At the Computex trade show in Taiwan last month, VIA held a special event known as the VIA Technical Forum. It was the 7th year of presentations by guest speakers in the areas of industry that VIA are focusing on. Unfortunately we weren’t able to get there for the event but we’ve been analysing the presentation slides that are available on the VTF website and here’s an overview.

The most interesting presentations for the ultra mobile PC market were in the dedicated Ultra-Mobility Technology presentation track. Here’s a run-down of the main presentation content.

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Digitimes, a news website covering IT in Asia is reporting that the use of LEDs as a screen backlighting technology won’t take off until later than expected. Previous forecasts had talked about a late 2006 take-up of the technology but this has now been revised to mid 2007.

Currently most backlighting is done using a power-hungry method with cold-cathode flourescent tubes (CCFT) but using high power LEDS would bring down the power requirements significantly. Having done some analysis, we agree with reports that say that current existing backlights account for 20% of the power-drain in low-useage scenarios. By using a LED backlight at least 1 watt can be saved which is up to 15% of the power useage of a UMPC.

The Extended Battery Life Working group had a meeting about LED backlighting in June and although there are no public documents yet, its clear that its one of the high priority topics for them. More info about the EBL WG is here.

As the power trade-offs with UMPC’s are more crtitical than for notebook pc’s, I’d except to see these being used sooner than mid-2007 in UMPCs. Companies such as Everlite are ready for mass-production and just waiting for customers now. Our prediction is that we’ll see the first LED backlighting in premium ultra mobile PC models in the first quarter of 2007 and a general take-up during the rest of 2007.

Steve / Chippy.

er! where are they? The UMPC’s on the market are more than capable of being a main office ‘CPU’ but without a docking solution, there’s no way to do it. Here’s 1500,-Euro to the first manufacturer that can meet my specs. Honestly, I will buy it as soon as it becomes available because its exactly what this ultra-mobile working house husband needs!

I still use a 750Mhz desktop at my main office because I’m doing nothing more that writing documents, web browsing, listening to music, some technical drawing work and a bit of low-quality live TV. I’m writing this journal entry on a 900Mhz pentuim III notebook with no problems at all so I don’t see any problem replacing these two devices with a more powerful, more portable PC that just happens to have a 7″ touchscreen built-in!

Jeffrey Graebner found it was possible to use his Tablet Kiosk eo as a main PC but without the docking solution he found the screen and battery life to be a disadvantage. So if I wanted to buy a ultra mobile PC as my main ‘CPU’ (not storage) today, what would I need and what are my solutions? Lets assume I have $1500

The ‘Carrypad concept UMPC‘ was a specification for a home companion PC which specified a ‘reduced’ OS and an advanced 600Mhz processor. For full office life, I think the original Carrypad concept (lets call it the Carrypad Home Companion now) needs to be enhanced slightly up to Carrypad Office Companion specification.

Full destop OS capability (x86 architechture)
1Ghz processor (for some photo editing, audio editing, video cutting and full-capability office applications)
Docking station.
512MB ram (for multiple concurrent applications / Microsoft OS)
40Gb disk
5-7″ screen
Price (complete with dock) under 1500,- Euro

Now I know that a notebook PC would satisfy all that for around 700,-Euro but I don’t need a full keyboard and 12″ screen all the time and I really want to be able to leave a monitor, speakers, mic, USB drive, TV, power connected to a central point so that I can drop the device in and out of docked mode instantly. In addition , I want the ultra-mobility that I’ve already experienced first-hand.

The Microsoft Origami ultra mobile PC and the ultra-mobile tablets are the main contenders here so lets look at whats available:

Tablet Kiosk Eo/Paceblade Easybook – No docking solution available
Samsung Q1 – No docking port.
ECS H70 – Not available outside Asia
Asus R2H – Not available yet
Motion Computing LS800 – Over budget
Sony UX – Over budget. Screen too small.
OQO – Over budget. Screen too small.

