Wednesday, April 18, 2007

At the Car Wash

Often I like presenting the weekend side of my UMPC story. This weekend just past was no different as I spent time with my favourite little man, my son Leon, and we hit the streets with one of our favourite little toys, the Raon Digital Vega. Our destination was the local Car Wash and our plan was to catch up on some videos and podcasts we still hadn’t watched. It so happens that when I emptied the car of its belongings, and before handing it over to the attendant, I found my video camera in the back seat – hence this video.

Not life changing, and definitely not insightful (perhaps), but if anything it shows the size of the Vega when compared to a five year old. It shows the FUNction and how these devices are now an intrinsic part of our life. As they get cheaper it will become even more interesting. I am even seeing it happen in my own household, i.e. dedicated devices for dedicated purposes. In this case we have learnt that the Vega with its lack of wi-fi is the perfect iPod killer. I never have owned one and never will (an iPod) and come to think of it I do not think I will Zune either. Given that this is a fully functional PC means that I do not have the issues of syncing or ripping “appropriate” files extensions. It just works! I guess this adds more credit to Intels new MIDs?!?

By the way, the video we watched was “The Bushway’s Bag Lady Video” and we listened to the last “Mobile Tech Roundup”.






Some of you that watched the Video may have noticed that Camera Action is no longer our sponsor on UberTablet . They had a great run and we had great fun being part of their outfit. It is time to move on however and a new sponsor has been stitched up! They will be announced soon and you will all be soooooooooooooo excited to find out who it is!

22 comments:

Sean Tan said...

Training your son to take over the business :)

How do companies sponsor your blog?

Al said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Al said...

Just wanted to say I've enjoy the ideas with mobile computing. Everytime you mention something that I had never though of, it kind of makes me think twice before I do something. I know that my next purchase will be either a sub notebook / tablet, or a UMPC, along the lines of the Shift or Q1 Ultra. Haven't decided what I wanna get yet.

The reason I say this is because I own an iPod mini, Creative Zen Vision M, HTC TyTN, my Acer Aspire, as well as a couple of other little gadgets that are in my bag.

Since you mentioned that you use your vega for your Portable media device rather than purchasing an iPod, it makes me have to rethink what my next purchase will be. I eventually want to get rid of my Zen and iPod and purchase a smaller device for working out while still being able to carry around my media on a unit such as the vega. The only downside I see however is lack of battery life, especially if running WiFi or bluetooth.

Anonymous said...

I love these bits of everyday life stories. It makes me think about Vegemite.

Hold on a second, you'll see what I mean. When I arrived in Australia I tried Vegemite. Horrible but Australians eat it anyway. It's hard to fully understand the love affair with yeast extract but, you see, I was not born and grown into it.

Hold on, you'll see where I'm going with this. Watching Leon and Hugo, I think about my own childhood and my present days as a father and user of informational technology. Computers were big, awkward and very new things in my youth. The first and only thing that could be related to computer technology we had at home was a Commodore VIC 20. Later at school, they tried to teach us rudimentary notions about computers and programming principles because everyone thought: “this is the future”. I remember how awkwardly taught it was by people with limited understanding of the technology and how there own usage ideas t were very different from what I have grown into later on.

When I look at my one year old son, he fondles my pocket PC (when I am not watching), He sees the tablet in use everyday and the Notebook is always there with the Internet at his finger tips (well he is still a bit young to do anything else than stamping the keyboard with his hands). He often sits down on my lap to look at the screen. The point is that these technologies are all there, surrounding him and waiting for him. In my case, I feel I have always been waiting for the next thing maybe because I never grew into it. (I know that Don Tapscott wrote a management oriented book about this but I disagree on so many points as an academic researcher that we should leave it at that. Let’s just say that I agree with some of the general ideas.)

So, just like Australians and Vegemite, my son is growing into this. His love affair with informational technology may very well be much deeper than my own and I can’t stop thinking that there will be a digital gap between him and me. Unless just like Hugo and Leon we learn from each other and do family stuff together with these wonderful devices. It may sound corny but this is exactly what Seymour Papert, the great mathematician and one of the fathers of AI and also one of the most prominent experts on learning, said to do to alleviate the digital generation gap that is bound to rise out of the relentless advance and transformation of informational technology.

Great stuff Hugo! I am right there with you! (yeah, sorry for another long and great time waster comment).

Sean Tan said...

Haha elo, I just had Vegemite for breakfast. Obviously not by itself though! :D

Steven said...

Hugo,
I hope you post the new sponsor soon.
I am shopping for a good HDD video camera. Do you have a new camera from your sponsor?

Steven

Hugo Gaston Ortega said...

Hi Sean!

Don't know about taking over anything other than a bowl of cereal and some digital media! LOL.

Great comment.

Hugo Gaston Ortega said...

