I agree with Engadget. The new UMPCs (basically small Tablet PCs) are MUCH better than the first ones. The new Sony is tiny and interesting. The only thing wrong is still the price.
In fact, at Microsoft they did a lot of price testing. If these ever get to $500 they’ll sell like hotcakes. The OEMs don’t believe Microsoft’s own price testing, though. That’s too bad.
At the Intel Developer Forum I got a demo of one that interacted with a new prototype VW and it was awesome. Those new markets won’t really appear for several more years, but I talked with representatives from VW and they can see a whole bunch of things to do with them.