Ultra Mobile PC

Are you ready to let your fingers dance across your computer monitor, display, or interactive whiteboard? When Microsoft announced that it is including multi-touch support in Windows 7, there was plenty of groaning about dirty fingers.

"...I really don't want users pinching and dragging their dirty mits around the new LCD monitors," writes Slashdot user binaryspiral.

"I know I'm not the most tolerant person in the world, but when someone comes to my desk, points at something on the screen and leaves a big smeary finger print, violent thoughts flash through my mind," comments TheTruthIsOutThere on ZDnet.

Channel9 user, YearOfTheLinuxDesktop, expresses, "look: I can fill my display with dirty fingerprints!"

Do you agree with these folks? Is touching something bad? Or is it a fear you can get over?

Perhaps you are hyper-clean. Nothing wrong with that. If that's the case, when you scrub your desk and keyboard each day - before and after you snack - just take a quick wipe of the display too.

Perhaps you are a free spirit who rarely cleans and are slightly worried that this is one more place that people will notice you haven't cleaned. Trust me, they know it already. If salt from potato chips scratching your display worries you, then there are great inventions like hand-towels and napkins to help you out.

Call for Papers: Workshop on the Impact of Pen-based Technology on Education (WIPTE)

Lora — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 22:03:06 -0700

Purdue University is hosting this year's Workshop on the Impact of Pen-based Technology on Education (WIPTE). Submissions for papers, videos and posters are now being accepted.

Conference Dates: October 15 - 16, 2008
Conference Schedule future location

Here are some of the details for the Call for Papers:

Submissions Due: June 16, 2008.

Objectives: A wide variety of disciplines are embracing Tablet PC's and similar pen-based devices as tools for the radical enhancement of teaching and learning. Deployments of Tablet PCs have spanned the K-12, undergraduate, and graduate levels and have dealt with an amazingly diverse range of subject areas including nursing, veterinary science, geology, ethno-musicology, anthropology, landscape architecture, writing, mathematics, computer science, Japanese language, physics, engineering, art, economics, as well as others. Despite the diversity of content areas, many deployments have been similar in terms of the passion they have generated among students and teachers. The Third Workshop on the Impact of Pen-based Technology on Education (WIPTE) is intended to leverage this shared passion and to identify best practices in the educational use of pen-based computing so that all educators may benefit from this next generation of technology.

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What makes a good UMPC?

Lora — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 00:08:39 -0800

Whether you refer to small PCs with batteries Ultra-mobile PCs, ultramobile PCs, mini tablets, or UMPC, this category packs innovation into a little bundle that you can carry with you. Between Intel and VIA designing special chipsets and processors with better power management, rotational hard drives dropping in price, and the popularity of small display sizes in consumer products we've seen the sub 2lb PC market start to expand. The innovation doesn't stop with chipsets and processors though. We're seeing touch screens on more PCs. You can tap your way around web pages with your finger or a stylus. When you're using a full Windows OS with browser, you can run Flash and Silverlight based web apps, read and write PDFs, and even use a full productivity application suite. You can use these little PCs as a companion or as a simple PC system.

Is a product still in the UMPC category when a rotational hard drive is replaced with solid state drive? What about when the screen is just a regular display and doesn't have touch? Or how about when the operating system is mobile or limited? Why or why not?

Rugged PCs at CES 2008

Lora — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 19:52:06 -0800

CES has been a great place for resellers, retailers, and partners to get product roadmaps, not to mention a good place for press and general audience to get a peek at future products. Though the target audience for these products is consumers, there really is a variety of product types on the show floor.

CES 2008 Tablet PC & UMPC Gathering Begins

LPH — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 17:00:20 -0800

The CES 2008 Tablet PC & UMPC is underway. jkOnTheRun suggests over 100 people have already arrived. Joan Heiny says several people have been coming in and out of the rooms. More were arriving as we were talking on the phone. She also reported 5 manufacturers may be giving away Tablet PCs and several other manufacturers are present. The excitement and laughter from the crowd was obvious.

The New LG UMPC

LPH — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 19:22:12 -0800

www.akihabaranews.com reports a new UMPC from LG (name yet to come) will be displayed at CES 2008.

Specifications include:

a 4.8” Touchscreen
1GB of RAM
Intel Menlow Platform
40GB of HDD
HSDPA, Wifi, Bluetooth, and a Keyboard

Samsung Expands Its Q1 Ultra Line With New High-Performance UMPC

LPH — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 16:53:20 -0800

The Samsung Q1 Ultra Premium UMPC was named a 2008 CES Innovations Honoree.

Answering Emails for the CES 2008 Tablet PC and UMPC Gathering

LPH — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 22:56:23 -0800

This post provides a few more pieces of information regarding the CES 2008 Tablet PC and UMPC Gathering.

$100 off Fujitsu U810 at Costco

Lora — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 00:00:00 -0800

Costco.com is offering a $100 coupon for Fujtisu Lifebook U810 with Windows Vista Home Premium. The coupon is valid for orders placed before December 10, 2007.