Via Handtops.com, which seems to have transitioned to a user-generated blog (nice work if you can avoid it) comes a post about some of the next-generation UMPCs they showed a while back at IDF. The model pictured to the right feels like a cross between a messenger bag and a One Laptop Per Child prototype. Yes, the keyboard is a welcome addition for actually getting something done with a UMPC (note to Intel and Microsoft: don’t forget that even small PCs can be productive and not just glorified portable video players). However, how is this different from an utraportable such as Fujitsu’s LifeBook series? Because it has a removable screen? Well, if I can get this thing for $500 and it has more than five hours of battery life, I really won’t care.
On the other hand, this little guy with the 5″ screen captured by TGDaily could be the big brother of one of those Samsung DMB handsets from Korea, but its family tree is even stranger, being a collaboration between Intel and Yahoo! as a platform for its Go! strategy. I’ve written before about how Yahoo! should embrace native client platforms better with Go! instead of embracing niche platforms such as this one and the Meedio platform that it picked up last year. Even Yahoo! can’t help the Web drive device categories before they are ready.