UMPCs

If you're not making a cheap and tiny laptop to compete with the Asus Eee PC, what are you doing? Hewlett Packard's forthcoming mininotebook will use Via processors (not Isiah, however) and start at $549, according to a spec sheet that Engadget got its hands on. The entry-level HP 2133 Mini-Note PC will use Linux (SuSE Enterprise) and have a 1.2GHz Via C7-M processor, 1GB of RAM, a 120GB hard drive, a 3-cell battery, and a 8.9-inch screen with a 1280x768 resolution. Another $50 nets you the same configuration with Windows Vista Home Basic. A $749 … Read more

An easier way to describe the HDPC (Hybrid Dual Portable Computer) is to list the things it won't do.

That basically includes writing my blog posts and going through mounds of e-mail and auto-deleting the stuff I don't want. Otherwise, the HDPC from Korean manufacturer MIU does almost everything I want to do during the day.

The list of its purported functions: Internet phone, MP3 player, UMPC, digital camera, voice recorder, e-book reader, Wi-Fi, navigation, camcorder, and portable video game player. It also runs dual operating systems: Windows XP or Windows CE 5.0 and Linux QPlus. The … Read more

Before the Intel Atom processor, there was the A110. This chip spawned the 2007 UMPC (Ultramobile PC) category which in turn spawned some unsightly designs.

The Intel A110 and its lower-performance sibling the A100 were launched in 2007 with the intention of jump-starting the UMPC market. But that market stalled. Intel is still promoting the UMPC as a broad, somewhat amorphous category for business, while pushing the Mobile Internet Device, or MID, for fit-in-your-pocket consumer-centric designs and the Netbook for small, inexpensive, Internet-centric notebook form factors (both of which, as I will discuss below, have a better chance of success).… Read more

Amazon is quickly joining the FCC and U.S. Patent Office as a source for tech product leaks. Case in point: This morning the long-awaited HTC Shift showed up for preorder on the retail site, spoiling the company's plans to officially release the product Monday.

The device itself defies easy categorization; it could be described as either a larger OQO Model 02 or as a Samsung Q1 Ultra with a keyboard. Essentially, the HTC Shift is a small Vista tablet with built-in CDMA connectivity. About the size of a DVD case (though a tad thicker), the Shift weighs just … Read more

It looks like a new ultra-mobile PC brand will soon be coming to Asia. When CNET Asia spoke to Singapore-headquartered MWg (formerly O2 Asia) during the Atom V launch in the island state yesterday, Vice President Sanjay Sabnini revealed in an aside to us that the company plans to bring in more "IT-connected devices" before the end of this year. Three to six products are expected to be unveiled, among them PDA-phones, smart phones and, yes, UMPCs.

It's been awhile since we've seen a new smartphone coming out of O2, so it'll be interesting to … Read more

If the sudden rush into subnotebooks by major PC vendors is any indication, it's worth considering whether Palm's Foleo wasn't such a lame idea.

Photos of a subnotebook from Hewlett-Packard, reportedly called the HP Compaq 2133, showed up on the Web recently. And another major PC vendor, Acer, is also rumored to be entering the subnotebook fray sometime soon. Neither company will confirm anything, but in the case of the HP Compaq device, an industry insider tells us the product is for real and that the company began seriously looking into the category in November 2007. When … Read more

At its starting price of $1,999, the Vulcan FlipStart was egregiously overpriced when we reviewed it last spring. A $500 price cut last fall failed to impress, so yesterday Paul Allen and company lopped more than half off the price, lowering it to $699.

Tell me, are you more likely to consider a UMPC (FlipStart or otherwise) for $699 or do you feel that still too much to pay?

Coincidentally, I'll be posting a full review of the Wibrain B1 later today (covered previously on Crave here and here), which is the cheapest UMPC I've seen--priced at, … Read more

We're always interested to see what's coming up for ultramobile PCs, the handheld platform better known as UMPC. We've seen previous iterations from the Sony UX to the OQO model 02, to the Vulcan Flipstart, but none have totally scratched our ultramobile itch, because of awkward interfaces, poor battery life, or underpowered processors.

Toshiba is showing off a new UMPC at CES, and while it doesn't yet have a name or release date, it incorporates a number of new features that move the category forward--but it's clearly still not "the one."

The Toshiba … Read more

Samsung's 2-pound entry into the ultramobile PC category has some faster hardware in the form of a 1.33GHz Intel ultra-low voltage Core Solo U1500 processor.

The Korean electronics giant introduced the Q1 Ultra Premium UMPC on Monday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The system still splits the QWERTY keyboard onto separate sides of the 7-inch, 1024x600 touch screen, but the keyboard keys now are larger for easier typing, Samsung said.

The model's predecessor, the Q1 Ultra introduced last May, used Intel's earlier-generation 800MHz Ultra Mobile Processor.

The Q1 Ultra Premium costs $1,399, … Read more