I have played around with installing some of the more recent games on my Lenovo x61, but I would have never thought about these games running on some UMPC's. Heck, I was even afraid to try and install them on my R2h...

Ultra Mobile Life is connecting us with John Gatt who is playing Warcraft 3 on a OQO Model 02 and a Samsung Q1B.  Seems as if he was having a little trouble with the 'right click' using the pen.  Probably not as good as playing on a big screen and a powerful desktop, but still fun anyways...

I'm still in the middle of doing a lot of testing of the SSD based OQO Model 02 and quite impressed with this new model, so it is good to see some much deserved accolades come OQO's way. They have just been awarded the Good Design Award 2007 for their Model 02, sponsored by the Japan Industrial Design Promotion Organization.

Congratulations, OQO - well deserved.

Here is more on the Good Design Award from OQO's press release:

OQO Inc., creator of the world’s smallest fully functional Windows Vista® PC, today announced that it has received the prestigious Good Design Award 2007, sponsored by the Japan Industrial Design Promotion Organization. This award recognizes the OQO model 02 computer for its innovative product concept, high degree of usability, and superior product design.

The "Good Design Award" is Japan's only comprehensive design evaluation and commendation system, originating from the "Good Design Selection System" (generally known as the "G-Mark System") instituted by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry in 1957. This accolade is presented for designs that clearly demonstrate merit in the following assessment categories: designs that meet or exceed a certain standard, superior designs and future-oriented designs. Products that have received the Good Design Award are permitted to be exhibited with the highly recognized “G-mark” logo.

In addition to winning the Good Design Award, OQO also announced that Bob Groppo has joined the company as vice president of engineering:

Groppo brings more than 20 years of experience working on PC systems, including mainstream desktop, notebook, appliance and server platforms with expertise spanning from chip-level and system-level architecture at Intel Corporation, to high-availability, scalable server designs at Sun Microsystems.

In addition to his work with PC architecture, Groppo has developed smartphones, digital still cameras, camera modules, portable media players, wireless modules, MIMO antennas and various nontraditional computing platforms.

I'm doing some more comparison tests on the OQO Model 02 1.6 ghz 32 GB SSD and the Model 02 1.5 ghz 60 gb 4200 rpm units.

Chippy, from UMPCPortal.com, asked me to install HD Tune on both the SSD and Non-SSD Model 02's. I did and ran the benchmarking tests. The results are pretty remarkable. It is the fastest UMPC / Ultra Mobile Tablet PC I've ever used - period.

BTW - Battery life on the SSD OQO Model 02 is showing to be about a 45 improvement over the HDD model. I just ran 4 or 5 HD Tune tests on battery, and the SSD is showing about 5.5 hours left, the HDD model showing about 4.75 hours left. I'll do more testing on that.

I'm testing out an OQO Model 02 with the new 32 GB SSD drive, and I have to say that I am floored with the performance increase over the Model 02 with the 4200 rpm drive (HDD). The boot-up and application loading times are noticeably faster. I'm working on an InkShow to be posted up on Thursday, but wanted to post up these initial numbers as a general comparison:

Power-on to log-on ( both on Vista, and using Balanced power mode):

Model 02 1.6 ghz 32 GB SSD: 58 seconds
Model 02 1.5 ghz 60 GB 4200 rpm HDD: 2 minutes, 38 seconds

What is not evident in the above timing comparison, is that I'm also able to begin working much more quickly after logon on the SSD vs the HDD. FYI: There is 100 mhz increase in CPU over the non-HDD version, but I don't think it factors much in to the results.

I'll be doing a lot of comparisons in the InkShow: application loading, battery life, bootup , shutdown, standby, etc. Is there anything else I should cover? Based on what I'm experiencing, given a choice and at the current 32 GB SSD prices, I would always choose SSD over a HDD.

How do you know when a company is plugged in to community? When their CEO starts blogging.

Dennis Moore, OQO's new CEO, began blogging last month and appears to be pretty plugged in to the community aspect. He mentions OQOTalk.com as a great resource for OQO specific discussions, and he is right - it is a wonderful resource and I find myself there a great deal, too.

Keep up the good work, Mr. Moore,  and we hope to see the transparency in conversations continue:

I had a lot of great feedback (and more, and more, and more, and more, and more, and more) from the community so far -- I hope it continues even when I have bad news to communicate. I suspect people will respect our openness and honesty. When I had to communicate a slip in our shipping date (due to a delay in achieving certifications), customers were clearly disappointed but appreciative of our transparency.

