A Typical Day in the Life of the Viliv S5 Premium UMPC

I haven’t done a “Typical Day” article for quite some time and I find I can use the Viliv S5 Premium UMPC for so many different tasks that it seemed like a good time to do one. Here is my day yesterday with the Viliv S5.

The day started like most, far too early, and I stumbled to get the first cup of coffee for the day. I grabbed the S5 from my desk where it charged overnight and sat down in the big comfy chair in front of the tube to catch the first news of the day.

I slid the power slider up on the Viliv and in less than five seconds it was up running right where it left off the night before. It always starts up in the same display orientation it was in when it went to sleep and yesterday morning it was in landscape, which suits me just fine. I tapped on Firefox in the task bar as it was already running and it popped right open.

There were four tabs open like I left it: these are my main work tabs. There was GMail, the jkOnTheRun site, the WordPress page for working with the site and finally, Google Reader. I tapped the GMail tab and started checking the email that had come in while I was snuggled in bed dreaming of gadgets.

I interacted with the GMail screen with my fingertip, tapping on each email I wanted to read and hitting the “Move To” button if I wanted to file it in a particular label. I determined there were only two or three that merited a response and I did that handily.

These were short replies so I hit the bottom right button on the S5, which I’ve reprogrammed to fire up the uBoard keyboard. It popped up on top of the GMail screen and I tapped out quick responses. It’s fast and easy as uBoard is configured to give me a low key-click noise so I get audible feedback when I’ve hit a key. This is important, as the touchscreen of the S5 is a very light touch and the feedback lets me know if I hit a key inadvertently. This feedback is similar to the Viliv keyboard’s Haptic feedback in function.

I am using the uBoard keyboard exclusively over the Viliv-included one. The Viliv one works well enough but the uBoard has a couple of advantages. It survives screen rotation by resizing to fit the new width, something the Viliv keyboard doesn’t do. It also has the full keyboard readily available, function keys and all which the Viliv one lacks.

With my email taken care of I tapped the jkOnTheRun tab to see if any good comments were left by you readers. Just kidding, all of your comments are good.  :) I went through the comments, and there were quite a few of them, using the same finger tapping. I added a few comment responses of my own using the uBoard keyboard.

Once that was all done I tapped the Google Reader tab and started going through the hundreds of RSS feed items that were waiting for me. This is a big part of the research I do for the work here and I’ve determined that it’s easiest if the screen is longer than it is wide. I hit the D-Pad button and the lower-right button at the same time and the screen rotated to my preferred portrait mode. I’ve experimented and found that I prefer the portrait orientation with the D-Pad on the bottom of the screen.

This makes the Google Reader screen long enough that I can usually see multiple RSS items at the same time, except that the left pane of feeds takes up half the screen real estate. I simply tapped on the bar dividing the two panes and the left one collapsed, leaving the entire width of the screen to be used for the actual content. I went through a lot of items by simply pushing down on the D-Pad toward the bottom of the screen, which smoothly scrolled down the list of items. Google Reader is smart enough to mark each item as read as it passes off the screen, never to bother me again.

As I went through these items, if I saw one I wanted to come back to later I simply tapped the Star on it and it was automatically put in my list for later. This method let me go through hundreds of items in just minutes, and it worked very well on the S5 this way. The awesome Grab and Drag add-on for Firefox makes interacting with the browser by finger just like on the iPhone. This is a great experience and only lacks the multitouch zooming, otherwise it’s a matter of dragging the web page around on the screen.

I had been listening to the news on the TV in the background while I worked on these feeds but felt the urge to pick up the book I’m reading. I’m reading it using eReader Pro on the S5, which I’m finding is very enjoyable. The 4.8-inch screen in portrait makes for a very “paperback-like” reading experience as a lot of content displays on each page. The high-res screen of the S5 is more crisp and clear than that of the Kindle and I really enjoy reading e-books on the S5. I have configured the display settings in eReader just the way I like them and it’s so simple to use. I’ve configured it so a simple, light tap on the bottom of the screen turns to the next page and tapping the bookmark symbol in the upper left puts one on that page. It couldn’t be easier, and eReader is always running in the background for that reason.

Unfortunately the day insisted on getting going in earnest so I didn’t read too long. I slid the power slider up on the S5 and it slept in seconds. I headed into the office (a 30-second walk) and plugged in the S5 to top off the battery as I was going to head out later in the day. I worked at my desk as usual, got a couple of posts for the site done and then hit the shower.

