Last week Sony announced the release of the Vaio U70P Wi-Fi Micro Tablet PC. This device is simply put - in one word - Incredible.

I have seen some of the newer Sony notebooks - and let me tell you - they are thin. Huge screen no matter what size you buy. But, when this appeared on my computer screen, my jaw hit the desk.

This is the “Type U” Series and is 16.7 x 11 x 2.8cm - and it’s not an oversized PDA - it’s truly a PC. Note they haven’t called it a tablet - because this device trys to be everything in a full-fledged PC. It has a 1GHz Pentium M Processor, 512MB of RAM, 20GB HDD and a 5 inch 800×600 TFT display. For a “PC” it’s a crappy monitor.

Sony has broken down the barriers past the world of Sony technology. Finally they must admit that interoperability is a good thing - right? I mean if I had to choose a standard would it be Sony? Sure! Will I let my wallet bleed from Sony’s pricing? No.

Okay, back to the device…. A complete docking unit is provided for the unit, which allows you to vie it as a common display (albeit 5 inches in size) - four additional USB ports, a firewire port a VGA port, ethernet and power. The USB keyboard is also a little smaller than usual and no numeric keypad is built in - but there is one of those lovely IBM-esque trackpoint (eraser head) units built in. The “clickers” on the bottom are really in the way and if you type with any agility and speed, this thing may find it’s way on the other side of the room by air in short order. There is a nice padded case provided for the whole unit as well.

Although the potention uses for this device could be limitless (children’s in-car video, educational tutor device, medical applications, home automation, warehouse management, a kick-ass Media Center Controller (imagine your TV is the remote and the remote is your TV.

Released in Japan, this unit is rumored to be soon rolling out in the US. It has not been released in Europe and I don’t expect that this will shake too many feathers either way.

SUMMARY

The Type U Vaio - U70P Wi-Fi- Micro Tablet PC may be one of the hottest devices on the market - but the screen is just too small and lacking in that now expected high-resolution display. The keybaord is not really functional for any “real pc” usage - which was their intent. Not limited like a tablet, not bulky like a PC - it’s the U70P!

And as expected, I have a couple suggestions that may have made the product a little more succesful. Ready?

• The display is just too small. I mean, Were you thinking POS usage on-the-go? (Hey, not a bad idea, huh?)
• If you were looking to design a completely mobile PC with a small form factor — you have accomplished that. But - this form factor and complete mobility are needed for several niche industrial and civic markets - and they don’t need the beauty that this unit brings along with it. Make this a ruggedized PC and you have Panasonic’s primary grip on the ruggedized mobile PC market. Have you seen them? They are pretty trippy - watch the video!
• And why not try this - the Virtual Keyboard. It’s trippy - you just turn it on - it projects a red laser keyboard onto any smooth surface - and you just type. It notes the changes in movement back into keystrokes. One of these just was released integrated into a cell phone I saw online. Now that is what I call a text machine! This keyboard isn’t much better than the fold-out Palm keyboard and the controls are unusable.

Let me tell you want consumers do want - if it was a device this small. They want longer battery life and the same functionality. They don’t want to connect USB devices running around the house, unless they are copying to/from the MP3 player. So, okay, we can let that stay. But, here we go - why not leave all of the computer ‘guts’ over on the desktop in the docking station - use the base power for powering the PC and keeping it running. Use the Sony-adopted 802.11a for wireless communication between the base and unit itself. Allow for “repeaters” for the base in larger households too - they are already available from everyone else. You can adopt an 802.11b client into the base station to connect to any other available network - and if you are very crafty, you could allow a receiver in the portable to actually receive the 802.11b signal and then pass it back to the base at 802.11a. Then the basestation can do all it’s decoding and network routing, etc. That, would be very cool. Now, if you go to far from the base, well, you’ll lose your whole functionality.

But what do they want it for?

The device should realistically do the following:

* act as a touch-screen wireless monitor
* full audio connectivity
* support the connection of USB based devices
* software installation / file reading via the CF and Memory Stick slots(and I guess a USB floppy drive or any media reader )

So what else could this do when the guts are left in the base? Well, you could have a media center pc - remember with the “Basestation” not requiring any size constraints, an XPC form factor PC could pack a lot of (heated) punch! Then this complete PC could have dual connectivity - where the TV is connected as well as the remote display. Remote display. There’s the new catch phrase and watch for it in the future. The remote display will be the same as the TV, however interaction with the remote device will overlay a data layer from the unit itself which are standard remote-friendly interactions for all users, with the actual functions being translated in the back ground. That way, the display does not require to be overlaid onto the screen without actual interactivity with the GUI required. For standard televisions (Ie Plasma, LCD TV, this would be ideal - and it would provide true convergence.

Sony would actually be able to make the base station a USB2 device to connect to any standard PC and allow the system to belive that it is just an extra monitor port, keyboard and mouse and removeable drive. Sony would actually be able to do the same thing for traditional TV with only key usage of one of their fancy Firewire ports. I mean, iSomething. If you REALLY think that Firewire is the Audio/Visual Connectivity standard of the future. I’ll be suprised.

Why not utilize the defined standard for TOSLINK. Oh, did Sony make that?

TOShiba LINK (TOSLink) Digital Æ’_”

TOSLink Digital standard was invented by Toshiba, and is widely used on all Sony digital audio equipment. TOSLink transmits the S/PDIF digital audio through fiber optics. The interconnect cables for TOSLink consist of glass or plastic fiber optic cables that transmit a 660nm red light from the source device to the recorder’s input. There are two types of TOSLink! A.) Home Audio TOSLink connectors are larger .25″ square. B.) Portable Audio mini-TOSLink connectors resemble 1/8″ mini-plug (headphone-type) connectors. Most portable CD or MiniDisc players have multifunction jacks which act as both analog and digital input (or output) jacks. When an analog plug is inserted, the MiniDisc recorder auto-detects an analog connection and switches on the analog circuitry. When a digital fiber-optic mini-TOSLink cable is plugged into the same jack, the MiniDisc recorder auto-detects a digital cable connection.

Whew- more than we needed to know (from BuildorBuy.org)

Okay. well, I think you got the idea. Good idea for industrial applications.
Bad idea for the consumer marketplace.

Maybe the medical industry will finally adopt a very sexy looking Sony Vaio U Series Mini-PC and bring fashion back to the medical environment.

Until then, prepare for a sale on clearance at a store near you, 6 months after introduction.