Hands-on: UMID mbook BZ

The original UMID mbook M1 is a mixed bag of results. On one hand it’s a very pocketable Windows XP clamshell with a 4.8-inch touchscreen, but the battery life and computing power isn’t that great. Well, I’m checking out the new mbook BZ right now and it seems that the BZ model addresses one of those issues while offering a few new tricks.
I just unboxed the mbook BZ minutes ago but here’s what I like and dislike so far about the portable. More to come shortly.
Pros

• My first words were “Damn, it’s small.”
• Feels very solid
• Screen looks fantastic
• Touchscreen seems accurate enough
• Reported 7 hour battery life over the M1’s 5 hour battery
• YouTube and Hulu run great (best I’ve ever seen on a small Atom-powered device)
• This model much-needed small optical mouse pad, but…

Cons

• Optical mouse is wonky
• Keyboard is really mushy
• Windows is still a bit sluggish
• The mbook BZ tends to rock on its round battery when the screen is open making it a pain to type on

Product Page

[CrunchGear]

Dell’s “Streak” MID Hits the Internet [VIDEO]

Say hello to the Dell Streak. The 5″ WVGA (800×480) touch screen mobile internet device (MID) has found its way online and into the hands of a few lucky folks. It was reported back in July that Dell had been looking at a family of products with screen sizes ranging from 4 inches to 12 inches . The full list of Streak specs isn’t known yet, but a few things have already surfaced.

Although it’s billed as an internet tablet/device, we see a screen shot that shows an incoming call. We’d love to learn a bit more on that.

• Android 2.0 MID
• 5″ WVGA (800×480) touch screen
• Bluetooth and 3G WWAN connectivity
• 5MP camera w/dual-LED flash
• microSD card slot
• 1,300mAh battery
• WiFi
• Three touch-sensitive buttons

The bottom side of the device shows what looks like a dock connector and the front has what looks like it could be a front-facing camera. Stat tuned to AndroidGuys for more on this one as we can gather it!


[AndroidGuys]

C-motech Mangrove 7-inch WinMo Snapdragon MID wonder.

Here you are a dream come true, the goregous 7” (WVGA) Mangrove from C-Motech… Powered by the impressive 1GHZ Snapdragon CPU, and featuring all wireless wonders like WiFi, 3G and WiMAX, the Mangrove 7 is the ultimate Windows Mobile 6.5 Tablet or MID that we all ever dreamed off !

Not only C-Motech worked hard by offering an impressive design, but they also made sure that nothing was missing… Already impressed by the spec above? Well here you are some more for your, 3D Graphics with up to 22M Triangles/sec & 133M 3D pixels/s, High Performance multimode GPS and the choice of a 3200 or 4000mAh battery pack in just 190 x 120 x 19.5mm for 300g… What much too say? Well WHEN CAN I GET ONE !

 Full specification :
Mobile Internet Device with 7” wide display
Full touch feature with WM 6.5
CPU : 1GHz (Snapdragon Platform)
Memory : Nand 512MB / 256MB SDRAM Full web browse
Support for Converged Services(Wi-fi)
Messaging & e-mail : Yahoo, AOL, Windows Live
Music Capable - AAC, AAC+, MP3, Real Audio, AAC+V2, AMR & WMA
Cellular Video Capable - H.263/H.264, MPEG-4, Real Audio & WMV
Removable Memory : Micro SD Bluetooth Capable.

[Akihabaranews.com]

Rumor: Tegra-based devices running Chrome OS this month?

Here’s a nice, juicy rumor to start the day off on the right (or wrong) foot. After those recent supposed screenshots of Google’s upcoming Chrome OS, Taiwan’s Shanzai.com is now reporting the following:

“According to our reliable sources on the Mainland, both Lenovo and Acer are planing to launch Tegra-based devices running Google’s Chrome OS, and the word on the streets is that it could even happen sometime later this month.”

If true, that would be pretty wild. It’d also serve to steal a bit of thunder from a certain company based in Cupertino, California that’ll be announcing new products on September 9th. I’ve no doubt that Tegra+Chrome OS smartbooks (or MIDs or netbooks or whatever) will eventually make it to market, but to see one or more of them this month would be a bit surprising considering we’ve been hearing mid-2010 for just about everything else.
As always, take this news with a grain of salt until it can be officially substantiated.
Exclusive: Lenovo and Acer to launch Tegra devices with Google’s Chrome OS [Shanzai]

Android MID SmartQ5 Shipping End of September in Japan

Good news everyone, the Chinese based Android MID SmartQ 5, which features a 4.3” 800x480 touch screen with a Samsung CPU running at 667MHz, with 1GB of RAM and both Wifi and Bluetooth will be sold in Japan at the end of September as well as online via Geekstuff4U.com (Product to be added soon)…

The next toy on my wishlist...