I think that covers all the possible solutions but i’m open to suggestions.

So, like the original Carrypad ‘Home companion’ concept, there’s nothing that really fits the Carrypad ‘Office Companion’ concept either.

What I think could be the closest match today is the Paceblade Easybook / TK eo device. We know that there is a dock on the way. We know that there are 6-cell battery solutions on the way and we know that the device can do digital audio and TV-output.

So here’s my $1500 quid Paceblade. If you can offer me a black eo, docking station and extended battery for that price, i’ll order one tommorrow (unless ASUS or ECS or any of the other rumored ultra mobile PC manufacturers beat you to it!)

Regards
Steve / Paine

[img]https://www.umpcportal.com/origami/images/samsung_Q1_review.jpg[/img]

Kevin Tofel from JKontherun just posted an article listing the [url=http://jkontherun.blogs.com/jkontherun/2006/06/10_things_i_don.html]10 things he doesn’t like about the Samsung Q1[/url].

Good list and I’ve heard some of the complaints before.

His main points
1. Resuming from Standby turns the WiFi radio back on.
2. Resuming from Standby turns the brightness up or down based on the status of the AC adapter.
3. No docking potential.
4. Choice of slots.
5. Memory capacity.
6. The Analog stick is not effective.
7. Screen resolution thoughts.
8. Screen rotation is not stable.
9. Keyboard.
10. Last and perhaps most important to me: the stylus.

His full post is available
[url=http://jkontherun.blogs.com/jkontherun/2006/06/10_things_i_don.html]here[/url] and you can see what issues he has with each item on his list. Great Read. Read the full story

After a short break from ultra mobile PC news and journaling, Carrypad is back with a round-up of the ultra mobile PC news from the last week.

Eo faulty ultra mobile PC update.
Some of the Faulty Tablet Kiosk Eo’s that were sent back have now been received by their owners. The indications are that the power problem has been fixed and that the Eo’s are running as expected at around 2 hours with wifi. The C3 state problem still exists though. The Amtek variants can not fully utilise the VIA C7 yet. which is dissapointing considering this is a problem that has been known about for at least two months now. Unfortunately I don’t have the design skill to know exactly who’s fault it is other wise i’d be pointing a fat finger at them right now!

Xscale sold.
Intel sold off Xscale! I find this interesting. The chips cover smartphone and PDA devices. Do they want to pull out of RISC-based architecture altogether and concentrate on x86? Its exactly what AMD did a few weeks ago.

ARM, the developer of the ARM architectures that Xscale used, haven’t suffered too much on share price (a few % less than the FTSE-100 over the last days) so I guess the show will go on on for people like Samsung, ATMEL, Ti and the others that have paid for ARM licenses.

We wrote up a short article about x86 and RISC processors not so long ago which will give you more info if you need it.

Sodiff UMPC.
Interesting. If you haven’t seen the news, check out the info at MobileMag. This is the forth slide-screen ultra mobile PC that we’ve seen so far. The OQO, Averatec and Sony UX being the other three. All have very small screens (around 5 inches) and at this screen size, the keyboard can be used with the thumbs. The design wouldn’t really work for 6 or 7 inch screens which is a shame because it’s a nice space-efficient bit of engineering.

As for the specs, I guess its a WinCE-based device that is just a small step up from a personal media player but it would be interesting to see how much of the Sony UX50 functionality it has and to work out the price premium for the additional features!

Dell ultra mobile PC rumor.
Ultranauts reported that Dell would be producing a UMPC. Its no suprise really. They have already talked about stopping work on PocketPC’s and the X51v is such an advanced PocketPC that if you put it in a new casing with a bigger screen, you could call it an Ultra Mobile PC with no problem. A $500 price point would make it very attractive and a major problem for Nokia.
One other thought on that one though. Isn’t it HTC that are the ODM (Original Designer/Manufacturer) for the Dell PocketPC’s? HTC are the sister company to VIA and are in a very good position to be able to produce a UMPC. We speculated on HTC and UMPC’s before.

