Hasta La Gadget!

Cisco announced this afternoon that in 2011 it will be launching an Android-based tablet, named the Cius, aimed squarely at the business market.

Cisco has always been an enterprise-focused company, and the Cius is its shot at bringing businesses on board the tablet bandwagon. Video conferencing, the product which Cisco is perhaps best known for, is front and center both literally and figuratively – there’s a 720p-capable cameras on the front of the Cius, in addition to the 5 megapixel camera on the back.

In an effort to get the Cius into briefcases and suitcases all over the world, the 7-inch device weighs only 1.15 pounds. The Cius will ship with 3G capability, WiFi, eight-hour battery life, HD audio and video out, and tight integration with all of Cisco’s other business applications as well as the huge Android market.

There’s no word yet on what the device will cost, but it promises to make Android a little more business-friendly and to make getting things done on the road a little easier . Even if it won’t have all the great entertainment of the iPad, maybe that’s a good thing for business users.

(Photo: Courtesy Cisco)

Cisco‘s just announced a business-aimed Android tablet, and it’s calling it the Cius. The tablet will offer HD video streaming, real-time video, multi-party conferencing, plus all the regular tablet functions like messaging, email, and browsing. We’re not sure about the size of the device yet, or any of it technical specs, but we do know that it’s going to weigh in at 1.15lbs, so it can’t be terrifically large. There’s also no word yet on pricing yet, but expect to see the device the first quarter of 2011; we’ll let you know about the former as soon as we do, okay, businessmen? Full press release is below.

Update: And now we’ve got video showing off the Cius under the drone of a limp corporate voiceover and synthesized soundtrack. How can you resist clicking through to the embed?

Continue reading Cisco unveils Cius Android tablet with HD video capabilities (update: video!)

Cisco unveils Cius Android tablet with HD video capabilities (update: video!) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Jun 2010 14:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Cox is ready to make a major leap forward in its user interface — goodbye SARA and Passport, we won’t miss you — with the newly developed “Plus Package” rolling out in limited areas during Q2 and throughout its service area by the end of the year. For the hardware Cox is bringing a Whole Home DVR solution to bear based on a Cisco 8642 HD/DVR with 500GB (3x more than the sizes currently offered) of storage, and MoCA-connected 1642 HD receivers, which are also necessary to tune to the new HD channels on the way delivered over Switched Digital Video (SDV) in the 860-MHz band.

The star of the show however is the new “Trio” program guide (video embedded after the break), a 16:9 interface that spaces out program info over three panes — channels on the left, programs in the middle, details on the right. TV programs can also be sorted grid-style, by themes, HD-only or favorite channels, while VOD lists titles, box art and detailed info in the three window style. There’s personalization for up to eight members of a household, as well as TiVo-style suggestions and related programming searches based on metadata. An exec told Multichannel News the new tru2way-built software started by realizing that “our guides were, in fact, broken” and this all-new approach is a step towards fixing that. Besides the TiVos and Moxis of the world, other service providers with similar setups include DirecTV, FiOS, Dish Network and U-verse and while we’d definitely like to see that middle pane expanded a bit to show more of each title, Cox could be the first cable company offering a set-top box that actually competes with any of them.

Continue reading Cox ‘Plus Package’ brings advanced Trio UI, 500GB multiroom DVR and more HD channels

Cox ‘Plus Package’ brings advanced Trio UI, 500GB multiroom DVR and more HD channels originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 10 May 2010 12:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Maybe it’s just the odd angle of this newly submitted out-of-box photograph, or maybe we just aren’t smart enough for Cisco, but we still we can’t quite figure out what exactly is going on here. We suppose the flip-up screen performs as a sort of poor man’s photo frame? At risk of being rude, we’re pretty sure we’d just like a thinner video camera, but when it comes to selling millions dirt cheap, dirt simple video cameras to the masses, the makers of the seemingly imminent Flip Slide HD are of course the experts.

[Thanks, anonymous]

Flip Slide HD caught outside the box, still looks weird originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 11 Apr 2010 01:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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All we have is this one image, care of a gracious anonymous tipster who said it was found at Best Buy. Our best guess? Well, it’s a Flip camcorder, and there’s a sliding element to it — amazing deduction skills, we know. Perhaps Cisco has something up its sleeve soon? Inquiring minds want to know.

Flip Slide HD caught at Best Buy, slides into camera’s view originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 06 Apr 2010 23:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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