umpc

OQO gets a second chance

Last year's OQO ultramobile PC (or UMPC) was a great-looking, high-concept piece of equipment that was perhaps a little ahead of its time. Poor battery life and anemic performance kept the palm-sized PC from capitalizing on the system's initial buzz.

The eagerly expected follow-up, the OQO model 02, keeps the original's sliding screen design but adds upgraded specs; a new, ergonomic, backlit keyboard; and options for every flavor of wireless connectivity out there.

The OQO2 uses a VIA processor, up to 1.5GHz, and can hold up to 60GB of data on its shock-mounted hard drive, along … Read more

Sony's flash memory-based UMPC comes stateside

Not exactly new, but perhaps new to you: Sony's VAIO UX ultramobile PC garnered a lot of attention last year for its cool palm-size design, but even though it contained a fully fledged Intel Core Solo CPU and ran Windows XP, it fell somewhat short as a usable mobile computer.

The latest update, which sounds very promising, is the UX Premium Micro PC. This version has a 32GB solid state hard drive, which means no moving parts, better battery life, less heat, and faster access to your data (or at least 32GB worth of your data).

Flash memory-based hard … Read more

Third-wheel Via to target ultramobile PCs

Via sits a distant third behind Intel and AMD in the battle for CPU supremacy, but the Taiwanese company has found success over the years by finding niches for its products, from placing its C3 processors in thin clients and other low-power applications to building chipsets that supported SDRAM back in the Pentium III era, when Intel made the mistake of pushing RAMBUS memory exclusively. According to DigiTimes, Via is restructuring in order to put an increased focus on ultramobile PCs, believing that these UMPCs are a) poised to take off next year and b) the perfect platform for its … Read more

Fujitsu's mini-laptop folds away

Computer and electronics makers seem determined to force their products to fold up, even it it means creating the high-tech equivalent of a genetic mutant. Fujitsu is no exception, and it has a folding mini-laptop that's getting a lot of exposure--even though it has yet to leave its mad scientist's laboratory.

T3 recently got a first-hand look at the laptop and even managed to shoot some video, which is making the rounds on YouTube (see below). It seems to have been love at first sight for the U.K. magazine: "Toting extra keys inside for gaming, the … Read more

A fabric keyboard? Sure, why not

The idea of a fabric keyboard sounded kind of nutty to us until we saw the photos of this one on Engadget. jkOnTheRun reports that Glen Evans of PocketPC Solutions has tried out this working model from Eleksen, which doubles as protective case, and found it "very usable on a daily basis"--despite its decidedly weird look. It's not that we have anything against this concept, but what's with that electric lime color?

(Photo: jkOnTheRun)