How would I use an Origami?

I’ve been a little intrigued by the reaction to the Origami or Ultra-Mobile Personal Computer.

I rather liked the Joy of Tech cartoon, even if they are getting way too Apple biased.

My first observation was the naming one – why on earth change from Origami to UMPC. I know that one is a development name and the other is the true grown-up business marketing name but come on.

My first point leads into my second point. The Origami needs a consumer name because I see it primarily as a consumer device. But I don’t think I see it as a consumer device in quite the same context as Microsoft Monitor. I know its new grown-up name is Ultra-Portable Personal Computer, but I don’t see me spending much time carrying this thing around.

The place I primarily see my Origami is in my lounge as an Internet and media access device.

As an example. I am getting increasingly fed-up with the way that news is reported (for instance) and would much rather cut the news the way I want to see it. Why should I get the mediocre news piped to me down the television, or even use the rather kludgey television interfaces when I can get onto numerous news sites and get just as rich a media experience with the level of detail I choose.

Another example. I would love to be able to get any of my media to any of the audio or video equipment in the house. The Origami could do the streaming, or just be a remote control, I don’t mind but it would be a much richer experience than the television interfaces we have today.

The other place I see my Origami is in my luggage, not in my work-bag, in my luggage. I regularly take a laptop on holiday because I want to capture memories by keeping a diary or by uploading my camera pictures for safe keeping. It’s also a nice way of carrying some of your own media with you for the evenings in the holiday accommodation. If, as they increasingly do, the accommodation has a reasonable Internet connection then, again, it would be nice to catch up on world events or even family and local events.

I’m not bothered by a keyboard for any of these contexts because I don’t see myself actually inputting very much.

For me it doesn’t help in any of my business contexts because my business context requires me to respond and response still requires a keyboard. Being someone in the middle order of things, my responses are rarely short commands to people. If I wanted something ultra-mobile in this context it would need a keyboard and the Sony VAIO TX would probably do just fine, but I tend to need the screen real-estate of a larger laptop.

The point that The Unofficial Microsoft Weblog makes about keyboard-less computing and voice commands is interesting but voice recognition software has still not broken out of its current context which is very small. I have a friend who has a voice activated control system in his car, he hardly ever uses it to initiate a phone call with someone, it’s easier to press the buttons. I have voice activation on my phone, it’s all set-up, it’s still easier to press the buttons.

That brings me back to the Joy of Tech cartoon, does the current devices look enough like a ‘gadget’ for people to rush out and buy them? Would Sue pick one up and see ‘technology’ or see ‘useful’? Clearly the name UMPC doesn’t help one bit, but perhaps the partners will be a little more creative.