Now, this is a little like comparing cupcakes to candied apples, meaning the Apple iPad and HP Pavilion dm1z are not the same thing – one’s a tablet, the other a PC. But they compete for your wallet, so it’s worth taking a look at what you get from both – and of course, how well they accessorize the Fashionista lifestyle.

It’s probably worth defining “Fashionista,” because that’s how I’m judging this throwdown. In many ways, Fashionistas are like Overclockers – if you don’t know what they are then you aren’t one or have never met one.

Like Overclockers, Fashionistas have a distinct passion, they can go deep on their subject and outsiders may look at them as kind of bizarre.  Just like an Overclocker will obsess about the size and shape of a CPU pot, a Fashionista thinks nothing of spending an entire summer shopping for the perfect barrette.

Specifically, a Fashionista is someone who has their own sense of fashion, style and taste. They are individuals, not necessarily trend followers, who appreciate pragmatic design principles.

For the last month, I’ve had both the iPad and the dm1z with me. I’ve used and traveled with both extensively. They’ve accompanied me on airplanes, to pedicures, restaurants, and even Epcot (ironically at the Spaceship Earth ride – where the future ends in 1980).

Most throwdowns are judged on taste, texture and overall presentation. I will use the high-tech Fashionista equivalent: Style, function, and overall design. And while I know many, I am not a Fashionista (nor an Overclocker, though I have a CPU pot…long story).

Style

If the iPad were online dating, its profile would be on beauifulpeople.com. There’s nothing to compare it to in style, literally. It’s virtually the only multi-purpose tablet on the market. It’s thin, sleek, unique. But can someone please develop an app that automatically wipes off fingerprints? For all its high style, when the iPad is turned off, the screen looks grimy.

The new Pavilion dm1z, from Hewlett-Packard, stands out in the crowded PC form factor. It’s a small, “metallic” PC with high clamshell style. The size is perfect for a Fashionista – it can slip into a designer hobo bag or tote just as easily as the iPad.

The dm1z is gorgeous, but for the stickers. It’s as if your new Audi TT came with a bunch of permanent bumper stickers promoting the brand of engine, steering fluid, and carpet nap. Every PC should come with a free bottle of Goo Gone.

Point: iPad. Fashionistas hate stickers.

Function

As with any high tech device, it all comes down to what you want to do with it. If you want to consume: read books or magazines, shop or play scrabble, iPad owns your instant-on world. It’s perfect for it. And so much battery your index finger gets a good workout.

However, if you want to watch flash-based video – as most web video is – you’re pretty much out of luck. Though there is a YouTube app, so you can watch Maru the cat all you want.

So, what does this mean for Fashionistas? It means you can create your own looks with the Vogue Stylist iPad app, but you can’t watch any of the video diaries on vogue.com.  Life is unfair.

If you want to create content: Make or edit videos, build websites and other digital stuff, the dm1z is the choice for a few reasons.

First, the keyboard. Yes, the iPad has both a ‘virtual’ keyboard on the screen and a separate keyboard you can use. Neither are keyboards. I wish the iPad screen keyboard felt like the chiclet keyboard on a PC – like real keys under your fingers. That would help. There’s no help for the external keyboard.  I swear it’s a smaller version of the one on my niece’s Barbie Bright Laptop.

Second is screen size. This is where the dm1z hits a sweet spot. It’s an 11.6” screen, not too big for a handbag, but big enough for creation as well as consumption. It’s a fully featured PC (this is not a netbook) but in the smallest size that is still productive.

Point: dm1z. Fashionistas really like those Vogue video diaries.

Overall Design

Dieter Rams said, “Good design emphasizes the usefulness of a product whilst disregarding anything that could possibly detract from it.”

Would a camera really have detracted from the iPad design? You can forget about video chatting with the iPad. Because there’s no camera. And not having an integrated USB port is unfortunate.

The overall design of the dm1z is PC perfect:  Three USB ports, HDMI port to connect to your TV, almost full-sized keyboard, and of course, a webcam. Personally, I wish HP would make a convertible out of this design, so you could get the best of both keyboard and touch.

But there’s no doubt the iPad is – or will soon be – iconic. It is the design by which every other tablet is measured. If it’s not already part of the “Digital Design Collection” at the Museum of Modern Art, it will be.

Point: iPad. Fashionistas love iconic design more than cameras. (But the iPad needs a camera.)

So, the iPad wins the Fashionista Throwdown, but the dm1z is no ‘off the rack’ choice. If you need to create content and want a multi-tasking device that’s beautiful too, pick the dm1z.

I haven’t mentioned price because true Fashionistas know no credit limit. But the iPad starts at $499. I recommend upgrading to 32GB of flash memory (+$100), but skipping the external keyboard.

The HP Pavilion dm1z starts at $449 and is based on VISION Technology from AMD.   I recommend upgrading to 5GB DDR3 memory (+$115), and getting a bottle of Goo Gone.

Leslie Sobon is corporate vice president, product marketing at AMD. Her postings are her own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such links and no endorsement is implied

A lot has happened online since Microsoft delivered their third platform preview of Internet Explorer 9, on June 23, 2010:

• As many as 84 billion videos were viewed on YouTube
• Almost 2 millennia (1,940 years) worth of YouTube videos were viewed by Facebook users- within Facebook
• Approximately 20,160 hours of YouTube videos were uploaded, including some which launched massively successful Internet memes

Sometimes it’s hard to wrap your mind around the exponential growth of the online universe. Keeping pace with innovation in such a fast-moving world presents a unique challenge. Fortunately for Internet users everywhere, it’s a challenge that Microsoft has made a point of tackling with the Internet Explorer (IE) 9 browser, which you can try for yourself with the latest IE9 Platform Preview 4.  

