In 2008, MacWorld is a week after CES, but I still suspect a masterful PR move from Apple this week. Nope, I don’t expect any new hardware announcements as those will be reserved for next week. I said it before, but want to go on record now: I think Apple will provide a killer upgrade to the iPhone this week if at all possible. We’ve already seen a build of the iPhone firmware 1.1.3, but I wonder if we’ve seen all of the features in the final version. I could be way off base here, but that’s my guess… folks buzzing about new iPhone software with at least "one more thing" in it that we’re not yet aware of. Full support for Microsoft Exchange perhaps? Could we see some off-the-cuff comparsion to MIDs with Apple suggesting "hey, that’s nothing new… we’ve had a MID out for quite some time..." Thoughts?

I should list the gear that I took to Vegas so you get a feel for the load I was carrying for miles each day (I’m not going to put links for everything, just Google it):

• Fujitsu P1610 Tablet PC (extended and standard battery)
• Novatel V620 EV-DO PC Card modem
• Lamy Accent 4 in 1 pen/ stylus
• ThinkOutside Bluetooth mouse
• BatteryGeek Portable Power Station
• Casio ExiLim camera
• M-Audio MicroTrack 24/96 audio recorder
• Netgear Travel Router
• Zune

All of the gear (with the exception of the Netgear router) was carried each day in the Booq bag that I have used for a couple of years.  This bag is very comfortable to wear all day on the back yet holds everything very organized for rapid extraction when needed.  The travel router stayed in the hotel room as my room had blazing fast wired ethernet (5500 kbps both up and down) so I used the router to make my own hotspot, which let me work comfortably anywhere in the room.

The first two days in Vegas I attended the Microsoft Vista RTM Labs and the venue was very packed and we were working all day in a very tight area.  Most of the attendees were having a tough time fitting their laptops or Tablet PCs in the small area but Rob Bushway and I were easily situated with our Fujitsus and we could work in either Tablet or laptop mode.  Speaking of Rob, he gave both the Booq bag and the Lamy pen a good look and was very impressed with the utility of both.  The wireless connectivity in the conference was either spotty or nonexistent so I just left the EV-DO card in and stayed connected all day each day with nary a worry.  I can’t wait until I can upgrade this card to one with the new and faster Rev. A, it would have come in handy since the network in Las Vegas has been upgraded by Verizon.  I used the P1610 in slate mode most of the time and took notes in ink as I usually do.  I didn’t worry about battery power and didn’t take a power adapter with me for the Fuji because frankly I just didn’t need to.  The extended battery gets me ~6 hours and the standard battery ~3 hours so I can go all day.  I did carry the BatteryGeek battery with me in case I wanted to top off one of the batteries for some reason.

It was interesting to see that of the four Tablet PC MVPs attending the Vista RTM Lab two of us use the P1610 and the other two use the Lenovo x60.  It was fun watching the Lenovo users balancing the x60 on the small table or on their laps while Rob and I breezed through with our Fujis.  It also indicates which Tablet PCs are hot right now, at least until the new ones announced at the CES are available.

Once the CES started up the routine became, well, anything but routine.  I was up fairly early each day and writing posts for 3 web sites and then off to the show, which usually meant a 15 – 30 minute wait in a cab line to get to the convention center.  I really appreciated having such a light load and small bag while standing in these lines.  It was also cool to be able to process email and check my RSS feeds while standing in line, something that generated a lot of attention from my fellow travelers.  More than one blog post I wrote from the show was written standing in one line or another.  That’s what you call mobile tech in practice.

Throughout each day of visiting exhibitor booths I used the Casio camera a lot and also pulled the Fujitsu out of the bag to make notes of import.  My Nikon camera bit the dust a couple of weeks before the CES so I brought my wife’s Casio camera and it held up very nicely.  It is small enough to fit in a shirt pocket so it was always handy for the quick snapshot.  The pictures weren’t always the greatest but it was more than adequate to grab the photos I needed. 

Kevin and I roamed the convention center and the Sands Expo each day and since his Q1 died the day before departure (poor Kevin, I felt so bad for him) he carried his Toshiba M205 Tablet PC everywhere.  It was quite the contrast to see our two Tablet PCs in use and on more than one occasion I found Kevin sitting on the floor outside the Press area with his M205 plugged into a wall outlet to keep it charged enough to last all day.  It made me really appreciate having the small, power-stingy P1610 with me, I’ll tell you that.

