To compound the issue, Raon Digital’s website – www.raondigital.com – has been taken down, and a search with their register shows that it’s not merely a case of the company forgetting to renew the domain.  It’s unclear what impact this will have on existing customers and service for their devices; when similarly UMPC-devoted OQO folded back in May, they were forced to tell users that “financial constraints” meant no further warranty repairs would be possible.

Raon Digital were responsible for the Vega and Everun slate-style UMPCs, and – most recently – the Everun Note.  The latter device, a netbook-style clamshell, was in fact one of the best performing ultraportables around, in no small part because of its AMD Turion 64×2 Dual Core 1.2GHz CPU.

Check out the video demo after the cut

The key differences between the S16S and the D24S is in storage and processor.  The former slots into the range as the new entry-level model, with a 12GB MLC SSD and a 1.2GHz Sempron CPU.  Meanwhile the D24S is the new flagship, with the same dual-core AMD Turion processor that was so impressive in the original Everun Note, paired with 8GB of fast SLC and 16GB of standard MLC flash memory.

The video runs through specifications, hardware components, side-by-side rendering capabilities and how the new models stack up to other UMPCs and netbooks.  My only one complaint would be the length; any chance of an edited, “bullet point” version, Steve?

Netbooks, meanwhile, had their share of attention, with Dell’s E Slim 12.1-incher breaking cover, Raon Digital adding SSDs to its Everun Note, Acer promising integrated WiMAX in the Aspire One sometime next year and ASUS suggesting a touchscreen Eee PC will rock their stand at CES 2009.  Right now, it’s the ASUS S101 that’s getting all the attention, but that could change once MSI’s business-focused U120 with 3.5G and sober styling hits the shelves.

In mobile devices, the BlackBerry Storm was finally announced for Verizon Wireless and Vodafone; check out our review roundup for all the details, then drool over the idea of the “Super BlackBerry” RIM are already working on.  We also had the first user-review of the T-Mobile G1, the debut of Google’s Android platform, at our sibling blog AndroidCommunity.  It was almost enough to cheer us up from the news that HTC won’t be bringing the stunning Touch HD to the US, citing engineering delays with the relevant 3G bands.

3G isn’t an issue for Sprint, though, as the carrier officially launched its 4G XOHM WiMAX network in Baltimore this week.  As well as all the details on pricing and network cards, SlashGear also brought you the latest WiMAX-integrated laptops from Lenovo, Acer, ASUS and Toshiba.

Finally, in reviews this week, SlashGear looked at PhoneTag’s voice recognition voicemail service, Ergotron’s Neo-Flex dual-lift LCD stand, and Sleek Audio’s SA6 in-ear monitor earphones.

Make sure to join us on Tuesday morning for the Apple MacBook event Live Blog: remember, that address is http://Live.SlashGear.com/

The D24S is the new premium model, with 24GB of split-capacity SSD.  That’s made up of 8GB of fast SLC and 16GB of standard MLC flash memory, presumably arranged so that the OS and program files are on the faster storage to reduce start-up speeds.  As for the S16S, the new entry-level Everun Note, it swaps Windows XP for Ubuntu Mobile and gets a 12GB MLC SSD.

The downside is that, with the cheaper S16S, you miss out on the storming dual-core AMD Turion processor that makes the Everun Note so speedy, and instead get a Sempron CPU running at 1.2GHz.  It’s reflected in the price, though; Raon Digital are aiming for $659 pre-tax retail for the S16S and $950 pre-tax for the D24S.

Since the SIM slot is already installed, there’s no overwhelming hardware modifications to be made.  The Sierra Wireless MC8775 from inside the AirCard slots into the Mini-PCI slot, the SIM slot is wired up and the antenna connections clipped on (after being routed down through the hinge and around the motherboard).

End result is one of the most powerful UMPCs available, with the added benefit of high-speed 3G connectivity.  Right now, importers aren’t offering a WWAN version of the Everun Note, so modifying your own is perhaps the only way to get internal 3G.

[via UMPC Fever]

The problematic notebooks are to be sent back to Raon Digital’s factory, whereupon they will either be repaired or replaced; it’s unclear what the company intend, but given the costs involved I’d assume it’s the former. No timescale for the repair turnaround is suggested.

Given that it’s early days for the $879 device – which has performed well in recent reviews – it seems unlikely that too many US or European customers will be affected. However it could introduce a delay to reseller and import deliveries, as existing and upcoming stock may have to be shipped back to the factory to be checked and/or repaired.

