Samsung goes small in '08 with new UMPC
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Samsung has announced it will be releasing an addition to its Q1 Ultra line in 2008. Packed in a tiny sub-2 pound form factor, the Q1 Ultra Premium PC will have a 1.33 GHz ULV Intel Core Solo U1500 Pentium processor and 1 GB of DDR2 system memory.
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Samsung's Q1 Ultra mobile PC shows that Samsung listened to criticism. But this second-generation device still doesn't live up to its potential.
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(InfoWorld) - Ultramobile PCs, the new product category developed by Microsoft, have been unsuccessful so far because they're too expensive and their batteries don't last long enough, a top Advanced Micro DevicesÂ executive said Friday. AMD is exploring the prospects for ultramobile PCs, which includeÂ Samsung Electronics' Q1, but wants to be sure they make sense for users before making a big commitment, said Phil Hester, AMD's chief technology officer, in an interview at Computex. The devices are currently more expensive than many laptop PCs and their batteries don't last very long compared to other devices. They also need new screens that can be viewed outdoors under the glare of the sun, according to Hester. "We have a processor for that space when the space is ready," he said. Most of the big design wins for ultramobile PCs have gone to Intel and Via Technologies, which may help to explain Hester's coolness to the market. Samsung recently announced a new version of the Q1, called the Q1 Ultra, which starts at about $800 and uses Intel's new McCaslin processor. The new Intel chip should improve battery life considerably over the previous model, from 1.5 hours to more than 4 hours, according to Samsung. But AMD has had some design wins too, with itsÂ Geode processors. Raon Digital, a South Korean company, uses the Geode LX800 in its Vega ultramobile PC, and has put an LX900 in its Everun, which hasn't been launched yet. The Vega boasts 6-hours of battery life, while the Everun lasts seven hours on its standard battery, or up to 12 hours with an upgraded battery pack. Besides ultramobiles, the Geode family is aimed at low-end laptop PCs and the high end of the handset market, Hester said. There's a Geode processor in Nicholas Negroponte'sÂ One-Laptop-Per-Child laptop. The OLPC project is trying to reduce the cost of its laptop to $100 and put it in the hands of school children in the developing world. Hester believes the battle to put the next billion people on the Internet is not going to be won by PCs, however. "I really think for most people, the device is going to be the handset," he said. Â
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(InfoWorld) - Samsung Electronics is setting out to impress at this week's 3GSM trade show in Barcelona by unveiling what it said is the slimmest cellphone handset in the world. The phone is one of four new handsets that refreshÂ the company's Ultra line of phonesÂ that was first unveiled about eight months ago. The Ultra 5.9 is, as its name suggests, just 5.9 millimeters thick. That's a millimeter thinner than the candybar form-factor phone it replaces in the Ultra range. It looks similar to the previous model, has a 3-megapixel camera and is compatible with the GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) standard used in much of the world. Also introduced Monday was the clamshell Ultra 9.6 and two sliders, the Ultra 10.9 and 12.6. All three have 3-megapixel class digital cameras. The Ultra 9.6 is a tri-band GSM model, the Ultra 10.9 is a quad-band GSM model and the Ultra 12.9 is tri-band GSM with WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) 3G and HSDPA (high-speed downlink packet access) data. The four phones are due on sale in the European market during the current quarter. Launch details for other markets were not disclosed.
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Intel will offer solid-state storage for use on motherboards in UMPC devices. The tiny SSD chip, which weighs only 0.6 grams, will be available in capacities of 2GB and 4GB. The on-board storage capacity will be expandable up to 16GB with four SSDs.
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A little over a year after it premiered the first commercially available solid-state hard disk drives at about 32 GB capacity, Samsung said it's now mass-producing a package announced last March at an electronics show in Taiwan, that clusters eight 8 GB flash components together, while still maintaining the 1.8-inch form factor needed for portable devices.
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Microsoft engineer shows off a new "MinWin" kernel that takes up a fraction of the space of the traditional OS.
