Carrypad

Kohjinsha PA unboxing PA3KX32SA

chippy — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:04:24 +0000

Via http://www.newgadgets.de/5957/kohjinsha-pa-unboxing-hands-on/

Here’s an unboxing of the UMPC that might just get an award for ugliest device of the year!

Looks to be more usable than the UMID M1 that we think is based on.

This video was embedded using the YouTuber plugin by Roy Tanck. Adobe Flash Player is required to view the video.

Pocketables: SmartDevices SmartQ V7 launched in China

chippy — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 23:13:40 +0000

SmartDevices could really have something special if they made the jump to a leading-edge ARM platform and focused on Android as the OS. With an ARM11 CPU at 600Mhz though, this isn’t going to impress web-centric users.

SmartDevices SmartQ V7 launched in China.

Verizon Droid. Android 2.0 MIDPhone…with Google Maps Navigation Beta.

chippy — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:48:33 +0000

Encompassing much of what the MID market stands for and reaching out in terms of screen size and CPU power to become a very interesting contender is the Verizon / Motorola Droid.

$300 + a 24 month commitment brings you the ‘phone’ and you’ll get $100 back if you remember to mail-in the coupon.

I’m going to quote SlashGear here and send you over there to wait for some live hands-on as they have a meeting with Verizon set-up. If that keyboard is good then wow! If the camera is good then double-wow. If you can fit this in your pocket, you’ve got yourself an incredible device.

The Verizon Droid will be the first smartphone to arrive with Android 2.0, the latest version of the open-source OS, with native Exchange support and Google Maps Navigation Beta. The latter is Google’s new turn-by-turn directions app, which offers free verbal directions controlled by voice shortcuts.

There’s also Bluetooth, WiFi and USB 2.0 connectivity, and Verizon are bundling a 16GB microSD card. The usual bevy of Google apps – including Google Talk, YouTube, Gmail and the Android Market – are also preloaded, and there’s a 5-megapixel camera with autofocus and dual-LED flash. We’re catching up with Verizon later on today to grab some hands-on time with the Droid, so keep reading SlashGear for that!

Don’t miss that important news that Google is launching a turn-by-turn navigation applications. This is every PND manufacturers / map providers nightmare coming true.

Hoping this crops up in a GSM/UMTS version very soon. Looks like the U.S. beat Europe to it on this one!

Verizon Motorola Droid product page prematurely published – SlashGear

admin — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 08:40:56 +0000

Another MIDPhone. This one has Android on a 550MhzCPU (Type not known.) A lot of people are buzzing about it.

Verizon Motorola Droid product page prematurely published – SlashGear.

Aigo walkshow N6500 image leak

admin — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 08:35:08 +0000

This looks like an ARM-based design to me. Pocketables have all the details.

Aigo walkshow N6500 image leak reveals improved design.

Carrypad (Re)Launching Soon

admin — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 22:01:29 +0000

Watch this space for details.

Dell Streak 5-inch 3G Android MID with 3G

chippy — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 15:44:23 +0000

It looks like Dell will be following Archos into the MID market with a 5″ touchscreen ‘pad’ called the ‘Streak.’ There’s no official word from Dell but this certainly looks like a winner to me. Based on my experience with the Archos Android Tablet if the Streak runs Android 2.0 on a Cortex core then yes, yes, YES. With the cam and 3G the only thing we have to hope for is a killer price and a range of sizes. Goodbye Crunchpad!

Video below…

Dell Streak 5-inch 3G Android MID leaks [Update: Video!] – SlashGear.

Nokia N900 Live Session Notes, Impressions, Videos (2.5hrs)

chippy — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:45:30 +0000

Thanks to the 850 people that dropped in to the session last night. We ran for about 4 hours and in that time you racked up 940 hours of viewing. That’s a lot of attention so clearly we’re getting something right with the live reviews.

The first thing to note from last nigh’ts N900 session is that there we didn’t find any show stoppers. Sizing is clearly an issue for some but within the bounds of the size of the device, Nokia have done an incredible job and married it with a software stack that is fit for the next-generation of ‘computing-first’ handhelds for both the geek and consumer community. Pricing appears to be acceptable to our target audience too. Over 85% of those voting in a poll during the session said it was value for money based on street prices we’re seeing of 500-550 Euros. In Germany the N900 is already free from some third-party resellers with high-end contracts.

In the first part of the session we took a look around the hardware and discussed some of the key points related to the hardware. We highlighted that the front-facing cam, consumer IR and FM radio don’t have any software support yet and talked about the issue of portrait mode which, apart from the size, is the most restrictive element of the device. Currently, unless you are in phone mode, there’s no way to really use this device with one hand in portrait mode. Nokia know about this though and are talking about covering it in a firmware update later this year.

Full coverage of the N900 in our N900 information page.

On the positive side though, the N900 gets praise for its interleaved ‘conversations’ panel that brings in notifications from SMS, Gtalk, Skype and other networks into one notifications system. See this in the second video. In the other direction, the sharing feature with its plug-in support is going to easily allow third parties to provide an authorization and sending channel for many many web-based services. Flickr, pixelpipe and others are already supported.

The browser has to be one of the best we’ve seen on a pocketable ARM-based device. Full javascript support and full Flash 9 support elevate this above others and because of the impressive processing power, finally open up the world of online web-based apps to the smartphone user. YouTube videos (low quality versions, not HQ or HD) played back in windowed and full-screen mode with fluidity. Some video codecs seem to be missing but this might be because we’re dealing with a pre-production sample here. DivX support goes up over 4mbps so I’m expecting H.264 to work at 2mbps which is about the bitrate you’ll find on a YouTube HD video. When Adobe get 10.1 working on the N900 with the video decoding hardware it’s going to be heaven for YouTube fans!

Continued on next page.

IDF09. MID News Round-up.

chippy — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:41:30 +0000

I’m just a few posts away from completing my Intel Developer Forum 2009 related work now and it’s time to round-up and summarize the news and to try and work out what it means for 2010 and 2011. Power-gating, Mobiln 2.1 and the App Store are just three very important elements but for the full overview, check out an article I’ve just posted at UMPCPortal which goes over everything I learned. I can not deny that it was disappointing not to see more Moorestown prototypes but the news is more than enough to keep my excitement going until the next big event. See you at CES 2010 in January.

IDF round-up at UMPCPortal.

Image via. Intel

Many thanks to Intel and the Intel Insider program for the sponsorship of my MIDMoves work at IDF.