photo credit: nDevilTV

Seriously, bloggers need to stop making nonsense go viral. If we ever want to get the kind of respect that ought to come with the hard work and lousy pay (most of us do this as a fun volunteer activity), we need to stop pulling the kind of iTablet nonsense that flew today. New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller used one word, and the internet went wild. He said…

I’m hoping we can get the newsroom more actively involved in the challenge of delivering our best journalism in the form of Times Reader, iPhone apps, WAP or the impending Apple slate or whatever comes after that.

And with that numerous blogs went wild. “OMG! he mentioned the iTablet… and he used the word IMPENDING… He MUST know something.”

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Pocketables has word of a neat deal on the super-small Fujitsu U810. The mini-tablet/notebook features a 5.6” SuperFine WSVGA with a passive touch panel for touch or pen input and a built in QWERTY keyboard, integrated 802.11g Wifi and an SDHC card reader and compact flash card slot. It features an Intel A110 800 MHz processor, 1GB DDR2 400MHz, a 60GB Hard Drive, Bluetooth a 0.3 Mega Pixel Integrated Camera and a 2 Cell (2600 mAh) Battery, provides up to 3 hours of operation. It is far from a powerhouse but it has super features and weighs in at just 0.61kg. At $399.99 it might just be worth a look.

This deal won’t last so if you want one jump on over to sellout.woot.

via Pocketables

I’m cross-platform in my smartphone use and… later today… I will be cross-platform in my notebook use too.

Here’s why…

I do a good deal of writing using voice recognition, in fact the ability to use Jott and Vlingo to respond to individual emails by voice was a big reason I began using a Blackberry. I find it fast and convenient. In addition, I struggle with Rheumatoid Arthritis, and on bad days the pain in my hands and wrists can become a big problem. Using voice recognition to write a first draft of something and then manually clean it up saves a lot of wear and tear on already aching/painful joints.

As much as MacSpeech 1.5 is an improvement over the original version, thanks to the decision to begin using the Dragon NaturallySpeaking’s voice recognition engine, it still falls far behind Dragon’s Version 10 Windows software. This has been a particularly rough few weeks, and I have been relying more on speech recognition than usual; MacSpeech just wasn’t cutting it.

That got me looking for a small, light, portable Windows machine that would, primarily, be used for writing and for responding to email by voice. So began my search. Little did I know it would bring me back to the current version of one of my favorite Tablet PCs. Continue Reading

Dynamism is the online store that has all of the cool toys.  Today they are putting 400 more of the Vliv S5 on sale at 1 PM EDT for $599 with all the accessories.

The Viliv S5 is the hottest mini-PC of the year. BECAUSE it really does what users want from an ultramobile/UMPC: it is small, cheap, is a great PMP or GPS, delivers the full rich web without comprise, features a 6-hour battery, amazing 5-second wake up from standby, Intel Atom 1.33 GHz CPU and 60GB HDD running Windows XP, 4.8″ WSVGA superfine display with on-screen keyboard, rotation, and haptic feedback…all for $599 and including–if ordered during the special–a free second battery, leather carrying case, and car kit ($135 value).

The real deal, it sold out in under two hours on our launch, so we are very happy to be offering one last chance to get the Viliv S5 for $599 with all the accessories.

Head on over to Dynamism at 1 PM EDT and snag one of these cool machines!

I so want to see one of these in person.  This machine is about the size of some of the PDA’s Iused to use, and it’s a full computer.

This summer there will be a new cut-down and ultra portable laptop and this one is perceived as an Eee killer: the Wind NoteBook. With the availability of chips by VIA and Intel for low cost and less hungry devices and the ambitious work of OLPC with the XO and Asus’ Eee; low priced and lightweight devices have stormed the computing world and are sounding the drums of change. Indeed, it is expected that by next year, laptop sales will overtake desktops and mark the real shift (no pun intended to HTC). Cut-down devices are like a sprouting branch of the laptop market and with excited consumers, manufacturers are on fire. Asus success with the Eee has inspired other manufacturers to offer their own devices to compete in the growing market. Dell has recently announced that they will also launch a “netbook” of their own.

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GA of Akihabara News gets all the goodies! He was invited by Willcom (located in Tokyo) to test their hot new Willcom D4. Evidently their office is right next door to his, so it wasn’t much of a trek; lucky guy.

For those who aren’t aware, the D4 is based on Sharp’s WS016SH. We have a 1.33GHz Centrino Atom Z520 CPU (one of the first UMPCs on the market carrying it!) Windows Vista, 40GB HDD, 1GB RAM, a 5″ 1024×600 TFT touchscreen all in a compact size of 84×188x25.9mm and weighing 470g… Nearly first generation PSP size!

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About a week ago I sent the Shift review unit back, so I figured it’s time to tie up my thoughts on this controversial device.

Prior to receiving the Shift, I read several reviews of the device, and they all seemed to sing the same tune: it was too slow and too expensive. In my experience only one of these was the case.