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(InfoWorld) - Asustek ComputerÂ will begin selling its first ultra-mobile PC (UMPC), the R2H, worldwide by the end of this month, while Samsung Electronics is readying one that eschews Intel microprocessors in favor of Via Technologies chips. Asustek's UMPC is designed with all the functions of a laptop, including a folding typing pad, as well as other devices, such as a GPS (global positioning system) so it can sit on the dashboard of a users' car to map the way home. The R2H runs Microsoft's Windows XP Tablet Edition OS on a 900MHz Intel Celeron M microprocessor. It measures 23.4 centimeters by 13.3cm, about half the size of a laptop, and weighs 870 grams. The OS allows touch navigation with a stylus on its 7-inch screen, but the models on display Monday at a news conference in Taipei wereÂ difficult to use. Company representatives said the display models were for testing only, the reason for the sluggish performance. Like most UMPCs, the R2H is an Internet device, connecting through 802.11b/g WLAN (wireless LAN), and supports Bluetooth. For security, Asustek added an infrared fingerprint identification system to keep users' data safe from thieves. Although the suggested retail price of the R2H bound for the Taiwan market is NT$36,800 (US$1,117), it will come in different configurations users can choose from, so prices will be flexible. Asustek will offer models with different sized hard drives, ranging from 20GB to 60GB in capacity. The standard edition will also come with just a two-cell battery, for about two hours of use before needing a recharge. Users will be able to select a four-cell battery as well, at an added cost. The device is Windows Vista compatible. The company also launched a new tablet PC, the R1F, and expects to produce a total of 3,000 units of the two devices each month, said Benson Lin, head of sales in the Asia Pacific for Asustek, at a news conference in Taipei. Samsung Electronics, of South Korea, isÂ readying a new UMPCÂ with a 7-inch screen that uses a 1.0GHz Via C7 microprocessor, but hasn't set a launch date. The device, dubbed the Q1B, will come with 40GB of storage space, WLAN and Bluetooth, and will weigh 1.7 lbs, according to Samsung'sÂ Web site. The Q1B will come with a better battery than the R2H, a three-cell battery offering up to five hours of life before needing a recharge. Samsung is offering an upgrade to a six-cell battery at an additional charge. The company is also offering additional peripherals similar to Asustek's, such as an organizer bag, optical disc drive, and typing pad.
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Preview Smaller than a laptop, bigger than a PDA - the perfect PC size?
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I'm guessing the founders of a San Francisco start-up called OQO are bummed that Microsoft long ago snagged the name Pocket PC for its personal digital assistants. Because Pocket PC might be the ideal moniker for OQO's new model 01 "ultrapersonal computer"- uPC for short.
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Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. has developed a new LCD (liquid crystal display) technology that builds a touch screen into the display, a development that could lead to thinner
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Yet another card format is here, spun off of the venerable MMC format by Samsung. This one is small enough to fit on a key of a keyboard, or into the smallest device.
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Smaller, lighter and cheaper is the order of the day for laptop vendors as they struggle to find new types of devices that will appeal to users.
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BusinessWeek Online - The Samsung UpStage, available from Sprint, is a great example of a good idea gone bad. In seeking to simplify the growing complexity of today&#39;s multifunction cell phones, Samsung devised a novel two-faced design. The result is one of the most complicated tech toys on Earth.
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Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. has developed a new LCD (liquid crystal display) technology that builds a touch screen into the display, a development that could lead to thinner and cheaper display panels for mobile phones, the company said Tuesday.
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Samsung Electronics has developed an ultra small, fingernail-sized digital imaging flash memory card that is less than one-third the size of existing memory cards.
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Won't mistake this one for a calulator... IFA 06 Samsung's credit card-sized phone, the P300, is to be updated, Samsung revealed at the IFA consumer electronics show last week. The new version, the P310, ditches its predecessor's pocket-calculator look and boosts the on-board camera to two megapixels.â¦