Day - 6: What is gonna happen next week

Well, I don't know. Will get one eo from the small group that passed QA tests? Probably because I was the second order at TabletKiosk. I hope that they start to send them right next Monday. If that's the case I should have it in my hands before Wednesday.

Two versions of Asus coming soon

According to news posted at NE Asia Online, Asus should enter the market with two versions according to Eric Ou, Asus director of notebook and handheld business in Europe: the R1 that comes with a 10GB hard drive, 256MB DDRII DRAM memory and sells for about 749 euros, and the R2 that is equipped with an external optical drive, a 60GB hard drive, and 1GB of DDRII DRAM and retails for around 1,000 euros. Ou said Asus will volume ship these devices in late May or early June of this year.

Day -5: is good to be an early adopter

I was thinking today that there is nothing like to be an early adopter. You go through forums where people argue about stuff that they really don't know because they do not have yet any of these origamis in their hands. They predict what programs should work, what games should work, that is even harder to predict. And you enter in these arguments giving your best opinion about these topics and you... dream. Yes, that's all you do. You dream with the day when you will be able to prove that your arguments were right. That you were right. God, how good is to be an early adopter.

What means Quality Control

Things like this is what TabletKiosk is trying to avoid. The thumb-pad on the Q1 joystick pop off during a review at pcw.co.uk.




This made me remember the past Q1 presentation in Korea when the Q1 did not work so well.

Indepth review of the Samsung Q1

Personal Computer World has just updated their site with an indepth review (no real benchmarks yet beside the battery tests). In another hand Carrypad has just informed about a review posted at Xonio.com where they ran PCMark04 in a Q1 getting a score of 1690. It seems to me from all this that Europe will see the Samsung Q1 in the streets before than here in USA.

System Requirement LAB

I have to confess that I'm not a "gamer" I may play during a weekend in my PSP or PS2 but that's it. And I do not remember when was the last time that I played a PC Game. And the reason why is because I like 3D games and the majority of those games have some requirements that I do not have in any of my PCs and I doubt that I would pay for the hardware needed to meet them.

But now that I'm getting an UMPC many of my friends have been asking me if I gonna tests some games, just to see how they work or if they are going to work in these devices. So doing some research about this point I found this web site called System Requirement LAB. What it does is to install a small ActiveX in your PC and compare your resources to the resources needed by the game that you want to check. So I guess that now I wont have to install all those games that my friends have been asking me to test!

9 pages at google!

Wow! I could not believe it until somebody pointed me to this. May be I have been hyperactive lately! :D

The AMTek T700 Family

Let's make a list of AMTek T700 devices sold or to be sold with different names

• eo V7110


• Smart Caddie


• PlaceBlade EasyBook P7


• it's Label

Oh yeah! we are gonna have a lot of fun with these devices!

John Tokash is getting ready

I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one preparing everything for when I receive the eo next week (again... If I'm within the lucky group!). John Tokash as posted what he think is going to need in this new Origami, something that I recommend everybody in this same position to read.

Wow! Another twin

The AMTek T700 aka eo V7110 will be sold in France under the name of It's Label according to news posted at NaviGadget and UMPC Buzz. I really like this because that means only one thing: more accessories for these devices!

GeckoTIP: Are you ready for ink?

The GeckoTIP extension provides Tablet PC Input Panel support in Firefox, Thunderbird, and Sunbird.

Q1 review on the way

Stay tuned, Personal Computer World will post a review about this Origami soon. So far they have published their first thoughts about the Q1:

• 1.40 hours battery life playing a movie


• Speakers do not sound so good (something that I predicted a while ago).


• Impressed with the Q1's ergonomics.

_{Source: Origami Portal}

Day - 4: Today is Friday!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah, Today is Friday and I have not lost the hope of having the eo V7110 on my hands next week! Will I be one of the lucky ones? Who knows...

SD to USB

Some people prefer the Samsung Q1 to the TabletKiosk eo V7110 because it has a CF Card slot and Ethernet Card incorporated. Yesterday I posted about a USB Ethernet adaptor that cost just 18 dollars including shipping and today GottaBeMobile posted about a SD USB Combo card of 1 GB of RAM sold by Buy.com for $63.98 (free shipping). This two solutions cost a fraction of the difference between the eo price and the Q1 price and no having these incorporated could save a few minutes of battery life.

USB Ethernet adaptor

A few days ago I was talking about an USB to Ethernet adaptor, today one of our readers posted about one that is the perfect for our eos! Here is the link.

Specifications:

• Convert your USB port to 10/100Mbps RJ-45 port.


• Works as standard 10/100Mbps Ethernet adapter though USB port


• Complies with IEEE 802.3 10/100Base-T RJ-45 connector standards


• Support full duplex to double up bandwidth & throughput


• Directly connect Host PC without external power supply


• USB spec. 2.0 Compliant and Plug & Play supported


• Provides energy saving suspend/resume detection function


• Easy installation with automatic device recognition and resource management


• LED Indicators show at-glance network link status


• Compatible for Win 98se/Me/2000/XP


• ONE (1) Year Limited Manufacturer Warranty

UMPC Demo videos

Here is a cool UMPC Demo video shot at Makers Faire.

First Video

The Second and third videos were shot at CeBit 2006.

Second Video

Third video

Will this run in an Origami?

It's funny to see how people still think about these devices like they are Pocket PCs where no all applications will run.


Guys... before you ask "will this run in an UMPC?" ask yourself "will this run in a PC at 800x600 resolution?" if the answer to the second question is true, then the answer to the first question is true too. Plain and simple.

Before somebody says anything... :D there are going to be programs that will not run in an Origami, but those are few cases maily because they require a very powerful video cards or they require the presence of a CD. In this case we have games or some kind of designer type of program.

UMPC Configuration Considerations

Darryl at Geekzone has posted his considerations about what is the best hardware configuration at TabletKiosk web site. I agree with him when he said that more memory is better but completely disagree about his HDD considerations. According to what I have found and posted here, the Hitachi 7200 RPM HDD used by TabletKiosk does not use a lot more battery than the 5400 RPM one or even the 4800 RPM. But... the performance of a machine with a 7200 RPM vs one at 5400 could be up to 30% higher. So my advice is: go for the faster one!

Day minus 3 (-3)

Still waiting for the eo! Yesterday I posted a note from TabletKiosk saying that a group of these devices have passed QA tests and will be shipped next week. That's a good new for some! I hope that I'm one of the lucky one considering that my order is the Second one in line according to some "private users research" done by me in a few forums.

Emily on the road

Emily one of the members of Origami Project team has posted a nice article about how suitable is an Origami for Travellers. Microsoft continues talking and marketing these devices as the perfect Recreational Tool. Come On Microsoft, show us more. The market is not just a bunch of young kids willing to buy the latest "cool" electronic device. Show us some examples of how good these devices are in the business environment! I keep saying that Origamis will become in a near future the perfect tool for medical personal.

Motion Press Release

Motion has posted a press release showing their new prices, something that is logical with the new Origamis entering the market with a lower price. Even now that the they have reduced prices by around 200 dollars in the LE1600 and in the LS800, their still high: $2000 and $1700. If you are looking for a Tablet and you like Motion's Tablet follow my advice, wait for another 6 months because they will have to reduce them again and again. Trust me.

Up to date, Motion has been "leading the industry in slate tablet PC sales", and I have started this line saying "Up to date" because after the enormous success that TabletKiosk is having with the eo V7110 presales it seems to me that the Tablet PC arena has got a new King.

7.8 Millions by 2011

According to news published at WindowsforDevices.com by 2011 the number of Origamis sold will reach 7.8 Millions!

UMPCs overcome the computing limitations of handheld devices such as PDAs and smartphones, while simultaneously addressing the mobility constraints of PCs, according to In-Stat.

That number seems good to me but some specialists consider it as low.

Update: UMPC Buzz has found that some pages report that number as very good while other as a very low number! What do you think about it?

Update on eo Shipping delay.

I just received a note from TabletKiosk that I would like to share:

As you are probably aware we have experienced a production problem with our initial case tooling. We have a small quantity of units that have passed QC, however we will continue to test through this weekend to assure these units have no problems. We should be shipping these units early next week.

