Testing Ink Blogging Trying to get a few tools working with each other. Got Windows Live Writer set up for my blog but I want to get it to work with Windows Journal and Posterous. Let’s see if using the Send To Email plugin will work for posting to Posterous. Also grabbed the Ink blog plugin, Snipping Tool integration plugin, and Clipboard Live. I’m imagining copying the entire page from Journal into Live writer and then emailing to Posterous.

Sascha Pallenberg

George Kuan of Freescale on Smartbooks during the Linux Forum 2009 – "Smartbooks are always connected" #smartbooks #netbooks

11 hours ago from Twitter

Steve ‘Chippy’ Paine

Computex 2009 Intel MIDS – http://www.umpcportal.com/gallery…

9 hours ago from Ultra Mobile PC (UMPC) image…

Steve ‘Chippy’ Paine

Compal KAX-15 Menlow-based MID. Info and JKK’s Video. Coming via Aigo? – http://www.umpcportal.com/2009…

8 hours ago from UMPCPortal

Steve ‘Chippy’ Paine

Viliv X70 in case. – http://www.flickr.com/photos…

8 hours ago from Flickr

James Kendrick

This Week at Mobile Tech Manor #42: UMPCs Everywhere – http://jkontherun.com/2009…

5 hours ago from jkOnTheRun

Rob Bushway

Nothing like playing Flight Control on iPhone while you are on a plane. New version rocks. #fb

5 hours ago from Twitter

jkkmobile

Inventec Moorestown MID at Computex – http://jkkmobile.blogspot.com/2009…

5 hours ago from jkkmobile

jkkmobile

Asus Eee PC T91 with multitouch screen – http://jkkmobile.blogspot.com/2009…

5 hours ago from jkkmobile

Kevin C. Tofel

Acer Android Netbooks Will Include Windows After All – http://jkontherun.com/2009…

3 hours ago from jkOnTheRun

jkkmobile

Hands-on with Nvidia Tegra platform on netbook – http://jkkmobile.blogspot.com/2009…

2 hours ago from jkkmobile

Kevin C. Tofel

Pre Inventory Levels are Lower Than Low in my Area – http://jkontherun.com/2009…

2 hours ago from jkOnTheRun

Kevin C. Tofel

Do Three I’s and Two Devices Equal One Happy Camper? – http://jkontherun.com/2009…

1 hour ago from jkOnTheRun

Rob Bushway

Guy next to me on airplane has sony ereader, me kindle 2..fight!! The winner? Me…i just bought a book while waiting for the doors to close

1 hour ago from Twitter

Steve ‘Chippy’ Paine

sitting at Hong Kong airport messing with the x70. i like it better than the s5 so far. more productive. video quality is stunning.

1 hour ago from Twitter

No love for UMPC inkers
I am writing on my old trusty Samsung Q1.
A year ago most tableteers wouldn’t even
consider this as a viable inking device.
I’ve gotten used to it and I hardly have
any vectoring issues with it even with
my palm resting on the screen. Now
I have the Fujitsu U810, which in my
case, has even a softer touchscreen. In
a nutshell, inking on the U810 is plain
horrible.
Looking down the line of future
UMPC’s such as the HP 2133, which
I consider a subnotebook, and other
Asus Eee PC clones, it appears there’s
a slim to none chance we will see a
viable UMPC inking device. Even MID’s
will pass and try to go with finger
touch interfaces to compete with the
iPhone/iPod touch.
So what’s left for people like me?
Hope OQO continues with including an
active digitizer? Hope future Nokia
Internet Tablets will still have a
touchscreen and include a stylus?
Oh well… I’ve all but given up on
seeing a UMPC with a 7″ screen
that has a dual-mode active/passive
digitizer.

I found out Inkseine was available a day early from Rob of gottabemobile.com so I went ahead and installed it.  So far it seems cool.  It works perfectly fine on the Fujitsu U810’s touchscreen.  I like the interface, but I’m not exactly sure what I’d use it for.  I’d still rather use Windows Journal for ink blog posts.  It’s fun to use so I suggest you try it out.