Via UltraMobileLife.com

When looking for a good ultra-portable device, it is always good to get some outside opinions.

Web Worker Daily has a good overview of three such devices: the HTC Advantage, OQO Model 02 Tablet PC, and Samsung Q1 Ultra.

Notebook computers have become a huge success story in the hardware world, even replacing many desktop systems, but many web workers may want to take a look at some of the slick notebook alternatives that are arriving. I’ve used the Windows-based examples that I’ll round up in this post, some of which can fit in your pocket, and they are surprisingly competitive with notebooks in terms of keeping you productive. Best of all, they are much lighter and easier to tote.

There has been a little bit consternation among Europeans and their ability to order OQO products. Well, the wait is over. OQO has announced the Model e2 Tablet PC and has a spec and ordering page specifically for international customers. International customers can order the Model e2 from Dynamism, expansys, and Brule.

I go through a lot of Tablet PCs and UMPCs. Sometimes I use an evaluation Tablet PC for an extended period of time. Other times, I'll like a device so much, I'll put my money where my mouth is and fork the dough over.

Although a choice of tablet pcs is a very personal one, I still get asked a lot about what I would buy today. So, here is my short list. Take it for what it is - my list. Do your own research, watch our InkShows, and make the necessary decisions based upon your own personal needs.

This how-to hits close to home. Do you own a UMPC such an my OQO Model-02 that does not have a disk activity LED? If you are like me, occasionally I find myself asking why couldn't manufacturers find a location for and install a 20 cent LED? We all have times when for a variety of reasons we would like that visual queue. It's reassuring sometimes isn't it?  I was recently installing a piece of software for demo on my OQO when I could not tell if the program had locked up, or if I was just impatient. Turned out that several CTL+ALT+Deletes later, I was just being impatient. Today's How-To will walk you through setup of a neat utility (an oldie but it still works in Vista (yea!) , XP, and even W2K). Check this out...

During the OQO product upgrade briefing this past Thursday, I hooked up with Via, and they interviewed me to talk about processors, battery life, and my experience with the OQO Model 02 that I purchased.

Follow the Read More for that interview and one they did with OQO's Dennis Moore and Bob Rosin

This past Thursday, I traveled to San Francisco to attend an invitation-only briefing by OQO, where they announced updated features to the Model 02 Tablet PC, a lowered entry-level price point, and introduced their new CEO, Dennis Moore.

Here is the run-down:

• Dennis Moore has joined OQO as their new CEO. Moore is the former general manager of the Emerging Solutions division of SAP, a business unit that he envisioned, built and managed, with responsibility for creating SAP solutions for new markets, including mobile information workers.
• EV-DO Rev A support can now be ordered with "Better" and "Best" configuration. In addition, OQO announced a $249 upgrade service for current Model 02 owners so they can upgrade from EV-DO Rev 0 to Rev A. They are also providing a $50 rebate on all new WWAN activations.
• Upgraded VIA processor from 1.5 ghz to 1.6 ghz.
• Support for up to 120GB harddrives, as well as increased harddrive capacities in the entry-level configuration to 40gb, and 80gb in the standard high-end configuration.
• 32 GB SSD support, which is a $500 upgrade option on the Best configuration. This helps reduce boot times, as well as offer faster application launch times, and increased battery life. Details are still being worked out on offering an upgrade service to current Model 02 owners who wish to move to an SSD drive.
• Lowered entry-level price point by $200 to $1299.

Here is the official press release.

Follow the Read More link for video coverage of the announcement, as well as more information

Man, one look at all of my equipment, and it is becoming quite clear to me that a few things have got to go. I might have to reclaim my title of "man of many tablet pc's"

What all do I have and what am I going to get rid of? Hit the Read More link to find out - and let me know what you think of my decisions.

For the past couple of days, I've been testing out an application written by Terran, a member of the OQOTalk.com forums. The application takes advantage of a built-in accelerometer in the OQO and enables automatic rotation, like the X61 Tablet PC, the iPhone, etc.

It works pretty good and is nice little utility to have on the OQO. Read more about it on OQOTalk.com and download the application here. Source code is also available here.

It is worth noting that rotation ( automatic and FN Rotate ) breaks on the OQO if you download and install the latest S3 video drivers from Windows Update. If you like rotation on your OQO, stick with the S3 drivers that came with your OQO or available through the drivers site on OQO.