The need for the browser to improve user experience by leveraging the latest technology is especially important when you consider that the browser is one of the main access points into the world of Cloud Computing – its capabilities and performance shape our online interactions. A big part of improving experience today involves making sure that the browser is designed to handle the visual content that is already a critical part of our browsing experience. The YouTube stats above speak for themselves.

The way I see it, this means that the way of the future lies in delivering the best possible visual experience on the web. Keeping this in mind, here at AMD we continue to collaborate closely with Microsoft to ensure that IE9 can take full advantage of AMD’s CPU and GPU hardware technologies to deliver outstanding hardware-accelerated performance. Check out here and here for more info on how precisely AMD and Microsoft work together to enable a richer Internet experience.

The IE9 platform continues to push what users can do with HTML5 in the real world, especially when paired with hardware acceleration, as well as providing high-quality 2D rendering with Direct2D, a hardware-accelerated 2D graphics API. We’re looking forward to the IE9 beta, which is expected to usher in an intensely visual, new class of web experiences.   

Have you tried the IE 9 Test Drive demos? What do you think?

Matt Kimball is a Product Marketing Manager at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.

Top to Bottom: viliv X70, viliv S5, and BlackBerry Storm

 future.  Check out the introduction, and part 2 (where I take an extremist view on why I believe MIDs will dominate the earth), and part 3 (where I take the extreme view of why I believe that, in fact, PCs have no reason to worry about MIDs.) — certainly not even in the near- or even mid-term future.  In part 2 and 3 I obviously took an extremist’s view hoping that by turning up the contrast ratio, you got a better flavor for the debate.  In part four through seven I start to drill down specifically on some of the different MIDs available on the market today.  In this blog I will specifically specifically give my impressions on the viliv X70 EX 3G MID.  I spent a few months using the device in different scenarios and will briefly give my plusses and minuses on the device.

  Viliv X70 EX 3G Basic Specs 

Plusses

• Durability: The X70 EX, like the S5, feels very dense and solid, unlike a few in the plethora of netbooks I have tested.  You can tell that a lot of mechanical and industrial design time went into this unit.  
• Weight: Incredibly light for a computing device with a 7″ screen. even lighter than my 7″ Archos 7 IMT, although the S70 is plastic, the Archos is metal.
• Keyboard haptic feedback: Like the S5, if you can get comfortable with the keyboard and touch interface, you will appreciate the feedback you get when you touch the surface.
• Wake time: Fast resume from sleep (5 seconds), cold boot (50 seconds), and hibernation (28 seconds).
• Display: Huge 7″ display is very bright for inside use and the reflective surface is good for videos. The 7″ display, unlike the S5 or M1 with a 4.8″ display, is large enough to navigate Windows with its icons and menus.
• 3G WWAN with retractable antenna: HSPA/3G is a built-in feature with model I purchased.  This truly makes this device mobile.  Mobile internet and mobile productivity wherever your carrier provides service.  I just popped in my SIM card, loaded my AT&T software and it just worked.  I believe this is a MUST-have feature for any MID.
• Webcam and microphone: The orientation of the camera is toward the user, so it is intended for video chatting or conferencing with programs like Skype.  I did not test this feature, so cannot vouch for its quality level. 
• Built-in stylus: While this may seem like a small item, if you have ever had a device with a stylus, you have probably lost many.  Having a built-in place to store it is a big plus.   
• Video playback: Like the M1 and S5, the X70 ran standard (non HQ/HD) YouTube and Hulu videos reasonably well, although CPU utilization was between 60-80%. MPEG2 files at movie bit rates and iPod compatible formats ran well with the “viliv player” at CPU rates of 15-30% and a lot higher if you use a program like Cyberlink.  ”viliv Player” is difficult to use and I would have preferred something like a pre-bundled Cyberlink product. Like old media players, the only way to play a file with the “viliv Player” is by adding to a playlist.  I couldnt just associate video files with the app, click the icon, and make it play.  I suppose the hardware video decode works on their built-in player particularly when I compare the higher CPU rates when I used different players.
• Video out options: With the optional VGA or component out cables, I easily connected my S70 to a Dell 30″ monitor at 1920×1080 resolution.  This essentially extends your desktop by 23 inches and allows, when connected to mouse and keyboard, to serve as a mini-desktop. 
• Basic Web: Like the M1 and G5, the X70 handled lighter, non java-script laden and multiple unit Flash 10 web sites quite well.  Google, Wikipedia, social media sites like Facebook and Twitter ran just fine unless on FaceBook I ran HD videos.
• Productivity: Like the S5, the X70 came with a 60-day trial of Microsoft Office and I connected to the AMD corporate network.  Outlook ran surprisingly well, but I wouldnt recommend doing many things at once because the system starts to bog down.  Email, documents, presentations, light spreadsheets, no problem. The 7″ versus 4.8″ display on the M1 and S5 really helped me a lot working with with Powerpoint and emails.  Do your self a favor though, If you are working hours and hours, plug in a mouse, keyboard, and monitor.
• Games: Like all the MIDs I have looked at, Flash games played but with CPU between 80-100%.  I completed an install and benchmark for World in Conflict.  The FPS were the same as the S5; average=1, min=1, max frame rate=5 running at 800×600.  Impressive that it even ran.  
• Speakers and standard audio jack: Like the S5, the S70 has stereo speakers that are very loud that sound better than they should given their size. I thought the S70 speakers sounded the fullest, but the S5 sounded louder. 
• USB Connectivity: 2 USB ports, one full size and one mini, virtually eliminate the need for a USB hub.  One for wireless keyboard and mouse and one for optical drive and I have a portable desktop.
• SDHC slot: The X70 comes with an SDHC slot for extra storage.  If you plan to do anything with video, you will need it, given the hard drive is only 32GB.  This is also convenient for transferring photos to the S70.
• Battery life:  Specs say 5.5 hours movie playback but I got more like 4 hours which is still good.  I got around 5 hours surfing the web with WiFi-”g”. 

