Comments on: What ultra-portable PCs will need to succeed

By: jk

jk — Fri, 05 Nov 2004 13:47:01 +0000

Thanks Phil. It’s unfortunate and getting pretty ugly over there right now. I am warned I will be banned if I complain about the rules (which I have never done) and others make personal attacks without even a warning. Too bad, it’s a good source.

By: elkinson

elkinson — Fri, 05 Nov 2004 12:37:11 +0000

jk,

Sorry to hear you leave on the Yahoo Groups site.

It’s unfortunate.

I wanted to let you know that some of us will miss you over there.

That’s the nature of IT, being thick skinned sometimes and ignoring others in this 2-dimensional medium. Unfortunately, Greg’s the moderator.

Best regards,
Phil

By: jk

jk — Thu, 04 Nov 2004 14:54:52 +0000

Unfortunately both the 40 & 60 GB drives are 2 platter and thus thicker than the 20 GB we have in there now. One guy I know did put a 40 GB drive in his U but he had to remove a lot of the shock padding to make it fit. I don’t think I’d be willing to do that so I’ll just wait for the 30 GB one.

By: PA

PA — Thu, 04 Nov 2004 14:11:27 +0000

I was hoping for a 40Gb or 60Gb hdd because I wanted to dual boot and have a Linux install and of course the room for the obligatory MP3s and Divx movies.

By: jk

jk — Thu, 04 Nov 2004 13:32:54 +0000

A larger hard drive should be available to self-mod in December. I have taken my U-70 apart and replacing the drive should be pretty easy (famous last words). I would like to have a 30 GB drive in it so I can put all my MP3s on it which are at about 11 GB and growing.

By: PA

PA — Thu, 04 Nov 2004 13:27:44 +0000

I love my U50 also, so thank you again for your blogs because you pushed me over the top to get it.

I think I’ll own this device for quiet some time (in Internet years). :)

My only wish is to have it the same size as the OQO.
I saw someone on Yahoo Groups requesting mods to move the buttons in an effort to shrink the U50…My only wish at this point… Well, I also wish for a larger hard drive that fits in the U50 without removing pieces of the innards.

Otherwise this is an awesome device. It is a tweener device for me–PPC/PDA, notebook/tablet, smartphone, and cellphone.

I’m waiting to exchange my iPAQ h2215 and have settled on my Nokia 6820i cell phone to bridge the gap and carry the U50.

By: jk

jk — Wed, 03 Nov 2004 23:23:20 +0000

No, I haven’t found any program that doesn’t work well with the U70′s screen. It is almost the perfect device for me. This article was written early June before the Sony was out. The impetus behind it was the heavy press the OQO was getting and I was pointing out that I didn’t think UPCs would kill off the PDA market as PDAs appeal to a different group of users. I still believe that. But I do heart my Sony. :)

By: PA

PA — Wed, 03 Nov 2004 22:26:55 +0000

But for those of us who have them, they work surprisingly well.

Do you now retract the viewability of the Windows software and 5″ screen comment?

I’m running Outlook 2003 and it works great and is very readable on the 800×600 Sony U50 screen. I have not run into a program that is hard to read from the U50′s brilliant screen.

I’m sure that the OQO 800×480 screen is a bit of a pain, that’s why I went with the U50 instead.

By: jk

jk — Wed, 03 Nov 2004 12:19:35 +0000

Having used the Sony U-70 for a few months now I do believe there is a market for UPCs but a similar market still exists for PDAs. They accomplish different things for different users and which platform is chosen will depend on what the user wants to do. I do agree that UPCs will be better controlled in a corporate environment as they are just tiny laptops and have the same issues. Cost is a big problem for the UPC market right now and until OEMs can find a way to produce a complete handheld WinXP device for around $1000 they will not take off in the marketplace.

By: Mobile Frank

Mobile Frank — Wed, 03 Nov 2004 10:53:51 +0000

All true points, but think about the compatability issues enterprises face with software on pocket OS devices. Second point, mobile device management has sprung a whole new complex industry not integrated with existing desktop management efforts.
Now the problem that one of these things is costing more than a PDA, more like the same cost of an expensive laptop,,,,, the initial sales volumes may never bring down the ultra portability price tag.