Not only am I lucky enough to be going to The Next Web Conference and Mobile Dev Camp in Amsterdam next week but, with the help of Moblix, I’ve managed to pull together one of the best collections of MIDs and UMPCs I’ve ever had. Viliv S5 (#1 most popular on the Portal) Gigabyte Touchnote (#2) UMID Mbook (#3) Aigo P8860 (With XP) Raon Digital Everun Note Kohjinsha SC3 Nokia N810 Fujitsu U820 And to round-up the device list I’m going to pick up an iPod Touch before I leave […]

This is really worth a read. If the touch-sensitive surface on a mobile device were on the back instead, gestures like pointing, tapping, and selecting wouldn’t get in the way of the screen. At least, that’s the idea. But that creates a new challenge—seeing where your finger is going. So Baudisch’s team has been experimenting with a variety of approaches, including using transparent screens (which, unfortunately, don’t leave room for the electronic guts of most devices) and attaching a boom with a camera to a device’s backside (which is predictably […]

Over the last 48hrs I’ve been focusing on the Gigabyte Touchnote T1028M that has been sent over by Mobilx. 48hrs isn’t a long time but having done the unboxing, a full 3hr live test (recording) with viewer feedback (thanks to the 500+ people that dropped in during the live session) and Q&A along with a full 2-day use as my main PC, I feel that I’m a position to be able to give you the highs and lows. The Touchnote is a device that falls between, or rather overlaps, the […]

Update: All specs and details now in a new Crunchpad product page. I was one of the ‘doubters’ that questioned the Techcrunch Tablet. I questioned what Mike Arrington said in his first information post. If all you are doing is running Firefox and Skype, you don’t need a lot of hardware horsepower, which will keep the cost way down. inch  We all know that’s not true because rich Web browsing is one of the most CPU-demanding applications there is. Now, 8 months later, you’re looking at an Intel Atom powered […]

JKK has edited up the keynote video from IDF Beijing that took place a few days ago. In the video you can see a number of the MIDs that were announced in one of the press release. [PDF] Click through to JKK’s site for some more images. The BYD clamshell phone (based on Menlow) is particularly interesting. Obviously we’ll try to get more detailed information on these but at the moment it’s looking like an Asia-focused effort. We may have to wait until IDF in Sept for an sort of […]

This just in via The Unwired View. Apparently news is coming out (I assume via the Maemo developers conference that’s happening in Denmark at the moment) that a MID with a 4.2″ touchscreen is due to ship in Q4. The report comes from The Street who also say that a Nokia Netbook and a device called ‘Project Nautilus’ is also confirmed. If both the MID and Netbook are based on Maemo then we’ve got some interesting times ahead fro ARM-based computing although taking a look at some related Maemo content, […]

I feel sure there’s a few similar projects lying around on lab benches around the world as OEMs test out the capabilities of the next generation of ARM-based platforms and think about MID-focused products but it’s great to see a company, HY Research, take the time to write up such a project in so much detail. If you fancy making your own MID, you now have more inspiration then ever! The MID uses the Beagle Board, $150 OMAP 3530-based development board and adds the interfacing, power, screen, buttons, connectors and […]

Unboxing video and a few first impressions of the Gigabyte T1028M convertible touchscreen tablet pc/netbook