I know its been a while, but I’ve been waiting to get my hands on a full tablet PC so that I could do better demos than simply using my Sony VAIO UX180 and showing you what’s happening using a monitor as I have done in the past. Hopefully you will agree that the format of this video demo is better than those that I did previously!

But beside all of that, have a look at the Crayon Physics Deluxe video demo.

The game works great with touchscreens and there is even a demo that you can try before purchasing:

• Official Crayon Physics website
• Download the Crayon Physics Deluxe Demo

The idea of the game is that you are drawing with a crayon, and your drawings become physical objects that interact with the rest of the crayon based levels . The goal is to get the red ball to touch the star, then you get to move on to the next level. There is more than 70 levels to complete in the full game. The game was also the grand prize winner of the Independent Games Festival in 2008!

How long will Asus continue to tantalize us with the Asus Eee T91 [Portal page]? It seems like ages ago that we first saw the tablet-netbook that promises to bring the tablet PC experience to the masses. While it seems that the T91 is either already released, or in the process of being released in the UK, we’re still left wondering when it will hit US shores. Regardless of the release date, Asus has seen fit to continue to taunt us by putting up an official product page on their US site. Nothing too exciting here, just some ever tempting images of the (supposedly real) device and some marketing hubbub, and we’re still left wondering if the multi-touch version will ever be released, or if it was just a prototype.

I’ve installed Windows 7 on the Clevo TN70M and it’s working very well. Auto screen rotation isn’t working yet but everything else seems to be. Even tablet features started working fully after I installed the touch drivers. I’ve tested the beta graphics drivers and it even enables Aero.  (But causes problems with Windows Media Player so I rolled back to the standard drivers.)

The fact that Windows 7 works is more significant than with many other devices because you can buy the TN70M without an operating system for just over 400 Euro. This makes the Clevo TN70 with its excellent touchscreen the cheapest tablet PC available today. The wide frame and palm resistance help too so although it’s not the ultimate handwriting pad, it’s a fantastic entry point. Even if you’re not into handwriting, there are some nice features in Windows 7 that help with finger navigation and mobility. I just wish that auto screen-rotate software was working. It hasnt been working under XP either so it is possible I have a faulty unit here.

There’s not much more to say at the moment because it’s early days. I want to upgrade the RAM to 2GB because although Win 7 seems much more gentle on hard drives than Vista, it’s not as gentle as XP is. A fast 32GB SSD would be a better option than the 60GB HDD in my opinion and would really help Win 7.

Optical pointer, webcam, mouse pointer, fingerprint reader, touch, brightness, volume, sleep, sd card, audio, BT, Wifi. Check! Everything working.

What a bargain this is turning into. I have a broken Q1 Ultra here. I wonder if the 1024×600 would swap into it! I’m tempted to buy this little budget baby just to try it out because that’s the only thing that would need changing in order to make this a very compelling little UMPC.

Hands-on first impression and video here.

After seeing the unit get ripped apart by the FCC and go hands on with plenty of people, Asus has just officially announced it via a press release on their site. While the usual marketing mumbo jumbo is present (they are really pushing it by claiming to have 82GB of total* storage space), we are still left without a price or release date. It seems that Asus is trying to push their touch oriented software hard; we’ll see if it is really useful or just shows off the touchscreen, eventually. At least they were kind enough to leave us a nice table of specs, but unfortunately I’m not seeing anything that we didn’t already know about the T91, maybe with the exception of a “well-designed stylus inch… I hope they aren’t talking about the same one we saw in a hands on video a few weeks ago. Hopefully the 5 hour battery life statement is accurate (fingers crossed!).