Games on the UMPC?

Nobody has yet an UMPC and those who had or have the prototype never tested fully any game. But... here you can find somebody that have been testing some games using a Vaio U at 800x600 and 800x480 to see if games will work in Origamis. I'll post here a summary of what he found:

1. except of downloadable games, all games required a physical CD/DVD-Rom for installing and for playing. There are cases were a CD-ROM emulator like Daemon Tools etc. will work, i.e. some older games like Riven, Baldurs Gate etc. or like Dungeon Siege II, but I couldn't get Sacred Gold to work without a real drive. (I'm not talking about NoCD crack etc, here!!!)


2. a lot of PG games need an attached keyboard, cause the onscreen keyboard is either slow nor displayable or the game is not pen-compatible.


3. all those usual PC games will drain your battery quite quickly. More advanced games a lot faster than usual.


4. a lot of games (probably all) will not install under a resolution of 800x480px, but the UMPC can be switched to 800x600px (I also assumed 640x480px is supported) so this wont be such a problem. Except of MAME emulator, screen rotation cause most of the games to crash.


5. nobody knows yet how games will perform under the UMPC, but I discovered not much performance problems under the Vaio U (even in DS II where enemies appear in large crowds etc.).

Day -2: are you ready for ink?

Some time it's funny to visit web pages of Tablet PC supports and I will tell you why? They have been in business for more than 4 years (I mean Tablet PCs) and all I can find is a handful of programs that really support ink. Thanks God that Microsoft had this wonderful idea about UMPC because the situation with Tablet PCs is just pitiful. I don't have any statistics of what I'm about to say but I think that if we take all the UMPCs preorders for all the different announced brands, the total of them probably is going to be close to the amount of Tablet PCs sold the last year.

Anyway, the reason why I'm saying all this is not to trash Tableteers is to bring the idea to new UMPC owners that no all programs are designed to fully support Ink. Lets take for example Outlook. I know that many of you use this program, well; it does not support ink unless you install TEO. If you don't know what is TEO the best way to find out what this wonderful program does is reading this review by Tracy Hooten.

First Smart Caddie Benchmarks

A friend at Origami Project has pointed me to a Japanese page where for the first time a benchmarks of this device has been posted. The tool used is called HDBench and can be downloaded here (DAT file). I ran the HDBench at work where I have a P4 at 2.6 GHz, DDR RAM and a 7200 RPM HDD and I'm really impressed, the Smart Caddie had a overall score of 18253 while my work PC ended with 24206. The Smart Caddie was better in Graphics and Memory Tests and it had a lower score in Processor and HDD test something that did not surprise me at all. My coming eo has a 7200 RPM HDD and will perform better than this Smart Caddie that makes me believe that the score will be close to what I'm getting in my PC at work!

The Smart Caddie Results (keep in mind that this results are from a prototype).

Below is a screen shot of HDBench in my pc at work that you can use to compare the results with the results in the table for the Smart Caddie

Smart Caddie in Europe

According to news posted at OrigamiPortal.com an European version of the Smart Caddie A.K.A eo V7110 will be released in Europe the second week of May under the name of PlaceBlade Easybook P7. If you live in Europe you can find more information here.

The fan utility

Here is a developer working in something that should be installed in all laptops, tablet pcs and why no, UMPCs currently in the market.

Christian Falch has created a tool that can keep his Tecra M4 running warm just by manipulating the how the fan and the processor work.

You can read more about this program here and here.

_{Source: Warner Crocker}

Day -1, YES!, Here I'm counting

From where I'm from people say that Big Storms come after a quiet day. And that was what happened yesterday, after a day without any big news in the afternoon TabletKiosk posted a press release saying that due to defects in the plastic case of the units they decided not to ship the eos until this problem is fixed. Of course that I was disappointed with the news, but then I realized that it's very hard that level of honesty in a company. So here I'm, counting down the days until I get my order. Yes, I HAVE NOT AND I DO NOT INTEND TO CANCEL MY ORDER. That's my way to pay back TabletKiosk for their honesty. So if you have came here everyday looking for news and tips about UMPCs and what accessories to buy for them (I should add here "and despite my broken English :D), keep doing that because you are going to see me doing the same thing with the same enthusiasm.

According to TabletKiosk there are a few units with no problems (some sources say that those are the white color eos) that are going to be shipped so, who knows, may be you are one of the lucky guys getting it at the end of this week or beginning of the next week.

Shoud I cancel my order at TabletKiosk?

I know that many of you guys are thinking about the same thing. I know how important is for early adopter to be within the first in getting this new and amazing tool. But...

1. Where you can get at this moment an UMPC with 1GB of RAM and a HDD spinning at 7200 RPM and all that for the shipper price that you could ever think?


2. Who is selling a device for less than 1000 dollars?


3. When you have seen in a company such act of honesty?

I also was disappointed when I read the news about the shipment delay but after a few minutes I thought for myself, wait a minute, this people have selected to by honest and do not ship a defective product versus send me a defective product and after having my money call for recall after few weeks. If you have not experienced that I can tell you that I did. Back in 2002 Toshiba released the Pocket PC e740. That machine was full of defects and they new that from the day one, defects that any QA department would find out if they had tested the units properly. After a few months, Toshiba called a huge number of machines for a recall.

Is that what you want from TabletKiosk? I don't think so.

TabletKiosk has shown us guys that still exist companies where honor and honesty are more important than money. I really value this and I WONT CANCEL MY ORDER.

So, tomorrow, you will find my usual day countdown with a negative number of course, but a valid and proud countdown!

Shipment Delay of eo V7110

Here is the message I got in my account at TabletKiosk:

April 24, 2006 Dear Valued Customer, Thank you very much for your pre-order of the eo™ v7110. The initial response to eo™ has been phenomenal; and as a result, we have sold out our entire initial production quantity. At TabletKiosk, our primary goal is to provide outstanding products and superior service that “exceeds our customers’ computing expectations.” Guided by this philosophy, we take great effort to ensure that our machines perform exactly as they are promoted. As the end of April rapidly approaches, we find ourselves in the position of having to balance our commitment to quality with the expectation of a timely product delivery. After the process of quality control was completed on the first eo™ production units, it was determined that there was an issue in the tooling of the back panel that affected the operation of the system fan. Because of this problem, the back panel had to undergo a slight redesign and thus the initial shipment is going to be only a fraction of what we had anticipated. Additionally, we expect the supply of the eo™ to be extremely tight for the next 60 to 90 days as the production supply catches up to demand. If you are one of the lucky few who receives your eo™ on time, congratulations and we hope that it meets and exceeds your computing expectations. If not, we want to offer our sincere apologies and let you know that we are working hard to assure that the delay in receiving your order is as minimal as possible. As of now, we expect to have a majority of the orders fulfilled by the beginning of June. We hope that you can hang on until then, but in case you can not, feel free to contact our customer service department and we will cancel your order. Know, however, that if you decide upon this route and later change your mind, your new order will be placed in the queue in the order that it is received. Please rest assured that your credit card will not be charged until your order is shipped. We at TabletKiosk thank you for your patience and understanding and hope you agree with our decision that it’s better to get it right than to be first. Sincerely, The TabletKiosk Team

I don't know yet if I'm one of the lucky ones...

Update: I know that this is a very bad news for us but in another hand... It's good to see that TabletKiosk has done a good job testing the machines and did not ship them to us with problems. I know by my own experience that other companies release the products with defects and after a few months release a recall notice asking customers to return the defective product for repair. TableKiosk knows how important for us early adopters is to be in the first batch of UMPCs shipped and they have chosen to stay with the true and be honest and delay the shipment until they have a product with the highest level of quality. TabletKiosk, you have my support.

Day 0 - Well, we are here

Yes, this is the last week of April. According to some fellows the eo V7110s are in USA and TabletKiosk have been working on them during the whole weekend. This is an unconfirmed news. I contacted very late yesterday TabletKiosk and I'm waiting for a reply back email today.

I found another comment about the Makers Faire:

The screen resolution at 1024x600 was spectacular on the TabletKiosk eo. The Samsung Q1 didn't do as well.

Writing on the eo seemed to work great with the stylus. I had to really use my fingernails with DialKeys.