Check it out in this short video demonstrating the automatic rotation application written by Terran.

I found out the hard way that the screen protector on the OQO Model 02 is there for a reason.

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to remove the screen protector in order to work out a few air bubbles. What I didn't realize was that the OQO has one of the most scratch sensitive screens I have ever used. With the screen protector off, I rubbed my clean finger on the screen in order to remove a piece of dust. Imagine my shock when a scratch appeared - and it wouldn't come off. "That's strange, let me get some cleaner and a cloth, and try to rub it out." There must have been something on that cloth because scratches appeared after cleaning the screen, too. Fortunately, the scratches were only visible while the unit was off and didn't affect the usability of the OQO.

So, l lived with it for a few weeks and then contacted OQO support to find out my options. They treated it as an RMA warranty issue, and sent me a Fed Ex tag. I sent it out last Thursday, and guess what showed up yesterday: my OQO with a scratch free screen. That was much quicker than I anticipated, and a much better response time than other OEMs I've worked with in the past. Kudos to OQO on a quick response time and keeping this customer happy and productive!

Lesson learned: do not remove that screen protector unless you need to replace. When you decide to replace it, make sure you have spares on hand, and be sure to put the new one on right away. If you clean your screen, make sure you use a lint free cloth and cleaner, and double check that the cloth has nothing on it.

The OQO Model 02 has been the subject of much discussion around the pages of GBM. Team members Rob, Dennis, Eddie, and Hugo all have purchased the devices and are quite smitten. (Check out Hugo’s InkShow.) I’ve stated often that the device just isn’t for me. Matt weighed in with his opinions. We’ve had fashion debates, glue sniffing stand construction, taken it on a trip or two, and bascially had a range of discussion on the tiny Tablet PC. 

So within that context it is with interest that I see that Master of the Minute Mobile Devices, James Kendrick, has gotten his hands on the OQO Model 02 and has started offering his impressions. That will be worth following.

Click on the image for more details - only for US and Canada

Ask Hugo - You'll love it!!!  Follow this link to see our InkShow on the Model 02.

I’ve had the luxury of having my hands on a few UMPCs (not as many as some around TeamGBM) and you know what? I still haven’t found what for me is the ultimate UMPC. I love the Inking on the Asus R2H, can’t stand it on the Samsung Q1P or the Ultra. Love they keyboard on the OQO Model 02, not the one on the Q1 Ultra. I could go on and on. Some times I lay awake nights wondering if there ever will be the Ultimate UMPC for me. Drives my wife nuts.

Most people who own or are interested in buying an OQO Model 02 Tablet PC2, don't know that the Executive Case doubles as a stand, supporting 2 angles. I didn't know, either, until OQO's Bob Rosin mentioned it to me.

Bob sent me the following pictures of the Executive Case in action. Very nice! It is worth noting that the case only supports the Model 02 when used with the standard battery. I would love to see OQO  design a case like that with support for the Double Capacity battery. Until then, I will use my new permanently attached stand.

Like other folks who own a OQO Model 02 Tablet PC, I've been struggling with how to prop the Model 02 up when I want to use a full size keyboard with it or I just want to interact with the Model 02 with it sitting at an angle. The Executive Case has a stand built-in by folding the front cover backwards, but the Executive Case only supports the Standard Battery. Like many folks, I only use the Double Capacity Battery, so I'm still stuck with finding a solution to this nagging problem. So, what is a gadget nut left to do?  Don't take "no" for answer, that's what!

Little did I know that the solution to my problem was sitting right under my nose. Examining the removable stand that comes with the iGo Stowaway Keyboard, I found my solution. The great news is that the removable stand fits the Model 02 perfectly without adding much depth at all. It is almost a match made in heaven. Check out this 8 minute GBM Shortcut video, and watch me permanently create my new stand for the Model 02.

For many folks who own and have been evaluating an OQO, one of the most often cited weaknesses is that the OQO lacks a built-in stand. I've been pushing for built-in stands in slate Tablet PCs from the beginning, and I am so happy to see UMPCs coming out with them as standard features. You can imagine my disappointment when I found that the OQO didn't have one.

Well, I have solved that problem. Watch for a GBM Shortcut video tomorrow on how I solved it and how OQO could easily solve it to.

Stay tuned....

BTW: A GBM Shortcut video is a short, informal video of stuff we are fooling with, vlog editorials, short demos, and anything else we want to talk about.