Friday is here, time to take a step back from the hurried happenings in Mobile Tech Manor and look back at the week. Some gear went back where it came from and other gear arrived for play evaluation. I experimented with alternative e-book readers to get a feel for what I like best before all the “real” readers hit early next year. Step into the Manor and let’s shoot the breeze.
I had an appointment early this afternoon and once that was over I stopped in the local brew shop for some caffeine to get some work done. I decided small and light was the order of the day, so today I’ve got the loaner Viliv S7 convertible UMPC along for the ride. It’s working pretty well — I’m even getting used to the super-small keyboard. I am touch typing, although slowly and surely. I decided to snap a pic of the rig before the Droid decides to screw up the auto-focus again.
Yesterday, I took a look at Amazon’s Kindle for PC software on my netbook. The beta software is missing a few features just yet — search, note-taking and highlighting passages — but for reading Kindle content, it’s quite good. You gain the benefit of a color screen and the ability to tweak fonts and line spacing to a greater degree. All in all, the experience is enjoyable. But will it be so good that it actually kills off Amazon’s Kindle hardware products? I don’t think so.
Another Friday, another chance to share my week with you. The week has been slammed, and one of those where I find I am running behind on all the projects I have in progress. This Mobile Tech Manor column is going to be much shorter than usual as I haven’t had the time I usually do to share the events of the week. Most of the week was spent trying new software and upgrading a program I depend on a lot. The Droid phone goes on sale today, and a review unit arrived yesterday so I’ve spent a few hours with it. Come on into the Manor and stay a while.
The end of the week is drawing nigh and it is time to share the past week with you once again. No new gadgetry showed up in Mobile Tech Manor this week, so I spent most of my time writing and playing around with software. I bit the big one and “downgraded” a gadget to Windows XP, even though all the hype was for Windows 7. I got tired of the Windows 7 crud I covered last week. I also got to thinking about something that’s bothered me for a long time. Come on in and visit with me a bit this fine Friday.
“Upgrading” to Windows XP
The buzz this week was definitely Windows 7, with the official launch yesterday. It was a non-event for me personally as I’ve been running it for months. I like Windows 7, even though the creeping crud I’m seeing more and more on different installations is really bothering me.
I’ve shown the Viliv S7 UMPC on video before, but felt it was worth it to show off the touch interface that Viliv is installing on its UMPCs. The MID touch interface is a program launcher and UMPC control that’s designed to be operated totally by touch. In this video you will see the interface, along with some special Viliv utilities including media players and the FastWeb browser.
Those Viliv folks in Korea are producing UMPCs and notebooks at a mad pace. I’ve tried the S5, x70 and the S7 UMPCs they sell, and they all perform as advertised. The first two in the list are slate UMPCs, while the S7 is a convertible netbook, albeit a small 7-inch version. Viliv is going big with the Blade S10 they are showing at the IDF this week.
The S10 is a convertible notebook with a 10-inch touch screen. It appears to be very thin and light, and Viliv is claiming a 10-hour battery life. We’ll take that with a grain of salt until we can see it with our own eyes, but other Viliv devices get decent battery life.
Our friends at Laptop Magazine got to play with the Blade S10, and they seemed to like it.
We had a chance to go hands-on with the Viliv S10 at the Intel Developer’s Forum and were really impressed how light it was, how bright the screen was, and how attractive the Viliv Shuffle interface is for touch.
They have a brief video of the S10, and it does look like the 10-inch form makes for a productive size. The S10 has a high-res screen (1366×768) and will ship in Q4 starting at about $500. This makes it a little pricey for a netbook, but not so bad when you consider the swivel screen.
(Image courtesy Laptop Magazine)
It’s funny how the mobile space goes — UMPCs hit the scene a couple of years ago and then all but died out. This year has seen a resurgence in the UMPC segment and today comes word from one of the first companies to produce them of two new models. TabletKiosk is introducing additions their long-running eo line, the a7330D and the TufTab a7230xd, both of which become available in October.
These two models are bringing some new life into the UMPC space with new components. They both have the Intel Atom onboard, which is not that unusual these days. What sets them apart from the pack, however, is the inclusion of dual digitizers. Both of these new UMPCs have both a resistive touch digitizer along with an active digitizer for pen use.
Both of these new UMPCs from TabletKiosk are available for pre-order, but the new features will not come cheap. The a7330D will set you back a cool $1,495 and the ruggedized TufTab $2,195. Tabletkiosk is aiming these UMPCs at vertical businesses, so they are not priced for the consumer market.
If you’ve been lusting after either the Viliv S5 or X70 devices that James has been teasing you with, there’s yet another vendor offering the devices stateside. Laptoping eye-spied them both over at NewEgg, and my quick browsing shows quite the assortment of available models and options. All three X70EX editions are appearing: Express P, Premium P and Premium 3GP. The differing prices — $599, $729, and $879 — range with choice of CPU speed, SSD capacity and inclusion of integrated HSPA 3G radio. All have the 7-inch touchscreen, Windows XP Home (not XP Tablet Edition), 1GB of memory, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, card reader, 1.3-megapixel webcam, integrated microphone and stereo speakers. Oh, and a solid five hours or so of battery life. Much of what’s offered here is or was available in my old Samsung Q1U-P device, but of course, that was more expensive, thicker and heavier due to the larger battery size.
The smaller, 4.8-inch display S5 is also squatting on NewEgg’s site — the same three model names as the X70EX are there for $549, $599 and $799. Again, the base feature set is pretty standard with the options coming in for a 1.33GHz CPU over a 1.2GHz unit, hard drive or SSD and integrated 3G. NewEgg is offering some special extras on some configurations: a case, extra battery or other accessory.
It’s been over three years since the original Origami Project concept, but in my opinion, the S5 and X70EX are what we were hoping for back then. I’m curious if folks agree. Assuming you do, it makes you wonder about the original concept to begin with since these devices are generally still considered niche products. Then again, they can be found at Amazon, Buy.com and other mainstream sites these days, too. Maybe we hoped for too much three years ago? Or maybe we’re all still a little ahead of our time. I feel better thinking of it that way. 
I am having a good time running Windows 7 on a number of devices, but one of the things I miss from previous versions of Windows is how to optimize the interface for the small screen. I have been struggling in Windows 7, on touch-enabled devices in particular, due to the inability to make the scroll bars and other windows controls bigger. The min/max/close boxes on windows are just too tiny to tap with my finger on touch devices, and the scroll bars need to be wider to be useful. While surfing around the web this past weekend I stumbled across a free method to make these controls work much better with touch.
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