Austek, Samsung Ready Ultra Mobile PCs
609573
Smaller than laptops but bigger than PDAs, the devices use stylus and GPS.
380755
Smartphone maker High Tech Computer (HTC) has started taking advance online orders for its Shift ultramobile PC in partnership with one of Taiwan&#39;s largest electronic chains.The company plans to sell as many as 200 units through the advance online ordering system run by Taiwan&#39;s 3C electronics chain store, which is owned by Tsann Kuen Enterprise.The Shift sells for NT$45,900 (US$1,418) each on the site.&quot;Orders will be delivered in mid-February. We&#39;re already in production on the device,&quot; said Azucena Lin, a deputy manager at HTC.HTC&#39;s ultramobile PC&#160;was announced to fanfare because it combines more of the hardware associated with mobile telecommunications than some other ultramobile PCs. The Shift can connect to Wi-Fi or to 3.5G (advanced third generation mobile telecommunications) HSDPA (high-speed downlink packet access) services to download data and remain connected to the Internet. It can also be used as a mobile phone and includes support for GSM (global system for mobile telecommunications), GPRS (general packet radio system) and EDGE (enhanced data rates for GSM evolution).The PC side of the ultramobile starts with its 7-inch LCD (liquid crystal display) touch screen, slide out QWERTY keyboard and Windows Vista Business OS. HTC added other extras to make the device even more attractive, including GPS (global positioning system) and push e-mail.
513392
New at CES: the 45-millimeter LG60 LCD, an ultramobile PC, and mobile broadcasting device.
483097
Samsung Electronics will present the latest model in its popular&#160;Ultra edition range of cell phones&#160;at the Mobile World Congress exhibition in Barcelona next week.The phone, dubbed &quot;Soul,&quot; is a slider-type handset that with an eye-catching touch panel under the display. The panel displays navigation icons that change according to the current application being run on the handset. For example, in camera mode icons such as zoom and brightness appear while music player functions appear in music mode.The quad-band GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) handset supports data downloads of up to 7.2Mbps&#160;over HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) networks and also has Bluetooth 2.0 wireless networking.Other features include a 5-megapixel camera with face detection and image stabilizer, FM radio with RDS (Radio Data System) and a music system based on technology from Bang &amp; Olufsen.The phone will be available worldwide and hit Europe in April.Samsung&#39;s Ultra line has proved a hit with style-conscious consumers. All phones in the range emphasize thinness and the new Soul handset is no different at 12.9 millimeters thick. But it&#39;s nowhere near as slim as the Ultra 5.9 handset that Samsung unveiled this time last year in Barcelona. The candy bar phone, as the name suggests, is just 5.9 millimeters thick.
202195
New lineup of low-cost PCs includes with some multimedia capabilities.
443487
Company to offer 3 devices with Bluetooth and GPS capabilities.
486359
Upcoming mobile phones will support Secure Digital flash memory.
214012
Taiwan&#39;s BenQ is showing off a new user interface on an ultramobile PC that it plans to start marketing in the second quarter of this year, a spokeswoman for the company said Tuesday.The device is being displayed at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona as part of BenQ&#39;s new mobile offerings. It was first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this year.BenQ has taken on the new moniker coined by Intel, &#39;mobile Internet device (MID)&#39; for its new gadget, a name that appears to be replacing the term &#39;ultramobile PC.&#39; Ultramobiles have so far not fared well in global markets, despite a much hyped launch and&#160;backing by heavyweights such as Microsoft and Intel.BenQ&#39;s MID sports a Linux OS, but the company tweaked the user interface to work more closely with its functions. Although full details have not yet been released, the company has said the MID is equipped for wireless Internet use via Wi-Fi, or with 3G (third generation telecommunications) networks, which also enable voice phone calls.The Linux OS was developed by China&#39;s Red Flag, but BenQ customized the interface to make its MID unique, said Jean Hsu, a BenQ representative.The MID also features a 4.8-inch touch screen, 0.3-megapixel Web cam, and on board sensors that minimize and pop up all open Windows when you shake the device, instead of making you touch each tab individually.BenQ&#39;s MID uses Intel&#39;s Menlow set of chips, which includes a low-power microprocessor code-named Silverthorne and a chipset codenamed Poulsbo. Intel designed Menlow for ultramobile devices.Companies are developing ultramobile PCs and MIDs in a bid to attract users to device slightly smaller than notebook PCs, but with full PC functionality. Some analysts see the devices as the PC industry&#39;s answer to smartphones, but point out that many ultramobiles do not include telecommunications functions. BenQ&#39;s new MID does include telecommunications capabilities with its 3G support.