The night before the show proper we attended the keynote address delivered by Bill Gates, a largely ho-hum speech with no real surprises and nothing new announced, except the home server appliance that will be released by HP later this year.  The keynote seemed to drag on and on and when it was finally over Kevin, Dave Zatz and I headed over to the Digital Experience exhibition, where a lot of companies were giving a preview of what they would be showing off in their booths during the CES.  Kevin and I had a good conversation with the Fujitsu people, and got to see the OQO Model 02 up close and personal.  We ran into too many people to name including fellow bloggers and MVPs and it was a fun social event.

Day one of the CES proper we headed up to the Press room where they had breakfast laid out with wired ethernet at the tables.  We were soon joined by Dave Winer and spent a good 30 minutes chatting with Dave while our Tablet PCs were connected to the web.  Dave’s MacBook looked like it had been run over by a truck but it was still ticking.  He’s a really nice guy and it was a pleasure meeting him in person, one of the biggest draws for attending a massive show like the CES.  Doc Searls dropped by for a bit to talk to Dave, but I didn’t see what gear he was carrying as he didn’t stay.

We then headed over to the press room where they had table after table with ThinkPads for press use, along with several printers for generating hardcopy (does anybody do that anymore?).  It was in this press room that I finally met Dwight Silverman of the Houston Chronicle in the flesh.  We’re both based in Houston but had to go to Vegas to finally meet.  Dwight and I both had Zunes so he squirted me a song to see how well it worked (it worked fine) and we had a nice chat.  Dwight was carrying the T-Mobile Dash and even though he’s not a fan of Windows Mobile devices he indicated he was really liking the Dash, in fact he wrote a nice review of it once he returned to Houston.  I have to admit it fit very nicely in my hand too so I can see why he was enjoying using it.

The rest of Day One Kevin and I roamed different booths and looked at a lot of things but were both a bit taken aback at the lack of things new and exciting.  We visited the UAStarcomm booth to get a look at the XV6800, the next generation model of the XV6700 we both use.  The 6800 sports EV-DO Rev A but it was nowhere to be seen, they only had the XV6700 and didn’t even have literature about the 6800.  Strange.  I was beginning to catch a cold and feeling worse as the day progressed so we returned to our respective hotels.  I decided to rest up so the cold wouldn’t wear me down too much so Kevin headed out to the ShowStoppers event that night.

Day Two of the CES found us back at the main show floor until lunchtime when we headed to the Lunch@Piero’s exhibition.  This is a press-only luncheon exhibition where we had a nice lunch and got to see some exhibitors up close and personal.  Martin Smekal and Gail Levy of TabletKiosk were there exhibiting jointly with Via and as always it was fun to chat with them both.  They had a bank of UMPCs on display, all running the Via processor which was cool to see all in one place.  Next door was the OQO display so we had a good look at the next generation of the handheld device.  It appears that OQO has addressed the shortcomings of the first generation model and I am anxious to get my hands on the Model 02.

We hung around Piero’s for a couple of hours and then headed over to the Aladdin for the highly anticipated Tablet PC meetup.  This meetup is always the high point of the trip for me and this year’s didn’t disappoint.  I finally got to meet fellow podcast host Marc Orchant in person and it felt like we’ve known each others for years (which we have).  He’s a great guy and it was fun chatting to a real face instead of a Skype avatar.  There were at least 100 people there and I got to talk with so many of them I am not going to try to name them.  I had a good chat with the Motion Computing folks, TabletKiosk (again), OQO, and of course, Microsoft.  The demonstration that Dustin and Sears gave us of the new Origami Experience blew me away and you should check out Kevin’s post about it.  I had such a great time that I’d like to thank all the sponsors and organizers, especially Lora Heiny for all the hard work to pull this off.

I gave a few people the chance to play with the Fujitsu P1610, including Kevin and Matt Miller.  Their comments on the MobileTechRoundup podcast we recorded later that night says it all- great Tablet PC with a touchscreen.  Everywhere I went people were curious about the P1610 and very impressed by the mini-Tablet.  I know it served me well the entire week in Vegas and would hate to think what using a larger Tablet PC would have been like.  I know Kevin really missed Sammy.

