The iPad is a complete product at a breakthrough price and the competition that has been waiting to launch products has just had the rug pulled from under their feet. Exepect a very quiet summer as products are re-assesed. Software, app-store and content ecosystems need to be re-worked. With no obvious ‘ecosystem’ solutions out there, this process could be too expensive for many.

While smartphone fans might not be over-interested in this relatively bulky bit of kit, if you look at it from the MID angle (which is where it’s positioned) the story is very different and the Sharp IS01 is ticking a lot of boxes as we go through the specifications. The Sharp IS01 is a cross [...]

Maybe I should have posted this article at Carrypad rather than UMPCPortal as it pertains to the progress that ARM-based devices have made in terms of browsing speed. Just two years ago I wouldn’t have given an ARM-based system a second look if I was thinking of doing an web-based work but now they are [...]

After one of my regular browsing sessions at Geizhals.at this evening I found two retailers offering the Archos 7 Home Tablet that was announced at CeBIT earlier in the month and one of them is stating a delivery time of ‘1 Week.’

I’ve been following the first MeeGo Technical Steering Group Meeting this evening and updating my little journal (mainly a personal notes area) over at MeeGoNews.com For those that don’t know about MeeGo, it’s the result of an agreement between Nokia and Intel to merge their two open-source mobile-focused Linux operating systems (Maemo and Moblin) into [...]

I enjoyed spending time with the Mobinnova Beam at CES this year and after a demo and discussion with ARM’s Bob Morris, I walked away impressed although a little worried about the OS. My main worry was that no-one would be able to relate to the unknown user interface. How could anybody get a feel for what the device can do without some form of knowledge about the OS? Would you buy a computing device without any knowledge of the OS? It appears that others feel the same way; the Beam has just re-surfaced running open-source Android.

If you didn’t catch the news yesterday, Sprint has announced a new phone called the Evo which is getting everyone excited. At least those that have huge pockets are getting excited because the Evo is the same size as the HTC HD2 and that’s HUGE!

The flood continues as new mobile devices are released to the market this year, and those of you looking for a competitor to the pocket-sized Archos 5 Internet Tablet will be happy to see the entry from SMiT known as the MID-560.  The device sports a 4.8″ screen and is available now from a few online retailers [...]

Netbooknews had a meeting with Inbrics last week and has just published an update. Inbrics are the company responsible for the M1 MID that we checked out at CES. It’s a stylish device and we’re keen to hear more.

This is the first time we’ve seen a product built with an Intel Atom processor using the open source operating system Android including the Google Marketplace application, Flash and Air. Add an 11.6″ multitouch screen and a target weight of 800gm and 6 hours battery life and you’ve got a very challenging project indeed. Neofonie hopes to make it happen with the WePad.

Swype, an application I’ve tested, and was impressed with, on the Archos 5 has just been used to set a new world record for mobile phone input. The 160-character sentence took just 35 seconds to input which is an average 4.5 characters per second. That’s faster than I type on a full size keyboard and [...]

The 9” screen size may seem strange to some but that 1024×768 screen on the iPad combined with its 700gm, 1.5lb weight enables three key features. Long-term use, high quality and multi-user capability. Based on my ever-evolving ‘Mobile Computing Segmentation’ diagram and with recent input from DevMob 2010, I’ve put together a list of applications that would sit well on the iPad [Specs and latest info] and you’ll see the three features I’ve mentioned drop out straight away

As we watch company after company announce that they are bringing a Slate to the market, it is clear that gadget makers are pushing this form factor as the next big thing. There is plenty of noise out there, but so far there are very few solid devices that are actually reaching consumers. Soon we’ll [...]

Spring Design this morning announced that its dual screen Alex eReader will be available online today. via Alex eReader now on sale in the U.S. for $399 a pop, starts shipping mid-April. Tweet

A Samsung executive has revealed that they will be producing a ‘slate’ in the second half of the year. The keyword ‘Atom’ is mentioned alongside keywords like ‘pc-grade’ , ‘consumer’ and ‘connectivity.’

According to apcmag.com, “a senior Samsung executive has confirmed that the company will release a ‘Slate’ PC in the second half of this year.” The aforementioned executive is the director of Samsung Australia’s IT division. He says that the slate will feature “PC-grade processing power,” according to the site. They also state that the device [...]

So yesterday was the big iPad pre-order day, and it sounds like lots of folks around the web were eagerly waiting to give Apple their money in advance for the upcoming iPad [Product page]. We we’re in that group of people, though not necessarily just because we like to give Apple money. We wanted to [...]