National Handwriting Day
Well, well. I found out from Sumocat (http://sumocat.blogspot.com/2008/01/its-national-handwriting-day.html)via
GBM (http://www.gottabemobile.com/National+Handwriting+Day.aspx)it’s National Handwriting Day today.
This day was chosen using John Hancock’s
birthday which makes perfect sense.
GottaBeMobile has been posting a lot
about ink blogging lately. I’m not sure if
interest will blow up significantly, but
it would be nice to gain a few more
inkers.
-Rod
P.S. Going to try out
Build 52 (http://www.markandtanya.us/scribbles/Build52v2.html).

Another ink attempt on U810
Well I figure I better practice
inking on the Fujitsu U810 since
I’ll be stuck with this for a
while. It’s just not easy writing
on this super light touch screen
that’s super slick with a thin
stylus.
I really wanted to use this for
mobile/on-the-go inking since
I grabbed the domain name
‘mobileinker.com.’  I envisioned
myself using this while out of the
house and moblog my entries
on the fly.

My First U810 Inkblog
I thought l should try ink
blogging at least one time on
the U810. It’s just very difficult.
First of all, there seems to be a
delay when you first make contact
with the screen. So you end up
writing the first word of the
sentence over.
Second, the screen is very light
touch. I’m training myself to
not place my palm on the screen
which isn’t difficult due to the
5.6" screen.
3rd, the screen is too smooth.
It’s like trying to write with a
pen on glass. It’s taking time
to get used to writing on
a smooth surface.
Last, the pen is too thin. Not
easy to get a grip on it.

First thing’s first.   The audiodg.exe process shot up 25% to 100% CPU% whenever I tried to use the cam.  This is the process in Vista that basically handles audio processing.  It ended up being bad Reaktek HD audio drivers that came preinstalled.  Whenever the mic was accessed, the audiodg.exe process would shoot up.

I ended up going to the Realtek support page and installed the updated the Vista drivers.  Now whenever the mic is accessed, the audiodg.exe process doesn’t go crazy.  The most I’ve seen it go up is around 10% now.

Software

It comes with ArcSoft’s WebCam Companion 2 software.  It’s fairly basic which does the job of capturing images and video from the webcam.  It also has a motion capture mode and the ability to edit the clips you have recorded.  It’s not the greatest piece of software but it does the job.

Online Video Sites

Ustream.tv works.  The CPU% shoots up close to 100%.  For some reason, ustream.tv performed a bit better when using IE7.

Justin.tv worked fine but there’s a very long delay of 10-20 seconds between what’s live and what is played back.

Flixn.com works great.  There’s no need to register.  You basically record a video clip from the webcam straight to the site and the end result is a webpage and links to embed the video to another site.  I can see myself using this service the most.

Viddler.com is quick and easy.  Great use of the webcam to record clips.

Youtube’s quick capture feature didn’t seem to work.  It sat there waiting for the server to respond.  I’ll try again later but doubt I’ll use it since you have to go through the process of filling in required fields before even capturing a video.

Recording a clip to ‘my library’ with Operator11.com worked fine.  I didn’t try joining a live broadcast but I’m sure there wouldn’t be too much problems.

I will try to piece up some kind of review and express my reasons for choosing this device.

For now.. something strange happened.  The touchscreen sensitivity has turned super light.  It’s weird.  When I first booted up, I swore the screen was medium to heavy touch since it took a good amount of pressure to register a click.  Now, the screen is so sensitive, I can draw with the fat of my fingers.  Vectoring is a given.  It’s a lot more sensitive than even my Samsung Q1.  While it does make navigating the screen a lot easier — for inking, it’s almost impossible.  I really don’t know what happened.  I may install XP anyway so we’ll see if the issues remain.

Phew.. it’s going to take some time getting used to this keyboard.  With a bit of practice, I can 6 finger touch type very fast with this.  Definitely much faster than thumbing it.  After writing this post, my fingers are feeling a bit cramped though.

