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That’s the question asked in the most recent poll at Carrypad.

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As you can see from the above picture Tabletkiosk was leading the competition at the moment when I was writing these lines. Unfortunately I think that Steve forgot to mention the entity that has promoted UMPC more that all companies mentioned in that poll all together: the blogosphere!

Am I wrong?

When the specialized press was telling that these devices were the next big Microsoft’s Fiasco, Bloggers were the only ones posting about the good things that these devices could bring to anyone willing to test them.

If this baby’s still alive, it is thanks to us!



Intel had the UMPC everywhere at their recent developers forums. A few side conversations and demos were caught on tape, including this one where Microsoft’s Frank Gocinski demonstrates how the UMPC is the perfect travel companion.

These guys (Microsoft and Intel) should create some of these demos with a bit more polish and release them as user scenario examples on the Interwebs… it’s all good stuff.

Oh,yeah… and you’ll see some cool UMPC style-airhockey being played!



walletino UMPC
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]

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As promised, Ultranauts.com is expanding. You demanded it, you got it. As a result, we will be transitioning to the new Ultranauts.com today. Expect some outages and some tweaking. In the end, this will be a much better website and a much cooler community. And the changes won’t stop with just a new “look-and-feel”… we’ll be adding new features and functionality in the coming days and months. Stay tuned!

One very, very important note: The RSS Feed URL is changing. The new feed is www.ultranauts.com/feed/

Please make the change now.

This is the last post on the “old” Ultranauts.com. Goodbye, green template.. we hardly new ya. If you have any issues with the feed, make sure to visit www.ultranauts.com and resubscribe (or send a note to john@ultranauts.com). We’ll see you on the other side.

According to news coming out of Intel’s Developer Forum going on in Taipei, the extremely slick Yahoo UMPC is moving from concept to production, courtesy of gianormous manufacturing contractor, Quanta.

“The ultra-mobile PC is Quanta’s first. It will be the second Taiwanese company to enter the market, following the launch of Asustek Computer’s R2H last month. Quanta’s new UMPC runs Yahoo’s Go for ultra-mobiles, a joint software effort with Intel designed to deliver digital entertainment on devices that use Intel Viiv technology, including Go TV, and Yahoo photos, music and other content. Intel did not say which specific functions the ultra-mobile PC version of Go includes.”

Nice. Just when I think I’ve decided on my next purchase, some new UMPC news forces a delay in my spending (though I finally bought a new laptop… it’s one of the brand new HP Pavillions. Anyone interested in a review of that?).

I’ll be keeping an eye on the new Quanta. Read more at CIO.com.

Here’s a great little video of the Sony UX180P playing Slamdunk via MAME. Nice. This thing is a PSP on steroids. Of course, it has a PSP on steroids price.

New to the world of UMPCs? If so, there are a number of good solid ways to introduce yoursefl to this exciting platform (in fact, my favorite UMPC starter guide is locasted here). The fine folks over at InformIT have just posted a lengthy and thoughtful UMPC intro, entitled “What’s a UMPC? Getting to Know the Personal Side of the Ultra Mobile Personal Computer.

While I don’t agree with all of the color-commentary, the article is a nice starting point. Have you seen any other good articles on what the UMPC is all about? If so, add a comment or send me a note.

Weekly Polls

When will Apple debut a Tablet or UMPC device?

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