ASUS Eee Pad Transformer and Eee Slate EP121 get official UK pricing

We’ve heard a fair amount of rumors and speculation about the impending release of ASUS’ latest and, perhaps, craziest new slates, and now its giving us the real details — for the UK at least. The wildly unique Eee Pad Transformer, the first of its kind rocking Honeycomb, is up for pre-order now, with an official release date of April 6th and a price of £379 for the 16GB version and £429 for the 32GB version, each on its lonesome — you can get the 16GB iteration with the docking keyboard for £429 . Its less flashy companion, the Eee Slate EP121, sporting Windows 7 and an Intel Core i5 processor, hits Britain April 10th for £999, and is ready for pre-order exclusively through Amazon UK through May 1st. Unfortunately, we’re still not sure when they’ll cross the pond or how much they’ll cost when they get here, but we’re still fairly certain the Transformer’s coming sometime next month.

ASUS Eee Pad Transformer and Eee Slate EP121 get official UK pricing originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Mar 2011 15:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceSlashgear  | Email this | Comments

Dell’s Andy Lark bashes the iPad, points out far-fetched figures instead of actual flaws

In business, there’s a right way to take on a rival, and apparently, the Dell way. If you’re up for taking a lesson in the latter, look no further than the CIO article down in our source link. There, Dell’s global head of marketing for large enterprises and public organizations, Andy Lark, attempted to prove why the iPad didn’t stand a chance in the enterprise market — a market where two-thirds of the Fortune 100 are already adopting or piloting the device. The interview meanders on in a few different directions, but the highlight of the whole thing is right here:

“An iPad with a keyboard, a mouse and a case [means] you’ll be at $1500 or $1600; that’s double of what you’re paying,” he claimed. “That’s not feasible…. Apple is great if you’ve got a lot of money and live on an island. It’s not so great if you have to exist in a diverse, open, connected enterprise; simple things become quite complex.”

Even in Australia, the most expensive iPad 2 (a 64GB model with 3G) runs A$949, and unless Lark plans on bundling an Optimus Maximus and Hela Glider Mouse into the package, we’re struggling to see where his estimates came from. In fact, the one thing that major tablet makers have struggled to match the iPad on is price, making the comparison even more galling. ‘Tis a shame — all he would’ve had to do in order to be taken seriously was point out the lackluster screen resolution, omission of a USB port, the missing SD card slot and disgusting reliance on iTunes. Lesson learned, we guess.

Update: Andy himself pinged us to reveal that pricing in the article was actually referring to New Zealand dollars, but confessed that it never cited as such. NZ$1600 rolls down to around $1219, so it starts to make a lot more sense there. This also included basic adapters and such that’d be necessary to make an iPad do fairly basic tasks, like output video and interface with a limited selection of USB peripherals.

Dell’s Andy Lark bashes the iPad, points out far-fetched figures instead of actual flaws originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Mar 2011 10:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Yahoo! News (Digital Trends)  |  sourceCIO  | Email this | Comments

Lenovo CEO: LePad’s slimmer successor should arrive in September or October

Lenovo may have just launched the much delayed LePad in China, but it’s already giddying us with a surprisingly early date for said Android tablet’s successor. At last night’s opening banquet for the 2011 Chinese IT Leadership Summit, CEO Yang Yuanqing revealed that the second-gen LePad will be slimmer (which is a given these days), and is expected to be launched in September or October — merely three or four months after le original LePad’s upcoming global launch in June. Shedding no light on specifications, Yang added that the next LePad was developed in parallel with its predecessor under a separate team, allowing it to come to fruition in just nine months. Very well, but actually making it to the market is an entirely different story, so we shall sit tight and watch — hopefully Mr. Blurrycam will deliver the goods beforehand, too.