Top quotes of the video:
“On the outside.. the Fujitsu Lifebook U810 UMPC is a strange little toad of a machine”

“Is that not the f*cking future?” (After pressing the keyboard light button)

“This is exactly the device I thought I wanted 10 years ago”

Zing!

I Made A Talking Head Video Review: Fujitsu Lifebook U810 UMPC – Boing Boing Gadgets

Since James liked the last one, I’ll focus on some devices that are hot in the news.

There seems to be a lot of demand for small, cheap devices but still retain a full sized touch keyboard.  But how small could you go?  By most accounts, the smallest you can go and still have the ability to 10 finger touch type seems to be around 9″ width devices like Panasonic R7 or Fujitsu P1610.  As of now, these devices can go up to the $1500-$3000 range.

Now we’re starting to see cheaper devices with the same width to provide the ’smallest you can go’ keyboard.  The differences here are the rest of the parts.  The innards use first generation UMPC’s components, such as the 7″ 800×480 screen,  but with stripped components, reduced storage and low memory.  Not to mention the lack of Windows which reduces costs considerably.  At $399 for the Asus Eee PC with Linux,  this is generating a lot of interest.

Size Breakdown

The Packard Bell Easynote XS and Asus Eee PC are in this same boat and are the most similar in size.  These are the OLPC clones/cheapass  subnotebooks with 7″ screens. 

The keyboard on them should be similar to the Vye S37/Kohjinsha SH since the width is around the same.  It’s funny how long the Vye S37/Kohjinsha SH is even with the 3 cell.  With the 6 cell, it may extend up to an inch more.

The Shift is interesting since it lacks length and a bit of width compared to the ‘bigger’ devices.  Along with the screen mechanism, there doesn’t seem much room for the keyboard.  The keys must be squashed vertically quite a bit.  I’m not sure if you can 10 finger touch type on this. 

Chippy was able to type fairly fast with just his thumbs though.

As for the Fujitsu U810, well, it has a touch keyboard but by no means full.  There’s been a lot of flak about whether the keyboard should even be there since it’s not very useful as a touch keyboard.  With all the keyboard combos with the function key, it may be frustrating.

It sounds more appealing to me looking at U810 as a thumb keyboard clamshell device but with the ability to touch type with four fingers if you want to have it sitting on a tabletop.  Plus it’s a convertible Tablet PC.

[Link]

—–

The main difference between the S37 and the Kohjinsha SH6/8 is the S37 comes standard with a 6-cell extended battery and USA keyboard layout.

One thing I’m curious about is the screen.  There have been reports the S37 screen has a matte finish and is not as bright as the Kohjinsha’s as noted here and here.

From UMPC Portal forums:

Firstly, let me tell you something important. The screens on these two devices are DIFFERENT. I didnt notice it at first but now they are side by side I can see it. The S37 is dimmer and has a matt finish (you can hear your nail scraping on it.) The SH6 is brighter and has a smooth finish. Both are 1024×600 and both are soft touch. The screen brightness on the S37 is 30% dimmer (at full) than the SH6 (as measured with a light meter) The frame on the S37 is also slightly buckled. I have emailed Vye about this and am trying to find out if I have some sort of prototype or wether the OEM has done a screen swap.

Dynamism IS carrying the 800MHz. They also just confirmed the screen type on the S37: “The screen is more of a matte screen but does have a slight reflective finish on it.” (They also won’t supply a UK plug. Boo. Considering the prices, you’d think they’d chuck one in )

Another is battery life.  From this review, the 3-cell battery on the Kohjinsha SH6, bought straight from a store in Japan, is getting 3.5 hours with heavy use.  This is odd since that range of battery life is normally only experienced with the 6-cell battery.

