Scoble is publishing the Channel 9 Origami video at 3AM Pacific on Thursday. That means I need to be up at 3am to see it in action and then up at 7 in case pre-orders open. Wow.

Using Firefox on a Tablet PC (or Origami):

• MenuX – “was designed for laptop/tablet use where maximum screen realestate is desired. Adds the ability to collapse any toolbar. Adds a library of toolbar buttons”
• Hans suggests: The Grab And Drag extension. It “provides Adobe Acrobat-style grab and drag page scrolling with the mouse. It is an extension for Firefox and Thunderbird 1.0 and higher. It works in Flock betas as well. The extension was originally developed for Tablet PC users to aid pen-based navigation, but some people without scroll wheels on their mice also find it useful.”
• The GeckoTIP extension provides Tablet PC Input Panel support in Firefox, Thunderbird, and Sunbird.
• If it’s your second (or third) FireFox machine, maybe FoxMarks will help.  “Foxmarks is an extension for Firefox that synchronizes bookmarks across multiple machines.”

Past Origami entries:

Origami Report: Tuesday Night, March 7th 2006

Origami History

Origami Report: Tuesday Afternoon, March 7th 2006

OrigamiPortal’s analysis of the new UMPC video and more on the Intel conference.

The CNBC video clip is online.

EVDO for Origami?

Origami Report: Tuesday Morning, March 7th 2005

More data on the UMPC.com site.

New video on the UMPC.com site.

CNBC transcript link.

Engadget’s report on CNet’s hands on.

Models shipping in a few weeks!

Origami Report: Monday Late Night, March 6th 2006

More Pics.

Form Factor comments from Allen at PalmAddict.

UMPC.com forums are open.

Apps I plan to run on Origami.

tech.memeorandum’s coverage.

More wishlists

Origami Report: Monday Evening, March 6th 2006

SirShannon found hidden UMPC.com pages.

Scoble comments on the Origami.

Origami Report: Monday Morning, March 6th 2006

OrigamiPortal is back online with commentary on the new render that’s floating around.

Scoble saw the Origami.

Origami Report: Sunday, March 5th 2006

OrigamiPortal.com outage.

Scoble says he’ll see the Origami on Monday.

Great conversation over at GottaBeMobile. Dennis is asking the big question: What does the Origami you will buy NEED to have?

Info from Steve Payne and Techno-Squirrels.

More revisions on my thoughts on a good Origami feature set.

Origami Report: Saturday, March 4th 2006

ActiveNick is under NDA.

Martin of Tablet UML News is under NDA.

Paul Mooney has notes from a Microsoft presentation.

Scoble and Dennis Rice are trying to manage their own expectations.

My revised thoughts on a good Origami feature set.

I’ve given a little more thought to what I want out of the device. Also, what I don’t need.

Origami Report: Friday, March 3rd 2006

Paul Hoover, apparently from the Origami team, is asking for feedback on the Origami concept with an eye towards ebooks.

Confirmed: Origami will run Firefox!!!

My initial thoughts on what features Origami needs.

An Engadget reader pointed out that the html source code for the Origami Project web site says “Origami Project: the Mobile PC running Windows XP“.

jkOnTheRun has a ‘wrap up’ of other ultra mobile pcs.

The chron techblog references an AP story with more details.

GottaBeMobile: Origami is being demoed to educational software customers.

Tons of opinions from around the web.

Photos of Origami and UMPC.

Origami Project from Microsoft: Week 2

The second installment of the Origami Project Teaser Website is up.

Om’s on fire

The Origami plot thickens with the found video and Om chastizes Palm for not doing it first (I totally agree).

The Real Microsoft Origami?

Well, it didn’t take long for someone to find a prototype commercial for the Origami device.

Neowin’s coverage.

Link to lots of stills + mpg version of the video.

SVSleuth has a look at the short history of Origami, starting at WinHec.

OrigamiPortal just posted two great articles. Analysis of the new UMPC video and more on the details released at the Intel conference.

The CNBC video clip is online. Discussion of the video at Scoble’s!  More discussion at GizModo.

More Origami news here.

