Leon's Drum Kit gets an Ultra-Mobile PC

Leon setting up RAM mount system on his drum kit

As some of my readers may know I have a nine year old boy who is an absolute geek and has been since he was little. He and I have geeked around at the local carwash, at his school and he even launched a Tablet PC training video when he was only 4yrs old! As he is growing-up however his wants are changing and so are his interests. While still an absolute geek he is also a musician, i.e. percussionist in his local school band. Recently we bought a brand new Pearl drum kit for him to use at home and it is awesome to listen to and watch him practice.

Leon and his mate Ian configure the baby Fujitsu (U1010 aka U810)

Over the years I’ve talked about many Tablet usage case studies but on this occasion I have a “really cool” one! So with Tablets to spare in our home (at last count a year ago there are over thirty tablets at our fingertips) I ordered a set of RAM mounts and installed a new Fujitsu U1010 (aka U810) onto his drum kit! With this he can now surf YouTube for Drum lessons, download music and listen along using his Panasonic headset. The reason I chose the U1010 is that it has no use for me (just too slow) and yet is a perfect size and shape, with its touchscreen and incorporated keyboard, and sits nicely on the drum kit and is transformed into an incredible learning tool!

Geek heaven!!!

Leon's Drum Kit gets an Ultra-Mobile PC

Viliv S5 as Interactive Lighting controller

I often like posting lateral ways of using Ultra-Mobile PC. We all think of MP3, Video, blogs, vlogs, New York Times (now thanks to iPad) and more. There are however many good business cases for using these to complete tasks, and even some artistic ones too!


On this occasion Australian Lighting Designer Flynn Talbot (twitter) was 1 of 10 designers selected from around the world to showcase his installation “Horizon” at London Design Week. Horizon is an Interactive Light Installation that allows viewers to engage by selecting colours of their choice and watching them translated in a funky and exciting manner on a large screen. The best news for me was that while in London Flynn took a Viliv S5 to control the interactive installation via a purpose built user-interface.

Flynn Talbot using Viliv S5 at London Design Week

What I like about Flynn is that with his passion for Art he is also combining his passion for technology. This is obvious in his design but can also be witness in his work. At his latest exhibition at Northbridge Piazza in Perth he is allowing anyone interested to be the artistic designer by login into flynntalbot.com/horizon enter your name and 4 colour choices and have it displayed for everyone to see at the Piazza! The website will tell you where you are in the queue (I’m 11th right now!) Each show is a 1min loop and displayed to all onlookers.

There is no live stream but I guess if you’re not in Perth (and many of us aren’t) then you will need to live with a warm fuzzy feeling in your heart knowing you contributed! There is no Viliv for you to use either but I heard you can call this site up on your phone and interact that way! I like what Flynn’s doing and the fact that it showcases exciting potential uses for Mobile PC devices outside of the norm.

Surface Wave Touch Technology might be next

This week I was lucky enough to have a "Surface Wave" Touch Monitor (named: IntelliTouch) cross my path. As the description ("Surface Wave") alludes to the Touch Screen itself registers coordinates by interacting with a sound wave that crosses the screen. Quite literally X and Y coordinates (cursor movements) are recorded by someone breaking this Sound Wave by placing their finger on the screen. Cool!

So with the future in mind and the past behind us I thought I’d take moment to put some of the available technologies into perspective. Hope you enjoy it. Oh, and if you know of any cool technologies that "might" be the next big thing make sure you let me know so I can get my hands on it for you.




If you're interested in this technology make sure you look at this comparision chart. What is uberly interesting is that while Surface Wave Technology is robust, and excellent with finger, it actually cannot function with a pen or pointing device! [But it's so nice to touch.] Sounds like a combination Touch/Active Digitzer receives yet another vote of confidence for my next UMPC?

Will Hugo Shift?

It seems that HTC has actually hit most of the sweet spots geeks worldwide were looking for. Perhaps this was a fluke, or perhaps intentional, but no matter how they came about their design it has definitely caught the attention of many. I for one have never seen such a flurry of emails come into my Inbox regarding any other product – and that’s saying a lot. From the moment Engadget released info I was pinged from Australia, New Zealand, England, India, China, United States, Spain and Germany. (NO JOKE!) So without further delay I will post my thoughts as per the request of many.

