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Jon Rubinstein live from D: Dive Into Mobile
Palm / HP's Jon Rubinstein is just about to take the stage at the D: Dive Into Mobile event. Will there be talk of past failures? Future triumphs? Will he break out a rumored device? Will he breakdance? Only the liveblog knows for sure... so keep reading after the break!
Combined sales of smartphones and tablets to surpass the humble PC in 18 months, says IDC
Our supply checks say that 10 out of 10 analysts are insanely bullish about tablets -- despite the fact that there are only 2.5 competitive products on the market, and one of them only came out a month ago. So, naturally, it isn't difficult to scrounge up sales predictions that show the tablet rocketing into the stratosphere, cutting into PC market share, while also expanding the market outright to accommodate its post-PC ways. Gartner's guess is 55 million tablets next year, while IDC has a more conservative estimate of 42 million, but both predict a sharp, exponential rise in the following years, and IDC takes it one step further: 18 months from now, combined smartphone and tablet sales will eclipse the PC, it claims, with both categories hovering in the mid-400 million range. Now, that number is mostly smartphones, which isn't an unprecedented shift in and of itself -- the PC took a major hit in popularity in Japan once the kids got ahold of these newfangled phone things -- but overall it represents a shift from the open-ended, flexible, and powerful PC to the narrow, task-specific, app-driven nature of the iOS and Android kind. Or you could spin it the completely opposite way: people need phones, so they buy a nice phone. No PC death knell in that behavior, and the tablet is still a very niche product with some good PR. Either way, we'll be much more impressed with this sort of market battle when it's the tablet (perhaps with a little help from the smartbook or netbook-lite category) going up against the Windows and Mac PC head-on, without smartphones shouldering most of the load.
Toshiba planning trio of tablets for CES: one each for Android, Chrome OS and Windows 7
So what if the Libretto exited the common consciousness almost as quickly as it entered it while the Folio 100 was bad enough to get its major UK retailer to discontinue it? Toshiba promised it'd have a family of tablets for us by the end of 2011's first quarter and the plan apparently hasn't changed. DigiTimes is reporting today that three new Toshiba slates are set for their debut at CES in a month's time, two of them equipped with 10.1-inch screens and a third sized at 11.6 inches. Microsoft's Windows 7 and Google's Chrome OS and Android will each be responsible for providing the operating environment on one of these new tablets, indicating that Toshiba -- much like the rest of the world -- has yet to make up its mind about what the best tablet OS out there is. We should know more in just a few short weeks.
Motorola planning 4G devices for Verizon, 7- and 10-inch tablets early next year
It looks like this CES could be a hot one for Motorola. Can you believe it was only a bit more than a year ago that Motorola introduced the Droid? Now it has a whole lineup of incredibly hot phones, and CES seems like a perfect time for the beating of chests in front of an industry. Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha just went on record during a keynote at the Credit Suisse 2010 Technology Conference, saying Motorola will be entering the tablet space 'in the near future.' He also said that he sees both 7-inch and 10-inch tablets as viable sizes -- something that seems perfectly logical to us, and might jibe with how we initially heard of Motorola's "Stingray" tablet as a smaller device, but later heard it was a full 10-incher upgradeable to LTE. This all follow's on Sanjay's statement in September that Motorola wouldn't be joining in on the tablet space until next year, a year which is rapidly approaching. Meanwhile, Sanjay also confirmed that Motorola would have 4G devices "early" next year, which also sounds like a CES hint to us, though it might just be 4G modems and hotspots at the outset. Still, bring it on.
Editorial: My next iPad won't be a 7-incher, but I wish it could be
It took me a while, but I'm starting to fall in love with my iPad in a way I haven't loved a gadget for a long while. There's something about the form factor, the apps, the OS that feels just right and makes me want to do as much of my daily computing on it as possible. Of course, that's still a pretty small sliver of my overall day, and the iPad isn't even close to replacing my laptop for the large majority of my work, but I'm finding myself increasingly doing casual browsing, casual gaming, serious writing, and, yes, even some reading on Apple's 10-inch tablet. But I have one "big" problem with the tablet that doesn't look like it'll be solved anytime soon: it's not 7 inches. Will Apple ever eat its words and build a smaller iPad, or will the 7-inch form factor be left to the rest of the emerging tablet market to fight over?
