News Week of November 18, 2007

oqo's Railway Rollout Marks New Era for umpcs

Aiming to supply its track inspectors with a mobile handheld device that would make their job easier and more efficient, major East Coast railway company CSX Transportation chose not a conventional PDA, like a Palm device, or a ruggedized smartphone like a Symbol MC50.

Instead, CSX went with relatively unheralded devices from OQO, a San Francisco-based vendor of ultra-mobile PCs that is attempting to revolutionize the mobile device market.

Rather than beefing up smartphones that run mobile operating systems like BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, or Symbian until they resemble notebook computers in power and performance, OQO has bet on its ability to shrink actual notebooks until they fit into a shirt pocket. The OQO runs Windows XP or Windows Vista and is able to handle full enterprise applications rather than "mobilized" versions of desktop apps. The OQO 02 is slightly larger than a 3-inch by 5-inch index card and is 1 inch deep, meaning it fits comfortably into a jeans back pocket or the inside jacket pocket of a sports coat. It has a 5-inch screen that slides up to reveal a full thumb-keyboard. (Source: Richard Martin, InformationWeek )

Posted Wednesday, November 21, 2007 by ChrisD
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Fujitsu lifebook T2010

A track stick is provided if you don't want to use the pen, and the T2010 has all of the ports and connectors you'd want, including SD/Memory Stick and Smart Card slots, although we might quibble that it lacks an ExpressCard slot and WLAN is an option (though our review unit came with an 801.11a/g/n adapter, and the 802.11n was a big plus).

Overall, though, while nothing really stands out here, the T2010 is worth a look if you're in the market for a Vista-based tablet PC. (Source: Craig Mathias, IT Business.ca)

Posted Wednesday, November 21, 2007 by ChrisD
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Asus R50A UMPC - Sports a GPS

This new UMPC from Asus is like nothing you’ve ever seen before. the R50A integrates all of the mobile technology you could ever need into one tiny ultra-portable. Plus it’s from Asus, who can’t seem to produce anything but amazing products right now.

This little PC is packed full of mobile computing goodness. From 3g/3.5g wireless, to GPS, you can do access your data worldwide, and never get lost. The 3G/3.5G is pretty impressive, but we’ll see how that affects the battery life of the device. The R50A also has a TV tuner built in so you can catch your favorite terrestrial television networks. (Source: Reece Bailey Schofield , SlashGear)

Posted Tuesday, November 20, 2007 by ChrisD
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Gigabyte M704 UMPC yet another addition to what seemed to be a stale market

First we get hit with the new Asus offering, and now Gigabyte has a new UMPC too, looks like things are popping in the UMPC market again. Sadly it looks like this will, for now, only be available in Taiwan.

But if you are still interested, it has a 1.2GHz VIA Esther ULV C7-M processor, a 7” LED backlit LCD with a 1024×600 resolution, and a 40 or 60GB HDD with Windows Vista. It weighs a mere 780 grams. (Source: James Allan Brady , SlashGear)

Posted Tuesday, November 20, 2007 by ChrisD
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Nokia N810 Internet Tablet Released

Nokia's N810 Internet Tablet finally makes it to the US, and it'll cost you $480. For once, Nokia's eschewing of the term "phone" turns out to make sense: The only connection option you get with the N810 are WiFi and Bluetooth.

For the price, though, it's a capable little box. You get GPS (and preloaded maps, although you can sign up with Wayfarer in December for $130 a year), up to 10GB memory (2GB internal and up to 8GB more via memory card), a slide out keyboard for some real typing, music and VoIP (via Skype or the Gizmo Project). (Source: Charlie Sorrel, Wired)

Posted Tuesday, November 20, 2007 by ChrisD
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EverNote 2.2 Available Now!

We are pleased to announce the release of EverNote 2.2, which offers the following new features:

- Improved search for printed and handwritten text within images
- Auto-import snapshots from your camera phone
- Google Desktop Search compatibility
- Universal Clipper with image markup
- Arranging and editing notes in separate windows
- Note List with sorting by notes attributes
- Image editing
...and numerous other enhancements

Paid users of desktop and portable versions 2.x and beta testers of version 2.2 are eligible for a free upgrade to 2.2.

Users of the free version of EverNote and paid versions 1.x can buy EverNote until November 30th, 2007 for only $19.95, a 60% discount!

Buy EverNote for only $19.95.

If you have trouble with the link, copy this into your browser: http://www.evernote.com/products/promos/?promo=basic (Source: Press Release)

Posted Monday, November 19, 2007 by ChrisD
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Lenovo thinkpad X61 Tablet Edition review

The Lenovo ThinkPad X61 is a great investment for those looking for a tablet PC. Lenovo has done a great job maintaining the ThinkPad brand, which has long been known for its durability and full-size keyboards. Although the X61 Tablet has a 12.1-inch display, the keyboard remains virtually full size, and the only difference is that keys such as “Enter” are thinner (think more square-ish) than their larger brethren. In testing, this did not prove to be a problem. (Source: Daniel Hunt, Network World)
Posted Monday, November 19, 2007 by ChrisD
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Fujitsu lifebook T2010 tablet PC

I have owned a number of Fujitsu PCs over the years, and I’ve always found them to be reliable and a good value. The T2010 is no exception – it's sleek, functional, and easy to use. The pen need not touch the screen to be used as a mouse, and, while tablet functionality isn’t a requirement for everyone, it’s nice to be able to sketch a drawing without having to scan it later. (Source: Craig Mathias, Network World)
Posted Monday, November 19, 2007 by ChrisD
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