May 26

Freescale partners with Savannah school for some leg-stretching tablet concepts, makes a nice use case for Light Peak

Posted in: concept, tablet, tablets, Today's Chili

Normally when you’ve got industrial design students going wild on computer concepts, you get a lot of wild, unrealistic computer concepts. There’s plenty of that here, but this 10 week collaboration between Freescale, some of its top partners, and Savannah College of Art and Design students is yielding a bit of fruit. We particularly like this docking tablet that can slot into different docks depending on use case — the two primary ones shown being a home entertainment setup and a pro audio breakout. Sure, it’s still not the most realistic way to use a tablet — we’d much rather have solid support for 3rd party USB devices in the near term — but with a bit of Light Peak and some as-ye-unseen pricing, this could make for some pretty slick use cases.

Freescale partners with Savannah school for some leg-stretching tablet concepts, makes a nice use case for Light Peak originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 27 May 2010 01:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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May 26

7 Key Turning Points That Made Apple No. 1

Posted in: Accessories and Peripherals, imac, iPhone, ipod, Mac, mac os x, macbook, Miscellaneous, steve jobs, tablet, Today's Chili
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Apple has been through some extreme ups and downs, but today the corporation climbed to an all-time high. Apple surpassed longtime rival Microsoft in market capitalization, making the Cupertino, California, company the most valuable technology company in the world, for the moment, at least.

The milestone is even more remarkable given Apple’s single-digit share of the computer market. Microsoft, by contrast, runs on about 90 percent of the world’s PCs.

Steve Jobs should feel vindicated. After being fired from his own company in the 1980s, the company gradually became less and less relevant, its market share dwindling and its innovative edge dulled.

Now, over a decade after his return as Apple CEO, Jobs — once viewed as an opportunistic entrepreneur who would never have the chops to run a really big company — is the king of the tech industry.

From the first iMac to the revolutionary iPad, what follows is a list of key turning points that took Apple from an also-ran into a champion.

Above:

Jobs Returns, 1996

A nearly bankrupt Apple Computer welcomed back its ousted founder Jobs in 1996. Apple purchased Jobs’ startup, NeXT, to help build a new, Unix-based operating system — but the real prize was Jobs himself. A year later, Jobs replaced Gil Amelio as CEO to retake the helm. With the help of some financial backing from rival Bill Gates, the return of Jobs marked the beginning of Apple’s gradual recovery.

Photo: Gil Amelio, left, and Steve Jobs appear together at the MacWorld exposition in San Francisco on January 7, 1997
Associated Press/Eric Risberg




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May 26

PTPT shows off wild Android UI skin, we go hands-on

Posted in: Android, htc sense, HtcSense, impressions, netbook, preview, smartphone, Smartphones, tablet, tablet pc, TabletPc, tablets, Today's Chili, video

Last time we heard about ExB’s PTPT (pronounced “petite petite”), the software startup was just beginning to show off the basics of its touchscreen interface; since then, the small German company has been polishing up the UI and prepping it for Android phones and tablets. According to the CEO Ramin Assadollah, the company is in talks with a “major hardware manufacturer” that’s planning on skinning its Android products with the incredibly unique software. We got to see PTPT running on an Android 1.6-powered Acer Liquid while at the Netbook Summit, and though it took us a few minutes to understand how the interface worked, it’s definitely interesting and responsive. The input starts with three circular icons representing people, places, and things and then a bar that represents time.

You can simply select an individual person — you can import contacts from a variety of sources, including, Twitter, Facebook, and so on — from the halo that appears, and then drag them up to a specific time to get various updates or e-mails from that person. The custom predictive text keyboard in the e-mail interface was very snappy — it’s also just nice to see a change from the stock Android input. Then, you can drag that person to things to see pictures of them. And just like in the original demo, you can then move the pictures icon to a point on the timeline to see pictures from that time. Though the phone and tablet demos we saw didn’t have widgets on the homescreen, we were assured that they can be added. We promise this is all better explained in the demo video below, so mosey on down after the jump. We’ll be here, wondering what Android devices this software may pop-up on.

Gallery: Exb PTPT hands-on

Continue reading PTPT shows off wild Android UI skin, we go hands-on

PTPT shows off wild Android UI skin, we go hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 May 2010 18:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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May 26

WeTab street date pushed back to mid-September

Posted in: delay, pre-order, slate, tablet, Today's Chili
WeTab, WePad — whatever name you use, it’s obvious that the gang at Neofonie doesn’t exactly run the tightest ship. (And yes, we’re still feeling a little stung from the product launch, where they tried to pass off Windows 7 as Linux.) If Amazon.de is to be believed, it looks like the €460 ($566) wonder won’t be available now until mid-September. This isn’t exactly the sort of thing that inspires confidence in pre-order customers, but who knows? Maybe some amusing behind-the-scenes drama is unfolding as we speak. You know how we love our schadenfreude.

[Thanks, Sebastian]

WeTab street date pushed back to mid-September originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 May 2010 16:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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May 26

Shanzai shocker! VIA processors in $100 Android tablets later this year

Posted in: Android, android tablet, AndroidTablet, GoogleAndroid, slate, tablet, tablet pc, TabletPc, tablets, Today's Chili

Brace for a storm of craptablets: this week, Taiwanese semiconductor firm VIA said its processors will appear in a new slate of cheap Android tablets destined for the US in the second half of this year. Speaking to Bloomberg, VIA marketing head Richard Brown said the company’s Chinese customers will ship around five tablets, that they’ll appear at $100 to $150 price points, and that “the tablet market has been legitimized by Apple” — that last likely in an attempt to make Bloomberg utter the words “VIA” and “iPad” in the same breath. (It worked.) Mind you, the iPad certainly isn’t the be-all, end-all of tablet computing, but we wouldn’t expect to get a legitimate iPad killer for $100, either. We think we said it best in April: you get what you pay for.

