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Daily Roundup: Toshiba Excite Write review, Xbox One unboxed, Google's eventual downfall, and more!
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
Toshiba Excite Write review
It's a tricky thing to name your devices after a verb. And when we say "tricky," we mean ill-advised. That Toshiba could willfully overlook Excite as a magnet for terrible (and terribly negative) puns speaks to its distance from the tablet category (remember the Thrive?). Yet, here we have another generation of Excite tablets and this, the Excite Write, is the line's top-shelf offering. Its Wacom digitizer and included stylus mean this tablet can go toe to toe with the Note 10.1; both have the same screen size and 1,024 degrees of pressure sensitivity. But where Samsung's outsized Note skimped on the HD resolution, Toshiba's gone the opposite direction. Boasting a 2,560 x 1,600 display, a Wacom digitizer, a Tegra 4 heart, 2GB of RAM and Harman Kardon speakers, the Write is a welcome chord change in an otherwise uneventful 10-inch Android fugue. Of course, the catch to all of this premium goodness is a premium price: $600 in this case. You still there? %Gallery-195572%
Toshiba intros three Android tablets, two with Tegra 4 and a 2,560 x 1,600 screen (update: hands-on video)
Could three times be a charm for Toshiba? After striking out with its "Thrive" Android tablets and then coming up a bit short with the "Excite" line, the company is completely scrapping its tablet lineup and replacing it with three new models. These include the Excite Pure, Excite Pro and Excite Write, and while they share the same plastic design, 10-inch form factor, ports and Android 4.2 OS, they each offer something a little different on the inside. Starting with the Pure, it's a $300 tablet running with last year's specs -- namely, a Tegra 3 SoC, a 1,280 x 800 screen with Gorilla Glass 1 and no rear camera. Storage is capped at 16GB, but since all of these have a microSD slot, 16GB or 32GB isn't really a hard limit. Moving up the line, the Excite Pro steps up to a Tegra 4 chip, 32GB of storage, an 8MP rear camera, Harman Kardon sound and a 2,560 x 1,600, 300-ppi Gorilla Glass 2 screen to match the Nexus 10. As you can see in our hands-on shots, it was meant to be used with an optional keyboard case, though you can technically use that dock with any of these tablets, since they all share the same hardware. That will arrive in early July for $500, putting it in line with the iPad and other premium tablets like the ASUS Transformer Pad Infinity. Finally, the Excite Write is exactly what it sounds like: a tablet with pen support. Specifically, it has a Wacom digitizer with support for 1,024 levels of pressure sensitivity. Accordingly, Toshiba is also pre-loading its own TruNote and TruCapture apps to assist with note-taking. That digitizer aside, the Write shares all the same specs as the Excite Pro: Tegra 4, 32GB of storage, an 8-megapixel camera and a 10.1-inch, 2,560 x 1,600 display. This, too, will be available next month, with an MSRP of $600. In the meantime, check out our hands-on photos after the break.
Toshiba intros Excite 10 SE tablet with Android 4.1, available December 6th for $350
Toshiba's been relatively quiet on the tablet front since announcing its Excite lineup back in April, but today the company's making a mild comeback with a hot-off-the-press, Jelly Bean-loaded slate. Aside from packing Android 4.1, though, the newly announced (although not exactly unknown) Excite 10 SE also boasts a 10.1-inch, AutoBrite HD (1280 x 800) display and NVIDIA'S Tegra 3 CPU -- all while weighing just shy of 23 ounces (22.6, to be exact) and measuring in at only 0.4 inches thick. Toshiba's making the Excite 10 SE available a couple of days from now, on December 6th, starting at a decent price of $350 with 16GB of internal storage -- at which point you'll be able to snag one from the source link below or at 'select' brick-and-mortar retailers.
Toshiba AT300SE tablet launches for the budget British crowd with Jelly Bean, Tegra 3
Toshiba has spent a surprising amount of time at the high-end of the tablet world this year with devices like the Excite 7.7 and Excite 13. It's taking an opposite tack going into the all-important holiday season. The AT300SE spotted earlier this year (likely to be called the Excite 10SE in North America) has been made official for the UK, and it's all about catering to the starter audience without tarnishing the core experience. The 10.1-inch slate is slightly thicker and heavier than its regular AT300 (Excite 10) cousin and scales back the cameras to 3 megapixels at the back and 1.2 at the front, but it preserves the quad-core Tegra 3 and 1,280 x 800 IPS-based display that we know so well. There's even a slight advantage to having held out for the frugal model: the AT300SE ships with Jelly Bean from the outset, which could leave it feeling faster than its Ice Cream Sandwich-toting predecessors. At £300 ($476), the lone 16GB model due this fall isn't officially as cheap as the AT300 on the street, although we wouldn't be surprised to see the real-world cost drop lower. We're mostly left wondering if the as yet unconfirmed Excite 10SE could beat the slimmer original's $400 price in the US.
