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…)

Some of the knocks on the Q1 from actual users are the lack of a dedicated cursor stick and a limited number of buttons when compared to other UMPC’s. On the plus side, the buttons are programmable. Well, the developers have finally found the Q1 and are giving us flexibility.

Dedicated Cursor Stick

Ticonderoga on the Origami Project forum has an app that let you use the Q1’s mushroom as a mouse. It’s evolved tremendously in a week with new builds out every day. At this pace he may wear himself out but I’m expecting the app to do everything but make coffee soon. It’s reported to work with Vista as well.  Dedicated cursor stick, check.

More Buttons

The Q1 buttons are great but there’s no easy way (like with your finger) to change their programming to a different set. I’ve been wanting a way to select a button group depending on the app I’m working in. So IE gets browser specific buttons as does Media Player, etc.

Now Cue on the Origami Project forum has a small app that will let you setup and cycle through different button setups. The setup takes a minute to get used to but it works and it seems to work with Ticonderoga’s pointer app just fine.

I’ve set mine up to  click the U1 button twice to show the button group. Then I press U1 to cycle through the different groups. When I stop, that’s the active group. Single clicking the U1 button fires off the action or program I’ve selected. This means that I can use all four buttons for an app and still be able to switch button groups, effectively giving me an unlimited number of buttons. More buttons, check

What I like about Samsung’s choices for the Q1 is that even though they got some things wrong out of the gate, these two items can be solved with software after the fact. While apps solve very specific Q1 issues, I’d love to hear if there any similar apps coming out for the EO or Asus units. Maybe something to make their buttons programmable too?

(In a nod to Hugo Ortega, holding the menu button on the right and pressing volume changes the brightness on a Q1. Hugo showed that in a recent video and I confess I didn’t know about that.)

The first Magazine about UMPC that I know of in the whole World has been released today in Spain!

A group of UMPC enthusiasts have worked for 20 days to put together this first number in PDF format that can be downloaded here.

What’s included in this first number? First of all a detailed explanation of what’s a UMPC, what software can be used on it, what are the different brands and models currently in the market and what version of Vista can be installed on them. In a few words all the information need to understand this new world opened to us by Microsoft back in May 2006!

This magazine is sponsored by todoUMPC , written in Spanish and it’s free!

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I went to the Orlando MS Across America launch event for Vista and Office 2007 today. Apparently “Across America” refers to the parking. The event was a logistics disaster with the hotel parking lot full at 6:45a for an 8a start. I paid $20 for valet parking at the Orlando Convention Center next door so that I could walk half a mile in the rain to the hotel. (It really was a half a mile. I checked with the odometer on the way out.) But I’m not bitter.

The venue was overflowing with lots of people, including me, on the floor so Microsoft gets points for getting the word out and loses them on logistics. This was a ticketed event so I’m not sure how they screwed up the logistics so badly.

The presentations themselves were fine, typical Microsoft stuff but not as “Big” as the SQL Server Launch. Little things the way fonts change in a Word document as you pick the font (you won’t be guessing at how your text will look anymore) got the most response from the crowd.

On the UMPC/Tablet side, the Q1/Bluetooth/Blackjack/HSDPA combo was flawless in the hall. In some recent use I’m seeing battery life on the Blackjack to be about 2-2 1/2 hours per battery when using it as a modem via Bluetooth. I’m actually pretty happy with that considering how many battery sucking radios it takes to make that happen and the Blackjack’s poor battery reputation.

I saw one guy using a convertible tablet in slate mode across the room and I had someone lean over an ask me if this was a Q1. I love that question. It means that IT folks at least aren’t asking “what’s that?”. They know enough about a UMPC to ask about the model.

I picked up my copy of Office 2007 on my way out but this one is going to the company. My personal copy is coming with Vista as part of the video training promotion. What’s it going to take for me to upgrade to Vista? Two words, Samsung Drivers. Anybody listening? How do you say Samsung Q1 Drivers in Korean?

My lovely wife has an Averatec tablet pc that is on it’s last leg. Fortunately, she bought the CompUSA extended warranty. It’s now on it’s fourth repair trip and if this doesn’t do it, we’re expecting a replacement. (For those who care, the unit won’t charge the battery or it will charge for a day or two and then quit.)

She really wants another tablet and would be happy with a UMPC. My local CompUSA is no longer showing the Samsung Q1 on the floor and they don’t seem to be carrying any other tablet PC’s. The manager assured us that if this trip doesn’t fix it, we’re eligible for a replacement. He assured my wife that if it breaks again and she can hold out until March, he can guarantee it will be replaced with a Tablet PC running Vista.

I didn’t talk to the guy but everything I’ve seen says expect to see Vista machines right after the January 30 launch. All the manufacturers are afraid of Dell since Dell has been ready to ship Vista since December, but the retail channel takes longer. So the only explanation for the delay is that the tablets won’t arrive at CompUSA until March.

I guess I’ll have to go volunteer my time at the local CompUSA to educate people on a tablet but it will be nice to see some tablets to play with. My guess is HP or Toshiba but who knows.

While many of us are thinking about Vista, still some of us thinking about how to make the XP experience better in our UMPC. This is the case of UltramobileGeek who has posted about a program called Dexpot “which, among other things, has a hotkey to tile your open windows and select them from the list.”

You can find more information about this tip and how it works here.

grimster, on the Origami Project forum,, is reporting that Samsung will be providing a free upgrade to Vista Business for those users who purchased after a certain date. No word yet on what that date is. The important thing is that if Samsung provides an upgrade path at all, then there should be drivers available for those of us not eligible for an upgrade.

The post is missing anything that could be verified and I can’t find any evidence on Samsung’s site or on the Vista Express Upgrade Site. I did see that they are offering a free keyboard for certain Q1 purchases and a free second battery if you buy at CompUSA.

I recently posted about how I cleaned my garage using a UMPC. Now, Hugo Ortega has gone one better, in his epic quest for a clean garage, he’s found the Holy Grail,  a lost Tablet PC. Can I clean your garage next Hugo? We could use another tablet.

Hugo has a video of his lost tablet PC. There doesn’t seem to be any whips or huge rolling stones but any video with a tablet PC is exciting. Maybe if I “find” a UMPC in my garage the kids will be willing to help clean up next time!