Travelling back from Seoul, Korea I couldn’t help but feel good about my experience. The food was better than what I’d experienced in Tokyo (although I blame that on the briefness of my trip to Tokyo), the people and buildings more interesting than Beijing and the gadgets very innovative. I met with UMID and VIliv, and a few others and discussed what’s now and what’s new. As I sampled the foods and played with the gadgets I could see that the South Korean’s are definitely focused on long-term profitability and viability of their country. If you have not travelled through South Korea I could suggest it is a “must see” on your list. To me it’s as unique and interesting as Dubai, and that came as a surprise to me.

Viliv has definitley been on the forefront of UMPC progression over the last year. They have worked diligently to provide these devices with great care, quality and full of features. Battery life on the S5 and X70 is beyond comparison (over 6hrs) and with GPS/3G built-in it is easy to see why they have so much traction. If anyone is thinking of buying an iPad (#FAIL)  then I would sincerely recommend looking at this machine as a contender (and winner) hands-down.


With all that in mind I am extremely excited to share with you that Viliv has one of the most exciting updates a Tablet enthusiast can imagine, i.e. a HID (human Interface Device) Driver for their S5. With the driver the unit gets a dose of steroids allowing it to function properly with stylus and much more! Without the HID Driver the unit clumsily calls-up the TIP (Tablet Input Panel), stumbles through calibration and suffers as a Tablet PC when compared to post-upgrade!

Here is a summary of what works well (and below a set of instructions)!

For those interested here are the install instructions:
 
A. For clean install Window 7 user

1. Extract the attached files
2. Find the mouse controller in Device manager 
3. If there is no S5 atom touch driver then please choose the PS2 Mouse Driver and choose the Driver Update menu to update the attached new HID Driver
4. After that, execute the calibration function in the Control Panel in Windows.

B. For Update s5 atom touch driver

1. Extract the attached files 
2. Find the mouse controller in Device manager 
3. If there is the S5 atom touch driver then please uninstall Atom touch driver first
4. And Delete “i8042prt_atom.sys” file in C:\windows\system32\drivers
5. After that, Reboot your S5 1~2 times
6. Find the mouse controller in Device manager 
7. If there is no S5 atom touch driver then please choose the PS2 Mouse Driver and choose the Driver Update menu to update the attached new HID Driver
8. After that, execute the calibration function in the Control Panel in Windows.

Download HID Driver for Viliv S5 here

I often like posting lateral ways of using Ultra-Mobile PC. We all think of MP3, Video, blogs, vlogs, New York Times (now thanks to iPad) and more. There are however many good business cases for using these to complete tasks, and even some artistic ones too!


On this occasion Australian Lighting Designer Flynn Talbot (twitter) was 1 of 10 designers selected from around the world to showcase his installation “Horizon” at London Design Week. Horizon is an Interactive Light Installation that allows viewers to engage by selecting colours of their choice and watching them translated in a funky and exciting manner on a large screen. The best news for me was that while in London Flynn took a Viliv S5 to control the interactive installation via a purpose built user-interface.

What I like about Flynn is that with his passion for Art he is also combining his passion for technology. This is obvious in his design but can also be witness in his work. At his latest exhibition at Northbridge Piazza in Perth he is allowing anyone interested to be the artistic designer by login into flynntalbot.com/horizon enter your name and 4 colour choices and have it displayed for everyone to see at the Piazza! The website will tell you where you are in the queue (I’m 11th right now!) Each show is a 1min loop and displayed to all onlookers.

There is no live stream but I guess if you’re not in Perth (and many of us aren’t) then you will need to live with a warm fuzzy feeling in your heart knowing you contributed! There is no Viliv for you to use either but I heard you can call this site up on your phone and interact that way! I like what Flynn’s doing and the fact that it showcases exciting potential uses for Mobile PC devices outside of the norm.