Toshiba Excite 10SE / AT300SE gets caught visiting the FCC, may tout Jelly Bean
If you're Toshiba, what do you do when you're looking to goose interest in the Excite 10 tablet? Roll out a quick follow up, of course. Accordingly, the FCC has just recently cleared a refreshed tablet, the AT300SE, that the Bluetooth SIG suggests will be called the Excite 10SE in North America. As shown, it's a European-spec WiFi model that gives away little by itself. It's when we combine this with the Bluetooth listing and speed tests that a clearer picture of the upgrade emerges -- there's been an AT300SE in GLBenchmark's performance charts that we've seen running Jelly Bean (unavailable to current Excites) on top of what looks to be the familiar 1,280 x 800 display and 1.3GHz Tegra 3. While there may be other surprises lurking in areas the tests can't reach, the documents point to a quick nip-and-tuck from Toshiba to keep tablet sales afloat rather than a full overhaul.
Toshiba unites PC, tablet and TV design groups, aims for hub of digital harmony
Toshiba is one of the few Japanese tech giants to be riding high from a cash standpoint, but the company is still looking for ways to trim the fat -- not to mention get some fresh design in the process. The firm is merging the design team for its Regza TVs into the same western Tokyo facility that houses its PC and tablet groups. While there's a certain amount of cost-cutting involved, the shift will help "fusion products," Toshiba says, where TV influences PCs and tablets (or vice versa) like so much chocolate getting into peanut butter. The only amount of discord left might be in Toshiba's TV production, where quality and production controls are being outsourced and more of the production itself is leaving Japan. As much as we'd argue that the Excite 13 is almost too much like a TV to begin with, we'll only find out whether or not there's merit to Toshiba's design nirvana after the groups get cozy with each other later this year.
Toshiba Excite 13 review: a big-screened tablet with a price to match
Well, this lede pretty much wrote itself. A 13-inch tablet, seriously? Toshiba is pushing the form factor limits with the Excite 13, and while its dimensions make it stand out in a sea of 7- and 10-inch devices, that isn't necessarily what tablet buyers are looking for. More Info Toshiba announces Excite 10, 7.7 and 13 tablets, Thrive slates on their way out Toshiba Excite 7.7 review Toshiba Excite 10 review There's no shortage of skepticism about such a large slate -- "slab" seems appropriate here -- so the Toshiba Excite 13 needs to provide an exceptional experience, with a brilliant display and smooth graphics, to make 2.2 pounds seem more palatable. On paper, its specs are promising: there's a quad-core Tegra 3 CPU under the hood, a 1600 x 900 display at 138 ppi and a clean build of Android 4.0. The company already has the Excite 7.7 and Excite 10 in its arsenal, and their good performance and bright displays make for compelling tablets. But how does a 13-inch tablet that starts at $650 round out that trio? Read on for our full impressions. %Gallery-159048%
Toshiba Excite 7.7 review
More Info That 7.7-inch Toshiba tablet we saw at CES? It's called the AT270, and it runs Tegra 3 Toshiba announces Excite 10, 7.7 and 13 tablets, Thrive slates on their way out Toshiba pushes AT270 Tegra 3 tablet through the FCC, gets Excited In its sophomore attempt at cranking out Android tablets, Toshiba has unleashed the Excite series, a trifecta of thin tablet terror, upon Terran territory. The tiniest of the Thrive-topping trio is the Tegra 3-toting Excite 7.7, a close competitor to the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7. It's portable, sports a gorgeous AMOLED display and packs plenty of processing power. Unfortunately for consumers, there aren't too many tablets this small with this nice a display, which means it'll be much easier for Toshiba to be noticed. Coming to the US on June 24th, the WiFi-only version of the 7.7 -- also known as the AT270 -- will be available for $500 with 16GB and $580 for 32GB. It's not the most flattering price tag, but the Tegra 3 and brilliant display help ease the pain your wallet may experience. But is it worth it? You know what to do: head on past the break for our detailed review. %Gallery-157592%
Toshiba bows out of netbooks in the US, sees Ultrabooks as the wave of the future
The pace of netbook launches has visibly slowed between the dual-pronged pressures of tablets and ultrabooks, and at least for Americans, it's about to get a lot slower. A Toshiba executive has warned that there aren't any plans to bring more netbooks to the US; the NB510's presence at CES this year is now as close as Yankees will get to any more Atom-powered notebooks from the outfit. Instead, all of Toshiba's enthusiasm for ultraportables in the country will be spent on Ultrabooks like the Portege Z835. It's a sad day for those who like their computers tiny, especially as it hikes the minimum price for a super-light Toshiba laptop to $800, but it's hard to ignore a rapidly declining market. We also imagine that Toshiba will gladly steer you to one of its Excite tablets if you're looking for the basics in a small shape.
