Before CES started (technically it starts tomorrow, but it might as well just start today considering the number of product announcements), I talked about a new UMPC from E-Lead that looked like it could improve on many of the problems with the Eee PC, but there were almost no details. Now, the details have arrived from Pocketables and the Noahpad website. Just from a quick glance at the details of this new Noahpad I can tell that E-Lead looked at all the problems with the Eee PC and tried to fix them. I say tried because I am skeptical about how well many of their solutions will work, but at least they tried.

One of the biggest complains about the Eee PC is the small keyboard. The Noahpad features two big trackpads that are also supposed to be able to mimic the feel of buttons. This is supposed to make typing easier because the keyboard is split into two parts (the two trackpads) so there is more space. In addition, the Noahpad can be opened all the way so that it looks like a tablet with the keys on the back and the screen on the front. In this configuration, a layover appears on the screen of the keys so that you can type even without looking at the keyboard. (This is really hard to explain, but this picture and this picture from the Pocketables website make it much easier to understand.)

Another frequent complaint about the Eee PC is the small screen. While the Noahpad has the same size screen (7″), they claim that their 7″ screen works like a 10″ screen. That sounds complicated, but the idea is really quite simple. On your 7″ screen, you see part of what you would see on a 10″ screen and you just scroll around with the over sized trackpads. Once again, this is hard to explain, so I am just going to quote from the Noahpad site:

“Noahpad UMPC uses the virtual screen technology to display portions of the standard 10¨ window on its 7¨ screen while maintaining the resolution of 1024X768 pixels. With the unique touchpad controller, users can easily move the window around on the screen, effectively expanding the viewing area from 7¨ to 10¨ .”

The Noahpad does not just attempt to fix problems with the Eee PC, though. The Noahpad is also designed to be able to preform the functions of a digital photo frame or car GPS navigation system. Unfortunately, the Noahpad does not have built-in GPS, so you need an external GPS reciever. In addition to all this, the Noahpad uses some sort of external battery to provide 10 hours of battery life.

The Noahpad certainly sounds cool, but it still remains to be seen if the features, such as the combination trackpad and keyboard, really work as they are supposed to. Also, there is no price point yet. Mobile Whack is claiming the price will be in the range of the Eee PC, but I can’t verify that. Still, this new UMPC certainly looks cool.

Urgent notice to all Windows users: Due to the security problems of Windows, you now need to purchase a Linux computer in order to keep the viruses and spyware off your existing Windows PC.

Yes, its true, a security company called Yoggie just announced a USB device that plugs into a Windows computer to keep it safe from viruses. The device, which looks like a big USB flash drive is really an entire computer that runs Linux. The idea is that you plug this thing in to your computer and its 13 applications will keep your computer safe without using up the resources of your current computer. The problem is, when an operating system gets to the point where you need another computer running a more secure operating system to keep the original computer from getting stuffed with viruses and spyware, it might be a good idea to think about just using that more secure operating system, in this case Linux.

Seriously, there has to come a point when Windows users are going to look at the resources they are throwing away and the viruses they are getting and say this is enough! At that point, Linux must be ready to provide an easy-to-use, secure, bloat-free desktop. Luckily, Linux already has all that.