oqo

Viliv S5: Are UMPCs lost between Netbooks and smartphones?

Ultramobile PCs have always found themselves to be the tweeners of the mobile world: too large to be easily pocket-size, yet too small to be usable as full-fledged computers. While the landscape just a few years ago was marked with products ranging from Samsung's Q1 to the OQO, often costing way too much money, now cheaper smartphones and Netbooks have crowded in on either side with portable power to spare.

The Viliv S5, currently an import-only product, returns to the scene of the crime with a lower-cost Atom-based touch-screen device that runs full Windows XP, has Bluetooth and GPS … Read more

The mobile Internet device: In search of itself

I suppose if I were just in search of controversy, I'd write a post to proclaim the death of the MID (mobile Internet device) category. My obituary for the Netbook earlier this week generated a ton of traffic; I suppose I could do that again. Certainly, the concept of a MID--a device midway in size and capability between smartphones and the smallest notebooks--is under tremendous pressure from both sides.

Customers have learned that with a well-engineered browser, the small displays on phones such as Apple's iPhone and T-Mobile's G1 "Google phone" are sufficient for most … Read more

The largest and smallest Mac clones around

Mac clones large and small are popping up all over the place these days.

Psystar has managed to get past a tumultuous week earlier this month to get Open Computers into the hands of its customers. The Open Computer is being sold with Mac OS X Leopard as a preinstalled option for Psystar's customers, in what is expected to at some point draw some legal attention from Apple.

Check out this video on Gizmodo of the Open Computer, which sounds like an airplane taking off, in all its glory. I ordered a unit two weeks ago that was supposed … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 713: Chore Wars--The Cleanening

There can be only one (see Highlander II, you n00bs) MMORPG that makes you clean your room. And we have found it. Chore Wars. Also, iPhone comes to Canada and we go green: new Prius talk, disappearing ink to save on energy and people, and how to stop buying CDs (uh, once the labels get on board). Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 713

XP SP3 is out today! (oh wait… never mind)

iPhone coming to Canada http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9931208-7.html

Psystar in the wild http://gizmodo.com/384526/exclusive-video-psystar-in-the-wild

OQO hacked to run Leopard, now world’… Read more

Will the Eee spell disaster for the Oqo?

The Oqo was novel when the company first debuted: a small, ultra portable PC weighing 1 pound with slide-out QWERTY keyboard. But that was eight years ago.

The San Francisco Chronicle has a little feature Monday on the latest model ("latest" being relative since it actually launched in March of last year), in which it describes how the Oqo is being forced to "defend its niche" against the rise of the mini-notebook from the likes of Asus and Hewlett-Packard. The company cut the price, added Microsoft Vista, and bumped up the storage in September. The Oqo … Read more

Faster x86 chip for small notebooks coming

Via Technologies is shipping samples of the new Isaiah processor targeted at low-cost compact computers.

Via's current C7 processor is already used by Everex in its CloudBook, by OQO in the Model 02, and by Hewlett-Packard in thin-client computers and in certain models that the computer maker sells in China. Both the C7 and Isaiah are x86-compatible processors, meaning they can run the same software that Intel amd AMD chips do.

Samples of the Isaiah-architecture-based x86 chips are now being shipped "aggressively" to customers with a release timeframe of May-June, said Glenn Henry, CEO of Centaur Technology, … Read more

MacBook Air puzzles TSA, what might be next?

It's just way too easy to pile on the Transportation Security Administration.

Sure, they've got a blog and all, but the TSA is not high on business travelers' lists of efficient, tech-savvy organizations. That's not going to change with the revelation that the TSA detained a new MacBook Air customer because they couldn't figure out what type of unusual laptop-like device he was carrying.

Michael Nygard related the tale on his blog last week, explaining how gate agents were flummoxed when the X-ray machine couldn't find the hard drive. A younger member of the TSA … Read more

What to do with an OQO

Hey, look, someone found an interesting use for an OQO!

My helpful colleague Stephen Shankland brought this to my attention. In place of a separate laptop, this camera back from Megavision comes with a built-in UMPC from OQO to operate the image sensor, and review and store photos.

Now, this product is definitely not for the casual photog, and neither is the price. (It's not listed, but is probably upward of $10,000.) But it is a creative use for the category of tiny mobile PCs that most consumers have shunned thus far.

Actually, Megavision, makes a variety of … Read more

FlipStart gets price cut

Note: This blog has been corrected to reflect the new price of the OQO Model 02.

I wonder if it's OK to feel bad for UMPCs. They're cute, cuddly (OK, maybe not) and perhaps even useful, but unfortunately, not very practical. The PC industry wants us to buy them, but very few of us are biting so far. Part of the problem is how expensive they are--more than twice the price of the cheapest notebook--which is why the price drop of the FlipStart is fairly good news.

Not great news, though. Chopping $500 off a UMPC that was … Read more

Oqo upgrades, drops price of model 02

Will a bigger hard drive and a slightly lower price tag move more UMPCs for Oqo?

Oqo has updated its Vista-powered handheld computer, and knocked 33 percent of the cost, bringing it down to $1,299.

The San Francisco-based company has increased the hard drive capacities of both versions of the model 02. The entry-level went from 30GB to 40GB and the higher-end from 60GB to 80GB. Plus, now there's a 32GB flash-based option. They've also slightly upped the CPU speed to 1.6 Gigahertz.

But it has yet to solved the in-between nature of its concept. It'… Read more