LaptopMag have a short article with information from the ASUS press event that took place at CES a short while ago.

I have a similar combination of convertible with GPS on my SC3 and I can honestly say that I’ve never ever thought about using it as a PND. There are far better solutions out there. Maybe ASUS will focus on the tablet element of this one though. At 1KG, it will work well for some.

Liliputing have some more pics and are saying that the device is due for launch in the 3-6months timeframe.

Related ASUS convertible item: The T83 from CeBIT in 2007 that never saw the light of day.

Update: Looks like there’s a 10″ version of this. The T101H

NEC Electronics America, Inc. today announced that it will highlight its power management IC (PMIC) technology at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES^®), January 8 – 11, 2009. The live demonstration will feature NEC Electronics’ PMIC solution for Intel’s next-generation Mobile Internet Device (MID) platform, codenamed Moorestown.

NEC were involved with the power management IC’s on Menlow so this is nothing new for them. For us, it might be a chance to see a Moorestown demo if someone can get themselves over to the NEC booth and register for a private demo.

Product brief here: (PDF) Via.

I’ve corrected the image perspective although it’s still not perfect. The original must have been taken at a strange angle. You can see it at the link below along with the rest of the images.

If Engadget are confident, then i’m confident…

http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/06/sonys-vaio-p-ultraportable-revealed/

In adition, Richard Brown of VIA, says the there’s a new chipset in the works and that the C7 will still be used for the current netbook market. As we thought, the Nano is really going to be for low cost laptops rather than anything ultra mobile but there’s still a chance that a low-end Nano will allow OEMs to offer higher-end versions of UMPCs.

What we really want to know is, where’s that Mobile-ITX product? It’s due for Q2 2009!

Via’s Dual-core Nano Processor on Track for Late 2009 - PC World.

HP Mini 2140

Full specs now in the database.

News from Electronista. A good set of blogs have followed up.

Electronista | HP updates Mini 2x netbooks with Atom, 10in LCD.

(Posted on the go with the Wibrain i1. Will get the specs together in the db soon. )

jkkmobile: Netbook needs to be small? MSI thinks not. Meet MSI X-Slim X320 netbook.

P.S. It’s a lovely looking MSI XSlim laptop with more than a hint of MBA but I won’t be diplaying or detailing it here!

James Kendrick has gone for the Macbook for on-table operations and the iPhone for mobile operations. There’s a mini-tripod in there, a cam, a travel router and some battery packs. A great set of kit. The Macbook will give James a good efficient way to work with his video and audio media but is the iPhone really going to be enough for the floor? The cam is near useless (IMO) and there’s no easy way to transfer images or videos from the digicam without having to sit down with the big laptop.

Jenn Lee has, ahem, covered every angle. At least that’s the best way I can put it. Its a superb selection of kit and I like the way she’s going to use the Xperia for live blogging and photo posting via the Flickr to blog service. The cam will be good enough quality for blogs and the keyboard will help. She’s taking a Kohjinsha SC3 onto the show floor as the main PC which is what I did at IDF. I don’t recommend the SC3 for this scenario personally as it embarrassed me a number of times during the IDF event by losing wifi, taking to long to boot, being slow to start up applications and running out of battery. In the end I switched to a XP-based Medion Akoya netbook which was rock solid and had a much nicer keyboard. Feast your eyes on Jenns hotel and backup kit though. Awesome! If she needs to swap out the SC3, I’m sure she’ll be happy with the TZ.

Warner Crocker is going for a similar setup to James. He’s taking a Lenovo X200 tablet PC and two phones. The E71 he has is capable of some reasonable photos but he’ll have to resort to pulling out the tablet PC if he wants to upload images or videos from his Powershot and Flip Mino.

Kevin Tofel is also going for the laptop / smartphone route although he’s undecided about whether he should take a Macbook or MSI Wind. For video, he’s taking the Kodak Zi6 HD which, having seen his video test and having heard good reports from others, is something I’m also thinking of getting (although there’s nothing like a long lens for picking out strange things in keynotes!) He’s taking his trusty iPhone too. I’d go for taking the MSI Wind on the floor but if he’s working with 720p H.264 video then it has to be the Macbook.  He’ll need processing power and H.264 codes and there’s nothing like an Apple product when it comes to H.264 video.

It interesting to see each of these bloggers highlighting their smartphone as a key component and going for, effectively, a two-device strategy. The laptop, in every case, will allow them to use their normal working practices which is so important when you’re under pressures of time, space and power.

Unfortunately I won’t be at CES as I’ll be at the desk while my ‘contacts’ do all the walking but if I was going today, I’d definitely take a Nokia N82 for the best instant photo/flash and post capability in a relatively open smartphone (plus two extra batteries) but for the computing element I’m not sure what I’d do right now. I’ll decide on my Ultra Mobile reporting Kit 5.0 after I’ve taken a few devices round Europe in a few weeks!

