UMPC Explorers! | Ultranauts.com

Most of you know by now that I’m very happy with Q1. I believe I’ve even used the phrase “when they pry it out of my cold, dead hands.” But I digress. I have one major issue with the Q1 that simply drives me insane.

I frequently use the Q1 with an external monitor. When I’m done for the day, I’ll hit CTRL+ALT+F3 to switch back to the Q1’s display and hit the hardware button to drop the resolution to 800 x 480. Then it’s off to sleep for Q1 as I head to the car.

Except that sometimes, this doesn’t work. Even when I’m sure it worked! The Q1 goes to sleep with a resolution of 1280 x 1024. When it wakes up, the hardware button won’t change the resolution, the digitizer is out of whack because of the resolution and I’m stuck. Without a keyboard, I can’t fix it.

Reboot you say? Nope. The 1280 resolution survives a reboot. $#%^&#$%&! This means you can’t login with the pen. You HAVE to have an attached keyboard to login. Since none of the video utilities (Intel or Samsung) are accessible until after login, the phrase “I’m screwed” comes quickly to mind.

I’ve tried everything I can think of. The login calibration utility doesn’t help with a resolution that high. I don’t think I’ve tried completely pulling the battery but that really shouldn’t matter.

I’ve been lucky in that it happens most often when I’m going home. I haven’t been screwed going to a meeting yet but that’s just a matter of time. If anyone has a solution to this pain in the neck, let me know.

Warner Crocker at Gottabemobile.com is at it again. Apparently he has too much time on his hands over the weekend. This Monday he’s popped out a list of random things that puzzle him.

Things like battery life specs, crapware and customer service. I won’t steal the thunder from a great post but I’d like to add a few things.

Cases
Why do companies still make computer cases without thinking about where to put the power brick and cords?

Crippled Devices
Why do manufactures or suppliers (cough, wireless providers, cough) cripple perfectly good devices? Verizon keeps crippling bluetooth. Apple, crippled bluetooth on the iPhone. Samsung can’t squeeze anything resembling a real headphone jack into a Blackjack. You can’t use an MP3 file as a ringtone on an iPhone!?! Some days I’m convinced that common sense has died and some company with wireless in it’s name killed it.

Can’t someone make a UMPC that combines the best of the Q1 and the R2h?

Proprietary Cables
May the fleas of a thousand camels infest the armpits of the next person who creates another stupid proprietary cable when mini usb would do just fine. Yes, Apple, Treo, Nokia, Blackberry, Motorola. While I’m at it, why do we need so many different charging tips for laptops?

Battery Life Specs
Warner covered this pretty well but I have to respond. The problem with everyone lying about battery specs is that the first guy to tell the truth won’t sell any devices. People have been lied to for so long that they’ll automatically cut the battery life in half in their head. It will probably take a lawsuit like the class action against monitor manufactures to finally clean up the battery life mess. I’d be happy if manufacturers would simply explain how they got to their battery life estimate. What was on, what was off, etc.

Work is keeping me pretty busy, so thanks Warner for letting me sponge off of your spare brain cells.

Bloglines released a new interface, iBloglines, designed for touch and the iPhone. I’m playing with it on the Q1. We may see more web sites designed for touch because of Apple’s little buzz machine and I for one will take all the web sites designed for touch that I can get.

So far, I like iBloglines.

WidgetBucks - Trend Watch - WidgetBucks.com

After all the criticism that UMPC’s have gotten for poor batter life (hint, it’s not any worse than the average Dell laptop at a third of the size), the Wall Street Journal today has figured out that new features are being added to devices faster than the battery life to run them. Unfortunately, as the article points out, there’s no magic solution. Battery performance is improving about 10% a year. By performance they mean longer battery life in the same form factor or the same battery life in a smaller form factor.

Perhaps next time Mossberg gripes about battery life I’ll refer him to his own publication.

The full article requires a subscription but a snippet is available here.

I haven’t posted much here lately, but today I received a FedEx package from my friends at Allegiance Technology Partners:

This can only be good. So, what’s inside?

Why… it looks like… it is!

A Motion Computing LE1700 (that’s the brand new model) slate Tablet PC!

Reviews coming soon on my podcast, and in writing here, and (maybe) some video as well…

Warner Crocker of Gottabemobile.com dropped some Sunday afternoon thoughts on us. I found his post interesting and thought I would respond to his points here.

I still enjoy the freedom a Tablet PC gives me in the workplace. Every day.
And I’m still frustrated by people who don’t have the confidence that handwriting will work for them. (grumble)

I’m increasingly trying to integrate a UMPC in those same situations but find that a UMPC is becoming a one task (note taking in OneNote 2007) device in most circumstances.
I have to disagree completely and I think it has to do with Warner being a Tablet PC guy first. That’s not a knock, just an observation. We get used something and find variations to be not as good. (By way of example, a Mercedes is a great car, but the window buttons in the middle, instead of on the door drive me nuts!)