611253
(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.
117834
Intel is displaying four new ultramobile PCs designed around its Menlow chips, including highly anticipated devices from Lenovo and Toshiba.
14142
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.
456976
PCS Vision Multimedia streams faster video plus audio channels to Samsung phone.
298407
Technology distributor Ingram Micro has announced that it has signed an agreement to purchase Australian based company Tech Pacific for AU$700 million, in a move designed to strengthen its Asia Pacific presence.
598718
(InfoWorld) - Samsung Electronics will introduce an upgraded version of its Q1 ultra-mobile PC with extended battery life, high-speed cellular, and a new processor. The Q1P, a successor to the Q1, will extend battery life to five hours and connect to cellular networks based on HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access), Gee Sung Choi, president and chief executive of Samsung Digital Media Business, said Friday at the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin. The device, to be available in the fourth quarter, will also be equipped with a processor from Via Technologies instead of Intel, which supplied technology for the first model, a company spokesman said. The spokesman declined to specify the reasons for replacing Intel, pointing only to a need to extend battery life. The Q1P will include several additional interfaces, but the spokesman declined to provide details. Pricing information was not available. The Q1 device, launched earlier this year, runs a tablet version of the Windows XP operating system and is intended to fit in the market between laptop PCs and PDAs (personal digital assistants). The new version takes advantage of HSDPA, which mobile phone network operators are rolling out with initial speeds up to 1.8Mbps. The technology is engineered for peak speeds of 14.4Mbps. Samsung's ultra-mobile PC already offers Wi-Fi connectivity.
621603
A vendor based in Dubai pounced on the enterprise mobility market Tuesday evening with a set of Windows Mobile 6 phones that come with built-in security and management software and will be sold independent of carriers.The company, i-mate, unveiled its Ultimate series of four GSM phones at Showstoppers, a product showcase held alongside the CTIA Wireless I.T. and Entertainment show happening this week in San Francisco. They will start hitting the market worldwide in the middle of next month.The devices all are about the size of a typical smartphone, run Microsoft&#39;s Windows Mobile 6 operating system, and come with the Office Mobile suite. Two have touchscreens, and two have QWERTY keyboards, one of them using a &quot;slider&quot; design with a larger keyboard and a screen that can be viewed horizontally. They are aimed at markets ranging from small business to larger midsize enterprises.One thing that sets i-mate apart is its business model: It will sell the phones in the U.S. through resellers and retail channels, bypassing mobile operators and the subsidies they typically offer. The i-mate phones will range in price from about $600 to $800, said Nicole Buchanan, vice president of sales and marketing (Americas) at i-mate. The company isn&#39;t averse to carrier distribution if it can make a deal: It will sell devices through Telstra in Australia, Buchanan said.Although carriers dominate the U.S. handset business, a few device makers are starting to take matters into their own hands. Nokia sells phones through its own retail stores and makes some high-end devices available through alternative distributors like Brightpoint, which i-mate will also use. The trend allows businesses to make their handset choices without worrying about what carrier to use or how long the mobile operator will continue offering the device they want.The traditional mobile handset business, in which carriers dictate the timing of handset and service rollouts based on their own business plans, doesn&#39;t match up with typically long enterprise planning cycles, IDC analyst Shiv Bakhshi said Monday at the show. Enterprises often can&#39;t find out what phones will be available when they carry out their mobile strategies or whether their current phone models will still be available in the future. Although hardware makers are starting to gain some autonomy, with the prominent example of Apple and its iPhone, they have a long way to go, Bakhshi said.The i-mate phones come with built-in software for securing