Now this is something I fancy - as soon as my trust Dell has run out and I can buy the wife a new MacBook. This Commodore UMMD is powered by a Via C7-M processor, and the curved, smooth finish is certainly evocative of the classic days of the Commodore 64. There’s no guarantee that this is the version we’ll see available to buy, however.

The rather horribly-named UMMD 8010/F is equipped with an 80GB hard drive, 1GB of RAM and Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) and optional Bluetooth. There’s also a choice of XP or Linux.

The guys at Pocket Lint reckon it looks dull. Other than some odd port placement (VGA output on the right-hand side?) I think you’ll agree that it doesn’t look bad at all.

Typically for a Commodore machine, however (regardless of who owns them these days) the device is a weighty £325, and supposedly comes in white, black, grey and pink - none of which are pictured.

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Now this looks tasty…

Also with 4.8in touchscreen, webcam and various motion sensors, it’s another of those smartphone killers - but despite impressive interface and stats it still hasn’t been made available on general release.

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What’s this? A video first at The Gadget Monkey!

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRYJtFxSVe0]

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Now this is what I call sexy tech - a handheld, touchscreen tablet/laptop by Toshiba.

Unlikely ever to see the light of day, this prototype isn’t cost effective - Toshiba’s Mark Whittard :

“We don’t think this is commercially viable, it’s too small…”

The display, is just over five and a half inches, but with the keyboard taking up over 2/3rds of this space, it is considered an awkward to use prototype.  The UMPC runs MS Vista on a 64GB Solid State Drive (SSD), powered by an Intel Atom processor and even has curved wifi antennas to fit the shape of the chassis. The keyboard, however, takes up two-thirds of the touchscreen display and is apparently awkward to use.

Sad that this is prototype only? Don’t worry, there are a few Toshiba-built ULPC portable devices on the way soon…

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Engadget have related a claim from Digitimes that ASUS expect to deliver a day long battery to the Eee PC range.

Known as “netbooks” the OS and CPU-lite wordprocessing and web browsing devices look set to gain further upgrades, as ASUS develops their low-end portable product.

Internet storage beyond the 20GB already offered to new Eee PC 901 and 1000 owners is expected, a move that will be seen as a way to offset limited storage of the small flash drives within the devices, and one that will hopefully be adopted by other manufacturers.

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This striking development of the OLPC is the next stage in one of the most unusual yet inspiring stories in computing history.

The next version will consist of dual touchscreens on a single spine while including a keyboard, face-to-face, and ebook functionality. The aim is of course squarely to direct the OLPC2 at children, and a swish touchscreen eBook is the form-factor that has been given the task of educating the poor and the remote.

A browse of the photos will show that there are various aspects to the device that have been borrowed from previous laptops and notebooks over the last 15 years, and it really does look like the OLPC2 will hit the mark, merging the World Wide Web, educational tools and online collaboration between young students in developing nations.

Very exciting!

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The Microsoft hijack of the OLPC has been completed!

Yes the fruit of Bill Gates’ original plan of getting a PC on every desk and Windows on every PC is about to be peeled - the OLPC XO comes with XP installed, utilising specific drivers but basically the same as the version on Eee PC, is set to be released later this year.

The specialised drivers are Microsofts own work, enabling built in features like e-book mode, writing pad, and camera, as well as WiFi. Curiously for a “cut-down” version, XP is remains too large for the XO’s 1GB flash chip and will be supplied come preloaded on a 2GB SD card, leaving 1.5GB free applications, storage and media.

Yet the future holds more for the OLPC - stay tuned…

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Instant-on OS Splashtop is set to ship with all ASUS products, leaving lite users with no reason to install a full OS.

The LINUX distro has already been spotted running on Eee PC, and with ASUS set to ship 1 million mobos a month shortly, the Splashtop is likely to become common especially on notebooks.

SplashTop is a portable software platform, an embedded Linux-based internet app running from flash memory and is linked directly to the BIOS. Quick and painless pre-boot access to the included browser (no doubt FireFox) and VoIP (Skype) environment is possible, although the SATA and IDE bus are unavailable.

There may even be opportunity in future for users to add their own apps to SplashTop, thus constomising the environment.

It’s a clever move from ASUS, one which places the importance of a standard OS in a new light.

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- It can’t be!

- It is!

- No!

- Yes!

There seems to be a bit of confusion surrounding Apple’s recent announcement of a 2.6 GHz MacBook, with Engadget declaring the spec a typo.  Given the battery and cooling needs, it’s easy to see why the figure was dismissed; however Apple continue to promote the 2.6Ghz device, which can only mean the spec is correct.

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It’s had a bit of a slating in some quarters, but the 3K Razorbook Eee PC killer isn’t shaping up to be that bad.

While the spec is low:  a 7-inch 800 x 400 screen, 400MHz processor, 512MB of RAM, 4GB flash drive, unconfirmed Linux OS, WiFi and three USB ports, the device itself evidently isn’t huge, and not designed for hardcore gaming - it looks as though the strengths will be mobile working and video/music entertainment.

At the same time however, low spec on well designed custom hardware with an unobtrusive OS isn’t far away from standard spec, and for $400 you could go far worse.

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