Don’t get too excited if you live in the Western world. It looks like Sony has launched a UX50 with a 1-seg digital TV receiver in Asia which isn’t much use to those of us living in Europe or America.

Mobile Digital TV is one thing I’d love to see get sorted out in U.S. and Europe. At the moment its a mess of licensing and standards. For the meantime, we’ll have to settle with DVB-T in Europe and make sure we carry our usb-DVB stick and antenna with us!

This brings the total number of UX devices to 6. UX90s (Asia) UX90PS (Asia) UX50 (Asia) UX70 (Asia) UX17 (Aus.) UX180p (U.S.) although JKontheRun reported yesterday that it’s gone from the website and I can’t find it myself either.

Akihabara news doesn’t have much more info but thanks to them for the info.

Steve

tags: umpc, sony ux, 1 seg

One of my favorite ultra-mobile PC’s, the 8.9″ swivel screen tablet convertible Fujitsu P1510d looks like its getting a very nice set of upgrades which could bring it right to the cutting-edge of ultra mobile PC technology.

Engadget has reported that details are up on a Japanese website and sure enough, there they are. (Google translation)

The Loox P series uses an Intel U1400 (Core Solo ULV, 1.2Ghz, same as Sony UX90 and the Australian UX17 version.) processor with Intel GMA950 graphics engine and comes in varying flavors of disk and memory. Other highlights include shock-protected hard drives, Gig-E LAN, Fingerprint sensor, Bluetooth 2.0 and 1280×768 LED back-lit screen (on 8.9″. That’s almost too much!) This is a very high-end mobile device indeed.

This is only the second LED backlit screen I’ve seen on an UltraMobile device (Sony UX also has LED backlighting.) Fujitsu are claiming 4.4 hours battery life using a JEITA standardised test. For comparison, the Sony UX has a similar battery and is quoted at 3.5 hours battery life using the same test.

The base model looks to be around 1700 Euro in Japan and launches at end of Sept. Expect Dynamism.com to jump on these very quickly.

Steve / Chippy.

Via gottabemobile

Current version (Fujitsu P1510d) data sheet.

tags: Fujitsu, P1510d, Loox P

Maybe I shouldn’t have written about it this morning but I’ve just heard that the Averatec AHI is to be set for a possible launch in Q1 2007. Not Q3 2006 as was previously planned. Averatec sent this public message to me via email.

Through development, we have refreshed our vision for the AHI and feel confident that we can release it during the first quarter of 2007.

That’s a real shame because I felt (and still feel) that it stirred a bit of emotion amongst potential buyers just like the Sony UX does. Could it be the keyboard factor? Certainly the slider style of keyboard is becoming the most talked about not only on UMPC’s but on smartphones too. Maybe it was the price that was rumored. $700 was a good deal cheaper than the Origami UMPC’s.

Well, we look forward to an even more exciting design and specifications next year. I’ll be at CES in Jan and I hope the Averatec will be there too.

Steve / Chippy

Very nice video show about the Sony UX180P. Warner Crocker brings up some interesting and important points. Especially the crazy location of the rear-facing camera.

Within the show, Warner demo’s the Inscribe text entry software that I’m quite interested in trying out and learning myself.

GottaBeMobile is where you need to go to watch the video.

Steve.

Sony UX data sheet, images and links.

…Pioneer/Easybook P7/It’s/Ago7. I think that’s all of them covered!

Ctitanic has posted some photos of the extended battery solution that Mugen are working on. No prices or dates yet.

To me, it looks like a 9-cell solution. That will translate to just under 6 hours if the cells are a similar capacity to the originals. Very useable!

More over at UMPCBuzz.

Steve / Chippy.

tags: mugen, eo, t700, v7110, battery

At the end of Spring, I published a ‘watchlist.’ A report on what we should look out for in the ultra mobile PC market during Summer. 3 months later its time to give it an update.

