PC Pro is reporting that Vodafone has signed a deal with Dell to sell it’s Mini 9 Laptops with integrated mobile broadband only a day or so after the “netbook” was launched!

The XP-loaded Mini 9 costs £299 and features an 8.9in screen, 1.6GHz Atom processor, 1GB of RAM and 16GB solid state drive. There’s also integrated Bluetooth, 1.3 megapixel webcam and 802.11b/g wireless. An Ubuntu version is on its way for £269.

Not bad specs, and I’d love to see how the build quality is - some of the earlier “netbooks” from other manufacturers had somewhat less-than-optimal build, but I would bet on the Dell device being rock solid - and £299 is cheap as chips (well, nearly)!

[Via: PC Pro]

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Related Articles at IntoMobile:

• Dell to sell unlocked Nokia smartphones?
• Dell: Not working with Google on new handset - no hardware to show off at Mobile World Congress
• Dell Could buy Motorola
• Dell ends its PDA line; Will it buy Palm?
• Dell working on Android smartphone?

My favourite online shop, Expansys, have emailed to let me know that I can know pick up a WinMo 6 O/S Smartphone for under a ton! Yes, just less than 100 GBP (exc. postage) will see this little beauty making it’s way in to your ownership… highlighted features are:

• Operating System Windows Mobile™ 6 standard
• Integrated camera 2.0 megapixels
• Display 240X320, 2″ , 65K color TFT LCD
• Video Functions : MPEG4, WMV, H.264 , 3GP Both recording and playback
• Audio Functions : MP3, WAV, WMA, AAC, AAC+ Music background playing
• Messaging : SMS, MMS, Email, MSN, Mundu IM
• WLAN 802.11b/g
• Bluetooth® 2.0
• USB 2.0
• Internal memory: 128MB Flash ROM + 64MB DDR RAM
• Extended memory: microSD™ Card supported up to 2GB
• Weight 90g

In a period where we are all tightening our belts, you could do a lot worse than this - if you fancy a piece of BenQ pie, then visit Expansys here.

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Related Articles at IntoMobile:

• BenQ T-80 at Computex
• BenQ T80 smartphone runs Windows Mobile
• BenQ re-emerges as LCD and projector manufacturer
• BenQ Siemens P51 PDA phone launched
• BenQ Mobile to BenQ: Give us more money for executive bonuses, or we’ll sue you

Monster Cable has built an entire empire out of selling metaphorical snake oil to clueless customers who don't understand the rudiments of cabling physics: their high profit margin cables have been proven indistinguishable from cheaper cables in countless blind audio tests. I never thought I'd see them selling liquid snake oil, though: they have just announced five separate products for cleaning your gadget screens... a different formula for your laptop screen, iPhone screen, GPS screen, camera screen or PDA screen!

$10 each! Collect them all! They aren't all the same interchangeable formula of diluted Windex to Water! Pinky swear!

Monster Cable thinks you need special cleaner for your iPhone, camera, cell phone, GPS, and laptop [Crunchgear]

In summary here they are again, with some new additions. Use with the reader of your choice.

Freeware options:

Databases:
PilotDB and MobileDB versions
Handbase version
Excel version (New! - courtesy of Palmdoc.net )

Text lists:
Word/Text format
TealDoc format
iSilo format

Web based:
Online version from the WHO: bookmark this link in your PDA’s browser!

I checked out how the WHO’s ICD 10 Online site looks in Blazer. I was initially concerned as it is a framed page but it renders OK in Blazer and the search and results display decently on the little screen. I am a believer in the Future is Online and that “cloud computing” will be a major factor in mobile usage in the years to come. With better browsers like Safari in the iPhone I’ll bet it’ll look nicer - can anyone send me some screenshots of the WHO ICD 10 site in the iPhone?