Nielsen: 31 percent of kids want an iPad, other stuff
Hey look, a chart with the iPad on top. Aren't statistics fun? And yet, this chart may not mean quite what you think it does. The Nielsen Company presented a cadre of individuals with a list of nice, shiny gadgets and let them cross off anything and everything they'd like to buy in the next six months, and 31 percent of kids 6-12 picked the iPad as one of them. That doesn't mean these youngsters wanted the iPad any more than a game console, mind you, it just means more of them picked the tablet than any other single game console on the list. Also, it turns out that the iPad was the only tablet PC available, so it could well have served as a proxy vote for other slates -- Galaxy Tab, anyone? The survey results also don't factor in ownership, so if the Xbox 360's low on the buy list, it could be because respondents already have one... but we suppose this is the definitive proof we've been searching for that e-readers are on the outs in the 12-and-under crowd. Jeff Bezos is crying over his evening oatmeal right now. After the break, see what the same chart looks like for teenagers and adults. (Hint: they aren't all that hot on handhelds.)
Dell Inspiron Duo tablet / netbook now on sale, arrives December 15th
We've seen so, so much of the beautiful and crazy Dell Inspiron Duo tablet / netbook hybrid that we must confess we might just need one of our very own. If you're like us, then today is your lucky day, because this wild and crazy laptop (last spotted at the Microsoft Store) is now on sale at Dell. The 10-incher boasts a dual-core Atom N550 CPU, Windows 7 Home Premium operating system, and some serious attitude. The Inspiron Duo has a starting price of $549, and you can order it right this minute at Dell. Hit up the source if you care to, and expect your shipment to arrive around the 15th of December, only six days too late for Hanukkah. Full press release is below.
Acer's Android tablets hands-on!
We wish we had better news about our hands-on success here at the Acer global press conference, but because all of the company's Android tablets will run Honeycomb / 3.0 or Google's "tablet OS" most of the units just weren't functioning. The 10.1-inch, dual-core Tegra-powered version was the only unit that would power on, and though we did get to see it blaze through some HD video, for the most part it was very sluggish and clearly acting like a pre-production unit. As far as the hardware goes, the display was bright and surprisingly had decent viewing angles. Acer's been notorious for using terrible LCDs, so this is quite a nice change! Oh, and as you already knew, it does have two cameras. We eventually convinced a very nice Acer rep on hand to bring out the 4.8- and 7-inch devices for a hardware demo -- both of them were also very early units, but they did look nice from afar with glossy black screens and brushed metal backs. The phonlet's 4.8-inch, 1024 x 480-resolution screen (it has a 21:9 aspect ratio!) makes it much wider than a Streak, and reminded us a lot of the LG GW900 (may it rest in peace). We told you we didn't have much in the way of impressions, but hit the gallery below for some more hands-on shots and the break for a quick video of the 10-incher in action. April can't come soon enough, can it? %Gallery-108124% %Gallery-108125%
Palm webOS 'Enyo' framework paves the way for tablets and larger phones (video)
Don't expect HP's webOS 2.0 to be tied to an HVGA screen for long -- come "early 2011," the company will introduce a number of "really interesting new form factors," including tablets and phones. That was the message driven home at Palm's Developer Day this year, according to PreCentral's Dieter Bohn, and the software that's going to make that shift possible is a little something called Enyo. Picking up where Ares left off, Enyo is a Javascript app framework with native hardware acceleration and faster app load times (they're allegedly down to one second now), but the part we think you'll be most interested in is the promise of apps that natively scale to multiple aspect ratios. HP's Scott Miles demoed it earlier this week by playing around with a tiny, single-pane portrait email application in the desktop version of Chrome... and then maximized the browser window to reveal a fully-functioning three-pane landscape layout suited for a large tablet screen. Representatives stressed that the email app was a proof of concept, but Enyo's here to stay, replacing the earlier Mojo starting in 2011 and slated to be available in early 2011 via developer SDK. Get introduced to Enyo in a video after the break, and skip ahead to that email demo at 15:55 if you're running late for your rockstar developer meetup.
FT subsidizes employee iPads, wants them to keep up with the times
You know tablets have officially become a mainstream craze when even the reserved, serious types over at the Financial Times start splashing subsidies around to stimulate their ownership. We've just heard that a $480 purse of gold coins will be extended to any FT workers who decide to purchase an iPad or another tablet between now and the end of June 2011, reportedly in an effort to help the paper's staff become "expert and experienced in using them." We already knew the FT, which happens to have its own iPad and Galaxy Tab apps, saw slate devices as an important piece of the puzzle that is our future, and this move cements that attitude in place. Paper's dead, long live electronics-filled plastic.
