Before the
iPad and before the
Slate, the most exciting touchy tablety thing in our lives was
Toshiba's JournE multimedia tablet. Now that the Japanese compu-maker has seen what the competition has on offer, it's proudly proclaimed itself back in the running with an entire family of slate devices it's planning to introduce near the end of 2010 or in early 2011. "It has proved to be a mistake to underestimate these new categories" is the word from Toshiba's Jeff Barney, which indicates that not even he sees that much potential in the form factor, but his company is pushing ahead with its plans for fear of being left behind. Also quoted in the
Fortune piece is ASUS' inimitable
Jonney Shih, who makes sure to remind us that without multitasking, Flash support, or a webcam for videoconferencing, the iPad leaves plenty of room for devices richer in features to grab market share. All we know for certain is that the major players are
falling in line to make 2010 truly
the year of tablet -- whether or not consumers will place their stamp of approval on this vendor-driven craze, though, remains to be seen.
posted March 11th 2010 6:22AM
optical drive ????????????
@XRX Fugly.
end of 2010 / early 2011 = too late?
@LS
Totally. I love when manufacturers drop these press releases which are essentially, "Us, too!" Great, I'll enjoy using the idea of this device for the next year until it become real. Stupid. Have some foresight into the market. That is what your primary job is.
A whole years worth of wait for more/better tablet options is absolute TORTURE!
that's not a slate, that's a brick!
thank god, i've been waiting for ages for a slate or tablet.
I'm waiting for someone to call their product "Mr. Slate". That would be fun.
@darex Yabba dabba doo
I think the important thing for the consumer is that some of these devices get picked up and that Apple doesn't build as big a lead in this category as they did with the iPod and iPhone. Why? Because perhaps it will teach Apple a lesson or force its hand to push out better hardware earlier, then again perhaps not. But iPhone and iPod took, or are taking, forever to get some things because of arrogance, I hope that isn't the iPad.
@juanvaldez Apple has never had to push out hardware...don't you remember?
G4 BETTER THEN COREDUO NO WAIT COREDUO BETTER THEN G4!
G5 BETTER THEN COREQUAD...NO WAIT...COREQUAD NOW BETTER THEN G5!!
Most People (probably not the people here) will listen to whatever Apple tells them is "the best" the actuality of it never matters.
The success of the iPad relies SOLELY on apples ability to market it and make people think they need/want it. Apple is usually very good at this, but the iPad is going to be a tough battle.
I found it's "home":
https://www.toshibatouch.eu/
Why it's not released - I will try to find out...
/Fred on
What, no floppy? massive FAIL.
Earth to Toshiba, earth to Toshiba -- it's not the form factor, it's not the feature set, it's the crappy OS. Now go and get a clue.
I found out and got this:
Stay tuned in 2 weeks you will see it on the shelves with additional cool features
/Fred on
@Atkins what market? The over sized smartphone but not full functional computer market?
Apple is trying to create a Market...Toshiba is right on time, they can cancel the project if the markets creation doesn't come to pass (which I predict it won't)
And this goes to prove again that Apple can not come up with anything by themselves
@maximaman323
Your comment proves people can actually belive the opposite of reality.
The thing that struck me is they're using Apple's icon for Wifi. Or is that some industry standard icon?
Honestly, the whole hoopla with slates would make much more sense if these could double as remote desktops to run a 24/7 home entertainment or automation servers.
Cheap tablet with a minimum computing power to sustain a data link to a server and to show graphics beamed over this link. Server does the rest.
I'd love to keep something like that on a bedside table to manage audio, use as an alarm clock to wake me up with tunes or news or video, etc.
Video phone wouldn't be bad either.
It'll be too late by this time next year. way to be on time for the party Toshiba. boooooo
Give me a 7-10" screen, usb and sd slots, and good battery life. I have wifi on all my other devices. I'd load music, vids and movies on it, to watch on trains and planes. Give it an open source OS, and let me add media I ALREADY OWN on it. Price it under $200, and I'll buy it. Is that asking too much?
I want one made of granite! That'd be a nice slate! It doubles as a cutting board too!