Start-up debuts 'rugged' ultramobile PC
632144
Start-up Black Diamond Advanced Technology unveiled the SwitchBack, a rugged ultramobile PC the size of a paperback.
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.
332181
Before embarking on a series of reviews of the family of electronics devices known as ultra-mobile PCs, it's worth noting that there's much debate over exactly what an ultra-mobile PC is. Nearly every device claiming to belong to the category is different.
314353
Continued criticism by industry insiders didn&#39;t stop vendors from OQO to Lenovo and LG from showing off ultramobile PC products with range of innovative features at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), held in Las Vegas this week.With many of the prototypes displayed due to hit the market later this year, UMPCs continue to be panned for their inconvenient keyboards, small screen sizes, and poor battery life ever, since the first UMPC from OQO was introduced at CES in 2004.OQO showed off a WiMax-capable OQO Model 2 UMPC, powered by Via Technologies&#39; C7-M mobile processors and running Windows Vista OS. It comes with hard-drive or flash-based solid-state drive options, supports up to 1GB of RAM, and has a sliding display that pops up to show a keyboard. Weighing around 1 pound (453 grams), prices start at $1,299.Eyes were locked on UMPC prototypes from companies including Lenovo and Founder at Intel&#39;s booth. The Lenovo device includes the Linux OS from Chinese developer Red Flag Software, and boasts a 4.8-inch touchscreen, an onboard camera, and other features. The Founder Mini-Note features a 7-inch screen, a 60GB hard drive, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless networking, and weighs around 800 grams.Intel&#39;s prototypes are based on its Menlow platform, a code name given to a set of Intel chips for ultramobile PCs due out next year. Menlow will include a new low-power microprocessor, code-named Silverthorne, and a chip set code-named Poulsbo.One prototype that may never ship is a slider UMPC displayed in LG&#39;s booth, also based on the Menlow platform. The device runs Windows Vista, comes with a 4.8-inch screen, 1GB of memory, a 40GB hard disk drive, a touchscreen, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and 3G HSDPA cellular data. A representative at the LG booth said the company had not decided whether to market the device, as it suffered from poor battery life and keyboard usage issues.UMPCs create a design challenge by virtue of being a tweener -- neither a cell phone nor a laptop, said Phil McKinney , vice president and chief technology officer at HP&#39;s personal systems group. &quot;The UMPCs -- OQO and those guys -- are trying to be too much on the small side, very heavy, not great battery life, they get hot in your hand too when you use it. But when you get north of 9-inch screens, you&#39;re getting pretty close to a laptop,&quot; McKinney said.Screens up to 7 inches are not an appropriate scale for use of screen for touch-based applications, McKinney said.UMPCs have floundered around for a while as a killer application for mobile devices hasn&#39;t been discovered yet, McKinney said. &quot;There&#39;s a lot of people coming out with products, I don&#39;t think anybody&#39;s found what the killer application or what that killer use case model really is,&quot; McKinney said.Alp Sezen, a sales director for Via Technologies based in Fremont, California, said that a reason UMPC sales have not increased dramatically, at least in the U.S., is that wireless bandwidth for mobile devices up to now has been slow.&quot;The biggest problem with ultramobile devices is they need more bandwidth. When the user experience for mobile wireless is better, that&#39;s when you will see ultramobile devices really take off,&quot; Sezen said. &quot;Right now you typically get 116K [bits per second] when you are mobile, which isn&#39;t a great user experience.&quot; A true ultramobile experience is the ability to pull out a mobile device and easily surf the Web. &quot;Right now, you can&#39;t get that experience,&quot; Sezen said.It will take a year or two for the mobile wireless experience to get better, Sezen said. &quot;WiMax, and the opening up of Verizon&#39;s EV-DO network in the third quarter this year will help give a better experience for ultramobile users.&quot;Intel has categorized UMPCs under the Mobile Internet Device (MID) nomenclature, and segments the devices further based on applications like entertainment, productivity and navigation, said Pankaj Kedia, director of the global ecosystem program for mobile Internet and UMPC platforms. The look and feel of devices, the marketing technique and what users want to buy is different, Kedia said.Clarion&#39;s UMPC, for example, will be marketed as a next-generation navigation device, Kedia said. &quot;It might have the capability of a PC under the hood, but from a user perspective it is a portable navigation mobile Internet device,&quot; Kedia said. UMPCs are more like MIDs aimed at productivity with PC capabilities inside.When asked if a prototype UMPC that Qualcomm showed off at CES would replace cell phones, company chief technology officer Sanjay Jha thought for a second and then replied: &quot;I don&#39;t know.&quot;Different people might use them in different ways, Jha said. Also, how consumers use UMPCs might depend on how successful Bluetooth becomes, he said. Some consumers might be happy to use a UMPC instead of a cell phone if they can use a Bluetooth headset to make and receive voice calls, rather than holding the larger device up to their ears, he said.Fujitsu&#39;s Paul Moore, senior director of mobile product marketing, also didn&#39;t have a definitive description of the ideal UMPC user. Someone who works on their feet a lot and is OK with typing with their thumbs might be an ideal user, he said. But he said the UMPC wouldn&#39;t necessarily replace a laptop.Terminology doesn&#39;t matter though, HP&#39;s McKinney said. &quot;Let a marketing person loose for 10 minutes and they&#39;ll come up with a category. You can say UMPC or MID, what the hell&#39;s the difference?&quot;(Nancy Gohring, Marc Ferranti, Dan Nystedt, and Martyn Williams contributed to this report).