I’m still curious to see if the device will have a path to EVDO.  If it does and it’s under $900, then I’ll order it on day one.  It sounds like the first models won’t have an attached keyboard.  The swivel keyboard models will be out next year.  I’m OK with that.  Keyboard has never been on my must have list for this device and I can get a stowaway bluetooth keyboard if I find that I need one.

Some of the prototypes we’ve seen images of in the past couple of weeks and at WinHec last year had very little border around the screen.  I have to say that I prefer that look even if it makes the device a little thicker.  We’ll have to see what models are available.  There are still a ton of question marks.  Thursday is going to be crazy.

This morning’s report is super short – We’re in the home stretch now.

Intel put up a bunch of vague talk about UMPC features, and some device images. Engadget is carrying that story. Many questions still need answering.

Here’s a look at CNBC’s coverage of UMPC (WhatIsNew blog) at the Intel conference today. Very cool. Sounds like there’s two classes of devices. Devices that will be available very, very soon and devices that will not be available this year.

The new UMPC video is GREAT!

Engadget’s report on CNet’s hands on.  Models shipping in a few weeks?  WOOOOO!

For more Origami Reports click here.

More Pics

• Rob Bushway is pointing to a new set of photos (and these look very real) that UberTablet published.

Form Factor:

• Allen on PalmAddict is right. Form Factor is important. He doesn’t like the shape of the Origami designs that have been roaming around the net and he doesn’t like the Nokia 770’s shape.
• On the other hand, I’ve been using pdas since the days of the Pilot 1000. I’ve owned a Pilot 1000, a Palm III, a Palm V, a Palm Tungsten C and now I own a Palm TX. The TX is a wonderful device and it’s been in my pocket since I bought it, but the web browers available are crap. No offense to the authors, but it is no longer OK for me to have to look up mobile-ready versions of the sites I visit.
• Since the primary functions for my PDA are all web based applications, I am definitely willing to move to a wider form factor for my ‘PDA’ where a modern browser will feel at home. And since I no longer want to be tied to browsers that do not have modern functionality, I’m happy to see that Origami will be running XP which means I can use FIREFOX.
• So, while I agree that form factor is important, I also think bigger is better, to an extent.
• As for the form factor making my pocket the wrong place to carry the device, I’m really going to have to figure that out. Maybe they’ll come out with a line of windbreakers, fleeces and tshirts with Origami pockets in the belly.

UMPC.com

• Let’s get the party started in the forums over there. The account creation link is here.

Apps – Since this thing will be running XP, I’ve got a pretty good idea of what I’ll be installing. Some of these are the apps I install on every PC and some are apps that I’ve never really tried because I’ve never owned a Tablet PC. I know, I’m in for a treat.

• Firefox (of course). I wonder if there is a small resolution skin out there.
• Outlook, Office
• OneNote 2007 (if I can get it), which means:
• – Napkin Math – Reminds me of the cool stuff you can do with the Fly pen from LeapFrog.

• – Drawings mingled with text
• – Linked Notes
• – All images are OCR’d – all of a sudden I really want the Origami to include a camera!!!
• BallDroppings – If you don’t know what this is, go there NOW! Bruce Sterling loves it and so will you.
• Graphite – Uses Tablet PC Ink to create flowcharts, etc.
• AraxisMerge – Don’t leave home without it.
• SR32 – Don’t leave home without that, either.
• FileZilla
• Gaim
• mIRC
• Ink Art / Art Rage – I saw the first version in action and I can’t wait to see what’s new! Maybe I should watch the movie I just linked to….

tech.memeorandum

• tech.memeorandum’s coverage today. Here and here.

More wishlists

• Michael Parekh has a list up. I’m guessing he’ll be very happy. And if the thing has an EV-DO option, we’ll both be walking on air.
• Nathan Weinberg suggests that the Origami form factor matches nicely with the new Office 2007 UI. Hmmmmm….
• Hugo Ortega has his own wishlist. (contacts, video, onenote, msn with ink, synchronization, connectivity)

Tomorrow, the door officially opens over at umpc.com.

As always, you can find the rest of my thoughts about Origami here.