Using Google Custom Search, I have created a power search specifically for MPCT. The page will search the MPCT front page, MPCT forums, and the MPCT Wiki. You can use the “Forums” and “Micro PC Talk Wiki” links at the top of the results to narrow your search to just the forums, or just the Wiki. The best part about this is that it is all powered by Google Search so you will be getting quality results. Try it out here!

In his quest to play games more efficiently on the Vaio UX Micro PC, Micro PC Talk member danmiddle2 decided to hack the Genius MaxFire Pandora Pro USB gamepad controller and modify it to become a perfect UX accessory.

Basically - it still connects via the USB, but is mounted via the Compact Flash blanking card, for stability and removability (didn’t want to glue anything to the UX itself. The second half of the controller was removed and re-attached to the back, giving reasonable access to all 8 buttons.

Check out the video that danmiddle2 posted at YouTube:

Some of you may have seen my recent announcement over at UMPC Portal that I am joining the writing team. I just wanted to quell any concerns that I won’t still be taking care of MPCT. I’ll still be around and active as I’ve always been, posting front page UX related news, and interacting with all the great people we have in the forum. My work over at UMPCPortal.com is similar, but covers a more broad scope of the UMPC world, MPCT will remain UX focused.

Snooping around one of Sony’s sites, I found mention of a VGN-UX383CN, a UX model that I don’t believe has been seen before. CN is generally the tag that denotes a Canada localized product (on Sony products at least). SonyStyle Canada has had the UX380CN for sale on their site for months now. So that begs the question: what is the UX383CN? My best guess is that it is the Canadian equivalent of the UX490. You might ask “Why wouldn’t they just call it the UX490CN?” well my friends, Sony might actually be sparing us confusion in the model number department this time around. There is a US UX version with the model number VGN-UX490NC. The UX490NC is the UX490N+Extended Battery+Bluetooth GPS Adapter bundle as sold by SonyStyle here in the US. A model titled “UX490CN” would get extremely confusing for customers. If the UX383 does turn out to be a Canadian version of the UX490, you can expect the same specs: 1.2Ghz Core 2 Solo CPU, 1GB of RAM, and 48GB SSD. The only difference would most likely be the inclusion of CF slot in place of an EDGE modem. More details when they appear.

Using some of the resources in the forums, member Halx was able to install Windows XP on his UX490. He was kind enough to drop us some benchmarks, and as far as I know, this confirms that a UX490 running Windows XP is the fastest performing UMPC currently on the market. The meters above represent the total Crystal Mark score. Below is a breakdown graph comparing the UX490 running Windows XP, to an identical unit running Windows Vista. As expected, XP uniformly outperforms Vista in every area.

Halx of the forums has hand crafted a great looking hardcover case, that doubles as a stand, for his UX. The cleverly designed accessory attaches to the UX using the same slots that the dock uses to hang onto the UX. Halx says the hand made cover took him nearly 6 hours to make, and its made using two pieces of acrylic glass. As you can see in the following pictures, there is a cutout for the fingerprint scanner which appears to be cut at an angle to allow the finger to slide over it easily. Check out more shots below, and stop by Halx’s original thread for addition pictures and information.

For those of you late to the party: This was an April Fool’s joke! 

In a surprising move, it appears that Sony is getting ready to unveil the newest model in the UX series, which will include a mini-CD drive. The aptly named VGN-UX491-MCD will remove the EDGE module to make way for a mini-CD drive which will accept 8cm ‘mini-CDs’. The unit is identical to the UX490 in all ways (48GB SSD, 1.2Ghz Core 2 Solo, 1GB of RAM) except for the new drive.

Mini-CDs, if you will recall, hold around 200mb of data, and are otherwise identical to the larger 12cm CD other than in size. Luckily the diameter of the hole in the center of the mini-CD is the same as a full sized CD, this means that mini-CDs that you use in your UX will also be able to function in most standard CD drives. The drive will be able to burn mini-CDs (no word on speed yet), and this will finally offer an out-of-the-box option for UX users to burn their own recovery disks. Users will be able to use the recovery software that comes pre-installed to burn their recovery disks which will fit on 23 mini-CDs.

The drive will most likely use a non-powered eject (no motors to eject the drive, just a ‘pop’ similar to many laptop drives). No word yet on pricing, availability, or if non-US CF slot models will see the same treatment.

This information comes from the UX491-MCD flash tour which seemed to have mistakenly gone up early on SonyStyle.com in place of the UX490’s flash tour. It looks like Sony has already caught their mistake and removed the flash preview of the UX491-MCD, I’ll keep these images mirrored here for future reference.

Sony’s most recent UX permutation, the UX490N, is heading to Korea as the UX58LN. The unit will include the same 48GB SSD, 1.2GHz Core 2 Solo (U2200), 1GB of RAM, and some iteration of Vista. Unconfirmed but assumed to be true is that the UX58LN will include a CF slot in place of the EDGE modem on its US counterpart. Additionally I cannot find any information as to whether the UX58LN will include the extended battery and Sony Bluetooth GPS adapter as the UX490N/C package did. I’ll update this post if I find out any more info on these discrepancies.

[AVING] via [Pocketables]

For those of you using Firefox, you should already be well acquainted to the bookmark bar - a convenient little bar where you can put bookmark buttons. As a UMPC user, screen real estate is always an issue, in the case of the bookmark bar, which runs horizontally, it fills up pretty fast and starts to run off the screen. However, a little trick will probably more than triple the number of items you can have on your bookmark bar. The trick is very simple, you remove the title of the bookmark and only keep the favicon to differentiate between your bookmarks. Sorry mac users, but this trick won’t work for you, as the last time I checked, Firefox for mac didn’t put favicons in the bookmark bar.

1. Add the site to your bookmark bar
2. Click the bookmark to reload the site and make Firefox grab the favicon
3. Right-click the bookmark you just added and go to “Properties”
4. Delete all the text in the “Name” field and click OK

Now you should see just the favicon of your bookmarked site, and you will have a lot more room to add more items to your bookmark bar. Here is another tip: Right click on an empty part of the bookmark bar and click “Add Separator”, this will drop a small dragable line onto your bookmark bar that you can use to separate different favicons to stay a bit more organized.

I’ve been using this theme for a while now and I thought I should pass it on to readers. If you are using Firefox, you are probably aware that you can install different themes to change the appearance of the browser. While searching for ways to improve my touchscreen experience on the UX, I happened across a theme called Kempelton Large. This theme provides you with large buttons that make it easy to tap with a finger for touchscreen users.

Some of you may use your UMPC as a mobile device as well as a desktop unit; obviously you won’t need the large buttons when your device is hooked up to a monitor, keyboard and mouse. Luckily there are two easy ways to reclaim that screen real estate that you lose when using the larger buttons. The first option is switching back to the default theme which can be done in as little as four mouse clicks - Tools > Add-ons > Themes (if already selected, eliminate this mouse click) > Firefox (default) > Use Theme. The only problem I find with this method is that Firefox has to be restarted to switch to the default theme, fortunately there is an even easier way to solve this problem. Just do the following - Right-Click (in an empty area on a Firefox toolbar) > Customize > check off “Use Small Icons”, now you have reduced the size of the icons very quickly for when you don’t need them to accommodate your finger. Combine this theme with the Grab and Drag add-on and you have yourself a very nice touchscreen browser.