Rodfather Mobile

Coffee Break
Chillin at Starbucks wishing I
didn’t have to swap SIM cards and
tether to get online.
I like sitting here w/ my Q1 on
my lap with its small footprint
and light weight. I keep looking
into 12″ convertibles though since
many have internal WWAN options now.
Not sure if I can get used to having a
big USB modern sticking out of my
UMPC either. At this moment,
a HTC shift would be nice, but
I’m using interpolated 1024×600 now
but the performance loss and fuzzy
screen is way annoying.
Maybe I should just hack my
Q1 w/ a EVDO card while I
continue deciding what to do.

Brenda ‘Newt’ just informed me through a comment in the 6 UMPC’s with internal WWAN. Which one would you choose? post, announcing the launch of a new blog covering the Flybook V5.

She’s been lusting after a Flybook literally for years now and finally ordered one a few days ago. It should arrive around October 11th.

Newt was able to order the latest build of the V5 which was recently upgraded from having a U2400 1.06Ghz processor and 60GB hard drive to having a U2500 1.2Ghz processor and 80GB hard drive.

If you’re even slightly interested in the Flybook V5, check it out and subscribe. It’s full of useful links and a great post answering why she wants a Flybook V5.

I can’t wait to read more about her experiences with this nice (yet expensive) device.

Link to Newt’s Flyblog

I don’t have to worry about formatting or making sure I have the correct tags. This is free-flow blogging sort of like using Mind Manager. I just type. Limit is 140 characters. It causes me to be more efficient.

UPDATE: Thought I’d add this. This is a snippet from seasoned blogger and podcaster at only 14 years old, Daniel Brusilovsky of the Apple Universe interviewing the founder of Twitter, Jack Dorsey.

Dream The Became a Reality (.wav)

This is me at the bar in the bowling alley brain storming what I want in my next device.

From here on now, view going bottom to top.

—–

ok packing up my gear now. twittered out sitting in the bar.

about 1 hour ago from web

remember in 1999, grabbed a pc card w/ gprs speeds. drove to work w/ webcam on ala justin.tv. surprised how well it worked back then about 1 hour ago from web

@palmsolo: nice post. one thing that’s definitely been better is the network coverage. still needs works but we have far more options now about 1 hour ago from web in reply to palmsolo

league bowling just ended. bar is starting to fill up now about 1 hour ago from web

would consider waiting for HTC shift but it has 800×480. i’m done with that. plus rather have sprint than at&t since i dont have hsdpa here about 1 hour ago from web

i’m too picky. what’s the smallest windows device w/ internal wwan? OQO2. not much of an upgrade though. would rather hack my q1 about 1 hour ago from web

hah i passed 2000 tweets. yay about 1 hour ago from web

do i really need the power for viewing 720p footage? editing video & encoding in the field would be nice but is it necessary? about 1 hour ago from web

would still keep q1 and prob use it in the house on my bed or on the shitter. so maybe on-the-go productivity machine to do work. about 2 hours ago from web

any of the 12″ conv w/ int wwan or pc card/expresscard. what about the LG C1? no word about that. 10″ conv,core 2 duo. htc x7501? no. about 2 hours ago from web

so what about now? p1610 w/ sprint pc card, 1gb ram, xp? kohjinsha sh8 w/ usb wwan, less power, more portability. sony tz, no tablet. about 2 hours ago from web

@mdoeff: haha. sort of feel bad for barry now. hurt on his last day as a giant plus his HR ball has an asterisk on it now about 2 hours ago from web in reply to mdoeff

one question is if i can live without tablet functionally. i can and it would give me more options, but i like inking. it makes me happy about 2 hours ago from web

i like all-in-one solution though since at time i forget to bring my keyboard and plugging crap in is a hassle. plus typing in a car sucks about 2 hours ago from web

but one thing i like w/ slate w/ stand like my q1 is it sits vertically. heat dissipates better and spilling beer on keyboard wont fry it about 2 hours ago from web

those are 4lb and less portability but can do work w/ bigger screen. can add expresscard/pc card wwan option. but those stick out. about 2 hours ago from web

so now looking into 12″ conv like the lenovo x61, hp 2710, fujitsu 2010. only lenovo & 2710 have internal evdo wwan options but just verizon about 2 hours ago from web