[via Engadget]

“[It's] main advantage is that it offers a serious single-device alternative to a two-device mobile computing strategy of Netbook and MID that many will consider for full on-the go computing power. For some, this device could even span 4 devices from MID, through netbook, laptop and desktop and that’s something I really hope makes other independent computer manufacturers sit up and take note. It’s fun, it’s powerful, it’s cute, its flexible and it’s good value” Steve Paine, UMPC Portal

Though the hard-drive performance was disappointing, as highlighted in the previous benchmarks, overall the Note held its own.  For the money, yes, you could get a “normal” notebook, but there will be road warriors and those who prize true ultraportability who prioritize Raon Digital’s focus on size.

In the end, though, it’s the flexibility that most impresses.  The Note performs well as a standalone ultraportable device and equally well as a docked desktop machine with a full-sized keyboard and mouse.  No, it’s not perfect – HDMI is an obvious omission, 2.45hrs battery life is mediocre, and there are some odd performance dips – but it’s unusual and that’s always good to see in an industry that so often tends toward the mean.  Steve has a little time left with the demo unit, and is planning a 3G upgrade as well as some other tweaks; the inclusion of WWAN could certainly edge the UMPC even further ahead.

Steve from UMPC Portal has been able to comfortably use the Everun Note as a desktop replacement, with the setup you see here running two Firefox windows with five tabs, Skype and Livewriter with 434MB of RAM free.  In fact he’s unable to tell the difference between the Note’s performance in this setup, and that of a 1.6GHz Core 2 Duo laptop.

Benchmark details after the cut

Incredibly, with the exception of the hard-drive score, all of UMPC Portal’s CrystalMark mains-powered test results are higher than those given by Raon Digital.  Only the hard-drive score (3452 officially, 2763 in practice) dragged down the overall CrystalMark rating to 39,777, just under Raon Digital’s quoted 39,845.  On battery power, where the AMD Turion 64×2 Dual Core 1.2GHz (1MB L2 Cache) processor is scaled back, it scored 23,654; the MSI Wind scored 26,684 both on battery and on mains power.

“Under battery power, the MSI Wind is better [than the Everun Note's CrystalMark performance] although the disk speeds account for a lot of the difference. The average user wont notice an difference between the two devices under battery power” Steve Paine, UMPC Portal

Steve observed that the Turion CPU is approximately twice the power of the 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor, while Open Gl performance is three-times that of the MSI Wind’s Intel GMA950.  According to CPUID, the AMD processor is in fact a 1.8GHz chip, presumably underclocked to 1.2GHz for the sake of power and heat.

With an SSD – a small one, as there’s only room for a 5mm 1.8-inch drive inside – the performance should jump and the storage speed would stop holding the benchmarks back.  It’s looking more and more like Raon Digital have produced the UMPC to beat.

The new Dell will likely be causing some sleepless nights at ASUS, who up until now have been top dog with their Eee PC.  After suffering plenty of criticism for spreading the brand thin, they’ve even dropped the Eee name altogether for their latest luxury netbook, the N10. 

The second major headline this week has come from Google’s stable, in the shape of their new internet browser, Chrome.  An open-source project to take on Internet Explorer, FireFox and the rest, Google are making all the right noises about “shared development” but at the end of the day this is undoubtedly their attempt to wrest the desktop from Microsoft.

Next up comes Apple, who have confirmed a special event for this coming Tuesday, September 7th, in San Francisco.  The expected announcement is for new iPods, with the nano and touch being tipped for the biggest changes (and leaked information hitting the headlines almost daily).  However new patent documentation this week – covering a variety of multitouch and other UI methods – once again adds fuel to the rumors of some sort of Mac Tablet.  SlashGear will be at the event, running our usual Live Blog, so join us at 10am EST at http://live.slashgear.com/ to find out everything Apple announce, as they announce it.

It must be a constant source of frustration to Microsoft that their Zune doesn’t inspire the same frantic rumormongery and excitement as the iPod does.  The Seattle company has new versions on the way too – in fact one branch of Fry’s sold a 120GB model early – but the effect just isn’t the same.

CEDIA has been running this week, and there have been plenty of new projectors, TVs and other home entertainment gadgets to please.  Hitachi’s super-thin 50-inch plasma caught its share of headlines, as did Sony’s fresh HD projectors.  If you’re looking for content to play on them, TiVo will happily oblige with their new HD XL DVR, boasting a whopping 1TB of storage.

Coming up over the next few days is CTIA Wireless, and we’ll be bringing you the top stories both here and at our sibling sites Phone Magazine and SlashPhone.

Check out the Raon Digital Everun Note unboxing video after the cut

First impressions are mixed, with a slightly flawed optical mouse pointer being the only significant problem.  The touchscreen more than makes up for it, though, and Steve reports smooth performance on playing a 7.5mbps WMV HD video, running Unreal Tournament and holding a Skype VoIP conversation.