The Tablet PC meetup was great but as all good things must come to an end so it was with this, too.  Matt, Kevin and I headed over to the Bellagio to record a MobileTechRoundup show in the BlogHaus sponsored by PodTech (Robert Scoble) and Seagate.  We got to see the fountain show at the Bellagio that was just starting up as we approached the hotel, a sight that is always good.  We headed into the BlogHaus where we immediately ran into trouble as Kevin was not on the list to get in.  Matt and I vouched for him and the security guard finally relented and up we went to the suite.  PodTech did a great job as the suite was very nicely laid out to accomodate a lot of people.   The living room was decked out with a big screen HDTV for viewing web stuff, there was lots of food and drink, one room had a long table to accomodate 12 or more bloggers, and the main bedroom was decked out with xBox players playing on another big screen.  We ran into Dwight Silverman again in the blogger room, I swear he can sniff out free WiFi better than anyone. Dwight was blogging away on the black MacBook with the Core 2 Duo processors, that is a sweet notebook.

Matt, Kevin and I settled down in a back corner of the xBox room and set out to record the MobileTechRoundup show.  We recorded it on the M-Audio MicroTrack I brought along which did a nice job and made recording the show a breeze.  While the audio quality was not as good as our normal shows it was more than adequate for recording a live show in the field.  The MicroTrack encodes to MP3 on the fly while recording so when the show was done we had a good MP3 file within seconds.  We had a special (uninvited) guest host on the show which is not surprising since there were a lot of people passing through the BlogHaus the entire time we were recording.  Valerie made for an interesting guest and the show is the funniest one we’ve ever done, so if you haven’t listened to it yet don’t miss it.  After the show we all headed back to our respective hotels, well at least Kevin and I did, Matt probably headed out for some party, social butterfly that he is.  I stayed up very late in the hotel room blogging and editing the podcast since I had to bleep out quite a lot of Valerie’s comments on the show.

On Wednesday Kevin and I got a late start and met up at the Sands Expo to check out the exhibits at this venue.  We visited a lot of booths including the Fujitsu booth to see all the Tablet PCs they had on display.  We covered the whole floor and resisted the urge to visit the Adult Video show going on in the same place, and instead headed back to the convention center where we had lunch with Gail Levy of TabletKiosk.  We got a good rundown on the new i440 slate they debuted at the show.  The i440 has a dual digitizer with a twist, the user switches between passive and active digitizer to fit the task at hand.

After lunch we met up with Douglas Krone, the CEO of Dynamism who brought a bunch of cool imports to show us.  We saw everything from ultra-thin notebooks to desktop toys, and it was a pleasure to meet Douglas in person.  That evening Kevin and I had a nice steak dinner at the TGI Fridays in the Orleans Hotel and ruminated over the show and how it lacked a WOW factor.  It was nice to see the UMPC platform heat up with a number of new devices finally appearing and of course the OQO Model 02 was visible everywhere you look.  We hope to get our hands on one to see how it holds up in the field.  After dinner we both hit the slots and Kevin won $300, which he promptly took over to the Roulette table and gave some of it back to the casino.  It was a nice enjoyable evening in what had been a hectic and tiring week.

The next day I checked out of the hotel and headed out to the airport for my return to Houston.  I enjoyed listening to my Zune in the airport and on the flight.  The night before I visited the Zune Marketplace and downloaded some great music to put in my "Guitar Greats" playlist and I rocked all the way home.  Dwight Silverman and I were on the same flight and we had a good chat at the gate while awaiting the boarding call for the flight.  I got to meet fellow Chronicle blogger Rick Roberts at the gate.  Rick writes the Sound & Vision blog on the Houston Chronicle and he was carrying the biggest notebook computer I’ve ever seen.  It’s great to be home and now I face the monumental task of catching up with my work and preparing for the coming week.

In retrospect I have to say I am very happy with my mobile gear loadout and it served me very well over the course of the week.  I don’t believe I could have a smaller, lighter bag of gear which causes no compromises in any area.  The Fujitsu and friends in the Booq bag kept me as in touch and productive as if I was back in my office.  I am totally pleased with my gear and how it performed for me in the field.

