We've spotted an early prototype of an upcoming MID from Mitac powered by
Tegra and running Windows CE, and we like where it's headed. There are actually a lot of similarities to
Mobinnova's smartbook, though we suppose it's more of a Tegra thing: CE with a custom interface on top, emphasis on 720p media playback and output (there's an HDMI jack and TV tuner) and what promises to be an uber-competitive price and good battery life for the form factor. Mitac also plans on selling the thing with a fold-out case / keyboard combo to sweeten the deal. The unnamed device is quite thin, but unfortunately the unit we saw was out of battery -- though NVIDIA assured us it was "really cool" while it worked. Sure guys, sure.
posted Sep 18th 2009 12:28PM
Dribbling ...
We've had enough Tegra MIDs announced already, just tell us when we can get an actual phone with it!
Is that Zune being outputted in the background?
*drools*
*Yells at bank card for not magically putting money on my card*
It looks like a GIANT iphone... like someone sent it to that land in Mario 3 where you go through a tunnel and come out huge on the other side.
I'm curious...can anyone here tell me how big the MID market is?? Because I've only ever seen one person with an MID. I feel like these companies need to be making smartphones or at least smaller MIDs that are pocketable rather than these huge devices that aren't technically phones (correct me if i'm wrong)
MID's will hopefully die off shortly as they start coming out with cheaper more affordable tablets. I think a lot of companies are waiting for Windows 7 till they roll out new devices. There's probably a lot of R&D going on right now though so we should be seeing more prototypes.
Seriously. Every time I see one of these stories, they feel dated. Like we're going to look at this in five years and ask, WTF?
Kinda like "pen computing." How many times can that fail, but you still hear calls for tablet computers.
I am very much looking forward to someone selling a tiny device with as big a screen as possible for net-browsing around the house without having to lug around a laptop or wait for a netbook to boot.
As I've discovered on my iPhone a keyboard is not necessary for random searches or web checks.
I don't care about OS, processor, memory or any other tossed-around specs. If it is zippy enough to browse, maybe handle some flash, reasonable battery life and boot quickly I'll buy a few for my house.
@ Pingles
I am also in search of something like that. I think the upcoming archos android tablet will fit our needs fairly well. It has the ability to be used as a DVR, it can browse the internet (and it supports flash 9 , soon flash 10), it supports streaming video and radio via wifi and can output 720p video. The kicker is that it is available with up to a 500GB hardrive or if flash mem is more your style you can get a 32 gig model (there is also a microSD slot for even more memory). The android apps also make it look appealing.
https://store.archos.com/a5.html
One more thing, if you want to pay for it there is a one time fee to activate the GPS (though if you just use it for your house you wouldn't have much need for that :\ )
Enough waiting Nvidia, bring out your Tegra powered smartphones!!!
They better change the design. I don't care that they copy Apple but I don't want to be seen with a "fake iPhone".
WTF are you talking about? So you demand a round or elliptical device?
Creative tried the round device, and soundly lost the MP3-player market they practically invented. I think we'll stick with rectangles, thanks.
iPhone definition: any rectangular shape with rounded corners, black bezel and a single button
That's so cliche and then if following that reasoning then all macs are pcs since they run intel chips and are considered pc clones???
I forget, why aren't devices like the Zune HD, iPod touch, Archos 5, considered MIDs?
They are called PMPs generally, but basically the same as MID...
Because there's lots of arbitrary dividing lines(Netbooks vs. Notebooks vs. Smartbooks vs. whatever comes to mind). I think it basically matters what the roots of the device are. Zune, iPod and Archos are all PMP brands so all of those are PMP's. Basically, there's no clear dividing line so we just use their history or what the company itself calls them to assign categories.
Hey, shouldn't you be saying MIDgard?
Looks like an iPhone + TV
isn't that a Booklet 3G in the background?
Anyway, anyone here willing to explain why these manufacturers put the speaker(s) in the back of the device instead of the front?
Because there is a screen on the front and speaker holes usually get filled with dust. This is a key reason why sound technology is trying to use the screens to create the sound for their devices.
It's a MIO GPS without the GPS stuff.