Frankly, the thing that excites me most about this announcement is that OS X will most likely follow suit (or preempt).

Images from Engadget.

I’m looking forward to the new Microsoft Sidewinder mouse. Not just for gaming, but because of the optimal placement of the thumb buttons. Most mice put the thumb buttons ‘out of the way’, forcing you to reach to press them. The Sidewinder thumb buttons are positioned at your thumb’s resting position, similar to how the left and right buttons are positioned under your fingers.

GotFrag, Official Page.

I’m also looking forward to the competition this represents for logitech. I’m a huge fan of the logitech mice (I own several, including the mx510, the vx nano, and the mx revolution), but I’d love to see even more innovation.

I helped him out a little with the UMPC Comparison section (an upgrade to his already awesome UMPC product info database), so check that out during your visit - and bookmark it! I expect it will be really useful during next week’s CeBit as the UMPC news rolls in. For an example of the great treatment and extensive descriptions his portal gives to individual UMPCs, check out this page about the Samsung Q2.

You can read more about the launch here.

Before broadcasting this to the world, I wanted to wait until I had a solution to the problem or a commitment from Nokia or Microsoft to fix this, but I came up empty on all 3 counts. This post on the InternetTabletTalk forums describes the situation in detail, but here’s a brief primer:

• Windows Mobile 5.0 AKU 3 (and higher), SmartPhone Edition no longer has Bluetooth DUN functionality. The Cingular BlackJack has this version of WM and presumably all of the newer SmartPhones are in that boat as well.
• The Nokia 770 and N800 Internet Tablets currently only support Bluetooth DUN as a way to share a phone’s internet connection.
• Windows Mobile 5.0 AKU 3 supports an alternative method for connection sharing: PAN.
• There are scripts available for the 770 that force it to share internet connections over PAN. It’s pretty hairy to get those scripts running, but it works.
• Those scripts sort of work on the n800, but Opera can’t use the resulting connection for some reason.

Nokia hasn’t announced any plans, yet, to officially support PAN. You can make your voice heard on the matter here.
Microsoft hasn’t announced any plans, yet, to put DUN support back in. You can make your voice heard on the matter here.

ThoughtFix just created a video of Dexpot, though, and I think I might be ready to convert! Dexpot has window choosers like TopDesk, but it also has a virtual desktop system built in!

Very interesting!

I’m sure it will be LifeHacker’s Download of the Day very soon.

On Friday, I built a new PC with parts I ordered from NewEgg.com. The components are listed at the bottom of this post. The total was well under $1500, including tax and shipping. The build procedure took more than 5 hours including the OS install - it was well worth it. My new pc is very fast and can handle all the games I tested at excellent speed with lots of beautiful graphics. Here are some thoughts:

• Second Life character animations are still choppy even with a fast CPU and Graphics card. Am I doing something wrong? I tried Second Life earlier this year and was turned off by the clunky look. I assumed it was my computer, but now that I know that’s normal, I guess I won’t be going back.
• Installing the heat sink/fan is much less stressful now than it was a few years ago. You don’t have to apply as much pressure. That’s a welcome change. When I built my AMD 2500+ based machine back then, I was afraid I was going to snap the motherboard because I had to press really hard, with a screwdriver, to get the heat sink set up.
• Battlefield 2142 is amazing.
• I haven’t tried Oblivion on this PC, yet, but I’m looking forward to it.
• World of Warcraft runs at 60 FPS with all settings on high in windowed and full screen mode.
• The case is very quiet. I installed a second 120mm fan and it’s still very quiet. The CPU and motherboard temps stay around 35-39 degrees celsius. The graphics card gets as high as 45 degrees under load.
• I bought a Logitech MX Revolution wireless mouse last night. More on that later. I love mice.
• Haven’t overclocked anything, yet.