Onkyo outs 3G Windows 7 tablet for Japan only
Onkyo's outed a new Windows 7 tablet -- seems to be all the rage these days -- with KDDI 3G onboard. The 11.6-inch TW317A7 tablet (which is essentially a re-badge of the ExoPC Slate which we reviewed) boasts a 1.66 GHz Intel Atom N450 CPU, 2GB of RAM, a 32GB SSD, plus Bluetooth and WiFi connectivity, a 1.3 megapixel webcam, card reader, two USB 2.0 ports, and stereo speakers. The 11.6-inch multitouch display has a 1366 x 768 resolution, and the tablet brings with it Onkyo's new custom ExTOUCH software which is apparently designed to enhance finger input in the OS and boasts a dedicated app launcher. The TW317A7 will be available in Japan very soon -- as in this week -- but Onkyo has yet to announce pricing.
Eric Schmidt: Chrome OS aimed at keyboard based solutions, Android optimized for touch
We'll be the first to admit that we've been slightly confused about where Google's Chrome OS will fit in with Android becoming the OS of choice for tablet manufacturers, so naturally we took the opportunity to ask Google CEO Eric Schmidt about the two operating systems while he was on stage at the Web 2.0 summit. Schmidt confirmed that Chrome OS will officially be out in the next few months in Intel and ARM-powered netbooks while also adding that the OS was primarily "designed around something with a keyboard." Of course, that doesn't mean Chrome OS couldn't pop up on tablets -- he added that because it's open source anything can happen, but he definitely stressed that Chrome is meant for clamshell devices with keyboards and Android tailored for those with touchscreens. Sounds good to us Schmidt, now we'll just be needing the details on those Chrome-books...
Confirmed: Lenovo LePad headed to US in 2011
Lenovo led us to believe that our LePad chances weren't terribly good, but CEO Yang Yuanqing recently told the Wall Street Journal that the Android tablet is indeed slated for a 2011 US launch. Though Lenovo's COO Rory Read was pretty clear that the LePad wouldn't ship stateside until a tablet-ready version of Android was ready to go, it seems the company's now confident that Google will deliver the goods. However, our gain is apparently China's loss, as the publication reports that the slate's been pushed into 2011 (as opposed to this December) in its country of origin as well. What's a multinational computer corporation to do?
CE-Oh no he didn't!: NVIDIA chief calls Galaxy Tab 'a large phone,' can't wait to show you some real tablets
We've literally been waiting for Tegra 2 tablets since CES in January, but that isn't stopping NVIDIA boss Jen-Hsun Huang from extolling their virtues yet again, this time on a roadmap that points to just after next year's CES. In his company's most recent quarterly results call, Huang was bullish about the disruptive potential of tablets, but insisted that they can't simply be built like the Galaxy Tab (or the Folio 100, for that matter), which uses a smartphone OS stretched out to a larger screen. "A tablet is not a large phone," says Huang, and he's of course not alone in expressing frustration with Android's current immaturity for the tablet realm, but once Google's slate-friendly OS update drops, he promises NVIDIA will be ready to capitalize: "Our tablet and phone business is going to ramp. And it's going to ramp hard." We're looking forward to all this ramping, oh yes we are. Update: Later on the call, Jen-Hsun Huang dropped a bit of knowledge on his listeners, showing Apple's iPad some love. "You can't just put an operating system on a tablet and hope that -- on a piece of glass -- and hope that you can compete against the iPad. The iPad is a wonderful product, and if you're going to give that wonderful product a run for its money, you'd better build something absolutely exquisite." Huzzah!
N-Trig: 'the most useful Android slates will be pen-enabled'
Sure, N-Trig's DuoSense combined pen / capacitive touch technology has become a household name when talking about Tablet PCs, and most recently has popped up in the HP Slate, but as you may expect the company is planning on pushing into other tablet territories. N-Trig's VP of Marketing Gary Baum told us earlier today that the Israel-based company will certainly support other operating systems (flavors of Linux, such as Ubuntu, etc.) and is in fact working with hardware partners on Android tablets. That means those latter slates would have capacitive touchscreens that support both pen and finger input -- something we haven't yet seen on any other non-resistive Android tablets. It's certainly a differentiator, and Baum wasn't shy about stating that "the most useful Android slates will be pen-enabled." (Funny enough, he told us the guys at N-Trig call the other contenders out there "JAAS," or "just another Android slate.") However, like us, you're probably thinking: what about the apps? Considering there are very few (if any) Android apps that take advantage of pen input, it's an question mark, and though Baum wouldn't comment on any specific upcoming stylus-optimized programs / software, he hinted that they'd come. Curious about availability and partnership? We hear ya, but unfortunately, that part of the equation is still missing.
