Jason Sidabras

With all of the UMPC talk going on at CES this week I’ve noticed the trend that either the UMPC is too small (like the n800) or perhaps too big (like the Samsung Q2). The problem seems that you can either have a ~4.5 inch screen or a 7 inch wide screen. So, in the tradition of thinking I can fix the world I have come up with my own UMPC design. After the fold I will go over the hardware and software that I need to make this an amazing device. With even a picture that I drew up.

So the first thing is the processor and memory. This isn’t a number cruncher but you need some power. I would think that a Xscale 500 MHz processor or 1GHz A110 Intel should do it. I would prefer the A110. Have a chip with 256 or 512 MB on-board memory which should be enough RAM.This device will have 802.11b/g, bluetooth 2.0 and GPS. Some of the newer UMPCs are coming with 20 - 80 GB harddrives. This is out of control. With two SD cards you would have plenty of upgradeable space. The hardware would have a built in solid state drive with probably a maximum of 6 GB of space and even this would be overkill. Update: This also would keep the price significantly down and help with battery consumption

Front

The first thing is the 7″ touch screen with 1024×768, 500 cd/m², reflective LCD to make it readable in daylight. The 7″ screen will be large enough to write on but small enough to still be smaller than a book. The screen is the most important part and it is an important part of the software that I need. Update: See comments for keyboard and hand recognition. For a hardware keyboard, typing on 7.5 inches would be impossible if not laughable. I wouldn’t want to waste the hardware space.

Standard speakers on the top and two buttons on the top right with a palm rest. The D-pad has a backlight much like the n800 and a joystick for easy menu navigation. Four hot keys for your favorite programs. Update: As mentioned in the comments. I would expect a person to rotate the device counter-clockwise and use the hot keys for pgup, pgdown, home and end or pgup, pgdown, annotate and save for ebook reading.

The camera on the n800 is very impressive. Rotation of ~270 degrees makes it nice to have a complete view of either yourself or what is going on around you (Like an awesome pool game or bar :)). I think the n800 only has a 1.3 Mpx camera, so bumping that up to 3 Mpx would be nice. Anything more than that is ridiculous. Some work for low lighting conditions would have to be made also.

On the bottom right is a finger print reader. This finger print reader is typically off unless you push the enable button on the right side. There is some talk that the UMPCs with finger print readers are constantly triggered. I figured adding a button will make the finger print reader better. Update: Software to convert fingerprint to a password to use with PasswordGorilla would be great.
Finally the bottom of the front will have a number of LED lights to indicate what is going on. Things like GPS and 802.11b/g on/off + signal strength , battery LED and Bluetooth and finger print reader on/off. Update: this is a feature that would make it easy to figure out what is going on with your device. It also would allow for less clutter in the menu bar on your screen.

Top and bottom

The top will have a GPS antenna that allows for about 60 degree movement and is retractable. The zoom keys are also found on the top with a “home zoom” key which automatically unzooms to 100%.

On the bottom is a full size USB and a vga port. Because this device would make a great presentation device and would need port. Update: I think the full USB port (non mini) would definitely be needed for thumb drive compatibility, but a smaller dvi port or vga port with a pigtail converter would work better for space on the device.

Right and Left

On the right side holds the stylus, and finger print enabler. Also under the hinge sits the miniSD card slot (the ones cell phones use) . On the left is a micro USB plug and the camera and a full SD card slot.

All of this in a nice 7.5 x 5 x 0.75 inch form factor. Which to me is about the biggest I would want one of these UMPCs.

Software

Anyone can get the hardware working the key is some “killer apps” that would make me run out and buy this.

The first is a pdf annotator. I really would love to have this device to replace some books, but the only way it would be able to do this is to allow me to “write” on the edges of the book. Highlight, take hand written notes and to save/print them. This pdf annotator would look great during presentations, almost like the old transparency days.

The second is a note taking program. I would love to replace my notebooks with this device. Going to class, taking notes, saving the pages then coming home and saving the days notes. This would work excellently for work and class.

It would be excellent if all of this could be done with Linux. But I think I would be willing to use Windows v7 (which is said to be drastically cut down) if the programs were perfect.

Conclusions

Well all of this needs a price behind it. I don’t think there is anything in the hardware or software that is exceptionally priced. I would expect a device like this would be $599. Perhaps some company like Asus would upgrade their current line and take into consideration my awesome design. Update: Taking Joe’s comment into consideration, this device would look better as a N900 which would be the bigger brother of the N800.

Update: The HTC Shift seems like a good product, but it does have a keyboard. I’m also looking into the Samsung Q1 or the new Q1 Ultra. But the keyboard on the side of the Q1 Ultra is super stupid. Perhaps later in the year a Q2 without the dumbness?

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