We met over lunch with the Tablet Kiosk folks yesterday and they’ve got some exciting news. Availability of their new Sahara line of slate PCs is just weeks away and all of the product specs and details are on their site. Gail Levy from Tablet Kiosk explained that there are three models in the new Sahara line: the i412T, i440T and i440D; each of which weighs a tad over three pounds. Based on what Gail told us, these three models should provide something for everyone if you’re looking for a new slate….

Let’s give a quick rundown on the basics, starting with the lower end i412T:

• Only one of the three models that runs on the Intel Celeron M (1.2 GHz)
• Supports up to 2 Gigabytes of memory
• Drive size is customizable up to 160 GB at 5400 RPM
• 12.1-inch XGA passive wide-angle touchscreen
• Intel 945 GM Express chipset
• Fingerprint reader and TPM
• Four customizable hardware buttons on the right front

The i440T builds upon those specs and runs on a heftier Intel Core Duo processor at 1.83 GHz while the i440D does the same and also adds a active digitizer, which is most unique. The i440D can operate in either passive touch mode or active digitizer mode; just flip a switch and operate in the mode of your choice! This type of solution could change my mind on the "touchscreen revelation" I had this week.

Oh and if there weren’t enough choices to make in life, these babies can be ordered with Vista, XP Tablet Edition or Linux depending the model and features you need. These sweet looking slates are beautiful to look at: rounded corners, well sized buttons and a clean, simple design. We saw a docking port on the back of Gail’s unit, but it’s possible that the accessories might follow behind the product launch by a bit. Once we can get additional details or borrow a unit, we’ll be sure to put out an update and get some more pics and video.

I’ve had the Q1 since late May of last year and since then, my poor and tired M205 Tablet has collected dust in my home office. She served me well for the two years prior and I occasionally called her out of retirement a few times in 2006 for some Microsoft Vista beta testing (see below). Other than that however, she’s silently watched Sammy get all the attention, never once begrudging the fact that I kicked her to the curb.

All of the posts you read from me this week were courtesy of the ol’ girl. She still gets the job done and let’s the past live in the past. Unfortunately for her, there are two factors that will keep me in the UMPC camp for a long time to come: size & usability.

After using (some would say abusing) a seven-inch tablet that weighs less than two pounds for the past eight months, I found it uncomfortable to carry a 12.1-inch Tablet PC that weighs more than double. Aside from actually carrying the extra bulk, I felt very out of sorts with the larger screen in slate mode. I had to revert to laptop mode for most of the week; not my preferred method of computing.

The biggest struggle I had was with the active digitizer. As well as they work, I simply don’t want another device with an active digitizer. With the touchscreen on a UMPC, I can use my finger to interact. I don’t have to wonder where I last put the stylus like I do with the active digitizer; hey, no stylus equals no ink on my M205. I continually kept tapping my M205 screen and wondering why it wasn’t responding. Call it a bad habit or call me a "touchscreen snob", it doesn’t matter to me. After one week on the active digitizer, I can’t wait to return to the touchscreen experience. Even better yet: after using James’ Fujitsu P1610 that uses a touchscreen with palm rejection, I have to say that every UMPC OEM should develop palm rejection techniques or license it from Fujitsu. With this feature, the real need for active digitizers diminishes and may even reduce device prices.

Sorry ol’ girl; you got me through another CES, but I have to trade you in for a younger and prettier model.

At the Bill Gates keynote, we got first word of the new Windows Home Server that HP will first offer; more OEMs will follow. I chatted with a Microsoftie on the floor about the WHS because as much as I like the product I had a concern. The product is great when you’re out and about with connectivity. What about when you’re not; say you’re using a UMPC on the road, don’t have 3G at the moment and are far from a hotspot?

My concern was from a companion PC standpoint and synchronizing files that you took "off-line" from the WHS. Maybe you pulled down a Word doc from the WHS on your UMPC at the local Starbucks. You make file changes later in the day and when you later connect, what happens? Does the WHS resolve the changes in the files?

It turns out that the Windows Home Server won’t natively keep those files in synch, based on our discussion. Then again, it’s really not an issue because I figured that Vista’s Sync Center features could handle this task: sure enough, I guessed right.

