Dell Latitude ST tablet gets official with vague press release, dead links (video)

Remember that Latitude ST that Dell gave us a sneak peek at earlier in the week? Well it’s slowly inching its way towards an official release, appearing on Dell’s Corporate Blog early this morning. The Windows 7-based enterprise tablet is powered by an Intel Atom processor and includes a 10-inch multi-touch display with stylus, WiFi, mobile broadband options, front and rear webcams and a mic. There are also durability features like Gorilla Glass and a rubber bumper, enabling it to survive violent impacts with plush office carpeting. Port details are rather vague in the PR, though USB, HDMI and an SD card reader get their 15 seconds of fame in the promo video. There are also security features, like remote hard drive wipe, Microsoft Bitlocker support (this is a Windows 7 tablet, after all) and a Kensington Lock slot. Pricing details are absent and the product page isn’t live quite yet (though that didn’t stop Dell from linking to it from the blog post), but it looks like we could see these ship as soon as November 1st. Ready to get your tap and sketch on? Jump past the break for an enterprise montage, complete with doctors, educators and suit-sporting business pros.

Update: Looks like the specs have leaked out overseas, so we’re guessing it’ll get official soon enough.

Update 2: And here come the unboxing videos!

Update 3: And Dell’s business page is up! Thanks, One Love!

Continue reading Dell Latitude ST tablet gets official with vague press release, dead links (video)

Dell Latitude ST tablet gets official with vague press release, dead links (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 27 Oct 2011 05:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ASUS Transformer Prime shots leak out, apes the Tao of Zenbook design

Who’s ready for a little gadget pr0n? ASUS head honcho Jonney Shih gave AsiaD attendees a first peek at the Transformer’s successor just last week. Apart from that distant, dais-based reveal, we now have in the wild shots of the tab to focus our tech lust on. The leaked images, which have since been pulled from the Chinese site that hosted them, show off several angles of the quad-core Prime, its Zenbook-like aluminum finish and accompanying dock. Unfortunately, the lone lockscreen shot on offer’s not giving us any taste of the potential Ice Cream Sandwich OS lurking beneath. Hungry for the full tablet spread? Then hit up the source below to get your gawking a-go-go.

Continue reading ASUS Transformer Prime shots leak out, apes the Tao of Zenbook design

ASUS Transformer Prime shots leak out, apes the Tao of Zenbook design originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 Oct 2011 17:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceNotebook Italia (Translated)  | Email this | Comments

DirecTV’s iPad app updated with live TV streaming, as long as you stay at home

DirecTV debuted its iPad app in February with an impressive suite of remote control and content browsing options, but one of the few missing features was the ability to watch TV on it, which has now been added. Like similar apps from Cablevision and Time Warner Cable, v1.3.1 adds the ability to watch 38 channels live on the tablet, provided you’re connected to the same home network as your DirecTV Plus HD DVR. That home restriction, plus being limited to only live TV streams and not DVRed programming separates it from Sling’s apps, but at least it’s still a free add-on. If you want to watch recorded shows or take them on the go you’ll still need the Nomad box for that. Check below for a link to one of DBSTalk’s usual thorough walkthrough PDFs breaking down the new features, a few screengrabs sent in by a reader, and the complete channel list after the break.

[Thanks, Will & Jon]

Continue reading DirecTV’s iPad app updated with live TV streaming, as long as you stay at home

DirecTV’s iPad app updated with live TV streaming, as long as you stay at home originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 Oct 2011 14:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceiTunes, DirecTV, DBSTalk  | Email this | Comments

ViewSonic Budget Tablet to Battle Amazon Fire

Amazon’s upcoming Kindle Fire aims to upend the tablet industry with its low cost and smaller form factor. The Fire has been dubbed the one serious contender to the iPad, which should have a holiday season stranglehold on tablet sales to the tune of 73 percent of the worldwide market. It’s no surprise, then, that we’re seeing other manufacturers following Amazon’s lead into the 7-inch display space.