Lenovo CEO: LePad’s slimmer successor should arrive in September or October originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Mar 2011 08:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Engadget Chinese  |  sourceCCIDnet  | Email this | Comments

Acer slaps $1,200 price tag on dual-screen Iconia-6120 touchbook, lets US and Canada pre-order

Acer’s had its fair share of Iconia’s land in the past few months, but none are as breathtaking (and potentially world-changing) as the Iconia-6120. Said machine was priced at €1,499 earlier in the year, but that doesn’t mean an awful lot to folks situated in America and the Great White North. As of today, consumers in both of those nations have a price and release date to ponder, with $1,199.99 (both US and CAD) netting you a touchbook with two 14-inch Gorilla Glass touchpanels, a Core i5 CPU, 4GB of memory, integrated Intel HD graphics and a 64-bit copy of Windows 7 Home Premium. You’ll also get USB 3.0 support, a 640GB hard drive, a 1.3 megapixel camera, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, an HDMI output, gigabit Ethernet, a chassis that weighs in at 5.95 pounds and a battery that’ll probably sputter along for nine or ten minutes (on a good day). Lookin’ to dive right in? Amazon, as well as “other” fine e-tailers, should be taking orders momentarily.

Continue reading Acer slaps $1,200 price tag on dual-screen Iconia-6120 touchbook, lets US and Canada pre-order

Acer slaps $1,200 price tag on dual-screen Iconia-6120 touchbook, lets US and Canada pre-order originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Mar 2011 08:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceAmazon  | Email this | Comments

iPad, iPad 2 get unofficial CF card compatibility (video)

Given the impressive knockoffs and official camera kits we’ve seen, we’d say the iPad’s definitely got the stuff to help out most shutterbugs, but up until now, uploading content from a CF card wasn’t exactly easy. Well, our friends over at MIC Gadget recently showed off an iPad / iPad 2-compatible card reader that fixes that on the cheap. Simply called the CF card reader for iPad and iPad 2, the thing slips right into the slate’s dock connector port and, as you can see from the video below, it transfers HD video and high-res images in a snap — it also sports USB connectivity. Like its predecessor, the reader’s available from MIC for $29.90, but you’ll have to wait at least a month to get your hands on one. Oh, and a word of warning, you might want to make sure the iPad supports your camera’s video format before shelling out the dough, as MIC found the slab couldn’t playback video from a Canon EOS 5D Mark II.

Continue reading iPad, iPad 2 get unofficial CF card compatibility (video)

iPad, iPad 2 get unofficial CF card compatibility (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 26 Mar 2011 12:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceMIC Gadget (1), (2)  | Email this | Comments

Samsung’s CTIA press conference posted online, skinny new Galaxy Tabs shown off (video)

We were there, talking you through the entire thing in our liveblog, but if you want a more personal taste of what Samsung’s CTIA Wireless 2011 keynote was like, the company’s thoughtfully put it up on YouTube for general consumption. It features the introduction of the audacious new Galaxy Tab 8.9 and 10.1 models, both ever so slightly thinner than Apple’s iPad 2, with the latter also claiming the title of being “the thinnest and lightest large-screen tablet in the industry.” You can see it above, right alongside the Galaxy S II, which is in itself one of the skinniest smartphones you can hope to buy. Make your way past the break for the full presentation.

Continue reading Samsung’s CTIA press conference posted online, skinny new Galaxy Tabs shown off (video)

Samsung’s CTIA press conference posted online, skinny new Galaxy Tabs shown off (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Mar 2011 05:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Phone Arena  |   | Email this | Comments

ASUS rips off Big Bang Theory for Transformer promo, makes it just as unfunny as the real thing

ASUS’ Eee Pad Transformer can alternate between being a tablet and a pseudo-laptop thanks to a keyboard / extended battery dock. It also has a Tegra 2 heart and a Honeycomb mind, but the company’s opted to focus on its physical uniqueness in a video it’s just released marking the new Pad’s Taiwanese debut today. Only problem is, Jonney Shih went and listened to his son’s idea (no joke!) to theme it around US comedy show Big Bang Theory, replete with Megatron jokes, bad haircuts, and gadget lust aplenty. We’ll let you judge how well that worked out after the break.

