While the UMPC market has faded over the past few years, a few companies have survived to offer useful handheld computers. Those who stayed in the market enjoyed the hardware, finally becoming capable of offering decent performance coupled with reasonable battery life. Raon Digital is one of those companies, and it creates devices like the Vega, Everun and Everun Note. The Everun Note (shown) is actually more like a netbook of today than a UMPC of yesteryear, but you can see the UMPC roots in it. But will it be around much longer?

Pocketables makes note of some tips that Raon Digital may have filed for bankruptcy. There’s no official word from the company at this point. In fact, if you gauge the company’s current status by its web site, it doesn’t look good. The site is showing an “unavailable” message, which doesn’t bode well. I have some feelers out for more information and will update if I hear anything. At this point, though, my gut says we may have lost another UMPC maker. That’s a shame if true, because the UMPC is making a small comeback due to innovative and useful devices like those from Viliv.

Windows 7 will be released soon, and it promises to bring an enhanced experience for PCs with digitizers. The Tablet and touch features have generated excitement, especially in the area of multitouch capability. Netbooks and UMPCs with touchscreens are starting to appear in greater numbers, and owners are already planning to install Windows 7 on these devices. Some intrepid folks have already done so, and are discovering that all of the fancy tablet/touch bits don’t automatically come along for the ride. Here’s what I know about the tablet and touch capabilities of Windows 7, along with the requirements to get them going on today’s devices.

Continue reading »

Hector Gomez is a longtime reader who Kevin and I had the pleasure of meeting early this year. He may be the only person who buys more gadgets than I do, and a recent purchase he made was the Viliv S5 UMPC. I have made it clear how much I like the S5, and Hector says he is enjoying it, too. The only area he thought it lacking was in not being a real Tablet PC, so he’s rectified that.

Hector has installed Windows XP Tablet Edition on his Viliv S5 to give it the full Tablet PC functionality. It’s not something everyone can do, as the Tablet Edition version of XP cannot be purchased. Hector got his hands on it and finds the S5 makes a fine 5-inch Tablet PC. He’s documented it on a video, and he’s kindly given us permission to share. Have a look at Hector’s little Tablet PC.

Image courtesy Crave

The folks at Crave got a few hours to play with the upcoming ARCHOS 9 UMPC recently. The ARCHOS 9 is a slate UMPC with a 9-inch screen that will be the first UMPC type device released with Windows 7 under the hood. The Crave hands-on test found that the touchscreen, while now known to be the resistive type, was light-touch enough to fool them into thinking it was the expensive capacitive type like that on the iPhone.

This is newsworthy for a couple of reasons. Most resistive digitizers used in UMPCs require a heavier touch to operate than the capacitive type, and that is not a bad thing, as it means that the ARCHOS 9 can be operated with a stylus. This would make the ARCHOS 9 a little Tablet, as inking could be done in addition to operating the interface with the fingers. Windows 7 includes all of the Tablet bits (most versions), so this could be a real slate tablet when used with a stylus. Of course, the super-light touch nature of this digitizer might preclude that possibility, as a 9-inch screen would likely require resting the palm on the screen to ink. This would result in vectoring and likely make inking very difficult to do.

The other interesting deduction to be gleaned about the use of a resistive digitizer is that most likely, multi-touch would not work. Windows 7 includes special touch optimizations for devices that are touch\-certified by Microsoft that provide additional interface benefits, but these usually wouldn’t be activated for resistive digitizers.

Any way you slice it, the ARCHOS 9 is looking to be a very capable UMPC, and Windows 7 should make this thing a real joy to use. Pricing may still not final, but the 9 is expected to retail for £450 to £500 in the UK.

We first heard about the unique hybrid Touch Book from Always Innovating back in March, and as always with unique new concepts, we wondered if it would really see the light of day. We are happy to see that the Touch Book is in production and should start shipping next month. This hybrid is an 8.9-inch slate tablet with an optional, snap-in keyboard, making for a laptop configuration.

The slate is Linux powered and has an 8 GB SSD and 512 MB of memory working with a TI OMAP3530 processor. This sounds anemic, but it should actually run decently and for a very long time on a battery charge. The Touch Book is only $299, while the optional keyboard is $99.

