Viliv S5 MID gets accuracy-boosting HID driver for Windows 7

Viliv's S5 MID, the little machine that packs the Vaio P's Z520 processor in a legitimately pocketable form-factor, just got a breath of fresh air. It's an HID (human interface device) driver for Windows 7, boosting the machine's touchscreen abilities and enabling the breadth of Windows 7's tablet functionality. According to Uber Tablet this greatly enhances usability by, amongst other things, presenting the Windows tablet keyboard rather than relying on the accessibility version and enabling better calibration. The driver being used here is legitimate according to reports we've read, but it is not signed and doesn't appear to be an official release from Viliv, so you may want to exercise a bit of caution before you install -- but don't wait too long. This sounds like a pretty tasty update.

[grammar Posted Feb 28th 2010 4:02PM]

Someone put Sony Vaio on notice; they just got called out.

[emopoops Posted Feb 28th 2010 4:32PM]

@grammar why the heck does it not have ssd? its not even like sony vaoi p anyways

[MoonWalkerCTE Posted Feb 28th 2010 4:47PM]

@emopoops The s5 does come with SSD

[TurboTom Posted Feb 28th 2010 4:10PM]

Installed it, greatly decreases sensitivity, so a worthless update until the get proper drivers out

[MoonWalkerCTE Posted Feb 28th 2010 4:13PM]

I still need to install windows 7 on my s5

[MoonWalkerCTE Posted Feb 28th 2010 4:14PM]

@MoonWalkerCTE But I cant find the w7 drivers :/

[TurboTom Posted Feb 28th 2010 4:45PM]

@MoonWalkerCTE
Go to viliv's website, myviliv.com/eng/

[MoonWalkerCTE Posted Feb 28th 2010 4:52PM]

@TurboTom ty! going to start now :) +1

[TjK Posted Feb 28th 2010 4:17PM]

i wouldn't mind picking one of these up. Birthday tomorrow (big 2,1) looking for something to buy. How much these go for?

[N900 Posted Feb 28th 2010 4:31PM]

@TjK Well they were $599 on pre-order. You can get one from Newegg starting at $549.

[New Reformation Posted Feb 28th 2010 4:33PM]

@TjK

Congrats.

I suggest you do some research before you lay that much cash down. This is a decent product but for the $600-ish price you can buy a lot of awesome stuff.

If I had $600 to just spend I would get some Grado 325is Headphones, and a nice portable headphone amp. But I understand that you might not be into upper end audio....

[TjK Posted Feb 28th 2010 4:42PM]

@TjK yea i already have a netbook (s10) need a good pair of cans for audio producing, thinking about grabbing the sennheiser HD438s. idk 550 is a nice chunk of cash for the Viliv

[mattscinto Posted Feb 28th 2010 4:20PM]

Do people like.. actually buy these?

[University of Pi Posted Feb 28th 2010 5:14PM]

@mattscinto YES if I had the money I'd get one of these and an alienware notebook maybe even the m11x for use as my netbook to supplement my notebook

[harry lemon Posted Feb 28th 2010 6:10PM]

@mattscinto Hello, I have one, the tech is brillant if you have good eyes.

[shinratdr Posted Feb 28th 2010 7:28PM]

Thank you Engadget for posting this, I've updated my Viliv with this and it's what I've been waiting for since I got the thing. I literally screamed out loud when I saw the headline.

Other people seem to be having sensitivity issues, I have had no such thing. The old driver registered a click as just tap, whereas the new one registers it as tap and RELEASE, which I think is what's making people think that there is reduced sensitivity.

If you have a Viliv S5 Premium 3G running Windows 7 I highly recommend you do this ASAP. You get the proper keyboard, Aero Snap works properly every time in every orientation, login with a password is now easy, handwriting recognition & ink in office, flicks, way better calibration, the touch point instead of a mouse & "tap and hold to right click" now works in all situations including the start menu & taskbar.

And just the simple fact it turns what was a glorified touch mouse into an actual tablet PC input.

Finally, kudos to Viliv for getting this to work on a PS/2 connection, from what I understood previously it wasn't possible or at least hadn't been done yet before.