[WorksForTurkeys]

Originally Posted by Raphael Salgado

My first and foremost concern is battery life (or ease of recharging), then processing power. Many times, I'm caught with little battery power left on my Pocket PC devices, that I'd dread to think how I'd be if I ran out of juice on my tablet/notebook/subnotebook PC.

If they can concentrate on how to implement a thin, retractable cord from the device where I could charge anywhere via an AC outlet or a powered USB/mini-USB port, or get the price point down on a solid-state hard drive, I might care a lot less if I was on a Celeron 900MHz. After all, these devices should be secondary devices (primary on-the-go, but backup to a desktop or home/office PC).

<<snipped>>.

I don't know if this will help with a UMPC device, but I've built a couple of portable 9-volt battery Altoids-box USB chargers for my current pda's and cellphones that work well in a pinch. The plans and some components are available at http://www.aarondunlap.com/blog/1130885615

[WorksForTurkeys]

Originally Posted by Raphael Salgado

My first and foremost concern is battery life (or ease of recharging), then processing power. Many times, I'm caught with little battery power left on my Pocket PC devices, that I'd dread to think how I'd be if I ran out of juice on my tablet/notebook/subnotebook PC.

If they can concentrate on how to implement a thin, retractable cord from the device where I could charge anywhere via an AC outlet or a powered USB/mini-USB port, or get the price point down on a solid-state hard drive, I might care a lot less if I was on a Celeron 900MHz. After all, these devices should be secondary devices (primary on-the-go, but backup to a desktop or home/office PC).

<<snipped>>.

I don't know if this will help with a UMPC device, but I've built a couple of portable 9-volt battery Altoids-box USB chargers for my current pda's and cellphones that work well in a pinch. The plans and some components are available at http://www.aarondunlap.com/blog/1130885615

[Patrick Y.]

i think UMPC has a lot of potentials but the current generation just failed to deliver the main features that users want. As others said, I'm looking forward to lower prices, better screen, battery life, and processor.

[ppcinfo]

Are the Origami or Vistagami devices "instant-on" devices? Or, do you have to wait for them to boot up whenever you want to use them like a laptop? If they work like "resume" mode on my Dell laptop, that still seems to take longer than I would want to wait (compared to my Axim x50v).

ppcinfo

[Nurhisham Hussein]

Originally Posted by ppcinfo

Are the Origami or Vistagami devices "instant-on" devices?

Nope.

Originally Posted by ppcinfo

Or, do you have to wait for them to boot up whenever you want to use them like a laptop? If they work like "resume" mode on my Dell laptop, that still seems to take longer than I would want to wait (compared to my Axim x50v).

Yup.

We're not talking about anything special here, apart from the size - Origami/UMPCs are not 'devices', they're portable PCs like laptops. And just like any PC, bootup times are measured in minutes. FWIW though, standby isn't that bad on a handtop (as opposed to laptop). The Vaio U8G comes out of standby in 2-3 seconds, which is more than tolerable. My Thinkpad takes 5 seconds.

[signothefish]

Well then that's why the Dual Cor is the ideal device.

[Nurhisham Hussein]

Originally Posted by signothefish

Well then that's why the Dual Cor is the ideal device.

Ships with no wifi, no bluetooth and @$2000 - I don't think so.

[signothefish]

Yes, I forgot about all those points, especially the price. :frusty: As much as I like the Dual Cor, I'm afraid it is just another niche device. Without instant on and low power consumption, the UMPC and Sony units won't be able to take the place of a PDA either.

I feel like a kid in the back seat of a car on a long drive. Are we there yet? No! Are we there yet? No! Are we there yet? ...

[jlp]

Originally Posted by Darius Wey

[i]"With the first Origami devices out the door, Microsoft is setting its sights on the next generation of tiny tablet PCs--products known within the company as "Vistagami" devices. ...

Let's be realistic for now.

Current UMPCs are slow devices, barely able to run WinXP and at twice the price announced and twice the price of entry level notebooks (their "competition" giving performances and features).

And now they talk about Vista capable UMPCs?!

Most performing desktop and notebook of the current generation will be very hard pressed to run Vista as it is inteded, even much less capable are current generations of UMPCs.

So before expecting Vista capable UMPCs let them first handle XP with panache!!

[PDANEWBIE]

I don't suppose this is a UMPC that runs Vista with glass effects enabled?

[Darius Wey]

Originally Posted by PDANEWBIE

I don't suppose this is a UMPC that runs Vista with glass effects enabled?

Possible, yes. Practical, maybe not. The mobile hardware to support Aero exists, but it's just a matter of (a) whether manufacturers choose to use it in their devices, and (b) whether end-users are willing to shell out more dough for it.