Specs:

• 9.4″ x 7″ x 1.4″ for 2 lbs (with keyboard)
• ARM Texas Instruments OMAP3 chip
• 1024×600 8.9” screen
• Storage: 8GB micro SD card
• W-Fi 802.11b/g/n and Bluetooth
• 3-dimensional accelerometer
• Speakers, micro and headphone
• 6 USB 2.0 (3 internal, 2 external, 1 mini)
• 10+ hours of battery life

(Touch Book via engadget)

UMPC Portal notes something that I’ve been watching for months. The trend for searches using the term UMPC is in vast decline. As a mobile technology community, this can’t be surprising to any regular readers. As much I as enjoyed the three UMPCs that I purchased, the device itself “got in the way” for mainstream consumers of effectively using it — ink entry just doesn’t work well on resistive touchscreens. Then of course there were the price challenges, and hardware that wasn’t quite mature enough for most folks.

Prices are down now and the hardware has matured. The addition of a small but very usable keyboard enabled far easier content creation. Yup, I’m talking about netbooks. Even with a soft spot in my heart for UMPCs, they did fail. But they succeeded at the same time. They succeeded in creating the platform that evolved into today’s netbooks. They drove hardware manufacturers and chipmakers to increase power efficiency without a total sacrifice of processing power.

In the above chart, I compared the trends for UMPC, netbook and MIDs in 2008. I would have carried it into 2009, but the netbook trend grows so much that it makes the other two terms almost meaningless by comparison. Based on the results, I feel reaffirmed that MID is essentially a silly term. It’s likely that only mobile tech enthusiasts use it and the majority of consumers have never even heard of it. By simple definition, any mobile device that has Internet capability is a MID. That would include all smartphones and probably a good chunk of feature phones, too. Internet browsing might not be optimal on those devices, but surely they’re MIDs.

Regardless of the trends and names, I say thank you, UMPC. You paved the way and laid the groundwork for mobile computing for the next several years to come.

The Viliv X70 UMPC is nice in its own right, but it gets even nicer when special deals give buyers a bunch of free stuff. The folks at Dynamism have let us know that they are getting 777 X70 devices soon and they are going to run a special promotion for those who pre-order one. Here’s the deal as noted on their web site:

The long-awaited Viliv X70 will be available in limited quantity during our pre-order event starting at 1:00 PM Eastern time on July 6th.

To receive real-time communications from Dynamism during our launch, be sure you are following us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/dynamismcom

The Viliv X70 is the latest Mobile Internet Device (MID) from Viliv that changes the way people think of mobile computing. And, we are thrilled to offer the following pre-order specials, available only for the first 777 units ordered on July 6:

Express Model Pre-Order Special:
Free 1.3GHz Upgrade from 1.2Ghz, Car kit, Leather pouch, and Protective Film

Premium Models Pre-Order Special:
Free Standard Battery, Car kit, Leather pouch, and Protective Film ($195 value)

We have extensive coverage of the Viliv X70 here on jkOnTheRun if you’re on the fence about this UMPC.

This week has raced to a close as fast as can be, which means it’s time for another heart-to-heart about how the week was spent. It seemed to speed by at a dizzying pace, no doubt due to a new phone and updates to an old one. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about ultra-mobile PCs (UMPCs) and reviews and read three full novels. Sheesh, no wonder I’m tired. Come on in and let’s visit for a while.

Continue reading »

The folks at Dynamism have updated the Viliv S5 options they will be offering for sale, and there are now prices for each model listed. The most interesting piece of news is the addition of a model with integrated 3G and a relatively huge 128 GB SSD. This model won’t be cheap at $1,299, but if storage is very important, then maybe that’s not too bad. The full model line and pricing:

• Viliv S5 Premium H- $599; 60 GB HDD, no 3G
• Viliv S5 Premium S- $649; 32 GB SSD, no 3G
• Viliv S5 Premium 3G- $799; 32 GB SSD; HSPA modem
• Viliv S5 Premium 3G- $1,299; 128 GB SSD; HSPA modem

The need for a good portable keyboard is one thing we hear a lot here due to our coverage of UMPCs and other slate devices. Use of a slate usually means that at some point a portable keyboard is needed in order to do a lot of text entry. There are not a lot of choices available as far as portable keyboards go, but one from Goldtouch looks really interesting. This keyboard is not only highly portable but is ergonomic, too.

The Goldtouch Go! Travel Keyboard offers a keyboard the developers claim is the same size as those on 14-inch laptops, so that means full size. It folds in half for easy storage and it looks to have keys with a full travel distance. It seems a bit heavy at a pound but what sets the Goldtouch keyboard apart from the small crowd is that it can be used tilted in a more ergonomic position. The tilting can be adjusted from zero to 30 degrees, allowing a custom fit for the user. $140.

(via TRFJ)