Speaking of natty new devices, during my brief hiatus Microsoft finally announced just wtf the Origami was about, and it turns out it’s not just a poor viral marketing campaign¹. It’s actually a mediocre handheld PC. At least that’s what it looks like at first glance.

They’re calling it the Ultra-Mobile PC. Quite why I would want something much larger than a PDA but without the battery life and keyboard² of a small notebook is beyond me. For me, anything with a battery life of 3 hours is not going to be much use while out and about. You can forget about trying to use to watch a movie while on a long flight. No doubt performance will improve but I still don’t see a need for this other than finding a new place to stick Windows³.

If you want to build something really neat then build my dream device. This is something about the size of a PDA. It’s clamshell so it folds open revealing an eInk-like screen. It has built in 11g wireless (bluetooth-shmoototh), USB 2.0 and incorporates a mobile phone. I don’t particularly care what OS it runs as long as it runs a JVM and has the usual diary/mail/browser stuff. It’s the PDA that Homer^H^H^H^H^HFintan built⁴!

– Fintan [listening to 1 Giant Leap]

A couple of weeks ago myself and Olivier had some discussions over Apple, Microsoft and Media PCs. Simplifying things, and without getting into the guts of the arg…discussion, Olivier felt that Apple were already competing with Microsoft’s MCE because the Mac can play video, while I disagreed because I believe that a true media center PC is more than just a standard PC that can play audio and video.

Apple’s recently announced dual-core Mac Mini seems to be heading in the right direction. It comes bundled with a nice simple remote control that resembles an iPod Shuffle and Apple’s Front Row software which looks like a really lovely, simple front end for a device that should really be nothing more than a glorified vcr to an average punter.

These guys are road-testing a Mac Mini against a Windows MCE PC. It’s only part 1 of 3 so I’ll mostly hold fire until I’ve read all the articles. However, one of the criticisms they make of Windows MCE boxes is that they are typically noisy and hard to get working. Now, my brother has a Windows MCE box in his home AV setup. It’s probably not the nicest case around but it certainly fits in with all of the other kit he has¹. It’s not particularly noisy and the user-interface, in conjunction with the Microsoft MCE remote control, make it really quite nice to use. On top of that he built it himself² and with the latest version of MCE it worked straight out of the box³. I have no doubt that the Mac Mini works straight out of its box⁴ but it’ll be interesting to see what these guys make of it bearing in mind their criticisms of MCE. Admittedly they sound somewhat biased but I’m sure we’ll be able to read between the lines.

I have to say though, I’m seriously tempted…..

– Fintan [listening to 1 Giant Leap]

As I mentioned in an earlier posting, the iPod box is an example of Apple’s ability to produce really nice stuff. The difference in style between Microsoft and Apple seems to be pretty fundamental (see this comparison between the presentation style of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs for example). Now someone has produced a video showing how and why Microsoft might redesign the iPod box.  Even Scoble¹ has admitted that honesty hurts.

– Fintan [listening to Gorillaz]