Minuses

• User interface: Like the S5, more is not necessarily better.  The combination of the on-screen keyboard, jog dial, touch screen and buttons left me cold.  Even after over a month of attempting to get comfortable with it, I could not.  This doesn’t mean everyone will have this issue, but I certainly did.  In contrast, it took me about a week to get fully comfortable with the Apple Touch.
• Display: Like all the MIDs tested, the reflective surface and brightness didn’t make a very good experience outdoors or even in the car on a sunny day.  Defeats the purpose a bit of having such a super-portable PC.  
• WLAN: Like all the MIDs tested, the 802.11 b/g signal strength was noticably lower than my notebooks and netbooks.  Makes sense given they need lower power parts and there’s not a lot of room in the chassis to snake an antenna.  BUT, for a device that relies on the web for its experience, I needed better and I needed “n” as well.
• HD Video playback:  Just forget about the HD world with the X70.  Even with the “viliv player”, while I could run 720P and 1080P videos with reasonable bit rates at low CPU rates, they came with major stutters.  I am not talking about highly-encoded files.  These were files off of a Kodak Zi6, an Aiptek HD palmcorder, and test files we use internally.  Also, forget about running web HD and most HQ videos at YouTube.  CPU pegs at 100% and the experience turns into a slide show.  And, like all the MIDs I have looked at, dont even attempt to convert videos, use a real PC to do this.
• Heavy Web: Like all the MIDs I have tested, heavier, java-script laden sites with multiple Flash 10.x web sites really taxed the X70.  Sites like ESPN.com, Disney.com, Foxnews.com, Americanidol.com would spike the CPU, then when you either clicked to another part of the site, I noticed a real lag.  Also, watch how many tabs you have open.  Once I started opening up a lot of web tabs on Google Chrome, the system started to really bog down.
• Games: Very popular downloadable games like Disney’s Toontown loaded but played with extremely low and unplayable frame rates.  Wizard 101 required a physical mouse and keyboard and bogged down in fight scenes.  It goes without saying don’t even attempt to play modern gamer-games like an FPS on a MID.  It doesnt have the processing power, GPU or CPU or storage to do it well and they weren’t designed to be a game machine.
• GPS: I couldn’t locate any “free” directions software to use the GPS like I have on my Blackberry Bold with Google maps.  None came with the unit either.  The viliv website showed Google Earth, I loaded it, but couldn’t get it to work with GPS.  If you know of any solutions, please let me know and I will update this post.
• 32GB storage: As a larger-screen multimedia device, 32GB of storage doesn’t cut it for me.  I ran out of hard drive space within a month. If you must have the X70 and do anything with video, get the 128GB version of the unit.

Conclusion

My views of the X70 are very similar to the S5.  I am impressed with the build quality of the device and its 3G mobile capability to handle basic web, video and music and impressed with its connectivity to displays and USB peripherals.  I was dissapointed in its HD video playback, complex web page capability, and user interface. As a productivity device, I recommend connecting the system to a full size keyboard, mouse, and monitor.  To me, my Blackberry Bold makes a much better email device than using the on-screen display of the X70.  If rich web video or HD video is really important to you in a small form factor, I could never recommend the X70.  It just isn’t able to playback HD video in a reliable and high quality manner.  If you want even more information on the X70, you can find a full viliv X70 review at UMPC Portal from my friend Chippy.  Next up, I will look at the last MID, the Archos 5 Internet Tablet which as you will see is quite different from the other MIDs tested.  As always, please let me know if you have any comments or questions.

Pat Moorhead is Vice President and Member of the Office of Strategy at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.

viliv S5

dominate the earth), and part 3 (where I take the extreme counterpoint view of why I believe that, in fact, PCs have no reason to worry about MIDs.) — certainly not even in the near- or even mid-term future.  In part 2 and 3 I obviously took an extremist’s view hoping that by turning up the contrast ratio, you got a better flavor for the debate. In parts four through seven I will start to drill down specifically on some of the different MIDs available on the market today.  In this blog I will specifically give my impressions on the viliv S5 Premium-S. I spent a few months using the device in different scenarios and will give my high-level plusses and minuses on the device.

Viliv S5 Premium-S Basic Specs

Plusses

• Durability: The S5 feels like a brick when you pick it up. Very dense and solid.
• Weight: Incredibly light, less than weight of two iPhones.
• Keyboard haptic feedback: If you can get comfortable with the keyboard and touch interface, you will appreciate the feedback you get when you touch the surface.
• Wake time: Fast resume from sleep (4 seconds), cold boot (40 seconds), and hibernation (27 seconds), particularly for Windows XP device.
• Display: Very bright for inside use and the reflective surface is good for videos.  Appears larger than the M1 display because without a keyboard, I can position closer to my face.  Also, because  the S5 is essentially a tablet, you can orient the display at any angle you choose.
• WWAN Option: HSPA was available but like a dummy, I didn’t order that model.  From using the viliv X70, I can tell you that this is a MUST-have feature for any MID.
• Basic Video: Like the M1, ran standard (non HQ/HD) YouTube and Hulu videos reasonably well, although CPU utilization was between 60-100%.
• Video out options: With the optional VGA or component out cables, I easily connected my S5 to a Benq monitor at 1900×1200 resolution!
  

