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q1 posts

Android 1.6 retrofitted onto Samsung Q1 UMPC (video)

by Darren Murph posted Oct 20th 2009 at 8:41AM

Too busy to bother with buying an Android-powered Archos 5? Then you're probably way too busy to bother with this here hack. But just in case you've got a morning you can wipe clean and a few afternoons where you can scoot out early, it's apparently possible to load up an Android 1.6 port onto one's Samsung Q1 UMPC. Kevin at jkOnTheRun did just that over a relaxing weekend, and while he's still struggling to get the touchscreen to act right, most everything else seems to be humming along sans issue. Eager to see if it's something you'd be into? Hop on past the break and mash play -- it's twelve minutes in heaven, ladies.

Continue reading Android 1.6 retrofitted onto Samsung Q1 UMPC (video)

Blu-ray making greenbacks, sales up 72% to start '09

by Richard Lawler posted May 6th 2009 at 8:12PM

Congratulations Blu-ray, you might be ready to step into the zone of mass market acceptance, as NPD's retail tracking service found Q1 sales of standalone players up 72 percent over last year, moving over 400,000 units with a 14% increase in dollar sales. Last year sure the format survived mad fights but high prices were a setback; fast forward to March when an online survey of 6,994 people found awareness has reached 90 percent in the last six months, with customers fascinated by its updates. Although BD-Live is looking more and more like an unneeded gimmick, the real facts are people care about cost and average player prices dropped from $393 last year to $261 in 2009. The "Blu-ray report" suggests the magic number is $214 for folks like Shawn Marion, so more room might be needed to breeze, and could come as soon as this fall around the time Vizio's player finally appears. It might be tragic for Vudu, CBHD and others trying to get a foothold, but Blu-ray's magic wand is word of mouth - so while much talked about, but much lower selling tech like Kindle is happy as hell to get a record deal, right now Blu-ray's unique skills can't be compared.

Samsung Q1EX tablet shows itself, gets detailed

by Donald Melanson posted Jan 12th 2009 at 4:15PM

This unassuming little tablet somehow managed to slip under our radar at CES, but the folks at UMPC Portal did thankfully manage to snap a few pics of it, and dig up a few details. Dubbed the Q1EX, this followup / compliment to Samsung's Q1 series of UMPCs ditches the usual QWERTY keypad in favor of a full-on 7-inch touchscreen, and gets backed up by a VIA Nano processor, along with built-in Bluetooth, GPS, and WiMAX, among other standard tablet PC features. Unfortunately, there's no word on a price or release date just yet, but if Samsung's past track record with the Q1 is any indication, you can expect to see a whole slew of different incarnations before all is said and done.

Samsung's YP-U4 and YP-Q1 DAPs go official

by Paul Miller posted Aug 29th 2008 at 4:25AM

We heard the YP-Q1 was brewing, and now Samsung has confirmed the new player, along with a followup to the U3 thumbDAP, the previously rumored YP-U4. The U4 borrows a few design cues from Samsung's TV lineup, but while it's certainly sexier than the previous generation, we can't help but think it looks a bit frumpy given the teensy grey OLED screen and stingy 2GB and 4GB capacities. The players boast 16 hours of playback, DNSe 2.0, and come in rose, purple and blue flavors. Meanwhile, the Q1 (pictured) seems to be frump grown up, with a 2.4-inch QVGA LCD and those purported 4, 8 and 16GB capacities. Samsung is also touting its DNSe 3.0 in the new player, which can "upconvert" audio to improve quality... supposedly. You can score one in October in black, white or silver, while the U4 (pictured after the break) should be shipping nowish.

Continue reading Samsung's YP-U4 and YP-Q1 DAPs go official

Samsung prepping YP-Q1 PMP for IFA

by Nilay Patel posted Aug 27th 2008 at 12:24PM

It's not officially announced yet, but Samsung's expected to announce the YP-Q1 PMP at IFA this week. The vertically-oriented player will come in 4, 8 and 16GB varieties with a 2.4-inch QVGA screen, support for MP3, WMA, WAV, Ogg, FLAC, MPEG4 and WMV, and an FM RDS radio. No word on pricing yet, but does anyone else think it's funny that Samsung will now have two entirely different slow-selling Q1s?

