UMPC Explorers! | Ultranauts.com

Laptop upgrades are not difficult to complete yourself, and there are three key upgrades that you can easily accomplish to make your laptop run faster. These will also give your laptop a higher resale value when you decide to replace it.

One of the most simple laptop upgrades to complete yourself is to upgrade your operating system. If you are running Windows XP or Windows Media Center, upgrading to Windows Vista is a good idea. You will be able to take advantage of the many features of Windows Vista, as well as enhance the speed of your system. An upgrade to Windows Vista for the Home Basic edition is under $100 and is worth it to enhance the efficiency of your system. (More…)

The rumor mill is buzzing today with news of a new Nokia “Internet Tablet” that would replace their Nokia 770. The new tablet, creatively dubbed the Nokia 330 is said to be smaller, stronger, faster. Ok, maybe just smaller. It boasts a 3.5 inch screen as well as possible GPS and Divx movie playback. It seems as if the Nokia design philosophy is moving closer to super-PMPs versus UMPCs. Time will tell, but expect the Nokia 330 to become a niche device at best. You can read more via Brighthand.

Well, it turns out that the new S-Xgen psuedo-UMPC is a rebadged concept PDA from many eyars ago. Eagle-eyed Ultranauts reader, David B., sent us the scoop:

“This is the old Vercel unit repackaged with a different name. It won a prize at CES in ‘02 or ‘03 for most innovative or something but never shipped. Anyway the rights were sold by Vercel to Seamless.”

With a little bit of investigative journalism (very little), we verified the information (it won in 2003) and we even dug up one of the only publicity shots ever produced of the Vercel (which was officially dubbed the ED 1 and aimed at teens). Even more entertaining than the rehashed (but award-winning!) tech news, is that the S-Xgen it is also the brainchild of the creator of the most evil thing to ever roam the earth. Of course, were talking about the Furby (that “cute” little Gremlin toy from a few years back that was all the rage). The icing on the cake is Patrick Norton’s endorsement.

You can visit Vercel’s still working website here. You can trace our coverage of the FurPC (get it!?) here and here.

According to news just published at Pocket PC Thoughts OQO is selling now their UMPCs OQO Model 01 for just $1199.

(More…)

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We’re seeing more and more of these UMPC/PMP hybrids. This is another nice-looking one that is hobbled a bit by the Windows CE operating system. On the plus side of things, its got an 840×480 screen and wifi connectivity. Beyond that, it seems rather bland.

We don’t know about availability or pricing, but I wouldn’t hold my breath on a domestic release in the immediate future. The push by Taiwanese (and Chinese) manufacturers in the UMPC and UMPC-hybrid areas is a huge positive for the community. These are the type of things that drive innovation, selection and, hopefully, price competition acroos the market.

See more pictures at PMPinside.

[Via onlyUMPC]

Is this a UMPC only a woman could love? Frankly, it doesn’t look all that fashionable, but we applaud the UML design team for exploring form factors that have function and appeal beyond the typical gizmo geek crowd. This particular concept sports a cellphone and a hidden make-up compact for blush and eye-liner (no, I’m not kidding). Personally, I kinda dig the diagonal-set QWERTY keyboard. While this is perfect for the wannabe Paris Hilton in all of us, don’t expect to see this in stores anytime soon.

[Via SlashGear]

This, my friends, is a Fujitsu P1610. it has serious power with a 1.2Ghz Solo and 1 GB of ram, plus the usual Connectivity options. But the thing that really blurs the lines between this baby and the UMPC is that its got a UMPC-like 8.9inch screen pumping out 1280×768. NIce!

[Thanks Alan]

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