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ViewSonic ViewPad 10pi dual-boot tablet hands-on (video)
The ViewSonic ViewPad 10pi was announced here at CES, and according to the company, it'll be in retail stores later this month. This is a scary proposition. Sadly, our time with the tablet was filled with glitches and frustration -- as is, this dual-booter seems entirely unfit for the market. The Android 2.3 environment is nearly unusable and often freezes completely. While this could certainly be resolved with a software update, the hardware implementation is regrettably poor for Android use. Rather than capacitive navigation buttons, necessities such as home, menu and back are located along the edge of the tablet as small, physical buttons. Half the time, they didn't even work. Our fleeting moments with a usable Android environment were generally pleasant, but the system generally locked up after a few minutes. As another black eye, Android Market is nowhere to be seen, which means the Amazon Appstore will have to suffice. We're told that customers will need enable Android themselves, because out-of-the-box, the tablet will only run Windows 7. It's painfully apparent why this decision was made. With a 1.5GHz Intel Oak Trail Z670, we had decent expectations for performance within Windows. Unfortunately, even web browsing was generally unsatisfying. Pinch-to-zoom and scrolling were both rather choppy, and -- as much as this comment pains us -- we longed to return to Android. Windows has never been friendly for touch use, and while ViewSonic has included a special environment that's designed to make applications and settings more accessible, in practice it takes a while to load and is no more useful than a set of well-appointed desktop icons. Another gripe, the included Swype keyboard would often appear at inopportune times, even when there was no option for text input. Priced at $849, we struggle to see much of a value proposition here. While the ViewPad 10pi attempts to be the jack of all trades, in reality it's just one big headache.
OnLive Desktop brings Windows 7, Office apps to your iPad
If you haven't heard of OnLive before, get ready to hear a lot more about them in 2012. The streaming company has been around for a few years, but is just now making some major inroads into streaming all sorts of services to your iPad. We've already covered the OnLive offering for Mac, console and iPad gaming, and it's pretty impressive (I saw a AAA console title streaming with almost no lag using hotel WiFi) -- so I was anxious to see what OnLive Desktop had to offer. Basically, it's like having a full computer experience on your iPad. Specifically, OnLive Desktop will drop you straight into Windows 7, and from there you can tap to launch the ubiquitous Office products. Similar to the existing CloudOn or Desktone systems but supercharged with OnLive's streaming tech, the intention is to give you a remote computing 'thin client' with the full power of the desktop productivity apps. We'll have more to say about OnLive when we meet up with them here at CES, but you can check out a video of OnLive over at Engadget. For now, know that OnLive will be offering this service in tiers, starting with a free service that comes with 2 GB of cloud storage and access to a limited suite of office apps. Later there will be a Pro version, starting at $9.99 a month, with 50 GB of cloud storage, priority server access, more apps and accelerated browsing. And then there's an Enterprise offering that'll allow the kind of control and customization you'd expect if deploying this to dozens or hundreds of client iPads. OnLive is one of the tech companies I have been watching for a while, and I'm terribly excited by what they are doing. Unfortunately, the company hasn't done a great job of explaing and marketing their product, which means (for now) it's something you have to try it before you believe. Still, at free, and launching on January 12, pretty soon you'll be able to try out OnLive Desktop for yourself. Check out the press release below if you dare. Show full PR text "OnLive Desktop" Brings No-compromise Windows Apps to iPad Full Windows® Apps, Including Microsoft® Office, Delivered Instantly from the Cloud Palo Alto, CA – January 9, 2012 – OnLive, Inc., the pioneer of instant-action cloud computing, announced that it is bringing the first no-compromise Windows desktop to iPad® through its free OnLive™ Desktop app, available Thursday in the iTunes® App Store. OnLive Desktop provides instant access to full-featured, media-rich Windows 7 applications, including Microsoft® Word, Excel® and PowerPoint® software, remotely hosted on powerful PC servers in the cloud. Based upon OnLive's instant-action cloud gaming