Shareware/Commercial options:

My ICD Codes 1.0 (Windows Mobile, costs a whopping US$49.99)
ICD Accent 1.0 (Windows Mobile, Supersized price of $199)

I am sure the other commercial options e.g. Epocrates Essentials, ICDMeister which currently support ICD-9 will be upgraded to ICD-10 in time to come.

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ICD 10 revisited

The Gigabyte M912 (click to enlarge)

Introduction

People are beginning to wake up to the fact that for general all-round everyday computing tasks a hugely powerful, thirsty and expensive computer just isn’t required and, what use is a computer if it’s tethered to a desk back at home or in the office? 17” laptops are all very well, but if you have to carry one for any distance then the attraction soon pales and by default they almost become irrelevant. In steps the sub-notebook with its small form factor, adequate power for mail/web/media etc and a decent battery life. The Asus Eee PC started the current trend off, but in fact Psion were probably the first back in 2000 with their lovely little Netbook running their own superb O/S.

The M912 is one of the latest of the breed and at first glance would appear to be almost the ideal portable computer.

What’s in the box?

1. The Gigabyte M912.
2. Plug in wall charger.
3. Drivers/utilities CD.
4. Stylus
5. Carry case.
6. Quick-start guide

General

Gigabyte are perhaps better known for their motherboards, but they have actually been manufacturing laptops for quite some time now – they just aren’t one of the more well-known brands.

The form factor of the M912 is what we’ve come to expect: a sub notebook of Eee PC size with an 8.9” TFT screen. It’s conventional in all senses in terms of appearance, but literally with a slight twist on things - it has a swivel screen that allows it to transform into a tablet PC using a touch-screen interface (more of this later).

Control and ports:

On the front face: two speakers and the LCD touch screen.

Gigabyte M912 screen

On the left: Ethernet port, USB2.0 port, memory car slot, PC Express card slot.

Gigabyte M912 left side

On the right: power jack, VGA out, headphone socket, microphone socket, 2x USB2.0 ports, On/Off switch.

Gigabyte M912 right side

On the back: access to the battery

Gigabyte M912 Specification:

• CPU Intel ® Atom 1.6GHz
• Operating System : Genuine Microsoft Windows VISTA®Home Basic
• Chipset Intel ® 945GSE
• System Configuration Memory : 1GB, HDD 160GB
• LCD 8.9”LCD panel/WXGA 1280x768, w/Touch screen, LED Backlight, as 180° rotation angle
• HDD 2.5", 9.5mm S-ATA HDD
• Keyboard 80 key keyboard/Touch Pad
• I/O Port USB X 3,Mic in, Earphone out, D-SUB RJ45, Express card, SD/MMC/MS
• Audio Speaker 1.5 watt x 2
• Bluetooth 2.0 built-in
• Web Camera 1.3M pixel web camera
• Wireless LAN 802.11b/g by mini-card
• Protection Kensington lock
• Battery Li-ion 4500mAh, Battery life 3.5 hrs (claimed)
• Dimensions: 235 x 180 x 28~42mm
• Weight 1.3kg (include 2.5"HDD)

Highlights:

• Speedy performance.
• Lightweight.
• Ample connectivity.
• Good hardware specification.
• Fully featured powerful operating system.

Lowlights:

• Feels a little bit delicate.
• Screen is not one of the brightest and has a gritty appearance.
• On/Off button is small and placed in an unconventional position.
• Battery life is on the low side.

Review

The 912 uses Microsoft Vista Home Basic. Obviously it is a fully-featured operating system and once all of Vista’s eye candy was turned off, in use it felt responsive enough with applications launching quickly. Occasionally there was some lag with menus appearing, but I think this is probably more of a Vista quirk than anything thing else. The 1 gig of RAM in theory is to close to the minimum requirement for Vista, however, in practice coupled with the 1.6Ghz Intel Atom cpu the 912 proved to be more than ample for most general computing tasks. The machine never felt like it was short of horsepower and, as a result, it felt like a proper computer capable of handling most normal tasks thrown at it – only smaller. Perhaps the only limitations to this machine’s ability would be video editing.