New Nokia Internet Tablet.
No new news on this one I’m afraid. I’m still confident that something will happen for the Christmas market although the probability is going down with every week that passes.
Probability: 80%
My guess on specs: Late summer release. $550. Slightly bigger screen. Better processor. Linux based. Keyboard.

Samsung Q1 with VIA processor.

“This one is strictly a rumor” I said. The rumor was true. The Samsung Q1b looks like its headed for the UK market in October. Other markets unconfirmed as yet. Priced above the existing Q1. Its possible that good battery life on this device could be why the price has been set high.

Averatec AHI.

Averatec told us in June that the AHI was a “work in progress” and that we should look for news at the end of Q3 with a launch soon after.

Founder Mininote.

This one has appeared in the U.S. and Europe as the Tablet Kiosk 7200 series. The 7210 is due to be the first Pentium-M based (and there for the most powerful) Origami UMPC. Look out for my reviews on this one as I’ve ordered one. It should be arriving this week.

Pepperpad plus.

It turned out to be the Pepperpad 3.  (OK I got the name wrong. I can’t get everything right!) Due for launch in Sept. Based on AMD LX800 processor.

Flybook V33i.

Its now available. Watch out for a review from Carrypad in Sept.

DualCor cPc

I said ‘ho hum” last time. I’ll say it again. Ho Hum. No real news about this. Some people have engineering samples.

ASUS R2H

Its finally been confirmed on the ASUS global website but as-yet there’s no press releases, prices or availability info.

Price wars.

Price wars started with the AgoPC being introduced at 15% less than equivalent devices already available.  

Its quite a shame that the watch list is nearly empty now and the chances of more devices appearing before Christmas are now getting slimmer. The next big ‘event’ in the ultra mobile PC calendar will be CES in Jan and we should expect to see the first rumors starting to appear for that during Oct and Nov. In Dec I guess it will be time for the CES Watchlist.

Regards

Steve / Chippy.

tags: umpc

Akihabaranews are reporting this morning that ‘Suze’ (whoever she is) has a Vega ultra mobile PC and has done a review. Its available in Korean and helpfully (not!) all placed as jpg files. No chance to do much Google translation then! I assume that Akihabaranews will have a translated version of this soon but I’ll see if I cant de-cipher some of the review comments and get some info.

On the way through the reviews and links, I found that the Raon Digital Korean language website has been updated with pricing and some availability news.

The unit is only available in Korea at the moment but they are looking at international reseller partnerships. There’s a hint that these could start by the end of the year.

As for pricing, there’s a huge flyer up on the Korean version of the website with prices.(click to enlarge.)

The 256MB version looks like it will be 550 Euro ($710)

The 512MB versions looks like it will be 590 Euro ($750)

The pricing is as predicted (although, looking at the flyer, this could be a limited-time offer.) You’ll probably also need to add $100 for reseller costs and margin it ever arrives in other parts of the world.

Vega ultra mobile PC data sheet. (Carrypad)

Regards

Steve / Chippy

tags: umpc, uppc, vega, raon digital

Just a quick thought on integrated GPS modules in ultra mobile PC devices. Especially if you are thinking about the ASUS R2H.

If you have a car like mine that has a UV filter on the front windscreen, there’s a chance that a GPS receiver may not work.

 Here’s just one reference from this PDF.

Note: Certain vehicles (in particular top specification BMW, Mercedes, Renault Peugeot & Citroen) have UV screens that block the GPS signals from entering the vehicle, which can stop [the product] from acquiring its position. These vehicles require an additional antenna to support [the product] (please contact xxxx for details). Heated screens can also affect signal strength.

I have this problem. The answer is to buy a Bluetooth GPS ‘mouse’ and locate it near the back window. Another possibility is to look for a SIRF III GPS receiver. These newer receivers might work and no, I’m not sure what type of GPS receiver is in the R2H. My guess is its a cheaper SIRF II model.

If anyone in ASUS can lend me an R2H, I’ll gladly test it out for you.

Regards

Steve / Chippy. 

tags: umpc, uv filter, car, gps