Hasta La Gadget!

Microsoft plans to introduce a special version of Windows for low-power mobile devices like tablets at next month’s Consumer Electronics Show, according to multiple reports.

The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg claim to have both heard that Microsoft will discuss a version of Windows that supports mobile ARM chips and other low-power processors. The Journal adds that the new Windows OS isn’t expected to be available for two years.

My instant reaction to these reports: WTF?

Microsoft already has a new version of Windows designed for mobile devices: Windows Phone 7. The company hired new executives, spent million of dollars on development facilities, rethought its entire mobile strategy and took an entire year to whip up a touch-friendly mobile OS from scratch.

In terms of power and features, Windows Phone 7 hasn’t caught up with Android or iOS yet, but it’s a solid start. It’s certainly more fit for tabletization than the desktop Windows. There are many reasons why a Windows 7– based tablet makes no sense.

Windows Phone 7 is also light-years ahead of Microsoft’s previous mobile OS, Windows Mobile, to say nothing of Windows CE, Microsoft’s first mobile OS, which lives on as an “embedded” OS powering hospital devices, manufacturing equipment, point-of-sale devices, and the like.

So why in the world would Microsoft throw more money and talent at a new mobile version of Windows when it’s already made great progress on a newer, better one?

I like the well-informed Mary Jo Foley’s skeptical interpretation of the news. She thinks that Microsoft will announce a new version of Windows Embedded Compact, a trimmed-down version of Windows CE made especially for enterprise devices. That OS, which is currently in beta, already runs on ARM, and might make a suitable platform for Windows-powered tablets, especially the kind attached to your UPS driver’s barcode scanner.

Among other points, Foley notes that the timing is right, and that Microsoft announced tablet partners earlier this year who are already in the business of making Windows Embedded Compact devices.

That outcome would make a lot more sense to me, and if Foley’s right, Microsoft’s “tablet” news won’t be as exciting for the average gadget geek aching for a Microsoft-powered iPad competitor (unless you have a urinary tract disorder).

See Also:

• 7 Reasons You Won't Want a Windows 7 Slate
• It's Not Easy to Make a Tablet, Stantum Slate PC Proves
• Microsoft Touts Home Entertainment at CES Keynote
• HP's Windows 7 Slate Strikes at the iPad
• Official: HP Slate Will Run WebOS

Photo: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer talks up the goods at CES 2010.
Jon Snyder/Wired.com

HP has quietly put together a full slate of WebOS-powered PalmPad tablet PCs that will be unveiled at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show, according to a report from FoxNews.com.

HP did not immediately return Wired.com’s call.

We’re expecting tablet-centric announcements from such tech giants as Microsoft, Samsung and Motorola, but HP’s presence in Vegas could potentially throw the entire proceedings on its collective ear. HP spent $1.2 billion to acquire struggling mobile-computing pioneer Palm earlier this year, and speculation has run rampant that the computer giant plans to use PalmOS not just for smartphones, but for a new tablet device.

With tablet sales projected to approach 20 million this year and exceed 50 million in 2011, there’ll be no shortage of jockeying for market position at the trade show. Competition for eyeballs is expected to ruthless.

If the documents cited by FoxNews.com are accurate, then the PalmPad will initially launch with three base models, with a fourth (geared toward university students) scheduled to launch around the third quarter of next year.

Any sort of PalmPad momentum heading into 2011 would be a boon for the Palo Alto, California–based company, which had already put its HP Slate on life support when it acquired Palm in late April. That move set off speculation that Palm’s WebOS for smartphones might be adapted and ported over to a new HP-branded tablet, whether that be a “Slate” or some next-gen model.

Now it appears that HP has taken those original Slate specs and updated them for a new PalmPad-branded platform. It’s primed to run on WebOS version 2.5.1. In addition, there’ll also be dual cameras (sporting 1.3 and 3-megapixel resolution) with LED flashes, according to the report.

Few other details were revealed, but what we’d most like to know is what processor it’ll use (likely Nvidia’s Tegra 2 chipset), exactly how large the screen will be (though it should be comparable to the iPad’s 9.7-inch display), and what the storage capacity will look like across the three different models.

Whether the PalmPad debuts at CES or not, anything resembling a successful launch in early 2011 would present HP with a decent chance to make up ground on Samsung, which has sold more than 1 million Galaxy Tabs less than two months after its October launch.

Both would be far behind tablet leader Apple, which sold roughly 4 million iPads in the most recent quarter alone, and may have sold up to 28 million of the devices by the time 2011 ends.

Image: FoxNews.com

ShutterSnitch, the iPad app that lets you beam photographs directly from your camera to your iPad, has been updated to version 2, and it adds a whole lot of really neat new features.

First – what ShutterSnitch won’t do: unless you jailbreak your iPad to let it create its own ad-hoc Wi-Fi network, ShutterSnitch requires either a router or a computer to create that network. If you have a battery-powered Mi-Fi, that will work just fine.

So, what’s new? Rob Galbraith, photographer, blogger and gear-head, has been testing v2.0 for some time, and has a detailed run-down on every new aspect. The first big changes are speed and stability: instead of crashing, you can now pump big files into the app, as fast as you like, and it will keep on going. Your collections can be a lot bigger, too: ShutterSnitch will let you put thousands of images together without bogging down.

But you’re here for the new gimmicks, right? Now you can enjoy full-resolution zooms and support for RAW files (although remember this works over Wi-Fi, so those big files will be slow to transfer). There is support for simple metadata, including geotagging (this grabs the location from your iPad and embeds it into the photo.)

But best of all are Actions. You can automate what happens to the photos when they arrive, adding metadata, saving a copy to the photo-roll and even exporting, sending photos to Flickr, Facebook or an FTP server. And there are plenty of other tweaks, too, including slideshows and external-display support.