  Viliv S5 connected to a USB hub connecting a wireless keyboard, wireless mouse and DVD writer. Also connected to Benq display at 1,920x1200 via VGA adapter

• Basic Web: Like the M1, Handled lighter, non java-script laden and multiple unit Flash 10 web sites quite well.  Google, Wikipedia, social media sites like Facebook and Twitter ran just fine unless I ran HD videos on FaceBook.
• Productivity: Came with a 60-day trial of Microsoft Office and I connected to the AMD corporate network.  Was surprised how well Outlook ran.  Email, documents, presentations, light spreadsheets, no problem.  But given the 4.8″ screen, I can’t recommend any real big spreadsheet or presentation work, not even viewing, unless connected to a real monitor.
• Games: Flash games played with CPU between 80-100%.  Completed install and benchmark for World in Conflict.  The FPS were low,  average=1, min=1, max frame rate=5 running at 800×600 but amazed it actually ran.  The Lost Planet performance test installed but would not complete without blue-screening.  Wizard 101 played much better on the S5 than the M1, but bogged down in fight scenes.  The S5 isn’t designed to be a game machine.
• Speakers, physical volume rocker switch, and standard audio jack: Unlike the M1, the S5 has stereo speakers that are very loud that sound better than they should given their size.  Also, its nice to have physical volume “up” and “down” when playing music on such a small device.  Hitting the speaker icon on a 1024×600 4.8″ screen is not easy at my age!
• USB Connectivity: 2 USB ports, on full size and one mini virtually eliminate the need for a USB hub.  One for wireless keyboard and mouse and one for optical drive and I have a portable desktop.
• Battery life:  Specs say 6 hours movie playback but I got more like 4 hours.  This is still pretty good, especially considering I got around 5 hours surfing the web with WiFi-“g”.

Minuses

• User interface: More is not necessarily better.  The combination of the on-screen keyboard, jog dial, touch screen and buttons left me cold.  Even after over a month of attempting to get comfortable with it, I could not.  This doesn’t mean everyone will have this issue, but I certainly did.  In contrast, it took me about a week to get fully comfortable with the iPod Touch.
• Display: Like the M1, the reflective surface and brightness didn’t make a very good experience outdoors or even in the car on a sunny day.  Defeats the purpose a bit of having such a super-portable PC.
• Going into hibernation: Took 3:22 to go into hibernation, completely unacceptable.
• WLAN: Just like the M1, the 802.11 b/g signal strength was noticably lower than my notebooks and netbooks.  Makes sense given they need lower power parts and there’s not a lot of room in the chassis to snake an antenna.  BUT, for a device that relies on the web for its experience, I needed better and I needed “n” as well.
• Higher quality video: Unlike the M1, iPod format videos with Cyberlink 8 ran with CPU between 70-100%, 40% higher than the M1.  MPEG2 video at DVD movie rates ran well with CPU between 40-60%, 20% more than the M1.  I don’t fully understand why because I was using the same decode software (Cyberlink 8), same videos, and the hardware is basically the same under the hood. It may be “CODEC collission”, given the S5 came pre-loaded with the K-Lite Codec Pack. I finally tried using the built-in player, “viliv player”, and CPU rates lowered to more acceptable 20-30% for the MP4 AVC and MPEG2 files.  With the “viliv Player”, I could run 720P and 1080P videos at low CPU rates, but still with stutters, which I don’t fully understand. If anyone knows the “secret sauce” to make this work well, please let me know.  Also, forget about running web HD and most HQ videos at YouTube as they turn into a slide show.  And, like the M1, dont even attempt to convert videos, use a real PC to do this.
• Richer Web: Exactly like the M1, heavier, java-script laden sites with multiple Flash 10.x web sites really taxed the S5.  Sites like ESPN.com, Disney.com, Foxnews.com would spike the CPU, then when you either clicked to another part of the site, I noticed a real lag.  Also, watch how many tabs you have open.  Once I started opening up a lot of web tabs on Google Chrome, the system started to really bog down.
• Games: Very popular downloadable games like Disney’s Toontown loaded but played with extremely low and unplayable frame rates.  It goes without saying don’t even attempt to play modern gamer-games like an FPS on the S5.  It doesnt have the processing power, GPU or CPU or storage to do it well, but this isn’t designed to be a game machine.
• GPS: Couldn’t locate for the S5 any “free” directions software to use the GPS like I have on my Blackberry Bold with Google maps.  If you know of any, please let me know and I will update this post.
• Lack of SD memory slot: This seems like a required feature for any computing device, particularly one that comes with such a low amount of storage.

Conclusion

While I was impressed with the robustness, durability, portability and stability of the viliv S5, I was dissapointed in its video playback, complex web page capability, and user interface.  In my opinion, a device needs to do one thing exceptionally well and a whole lot of other things reasonably well.  As a productivity device, its main issue for me is the input mechanism, the on-screen keyboard and the jog dial.  Darn hard to write emails, the mainstay of productivity.  As a multimedia device, the video playback capabilities or the difficulty in figuring out how to playback decent video was an issue.  As a web surfing device, you need to ask, “what is the web today and what is it becoming”?  It is becoming high-res pictures, HD video and music, or simply, richer multimedia, and the S5 doesn’t shine exceptionally in those areas. The one place the S5 shines is connectivity to larger, higher resolution monitors and full-size keyboard and mouse for more of a desktop experience.  So if you do want to get some real work done or watch 480P videos, you can do that well. With the 3G option, social media activities like Facebook, Twitter (even Tweetdeck), Flickr, Friendfeed are quite good anywhere your 3G service is, except of course when you get into HD videos on Facebook, which appear to be getting more popular. If I had to choose between the 4.8″ UMID M1 or the viliv S5, I would need to go with the M1, but I sure would like that 3G option on the M1!  At $647.99, the S5 Premium-S is not an inexpensive proposition. For that investment, I could buy a 32GB iPod touch ($299) and a Gateway 11.6″ display netbook.  If you want even more information on the S5, you can find a full viliv S5 review at UMPC Portal from my friend Chippy.  As always, please let me know if you have any comments or questions.

