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 […]

Looking for a convenient place to spent a few hundred dollars? Look no further! The iPod vending machine will suck your money away and replace it with a shiny new Apple flavored gadget! So this may be old news, but it was certainly the first I’ve ever seen. I was recently on vacation for a few days in Colorado. At a large mall in Denver there is a Macy’s which had an iPod vending machine. When I saw it I did a double take then had a quick chuckle when […]

Amazing! Thanks to the 600+ people that came through the live session last night. It was a pleasure to see so many people involved and an honour to have JKK, Sascha and Joanna on the line from various parts of the world. Thanks! We’ll be doing it again soon although I can’t promise to do another 6-hour marathon! The recorded sessions are available (if you have a few hours free!!) and the first, overview session (62mins), is embedded below. [Article continues below the video]

The HP Mininote has faded into the background recently due to the hype over Acer, ASUS, MSI and Dell netbooks but remains a favourite in terms of design. A quick poll on the live session the other night revealed that the majority of chat room members think its the best looking of all the netbooks. I tend to agree. As a netbook, its very attractive. The original target market though was schools and that’s why it was built to spec, with its tough chassis and splashproof keyboard, rather than a […]

Mobilx, the well-connected resellers in Hungary, got hold of a demo M912 netbook from Gigabyte yesterday and this morning at about 10am, it was at my home office. Thanks for sending it over guys. Much appreciated. So here’s the unboxing video and overview. As usual, i’ll be putting my testing notes in the forum (see this thread) and I guess i’ll have some first impressions to post up tomorrow. Tonight though, its testing time – LIVE! Yes, I’ll be bearing all on camera again so that you can check that […]

I’ve had my head deep in ultra mobile PC devices over the last 24 hours so it’s no surprise that I missed this. GigaOM have bought out jkOnTheRun. This is great news for the jkOnTheRun team as the deal means they carry on as they were but they’ll now be able to focus more on reporting rather than worrying about servers, advertising and all the other distractions. Hopefully, they’ll also get an increased gadget allowance and access to more mobile gadgets than before! Well done to James and Kevin. They’ve […]

Mobilx have kindly run off a set of images of the Gigabyte M912 for us and, even more kindly, have sent us a demo device to review. We’re expecting that in our hands tomorrow or on Friday. Just as a recap, the M912 is a netbook with a few special features. 1280×800 convertible 8.9" touchscreen. ExpressCard slot and disk options up to 160GB. It also ships with Vista OS options. The large-capacity 3-cell, 32wh battery means there’s a possibility of 4-hour working or 8 hours on an extended battery but […]