SmartCaddie, UMPC from Japan's PBJ
By Marc Perton 
posted Mar 11th 2006 7:00AM
posted Mar 11th 2006 7:00AM
Just a few hours have
passed since we heard about the TabletKiosk V-700
UMPC, and there's already been another announcement of a Via-powered UMPC. In fact, this one, the SmartCaddie, from
Japan's PBJ (and, no, we're not going to get into a whole sandwich-related discussion of what that stands for), is being
billed as the first Via-powered UMPC to be announced, since, apparently, the V-700 hasn't been officially unveiled yet.
Specs are fairly similar to those of the TabletKiosk, with a Via C7-M processor running at 1-1.5GHz. PBJ will begin
marketing the SmartCaddie on March 13th.
There NEEDS to be a model with a good GPU!
It looks like PaceBlade is also reselling TabletKiosks touch and wacom based TabletPC's so it wouldn't surprise me if they had some sort of oem reselling license (or maybe it's the other way around ?)
Correction on above (other then the badly placed 's =))
It seem the Japanese company PBJ may ultimately be the manufacturer of (much?) of the TabletKiosk product line.
http://www.pbj-inc.co.jp
So who (if anybody) is differentiating themselves with these ... each one looks like the EXACT same thing.
Someone needs to come up with a spectacular design. So far, I think Asus' is the best.
If anyone remembers, this is the reference design Otto had up on his project board in the video interview. There were many different color schemes, including an X-Box 360 themed one. It looks as though it's the 1st gen oem design, that microsoft could have had a hand in designing. And now Tabletkiosk and PJB have rebranded it. I really hope Paceblade's design is different than the rest, but I am liking nthe ability for a 120gb hdd with the VIA versions.
In addition, I just read on ehomeupgrade.com that they were discussing the UMPC platform and an Intel guy accidentily let slip the fact that Apple and some Linux vendors aer working with Intel on developing products for the UMPC platform, which shouldn't come as a surprise after the recent Apple touchscreen patent applications. Microsoft and Intel have successfully created a new type of computer, but it won't be til next year that we start seeing revolutionary designs and product specs. Even though I hate Apple (for their different format, design) it should be exciting to see how they include that new touchscreen technology they've been working on. Also, once these things get mainstream, developers will be woking hardcore on this. Imagine being able to control your whole automated house from this thing, lights in different rooms, music in the study and a movie in the living room, this is gonna be sweet...in a year...
http://www.pbj-inc.co.jp/english/
English version ... :)
They are releasing product info tomorrow.
Someone should do the leather/pvc case with keyboard thingie. Something like what the one-year old demo video had.
The PBJ design should be a nice complement to the rest. The thing to keep in mind is that these are all first generation products. The future is full XP/Vista/etc in your pocket – with full ability to do/control anything from anywhere. This is an all new type of device – and by generation 3 or 4 – the results will be amazing. This is only the beginning!
Hello,
As the Director of Marketing for TabletKiosk, I'm glad to see that people are buzzing about our UMPC.
In regards to the similarities between the TabletKiosk and PaceBlade machines, please know that PlaceBlade is a partner of ours, however, PaceBlade will be distributing exclusively in Asia.
On Friday, we will be officially announcing all of the specs and pricing of our UPMC, so stay tuned...
Gail Levy
TabletKiosk