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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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]

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.

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.

Samsung's getting all cutesy on us by launching the new Q1 Ultra exactly a year after the Q1 first arrived on shelves May 7, 2006. Luckily for us, May 7, 2007 is looking to be a bit more exciting for the UMPC lovers among us, since Samsung has boosted the battery life to a "minimum" 4.5 hours, added an LED backlit 1024 x 600 screen and stuck plenty of wireless connectivity into the new unit. The split-QWERTY keyboard held up well in our initial, informal encounters, but that's the largest departure for the new device, and hopefully it does indeed mark an end to UMPC input woes. But despite all those spec enhancements, the best news is the price: Samsung's starting these out at $799, not cheap enough to start a revolution, but at least edging the UMPC away from its current luxury status.

Let's face it: even the folks over at sites like UMPC Buzz and Only UMPC would have to admit that the much-vaunted Origami platform from Microsoft, Intel, and friends hasn't exactly taken the world by storm, and although the second round of these devices promises to offer a host of improvements (see: Q1 Ultra), there are still a number of problems that have yet to be addressed. Sure, future tech like flexible displays and 10-hour fuel cells would be great, but what could manufacturers be doing right now to make UMPCs a more attractive buy? That's the question we're posing to you, dear readers, and we'll get you started with the following suggestions:

• Higher resolution displays across the board (with smartphones already going VGA, we shouldn't be settling for no 800 x 600 here)
• Better input methods (forget styli and on-screen keyboards: we want tactile thumboards (not split, either!) and / or voice / gesture recognition)
• As usual, bring the prices down!

Alrighty, we've got ourselves a release window for the Q1 Ultra; Samsung's busting this thing out in May, which means we have about a month to figure out if we're willing to sacrifice the slickness of the onscreen keyboard foisted upon us by 1st generation UMPCs with the actual convenience of being able to type. While that added width might look a tad frumpy, what's clear is that the specs and connectivity here are enough to melt the hardest of hearts -- for instance, that 1024 x 600 LED backlit LCD isn't going to hurt anyone's feelings. As it so happens, May will mark the one year anniversary of the Q1, oh how time flies when you're stuck in unproductive tablet / handheld limbo.