There are still a few grey areas about the HTC device but we have started to see a lot of details emerge. At this point we know a couple of things that I find positively exciting:

• It will run Glass
• It has a 7” Wide-touchscreen
• Slide out Tilt Keyboard
• And a massive array of connectivity options.

When I look at Glass I am not “that” excited about the fact that we will be able to see behind floating Window panes. What I am excited about however is that being able to run Glass means that the Shift must also pack a really nice graphics card in it. If it does do this then productivity via such a device will become a little easier. The first thing I will do when I get one is turn off Microsoft’s Glass effect and let the Shift graphics card calculate more important algorithms like assisting with load-baring on the CPU and multitasking too.

The Wide touchscreen has some clever advantages, and you only have to spend 5 minutes with the ASUS R2H to know this. One of the benefits of “wide” for me is how it interacts with Microsoft Office and the clever zoom feature incorporated everywhere. “Wide” allows users zoom and utilize as much screen real estate for each application as possible.

For me the slide out keyboard by far is the biggest winning feature on this device. When in Redmond last week I held a Medion UMPC and regrettably it struck me as heavy and awkward. The weight however is not what I mean when I say “heavy”; it’s actually the weight distribution. Because the keyboard slides the monitor up and away from the user it is implied, by manufacturers like Medion, that a user will use the keyboard with their thumbs. Sitting next to Craig Pringle I witnessed something very different and intuitive to him in that Craig tried immediately to touch-type on the Medion instead of dealing with the top-heavy body under his thumbs (very clever). This insight got me thinking that the slide out keyboard is still not the solution we are all waiting for…until The HTC Shift that is.

If you look at the slide out keyboard on the HTC device you will notice that it also tilts and lays flat on the workspace in front of the user. Therefore the implied usage is that of a touch-typist as opposed to that of a SMS-ist! The one thing I hated about the 7” Medion UMPC was this top-heavy weight distribution model they had adopted. It is almost ridiculous for manufacturers to expect this to work. I think HTC has done a great job of this concept and time will only tell if they have pulled it off or not. Interestingly it will come down to the action on the keys and the physical layout too.

The one thing this blog would like to comment on but cannot is the Pen and Touch features of the device. This will be a sticking point for me given that not all touchscreens are the same. If you haven’t done so you might want to watch my video review of 5 UMPC. You will quickly catch up to speed on my thoughts.Overall the device, at this point in time, has to be rated as a 7 or 8 out of 10 for proof of concept. It addresses a lot of issues and does so in a very compelling fashion.

Until I get my hands on one I will not know for sure just how much fun is in the function but I will let you know if I find out. If I were Medion I would be very concerned about my future UMPC sales. If I were OQO I would be very happy as the OQO 02 will probably appeal even more so to the funkier SMS-ist while the HTC UMPC will probably capture Mr. and Mrs. Touch-Typist.

As a closing note - will Hugo shift? I'm leaning more to yes than no on this one; and if you've followed my blog for more than six and a half minutes you'll know I nearly never recommend before testing anything. Oh! And on a side note, how good is the name!!! Endless marketing possibilities.

Samsung Q1 and Audi Keyboard

Hugo Ortega on Audi Keyboard

Before time got away from me I wanted to post a first-look at the Audi Keyboard solution I recently spearheaded for the Melbourne Motorshow (02 March to 12 March 2007). The basic concept involves a Samsung Q1 UMPC (Ultra Mobile PC) as a device used to capture details of visitors to the Audi stand.

A custom made software keyboard was developed in Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and designed using Expression Blend. Its purpose was to allow stand attendants to enter information in a natural way (with a QWERTY keyboard) and with the added benefit of custom functions like a key for ".com.au", and Audi branding. Tegatech Australia (the Tablet guys), Dr Neil Roodyn and UK interaction design firm Tricky Business collaborated on the project to bring it to fruition.

This is a great example of how XAML provides the glue to allow developers and designers to work together - exactly why Microsoft came up with it in the first place.

How it looked on the Samsung Q1.

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Related Links:

• On ZDNet Australia


• Shane Morris: Microsoft Australia


• Tegatech Australia News


• UMPC Portal


• Dr. Neil Roodyn announces the keyboard


• GottaBeMobile


• UltraMobilePCs.com


• TodoUMPC - En Espanol