Matti Robinson
9 Mar 2006 22:47
Microsoft announced its formerly mysterious handheld device called Origami. The publishing of this product happened on the first day of CeBIT as it was suspected by considering the hint at origamiproject.com. Microsoft is hyping their "Ultra-Mobile PC" with gaming possibilities, while the Microsoft's official UMPC site is focusing on photos, music and videos.
As we suspected earlier, the upcoming UMPC is not a handheld version of Xbox or most likely not even a competitor to PSP or Nintendo DS. For people interested in Origami's gaming capabilities it will surely be a disappointment. All that Microsoft has so far offered in means of gaming with this UMPC, is a picture of a typical puzzle game. The slogan - "Enjoy PC and Internet games in new ways with touch, stylus, or hardware controls." - does not yet seem too fancy, however considering the future price of the UMPC, it should have enough power to run at least some of the less demanding PC games.
The UMPC will be manufactured by three Microsoft partners, Asus, Founder and Samsung. The device is featured with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth functions and will have a hard drive capacity between 30GB and 60GB. It weighs around two pounds and has a 7 inch WGA touch screen. Estimations on the price vary between $800 and $1200.
Beyond gaming, Microsoft is concentrating on media perspective of the UMPC. The official UMPC site hints that Microsoft might open an online store for music and movies. As for the downloading of movies, the UMPC site has an interesting software partner - Movielink, ironically which is founded by Sony Pictures Entertainment among other companies.
Source:
Gamespot
For more gaming news please visit Blasteroids.com