Battery

The battery is so small, once again you have to see it to believe it. I’m surprised the amount of power this thing can dish out and it’s only a 3 cell battery. While running 720p video, wireless off and full brightness, I got around 3.5 hours of battery. Another example is when I was in class for 5 hours straight, I had wireless off, 2 notches down from full brightness, was playing iTunes, sometimes typing and playing a little video every once and a while, I got 5 hours of battery. Not bad, but if you want more time, you should go for the more powerful battery.

I’m hoping the battery life issues have been resolved, but I’m doubting it.  Hopefully the reviewer can be contacted and reconfirm that statement. 

What’s surprising is the battery life.

Battery

The battery is so small, once again you have to see it to believe it. I’m surprised the amount of power this thing can dish out and it’s only a 3 cell battery. While running 720p video, wireless off and full brightness, I got around 3.5 hours of battery. Another example is when I was in class for 5 hours straight, I had wireless off, 2 notches down from full brightness, was playing iTunes, sometimes typing and playing a little video every once and a while, I got 5 hours of battery. Not bad, but if you want more time, you should go for the more powerful battery.

 

Has the battery life issues been addressed?   3.5 hours of battery life on the 3 cell battery under heavy use is very good.

[NotebookReview] via [Jerry from the UMPC Portal forums]

I punched in the dimensions of a few devices into SizeEasy.

Comparing the Fujitsu T2010, Sony TZ, Fujitsu P1610, Kohjinsha SH series/Vye mini-v s37, and the Fujitsu U810.

Noticing it’s a big jump in width and height from the P1610 to Sony TZ.  The Sony TZ is still very light at 2.5lbs, an inch thick, and excellent battery life.

The U810 looks significantly smaller in width but it is slightly thick and the screen is 5.6″.

The Samsung Q1, Kohjinsha SH, and P1610 are very similar but the P1610 is 10mm thicker.

Sitting At The Beach
At Manresa State Beach on one of
the benches. It’s almost sunset. I’m connected w/ the Novatel U727 sticking
out of the Q1. Working out nice.

That’s a nasty gash but works fine. Brownie points to Fujitsu for build quality.

Link
Mirrored Link (Original link seems to be down at the moment)

UPDATE: The S37 was set to ’silent mode’ which apparently throttles the CPU. Steve will post new results in the thread.

I’ve been following the Kohjinsha SH6/8 and Vye Mini-v S37 for quite some time now. It’s definitely one of top candidates for my next device. I was going to wait for the S37 to pan out since their US site says it will ship with a USA keyboard. I’m not so sure anymore.

Steve Paine of the UMPC Portal has posted a message in the forums comparing the Kohjinsha SH6 (Intel A100 600Mhz) and the Vye Mini-v S37 (Inte A110 800Mhz based on the SH8).

What’s interesting, in his test, the SH6 comes out slightly ahead in almost all the performance tests. This includes the Windows Vista Experience Index and CrystalMark. Could it be that the SH6 is running Vista Home and the S37 is running Vista Premium or are there other issues involved?

What’s worse, the S37’s screen is different than the SH6! WTF? That’s very disturbing. The S37’s screen has a matte finish and 30% dimmer than the SH6’s smoother finish.

I wonder if those differences are there between the SH6 and SH8. Did Vye swap the screen out?

I will closely monitor that thread.

Hi All.

UPDATE: There’s some problems with these tests so don’t take them as final yet. I’m speaking to Vye to try and find out what’s up!

I’ve finally got a chance to sit down and run the SH6 and S37 models I have side-by-side. Here are some observations.

SH6 bought from Conics.net. 2GB RAM. 40GB disk. 600Mhz processor. Vista Home. Black
S37 on loan from Vye. 1GB RAM. 100GB drive. 800Mhz processor. Vista home premium. Black

Both devices optimised:
Defender: OFF
INdexing: OFF
Screen candy set for best performance (No Aero)
Automatic updates: Notify but dont download.

