Asustek, Samsung ultra mobile PCs to be out soon
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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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Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. 005930.KS plans to introduce a mobile telephone with high-speed Internet links in the United States in the first quarter of next year, an executive said on Thursday.
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(InfoWorld) - Sierra Wireless will provide embedded wide-area wireless modules to a new Intel ultra mobile PC (UMPC) platform that enabling devices to hook up to 3G (third generation) wireless telecommunications, creating a new way to use a UMPC. Until now, UMPCs from most companies, includingÂ Samsung Electronics and Asustek Computer, have included two wireless functions, WLAN (wireless LAN) for wireless Internet connections in a home, office, or other location near a Wi-Fi hot spot, and Bluetooth. Few other UMPCs, save Sony's Vaio VGN-UX50, which offers Cingular EDGE (Enhanced Data GSM Environment) WAN capabilities, provide a way to connect to the Internet away from civilization. The wireless modules from Sierra, a Vancouver, British Columbia chip designer, will allow users to remain connected far out in the field, and lead to the development of many innovative, new UMPC devices, the company said. Intel plans to make itsÂ ultra mobile PC chip kitÂ available in the first half of next year, the company said at the Intel Developer Forum, which ended Thursday. The company said the microprocessors in the platform will consume just half the power of ones used in current UMPCs, and will be 25 percent smaller. The chip kit is designed to allow developers to make smaller, cooler running UMPCs with longer battery life and new possible uses, Intel said. The UMPC, code-named Origami earlier this year, is a new breed of handheld deviceÂ promoted by Microsoft and IntelÂ aimed at users requiring more PC-like functions and larger screens in a carry-around device. It falls somewhere between a tablet PC and a PDA in size, and runs on the Windows XP Tablet Edition OS. One of the first such devices was viewed by users at the Cebit electronics show in Germany early this year,Â Samsung's Q1. The device was running on a 900MHz Intel Celeron microprocessor and boasted 500MB of RAM.
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Upcoming mobile phones will support Secure Digital flash memory.
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The newest in a stream of upcoming slim and powerful cell phones
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(InfoWorld) - Dopod International unveiled its U1000 on Tuesday. Although it could be mistaken for an ultramobile PC, it offers far more. The device is everything a ultramobile PC should be, with a 5-inch touch screen, 8GB hard drive, and PC functionality. But it fits in your pocket and you can use it as a mobile phone. One of the coolest things you notice right away about the U1000 is its magnetic QWERTY keypad. It attaches magnetically to the face of the U1000, to protect the screen. To use it, you pull the keyboard off and set it flat, then set the screen part upright in a slot. They lock together, look like an open laptop. It might be easy to compare the device to an ultramobile PC, and in fact a lot of Web sites do, but it's not. The U1000 is manufactured by High Tech ComputerÂ (HTC), which markets its products through Dopod. Instead of following theÂ Microsoft model for an ultramobile PC, HTC looked at the design from its perspective as a smartphone/PDA maker: It enlarged a smartphone, figured out a way to make it perform like a laptop and a mobile phone, and added a 3-megapixel camera, speakers for music, a GPS (Global Positioning System) receiver and more. Using internal flash memory for storing photos and songs, instead of a hard disk, shows the company was thinking of precious battery life. Flash memory and the use of Windows Mobile 5.0 Pocket PC Edition for the OS ensures longer battery life than, say, and ultramobile PC with a hard disc drive and Windows Tablet Edition, said Leo Hsieh, product manager at Dopod, on the sidelines of the U1000 launch event. Flash memory performs the same function as a hard disc drive but without any moving parts, saving electricity. And users requiring more memory than the U1000 comes with will like the MiniSD drive, which can take cards up to 4GB in capacity. As a mobile phone, the U1000 boasts 300 hours of standby time, 5.5 hours of talk time on quadband GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications, 850/900/1800/1900) or GPRS/EDGE (General Packet Radio Service/Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution) or 4.5 hours of talk/Internet time with 3G (third generation) service, Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), and a standard with slightly faster download speeds known as 3.5G, HSDPA (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access). Users can talk into the device itself, which would be kind of awkward considering it's about the size of a paperback book, or hook up an earphone or a hands-free Bluetooth headset. The mobile phone function isn't the only way to make calls using the device. The U1000s on display all had Skype's VOIP software on board, so users could make low-cost or free voice calls over the Internet. There are a few ways to connect to the Internet using the U1000, and the device has a hot key on board that