One of the things I love best about CES are the random encounters. I was trotting through the North Hall where all the car audio stuff it when,  out of the corner of my eye, I spotted something that looked like a UMPC running Yahoo in a browser. Viliv, a Korean company, appears to mostly focus on PMP and GPS navigation, but this year they decided to debut three new models of portable devices.

The first, the Viliv X70 VANT, is more of an overgrown PMP, although it still provided full browser capability, running on Windows CE.

This one had specs posted:

• Processor RMI Alkemy Au1250 700 Mhz with 256MB of DDR2 memory
• 30/60 GB Hard drive
• 7" WVGA (800x480) screen with 16M colors and touchscreen
• Mobile TV, GPS, Bluetooth, WiFi
• Optional WWAN: HADPA, WiMAX
• 7 hour battery life

Based on my conversation with the booth representative, the next two are acually Menlow based designs and share the same specs and internals, just wrapped in a different form factor.

The smaller of the two reminded my of the Samsung Q1 Ultra in design with its split keyboard.

• Intel Menlow platform with 1.86GHz Silverthorne processor
• 512MB RAM, 1GB max
• 30/60 GB hard drive
• 4.8" WSVGA (1024x800) screen with touschreen. Optimized for video playback
• Mobile TV, GPS, Bluetooth, WiFi
• Optional WWAN: HADPA, WiMAX
• Continuous 7 hour movie playback battery life
• Two cameras - one front, one back
• Weighs 560g (~1.2 lbs)

The final model appears to be inspired by the HTC Shift in design. The rep said that it shared the same specs as the above model, although I couldn't find any specs listed anywhere. This appeared to add a fingerprint reader to the mix, although nothing else was readily apparent through the glass case. The keyboard looked touch type-able, at least for me.

No word on pricing or availability in the US. The rep said they are targeting "worldwide distribution through partners" so it's possible we may see this sometime soon.