• Intel Atom N270 – 1.6GHz
• 1 GB of RAM in a single slot — it should take a 2GB memory module
• 2.5″ 160GB hard drive
• Integrated 802.11a/b/g Wi-Fi, 3G, but no Bluetooth (a huge omission, in my opinion)
• Microphone and 0.3-megapixel webcam
• Weight of 990 grams, or right around 2 pounds
• VGA out and three USB ports

EviGroup estimates the actual battery life in real-world conditions to be around 3 to 3.5 hours, although they do say if you stress the Pad out with lots of YouTube vids on full brightness over 3G, that figure will drop to around 2 to 2.5 hours. You know, depending on the components used for the Pad, you could always try to install Mac OS X and make your own Apple slate tablet. Hmm…this type of project has been done before.

I’ve been admiring the ARCHOS Internet Tablet with Android from afar lately. A current Android device is appealing, but I’m on the fence between adding a CDMA Android phone that I can swap with my Pre or simply getting a standalone Android unit. That’s when it hit me — why not repurpose my Samsung Q1UP to run Android to get a feel for such a device? I did just that over the weekend, thanks to the community at Android-x86. I found a port of Android 1.6 that’s really geared for netbooks like the original Eee PC 701 and got it working on my UMPC. You can run the port from a Live CD or USB drive, so you don’t have to remove your current operating system.

My first impressions — Android is blazing on a 1.33GHz Intel Core Solo, just like you’d expect. It seems like the battery lasts longer on a charge as well, but I haven’t had time to really test that theory. Of course, this ported implementation isn’t perfect on my device. In fact, there’s enough that’s not working for me to say: only do this for fun right now. I can work on the web over Wi-Fi and the built-in keyboard and mouse work great. No touchscreen yet though, nor any sound or Bluetooth either. The biggest killer that I’m focused on solving? No buttons map to the Menu screen in Android. I’m talking to developers on that because it’s completely limiting my usage. Oh and so is the lack of persistent data storage among other glitches. Have I scared you away yet?

Even with the problems, this has me leaning towards a non-phone Android device. I already have two phones and there are times I’d like to use the browser on a bigger screen on the couch or in a coffee shop. I don’t need the pocketable web because I already have that in my phones. Hmmm….. decisions, decisions.

Image Credit: Pocketables

Those engineers at Kohjinsha can’t be getting much sleep these days. First they out a dual display netbook and now they’re following it up with a mini-tablet UMPC. Pocketables caught up with the news out of CEATEC which shows a 4.8-inch Atom device running Windows XP. But while the PA series — Kohji’s name, not mine — looks like a baby notebook with the keyboard, the screen scan swivel and fold like a traditional Tablet PC.

The PA series weighs in at just over 14 ounces, so it’s not quite a pound for toting around. Unfortunately, there’s not much else that’s groundbreaking here in terms of features or specifications: a lowly 512MB of RAM, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, 1.3GHz Atom, 32GB SSD and an optical mouse is similar to what we’ve seen for nearly a year now. A more attractive or svelte package could have excited people a bit more, but maybe this more concept than final product.

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.

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.

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.

Seamonkey420, a frequent visitor to our site, points out that the Origami Experience 2.0 (OE) from Microsoft can change certain aspects of the Windows interface to have larger controls to make them easier to use by touch. The OE was the failed attempt to turn touch-enabled UMPCs into devices that could be run entirely by touch. This was accomplished by replacing the tiny interface controls in Windows with nice, big finger-friendly ones. OE never took off for a number of reasons, but chief among them was the fact that it was produced to only run on Vista.

UMPC devices as a rule haven’t run Vista well in the past, and most of them currently ship with XP. OE will not run on XP so it was largely ignored by UMPC users. Seamonkey discovered that while OE was developed to run on Vista, it can also run on Windows 7. He produced a nice tutorial for getting it running on Win 7 systems, and since OE is a free download it was a no-brainer for me to give it a go on the ThinkPad x200 touch tablet I am testing.

The first step was to download and install OE. The program warned me that it was only intended to run with Vista but I ignored those messages. It installed without a hitch and then rebooted the system. When the system rebooted it gave a couple of error messages as programs OE installed in the Startup folder tried to launch, but couldn’t run under Windows 7. This was not a problem as I didn’t want to run OE proper, just get at the Touch Settings utility in the Start Menu under OE.