You’ll need to set up a partnership in Vista for the files and folders you want to keep in synch, but once you do that and gain connectivity to your WHS again, Vista will keep everything up to date. The added benefit of the WHS is that you can have your remote machines completely backed up, which I find to be a huge benefit while on the road: no need to connect external drives or burn optical media backups! Remote controlling those home PCs on your network is another boon for us mobile peeps while you’re connected.

Microsoft is still finalizing the Windows Home Server software (although the demos I saw looked pretty solid) and once they do that and provide it to HP, you’ll see these little self-sufficient boxes for sale. The expectation I heard was the second half of 2007, but we’re sure to hear details before then.

James is in the air returning home and I think 90% of the show is too. Hopefully, they’re not all on the same plane. Since I’ve got the day to myself, I meandered around a much quieter show floor and found the 1.5 pound Medion MD RIM 1000 UMPC in the wild. The device has a smaller footprint than most of the current UMPC models, partly because the screen is a slightly smaller 6.5-inches in lieu of the standard 7.

The screen slides smoothly, revealing something that I wouldn’t want in my UMPC. At least that’s what I thought. The keyboard is the most standard looking and feeling keyboard over anything I’ve seen yet, and we’ve seen ‘em all here. The keys have a nice feel and travel; just like a standard keyboard, only much smaller of course. You’ll be using your thumbs, but I have to say after using the device for about 10 minutes: you can quickly get used to the approach and start tapping out text faster than you’d think.

Navigation was also painless with both the directional pad and the small mouse touchpad at the bottom right of the device. Once again, the Origami Experience running on the Via-based machine was zippy and enjoyable.

The Medion should hit market by end of month, coinciding nicely with the Vista launch; I couldn’t get many more details, but if Medion comes in at or under a grand in price, they’ll likely sell a bunch of these. More pics after the jump.

You know me: I love a UMPC with a stand. You can see it on the bottom / back of the device and it gives you about a 30-degree angle; good for typing and great for inking.

No skimping on the split keyboard: a full number row that doubles as function keys. Plenty of buttons that feel like they’re in the right place; nice design. 

It’s clear by the new Origami Experience that the Microsoft team does listen to user feedback. We were floored when we got the above picture from Sears Young on the team; we just saw the new interface and sure enough he was listening to MobileTechRoundup on it! These guys have put a ton of effort in the new UI for Vista and I can’t reiterate it enough: this might be the killer app on a UMPC running Vista. As much as I enjoyed the Bill Gates keynote and all of the great Vista features they demonstrated, I wish the Origami team got to demo this app at the keynote. It’s as innovative as any other keynote highlights!

Hey, maybe everyone else will too based on the conversation we had at the S-XGen booth. We flipped, folded and even fondled the unique Windows Mobile handheld phone and then inquired on the price. We flat out asked about the rumored $1,400 price tag and were immediately told by the Seamless Internet folks that unit will be less than that. We couldn’t pinpoint an exact price, but the numbers shared were in the upper $900 range.

Not sure if there’s a solid market for a Win Mo phone that doesn’t appear to have a mic and speaker. We might have missed those on the device, but even if we did, the booth folks indicated you need a Bluetooth headset for the phone functions. Still, the 20-GB drive and rubberized chiclet keyboard might be compelling enough for you to pick this device up; we heard that it will be available at Buy and Amazon. If we get more deets, we’ll put out a quick update.

This is going to sound odd, but I have to repeat something James said earlier tonight: "The best software I’ve seen at CES is the new Origami Experience app". I completely agree after Dustin and Sears from the Microsoft Origami team gave us the low-down at the Tablet PC / UMPC meetup.

Sears has the official write-up complete with screenshots to give you the visuals, so check them out here.Once I get my Q1 fixed (long story), I’ll try to get a video demo up for you. While you’re downloading the pics and info, let me share my basic thoughts:

1. I watched the application run on a Samsung Q1 upgraded to 1 GB of RAM and it was by far the speediest and most responsive app I’ve seen yet. Bear in mind this was running on Vista, which is required.
2. Dustin nailed it when he said the team tried to keep the "level" of the app very horizontal. What I mean by that is: you don’t need to tap, tap, tap to drill down to the functions or info you want. For example, when looking at your digital music, every option you could want appears on the same screen, which reduces the navigation effort.
3. The slideshow options are stellar. There are numerous transitions and all are visually appealing. I could easily see many of you turn your UMPC into a true part-time digital picture frame.
4. Adding programs via customization options to the Program Launcher is a snap. It couldn’t possibly easier or more user friendly.
5. Everything is geared for a quick finger tap; all of the buttons are well sized and easy to use.
6. The shortcuts to the Windows Mobility Center applet, the Windows Switcher function and the Wireless network status are very handy.

