I just got a data plan on my mobile. I pretty much do not need my computer anymore since I do so much with my mobile phone. The neatest thing is that I can even watch naughty movies:) It is pretty neat, it’s called Mobile TV. All I do is point my phone to sexoncell.com and they have adult mobile movies in different formats like 3gp movies, symbian, pda or whatever. If you have any other cool sites, please let me know! This one, though, even has a free daily mobile movie.

Jack Furlong; if a PDA can do everything a UMPC “was designed to do”, how did you get your Palm TX to run Photoshop?

Mike Cane; my Q1′s screen is sharp most of the time.* It could be that the ClearType settings weren’t set properly for the in-store demo. They should probably use Microsoft’s ClearType tuner site to adjust the display: http://www.microsoft.com/typography/cleartype/tuner/Step1.aspx

— Steve

* I have found it looking a bit grainy now and then. Next time I notice that, I’ll note down what the circumstances are.

Many good observations here and in James’ blog. My 2¢:

I’m pleased at the proliferation of devices and the attempts to combine functionality, going through multiple generations (like the UMPC, the Blackberry, the Smartphones, Palms/PocketPCs). I really don’t think there’s going to be THE killer device the way the iPod has become the one to beat in its one niche. I see (at the community college where I work) students with every iPod, but also with every competitor. (The students also have fabulous phones, but lousy computers, and none–not one–has a Tablet or UMPC, and faculty who have them could fit in a booth at Denny’s–at a campus with 15,000 students).

Ease of use is an amazing sales vector, as is low price, but those of us who need function won’t care. We need power, and I do almost everything on a UMPC and cuss that it doesn’t have more muscle, but I pack two extra long-life batteries. I steer back and forth between power, size, and weight.

The proliferation of devices, multiple incarnations and generations means that I’ll continue to have choices, and they arrive at the market not at all fast enough for me. I couldn’t believe for years that Palm couldn’t figure out a way to make the same disk drive that fit in an iPod go into their device, and by the time they did, I Tablet OS could read my handwriting.

When I drove a VW bus, people looked at me like I was a weirdo, and ten years later the minivan was every soccer mom’s car. I totally skipped the SUV, and drive a compact sedan that gives me great gas mileage, and now hybrids are actually competitive.

All of these devices have changed (even improved sometimes!), and none of them has completely eliminated the market for the others. Online services obviously have their functions, and their limitations. And as my needs (and desires) change, I’ll keep my eye on the market, but so far, none of the platforms/markets has completely died, even if individual products (Newton, CP/M, the HP T1000) have. No one looking at the Corolla or MS-DOS would have predicted their futures. None of these will be perfect for everything and everyone.

But my goodness, look at the choices!

>>>I looked at UMPCs, etc for a long time before I plunked down the cash for the Palm TX I carry now. It essentially does what UMPCs were intended to do, less expensively, and with longer battery life.

Maybe for *you*. I’m about to bring a LifeDrive back to life. I’ve used Palms since the III. No fekkin way do they even begin to compare to UMPCs for functionality. A PDA is a PDA, and that’s what I’ll use it for. A UMPC is a fekkin *computer* that’s supposed to be totable (not pocketable, although next year’s UMPCs will be; and, yeah, there’s OQO and VEGA now).

I have apps that allow me to rip any vid or audio from the net. This is a Must-Have for me for any net-enabled device. A Pepper Pad can’t do that — and Pepper is basically a MID.

Smartphones? Feh. Maybe the iPhone — but I would still carry a Palm. I need the 4 core apps.

I’ve looked at the Samsung Q1 again just last week (went into Samsung Experience to see if the Q1U had snuck in; no). Is it me or is that screen just *blurry* as all hell? I switched through all 3 resolutions and even the “native” one isn’t sharp… and, yes, I had me glasses on.

Nokia N800 is currently #3 Amazon Sales Rank. Where does it have to go for you to say it’s flying off the shelves? Does a Windows-centric authority have to deem it so?

UMPC has to do what notebook can’t.
Until then people are going to say – “that is nice… and get back to their laptops”

What needed is a pen input with a real writing recognition, redesigned interface that is intuitive for a pen!
Unfortunately, take a look around… MS Office 2007 in the whole line of apps! only OneNote barely has a pen in mind and these are the people who make the writing recognition and the Visa… I’m dumbfounded.