The ViewPad 7e is ViewSonic’s new budget tablet option, matching the Kindle Fire’s relatively low price of $200 dollars.

Specs-wise, the 7e isn’t terrible for a $200 mobile device, but it doesn’t compare favorably to the Fire, at least in terms of raw processing power. The 7e runs a 1GHz single-core chip based on ARM’s A8 architecture, whereas the Fire runs a dual-core 1GHz chip. Both tablets will include a modest 512MB of RAM.

There’s only 4GB of internal storage in the 7e — 4GB less than the Fire — but that storage can be augmented with a microSD card, expandable up to 32GB. The Fire, meanwhile, is not expandable. The 7e also sports both rear- and front-facing cameras, two items that Amazon’s hardware lacks.

But all this hardware talk is arguably inconsequential, as taking on Amazon in a specs war is a losing battle. Amazon’s hardware is backed by a vertically integrated app store, a movie and TV show rental service, and a free month of membership to Amazon’s premium shipping service, Amazon Prime. What’s more, the ViewPad 7e won’t even ship with the Android Market app because ViewSonic’s hardware doesn’t meet Google’s requirements. Instead, the 7e will rely on Amazon’s Appstore for content. Ironic.

We’ve seen tablets from ViewSonic before, and they haven’t been pretty. The ViewPad 10 — a dual-boot Android/Windows device intended to appeal to many, though loved by few — was a disaster in our testing, freezing up often when we attempted to boot into Android. What’s more, the 7e lacks Adobe Flash support — a feature typically seen as one of Android’s main draws over the iPad — and its battery life clocks in at a dismal three hours per charge.

So that’s what we know at this point, and there’s nowhere to go but up for the 7e. Expect to see ViewSonic’s tablet in stores come this November.


T-Mobile Springboard and Galaxy Tab 10.1 finally get official launch dates

Clutching at its chest and panting as it nears the finish line, T-Mobile has finally announced the release date for the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 on its not-quite-4G network. You can write November 2nd in your diaries as you struggle to remember which century it was that you decided to wait for the as yet unpriced magenta version of the tablet. T-Mobile’s Springboard will be arriving five days later, on November 7th. The Huawei Mediapad-with-shiner-shoes packs a 1.2GHz dual-core CPU, 5 megapixels in the rear, 1.3 up front and has a crunchy Honeycomb center. Inexplicably, the company still won’t ‘fess up about pricing for this guy either, so we’ll just repeat what we’ve heard a hundred times before — it’ll be under $200 on contract.

[Thanks, Cliff]

T-Mobile Springboard and Galaxy Tab 10.1 finally get official launch dates originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 25 Oct 2011 09:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceT-Mobile (Springboard), T-Mobile (Galaxy Tab 10.1)  | Email this | Comments

Netbooks slip under tablet shipments, achieve has-bEeen status

Still unconvinced we’re headed towards a post-PC future? We can at least conclusively say we’ve entered a post-netbook present, as Q2 2011 marks the first time their numbers have been eclipsed by tablets, according to ABI Research. 13.6 million slates were shipped in the quarter, besting the 7.3 million the diminutive laptops were able to clock in. When compared to the prior quarter, that works out to 112 percent or 7.2 million increase (!) for the former, and a 1.1 million decline for the latter. Cost apparently isn’t a driving factor, as the firm notes that tablets pack an average price of $600 — nearly double that of their trackpad-toting brethren. Oh, and in case you were wondering, 68 percent of tablets shipped were of Cupertino’s flavor. More cold hard facts await you in the PR after the break.