Red eo V7110 prototype

Lora confirmed at UMPC Buzz Forum the existence of a RED Color prototype of the eo V7110. Would you buy an eo in RED?

Day 1 - Last Day

What can I say today? Next week is going to be decisive in TabletKiosk campaign and I hope that they realize that.

Prototypes at Maker Faire

John Tokash visited the Maker Faire Yesterday and he is posting at his blog about what he experienced there when he tested 3 of the prototypes: The eo, the Samsung Q1 and the Founder. Here is a summary of what he said:

All 3 devices seemed responsive and not sluggish at all during my interactions

The Founder UMPC is really thin compared to the Samsung and eo.

The screen zooming is faster than I expected and much more readable than I expected, although several control panels (touch optimizations, system) become blank grey windows at the scaled 1024 resolution.

I like the touch point mouse embedded in the eo. I’m guessing that some old DirectX full screen games won’t respond well to the touch screen, so an external mouse or a touch point is going to be useful in those cases. The Samsung doesn’t have a similar feature.

For now, I’m really happy with my eo preorder.

Learn to play Sudoku

If you don't know how to play Sudoku here is a page that will teach you in the best and easier way that I have found how to do it. That page also provides you with new games that you can print or even post at your site for free.

USB to RJ45 Ethernet Adapter

For those traveling to remote countries where WiFi AP in Hotels are hard to find and the predominant network connectivity is via Ethernet cards the TabletKiosk eo V7110 could seem not appealing at all. Well, the USB to RJ45 Ethernet Adapter is the solution to this problem. For just 29 dollars you can add Ethernet capability to your eo V7110.

Day 2 - will UMPC replace Tablet PC?

A controversy between Tablet PC Bloggers and UMPC Bloggers has started regarding to this question as you can see from this post. I think that UMPC will not replace Tablet PCs but they will help them to become more accessible to everybody. Just look the below picture where you can see what happened as soon as the Origami Project was reveled to the world.

^{The price tag of almost 1900 dollars has disappeared!}

UMPCs wont replace Pocket PCs because Pocket PCs are already dead, they have been replaced by Phones with Pocket PC functions. UMPC wont replace Tablet PCs, what we are going to see is a huge wide market of TOUCH SCREEN and Magnetic screen devices that will start with UMPC, continue with Tablet PC/Laptop hybrids and end in pure Tablet PCs. I fully 100% agree with those that point that UMPCs, thanks to a very low price, will show the world "the benefits of inking and touch". Benefits that the Tablet PCs failed to market due to prohibitive prices. Tablet PCs prices in a near future will be as low as the one that we see in current Laptops. In fact, we are going to see with Tablet PCs the same price evolution that we saw with Laptops.

New pictures of Smart Caddie

I just found a few new pictures of the Smart Caddie here. The below picture shows the details of this UMPC battery, a 10.8 Volt/2400 mAh battery.

UMPC on the Bus

Emily, member of Origami Project Team has posted a nice article about how an Origami can help you to save money by using the public transportation system.

Day 3 - Next two weeks are going to be busy

Yes, Roy from OrigamiPortal.com announced yesterday that he was working in a Theme Creator for the Origami Touch Pack Launcher. And I revealed that I was working in a game (yeah, for those that did not associate Tweaks2K2 with me, I'm the guy behind Tweaks2K2). All this in an addition to OrigamiCar project, a wonderful multimedia player specially designed for UMPCs that was announced a few weeks ago.

Hugo Ortega the other day in his blog was wondering if developers are gonna start working for Tablet PCs with this Origami Fever, and it seems to me that with these new announcements and the OricamiCar he has got a clear answer:

Yes, developers will love Origamis!

Buttons are easy to see

We all remember Lora from WhatisNew for her review about the eo V7110. She has been around other Origamis and had the chance to compare them in the way than I'm afraid no other person have had. This is what she said about the eo V7110 buttons in this post at UMPC Buzz.

Where the buttons on the Founder UMPC are close together, the buttons on the TabletKiosk eo v7110 UMPC are high contrast, uniform in size, and spaced apart from each other. At conferences, I've been watching peoples' reactions to this and it's been interesting -- people who wear corrective lenses gravitate toward it. Pretty interesting to see. Can't wait to learn what people think once they start shipping.

Is Tweaks2K2 Software House developing for UMPCs?

Is Tweaks2K2 Software House developing for UMPCs? Yes, I have been working silently in a game involving ink recognition. It is not something extraordinary but I believe that it's going to be fun. That's all I can say at this moment.

About a month ago Tweaks2K2.com released Tweaks2K2 PC Edition a Registry Hacking tool for PC and Pocket PCs and as a matter of facts, the first registry hacking too for Pocket PCs that works from a PC. This tool was designed to fit perfectly in 800x480 making it ideal to be used in Origamis devices. So, if you are a Pocket PC owner and you are waiting for an Origami, this is a tool that will help you to take control of both devices.

Origami Program Launcher Theme Creator in Development

Roy from OrigamiPortal.com is working in a Program Laucher Theme Creator for Origamis devices. You can see a little video of what he has done so far here.

Bravo Roy!

Apple Origami Device

According to news published at UMPC News, Apple could be working secretely in an device that "seem to be very close to Origami UMPC."

All about Sudoku

I found a wonderful article from the author of Sudoku game included in UMPCs explaining how it can be installed in a NON-Tablet PC. Also, everybody at Microsoft are going crazy with this game, and a proof of this is this other post where you can find how different teams at Microsoft have prepared different tools for this game such as resolvers!

Day 4 - Yeeeeesssss!

Have you voted? Check our poll to select the UMPC best video review!

UMPC Insulated Leather Carry Case

I'm glad to see how already some companies have started to sell products for Origamis devices. This is the case of Nutshell that is selling a UMPC Insulated Leather Carry Case for 99 dollars compatible, according to this company with Tablet Kiosk eo V7110, Asus R2H, Founder Mini-Note and Samsung Q1 devices.
.

The importance of Early Adoption

Many people do not comprehend how important are early adopters for any technology or concept like in this case the UMPCs. Here is a comment from Hugo Ortega from Uber Tablet that I want you, my dear readers, to think about. This is what he said:

Adoption plays a huge role in whether or not vendors will double battery life, 3G enable and so on. If the numbers are promising enough then they'll have no choice but to go down the path we're all touting.

What video review do you like most?

I have been joking with Rob from GottaBeMobile about the Oscars in a new UMPC category and I thought that would be a good idea if our readers select what video review they like most.

The Nominatees in the UMPC Category are:

• Lora Heiny eo V7110 Review (Link)


• JKonTheRun eo V7110 Review (Link)


• GottaBeMobile eo V7110 Review (Link)


• Hugo Ortega UMPC Demo (Link)


• Hugo Ortega Automation Demo (Link)

_{Note: Move the cursor on top of the arrows to scroll down.}

Day 5 - we are close

Yesterday was a nice day with a video review of the TabletKiosk eo v7110 from GottaBeMobile. Also Samsung went official posting the User Manual of the Q1. Later on Today I'll post a new poll that I'm sure is going to be a hit. Stay Tuned.

Q1 Manual available at Samsung

Samsung has just released an updated version of the Samsung Q1 UMPC Manual that can be downloaded here. A quick guide can be found at here.

GottaBeMobile eo video Review

Rob just has posted his video review of the TabletKiosk eo V7110.

In this video review of TabletKiosk’s eo, I take a look at the eo itself, showing my kids interaction with it, an interview with my 11 year old son Dax, overview of the eo, size comparisons with the LS800, software screenshots, handwriting demonstration, resolution demonstration, DialKeys demonstration, and then some closing thoughts.

Practical example of how can be used an Origami

Hugo at Uber Tablet has just posted a wonderful video about how an Origami can be integrated with your home automation center.

Day 6 - Less than a week

Lets be realistic, probably we are not going to receive our UMPC in 6 days. Just think about it, we are dealing with some unknown elements such as customs clearance time, after that all the units have to pass the QA testing, and after that, they have to install software and customize the BTO machines. Also keep in mind that there may be some unknowns ahead. I know, and you know that too because it's noticeable, that TabletKiosk guys have been monitoring this and all other blogs relative to UMPCs and that they know that the key for their success is to release the eo V7110 before the Samsung Q1. They know that many of you just want to have the first UMPC in the market, no matter what brand it is and what specification it has. So I'm sure that Gail and Martin are right now organizing a 24 hours marathon in case it's needed to have the eo before May 1st.