technology, OnLive Desktop delivers a seamless Windows desktop experience, with instant-response multi-touch gestures, together with a full on-screen Windows keyboard and handwriting recognition, enabling complete and convenient viewing and editing of even the most complex documents. Rich media, such as video, animation, slide transitions and even PC games, never before practical via remote desktop delivery, run fluidly and dynamically with instant-action interactivity. OnLive Desktop makes remote feel local. "OnLive Desktop is the first app to deliver a no-compromise, media-rich Windows desktop experience to iPad, opening up powerful new possibilities for consumers and businesses," said Steve Perlman, OnLive Founder and CEO. "iPad users will now be able to simply and securely view and edit cloud-hosted documents with full-featured Windows desktop applications like Microsoft Office, just as if they were using a local high-performance PC. Multi-touch gestures respond instantly and smoothly, while HD videos, animations and PC video games-never before usable on a remote desktop-play seamlessly." The FREE* OnLive Desktop app comes with 2 GB of secure cloud storage and as-available access to a cloud-based Windows 7 desktop pre-populated with Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint, plus several utilities and touch games. Using instant-response touch gestures such as pinch and zoom, flick to scroll, drag, drop and Aero snap, users can quickly and easily navigate files, open, edit and save the ones they need, and store them securely in the cloud for access from any device through a simple Web interface. PC apps have full desktop functionality: Word documents can be created and edited with full redline and commenting capability, using a full Windows touch-screen keyboard, handwriting recognition or Bluetooth keyboard. PowerPoint presentations can be created with rich graphics, videos and animated slide transitions, and even presented directly from the iPad, either onscreen or via an external monitor. Data can be updated and analyzed instantly in Excel, translated into graphs and transferred into presentation documents. With OnLive Desktop, work is now possible anywhere you have an iPad and Internet connectivity, with the immediacy, functionality and responsiveness of a local PC. The Free OnLive Desktop app for iPad is just the tip of the iceberg. Android®, smartphones, PC, Mac® and monitor/TV support (via the OnLive MicroConsole™ thin client with Bluetooth keyboard/mouse) are coming soon, with your same OnLive Desktop available by login from any device. Your OnLive Desktop can be accessed anywhere, on any device, at any resolution. OnLive Desktop Pro is coming soon, with 50 GB of cloud storage, priority access, full-featured cloud-accelerated browsing, additional PC apps, and other OnLive-unique features for just $9.99/month. OnLive Enterprise will be available for businesses and organizations of all sizes, seeking centralized, secure computing resources, as well as Independent Software Vendors seeking to deliver custom applications. With OnLive Enterprise, IT departments have full control of user entitlements/access privileges to both retail and ISV applications, while enabling users to access the same applications through any device. For example, a hospital can entitle different levels of records access to doctors, receptionists and patients, with full privacy, whether data is viewed on a smartphone, computer, on an easily-sterilized tablet in an examining room, or even on a hospital room TV. No user data is left behind on any device, so records remain secure if a device is lost or stolen. (IT professionals and ISVs, please contact OnLive at enterprise@onlive.com for OnLive Enterprise details and pricing.) OnLive Desktop Pro and Enterprise support exclusive OnLive collaborative services. Building on the same proven technology as the massive spectating Arena of the OnLive Game Service, OnLive securely enables as many as thousands of simultaneous users to view one or many OnLive Desktops from any device, with live spectating and group chat, and multi-user control. Whether using OnLive collaborative services as a shared document reader or virtual whiteboard in a small workgroups, for chatting over home videos among far-flung family members, or for lecturing with Q&A to an audience of thousands of students around the world, OnLive provides instant, media-rich collaboration. The OnLive Desktop iPad app will be available Thursday to U.S. customers for free in the iTunes App Store, and will be released soon in the UK. Customers are encouraged to sign up early for their free OnLive account, available today at www.desktop.onlive.com. For more information, visit www.desktop.onlive.com.
