Why will people want UMPCs?

[yvanleterrible]

Originally Posted by Bob Russell

Sounds cool to me for private use in a dark room where no one can see you. But I think no one is courageous enough to wear that in public!

If you can imagine the actual UMPCs in small parts, they won't take that much space. Everything can fit in an ordinary jacket with specially sown pockets.

[seraph]

I own (and use) a Sony U750P with TabletPC edition (which is a UMPC for all intents and purposes). I've had it since it was released in December of 2004 and I love it. Here are my primary uses for it:

At work, it sits under my primary monitor on the docking station (so I don't have to turn my head to look at it). It runs outlook 2007 through a vpn connection to my corporate network (which happens to be a version that doesn't work with a pda). I have a usb keyboard attached, and a bluetooth mouse. When I go to a meeting, I just pick up the base unit and take notes with a stylus in onenote 2007 (which handles screen real estate much better btw). When I'm in the meeting, I have access to ALL my data without having to sync. The screen size and resolution is great for quick meeting notes, and I can instantly create outlook tasks from those notes. The fact that the UMPC is so small means I ALWAYS have it with me, and I only have the keyboard when I actually need it.

In the car, I use it for GPS navigation. I have a second docking station that gets power from the car. I have a bluetooth gps unit. I know you can technically do this with a pda, and I've tried with my jasjar, but it's not nearly as good. The 800x600 screen is MUCH better. And having a touch screen vs. a laptop screen (even an elctrostatic tablet) is also a huge benefit. I can navigate the map with quick motions on the screen with my finger.

I also use the U750P for photo management. I load all my pictures into Adobe Photoshop Elements and organize them here. I also do some limited editing, but I can edit on a faster computer at home when I feel like it.

During the winter, I've been known to carry my UMPC in my leather jacket pocket. Nobody can tell it's there. And it's not like I'm a large man or something. Check out the links below for blog posts I've made about this before. While you guys are all wondering what the hell you would do with one of these, I've had one integrated into my lifestyle for years and I never want to go back!

http://spacecataz.spaces.live.com/bl...part#permalink
http://spacecataz.spaces.live.com/bl...part#permalink

[NatCh]

You're doing an excellent job of convincing me that I might 'need' one, seraph.

[arivero]

Originally Posted by Snappy!

Me thinks they just want to milk us more by releasing a 1.5 hr unit and sell the 4~5 hr battery as an 'extended' batt.
!

My Libretto CT100 had one. The extended batt was the same size than the default batt, only it contained six battery cells instead of three

[DX Engineer]

Originally Posted by paulkbiba

DX: This can all be done on my Cingular 8125.

Contacts and data are synced over from Outlook. Also I have various Word and Excel documents on my SD card.
I use a Globalsat Bluetooth GPS and CoPilot for my navigation (other software works well too).
I access XM Radio through the phone's browser at mobile.minixm.com I also have recorded 5 or 6 hours of various XM channels and keep them on my SD card.

I don't dispute that this can be done on the 8125. But I have no choice in that regard. My company dictates our cell phone vendor and the modeland Cingular is not the one. I am sure that there are many of us out there that are in the same situation.