Origami and UMPC one and the same?

So we’ve all heard the Origami spin by now, right? Today brought us a bit more info with "find out 3.9.06..." on the project website (and it looks like that may be all we see from Microsoft today). Of interest though, is that Intel has wheeled-out their own teaser campaign over at www.umpc.com which is equally non-informative but does end with “Ultra Mobile PC March 7, 2006” – just prior to CeBIT folks, or two days before Origami is set to roll. Now we already heard that Intel was ahead of schedule with the UMPC platform with devices from Samsung, Asus and Founder on their way before the end of March. So, put two-and-two together and Origami could well be a gen1 Pentium M-based UMPC sporting XP and integrated EV-DO or HSDPA wireless connectivity, GPS, and up to one week standby. Or not. Hey, we're just speculating like anyone else, and we never were really any good at math. Wait, is that an origami bird in the upper-right quad of that picture?

[Via GottaBeMobile, Thanks bradford]

Update: Thanks to astute Engadget reader Jason for pointing out that the HTML source for the Origami Project site now includes the phrase "Origami Project: the Mobile PC running Windows XP," which  was apparently added as part of the "Week 2" tease. Certainly seems to jibe with everything else we've heard.

[Bull Gaytes @ Mar 2nd 2006 8:54AM]

There is a fine line between origami and a crumpled piece of paper. I hope they get this right.

[joshua @ Mar 2nd 2006 8:55AM]

i'm kind of excited. even though i'm content with my nokia 770, i would prefer something with the same capabilities that has a little more power.... and a keyboard would be nice.

[Jason @ Mar 2nd 2006 9:04AM]

I don't know if this helps, but the second line of the source code for origamiproject.com says "Origami Project: the Mobile PC running Windows XP".

Doesn't that pretty much say it all?

[Peter @ Mar 2nd 2006 9:05AM]

It even seems to be compatible with the Xbox 360...http://www.gameinformer.com/News/Story/200603/N06.0301.1632.46519.htm.

Let's hope it's all true.
Hummmmmmm

[dreampc @ Mar 2nd 2006 9:12AM]

Why does this sound like nothing more than Tablet XP with graphics capabilities (shaders) and a high-speed wireless mobile internet capability...

[Larry @ Mar 2nd 2006 9:14AM]

I don't understand why Microsoft and Intel are acting like this is going to be something super-special and super-new! I mean come on, OQO has been out for almost two years. Sure MS and Intel reference hardware may be slight more capable than the current handtop crowd but not by enough to warrant this huge ridiculous marketing campaign.
One more gripe - stop calling it a "UMPC"! It is a handtop. The marketing droids are leading these companies around by their nose and if they don't realize who their initial target audience is they will fail. Look back at the first adopters of laptops and learn your lesson from that - gadget freaks and business executives will be the first adopters of these devices - not the general consumer.

[Damo @ Mar 2nd 2006 9:19AM]

I wonder if this will all be moot after www.dualcor.com beats them to market?

[mchacur @ Mar 2nd 2006 9:21AM]

SORRY BUT THIS WILL NEVER WORK...
The Tablet PC never took off, the PDA market has been declining for the last few years (while the smartphone market has been steadily growing). The message is clear: people don't want to carry yet another device. Maybe a cell phone and an iPod (or any MP3 player), and even these two are merging (does S-E's Walkman ring a bell?). Business people carry a laptop because it's their basic working tool. This thing Origami, UMPC, Apple Super-Newton, whatever, will never replace a cell, a simple/light MP3 player or a laptop...

[Cari @ Mar 2nd 2006 9:29AM]

*cought*[e-mail]*cough*

http://www.engadget.com/2006/03/01/is-microsofts-origami-ready-to-take-wing/#c1185075 =
29. ^^^ nice spam from the guy above ^^^

i really don't think microsoft would be buying their domain names from godaddy.

Posted at 11:12PM on Mar 1st 2006 by drunk 0 stars

IAWTC, + I don't think Intel would either. Come on people. -_-

[Todd @ Mar 2nd 2006 9:42AM]

What is the obsession with people promoting dualcor in the comments to every Origami posting? Dualcor's press coverage suggests that it will cost 3 times as much as the Origami devices. To answer Damo's question in #6, no - a $1500 miniature laptop is not going to derail the market for a $500 uber-PDA.

