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MID VS the iPhone & iPod touch

As Intel is working hard to push its MID (Mobile Internet Devices). Apple just launched a new line of iPod the “iPod touch” and lowered its price on the high-end iPhone by $200 making it even more attractive to the consumers.

mid_ipod.jpg

Both MID and Apple’s iPod and iPhone have a lot of similarities and features. Be it internet or the connectivity options or the touch screens. It’s hard, at this time to decide on which would be more popular platform. Will Apple enter in to the UMPC Market or have they already?

iPod Touch [Apple] | Moblin.org

Asus: Comsumers Rejoice!

Looks like Asus Eee PCs will force the prices of the UMPCs and Laptops to be lowered. With the price advantage that they have other manufacturers are worried about the market.

According to DigiTimes Systems

…With its price advantage, Asustek expects its Eee PCs to make headway into the consumer notebook segment starting the second half of next year, with total shipments of Eee PCs to top three million units for all of 2008, company vice president Jerry Chen has said. Asustek plans to start delivering the low-cost notebooks in the latter half of this month…

…Intel’s planned introduction of its Menlow-based mobile Internet devices (MIDs) is likely to be adjusted, and Samsung Electronics, which has been following Intel’s steps to develop UMPC, would also be affected, the sources contended…

Asustek Eee PCs to push down ASPs of notebooks, UMPCs and other portable digital devices, say sources [DigiTimes]




UMPC VS iPhone - Let the debate begin!

Sure enough, I was pretty sure that such a comparison would spring up any time soon. Tablet PC Questionhas started it. The first part of the comparison does not get in to details but more of first look.

It all starts with the Hype, then to the launch on to actually availability of the device, Out of the box experience, the first boot. Looks like Loren is planning on a part 2, which I shop will be more technical and specific comparisons of these two devices.

iPhone versus UMPC  — Which on wins? Part 1 [Tablet PC Questions]

iThought & iBought an iPhone

iPhone seems to be Apple’s answer to Intel’s MID & UMPC products, Hopefully someone will make a comparison of these two soon. Remember the Q1 and Newton comparison (which is nowhere close to each other). Looks like apple is already in the plans to make their multi-touch interface in to the iBooks as well.

To talk about something in detail you have to know in and out (you always can read about it), but then when it comes to an experience you have to experience it to talk about it. This product might be one of the most hyped launches of this decade (atleast in the USA) So it is worth the hype? Is it a really a great product? Will it revolutionize the mobile industry? You decide…

iphone1.jpg

People have waited in line for weeks, days, even traded $800 for the first in line without knowing much details and wanting spend $100,000 in iPhones. Even a Mayor and not to mention some celebrities like Whoopi Golberg waiting in line. I was lucky, walked straight in to the Apple store at Palo alto around 10:30PM on Friday and out in 10 minutes with an iPhone :)

I’m sure you must have read about it a lot, The internet is filled literally overflowing with details and review of the iPhone. This for the most part are things that are not clearly mentioned or clarified.

First for the good stuff. The product as such is just as expected from any Apple product. Great built quality, sleek and simple. The best part of the device is the User Experience. There has been mobile phones for decades now, but Apple has thought through the usage of a typical phone and a lot of User Experience is built around it making it one of the best for mobile phone. Though there are so many things that are great about the interface, there are few things that really sucks (atleast for me)

  • It takes more taps than most of the phones to dial a number, or even call someone in you address book. This being a Phone, should have been a lot easier and straight.
  • When you receive a call, you have to wonder what you should be doing to attend the call (if the phone is in locked mode) — yes you have to slide to unlock to attend the call. This sounds OK but surely not when you are driving (!). Now if you were using the device and you recieve a call then its easy with just a tap. (Confused of what I’m talking about — take a look)

Other than these two(making and recieving a call) issues which are really the most important features of the device, there are great things about it. Most of you would like the interface as a gadget.

