Microsoft officially unveiled its new slimmed down Tablet PC platform, called the "UltraMobile PC" at the CeBit show in Germany. Sitting between notebook-sized tablet PCs and portable media centers, it's a small XP device that Microsoft unabashedly hopes will be bigger than cellphones.

The unit will include extensions to the Tablet PC OS called "Touch Pack", designed to make touch-screen navigation easier.  And in a nod to popular taste, it'll include Microsoft's first Soduku game too.

But the shocker in Microsoft's big Origami unveiling in Germany today wasn't the device itself – which had been rumored about for weeks.  It was the launch partner instead.  Samsung is finally entering the US market with its own branded Windows computer (Dell has been selling Samsung-built notebooks here for some time).  It'll cost between $600 and $1,000, and will be available in April.  For more details on both Samsung and the Origami project, including pictures, check out my UltraMobile PC launch story at PC Magazine.