Samsung Galaxy Tab review
The story of the Galaxy Tab has been quite a saga, to say the least. In fact, it was actually back in May that we first heard rumblings of Samsung's plans to unleash a 7-inch Android tablet much like its Galaxy S phones, but it was only after months of painful teasing -- including a cruel look at just its packaging on the Engadget Show -- that Sammy finally unveiled the Galaxy Tab to the world at IFA. The Tab certainly packed the specs -- a 1GHz processor, full Flash support thanks to Android 2.2, dual cameras, support for up to 32GB of storage and WiFi / 3G connectivity -- to put other Android tablets to shame, and our initial hands-on with it only had us yearning for more. Without pricing and availability, however, the story was at a cliffhanger. Of course, those details trickled out over the next few months, and here in the US, Samsung finally announced that all four major US carriers would be getting Tabs to call their own. Verizon then finally took the lead in announcing pricing, and revealed that its Tab would hit contract-free for $600 -- Sprint followed with the same no-contract pricing along with a $400 two-year contract option.Indeed, it's been quite a long journey, but even after all of that, some of the major questions are still left unanswered. Does the Tab provide a more complete and polished experience than all the other Android tablets out there? How are Samsung's specially tailored apps? And ultimately, has a tablet finally hit the market that can rival Apple's iPad? We think it's about time we answer those questions and finally open what might be the most important chapter of the Galaxy Tab story -- the official Engadget review. We knew you'd agree, so join us after the break.%Gallery-106330%
ViewSonic ViewPad 7 and 10 officially comin' to America
ViewSonic's heavy foray into the tablet market has been no secret, but we've been a bit uncertain as to where on the map its products would land. Until now that is. According to ViewSonic's American team, the company will be kicking off its US tablet invasion with the ViewPad 7 in November. Just as we'd heard, the 7-inch device packs an Snapdragon processor, Android 2.2, two cameras (a 3 megapixel cam on its rear and a VGA front facing one), 512MB of memory and 3G capabilities. Sure, it sounds a heck of a lot like the rest of the other Android tablets we've been seeing, but according to ViewSonic this one will most definitely have access to the Google Market and come preloaded with Google's apps. Well, that's a horse of a different color, though its $479 MSRP seems a bit high to us. What about the ViewSonic fans out there that have been eyeing the Android 1.6 / Win 7 dual-booting ViewPad 10, you ask? Well, they'll have to wait until the first quarter of 2011 to get their hands on that one, though at least that gives 'em time to save up the $629 that it's expected to retail for. We should note here, that the ViewPad 10 is identical in design to the Tega v2 we recently reviewed and similar in specs -- it has a 1.66GHz Atom processor, 16GB SSD, 1GB of RAM and Windows 7 Home Premium. We're still unsure where the 10-inch, Android 2.2 G-Tablet that was recently spotted in a Sears circular fits in, but we're definitely getting the hint that Viewsonic's in it to win it with tablets. %Gallery-106333%
ExoPC Slate review
Of all the Atom-powered, Windows 7 tablets we've seen over the last year and a half (and boy have there been a lot!), the 11.6-inch ExoPC has been the one we've been waiting on. Sure, its specs are similar to the recently reviewed Tega v2 and CTL 2goPad -- it's also got a capacitive touchscreen, accelerometer, Atom Pinetrail processor and 2GB of RAM -- but unlike the others the company has put some serious love into its Windows 7 software layer, which we've dubbed the Connect Four UI. ExoPC's also preloaded the tablet with touch apps, built out its own app store and included a Broadcom Crystal HD accelerator to handle full 1080p video. You can clearly see why we've had high hopes for the ExoPC ever since we got to check it out at Computex, but does it live up to the promise and provide the more enhanced and finger-friendly Windows experience we've been looking for? And is the software stable and robust enough for the average consumer? We've spent the last week with the $599 tablet so read on to find out in our full review. %Gallery-106093% %Gallery-106092%
Notion Ink founder claims Adam tablet will go 15+ hours on a charge
The Pixel Qi and Tegra 2-packing Notion Ink Adam has long been one of our favorite pieces of perfectly plausible vaporware, but founder Rohan Shravan's just made a pretty fantastic claim -- he says he's getting a minimum of 15 hours of battery life from his personal tablet and calculates you'll get up to twenty with the 24Wh, potentially user-replaceable battery nestled in its frame. While those are the figures for the $498 transflective version of the tablet and not the $399 juice-gulping LCD, they're still so stellar that they could easily make or break the Adam's sales depending on their veracity. Oh Rohan, please don't let us down.
Editorial: Why the Galaxy Tab's price makes sense
Alright, I was wrong. On the Engadget Podcast I said that Samsung is capable of navigating to store.apple.com and checking out the iPad prices. I figured Samsung would see $500 as its maximum unsubsidized price for the Galaxy Tab, but apparently Samsung decided its competition was the iPad with 3G. Is a $600 Galaxy Tab a compelling offering up against a $630 3G iPad? Maybe, maybe not. But it's not an insane proposition by any means. In fact, I think it could do pretty well.