OnLive launches desktop app, streams start menus to your iPad, we go hands on (video)
Desktop sized games aren't the only thing Palo Alto's premiere streaming service is pushing to your tablet -- now OnLive is out to stream you an actual desktop, as well. Following up on an old Windows 7 demo and later promises to build a "no-compromise, media-rich enterprise experience," the outlet is now launching OnLive Desktop. It's almost exactly what it sounds like -- Windows, seamlessly streaming to your iPad.Microsoft's OS rides the same bandwidth pipelines that host OnLive's gaming service, and offers tablet owners a streamed desktop with access to fully functional versions of Microsoft Office products like Word, PowerPoint and Excel. The iPad app that is launching Thursday represents the outfit's "free" version of OnLive Desktop, and packs 2 GB of secure cloud storage in addition its limited suite of office applications. OnLive plans to expand the service with OnLive Desktop Pro, a paid variant (starting at $9.99 a month) with 50 GB of cloud storage, priority server access, additional applications and "cloud-accelerated browsing." Need something more specific? OnLive Enterprise will let firms custom tailor their cloud desktop to suit their needs -- dictating data, application and device access by user.But how well does it work? It depends on your connection, of course. We dropped by OnLive's west coast headquarters to stream it from the source. Read on to see how it did, or simply skip the bottom if you're looking for an official press release.
Gigabyte intros S1081 Windows slate and T1006M netvertible, both packing Cedar Trail
Intel told us to expect next-gen netbooks from a throng of manufacturers, but for some reason it forgot to mention little ol' Gigabyte. Perhaps that's why the Taiwanese manufacturer is being slightly standoffish when it comes to detailing its two new 10-inch slates, which both run on unspecified variants of Cedar Trail and have equally unknown launch dates and prices. What we do know is that the T1006M is a convertible tablet that sports 1366 x 768 densely packed pixels, a USB 3.0 port and what appears to be an optional 3.5G modem -- specs that are already familiar from our recent encounter at the FCC. Next comes the S1081, which is a straightforward Windows 7 business slate like its $680 predecessor and comes with a choice of HDD or SSD storage, an optical trackpad for extra "precision," USB 3.0, VGA and HDMI outputs, plus the same optional multimedia dock. Rest assured that we'll track these newcomers down on the CES floor to fill in the blanks and judge how well they stand out, now that the quiet trail has become a highway. Until then, feel free to read on for the press release -- which also reveals that the Booktop T1132, Booktop M2432 and P2532 gaming notebook are all heading to the US market.
Samsung Series 7 Chronos review
Thin and light may be the name of the game for many when it comes to mobile computing, but there's still plenty of folks who need a full-featured portable machine. Samsung's Series 7 Chronos is just such a PC, packing an optical drive, numpad and discrete graphics beneath a brushed aluminum façade. While it may look like just another MacBook Pro clone running Windows 7, this Sammy's got some surprises up its sleeve that set it apart from Apple's offering (aside from a $1,000 price difference) and other laptops running Redmond's OS, for that matter. To find out what the Series 7 brings to the table and how it stacks up against its competition, you'll have to read on past the break. Let's get to it, shall we?