These are just speculations, I do not have any informant inside of TabletKiosk like some sources claim. I'm just basing my thoughts in what I would do to keep the share of the market conquered at a very high price. I hope that I'm right because like many of you I'm going crazy here waiting to have one of these UMPCs in my hands! That's the bottom line.

More about Rob Bushway initial thoughts...

Those who were a little worry about Rob's initial thoughts regarding the eo V7110 should read his comments at Origami Project forum.

Like I have been saying in many places... If his video touch all the points that he said in one of his early comments at GottaBeMobile, his video is going to be nominated next year for the Oscars in the UMPC category! :D

Launch date for eo

I sent an email this morning to TabletKiosk about the rumors around the web about the Launch date of the eo being delayed, a few hours after that TabletKiosk has replayed back using the Origami Project forum.

There is quite a lot of speculation going on right now about the launch date of eo, so I would like to address the issue directly.

We (TabletKiosk) are still targeting to ship eo by the end of April. However, please know that because this is our initial launch of an entirely new product, we are dealing with some unknown elements such as customs clearance time.

When the machines arrive from overseas, we are set up to conduct QA testing, install software and customize the BTO machines in our California warehouse. It’s a very tight timeframe and there may be some unknowns ahead, however, our target ship date remains as originally announced.

Gail Levy
Director of Marketing
TabletKiosk

Microsoft replies to GottaBeMobile Comments

A few days ago GottaBeMobile posted about the poor UI in the Program Launcher included in UMPCs:

• poorly designed forms within the program launcher itself. It just feels like once they got the initial program launcher designed, they left everything else behind.

I asked Sears, Program Manager of Microsoft Origami Team about this point and this is what he told us:

Customize Launcher was designed to be like a Control Panel applet. It's something you go in every once in a while to make changes. Could it have been made cooler? Sure, but this was one of those features where you have to make trade-offs in the development cycle (it was one of my features, and ask anybody here, I wasn't happy about it being a boring Win32 app :)).


But...since all of the configuration settings are loaded from an XML file, it's certainly possible that aspiring developers could write a "nicer" version. Regardless, it's great feedback, and we'll be sure to keep that in mind for future versions.

I want to thank Sears for his work in Origami Project Forum, where users can contact Origami Team with all kind of questions and so far they have done a wonderful job answering them.

CD ROM cheap solution, no hardware needed.

No having a CD drive could be a problem for many people. Well, there is a solution in the form of two programs:

• WinXP Virtual CD ROM: lets you create a virtual CD drive on your hard disk. This tool can be downloaded here.


• ISO Recorder: let you create ISO files. This one is needed because XP virtual CD only opens ISO files. ISO Recorder can be downloaded here.

Day 7 - One week left

This last week started with many news. We have Microsoft "I love UMPC" contest, we had the comments from Martin Skemal talking about battery life in the prototype that is being reviewed at GottaBeMobile and we had the comments of Rob Bushway about why he does not like the so called Microsoft Touch Experience.

But... Here is a bad news. I just found a comment at Origami Portal forum saying that the eo shipping will be delayed due to technical issues. This could explain why the Smart Caddie in Japan was not shipped the last April 14th how it was supposed, and instead of that many Japanese pages changed the Shipping Date to middle of May. So far I have not seen any official words about this topic coming from TabletKiosk. But I know for fact that if this is true many users will cancel their order and go for the Samsung if this one is shipped May 1st. Now that Samsungs advertisement campaign has started using Microsoft as allied TabletKiosk will be forced to do something to retain the market share won by promising to be the first in putting an UMPC in the market.

Update:


There is quite a lot of speculation going on right now about the launch date of eo, so I would like to address the issue directly.

We (TabletKiosk) are still targeting to ship eo by the end of April. However, please know that because this is our initial launch of an entirely new product, we are dealing with some unknown elements such as customs clearance time.

When the machines arrive from overseas, we are set up to conduct QA testing, install software and customize the BTO machines in our California warehouse. Its a very tight timeframe and there may be some unknowns ahead, however, our target ship date remains as originally announced.

Gail Levy
Director of Marketing
TabletKiosk

I love UMPC contest

MS Origami Team has a contest where the main prize is one of 5 Samsung Q1 with a Slingbox for streaming video. All you have to do to participate is to read the instructions here and write them why do you love UMPCs.

Martin J Smekal comments about GottaBeMobile Initial Thoughts

Taking in consideration how important is this information I'll post the whole comment here:

Hello Rob,

Great initial feedback, I also wanted to clarify a couple of quick points for reference –

#1 The preproduction unit you have I believe is a 512/40 model correct. The unit will have a 40GB 5400 RPM Drive installed.

#2 The production units will have the same 120 gram screen that you are currently testing with in the pre-production unit. We may offer the 80 gram screen as an option at a later time, however based on beta user testing we have chosen to go with the 120 gram screen initially.

#3 The system does not use the Via wireless chipset – we are using the Qcom chip set. You may be referring to the Via Wireless software manager. As another poster suggested, using the native Windows wireless network drivers may be more intuitive.

#4 The pre-production unit you have does not have it’s power management features implemented, and there are on-going bios modifications that will effect the battery performance in the production unit. However, this being said take into consideration this is a full X86 architecture system running full Windows XP operating system, while utilizing a three (3) cell battery. A standard Tablet PC or Laptop will have at least a six (6) cell battery to achieve 3.5 hours of battery life.

We are confident that with the Bios modifications and the VIA processor being stingy in power consumption, we will meet our claimed active computing time.

#5 The launch button for the Dial Keys is in the lower left hand side – you may have found this button is currently pointed to a non-existent location in the pre-production unit you have, this location will be mapped in the production units.

We look forward to seeing your complete review later in the week and addressing those items you see as shortfalls with our development team.

-M

Martin J. Smekal
TabletKiosk

I posted a comment here Yesterday about this unit not having the Power Managment software installed and that this could affect the battery life. In another hand, I had Yesterday, Rob Bushway here talking about his initial thoughts and this is what he says:

Martin Smekal just posted a comment on the article that there is not any power management software installed on this prototype - thus the bad battery life.

i'm quite familiar with pocket pcs and touch - having used them for many years now, so I'm not concerned with not getting "touch" - my main concern is that oveall lack of touch aspect to the overall experience - from system tray launches, to poorly designed forms within the program launcher itself. It just feels like once they got the initial program launcher designed, they left everything else behind.

I'm not oppossed to the UMPC at all - in fact now that Martin has said they will in fact now ship the eo with the 120 gram digitizer, I could be tempted to buy one - using touch, a stylus, fingernail, etc to navigate felt very freeing. I think I'd be happier with the LS800 at this point though. I will probably end up buying one for my kids - not sure when, though. I may give it a while for the wrinkles to get smoothed out, etc.

Well, the unfinish feeling is something that we normally get with all Microsoft products, thanks to that we have 1000 of patches for Windows, Office, etc. I hope that MS team take in consideration Rob comments and release a "patch" making the touch experience better.

Link to GottabeMobile Article.

UMPC Carry Case

This is the first company selling an UMPC Carry Case that I know of it. Price: 99 dollars. I pointed in this forum that there are a lot of very good cases for Portable DVD players that are prettier and cheaper like this one.

Stylus for Origamis

I find that the stylus included in Pocket PCs are far a way from being the best thing that you can hold in your hands and I do expect the same thing to happen with Origami devices. That's why I always use a Multi Pen like this one. Styluscentral.com is the best place to find what you need, they have solutions from a few dollars up to almost 100 dollars.

Smart Caddies Reviews in Japan

UMPC Buzz has published a list of links poiting to reviews of the first units that have been sold in Japan! You will need google translation tool to read all these reviews!

Update: The first batch have been sold in Japan in all stores. And sorry guys, but there is not any review yet for one of these units. All links are poiting to comments about Smart Caddie but no reviews yet.