Continue reading ASUS rips off Big Bang Theory for Transformer promo, makes it just as unfunny as the real thing

ASUS rips off Big Bang Theory for Transformer promo, makes it just as unfunny as the real thing originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Mar 2011 03:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceasus (YouTube)  | Email this | Comments

RIM adds Android app support to BlackBerry PlayBook via ‘optional app player’

You read that right — RIM just announced that its forthcoming BlackBerry PlayBook will support both BlackBerry Java and Android apps. That includes native C/C++ development support, HTML5, Flash and AIR support, not to mention game engines from Ideaworks Labs (AirPlay) and Unity Technologies (Unity 3). That means that you’ll have access to over 200,000 Android apps should developers choose to “quickly and easily” port them over, and assuming you dive into one of two optional “app players” in order to do so. It’s also worth noting that RIM’s presser only focuses on Android “2.3 apps,” and while we’re assuming Honeycomb apps will eventually be supported, there’s no mention of Android 3.0 just yet. Furthermore, devs can look forward to an imminent release of the native PlayBook SDK, which will specifically enable C/C++ application development on the BlackBerry Tablet OS. So, now that you can look forward to digging into the near-limitless Android Market via BlackBerry wizardry of some sort, are you actually considering picking up a PlayBook on April 19th? Let us know in comments below!

Continue reading RIM adds Android app support to BlackBerry PlayBook via ‘optional app player’

RIM adds Android app support to BlackBerry PlayBook via ‘optional app player’ originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Mar 2011 17:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink gdgt  |   | Email this | Comments

HTC’s WiFi-only Flyer launching exclusively with Best Buy ‘this spring’

Now that it’s received its big US debut courtesy of Sprint and under the name EVO View 4G, HTC’s Flyer tablet is free to, um, fly under the radar with a WiFi version this spring, exclusively through Best Buy. Specs on the Flyer are somewhat atypical for the current crop of Android tablets, as it opts for Gingerbread instead of Honeycomb and a 1.5GHz Qualcomm chip intead of the popular Tegra 2 dual-core solution. That, and it’s a 7-inch tablet with a capacitive stylus and an aluminum unibody shell. Notably, this WiFi-centric variant looks set to beat the WiMAX-capable EVO View (which Sprint expects in the summer) to market, so we’ll be keeping a very curious eye on pricing as and when it is announced. For now, we have a retailer and a rapidly dwindling release window. Oh, and a press release, which you’ll find just past the break, augmented with a neat little promo video.

[Thanks, Michael]

Continue reading HTC’s WiFi-only Flyer launching exclusively with Best Buy ‘this spring’

HTC’s WiFi-only Flyer launching exclusively with Best Buy ‘this spring’ originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Mar 2011 19:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Reuters (Yahoo! News)  |   | Email this | Comments

Sprint makes EVO View 4G tablet official: 1.5GHz, WiMAX, 7-inch screen, and a stylus to boot

Sprint has stopped playing coy about one of the worst-leaked devices in recent memory and has at long last made it official. The EVO View 4G is a 7-inch, 1024 x 600 Android tablet with a 1.5GHz processor, 5 megapixel rear- and 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera, a WiMAX radio, and HTC’s loving application of Sense for a UI. If all this sounds familiar, it’ll be because we’re really talking about HTC’s Flyer tablet, introduced at last month’s MWC, and just like it, the EVO View will also feature the HTC Scribe capacitive stylus. The Evo View 4G will ship with 32GB of storage “this summer.” You’ll now find the full press release and spec sheet (including a healthy gigabyte of RAM and a 4000mAh battery) after the break, and some preliminary shots below. Full hands-on to come!

Continue reading Sprint makes EVO View 4G tablet official: 1.5GHz, WiMAX, 7-inch screen, and a stylus to boot

Sprint makes EVO View 4G tablet official: 1.5GHz, WiMAX, 7-inch screen, and a stylus to boot originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Mar 2011 13:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceSprint  | Email this | Comments