The 160GB 2.5” SATA hdd was speedy enough and it’s inconceivable to me that this would be insufficient for all but the most hungry of power users. No doubt this could probably be upgraded to something larger again if you felt the need.

With built-in 802.11/g wi-fi, Bluetooth and an Ethernet port there is ample connectivity. Bluetooth is a real boon from my point of view as it allowed easy tethering of my mobile phone and PDA. Well done Gigabyte.

The power supply did not come with a UK plug and lead – I suspect that this would be because I was using a review unit. The battery is a 4500mAh item that proved sufficient for about 2hrs of use – somewhat less than claimed. This lower than claimed life was probably due to me using the screen almost always on maximum brightness and no doubt more could be eeked from it with careful adjustment of the power-savings functions. This sort of life a little bit on the low side when compared to the latest sub-notebooks, particularly the Asus EEPC 901 which has a battery life in excess of 5 hours. However, it is unlikely anyone would want to use one of these machines for such extended periods due to their small form factor.

There is a webcam placed centrally above the screen so, video conferencing is entirely possible using something like Skype or MSN Messenger. Personally, I am happy for my contacts not to see my ugly face, but if you’re a teenager then it will certainly appeal!

The mouse glidepad was adequate and featured a scroll area that allowed pages to be scrolled up and down. The left-right buttons mouse buttons had a slightly stiff action, but at least they were positive and caused no problems.

The keyboard was easy to use once I had got used to the physically smaller layout. I wouldn’t want to spend hours writing a lengthy dissertation on it, but it is fine for most uses. It was firm and tactile with good feedback – I’ve used worse on many much larger laptops. Those of you with big hands might struggle, but I was happy with it. There’s number of function keys on it to allow quick access to wi-fi, speaker mute, screen brightness and lock controls – pretty much as one would expect of any other laptop.

Gigabyte M912 keyboard & Touch pad

The screen is a 1280x768 affair capable of displaying more than enough information. However, it’s somewhat disappointing in that it’s not very bright and it has a gritty appearance. I found I had to keep the backlighting on maximum at all times and it’s nowhere near as good as many pdas, mobile phones or other sub-notebooks. Clearly some compromises have had to be made to keep the cost down and it does spoil the experience somewhat because in all other ways the 912 a fine portable computer.

Gigabyte M912 hinge detail

The screen is swivel-screen that allows the 912 to function as a tablet computer and in this mode it is fine is all respects. The hinge doesn’t feel like it’s particularly robust and if I owned one of these I would be taking great care of it as it’s easy to try to twist and rotate the screen in the wrong direction – this is potential for disaster as this would most likely render the machine uneconomic to repair. Most curiously, there was no receptacle for the stylus. I am not convinced that Vista is a good o/s for this sort of use, but that’s a different discussion altogether and not really any fault of the machine’s design. Personally, I can see no use for tablet pcs and I much prefer to use the 912 as a conventional highly portable computer.

MP3 playback through headphones was good enough and I noticed no skips or pauses. The speakers were lightweight of course. Video performance was good with some of my own Windows Media Video files filmed from my motorcycle, the only limitation being the screen. Watching a DivX movie is a realistic proposition.

Software

As already mentioned this machine comes with Windows Vista. You either like it or you don’t. There is nothing extra in terms of software it’s very basic – there’s no office suite for example. Again this is probably a cost-cutting measure, but installing something like Open Office is easy enough and the machine will run it without effort.

Conclusion

So how does the M912 fare? As a portable pc it succeeds very well. It’s small, light, reasonably powerful and well-connected. It’s a proper computer in a small box and it coped with everything I threw at it without breaking into a sweat. For someone who travels a lot like myself it’s almost perfect. The price of £440 inclusive of VAT puts it very much at the higher end of the market and well into the budget “full-size” laptop zone where it compares unfavourably against dual-core machines in terms of performance. However, portability always has come with a higher price tag.

