09 Mar 06 Origami Project
The last installment of the Origami Project launched today.
As all the rumor sites and photos have revealed it is an Ultra-Mobile PC (UMPC). Microsoft has setup a website for the devices. It seems there will be a few company’s making them.
It’s a wireless device that works with WiFi and bluetooth cell phones. It is running a Windows XP Tablet edition, and has full sized version of the programs it is running. The keyboard looks sort of cool, but who knows how functional it is.
It is certainly an OQO killer, and I would be willing to get one, provided they are affordable. The specs in these things is going to be a major factor as well.
I can’t help but think about the devices they had in Star Trek all the time, and how these seem to be another step in that direction.
Long-time lurker, this is my first comment sparked by what your article about Origami doesn’t say…
Right – in Origami / UMPC we have a small form factor tablet PC. But these existed already. As did the Tablet interface, largely unloved. So did Microsoft actually announce something new? Yes, they announced the Microsoft Touch Pack, which is a new set of software built exclusively for UMPCs. That means only OEMs who ship UMPCs can preinstall the Touch Pack.
The Touch Pack is made up of five main applications/features. The first is Program Launcher. It is the launching point for applications on UMPC devices. At its simplest form, Program Launcher basically gives the user a way to easily categorize their applications to make them easier to find and easier to open on a small form factor pc.
Part of the Touch Pack is Touch Improvements. This is just a little utility that a user can run that makes Windows more useable on a small, touch enabled computer. It makes about 10 setting changes to Windows such as widening the scroll bars, enlarging the minimize and maximize buttons, shows folders in thumbnail view, etc. These are all things Windows already supports but makes it easy for a user to just apply them all without having to go all over the OS to set them.
Next is a new skin for Windows Media Player called Brilliant Black. In order to make the media playback experience acceptable on the UMPCs they built a skin that fills the entire screen on the devices with large buttons to navigate the media controls such as play, stop, volume, etc.
Another product included in the Touch Pack is called DialKeys. This is built by a company called Fortune Fountain Ltd. and it is a way to do text input with your thumbs. This follows a lot of focus grouping on how small mobile devices are used with text, e.g. the mobile phone. In Japan, for example, teenagers are often now called “Thumb Generation”. Since most UMPCs don’t have keyboards but all have a touch screen this provides the user with an easy way to enter URLs, e-mail address, answer IMs, etc. DialKeys basically takes a standard QWERTY keyboard layout and splits it in two halves. The basic idea is that you hold the device in two hands and use your thumbs on the screen to type in text. It takes a little getting used to, but people are always amazed once they use it a day or two how good they get at typing with thumbs.
The final product in the Touch Pack is Sudoku, a game that is huge in Europe right now and gaining popularity in the U.S. as well. Sudoku is a logic game where you have to get the numbers 1-9 to show up in each row, column and box on the board. There are a bunch of Sudoku sites on the Internet if you want to learn how to play. This version is optimized for touch and the pen.
That’s it for the Touch Pack in this version. The rest is ‘just’ standard Windows XP and Tablet PC stuff, so you can run anything you want, e.g. Microsoft Office etc.. For example, if it can link to a data projector sensibly, maybe this is the future of presentations on the road?
It has support for an external monitor or projector and will drive “higher resolution of 1024 x 768 and above”
It packs a ‘normal’ 1GHz PC into a tiny form factor
It is totally silent and runs cool to the touch
You can plug a keyboard and mouse into the USB ports
You can plug a cheap GPS dongle into it to drive mapping software
The screen is an off-the-shelf part also used in 7″ DVD players and car GPS units. The readily-available screen determined the form factor.
It supports DirectX 8, rather than the latest DirectX 10, so you won’t be playing Halo 2 or Halflife 2 on it, but even so, it has a pretty usable graphics support
The screen is 800 x 480 native, but can scale higher resolution if you accept some artefacts
There will be docking cradles allowing you to use it as a desktop PC before grabbing it and shoving it in your bag on the way out
The battery does currently only last 2 1/2 hours when actively using the device out of its dock, but it is replaceable. You can swap it like any laptop PC battery if you want to carry a spare.