HP Spectre teaser video: fantastically thin laptop, shrouded in mystery
Why, what's this? Funny you ask -- we're wondering the same thing. A source at HP just dropped us a mysterious teaser video of a so-called Spectre laptop, a heretofore unannounced lappie that looks to be the company's next Ultrabook. In our wildest dreams, this rig has a dual-LCD setup -- similar to Toshiba's Libretto W100 and Acer's Iconia-6120 -- but perhaps the creators here were just coincidentally interested in showing us lots of glass panes. We'll be digging for more details (we're told that an official produce portal should surface tomorrow), but for now, lose your mind in the video just past the break. Update: If we had to guess, we'd say it's the Envy Spectre -- a machine that passed through the FCC's database around a week ago. %Gallery-142760%
Facebook Messenger client for Windows slips out for download (Update: Official download available)
We've already had an early peek at Facebook's yet-to-be-released Messenger client for Windows, and now you can give it a shot yourself courtesy of a leaked copy that's turned up on the TechIT website. Not much in the way of surprises here, but if you're the sort that prefers desktop applications to websites or mobile apps, you'll be glad to know that it provides access to not just Facebook chat, but status updates and notifications from your friends as well. You can find the download at the source link below (Windows 7 is required). Update: Facebook has now made an official download available -- you can grab it here, and find additional details on the application here. [Thanks, Avi]
CUPP's PunkThis graduates to tablets, earns a degree in security (hands-on video)
Remember CUPP Computing's PunkThis board we played with at Computex 2011? It's now left the confines of its 2.5-inch hard drive form-factor and jumped ship from a standard Asus netbook to a Core i5-equipped Eee Slate EP121, taking residence alongside the tablet's battery. As a refresher, PunkThis puts a complete ARM-based system into an x86 computer by replacing the SATA HDD with a single core 1GHz Texas Instruments OMAP 3730 processor, 512MB RAM and WiFi, along with a mini-PCIe socket for SSD storage, plus connectors for the host's video, audio and USB interfaces. While CUPP computing is still working hard to make PunkThis commercially available for tech-savvy individuals, it acquired Israeli security company Yoggie last July and built this demo machine to attract another kind of customer. The tablet we tested was running Windows 7 Home Premium and Android 2.3.4 simultaneously, and was equipped with an additional button for switching between x86 and ARM modes. Since the Asus EP121 already uses a mini-PCIe SSD instead of 2.5-inch SATA storage, a prototype PunkThis board was designed to fit alongside a modified battery. Gingerbread didn't break a sweat supporting both the 1280x800-pixel capacitive touchscreen and pen-based Wacom digitizer thanks to some additional hardware and software tweaks. Beyond the ability to switch between Windows for heavy lifting and Android for improved battery life, it's possible to use both x86 and ARM side-by-side. Imagine antivirus and firewall software running on the PunkThis board in mission-critical security applications for enterprise, and it's easy to see where CUPP Computing is going with this. Check out the gallery below and our hands-on video after the break. %Gallery-142454%
Toshiba debuts Windows 7-based Dynabook WT301/D tablet for Japan
Toshiba's tablet attention may be focused primarily on its Android-based tablets these days, but the company's not leaving Windows behind just yet -- at least in Japan. That steely-looking slate pictured above is its new Dynabook WT301/D, which packs a 10.1-inch display, an unspecified Atom processor, a 64GB SSD, and Windows 7 Professional edition for an OS. No indication of a North American release for this one, but those in Japan will apparently be able to pick it up sometime next month.
Microsoft leak reveals hotfix for underperforming Bulldozers
AMD's Bulldozer silicon is enormously powerful, but most software isn't configured to schedule threads for the faux-16 core design. Windows can only see the chip as a quad-core CPU and will randomly assign threads, which ruins the point of Bulldozer's "Turbo Core" design. Microsoft inadvertently revealed it had teamed up with the chipmaker to fix the problem when it prematurely released a hotfix for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. Initial tests showed that it could improve performance by up to seven percent, before it was pulled -- Microsoft conceding that it wasn't quite ready for prime-time.
Samsung Series 7 Slate PC review
All quiet on the Windows 7 tablet front? Well, no, but we haven't exactly seen many shots fired lately. Sure, HP recently refreshed the Slate 500 with the Slate 2, but for the most part, products like this have been eclipsed by excitement around Windows 8. Of course, Redmond's tablet-friendly OS won't ship for another year, so for now tablet makers are releasing Windows slates with little fanfare. Not Samsung, though. While its mobile team has dug its heels into the consumer tablet market with devices like the Galaxy Tabs 10.1, 8.9 and 7.0 Plus, its PC division is taking a different tack. The Series 7 Slate PC was built by the same team behind the striking Series 9 laptop, making it one of the slickest business tablets we've ever beheld. It rocks an 11.6-inch display that handily dwarfs pretty much everything else out there. It runs a Core i5, not Atom, processor, and is offered with a custom dock and Bluetooth keyboard. The Series 7 Slate isn't just a rare Windows 7 tablet; it's also one of the most memorable. But are all of those things worth the $1,099 starting price? Could be, but we can think of a few caveats. Allow us to explain.