Day 8 - Initial thoughts

Let's be realistics, there is not a perfect pc out there. If by reading all my posts you got the idea that you found the perfect UMPC let me tell you that you are absolutely wrong. So, lets talk about the negative points brought to the podium by Rob Bushway at GottaBeMobile.

• The Via wireless is a real pain to set up. This could be a problem with the LinkSys router. Sometimes using fixed IPs help. I can't understand what he means by VIA Wireless, but I think that he's talking about a program or tool provided by VIA to configure the WiFi. No having the unit in front of me, the only thing that I can do is to speculate, but probably the best thing to do in these cases is to use the XP Wireless Network Connections settings to deal with any problem.


• Initially, cpu performance was not good. But after a reboot, performance was pretty decent. What kind of HDD that unit is using? a 4800 RPM HDD? Could be that he is talking about the overall performance of the unit, not just about the processor. I don't see how a reboot can fix performance problems. When he says "Initially" what does he mean? The time between the first time he turned on the device and the time when he turn it back off?


• I'm getting 1 hour 40 minutes on the battery. Under what conditions? It's not any secret that battery life in this first generation sucks so be prepare to buy the extended battery.


• It gets very hot when connected to AC. The stylus is metal and it is too hot to hold when taking it out of the stylus holster. It is also pretty difficult to remove the stylus from the holster - there is nothing to grab a hold of to pull it out. I think that this point is relative with the process of charging the battery. About the stylus part we have to keep in mind that this unit has a touch screen that means that anything can serve as stylus and I said that because from my experience with the PPC world the stylus that comes with the devices are not good the majority of the time so I ended buying a multi purpose pen that includes an stylus.


• I'm disappointed in the whole touch experience. I think that once a person is used to a magnetic screen it will take time to get used to a touch screen. In another hand, may be got too much expectation for all the Microsoft Hype.


• The alternates / correction part of the TIP does not work well at all with the touch digitizer. I was asking myself about this part. Everything that is relative with Tablet PCs "hover capability" will not work well in UMPCs. This is something that MS needs to think about it implementing a solution. Of course that moving the mouse on top of an object could be a solution but no the best one when you are taking notes with your stylus.


• I’m getting some interference from my hand when inking in OneNote, Journal, and GoBinder when using the 120 gram digitizer. Again, it will take a little time to get used to touch screen, here Pocket PC users will have some advantage over those users with little experience with "touch screens".

Next Tuesday Rob will post a video review that I recommend everybody to watch. It seems to me that this video has all it's needed for an Oscar!

Rob Bushway's Initial Thoughts

Rob from GottaBeMobile has posted his initial thougths about the eo V7110. Keep in mind that he is talking about a prototype. Here is what he think about this device:

Overall – I think it will meet a market need, but I don’t think current tablet pc users who do a lot of inking will be very happy with the ink experience with 80 gram digitizers. I don’t see it replacing your current tablet pc if you do a lot of inking. If you don’t plan on using it to take a lot of handwritten notes, I believe it would make a very nice companion computer. My son’s advice on the video review is for parents to start saving. I will likely buy one for my son and daughter, but I don’t think I’ll buy one for myself.

Bad news from Japan

Yesterday I found that SmartCaddie.jp listed some online stores selling the Smart Caddie (the list can be seen at UMPC Buzz). I have been translating those pages from Japanese to English using Google and the bad news it that they are only taking preorders. They don't have it in stock. One of the stores says that they will start shipping them 05/07/2006; two weeks after the supposedly availability date of the eo V7110 here in USA.

I hope that we are not going to see any delays in TabletKiosk deliveries.

Day 9 - Nothing from Japan

I have not seen any news from Japan. My guess is that if the Smart Caddie was being sold only by online stores the first ones are going to be in the hands of their owners in a few days.

About Q1 presentation in Korea

According to The Korea Times Samsung presentation in Korea was everything but successful.

The new PC proved to be too revolutionary, enough to baffle the three firms' executive officers who publicly tried to demonstrate how to use it.

Samsung USA presentation

According to Beta News, Samsung will present the Q1 to American press in San Francisco next May 1st.

Tangerine eo V7110

It was mentioned for the first time at Uber Tablet by Hugo Ortega who found interesting the name of a jpg file posted by Dr Neil at his blog. I knew that I did see the picture of a tangerine eo in some where but I could not remember where. Today I found the picture.

Can you guess where I found the above picture of the Tangerine eo V7110? At Microsoft's MSDN!

Mugen Power?

I had the opportunity to review two batteries from this company: the 4500 mA Extended Battery for the hx4700 and the 2000 mA Extended Battery for h2210.

One of the things that I liked of these two batteries is that this company had the ability to make the smaller but at the same time powerful batteries for Pocket PC. So I wonder if they have in mind to create batteries for UMPCs. I checked their site I noticed that they are currently making batteries for Laptops so I don't see why no for UMPCs. Is anybody from Mugen Power out there to answer this question please?

Rob Bushway gets an eo this weekend

Rob Bushway from GottaBeMobile is getting an eo V7110 to review this weekend. Could he find something to tell us that we already do not know? Lets see.

Update: He read my mind:

Since I’m receiving the eo Origami / UMPC today, I need to get that review posted first. I have to return it by Thursday of next week. I’m planning to install GoBinder, OneNote 2007, and Outlook 2003. I’m also going to try to get Camtasia installed so I can do some actually InkShow stuff featuring the TouchPack and how the above apps run on the eo. I’ll do some comparisons between it and the LS800, as well as the all important inking functionality. I’ll give my honest opinions regarding potential use as a companion device for business notetaking purposes. I’ll be using it through the weekend, installing software, etc and plan on getting the video posted by Tuesday.

External DVD/CD Burner and Card Reader

With an UMPC you will need an external DVD/CD drive and if you can burn DVD/CD on it that's a lot better. But if on top of that you are getting a card reader that is compatible with CompactFlash, MicroDrive; SmartMedia, MultiMediaCard, SD Card and MemoryStick / Pro that just PERFECT! All that is included in just one device: the EZ PnP Portable Digital Storage DVD Burner, a perfect tool for your Origami.

What I specially like of this device is that it works on batteries so you don't need to carry the power supply everywhere.

Ink in IE

It seems to me that we are just a few steps away to being able to use ink in IE. Just check this link and this video and you will find out why I'm saying that.

_{Source: UMPC Buzz.}

Day 10 - Any News Japan?

Today is 14, does this ring the bell? Today the Smart Caddie should be in the hand of Japanese consumers! I'll be monitoring the web the whole day looking for news about this. Beenncchhmmaarrkkss!!!

Free Stuff from Microsoft

Yeap, that's what Dustin, member of Origami Team is promising in Origami Project Page.

We also will be running some promotions soon to keep the interest growing and give you a shot to win some free stuff, some very cool free stuff.

So, stay tuned. Do not change the channel! Put away your Remote Control!

Sling Media ready for UMPC!

That a great news coming from Paperback PC.

Sling Media currently offers a product called, oddly enough, SlingBox, which hooks into a cable box and television back at the user’s home. Using the Internet as its transmission medium, it then sends the television programming to the user’s computer, allowing them to watch television on any Internet-connected machine. SlingBox comes bundled with Sling Media’s special media player, called SlingPlayer. In addition to playing back stored television video, SlingPlayer comes with several handy features integrated right in: SlingStream, which allows the user to stream their video over the web without having to worry about image distortion or static, resulting in vastly improved image quality. SlingRemote is a built-in remote control that mimics its real-life brethren, allowing the user to perform operations such as channel changing or recording television via a DVR. Finally, version 1.0.5 adds support for multiple devices, an improved SlingStream algorithm, manual audio and video controls, and new remote control support.

And SlingPlayer has been adapted now to be used in UMPCs. Check the video if you want to see it in action.

Q1 vs eo

I came across the following comment at Origami Project forum:

Why is it that the eo can be configured up to 1gb of ram and a huge harddrive (relatively speaking) while the Q1 currently is currently maxed out at 512 and 40? The dual speakers and mikes on the Q1 are nice but the ram and harddrive gap is just too huge. With the eo you can get double the specs of the Q1. Seems like a no brainer to me.

