Steve “Chippy” Paine has been taking a look at digital TV on UMPCs and is looking ahead to what that might mean for MIDs. He’s put up a couple of posts (here and here) that chronicle his experiences and they make for some interesting reading. He’s not talking about TV over broadband but instead using a digital tuner to receive a signal. This is much more prevalent in Europe and Asia, but eventually we’ll see it begin to roll out here in the states (once all the fighting over who gets the money is settled.)

It must be give-a-way Friday. Not content with letting Engadget grab all the give-a-way glory today, Steve “Chippy” Paine is offering up a WiBrain B1E from Mobilx. Head over to UMPCPortal for all the details and how to enter.

And just to make things more fun, the GBM Staff conferenced this morning and decided that we would do a give-a-way as well. The prize? You get Matt. We might even let him out of the cube.

Sorry that’s the best we could come up with at the moment.

Several UMPCs have been in the news lately, some in a positive manner, and some not so.

First up, The Samsung Q1 Ultra Premium UMPC appears to be shipping from a few retailers and getting into users hands. Head over to the Origami Project forums for a list of retailers and at least one early reaction. We got a chance to check out the new Q1 at CES and you can check out those videos here and here.

The WiBrain, which has captured quite a bit of attention due to its lower price point, looks like it might have a Linux variant shipping at some point in the future according to UMPCPortal.

And the Asus R2E seems to suffer from one of the main problems that the earlier Asus R2H did: CRAPWARE. According to this post users are just as frustrated to discover during their OOBE (out of box experience) that they need to spend way too much time uninstalling a lot of the junk software that Asus installs on the device. Fascinating, when you think that the Asus Eee PC, boots in a such quick time (yeah, I know what the differences are) and receives such high marks for that from many quarters. You’d think that the folks at Asus wouldn’t be so tone deaf when it comes to hearing the many user complaints about CRAPWARE.

Kevin Tofel of jkOnTheRun has posted a very thorough review of the WiBrain B1–H UMPC. He covers the intriguing device from top to bottom and his remarks about the keyboard echo the very quick impression I had of that feature when I got a brief chance to handle the WiBrain at CES.

Chippy over at UMPCPortal just got his very own WiBrain B1 and is sharing his experiences with everyone! Chippy has the works posted - photo gallery, short video, and general comments. The WiBrain B1 is available in the US currently through Dynamism starting at $699 for the base model. Given the feature set for this little powerhouse, that is a great deal.

I've been following the UMPC market pretty closely for the last few weeks since I'm going to be in the market for a new UMPC really soon now. I just have to figure out what I want. The WiBrain is a promising device given its price, but I still long for the HTC Shift. If it would ever actually ship...

via UMPCPortal

Dynamism has posted a video on YouTube of some guy playing Quake II on a WiBrain B1. It seems to play really well! I was impressed with how well the gamer was able to use the D pad and the touch pad to move through the game. The ergonomics also seem quite a bit better than I was expecting with the split keyboard. Given the specifications of the system and the price (starting at $699 from Dynamism), this looks like a pretty compelling device for someone wanting a general purpose UMPC. At the beginning of the video you get a brief view of the system itself while the system boots. Worth noting - the system appears to have done a cold boot to playing Quake II in only about 45 seconds. Not too bad!

Jkkmobile posted an earlier video of the WiBrain B1 that is narrated in another language, so just watch the pretty pictures roll by. It does have a few pictures of the system in a case which looks pretty cool. That video was obviously targeted for the Korean market.

via ultramobilelife

Ah, my fickle gadget nature. Yesterday it was the ASUS R2E, today the WiBrain B1 has caught my eye. This is one of the smaller ultra mobile PCs since it has the 4.8" screen, but at 1024x600 resolution, this ought to be beautiful. I'm intrigued by the split keyboard. I've never had an opportunity to try out one of the new UMPCs with a split keyboard like this, and I strongly suspect it's a "love it or hate it" type of feature. This system has all the bells and whistles available, but the most attractive feature is the price. Given it's feature rich state, I expected it to cost more, but Dynamism is offering it starting at $699. The higher end model with more memory and a larger hard drive is still on $849.

So, with the ASUS R1E at $1099 at Best Buy, how much do I really want the integrated GPS and Vista? That's a hefty price difference.