Components:

• Antec LifeStyle SONATA II Piano Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 450Watt SmartPower 2.0 ATX 12V V2.0 for AMD & Intel systems Power Supply - Retail $99.99
• Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 Conroe 2.13GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80557E6400 - Retail $220.00
• eVGA 512-P2-N573-AR Geforce 7900GTO 512MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail $255.99
• OCZ Gold 1GB (2 x 512MB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model OCZ2G8001GK - Retail $119.99
• LITE-ON 16X DVD±R DVD Burner W/LightScribe and 5X DVD-RAM Write Black ATAPI/E-IDE Model SHM-165H6S - Retail $35.25
• GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3 Socket T (LGA 775) Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail $146.99
• FLEXIGLOW FGMPXRBL X-Raider Pro Mouse Pad “Blue” - Retail $14.99
• Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 (Perpendicular Recording) ST3250620AS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM $79.99
• ARCTIC COOLING AF12025 120mm Fluid Dynamic Case Cooling Fan - Retail $5.99
• ViewSonic VA1912wb Black 19″ 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor - Retail $214.99

Microsoft just announced that with XNA Game Studio Express (free) and Creators Club ($99/year), anyone can write games for the XBox 360 and share them with other members of the Creators Club. Later, other XBox 360 users will have access to the content, too! BAM! As someone who writes unfinished games about once a year to share with friends, I’m really excited! Even more, I’m excited to see games from established independent software developers popping up on the 360!

Let’s hope the other console manufacturers follow! I’d LOVE to see freely available independent games for the Wii!

Update: Ouch!  The procedure for game sharing is much more involved than just asking your audience to pay the fee.  From the FAQ:

Q: How exactly can I share my 360 game to other 360 users? Will my game only be available to people with the XNA “Creators Club” subscription? Will it be available to all 360 users that have an Xbox Live account?
A: There is currently no supported way to share binaries on the Xbox 360. Currently, there are four requirements that must be met in order to share a game targeting Xbox 360 which is developed with XNA Game Studio Express.

1. The individual you are planning to share the game with must be logged in to Xbox Live and have an active subscription to the XNA Creators Club
2. The receiving user must have downloaded the XNA Framework runtime environment for the Xbox 360
3. The receiving user must have XNA Game Studio Express installed on their own development PC
4. The game project, including all source and content assets, must be shared with the receiving user. The receiving user then compiles and deploys the game to their Xbox 360.

Highlights of the podcast:

• Channel 9 success numbers.
• Scoble is leaving because Microsoft is on the right track again.
• He’s also leaving because he wants to take advantage of the media possibilities that Microsoft, Apple and other companies are setting up. (Vista, iPod, XBox 360, etc)
• Prediction: Next year, 50% of Vloggercon attendees will have HD cameras.
• Second Life integration with feeds, audio and video is tight.  You can carry around a waving flag with a video playing on it.
• When a story breaks on blogs, podcasts, etc, it spreads like wildfire.  PodTech can tie into that.  Existing large media companies are too slow.

That being said, I can see why Microsoft wouldn’t fight to keep him around if he decided to leave.

• Through his blog and his videos at Channel9, Robert has given Microsoft a single friendly face to bloggers and other technology workers/enthusiasts.
• Also, through a lot of internal changes, Robert and others have set up a large infrastructure at Microsoft of PR. Including bloggers and videobloggers with Channel9 and On10.net.
• It seems to me that the best thing Microsoft could do to emphasize the other bloggers, vloggers and podcasters would be to let Robert go off and revolutionize something else.
• The bloggers at Microsoft are currently very enthusiastic. Why not take advantage of that enthusiasm and have Robert step down while the infrastructure is in place to take up the slack. If he steps down when the bloggers and vloggers at Microsoft are less organized, it could be disastrous for Microsoft PR.

My first instinct was that this ‘news’ HAD to be false because a company with Microsoft’s resources could easily prevent Robert from leaving. But, after some consideration, I can see why they might even encourage him to try something new while their other employees are still jazzed about blogging/vlogging.

Meanwhile, why would Robert leave Microsoft and join PodTech? With a big personality with a lot of practical experience running a podcasting/vlogging network, I think it could really have a chance against the existing media companies.

So: Good luck Robert!

Update: Dave and Chris both confirm. And, now, TechCrunch confirms.

