In the past, if you used a Scala motorcycle headset, it was to dial someone with your phone via Bluetooth. Now, if you and your riding buddies have the updated Scala-rider Q2, you can still tell your dirty biker jokes over the air, but now with full duplex voice-activated / push to talk voice chat with up to three clients and a 500 meter range. Tack on an FM receiver (and Bluetooth 2.0, of course) and you've got yourself a $220 communications tool sure to relieve the crushing loneliness of wide open road -- that is, until a couple of rednecks take you down somewhere outside of New Orleans in a psyched out haze.

[Via Motorbiker]

Palm began life as a software company (anyone remember bailing out their Newton's testy handwriting recognition by installing Graffiti?), and who the heck knows -- perhaps a software company again it will be. Okay, okay, it's way too early to be sounding the death knell on Palm's hardware operations, but let's be honest, wouldn't a Motorola Q9 running Palm OS instead of Windows Mobile make for an absolutely fabulous device (read: Treo / Centro killer) for the Palm OS faithful? We think so, and this Sprint promotional site makes mention of a "Q2" that, by all appearances, seems to be the aforementioned Palm-based Q9. We can't verify the legitimacy of this thing for a couple reasons: one, we've heard nary a peep about a Q2 on Sprint's or Motorola's roadmaps, and two, this same site makes no mention of the Q9c, a device that we do know is coming to Sprint in the next few weeks. Who knows, maybe this is all some well-executed ruse by a Sprint staffer -- but if not, we say kudos to Moto, Sprint, and Palm (and ACCESS, for that matter) for putting together what may be the best Palm handset on the market come the holidays.

[Via Boy Genius Report]

Update: Sure enough, the detail view for the Q2 lists Windows Mobile 6 among its specs, so it seems the Q9c will be officially known as the Q2 when it hits; the 'shopped Palm screen is nothing more than a major league screw-up on Sprint's part. Thanks, commenters!

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.

At risk of life and limb, we got up close and personal with Samsung's second generation UMPC: the Q2 Q1 Ultra. What did we find? Nothing, the Q1 Ultra, Ultra Mobile PC (so nice, they named it twice?) is exactly what we heard. Still, in what may be a first, this UMPC actually looks better in person than it does in the collateral. We couldn't actually get hands-on with the unit. For that we'll have to wait until tomorrow. We're dying to know about the chipset powering the Vista Home Premium pre-load. In the mean time, check the pics and official specs in the gallery below.

Update: We've spotted some detailed specs here. Oddly, the Q1 Ultra runs an 800MHz processor, compared to the Q1P's 1GHz. Prices are at $1,300 to $2,000 "depending on the processor," so we'll keep an eye out for other options.

Update: Check out the press shots we added to this gallery.

See that? That's right, it's the Q2 UMPC all grown up and set for launch at CeBIT 2007 under a new name: the Q1 Ultra. We just pulled the image above direct from Samsung Taiwan's CeBIT teaser site. The name is fitting we guess, as Samsung looks to align their latest UMPC with their other high-end Ultra-branded devices. Look for the official unveiling Thursday to mark the the first anniversary of the UMPC launch by Intel and Microsoft. My how time flies when you're experimenting with a new mobile platform.

[Via UMPC news, thanks Stasys]

So check it: every so often we find a juicy tip in our inbox, and today we sure got a doozy. One of our faithful readers -- who prefers to remain anonymous -- has sent in several slides featuring Samsung's followup to the Q1 UMPC, the Q2. While some of the specs appear to be identical to the beefed-up Q1P -- like the 7-inch touchscreen, 1GB of RAM, and 60GB hard drive -- other features, along with a revised form factor, are completely new to a model that we expect to be unveiled almost a year to the day after its predecessor, at CeBIT 2007. According to the PowerPoint presentation which you can view in the gallery below, the Q2 will sport an unknown Intel (not Via) CPU running Vista Home Premium, a 1,024 x 600 WSVGA resolution (no 800 x 600 here), two digital cameras (1.3 megapixel for "photography" and 0.3 megapixel for videoconferencing), and a fingerprint scanner. Most exciting, though, are your connectivity and input options; the Q2 tacks on a much-needed, albeit split QWERTY keyboard and -- get this -- Bluetooth 2.0, WiFi (802.11b/g), HSDPA, and WiBro. Yes, you read that right: three completely separate ways to get your 'net on. So for those of you who had given up hope on the UMPC platform following a disappointing first round of devices, Samsung has returned with an even more compelling product -- and by the time we start seeing those Viennagami machines, we suspect they'll have gotten it just right.

Gallery: Samsung Q2 UMPC revealed!

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