Hi Al,

I think that if you are not ready to buy then waiting for Q1 Ultra or The Shift is a good choice. It may be some time before those two are superseded.

I'm glad I have caused you to look at how you use technology. I am adimant about the fact that I do not want an iPod. The Vega gives me so much more and the reason I chose it over other UMPC is that its battery life is awesome. If I watch something on the screen I get 5hrs; if I turn off the screen (easy to do with a hotkey combination) I actually get over 7hrs.

Great comment

Hugo Gaston Ortega said...

Hi Elo,

I love this comment! Vegemite and kids, computers and kids, it's easy to see why you're settling into the Aussie lifestyle!

I think you've touchde on something very important that we have been using at home - technology is something that brings our family together. It bridges the divide...not creates one. THis is why Leon and I and my wife all own and use UMPC to spend time together during the day. Sometimes we even chat to each other on Messenger (while we're in the smae room). Because Messenger can "ink" on a Tablet it means we have a lot of fun.

Great comment!!! Keep it coming!

Hugo Gaston Ortega said...

HI Steven,

The sponsor will be announced later this week or early next. One hint, it has nothing to do with Cameras.

I am really happy with my JVC 505. I have been using it and it is the reason I post so many videos - it's just so easy. My only pet hate about it is that it uses the .MOD file extension and this is not supported by Windows Movie Maker. WMM is better for editing given the file size it spits out - really small.

Let me know if you need more info on this as I spent time researching it.

Cheers.

Anonymous said...

Are you a spanish guy?

Hugo Gaston Ortega said...

Hi Dov,

Born in Argentina now live in Australia.

Anonymous said...

love your videos.

i take my Q1 with me everywhere and i have a couple of kids videos on it like "the curse of the were-rabbit" or "stuart little" just in case my son joshua gets ansy and needs something to distract him. also i have it for all of my uses.

keep up the good work with the blog and videos

thanks - charles pritt

Anonymous said...

Hey Hugo,

assuming that the Vega runs on XP, what kind of hotkeys are you using to switch off the monitor? Is it a proprietary software or built into Windows? I'd guess the former, but you never know.

Thanks a lot for all your "toy store" videos, it's always great to see which devices are on the market - and what they are capable of.

Steven said...

Hugo,
Thanks again for the video(s).
I wish the Vega prices would drop. There look like a nice device to have around. How do you keep your screens so glossy?
Charles, you mean Wallace and Grommet is for children? haha. Sorry to deviate from the thread, here.

Steven

Hugo Gaston Ortega said...

Hi Jed,

The little Vega has an array of hotkey strokes that are availble - an important note is that they are available, they are pre-programmed, but not programmable, i.e. they are what they are. Having said that, Raon Digital has done a great job of providing about as many hotkey functions as possible via these buttons. Through these buttons I can:

Left click, right click, turn off the LCD (while keep the computer operable), switch screen resolitions, pause, fastforward, rewind, page up, page down and much much more.

We love it for these exact reason - FUNction, Fun, Great screen and exceptional battery life.

Thanks for the comment.

Hugo Gaston Ortega said...

Hi Steven,

WRT price I thought they were cheap? I guess the price will drop only when more competitors come in the market. From the little I know about the manufacture process I know that price is inflated to favour the manufacture and not the consumer at present.

BTW, I love Wallace and Gromit! I even bought it for my son so I could watch it too! LOL.

Hugo Gaston Ortega said...

Hi Charles,

Sorry I did not answer your comment - I only just remembered it was there.

Great comment. Joshua sounds like a great kid and extremley Ultra Mobile like my Leon. These two could get together and swap MPEGs n' stuff! Now that makes us feel old'

BTW, you sure dad doesn't press play when he gets a little ansy too? Not sure you that you didn't trade names on your comment in order to protect the guilty! LOL.

Steven said...

The Vega, as of right now, is only sold here by Dynamism, $879.
Dynamism

One can buy an R2H for less than that, $855, from aJump

I have emailed Raon about allowing other vendors to sell the Vega. They say they are, "Thinking it over."

I even told them if they would send me a unit, I would help advertise them, or even sell them myself. Anything to educate folks on the merits of having an entire Windows operating system. GPS, WiFi, all can be added to the basic structure.


Preach on, Hugo.
Steven

Steven said...

Hugo,
I sent you a follow-up email about my camera question to your gottabe address.

Steven

Hugo Gaston Ortega said...

Hi Steven,

I saw you camera questions and will answer it next. I am on a mini Holiday with my wife and kids so I have been a little slack! Sorry mate.

WRT to your previous comment I agree that the Vega is a real winner. I have only jsut finished typing an email to another reader about the merit of suchh UPPC in our lives.

FYI: I'll preach as long as there are listeners! And when there are not listeners I will probalby keep on preach'n on! Can I hear an AMEN!?! LOL.

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