HDPC: UMPC's successor?
A new acronym is born! At the Seoul International Invention Fair 2006 (12/7 – 12/11), Korea-based Mobile Intelligent Ubiquitous (MIU) Technology is showing off the first device, dubbed the M*free, in its newly invented HDPC gadget category.
The Hybrid Duo Personal Computer sports dual operating systems (XP seems to be one of them), a sliding display and QWERTY keyboard, and some sort of cartridge that contains a digital video camera and multimedia capabilities. The M*free is also somehow a phone that uses MIU’s IP-based technology, which sounds like VoIP but actually isn’t. I can’t tell from the photos exactly how the phone module snaps into the device either, as the display doesn’t look removable.
In addition to all that, the M*free has a DMB tuner, gaming functionality, and what appears to be GPS. It’s also kind of hideous. Those gaudy gold controls can be under your thumbs in the first half of 2007 assuming that 1) you live in Korea and 2) you have between $764 and $874 tucked inside your passport.
[AVING USA]