Samsung intros two new Q1 Ultra UMPCs: one with Vista Business, one with HSDPA

by Darren Murph posted Jul 28th 2008 at 9:59AM

The next-generation Q1 Ultra may be due next year, but Sammy's trying to squeeze every bit of life it can out of the current iteration with two new flavors. Announced today, the Q1U-CMXP boasts an integrated HSDPA 3G cellular modem, while the Q1UP-V is a Q1 Ultra Premium featuring Vista Business. As for the former, it includes just about every connectivity option you could wish for: 802.11b/g WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, Ethernet and a WWAN modem that connects to the AT&T Broadband Connect network; outside of the one new feature, however, the specifications are the same as the standard Q1 Ultra XP model that was launched in May of 2007. Both newcomers (if you can call 'em that) are available as we speak for $1,499 and $1,449 in order of mention.

Samsung says next-gen Q1 UMPC due next year

by Nilay Patel posted May 22nd 2008 at 9:57PM

Even though UMPCs have been overshadowed by competitors like the Eee and even to a certain extent by all those upcoming MIDs, it looks like Samsung's staying committed to the concept two years after the Q1 first launched in the US. Jeongseon Euh, Samsung's "Q1 guy," recently told Tech Radar that about 100,000 Q1 and the Q1 Ultras have shipped out, mostly to education customers, and that's good enough for a 65 percent share of the (admittedly small) UMPC market. That's also good enough for Samsung to keep at it, and Euh says the third generation of the Q1 should land early next year. No word on what specs we might see, but with all the Atom-based action going on lately, we think we might have an idea of where things are headed.

OS X made to run on a Samsung Q1 Ultra Premium

by Nilay Patel posted Apr 16th 2008 at 4:31PM

With all the Psystar-related drama going on in the OSx86 scene this week, it's easy to overlook the fact that people are doing some pretty wild things with the community-led project -- we've already seen OS X boot on a Sony Vaio UX, and now the crew at jkOnTheRun have managed to shoehorn it on to a Samsung Q1 Ultra Premium UMPC. The Q1's 1.33GHz Core Solo and upgraded 2GB of RAM are enough to run Leopard smoothly, it seems -- Apple sold Mac Minis with similar specs a while back, after all -- and while not everything works exactly right, it appears the digitizer is recognized, allowing Ink to work. It's not perfect, as there are some calibration issues, but it's a fun little peek into what an OS X tablet might look like -- minus the command button, of course.

Samsung said to be prepping lower cost, education-minded Q1 Ultra

by Donald Melanson posted Mar 17th 2008 at 2:33PM

Samsung's already busted out a handful of different Q1 Ultra models, but it looks like it's now come up with yet another variation to throw out there, this one aimed at the education market. According to Pocket-lint, Samsung is dishing out this latest incarnation in order to compete with Asus' upcoming 9-inch, Windows-based Eee PC, although it's not quite going head-to-head with it in terms of price, with this particular model apparently set to demand £399 (or just over $800) when it hits the UK next month (no word on a release 'round these parts). While complete specs are still a bit light at the moment, the new Q1 will apparently drop the spiffy dual camera and cut back on the hard drive to keep the cost down.

Hands-on with Samsung's Q1 Ultra UMPC

by Joshua Topolsky posted Jan 9th 2008 at 8:31PM

Meet the WiBrain B1's bigger, meaner brother -- the Samsung Q1 Ultra. We've been lovingly gazing at pictures of this behemoth for some time now, but we finally got a chance to toss it around at ye old CES this year. Truth? It's kind of messed up looking, and that keypad isn't any easier to use than it looks. For some reason, Samsung thought the layout should slant downward, but we can't say why. At any rate, the model we had was running Vista -- if a bit slowly -- and had a pretty nice looking display. Hit the gallery and see the goods for yourself.