To use ShutterSnitch, you’ll also need a way to send the photos. The easiest way is with an Eye-Fi SD-card, which turns any camera into a wireless photo-transmitter. If you have a transmitter for your SLR, one of Canon or Nikon’s units, for example, those work too.

ShutterSnitch 2 is in the App Store approval tubes right now, and should hit any day soon. The update will be free for ShutterSnitch 1.x owners, and $8 to buy new. The price will go up to $20 early in the new year.

A first look at ShutterSnitch 2.0 for the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch [Rob Galbraith]

ShutterSnitch app [iTunes]

See Also:

• ShutterSnitch Beams Photos from Camera to iPad
• ShutterSnitch and Eye-Fi: Wireless Camera Tethering for iPad …
• The Eye-Fi Pro and the iPad? Forget About it
• AirStash Wireless SD Card Reader: Perfect iPad Companion?

Flipboard, the iPad app that turns Twitter and Facebook into a personalized magazine, has just gotten a huge update. Earlier today, our own Brian X Chen profiled the app and its creators, and briefly mentioned the main new additions: support for Google Reader and Flickr. These have turned an already compelling app into possibly the best way to browse all your online sources.

You add the new sections just like any other, only you need to log in to these accounts the first time. Google Reader’s content initially appears rather useless, a seemingly random pick of your unread RSS news items presented in no particular order.

But tap the title and you can browse by sections which correspond to the folders set in Reader. You can all drill down into starred items, and into individual feeds. Post you read are marked as read, and you can post articles to Twitter, Facebook and Google Reader itself. And of course, all this takes place in the lovely Flipboard interface.

Flickr is even better. Again you see a selection of the latest photos from your contacts, and you just tap and swipe to browse or view bigger. Once you’re browsing, you can favorite a picture, share it or tap on your contact’s avatar picture and choose to view more of their images. You can even choose to hide photos from a contact in case you have a few more risque subscriptions you don’t want to be seen.

The other sections have also been updated. Facebook and Twitter can now be further explored by narrowing down to your Facebook groups, your own Twitter feed, Tweets mentioning you, your favorites and more. You can also split any of these subsections off into a full section, available from Flipboard’s front page.

There are many other tweak which you’ll find as you play (and I guarantee you’ll waste a good half hour playing as soon as you you get the update). One, though, makes as big a difference as all the others put together. Flipboard finally supports fast-app-switching. Now, if you leave to, say, change a track in the iPod app, you will come back where you left off. Previously you had to start over, a huge pain.

Flipboard, as ever, is free. Go get it.

Flipboard [iTunes]

See Also:

• How Flipboard Turned Web Noise Into iPad Gold
• Hands-On: Flipboard Turns Your iPad into a Personalized Magazine …

Word on the street is that Microsoft plans to announce a Windows-powered iPad contender at next month’s Consumer Electronics Show.

We’ve seen this movie before.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer waved around a Hewlett-Packard “slate” running Windows 7 at CES 2010. HP later hyped up the device with specifications and a possible price tag, and then killed it before it even shipped.

So it’s a bit like dèja vu reading in The New York Times that Ballmer is taking the stage to talk slates again. Mind you, this time he’s going to show off not just one Windows 7 slate, but several, according to NYT’s Nick Bilton.

But increasing the device count isn’t going to make a Windows 7 slate any better. Here are seven reasons buying a Windows 7 slate would be a bad idea.

• Windows is not for fingers.

Windows 7 is designed for desktop computing, not multitouch tablets. Dragging around windows to switch between applications is not the kind of thing you’d do on a tablet. It’s why we use keyboards and mice.

At CES 2010 there were a few pilot tablets running Windows 7. They were difficult to use, because the Windows 7 interface on a tablet was an ergonomic nightmare. Scrolling was laggy, and some devices we tested even froze while we were shooting video demonstrating the products.

Even with a touch-friendly skin on top, there are still going to be times when you wish you had a mouse — like when a dialog box pops up that hasn’t been optimized for touch, and its control buttons are too tiny for your fat digits.

• Windows is too bloated for mobile devices.

Windows 7 is a big improvement over Vista and XP, but it’s still got a lot of the same Windows headaches. Plug in a peripheral, for example, and Windows 7 has to search a sluggish database for a device driver. The idea behind a mobile device is that you’re on the go and you need apps that keep in pace with your movement, and Windows just isn’t optimized for that.

On top of that, the power management is not designed for an always-on, carry-everywhere experience. For a tablet competitive with the iPad you need an OS with extremely fast boot times that can run on low power for epically long hours, and Windows 7 has neither of those features. (The iPad, for instance, has a standby battery life of 30 days.)

• There will be too many unpredictable variations.

Microsoft’s modus operandi with Windows is to license the OS to any manufacturer that wants it, and the OEMs ship Windows notebooks with their own custom software (aka bloatware). There are a thousand different variations on keyboards, controls, aspect ratios and more. The same would happen with tablets. By contrast, Android and iOS have more-or-less predictable hardware, something that Microsoft itself recognized was important in Windows Phone 7, its mobile OS.

• You’ll have to maintain it like a Windows machine.

Windows has always been a prime target for the authors of viruses and botnets because of its gigantic userbase. On a Windows 7 tablet you’d have to install antivirus software, which would inevitably affect battery life and overall performance.

Then you’d probably want to install memory-optimizing utilities, a better disk defragmenter, and maybe a registry cleaner. After a year it would start slowing down like Windows machines always do, and you’d have to do a clean install of the OS.

In short, a Windows tablet would give PC users lots of flexibility — but it would be antithetical to the experience of an easy-to-use consumer device that you don’t have to maintain.