Bringing a computing device to the market is, quite frankly, a nightmare. 90% of the work is in the last 10% of the detail and timescales will always slip. For the first-timer, the success rate must be pretty low. For a community project, the success rate must be even lower so we’re truly happy to see that the Open Pandora project is just a few steps away from the finishing line. (Actually, a new starting line!)

We are actually rather intrigued by the Kohijnsha dual screen DZ series netbook as a pro-focused mobile productivity device and hope to be bringing you some first hand coverage soon. For now you can take a look at some good videos from Wow-pow-blog which has a three part DZ series video review. We’ve got the first embedded below, and you can view the other two parts by jumping over to Wow-pow. [NewGadgets.de] via [Liliputing]

We’ve read a number of stories about the Ramos W7 in the past but haven’t really been able to get all the details together in one post. The W7 has had a formal launch but the Ramos website still only shows a photo and what is likely to be the ‘coming soon’ teaser. CES maybe?  The Ramos seems to have raised a few eyebrows though so we’ve scraped together everything we can in terms of specs and put it in the database. https://www.umpcportal.com/products/ramos/w7 Capacitive, WVGA touchscreen, HDMI-out and a 3G […]

I’ve got a few more devices to add to the database over the coming days but due to popularity, I’ve added the Camangi Webstatition. I’ve also added a new device at Wirelession, the W1090 which appears to be a carbon copy in terms of specifications.

For customers wanting full desktop PC capability in their hand, 2010 will be a frustrating year where you’ll see a lot of game-changing news, and very few products based on it. Here are our predictions for 2010

Click through to find out how you can win a Novatel MiFi 2352 from Mobilx.eu

Akihabara seemed to have missed the fact that the Sotec (Onkyo) BX 407A4 is actually a device that many of us have been waiting for. It’s a rebadged UMID M2. Or Kohjinsha device. Or Inventec device. We’re not sure who the design owner is right now but if Inventec are manufacturing for Onkyo as we suspect then it probably means that the M2 is ready to go. About time! The Onkyo Japan website gives the following information: Clearly there’s a left-right mouse button on the left of the screen frame […]

2009 was, again, a tough year for designing, building and selling UMPCs. Windows Vista continued to drag down performance and the economic situation meant that many UMPCs didn’t reach the market. Despite that, the advances we’ve seen in 2009 have been some of the best ever. Performance was boosted with the availability of high-speed SSD drives. Battery life was improved through the use of the Intel Menlow platform and market pressure meant that the price/performance ratio took a huge step forward. In one of our videos this year I talked about ‘double the battery life, for half the price.’ That’s how far we’ve come since 2006 but into that equation go more features like GPS, 3G, haptic feedback, better designs, silent operation and lighter weight. Only last week, Fujitsu launched the UH900 which makes it, if our database serves us correctly, the first 5.6” UMPC to break the 500gm barrier. Amazing.