UltraMobile
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Ultra Mobile brings 1,000 international minutes to all plans with Ultra Zero
Phoning abroad just got cheaper thanks to Ultra Mobile pushing free international calling to all of its service plans. With Ultra Zero, even if you're only paying $19 per month, you get 1,000 gratis minutes to call Canada, China, Mexico, Singapore and the UK. If you manage to use that up, it's one cent for each minute thereafter. In addition to that huge chunk of voice time and being contract-free, all of the carrier's plans include at least 50MB of 4G data and unlimited global texting. The company also cut its rates for calling Cuba, Haiti, India, Nepal, Nigeria and Poland by as much as half -- you know people in those countries, right? As long as you're rocking an unlocked GSM phone and slip in an Ultra Mobile SIM card, you should be able to reach out and touch someone for a whole lot less.
Ultra Mobile debuts $19 calling plan with unlimited international SMS
If you're living on a tight budget but still need to keep in touch with loved ones who live abroad, you'll be glad to know of a new calling plan from Ultra Mobile. The upstart MVNO offers discounted access to T-Mobile's network, and for $19 per month, you'll fetch unlimited text messages to 194 countries, 250 voice minutes (with $1.25 toward international calling), and 50MB of data usage. For comparison, Simple Mobile offers a $25 plan that includes unlimited international texting and domestic calling, but if you let your thumbs do most of the talking, Ultra Mobile brings a lot of value to the table. You can snag its $19 plan starting tomorrow, which might be the perfect match for whatever Nokia has up its sleeve.
Compal's 'Ultra Mobile' Ultrabook eyes-on
Intel's already teased Compal's "Ultra Mobile" Ultrabook from afar, but when this Ivy Bridge laptop popped up on the show floor after the Computex keynote, we decided to give it a closer look. While this prototype isn't quite in the same league as ASUS' gorgeous UX21, do bear in mind that we're still looking at a relatively slim package for a 14- to 15-inch Core i7 rig. Also visible around the machine are a couple of USB 3.0 ports, an HDMI-out port, a LAN socket, and an SD card reader. Until we hear more about this Ultra Mobile, enjoy our eyes-on photos below. %Gallery-125292%
Sony teases VAIO Ultra Mobile, Clippy chuffed (Update: new VAIO P)
Interesting. Sony's teasing a new VAIO "Ultra Mobile" in Japan. No idea what this could be: refreshed VAIO X lappie, VAIO P netbook, or a new take on its venerable VAIO UX micro PC? With Intel's Moorestown just around the corner we're leaning towards the latter, hoping for it anyway -- Sony doesn't tease just any old product without good reason. Oh, wait. Update: A previously proven Sony tipster tells us that a new VAIO P is the mystery device. In fact, it's orange and the paper clip to the left actually represents the unit as viewed from the side. Trippy.
Intel's Ultra Mobile strategy gets official
We already knew of Intel's 2007 "McCaslin" ultra mobile platform strategy after peeping their pre-show slides: professional UMPCs paired with consumer-oriented, Linux-based MIDs. Still, it's always good to get the official word even if it means that Intel must travel all the way to their IDF in Beijing to make it so. As the strategy goes, before 2007 is up we'll see product from Aigo, Asus, Fujitsu, Haier, HTC, and Samsung all based on the Intel A100 and A110 processors -- essentially underclocked Pentium M cores operating at 3W and certainly besting the UMPC underpinnings we saw in 2006. In the first half of 2008 then, Intel tells us to expect their "Menlow" platform of ultra mobile devices. Pumping Intel's 45-nm dual-core "Silverthorn" processor and "Poulsbo" chipset for longer battery life in smaller handheld devices. But if you're chomping at the bit for Intel's vision of the ultra mobile future, well, you'll be waiting around until well after 2008, boy. Intel doesn't expect to break into magical sub-0.5W territory until the naughts are up. Until then, you'll have to deal with mysterious slabs like the new Fujitsu pictured above. Update: UMPC Portal just pointed out something very interesting: Intel says that HTC's Shift UMPC is based on their A100/A110 processors. However, the engineering sample we pawed was running a 1.2GHz VIA proc. Looks like Intel scored themselves a major coup over HTC's Taiwanese neighbors.[Via Impress]
In Intel's future we wear computers, still have to work and exercise
Intel's got a whole bunch of fancy ideas for the wearable and ultramobile computers of the future in this cute little conceptual video it pushed to the YouTubes. Thankfully Intel escaped the oh-so-tried Minority Report concepts and skipped straight to wrist-based computers and a myriad of OQO and iPhone look-alikes. Mostly it's just a ploy to promote Intel's upcoming McCaslin UMPC platform, which can do few of the actions depicted, but it's always fun to peep one manufacturer's vision of the future, no matter how unlikely or impractical its vision might be. Peep the video after the break.[Via GigaOM; thanks Dillon]
Fujitsu's Turn Table PC and Ultra Mobile debut at CEATEC
Fujitsu was starting to feel a little left out of all the CEATEC fun, what with its rivals demoing products left and right at the major Japanese expo going on this week in Chiba, just outside Tokyo. We came across some snaps of what appears to be two concept devices, the "Turn Table PC," and the "Ultra Mobile," a slick-looking media player. The Turn Table PC looks like it has a strange-looking lid along with a touch-sensitive backlit keyboard, which could mean that those filthy keyboard days are over. (However, these types of keyboards seem unlikely to take off, given that there's hardly any tactile feedback.) In addition, the Ultra Mobile seems to have a twistable case, revealing a mic and webcam, and at least a few USB ports on the left side. Unfortunately details about these new products are on the sparse side, but we do hope that the Turn Table PC (peep it on the next page) has the option of being able to spin records so we can get our b-boy on.
Dialogue's Flybook V33i reviewed
We've been salivating over Dialogue's FlyBook V33i for some time now. Finally, we've dug-out a review of this "dressed to kill" 2.6-pound tablet-style PC with smokin' suite of WWAN connectivity options including HSDPA / UMTS / EDGE / GPRS / GSM and EDGE / GPRS / GSM. Thing is, as the reviewer quickly points out, the V33i is not a tablet PC although you might be fooled by that rotating touch-screen. Instead, Dialogue goes with Windows XP and some Ritepen handwriting recognition software which, when coupled with the keyboard, means you "might not find that a disadvantage" -- just prepare to re-calibrate after each screen rotation. Although the 1.1GHz Pentium M is starting to show its age, the V33i includes a 64MB ATI Radeon XPress 200M which helps offset the load somewhat, albeit not enough for any serious gaming, but certainly enough for normal office-type usage. The Carrypad review also found the key pitch tight on the keyboard which took some getting used to and the stylus was just plain "terrible." Although they were stoked by the removable 2.5-inch hard disk which allows for DIY upgrades while the battery delivered an expected 2-2.5 hours under typical load. After four "privileged" days with the machine, Carrypad dubs the v33i a winner in terms of looks and performance particularly for those in need of an ultra-mobile PC with a full suite of fixed and WWAN connectivity options.
