Apple launched the first TV spot for the iPad last night during the Oscars. For the most part, the video appears to show an oversized iPod that’s a bit zippier, and better suited to reading books and newspapers due to its large display.

But here’s one thing you may not notice unless you pay extra close attention: Almost every shot of a person actually using the iPad shows legs contorted into unusual positions. Because while you can hold an iPod in one hand and poke at the screen with the other, the iPad is really just too big to use this way. So Apple is suggesting you prop it up on your legs — and that makes it all but useless if you’re sitting in a normal position.

If you place a notebook computer on your lap, you can still see the screen because the keyboard rests on your legs and the screen extends upward. When you put a slate PC like the iPad on your lap, the screen is where the keyboard would normally be. You’d have to bend over awkwardly and incur neck and back pain to use it like this.

Instead, you’re going to have to get a foot stool, prop our feet up on it, bend your legs, and then slouch back in your chair while using the iPad.

OK, presumably there may be some other comfortable positions. This thing’s probably going to be great for reading books in bed, for instance. But it’s clearly not meant for setting on a table or on your lap the way you would with a laptop computer.

Video after the break.

via TUAW

Read the rest of this entry »

Ruslan Kogan is more than just an Australian with an electronics company named after him. He’s the guy who brought us the Kogan Agora netbook based on community input, and who didn’t quite bring us the Kogan Agora cheap, unlocked Android-powered smartphone. So what’s net for Kogan? a $200 tablet running Google Android that looks like it’s set to undercut the Apple iPad (on pricing, if not necessarily features).

And that’s $200 Australian, we’re talking about, which means that the Kogan tablet could sell for as little as $180 US, if it ever comes to the US. Although to be honest, it’s not entirely clear if it will even be released in Australia at this point.

Kogan is showing off a prototype with a 600MHz ARM-based processor, a 7 inch, 800 x 480 pixel capacitive touchscreen display, 2GB of storage, and 512MB of RAM.

The tablet also has an HDMI output. Kogan tells APC Magazine that the demo unit can run Android, Ubuntu Linux, or Windows — although I’m assuming he means Windows CE, since you can’t run the desktop version of Windows on an ARM-based processor.

via Engadget

Wandering the show floor at CeBIT in Germany, jkkmobile stumbled across 2 nice looking tablet computers from DPT. Both feature 7 inch displays, but one model has a 1024 x 600 pixel display and runs Windows 7 while the other is a Windows XP tablet with a lower resolution 800 x 480 pixel display.

The Windows 7 version has a multitouch display, 8GB to 16GB of solid state storage, and an Intel Atom Z5xx series processor. It has 1GB of RAM, 802.11b/g/ WiFi, and an HDMI output as well as a SIM card slot and an optional 3G module.

We’ve seen a lot of Windows XP and Windows 7 tablets over the past few months, but I’m still not convinced there’s a very large market for these slate PCs. The technology to produce them has been around for years, and to be honest, companies have been selling them for quite a while. But while they’ve definitely been popular in certain niche markets and among a small group of enthusiasts, they’ve never really taken off with the general public. I have the feeling that if the Apple iPad takes off, it will be tablets running Google Android or Windows CE that give it a run for its money, not tablets running a desktop operating system designed for use with a keyboard and mouse.

You an check out jkkmobile’s hands-on video after the break.

Read the rest of this entry »

The folks at Engadget have snagged a series of new photos and some new details about Microsoft’s upcoming Courier tablet. It sounds like Microsoft is prepared to take on Apple’s iPad using pretty much the same strategy it’s bringing to bear against the iPhone: The Zune HD and Windows Mobile 7 Series operating system.

The Courier will reportedly weigh just over a pound and measure less than an inch thick. it features two screens, and when you close it up, it’s a little bigger thanВ  5 x 7 photograph.

Under the hood, Engadget says the tablet will have an NVIDIA Tegra 2 chipset, which is a low power chip capable of HD and 3D graphics. The OS will be based on the latest version of Windows CE. But the UI should look more like the Zune HD interface than the Windows Mobile 6.5 user experience.

The Courier is designed to be a “digital journal,” and relies pretty heavily on stylus input and handwriting recognition. Engadget says it should be out later this year.

You can find more photos at Engadget.

The Viliv S10 Blade convertible tablet-style netbook hasn’t started shipping yet, but it is available for pre-order for $699 and up. While it’s not exactly the cheapest netbook on the market, it has a number of premium features and a very nice case design. Chippy at UMPC Portal managed to get his hands on a pre-production unit and he’s posted a rather extensive first-look at the S10 Blade.

You can check out the video after the break, but here are some of the highlights:

• The touchscreen doesn’t appear to be very responsive when using the multitouch screen to zoom in the web browser.
• There’s no palm rejection for when you’re drawing or handwriting.
• It’s available with either a 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z530 or 2GHz Atom Z550 processor.
• There’s a SIM card slot under the battery for an optional 3G modem.
• A mini-USB port works with Viliv’s transfer software that lets you copy files from one PC to another.
• The custom I/O port lets you connect VGA, S-Video, or composite video outputs. There’s also a standard VGA port.
• The battery is flush with the base of the unit, and doesn’t extend to the back, which means it will be hard to make an extended, high capacity battery for this model.
• You can remove the access panel door to upgrade the hard drive/SSD without a screwdriver. Just pop out the battery and slide off the panel door.
• There’s a stylus port built into the side of the laptop making it easier to keep track of your stylus

The Viliv S10 Blade is thin and light for a 10 inch convertible tablet. It runs Windows 7 Home Premium, and while Chippy says that it has a 1024 x 600 pixel display, I believe it’s actually avaailble with a high definition, 1366 x 768 pixel touchscreen display.

Overall, it looks like the chassis is well designed, but the touchscreen display and software leaves a bit to be desired.