Toshiba AT330 gets FCC approval, on track for June 10th launch date
Toshiba's 7.7-inch and 10.1-inch Excite tablets (known also by their respective model numbers, AT270 and AT300) have had their time in the FCC spotlight, and now it's the 13-incher's turn. The ARM-powered AT330 looks to be on track for its on-sale date of June 10th, so it has a good month to sit tight alongside its 7.7-inch sibling. As for that FCC report, no surprises there: Toshiba hasn't slipped in an LTE radio without warning us or anything scintillating like that -- just Bluetooth and WiFi tests here. So you can rest assured that the AT330 will be safe to use, but the jury is still out on how many people want a $650, 13-inch tablet.
Toshiba pushes AT270 Tegra 3 tablet through the FCC, gets Excited
If a pair of hands-on treatments and an official press release somehow aren't enough to convince you that Toshiba's 7.7-inch slate is ramping up to a public debut, take it from the government: the Excite 7.7 just hit the FCC. This thin (0.3-inch) Tegra 3 tablet sauntered through CES without so much as a model number, eventually picking up the name AT270 at Mobile World Congress and finally snagging itself a spot in Toshiba's Excite series earlier this month. Its siblings are making their way through the FCC as well, offering 10 and 13-inch variations on the $500 slab. Salivating? Keep your mouth closed, this little number doesn't hit stores until June 10th. Of course, if Federal documents can satiate your appetite, satisfaction is but a source link away.
Toshiba AT300 gets Excited at the FCC
As we rub our eyes and squint at the sliver of a label on the FCC report, we can clearly see it reads Toshiba AT300. This, as you may recall, was the model number worn by the Japan-only 10.1 inch Regza tab. But wait! We can also read "Excite 10 AT300" and "Excite 10 305" on the same report, suggesting this is actually one of the new trio of Excites revealed just yesterday. Makes sense, seeing as the new 10-incher needs to have all its paperwork sorted by May 6th.
Toshiba AT200 tablet coming to the US as the Excite X10, starting at $530 for 16GB
When Toshiba said its skinny AT200 tablet wouldn't be available until January, anyone with a casual interest in gadgets could have guessed that meant a splashy CES launch was in order. Sure enough, everyone's favorite trade show has rolled around, and the company is finally ready to talk pricing and availability, four months after it first announced the thing. As we've suspected for some time now, it'll go on sale in the US under the name "Excite" (Excite X10, to be exact), starting at $530 for the 16GB model, with a $600 32GB flavor also available. To recap, this is supposed to be the premium slate the Thrive wasn't, with a 1280 x 800 Gorilla Glass display, 178-degree viewing angles, TI OMAP 4430 chip, an anti-smudge coating and a 7.7mm-thick chassis, making it the thinnest 10-inch tablet on the market. It'll also ship with Android 3.2, though Toshiba says it's ICS-ready. And don't let that serious metal exterior fool you: for all its gravitas, the 1.2-pound tab is lighter than it looks. (We should know: we got hands-on ages ago.) So is a super slim design enough to make this Tegra 2 slate worth choosing over the Tegra 3-packing Transformer Prime which starts at $500 with 32GB of storage? To be honest, we suspect not, given that the Prime isn't much thicker and is also due for an upgrade to ICS. And besides, who knows what other Android tablets will surface at CES this week?
Toshiba's Excite Honeycomb tablet confirmed for Canadian launch in January
We've already heard a fair bit about Toshiba's forthcoming 10.1-inch Honeycomb tablet, but the company has only now finally confirmed a name -- Excite, previously seen in a trademark filing -- and a launch date (or month, anyway) for the tablet outside of Europe. You can look for it to roll out for an as yet unspecified price sometime in January -- in Canada, at least (though we'd presume a US launch will be around the same time). It will come in both 16GB and 32GB versions, each of which pack a 1.2GHz dual-core OMAP 4430 processor, a 2 megapixel front-facing camera, a 5 megapixel cam 'round back, and a microSD card slot and a micro HDMI port. Toshiba also boasts that it's the "world's thinnest, lightest tablet," with it measuring just 7.7 mm thick and weighing in at 558 grams (or 1.23 pounds).
