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So what can you do with the UMPC?

We’ve seen a lot of prototypes, videos, reviews and specs. So what can we do with it? Here is a brief list of things that we MIGHT be able to do with our UMPCs. These are just a few of the things that could be done and not the official list of features or must-do kind of a thing.

This little gadget is called “Ultra Mobile PC”, saying this, it should be treated as a PC which is mobile; not exactly like a laptop neither a Smart Phone kind of a thing, this is in between these two.

Work: Sure, this device will be powered by Windows XP (customized edition) but we can not expect this to be doing all that we did on regular PC, but a whole lot of it, like

  • Checking your emails on the run & replying them
  • View, Review and Share Documents
  • Make & Show off Powerpoint presentations
  • Chat with your friends & Colleagues for work & fun
Now, please don’t ask us if you can install Photoshop, Maya or any of those resource consuming applications on this. Well even if there is a way to do it, you don’t want to do it.

Videos: It better be a mobile entertainment thingy. Oh yes! you can have a lot of fun with this when it comes to entertainment.

  • Watch Videos off your Hard Drive & on the internet.
  • Watch Live Free TV (not all models might have the TV tuner card built-in)
  • Stream your Videos from the UMPC to your Mega Plasma & LCD TVs
movielink_logo2.gifsling_logo.jpgMicrosoft has already made deals with Movielink, so we can for sure expect some live streaming Movies on these devices, more like a pay-per-view or pay-per-download kind of a thing. Another thing to note is that Microsoft has teamed up with Sling Media:We can pretty much watch those channels we have subscribed via our Cable or Satellite on the device where ever you are in the world (provided you have the access to the web)

Music: Lot of folks were wondering if they can install iTunes on it. Well even if not, sure someone is going to find a way to do it.

  • Listen to your favorite Music off the UMPC or on the Internet
  • Listen to LIVE Radio (again hardware dependent)
  • Stream your Music from the UMPC to your Pumped up Music Systems.
Talking about music, the deal that Microsoft has made with MTV should come in handy and sure you would have some service that lets you watch your MTV shows on this nifty device. If you can Podcast it to an iPod, why not LIVECAST it to UMPCs :)

Play:

  • Sudoku: Looks like one of the famous games will be included in the touch pack
  • Tones of other games that are already in use could be installed
  • Sure there are even more designed specifically for your UMPCs that will be announced soon

Mobile: Yep you might not find it as attractive as an iPod nano but you CAN carry (may be in a BAG of its own & not in your pocket from the dimensions we see) this device to listen to music, but there are other things which would be really cool, like

  • Having this docked in your Car, which supplies charge to the power hungry device (3 hours of battery is not enough)
  • Use the bluetooth enabled Pharohs GPS unit and Cruise on the Freeway with Voice enabled Streets and Maps.
  • Stream wirelessly (RF) Music from your device to your Car Stereo
  • With Bluetooth built in, sure we can think of ways the you can use it with your mobile phone while driving as a Handsfree.
pharos_logo.gifMatter of fact, Pharos has announced the Pharos iGPS-500, a powerful new GPS receiver designed to work with the groundbreaking new class of Microsoft Ultra Mobile PCs. The iGPS-500 will provide mobile professionals with advanced location and navigation capabilities as a part of a comprehensive desktop experience on a lightweight mobile PC. Click here to read the press release

So UMPCians, go ahead send in your comments on what other things could be done, Sure there are even more creative people out there…

So when did this Origami / UMPC buzz begin?

UPDATE: The Origami Project Team has Part 2 & Part 3 of the History.

Interesting enough, the Origami Team at Microsoft has a history of how this all began, the team lead by Dustin has put up this information on their blog.

Dec 05 – My team and I have an idea about doing a buzz/viral campaign to get enthusiasts interested in what we’re announcing at CeBIT. I pitch the idea to Michael, our marketing guy, and he agrees it’s a good idea so he and I start planning it.

Jan 06 – We hired a creative agency to begin work on the viral campaign. We tell them to leave it vague and open to speculation to generate interest. After some discussion we decided to have the campaign kick-off 2 weeks prior to CeBIT to give it enough time for people to find out about it. We also decide to host it on the origamiproject.com domain, because that is going to be the UMPC community site that goes live after the CeBIT announcement. Also, we knew it would take only a matter of minutes for someone to do a Whois lookup to find out it was a Microsoft site without explicitly spelling it out.

Feb 23rd – Week 1 of 3 teaser goes live on origamiproject.com, 2 weeks ahead of CeBIT announcement. JkOnTheRun seems to be the first post of it, but it is when someone posts the site on Digg.com that we start getting significant traffic to the teaser. We end day one with about 28,000 hits. Our original estimates are 10,000 – 20,000 hits over the entire 2 weeks.