Update 2: Robert’s explanation is up.  This was a good move not just for him and PodTech but also Microsoft. It’s time for some of the other kick ass bloggers at Microsoft to take the spotlight.

It is very responsive! I don’t have Aero running, of course.

I don’t recall if I had to install the audio driver or if it found it without help, but it’s working.

When installing the digitizer, make sure to choose the b_stage driver from your D drive. A_stage doesn’t work at all. Even b_stage, though, doesn’t calibrate perfectly.

I had no trouble installing the driver for the display. I just browsed to the display settings, chose to update the driver and told the system to search the D driver for the driver. I cannot choose 800 x 480, but 800 x 600 looks really good, so I’m not unhappy. Watching video could be a problem if Vista won’t let us drop down to 800 x 480, but I’m sure a future driver will fix this problem.

Bluetooth seems to be running, but I haven’t installed a driver, specifically, and I haven’t tried to connect anything.

I have not been able to get Wifi to work, yet.

Update: If you DO install Vista on a new partition on your eo, be sure to edit the boot menu to default to XP.

A few people asked me what steps I took. Using Partition Magic 8:

• I defragged C and D.
• I converted the D restore partition to a primary NTFS partition.
• I resized the D restore partition to be slightly larger than 3 gigs and moved it to the end of the drive.
• I resized the C partion to get 20 total unused GB between C and D.
• I created a new 20 GB primary NTFS partition between C and D. I named it L (longhorn).
• I booted XP and downloaded the latest Vista beta build from connect.microsoft.com (I’m an official beta tester. No, I won’t send you the ISO.)
• I mounted the Vista ISO as my E drive using Daemon Tools.
• I ran the installation, specifying L as the target.

Update: Some drivers work, some don’t.

• All 3 devices seemed responsive and not sluggish at all during my interactions.
• The Touch Pack program launcher is very pleasant.
• DialKeys will take some getting used to, but I think it will be only slightly less usable than the treo keyboard.
• Attendees seemed a little skeptical, but impressed.
• The Founder UMPC is really thin compared to the Samsung and eo.
• I agree with JK when he says that you can rest your hand on the screen without it interfering with your writing. That’s nice!
• The screen zooming is faster than I expected and much more readable than I expected, although several control panels (touch optimizations, system) become blank grey windows at the scaled 1024 resolution.
• Browsing the web with the UMPC form factor was great.
• I like the touch point mouse embedded in the eo. I’m guessing that some old DirectX full screen games won’t respond well to the touch screen, so an external mouse or a touch point is going to be useful in those cases. The Samsung doesn’t have a similar feature.

The portrait mode, dual microphones, stereo speakers, CF slot and Ethernet port are clear advantages for the Samsung over the eo. The eo’s cradle option and touchpoint are its advantages. I don’t know how the 900mhz Celeron M (Samsung) compares to the 1 Ghz Via C7 Nano (eo) and I don’t know how the two graphics chipsets compare. If anyone has that information, please speak up. Also, there is no confirmation on the US price and date for the Samsung Q1.

For now, I’m really happy with my eo preorder. If the Samsung is a lot faster and only slightly more expensive, then I will be really bummed.

Update: I missed Robert Scoble at the Faire. Too bad - I would have congratulated him in person for being absolutely right about the UMPC.

jk has a pre-production eo UMPC and is preparing a review.

Richard Morton is considering making his OrigamiCar resolution independant so it can work on screens other that 800 x 480. Seems like a no-brainer to me. The only reason the UMPCs have that resolution is because it would be more expensive to use a higher res 7″ screen. Next year’s models might easily have a much bigger resolution while maintaining the same size and a lower price tag.

Eric Albert notes that Rotor used to support Windows, FreeBSD and Mac OS X, but is only supporting Windows in its latest incarnation.  Rotor is Microsoft’s shared source .Net implementation.

Now, I don’t think Microsoft has any real obligation (or business reason) to port .Net to other platforms, but I wish they would, with no strings attached.  With a lot of help from Sun, they managed to really hurt Java’s chances for becoming a contendor for Windows GUI apps and, to make up for that, I’d really appreciate it if they made it super easy for .Net GUI apps to be cross platform.

