Too bad to let this lapse..

Very nice overview of the current UMPC situation, Kevin. I wrote a similar article back in May for InformationWeek and I hope they publish it before it’s out of date.

Excellent 6 month UMPC “State of the Union” blog Kevin!
I resisted my desire to get a UMPC when they first came out and decided to wait at least 6 months to see how the 2nd generation units look. I think these units are progessing nicely and as long as they can market them better and sell enough of them I’m sure the prices will come down 25% – 50% within another year. I finally broke down and ordered a Q1 Pentium and anxiously await it. I think the backorder problem with these is a manufacturing or shipping issue since all retailers are backordered now. Then again Samsung did say they would not be available until 4th quarter of this year which is still over a week away. It would be interesting to see how may UMPC units have sold this first six months.

I would add a Triggerfinger Software enabled game controller to the list of keyboard solutions. This message was written touch type on a Q1 with a game controller.

Posted about your article at my blog Kevin. Very nice written.

I just got a note from CDW that they’d applied a $100 discount for my having to wait. It’s one reason I like dealing with such a class act. In any event, it might be worth while for other folks in the same boat to IM customer service at CDW and querry the shipment date. I also noticed that the shipment date on the sale’s page for the new Q1 Pentium has been backed off from 1-3 days to 8 days. In any event, the discount makes me think that the problem in shipment may be with either the shipper or Samsung, not with CDW.

One last thought: as I said before, one reason I went with the Q1 was how satisfied y’all seemed with the original Q1 and with Flash (?), the Q1 with the flash hard drive. I’m hoping that when the prices for the flash harddrives fall, I’ll be able to put one in my Q1 Pentium. The notion of a hard drive which can take dust and bouncing around BIA roads is very, very inviting. In any event, I truely appreciate the work and thought you at jkontherun put into the community.

Considering the power of $400 PMPs nowadays, I wonder if, instead of building down from a laptop, should companies be building up from portable media players? If they have enough processing power to handle near DVD-quality video, they can’t be total slouches, right?

When I first saw the $500.00 price point, my first thought was, “How are they going to do that?” So, I wasn’t too surprised when the units came in around $1000.00. Linda’s (?) post explains why. My real concern is that the UMPC concept will remain a nitch market and won’t “take off” because of poor coordination of advertising and promises not being kept. I think the form factor/concept of the UMPC is one of the best ideas to come out of Microsoft/Intel. I do much work out on the rez, and any weight or space I save is a godsend. It also doesn’t hurt that the smaller formfactor is less intimidating than the full-size tablet, and I can use it in iterviews–thus, allowing me to get rid of the digital recorder. The usefullness of the design is one reason I’m willing to trade in my well used and loved TC1100, but I watched many of the same mistakes being made with the release of the Tablet, and I’m still—three years later— explaining to co-workers the utility of the tablet.

Steve, you might have given me an idea for the next installment of this “series”. In short: there’s been a bunch of poor marketing and a lack of communications in this space. Bear in mind that we’re a ways off from seeing a high performing, $500 UMPC; some are close, but the technology and pricing isn’t there just yet.

Doug, what the instructions essentially mean is to unzip the floattip.exe and then put in your Start Up menu under Start, Programs. You don’t have to do this, but this ensures that each time you boot, the floattip.exe app will run for you. You could just unzip it and execute it, but after you reboot, you’ll have to re-run it.

Got the floating tip. Instruction says “unzip in startup folder”. Which one?

I had forgotten about the USB heatset option. Solves that problem.

Yes, using speech option on tip, and now that it (is going to) floats, should be much easier.

I also wanted to say thanks. It was reading your experiences which made me decide on the Q1 Pentium. I just got off IM with customer support at CDW. Originally, they’d assured me that the new Q1s would ship on 23 September, but they’re now saying the new Q1s are on backorder and the shipment date has been backed off until 6 October. One of the many questions which I’ve had about the whole UMPC thing is why there’s so much smoke and mirrors about releases. Samsung didn’t say anything about the Q1 Pentium; it just seemed to appear at Frys, and bloggers like you and Carrypad seem to be more up to date on what’s happening than the resellers. It’s frustrating that the mainstream media continue to downplay the formfactor, but one of the reasons they have is that the various folks involved witht he platform continue to make promises which aren’t being kept. I understand why the Q1 Pentium will cost $1250, and I’m willing to pay the price as fair; but, why the promise of a $500 pricepoint for the UMPC. I’d bet there’re folks still out there not buying the current round of UMPCs because they’re waiting for the promised pricepoint, and it’ll be a long time coming. Same could be said about integrated GPS, etc. It seems as if the process could and should be more transparent, and retailers and producers should be working to make it so. I won’t go into how much digging I had to do to make sure that the Q1 Pentium had the array mics and stereo speakers of the original Q1. So, the question, why isn’t the release being better handeled?

Thanks for the feedback Doug. For your voice input, are you using the the Speech option in the TIP? It’s in the Options of the TIP, a tap on Speech turns it on or off. In Vista, you can actually use speech to tell the computer to listen or stop listening. There’s really no need for an external mic port on the Q1 as you have two options already. You can use the integrated dual-array microphones (which work great!) or a USB headset in one of the two USB jacks. For the floating tip, do a Google search for floattip.exe. I’m not a fan of the MS Reader app, but in fairness: nobody has customized a reader application for the UMPC screens. I find that eReader works well and the beta a Times Reader is awesome! Thanks again!

I want to add that you have been very helpful over these last months. The style of urgency, personableness and helpfulness have really worked for me.

A few quick. Samsung q1

Voice input would be easier if there were a simpler way to turn it on and off. I find it works quite well.

But, why is ther no external mike (sound in) port?

On my q1, i can’t get the tip to float, which is a real pain.

Amazing that micosoft reader is not customized for the origami.

I am a big user of onenote and love it on the q1.