Amazingly Microsoft promotes UMPCs and makes not only the Office but the underlying OS itself… what a clusterf**k (sorry for a lack of a better term). Until MS really looks into this direction, us the geeks will OOOOH and Aaaaah the crowds around us with our umpcs.

On the other note…

Apple has an iPhone that has an interface designed for other then a mouse input… is it going to cost… what… $500? now do you think they can make that iPhone twice bigger call it an iUMac and sell if for $750?

Woadan,

I’m not sure I agree with your reasoning concerning MS office alternatives like google docs or OpenOffice. While you are right, the alternatives don’t (currently) have all the bells and whistles of MS Office, most folks use only a portion of MS Office features, and they’ll rarely need or miss those which aren’t there. The price is certainly better for the alternatives. Moreover, most consumers don’t work for the government, and I’m pretty sure institutions as conservative as government are not the right measure of a consumer platform’s success. Isn’t it government IT who is proposing putting biometric security on DAPs?

Price, ease of use, connectivity, and utility are better measures for platform success. Your point concerning security of wifi, etc. falls in the same category. Most end users don’t (and, I’d argue, shouldn’t) have the same level of security concerns as government or enterprise.

But for right now, you’re probably right in your main point. Until the price and ubiquity of connectivity hit some unknown sweet spot, folks will continue to think and work via the desktop paradigm. They’ll hug to bloated platforms and applications. My guess is such traditional government and field enterprise platform needs will be with us for some time, and they’ll dictate to many what to look for in a platform. Corporate and government IT will be much more comfortable with a known, desktop paradigm as the world shifts under them.

End users can afford and invite more of a gamble, and that sweet spot is close, very close. For those who move between hotspots and home and work networks, that sweet spot is within a year or two. Some users, more comfortable with a higher price and more willing to pay the price to be tech savvy, are already enjoying what everyone will soon enjoy. The N800 and MID could well be the early adopter version of where the new paradigm begins to make sense to many end users. I’m betting something like the MID project will succeed.

What’s cool is James has obviously hit a nerve and uncovered a growing divide among his readers in terms of which paradigm mobile computing will follow. Just look at the number of comments this post has brought compared to most.

One thing studying history has taught me: paradigms interpenatrate. There isn’t a point in history where one can say, this idea starts and this one ends. The old keeps going alongside the new; indeed, the new is usually an attempt to replicate the old in some better form. That’s why cars originally looked like wagons, and wagons appear alongside of cars in old photos. Drivers of both probably didn’t realize the Model T represented a changed world.

I’m just not sure James is giving enough credit to the potential of something like the MID project to create a wide acceptance of a sea change which is already happening. We don’t, for instance, hear much about the impact of Web 2.0 (lord, I hate that label)on mobile computing on jkontherun.

That is not, by the way, a complaint. I do appreciate the work and thought both Keven and James bring to this blog.

To all of you Linux/OpenOffice fanboys: OpenOffice does not do all that Office does, and if you have to do things with the government, they want it in their templated format. Can you guarantee OO won’t mess with that? No? Pass on OO then. Also, let’s not discount the emotional issues involved. When you have years of experience in a certain interface, you don’t like the change. Everybody here has probably heard about the outcry against the MS Ofc 2007 “ribbon”, yes? OO has a different interface, and if users don’t want to learn MS’ new one for Office, they sure as heck don’t want to learn OOs. So, “does most of” isn’t a good answer.

Many of the repleis/comments seem to overlook James’ comments on the cellular/mobile coverage. Wireless (WiFi or WiMax or whatever flavor) isn’t always giong to be available, nor will it always be wise to use it. Government operators, whether the gov agency itself, or a contractor, aren’t going to be too keen on it because it is a security risk. That can’t be discounted, or at least shouldn’t be. Adoption by government agencies/contractors could be key to widespread adoption I would counsel. Those same agencies have no qualms about using Cingular, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless and/or BlackBerry/RIM, so even if no more secure, they’re acceptible. Cellular/mobile service included would be key, too.

Unfortunately the wireless carriers are always fee-hingry, just like their copper/landline-based brethren have always been. (Verizon and AT&T make no money off the landline service itself- they make huge profits on the voicemail, DSL, and other services included with the dial-tone.) And whether in their landline or cellular skins, none of the carriers want to become “dumb pipes”. Cingular proxies their PDA-and smart-phones to their network for when selling MP3s/ringtones and the like. This sacrifices any other web surfing unless you disable that proxy. (I know this from experience.) I expect the other companies do, too.