I’ve been using version 1 for a long time now to play XBox games with my VGA monitor - it works like a charm. I don’t have any immediate need for version 2, but I’m considering getting a second Comcast DVR for my desk and hooking it up to my monitor with this device. Now, if it only supported picture-in-picture….

Meanwhile, Lora, in a followup to her Developing for the Ultra-Mobile PC post, pointed to the next steps for UMPC developers, including an emulator and information on the ISV program.

‘WindowsForDevices.com’ has a look at the Via chipset which will appear in the second half of this year in UMPC devices. Meanwhile, they have a comparative look at the UMPC vs the Nokia 770, an issue that’s been bugging some people.

The CNN video (via gottabemobile) shows the new on s
creen radial two thumb keyboard in action. I’ll have to try it before I pass judgement, but it looks like it might not be pleasant to use.

Scoble is being picked on in the comments section of one of his posts. Was Origami over-hyped? Chime in at scobleizer. My opinion is that Origami is deserving of hype being the most affordable small form factor XP device with a touch screen.

MovieLink is partnering with Microsoft and the hardware partners to bundle its broadband movie rental business with the devices. Sounds good to me. Anything that brings the world closer to instant access to all video and audio for a small fee is great in my book.

David Rothman takes a look at everything that’s been said so far about price for the UMPC/Origami devices.

As reported earlier, the Channel 9 video is up. I just love watching/listening to developers and product team members talk about the products they’ve built. Channel 9 will never get boring because it features people talking (with passion) about the things they build. Otto is no exception. I wish our presidents and representatives seemed as sincerely passionate.

Microsoft has a UMPC sister site to complement Intel’s. Speaking of which, umpc.com has moved to a new host and is much more responsive. Check it out if you stopped visiting it earlier because of its performance issues.

Though I am very enthusiastic about Origami, I posted a series of questions last night that I’d love answers to.

A foldable fabric keyboard/case will be available soon. Click the link if you haven’t seen this thing, yet. It’s pretty neat.

Update: RogerS over at InternetTabletTalk has a response to Mike Cane’s Nokia 770 complaints. Interesting reading. I think if I had known a little more about the 770, I might have purchased it instead of the Palm TX back in January.

The 770 is nowhere near as exciting as the UMPC. I bet the handheld linux community is actually more excited than most of us about UMPC.

Mike Cane left the following comment in a Scoble post. Normally I wouldn’t reprint something like this in its entirety, but I’ve seen TONS of comments about UMPC being a more expensive 770 and it’s driving me nuts, too. I don’t own a 770, but I’ve been reading what the 770 community has to say about problems with the 770 that are just not going to be issues with the UMPC. Mike discusses the topic in this quoted statement.

OK, now I’m bloody *mad*.

The countless eejits chattering around the web have crossed the line once too often. It’s time to set them straight, shove them back from the line, and show them for the eejits they are!

If I read one more time that a UMPC is “just an overpriced Nokia 770,” I will explode!

Anyone who *has* a 770 can tell you straight: The UMPC is *not* a Nokia 770 in any way, shape, or form.

The 770’s Opera browser mysteriously goes Poof! and suddenly disappears while browsing. I don’t think this will happen with a UMPC.

A site such as Palm Addict takes *over two minutes* to load on a 770. I think it will be a few seconds on a UMPC.

The 770 cannot display embedded video on sites such as Google Video or YouTube. A UMPC can.

The 770 cannot play DiVX/Xvid AVI or QuickTime video. A UMPC will.

The 770 has no browser plug in for FURL. No problem for a UMPC.

Forget word processing on a 770. Its Notes program chokes on as little as 10K of text. And the one free real WP program that’s available is hardly useable because the contortions someone has to go through to have a reliable working keyboard for WP just aren’t worth going through. A UMPC can use any USB or Bluetooth keyboard easily, and there are tons of WP programs available — not just *one*.

