Want XP on the Acer Aspire One? Buy the XP version (or why benchmarks can be misleading)

Due to personal challenges over the past week, I haven't spent nearly the amount of time I would have liked with the Acer Aspire One I purchased. Sadly, I've spend enough time with it to decide that I'll be returning it for a refund, minus the 15% restocking fee. How can I make that determination without truly reviewing it for a majority of my time over the last two weeks? There's a few key reasons... and bear in mind that they only apply to me, or people that have similar computing needs to mine. The Acer Aspire One can be a great solution for folks that want a simple and quick out-of-box computing experience; in fact, it excels in that case.

Everun Note: most powerfully performing UMPC yet?

It could be true based on the CrystalMark benchmarks that Everun provided to UMPC Portal. I just checked the numbers against the ones I ran on my Samsung Q1 Ultra Premium and the Everun Note shows significant potential. Bear in mind that Everun ran the testing, not a third party; I'll be more interested when the product actually gets some play time and testing outside of the Everun labs. ;)

Regardless, these are impressive numbers for a UMPC. It certainly helps performance when you tuck a dual-core AMD Turion 64x2 1.2 GHz CPU in there. What will that high-power do for run-time? Everun says three hours on the 19.2 W/hr battery, but I'll go out on a limb and suggest that as tested in the benchmarks, the device will see two hours at most. That remains to be seen until we see more information of course, but I don't recall the Turion 64x2 being a power sipper. Steve should have his hands on a test device in the near future, so I can't wait to see his experience.

Time to start evaluating my netbook needs

So I'm nearing 60-days of living in a web browser. Yup, for 97% of my time over the last two months, I've been using Firefox on my Samsung Q1 Ultra Premium UMPC and have been quite happy. There's still a few activities where I need a client application and perhaps the UMPC is overkill for my usage scenario. Then again, maybe it's not. Remember that I've upgraded the RAM from 1- to 2 GB in my device, and it does have a 1.33 GHz Core Solo that runs for 5 to 6 hours. This setup actually works quite well for me when I'm out and about or when I'm at the home office driving a 24-inch monitor at 1920 x 1200 resolution. There's times when things seem to come to a halt, but it's not that often. Overall, the experience has been more positive than I expected and I don't fell like I'm missing all that much in terms of apps or functionality.

So now I'm on the fence with all of the netbooks out there. In fact, I'm wondering if I need one at all at this point due to a few questions I have. Will an Intel Atom or VIA Nano device perform as well as my Core Solo or will Firefox be choking on my my all-day, multi-tab usage? How many netbook batteries will I need to have the same 10 to 12 hours of runtime that I enjoy today with the two 6-cell batteries? Part of my web-only challenge was to see if a meager netbook could actually meet my needs, but perhaps the activity has proved to me that what I'm using today is more than adequate.

I'm still in the early evaluation stages at this point, especially because the netbook market continues to grow wildly in terms of product choices. I do know that I really don't need a Core 2 Duo notebook for what I do. I have that in the MacBook Pro, but that device isn't nearly as portable, nor does it run for hours and hours. I love my MBP, but it's effectively become a desktop replacement for me: only getting used at home and even then, just for limited activities like podcast and video production plus photo imaging. But even photo imaging is starting to migrate to the cloud for me.

Honestly, any netbook right now will be hard pressed to beat my UMPC. The biggest difference between any netbook and my current device is the price: the UMPC cost me between two and four times any of the netbooks out there. Still, I enjoyed the Asus Eee PC 701 while I had it and comparable, new devices are much improved, so I'm still tempted. I'll definitely be waiting to see what Dell releases in a few weeks, but for now, I'm making a list of pros / cons / needs. I know that's the logical thing to do, but I'm afraid that when all is said and done, my current mobile device will meet or exceed everything on that list!

Samsung intros new Q1 UMPCs, but there's still one missing

GottaBeMobile caught the Samsung press release that introduced two new UMPCs in the Q1 line. And by "new" I really mean "old models with slight tweaks". Have a look at what I mean:

• Samsung took the Q1 Ultra (not Ultra Premium) running XP and added integrated HSDPA for the AT&T network. I thought I read the press release wrong because I can't see why they would refresh the Ultra line that uses the older Intel A100 and A110 processors. Yet, my eyes aren't deceiving me since the Samsung press release says "the model boasts the same specifications as the industry standard Q1 Ultra XP model launched in May of 2007". Somehow, I don't see the $1,499 MSRP justified...
• The Samsung Q1UP-V is something I believe we reported back in April: it takes the Q1 Ultra Premium that I have, runs with 2 GB of RAM and Vista Business. I took my Q1UP, carefully swapped in a 2 GB RAM module and installed Vista Ultimate for basically the same package; the only difference I see is that I have the Media Center functions. Samsung is expecting to sell these at $1,449, but I'm sure you can find the original Q1 Ultra Premium for less and then upgrade it yourself.

So not much "new" really, is there? And that reminds of the model that we should have seen, but didn't yet. At CES 2008 back in January, Samsung reps told us that the Q1 Ultra Premium would see a unit with an SSD drive in the first quarter of the year. We're now in the third quarter and all we're seeing is minor refreshes that are priced too high. What's even stranger to me is that Samsung themselves manufacture SSD drives. Am I missing something?

