Hasta La Gadget!

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

At the launch of the new iPad – superior for video chat, group presentations, and cutting cake — Apple didn’t miss a few opportunities to rub salt in the open air vents of Microsoft’s tablet efforts. Apple noted that sales of the iPad have exceeded those of every other tablet PC ever sold, and that Microsoft (along with other competitors) were chasing doomed strategies that extended outmoded models.

Microsoft has been clear that it will continue to use its “desktop” operating system – Windows – rather than its mobile operating system – the device-specifying Windows Phone 7 – as its operating system for tablets. Considering the critical importance of an intuitive touchscreen UI on tablet — where Windows Phone 7 excels and desktop Windows has struggled — this seems risky on its face. But it is important to remember from Microsoft’s perspective that the question is not whether Windows is the best choice for tablets but whether it is a better choice for Microsoft than Windows Phone. While the company faces an uphill battle regardless of which OS it chooses, its flagship could be the better answer for several reasons.

Continue reading Switched On: Padded Windows

Switched On: Padded Windows originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 06 Mar 2011 19:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The original gangster of Android, T-Mobile’s G1, just refuses to quietly fade into the annals of history. Even in spite of its long overdue end of retail life last summer, the handset continues to see support from grassroots modders and tweakers, with the latest project being the most ambitious of them all: an Android Honeycomb port. A pair of xda members have succeeded in splicing Android’s most senior hardware with its very latest software and the results are available to see on video after the break. As usual with these builds, half of the phone’s functions have still to be enabled and the UI lag seems like it’ll be a permanent feature whatever happens, but still — it’s Honeycomb on the G1!

Continue reading HTC Magic / T-Mobile G1 gets Honeycomb port, Android past and future fused together (video)

HTC Magic / T-Mobile G1 gets Honeycomb port, Android past and future fused together (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Mar 2011 04:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While we’re still a good few months away from OS X Lion’s official debut, Apple’s just released a developer preview for those itching to get their hands dirty on this forthcoming major OS release. Alas, you have to be a Mac Developer Program member in order to obtain this goodie from the Mac App Store, so this isn’t a bad time to get friendly with your Mac developer pals. Press release after the break.

Continue reading Apple pushes out Mac OS X Lion developer preview via Mac App Store

Apple pushes out Mac OS X Lion developer preview via Mac App Store originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Feb 2011 08:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You don’t need us to tell you what you already know in your gut to be true: Redmond is working hard on its tablet strategy. How embarrassing is it for Microsoft, the company that pioneered tablets and the 7-inch UMPC, to be completely absent from the conversation in 2010 and 2011? That could change in September. Microsoft watcher Mary Jo Foley recently shared the slide above which she believes to be 99.99 percent genuine. The timeline shows the major milestone dates for a Windows 8 (aka, “Windows Next“) release — an OS that M. JoFo believes to be focused on tablets (aka, “Lap PCs” in Microsoft parlance) with its purpose-built touch-centric design. According to the slide, we’re looking at an M2 milestone this month followed by M3 in July or August. Foley says that would put Microsoft on track for a Windows 8 beta release right around Microsoft’s Professional Developers Conference (PDC) event in September followed by a second beta in 2012 before being released to manufacturing around the summer of 2012 — just like we heard early last year and just in time for Dell’s Hancock tablet. There are still many open questions including Microsoft’s ARM vs. Intel priorities and how the company plans to scale across the enterprise and the “workhorse PC” and “Family Hub PC” in the home. Hit the ZDNet link below for a deeper read or better yet, head on over to TechRepublic where Mary Jo Foley put together an excellent webcast outlining Microsoft’s tablet strategy in much more detail.

Windows 8 beta for tablets at September PDC? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Feb 2011 07:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HP closed its recent “Think Beyond” event with a remarkable announcement that webOS would be coming to PCs. How, exactly, the company planned on doing that has been a mystery. The Seattle Times just interviewed HP’s CTO, Phil McKinney, who helped put to rest some premature speculation that HP would be dumping Microsoft Windows in favor of webOS while adding some clarity (though not much) to its webOS on everything strategy. According to Phil, people still want an OS appropriate to PCs, tablets, and smartphones with webOS pulling it all together by “taking the existing operating systems and bringing WebOS onto those platforms and making it universal across all of our footprint.” That doesn’t mean that webOS will run as a virtualized instance within Windows. Phil says, “it’s not virtualization. It’s an integrated WebOS experience we’re looking to bring.” He then adds, “We’re working with Microsoft on the future of Windows and we’re very optimistic on what that future is, but what we think is we can bring an enhancement to that.” The goal is to create a large device footprint that makes webOS a very attractive platform to developers — “you can develop your WebOS app that’ll run on your phone, your slate and your PC,” according to McKinney. Hmm, apparently HP didn’t get the Elopcalypse memo about the “three-horse race” that considers HP’s and RIM’s ecosystems irrelevant.

webOS on PCs will be an ‘integrated experience’ originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Feb 2011 05:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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