And here what I said there:

May be the answer lays behind what is called Tech Support. Samsung just does not have tech support or any infrastructure ready in USA to stay behind UMPCs while TabletKiosk have been established in USA selling Tablet PCs long enough.

With Samsung all tech support that you are going to get is a guy reading from script while with TabletKiosk you are going to get a guy who knows about Tablet PCs because he owns one!


Got my point?

eo sould out in USA!

Wow! Yes, we got the news from UMPC Buzz a few minutes ago.

This is why I do not believe those so-called "financial reports". Neither I believe in those so-called "magazine experts". They have demonstrated me the majority of the time to do know what they are talking about. The market for UMPC is there. All you need to do to see it is to go to a PPC forum. People asking for PPT viewers, for multimedia players, for applications running faster and faster, for more screen resolution (VGA), for screen rotation capability, for many many applications that are easier to develop for PCs than for PPCs. That tells me just one thing, PPCs are not what people are expecting, they want just a small PC that could do everything they do in their main PCs and PPCs can't do that. Yes, they have already many of the programs in PPCs that were developed before just for PCs but that's no enough if you compare the 50000 programs available for PPCs to millions and millions of programs available for PCs.

If you check a poll published in one of the blogs asking to potential UMPC buyers what kind of device they own the answer with more hits was PPCs. This fact is what all those called experts failed to see! The market is there waiting for Conqueror!

Day 11 - Hello Japan!

All your unanswered questions about the TabletKiosk eo V7110 are going to be answered in just a few hours when Smart Caddie hit the Japanese streets! Benchmarks! Yeah Benchmarks! What a lucky guys! We here in USA still have 11 days to go! And according to all press releases, Samsung Q1 should be launched to the market next May 1st, so... that makes 17 days to go for those of you waiting for the Sens Q1. What a name!

UMPCs are destined to fail?

Who says that?! If you are one of those who think in that way then you should check this link. The first batch of UMPCs are sold out in Australia and second allocation is now ON SALE and due for delivery on the 19th of May 2006.

_{Source: Uber Tablet Blog.}

250 million worth of licenses

Founder Technology Group Corp. signed an agreement today with Microsoft Corp. to buy $250 million worth of licenses for a Chinese version of Windows according to news posted at news.yahoo.com.

Founder presented to the public an Origami running Windows XP Tablet PC Edition a few weeks ago.

The eo V7110 in Hospitals

If you are asking yourself how the eo V7110 from TabletKiosk can be used in business environment then you should click here and read this article that narrates how the eo was used for charting in an EMR.

I have been repeating this from the day one, the Origamis were created thinking about Doctors working in Hospitals.

_{Source: Tablet PC Talk.}

Sens Q1 = Samsung Q1

Samsung Electronics, Microsoft Korea and Intel Korea will launch the next May 1st the Sens Q1 Origami, according to news published at Tablet PC Talk.

Sens Q1 sports 7-inch wide flat screen, Intel's new 900Mhz microprocessor, 40GB hard disk drive, 512Mb memory, wireless LAN, Bluetooth connection and other multimedia features like digital multimedia broadcasting, while weighing just 777 grams.

Is the UMPC idea a failure?

It does not seem to me that it's a failure when you look at this poll that I posted a few weeks ago.

UMPC Like Device

Avaratec will release an UMPC like device soon according to I4U News.

The Averatec AHI has a 5 inch SXGA TFT display, 30GB HDD and runs Windows XP Home SP2 on an Intel Celeron M CPU. Measurements are 186x90x33mm. The weight is 730g. This Windows XP PDA features a slider design revealing a keyboard.

Samsung UMPC with a VIA processor

According to UMPCBuzz, Samsung is thinking about an UMPC with a VIA processor and a price tag of 700 dollars!

Hardware is not one of my favorite topics but I wonder, is not the VIA processor using the same socket than the Pentium M and Intel Celeron M? My guess is that I'll have to investigate today this point. Of course, this is a very good move from Samsung but please don't let you fool with this low price tag, 700 dollars will be the starting price for a machine with probably 256 MB of RAM and 20/4800 RPM HDD and when you add to this more memory and a bigger and faster HDD you will end paying something close to 1000 dollars. Obviously, 1000 dollars is better than the 1300 dollars that TabletKiosk is charging for 1 GB/40GB-7200 RPM but my guess is that in about 6 months TabletKiosk wont be able to hold any more current prices and will have to low them down for something more appealing.

Day 12 - Which UMPC you like the most?

That's a good question! As you have noticed already, I like polls. That's the reason why I have chosen this news to start day 12 of our wait. OnlyUMPC.com has posted a poll asking this question. And guess who is the winner so far? TableKiosk eo V7110!

This reminds me about my poll "Who has a better marketing campaign?" where TabletKiosk again is heading the competition.

OrigamiCar tested in a real UMPC

And what is OrigamiCar? OrigamiCar is a touchscreen application specifically tailored for playing music on your Ultra Mobile PC and has been designed to be easy to use, even when driving.

Can you guess in what Prototype this nice tool was tested? In an eo V7110 from TabletKiosk.

More about performance

VIA Arena published an article about what should be taking in consideration when you are buying a laptop. I know that if you are here the less thing you want to do is to buy a laptop but if I'm recommending that article is because what you are going to learn from it will help you a lot deciding what UMPC to buy or how to customize your UMPC to make it faster.

A VIA Antaur 1GHz based system will not operate office applications any noticeably slower than a 3GHz P4 based system because of the CPU. It is the HDD and memory speed that is absolutely crucial. Many people are under the impression that Windows and applications will load faster if they have a faster CPU. Most CPUs are sitting there twiddling their thumbs with only 2% utilization waiting for HDDs to load. Even whilst unzipping zip files, CPU utilization doesn't go above 25% - because the system is waiting on the HDD, not the CPU. So will a faster CPU help Outlook load faster - nope. It's all about the HDD. When multi-tasking, will a faster CPU help you run more programs? Not if you have slow or a small amount of RAM.

Performance Bechmark of VIA C7-M

Checking VIA Arena web site I found benchmarks comparing the VIA C7-M with a Pentium M and an Intel Celeron M.

A closer look reveals that the C7-M ULV puts in a pretty good showing against the Pentium-M which is one of the best performing CPUs in the world at any given clock speed. In fact, on a clock normal basis, the Pentium-M trails only the AMD Athlon 64. AMD's Athlon 64 X2 processors are currently the acme of OpenSourceMark performance.

However, it is very important to see how the results break out. Looking at the Performance Vector results, the C7-M ULV processor’s dominance in the security tests is impressive. Importantly, the C7-M ULV is also not too far behind the Pentium-M and Celeron-M in responsiveness.

This agrees with our experience gained from using the TwinHead E12BL: it was impossible to tell which of the three processors was in the notebook while performing our normal day-to-day chores. The biggest tip-off occurred when using the Celeron-M: the notebook was much warmer and the fan ran nearly constantly.

Battery Life with VIA processors.

Carrypad has found a nice article about the battery life in the VIA C7-M processor.

The C7-M ULV, under worst case power conditions has much better battery life than the Celeron-M under best case power conditions

Wow!

Looking for a keyboard?

If you just have bought an Ultra Mobile PC that means that you like mobility, so, why are you going to buy an USB keyboard when you can go fully mobile using the Stowaway Universal Bluetooth Keyboard. If you are going mobile why to buy a full size keyboard if you can buy something small like the Stowaway Keyboard!

Day 13 - an eo V7110 free???!!!!

Yes, we have started the day with an announcement saying how you can win a TabletKiosk eo V7110 paying nothing!

Win a eo V7110

Mission Viejo, CA (PRWEB) April 11, 2006 -- TabletGear.com, LLC announced today that they are giving a way a brand new TabletKiosk eo UMPC v7110 256/30 to one lucky user that registers at TabletGear.com by June 1, 2006. The giveaway is designed to celebrate the launch of their new web site dedicated to Tablet PC users and enthusiasts. The website http://www.tabletgear.com, will include news, information, and forums of interest to Tablet PC users, developers, and vendors. TabletGear.com will later include software, accessories, and hardware relevant to Tablet PC users. TabletGear.com also plans to offer distribution and payment processing services for smaller software vendors, and shareware authors.