will find the most convenient way on its own. It will search for wireless networks such as HSDPA, or connect to a wireless-LAN network if it's available. The U1000 has a lot of computing functions. During his introduction of the device, Hsieh hooked his U1000 directly to a digital projector and showed his Powerpoint presentation from it. It runs mostly mobile versions of Microsoft software, including Word, Excel, Internet Explorer and Outlook Mobile with Direct Push Mail. As a media device, it can play music through headphones, external speakers or an internal pair. It can play songs for up to 12 hours or video for up to 8 hours. Windows Media Audio (WMA) files and Windows Media Video (WMV) files were used during battery testing for Dopod, but the onboard Windows Media Player 10 Mobile can handle many other formats. The only drawbacks to the U1000, were its screen and price. The U1000 nearly has it all, but the plain vanilla LCD screen could have been improved by an LED (light-emitting diode) backlight, which is what gives the PlayStation Portable such a nice picture. But adding an LED backlight would have probably added to the already hefty price tag: NT$39,900 (US$1,211). The Dopod U1000 is only available in Taiwan and Hong Kong currently, but the company plans to roll it out in other parts of Asia over the next few months. The device, also known at HTC by the code-name Athena, will also be launched in Europe by T-Mobile International as the Ameo. Taiwan's HTC is the largest developer of handsets that run Microsoft Windows Mobile.
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Devices to power to PDAs, cell phones, and laptops could be available next year.
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At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Qualcomm offered a sneak peek of its concept for an ultramobile PC for the largely untapped market where it will meet Intel head on.
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TechWeb - Ultra Mobile Broadband is expected to go commercial in mid-2009, but none of the carriers has announced plans to test or deploy the technology.
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Could this mean the rumored 40GB model is finally coming soon?
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A walk through Intel's booth at CES revealed some new ultra-mobile PCs, some of which run on the Linux platform.
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Wireless chip maker Qualcomm Inc.   said on Wednesday new chipsets, designed to comply  with a court's patent infringement ruling, were now available  and expected to be in handsets before the end of March.
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Intel will embed solid-state storage drives in its upcoming platform for ultramobile PCs, aiming to meet increased storage requirements for users on the go.The Z-P140 PATA solid-state storage drives (SSDs) will be provided as an optional module to OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) to embed on motherboards made for the Menlow platform. The platform, designed for ultramobile PCs, also includes the Silverthorne processor and Poulsbo chipset. Menlow-based devices will ship in the first half of 2008, product line manager Don Larson said Friday at an event in San Francisco.The tiny SSD chip, which weighs only 0.6 grams, will be available in capacities of 2G bytes and 4G bytes. The on-board storage capacity will be expandable up to 16G bytes with four SSDs connected to a standard PATA (parallel advanced technology attachment) interface that links the drives, Larson said. SSDs consume less power than hard drives because they have no moving parts, so they are ideal for mobile devices, Larson said.The storage capacity of the storage modules could grow to 64G bytes in two years, said Troy Winslow, marketing manager at Intel.Intel said it will display ultramobile PCs based on the Menlow architecture from vendors including Asus, BenQ and Lenovo at the Consumer Electronics Show at Las Vegas in January. The Menlow platform, announced at the Intel Developer Forum in Beijing in April, will be followed in 2009 by the Moorestown platform, which Intel detailed in September.Moorestown will be an SOC (system-on-chip) design that packs a CPU, graphics processor, video, and a memory controller into a single chip. It will be more power-efficient than Menlow devices, according to Intel.The company also previewed the next-generation Centrino platform, which will include a power-efficient Core 2 Duo processor manufactured using the 45-nm process, and Intel&#39;s GM965 Express chipset. The new mobile platform will deliver better processor performance and include new instruction sets to enhance the video-viewing experience on notebooks, Intel said.
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Company says it will come out with 1-gigabit chip for mobile devices next year.
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Wireless chip maker Qualcomm Inc.  said on Wednesday new chipsets, designed to comply with a court's patent infringement ruling, were now available and expected to be in handsets before the end of March.
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InfoWorld - Samsung Electronics will present the latest model in its popularÂ Ultra edition range of cell phonesÂ at the Mobile World Congress exhibition in Barcelona next week.
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Company hasn't said when the device will be available.