Open message to UMPC manufacturers

Honestly, the shit you guys make... Anywhere, here is what a UMPC needs to do and what it needs to not do.

1. A UMPC should not try to do everything a laptop can do. I don't expect to do my taxes in the space people once used to balance their checkbooks. Thus I don't expect to do vastly complex things on something that should weigh in at the size of a standard paperback book (a little larger than a pda).

2. A UMPC should have builtin automatic wifi capability for at least three types of wifi. This means that when you turn it on, it should connect to a local network if it's available.

3. The screen should be of high enough resolution and of the proper shape to contain a standard webpage. I've always seen this type of device as having enormous potential in regards to just doing something simple like viewing online news streams or checking forums. I mostly just want to look at web comics on my breaks at work (where we don't have internet access on the secure network, but have plenty of unsecure wifi available).

4. Rotating the above screen such that it looks more like a portable dvd screen rather than a web viewing screen should automatically change the screen format and resolution for remote media viewing. This is important because a UMPC should be able to playback content located on a nearby media center pc or other online streaming media. While at home I should be able to easily access and playback stuff I have sitting on my network.

5. Batterly life should be better than your average portable dvd player (at least 5 hours). The thing should have more battery life than what the industry is calling 'portable desktops' when referring to laptops with vast capabilities, but lousy battery life.

6. If you build your UMPC such that it needs an attached keyboard, throw away your design and start over. It's not ultra mobile if I have to lug around a keyboard. Instead have either a slide out thumb keyboard or a slide up virtual touchscreen one usable via a stylus (think gameboy DS here). Anything I need to do that would require me having a full on keyboard is going to be done at a desktop computer anyway.

7. Pricing: a device that should do more than a budget dvd player but less than a laptop should ideally cost somewhere between $100-$500. Over $1000 is right out, forget it.

Feel free to add your own ideas on what you'd want or need in an ultra mobile PC.

Have you considered a tablet pc? I agree though, the current UMPC's are a pile of plop. Perhaps it's time that somebody made a device that can convert a webpage into audio format, then we can "browse" the internet with mobile/cell phone sized devices.

Audionet: "You are now looking at a picture of a naked chick, she is really sexy. So sexy that she'll give you more wood than a rainforest."

I've thought about tablet pc's, but they've got the following problems:

1. They're usually far too big for what I'd need

2. They're usually far too expensive.

3. They seem to share the battery life problem with laptops.

Basically, I'm looking for an easily portable device that'll let me access basic online services if wifi is available. Some examples of how I might use a UMPC:

Listening to online radio stations (regular radio reception is poor in my area) while I work.
Reading online fanfiction, webcomics, news sites, forums during breaks.
Watching online videos (youtube, google video, flash animations, etc) during lunch.

I imagine if apple stuck wifi on an ipod, made the screen a bit bigger (and higher rez), and tossed in a web browser (with all the needed plugins), I'd be a pretty happy camper.

On the subject of cell phones: I was never happy with the idea that I should pay a monthly fee to use the thing for web browsing when there's wifi networks all over the place. I was also never happy with the cellphone formatted web pages. Since we can make devices today that could present the internet the same as on the device as on a desktop pc, we really should.

Seriously.

http://dailywireless.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=5243

http://www.hacker.co.il/psp/bochs/

I'd be all over the PSP if Sony would officially get behind supporting a version of it that had a web browser and was pc compatible (I wouldn't even need it to play games or psp format movies if they're concerned about people easily copying their games/movies). It's probably very doable to set up some kind of homebrew thing... but I'm looking for something that'll work for what I'd want it to do, right off the shelf.

But yeah, the PSP is about the right size if Sony ever wants to go that way.

I don't own a PSP, but it looks as if SONY included a web browser in PSP 2.0.

http://psp.ign.com/articles/637/637308p1.html

I think you can even buy lil USB keyboards for the thing. PSP is neato.

Thus far you are winning at the internets. Can you or anyone who may own one or is adept at digging up such information tell me if they support flash yet and a few common online video streaming formats (or at the very least the downloading and installation of plugins that do)?

It appears that FLASH 6 capability is part of the 2.7 firmware:

http://www.flashinsider.com/2006/04/25/flash-on-psp-capabilities-to-be-found/

The USB keyboard doesn't seem to have been released yet, though.

Well I'm mightily impressed thus far. I have found that the DS will eventually be able to have opera on it, but no word on whether or not it'll support things like Flash.

There seem to be pros and cons with the PSP. On the plus side, it has some nice capabilities, it's way cheap, and SONY seems comitted to upgrading the firmware frequently. On the negative side, the system ram is apparently limited to 1.5 MB, no keyboard exists yet, and SONY is dead-set against the PSP homebrew scene.

If SONY would redesign the firmware to use memory cards as RAM, bring out a keyboard and allow homebrew, I think I'd be all over it.

The homebrew scene may overcome these limitations themselves.

I don't mind the lack of keyboard so much as apparently you can use bookmarks from a memory card if they're in the right format. Beyond regular web browsing, I don't anticipate writing lengthy forum messages from work anyway. I can see how it might be useful as an addon for some people though.