There’s much more here, so until my Q1 is repaired and I can demo the Origami Experience for you, check out the great write up and pics provided by Sears. In the meantime, I’m going to struggle trying to find an area of opportunity for the new Origami Experience. So far, the Origami team has knocked my socks off with the demo I saw; I just might have to give up and say "we’ve got a winner here!" It’s obvious that the team has listened to user feedback and matured the new Origami Experience far beyond the original Touch Pack.

Wow, there’s literally a radio show going on right behind me in this room; Michael Garfield is interviewing someone from Palm as I quietly blog this. Just before meeting James here at the CES Broadcast Booth, I swung by the Toshiba booth for all of three minutes to catch up with the innovative and well designed R400 Tablet PC shown above. The 12.1-inch LED backlight display is a beauty!

I called this unit well designed because the look and feel is almost Apple-like in a glossy white way. I was very impressed by this one-line display that shows system info via the Windows SideShow technology.

Most impressive of course was the wireless dock that James mentioned earlier this week. According to the Toshiba reps, this is a true USB 2.0 wireless unit capable of 480 Mbps transfer speeds. The dock isn’t meant to be an access point, but instead creates a circular wireless area around three to four feet in diameter. Essentially, all of your peripherals get connected to the dock and when your R400 is in range, it automagically connects to them via the speedy wireless connection.

The throughput is more than fast enough to pipe audio and video through the ether as well; I watched a DVD movie clip that was streamed from the dock to the R400 with no wires. Watch for the dock in the second quarter of 2007; I asked about the price, but couldn’t get anyone to comment on that. Looks like the base R400 will put you in the mid-two-thousand range, but you’re getting a very capable Tablet that runs Vista like a pro.

Here’s a high level pic of how a typical wireless dock setup with the R400 might look.

• Jack Cook and Chris Leckness were seen at the Windows Mobile table of Digital Experience last night; always great to meet the Win Mo enthusiasts.
• I was fortunate enough to have Steven Hughes of Boston Pocket PC walk up to me at the same show. Steven is another great writer and technical resource I’ve "known" for two years but never got the chance to personally meet.
• Even though Evan Blass is now a Senior Editor at Engadget (way to go E!), he stopped among the little people to say hey. Evan and I worked CES together last year.
• Richard Lawler is someone I brought on board at HD Beat (now EngadgetHD) back in 2005. Being a blogger, you bring folks onto a team sight unseen, so it was a pleasure to meet another high-def addict.
• Randall Bennett and Barb Dybwad from my ol’ AOL days were also at Digital Experience; these two very talented people were scouring the area with a high-end video cam; hope they didn’t see me take a second crab-cake when nobody was looking!
• James noticed Dave Winer in the CES Press area where we were camped this morning so I decided to walk up to Dave and tell him the coffee was on me. Of course, the coffee is free, so Dave got the gag and graciously sat with James and I for about 20 minutes. Dave’s MacBook looks like it’s five years old, not the one year old that it likely is. Not a good sign when your Ethernet jack is broken! Dave’s pitstop with us led to Doc Searls and Buzz Bruggeman also dropping by for a minute.

I realize that this doesn’t have much to do with mobile tech, but it’s a big part of the CES experience: the human experience. Each of these folks have shaped the way I blog and the reasons I blog, so I’m hoping you indulge me as I call them out. They’re also covering the show from their unique perspectives, so be sure to hit their sites for a different view of the same wild show!

OK, maybe not the biggest ad ever, but the biggest ad I’ve seen here at CES so far. Microsoft is pulling out all the stops for Vista this year; as I was walking from Circus Circus to the Convention Center this morning, I saw that the Microsofties draped this gigunda Vista banner over the front face of a seven-level parking garage. Rumor has it that the ad was supposed to be on the hotel towers in the background, but folks paid extra for "sunlit rooms" and wanted the amenities they paid for. I’ll bet all the cars in the garage are much cooler today.