15 Things you SHOULD know about the iPhone.

  1. This is an ATT/cingular only, though it is a Quad band phone (not sure if it wrok worldwide)
  2. The iPhone has to be activated otherwise its next to useless(even if you are an existing customer)
  3. Activation requires a 2 years service agreement for NEW and EXISTING customers.
  4. You need the latest version of iTunes to activate(Linux fanboys look for a Mac or a Windows PC)
  5. You HAVE TO have choose a data plan to activate the iPhone (special cheaper data plans for iPhones only from ATT/Cingular & might work out to be cheaper if you already have a data plan)
  6. The device has EDGE and no 3G Connectivity, it turns out to be OK since it has the built-in WiFi
  7. Battery life is great — no complaints there!
  8. The Bluetooth — forget it, this is only for the bluetooth headsets and thats it. Nothing else can be done with that
  9. Though the device has a great browser and WiFi built in you can not buy songs from iTunes directly from the device!(atleast not now)
  10. The iPhone headset jack is not the same as you think. This does NOT work with you existing headsets or any third part headsets (unless you go for a connector)
  11. There is no Accidental or Theft Insurance on this device from ATT/cingular and comes standard with apple’s one year warranty.
  12. There is no expansion slot of any kind, you can NOT add memory of any sort other than what is has (4 or 8GB).
  13. Not all iPod accessories will work with the iPhone.
  14. iPhone is NOT supported on the 64bit Windows be it XP or Vista — details here
  15. Beware its an iPhone, Use with caution and in secrecy, you might get mugged!

Technical Specifications:

Apple has published some details about this but not the CORE details. Here are the information that you might not be aware of. Source: engadget

  • ARM1176JZF chip with TrustZone (enables trusted computing environment for media, apps, network, OS, etc. — very bad for hackers)
  • Can vary in clock speed up to 700MHz or more, depending on implementation
  • ARM Intelligent Energy Manager (claimed to reduce power consumption 25-50% in portables)
  • 16K / 16K cache
  • Features vector floating point coprocessor (”for embedded 3D-graphics”)
  • ARM Jazelle enabled for embedded Java execution
  • SIMD, high perf integer CPU (8-stage pipeline, 675 Dhrystone, 2.1 MIPS)
  • 0.45 mW/MHz power draw (with cache)

What to expect and when?

Its been hardly days since its launch and the iPhone Restore image is now available on the internet [via engadget], it will not take long for those curious boys to hack it out.

  • iChat on iPhone (anytime soon — might be just a Software update)
  • 3G and Europe & Other country availability (sooner than we thought)
  • More Capacity (12, 16 and may be 32Gigs — who knows)
  • Support for 3rd part tools
  • Skype for iPhone (never pay to call)

and even more. I only hope the new Modinux team does a good job. These two devices are seem to be having very similar specs and specifications.

Media re-thinks the UMPC

It’s about a little more than a year since the launch of UMPC. We’ve seen varied reaction from consumers and media so far. The main stream media seems to be rethinking what they stated during the initial times of UMPC.

Walt Mossberg has reviewed (kind of an overview) the Samsung Q1 Ultra and states this is far better than the first generation of UMPCs. The article titled “This Time, Samsung Has Made a Tiny PC That’s Practical to Use“. Here is the video

GottabeMobile has posted yet another story including this on David DeJean of Information Week taking a complete “U” turn on the Origami concept with the article that goes “OK, So I Was Wrong About Origami“. It’s interesting to see how the hardware has improved & implications has changed drastically over in a years time.

But this is not last year’s Origami. Ultra-mobile PCs have come a long way in a short time. While the UMPC is still a long way from being an established category of PC hardware, designers have come up with interesting takes on small devices with most of the capabilities of a full-sized notebook PC…

JKK has linked to another video from CNBC about Q1 Ultra, and a short interview with Senior Product Manager, Mobile Computing products — Samsung America






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