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.