Today’s Tidbits. Friday 5th December.

Wibrain i1 – Dead?
If you’re waiting for the Wibrain i1, it looks like it could be a long wait. I’ve had a few tips and even direct feedback that nothing is happening with the i1 this year. One of my Wibrain contacts no longer works at the company, there’s no word of the i1 on the Wibrain website and in general and they aren’t listed for CES. It’s all gone very very quiet so I’m wondering if there’s a problem over at NeoSolar, the parent company. if the i1 is dead then it leaves the question ‘What should I buy instead.’ This is a huge question at the moment because not only is the i1 unavailable but the original Everun is no longer being mass produced. CES is round the corner but even then, I don’t see a similar, value, keyboarded option out there apart from the Aigo and Gigabyte MIDs…

M528 – Realistic date
I contacted Expansys today to get an update on the long-awaited Gigabyte M528. Apparently the "Estimated 9 Days" shown on the Expansys.com website is ‘realistic.’ I’ve seen this ‘9-days’ before though on Expansys so i’m not holding my breath. We’re [somewhere] in line for a test device when they are released so it will be interesting to test the M528 against the Aigo. Gigabyte have had a long time to get the s/w sorted out so we’ll be looking for something special.

More below….

Podcast Friday
Sascha is back from a netbook conference in France. JKK has promised he’ll put the screwdriver and soldering iron down and I’ve got a lot to get off my chest. We’ll be getting together for a live podcast at about 2030 CET on Friday 5th Dec (later today.) I guess the recording will start at around 2130. Feel free to join us on the live page to discuss the latest news.

HTC Touch HD
I think some of you were quite surprised at the amount of news that flowed from the N97 launch this week. HTC Touch fans seemed to be particularly affected and on reflection, yes, we did get somewhat over excited about the N97! Your emails caused me to take a closer look at the Touch HD and then to add it to the database. I’ll actually be looking for a review device soon but in the meantime, if there are any mobile internet users out there (readers, bloggers, resellers) with an HTC Touch HD that would like to sum-up the device and how it works as a MID, we’d be happy to have a guest post from you.

3000 ultra mobile PC images
The ultra mobile PC Gallery topped 3000 images which is quite a number. The problem is that navigating the gallery is a clunky operation. We’ve added a custom search engine to the albums to help you search for specific images and we’ll look at getting piclens support in there by upgrading to a newer version of the gallery2 software that we use.

Slate ultra mobile PC arriving today
Finally, a tip that Ben will be getting an Axxx xxx today. Keep an eye out for his posts about this new ultra mobile PC as he tears into it over the weekend.

Happy Saint Nikolaus day.
Tomorrow is an exciting day for kids and families in many countries and cultures. Are you cleaning your shoes tonight? If you are, good luck for something nice tomorrow morning. My daughter is hoping for a Nintendo DS game. Unfortunately she’s going to be disappointed but i’ve promised her that I’ll ask Saint Nikolaus if we can set up one of my old computers in her room. I mentioned TuxPaint and her eyes lit up so I’m now looking to buy a pen-based touchpad. Anyone got any recommendations for a cheap one?