UK courts to introduce tablets, vow to cut back on tree killing ways
It may not be retiring the powdered wigs just yet, but according to The Guardian, the British government is ready to replace traditional paper documents with tablets in UK courtrooms. Starting in April, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) will give slates to Welsh and English prosecutors to store all forms and evidentiary items, later extending the offer to judges, jurors and defense lawyers. To start, administrators will give 35 Hewlett-Packard tablets to prosecutors in Norfolk as a test for the bigger roll out, which is estimated to save around £50 million (or around $78 million) in dead trees across the UK. There's no word yet which tablet HP has in mind, but chances are it will not be the discount rack TouchPad -- perhaps a Windows tablet is more in order in this court.
YaCy's gunning for Google with free-software bullets
YaCy's a new free-software search engine aiming to wrest control of your private data back from the Googles and Bings of this world. There's no targeted advertising here, just a global network of peers all connected with the site's software. It currently has 600 peer operators servicing 130,000 queries monthly, with each user able to create individual search rankings so results improve over time. Project head Michael Christen said it's important no person decides what is listed, or in what order -- which makes us wonder what would happen if the Justin Bieber fan club decided to game the system. The software is available on GNU/Linux, Windows 7 and OS X and you can try a web-based tester (if you can get it working) at the source link below.
Facebook Messenger for Windows is seemingly en route, Like it or not
He's got your personal data, relationship status and those pictures from last night -- now Mr. Zuckerberg is aiming for a share of your desktop, too. Facebook has released a desktop messenger client for Windows 7 that brings you access to the site's chat, ticker feed and notifications without everyone in the office spotting the blue-bar-of-lost-productivity across the top of your browser. It's currently in limited beta, so there's still time to build a rival client -- maybe with some support from the Winklevii?
NEC 52-inch table disguised as boring office furniture
The problem with Microsoft Surface is that it looks too much like fun. NEC has the right idea: affix some trolley wheels, brush some aluminum, give it a sedate name like "X-info Table" and then maybe, just maybe, traditional businesses will start buying into the idea. The specs, however, are easily sufficient to handle a few rounds of office Pinball HD (as in the photo above): a Core i7 CPU running Windows 7 on the 52-inch full HD screen, 6GB of RAM, three USB ports, support for multiple sub-displays, and a scanning function. There's no price yet, but you can probably expect to pay more for the 350-pound frame than for the computer itself.
HP replaces the Slate 500 with the Slate 2, adds Swype and cuts the starting price to $699
Until Microsoft gives Win8 the final seal of approval, the Windows tablet show must go on, right? Right. HP just refreshed its enterprise-friendly, Windows 7-flavored Slate 500 with the Slate 2, and took the opportunity to knock the starting price down a hundred bucks to $699. In terms of design, there's nothing much to see here -- it has the same 8.9-inch tablet and N-Trig DuoSense digitizer that allows for pen input. Only this time, HP added Swype, refreshed the CPU with Intel's Atom Z670 and proffered a smaller 32GB SSD option to appease the IT guys who are going to heavily lock these down anyway. Speaking of security, it also packs TPM circuitry and Computrace Pro for tracking lost or stolen laptops and then deleting the data remotely. It'll be available worldwide this month -- just in time for corporate to buy you a lil' somethin' for the holidays. %Gallery-137812%
ITG xpPhone 2 to get some Windows 8 love, starts living large in January (updated)