[Dam @ Mar 2nd 2006 10:01AM]

ok so UMPC says more info on the 7th and oragami says 9 so their either gonna have different info or UMPC is just the place to go....or their different?

[OddManOut @ Mar 2nd 2006 10:21AM]

It's funny...

I was actually looking forward to today for over a week, waiting to see if this device was something I should pick up. I'm currently going to Language school in Japan, and I've been using an old Mobilepro 790 as my Denshi Jisho (electronic dictionary). The screen is HIDEOUS (DSTN...blech...Zehi mienai...), I can't stand it anymore. But it runs the dictionary program I like best. I got a line on a better yet compatible device recently, but I wanted to see what this origami thing is going to turn out to be and how much it will cost before I drop my hard earned scrilla.

But this inane viral-marketing-bread-crumb-trail thing is pissing me off...

So I'm going for the other device. And it is...

A used INTERMEC 6651 (Sharp HC-7000)

It's got an 800X480 TFT screen w/ VGA out, MP3 and video playback, USB host (for Mice, KBs, HDDs), PCMCIA slot, CF Slot (so gps and wifi are good to roll), and while it is NOT pocketable it's dimensions are Width 5.5 in. Depth, 8.4 in. Height, 1.1 in., and it reverse-folds so it can be used as a tablet. It's also got an integrated camera with still image and video capabilities (with sound of course) and runs anywhere from 3 - 5 hours in continuous use and can last weeks on standby.

Sound familiar ?

Oh yeah, did I mention this thing is almost 6 years old ? As such it of course has drawbacks. Its CPU is an old 129mhz MIPS from Toshiba (performance roughly on par with or slightly below the venerable StrongARM 206mhz), though people can/do watch ripped movies on them full size ( ~700mb) there's hitching in action scenes unless you transcode down a bit, it's running perhaps the app-leanest breed of Wince -> HPC2000 (which sadly means I'll have to deal with Pocket IE 4.0 unless someone can point me to Netfront v3.0 somewhere),

And it doesn't have a scroll wheel :P

In 6 years technology has come a long way, so I would hope the origami would at least be able to do everything an old Intermec can do, and do it noticeably better. Delivering that kind of performance in the $350 range though...I'm a little skeptical about that though. The intermec cost $1300 new.

All in all, it's just as I said when they were about to release Episode 1..."For their sake it had better kick @$$...". I kinda get the feeling I will be almost as underwhelmed when Origami drops as I was by Ep1. But who knows...

Kind of ironic, Microsoft has already managed to lose at least one potential customer to...themselves basically. Even more ironic still, since I'm buying this thing second hand MS won't get a dime out of the transaction either.

But Microsoft has plenty of capitol to throw around for the present, else they wouldn't keep spawning money-black-holes like BOTH Xboxs (so far anyway), and possibly Origami as well.

Ultimately, I guess we'll just have to wait and see...

[joshua @ Mar 2nd 2006 10:52AM]

apple will do their own version of this 10 months from now, except theirs will be white and more sleek looking and you guys will all jump for joy and scream innovation

[unreal mccoy @ Mar 2nd 2006 10:53AM]

my response to Microsoft buzz-making: *yawn*

I think its funny that MS has to manufacture all of the viral/buzz marketing, complete with websites and teases to get hype going. All Apple has to do is send out a couple hundred invitations to an event, and the buzz creates itself.

[msafi @ Mar 2nd 2006 11:02AM]

first promise broken by microsoft. they told me to come back today for more information but all i got is the same flash show with different pictures and a date. darn them

[matto @ Mar 2nd 2006 11:23AM]

I first heard about this at http://www.origamiportal.com and it does seem logical that Intel and Msoft would be together in this.

[Adam Rice @ Mar 2nd 2006 11:28AM]

In Intel's own roadmap for the UMPC, they predict availability in 2010. So it'd be a bit premature to wind up the hype machine right now. Some of the features they call for in the UMPC are flat-out beyond current technology: a 1-lb device that can run Windows Vista on battery power for a solid day.

[John @ Mar 2nd 2006 11:28AM]

Another delay for an announcement? Microsoft should learn from Apple, build the buzz, announce and then launch. It works even for a ho-hum speaker for your iPod.

[kal @ Mar 2nd 2006 11:48AM]

http://who.godaddy.com/whois.aspx?domain=ORIGAMIPROJECT.com&prog_id=godaddy

To see domain info....