Pat Moorhead is Vice President and Member of the Office of Strategy at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.

This is part four in an eight part series where I look at emerging Mobile Internet Device (MID) technology and predict whether or not MIDs may displace netbooks and notebooks in the future.  Check out the introduction, and part 2 (where I take an extremist view on why I believe MIDs will dominate the earth), and part 3 (where I take the extreme view of why I believe that, in fact, PCs have no reason to worry about MIDs.) — certainly not even in the near- or even mid-term future.  In part 2 and 3 I obviously took an extremist’s view hoping that by turning up the contrast ratio, you got a better flavor for the debate.  In part four through seven I start to drill down specifically on some of the different MIDs available on the market today.  In this blog I will specifically specifically give my impressions on the UMID M1.  I spent a few months using the device in different scenarios and will briefly give my plusses and minuses on the device.

Basic Specs

L to R: UMID M1, Samsung NC10, HP DV2

Plusses

• Size: The smallest PC I have ever used, able to fit into a jacket pocket and even one of those small design purses or “man” purses, if that’s what you are into.
• Durability: Sturdy, durable-feeling design.  They keys felt even sturdier than on many of the 14 netbooks I have tried.
• Weight: Incredibly light, as light as one of those huge plastic accounting calculators you see around the office.
• Keyboard: Full QWERTY keyboard with keys that are about 3x size of a Blackberry Bold, dedicated number and direction keys.  Best attempt at small keyboard I have ever seen. Kudos to UMID.
• Wake time: Fast resume from hibernation (20 seconds), sleep (4 seconds), cold boot (42 seconds), particularly for Windows XP device.
• Display: Very bright for inside use.  Reflective surface good for videos.
  

  L to R: UMID M1 and G1

• Video: Ran standard (non HQ/HD) YouTube and Hulu videos reasonably well, although CPU utilization was between 60-100%.  iPOD format videos ran well with CPU between 30-60%.  MPEG2 video at DVD movie rates ran well with CPU between 20-40%.
• Web: Handled lighter, non java-script laden and multiple unit Flash 10 web sites quite well.  Google, Wikipedia, social media sites like Facebook and Twitter ran just fine unless on FaceBook I ran HD videos.
• Productivity: Documents, presentations, light spreadsheets, no problem.
• Games: Flash games played with CPU between 80-100%.  On the edge….. Actually completed install and benchmark for World in Conflict.  Sure, the average, min, max frame rate was 1 running 800×600, but this isn’t designed to be a game machine.
• USB Connectivity: Would connect an unpowered, USB DVD drive (HP) to watch DVDs and rip CDs.  I didn’t expect the USB port to have enough power, but it did.

Minuses

• Display: Reflective surface and brightness didn’t make a very good experience outdoors or even in the car on a sunny day.  Defeats the purpose a bit of having such a super-portable PC.  Additionally, the display didn’t tilt back enough for me to be sitting, typing, and see the display heads-on.  Finally, Windows XP on the compact display was very hard for me to see and click on the correct place on the screen with the pointer.  Maybe its just my old eyes.
• Hardware UI: Sometimes it was difficult trading off between the stylus and keyboard when interacting with the PC.  Thats the tradeoff you make with having a physical keyboard with no pointer.
• WWAN: HSPA option wasn’t available in the U.S. so no 3G for me.  I see it as an option in other parts of the world, but not here.
• WLAN: The 802.11 b/g signal strength was noticably lower than my notebooks and netbooks.  Makes sense given they need lower power parts and there’s not a lot of room in the chassis to snake an antenna.  BUT, for a device that relies on the web for its experience, I needed better and I needed “n” as well.
• Video: Forget about running web HD and most HQ videos at YouTube.  But then again, how much more of an experience do you get in HD on a 4.8″ machine?  I tried for months to purchase the video-out cable to allow me to connect to a larger and higher-res display to try it out but to no avail.  Perpetual back-order.  Also, embedded video at CNN.com and ESPN.com was quite choppy even when fully buffered.  Strange given that standard YouTube and Hulu worked.  I believe it is because at the same time videos were playing, ad units were playing at the same time.  Finally, dont even attempt to convert videos, use a real PC to do this.  It is painful on the M1, but it wasn’t intended to do this.  Finally, 720P and 1080P videos looked like a slide show, which was expected given the system’s specifications.
• Audio: Mono speakers delivered audio lower rate than my Blackberry Bold.  Proprietary jack for headphones so no plugging my favorite BOSE headphones into the unit.
• Web: Heavier, java-script laden sites with multiple Flash 10.x web sites really taxed the M1.  Sites like ESPN.com, Disney.com, Foxnews.com would spike the CPU, then when you either clicked to another part of the site, I noticed a real lag.  Also, watch how many tabs you have open.  Once I started opening up a lot of web tabs on Google Chrome, the system started to really bog down.
• Games: Very popular downloadable games like Wizard 101 and Disney’s Toontown loaded but played with extremely low frame rates.  It goes without saying don’t even attempt to play modern gamer-games like an FPS on the M1.  It doesnt have the processing power, GPU or CPU or storage to do it well, but this isn’t designed to be a game machine.
• Power brick: I was shocked at how large the power brick was.  It was almost twice the size of an Asus netbook brick.  For a small, portable PC, one would expect a smaller one as it takes up a lot of room in a bag.

