After two of my readers, Igor and Charlie Thomas, requested I look at several UMPC related accessories and their ability to multitask with other devices I thought I would post some photos. In summary Igor wanted to know if the ASUS R2H would fit in the Organsier Pack made by Samsung; while Charlie wanted to know if the Samsung Q1 would fit in the EO I7210 Bump Case.
First a ping, then a ring, then a tap on the back door, and who should pop over but the ever famous Dr. Neil Roodyn. No, we weren't podcasting (ala Dr. Neil�s Notes), nor were we ripping a video, this time he was on a mission...the Vista Mission. Tired of playing spectator to the many he too decided to delicately place Vista on his Samsung Q1 Ultra-Mobile PC.
Well done Neil, I think it will please everyone to know just how "simple" you found the task...maybe it helps being an Author, MVP, Regional Director, and International Guru...don't be fooled by his simplicity readers...he's half man/half Service Packs!
So prior to Christmas it seemed like I�d done something right, to someone, somewhere. Not only did I receive a baby daughter in November but shortly after, and not as planned, came Mr. FedEX with a rather large box from ACER/Microsoft and AMD. What was it you ask? Only an Acer Ferrari 1000 Notebook with Windows Vista Ultimate pre-installed and Office 2007 Ultimate too.
I know there was a big uproar about the entire giveaway, and a great deal of fanfare due to the �morality� of the entire event, and in case you didn�t follow it read Mitch Denny, Craig Pringle or Frank Arrigo. All I can say however is that being on the receiving end was rather nice � if it weren�t for the fact that I�m a Tablet Guy and the Ferrari is a �just� a notebook.
Not to sound ungrateful but I must admit, to the horror of many geeks around the globe, that the box sat untouched for much of the festive season. When I finally got around to opening the box I was disappointed I hadn�t cracked her open earlier; I fell in love with Windows Vista and was overwhelmed with all the new Office features.
So there I was with an AMD Dual Core beast with all the bells-and-whistles staring back at me, and yet there was no pen. First thing I did was connect to the internet, obviously, and looked for the latest Windows Updates, of which there were none. Then I quickly modified my Sidebar via the Gadget Gallery, and then I stared�I stared at the closed lid of my little box. What was staring back at me you might ask; only the most beautifully molded piece of Carbon Fibre (replica I think) staring right back at me, and at the heart of the stare was the shiny-Red Ferrari emblem, embossed as only the precious horse should be.
I believe there are only three types of men in the world: those that like Porsches, those that like Ferraris, and everyone else. I for one have always been a Porsche man, and if you ever sat in a Porsche Cayenne you�d know what I mean; and yet when this little Black Stallion pranced on his little yellow shield of honor all I could think was thank you Microsoft, thank you.
Many journalists battled with the morality of handing bloggers a FREE top of the range notebook. They saw it as a bribe and even worse as a form of blackmail. I think Mitch Denny put it best when he said we were already converted, we�ve only been blogging about the merits of Microsoft forever�come on! You only have to read my blog for 6 seconds to know that I am an unpaid evangelist, part of the VEP (Volunteer Evangelistic Program�LOL), who is a passionate advocate for all things MS, although my primary expertise is Tablet PC.
The dilemma lies herein; do we keep the notebook, give it back to Microsoft or give it away. When I received an email today from Frank Arrigo I couldn�t help but feel a little nudged! Perhaps they did have expectations of the giveaway�of course�and perhaps, rightly so, Frank was wondering why I hadn�t blogged about the event given that my blog has quite a �nice� global following. So tonight I�ve blogged about it, and even posted a simple video. You may remember Wacom gave me a Vista enabled Tablet board recently which cleverly turns any notebook, or desktop, into a Tablet PC. So what else was there left for me to do but Ink Enable my Ferrari; and that�s exactly what I did. The following is a little video showing exactly that. I am happy to blog about any of the Ferrari features you like, and even comment on Vista. This is your space so let me know how I can benefit you from this giveaway.
And for those of you interested my plan is NOT to keep it�that leaves two choices, I believe. ;-)
The funniest thing happened to me today. I decided, together with a little shove from my wife, to clean the garage. What I didn�t realize however is just how massive this job was going to be. The first thing you need to know about my garage is that my car has never been in it, and we�ve been here for 2 years now. The second thing you need to know is that it is a double-brick, double car space, extra long garage; so my car not fitting-in is not due to lack of space.
Thinking back, what has occurred is probably the same dilemma that faces many married couples. The man of the house, usually a role taken by the husband, but not always (LOL), has his toys in the garage, while the woman of the house, usually the wife (LOL), takes all the available cupboard space in the house for her stuff! In this case I have a garage full of cables, old PCs, monitors, more cables, boxes, and, did I mention cables???
What was interesting about this miserable tale is this. While performing man�s most mundane task (the garage cleanup) I discovered the funniest thing ever. This will sound extremely bizarre to most of you but for the �clever� ones that have visited my blog on more than one occasion, what I am about to say will not entirely surprise. �What I found was a Tablet I forgot I had!�
At last count there are over 12 Tablet PCs in the house (including Ultra-Mobile PC) and this one would tip the scale to make it 13! As Dr. Neil would tell me, �not a bad problem to have!� The Tablet I found was the Xplore Rugged Slate named the IX104. If you haven�t heard me mention this one before just read here, or watch here (recorded: Sunday, February 12, 2006).
Have a great weekend everyone! Another video 4U tomorrow.