[Zoima @ Mar 2nd 2006 11:52AM]

The screen size that appears on the flash animation is 640 x 360 - no matters what resolution your monitor show, and that�s 16:9 aspect ratio. Maybe this show us a video playback feature...

[drunk @ Mar 2nd 2006 12:16PM]

Re: #20

I don't see what the point of your post is. Was there ever any doubt that origamiproject.com wasn't a Microsoft website? If you're trying to show the domain was registered at godaddy.com, you're wrong. It wasn't. You're just whois-ing the domain from their website.

[eas @ Mar 2nd 2006 1:18PM]

It's quite obvious from that Whois query that the registrar is Register.com, not GoDaddy. Futhermore, even if it were GoDaddy, that would tell you exactly nothing. Companies like Intel and Microsoft farm out the creation of marketing sites to outside contractors all the time. It's quite possible that that outside contractor would be responsible for execution of the entire campaign, including domain registration, and it's quite possible that a web shop would use GoDaddy. Of course, its all moot, since it's not registered through GoDaddy.com at all.

[jon @ Mar 2nd 2006 1:39PM]

well, i got a friend who was was in design and saw a power point presentation that was something for a xbox phone like thing. so... if that idea is taken, i was thinking that it might be an ultra small pc phone using the xbox name/design? it would a. fit the xbox portable theory 2. update windows mobile 5 again and 3. be an ultraportable theory. but then again, he said he thought it looked like a phone. so who knows.

[Jeff (Switcher since 102004) @ Mar 2nd 2006 2:32PM]

As much as I don't enjoy carrying extra toys with me, I do carry a PDA and a phone. The Palm 650 or 700 combo device probably comes as close to what I'm hoping to get (in the near future) as anything else that's out there right now. A UMPC device? Not worth the $800 it's slated to cost - and the thing is HUGE too!

[ug @ Mar 2nd 2006 2:35PM]

The key here is pricepoint. Right now a WinCE-based PMP costs about $500. High end PDAs and smartphones are pricey too and still have relatively poor multimedia performance. There are too many expensive devices that are too closed off and too limited, sometimes artificially so. Nothing beats the value of a full-fledged mobile PC. Microsoft is trying to make this cost as little as possible for a change. Tablet PCs and ultraportables usually cost close to $2,000.

Right now the cheapest alternative in this category would be something like the Fujitsu P1510 which is over $1,500 when reasonably decked out.

If they can offer something with decent battery life and respectable performance (good enough to play videos, the most demanding thing you'd do on it) and at $500 then it's a winner in my book.

[Solnyshok @ Mar 2nd 2006 5:35PM]

re: #21

640*360 is less than my ipaq hx4700 has (640*480) and it is not enough to comfortably browse internet and view office documents. I really how this thing has got better&bigger display. WXGA?

[Guillermo K @ Mar 2nd 2006 7:40PM]

Origami is what the Flipstart was going to be.
http://gkrawiec.blogspot.com/2006/03/origami-is-flispstart-pc.html

[McAkins @ Mar 3rd 2006 9:59AM]

Hi All,

I think this is a good initiative from MS bridging the divide between PDA, Tablet PC and Laptop. Yes we don't want to carry any extra device, but this Origami device will sell if the price is kept at most $500.00

Here is my argument, I am at loss at moment which device to choose, SmartPhone is ultra-mobile, but you can't really enjoy movies on it, PDA is too small to make it a semi-business device, surfing, reading and email on it is limited. A tablet pc is a price overkill and too obtrusive like a laptop. Taking notes on a laptop in a meeting is sometime considered too obtusive.

So here comes Origami, it unifies all. A 7 inch (??) widescreen on which you can enjoy your multimedia, anywhere! Surfing and reading on it is more pleasurable. Hopefully the battery will last long enough to support this experience.

So as for me, when this device arrives, out goes my laptop and my PDA. I will take the version of this device without the GSM. I will have a smartphone for phone, and Origami for other mobile activities.

Way to go Microsoft, just forget these whiners.

[Phil @ Mar 3rd 2006 7:29PM]

I just hope that this thing is cheap so kids like me can buy one and do crazy stuff with them. If it is

[Stuart @ Mar 8th 2006 3:42AM]

The new website for UMPC is up, albeit vvveerrryyy sssllloowwllyy. One of the advertising blurb bits says that you could take it to the beach and surf the web while your friends surf the waves. Take this kind of thing to the beach? Sand? Water?? Salt??? Heat????

Yeah, right...