Shanzai shocker! VIA processors in $100 Android tablets later this year originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 May 2010 11:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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May 25

Archos 8 Home Tablet just a 7-inch display according to FCC docs

Posted in: archos, tablet, Today's Chili

Get a load of that bezel. With chunk like that we can only be looking at the Archos 8 Home tablet, a device that just lumbered its way through the FCC in a rather unflattering (even for the FCC) photo spread. Archos calls its Model 7800 an Android MID throughout the government docs, but given the bezel-to-display ratio we’re guessing it’ll pull primary duty as a $199 picture frame with the ability to track down the occasional recipe over WiFi. Other details include the same plodding Rockchip RK2808 SoC found in the Archos 7 Home Tablet and a HSD070IDW1 resistive touchscreen display from Hannstar with 800×480 pixel resolution, 25ms response, 500:1 contrast, 200/300 nits brightness, and poor 140-degree left-right and 110-degree up-down viewing angles — easy to see where Archos cut out the cost, eh? Oh, and get this, Hannstar says that its display is 7-inches, not 8-inches as Archos claims. Either Archos made a mistake in its FCC submission or the company is hoping to mask reality with that giant plastic border.

Continue reading Archos 8 Home Tablet just a 7-inch display according to FCC docs

Archos 8 Home Tablet just a 7-inch display according to FCC docs originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 May 2010 01:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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May 25

X10 MID does 1080p video output on the cheap

Posted in: 1080p, MID, tablet, Today's Chili
A $179, Windows CE 6.0-based MID / tablet may not sound like the most exciting proposition at first, but this so-called X10 MID from a manufacturer that apparently prefers to remain nameless might just pack enough features to at least pique your interest. Chief among those is support for full 1080p video output via the MID’s HDMI port, not to mention support for just about every video file format you could ask for to go along with it. Otherwise, you’ll get a 7-inch 800 x 480 display (resistive, judging from the stylus), along with a 720 MHz Telechips 8901 ARM 11 processor, 256MB of RAM, 2GB of on-board storage, a microSD card slot for expansion, and built-in WiFi and GPS. Willing to take a chance on it? Then hit up the source hint below to get your order in.

Update: Our pals from Engadget Chinese recently managed to get some hands-on time with device, which is made by a company called Kinstone. Head on past the break for a video, and check out a few more pics in their gallery right here.

Continue reading X10 MID does 1080p video output on the cheap

X10 MID does 1080p video output on the cheap originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 May 2010 01:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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May 25

Marvell shows off 10-inch Android tablet at Netbook Summit

Posted in: Android, android tablet, AndroidTablet, arm, tablet, tablet pc, TabletPc, tablets, Today's Chili

Unfortunately, we don’t know much about this new Marvell powered tablet, but we couldn’t resist sharing our impressions of the very svelte 10-inch device. We only got a few minutes to play around with the slate at the Netbook Summit, but we can tell you that it has a brushed metal back and there’s an opening on the front for a camera. As for the internals, it’s based on Marvell’s Moby reference design, which uses its Snapdragon-class Armada 610 processor, and will run Android 2.1 Eclair. The rest will be up to whatever Marvell customer is bringing this bad boy to market — the Marvell executive that let us catch a glance at the device wouldn’t turn it on as he feared we may see the mystery customer’s logo. We told you we didn’t know much, but from what we saw today it sure looks promising. Now, if only we felt Android was ready Google would give us a tablet-ready version of Android…

Gallery: Marvell 10-inch tablet

Marvell shows off 10-inch Android tablet at Netbook Summit originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 25 May 2010 16:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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May 25

No, we didn’t get an Enso zenPad

Posted in: android tablet, AndroidTablet, tablet, tablet pc, TabletPc, Today's Chili

Hey folks, it’s just come to our attention that Enso — a French startup that received notoriety for selling vaporware tablets — has been using Engadget’s good name to convince irate customers that its product actually exists. We gave Enso the benefit of the doubt at first, but let’s put things in perspective: we have not received an zenPad tablet, and in fact, we no longer expect to. Enso has now promised us a review unit on five separate occasions beginning in early April, and missed each deadline it set for itself. We do not endorse the supposed product, and we’d appreciate it if you pay no attention when company founders tell you otherwise — or set up fake review websites, for that matter. That’s just not cool.

No, we didn’t get an Enso zenPad originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 25 May 2010 11:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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May 25

Panasonic Toughbook 19 gets Core i5 grunt to match its grizzled visage

Posted in: intel, tablet, Today's Chili
Panasonic Toughbook 19 gets Core i5 grunt to match its grizzled visage

Few notebooks are as respected as Panasonic’s Toughbook line, and that’s partly because they don’t fade away like an old general, they just keep getting upgraded. The Toughbook 19, a 10.4-inch convertible tablet, is the latest to receive some augmentation, this time in the form of a 2GHz Intel Core i5-540UM processor. It’s mounted in the same bomb-proof magnesium case that we know and love, enabling it to survive six-foot falls with ease. (Trust us, our ears are still ringing from the time we verified that pledge.) The new toughbook 19 is shipping to battlefields and bomb shelters right now starting at $3,399.

Continue reading Panasonic Toughbook 19 gets Core i5 grunt to match its grizzled visage

Panasonic Toughbook 19 gets Core i5 grunt to match its grizzled visage originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 25 May 2010 08:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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