of course price is a factor. sony tz is so pretty looking and has all the features i want except it’s not a tablet pc and expensive. about 2 hours ago from web

so i want a sony tz series and a fujitsu p1610 to get in bed and have a child. umpc’s might not cut it anymore but i still want its mobility about 2 hours ago from web

touchpad on keyboard, keyboard like macbook/sony tz, SDHC slot, 802.11bgn, webcam on middle/top screen, 2-3lbs, low heat, 2.5″ drive about 2 hours ago from web

at least 4 hrs battery, indoor/outdoor screen, touchscreen, thumbstick on the top right portion of the screen. l/r mouse button on left side about 2 hours ago from web

which doesnt exist but some devices come close. so.. 10″ convertible, internal sprint wwan, fast enough to play 720p h264 footage, about 2 hours ago from web

pardon me if i go off on tweets tonight. going to brainstorm/talk to myself on what i want in my next device about 2 hours ago from web

@taxman45: well this ain’t no starbucks. very low tech here so ya. i get approached all the time asking what the hell that thing is about 2 hours ago from web in reply to TaxMan45

at the bowling alley bar. have the q1 set up & connected via bluetooth. waiting for a burger about 3 hours ago from web

Yo yo. Mofo’ can survive an explosion. ‘Nuff said.

15″ touchscreen, 1.6Ghz Pentium M, 2GB RAM, 40GB hard drive, crammed in a supa’ shield. Not exactly portable. 45 lbs and wall mounted.

Via Engadget

Outside The Bowling Alley
Just chillin in one of the chairs
outside the bowling alley. I’m in
the shade with full brightness and
it’s easy to read. I’d like something
a lot brighter though.
Just took this
pic w/ Blackjack
and sent over bluetooth.
I’m trying not to use
the keyboard today. Just use
the tip or ink

pugleon, a member of the UMPC Portal site, posted a review of the Vye S18+ in the forums. It is a rebranded version of the Kohjinsha SA1 series with the touchscreen. He is very happy with it and summed it up nicely.

“PROS:
Everything. Light. Well constructed. Sleek looking. Good battery life. The improved keyboard. Fast enough to do what you want it to. Price is right. Logo can be covered with a nice transfer. Plenty of good sites doing made to measure high quality vinyl transfers if the logo bugs you. Looking for an SH1…. this is the one to get”

Check out the post. He put up some photos and a youtube video of the device.

Link

I reinstalled XP Tablet Edition on my Samsung Q1 a few days ago.  Since I’ve owned the Q1, I probably went to Vista and back to XP at least 3-4 times starting with RC1 and now saying bye to Vista Ultimate. 

I’m glad I’m back.  The main reason I went back for the final time (I keep saying that), is stability.  Everything just works in XP.  The final straw was when my iPhone was stuck in Recovery Mode.  The Q1 with Vista Ultimate refused to see the iPhone in recovery mode and didn’t install the drivers.  My work laptop with Vista Business tried to go through with the recovery process but iTunes crashed.  That’s when I started to panic and turned on a Mac and finally got my iPhone going again. Two possibly unrelated problems happening in Vista just pissed me off.  I had to have at least one ’stable’ portable device, so back to XP on the Q1 since I use it the most.

Now, what have I gained back since going back to XP?

• GeckoTIP - I can open up a floating TIP while using Firefox.  The latest release isn’t compatible with Vista.
• Bluetooth Tethering - For some reason, Vista bluetooth can’t see my Blackjack phone as a Bluetooth PAN device.  It’s most likely the phone, but still, fact is it wouldn’t work.  The only way I could tether in Vista was through the USB cable.  Now I have both options back.
• Performance - Programs are loading up faster.  Videos are playing smoother.  I can play a 720p high definition WMVHD file again.  No disk thrashing.  Overall snappier experience.
• Battery Life - I’m getting slightly more battery life.
• Screen Brightness w/ hardware buttons - With Vista, the combination of the menu button + volume rocker only worked for reducing the brightness.  With XP, I can use the same combo for both brightness up & down.
• Robogeo - For some reason, I couldn’t get this to install with Vista.
• Stable drivers - I feel better not using, for example, beta drivers for my webcam.