I think I would have preferred it to have been equipped with a lightweight flavour of Linux that would allow all sorts of software expansion at no extra cost and which would have probably boosted performance to very pleasing levels. This would also have had the advantage of reducing the cost of the device which, I feel is on for the high side of acceptable. However, if you’re in the market for an accomplished portable computer then the 912 is a good choice and I would be happy to own one.

Review by: Nigel

Of course, specs for any of those are virtually non-existent, although there's apparently some talk that the Pocket PCs could sell for between €100 and €150 (or roughly $220 to $290) whenever they're actually released.

Windows CE for life!

Commodore impresses with prototypes at IFA, really [Eng]

During the 2008 Good Design Expo , Willcon displayed their Kuma concept phone to the adoring public.  The Kuma is a stuffed bear that can hold a phone sim card and can actually be used to send and receive voice phone calls.

Not really sure if I would give this a thumbs-up or thumbs-down.  Cuteness factor is a thumbs-up definitely.  I love how technology is used here, and how it completes the cuteness of the person using it.  Function for me is a little questionable, would you agree.  Here are my points towards the function thumbs-down:

1. Size - too big, wouldn’t fit a ladies bag.
2. Maintainability - sure those fluffy furs look cute now, but I’d wait for about a month or two and I bet it wouldn’t be as fluffy to hold.
3. Dialing - you can pre-set it to 4 telephone numbers, one for each paw.  If you press a paw, it dials a number.  but what if you have to call another person who’s not pre-set?  bummer.
4. Price - at US$500 per teddy, I’m sure you’d settle for a good Nokia PDA phone instead.

After the spectacular success of the Commodore 64, CBM barely knew what to do with themselves. They created the Commodore 128 that combined C64 functionality with unique high powered modes of its own, but it didn't really work out. Of course there was the mighty series of Amiga computers from the mid 80's onwards, but Commodore was convinced they could still make good use of the popular C64 technology.

Enter the Commodore 65; in many ways like a C64 that went to "11". It featured a sleek new design, two SID audio chips, a built in 3.5" floppy drive, better graphics abilities, expansion to 8 megs of RAM, and a flat bit to rest your coffee on. Some working prototypes were made in 1990-91, and when Commodore was liquidated after their bankruptcy in '94, some of these machines got out. No one knows exactly how many are out there; estimates range from 50 to several hundred.

This particular unit is owned by Jason Compton, well known Amiga fan, editor of Amiga Report (a hyperlinked online magazine pre-HTML... wow!), and all around super talent. He may show it off at the ECCC Commodore show that's coming up September 27 this year in suburban Chicago (check out the awesome guest list of C64 luminaries!). After speaking with Jason about the C65 it seems clear that while the machine had a lot of things going for it, it was simply too late to market. By 1991 Nintendo & the PC were leading gaming and computing away from the standards that the original C64 had set. 

With millions of Commodore 64's sold in the world, it seems like there could have been interest in an improved version like the 65. The C65 went unreleased not because ol' "chicken lips" (the unfortunate nickname for Commodore's logo) was too chicken to offer new products, but because the C65 simply would not have sold in the early 90's. Especially not at the $300-400 projected price. Sadly the evolutionary C65 will go down in computing history as another unfortunate casualty of Commodore's legendary lack of insight.

