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Sony unveils (in Japan) a tiny PC that can be used with a keyboard, or has a teardrop-shaped stylus and Japanese character recognition for mobile use. Flexible design accommodates e-books and audio/video. See this article for nice pictures.

The consumer electronics giant is billing the Vaio VGN-U70 as the world’s smallest full-function Windows PC. The unit measures 16.7 x 10.8 x 2.6cm and weighs just 550g. Much of the machine’s face is taken up by an 800 x 600 transflective colour LCD. The display can also operate at up to 1600 x 1200, but at this stage it’s not clear if that’s a native resolution.

Apparently, there’s a button you can press that reformats the display in portrait mode, not unlike the way the PalmOne Tungsten T3′s screen works. There are also buttons that operate the cursor.

The portrait mode is primarily intended to facilitate the device’s use as an electronic book. Sony also bundles stereo earphones with a remote control for private audio and video playback.

Devices character recognition, LCD, mobileTech, PC, portable, stylus, Windows

Wired thinks Tablet PCs are finally taking off.

The idea for the tablet PC — a portable device to allow users to enter data with a penlike stylus — had been percolating quietly ever since chipmaker National Semiconductor announced a design in the dot-com boom years for a simple Web-browsing pad that manufacturers could use to make the devices.

Unlike price-pressured desktops, tablet PCs are able to command premium pricing — ranging from about $1,000 to about $2,300. They are now sold by major PC manufacturers such as Hewlett-Packard, Acer, Toshiba, NEC, Fujitsu and Gateway.

Still lacking in apps (even if the underlying operating system is Windows).

Devices computer, mobileTech, PC, stylus, tablet