Yesterday the 770 I’ve been using for several months had to be rebooted *six times* because of its weak CPU and pathetic RAM. In my first hour of using it this morning I had a crash and reboot. This is its *typical day*. Crash, reboot, crash, reboot. I had a Toshiba GENIO Pocket PC — something infamous for its PPC 2002 OS instability. The 770 is a step *down* from that. Most of you don’t want to know what I call my 770. It is filthy and obscene. *Yet deserved!*

The 770 has a 200MHz CPU with 64MB of RAM. A UMPC will have a 900MHz-1+GHz CPU and most will have half a gig of RAM. If you are *still* dumb enough to think a UMPC is just a larger 770, take your desktop machine and put it in your closet. Replace it with a desktop PC that shares the specs of the 770. Then tell me how the second desktop is just like your original one — only cheaper!

I will be *glad* to exchange the *dysfunctionality* of a 770 for a UMPC with *real* usefulness, *speed*, *compatibility* with all web pages, and the ability to hook up any peripheral.

You eejits harping about the 770 don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. So shut up! shut up! shut up!

And as for UMPC being “overhyped” — baloney. It takes being traumatized by something like the 770 before you can *appreciate* a UMPC. What’s that you say? — it’s just another kind of Sony VAIO U *at less than half the price*? Just what I want! Thank you, Intel and Microsoft!!

Overall, yesterday’s news really solidified my decision. I really want to see price and the size of the power brick, but it’s hard to imagine that either of those things could stop me from buying one.  Which one will I buy?  The Samsung?  The Founder?  The ASUS?  If only one is available in March/April, it’ll be that one.
jkOnTheRun has some thoughts on the variety, too.

At WhatIsNew, Lora posted a list of APIs to consider when building software for UMPC devices.

Well, I still have some important questions.

• When does the first model go on sale?  What is the preorder date?  Is it going to be a pre-order nightmare like with the XBox 360?  I plan on getting one as soon as possible and I’d hate to go without just because I didn’t know that preorders were open.
• Is there a model with a PCMCIA slot?  I want to upgrade to EVDO, maybe not this year, but soon.  This is not a deal-breaker.
• What does the power brick look like?
• When using a stylus, will mouseovers be detected, like on a traditional tablet pc?
• What are each models’ specific features and prices?
• How am I supposed to sleep tonight knowing that all of these questions may be answered far away at CEBit while I’m snoozing?
• What’s the deal with the instant-on media player software that doesn’t require XP to run?  Is that built in to every device or just some?
• What kind of sturdiness tests have been performed?
• Does that two thumb keyboard app work well?  Can you only have one thumb touching the screen at a time?
• When will the first review I really trust be written? (I trust the-gadgeteer.com, Walt Mossberg, TomsHardware, AnandTech)

I just watched it. Great stuff. OrigamiPortal has a step by step analysis.

(video is on channel9, now) Though this is just one model and the actual functionality on each model will differ, here are my take-aways:

• The scaling functionality is cool. The display can be set to emulate large resolutions in case you are using an app whose minimum size is greater than 800×480.
• DirectX 7 / DirectX 8 level graphics.
• VGA out on this model, right on the device.
• Hard Drive size will vary with manufacturer. Some will be 1.8″, some 2.5.
• Ethernet Jack, Wifi, Bluetooth built in to this one. 2 usb ports as well.
• Hold button to prevent accidental button or screen tapping.
• Memory may or may not be user upgradable.
• Batteries will be easy to swap on the go.
• Built in picture-frame-style stand.
• 2 Mics for better quality VOIP.
• CF slot.
• Wait for official product announcements for pricing. (he said $599 to $999, probably)

No mention AT ALL of EVDO in the video. It’s clear that the EVDO path for these guys is going to be ‘connect to your phone’. Yuck.

