So Small, They're Unreal

LAS VEGAS -- While there are rumors floating around that Microsoft may use the Bill Gates keynote at CES here today to launch its Origami ultra-mobile PC, there are far more interesting super-small PCs floating around the corridors of the tradeshow -- little wonders so they're unreal. The only downside, of course, is that some of them literally are unreal -- they're prototypes -- but they're signposts to the future of PC design.Seamless Internet started the buzz machine Saturday night when it put its tiny S-XGen out on a table at a press preview event. This little wonder looks like it might have been the prize in a McDonalds Happy Meal. It weighs but 14 ounces and runs Windows Pocket PC OS on an Intel Xscale processor. The four-inch touchscreen is small, but the keyboard is nearly full-size, and the company claims eight hours of battery life.

It includes WiFi, a tri-band cellphone, Bluetooth, and Ethernet. And you might actually be able to buy one this year. The people who were showing it off claimed with straight faces that it would be on sale for $1,395.00 later in the first quarter.

Fujitsu wasn't making any such claims for its Ultra Mobile 2006 prototypes, a pair of futuristic ultra-portable tablet PC. One has a full keyboard and unfolds very much like the S-XGEN, although it does look like its had the benefits of a real industrial designer working on its sleek case. The other is strictly touchscreen, and when you rotate the screen you expose a camera and a few control buttons on the corners of the case. It's designed to be almost the same size as a CD jacket, and is designed to be a sort of super-media-player "entertainment portal" that has enough I/O connectors to be used as a UMPC. The Futjitsu reps were refreshingly candid about the prototype status of their toys. These aren't real yet. But they sure are cute.