Room in your hearts for another generic Chinese MID? Shinchun Electronic Co. certainly hope so, because their UMPC-501 A actually sounds like it may eventually go on sale, unlike some of the OEM designs we generally see. The 5-inch WVGA touchscreen slate runs from a 1.1GHz Intel Atom Z510 processor, with between 8 and 32GB of SSD storage and 1GB of RAM.
Kohjinsha have announced their latest MID, the PM-series, and if you’ve followed the scene in ultracompact PCs over the past few months then you’ll be quick to recognize it as the UMID mbook M1. Freshly rebadged and on sale in Japan for 59,800 yen ($646), the Kohjinsha PM keeps the mbook’s Atom Z510 1.1GHz processor and 512MB of RAM but seemingly lacks an integrated 3G option.
Intel may still be pushing their vision of MIDs (Mobile Internet Devices) but that doesn’t mean everyone is singing from the same song-sheet. SMiT and Optima have both been showing off their attempts at compact handheld web-access devices, the former slapping Android onto a 4.8-inch touchscreen tablet while the latter has picked Maemo for their 4.3-inch MID. Meanwhile SmartQ’s Q5 and Q7 are both seeing development of various mobile platforms.
Video demos after the cut
Sharp’s diminutive PC-Z1 NetWalker impressed us when we first spotted it, and Charbax’s video hands-on with the compact MID has done nothing to disappoint. The ARM-based device has a 5-inch touchscreen, full QWERTY keyboard and optical mouse, and will land in Japan sometime this month; according to the Sharp representative interviewed, they’re hoping to bring it to Europe, too.
Video demo after the cut
After our initial hands-on with the N900 – the video and gallery of which you can see here – we spent some more time playing with the Maemo 5 smartphone at Nokia World this week. Our initial enthusiasm has been tempered a little by some of the real-world compromises that blending a smartphone and an Internet Tablet demand, though we’re still looking forward to a full review unit; check out our hands-on impressions after the cut.
Video demo after the cut
We just talked about the JournE, the new Mobile Internet Device (MID) from Toshiba. We still have a relative lack of information regarding the details of the device, but if the media playback of HD videos, plus an emphasis on streaming online videos via sites like YouTube isn’t enough to get you excited, we don’t know what will. Truth be told, the MID-range of devices is pretty, well, mid-range, but from what we are seeing now, especially by the excitement displayed in the video after the break, we can’t help but get even more excited.
The way of the tablet has been a rocky road, but it looks like all of that is beginning to change. Sure, Apple’s anticipated launch into the tablet market is helping to stroke the flames, but as long as it keeps promoting other companies to create things like Toshiba’s JounE, let’s just call it a win-win for everybody.
Continued »
Many of our mobile devices today that we take for granted like MIDs and smartphones don’t use full mobile processors. Many of these devices make do with lower performance MCUs and ASICs rather than full CPUs.
Back at the beginning of the month, we had a whole slew of Android information come swirling into our offices. We did our best to cover it, and part of that coverage was this little piece of Mobile Internet Device (MID) Heaven. It’s a pretty slick, piano-black piece of tech that’s running some might Android goodness. And, despite the coverage we splattered all over it before, we were lacking any real live shots of the device. Well, now’s as good a time for change as any other, right?
Looking surprisingly like UMID’s mbook M1 MID, Sharp have unveiled their newest clamshell ultraportable and – thank goodness – it’s not just an e-dictionary. The Sharp NetWalker PC-Z1 has a 5-inch 1024 x 600 touchscreen, full QWERTY keyboard with optical mouse, and Ubuntu 9.04 as the OS; connectivity includes WiFi b/g, both a USB and mini-USB port, and a headphone jack, but there’s no integrated 3G.
More images – plus size comparisons – after the cut
SlashGear Japan