In the current market, with competition from low-cost ultra-portables like the ASUS Eee and the HP Mini Note 2133, the Shift is too expensive. Sure it has features that the other two don’t have, like a convertible Tablet PC form-factor, built-in 3G (in UMTS and CMDA varieties) and the clever SnapVue PDA mode, but when you take into account a top-spec HP 2133 is almost half the price, the value does come into question.

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It was a tough choice, but it all came down to the fact that I was able to buy the machine yesterday from Micro Center – which is where I headed as soon as I had the cash.

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Last night I decided to take another look in the box that the U1010 came in, just to see if there were any goodies I was missing out on. Unlike the Shift the U1010 came with reinstall DVDs, as opposed to having a backup partition. I like the way the Shift can completely reload itself without any outside help, but having DVDs is a good idea too.

Anyway, in the box I found install DVDs for both Vista Business (which came preloaded) and Windows XP Tablet Edition. Now the performance on the U1010 has been fine on Vista, but I was curious to see just how much slower Vista was than XP on the relatively slow processor.

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In the spirit of reviewing, two nights ago I gave the HTC Shift restore feature a try. There are no discs included with the Shift, just a recovery partition containing an image of Vista Business, the original applications and the drivers.

Quite a good idea actually, sure it chews up a bit of the relatively cramped 40GB HDD, but at least you’ll know that if something goes wrong (virus, damaged system file, etc) you can just hold F3 while booting, and bring it back to the default state.

In my experience however, not all was moonlight and roses. Getting the recovery going was a simple matter, and it happened quite quickly too (less than 30mins). Booting for the first time takes ages, but eventually I hit the Vista desktop, straight into a driver warning.

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Anyone remember a time when Pocket PCs came with proper styli? They were thicker, stronger, and most importantly they didn’t fold up like a picnic blanket.

These days manufacturers have been stealing space from the old stylus slot to cram ever more stuff into their devices. While I understand they are under pressure to make stuff thinner and smaller, they need to consider how it compromises usability in the process.

I’ve really come to notice this stylus origami since trying to ink on the HTC Shift and the Fujitsu U1010. They include these tiny little toothpicks reminiscent of the CLIE styli that are too thin, too light and they are constantly collapsing when you use them! The Shift has the added excitement of an overly sensitive touchscreen that makes getting that tiny pointer onto the screen (without brushing your hand on the screen) very difficult.

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I’ve been using the Shift this morning and felt some thoughts were in order.

Sorry about the poor photo, the BlackJack II camera is crap

I popped my SIM card in for some high-speed data, and it is just so damned convenient! As soon as Vista starts up I have full internet access, wherever I am. SnapVue really is a great feature, being able to instantly access calendar items and email without having to boot Vista is wonderful.

Quite a surprise was the usefulness of the tiny thumbpad on the right side of the screen. Most people don’t realise it is a fully-functional Synaptics touchpad, which includes scrolling!! Widening the scrolling area of the touchpad makes it really good for scrolling through web pages. And despite the reviews I have read, I quite like the touchpad for controlling the mouse. With a little bit of practice, it’s useful.

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I have been very lucky to get hold of a Shift for a couple of weeks, and figured I’d start with a first impressions article, written entirely on the Shift.

I was very impressed by the packaging, very nicely presented like the Touch Cruise. The Shift came wrapped in it’s beautiful leather case, a really nice addition. Removing it from the case, I was immediately taken by it. It feels really solid in the hand, and looks like a quality product.

The display is very bright, but unfortunately it’s only 800×480. Honestly that’s pretty pathetic for a second gen, and quite pricey UMPC. Using it in the 1024×600 interpolation mode is very usable, and since turning it on I’ve spend most of my time in this mode.

I’ve given the handwriting recognition a quick go, and while it is very good at getting the right words, it is a bit uncomfortable to do since a slight brush sends the pointer scooting across the screen. Will keep trying it over the next few days to see if I can make it work for me.

Built-in HSDPA is great to have, and combined with the instant-on SnapVue means email is only a few seconds away. I get much better signal that I do on my BlackJack II, and surfing seems to be pretty fast.

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Saw two giveaways today that might interest GD readers!  I know it interests me because I’d like to hack these to put Linux on them!

Engadget is giving away a HTC Shift to celebrate their redesign.  Head on over here to win!

Image courtesy Engadget.com

Also, UMPC Portal is giving away a WiBrain B1.  Go on over to UMPC portal to win!  See the WiBrain after the jump!

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[Update: This contest is now closed, and Katie is the winner! Congrats to Katie, and to uzziah0 (the random commenter) and a big THANK YOU to all who entered!]

We recently completed our Contest Interruptus, and some of the submitted photos were so fabulous that they must be shared in their own post…but as usual, there is a twist. Vote for your top favorite in the comments section, and we’ll announce a winner based on popular vote Friday, April 11th at 5:30pm CST. The winner will receive a Naneu Pro Sierra Laptop & Camera Bag. I’ll also have a random prize for a random commenter – so get your vote in!

Here is Bazzawill’s EeePC; I love the Gear Diary theme going on in the background!

Bazzawill says, “my eeepc running eeexubuntu & compiz effects using the web camera so that you can see me.”

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