Gallery: Hands-on with Samsung's Q1 Ultra UMPC

Xohm on track for April launch with up to 10 devices, nation mops brow

by Thomas Ricker posted Jan 9th 2008 at 12:03PM

Sprint's CTO, Barry West, is working hard to alleviate concerns that their mobile WiMax service plans might be in jeopardy. Speaking on a WiMax panel here at CES, West said that things are on track for a commercial launch of their Xohm service in April in the Baltimore, Washington, DC and Chicago markets. At that time, up to 10 WiMax devices should be ready to roll which, if our Xohm booth tour is any indication, would include a WiMax-enabled Samsung Q1 UMPC, Nokia N800, and Eee PC among a few laptop and desktop modems. The service will sell for "reasonable rates" with plans to cover daily, weekly, monthly, or longer commitments. Devices like WiMax-enabled cameras could be sold with the service price baked in according to West. A 1-week disposable camera we imagine. However, unlike cellular services, Sprint has no plans to subsidize WiMax devices. While none of this is new, we're definitely relieved to hear it again.

Samsung's Q1 UMPC down to $580

by Darren Murph posted Nov 14th 2007 at 4:14PM

We aren't generally ones to pass along gadget deals, but every so often an opportunity pops up that just seems too interesting to ignore. Merely 1.5 years after the highly-anticipated Q1 hit shelves for $1,100, the UMPC is available now (in refurbished fashion) for nearly half of that. Granted, you won't be buying Sammy's latest and greatest Q1, but maybe that inexplicably short battery life won't bother you so much when you're only shelling out $579.99. So, now that this thing has reached new lows (in price, that is), will you finally buy in, or will you try and squeeze one more year out that Newton?

[Thanks, Ben]

Palm's Ed Colligan hypes new OS to investors

by Joshua Topolsky posted Oct 2nd 2007 at 1:31AM

Our main man Ed Colligan is on the scene once again, this time giving some serious lip service to investors on the future of Palm and its "upcoming" new OS. According to reports, Ed informed the crew of dudes and dudettes (via the company's Q1 FY08 conference call) that the Centro systems team and Foleo engineers are "totally focused" on delivering the Linux-based OS (Palm's in-house work, not ACCESS's ALP), and announced that it will be available by the end of the next calendar year. Fleshing out his bold statements, Colligan noted that the new platform will retain the ease of use and developer support of the badly ailing current Palm OS, and that it will enable the company to deliver the UI across various products, including Foleo-like devices. The Palm honcho went on to say that development has gone, "As well as possibly could be expected," and added that the company has no plans to hand over the smartphone market to anyone else, telling investors that its next generation of products will be "revolutionary device types." Just like Fox Mulder, we want to believe -- but it's going to take a lot more than honeyed words to hold our interest, Ed. Hey -- feel free to invite us over to the pad for some hands-on.

Samsung announces three new Q1 Ultra models

by Donald Melanson posted Aug 28th 2007 at 8:15PM

While they aren't updates on the order of the refresh to the original Q1, Samsung has apparently decided that it was time to give the Q1 Ultra a bit more company, with it today announcing not one, but three new models. On the low end of the lot, the Q1U-ELXP gets a 600MHz A100 Ultra Mobile processor and a 40GB hard drive with a list price of $999. Taking things up a notch, the $1149 Q1U-XP boasts a 800MHz A110 processor and an 80GB hard drive, while the $1649 Q1U-SSDXP unit packs the same processor and a speedier but pricier 32GB NAND flash drive. From the looks of it, all the other specs remain the same as the standard Q1 Ultra, with Windows XP Tablet Edition serving as the OS. From the sound of it, all three should be available from the all usual sources immediately.

[Via DigitalTechNews]

Mossberg reviews Samsung Q1 Ultra: "finally an acceptable choice"

by Nilay Patel posted May 18th 2007 at 10:12PM

Walt Mossberg didn't pull any punches when he reviewed the first Samsung UMPC, calling the out the Q1 for its lack of a keyboard, low screen resolution, short battery life, and high price. Well, Samsung apparently took those criticisms to heart, because ol' Unkie Walt says that the Q1 Ultra is "a giant improvement" and shows that "Samsung is serious about this." Mossberg also says that while the split thumbpad keyboard takes some getting used to, it's perfectly usable, although you won't be cranking out any Word docs on it. Battery life, at three hours, still doesn't impress Walt, and price is still an issue, but overall, he says the Q1 Ultra is a good choice for students, frequent travelers, and other people who don't do a lot of document creation but still want to take notes and write email on the go. That's a huge endorsement for the UMPC platform if you ask us, but we'll have to see what consumers think this time around.