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No surprises here. Folks visiting this site believe that the UMPC community is doing the best job at getting the word out on the new platform. This speaks a bit to the marketing dilemma (#1 and #2) that the UMPC currently finds itself in.

What was a bit of a surprise is how low the actual manufacturers ranked. I expected them to at least vote for themselves. Perhaps they don’t visit this or any of the other dozen or so UMPC sites out there. That would be a big marketing mistake in my opinon.

I personally think that TabletKisok has done an admirable job with the eo, even with it’s soon-to-be-fixed battery issue. In the end, we don’t have a statistically viable sample to make any real conclusions. And there is little doubt that votes for the UMPC community were skewed as this is a UMPC community site. But, I think the spread is wide enough that there is some genuine concern over the lack of marketing and some concern that the community is not being heard.

I so desperately want to say something snarky, something to show off my patent-pending attitude. But, I cant. Though this is the shortest clip of all time, this is one cool device no matter what you call it (UMPC vs. micro PC). Can’t we all just get along.

Drop the price a few hundred bucks, Sony, and you’ve got a winner on your hands!

It’s true. No matter how hard we scour the Interweb, we’re bound to miss some crucial piece of UMPC information. We just can’t spot every review, every rumor and every press release or announcement that’s out there. Well, we can’t do it by ourselves anyway.

That’s where the Ultranauts out there can play a part! Send in your news, tips and rumors directly to us. We answer every email, and we’ll give you credit for your scoop.

If you are a software publisher/developer, a device manufacturer or anybody else involved in the UMPC value chain, please make sure you send us your news ASAP. You just may see your name (and your product/company) mentioned on this site. And chicks really dig that.

From time-to-time, a lucky tip submitter will win something special. More on that later. Send in you tips directly to john@ultranauts.com.

Sweet Jesus! A conduction cooled, ruggedized super-UMPC has been born. And its name is Spartan! Frankly, I’m speechless and so desperatley want one of these bad-boys. It will go perfect with my Apache-class attack chopper. Here are the details of the General Micro Systems machine:

• Ultra small footprint – 6.5”x3.0”x 0.5” (first rugged UMPC)
• Fits in Warfighter’s pant pouch, with 6-hour battery life
• Up to 1.4GHz Pentium®-M processor with up to 2Mbytes of L2 Cache
• Up to 2Gbytes of ECC memory and 16Gbytes of bootable Flash
• CompuSec and E-Purge prevents unauthorized or enemy access

Spartan P630 is available in a conduction-cooled version operating at (-40°C to +85°C) or the standard convection-cooled version with commercial operating temperatures (0° C to +55° C). Packaging options vary from plastic for benign environments to titanium-aluminum enclosures for the most critical applications.

With this deployed to the warzone, those terrorists will be running scared. Well, they’ll be running scared for about 2 hours. Then the Spartan’s battery runs dry. Full details here.

Ilium Software sends word along that they will include UMPC versions of all of their programs in their future releases, iincluding eWallet, ListPro, NewsBreak, Keep Track and DockWare.

According to Ilium, this makes them the first major PDA software developer to fully support the platform.

“The UMPC is a natural evolution for users seeking a comprehensive mobile experience,” stated Marc Tassin, Senior Product Manager for Ilium Software. “We’re very excited about the prospects for this new platform.”

You can find out more information and check out their apps here.

Remember those old Transformer toys (where a car would turn into a robot)? The tagline of the toyline was “More than meets the eye!” Rob Enderle, the President of the Enderle Analyst Group, brings us the spiritual successor to that tagline in part 3 of his 4-part UMPC commentary series: “that mutation, that ability to change the device into other things may become the strongest feature of the class.”

I only wish the UMPC could turn into a robot. A killer robot hell-bent on world domination that only I could control. Yeah, I’d buy that.

Sony officially announced their latest electronic whatchmacallit today. The rumors were put to rest and what emerged was a strange device indeed. As predicted the device is tiny, tiny, tiny when compared to the UMPC (and their 7 inch screens). And the hoped for touchpack/inking capabilities were no where to be found. This is definitely not a UMPC. Maybe it’s a UPC (an uber-portable computer), but it is not a UMPC to be sure. But, what is it, really?

At $1800 bucks, it’s an invitation to consumer to buy a UMPC!

Sure, this thing will have a niche, but that price puts it out of the reach of most folks. It’s between $600 and $1000 dollars more expensive than the currently available UMPCs. And it is an order of magnitude more expensive than a lowly PDA, which it borrows from with its small, light industrial design. At that price point, it is as if Sony is saying, “Yeah, there’s a market for ultra portables. Now compare our offering to something you can actually afford.”

It seems like the same strategy that Sony is taking with the Playstation 3, which will arrive in Novemeber with a price tag between $200 and $400 more expensive than Microsoft’s Xbox 360. Amazing.