Hasta La Gadget!

Mmm, digital magazines. They are the little bites of paid-for content that all the publishers believe we should be deeply enthralled with. Hoping to show us why exactly it is that we should all care (and pay) for prepackaged digital content is Wired‘s latest and most comprehensive demo of its tablet app on an unspecified 16:9 device. Setting aside hopefuls like the Joojoo and Adam for a moment, it is clear that this is ultimately intended for Apple’s iPad — the device that stands by far the biggest chance of making the digimag concept a commercial success. Interesting choice of development partner, then, as Condé Nast has opted to use Adobe’s AIR platform for the underlying mechanics. Adobe promises its Packager for iPhone, part of CS5, will allow devs to easily port AIR apps to run natively on the iPad, but until Apple gives its official assent to the final code, nothing is guaranteed — and Packager hasn’t even officially shipped yet. As far as the app goes, it’ll come with Twitter and Facebook integration, and navigation is geared toward the touching and swiping model so prevalent today. See it on video after the break.

Continue reading Wired’s tablet app goes on show: developed on AIR, heading to the iPad (video)

Wired’s tablet app goes on show: developed on AIR, heading to the iPad (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Feb 2010 05:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Okay, Lenovo totally knows how to use Twitter. The company’s press account has punched out a teasing little note, inviting us to keep a close eye on the near horizon with the expectation of exciting new products to come. We’ll concede that aside from the leaked roadmaps, we have no real lead on where this might be heading, but if the video that accompanied the tweet is anything to go by, we can expect a device that (a) almost certainly has handwriting and touchscreen capabilities built in, (b) is extremely likely to sport the ThinkPad branding, and (c) may or may not have a physical keyboard. That is to say, we could just be looking at a quirky new approach to promoting the latest X-series tablet refresh (X201T anyone?), or maybe Lenovo is going way back to its roots and is about to shock and awe us with a ThinkPad slate. All we know for now is that the video is after the break and well worth watching.

Continue reading Lenovo educates us on the history of the tablet, has ‘exciting products to announce this month’

Lenovo educates us on the history of the tablet, has ‘exciting products to announce this month’ originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Feb 2010 15:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It was just a week ago that the $599 8.9-inch ExoPC tablet came into our lives, but now we’ve been lucky enough to receive some shots of its internals. If tablet or netbook organs are your thing there’s plenty to see in the gallery below, including some photos of the fan, what appears to be a Ene memory card controller, and an open Mini PCI-Express slot. The Intel Atom N270 CPU, 945 Express chipset and 2GB of RAM are blurry, but ExoPC has been nice enough to confirm those specs for us. Though there’s not much in terms of the externals here it looks to be a solidly built tablet, and it does appear to have a free SIM slot on its edge. We’re itching to see some some more pics of the final multitouch units, including the finger-friendly ExoPC UI Layer which will run on top of its Windows 7 Premium, but in the meantime we’ve got the gallery below.

[Thanks, Jean-Baptiste]

ExoPC tablet opens up for the world to see originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 06 Feb 2010 17:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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For some among us, the VAIO E series is the pinnacle of modern mobile computing design. Then there are other, saner individuals, who prefer the understated aesthetics of what are commonly termed business laptops. For that latter group, we have a whole glut of new Toshiba notebooks to look at, highlighted by the delectable looking Portege M780 above. Much in the vein of HP’s 2730p, it’s a 12.1-inch convertible tablet PC, with a spill-resistant keyboard and rugged features (tested to withstand drops from up to 1 meter), but its biggest attraction will still likely be the Core i5 heart thumping inside. Also undergoing upgrades are the Tecra A11 (already available in the US), M11 and S11, which will come with up to 8GB of RAM, 802.11n wireless, SSD options, and of course Intel Core i7 CPUs. Check them out after the break, and expect them to arrive in Europe, the Middle East and Africa this quarter, with the M780 close behind them with a Q2 2010 release.

Continue reading Toshiba Portege M780 highlights business laptop refresh to Core i-series CPUs

Toshiba Portege M780 highlights business laptop refresh to Core i-series CPUs originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Feb 2010 05:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Yes, we realize that it’s hard to provide too much visual differentiation between tablet PCs with large, ebony bezels, but we can’t help but think that this 8.9-inch multitouch tablet looks a lot like another, recently announced 9.7-inch multitouch tablet. Nevertheless this one’s quite different on the inside, delivering “the web without compromise,” meaning full browser support with flash courtesy of Windows 7 on an Atom N270 at 1.6GHz, with 2GB of DDR2 memory and a 32GB SSD with SD expansion. Yeah, those specs are familiar too, and while we’re not thinking this will deliver the sort of snappy performance seen on the iPad, it will certainly be a lot more functional. Battery life is only four hours, but at least it’s user-replaceable, and a price of $599 matches the 32GB iPad. Likewise it will be available in March — or you can get a non-multitouch prototype for $780 right this very moment. If, that is, you speak enough French to manage the order page.

[Thanks, Jean-Baptiste]

8.9-inch ExoPC Slate has iPad looks, netbook internals, Windows 7 soul originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 31 Jan 2010 10:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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