Medion working on MD RIM 1000 UMPC with slide-out keyboard?

All we've got to go on here is a grainy scan from some Medion press materials being handed out at IFA, but if this new MD RIM 1000 UMPC proves to be for reals we'll have another welcome contestant in the slide-out keyboard space -- which is where we've been at all along when it comes to UMPCs. The specs aren't bad neither, with a 6.5-inch touchscreen, 802.11b/g WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0, onboard GPS, DVB-T tuner and webcam. In fact, if this thing manages to weigh less than thirty pounds and cost less than twenty grand we're pretty sure Medion has got themselves a winner -- or should at least be able to give Sony's UX and Averatec's forthcoming AHI a bit of competition.

[Jason @ Sep 7th 2006 11:03AM]

UMPCs need:

1. long battery life
2. sunlight-readable displays
3. Slide-out keyboards/thumboards
4. Solid-state memory
5. Low price

Sounds like a lot of smartphones to me. That's some tough competition.

[rant @ Sep 7th 2006 2:29PM]

afaik, medion is a reseller only and never produces sth on its own. if they are going to sell this thing, you'll probably get the same stuff with another name (yakumo, ...) for a similar price elsewhere.

[ElectroGeek @ Sep 7th 2006 11:36AM]

I think they should have named it the Gigantor 1000. You might as well carry a small laptop.

[Alan @ Sep 11th 2006 12:30PM]

It is nice to see companies realizing that the more prefered input method is keyboards but people do not want a thumb keyboard. We want a touch type keyboard. The bulk of umpc's are way too large to be really mobile yet with all that real estate the design keyboard nobody can touch type on. They should look back and copy proven designs such as the old Psion 5mx it was only about 3.5" x 7.5" x .75" yet had an easy touch type keyboard. What we really need is a pocket size umpc with a touch type keyboard.