Too Early to Tell

• Battery life:  Specs say 5 hours real use but I didnt get even close to that while actively using it on the internet.  I got more like 2.5 hours surfing the web.

Conclusion

I was very impressed with UMID’s ability to cram so much into such a small form factor and be able to do basic and even some mid-level applications. I can also accept the fact that it couldn’t do things that a real PC can do as it wasn’t designed to do those things.  BUT, going into the purchase, you MUST assume this is a second PC.  With the pervasiveness of higher resolution video, the increase of photo file size, and the increasing popularity of even sophisticated web games you must have a second PC to pair up with the UMID M1.  The biggest dissapointment for me was the lack of HSPA/3G, low 802.11b/g signal strength, and lack of 802.11n.  What’s the point of a super-portable device that relies on the internet and the cloud without having the best communication technologies?  In addition, I would like to see two changes that would greatly increase utility: 1) Add a mini-mouse or “nub” (think ThinkPad) so you dont have to switch between stylus and keyboard.  2) Create an interface to compensate for the small screen and Windows OS.  Yes, that’s like asking for the earth, but for me, the icons were so small, my hit rate was about 50% and I could barely read text on the screen- and I am near-sighted! If you want even more information on the M1, you can find a full UMID M1 review at UMPC Portal from my friend Chippy.  As always, please let me know if you have any comments or questions.

Pat Moorhead is Vice President and Member of the Office of Strategy at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.

Here in part 3, I take the extreme view of why I believe that, in fact, PCs have no reason to worry about MIDs — certainly not even in the near- or even mid-term future.  As with part 2, I am obviously taking an extremist’s view hoping that by turning up the contrast ratio, you will get a better flavor for the debate.

Getting into extremist character again…

My logic is simple yet sound and many points support this view:

PC applications have never remained static and always change and grow to solve emerging end user pain points, or evolve to create new pleasure points. For example, digital photography spawned PC photo viewers which spawned photo editing which spawned photo management applications that can now recognize and match faces. There are powerful leaps of innovation still ahead for the PC platform in how it provides a lot more visual, serial and parallel processing power and capability than a MID offers. Imagine what the future holds.

All that data like video and pictures being created locally forces a local computing model, where the compute engine must be close to the data. This certainly contradicts the “mobile cloud” theory discussed in part 2. Mobile access to the cloud would also require a lot more speed, less latency, and more reliability before we “cut the cord” to the cloud. The wireless industry isn’t even close. I still can’t even drive into work without the risk of losing my call. A more straight-forward argument for notebooks relates to the docking capability and cost. Compared to a 17” notebook, to dock the Viliv EX X70, it would cost me an extra $469 or 64% more – see below where I go through the details. Finally, if a user is looking for a mobile device to do some light computing, isn’t a smartphone a better choice than a MID?  The top applications for smartphones are already available and lots of choices exist.

Here is the data to back up these points:

Future of Applications

Compared to a modern notebook, today’s MIDs have a comparatively difficult time:

• playing the popular HD web video found on sites like Hulu and YouTube,
• converting video to be played on devices like an iPhone,
• playing popular web games Wizard 101 and Disney’s Toontown,
• matching your family’s faces on Picasa 3.6,
• basic multitasking

And applications won’t stop where they are today, given the end user pain points and desired pleasure points yet to be delivered.  I believe that PC application innovation will die down ONLY when:

• Render and recode buttons disappear from video and photo apps
• Computers can be controlled in Minority Report fashion
• Skype video is full-size, “eyeball resolution” and holographic.  The Holodeck.
• I can get access to ALL my content from ANY device (including set-top box and game console) wherever I am,  without a single hiccup
• Users can’t distinguish between games and real life
• Video and photo resolution and data complexity STOP growing.  Everything stops at 3D 1080P.

Seeing the industry is a long way off from delivering these in the next year’s PC, I think the PC has strong legs under it still. J

Data Location Drives the Compute Model

The location of the data dictates where the computing is done and there is a simple explanation why.  If the data is far from the computing, everything slows down because your compute engine is sitting around waiting for the data.  Your “bridge” or “bus” between the data and compute engine must be fast enough to transfer all that data back and forth. That’s where the theory of mobile access to the cloud starts to break down. If the mobile cloud is doing all the computing, then the bridge between it and where the data is being generated must be real fast. How fast is your 3G these days? Are you sending lots of hours of 1080P video into the cloud at blazing speeds?  Of course not.  I just hope that I can get a quick response from a web page on my Blackberry.  So what is the future of WWAN?

WWAN Transitions Take Around Seven Years

According to internal AMD WWAN research, it typically takes approximately 5-7 years for a full WWAN infrastructure transition.  That makes sense when you think about how long it took/taking CDMA, EDGE, HSPA, WiMax, and LTE to get broadly deployed.  And of course you need infrastructure to drive adoption, right? If you are thinking that heavy data sets like 1080P video will be quickly and reliably transferred to the cloud wirelessly with limited latency anytime soon at “blazing speeds”, think again.  Research suggests that even LTE doesn’t start really its hockey-stick growth until 2014.

How Reliable is the Mobile Cloud?