Asus Eee T91:

Model
Eee PCâ„¢ T91

Operating System
Genuine Windows® XP Home

Display
8.9″ LED-backlit / Resistive Touch Panel

CPU
Intel® Atom Z520

Chipset
Intel® US15W

LAN
Onboard 10/100 Mbps Fast Ethernet controller

Wireless Data Networking
WLAN: 802.11b/g/n
Bluetooth V2.1

Memory
1GB (DDR2)

Storage
Total 82GB (16GB Solid State Drive + 16GB SD Card + 30GB Portable Hard Disk Drive* + 20GB Eee Storage)

Interface
1 x VGA port (D-sub 15-pin for external monitor)
2 x USB 2.0 ports
1 x LAN RJ-45
2 x audio jacks: Headphone / Mic-in

Camera
0.3 M Pixel

Reader
3-in-1 MMC, SD, SDHC flash card slot

Audio
Hi-definition audio CODEC
Built-in high quality stereo speakers
Digital Array Mic

Battery Life
Li-Polymer battery, 5hrs**

Dimensions
225mm (W) x 164mm (D) x 25.2 ~ 28.4mm (H)

Weight
0.96kg

Optional
GPS, TV Tuner, 3G plus (HSUPA)

Casing Colors / Infusion
White, Black

Miscellaneous
Comes with a well-designed stylus

One element of the Gigabyte Touchnote that I’m starting to get used to now is the gesture support. It’s built into a special set of eGalax drivers that have been included on the device. Originally I wanted to turn them off as they were interfering with selecting text and Grab and Drag under Firefox but after tweaking them a little, removing a few that were clashing with other on-screen actions and getting used to new ones that I have set up, i’m really liking them. Here’s a video showing them in action on the standard XP build. The only thing missing is being able to register your own gestures. Graffiti recognition would be great.

As a side note, the Touchnote has been performing flawlessly. I’m currently restoring it to out-of-the box build using the built-in recovery partition and will copy that over to my Runcore SSD. With the 3G, Draft-N, BT and reasonable battery life (I plan to pick a 6-cell in Taiwan next week to bring it up to 5hrs) I can’t ask for any more. The Asus T101H is tempting me a little but I can’t imaging the 3G antenna being as good as it is on the Touchnote and I won’t compromise on that.

More details on the Touchnote including links to reviews and testing notes, are available in the product database.

I haven’t been through this hands-on in detail yet but I wanted to highlight it ASAP to the readers here.

TechRadar have had time with a pre-production version of the ASUS T91 convertible netbook. This is the netbook that a lot of ultra mobile PC fans are looking at. It’s lightweight, very small and has an 8.9 inch convertible 1024×600 touchscreen.

The first thing I’m looking for on the report is battery life…. three hours and twenty minutes of video playback. I was expecting more considering that the Viliv S5 with it’s 24wh battery, can play video for 6hrs. Maybe the video was CPU-decoded? Maybe it’s just the big screen which will be adding a big drain on the battery.

Full specs and more links here.

I’ll update this post with my thoughts.

Update:
I wouldn’t really call this a review. No mention of screen brightness and battery life under normal use, keyboard quality, mousepad. I suspect this was just a 30 minute hands-on with the device but it gives positive vibes which is a good sign.

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 clunky). Baudisch’s newest prototype, and the one he described yesterday, is called nanoTouch. It’s a squarish little gadget resembling an iPod nano, with a 2.4-inch screen that dominates the front and a capacative trackpad similar to the mousepad on a laptop computer attached to the back.

This rear-touch interface is incredibly interesting and very significant for portable devices but there’s more. Wade Roush, the author of the article,  goes on to highlight dual-screen interfaces too. He highlights two OQO devices hooked up into a dual-screen scenario with additional accelerometers that control screen orientation. It’s right up there with the roll-out screen as a distruptive technology. Don’t expect this to appear too soon though.

“The technology isn’t quite there to put dual-screen devices into production. Indeed, the second-generation OLPC device, while sexy, has all the signs of being vaporware. But Microsoft and other companies have poured too much money into tablet- and pen-based computing to let the technology’s development stop now. As Hinckley put it to me after his talk, “This is eventually going to happen. If Microsoft doesn’t do it, somebody else will. So it’s really important to understand what the issues are. inch

The video below (from New Scientist) show the rear-touch interface.

Take a look at the full article: At CHI Meeting, Microsoft Turns Computing Interfaces on Their Head, and Side, and Back | Xconomy.