Tablet Kiosk rumor.
More rumors via Ultranauts. They appear to have contacts! This time about new Tablet Kiosk devices. There’s no detail at all about what they might be. We’re only told that 6-8 weeks is the timescale until the announcement. Could we be looking at the first devices with LED backlights? Keyboards? Could they be distributing the 5.6″ Mo-Bits device we talked about recently? We’ll have to wait and see.

Interesting conversations.
During my time off over the last 6 days, I had some great conversations with a guy who has nothing to do with UMPC’s but has a very clear head when it comes to analysing a new idea. We talked at length about why UMPC’s are needed and why we don’t just wait for smartphones to evolve with fold-out screens and fold-out keyboards. Its an interesting point. How long have we got until paper/foldable/rollable screens are available? My guess is 5-7 years before we can integrate touch, lighting and get to efficient production costs. When that happens, we might see the death of the UMPC, just like we’re seeing it with the PDA.

Sony ultra mobile PC flash drive option – Speed or space.
I like the way that Sony have introduced the flash drive option on the UX. With minimal aditional cost and lower storage space, the user gets faster response and better battery life. It’s a trade-off I think i’d make myself. Most of my storage is moving to a centralised model so why do I need a 60GB disk? For the last 12 months i’ve been streaming my MP3’s to my devices and with products like the Slingbox, who needs to take videos with them? 8Gb seems about the right balance to me.

Regards
Steve / Chippy.

[img]https://www.umpcportal.com/origami/images/sony%20umpc/sony_umpc_ux_small.jpg[/img]

According to [url=http://www.mobilewhack.com/reviews/sony_vgn-ux90ps_and_vgn-ux90s_umpc.html]MobileWhack.com[/url] Sony has announced that it will be releasing a flash drive based verison of its VGN-UX90PS and VGN-UX90S.

The new released version will have a 16GB hard drive which though is a bit smaller than the 30GB hard drive included in the old version is quite a bit slower.

According to the specs on [url=http://www.sony.jp/CorporateCruise/Press/200606/06-0627/]Sony.jp[/url] opening Microsoft Outlook on the hard drive system takes about 1.5 seconds while opening it on the internal HDD UX micro PC takes about 9 seconds. Windows also boots up in 5.6 seconds versus a regular 17 seconds.

Ho Doggy flash drive systems are fast.

According to Sony the systems will also be the same price so there is a comparable choice for what you need, speed or space. Read the full story

Sodiff announced last week that it would be releasing a new WiBro enabled handheld PC.

According to [url=http://www.mobilemag.com/content/100/333/C8415/#]MobileMag.com[/url] the device will feature a 4.3″ LCD screen that will slide over a qwerty keyboard like the Sony UX.

The device also has an SD memory card slot, audio/video playback, a built-in FM tuner, IPTV, and a 2 megapixel camera. there is also a Windows button on the device so it will likely be runing some sort of Windows OS.

The device will likely be released in November for people in Korea to enjoy. Everywhere else can just hear about it on tech websites.

Read the full story

[img align=right]https://www.umpcportal.com/umpc/images/handango.gif[/img]
Rob at gottabemobile.com [url=http://www.gottabemobile.com/AttentionDevelopersHandangoUMPCTabletPCContestUnderway.aspx]posted a story[/url] about a contest [url=http://www.handango.com]Handango.com[/url] is running a development contest with one of 3 ultra mobile PC devices as the prize.

According to the newsletter Rob had posted:

Handango is looking for fresh and premier Tablet PC and Ultra-Mobile PC content.are you up for the challenge? By converting your existing mobile applications or creating an entirely new title for Tablet PC and UMPC, you’ll be eligible to win one of three Ultra-Mobile PCs! Personal Productivity, Travel, Fitness, Medical, Multimedia, and Entertainment titles are all great fits for our catalog. The contest runs from now until August 31st..start coding!

More info below… Read the full story