Carrying the Q1 UMPC

My Samsung Q1 is presently my bestest mate (this might change quickly, I'm very fickle). Wtih it's dinky keyboard and tiny size I keep getting it out and saying to myself  "Complete PC here you know, even running XP Professional". Now I've added extra memory it will let me do just about all the things I want it to. Lovely.

I got the little case and keyboard, but carrying it around was a problem, in that I wanted a bag for it. I got one but it was not quite right, so I've gone and got a Crumpler "McBaines Baby -M" which is a perfect (if rather snug) fit.

If you've not come across Crumpler bags they are worth investigating. I got one for number one daughter over a year ago when she got her first portable computer, and it has stood up amazingly well. She now uses it as her "everything" bag, just throwing in all the stuff she needs for lectures (including the PC) before she rushes out of her room.

Crumpler bags are tough, well made and have the most amazing things written on the labels. If you are after a nice bag for your shiny UMPC you could do a lot worse.

UMPC on the road

I said earlier that I was taking a Samsung Q1 Ultra Mobile PC to India, in place of my tablet PC. I also said that I would let folks know how I got on with it.

The answers is, very well. When using it the biggest problem is the small screen. This is a major irritation and, although it doesn't actually stop you from doing anything, it does slow you down a bit and make it a bit harder to get things done. However, I don't really think that this is a problem. The whole point of the UMPC is that you would have it with you in situations where you would not want to have to carry a laptop, so in reality it is competing with nothing, not a notebook.

As a general computing device it is absolutely fine. Rock solid. More than responsive enough for general work and watching films. The little fan turns on every now and then to keep things cool, and from a hardware point of view it is absolutely top notch.  I bought the case and keyboard with goes with it, which makes using it in the field a lot easier. The keyboard has one of those pointing things in the middle which you can use as a mouse, and this works very well. I've not had one of these before, but I'm kind of a convert now. The only problem was that for the first hour or so I kept hitting the mouse buttons below the space bar, but I learned not to after a while.

I was able to use mains for most of the trip, but when I couldn't I was easily getting 2 hours of battery life out of the machine. That was whilst using WIFI and with no particular powersaving options set.

One the way back I was forced to put the device into my suitcase rather than carry it onto the plane. I was much more relaxed about doing this with the Q1; the device weighs so little it would not really be able to damage itself if it moved around in the case. As it turned out I was right, no trouble at all.

I really like the Q1 very much. When I got back to the UK the RAM upgrade that I had ordered was in the pile of post and I have now upgraded it to 1GB of memory. This is very easy to do and makes a huge difference to performance. I would be quite happy to have this as my main computer. I have monitors and keyboards at work and home and carrying the Q1 between the two is much easier than transporting the tablet I usually lug around. Only the slightly small 40GB disk makes this a bit tricky, but at present I'm considering how I'm going to manage all the PCs I seem to own, and put into place some kind of file sharing/sycnchronisation technology to address storage anyway.

One thing I have not done much, but will in the future, is use the UMPC as a lifestyle type device. I've put the Slingplayer software on it, so I can use it to watch TV as a client to my Slingbox (this works a treat) and I'm loading it up with some videos and music.  I'm also going to try out the tablet nature of the device and play with the touch keyboard. Great stuf.

Miles Roberts?

Today is the day we go home. We started early, very early, having heard terrible stories of delays at the airport. Our flight was delayed a bit, but fortunately not by much. The bad news for me was that lots of my precious toys had been placed in my unreliable suitcase, the one that likes to travel the world by itself. I was pretty much convinced that it would decide to visit some more interesting parts of the world and take all my stuff with it.

Anyhoo, you do what the safety instructions tell you. Or perhaps you don't. Having been given dire warnings of the consequences of taking any kind of hand baggage onto the plane, with just my passport, wallet and a paperback in my possession,  I was more than miffed to see people boarding the plane with rucksacks, laptop bags, you name it. 

So we settled down in our seats and waited as the plane pulled back from its stand and made ready for takeoff. And then it stopped for a minute. Then five minutes. Then the captain came on the intercom.

"I'm afraid we have to return to the stand and open up the hold. There is a problem with some of the luggage"

Drat. Triple drat. What kind of an idiot is causing delays? What kind of fool is holding everyone up? If I find out who it is I'll..... The intercom crackled again.

"Is there a Miles Roberts on the plane? Would Miles Roberts please make himself known to the cabin staff?"

Blarst. Could they mean me? I raised my hand. Turned out that the system had spotted three bags in the hold belonging to "Miles Roberts". Somewhere along the line my name and initials had got scrambled to make another person, who was not on the plane but who had his baggage in the hold.  I gave the purser my passport with the luggage numbers on it, which sorted that out and we were able to get airborne. Curse that suitcase.

The rest of the journey was uneventful, if you except the one hour wait at Heathrow for a place to disembark, and I was able to catch the tube to Kings Cross and then walk straight onto a wonderful Hull Trains locomotive for a very pleasant three hour ride up to Hull and home.

...and the winners are...

Today was the ground announcement of the winners of the software deveopment competition.  In the end the team from Norway came third, Brazil was second and Italy came first.  Well done folks, and good look with your applications in the future.

Joe Wilson and the winning teams

After that there was the grand Imagine Cup party, but unfortunatly I was feeling a little too fragile and anyway we needed to be on the road at 3:00 the following morning, so I thought I'd stay in the hotel room and sample a little Delhi hospitality. So I ordered a burger from room service. After 20 minutes there was a knock at the door. An immaculately dressed waiter with white gloves handed me his business card and then deployed what I can only descibe as the best presented burger I have ever seen. It arrived on a trolley, with four different kinds of mustard, proper HP sauce and all the trimmings. And coke. Talk about a morale booster.

Delhi for burger

It was delicious.  So, after packing all my precious electronic goodies into my suitcase (there is a security alert on at the moment and I won't be able to take any toys into the plane) I was able to turn in feeling extremely well fed.

Dash to Delhi

Today was the day of the dash to Delhi. When we leave our lovely hotel in Agra and head of to a, hopefully equally lovely, hotel in Delhi. I'll miss this place. Everyone has been really nice to us, and it has the best bowling ally I've ever been on. We had to get up at 4:30 am to get on the bus. The organisers rather thoughtfully set off all the phones at 4:20, 4:25 and 4:35. Thanks folks.

The journey back was much smoother than the journey out. This driver didn't use his horn anything like as much as the other guy, and this seemed to make us go faster. The slowest bit was the road around Delhi to the hotel. This was the busiest road I've ever seen, with all the drivers ignoring just about every rule of the road and camel powered trailers mixing it with luxury coaches, motorbikes, mopeds, Mercedes cars, cows and pedestrians.

Family transport

Then we got to the hotel and my luggage decided to go walkabout. My suitcase has a kind of wanderlust. Everywhere I go it finds a way to escape from me. It has been around Los Angeles and Las Vegas and I am now more surprised to see it than not. This time it vanished from the coach. Fortunatly it turned up in time for tea, and a change of clothes.

In the afternoon we watched the Software Development presentations. By gum, but some of them were wonderful. What young people with drive and imagination can achieve is amazing. Whenever I go to one of these things I reflect that the the future is actually in quite safe hands. And the presentation skills of these people are highly impressive. To have such confidence in front of an audience is just amazing.  We didn't find out who the winner is, that comes tomorrow. I tried to stay for the presentation design and short film parts of the competition, but the early hour and the lure of the most luxurious room I've ever had got the better of me and so I caught the shuttle bus back to my hotel and turned in.