Mar 09 2006
Origami project revealed as UMPC
Microsoft have finally taken the wraps off their much-hyped project, Origami. Turns out that it’s the same device that Intel showed yesterday and Samsung today. Microsoft are calling it the UMPC and I am very under-whelmed with it.
It’s a small, touch-screen computer that runs Windows XP Tablet PC edition. It has 2 – 3 hours battery life and has built-in wi-fi, etc. I’m not sure what the market is for these devices – they are too big to be ultra-portable (i.e. it won’t fit in your pocket) but are too small to replace a laptop. The poor battery life also means that it’s not that portable either – more than a couple of hours use and you’ll be needing a charger. I’d like to know what the battery life is if you’re using the wi-fi as well as playing media files??
Microsoft may have fallen victim to their own hype here – I think people were expecting The Next Big Thing, but instead we have a small, expensive tablet pc with low battery life. I’m not even going to link to it because no doubt you’ll see the link on every other blog/news site you read.