and managing the devices. The Secure i-Q software lets users or IT support people lock down a lost or stolen device or wipe the data from it over the air. They can then configure a replacement device with all the appropriate applications over the air, Buchanan said. Custom i-Q allows for customization of each device with applications, e-mail settings, and features over the air.i-mate&#39;s only previous product was a digital picture frame with Wi-Fi. The company is listed on the London Stock Exchange. It developed the i-Q software and designed the Ultimate phones, which are built by contract manufacturers. All the devices use an XScale PXA 520MHz processor and have storage expandable to 2GB. They come with features typical of high-end phones, including Bluetooth and cameras. Three of the models have a front-facing camera that can be used for videoconferencing, according to i-mate. One feature that makes the devices stand out is XGA output, which lets a user plug the handset into a full-size display or projector.The Ultimate 6150 and 8150 touch-screen phones and 8502 QWERTY phone are due to ship worldwide in mid-November. The 9502 slider phone will ship around the end of the year, i-mate said.
172607
Via Technologies is not likely to ship its supersmall&#160;Mobile ITX motherboard, aimed at ultramobile PCs (UMPCs) and other light portable devices, in production volume until next year, company officials said here at the CES show Monday.The company attracted industry attention when it unveiled the board at Computex in Taipei last June, declaring that it would find its way into markets this year.But &quot;manufacturability issues&quot; will likely prevent the board from being used in commercially launched devices this year, according to Alp Sezen, a sales director for Via based in Fremont, California. Via expects to announce the Mobile ITX production schedule at this year&#39;s Computex, and will probably just manage to ship sample boards by the end of the fourth quarter, he said.&quot;It&#39;s normal to take about a year between announcing a board to production,&quot; he said. He acknowledged, however, that ultimately in the case of the Mobile ITX, the time between its unveiling and production is going to be more than 18 months.Like prototypes running last year, current Mobile ITX boards use 1GHZ CZ-M ULV (ultra low voltage processors) and CX700 chip sets. The board measures 7.5 centimeters by 4.5 cm -- smaller than a credit card -- and to get it that small, the spaces between the pins underneath the processor need to be shrunk to 0.5 millimeters from the current 1.0 millimeters in the company&#39;s current Pico ITX board, Sezen said.It&#39;s not easy to do this and ensure more than 90 percent of the boards coming off production lines are error free, Sezen said.Chip packaging technology needs to improve, he added. Via is a fabless chip developer and, on its own, faces difficulties developing new, cost-effective packaging technologies.In a sense, Via is dependent on Intel ramping up volume of new generation, 45-nanometer process chips. As Intel does so, new surface-mount technology for chips will be developed that can also be used to manufacture the Via Mobile ITX boards.Although the Mobile ITX is not likely to appear in UMPCs and other light portable devices until next year, the reduced package chip set incorporated into the board will likely be used in com modules for embedded systems by the end of this year, Sezen said. A manufacturer for these embedded systems is likely to make a public announcement this month, he said.Some would-be makers of new lightweight mobile devices, however, are chomping at the bit to get their hands on the new Via board. The MTube project, a research and development project sponsored by the Taiwan government&#39;s Science and Technology Group (STAG), was showing off a Linux-based, prototype Mobile Internet Device (MID) that incorporates the Mobile ITX board and measures 3.3 by 3.3 by 0.8 inches. It sported a 2.8-inch VGA touch screen and supports full rate video playback.The project wants to spin off from STAG and deliver a commercially available product as soon as it can get its hands on a motherboad with the specs that would make it viable, according to H.T. Kung, the project&#39;s advisor. However, to date, neither Via nor Intel could promise to deliver a commercially usable board within that timeframe, he said.&#160;
92204
Devices to power to PDAs, cell phones, and laptops could be available next year.