Let's be honest: with the size of a brick and a relatively short battery life, it's no surprise that ITG's xpPhone hasn't quite dominated the smartphone market since its launch back in November. In fact, we haven't even seen one in the wild, and we certainly wouldn't have missed it if there ever was one on the street. That said, ITG hasn't given up, as the company's just announced its second-generation Windows-powered smartphone. The reason? Well, interestingly enough, ITG prefers Windows' greater range of compatible software compared to those of mobile OSes, namely Android and iOS. Let's just leave it at that for now. Simply dubbed the xpPhone 2, this beast of a QWERTY slider packs a 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z530 chip, along with 2GB RAM, up to 112GB of SSD storage, 4.3-inch display and compatibility with both Windows 7 and Windows 8 -- obviously the latter OS will depend on its final release date. Not only has battery life been bumped up to around 18 hours of call time or 46 days on standby, but the phone's also been slimmed down to 140mm x 73mm x 17.5mm, which is a huge improvement compared to its bulky predecessor. With the touch-friendly Windows 8 on board along with a non-underclocked CPU, we have a feeling that the xpPhone 2 will at least fare much better than Fujitsu's F-07C; as for the rest, we shall see when it comes out in January next year. And no, it probably won't run Crysis. Update: Looks like we were misled by the company's other promotional photos and thus mistakenly thought the xpPhone 2 will have a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. This would explain the slimmer body then. Update 2: ITG just clarified that the phone will be unveiled in January rather than launched. %Gallery-137785%
NVIDIA's Jen-Hsun Huang: Windows on ARM should hit tablets first, battling Intel is a bad idea, would love his chips in iPad
NVIDIA's founder and president Jen-Hsun Huang has never been one to dodge a question, and that made for an excellent closing interview here at AsiaD. Outside of (re)confirming what lies ahead for Tegra, he also spoke quite openly about his feeling towards Windows on ARM in response to a question from Joanna Stern. Here's the bulk of his reply: "It's important for [Microsoft] not to position these as PCs. From a finesse perspective -- I can't speak on their behalf -- but I would come out with tablets first with Windows on ARM. It helps to establish that this isn't a PC. Will yesterday's Office run on tomorrow's Windows on ARM PC? Will a new version of Office run on tomorrow's Windows on ARM tablets? Both questions are about legacy, and both are about Office. The actual implementation of it is radically different. I see no reason to make Office 95 to run on Windows on ARM. I think it would be wonderful, absolutely wonderful -- I'd say, as someone who uses Windows -- it would be almost a requirement to me that [the ARM] device runs Windows interoperably. If Office runs on Windows on ARM -- it's the killer app. Everything else is on the web." He elaborated to say that he would hope Office for Windows on ARM would support the same files that today's Office does, much the same way that Office for Mac eventually synced up with its Windows-based sibling. For more from Huang's interview, hop on past the break!
Windows 7 overtakes XP globally, Vista found weeping in a corner
According to StatCounter, it's taken roughly two years for Redmond's latest to surpass XP and become the world's most popular operating system. October 2011 marks the first time that Windows 7 has overtaken XP globally, with a 40 percent share of the market versus the latter's 38. As for Vista, it's been holding steady at around 11. Not that it's much of a surprise, as in North America, Windows 7 took the crown back in April of this year. Rounding out the top five, are OS X (though it's not clear whether that captures all of Cupertino's beasts) and Linux, which come in at 7 and 0.82 percent respectively. But don't take our word for it, hop on over to the source links and get your interactive chart on. [Thanks, Pipera]
Microsoft responds to disgruntled users, unveils changes to Windows 8 UI
You can unpack your suitcase and drop that custody suit, because Microsoft has heard your Windows 8 complaints, and it's willing to change its ways. Yesterday, in a lengthy post on its Building Windows 8 blog, the company acknowledged that it's received plenty of feedback since unleashing a developer preview of the OS last month, and pledged to respond with a number changes. For starters, apps displayed within the Windows 8 App Screen can now be organized into groups, rather than alphabetical arrangements (see image above). Apps will also be displayed at a higher density, thereby cramming more content within the same space. Enterprise users, meanwhile, will be able to customize their companies' Start screens and unify them across networks, though there's still no word on whether administrators will be able to opt out of the software's tiled interface in favor of the more Windows 7-esque Desktop app -- one of the most highly requested features. These are just two of many, relatively granular changes that Microsoft is implementing to help users maximize the efficiency of its new Start screen, and they likely won't be the last. To dig into the nitty gritty, check out the full post, at the source link below.