I still wish Inking on a Tablet PC was more integrated in the OS and thus more transparent.
YES!

I still enjoy relaxing with a Tablet PC in slate mode and perusing the Internet or reading feeds. That is a singular joy for me.
YES!

Touch on a UMPC is becoming more of a use to me as a navigational tool the more I use it.

Touch on a UMPC still has a long way to go.

Isn’t there some happy medium between “hard touch” and “soft touch?” “Hard Touch” works better for me in Inking notes. “Soft touch” is useless in this case in my experience.
Warner, you all three of the touch points just right!

Small may be in, but I find that using a 12” convertible Tablet PC offers me less frustration than using a UMPC.
It depends on the usage scenario but I concede the possibility. For note taking, I find that I always want more screen space but never want a bigger device footprint.

If it came down to it, I’d choose power over battery life. Except when I need battery life.
I would choose battery life over power, except when I need power.

Vista has made life easier in some respects, frustrating in others (device drivers!!!!!) but I find that increasingly I’m not taking advantage of many of its “features” on a daily basis beyond the Tablet PC improvements.
I’ve found I like many of Vista’s subtle differences. I’m experiencing some XP double takes when I help folks using XP.

Stall surfing is underrated and shouldn’t be a dirty little secret.
Remember 2 words when borrowing Warner’s tablet - Staph Infection

Are we done seeing new applications for Tablet PCs and UMPCs? The standbys work well and are great. (TEO, MindManager, OneNote 2007, ArtRage, etc….) Anyone hear of something that really takes advantage of this technology on the horizon?
I hope we’re not done. It seems like we’re seeing super specialization right now. On screen keyboards for just a Q1 Ultra for example rather than apps for the whole spectrum. On the other hand, the Tablet/UMPC community seems to have a pent up demand for apps and when one comes out, the community is all over it. I feel late if I haven’t installed a new app 3 days after it’s come out.

OneNote 2007 is a life saver and a killer application. Someone tell Microsoft this so they know it.
This is a differentiating app. Apple doesn’t have it, Linux doesn’t have it. MS should be featuring it. When you tell people that it will index and search your handwriting they are blown away. Perhaps MS just isn’t used to having technology this cool!

Touch screens are magnets for dust, grease, fingerprints, and the like. I don’t think that will ever change. But it would be nice.
I disagree, I don’t have big fingerprint issues with my Q1. Maybe it’s a stall surfing thing? Maybe it’s because I end up having to use my fingernail rather than my finger on the Q1 digitizer.

Wow factor? It comes and it goes.
It always comes back when some sees the Q1 for the first time.

If there is a Vista SP1 in the works, I sure hope that the scaling of screens and windows with control boxes is a part of the effort. UMPCs are the bastard children of Microsoft until it pays attention to this.
I think my UMPC will continue to be a red headed step child for a while.

Are we ever going to see OEM’s name Tablet PCs and UMPCs with something other than silly alpha/numeric conventions?
I actually thought Q1, R2H and EO were pretty good starters. All of them are better than what HP and Gateway dream up. I think they just use a random number generator. Even Lenovo’s not great. Certainly Stormtrooper or Droid would have been more fun and everyone seems to have screwed it up since. (I can’t keep the EO models straight and the Q1’s need better differentiation.)

Whatever happened to that Ink on Video app that Rob posted an InkShow about?

A UMPC without a fingerprint reader makes no sense to me.
Agreed!

I still think an important differentiator for UMPC’s is price. You can’t get a 12″ slate for under a grand and you can only get a heavy convertible for that price. UMPC’s open up the tablet world to people who otherwise wouldn’t join. They offer a sub $1,000 option for either a companion device or an entry level PC.

My Q1 is more than a year old now and while it’s still in good shape, it is showing some signs of aging. My power brick died just before our road trip. Fortunately I had a spare (1 for work, 1 for home) and the replacement arrived while I was gone.

I’m a little worried about the door for the VGA slot. It’s held up well but it’s feeling a little flimsy these days. I’ve blogged before about how I broke my Q1 Keyboard and Organizer Pack. I fixed the KB by cannibalizing the windows button. I find I don’t really use it much. I’m holding on to the Organizer Pack to see if it’s still useful. There’s a chunk of plastic missing near the power connection. I have no idea how that happened. Super glue continues to hold together my kick stand. It’s been at least 8 months since the kick stand incident and the super glue continues to hold fine.

Despite it’s aging signs, I haven’t found a compelling replacement. The Q1P comes closest to being what I want but that’s such a small move up it’s not gonna happen. The Q1 Ultra just doesn’t seem to have the horsepower I want and I’m not a thumb keyboard junkie. The Asus R2H or a Tablet Kiosk model would simply a feature set trade and I only bring up the OQO 2 when I want to fight with my wife over money.

So I think I’ll stick with the old reliable Q1.