HD on the Q1 Ultra!

Wow, there was no point taking a screenshot, because 720p on the gorgeous 1024X600 samsung screen has to be seen to be believed.
I've only tried wmvhd 1280X720 content (trailers and the like) so far, but results have been amazing. The image is as smooth as butter!

The secret to my success? The Core Media Player, It always gave great results on PDA's and now it's proving more powerful than even the great VLC on the UMPC platform. Stunning stuff.

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Say hello to my little friend

Apologies for any typos and grammatical errors; it's been a crazy week but I wanted to share my experiences of the Q1 Ultra with everyone as soon as possible.
Here you can see my freshly cleaned desk with it's new member. Follow the link to see what I thought of this little 'black beauty', well, it is when not covered in greasy paw prints at least.

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Gettin' down and DIRTY

Some quick thoughts on the new Colin McRae title 'Dirt'. This has been on my radar for some time, I've been hoping to see a McRae rally game hit the heights of the second title for some time; Is this the one to do it?

Well, things started very good with top graphics and some truly brilliant physics, the sensation as you tumble out of control (happens a lot to me) is really exceptional. Hell, the menu system is worth the entrance fee alone! Sadly the frame rate lurches below 30fps all to often. Now, I've never been one to site in the 60fps is all important camp, but, consistency is key. Dirt just can't keep the frame rate steady, particularly in the demanding motorcross sections (with multiple cars). It's far from unplayable but robs the game of some of its immediacy. It'll be interesting to see how the PS3 version compares. Of course the PS3 is without rumble for the time being...

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Q1 Ultra first impressions

Well, I was going to do a proper review straight away, but just had a chat with Christopher Welles via Skype on his Q1 Ultra. It did peg the CPU out pretty much to the max, but audio quality was superb. Video was of course iffy, but that was more down to skype than the Q1U. pretty impressive as Skype was using 15-20% of my CPU on a 3.6GHz Core 2 Duo!

I look forward to sharing my full impressions soon. Thanks to Chris for his time, hopefully we'll be able to tweak our machines more to see what they can do.

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Kohjinsha strikes back

Well, looks like another bid for my wallet. Kohjinsha have just unveiled their new ultra mobile device for the Korean market. If anyone remembers their last device it had a similar form factor but a low rez 800X480 screen and shockingly slow AMD Geode processor.
The spec's for this second gen device, now include 1024X600 resolution across its 7" touch screen and a Intel A100 processor. The machine called the K600 retains the excellent form factor of the older device, kind of an ultra mini-tablet (surely more origami like than any 'proper' umpc).
Now the Intel A100 is hardly a power house (600MHz I believe, but great for battery life), but If they do a A110 version (800MHz) and if that little dot at the top is a webcam....

...count me in, particularly if they also retain the same insane price tag as last time (£400, expect about £600 via import to the UK). The Korean version also sports a digital TV tuner, but expect that to be dropped, if it ever reaches these shores; which let's face it, it won't.

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The Q1 Ultra gets a little closer

GottaBeMobile have got a nicely presented video (45 mins wmv) showing the new Q1 Ultra from Samsung in action. I won't say much about it, other than I'm still quite excited about it despite an overall negative reaction.
Two things...

One. I agree that calling a Ultra mobile PC the 'Ultra' is blimmin stupid.

Two. Why would someone compare the performance of a tiny UMPC to that of a top end X61 Thinkpad? Apparently it feels a lot slower, wow, incisive comment there Sherlock.

Still, if you're interested in the device it makes good viewing regardless.

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TX1020 convertible mini-review

Hi, just thought I'd share my opinion of the HP tx1020 12" convertible entertainment pc (notice the lack of the word tablet).
I'm preparing to settle on a small laptop/ultra portable as a 'round the house' pc; current contenders being the Thinkpad X61 tablet and Samsung's new Q1 ultra. So, when I had a chance to try Hewlett packards tablet-like machine I jumped at it.

Initial impressions were mixed; the unit is attractive but the anti-scratch black paint attracts fingerprints worse than a Sony PSP, also, the touchpad is clever (raised instead of recessed) but not as responsive as a conventional unit. Mind you, nice touches abound, the tx1020 features a small remote hidden away in it's express card slot, twin headphone jacks, removable DVD drive and a decent quality stylus. Ah, the stylus, like I mentioned before, HP do not advertise this unit a a tablet PC, and with good reason. The unit only has a passive digitizer which register pen and finger tip input by pressure alone. The engineers have made the decision to increase the weight required to register movement on the screen. This has the benefit of reducing vectoring (false movement created by palm contact with the screen, but creates problems with the sheer amount of pressure required to write. Taking notes on the tx1020 is a tiring business!

Pro's
Attractive
Good sepcifications
Good price (being sold off from as little as £649 at Staples for the 1.6GHz model)
Lot's of bells and whistles

Con's
Iffy battery life
Runs hot, plus your hand can end up covering the exhaust port in Tablet mode
Not a tablet PC
Easy to press pointless entertainment focused buttons in slate mode
GeForce graphics card is basic IGP model

Overall
A good machine if you can find it for a decent price (opt for the cheaper models as the difference in clock speeds is negligible). 7/10

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No comparison

You know, I'm really not keen on 'bigging up' the iPhone, but this spoof of the iPhone adds using the new HTC Touch does offer an interesting comparison. HTC is quite possibly the best designer of Smartphones for the windows Mobile platform, and clearly the device itself is well engineered. However, it's a sad fact that you can't simply dump a skin on top of an OS and hope that the device will suddenly fly off shelves. Watching the Touch in use it's far too obvious that the clunky WM6 operating system lurks only just under the surface. Now, we know Apple has a gorgeous look to their new OS with it's 'fluid' UI (user interface), but it remains to be seen if it actually makes the phone easy to use, rather than simply 'spanglier' and more battery intensive.

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Come on guys hurry up....

Sheeesh, that time of year again.

As usual, with temperatures soaring to the point that all self respecting geeks are hiding inside to preserve our alabaster complexions; the software industry deserts us. Why must they insist on delaying games (i'm thinking of Mass Effect, BioShock, Crysis etc) and I'm sure often with an eye on poor software sales during the summer. Come on guys, one or two releases wouldn't hurt would they?

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