Here’s the second of our daily CES UMPC and mobile Internet chit-chats. Today we’ve got JKK (from JKKMobile) in snowy Helsinki, Kornel in Snowy Warsaw, Simon (Have That) in wet Brighton and myself in Bonn. We’re talking about the rather boring CES Unveiled event, discussing whether devices are going to be called MIDs, UMPCs or both and assessing the impact these small Menlow-based devices might have on OQOs business.

Download and listen to the podcast here (MP3, 16MB, 17mins)

Update: Some specs now available. See below.

It’s going to get more confusing as CES goes on. What’s a MID and what’s a UMPC? At the end of the day, it’s up to the marketing teams and what they believe has the best marketing potential. Good to see, then, that LG are calling their ultra mobile PC a UMPC. UMPC is a more developed term and far simpler to find on Google searches. (Try searching for ‘CES MID.’ You’ll end up with a lot of ‘mid 2008 launch’ stories!)

As is normal for a ‘leak’, there isn’t much news and in this case, I can’t even find a source. i4U News have found this image which is just a rendering. I would take this one with a small pinch of salt until we get more firm details. I’ve already alerted the ‘runners’ on the CES floor that they should head over to LG ASAP!

As for specs, we have this so far:

The LG UMPC features a 4.8 inch touchscreen and a slide out QWERTY keyboard. It is based on the Intel Menlow platform and features 1GB of RAM, and a 40GB HDD. The connectivity of the LG UMPC is with HSDPA, Bluetooth and Wifi pretty comprehensive.

Those specifications (HDD and HSDPA) indicate a rather high-end MID with pricing in the $600-$800 range. The more I think about it the more I expect companies to release two versions of a single hardware device. A low end ‘MID’ with Intel’s flash storage and running Linux and then a high-end professional ‘UMPC’ with HSDPA, bigger storage and Windows XP. It allows those marketing people (there they are again!) some creativity with their pricing.

Update from  DGILog: (translation)

It is a product not yet been revealed, UMPC is 4.8 “Type Display slide with a weight of 590g to achieve maximum portability.  Intel-CPU (Intel Menlow Platform), RAM-1GB, the capacity of 40GB HDD-pursuits. Menlo This time, the platform’s performance and rapidly improving battery performance is also because the expectations are I / O-HSDPA, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, a wireless network connection to a variety of support and naejanghae, kwotijapan (QWERTY Keypad), and the touch-pad (Touch Pad) and the touch screen and supports concurrent user (Touch Screen) to maximize convenience

Original story: i4U News. Via JKKMobile.

Engadget have just run a story about the 3.5G version of the U810 that was launched in Japan in Q4 2007. It looks like its coming to the U.S. I seem to remember somewhere that a price of $1100 was talked about. I can’t find the reference at the moment though.  Anyone else remember that?

Expect this HSUPA-equipped mini convertible sometime in the next three months.

Source: Engadget.

Benq have recently (Jan 4th) issued a press release about their MID (seen below in a Video released at the Intel Developers Forum in Sept 2007) which confirms that we’ll see details in the next few days at CES.

..will reveal its first ever Mobile Internet Device (MID) at the 2008 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES). The device, embedded with Intel Menlow platform, gives users a full interactive Internet experience anytime, anywhere, fulfilling every need for a true mobile lifestyle.

Surfing the web, sharing videos, music or photographs, blogging, emailing, instant messaging, social networking on Flickr and Facebook will no longer be a hassle as users can expect increased Internet access speed, a user-friendly interface and a large 4.8 inch touch screen which gives a full-screen Internet experience right in the users’ hands.

 

Benq Press release. Specifications and details (latest)

VIA MobileWhack.

The GBM team are prepared! This is a great video by Rob and Warner explaining how they are going to ‘bang bang bang.’ (Warners words, not mine!) and carry a six-pack around. I like their style! Keep an eye on GBM for some top mobile PC news.

Click through to the GottaBeMobile blog.

This one could be very very useful for UMPC users. Especially those owning or looking at slate UMPCs.

Its a compact Bluetooth keyboard aimed squarely at the mobile crowd. That’s you and me! The Logitech diNovo Mini Keyboard has just been shown at the CES Unveiled event. Rob Beschizza of Wired details more and wants “the mythical UMPC that it could easily be mistaken for.” More images at Wired.com. I’m wanting it right now!

Just in time for the first CES press event that kicks off in a few hours, these two videos have surfaced on YouTube The Aigo device looks fantastic to me. Its just what I’m looking for in a MID. 4.8" (estimated) screen size, Menlow platform, slide-out keyboard. A grown up N810 with, I assume, a higher price and less battery life. The Aigo doesn’t look as impressive with what looks like Everun dimensions and a numeric keyboard on the side. Expect more on this in the next few days. Via […]

Sometimes there’s too much to put into one news story….

Please welcome the CES Ultra Mobile Internet Podcast (AKA The podcast with no name!) where we (that’s JKK from JKKMobile and Kornel and myself from UMPCPortal) spend 15 minutes talking about what we think will definitely come up at CES, what might come up and what we hope will be there!

This is the first of a short daily CES podcast that we’ll do just to round up the previous day’s events and talk about what should be coming up in the following 24 hours. Hope you enjoy it.

Download and listen to the podcast here (MP3, 15MB)