Right in the middle of Bill’s last keynote….how inconsiderate of Engadget ;-)

How can I put this…..er $1000 + $2000 for a UMPC? Yup, $3k. And that’s the U.S. price. Just wait until it gets to the UK!

But if you value flash based storage, and it has to be said, the 1.6Ghz OQO with SSD is one of the fastest performing UMPCs you can buy, and you want to be outdoors when you use it, this could be the one for you!

Updated OQO with 64GB SSD and outdoor viewable screen. Source: Engadget.

I think Engadget were expecting a similar let-down as with the original Mylo but they seem pretty impressed. The browser is based on Netfront and they say it works but is ‘pretty sluggish.’  They’ve got some more specs up too. The screen is 3.5″ which is going to be tough for those with anything less than perfect sight. Its priced at $300, has 1Gb of internal storage (no indications of any storage card slot) At $300 it’s not going head to head with the N810 but as I said before, […]

Jenn of Pocketables has spotted the new Sony Mylo2 and it looks like there’s a big big Internet focus in the specifications. An 800×480 screen means desktop-style browsing (although the details of the browser aren’t yet known. ‘Enhanced browsing’ doesn’t exactly make it crystal clear what’s going on underneath the hood!) and with Wifi and the slide-out keyboard it should keep the facebook fans very happy indeed. Will it be a Nokia Tablet competitor? Yes! Will it be an iPod Touch competitor? Yes! Its not going to be a high […]

Jenn of Pocketables has just chanced upon a little display cabinet by a company called Intel and it’s packed with MIDs and UMPCs!

I’ve just send her an email to see if she can go back and snap-up some more images. “Dear Jenn. Do you like flowers…..”

In the meantime, take a look at her post. JKK has a funny one up on this subject too!

Here’s the UMPC that TabletKiosk are going to launch at CES. The Eo i7300.

It looks rather uninspiring I have to say but lets not forget TabletKiosk’s target customer – non-consumer. TabletPC2.com have a sneak preview and include the specifications and details about the eleven optional modules that include a battery pack, a camera a ‘button module’ and io units.

The ‘core’ uses a 7″ 1024×600 screen on a Menlow processor platform (Silverthorne / Pulsbo. Ghz unknown) and includes a fingerprint reader, wifi, Bluetooth and runs……..Windows Vista. Kabooom! Well, at least we know its an option for the Menlow platform now and it’s an indicator that people will be building traditional UMPCs using the Menlow platform.

There’s no indication of battery life at the moment which, along with performance figures, is one of the important pieces of info we need to get a feel for how the devices are going to compare to current UMPCs. No pricing at the moment either.

In addition to the traditional UMPC, there’s a rugged 8.4″ device which is based on an existing design. Specifications are not given for this model.

It will be interesting to see how commentators on Engadget treat this when it hits their front page ;-)

Read more at TabletPC2.com

Phew! We were right to assume that the Q1 Ultra Premium was going to launch at CES.

1.33Ghz of Core 2 Solo (U1500), 1GB RAM the 6-cell battery, and….a larger split keyboard which has to be better than the terrible affair they had on the original Q1 Ultras.

The NP-Q1U/P01 will be available with Windows XP Tablet Edition (good) for $1399 and this will result in price drops for the rest of the Q1 Ultra range.

I’ll get this into the database ASAP. It’s in the product database now. Click here to view the specs.

Update: The Standard Q1 Ultra (Vista) is down to $799 at Best Buy. I’m not sure how long it’s been like that but it seems like good value to me.

Samsung Press release.

This is a good read for anyone thinking about UMPCs in the ‘slate’ form factor. The ex-Q1 Ultra owner writing the blog explains in detail why he ditched it in favor of an Eee PC! Vista gets a kicking along with Samsung’s Q1 Ultra ‘keyboard.’ All fair comment and I have to agree entirely about Vista. It was the worst thing that could have happened to UMPCs. I don’t use my Q1 Ultra Vista at all now. I reach for the XPTE-based Q1b HSDPA and organiser pack if I want to do any work on the go.

I wonder if the new Q1 Ultra Premium with XP Tablet Edition, bigger keycaps and a portable keyboard would change Rich’s tune on this but I doubt it.

Mobiltee ASUS Eee PC vs Samsung Q1 Ultra.

JKK and I got bored waiting for more UMPC news to come out of CES so we did some mobile HSDPA Skype testing….

Again, my Q1b HSDPA proves to be a great UMPC. If a ‘best UMPC’ award was based on how often I actually used a given UMPC, the Q1b HSDPA would win hands down.

Back to CES work now….