Samsung plans Q1 UMPC refresh in early 2009

TechRadar offers up the first installment of a three-part interview with a Samsung R&D Engineer who shares news of Samsung's UMPC plans. The company isn't abandoning the UMPC market by any means and will continue to tweak the Q1 line with a refresh in the first quarter of 2009. There's no detail on what will or won't be in the refresh, but there are plenty of opportunites and possibilities here from where I stand.

• CPU options: Samsung can offer a variety of choices here. Both the Intel Atom and VIA Isaiah should be fair game, although I personally would still like to see a configuration with a true notebook processor like the 1.33 GHz Intel Core Solo model I currently use.
• Samsung ought to consider a button or switch that disables/enables the hardware keyboard. Today, you can do this in the BIOS or through Device Manager in Windows. It should be easier to do because when you hold the device with two hands, it's easy to hit keys by accident.
• Two gigabytes of RAM should be standard with any Q1 model that runs Vista.
• An active digitizer would be nice, but as much as I'd like to see it happen, I'm not expecting to.

These are just a few of my thoughts. How would you improve the Q1?

OneNote and my UMPC camera are friends again

Just yesterday I noticed that on my UMPC I couldn't use the integrated webcams natively with Microsoft OneNote. After reading the various reader comments, I took a new approach this morning. I got to thinking how this wasn't an issue in Windows XP, so I decided to focus on why that might be. This thought led me to the properties of the OneNote.exe executable itself; specifically, the compatibility and the security privileges.

OneNote doesn't play nice with my UMPC cameras

Feeling sick over the weekend, I laid low offline and decided to delve into some desktop applications instead of using the web apps I prefer. Since my cord was cut, I dug around in one of my favorite bits of software: Microsoft OneNote. I installed it on my UMPC a few weeks back and wanted to play with some of the advanced features. Previously, I've used OneNote Mobile on a Windows Mobile device to take pictures and have them automatically inserted in my OneNote notebooks. It came in handy with a home project in the past, but since I no longer carry a Windows Mobile Phone, I was looking for another option when it hit me: OneNote can accept images directly from a webcam. My Samsung Q1 Ultra Premium, has not one, but two integrated webcams, so I figured I was all set! Just use the rear-facing camera to snap pics of projects, documents, UPS tracking numbers and more to have them all sucked into OneNote for later use.

HSDPA module, antenna, UMPC equals browsing bliss

I'm definitely in the minority when it comes to 3G modem options. Most folks prefer an integrated broadband radio, while I'm enamored with a USB solution since it works with all of my devices. Now that he's installed a mini PCI HSDPA module in his Samsung Q1 Ultra Premium, Bartman is part of the majority too. He took the card out of an AT&T U881 AirCard and plopped it right in the extra and open slot that I found when showing you how to update the RAM in my the Q1UP. There's also a SIM card holder inside too; I saw it, but my 3G is back with Verizon Wireless after a brief stint with AT&T and a portly 875U AirCard that I might crack open just for fun now.

Bartman shows every step of his hack in pictures and there's some nice shots of the antenna implementation he used. It must have been the right approach, because in his AT&T coverage area, he's routinely seeing wireless speeds of 1.6 MB down and up to 1.5 MB back up, which is outstanding! Let's see, my 875U plus an antenna and my iPhone SIM card would give me... hmm.... wheels are turning, people. Wheels are turning...

OtterBox intros protective cases for Samsung Q1U UMPCs

OtterBox has long been a name synonymous with outstanding device protection and today they're bringing that protection to the latest UMPCs from Samsung. The new case fits either a Samsung Q1 Ultra or Ultra Premium model and offers access to practically every port and interface while offering protection from the elements.

For $79.95, you'll get your choice of yellow or black. Regardless of color, each case offers three layers of protection: a clear membrane, a Polycarbonate shell, and a thin silicone skin. I wouldn't drop my UMPC underwater in this (although have I done that with a PDA in an OtterBox), but short of that, this case looks to offer outstanding protection while adding 11.5 ounces of weight.

Samsung Q1UP gets a BIOS upgrade with... something.

Nosing around the Samsung Download center, I see there's a new BIOS version available for the Q1 Ultra Premium UMPC, both the XP and Vista versions. My device is currently running Vista but I noticed that my BIOS is version 01MI, so I've just downloaded 02MI. The under 2 MB file ran in under five minutes and then the UMPC rebooted. Bear in mind that you'll want to have your unit plugged in to an AC outlet and the battery must have at least a 30% charge or the BIOS update won't run.

I already had 2 GB of memory in the unit, so the old BIOS supports at least that much RAM. I figured the new BIOS would offer support for sharing up to 256 MB of memory with the video card since the Intel 945 chipset can handle that. On the original BIOS, only 128 MB of memory could be allocated to video. Unfortunately, when I checked in the the BIOS, I still see the same options for video memory: 64- and 128-MB, along with an Auto function which still tops out at 128 MB. At this point, I don't see any visible changes in the BIOS setup screens, so I have no idea what the new version adds. Can anyone say "release notes"? Just for kicks, I ran the Windows Experience Index rating again... same exact scores as the last time.

Update: Big word of caution. My Q1UP apparently no longer has a wireless radio inside after the BIOS upgrade. I've never seen software make hardware magically disappear. ;) I'll be working through the issue but wanted to quickly point it out. More to follow...

Update 2: Either a few reboots or changing the wireless setting in the BIOS addressed the issue. Samwise is flying around the web without wires. Whew!