The Asus Eee PC has been creating lots of interest and pre-orders (100k in Germany alone for only 20k available from Jan 25 on). While reading some of the comments about Asus' plans to also bring out 8-, 9- and 10-inch versions, I found this new UMPC here that was shown at the CES in Las Vegas. It is from a Taiwanese company that is a supplier in the automotive industry, which for sure means highest quality due to the stringent QA requirements in that industry.

The Noahbook adds some great new things to the idea of the Asus Eee, and the videos make me want to check one out when it becomes available in Europe. What I like is the possibility to work with higher resolution (1024x780) while not having to increase the LCD display. You can move quickly around with the mouse. Also, the keyboard has been split into two parts, providing more space. Another simple but, it seems, effective design trick. From the videos, it also appears to be a very solid product, which is what I would expect from this company. Only question that remains is if pricing is similarly low, which I strongly doubt, but if it comes in at below 500 EUR then it could be a great product. Overall, the UMPC market is clearly taking off in 2008 and is stealing the show from the likes of even Apple, whose Steve Jobs seems to have lost - temporarily - his guru-like appeal, not showing much exciting news at last week's MacWorld and even having Apple's stock negatively affected but it. Steve, maybe you should hire some guys from Taiwan to get you back on the right track?

With yesterday's announcement by Warner Brothers that they would from May onwards only create high-definition videos with the blu-ray format, and no longer support both current HD formats (HD-DVD as well), many were saying that this will mean the final win for the blu-ray format. Despite the market share of 20% that TimeWarner has in videos I am not so sure if that battle is really over, looking at both sides' lists of supporters:

I think this comment here from Home Media Magazine editor in chief, Stephanie Prange, reflects more the current situation:
"I have not seen anyone give up in this fight. Every time one shoe drops and you think 'Oh, it's over,' the other side comes up with something else."

Looking at the two organizations' websites and their members, HD-DVD Promotion Group and Blu-ray Disc Association both have pretty strong members still. In fact I thought that over time players supporting both formats might be the solution since once good volume is reached it really does not matter that much anymore, due to component prices anyway going down to negligible levels.

One battle both camps have yet to win together though: That is for getting HD videos into the mass market regardless of what format they play. This has not been achieved yet, and will still take many years. I also don't agree that the format confusion is the prime reason for that: It might slow it down a bit, but cannot be the major reason. It is the old wisdom again that says it simply takes longer than anyone wishes to bring new technologies to the masses.

Mobile General is a Chinese mobile phone manufacturer. I have never heard of them in the past, but now I came across them for the second time in the space of a few weeks. I first saw their dual-SIM card phone and thought that this was a neat idea that actually fits my requirements right now since I have two mobile phone numbers. Simple idea, but I have not heard anyone else do it so far, or at least not market it heavily. Then today I saw this mobile phone here:

Comments in Heise Online were mostly negative, though, since noone could really see much use for it. I had given it some thought too, and apart from being able to completely lock yourself into a video world maybe at a super busy airport I had not much use for it either. I can, though, imagine that this all depends on where you are. Maybe in super-busy China or India there is more of a need for it, but then probably no time at all for any break? To summarize the innovative approach: it is more of a combination of already existing things, so evolutionary and not revolutionary, but at least they try for some new things. Time will tell if anyone buys this; I will check out the double-SIM card phone a bit more... other technical features are still weak though, e.g. only a two-band phone so would not work in the US, which makes it a clear no for me.