The Touch Settings utility gives a nice interface for “optimizing” different interface controls, such as Start Menu, Scroll Bars and Internet Explorer. You can tick only the features you want optimized, which largely means OE will make them bigger. I opted to only make the scroll bars and title bar bigger, as those were the parts of the interface giving me the most trouble in Win 7 with touch.

Once the settings were changed, it prompted for a log off and log on to enact them. Upon log in the title bar controls and scroll bars were bigger and easier to use, natively in the OS. This is important, because everywhere a scroll bar appears it is now nice and wide. All windows have an easier-to-use title bar, everywhere in Windows 7. This is a tremendous boon to use by touch, and has made a big difference in usability.

I did have to go to the Start Menu and delete two programs that OE installed there, those were the ones giving me the error upon boot. I find the x200 to be much better to use by touch, and I am going right now to install this on the Viliv S5 UMPC. That 5-inch screen is just screaming for bigger controls.

Yes, screen size matters and I am in a unique position to demonstrate that old adage. I have so many gadgets in Mobile Tech Manor that it occurred to me that I can show many different screen sizes on devices.

The devices, screen sizes and resolution as shown in the video:

• Viliv S5 UMPC, 5-inch, 1024×600
• Viliv S7 UMPC, 7-inch, 1024×600
• Lenovo S10-2 netbook, 10-inch, 1024×600
• Lenovo S12 netbook, 12-inch, 1280×800
• Apple MacBook, 13-inch, 1280×800
• Lenovo ThinkPad T400s, 14-inch, 1440×900

It is interesting that all devices from 5 inches through 10 inches have the same resolution, so things appearing on-screen vary from tiny to quite large. All of the notebooks, netbooks and UMPCs shown in the video are running either Windows XP or Windows 7.

It’s only been at Mobile Tech Manor for a few hours and I’m already getting pinged for a video of the Viliv S7 UMPC. The S7 is a small laptop with a 7-inch swivel screen that can be used as a slate. It is roughly the size of the original (and small) EEE PC and this configuration has integrated 3G (HSPA) and a 32 GB SSD. This video gives a tour around the device and shows the screen in all its swiveling glory. There will be more comprehensive coverage of the Viliv S7 to come, meanwhile enjoy the show.

The model I am evaluating is the 3G model, with a 1.33 GHz Atom, 1 GB of RAM, 32 GB SSD and 1.3 MP web cam. I’ll be putting this gadget through its paces but meanwhile here are some quick photos snapped of the S7.

I spent a good portion of this week with my sleeves rolled up, up to my elbows in one gadget or another. I started by installing Windows 7 on two UMPCs, at least that was my intention. The first upgrade was the Viliv S5 UMPC, which was harder than it should be.

Windows 7 on the UMPC

I have installed Windows 7 RTM on several PCs with no issues but the S5 presented a bit of a challenge. The S5 does not have an Ethernet port due to its small size, it relies totally on Wi-Fi for connectivity. I installed Windows 7 from a USB stick that I created for this purpose and it went smoothly. Windows 7 installs fairly quickly and it didn’t take long to get it on the S5.

The Viliv S5 requires a lot of drivers that Windows does not install to get all the hardware working properly, so I had prepared by downloading all the drivers and loading them on the USB stick. The fact is that Windows 7 has a lot of the hardware drivers either in the install itself or it gets them from a Windows Update immediately after the install, with a few key exceptions. Of course, that update is only possible if you have Internet connectivity, something the S5 lacked. I had the proper Wi-Fi hardware driver but I could not apply it as Windows could not see the radio.

The S5 lacks a physical radio on/off switch for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth; it relies on a Viliv supplied utility, VilivManager. The problem I ran into is that the S5 default is for the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth radios to be powered off upon boot. This means that Windows could not even tell they existed as they were off. Since Windows couldn’t see them, I couldn’t apply the drivers to get them going. A less than humorous Catch-22.

What I had to do was to get VilivManager installed and running well enough to let me turn the radios on. This required a little bit of finagling but once I had the radio turned on I was able to get the Wi-Fi driver applied. That let me connect to the web where I could run Windows Update. The rest was a piece of cake and Windows 7 runs very well on the S5. The interface is much more touch friendly than XP, although the special Windows 7 touch enhancements were not installed as only Microsoft certified touch digitizers get those.