“TabletGear.com is very excited about the opportunities that this technology affords business, as well consumers and students alike,” said Scott Watson, President of TabletGear.com, LLC.

“The TabletKiosk eo UMPC is a great little gadget and the first UMPC to hit the market,” said Scott Watson.

About TabletGear.com, LLC

TabletGear.com was created to serve the Tablet PC community with news, community forums, reviews, software, and accessories. In addition to our presence on the World Wide Web, TabletGear.com also provides consulting services to companies in the healthcare, and education fields, as well as corporate clients. Additional information is available at http://www.tabletgear.com, or by calling (949) 273-4558.

eo V7110 video in Orlando Florida

Another eo V7110 caught on tape!

_{Source: Origami Blog}

Why I preordered a TabletKiosk eo V7110?

Lets start saying that I want a Tablet PC with a price of a laptop or less and smaller than a laptop or a Tablet PC. When Microsoft said that UMPCs would have a price tag of 500 dollars my first reaction was that's too good to be true. Just think about it, HP is selling a Pocket PC, the hx4700, for around 600 dollars. So there is no way that a company will sell a UMPC for less than 600 dollars. I was always sure that at least in this first generation the price was going to be around the 1000 dollars and since I saw the pictures of the first two origamis, the Samsung Q1 and the Asus, I knew that that was what I was looking for: something in between a Pocket PC and a Laptop, but with the same capabilities than a laptop.

Both the Asus and the Samsung use Intel Celeron processors at 900 MHz. That was something that I did not like from these two. The Intel Celeron processor does not have stepping and it's less powerful than a Pentium. When the TabletKiosk Origami specification was released the first thing that I noticed was that this one uses a VIA processor at 1 GHz. VIA did not have too good reputation in the pass but lately I have been reading a lot of good words about their mobile series of processors. And Via processors has stepping so that could result in a better battery life. Another point that I liked was the position of the battery. Having the battery located in the top seemed to me a good chance for bigger extended batteries.

Taking in consideration all this, I preordered one with 1 GB of RAM and 40 GB/5400 RPM HDD. Later, after investigating the impact that more RPM could have in the battery life and having concluded that the Hitachi 7200 RPM HDD does not consume more power than the 4800 or 5400 RPM, I changed my order to include a 7200 RPM, 40 GB HDD. Total Cost: $1,363.00


I'm ending paying for my companion PC the same amount that I paid for my main PC, a Compaq nx9010, P4 at 3 GHz with 1 GB of RAM and a 4800 RPM/40 GB HDD. Then why I decided to pay that for the companion? Because my laptop weigh 7 pound and my Pocket PC does not run Visual Studio 2005. Of course that I would be happier if I could buy the eo for less than 1000 dollars. But the eo V7110 with 256 of RAM and 40 GB/4800 RPM HDD is just a joke. 256 MB of RAM is not enough for Windows XP. A computer with that XP and that amount of RAM will end accessing for long period of times the Hard Drive and with a Hard Drive at 4800 RPM the whole performance will be a disaster. So for me to order 1 GB of RAM was a MUST DO and the 4800 RPM HDD was out of the question too from the beginning. I won't buy any mobile device to run XP with less than 1 GB of RAM and a HDD spinning less than 5400 RPM.

Is there anything better or closer to the eo V7110/1 GB RAM/40 GB 7200 RPM HDD in the market? No, for the closer thing that you will find in the market you will end paying at least 300 dollars more and it will be a less powerful device:

• LifeBook P1510D - 1.2 GHz Pentium - 512 MB of RAM and 30 GB/4200 RPM HDD. Price: $1549. If you change the configuration to 1 GB of RAM and 40/7200 HDD you will end easily paying $1800 dollars. Without this changes, sorry, but this machine will perform worse that my preordered eo.


• OQO - 1 GHz processor, 30GB HD, 512MB RAM. Price: $2099 dollars if you include XP Tablet PC Edition. This is just crazy. Technically this device performs a lot worse than the eo V7110 in the way I preordered (1 GB of RAM, 40 GB/7200 RPM) and I'm paying 700 dollar less for the eo!


• Motion LS800 - Intel Pentium® M Processor ULV 753 (1.20GHz), 256MB RAM, 20GB HDD - Price: $1699. Once again, this Pentium 1.2 GHz/256 MB of RAM will not perform better than a device with 1 GB of RAM and a 40 GB/7200 RPM HDD. I read in somewhere somebody saying that there is not way to compare a touch screen with the magnetic screen included in the Motion LS800, I agree. But… sorry, that reason is not powerful enough for me to pay 2000 dollars for the LS800 if I want it with 1 GB of RAM and 40/7200 RPM HDD. And besides that... I'm an experienced Pocket PC owner.

Could I buy a Tablet PC with 1300 dollars as powerful as the eo that I preordered? May be, but it's going to be a bigger and heavier Tablet PC and I want something no heavier than 2.2 pounds. Something small and easy to carry. Sorry, but out there does not exist such Tablet PC yet, and when they are small they end with a price tag from 1600 to 2000 dollars.


That's why I ended buying the TabletKiosk eo V7110 with 1 GB of RAM and a 40 GB/7200 RPM HDD, because out there you wont find a better deal.

USB Modem

Looking for an USB Modem for your TabletKiosk eo V7110? The MOTION COMPUTING USB Modem for Select Motion LE-Series Tablet PCs is one of the best currently in the market. It's small and you don't need to carry any power supply!

And for less than 40 dollars!

7200 RPM = Less Battery Life, a myth?

According to Hitachi: The latest generation notebooks with 7200 RPM drives can now offer true desktop performance. With continued improvements in mobile disk drive designs, and the adoption of new technologies such as the femto slider, it is possible to improve the performance of the drive without sacrificing battery life.

Increasing the spindle speed to 7200 RPM, assuming BPI is held constant, will improve the data rate by 71% over 4200 RPM drives and 33% over 5400 RPM drives. Latency will be improved by 42% and 25% respectively.

About Power consumption Hitachi says:

A new technology that has been adopted in Hitachi’s 7200 RPM Travelstar drive that will assist in minimizing power usage is the femto slider technology. Current hard disk drives employ the pico slider. The Hitachi 7200 RPM Travelstar drive will be the first mobile product to adopt this latest technology.
The femto slider reduces linear dimensions of the pico slider by 30% and mass by 63%. As a result of this new technology, there is reduced power consumption and improved shock performance.
The improved power consumption as a result of the femto slider and other improvements translates to power metrics of the 7200 RPM platform that has power parity to the Travelstar 5400 RPM platform. This results in no increase in power consumption normally associated with increases in spindle RPM.

You can read more info here.

I still looking for more information about 7200 RPM HDD using more power than 5400 RPM but so far it seems to me that this could be just a myth.

Update: I just received a confirmation email, the 7200 RPM HDD at TabletKiosk customization page are from Hitachi. So, you wont see any extra power consumption if you change the default HDD by one of this!

Day 14 - Nobody likes the white one?

I received today the Update - 6 from ALLTP. I could not believe when I read what they were saying there. They have received a large amount of preorders for the black eo V7110 but no even one order for the white one. I should be sick then because that's the one I like most.

Universal Car Charger

Looking for a car charger for your eo V7110? Here is a 70 W Universal car charger at a very cheap price.

Extend your battery life

Here is a solution that will help you to extend two times the battery life of the eo V7110: PM-118 External Battery.

_{Source: UMPC Buzz Forum.}

Screen protection

One of my major concerns with the eo V7110 is the screen protection. I always have been using my Pocket PCs with screen protectors made by Boxwave and this has helped me to sell my old Pocket PCs at ebay for a higher price. They do no have yet any screen protector for UMPC devices but one of the things that we can do is to fill their request product form showing in this way our interest for such product.

I would recommend to mark the checkboxes for:

• ClearTouch Anti-Glare


• ClearTouch Crystal

Here is more information about these two products. And do not forget to paste this link in the product field of the request form:

http://www.tabletkiosk.com/config/pc/configurePrd.asp?idproduct=135

Conclusive material about CeBIT 2006

The Russian web site Mobile Review has published what they have called "Conclusive Material about CeBit 2006". But don't let be fooled, if I'm posting about it here is because it's all about Origami Project.