231595
A closer look at the slim, sleek new all-in-one PC, which Gateway touts as an ideal centerpiece for the digital home.
429572
The ultra-portable sector of the notebook industry over the last few years has become a showcase for the engineering prowess of the world's largest computer companies.
608749
45nm 'Silverthorne' not even out yet CES LG has craftily shown off an ultra-mobile PC based on Intel's as-yet-unlaunched '45nm Silverthorne' processor at this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES).â¦
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.
55453
The entry-level handset aims at home and office users. In Gear Factor.
240940
Laughs off nerve gas and even coffee After a slow start, the UMPC concept seems to be gaining momentum in recent months. The latest entrant to the field is US arms colossus General Dynamics, which launched its GoBook MR-1 rugged UMPC at the DSEi military tech fair today.â¦
720468
Hewlett-Packard Wednesday introduced a business desktop with a slim form factor that packs a flash-based solid-state drive, giving the system faster boot times than PCs with hard drives.The HP Compaq dc7800 Ultra-Slim Business Desktop, dubbed by HP as its smallest enterprise desktop model, provides improved power efficiency and support for tools, including Intel&#39;s vPro, that makes it easier to manage PCs.Measuring 2.60 by 9.90 by 10.0 inches (6.6 by 25.15 by 25.4 centimeters), HP said this desktop is 46 percent smaller than previous models. The PC is loaded with power-efficient features, including solid-state drives (SSDs) that consume less power than hard drives, said an HP spokeswoman.The SSD can replace a hard disk as the PC&#39;s primary storage drive and delivers performance and durability improvements, including quicker access to data, durability, the spokeswoman said.Random reads require the head to continuously seek the exact location of data on a hard drive. SSDs have no moving parts or rotating platters, which results in instantaneous seek times, leading to faster boot times and quicker data access.A 16GB SSD will be available with the system, although users can select hard drives with storage capacities of up to 160GB when buying the product.The system includes support for TPM (Trusted Platform Module) 1.2, a hardware-based authentication technology for system security.The Compaq dc7800 Ultra-Slim Business Desktop runs Intel&#39;s Core 2 Duo, Celeron D or Pentium processors, and supports Intel&#39;s vPro technology, a platform that helps service and manage PCs. It comes with Gigabit Ethernet and an integrated Intel graphics media accelerator. Users can select between the Windows Vista, Windows XP or FreeDos operating systems.Pricing for the desktop, which is available now, starts at $1,258 with the solid-state drive.There are already a few vendors that include SSDs in their hardware. Dell&#39;s Alienware, a gaming systems manufacturer, includes them in its gaming desktop PCs and Toshiba includes SSDs in its laptops. Intel is providing SSD storage as an option to put on motherboards for its upcoming ultramobile Menlow platform, and Lexar Media is offering SSD storage under the Crucial brand.HP also announced the HP Compaq dc5800 Business PC. The business desktop will be powered by Intel&#39;s Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Quad, Pentium dual-core or Celeron D processors. It will include up to 500GB of hard-drive storage, Gigabit Ethernet networking, integrated Intel graphics, a DVD drive and a 16-in-1 media card reader.Priced at $579, the desktop will be available starting next month.
202195
New lineup of low-cost PCs includes with some multimedia capabilities.
433066
The Z-P140 PATA solid-state storage drives will be offered in its upcoming platform for ultramobile PCs.
332582
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.
187312
Start-up Divitas is offering a new appliance for the enterprise that converges mobile and desktop phones.
99610
Blog: This ambitious suite will go beyond basic antivirus and firewall protection for your mobile device.
183958
Prototype products include the first such drive for use in a PC.