Once I was nice and clean and even better-looking than before I hit the office again and got some more posting done. I caught up on my RSS feeds and email on the MacBook at the desk, which was just like it was on the S5 earlier. This is an important point: The S5 is a full computer and I can use the same tools in my hand that I use at my desk. That can’t be stated emphatically enough.

I had already decided that I needed to hit the mall yesterday to check on some things and my plan was to also get a bite to eat in the food court and then hit the Starbucks there to get some more work done. I grabbed my day bag and inside went the S5 in its case, the Plantronics 590e Bluetooth headset, the Bluetooth keyboard and mouse and the Lamy 4-in-1 pen/ stylus. The iPhone went in my pants pocket, as usual ,and off I headed to the mall. I should admit that going to the mall is one of my least favorite things to do, but the ability to eat and work with good coffee tempers that a fair bit.

My shopping trip only took a little while and I didn’t buy anything, which is not unusual. Something really has to catch my eye before I’ll pony up my own money. I grabbed some mall Chinese food and chowed down. Not the best Chinese by any means, but not too bad. While I was eating I went back to reading my e-book on the S5. I just set it down on the table and made sure my page-turning fingertip stayed clean and food-free.

When I was sated I walked over to the Starbucks in the mall and got my favorite coffee beverage: a triple venti sugar-free vanilla dry cappuccino. Say that 10 times real fast. The barista made it just right and I took it to the little table outside the store and pulled out the gear and got to work. I figured I’d better get some work done so Kevin wouldn’t find out I’d been screwing around at the mall during the day. (Good thing he never reads the site).

Once situated at the table I pulled out the Viliv S5, Stowaway keyboard, mouse and the Lamy. The little stand detaches from the keyboard and the Viliv case for the S5 lets me use it by opening up the cover and folding the flap over the back of the device. The S5 sits in the little stand without removing it from the case, which is handy. I opened up the folded keyboard, which turned it on, and hit the “on” button on the Stowaway mouse and the S5 automatically connected instantly to the pair. I now had a complete desktop system with an awesome, full-sized keyboard for heavy lifting.

I used the Lamy for tapping stuff on the screen if need be; it’s easier for precise tapping and the Lamy is the best stylus I’ve found. Using the S5 with the full keyboard and the little Bluetooth mouse was simply awesome. I’m a mouse person, so having it along made the work nice and smooth. The high-res screen of the S5 was easily viewable on the table in front of me and for the rare time when a particular web page was too small to read comfortably I simply zoomed it up with CTRL + on the keyboard. Firefox is great that way as it zooms the entire page instantly and it remembers the zoom level for each page separately.

I quickly went through my RSS feeds and quite a bit of email using the system as described. I decided on a couple of items for posting to the site and I easily knocked those off. It worked so well that I decided to post the picture of the little desktop system and I took the photo with the iPhone. I emailed it to myself, grabbed it on the S5 and posted it straight away.

I worked there at the mall that way for a good while and then decided to Skype my buddy on the Left Coast. One of the major shortcomings of the Viliv S5 is the lack of an integrated microphone for VoIP calls. I found a way around that with the Plantronics 590e headset I’ve owned for a while. It’s a Bluetooth setup that works flawlessly with the S5 and provides full audio, in and out, wirelessly. I Skyped my buddy — audio only as the S5 has no webcam — and he couldn’t tell I was sitting in the mall using a sub-5-inch computer.

Since I had the headphones on I decided to listen to a podcast (gdgt), which the Plantronics and S5 handled superbly. I got some additional work done while listening to Peter and Ryan talk about gadgets.  Life was good.

The Plantronics operates in two different modes: headset for things like Skype and stereo headphone for audio playback-only. Switching between them is as simple as switching the Bluetooth service in use.

After working a while longer I packed up the gear and headed back home. I know some will say that having the S5, keyboard and mouse is too many items to have to carry but the fact is they are all very small in their own right, weigh next to nothing and the beauty of this arrangement is only the items needed leave the bag. I can use just the light S5 in my hand when that fits the bill, yet I have a full keyboard and the rest when needed.

The rest of the day I worked mostly at my desk in the home office, although I will admit given the lovely spring day I spent some time working on the back deck with the S5 in hand. I read my e-book several times during the evening and kept up with email and Google Reader sitting in the comfy chair.  It was a great day.

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