If you spot any other CES ‘kit lists’ out there or have any tips, let everyone know. I’m particularly interested in how to tackle the video/cam issue. I’m thinking about the Canon SX10 as I don’t want to work with HD video when I’m mobile and I just can’t give up the long lens and great mics that I’m used to with the S2 IS that I currently have.

Gearlog says that Nova, the almost-confirmed OS from Palm will be pro-sumer and internet focused. Does ‘pro-sumer’ mean the full web experience? Will it scale to 5″ 800×480 screens and devices running hi end ARM cores? How about netbooks? There was certainly some talk about it.

Any readers out there following it closely? I’d be interested to hear your opinion so if you have a moment, let us all know what you think in the comments.

CES 2009: Palm’s New Nova Phone, What We Know Now - Gearlog.

It uses the VIA Nano (clock unknown) with the VX800 chipset with integrated video decoding which is an advantage over the Intel netbook platform. You’ll be able to get this with 3G/Wimax options. Availability is ‘now’ according to the website but we suspect, that Dr Mobile has put this page up a few days too early!

Obviously there are going to be comments about the keyboard not being optimal, battery life (the 4-cell battery appears to be very low capacity for a netbook) and questions about the 3D performance (it should be a lot better than the old VX700 chipset as it uses a new engine) but as with most of these netbooks, it will come down to price and availability.

The most interesting aspect for ultra mobile fans is to find out what sort of power drain the VIA platform has. Could it be used in smaller form factor devices like 7" slates to enable a fast Windows 7-ready platform for pro-mobility users? Could we see low-cost UMPCs performing like the Q1 Ultra Premium? Fingers crossed for some quality hands-on soon.

Dr Mobile is here (where you’ll also find an interesting 11.6" mini laptop)

You can find out more about the VIA Openbook through this page.

Here’s another look at Android on an X86 platform. It’s a VIA-based HP 2133 mini note. We’ll all ask ourselves ‘why’ again but I think if Android carries on getting this much attention, it won’t be long before we say ‘when?’

The video comes from Newsandroids in Canada but there’s no further info from them at the moment.

In related news, Kevin Tofel and Om Malick had a chat about this yesterday.

At its heart, the i.MX51 is designed around a 1-GHz Cortex A8 core, ARM’s most powerful, offering 1.8 times more performance per MHz than the ARM 11 core and roughly 3 times the processor performance of an iPhone, Burchers said. Because the Cortex is an integrated core, with its peripherals built into the chip, the company believes that between 6 to 8 millimeters can be shaved off of the thickness of a netbook, versus an Atom processor, he said.

This will be an interesting one to hear about from CES. How will the Linux-based OS feel? Fast enough? The 1Ghz Cortex core should be capable of returning a reasonable experience but I wouldn’t expect it to be as fast as an Atom-based design. If it’s slick, thin, long-lasting and cheap though, maybe it doesn’t need to be.

Sascha of netbooknews.de will be out in Vegas in a few days and promises to report back on this so expect some more detailed news during the CES period later this week.

Update: More news at Cnet.

PCMag.com

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We dont know exectly where this info comes from (we’re trying to contact Brett although we suspect he’s sleeping right now) but its worth keeping an eye out for new info in the next 24hrs. Well be watching too.

New Sony UMPC info includes specs and a sub $1000 price. | UMPCPortal - The Mobile Internet and Computing Reference Site.

The question now is, can the developers get a productivity suite up and running in a short timeframe? Online apps are good but there’s still a big need for offline apps. If it can be achieved then why not a thin, 1.5lb, 10-hour Android-based netbook at $299? In order for ARM to make netbook sales progress in the Western World I really think they will need a big brand and a big dev community and application channel. Android is well positioned.

Android netbooks on their way, likely by 2010 » VentureBeat.

Wie ich schon auf Eeepcnews.de berichtete, wird der Sony Vaio P eine Atom Z520 CPU (1,33 Ghz) aufweisen, 2GB RAM, HDD und optional SSD, GPS, UMTS und das alles zu einem Preis, der sich wohl im Bereich um die 700 Euro einpendeln duerfte.

The Sony Vaio P will run on an Atom Z250 (1.33 as we’ve tested on the WiBrain i1 and Kohjinsha SC3) with 2GB RAM, an HDD and optional SSD, GPS and UMTS with a price around the 700 Euro (970 dollars) mark reports Sascha. The 2GB RAM hints at Vista (or ‘Windows 7 ready’.)   Apparently, the Asian source indicated that the image, now confirmed as photoshopped, is actually very close to the real-deal.

In addition to the above, a new teaser has appeared in Japan Hong Kong. With these teasers appearing at different times in different places and with strange placeholders on Sony websites, you have to hope that the quality of the product is better than the marketing program which seems somewhat dis-jointed from a web perspective. Even the launch dates seem to vary between the 7th and 9th of Jan. The first CES press events are on the 6th Jan with the Sony ‘invitation only’ Press event planned for 4:15pm on Press day, the 7th in Las Vegas.