Taiwan’s Dialogue shows new touchscreen subnotebook

Taiwan’s Dialogue Technology will soon put on sale a new subnotebook PC with a touchscreen, the company said Thursday.

The Flybook V3, which is on show for the first time at this week’s World PC Expo in Tokyo, is the third model in the company’s Flybook family of compact Windows XP-based notebook computers. The machine, like others in the range, features a display that swivels around and can be folded down so that is faces outwards.

The 8.9-inch screen supports a maximum resolution of 1,024 pixels by 600 pixels and is fitted with a standard touch panel that can be operated by almost any stylus. Initially the machine will be available with either the Windows XP Home or Professional operating systems installed and later with a new version of Microsoft’s Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, said Michael Lee, a representative of the company, speaking at the Tokyo exhibition.

Standard touch panels like that on the Flybook are not supported by Microsoft’s Windows XP Tablet PC Edition operating system — Microsoft has insisted on more complex electromagnetic touch panels and stylus — but a relaxed version of the operating system will soon be launched that will include support.

“We’re not sure when,” Lee said. “All we know is that it was supposed to be available from September.”

When running the new operating system, computers with conventional touch panels will support about 95 percent of the operations possible with the more complex panels preferred until now, said Lee.

The new machine is the most powerful member of the Flybook range to-date. it’s based on an Intel Pentium M ULV processor running at 1.1GHz. Other specifications include 512MB of memory and a hard-disk in capacities between 20GB and 100GB.

The machines are designed with mobile communications in mind and have internal Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, said Lee. European versions also include EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution) and GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) modems while U.S. versions include CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) support. Support for 3G cellular networks is also planned.

The machine is scheduled to launch in Europe and the Middle East in November and then in the U.S. and Asia, said Lee. Pricing has yet to be determined.