With all the news we’ve been reporting recently about UMPCs, it’s easy to forget about the devices that came before the “Origami” but still embraced many of the same design features. The Pepper Pad, a Linux-based UMPC-style device that we covered back in March, is getting a facelift in the form of a new processor, upgraded specifications, and a refined exterior. This new device is already available for preordering over an Amazon.com, and boasts a feature set the rivals most UMPCs.
The previous Pepper Pad boasted an Intel XScale PXA270 @ 624 MHz, an Intel 2700G 2D/3D/MPEG media GPU, an 8.4″ touch screen with an 800 x 600 resolution plus stylus, 32 MB of video RAM, 256 MB of system RAM, 32 MB of Intel StrataFlash ROM, and a 20 GB HDD. Wi-Fi 802.11b, Bluetooth 1.2, infrared receivers, USB 1.1, an SD/MMC slot, stereo speakers, video-out, and audio jacks rounded out this device, and the system utilized a physical keyboard split in half and positioned on the upper portion of each side of the screen. The new Pepper Pad keeps the overall design of the exterior, but swaps the XScale processor and GPU for an AMD LX800 @ 500 MHz with an AMD CS5536 companion device. The touch screen has been downsized slightly, to 7″, while the system’s RAM remains at 256 MB. In addition to the 20 GB hard drive, there’s a 30 GB hard drive option. Other than that, everything’s an upgrade; the new Pepper Pad boasts Wi-Fi 802.11b/g (with WEP and WPA support), Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR, dual IR emitters, an IR receiver, USB 2.0, a VGA video camera, and the usual suspects (AC ‘97 audio, stereo speakers, microphone, directional pad, and scroll wheel).
On the software side of things, the Pepper Pad v3 includes Linux 2.6 as well as the GTK+, X11, FreeType, Cairo, and ALSA libraries. Support is also included for the EXT2/3, FAT, VFAT/FAT32, HFS, and HFS+ filesystems, the MP3, WMA, RealMedia, AAC, HTP/RTSP/MMS streaming, PLS/AU playlists, and Helix framework audio formats, and the MPEG-4, AVI, WMV, RealMedia, HTTP/RTSP/MMS streaming, MPlayer and Helix video formats. The unit comes with Mozilla Firefox 1.5 any Macromedia Flash Player 7, allowing users to view dynamic content right from the Pepper Pad. Also included is instant messaging support for AIM, Yahoo! IM, and SIP, Windows Media DRM 10 decoding, and POP3/IMAP/AOL/Webmail email support. All-in-all, it seems that the Pepper Pad might be able to deliver on knockout package for a cheaper price than most UMPCs; interested parties can preorder the device on Amazon.com for $699.99. So if you’re in the market for a UMPC-style device, give the Pepper Pad 3 a chance; while the Linux OS might scare some users, others might find it capable of doing everything they need for less than a similarly-powered UMPC.
-bn
Image courtesy of Gizmodo.