Windows 7 Bricks Another UMPC

I liked Windows 7 on the S5 so much I decided to install it on the loaner Viliv X70 UMPC. I felt the 7-inch screen of the X70 would be a natural for Windows 7. I checked around on the web at various enthusiast web sites and a number of X70 owners indicated they had successfully installed Windows 7 so I set out to do the same.

Windows 7 began the install properly and went fairly quickly due to the SSD drive in the X70. It reached the point where it rebooted the X70 and then the trouble began. Right after that reboot the process hung, although it looked like it was completing the install. The activity light on the SSD was duly reflecting activity, but the install process wasn’t really doing anything.

I decided to interrupt it after sitting there for a couple of hours and redo the whole install. It went exactly as it did the first time and eventually hung up again. I was stuck at that point as it was dead in the water. I did some tweeting about it and quickly discovered that others with pre-production units like mine (I received it before the launch) also experienced the hang-up. Commercial units could be upgraded OK, but the pre-production units would hang up like mine did.

Upon hearing that others hit the same snag I decided to go back to Windows XP, and Viliv had me covered. They have a recovery partition (5 GB) on the SSD and all I had to do was boot the X70, hit the “C” key when the big Viliv boot screen appeared and the recovery process was initiated. In 20 minutes I had a fresh Windows XP install with all the drivers and utilities working as they should. Another hour of updating Windows and I was back in business. I am impressed with the recovery process that Viliv uses on their UMPCs. It is as fast and easy as any I have used in the past.

What I Carry Every Day

I get asked what device I carry every day, or how I choose which of the many gadgets I have in Mobile Tech Manor to throw in the bag. It’s a fair question without a simple answer. The philosophy I adhere to as far as mobile gear I carry is simple: I carry the smallest kit possible to cover all situations I may encounter when I leave the office.

That is an oversimplification but it is the basis for my decision process I go through before heading out the door. I find that any trip out the door will fit one of five possibilities:

1. Need performance and battery life
2. Need performance but not that much battery life
3. Simple running around, may have to get some work done
4. Running around, needing to work is not likely
5. Running around and do not want to work

1. The primary purpose of these day trips is to get work done, and a lot of it. I need a good performing laptop with me that can go hours without a power outlet. These types of work trips qualify for carrying the 13-inch MacBook. It is a good performing laptop and I have two batteries. I can get around 10 hours of work with those two batteries so this goes in the bag. It’s usually overkill but it weighs less than 5 pounds with the extra battery and it fits in my little backpack.

2. These trips are different than type 1 trips. The primary purpose of the trip is also to get work done but I don’t expect to need extra battery life. Most of the laptops at Mobile Tech Manor will get a good 5 hours on a charge and that’s all I need on these trips. I often take the loaner Lenovo ThinkPad T400s as it offers great performance and is lighter than the MacBook. The 14-inch wide screen displays a lot of information and it’s my gadget of choice for these trips. Some days I will take a netbook for these trips, as they are as small and light as can be while still doing a good job. I will usually take the HP Mini 5101 or the Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2; both of these evaluation units are solid netbooks.

3. Some trips are just running around performing errands and the like but I believe the random opportunity may present itself for me to get some work done. This would be in a coffeeshop or the like and would be a short work session at best. If I suspect that may be the case I often take the Viliv X70 UMPC along with the Stowaway Bluetooth keyboard and mouse. The 7-inch X70 is good for work sessions with its netbook equivalent screen resolution (1024×600) and the keyboard is full-sized to handle lots of writing. It’s a little desktop system that fits in a small gear bag and I love this kit.

4. Sometimes I head out for trips similar to the type 3 trip, mostly to run errands. I don’t think it’s likely I’ll need to work but I want to be covered just in case an opportunity crops up. This type of trip calls for the Viliv S5 UMPC due to its small size. I bring the keyboard and mouse with me just in case since they take up little room and bulk in the bag. The three gadgets combined make for a super little desktop system that can handle short work sessions without compromising too much.

5. The last kind of trip is my favorite. The sole purpose of these trips is to run around and I have no intention of working, no matter what. It’s good to clear the head with these trips from time to time. All work makes James a dull boy. I do carry the Palm Pre with me since it’s my main phone, and I often throw the iPhone 3G in my pocket. I always want an e-book reader with me and for these trips that’s the iPhone.