Using Firefox on a Tablet PC (or Origami):

• MenuX - “was designed for laptop/tablet use where maximum screen realestate is desired. Adds the ability to collapse any toolbar. Adds a library of toolbar buttons”
• Hans suggests: The Grab And Drag extension. It “provides Adobe Acrobat-style grab and drag page scrolling with the mouse. It is an extension for Firefox and Thunderbird 1.0 and higher. It works in Flock betas as well. The extension was originally developed for Tablet PC users to aid pen-based navigation, but some people without scroll wheels on their mice also find it useful.”
• The GeckoTIP extension provides Tablet PC Input Panel support in Firefox, Thunderbird, and Sunbird.
• If it’s your second (or third) FireFox machine, maybe FoxMarks will help.  “Foxmarks is an extension for Firefox that synchronizes bookmarks across multiple machines.”

Past Origami entries:

Origami Report: Tuesday Night, March 7th 2006
Origami History
Origami Report: Tuesday Afternoon, March 7th 2006
OrigamiPortal’s analysis of the new UMPC video and more on the Intel conference.
The CNBC video clip is online.
EVDO for Origami?

Origami Report: Tuesday Morning, March 7th 2005
More data on the UMPC.com site.
New video on the UMPC.com site.
CNBC transcript link.
Engadget’s report on CNet’s hands on.
Models shipping in a few weeks!

Origami Report: Monday Late Night, March 6th 2006
More Pics.
Form Factor comments from Allen at PalmAddict.
UMPC.com forums are open.
Apps I plan to run on Origami.
tech.memeorandum’s coverage.
More wishlists

Origami Report: Monday Evening, March 6th 2006
SirShannon found hidden UMPC.com pages.
Scoble comments on the Origami.

Origami Report: Monday Morning, March 6th 2006
OrigamiPortal is back online with commentary on the new render that’s floating around.
Scoble saw the Origami.

Origami Report: Sunday, March 5th 2006
OrigamiPortal.com outage.
Scoble says he’ll see the Origami on Monday.
Great conversation over at GottaBeMobile. Dennis is asking the big question: What does the Origami you will buy NEED to have?
Info from Steve Payne and Techno-Squirrels.
More revisions on my thoughts on a good Origami feature set.

Origami Report: Saturday, March 4th 2006
ActiveNick is under NDA.
Martin of Tablet UML News is under NDA.
Paul Mooney has notes from a Microsoft presentation.
Scoble and Dennis Rice are trying to manage their own expectations.
My revised thoughts on a good Origami feature set.
I’ve given a little more thought to what I want out of the device. Also, what I don’t need.

Origami Report: Friday, March 3rd 2006
Paul Hoover, apparently from the Origami team, is asking for feedback on the Origami concept with an eye towards ebooks.

Confirmed: Origami will run Firefox!!!
My initial thoughts on what features Origami needs.
An Engadget reader pointed out that the html source code for the Origami Project web site says “Origami Project: the Mobile PC running Windows XP“.
jkOnTheRun has a ‘wrap up’ of other ultra mobile pcs.
The chron techblog references an AP story with more details.
GottaBeMobile: Origami is being demoed to educational software customers.
Tons of opinions from around the web.
Photos of Origami and UMPC.

Origami Project from Microsoft: Week 2
The second installment of the Origami Project Teaser Website is up.

Om’s on fire
The Origami plot thickens with the found video and Om chastizes Palm for not doing it first (I totally agree).

The Real Microsoft Origami?
Well, it didn’t take long for someone to find a prototype commercial for the Origami device.
Neowin’s coverage.
Link to lots of stills + mpg version of the video.

The CNBC video clip is online. Discussion of the video at Scoble’s!  More discussion at GizModo.

More Origami news here.

I’m still curious to see if the device will have a path to EVDO.  If it does and it’s under $900, then I’ll order it on day one.  It sounds like the first models won’t have an attached keyboard.  The swivel keyboard models will be out next year.  I’m OK with that.  Keyboard has never been on my must have list for this device and I can get a stowaway bluetooth keyboard if I find that I need one.

Some of the prototypes we’ve seen images of in the past couple of weeks and at WinHec last year had very little border around the screen.  I have to say that I prefer that look even if it makes the device a little thicker.  We’ll have to see what models are available.  There are still a ton of question marks.  Thursday is going to be crazy.