Vista + filePro running on a UMPC

[Bob Rasmussen]

On Fri, 13 Apr 2007, Wayne Smith wrote:

> I sent a large 2.4 meg attached photo of new Samsung (Ultra Mobile) Q1p
> running filePro and a TOUCH SCREEN keyboard to the list yesterday, as many
> visually challenged people in the fp community would be astounded by the
> detail and quality of the image.  My email software lets me open an
> attachment or not, its my decision.  I am guilty of thinking everybodys
> email can offer you that option. 
> ...  

Well SOMEBODY should respond to the message rather than shooting the 
messenger. To wit:

I am also intrigued by these devices, the Ultra Mobile PCs (UMPCs), as 
Microsoft has specified them. I have not played with an official UMPC, but 
I did purchase and work with a Sony UX device, which is similar (search 
for "UX" on Sony's site). The key difference is that Sony includes a 
popdown keyboard. There is also a similar device available from OQO.

My unit uses full Windows XP. The UMPC units were announced as running 
TabletPC (which is a superset of XP). I believe both now have Vista 
available.

My experimentation was in running our Anzio terminal emulation on this 
device, to connect to a host-based filePro. It worked fine. I tweaked a 
few dialog boxes to make them fit well on the screen, which is 1024x600 
(and very high density, as you can calculate). Text is readable with my 
bifocals, and there's also a software magnifier.

I have successfully used this to access mail at conferences, running Anzio 
to connect to my Pine mail reader. I have also experimented with using it 
as a portable audio recording device, with internal or external 
microphone. I have used its external video capability to connect to a 
projector and show a slideshow.

Note that these units use a touch screen; you can use either your finger 
or a stylus. It's hard to hit small radio buttons, etc., with your finger. 
I even experimented with clipping my index fingernail into a slight point 
:-)

Another important note: the keyboard includes F-keys, etc.

An amusing note: I currently have the UX set up at home, connected to an 
external 22" widescreen monitor. I can't quite run the monitor at its 
native (1680x1050) resolution; I run it at 1360x768. I have a Bluetooth 
keyboard and mouse, using the unit's built-in BT, and I have it connected 
to an exteral (USB) DVD drive. The unit has WiFi built in, so that's how I 
connect. It also has a cellmodem, but I have not subscribed to that.

There are some interesting potential uses for this device, where 
portability is important. With USB support, a barcode scanner or similar 
device could be used.

Brainstorming encouraged...

Regards,
....Bob Rasmussen,   President,   Rasmussen Software, Inc.

personal e-mail: ras at anzio.com
 company e-mail: rsi at anzio.com
          voice: (US) 503-624-0360 (9:00-6:00 Pacific Time)
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