Hasta La Gadget!

This isn’t the 80s anymore. It’s not good enough to just pump out lusty hardware like the Walkman in order to drive generous profit streams. In the modern age of consumer electronics, it takes content and an entire ecosystem of software and services to keep customers locked in and buying your gear. That’s why we’re paying close attention to content deals for the suddenly hot tablet category of devices. Conde Nast has been teasing custom content for next generation tablets for months, lead by mock-ups of its Wired magazine property. So it’s no surprise to hear Charles H. Townsend, president and CEO of Conde Nast say he wants to “take a leadership position,” on Apple’s iPad. According to the New York Times, the company will announce plans today (via an internal company memo) for its first custom iPad digital pubs: the April issue of GQ (there’s already an iPhone app for that), followed by the June issues of Wired and Vanity Fair, and then The New Yorker and Glamour sometime in the summer. This first cut represents a broad swath of demographics as Conde Nast trials Apple’s newest platform in order to see what works. We should also expect a variety of prices and advertising models during the initial experimentation period. Also noteworthy is Conde Nast’s two-track development approach: the iPad version of Wired will be developed with Adobe (as we heard) but the others will be developed internally — all the digital mags will be available via iTunes although Wired will also be made available in “non-iTunes formats.” Assuming it finds a model that works, then Conde Nast plans to digitize other magazines in the fall.

Conde Nast stakes out ‘leadership position’ on iPad originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Mar 2010 04:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Thought HP was done unleashing its new line of semi-rugged EliteBooks at CES? So did we, but apparently it needed just a little bit more time to pull the 12.1-inch 2540p and 2740p out of the oven. An update to the 2530p, the 3.8-pound 2540p still has the same magnesium alloy chassis that’s met all those super-tough MIL-STD 810G military standard tests, but its innards have been freshened up with the alluring scent of Intel’s 2010 Core processors. Prices start at $1,099, but in typical HP fashion it will be configurable online with tons of juicy options, including standard and low voltage Core i5 and i7 processors and a range of 7,200RPM and SSD drives.

Up next is the 2740p which packs much of the same internal spec options as the 2540p (sans the low-voltage CPUs), but puts them into a convertible tablet form factor. Starting at $1,599, its capacitive multitouch 12.1-inch display now supports both pen and finger input and thus pits it head-to-head with Lenovo’s ThinkPad X201t, though from our hands-on we found the 3.8-pound 2740p to be much slimmer and lighter. A lot of that has to do with its flush battery, but if adding some juice (and thickness) is your thing, you can add a slate battery (or two!) to the bottom of the system. Both the 2540p and 2740p will be available later this month, but hit the hands-on gallery below to get a look at these magnesium puppies up close.

Continue reading HP adds EliteBook 2540p and 2740p to the lineup, brings the power and the touch

HP adds EliteBook 2540p and 2740p to the lineup, brings the power and the touch originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Mar 2010 00:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Fujitsu’s LifeBook UH900 started shipping to Americans just over a fortnight ago, and now one has landed into the capable hands of Pocketables. Boasting a 2GHz Atom CPU and some of the most unsightly adapters we’ve ever seen, this flip-open handheld — which just looks too lovely to be saddled with the “UMPC” moniker — strangely stirs something within our heart. It’s one of those “I know I don’t need it, but I just have to have it” things. Don’t agree? Hit the source link, scroll all the way down, think about the upcoming weekend, and then see how you feel. Oh, and feel free to check out those size comparisons if you need extra encouragement in the “ooh” and “aah” department.

Fujitsu’s LifeBook UH900 gets unboxed, sized up against the competition originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Feb 2010 07:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The world’s first e-reader and netbook hybrid is set to start shipping next week. The dual-screen eDGe, made by Entourage, comes with a 9.7-inch E Ink screen on the left half, and a touchscreen LCD on the right, meaning you can use it as an e-reader, a notepad, or a regular netbook — at the same time.

“Pre-orders received by January 12 will start shipping at the end of this week. New orders will ship in March,” says Doug Atkinson, Entourage’s VP of Marketing and Business Development, in an interview with E-Reader.info.

The other big news is that Entourage launched its own e-book store to compete with the bigger boys, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and the upcoming Apple iBooks store. Why not simply partner with someone already in the book business?

“Having our own e-bookstore allows us to offer books and documents based on our customer demand,” says Atkinson in the interview. Entourage is mostly aiming at public domain books – about a million of them in a partnership with Google – but have also managed to sign up publishers like Oxford Press, Ingram Digital and LibreDigital.

As reported by Gadget lab in January, the device will come with 4 GB storage, 2 USB ports and a SD card slot, weighing roughly 2.5 pounds. Which, when you consider Macbook Air’s 3 pounds, isn’t that light.

The $490 device runs on Google’s Android OS and will be able to handle Microsoft Office documents.

There seem to be some pretty cool features, though, especially when it comes to playing around between the two screens. You can drag a grayscale image from the E-Ink screen and view it in full color on the LCD one, or attach video (on the right screen) to a passage from an e-book (on the left screen).

When using two screens, or primarly the LCD screen, the battery life is 6 hours. When only using the E-Ink part, you can squeeze out about 16 hours out of your eDGe, the company claims.

Note: In case you were wondering why the weird capitalized letters, Entourage people say the “DG” in eDGe stands for “Digital Generation”. Edgy.

Well isn’t this good to know. The Mini 5 isn’t even coming out for at least another month, yet already we’re hearing Dell has big plans for what’s to follow. Wired has the dish straight from Neeraj Choubey, GM of Dell’s tablet division, that there will be “a family of tablets” which will “scale up to a variety of sizes.” It appears there will be a common feature set throughout the forthcoming portfolio, so it’s likely going to be Android all the way, while Choubey also shared his company’s intention to bundle “inexpensive data plans” with the new devices — indicating a belief that carriers will accede to such ambitious ideas. And speaking of network operators, in a separate interview with Laptop, the loquacious gentleman has confirmed that Dell’s working with AT&T on bringing the Mini 5 to the masses. Good to know, indeed — now how about a release date?

Dell Mini 5 to be the vanguard of ‘a family of tablets’ originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Feb 2010 10:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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