Hasta La Gadget!

We managed to grab some hands-on time with a Moorestown-powered MeeGo tablet prototype during the hustle and bustle that was Computex 2010, but if you’re looking for a more subdued, PBS-approved rundown of what the forthcoming operating system will offer, you’re in the right place. Hosted up just after the break is a video demo of the pre-alpha user interface, complete with a finger-led walkthrough of the entire system. We’ll be frank — what we’re seeing here is downright dazzling, and it all looks a heck of a lot easier to wrap one’s noodle around than a full-on copy of Win7. Peek it for yourself, won’t you?

[Thanks, Allen]

Continue reading MeeGo for tablets gets a pre-alpha video demonstration

MeeGo for tablets gets a pre-alpha video demonstration originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Jun 2010 21:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While DigiTimes has been known to get a rumor correct now and again, its success rate falls off dramatically when dealing with companies HQ’d outside of its native Taiwan. Keep that in mind when you hear it discuss a Nokia tablet with either a 7- or 9-inch screen. DigiTimes, speaking with “upstream component makers,” claims that the Foxconn manufactured device — of which, about 100 engineering samples have already been produced — will be ARM-based with a Q4 launch targeted. If true (and that’s a big IF) then it would certainly be running the MeeGo OS (that’s a Quanta-built prototype above) when it ships. Of course, DigiTimes has been rumoring an ARM-based smartbook from Nokia due in mid 2010 for almost a year. And guess what? It’s mid 2010, with smartbooks/netbooks now out of style and tablets all the rage. Thing is, we’d have thought that Nokia would be more likely to opt for Intel’s Moorestown in support of their partnership given the Q4 timing. But hey, it’s just rumor, let’s not get too carried away.

Nokia 7- or 9-inch MeeGo tablet rumored to be running ARM (not Moorestown) in Q4 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Jun 2010 07:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading iPed tablet running Android 2.1 spotted in the blurry, blurry wild

iPed tablet running Android 2.1 spotted in the blurry, blurry wild originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 19 Jun 2010 13:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Um, whoops! It seems as if those earlier reports of Canonical crafting a special edition of Ubuntu specifically for tablets may have stemmed from taking certain quotes out of context, as a new interview over at Golem has confirmed that the company has no short-term plans to pursue that full-on tablet PC push that was so well hyped. It’s a bit of a bummer, honestly, with far too few legitimate tablet operating systems on the horizon; Windows 7 just feels a grown man’s OS, and there’s no telling if Windows Embedded Compact 7 will ever truly live up to its incredible potential. According to Mark Shuttleworth, though, the forthcoming Ubuntu Light will be distributed on a variety of systems, but the smallest it’s really aiming for is netbooks. We get the feeling these guys will come around eventually, but for now it’s on you to squeeze your favorite Linux build onto that ginormous iPhone 3G tablet you’ve already got on pre-order.

Canonical hearts tablets, but it’s not making a special Ubuntu for them originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Jun 2010 12:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Interesting post by our friend Harry McCracken at Technologizer today, pointing out that HP’s gone dead silent about the Slate ever since it announced plans to acquire Palm. Harry was at The Big Money’s Untethered conference today, and HP CTO Phil McKinney was on stage, where he “talked about the downsides of using existing operating systems for new types of devices” and “extolled the virtues of webOS.” Interesting topic, since the Slate very prominently ran Windows 7. When pressed, Phil said he couldn’t talk about unreleased products, which is a big change: it’s been six months since Steve Ballmer first showed the Slate at CES, and since then HP’s produced several rah-rah videos, one of them featuring none other than Phil McKinney himself.

Harry takes this new silence to mean that the HP Slate is dead, and we’re beginning to think he’s right: although we haven’t heard anything concrete, we definitely noticed HP’s absence at tablet-heavy Computex, and at this rate, the Slate’s rumored 1.6GHz Atom Z530 will be hopelessly out of date by the time it launches — Intel’s now showing off Moorestown Atom Z600 tablets and it’s got the Windows-tablet focused Oak Trail Atom planned for early next year. The window’s closing a little more with every passing day — at this point, HP needs to come clean just so we can all move on to waiting for the Hurricane.

What’s going on with the HP Slate? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Jun 2010 21:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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