I should point out that for the work trips (1-4), the Verizon MiFi is always in the bag. That guarantees I will have web connectivity no matter where I end up. I always have the iPhone in the bag for the e-book reading, and the Palm Pre is in my pocket.

e-Books of the Week

This week has been a big week for e-books, both the ones I read and the Sony Reader announcement. Sony introduced several models of their e-book Reader line, and more importantly announced an affiliation with the New York Public Library (NYPL) to make it possible for Reader owners to “borrow” e-books from the library. I’ll have more to say on this soon, I did some light checking at the NYPL web site and discovered they already loan e-books. They offer e-books in ePub and Mobipocket compatible formats now, as long as you have a library card.

What I find interesting is that library e-books have largely the same constraints as the physical variety. The library buys a few copies of each e-book they intend to lend, and when those copies are checked out of the library, no one else can borrow that book. It seems strange, given that e-books are not physical things per se, but that’s the way it is. That’s why the NYPL has a big “recently returned” section in the e-book library.

You must have a library card to check e-books out of the NYPL, which makes sense. As near as I could tell that means that only New York state residents can check e-books out online. It’s not clear if the Sony deal will open that up and if so, will it just be restricted to the U. S. If they open it up, that limited number of copies will become a big factor limiting availability of popular e-books.

As busy as I was this week I was able to spend a fair bit of time reading e-books. I mentioned last week how happy I was to find a new detective series, the J. P. Beaumont series by J. A. Jance. I was even happier than I thought as this week I read the third through the seventh book in the series, and I started the eighth. The books I read:

• Trial by Fury
• Taking the Fifth
• Improbable Cause
• A More Perfect Union
• Dismissed with Prejudice

I find I am breezing through these novels as Ms. Jance is great at creating believable mysteries involving realistic characters. I enjoy the mysteries, and I like the major players in them. I am going to be broke getting through the remaining ten books in the series.

Wrap-up

Windows 7 dominated my week, and I am liking it very much on netbooks and UMPCs. It seems to be easier to operate on lower resolution screens than XP and performance is almost as good as XP. Thanks for sharing my week once again, and until next week- take care of yourself.

Mobile desktop

I attended the GigaOM Pro webinar earlier (which was great) and then needed to get out of the office. I am in the coffee shop working away on the loaner Viliv X70 UMPC, now that it’s back running Windows XP after my failed attempt to put Windows 7 on it. I’ll detail that aborted process in tomorrow’s Mobile Tech Manor column.

The X70 is a stellar mobile desktop when paired with the Stowaway wireless keyboard and mouse. It’s so small for transport, yet the 7-inch screen is quite comfortable to use for extended periods on the table. I am flying through stuff with no feeling of compromise at all.

I read e-books on many different gadgets, from phones to UMPCs, and folks often ask me what gadget I prefer for reading. That is another one of those questions for which there is no easy answer, as there are many factors that enter into the equation. The size of the gadget is the most important, as it usually determines what particular one I am likely to have with me when an opportunity to read presents itself. The size also determines the quality of the reading experience, as screen size equates to page size in the e-book world.

Dedicated e-book reading gadgets can vary in screen size from 5 inches all the way to around 10 inches. The bigger the page, the more text, and it comes down to a trade-off for portability. I am fortunate that I have so many gadgets laying around Mobile Tech Manor, as it means I can try different scenarios. This experimentation has seen me settle currently on three different devices for reading e-books, depending on where I am and what I can carry with me. The three gadgets are the iPhone 3G, Viliv S5 UMPC and the Viliv X70 UMPC — the X70 is an evaulation model sent from Viliv.

The iPhone is always with me, so it’s often used when I am out and about. I pull it out of my pocket when I have some free time and read to my heart’s content. The S5 has a 5-inch screen so it provides a better reading experience due to the larger pages. It is still small enough that it is highly portable so it’s often in my bag for other purposes. The X70 has a 7-inch screen and it is awesome for reading books. It can display almost as much text on a page as a paperback book and the reading experience is great. It’s hard to describe so here are some photos of my three e-book readers:

The Maemo 5 operating system is a full Linux-based implementation that brings the MID experience to the N900. Nokia promises a Mozilla web browsing experience on the N900 that is outstanding, complete with Flash support. The 3.5-inch screen will display at a decent resolution of 800×480, and the sliding keyboard looks good. It also has a Carl Zeiss optics-powered 5 MP camera on board.

