Hasta La Gadget!

Microsoft really upset some of its partners when it announced that it would be getting into the tablet market making its own hardware. Microsoft and its Surface tablets are due to come to market at roughly the same time Windows 8 launches. Many of Microsoft’s partners are also going to be producing their own tablets running Windows RT and Windows 8.

Lenovo is one of the companies will be producing tablets using the new Windows operating system. The company has announced that its devices running Windows RT will be $200-$300 less than competing products using Windows 8. That’s good news for consumers who are concerned that Windows RT tablets would come in at retail prices significantly above competing tablets on the market.

Windows RT tablets will run ARM technology and if Lenovo sticks to its pricing plan of $200-$300 less than competing products with standard Windows 8, they should be close in price to some of the other ARM tablets. Windows 8 tablets are expected to come in a price range similar to Intel ultrabooks at somewhere around $700.

If the approximately $600-$700 price range turns out to be true for Windows 8 tablets, that would put the Windows RT units somewhere around $400 to $500 when they hit the market. That price range will put them in the fight against the iPad on a price basis. However, matching the price of the iPad alone certainly will not guarantee success for Windows RT devices. The tablets will need to be superior in other ways. The market has shown simply matching the iPad on price and performance isn’t enough.

[via Bloomberg]

Lenovo tips Windows RT tablets to be up to $300 less than Windows 8 tablets is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Acer hasn’t exactly been coy when it comes its opinion on Microsoft’s Surface tablet, but Lenovo believes that it can beat the tablet with some good old fashioned competition. CEO of Lenovo, Yang Yuanqing, voiced his opinions on the company’s latest earnings calls, saying, “Although we don’t like Microsoft providing hardware, for us, it just adds one more competitor,” when asked about Surface.

Lenovo certainly seems confident of its abilities, going on to say that it would beat out Surface in hardware: “[They’re] just one of our many competitors. We are still confident that we are providing much better hardware than our competitors including Microsoft. They are strong in software, but [we] don’t believe they can provide the best hardware in the world. Lenovo can.”

Still, Lenovo didn’t totally call out Microsoft, saying that the company still had a strong relationship due to the Windows partnership: “To be frank, we’re not that worried about [Surface]. Microsoft is still our strategy partner. We are very optimistic on the Windows 8 launch so we will fully leverage that to launch our new products.” The company recently launched its ThinkPad Tablet 2, designed to run Windows 8 on an Intel Atom processor, with HSPA+ and LTE connectivity options, plus security and fingerprint support.

Meanwhile, the company is reportedly planning on releasing an ARM-based convertible tablet later in the year when Windows 8 officially launches. The idea was first shown off with the IdeaPad Yoga, a convertible ultrabook that allowed the screen to fold back on itself so that it could be used like a tablet. The ultrabook is running one of Intel’s ULV Core processors as well as Windows 8 Pro. The ARM version, however, is reportedly running one of NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 processors on Windows RT.

[via CNET]

Lenovo plans to beat Surface with superior hardware is written by Ben Kersey & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Welcome to Tuesday, folks. It was a busy day today, and there’s plenty of news to cover, so let’s get right into it. It appears that the worldwide mobile phone market is falling a little bit year-over-year, and the Motorola DROID RAZR HD might be launching sometime in October. Fisker is currently at work investigating the fire that claimed one Karma EV over the weekend, and we received word of another EV catching fire during the Pikes Peak Hill Climb that took place in Colorado this past weekend as well.

A new Apple patent was uncovered today, just in time for the rumored reveal of the new iPhone, and Groupon has released its financial report for quarter 2. It seems that Toshiba is backing out of the Windows RT tablet market, and the Samsung SGH-T899 Windows Phone was confirmed to be heading to T-Mobile. We also reminded you check in with us here at SlashGear tomorrow for coverage of Samsung’s press event, which is where many are expecting the company to show off the Galaxy Note 10.1. In other words, you don’t want to miss it.

It was all about tech and gadgets in the morning, but this afternoon, SlashGear became SlashGames, as Electronic Arts and Sony both gave their pre-Gamescom press conferences. There were a lot of things to talk about too, with Electronic Arts announcing Battlefield 3 Premium Edition and letting loose Dead Space 3‘s release date. Registration for the upcoming SimCity beta is underway, Activision gave us our first taste of Black Ops Declassified gameplay, and Sony pulled the veil back on some new PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale characters. That wasn’t all though, as Sony also gave us a release date for the first PSOne Classics on PS Vita during the press conference, and gave us the first trailer for Guerrilla’s upcoming Killzone: Mercenary.

We were thinking for a little while that Valve would reveal Half-Life 3 during Gamescom, but the studio was quick to quash those rumors, and Sony announced a new PlayStation Mobile initiative for iOS and Android, so keep an eye out for that. One very brave thief tried to steal $60,000 worth of computers from Steve Jobs’ home, but was unsuccessful in his efforts, and new rumors are telling us that Apple has been forced to lay off some its Apple Store employees in the UK. The Acer TravelMate P243 notebook PC was revealed today, complete with Intel’s Ivy Bridge microarchitecture, and the Samsung Galaxy S III might be getting an update to Jelly Bean toward the end of the month. Finally tonight, RIM says that BlackBerry 10 will be ready for licensing soon, and the Curiosity rover sent back another image for that massive 130-picture panorama of the surface of Mars. Be sure to give that a look.

That does it for today’s evening wrap-up, so go out and enjoy the rest of your evening!

SlashGear Evening Wrap-Up: August 14, 2012 is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Toshiba has announced this week that it will be pulling out of the Windows RT market before it begins this coming season, letting it be known that they’ll be working with Windows 8 software instead. The difference between Windows 8 and Windows RT is Windows RT’s limitation to what was formerly called “Metro” apps. Toshiba had noted previously that they’d be using Texas Instruments processors in their future Windows RT tablets, but at the moment they’ve sited a delay in getting components for devices in time for their planned release date as the reason why they’ve pulled out.

The statement makes it clear that though they would not be specifying the exact components they were unable to get, they’ll be moving forward with Windows 8 devices exclusively. It appears now that if Toshiba does indeed make a Windows 8-era tablet, they’ll be waiting for some time. In the meantime, they’ve re-dedicated themselves to Windows 8 for desktop and notebook machines.

“Toshiba has decided not to introduce Windows RT models due to delayed components that would make a timely launch impossible. For the time being, Toshiba will focus on bringing Windows 8 products to market. We will continue to look into the possibility of Windows RT products in the future while monitoring market conditions.” – Eric Paulsen for Toshiba

Check out the timeline below of recent Windows RT news to see who will be part of the tablet party as it begins quite soon. Microsoft will be bringing their own Surface tablets to the greater environment as well, so it’ll be a right joyous bunch of tablet action!

[via Toshiba]

Windows RT tablet market: Toshiba’s out is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

When Microsoft launched its Surface tablets, a lot of observers were skeptical about its move, saying that it was a “mistake” to compete with its traditional hardware partners. While perceived as an awkward stance, the Microsoft position is actually not about competing with hardware sales in my opinion. Instead, I think that Microsoft wants to set the bar and make sure that its partners can match or even surpass its own tablet. What Microsoft wants is to make sure that Windows 8 for ARM architecture provides a great experience, and as one would say: if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Microsoft reportedly changing “Metro” to “Modern UI Style”, Microsoft reportedly rebranding Metro to Windows 8,