Feb 24th – Interest picks up on the site, word spreads and we get a post on Slashdot.com. We end the second day with about 65,000 more hits.

Feb 25th – March 1st – Digital Kitchen Video is found on the internet and mainstream media begins to pick up the story over the weekend. By Monday we are showing up on front page news stories and many TV programs. Monday ends with another 260,000 hits, and Tuesday we get another 200,000. People start thinking week 2 is the unveiling even though the site shows 3 week segments.

March 2nd – Teaser campaign week 2 goes live, we hide the words “Origami Project: the mobile pc running windows xp� in the HTML source to help settle down the speculation and give a clue. More accurate stories begin getting written by the media. Intel decides to launch a teaser with a date that aligns to their IDF conference on UMPC.com. The Origamiproject.com site gets another 480,000 hits on March 2nd with people hoping to find out what it is.

March 9th – Teaser campaign week 3 goes live in accordance with the CeBIT announcement and unveils UMPC with photos of the devices. At this point in the campaign we have had more than 2 million hits.

Read more about this at: Origami Project




Microsoft releases UMPC Display Emulater - beta

The UMPC Display Emulator Beta application enables you to test your application’s layout and screen behavior as it appears on an UMPC. Use the UMPC Display Emulator to confirm that your program is legible, accessible, and provides a great user experience when running on a UMPC.

The UMPC Display Emulator is easy to use; however, it is not a hardware emulator or virtualized operating system. The UMPC Display Emulator is a developer tool intended to provide a quick and easy way to check screen layout and behavior at screen resolution of a UMPC. The UMPC Display Emulator sets your screen to the resolution of an ultra-mobile PC (800 × 480), while leaving your monitor’s physical resolution at its current setting. Essentially, the tool shows how your program, which is designed for a standard graphic user interface (GUI), appears in the typical resolution of a UMPC.

Note: Because the UMPC runs Microsoft Windows XP, it isn’t necessary to run a different operating system in the emulator-it’s still your desktop or laptop computer that is running; nothing is different, including the development APIs.

Click here to DOWNLOAD

More UMPC Prototypes

Guys at eHomeUpgrade have got good pics of the prototypes. Few things we can expect from these UMPCs are

110550798_13f3a937d8.jpg

  • The first vendors to sell UMPCs to consumers will be Samsung, Asustek, and Founder (Engadget has pics from Cebit).
  • The larger 7-inch versions will have 1GHz Pentimum M processors, while the 5-inch will have a 600MHz procesor
  • Some UMPCs will come with 1.3MP digital cameras, webcams (perfect for video conferencing), GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
  • Third-party apps can be integrated with Origami
  • 256MB of memory
  • Hard drive capacities: 20 - 60GB
  • Price points: $600 - $1,000
  • Docking cradle: When connected to the dock users can attach their various PC peripherals and use the UMPC as a full PC (note first gen only offers VGA out – DVI is coming in the second generation)
  • 2 - 3 hour battery life

New Details of TabletKiosk V-700 UMPC emerge

You must have seen this before but here are some specs and actual photos, This UMPC is from TabletKiost.

tabletkiosk_front.png

Specs:tk_logo.gif

  • CPU: VIA C7M 1 Ghz
  • CHIPSETS: VIA Vn800, Vt8237R
  • MEMORY: 1x SODIMM DDR2, 256MB - 1GB
  • BIOS: Phoenix, Boot from USB, APM 1.2, ACPI BIOS
  • BATTERY: 26W LiON, 2200 mAH
  • HDD: 2.5″, 40 - 160 Gb
  • VIDEO: VIA Vn800, 7 inch, 800×480, zoom function 800×600, 1024×600
  • AUDIO: AC97 codec, integrated speaker, head phone/ stereo MIC jack (3.5mm)
  • I/O DEVICES: WiFi (802.11b/g, Bluetooth, touch screen (resistive), Synaptics stick cursor
  • I/O PORTS: Power, headphone/ stereo MIC combo jack, 2xUSB 2.0, stylus holder, cradle connector
  • LED INDICATORS: power on, battery, HDD activity
  • BUTTONS: Left side: Left/ right mouse, D-Pad (4 direction + Enter), brightness toggle, zoom function; Right side: Mouse cursor + Enter, Page Up/ Down, Setting button- TBD, Media Button, Speaker; Right edge: Headphone/Mic, Volume Up/ Down, 1xUSB, Power switch/ Key lock, SAS (C-A-D); Left edge: DC in, 1xUSB, WLAN on/off
  • POWER: Mini AC Adapter, international voltage
  • DIMENSIONS: 228×146x25mm (8.97×5.74×0.98in), 0.9kg (1.98 lb)
  • ACCESSORIES: carry bag, external optical drive (optional), AC adapter, head phone/ mic, user’s manual, utility CDs, gift box

Source: jkOnTheRun More Photos: Click here






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