SlashGear

After mintpass’ English-language site was updated to include the mintpad ultra-portable MID earlier this week, speculation began that a launch in the US and/or Europe was imminent.  SlashGear has been talking to mintpass as to the state of play, and it seems that while the mintpad hardware is basically ready for its English-language release, the thin-client UZard browser requires new server support.

Update: Video demo after the cut

To make browsing on the mintpad speedy, together with viewable on the device’s 2.86-inch display, it uses a server-based rendering engine that reformats pages to fit.  According to our contact at mintpass, it’s reworking how the UZard server handles non-Korean websites that is causing part of the delays.  The company is currently looking for regional partners for distribution and support.

Over at Pocketables, meanwhile, there’s news of 40 mintpad units available to bleeding-edge importers, priced at $169 plus shipping.  These units don’t yet have an English-language browser, nor the Sapphire file manager (though you can mount the mintpad as an external drive) and Ad-hoc memo chatting isn’t supported, but Jenn claims all of these issues are expected to be resolved by June 30th.