Next, we'll have dogs living with cats

Has Microsoft made a quality product? Will wonders never cease...

SEATTLE/HANOVER (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. on Thursday unveiled its 'Origami' project, a paperback-book sized portable computer, which is a hybrid between a laptop PC and a host of mobile devices that the world's biggest software maker hopes will create an entirely new market.

Lighter than two pounds (0.972 kilograms) with a seven-inch (17.78-centimetre) touch-screen, the new "ultra-mobile" PCs (UMPCs) use microprocessors from Intel Corp. (INTC.O: Quote, Profile, Research) and run a modified version of Microsoft's Windows XP Tablet PC edition.

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Taiwan's Asustek Computer Inc., and China's second largest PC-maker, the Founder Group, are expected to release the first three ultra-mobile PCs, which Microsoft had code-named 'Origami' in an elaborate marketing campaign.

South Korea's Samsung's product goes on sale in April.

The pics look very interesting - basically, it looks like it's about the size of Sony's ebook reader, except far more capable.

Now all we need to do is disinfect the Windows out of there. I figure the thing is begging to be homebrewed like the PSP, right?