Video after the break.

Read the rest of this entry »

After years of rumors, months of anticipation, and a few weeks of actually knowing pretty much what to expect, we finally have a release date for the Apple tablet. The iPad will be available in the US starting on April 3rd. You can place a pre-order for the tablet starting Friday, March 12th.

On launch day, only the WiFi models will be available. If you’re hoping to get your hands on an iPad with WiFi and 3G, you’ll need to wait until late April. You can pre-order either model at Apple.com or an Apple store starting next week.

It looks like the US is first in line. But Apple plans to begin shipping the iPad in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy. Japan, Spain, Switzerland, and the UK in late April.

via Gizmodo

The Entourage Edge is a strange little machine. It’s about the size and shape of a netbook. But instead of a screen and keyboard, it has two screens: 1 9.7 inch e_ink display and a second 10.1 inch color LCD. Both screens are touch sensitive, and the Edge runs Google Android, which means it can run a number of third party apps.

But first and foremost it’s an eBook reader — even if, at 3 pounds, it happens to weigh about 5 times more than your typical dedicated eBook reader.

Laptop Magazine’s KT Bradford has published the first detailed review of the Entourage Edge. While she was impressed at the ambitious effort to create a multipurpose device that makes the Amazon Kindle look boring, she found it a bit bulky. She was also disappointed with the available software.

That said, unlike a dedicated eBook reader, the Edge can play music and video. And it can run some third party apps, including the Dolphin Web browser, an RSS reader, and Facebook and Twitter apps.

I was also a tiny bit surprised to see that the hinge lets you fold either screen over the other for use in tablet mode. So you can treat the Edge as if it were simply a black and white eBook reader or an Android tablet. I hadn’t seen any photos of the edge in this configuration before. But again, 3 pounds is pretty heavy for a tablet.

Hit up Laptop Magazine’s complete review for more details.

The Mio V780 is a 7 inch tablet built around NVIDIA’s Tegra platform, which means it should be able to handle HD and 3D graphics. While the UI is based on Windows CE, Mio has crafted a custom3D user interface so that you’ll never have to see the guts of Windows CE. You’re still stuck with a version of Internet Explorer 6 though. A Google Android version may also be in the works.

The tablet has an 800 x 480 pixel display and can handle a variety of audio and video formats including H.264, DivX, Windows Media, and MP4. It supports WiFi, 3G, and WiMAX connections and an optional digital TV tuner. I’m pretty sure it includes GPS capabilities too (which is really what Mio is best known for). The tablet will come with 512MB of RAM and 4GB to 8GB of flash storage and sell for about 599 Euros ($820 US) when it’s available in Europe.

The price tag seems a bit high. But there’s one thing I absolutely love about the Moov V780 — the carrying case features a keyboard and stand.

I love a good tablet style device that comes with an optional keyboard accessory that effectively turns it into a laptop. I wrote about 90% of my master’s thesis while sitting in a coffee shop with a Dell PDA connected to a keyboard via a clunky docking station and sync cable.

The Mio Moov V780 keyboard seems to be a much better solution, since the keyboard is built right into the carrying case, and no extra docking station or cables are required. There’s also a touchpad or trackball of sorts built into the keyboard so you don’t have to keep lifting your hand to tap on the touchscreen display.

You can check out a hands-on video from jkkmobile after the break.

via NewGadgets.de

Read the rest of this entry »

The Skytone Alpha 400 was one of the dirt cheap mini-laptops with an Xburst processor and a choice of Linux or Windows CE. We’ve seen dozens, if not hundreds of these little guys with Xburst or ARM-based CPUs over the past few years. But Charbax from ArmDevices spotted one of the most intriguing models I’ve seen to date at CeBIT.

The new Skytone Alpha from MAG Digital has an ARM11 processor and runs Google Android 1.6. It has a 7 inch, 800 x 480 pixel display. But the cool part is that there’s a swivel that lets you rotate the screen 180 degrees and fold it down over the keyboard. So you can use the computer as a tablet or a laptop.

The device has WiFi, 2 USB ports, an SD card slot, mic and headphone jacks, and a TV output (although I didn’t recognize the connector, so I can’t say what kind of video out you get).

The battery is only good for about two hours, and the touchpad is rather tiny and features buttons on the left and right sides. What’s a bit unusual is that unlike other Android computes I’ve seen, the touchpad isn’t just good for scrolling through Android menus — there’s actually a cursor that shows up on screen.

On the sides of the touchscreen display, there’s also a directional pad and four buttons that you can use for playing games.

There’s no word on the final pricing, since Skytone is the OEM, not the end distributor. Theoretically it could sell for $200 to $250, but it has to come to market first.

You can check out charbax’s hands-on video after the break.

Read the rest of this entry »

Long before there was an Intel Atom processor for low power mini-laptops and tablets, there was the VIA C7-M. This processor has fallen out of favor in recent years, and it’s not quite as fast as the Atom chipset. But it is an x86-based chip, which means you can run Windows, Linux, or pretty much any other operating system on a computer with a VIA C7-M chip. And some PC makers are still building systems using this chipset.

Jkkmobile stumbled across the booth for a Hong Kong based company called Pierre Cardin (no relation as far as I can tell), where several 5, 7, and 9 inch tablets with were on display. They all had VIA C7-M chips, and some of the newer models had a nifty cover with a built in keyboard. You could close the case over the tablet and throw it in your bag. Or open it up and use the tablet like a laptop.

That’s probably the most exciting feature. But as far as cheap tablets from Hong Kong go, these machines look pretty decent. They come in a variety of colors, with either capacitive (multitouch) or resistive (single touch) displays. The tablets also have SIM card slots and optional 3G modems.

You can check out jkkmobile’s video after the break.

Read the rest of this entry »