Hasta La Gadget!

Alright, so we gave you the opportunity to rant and rave on Apple’s iPad last week, and it’s only fitting that Fusion Garage’s much-anticipated JooJoo go next. To date, it’s pretty safe to say that quite a bit less (we’re understating things here, obviously) JooJoo tablets have been sold than the aforesaid iPad, but that’s not to say none of you have one. On the off-chance that you actually are the proud owner of a JooJoo, we couldn’t be more eager to hear how you’d tweak things if given the golden opportunity. Would you make the screen a touch smaller? Alter the exterior design in any way? Swap the CPU or GPU? Toss on a different operating system? Force it to use iTunes like only a true sadist would? Go on, the floor’s yours — throw down your best advice in comments below.

How would you change Fusion Garage’s JooJoo? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 14 May 2010 22:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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So BGR is reporting that it has “confirmed with multiple sources” that RIM’s alleged BlackBerry tablet device is very real — despite Mike Lazaridis’ recent downer comments on the subject — and that it’ll have an 8.9-inch screen, WiFi, and Bluetooth connectivity to hook up with your phone. Oh yeah, about that Bluetooth connectivity: the tablet is being billed as a “companion” device, something to use when you need a little bit more horsepower and screen real estate for multimedia and the like. Sound familiar? Yeah, Palm tried this with famously catastrophic results a while back — and considering RIM’s ultra-conservative policy on product innovation, we can’t imagine things going any better up in Waterloo. It’s apparently slated for a December release with engineers scrambling to get it released even sooner… and, you know, discontinued sooner, too.

RIM’s BlackBerry tablet starting to sound suspiciously like a Foleo originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 May 2010 12:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Never given much thought to owning something with an iiView label on it? Think again, vaquero. Teased here beside two of Apple’s most well-known cash cows, the M1Touch packs a rather delicious list of specifications. Behind the 10.1 multitouch display (1,024 x 600) is a 1.66GHz Atom N450 processor, 2GB of RAM, a 250GB hard drive, integrated webcam, USB socket, 4-in-1 card reader and an inbuilt accelerometer. She’s running Windows 7 Home Premium and should last around three hours (sad, we know) on a full charge, with pricing set for just over $500 when converted to Greenbacks. Further details are few and far between, but given that it’s expected to ship by the end of May, we suspect we’ll know more as Computex kicks off in Taiwan.

iiView slates M1Touch Windows 7 tablet for release later this month originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 May 2010 05:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oh, Apple. Just a few short months ago, a USB port was (largely) a USB port, charging pretty much any gizmo we could find without so much as a fuss. Now, loads of USB ports are throwing temper tantrums when faced with the energy-hungry iPad, with most simply refusing to charge the thing. Apple contends that a 10W USB port is needed to effectively rejuvenate its first tablet, though some sockets will do the trick so long as you have the display switched off. If you’re looking to quickly evaluate the strength of every USB port in your home or office, QuickerTek’s aptly-titled iPad Charge Monitor ain’t a half bad option. You simply plug this LED-infused dongle into a suspicious port, then connect the product you wish to charge to the other end; the device then glows to tell you how much power is flowing out, though there’s nothing included to deal with all-but-guaranteed bouts of frustration from seeing too few LEDs light up. It’s up for order right now at $29.95, and while you’re over there, you can pick up an iPad solar panel and an iPad external battery pack for $250 each. What a bargain.

[Thanks, Lan]

QuickerTek iPad charge monitor tests your USB port’s output potential originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 May 2010 14:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Not much by way of detail here, but Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam just confirmed that his company is working on tablets with Google in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. Unfortunately, that’s all we’ve got to work with at the moment — McAdam said tablets are “part of the ‘next big wave of opportunities,’ but didn’t say what OS the Google devices would run, just that Verizon’s “looking at all the things Google has in its archives that we could put on a tablet to make it a great experience.” That sounds like something Google’s been working on for a while, so we’ll take a guess and say it’s Android-based, but we wouldn’t be surprised to see a Chrome OS tablet or netbook make the scene at some point in the future. We’re also wondering who’ll build this thing: any number of companies from Dell to Toshiba to MSI have already started working on Android tablets, and we’re sure HTC and Motorola would totally jump at the opportunity. A nice crisp confirmed fact wrapped in layers of chewy speculation — just how we likes it.

Update: Bloomberg scored some more details in an interview with Marquett Smith, Verizon’s VP of corporate communications; the tablet is said be Android-based, and more details will be released later this week. Let the wait begin!

Verizon confirms it’s working on a tablet with Google (Update: Android!) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 11 May 2010 18:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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