Steve will be reviewing the Everun Note in a live webcam session later on today, at 3pm EST.  I’m particularly interested to see how well that compact keyboard holds up to serious attempts at typing, and to what extent the CPU is throttled back when on battery power.

Check out the video demos of the Raon Digital Everun Note after the cut

The translation isn’t the best I’ve seen, but there’s plenty to take away just from the multiple photos.  Lazion compare the Everun Note to the MSI Wind, showing just how compact the Raon Digital device is, as well as to the company’s earlier Vega UMPC.

The shot next to the MSI Wind is perhaps the most telling; the Everun Note will not be the device for everyone, with the size of the keyboard likely to be the common complaint.  Personally, though, I’m still excited by the device, and I’m looking forward to reading the first hands-on reports.

Everun Note overview:

Touchscreen demo:

[via pocketables, UMPC Fever]

Weight for the Everun Note is confirmed at 748g, which along with the 200 x 118 x 28mm dimensions make for a seriously portable machine.  The keyboard layout is causing some consternation, with Raon Digital seemingly prioritizing ease of normal typing over access to secondary keys; that’s probably always going to have been a consequence of the size.  As for the optical mouse, performance remains to be seen; however, having spent no small amount of time with the similar device on the Samsung Omnia, I’m relatively confident it will be usable.   

What’s really promising is the AMD Turion 64×2 Dual Core 1.2GHz (1MB L2 Cache) processor with 1GB of RAM.  Raon Digital’s brochure describes three power modes, including a scaled-down setting where the processor is throttled back when running on battery only.  It’s unclear the extent of this throttling.

Availability is expected from resellers in the third week of September.  It’s expensive, yes, but promising nonetheless; any SlashGear readers thinking of picking one up?

[via UMPC Portal]

See the benchmarks after the cut

The expected arguments about what sort of power requirements were needed to reach that figure, and what effect that would have on runtime from the single cell, 5200mah (19.2wh) battery, are running.  It’s probably safe to say that actual usage time under those conditions wouldn’t be anywhere near Raon Digital’s estimated 3hrs.

Other confirmed information includes the presence of a PCI-Express Mini slot and SIM card holder for 3G expansion.  No official price, but somewhere in the region of $800 has been rumored.

More photos of the Everun Note here.

Check out the demo video of the device after the cut

AMD are claiming 2.5hr battery life while playing videos, and estimates put the device at around 200 x 120 x 25mm.  The keyboard looks a little like that of the Sony VAIO TZ to me, though obviously smaller.  Best of all is talk of an actual release, with a $688 to $786 price and availability in the second half of 2008.

Of course, AMD aren’t a notebook company, so the origins of the UMPC are dug into by SlashGear’s favorite ultramobile obsessives, JKK and Chippy; their current thinking is that it’s a new device from Raon Digital.  So far, examination of the neat little optical mouse-controller – as found on Raon Digital’s Everun - the two shortcut buttons above the keyboard on the right, some icons in the toolbar and even the ferrite EMI block on the power lead have all reinforced this.  Considering Raon Digital are fond of SSDs and WWAN connectivity, there’s a good chance we could see this maturing into an impressive mobile device.

Chippy comes to the conclusion that the Everun is a device for outputting content rather than creating it.  Portable media, eBooks, general web-surfing and the odd email with that handy keyboard, all fit neatly into the Everun’s portfolio, but the low-powered 500MHz or 600MHz processor isn’t going to do it any favours running more resource-intensive applications. 

If you’ve any interest at all in the current state of ultra-portables then you really need to read this review.

Raon Digital Everun UMPC Full Review [UMPCPortal.com]

I can see built-in high-speed 3G connectivity making a world of difference to the EVERUN; all of a sudden it goes from being a periodically-connected organiser-with-bells-on to a real possibility for mobile working.  I’m looking forward to seeing Hugo’s full review; if there’s anything you’d like to know about the EVERUN, make sure you hop over to his site and ask him to mention it.

Hugo Ortega phones his wife using…[Uber Tablet]

Check out the video footage of the Everun after the cut…

Running the AMD LX900 processor, the model Steve has is the 30GB standard hard-drive unit (i.e. not the one with an SSD) weighing under 500g yet with Bluetooth, WiFi, a QWERTY thumbboard and 4.8-inch touchscreen.  He’s put together some videos exploring the device; firstly an overview and then, after public demand, some more specific footage of the keyboard.

Some little things are annoying him so far – the lack of an SD slot being one of them (though it’s not such a big deal for me) as well as the odd way that the Everun reports battery status to Windows (or rather it doesn’t – it shows up as an alternative power supply, apparently.  Raon provides an alternative battery monitor) – but otherwise he seems to have fallen in love.