I never collected coins or stamps, nor bottle tops or fridge magnets. My hobbies seem to be a little more eccentric in that I've taken to collecting UMPC! Finally I hit the jackpot in that I have gathered all the UMPC under one roof. Once again however it's not about me, it's about you! So I'll free up a moment in the next few days and VLOG my thoughts...stay tuned. Until then salivate over this picture; I'm off to bed with one of them.
I remember posting an image of the family in R&R and also thinking how funny it was that lots of you ran with the photo on your own blogs, so I thought to myself, �why not tease you do it again? �
Recently, before Christmas to be exact, I sold my Fujitsu T4210. �What� I hear you yell! My logic was this: If I move my gadgets I will all remain ahead of the pack and knowledgeable enough to warrant anyone reading this blog. What ended up happening was the deepest exploration of my personal views on mobility and what UMPC really means to me.
Because I moved my T4210 on pretty quickly I was faced with the dilemma of which machine to choose next. I am bit lucky though in that I had �almost� anything at my finger tip. So what did I reach for and why??? That is the million dollar question.
The following is a succinct three-part video documenting my thoughts and feelings towards Ultra-Mobile PC today and why I was able to replace my desktop, and therefore increase my productivity! So grab some popcorn and sit back and watch another episode of the UberTablet blog; or is that vlog?
Once again keep the feedback and questions coming. I value your thoughts and opinions and always look forward to playing a role, or you playing a role in my Ultra-Mobile Story! This is Hugo Ortega asking you to have fun with me!
I�m kind of glad CES is over because of two reasons.
1. I couldn�t attend (jealousy is a curse), and 2. Because of the information overload.
I conducted my first wrap up here and this is my final. The show was awesome. There were obvious developments in the UMPC space that warmed the heart. The two blogs I followed on this front were JKOntheRun, an GottaBeMobile. Lets point at a couple of their posts I liked recently:
We were all anxious to find and talk to the folks at Black Diamond about their ruggedized Ultra-Mobile PC, the Switchback. The wait was worth it. Dennis and I were able to get our hands on these units (a very clever display where they had some of the suspended from chains dangling in the air), and also film a video interview which we�ll be posting up shortly. I have never had the opportunity to hold a ruggedized anything in my hand until this CES, and let me tell you, in my opinion the Switchback is an amazing device to hold.
The screen slides smoothly, revealing something that I wouldn't want in my UMPC. At least that's what I thought. The keyboard is the most standard looking and feeling keyboard over anything I've seen yet, and we've seen 'em all here. The keys have a nice feel and travel; just like a standard keyboard, only much smaller of course. You'll be using your thumbs, but I have to say after using the device for about 10 minutes: you can quickly get used to the approach and start tapping out text faster than you'd think.
Source: Kevin C. Tofel
The Toshiba R400 appeared to be the stickiest blog catcher though.
I think Warner got it right in that CES was all about Media, i.e. videos and streaming, and stuff. Even Bill Gates Keynonote was run through a Tag Cloud Generator designed by Seattle PI (way cool Frank for posting this) and the strong buzz words from his speech were all about video, music, ipTV, photos�MEDIA, MEDIA, MEDA. Looks like Toshiba is on the case in the Tabletsphere.
The Toshiba Wireless Port Replicator was the most impressive piece of new hardware I saw the entire conference. I hope others follow Toshiba�s lead here and soon. Being able to set your Tablet PC on your desk and have it connect to a 2nd monitor, or any USB device wirelessly could be a real boon. And if there is any doubt that media is what everybody is thinking about, the fact that the wireless dock is optimized for streaming media and the reps actually recommend moving large files through a USB connection should tell you something.
Then there was the S-Xgen. Not only did this appear to be disliked by several but it was also a little misunderstood, or at least misrepresented by its own staff. (now I'm not sure if it runs Windows Mobile 5.0 or Pocket PC). If you watch this InkShow you�ll see that Rob managed to stump the Sales Rep on several occasions�come on Seamless what are you doing??? I want to know where the place is for this device. It�s a Windows Mobile 5.0 phone/PC that needs a dial pad (separate) and headset (separate again) to make phone calls. It main features touted by the manufacturer are battery life and full size keyboard. What do you guys think?
One product that was really exciting was the new screen technology from Sony; these will no doubt play a role in notebooks and Tablets in the near future. I came across this via these clowns in the UK. (Who are these guys?)Anyway have a look at just how thin the screen is!!! While another favourite of mine, and by no means were these guys clowns, was the CNETTV Team. I couldn�t help but watch each video a couple of times over.
SO that's it for my AdHoc roundup with a little taste of what I followed/liked/disliked. While I having got heavily involved I still wanted to give you a flavour of what CES meant to me in a token sort of way...now I have to go a do some "real work!"
Sorry Igor, the ASUS does not fit...at all!
But the TabletKiosk EOV7110 does!
Here is the EO V7110 cloesd in the Samsung Q1 Organiseer Pack. By the way, the V7110 is top-heavy and has a tendency to fall out of the pack if you open it quickly!!! Careful...buy at your own risk.
Hey Charlie, the Samsung Q1 fits nicely. For your reference buy the EO V7110 Bump Case as it will fit even better with more exposed buttons. (Make sure you blog about it and credit me!
It's a nice fit actually!
Here is the back of the Bump Case with the Q1 in it.
Here is the EO Portfolio Carrying Case and the Q1 fits in it nicely too!
Here is the Q1 closed up inside the EO Portfolio Carry Case.
I was pretty excited to learn that the Samsung Q1 Keyboard (which includes a mouse pointer and left and right click) works on all UMPC. Note however you may need to use a USB extension cable to get to your USB ports depending on which device you use
