A clear message to ultra mobile PC OEM’s {democracy:4} If it wasn’t clear before, it is now. [If the results are not showing, make your vote and you’ll see them.] While some people will accept 3-hours battery life for an Ultra Mobile PC, 85% of people want 4 or more hours. 50% of people here see 5 hours as minimum battery life for a UMPC.

In the Gigabyte M912X unboxing last week, the second thing I mentioned was the washed-out screen. The following morning, in my tests,  it was clear that the screen was taking too much power. Ding! Of course, it was a CCFL-backlit screen. I sent an email to Gigabyte who have confirmed that the (production) 1280×768 screen is CCFL backlit. They also told me that the 1024×600 screened version is LED-backlit. The 1024×600 screen will be installed in the M912M version. For those not familiar with the terms, CCFL (Cold Cathode Fluorescent […]

It seems like half a year since I added the HSDPA-capable CMXP version of the Q1 Ultra to the database. Oh, it was! Samsung have finally announced it in the US but unfortunately the price seems to have risen to $1449 which I find a little but over the top for a year-old, $1000 device that many people have already retro-fitted with a $150 HSDPA card. It’s almost the same story with the Q1 Ultra premium. It’s been available for months with XP but only now have Samsung decided to […]

Just like the Kohjinsha SC3, the Fujitsu U2010 is a mini, no, tiny notebook PC running on the new Intel Menlow platform. JKKMobile and UMPCFever have reported the specifications (now in the database) and I’ve been looking over them. Firstly, the screen is an amazing 1280×800 which is the same pixel density as a Sony UX UMPC. It’s high, but useful. You can always bump the font sizes up if you need to. Secondly, the battery life is quoted as 3.5hrs under Bapco MobileMark 2007 Productivity. As far as I […]

Thoughtfix brings us the news (from The Register) that Moblin will be moving to a Fedora-based distribution. Thats quite a core change in architecture that is bound to upset Canonical and Xandros who have been working on Atom-optimised distributions and have also committed to make a Moblin-based version for netbooks. I suspect that Moblin will run the two builds side-by-side for a while. Dirk Hondel told The Register that "there was no falling out with Ubuntu, but the move to Fedora was a technical decision based on the desire to […]

Update: It’s the I1 (i1) not the L1. My mistake. Sorry Wibrain! Detailed specifications and links are now in the database. This, just in from Wibrain. We had news from UMPCfever that Wibrain were working on an Atom-based ultra mobile PC and I can now bring you some details in English. The L1 i1 will be based on the B1 design, will have an updated casing design and will include variants of the Silverthorne Atom processor and an HSDPA module. It’s planned to be launched running on Menlow (Silverthorne/Poulsbo) in […]

For the last two years I’ve been trying to find a way to get UMPCPortal to Intel’s Developer Forum. It’s Intel’s premier event and comprises conferences, speeches and training sessions. It also includes product demonstrations and a chance to ask questions and get hands on. For our beloved UMPC’s and MIDs its a hotbed of activity with a lot of focus recently on Menlow and Moorestown. The next one is in about 4 weeks and I am desperately trying to get UMPCPortal over there to cover it and bring you […]

As you might have read, I have been very disappointed with the battery life figures on the Kohjinsha SC3. I was expecting a lot lot more from an Ultra Mobile PC built on Intel’s latest battery-optimised Menlow platform but it turns out that under normal use, this device is just as bad as many devices based on the previous platform. Over the last 24 hours I’ve spent a lot of time trying to analyse why and have finally come up with the reason. Invetec, the OED for this device, have […]