Tech savvy people like those of us who frequent tech blogs like jkontherun probably are smart enough to be able to figure out we can copy our songs to a memory card, and play them from there. And to catch snippits for ring tones as well. But the average user just blithely uses their carriers services because it’s easier, even if more expensive. And the RIAA is also happy when you buy the song, and then paya again for part of it when you buy a ringtone.

All of the cellular carriers control the devices, for the most part, that make it to their networks, so they help prevent being a dumb pipe for cellular data. They don’t control the devices that connect to their landline services (OK, Sprint and TMobile don’t have them.) And they are much more liely to be dumb pipes there.

Do we really want to see a UMPC running Windows XP or Vista with tablet capabilities being hampered in ways similar to Windows Mobile devices often have been by the wrieless carriers? I know _I_ don’t. But I also know that would be one way to bring down the price if coupled with a 2-year contract.

Frankly, we know that the cellular carriers, especially Verizon, seem to hate when you use their data service “exessively”. So even though their service is nearly essential (as I see it any way), we also know it is problematic. Additionally, at the prices they charge ($50-80/month for an unlimited plan), when you get slower than DSL speeds, well, it boglles the mind that we pay for it. (But we do.)

That Origami/UMPCs have done as well as they have is something of a suprise when you consider all the wrong turns that MS and the makers have made along the way.

Woadan

Again, a *low-power* Linux handheld isn’t going to do the trick. The Nokia 770 and N800 aren’t exactly capable of running OpenOffice acceptably. AbiWord and Gnumeric, maybe, but it’s not like these ship with the unit, or were made readily obvious to the common user. (Such things rarely are.)

*I* can install a dozen useful, usable applications on a Linux MID/Maemo system. That doesn’t mean that the average consumer can, or even wants to. Many times, people want something that just *works* out of the box, without investing time and research into random package repositories and forums and installing hacks just to support a Bluetooth keyboard, and then playing with xmodmap just to make it work right.

When you’re looking for a productivity tool, the last thing you need to do is spend hours tweaking it to make you more productive. That’s a case of the machine using you, not you using the machine. This doesn’t mean that Windows is better, or easier to admin properly, but it is easier for a Windows user (which represents the majority of computer users) to take advantage of that system, than to re-learn everything all over again.

Remember this article? http://tabletblog.com/2007/04/linux-vs-windows-vs-mac-umpcs-who-wins.html

Having UMPCs on all major platforms will only serve to enhance market reception and adoption.

“A low-power Linux handheld doesn’t have a lot of appeal to many people, since they can’t easily take their MS Office docs with them.”

You’re a bit misinformed on that front. Open Office works on all platforms and handles all office docs quite well.

Ditto on the “If nothing else, mainstream consumers will want to use the device with their existing media, and that means with iTunes and their iPods.” comment. iPods have been supported for quite some time on all linux platforms. I’m hard pressed to think of any linux media management app that doesn’t support the ipod right out the box.

The question, really, is simple:

“How much power do you need?”

This is what kills me about the MID arguments. You have to remember that they’re also making the platform a WinXP target, which is huge. A low-power Linux handheld doesn’t have a lot of appeal to many people, since they can’t easily take their MS Office docs with them. They might be a Flash version behind, too, and oftentimes, the Linux handhelds are *harder* to use, since the software choices are a little more scattered, and don’t necessarily work from one Linux handheld to the next.

A MID running WinXP, however, would be enough to run the core apps. Office, IE, etc. Sure, you can’t game on it, but that’s hardly the point. You just need something with the OQO model 02′s keyboard/mouse, plus a passive touchscreen, and something better than the OQO model 01′s performance. It doesn’t need to be a pocketable workstation, or even a shrunken-down laptop. It just needs to work according to typical user expectations.

Users can figure out a Blackberry, so the keyboard isn’t an issue. They also figured out Palms and the like, so touchscreens are fine these days. They just need the software options, and they’re all set.

XP isn’t that much of a high-end OS. In this day and age, it shouldn’t be that hard to get it running on low-power hardware, so long as you can throw some RAM at it.