The Nokia N900 has all of the connectivity options covered, with Wi-Fi, TV-out, Bluetooth, FM transmitter, GPS and quad-band 3G. The 3G is complete with GSM/EDGE, 900/1700/2100MHz UMTS/HSPA covering all of the bases. The interesting thing about that 3G is the 1700 MHz band, which means the N900 can work on the T-Mobile USA network.

The ARM Cortex-A8 CPU will have 1 GB of application memory to work with, so the N900 should be no slouch in the performance department. All of this goodness should be heading to select markets in October for an unsubsidized price of 500 euros ($713). The N900 is definitely a MID, or is it a smartphone? It looks like both — which is likely Nokia’s intention.

(via engadget)

I had a routine doctor’s appointment today and they actually got me in and out early! I can’t remember the last time a doctor got me out of their office even earlier than my appointment start time.

I was prepared though; I had taken the Viliv S5 UMPC along for the ride. I stopped off for a cool beverage (it’s 100 degrees here) and got some blogging done with the little rig. These opportunities are perfect for the little UMPC with the wireless keyboard and mouse.

I ended up installing Windows 7 a couple of times to get it right. I found out the hard way that there is only one way to deal with the S5. If you intend to install Windows 7 on your S5, get these instructions from a user on Pocketables, and follow them to the letter. You will need to download all of the Windows XP drivers from Viliv, and users have made them available as a single big (199 MB) download to make it easier.

There are two main issues to deal with during the install due to the hardware of the S5. The S5 has a combination Wi-Fi/ Bluetooth radio and those radios are turned off during the Win 7 install. There is no hardware switch for this. On the original XP installation, the supplied VilivManager utility is used to turn them on and off. The fact that they are automatically turned off during the Win 7 install means that Win 7 doesn’t see them. Even though you have the drivers to get them going in hand, they can’t be installed as Win 7 doesn’t know the radios are present. You can’t apply drivers to a device if the system doesn’t know it exists.

The early part of the Win 7 install process is designed to deal with this, and that’s why I believe you must follow the instructions above to the letter. The early steps get enough of the S5 hardware working so that the VilivManager utility can be installed and run. Once that utility is running, you can turn on the Wi-Fi radio with the software switch. Of course, once the radio is recognized by Win 7, installing the drivers for it is a breeze. Then it’s a simple matter to run Windows Update and get most of the other components installed by Windows.

Once Windows 7 was up and running completely, I ran into the other big problem. I had installed an early version of Windows 7 on the Viliv S5 way back when, only to go back to XP because the touchscreen of the S5 wouldn’t rotate with the display. I use my UMPCs in portrait mode most of the time, and the inability to use the touchscreen when rotated was a deal breaker. Unfortunately, the touchscreen still does not rotate, but a user has written a new touchscreen driver and utility that rotates the touchscreen along with the display. It works perfectly, and is the only reason I am leaving Windows 7 on the S5.

So now that Windows 7 is installed and working fully on the S5, here are my impressions of how well it is running:

• Windows 7 runs a little slower than XP. This is not surprising given how much more capable Windows 7 is than XP.
• Aero runs fully in Windows 7, but it slows down the system so much that I disable it.
• The touchscreen is not recognized by Win 7 as a certified touch interface, so the special touch enhancements in Windows 7 are not installed.
• The Tablet PC bits are installed but must be invoked manually. They are hidden under the Accessories category in the Start Menu. The Tablet Input Panel is there and works fine, but it must be invoked (and killed) manually. The digitizer on the S5 uses a very light touch, and thus the inking is terrible. It is impossible to ink on the screen without touching the digitizer. This does not surprise me as I’ve indicated in the past this would be the case.
• The battery meter is not accurate. This is a factor of the Viliv battery and not Win 7. It only displays the remaining charge in 10% increments and when it’s on the edge of a level the power displayed jumps up and down. It’s only a general indication of the charge state.
• I did not install the Viliv soft keyboard as I don’t use it. My preferred utility, uBoard, works fine. I have pinned the uBoard menu to the taskbar so it’s always a tap away.
• I haven’t run into any issues with the software I typically use — it all works on the S5 under Windows 7.