Hasta La Gadget!

Whoa. Every so often, a giant in Round Rock pokes it head up above water long enough to put forth a truly mesmerizing design, and while it’s no Adamo, this is most definitely the freshest take we’ve seen on tablets in a very, very long time. The gallery below showcases a prototype that’s lounging around within Dell’s top secret labs, a 7-inch slate that’s adorned with a slide-out keyboard. Said keyboard, however, is hardly typical — it’s rocking a split-key design that’s not at all dissimilar to the virtual layouts recently showcased within iOS 5 and Windows 8. So far as we can tell, the entire alphabet’s present and accounted for, and there’s a rear camera that’ll be more than happy to make your child’s next birthday party a bit more awkward. Outside of that, we’ve no other details to pore over, but it’s safe to say that we’ll be doing our darnedest to change that. Oh, and if you’re doubting that this thing has a future as a real-deal product, there’s a shot just south of these very words showcasing what looks to be a commercial / press render. Delicious.

Update: So it turns out that these photos were actually taken by Tweakers, who met up with the crew from Dell’s Austin Design Center to gaze upon this prototype tablet earlier this week. Tweakers says that the concept is about three to four years old, and it eventually led to the development of the eccentric Inspiron Duo. Unsurprisingly, Dell also confirmed to us that this device will never make it to the market; but of course, there’s still the Streak 10 Pro Android tablet to look forward to.

Dell’s prototype 7-inch tablet touts slide-out split QWERTY keyboard (update: just a concept) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Jun 2011 20:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft gave us an early preview of Windows 8

Microsoft to date still hasn’t delivered a response to Apple’s iPad tablet, and the software leviathan might be taking matters into its own hands.

Sources at DigiTimes claim that Microsoft has talked with Texas Instruments and Taiwanese OEMS about possibly distributing a Microsoft-branded Windows 8 tablet by 2013.

According to the source, “Microsoft plans to copy its branding strategy from product lines such as Xbox 360, Zune, Kin smartphone and TV, to compete in the tablet PC segment.”

To date, the Microsoft-branded Xbox 360 line has been one of the company’s rare hardware success stories. Microsoft’s other hardware products haven’t had much luck: The Kin smartphone, Zune PMP, and Microsoft-branded televisions have, for lack of a better word, flopped. Microsoft revealed the core functionality of Windows 8 earlier this month at the D9 conference.

Microsoft didn’t return our request for comment. But company representative Frank Shaw did tweet this morning: “Nothing like starting the day with a hot steaming cup of speculation.”

The move seems unlikely from a business standpoint. Developing a Microsoft-branded tablet could sour its relationship with other Windows 7 and Windows 8 hardware suppliers, something that Microsoft can’t afford to lose. However, computer manufacturer Acer has already expressed discomfort about some of Microsoft’s tablet plans: The company’s CEO J.T. Wang claimed that Microsoft is imposing “troublesome” restrictions on makers of processors who are making Windows 8 tablets.

Wang didn’t elaborate on what those restrictions are. But it’s possible that Microsoft’s strategy with Windows 8 will be similar to its approach with Windows Phone 7, in which the company issues a strict list of criteria to phone manufacturers, requiring their handsets to contain specific hardware in order to run Microsoft’s operating system.

See Also:

• Windows 8 Tablet OS Is Just Windows 7 With a New Skin
• Microsoft Patching Up Windows Phone 7’s Ragged Update Process …
• How Microsoft Hit CTRL+ALT+DEL on Windows Phone

When we met with Samsung in late May, company representatives didn’t seem entirely sure that the company would meet the rumored June 8th ship date here in the US, but lo and behold, it’s done just that. The tablet’s launching at noon today at the Best Buy in New York City’s Union Square, and if you can’t make it up to the Big Apple, it’ll hit the rest of the nation on June 17th. But here’s the real question: is it worth making an effort to snag it on either date? The Galaxy Tab 10.1, much like its Limited Edition sibling that we reviewed last month, is ever-so-slightly thinner than the iPad 2, a slate that most sane individuals (and competitors, for that matter) would confess is the market leader today.

Naturally, everyone and their sister is gunning for Apple in this space, and Honeycomb’s the first mobile OS we’ve seen that has the potential to put any sort of damper on Cupertino’s ongoing rave. By and large, the consumer version of the Tab 10.1 is the same as the device launched at Google I/O, but there’s two key differences that we’ll focus on here: the tamed design, and the thoroughly different OS version (v3.1 here versus v3.0 before). Head on past the break for an in-depth look into both of those, but be sure to first take a gander at our Limited Edition review to wrap your noodle around the basics.

Continue reading Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 review

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 review originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Jun 2011 11:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Galaxy Tab 10.1 is finally among us. At noon Eastern Time today, Best Buy’s New York City store at Union Square will start selling Samsung’s extra-slim 10-inch Tegra 2 tablet, with the first 200 buyers also receiving a matching leather pouch to store their precious inside of. Geographically challenged Android tablet lovers will also be able to pre-order the Tab 10.1 from Best Buy today (eventually, the pre-order button doesn’t currently work) and widespread US availability is still expected on June 17th. Pricing isn’t explicitly listed on Best Buy’s landing page, but we presume it’s the same as we’ve been told earlier: $499 for the 16GB or $599 for the 32GB WiFi-only versions. If you can’t live without some LTE goodness in your mobile life, Verizon’s also promised pre-orders for the 4G-capable Galaxy Tab 10.1 today, though that costs a far less palatable $530 (16GB) and $630 (32GB) on top of a two-year data contract.

[Thanks, Jack and Arturo]

Update: Best Buy has sorted out its systems and all four WiFi variants (black or white, with 16GB or 32GB storage) are up for pre-order.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 on sale at NYC Best Buy today, pre-orders now open originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Jun 2011 05:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Wait, Vizio’s concocting a tablet? For those with chronic short-term memory loss, you may have forgotten that America’s so-called low-cost TV leader branched out a bit during this year’s Super Bowl, but it’s been dead quiet on the tablet front ever since dropping the Via and sticking with Tablet. Looks like that’s about to change, though — a courteous tipster handed off the screenshot you see above, highlighting the appearance of a ‘VTAB1008’ within Walmart’s inventory system. The device was just added a couple of weeks ago, and while we’re still no closer to knowing if Vizio’s done the right thing and settled on Honeycomb, we do know that it’ll be pricing this thing competitively. How competitively? $349… competitively. We’ll keep you abreast of any release dates we see, but for now, catch up by having a gander at our preview video from a few months back.

[Thanks, Anonymous]

Vizio Tablet (VTAB1008) priced at $349 within Walmart’s system originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Jun 2011 19:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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