down to 350mw which is frankly, amazing. That was in Jan of this year though. Since then I heard that the devices might not be as efficient as they could be so I’m very interested to see what’s possible.

More XO Laptop info and links on the info page.

Korea looks like its going to be the first country to have the original version of the VIA Nanobook available to buy. It’s the one with the module dock to the right of the 7" screen and in this case it’s housing a VoIP unit which, although it looks like a calculator, make a lot of sense. I would be pretty happy if I have one of these available. I assume it’s Bluetooth connected via a headset and control profile.

TGIC Digital are the company responsible and there’s a website here (translation) showing details. As far as specs go, its pretty much the same as the Packard Bell Easynote XS that I tested last month. (First impressions here. Video overview here.)

The most interesting thing about this though is that they’ve decided to release it after seeing the success of the ASUS Eee PC. They obviously think that there’s still a market for 7" notebook PCs.

Thanks to Rick for the tip. It looks like the original story appears at Kpalm but I can’t reach that site at the moment. No links found for the manufacturers website either.

More Nanobook info.

[Hands-up who jumped the gun with OQO news on Monday? Yup. UMPCPortal.com. Ooops. I was so excited about having Simon at the event that as soon as he sent the first news, I posted it. A few minutes later I got the message to ‘hold back on posting until Wednesday.’ Sorry Simon. It only seems right that I let you post the full story now. Over to Simon…]

400Mhz Samsung processor, Wifi, GPS, 3G, MicroSD slot, touchscreen, 2mP cam, secondary cam. 45 Euro with 24 month contract. This sounds like a device that I might buy myself but no, my sports-business Wife is getting it and I am, it has to be said, a tad jealous. Of course I’ve offered to set it up for her and told her that it will be ready in a few days! Now where’s that GPS-enabled Google maps application? Its something I’ve been wanting to try for a long time! View details […]

Nokia have put up the official price of the Nokia N810 on their European website. A smidgen under 500 Euros which is 100 Euros more than the launch price of the N800 nearly a year ago. However, I’m already seeing it for 420 Euros at Amazon and even 400 Euros at discount online retailers. At 420, its pretty much mobile device bargain of the year! Availability is not yet set in concrete with the only dates I can find in the 7-14 day range. Its imminent though. The partnership with […]

A couple of people have asked me why I haven’t put the Archos 605 Wifi and the Cowon Q5 into the database and why I don’t consider them as MIDs. Basically, they don’t meet my ‘mark’ for being a mobile Internet device. Its something I considered for a long time with the 605 and in the end, I bought one to test it out. While the battery life, size and UI is good, the Internet experience isn’t. Poor WiFi. Crashes. Slow. Limited Ajax support. Its just not up to the […]