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Viewsonic G Tablet gets firmware update with Flash, USB peripheral support
Viewsonic's G Tablet may not have made much of splash when it debuted last fall, but it's certainly been picking up a bit of steam as of late. A recent price drop brought its cost down to just $280, and hackers have even managed to overclock its processor to 1.4GHz and get it running CyanogenMod 7 to boot. Now Viewsonic itself has given the tablet a further boost, with a new firmware update bringing support for both Flash and USB peripherals, which can apparently also be used with a docking station. The update's of the over-the-air variety, and should be waiting for you if you haven't turned on your G Tablet in the past few days.
Viewsonic: There's no G Tablet 'manufacturing defect,' it's a user experience issue
In case you missed it, this weekend Staples announced that it was no longer offering the 10.1-inch Viewsonic G Tablet because of a "manufacturing defect." Well, as it turns out, Viewsonic is claiming there's really no hardware defect at all -- instead, the manufacturer of the Android 2.2, Tegra 2-powered tablet is reporting that there's really a "user experience issue." Nope, that doesn't sound much better, but according to Viewsonic's VP of Marketing Adam Hanin, the G Tablet saw a fair number of returns because of its sluggish software experience, which was caused by the preloaded Tap and Tap Android layer. A number of issues were also caused by the lack of Flash, which Adobe hasn't yet certified for Tegra 2 (we hear that's finally coming at the end of January). "We believe it is the user experience that caused all the returns, and we are taking important steps forward with the G Tablet," Hanin told us. So, what are those steps exactly? Viewsonic will be releasing an over-the-air software update before the end of the week and will also provide links for users to manually download and install a beta version of Flash on its support page. Naturally, we asked Hanin why the G Tablet was shipped in this half-finished state at all -- he told us that while Android and Tegra are great platforms, Google's lack of support for larger devices means that companies like Viewsonic have to "go out and put together their own software and app stores." We're not sure that's a great answer -- in fact, it sort of sounds like Viewsonic is trying to blame Google, Adobe, and NVIDIA for its own half-finished and laggy software, when it released the tablet on its own accord to retailers. Either way, we've now seen more than enough terrible "user experience" issues on the early crop of Android tablets -- Honeycomb, where are you?
Viewsonic G Tablet pulled from Staples stores, 'manufacturing defect' to blame
Oh boy, we've not been shy about our love for NVIDIA's Tegra 2, but the tablets that have opted to use it so far keep meeting the same miserable end: discontinuation from shop floor availability. First the Toshiba Folio 100 bit the British dust because of a bunch of quality control issues, and now Viewsonic's G Tablet is getting its marching orders from Staples, with only a "manufacturing defect" cited as the cause. If we weren't such charitable souls, we might suggest the defect was simply that this tablet wasn't very good yet someone still chose to manufacture it. Let's not be hasty, though -- it's a good idea to see what Office Depot does with its inventory before completely writing the G Tablet off. [Thanks, Rob]
Engadget's Holiday Gift Guide: Tablets
Welcome to the Engadget Holiday Gift Guide! The team here is well aware of the heartbreaking difficulties of the seasonal shopping experience, and we want to help you sort through the trash and come up with the treasures this year. Below is today's bevy of hand curated picks, and you can head back to the Gift Guide hub to see the rest of the product guides as they're added throughout the holiday season. You didn't think we'd let the holiday season go by without an official Engadget Tablet Gift Guide did you? Hey, give us more credit -- we know it's not 2009 anymore! The past year has seen an explosion in the tablet category, and while the iPad may still be the market leader, there's no shortage of Android and Windows 7 alternatives out there that let you surf the web, read books, and watch videos with just a flick of a finger. Sure, more are on the way, and all signs point to Apple updating the iPad in early 2011, but if you've got to have a touchscreen slab before the end of the year, we're here to lend a helping hand. Hit the break for a rundown of the best choices by price category.
Office Depot welcomes 10-inch ViewSonic G Tablet into the fold, slaps $399 sticker on it
If your tablet wishlist includes things like Tegra 2, Android 2.2, and 1080p video playback, you might want to drop by your nearest Office Depot some time soonish. ViewSonic's G Tablet has just been made available for purchase at the store's many outlets across the US and is also supposed to be up for grabs at its online portal. We say "supposed" because we can't find it anywhere on officedepot.com, but that's probably just a temporary issue. The main point is that $399 will buy you a seat on the Froyo tablet bandwagon, a very glossy 10-inch seat with 1024 x 600 resolution. Skip past the break for the full PR.