Continue reading Netbooks slip under tablet shipments, achieve has-bEeen status

Netbooks slip under tablet shipments, achieve has-bEeen status originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 25 Oct 2011 02:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Alibaba unveils W800, second-gen Aliyun phone, and unnamed ‘cloud-powered’ tablet

W800 and Aliyun tablet

In July we got our first taste of Aliyun OS, running on the W700. Now, with the Gregorian calendar year coming to a close, Alibaba is prepping its second wave “cloud-powered” hardware. First up is the W800, the successor to the original Aliyun handset. As far as specs go, the two look more or less the same — with the latest version still rocking a 1GHz Tegra 2. The one obvious difference is the slightly larger 4.3-inch display gracing the front of the W800. Perhaps more interesting though, is the still unnamed tablet which also clearly bares NVIDIA branding. Speed and exact model of the CPU inside is anyone’s guess, but we’re assuming this isn’t a Kal-el device. Price and release date for both are a mystery, but the W800 is expected to land sometime before November is out. Of course, you probably shouldn’t expect these to show up in your local Best Buy, but you’ve got a friend in Hong Kong who can send you one, right?

Alibaba unveils W800, second-gen Aliyun phone, and unnamed ‘cloud-powered’ tablet originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 25 Oct 2011 00:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceEngadget Chinese, 2  | Email this | Comments

ViewSonic rolls out $200 ViewPad 7e Android tablet

We’ve already seen it available for pre-order at Amazon and spent a bit of time with it ourselves last month, but ViewSonic’s only just now officially getting its ViewPad 7e Android tablet out the door. It’ll be available by the end of the month if it hasn’t hit retailers already and, as expected, it will set you back an even $200. That unfortunately only buys you Android 2.3 (with an SPB shell on top) and not Honeycomb, but the specs are otherwise somewhat decent for the price, including a 1GHz ARM A8 processor, dual cameras, a “RiteTouch” 7-inch capacitive display, 4GB of storage with a microSD card slot for expansion, and HDMI output. As is often the case with low-end tablets, however, one key omission is official support for the Android Market, but you do at least get access to Amazon’s Appstore, as well as plenty of pre-loaded apps including Twitter, Kindle, and TuneIn Radio.

Continue reading ViewSonic rolls out $200 ViewPad 7e Android tablet

ViewSonic rolls out $200 ViewPad 7e Android tablet originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Oct 2011 21:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mystery Moto tablet swings through the FCC, refuses to take any questions

Motorola mystery tablet

What exactly is this mystery device that just shuffled through the FCC? Well, it’s definitely a Motorola tablet and a member of the Xoom family, but beyond that we can’t tell you much. The FCC ID, which ends in 56MJ3, makes it clear that this is part of Moto’s flagship tablet line, but whether this an upcoming Xoom 2 or simply a souped up variant of the original Honeycomb slate is unclear. The filing makes no mention of cellular connectivity, only WiFi and Bluetooth, but that doesn’t necessarily mean there isn’t any on board. We do know that, whatever this turns out to be, it sports an HDMI out, 1GB of RAM, a dual-core 1.2GHz CPU, a 1200 x 800 screen and comes in 16, 32 and 64GB varieties. If you’re in the mood to dig through the test reports yourself, check out the source link.

Mystery Moto tablet swings through the FCC, refuses to take any questions originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Oct 2011 12:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Amazon’s new e-book format brings HTML5 support to your Kindle library

“Great looking books.” That’s what Amazon is promising to deliver with Kindle Format 8 (KF8) — a new, HTML5-based file format for Kindle books. According to the company, KF8 will allow publishers to produce picture books, comics and graphic novels with greater ease, thanks to the platform’s rich formatting capabilities and design elements. In fact, this format brings more than 150 new formatting tools to the table, including fixed layouts, nested tables, sidebars and Scalable Vector Graphics, among others. It should be noted, however, that audio and video are not included on the list of supported HTML tags and CSS elements. At first, content creators will only be able to use KF8 for the Kindle Fire tablet, though Amazon says it’ll gradually expand to its entire lineup of devices and apps “in the coming months.” No word yet on when KF8 will become available as an update to Amazon’s Kindle Publisher Tools suite, but you can find more details at the source link, below.

Amazon’s new e-book format brings HTML5 support to your Kindle library originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Oct 2011 08:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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