Chippy's Hiblue Lab

Lets assume I’ve just stumbled across a new product at CES.  Here’s the microblog. . .

Yup! here it is! The new super UMPC  from the ABBC company. We’ve just tripped up Joanna Stern of Engaget to get here first and should be able to hold her down with one foot while we blog this. Ill have to be quick though because here comes that JKK guy with his camera.

4.8″ screen which we think is uber-capacative. Price in the $100 range they say and availability is yesterday for any order over 1000 pieces.

It feels light in the hand and could be the break-through device everyone is looking for. No word on operating system but the Windows 8 sticker under the battery kind of gives it away.

Joanna starting to cry loudly now so we’ll let her get on with her 1080p video. JKK and Gizmodo now having a fight too. Video of that coming later.

This has been the 3rd of my simulated CES posts from a low-light room somewhere underground in Germany. Time for one more quickie. . .

These pics were not taken with the moblogging kit,  itself but I am using them on the Galaxy Tab to write this post.

The image of the scales shows what I’m aiming for. That’s 1.3kg with four bits of kit and a bag!

Nokia n8 – To be used for photography and, possibly, video. Offline maps and of course, phone functionality is important here too. I won’t be letting the n8 use the wifi or 3g in order to preserve important phone functionality for later in the day.

Samsung Galaxy Tab – To be the mobile internet and text input device, location via Google latitude (for finding out where my friends are) and of course, Tweeting. II’ll be using the WordPress application for blogging, automatic comment notifications and comment spam control. Battery life should be good enough for all day (18hrs)

Battery pack and Mifi – Unfortunately I won’t have a local SIM to drop into the Tab so ill be strapping a Sprint Mifi to the battery pack to give me a roaming hotspot. My wife has the Mifi today so I’ve simulated it with a battery charger.

I won’t be relying 100% on this kit during CES as ill have my Netbook and camera in the hotel room but I do plan to at least go for one full day on this setup.

This has been the second of my CES test posts today with the n8 and Galaxy Tab. I’m standing and moving about my house. More coming up. . .

I’ve just started a one hour test of the mobile blogging gear I’m going to use at CES this year but just as I started to transfer the first photos (of my kit – 1.3kg!) I noticed the Google Maps was updated. This is an important update because it changes the way maps are rendered and introduces local caching. You’ll see in the image below that there’s not much you can control in terms of caching so only further testing will tell us how much of a map can be cached but the indications from Google were that a whole city is possible. This means that if you’re heading away and don’t want to use 3g or rely on Internet for the maps, you can cache them beforehand.

I’ll try and do some more testing on that while I’m at CES but for now, make sure you check your android phone for the Google Maps updates and let me know if you spot any major issues.

This has been the first of my CES kit test posts using only the N8 and Galaxy Tab.

People moan about WordPress on Android but for quick blog posts using the Tab, it’s working out well. Where all you need is a pic, a link and some text, I can’t thing of an easier process. Pic via Tab.

This little baby is near perfect for moblogging. It’s lightweight and can handle most tasks well. Its your typical UMPC all-rounder but as always, there are some issues.

Screen brightness is at the top of the issues list. While the resolution is high and sharp, the brightness can be a problem. A glossy screen adds to the problem when you’re out and about. Secondly, the lack of 3G highlights that tethering over Bluetooth is never as easy as it should be. I had to re-configure the BT dial-up-netoworking connection twice before it worked and then I found out that you can’t connect internal applications on the N82 to the internet via 3G when the BT modem is in action. This isn’t a huge problem but it means that latitude updates stop working while I’m tethered.

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Finally we’ve got a bit of sun here in Bonn so it’s time to get out with the devices for some mobile blogging. I’ll be jumping on my bike to find a suitable place to work. Not too crowded, not too sunny. I’m thinking that the Rhine, south of Bonn might be good.

First though, I need to decide on what device to take and to do that, I need to write down exactly what I want to achieve.

• Work. Full keyboard, 7” or greater screen. Bright.
• Location. Tracking, occasional or live gps location information? If live, Ipoki or lattitude?
• Connectivity. Built-in 3G or tethered?
• Microblogging. Pocketable
• Photography. Reasonable snapshot camera with easy export facilities.
• Audio. For some tunes/podcasts on the way
• Communications. Phone, instant messenger.

The first problem I have is that a true ‘work’ device doesn’t quite match up to the microblogging requirements because I would like a big keyboard. My phone, as with nearly all phones, isn’t up to what I want from a microblogging experience so we’ve immediately hit a choice between taking 3 different devices or making some compromises.

See full article for live tracking…

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