Firstly, let me tell you something important. The screens on these two devices are DIFFERENT. I didnt notice it at first but now they are side by side I can see it. The S37 is dimmer and has a matt finish (you can hear your nail scraping on it.) The SH6 is brighter and has a smooth finish. Both are 1024×600 and both are soft touch. The screen brightness on the S37 is 30% dimmer (at full) than the SH6 (as measured with a light meter) The frame on the S37 is also slightly buckled. I have emailed Vye about this and am trying to find out if I have some sort of prototype or wether the OEM has done a screen swap.

Keyboard: The S37 has a tidier UK keyboard without the japanese writing. I like it a lot better but I guess its not affecting my productivity.

Build quality: Apart from the screen buckle on the S37, bothe are the same. The S37 has a logo on the back of the screen which looks big in pictures but is actually quite small.

Tests done under mains power….

Boot speed
S37 much quicker. (By about 20 seconds to the desktop.)

Time to settle (After boot up. Disk activity stopped) SH6 (Vista Home) much quicker (by at least a minute)

Windows Experience Index (test performed after fresh boot. After pre-caching completed.)
SH6: 1.8 (CPU=1.8, Memory=4.5, Graphics=3.4, Gaming Graphics=2.6, Primary hard disk=4.3)
V37: 1.7 (CPU=1.7, Memory=4.1, Graphics=2.9, Gaming Graphics=2.6, Primary hard disk=4.5)

But wait……Let me swap the memory modules over and give the S37 2GB.
SH6: 1.8 (CPU=1.8, Memory=4.5, Graphics=3.4, Gaming Graphics=2.6, Primary hard disk=4.3)
V37: 1.7 (CPU=1.7, Memory=4.1, Graphics=2.9, Gaming Graphics=2.6, Primary hard disk=4.5)

Exactly the same. Thats something I don’t understand…..
Will check some more performance scores and update this.

Crystal mark tests show the SH6 to be faster in almost every test. So at this point i’m going to stop testing and contact Vye. Something is wrong…..unless Vista HOme Premium is killing the results. Could that be the case?

Further testing…..

BIOS: S37 has a newer BIOS that saves the BT and WIFI state between boots/hibernate/standby. Better but presumably the SH6 can be upgraded.

General speed. The SH6 with 2GB feels faster. (THis is obviously due to 2GB ram and VIsta Home basic.) after swapping th memory, the SH6 still feels faster. There’s pretty much nothing in it and the only thing I can summize is that the tablet features (5 processes and quite a bit of RAM) are slowing things down for the S37.

More later……after i’ve spoken to Vye. Suggestions greatfully received!

Steve

In response, he’s calling out for ‘ultra-plan’ and is going to start using a UMPC on a daily basis to help promote its use.

We need an ultra-plan. A plan to show people how to use the UMPC so that efficiency is improved. Therefore, I worked to clear up a TabletKiosk UMPC from my daughters and plan to carry the UMPC with me. I hope to write about the experience daily so that others can follow along and maybe get excited about why the UMPC is a great product.

Great move.

As for myself, I’ve been using my Samsung Q1 as my main device for over a year. I do all my blogging from this device whether connected through WiFi or tethered through a WWAN connection. As you may have noticed, I occasionally do ink blogging too.

When working away from the office, it does the job since it’s a full Windows device. I can run SQL server, remote desktop, SSH, VPN, and many other tools to get things done.

While at work, I take the Q1 to meetings and use Onenote to ink notes along with recording audio with its built-in mic.

It’s the perfect media player. I don’t have to worry whether a certain codec will work. I use VLC media player and it can play just about any format. I also use Miro as my video podcatcher and it’s great not worrying whether my device will play a WMV or Quicktime h.264 podcast. It just works.

It’s my GPS device. I have a car mount set up in my Subaru to stick my Q1 on the dash. I’m running iGuidance as my navigation software which is great since they include a UMPC specific version with nice big buttons to take advantage of the touchscreen. I have a bluetooth GPS receiver sitting in my car to which pairs with the Q1 automatically after running iGuidance.

I can go on and on. For me, the UMPC has been great and I will continue using it even after upgrading to a new device.

[UMPC Buzz : UMPC Search on Google]