We still don’t feel like consumers are rushing out to buy those portable but quirky UMPCs, but it seems like the form factor is here to stay anyway, and now Korean manufacturer Daewoo Lucoms — a spin-off of Daewoo Electronics — has released its own version called the Solo M1. You’ll have to forgive us for not getting too enthusiastic about these products anymore (the novelty wore off about 100 posts ago), but if you want ot more the nread on (more…)

So you want a portable music player. How about a portable video player to? Hey what the hell how about a camera and video recorder to? And since we asked why not throw in a digital card reader and the ability to encode footage directly from your tv or dvd payer. And if you wanted all this in one device for under $1,000 you would expect MR T to emerge hidden from some nearby trees to brand you a ‘crazy fool’ for your foolish desires. But wait MR T drag your mohawk and medallions back to the overgrowth as Mustek has just dropped the DV536 which can do all this and costs. . . wait for it - $200. No MR T there is no need to pitty us as we are not fools - we speak the truth. Too good to be true, you say? Well, yes and no; you really do get all of those functions in this new super gadget, but the list of caveats is rather long: the 2.4-inch screen isn’t the best for watching flicks, that 10 megapixel resolution is really achieved through interpolation from a 5 megapixel CMOS sensor, and the 10x zoom we mentioned is of the digital variety, as no optical zoom is included. Plus, there’s no way to schedule recordings and you’re only getting 32MB of internal memory, meaning that you’ll need a pretty big SD card if you want to store all those movies, photos, video clips, and songs you’ll be loading this up with. Still, $200 isn’t too bad for all the features you’re getting here, even if none of them hold a candle to dedicated devices performing the same tasks.

Following our report a few days ago, Sony today officially introduced the VAIO UX Micro PC, placing full-size computer performance in a pocket-sized package. (more…)

The latest offering from Palm is the 700p, which features EV-DO, 312MHz Xscale CPU, 128MB flash memory (60MB usable), 1.3 megapixel camera, Bluetooth, and SDIO. Unlike the 700w it works it with the same 320 x 320 resolution screen as the 650 – which is good news. However it seems that Palm have decided to spoil the party a bit, firstly their SDIO slot won’t support WiFi, they think EV-DO should be enough. It also does not support voice dialing over Bluetooth, nor does it officially support SD cards over 2GB. However it does come with a basic version of PocketTunes — but lacks PlaysForSure support. Well it’s like your mum always used to say ‘you can’t have everything’. Hmm but doesn’t stop us wanting it!

It has been widely expected that Sony has been planning to enter the UMPC market and here we can present you with the Sony UX ultra-portable PC. Here are the facts known so far. It has a 7-inch touchscreen, slide-out QWERTY keyboard, Core Solo processor, Wi-Fi, biometric sensor, two cameras, Windows XP Pro, 3G and Bluetooth. These pictures have surfaced thanks to an anonymous poster over at mobility today – so be warned they could just be teasing us all!

So how does the “ultimate convergence device” sound? PC features in your pocket so you can truly work & play on the move. Sounded like an excellent idea to us – especially the convergence part. Well that was until they decided to remove the cellphone capabilities it was reportedly going to have. Oh and then some clever dick decided ‘why not remove all radio support all together?’ great idea conferred the other monkeys sat around the table, ‘anyone for PG Tips?’ Yes that’s right in all their monkey wisdom DualCor Technologies have decided against any form or inbuilt Bluetooth, WiFi or 3G. Now exactly what the point of this device now is or more importantly who is going to buy it eludes us quite frankly. So purely for entertainment value here are the specs: the XP side of the device powered by a 1.5GHz Via processor that’s backed by a full gig of DDR2 RAM. Both OSes can store data on the 30GB hard drive (and not 40GB as we previously reported) or the 1GB of NAND flash memory, with the Windows Mobile 5.0 side is supported by a 400MHz Intel PXA263 chip and 128MB of DRAM. Shipping will start in the next 90 days.

 

A French company called It’s Label has just unveiled a new Origami/UMPC device exclusively for the French Market. This UMPC sure looks good and has all the right curves. It features a highly stylized form factor and is extremely feature rich too. Let’s now look at the Origami It’s in more details and find out what all it has to offer.

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Just when you think we’re done with all this CeBIT nonsense, we discover another marginally interesting device to fill up your RSS feed with. This time it’s the new “Ubiquitous Multimedia Informator” from Nainworks. We’re not making this up, people. It looks to be a fairly full featured DMB capable PMP, with all sorts of codec support, TV-out, 5 hour battery life, and a 20GB hard drive. The screen seems to cover most of the face at 4-inches, and the 480×272 resolution ain’t too shabby. The DMB receiver isn’t built in, so while the UMI is a tad streamlined due to this fact, you’ll have to hook up an external antenna to catch TV on the go. All in all, not a bad looking player for Korea, though we’re mainly just excited by the ad copy: “We sungiss which we do the environment setting up of English Hangul of language setting up and back of the ubdengitue UMI.” MobileMag

This is the new Samsung SPH-B5200,a phone that can be used to play 3D games with the matching pad that is shaped like a handheld game device,it also has a 2″ QVGA screen,a DMB tuner and MP3 player,other specs are not know at present.

 

Word is that Sony has a new PSP on the way and it will have 8GB of memory.Intial reports are that the memory type  will be NAND flash but it appears now that Sony and Samsung are having trouble agreeing on a price.If that’s the case,Sony may look at a Microdrive instead.