Upgrading the HDD will void your warranty?

According to this post from Origami Project could be that TabletKiosk statement about upgrades could be wrong:

Understandably, they want to discourage people from doing work on their own UMPC's because at the least, they don't want you to inadvertantly break it for your own sake, and at the most they want to sell you their own products for a much higher price than someone can get it out on the free market. There's a thread here in the forum that clarifies why I think that statement is false. Toshiba, on their support site, although not specifically quoted, respect this law as seen here on their upgrade site. Here is an excerpt:

The computer's warranty:

The computer's warranty will not ordinarily be voided by the upgrade or replacement of the hard disk drive, unless it is clear that the drive itself -- or the installation of it -- has been the cause of damage to the computer. The computer's warranty may be voided if the drive is not installed properly, and any damage to the computer occurs during the installation or use of the new drive. To protect yourself from these risks, make arrangements with a Toshiba Premier Authorized Service Provider to replace or upgrade your hard disk drive.

As you can see, US law will not allow them to void your warranty on a consumer product if you add after market items to it and you do no damage to the unit itself. HOWEVER, and a big one, if the part is defective and does damage to your unit, then it WILL void your warranty, or if you damage while in the process of the upgrade, then YES it does void the warranty as well, but to say that removing it and doing any upgrade work at all yourself is false.

So, basically what this guy is saying that the USA law protects you in this case as long as you do not break your eo V7110 in the process of upgrading it or as a result of the upgrade. I hope that a lawyer is reading these lines and could clarify this a little more.

Day 15 - We are closer

This blog has become a dairy and all because of the eo V7110!

Yesterday was a better day:

• We got Microsoft Origami Team involved in the "Screen Rotation Issue". We know now that VIA did not include screen rotation support to the drivers installed in the eo V7110 and in the latest driver released for the VN800 chip. I sent and email to VIA support asking for an explanation to this taking in consideration that they mention screen rotation support as one of the feature of the VN800 chip here.


• TabletKiosk will ship the eo V7110 with Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition O/S, Origami Touch-Kit, Experience Pack, Education Pack and MS OneNote (full copy). This is real very good news. A Tablet PC without MS OneNote is like having a PC without a mouse, it will work but you are missing part of the functionality of it. Also, a recovery CD pack will ship with each unit - no recovery on the disk. Another good news, that will give more flexibility to those thinking on installing Linux or to those that want to void the warranty installing a new bigger HDD.


• And the last good news that we found Yesterday is that VIA C7-M Processor supports Vista. Of course, this does not mean anything if TabletKiosk does not offer the Vista Upgrade to eo owners when it become available in 2007. But despite that, it's good news.

Lets see what bring us day 15.

Via supports Vista!

In a continuing effort to ensure premium support for future technologies, VIA has been working closely with Microsoft to develop key system hardware components for Microsoft's next generation operating system, the Windows Vista operating system (former codename Longhorn). VIA provides different product lines that include Processors and Integrated Graphics Processor (IGP) Chipsets to support Windows Vista enhanced graphics requirements. VIA is also working closely with S3 Graphics supporting their leading line of Windows Vista compatible Graphics Processing Units (GPU).

This information is intended to assist customers in their planning for hardware deployments supporting the Windows Vista operating system, and will be updated on a timely basis to ensure accuracy.

Windows Vista Capable VIA Processors

• VIA C7 Processor


• VIA C7-M Processor


• VIA Eden Processors

Now the question is... will TabletKiosk provide a way to eo V7110 owners to update their devices to Vista when it comes out in 2007? Do not forget that XP Tablet PC Edition is not for sale in any where so owners of eo V7110 will depend completely on what TabletKiosk decides to do with Vista Update.

_{Sources: VIA, Origami Project Forum.}

Few answers from UMPC Buzz about the eo V7110

UMPC Buzz has posted some answers to some of the questions about the eo V7110. Let me post here 3 important points that they are mentioning there:

• The back of the case must be removed to address the memory and HDD, therefore this will have to be done at an authorized service center or the warranty on the system will be Void.


• The unit will ship with Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition O/S, Origami Touch-Kit, Experience Pack, Education Pack and MS OneNote (full copy)


• A recovery CD pack will ship with each unit - no recovery on the disk.

The fact that TabletKiosk is sending the unit with the Experience and Education pack and on top of it with a full copy of MS OneNote is a big big PLUS! Bravo TabletKiosk, this is a really good news to celebrate!

New eo V7110 Demo

Seems to me that TabletKiosk guys are busy doing demonstrations everywhere! This time it was at Orange County Mobile Users Group where Chris de Herrera from Tablet PC Talk caught it on tape.

Day 16 - Bad day Yesterday

Yesterday with the help of the author of the program iRotate and from Sears, member of Origami team, we found that the video driver installed in the eo V7110 and the last one released by VIA does not support screen rotation. So the only thing that we can do is wait...

did you preorder an eo?

According to some numbers that customers of TabletKiosk have posted in this thread at Origami Project site, it seems that they have received more than 100 orders for this new baby. Taking in consideration the level of advertising that they have this is not a bad number at all.

Screen Rotation possible solution

Somebody at JKonTheRun has pointed us to a possible solution for screen rotation called iRotate. I tested in my desktop pc and it seems to me that this could be what we are looking for. This program supports many video cards and it's very small, less than 100 Kb.

Update: Tested in this tool does not work in an Origami device. I'll contact the author and point him to this post to see what he says about it.

Do you want benchmarks?

Talking about benchmarks, somebody has pointed us to a review of the Sony VGN-U50 that has some benchmarks results including games. The VGN-U50 is not an Origami but it's the closer thing you can find out there to an Origami: It use a 900 MHz Intel Celeron, 256 MB of RAM (8 MB used for video) and 800x600 screen resolution. Of course benchmarks results depend on many other factor but hey... something is better than nothing and like I said, this is the closer device that you can get out there to an Origami configuration.

From that review I'm copying here some numbers that I want to have as a reference or comparison point with the eo V7110 when I get mine checked.

"PC Mark 2004... Final CPU score was 1702, Memory score was 1572 and HDD score was 1749, with a final score of 1554 PC Marks."

"For graphics...3D Mark 2001 and got a decent score of 2054."

"In demo mode, Aquamark v3 was slight more choppy than 3D Mark tests. Things ran fine on scenes without many particles, but the moment there was a large bit of rendering to do with many particles, things got a little sluggish. Most effects ran fine (lighting, fog, etc). In benchmark mode,... 800x600x16 with antialiasing and anisotropic off and set detail level to very low. This gave .. a 12.58fps."

Day 17 - April 24 is getting closer

Yesterday JKonTheRun published his Video-Review of the eo v7110. It's a good review, he shows and gives his opinion about the how the different screen resolutions work and he shows how the palm of your hand on top of the screen while you are writing does not interfere with this process at all. I have read some comments of people saying that these reviews really do not show anything new, do not show any benchmark results, etc. I think that they are right but they are missing some points. First of all, these reviews are done using prototypes so the results could be different to what you will see in the final product and Second of all, these machines has been provided by an OEM under some NDA and even if this NDA does not exist I doubt that anybody will risk the option of getting more cool stuff to test saying anything bad about the prototype.

if you want benchmarks you will have to wait at least until April 14 when the Smart Caddie hits the streets of Japan.

What video chip use the eo V7110

That question was asked to James at JKonTheRun and this is what he said about it:

I didn't get a chance to try any real games on the eo since I didn't have it long enough. But, according to the display properties the Via graphics had 32 MB of memory (Via S3G UniChrome Pro IGP w/32 MB) which is not enough for serious gaming anyway.

eo V7110 video review at JKonTheRun

JKonTheRun has posted just a few minutes ago a very nice video-review of the TabletKiosk eo V7110.

Talking about the eo leaked manual

UMPC Buzz is confirming something that was to expect, the eo manual leaked is old and TabletKiosk is working in an updated version. One of the things that probably will be changed is the Screen Orientation part of it. Something that I don't see why. If the drivers support that part is up to the users if they want to use this feature or not.