More coverage at the UMPC Portal

Assuming that those are very-much-best-case scenarios, still the battery life should be great.  Add to that a 4.8-inch 800 x 480 touchscreen, full QWERTY keyboard, integrated touchmouse and a low-voltage AMD LX900 600MHz processor and you’ve got quite the handy little handheld.  It’ll ship with a choice of either a 60GB standard hard-drive or a 6GB SSD (or both) and 512MB of RAM (upgradeable to 1GB), together with WiFi in ‘b’ and ‘g’ flavours and Bluetooth 2.0.

The whole thing weighs just 1.1lbs (500g) or 1.32lb with the extended battery, and is available with Windows XP Home.  I’m surprised not to see XP Tablet Edition on there, as it would make sense given the touchscreen.

A full-spec Everun (with 512MB RAM, both hard-drives and the standard battery) is priced at $1,099, while the cheapest entry point is $699 for an AMD LX800 500MHz powered version running XP Embedded on the 6GB SSD.  Delivery is expected in mid-July.

Dynamism Product Page [via Ultra Mobile PC Tips]

So where do we stand?  Well, the Vega can’t multi-task, it can’t handle media-heavy applications (like the Zune’s software) and Skype calling was choppy and glitchy thanks to the underpowered CPU.  On the flip side, web-based apps like Gmail and Outlook Web Access – where the bulk of processing is done server-side – ran smoothly.  So what does this make the Vega?  An over-complicated web-tablet or an underperforming UMPC? 

Raon Digital Vega review [jkontherun]

In fact, these are the exact concerns of the latest review at UltraMobileGeek, who tried the Vega out for size as a carputer and – having had his experience of using the device as a portable PC soured by the absence of Tablet OS (it runs XP Home) – media player.  GPS navigation (via a Bluetooth dongle and separate receiver) worked well, but the mediocre specs of the Vega prevented their in-car front-end software from running.  As a PMP, when compared to the iPod, Zune and Zen Vision M they conclude that “the primary disadvantages compared to the above products are size, price, boot-up time, and the tendency to run warm after long video playback times” – a pretty serious list if you ask me!

So where can Raon Digital go now?  Is it all over for the Vega?  Well, no; I agree that in-built wireless, a spec boost and either a switch to the Tablet PC OS or some sort of concession to using the device with a finger/stylus, all wrapped up in a sub-$600 price tag, would be enough to catapult the Vega to stardom.  I just doubt that the company will manage to tick all those boxes.

The Raon Digital Vega: Compromise for Size [UltraMobileGeek]

Despite lacking internal WiFi or Bluetooth, the Vega has managed to score pretty well in past reviews, so if there’s any overall lesson to be learnt here it’s that the success of any mobile device is vastly dependent on the needs and lifestyle of the individual using it.  Jenn criticises the no-longer-competitive price ($879 from Dynamism, in her case), sub-par text-entry methods, unattractive design and poor performance as an impromptu laptop-replacement.

The USB WiFi adaptor Raon Digital supply does the job, but it’s not exactly an aesthetically pleasing or convenient solution – seriously, couldn’t they find a more suitably shaped device?

Review: Raon Digital Vega [pocketables]

Raon Digital Vega review [Carrypad UMPC Portal]

OS

• Microsoft Windows XP Home

CPU

• AMD Goede LX800
• Cache Memory – L1 64KB-I / 64KB-D L2 128KB
• Instruction set – X86 + Integrate FPU + intel MMX + AMD 3Dnow
• Main Memory – DDR400 / PC3200 256MB
• Main Chipset – AMD CS5536

HDD

• Toshiba 1.8″ 30GB 4200 rpm

Graphics

• High Performance 2D graphics controller
• Microsoft Windows GDI GUI acceleration
• Hardware screen rotation
• Video Processor – Video scaling / Mixing / VOP
• Display Controller – Upto 1920×1440x32bpp 85Hz

Sound

• RealTek ALC203
• EAX / DirectSound3D / A3D / I3DL2 compatible
• Speaker – 0.7W + 0.7W stero speaker
• Headphone – 50mW / 20 Ohm
• Microphone – 1 internal / External mono jack

LCD

• 4.3″ (93.6×56.16mm) WVGA
• 800×480 resolution 16M color 60Hz
• Contrast Ratio / Luminance – 400:1 / 200cd/m2
• Viewing Angle – 80 / 80

Battery

• Li-Ion 10.8V 3300 mAH standard pack
• Li-Ion 10.8V 1100 mAH compact pack
• Battery Life – Upto 5.5 Hrs (standard pack), 1.8 Hrs (compact pack)
• Charge Time – 3Hrs (80% charge)

Physical

• Dimension – 160×80×27.5mm (standard pack)
• Dimension – 160×80×22.5mm (compact pack)
• Weight – 480g/350g (standard/compact)

Vega UMPC works with GPS [Via NaviGadget]