Credit to Patrick Baudisch, Ken Hinckley and Meredith Ringel Morris of Microsoft Research.

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 netbook, tabletPC and notebook categories and I have to say, I’m quite impressed with it. It’s a very unique and enjoyable device with some excellent features and very few issues.

The images above sum up some of the features that make it unique. Convertible screen, touch layer and 3G-ready. The Touchnote follows in the steps of the M912M, the 8.9 inch convertible and in my opinion, fixes all the problems that existed with that device.

Let me quickly run down the main points of note.

• Intel Atom 1.6Ghz ‘netbook’ platform with 1GB RAM and Windows XP Home.
• Large, relatively fast 2.5 inch SATA drive. (61 / 57 MB/s read/write) split into two (80/65GB) partitions with an additional recovery partition.
• Quite and cool operation (an important improvement over the M912M)
• Average 3.25hrs online, active battery life. (about 30 minutes improvement over the M912)
• Minimum 2.5hrs online batter life with high screen brightness and 3G connectivity.
• Maximum 4hrs battery life (50% screen brightness, radios off)
• Solid screen hinge (better than the M912)
• BT 2.1 and Draft-N wireless support
• Good quality on-screen control panel
• Device-off battery indicator
• Expresscard/34 slot
• Easy access to Wifi and spare PCI-Express-MINI slots, RAM and disk.
• Pre-wired antenna (good quality) and SIM card slot.
• Multi-touch mouse pad (Elantech)
• 3xUSB, VGA, 4-in-one memory card slot, Ethernet, mic and headphone ports
• Bright LED backlit screen with soft touch layer (great for finger operation, not great for handwriting input)
• Touch driver has basic built-in swipe-gesture support for Pg-Up, Pg-Down forward and back.
• Speakers loud. Reasonable (WRT netbooks) quality
• Glossy screen will be an annoyance for outdoor use. (see image below)
• Overall build quality good (no creaking plastic. finishing good.)
• Uses lightweight power supply unit at 12VDC
• A two-pocket neoprene ‘hand’bag’ is included.
• Spare batteries are well-priced. 6-cell battery (150% capacity) is available.

Medion Akoya (same as MSI Wind) next to Gigabyte Touchnote showing slightly larger form factor and glossy screen.

Full Gigabyte Touchnote Gallery available in the gallery.

The Touchnote has been loaned to UMPCPortal by Mobilx who are also taking advantage of the built-in SIM slot, easy PCI-Express Mini slot access and, unique for any device I know of, pre-wired antenna. I’ve done 3G upgrades in the past but antenna reception has always been an issue. With the Touchnote, Gigabyte take all the worry away. The reception on the antenna is excellent. For the first time ever on any device, including a smartphone, that I have owned, I was able to get UMTS connectivity in my cellar studio!

CrystalMark performance test.

In order to highlight the disk performance I’ve run through the CrystalMark 2003 performance test. The result of over 28000 is one of the best I’ve seen for a stock netbook and is attributable to the disk which really does make a noticeable difference in operation.

Summary.

The Touchnote offers a lot more than the average netbook and offers significant improvements over the groundbreaking M912M that came before it. Convertible touchscreen, draft-n WiFi, BT2.1, fast 2.5 inch drive, easy upgrade possibilities, Expresscard/34 and the well-prepared SIM card and 3G Antenna are a a feature set you won’t find on any other device. The glossy screen and average battery life are really the only two points I could highlight as issues. Oh, and perhaps the fact that an advanced N280-based model is coming soon! Currently Gigabyte stands alone in offering a 10 inch touchscreen notebook at this price point but they may not have the playground to themselves for long. The ASUS T101H is an obvious competitor and many will be laboring over the choice between the two. Until we get hands-on with the T101H we won’t be able to make a decision but until then, we can certainly say that the Gigabyte Touchnote T1028M is a unique, good value and well thought-out choice in both the prosumer end of the netbook market and the budget notebook market.

Price approx 480 Euro (export price. European price including tax, approx 580 Euros)
More information, specs, links and images in the Touchnote product page. Compare similar, popular devices here.