Charles on… anything that comes along

NOW, holding an Ultra Mobile PC in your hands is very cool and exciting for the first 30 seconds, and it certainly turns heads. Unfortunately, your next instinct is to try doing something on this computer — and that’s when you discover that there’s no keyboard, mouse or trackpad.

The trackpad problem is survivable, thanks in part to the touch screen. If something on the screen is big enough, you can just tap it with your finger. That’s the idea behind the Program Launcher, a great-looking, animated Windows XP overlay that offers big, fat, customizable category buttons (Connect, Listen, Play and so on) that help to organize big, fat program buttons (Internet Explorer, Media Player and so on).

When the targets aren’t so big — the tiny system tray icons, for example — you can tap the screen with the flimsy plastic stylus.

…As an alternative, Microsoft offers a new on-screen keyboard called Dial Keys. It depicts the right and left halves of a split keyboard at the lower corners of the screen, arrayed in concentric arcs that match your thumbs’ reach. It’s a cute conceit. Unfortunately, not only do these huge quarter-circles obscure your document, but of course you can’t feel the keys.

Keep in mind, though, that the battery lasts only about three hours. Worse, there’s no built-in DVD drive. You can buy movies from the Internet, but you’ll need one of Samsung’s external drives anyway ($220, or $300 for a superthin one); without it, you’ll have no easy way to install software.

WHY [did they introduce it?] This, of course, is the great unanswered question.

Origami - those tiny mobile PCs - is going to be a flop. Same as Smart Displays, though for different reasons. Pogue nails it like he’s wielding a gun. (A nail gun?)