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Crispin Jones-designed PBJ UMPCs
Japan's PBJ (not to be confused with the American sandwich of the same name) has enlisted British designer Crispin Jones to add some flair to its line of UMPCs. Taking inspiration from the Japanese writing boxes (suzuribako), Jones writes that his design is meant to "inspire the user in their work," through the use of bright colors, geometric shapes and raised surfaces. Jones' UMPCs will be on display at the 100% Design Tokyo exhibition beginning today through November 5. We'd still like these UMPCs more if they came with a side of peanut butter and strawberry jelly, though (but please, no grape).[Via Core77]
PBJ's SmartCaddie EX UMPC delivers less for more
While we're all waiting around for the second generation of UMPCs to arrive, platform diehards will have to make due with tweaks to existing products like this one from PBJ. The SmartCaddie EX UMPC jumps off the 1GHz Via C7-M ULV processor to a 900MHz ultra-low voltage Celeron M and drops from a 40GB to 30GB hard disk while shedding some 50-grams in the process. Otherwise, it's the same unit features and spec-wise which launched in Japan originally for ¥99,800 only now demanding ¥139,800 or about $1,167. Huh? Anyway, don't be surprised to see something similar out of TabletKiosk and It's UMPC as well by the time this launches in December.
SmartCaddie gets pricing, send off from Microsoft brass
Sure, the PBJ SmartCaddie may be nothing more than the Japanese version of the TabletKiosk eo (or is it the other way around?), but its official launch this week was reason enough for Microsoft to fly Bill Mitchell, father of the "ultramobile lifestyle PC" concept, out to Japan for the event. To drive the point home, Mitchell emphasized that the Japanese market is crucial to the success of the UMPC platform. Microsoft also showed off some homegrown apps for the Japanese market, including one designed to teach schoolchildren kanji, which will be tested this month with a group of third graders. As for the SmartCaddie itself, specs are in line with what we've already seen for the TabletKiosk, including a Via C7-M ULV at 1 GHz, 512MB RAM, 40GB hard drive and a thoroughly unimpressive battery life of 2.5 hours. The Japanese price will be ¥99,800 or about $848, putting it roughly in line with the TabletKiosk's $900 US price. Based on this and other pricing information we've seen, it seems safe to say that we're not going to see a first-gen UMPC for under $800, and that some will hit the market for over a grand, making Mitchell's dream of a $500 box something that will have to wait for future versions -- or Overstock.com if the platform doesn't make it past 1.0.