The final thought on WWAN is reliability.  I think the U.S. Verizon commercial “Can You Hear Me Know” sums it all up.  Those commercial started in 2002!  Here we are in late 2009 with dropped 3G calls in “supported” areas.  Remember how freaked out everyone became when just Gmail went down for 2 hours?  How can we possibly solely rely on the cloud for our precious photos, videos, and music without local backup?  My MIDs came with a whopping 32GB of storage.  That equates to about one, two hour HD video or 8 DVD movies.   The HP notebook described below came with 500GB.

Docking Capability with MID at $469/64% More Cost

If a user wanted to have a more comfortable “sit-down” experience in a fixed place, let’s say at a desk, it is an expensive proposition with a MID versus a notebook.   I chose the HP dv7 notebook with a 17.3” display, 4GB RAM, 500GB hard drive, Blu-ray drive, Windows 7, dual core AMD processor at 2.4 GHz, and ATI Mobility Radeon™ 4200 graphics at $729.  Compare that to the $879 for the Viliv X70 EX/3G (I paid) and the VGA and “TV” cables were an additional $20 each.  Add a Belkin 7 port USB-2 hub for $35, an external Sony USB-2 DVD drive for $65, wireless Microsoft keyboard and mouse for $70, Viewsonic 17” monitor for $129, and your “docked” total becomes $1,198.

In the particular example, the user pays $469 or 64% MORE for the docked MID versus a notebook. Don’t forget that the notebook has a “PC-grade” dual core CPU, incredibly more powerful graphics, Blu-ray versus DVD, 468GB more storage, and 3GB more RAM, and Windows 7 versus Windows XP.

Smartphones a Better Mobile Choice than MIDs

If a user is looking for mobility with some limited compute capability, I believe smartphones are the better choice versus a MID.  Smartphones can actually fit into your pocket, you can use them with one hand, not two, and they allow you to carry only one device, not two (a MID and phone).  On my Blackberry Bold, I can get my email, calendar items, and notes off the Exchange server in near real-time.  I can view and edit Microsoft attachments with “Word To Go”, “Sheet to Go”, and “Slideshow to Go”.  I can read PDF files, too.   I have Google Maps with GPS, FaceBook and Twitter via SocialScope, streaming music via Slacker, and chat with Google Talk.  Since my Apple iTouch was stolen, I have been using the Bold for my primary mobile music device and been quite happy.  In fact, to my ear the music fidelity is better than any of the MIDs I used.  Finally, if you MUST have Microsoft software capability, you can always choose a smartphone with Windows Mobile 6.5.  And of course, there are some cool features on the Android phones and the iPhone.

Net-net, I predict the notebook PC doesn’t have to worry about the MID for a long, long time.  Applications exist today that a MID cannot run well, so just imagine how poorly future applications will run.  Those future applications will take a lot of processing power and if you are banking on mobile access to the cloud, I propose you think again.  I doubt the mobile cloud will have enough speed, low enough latency or the reliability required for the next generation of apps and their ever-expanding data sets.  Also, MIDs may be able to provide a docking experience today but it’s extremely expensive and clunky with a lot of cables when compared to a notebook.  Finally, if you want a convenient mobile experience and do a little computing, get a smartphone, I maintain it’s a better choice than a MID.

Of course this is the extremist’s view, but like part 2, hopefully you get a flavor of the debate points and have an opinion now on MIDs and notebooks.

Up next, I look at the UMID M1, a small MID with a full QWERTY keyboard, 4.8” screen, and weighs .69 lbs, which Dynamism boasts as “the world’s smallest PC”. Have comments or questions, let me know.

Pat Moorhead is Vice President and Member of the Office of Strategy at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.

Viliv S5 connected to a USB hub connecting a wireless keyboard, wireless mouse and DVD writer. Also connected to Benq display at 1,920x1200 via VGA adapter

This is Part 2 in an eight part series where I look at emerging technology and predict whether or not MIDs will displace netbooks and notebooks in the future.  Check out the introduction here.

Here in part 2, I take the extreme view of why I believe that, in fact, MIDs will displace and marginalize portable PCs.  I am obviously taking an extremist’s view hoping that by turning up the contrast ratio, you will get a better flavor for the debate.

OK, let me get into extremist character…

My logic is simple. The overwhelming majority of all applications that users care about can effectively be processed on today’s generation of MID hardware.  The few apps that can’t be processed on today’s MIDs, like packaged games, image recognition, and video recoding, could be processed in the cloud.  Alternatively, niche PCs could still exist to do this heavy duty processing, if not in the cloud.  Limits of display size, input, and storage are easily overcome through a simple docking station connected to a standard keyboard, mouse, monitor, optical drive, or external storage.   Bottom line: the convenience of portability combined with the robustness of the PC pints to the MID as a killer to today’s notebook and certainly netbook PC.

Here’s the data to back up this point of view:

Top 10 Applications Today (Forrester Technographics ¹): Word processing, viewing photos, scanning for viruses, playing free computer games, doing home finances, editing personal photos, using spreadsheets, burning CDs, printing photos, listening to music.  You can do most of these today on a MID (connected to peripheral hardware) and probably all of these in the next generation of MIDs.

Top 10 On-line Activities Today (Forrester Technographics ¹): Emailing, using a search engine, researching products, emailing photos, buying products, IM, watching videos, playing on-line games, tracking package orders, listening to music.  You can do most of these today on a MID and probably all of these on the next generation of MIDs.

Cloud Apps: Google docs already provide cloud word processing, presentations, and spreadsheets. Adobe’s Photoshop already exists in the cloud.  Face.com provides facial recognition and pattern matching on Facebook.  Google’s YouTube already performs HD video re-coding in the cloud. AMD’s own investment in its Fusion Render Cloud demonstrated the latest first person shooter games and Blu-ray movies being rendered in the cloud and displayed on hardware with lower specs than even  today’s MID.  If not in the cloud, then certainly a small niche of high performance computers could still exist to perform those tasks.

