Having gone up for pre-order midway through September, certain models of Archos 5 Android Internet Tablet are now listed as in-stock and ready for delivery by Amazon. The 160GB hard-drive version, together with the 32GB flash model, are both shipping now; however the remaining versions – of which Amazon only list the 500GB tablet – are still only available for preorder.
Modular phone manufacture Modu have already discussed their plans for next-gen 3G and tablet-style devices, but now the company is talking about adding a splash of Android to the mixture. Speaking to TechRadar, Modu CEO Dov Moran revealed that “we’re also planning to have a jacket based on Android, which will enable programming capability [on the Modu unit], but these plans are too early to expose.”
Kohjinsha may have filled their MID niche with a rebadged UMID mbook m1, but that hasn’t stopped their own engineers from coming up with a homegrown alternative. The Kohjinsha PA-series takes the same mini-clamshell form-factor of the m1 and Sharp’s NetWalker, but throws in a convertible display for using the MID as a slate.
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If eviGroup's intentions appeal but their Wallet MID's 5-inch WVGA display simply isn't enough for your browsing needs, hold on for their second device. According to an insider, the French company's second-gen tablet will not only have a larger touchscreen display but switch out the Wallet's ARM11 processor for an Intel Atom CPU.
Sharp’s NetWalker PC-Z1 may not be the device for everyone – after all, a 5-inch touchscreen clamshell MID with a tiny QWERTY keyboard and 800MHz ARM Cortex A8 processor makes it a pretty niche handheld – but most people can appreciate a mini-laptop so we’re pleased to see the first unboxing over at Pocketables. Jenn of course is no stranger to MIDs, in fact she has a UMID mbook M1 on hand to compare the PC-Z1 with.
We’ve been watching the development of eviGroup’s Wallet MID with no small amount of interest; after all, while Android-based touchscreen handhelds seem ten a penny lately, it’s still quite rare for them to have a release date attached. Nowhere Else’s Stagueve is conveniently in France to stop by the eviGroup offices and have a play with the prototype; check out his hands-on video and some first-impressions after the cut.
Intel have rolled out plenty of mockups, conceptual art, non-functional prototypes and fancy slides over the past few months to show us what Moblin running on a Moorsetown-based MID might look like, but we’ve had to wait until IDF this past week to get a decent sighting of the platform in action. MID Moves sat down with an Inventec prototype running Moblin 2.1; you can see their hands-on video after the cut.
Video demo after the cut
Having shown us a video of the touchscreen Wallet MID in action on Wednesday, eviGroup are now back with the full spec-list for their 5-inch Android tablet. The French handheld is based on a Samsung ARM 533MHz or 667MHz CPU, with 128MB or 256MB of RAM and an 800 x 480 display; it will run Android OS 1.5 (with a subsequent update to 1.6) and have WiFi b/g, GPS and integrated 3G.
IDF is in full swing in San Francisco this week and the new product announcements using Intel hardware are coming quickly. Elektrobit Corporation (EB) has shown off a further refinement of a MID reference design first unveiled at Computex Taipei this year. EB worked with both Intel and Ericsson on the design of the MID.
If you haven’t guessed by now, we’re big fans of ultraportable computers, and even happier when they can cope with 1080p video playback. One such device tickling our fancy is SmartDevices’ SmartV 5 MID, a 5-inch WVGA touchscreen handheld with a 600MHz processor, 2GB of flash storage and a choice of Android, Windows CE 6.0 or Ubuntu as OS.
The SmartV 5 MID also has a microSD card slot (content with up to 32GB cards) for all that lovely high-definition footage you’ll be storing, together with both WiFi and Bluetooth. RAM is 256MB and the MID has native support of 1080p MKV/H.264 content and an HDMI output.
SlashGear Japan
