Hasta La Gadget!

You’d be forgiven for expecting that the dual-core Tegra 2 that swept all before it at CES would be the king of tablet processors for a good while, but Acer is already plotting ways to overthrow it. Admittedly, Acer is kind of cheating by jumping into x86 land and snatching some unspecified Intel Sandy Bridge silicon, but are you really going to complain about getting multi-core grunt under the hood of your well-lubricated Android machine? An official from the company has promised two to three new tablets, sized at either 7 or 10 inches diagonally, for the first half of this year — a tasty morsel of information, which he garnishes with the forecast that netbooks will eventually be phased out in favor of such touchy-feely slate devices. If you can fit a full second-gen Core CPU inside a tablet, why the heck not?

Updated: Acer’s US team has clarified for us that the Android tablets it announced in November are still set to hit in April. Obviously, these Sandy Bridge versions would be farther off, but we’ve also heard from another source that Acer would likely wait for Intel’s ULV-based Sandy Bridge processors, which aren’t due until the spring / summer timeframe. We’ll let you know if we hear more…

Acer building Sandy Bridge tablets for Android, will use them to ‘phase out’ netbooks originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 18 Jan 2011 06:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We inevitably miss things at tradeshows, and here’s one we regret — we didn’t catch this obscure Australian tablet in the flesh at CES 2011. Apparently, this Evolve III Maestro was casually chilling at Intel’s booth with Android, Windows 7 and a 1.83GHz Atom N475 CPU inside, but representatives were willing to reveal grander plans if you spent a little time with the device. You see, come Q2 2011, the slate will graduate to a dual-core Oak Trail CPU, and add MeeGo to the stack for a grand total of three operating systems. TabletPCBuzz says Windows 7 and Android are getting eight and sixteen hours of battery life on the Oak Trail chip respectively, and the tablet weighs less than two pounds.

It’s hard to say what other features the Oak Trail version will have, but even the existing tablet isn’t a pushover, with a 10.1-inch, 1024 x 600 capacitive touchscreen, 2GB of DDR3 RAM, up to 32GB of solid state storage, 3G and 802.11 b/g/n WiFi and a pair of full-size USB ports on one edge. Sources suggest the original will find a $500 price point, with the Oak Trail commanding an additional $100. After the break, you’ll find a disappointingly static video, but follow the links below for a walkthrough of the MeeGo UI and all the specs you could want.

[Thanks, Garf]

Continue reading Evolve III Maestro slate triple-boots Android, MeeGo and Windows 7 (video)

Evolve III Maestro slate triple-boots Android, MeeGo and Windows 7 (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 17 Jan 2011 00:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We do love to hear from loquacious execs, and HP’s Todd Bradley has been the very definition of one in an interview conducted with CNBC during CES. In a discussion revolving around webOS, Bradley was asked how HP intends to differentiate itself from the iPad and improve upon it, to which he quipped, “you and I will talk about that on the 9th.” If that’s not a confirmation that we’ll finally have our unicorn of a webOS tablet next month, we don’t know what is. Even more encouraging is the implication further on in the interview that HP could have debuted this slate at CES, but opted to do an unveiling at a separate event so as to properly highlight just how awesome it is. But wait, there’s yet more good news for webOS fans: Bradley’s crew sees its upcoming tablet as just “one piece” of the connected experience that is the company’s goal and we’re promised to be enlightened about a broad range of webOS devices at the February 9th event in San Francisco, though the lack of any Palm namedrops seems to suggest they might not bear the name of their maker. Even if they’re called iPaqs, we just want to see them already!

Continue reading HP’s Todd Bradley all but confirms webOS tablet for February 9th event, promises even more devices

HP’s Todd Bradley all but confirms webOS tablet for February 9th event, promises even more devices originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 Jan 2011 03:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Just when it seemed the Notion Ink Adam had escaped the pit of dubious pre-orders and moved onto the glowing preview stage, here comes another hurdle to trip up its 10-inch PixelQi screen. Android Police reports that US buyers have received email notifications that their orders are ready to ship out, except for that little matter of FCC approval. We’ve yet to see the Adam pass the FCC — perhaps because it hasn’t done so quite yet — and the tablet will need to have its paperwork in order and be properly labeled before it can be imported into the US. Notion Ink insists that all the red tape will be taken care of “within this week,” and that some international orders have already shipped out. We’re hoping that’s the case — we’d hate to think of all those poor slates sitting in boxes, instead of getting some sun.

Notion Ink Adam delayed pending FCC certification originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 11 Jan 2011 20:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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At CES last week, we saw top tablets from some of the biggest names in the consumer electronics industry–Motorola, Samsung, RIM, ASUS, Toshiba, Lenovo–the list goes on. And while it will no doubt be a long time before any can be considered a serious iPad competitor, there are a few that certainly seem capable of snagging the number two spot in that race, next year.

And where waws Sony on that front? The technology giant was nowhere to be seen, in spite of speculation to the contrary. Even though the company was a no show in the 80-strong tablet race, it’s still making some bold predictions for 2011. Kunimasa Suzuki, the head of the company’s computer division said that Sony has its eyes firmly on the number two spot.

“For sure iPad is the king of tablets. But what is the second, what is the third? Who is taking the second position? That is our focus,” the executive told Reuters. “We would like to really take the number two position in a year.”

How will it snag that coveted second spot? Why, 3D, of course! The company has been considering that tact to help set its still unnamed tablet apart from the ever-increasing competition. “If I want to differentiate it from others, do I release it tomorrow, or do I wait till I differentiate it?” Suzuki put the rather rhetorical question to the new agency.

Perhaps there’s still a lot to be said for striking while the iron is hot–i.e. several weeks ago.