More details about the beleaguered C65
I'm going to September's Chicago-area C64 show, wanna come?

related:

Guitar Hero now shredding on Commodore 64
Commodore 1702 monitor - my favorite CRT!
C64 Laptop... er... PDA... I don't care - I want one!
Stunning homebuilt Commodore 64 Music Synth
Free Commodore 64 inspired software synth

As an ‘early adopter’ of the iPhone 3G (at least for the medical community), Palmdoc has asked me to write about my experiences using the new phone/PDA/iPod/messianic machine. Just to give you an introduction, I am a pediatrician who is primarily a clinical researcher in a subspecialty. Therefore, my clinical work comprises less than 10% of my time. Outside of my subspecialty work in an academic centre, I also moonlight in a peripheral hospital in general pediatrics. I use my PDA mostly when on-call, as I am still doing 24-hour calls in pediatrics in which I might be called to a delivery, the NICU and the emergency room. As such, my experiences may not exactly mimic yours. But, here goes…

Here are the medical programs I used on my 6-year old Palm Tungsten C:

• ePocrates

• LexiDrugs Pediatrics (mostly replaced by ePocrates in recent years)

• 5-Minute Pediatric Clinical Consult

• The Hospital for Sick Children Handbook of Paediatrics

• Medcalc

• Kidometer

• AAP Red Book

• PediSuite

• Shots

• Sanford Guide

• iSilo

• STAT Growth-BP Growth Charts

• Adobe Acrobat – for PDFs from guidelines, papers, etc

• Lots of notes in the Memos section

• Quick jotting of notes in the Notepad

• Parens – as a calculator and for unit conversion

Here are the iPhone programs (all from the iTunes store, not jail-broken) that I use, and my thoughts:

• ePocrates – excellent replacement for the Palm OS version

• Mediquations – just released, so I haven’t had the chance to use it much, but I’m thrilled they finally have a medical calculator. Now contains 40 equations, and should go up to 60 equations with the next version.

• Medcalc online (Medcalc.com) – I was using this before Mediquations came out, and it’s likely to be replaced

• Evernote – great online storage of PDFs, charts, etc – reference material that I kept and read with Adobe previously

• Files – Local (not online) document reader, for my notes, differentials, etc. I’ll probably start using it for PDFs as well.

• Units – for unit conversion

Many programs are clearly still missing. The most glaring absence is medical references such as 5-minute Clinical Consult or the handbooks of pediatrics. Another program that I miss tremendously is PediSuite, a program that would consolidate resuscitation cards, calculate resuscitation drug doses and infusion rates. This program was essential during codes. I also miss Kidometer (which contained pediatric lab references, developmental milestones, and basic vital signs all based on age) and any growth charting program. Additionally, I am still looking for a satisfactory calculator and unit converter (all-in-one) to replace Parens. Although Units works well to convert units, it does not allow for use of the results in a calculator which is a major missing function. To switch to the calculator after getting a result is cumbersome and slow.

For medical reference, I have been going online using Safari to search sites like eMedicine. Although it is nice to have the option of going online without the need for Wi-Fi, it is unreliable. Some parts of my hospital have poor 3G (or even any cell phone) coverage, making the search slow. Additionally, heavy use of the Internet results in very fast drainage of the iPhone battery, which is quickly drained even without online usage.

My overall experience switching to the iPhone has been positive. I am very encouraged that more medical programs are being released (see recent releases of Mediquations and iSilo), and I look forward to the reference companies like Skyscape and Lexi-Comp releasing LOCAL applications for the iPhone. Skyscape already has the 5-Minute Consult series available online, however this has major drawbacks, as detailed above. I also wish there was a fast way to jot a quick note (patient information, a phone number, etc.). I have downloaded YouNote which allows for Notepad-like drawing with your finger, but it is not as accurate as the stylus was. Finally, I wish the iPhone would allow for categories in their programs, whether it be the phone book, the calendar, or the applications themselves. The major downside to the iPhone is its poor battery life. The phone is unlikely to last a 24-hour call with heavy usage, so bring a charger if you are on-call for that long. Overall, however, the advantage of being able to get online, access any reference material you want and have an all-in-one PDA/phone is one that I would not trade. My pockets are lighter and my scrubs stay up!

Eric
Toronto, Canada

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MAKING THE SWITCH: A Physician’s Experience Replacing the PalmOS with the iPhone 3G