The optional Archos 5 IT DVR station rear view connected to HDMI cable

2 X USB ports

Docking: Today’s Viliv S5 and X70 have 2 USB ports and ports for optional video cable out.  The Archos 5 IT provides an optional docking station with 2 USB ports, HDMI, component video, composite video, S-video, and composite video.  I successfully plugged in keyboard, mice, external hard drives, external DVD drives and multiple HD monitors at 1080 (Viliv) and 720 (Archos) resolutions.  These exist TODAY, so imagine what is in store in the future.

The optional Viliv video out cables

From top to bottom, VGA display cable, USB cable, and power cable

From left to right, mini USB, USB port, and SD card port

So net-net, today’s MIDs can handle user’s most important applications, tomorrow’s MIDs will almost certainly be able to handle those fringe cases and the highest end applications have already been ported or are being ported to the cloud.  If you need more display, storage, optical, keyboard and mouse input, just plug it in when you need it.

Of course, this is the extremist’s view, but hopefully you get a flavor of the debate points and are starting to develop an opinion, one way or another.   Up next is the counter view. Have comments or questions, let me know below.

NOTES:  1) Forrester Consumer Technographics, 2009 Benchmark Survey for U.S., Forrester Research, Inc., 2009.

Pat Moorhead is Vice President and Member of the Office of Strategy at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.

By now you may have already heard some of the exciting news for the HTPC space over the last few weeks. However, in case you had not, let’s spend a little time talking about it here.

Last week Hulu announced a desktop application that allows you to use a standard Media Center type remote to navigate and view content on Hulu’s website. Now, instead of the traditional mouse and keyboard interface in a two-foot environment to navigate the Hulu website (think watching Hulu at your desk on a computer monitor), you can now launch this desktop application while using your Windows® Media Center Edition remote  in a 10-foot environment (think watching Hulu from your couch on your big HD screen). Adding this so called “Lean Back” interface technology is a big step for Hulu in making it easier for consumers to access and watch content in a much more user friendly environment. This experience can even be integrated into Windows Media Center Edition by using something like the MCE Menu Mender application so you can launch the Hulu application from inside Media Center Edition instead of the desktop.

Earlier this week, YouTube announced YouTubeXL. This is another 10 foot UI for YouTube content. While Hulu chose to release an application enabling the 10 foot experience, YouTube chose to launch a website that provides the 10 foot navigation.  In either case, this is great news for consumers that want to enjoy content from their couch instead of sitting and staring at a desktop or laptop computer screen.

But it does not end with Hulu and YouTube. A couple of weeks ago, Microsoft announced that they have teamed up with Netflix to support integration of Netflix functionality into the Windows Vista® Media Center application. While you could always do this via a 3rd Plug In application, what makes this interesting is that Microsoft recognizes the need for easy access to more content and is taking steps to make that happen.  Now, Microsoft has not yet (at the time of this posting) integrated Netflix functionality into the upcoming Windows® 7 platform.  I can’t speak for Microsoft here, but I would expect them to offer this in Windows 7 as well given that they just launched it in Windows Vista.

These are exciting times.  The role of PC technology in the home is constantly changing for the better.  As content owners and distributors integrate more 10-foot user interface (aka Lean Back) technology into their distribution model and as Microsoft further integrates those things into their Media Center application, the usage model and viability of the HTPC type platform increases.  The industry is rapidly changing, bringing more content to the consumer in ever easier ways to navigate and enjoy that content.

So, tell us what you think about these industry changes.  Are you taking advantage of all the content out there? Are you finding it easier to access this content? What do these changes mean to you? Du Yu Hulu?     

Till next time, Happy Trails!

Jay Taylor is a Senior Developer Relations Engineer at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.

In my personal life I consume media in many ways. My primary tool is my AMD LIVE! Media Center PC with Microsoft Vista Home Premium. It is in my bedroom and very integrated into my routine, and I use it heavily. In the morning I watch The Today Show while I get ready for work. When I get home from work I catch up on shows I missed that are pre-recorded. At night my wife and I watch Family Guy as we wind down and head to bed. When we go to parties and take pictures, the first thing I do when we get home is stick the camera’s SD card into the Media Center and copy the photos to the hard drive.

There are several areas that still need improvement. It is still a computer, so a wireless keyboard and mouse is a must. While the integration needs a lot of work, I do love being able to stream video from Hulu, Netflix, and YouTube onto a large screen TV.

Being able to use all the online streaming services without special support is great. Upgradability is also a plus. With all the HD content I’ve been recording, I had to upgrade the hard drive twice. There are still several more ways I plan on using my Media Center. In the near future I want to get either a Pica extender or a Microsoft Xbox 360 to view my content outside of the bedroom. I also want to get a SideShow device to have a more interactive experience with my computer.

I feel like I live two years in the future, because I am not a typical user. But I’m sure in two years everyone will have a computer hooked up to their TV. It might not be in the same form and I’m hopeful the setup will be more polished. I know I didn’t include Blu-ray in my setup, but once again that ties back to the great upgradability of a PC platform. PCs are the best kept secret in home entertainment.

1. THIS UTILITY MAY DISABLE SECURITY / ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE, OR ADVERSELY AFFECT YOUR SYSTEM. REVIEW ACCOMPANYING DOCUMENTATION CAREFULLY BEFORE INSTALLING.

Wesley Faulkner

Wesley Faulkner is a Product Development Engineer at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.