Oh. I should follow up. It’s not that I haven’t opened an MS product. It’s I haven’t opened an MS product outside of the Table PC OS. For word processing and working on spreadsheets off line, I’ve used OpenOffice. One of my points though is I’ve used wi-fi, and I’ve rarely been offline when I need access to my “stuff.” With WiMax on the horizion and 3G connectivity likely to fall in price, I’m betting the incidence of being off line would be even less; and, if you’re online and you don’t need the bells and whistles of the newest Office, etc. you no longer need MS.

My opinion? I’d sell MS stock. It looks to me as if it’s the 21st century equivalent of the 1980′s IBM. It’ll still be around. It’ll still be a player, but it will no longer be *the* player for mobile offices.

I’m going to say something I thought I’d never say to jkontherun. You’re falling into the same trap which most in the main stream have fallen into with the UMPC. You’re looking for the integrated keyboard rather than seeing the machine (and potential) in front of you.

Online apps, such as the various services offered by google, are the killer apps of the internet tablet. They are already here. To run them you need a platform with the right robust browser. That’s it. It’s no longer about a robust OS, powerful hardware, and a large hard drive; it’s about a hackable OS which is fairly transparent to the end user and a robust browser. Run your apps online. Store your info in the cloud. If there’s enough machine to have these, if it can stay connected, if the price stays around the N800 $400 price point, then for most customers, it would be a done deal.

The Nokia N800 is almost there. It’s problems include a lack of ability to print, the fact that it’s installed browser has trouble with online apps, the fact it currently runs online video SLOWLY, and the fact it’s limited to wi-fi. Skype and VOIP on the N800 is right around the corner, literally in the next months. You can install another browser on the N800 which allows you to connect to most online apps. Connect a BT keyboard like the Stowaway you use for your Q1 and a BT stereo headpiece, and connect to online apps and VOIP, and you’ve got a robust mobile office platform which is limited only by the online apps you can access.

The N800 isn’t quit there yet, but that’s what the Intel project seems to be about; and, the N800, as another commenter noted, is an experiment meant to build a programmer backing.

But I’m not writing this comment on a N800, I’m writing it on a UMPC. Why? Because it’s got the robust browser now. Will the UMPC/Tablet die a quiet death? No. There are programs which will be slow to come to the net. But for the average, non-gaming, non-specialized consumer who wants a phone, mobile office, and digital content player, an internet tablet at $400 will soon be enough. If the choice is between a $700 UMPC and a $400 internet tablet, I know which way I’d go.

I’m keeping an eye on internet tablets because I did something this past semester I never did before. I went a semester without opening a MS product. I ran a hybrid section of English 102 completely online using blogs, docs, spreadsheets, gmail, and online project and personal management. In the process, I also moved my household planning onto google docs and spreadsheets, and I’m in the process of moving my GTD system to google notebooks.

Somewhere along the way I realized something, I’m no longer using the power of the UMPC, even the Q1P. More important, I don’t need this much hardware, weight, etc. I’m using the UMPC’s browser, and between hotspots, wi-fi on campus, and at home, it’s been equal to everything I’ve asked of it–from planning a budget and watching TV to reading texts online and productively interacting with family and students.

So, the new Intel project doesn’t support a full blown MS OS. To do most work and play, it doesn’t need to.

Long live the UMPC! I always find these negative reviews lacking in credibility. If the device weighs 2 pounds, the screen isn’t big enough; if the screen is big enough, it doesn’t have a keyboard or a built in DVD or 8 ½” floppy drive to accommodate legacy data from my PDP11… The CPU is too slow, the graphics card isn’t powerful enough. I am tired of reviewers that can’t seem to understand what a business computer is for. It is a tool, it gets valuable work done. The ability to use the same WinTel platform that has made personal computing a success combined with the form factor and ergonomics is why I my choice is and always will be an UMPC or tablet over any PDA or glorified PDA ever offered. Maybe a MID is just what the doctor ordered for some, and more power to you if it is! Diversity is a great thing! I am pleased that we have so many choices among computing devices. But to narrow minded reviewers I say, I’ll make my own choices thank you!

Regarding Handwriting recognition and the lack of it in MIDs…
The newest version of the Kohjinsha was bundled with Windows XP home edition. Guess what is one of the first complain of the testing people? No handwriting recognition!
Here: http://mykohjinsha.blogspot.com/