Steve from Carrypad made a little list of upcoming UMPCs. It includes rumors too, but worth reading.
Asus R2H UMPC
The latest news from Asus is that the production and delivery (to resellers) starts in early August. This information is direct via Asus Germany and is their latest information.
People like waiting for a new product and share their guesses, theories about those. And this product can be literally everything.
In our case, it is a UMPC of course, Asus R2H, which passed FCC tests recently. Kevin asks if 2 in the R2H means 2 hours of battery life, after reading this at DailyTech:
Asus engineers also told us that they are hoping for at least two hours of battery life with its first UMPC effort.
I’m interpreting this as “Under heavy usage, we hope that battery will last at least 2 hours”.
But ctitanic saw this picture at it’s User Manual and added his question to the photo:
I guess this is under very light usage, close to max battery.
Akihabara News published a HDTV video of Samsung Q1, and their Q1 supports DMB, so even if you know Q1, you should take a look.
Here is a very very good comparison of UX and OQO. When i say “video reviews are not good enough to abandon text-reviews.” This can easily be a good example. Benchmarks, size,usability,pocketability,screen (this is a new term!) comparisons and even more.
Of course OQO is behind from UX considering last technology. UX has a faster CPU,wireless card etc., obvious things. But OQO has nice things to cover them : Better direct sunlight screen (which is very important for mobile devices),better keyboard, smaller size-it is very thinner and it is important as we learned from Razr phone series, as a jean guy, it really matters.
The UX and OQO also differ in terms of screen readability. The UX uses Sony’s XBrite technology for a stunningly bright, full-color display. The OQO simply can’t hold a candle-power to the UX. However, even though the OQO can’t outshine the UX, it can out-reflect it. The XBrite screen is still readable in bright sunlight, but it’s not as readable as the trans-flective OQO display. In bright sunlight, you can even shut the back light of the OQO completely off and easily read the screen with reflected light. The surface of the screen on the UX is more reflective than the OQO’s, which can make it difficult to read in direct sunlight.
Popular Science made a little slideshow about UMPCs that will come soon. Very nice photos.
ervetzin on OrigamiPortal forums, got an extended battery for Samsung Q1 and posted his experiences and some good photos.
The battery is about twice the size of the original. It extends about 3/4″ below the bottom of the unit. For me this is actually a welcome added space for resting my hand while inking. The added area is black, but not polished like the rest of the front. The Q1 will still fit in the sleeve that came with it, but it is a tight fit. I have to use the “hold” switch to keep it from turning itself back on when I slide it in.
So, how long does it last?
In my initial test (low brightness, moderate browsing via wifi & listening to mp3s) I got approximately 5 1/2 hours out of it.
Tabletkiosk revealed 6 cell extended battery for eo. Since fixed eo’s battery lasts about 2 hours, we can easily say it will last about 4 hours.
Interesting form? Oh yeah!
You can buy one here for $149.95.
Here are two videos that can express thousands of words. The videos are in Spanish (i guess :D), but you don’t need it, they are Sony UX50 and U50 videos. As a good reader of mine ( :D) , you know i think U50 is way better than UX50 especially for its’ form factor. The first one is UX, watch it first and then watch U. You will understand.
It’s like upgrading from 15″ monitor to 60″ plasma, isn’t it?
ctitanic reports that his eo began to work much better after coming from recall.
I have been using my eo exactly a week since it came back from the recall and I’m very pleased with current battery life. My old device reached a point where I could work only for less than one hour ending with the eo going off without any previous warning. With this unit from current batch I can work easily for more than two if WiFi is off and around two hours with WiFi on. The old got so hot that sometime it was just close to a painful experience to write with my wrist touching the bottom part of the unit. This one is warm but I would say that it’s 30% cooler than the old one. At least I do not feel anymore that painful sensation that I felt many times with the old one.
Did i hear you say “finally!” ? Still there are some issues:
If we could get this unit going in C3 State mode and better drivers and support from VIA I would declare this a perfect machine.
Of course they are not just for UMPCs, but they are advertised as UMPC and Tablet games.
First one is HangMan. There can’t be much to explain this game, so i’ll quote directly:
This is a version of the game prepared for UMPCs and Tablet PCs where the computer thinks the word and it’s our task to guess it.
The game comes with 3 lists of words, the main list of around 1000 words, the list of Capitals of Countries and the List of Countries names. You can create your own list of words in a TXT file adding one word per row, this feature makes the games virtually new every time that you add a new list of words to be used by the program.
This game is a perfect tool to practice your handwriting with the Tablet PC recognizer. You can also use it as a learning tool to teach your kids new words making the learning process a big fun.
It’s $7.49 for now, you can buy here.
Second one is InkDoku - Tablet version of Sudoku.
Introducing InkDoku: Sudoku for the Tablet PC. This famous Japanese puzzle game comes directly to your Tablet PC. Use your stylus to handwrite your answers to an unlimited number of puzzles. If your Tablet supports the eraser mode of a stylus, simply use it like you were using a pencil!
It’s $9.95, you can buy here.
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