Dear Santa...

I know it is quite early to put in requests for Christmas presents but this morning I came across three very cool products and I would appreciate if you could get me at least one of them on Christmas day.

(1) Sony ODO wind-up camera

How can't I fall in love with this device? It's definitely one of the coolest things I've seen in quite some time. Plus I'd just love to pull that thing out when out in bars or partying somewhere else. You think an iPhone 3G gets you attention, wait until you pull out the ODO, recharge it on the bar-counter (avoiding all the beer and shot glasses that will undoubtably be there) and snap a photo of that gorgeous waitress!

(2) BlackBerry Bold

Even though I was lucky to recover my stolen mobile phone (thank you WMATA!) which I had reported missing back in June I can't help but drool over the BlackBerry Bold. In my opinion this is the most desirable mobile phone at the moment (take that Apple!) even though I'm admittedly also intrigued by the upcoming BlackBerry Storm (the phone formerly known as Thunder). In case you can't get a Bold I'd also be willing accept a Nokia E71.

(3) Eee PC 901 GO with built-in 3G

I've been following the whole UMPC / MID / NetBook story since day 1 (see umpcportal.com, jkkmobile.com and eeepcnews.de for all the news you're ever going to need) and we're finally getting to a point where I can seriously consider products from those device categories. While I love my OLPC XO sometimes I wouldn't mind something a little beefier in terms of the processing speed. Currently there are four products that I'm seriously considering:

Asus eee PC 901: Love the size and battery life, not sure about the keyboard though. Having 3G included would be a big plus!
Asus eee PC 1000H: Battery life and keyboard sound great but might be a tad too big so I'll have to look at one in person before I could commit to it.
Dell Inspiron 910: Need to wait for the first reviews but that one could be a good choice too.
MSI Wind: Available today, good keyboard but the relatively short battery life could be a deal-breaker.

Getting a subsidized device in combination with a 3G contract would be quite appealing to me so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for T-Mobile to also bring this offer to Austria. On the other hand I'm still not 100% sure I want to get such a netbook and will definitely wait to see which products the u:book program (high quality notebooks selected by university and sold to students at very attractive prices) has on offer this time 'round.

Update: Please forget what I said above, if you really want to make me happy then bring me one of those just announced Samsung X360s!

Full disclaimer: I actually believe in the Christkind.

Multi-Touch To Rule Them All

I never really bought into mouse gestures or all the fancy multi-touch stuff that's so hip these days. But I might just change my opinion after seeing this video of the brand-new Asus eee PC 900 and its multi-touch capable touchpad in action.

My first impression is that it could indeed make life easier, especially in difficult environments such as crowded trains, airplanes or in popular caffeine-houses that offer free WiFi.

Asus eee PC and Packard Bell Easynote XS

Earlier this week two very interesting reviews were posted: While Steve Paine (aka chippy) from UMPCportal.com published his video-review of the Packard Bell Easynote XS (which is the first retail product based on VIA Technologies' NanoBook reference design) Mike Chin from silentpcreview.com posted an article about the Asus eee PC that's half review / half editorial. Both reviews are definitely well recommended if you're interested in what's going in the low-cost mobile-computing market!

While I had some hands-on time with a VIA NanoBook during Computex and VTF back in June I had only had a chance to play around with an Asus eee PC sample this Tuesday. The main issue I had with it (and it's the same story on the Easynote XS) is the low 800px x 480px display. While for example the start-screen on the eee PC is well adapted to the low resolution it does happen that the "okay" and "cancel" button on a system or browser pop-up or other dialogue window aren't visible! Other than that the eee PC is certainly a good product, especially the keyboard is much better than anticipated which should really make that a very good machine for getting work done on-the-road.

Even though both laptops are basically in the same device-category (somewhere between a sub-notebook and a UMPC) there're actually quite different beasts. Personally I'd be more inclined to go for an Asus eee PC as for my requirements (mainly browsing the web and working on text-documents while on the road) the Easynote XS doesn't seem to be superior. In the past few days I spent a lot of time thinking about how I would use such a small computing-device and I concluded that it wouldn't really be able to replace my notebook.

Yes, I'd much prefer to bring something small and light-weight to my university lectures. Yes, 99% of the things I do during OLPC related meetings can be done on either of these machines. Yes, when working on university projects and assignments at a collegue's place they would also work out just fine.

But no, I'd still use my regular 15.4" notebook during events such as CeBIT and Computex because it provides me with a better performance for rendering videos, image editing, multi-tasking, etc. And no, when spending a weekend back home with my family neither the eee PC nor the Easynote XS would cut it, I'd definitely want the more potent notebook, even if it just were for watching videos on the larger screen during the train-ride. And most importantly, no, such a small device would never be able to replace my current notebook as my main machine.

Anyway, even though I'm not quite sure whether I should move in now or later the low-cost mobile-computing space is definitely one to keep a close eye on during the next 6 to 12 months because I'm sure we're going to see many exciting products there!

MiTAC's education laptop

The other day I mentioned that I had written a piece on the impact of the Asus eee PC on the One Laptop Per Child project for OLPCnews.com. Today I came across an announcement that works the other way: it shows the impact of the OLPC project on low-cost computing, especially when it comes to education. In the press release it says:

"The first product to be jointly developed and manufactured by MiTAC and MIND will be a 7-inch notebook. All aspects of this 7-inch notebook’s design and functionality will be geared towards facilitating the education of young children aged three to twelve years old. Among the many unique features of this notebook will be a specially designed keyboard for use by children. The notebook will also feature a handwriting recognition platform for toddlers not yet able to operate a keyboard. The notebook will also sport a light-weight and durable casing, ideal for young children. Other notable features of this notebook include Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity, a website filtering tool, karaoke functionality and web camera support."

I underlined the features that are similar to the OLPC's X0 while the bold text are things that the X0 does sport at the moment. (Yes, I'm indeed serious about the karaoke stuff!)

While I've never heard of MiTAC or MIND this announcement shows that more companies are starting to look into low-cost computing. While they're likely to share some key-characteristics with the X0 (low power-consumption, 7~9 inch screen, very durable, WiFi connectivity, smaller keyboards, etc.) they'll also come up with new and innovative features and applications. I for example really like the idea of seeing handwriting recogniting on these machines and as far as I know this is something that's not available for the X0 at the moment.

It remains to be seen whether the notebook really is available "in early 2008 in select Asia-Pacific markets" but I'm sure come CeBIT we're going to see more companies showing off products aimed at the same market. Good times... Good times indeed!

A Closer Look at Asus Eee PC Impact on OLPC

I stayed up until 4.30 a.m. the other night to write a story for OLPCnews.com about the Asus' eee PC's impact on the OLPC project and low-cost computing in general. The story had been floating around my head for at least a week or two but like with so many other things I simply hadn't found the time to sit down and write it. Anyway, here's a short snippet from it:

"In the end what I'm trying to say here is that the Asus eee PC project gives us a good glimpse of where things might be heading in the future when it comes to low-cost computing. Having said that I'm still convinced that the X0 is currently the best computing device for educating children in the developing world. And OLPC will always be remembered for making the world aware of the demand for low-cost computing.

However Asus and others are quickly learning and catching up and soon they will have great devices for a variety of other low-cost ICT requirements. And I'm sure that OLPC could learn another trick or two from them..."

You can read the full article here. And hopefully the long weekend we have around here will allow me to write up another article that I've been thinking about.