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back to article OQO Model e2 UMPC

OQO may sound like a city in Japan, but it’s actually a company that makes ultra-mobile PCs - handheld computers capable of running a full-size operating system. It’s been around for seven years, and was founded by a team of ex-Apple engineers. The Model e2 is the company’s third shot at a UMPC, following in the diminutive …

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  1. Adam Williamson

    Japan?

    "OQO may sound like a city in Japan"

    Um - since the Japanese language has no 'Q' sound...not particularly, no.

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  2. piper

    "Um - since the Japanese language has no 'Q' sound...not particularly, no."

    There's no 'Q' sound in OQO.

    It's pronounced oko. Which the Japanese are perfectly capable of saying. Oko-cho-kogome.

    So, just a little bit..

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  3. evilbobthebob

    HDMI?

    Right, so it has an HDMI port, but its GPU is useless...and you need a dock to watch DVDs. Hmm...seems pointless to me.

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  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Linux?

    Can Linux be installed on the device? I have a Q1 and have often thought about installing Umbuntu on it. But I never seem to have time.

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  5. Kurt Faasse

    It's no MobilePro

    I'll stick with my NEC MobilePro 950, with its WiFi, modem, pccard slot, USB 2.0, and 8-hour battery. And touch screen. Which I got for $85 on eBay. Two grand for an OQO makes it an overpriced inconvenience.

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  6. Ross Fleming

    Rubber keys?

    That keyboard looks decidedly Spectrum-like to me...

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  7. Martin Day

    company name

    Just a quick correction...we're a US company, based in San Francisco and now expanding internationally (I'm leading that expansion, based in the UK).

    I guess we should invent a folklore-type story on the company name, but the reality is that it was a 3-letter combination that sounded good! It's just pronounced as it looks: O-Q-O ("oh-kyoo-oh").

    Regards

    Martin Day

    OQO UK Ltd

    PS: the digitising pen works on all model e2 versions, not only the Tablet, but we only ship it as standard with the Tablet OS.

    PPS: yes, you can run Linux on it, though all models ship with the MS-OS pre-installed.

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  8. Steve Paine

    3-4 hours on battery - Nope.

    I think you might have been dreaming there.

    The standard battery gives you up to about 2.5 hours.

    Steve.

    UMPCPortal.com

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  9. DrXym

    Sounds like a cool device but....

    ... look at the price! This thing is horrifically expensive and so are most of the UMPC devices. How the hell are they going to survive the onslaught of cheap laptops such as the Asus eee PC which released this week. An Asus eee PC costs $400 and arrives in a small form factor that crosses well into UMPC territory. It also runs Linux (though Asus claims it can run XP too), and can do so better due to reduced specs.

    While the eee PC is larger than an OQO, I can totally see it being the pathfinder for similar devices that eventually reach iPaq sizes but still a full desktop OS. All for far cheaper than UMPC. Arguably the eee PC has already claimed one scalp - the Palm Folio and I don't see it stopping there. Microsoft and manufacturers had better respond with their own cheap models or they'll be in a heap of trouble trying to shift these things.

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  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    but why o why

    but why o why does it ship with vistaids? Also rubbish battery is rubbish.

    Ship with less power hungry components and less aids based hardware hogging os so I can use word and an mp3s for 10 hours. Until then you are irrelevant.

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  11. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    RE: Rubber keys?

    I was just about to say the same thing. Not that there is necessarily anything bad about looking like a ZX Spectrum. Though with Vista installed, I doubt that it will reach the performance levels of a Speccy.

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  12. Conrado Buhrer

    ooo shiny

    I like it. I can only see System on a Chip tech make it all smaller! even smaller still...

    Now, form factor is an issue... qwerty is nice, but since I'm 6'10 and my hands are enormous I don't think there's a single keyboard that really pleases me except the one on my desktop. I just get used to the stylus instead, which you can learn pretty fast.

    But I must say, it looks fancy. A real geek toy. It wouldn't surprise me OQO are heading the direction of mobile phones and portable gaming devices.

    Still, what's the real use of this device? On the field data entry, be it a medical statistics or readings from a seismograph. Warehouse inventorising. A huge number of things, but for which most... a battery lifetime of 8 hours might be minimal.

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  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Psion 5 is still the best form factor

    I'd still rather have an updated Psion 5 - with a colour screen, bluetooth/WiFi - with that form afactor and that keyboard - fabulous - better than any of this rubbish!

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