I expect we’ll see this one up at Dynamism soon and i’ve heard that Vye might make an announcement in the next few weeks too so there might be something there but Conics seem to be the first to offer the SR8 (which you might have seen as the ‘801’ too) which is basically a re-jig of the SH8 in order to provide a built-in DVD R/W option.

We could argue for a long time about the pro’s and cons of spending engineering effort putting in a DVD when there are other, more important issues to fix but it’s done now and we can only hope the engineers (Inventec is the OED for this I believe) are now working on new designs. You guessed it, I don’t really see the point of this new model but, I guess they’ve done their market research!

Conics have the SR8 available for pre-order, exclusive of import tax, for $1304 here and I’ve put the specs into the database here.

According to an Intel document that I’ll write about when there’s a break in the news flow, there are 15 Intel MIDS at CES. Still to be ticked-off here at UMPCPortal are a device from LiteON, Wilcom, Benq (I’m surprised we haven’t seen anything on that one yet) and until a few hours ago, the Gigabyte MID.

It looks like they’ve taken the same design as Aigo and will be branding it themselves. Jenn, Pocketables, says that it’s got a different operating system to the Aigo model but it doesn’t look very Windows-like from the images she’s got.

The good news is that Gigabyte distribute outside Asia. It’s right up there at the top of my wishlist right now. I think it looks fantastic and if it delivers better processing and gpu power than the Everun at a reasonable price (i’d pay up to $800 if it came with HSDPA) then the Everun and N810 devices are going to be hit hard.

No specifications at the moment .

Source: Pocketables (more images there!)

The podcasts are getting longer as the news builds up so today we’re up to 26 minutes! We talk about the Intel Keynote, the latest set of MIDs and UMPCs and have a wee grumble at Origami Experience 2.0!

Listen or download the MP3, 26 minutes, 24MB here.

All podcasts are now available in an RSS feed too.

Subscribe to the UMPC Podcast

Its good and bad news and you’ve probably experienced it when trying to access the site. I’m being overloaded with traffic and the QOS here has hit the floor. Sorry everyone. I’m trying to optimise the server a bit but struggling to juggle that task with keeping up on the news!

RSS feeds would be the best way to get all the news at the moment as many of these are hosted elsewhere.

http://www.umpcportal.com/rssfeeds.html

Steve.

No prizes for guessing who’s managed to snap more great images of the Intel MIDS at CES. The manicured fingernails narrow it down a bit don’t you think? No it’s not Rob Bushway, its Jenn from Pocketables. Again, I’ll leave Jenn to lay out the details. She has specs and more images including a close-up of the keyboard. Take a look and come back to tell me what you think. Sorry to all the US readers!

Pocketables –  LG UMPC headed for Europe, Asia, and Canada

I’ve updated the LG product page with the new information.

YukYung Technologies, the people that released the P1 media player, have got hold of a Silverthorne processor, wound it up to 1.8Ghz and dropped it into two UMPC-like devices. One, an HTC Shift clone, the other a Q1 Ultra clone.

Again, Jenn from Pocketables keeps me awake longer than I expected. Jenn, please, its 0415 here. Step away from the Sony LX and go and have a cocktail please. Some of us need to sleep!

Specifications and more images available over at Pocketables.

It had to be called OE 2.0 didn’t it!!!

Jeremy from the Origami team at Microsoft has just posted news about a new Origami Experience release. There’s a few images and some information available. The main point being that there are 4 new applications:

• OrigamiT Central. An update to the main OE application including RSS feed reader and “fully-optimized browsing experience.” This appears to be building on what OE 1.0 was.
• OrigamiT Now. A home-page type application that allows you to bring in favorite content. Looks like Windows sidebar gadgets.
• OrigamiT Picture Password. A touch-optimised password application.
• Touch Settings. The under-estimated optimisation program that enhances the UI. No enhancements here though.

Two things spring immediately to mind and I’m sorry, they are both negative. Firstly, Touch settings doesn’t seem to have been changed at all so there’s no automated optimisation of Vista. This is a chance missed. Secondly, it looks like Vista-only to me.

I’m looking forward to testing this on my Q1 Ultra though. I’ve asked for a download link as I can’t find one at the moment. I hope it’s not going to be a locked application as before.

OE 2.0 is available for viewing at CES this week. Lets hope one of the bloggers out there gets some hands-on.

Origami team blog announcement.

A lot of people, really, a lot of people are going to be impressed by this.

That accessory on the bottom right there is a set of speakers. Awesome! This is a full Windows desktop OS capable UMPC/MID/item of desire!

Jenn of Pocketables has brought us these great images. There are a few more PLUS (and i’m not going to copy them here because she deserves credit) the specifications. OK, here’s one specification – 1.2GHz Silverthorne.

What do you think? Too much design and not enough function? Would you prefer a slider?

Its LG, Vs Aigo, Vs Digifriends in my book right now.

Source: Pocketables