Will Toshiba's next tablet be named the Excite? Trademark filings suggest so
Yesterday, we caught wind of a rumor that Toshiba would be unveiling a new, ultra-thin tablet at this year's IFA. Today, word on the street is that the company's forthcoming slate may be called the "Excite." According to US Trademark filings obtained by Android Police, Toshiba has apparently registered the purported product name under the category "Tablet Computers." The manufacturer has also snatched up a whole host of domain names, including "excitetablet.com," "toshibaexcite.com," and "thetoshibaexcite.com" -- all of which currently redirect to a Toshiba site. As you may recall, remarkably similar evidence surfaced right before the Thrive launched, so recent history certainly lends a bit of credence to today's report. As always, we'll be sure to keep you abreast of the latest developments.
Dynaudio Excite speakers designed to work in everyday setups
Ever wonder why super high-end speakers are shown off paired with hernia-inducing amplifiers rather than receivers that most folks have? Sure, target demographic bankrolls and egos are two reasons; but also, many of those high-end speakers sound their best when fed lots of power. Dynaudio's new Excite lineup is designed to sound great when backed by real world receivers. There are five models available, all sharing the same soft dome tweeter: the X36 and X32 ($3,600 and $2,800 per pair, respectively) are floor standers; smaller rooms can use the X16 or X12 ($1,600 / $1,200 per pair) bookshelf models, and the X22 ($850) is for center channel duty. If you're looking to upgrade your speakers without buying into a whole lifestyle, hunt down a dealer. In our experience, Dynaudio makes some great speakers -- definitely from the "neutral" camp, and often likened to a less-forward B&W.
Somewhat more Sedate Truck found at Gamestop
This profoundly limited-edition copy of Excite Truck was spotted on the shelf at GameStop. Evidently, an employee drew this charmingly quaint alternate boxart instead of using the default GameStop display box for loose games. You can see from the little motion lines that the truck is clearly excited, which is a much subtler approach than the usual bright colors and EXTREME explosions.We totally prefer the lunch-break line art shown here to the real boxart, but we're still a little shocked that they're selling this copy as a new game with no discount.[Via Siliconera]
Metareview: Excite Truck
While we had plenty of time with Excite Truck, we haven't had time to get up our review (we'll get it up soon, we swear). While we wait, why not take a look at what some of the other reviewers out there are saying about the ramp-jumping, Wiimote-turning racer. Overall, reviews have been positive, however there have been a handful of those that feel the game is too simplistic or unfinished. GameSpot - 68%: "Excite Truck's control and speed give it a good amount of potential, but there just isn't enough of a game here to keep you excited for very long. Ultimately, it feels more like a tech demo than a full-fledged game." IGN - 80%: "Excite Truck is clearly a first generation console game that will, without a doubt be outdone in the Wii system's later years. But as a game that bursts right out of the gate as a launch title for the system, Excite Truck is a fulfilling, fun, energetic arcade-style racer that features a good balance of technology and technique. There are a few spots in places that could have been filled, like its weak two player option and trick system, but overall this game definitely pulls off the intense racing rush that quality arcade racers offer." Gamespy - 60%: "Like I said at the beginning of the review, I highly doubt Excite Truck will standout in anyone's memory past the end of the year. The lack of decent multiplayer and total lack of online play hurt the longevity, but if you absolutely need a racer to play at launch, you can't really do any better than this one."
First look: Excite Truck
Ever since we received our Wii, everyone has been dying to play that Zelda game. It's left us little time to take trucks, of the most exciting variety, out for a spin. After running through the first set of races and unlocking the silver series, we have overall good impressions of the game. Visually, it looks good. No pop-up present that we can determine and the sense of speed is really spot-on. We currently have 3 vehicles at our disposal. A dune buggy-like vehicle is our personal favorite, mainly for its incredibly light weight (which helps us bust some amazing drifts and big air). Upon completing courses, we're rewarded for our efforts with a grade. The learning curve is rather small for this also, as upon completing our first race, we received a grade of F and, only 2 short races following, we were receiving A's and S's with relative ease.Keep an eye out here for more impressions on the game as we progress and check after the break for some more pictures.