What have I lost?

• TIP - The TIP in Vista is much improved.  It’s undocked by default and swoops on the screen.  Character recognition is excellent now and learns as you use it.
• Start Menu - I miss the search from the new Start menu.  Very useful.  I also like how the programs are arranged.  Always sorted and in one scrollable row.
• Security - Probably didn’t make much of a difference since I turned off most of the security features due to performance.
• Better NHC - Notebook Hardware Control gave me more options in Vista.  Allowing me to control the CPU speed for each profile.
• Origami Experience - Never used it.  It’s slow and felt bloated.  VLC played videos much smoother.  CarPC frontends made more sense.
• Media Center - Ran too slow, I never used it.

 So I’ll say it again, I will never go back to Vista on my Q1.  Doesn’t mean my next device won’t have Vista, just not the Q1.

I found the Vye USA site which seems to be a US distributor of Vye Computers in the UK. They recently rebranded the Kohjinsha PC’s. Snave of My Kohjinsha was able to get a hold of one and posted his impressions.

What’s interesting are the specs on the site:

The differences from the SH6:

• 800Mhz A110 processor instead of the 600Mhz A100
• 120GB hard drive instead of 100GB
• USA Keyboard
• Extended 6 Cell Battery

On the products page, it’s being listed for $1349. With shipping, add an extra $42.

When I tried to go through the checkout, it redirected to Pal Pal for payment.

I emailed Vye USA on availability and I hope to get an answer soon.

UPDATE (9/3/07):
vyeusa.com has updated their homepage. The Vye Mini-v S37 will be available September 17th in the US.

Dynamism.com has the S37 listed on the site. There is no price set. The dimensions and weight are a bit smaller/lighter than the SH6 which is odd. The specs show it has the Japanese keyboard instead of the USA keyboard.

From Dynamism.com:

Vye S37

8.58 x 6.42 x 1.0 [inch]
218 x 163 x 25.4[mm]
2.17 lbs / 985 g
Standard Battery: 5.0 hours
84 Key QWERTY Japanese

Kohjinsha SH6

8.58 x 6.42 x 1.0 [inch]
227 x 170 x 25.4[mm]
2.2 lbs / 993 g
Standard Battery: 3.5 hours
Enhanced Battery: 7.0 hours
84 Key QWERTY Japanese

UPDATE (9/3/07):
So I email dynamism.com today asking about the Vye S37 availability, price, keyboard, and extended battery..
I haven’t received a response which has been typical of vendors, but, I just noticed a change in the website.

• $1349
• Shipping mid to late September
• 6-cell extended battery included
• 84 key QWERTY keyboard (English) - Not exactly sure what that means but hoping it’s a USA keyboard

UPDATE (9/4/07):
I received an email back from Jeff of dynamism.com. He confirmed the Vye S37 will come with the extended battery and have an english keyboard. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a USA keyboard so we shall see. He doesn’t know if the Vye logo will be on the back of the screen since they haven’t received a demo unit yet. I’m very happy I received a reply. Brownie points for dynamism.

UPDATE (9/14/07):
Dynamism is listing a lower price for the Vye S37. $1279.

Kevin Tofel posted an interesting topic on jkOnTheRun. He has made it clear the past year he’s an inker and uses the Samsung Q1P mostly with the pen. He also carries a bluetooth keyboard in case he wants to do some typing.

“Although I use multiple devices, my primary mobile device continues to be the Samsung Q1P. If had to guess about my own usage, I’d estimate 80% of the time is spent using it as a slate Tablet while 20% of the time, I use it with a Bluetooth keyboard. Actually, this post was entered in ink with the TIP, so make that 81/19. ;)”

What’s really interesting is the comments in the post.   Andrew has a convertible but uses it 100% in slate mode..

While Jenn of pocketables has a slate with but uses the keyboard 100% of the time..

As for me, I’m split.  I like using both.  Just that I’m not a fan of using the TIP & handwriting for character input.

It just goes to show, each and every one of us uses PC’s differently and I’m glad there’s such a variety of form factors to choose from.  Choosing a computer is a personal choice and there will never be one computer perfect for everyone.

Link