Vistagami second shot for UMPC

THINKING BACK to the biggest flops of 2006 will have IT pundits reaching for their pipes and green fonts to describe the mess made of the Ultramobile PC.

The UMPC, or Origami to use its original codename, stank the place out this year and you didn't have to be a genius to figure out why. They cost way too much and they were way lacking in battery life. Add comparatively small caveats such as poor usability and lack of horsepower and the whole thing was best left forgotten.

But Microsoft, like true love or an elephant, tends not to forget and on 7 January at the CES show is expected to have another dart at the sector under the exotic-sounding Vistagami codename. Vistagami - you see what they did there? - adds Windows Vista and whole bunch of tweaks to the format. New entrants and second-timers will also use slide-out keyboards to expand usabilty options, says ZDNet.

Helping the push will be VIA which earlier this week showed off a couple of devices based on the 1GHz C7 processor at an event for Taiwanese press. However, even according to VIA which has a pretty clear vested interest in making UMPC happen, 2008 or 2009 are more likely to be boomtown days than 2007. µ