Hasta La Gadget!

Microsoft is finally issuing its full-fledged answer to the iPad. Next year. Word is that the company’s long awaited consumer tablet OS will finally be hitting the market, just in time for back to school 2012, which will likely put the tablets in direct competition with the third generation iPad.

According to “people who declined to be identified because the plans haven’t been disclosed publicly,” cited by Bloomberg, Microsoft is set to begin public testing on the tablet-friendly version of Windows 7 later this year. The update will be designed specifically to work on touchscreens, taking advantage of tablet screen size and battery concerns.

Apple, of course, currently dominates the market, with the latest figures somewhere in the neighborhood of 90 percent of tablet sales in the U.S. Google’s Android is set to make a big grab, thanks to the recently released Motorola Xoom and a slew of upcoming tablets that will take advantage of Google’s tablet-oriented Android Honeycomb.

Unless Microsoft hits back with a downright revolution, the timing certainly doesn’t bode well for the software giant’s chances in the market. Sure the company got good reviews and even some moderate sales with Windows Phone 7 devices, but failed attempts to offer tablets to consumers in the past aside, Microsoft is really starting from scratch on this one.

Unless you’re eagerly anticipating your IT department handing one of these to you, something tells us the Stylistic Q550 isn’t the tablet you’re looking for. Why’s that? Everything about the experience screams “corporate,” starting with our time at Fujitsu’s booth earlier today where business dealings to deploy the tablet in some corporate environment were literally happening before our very eyes. There was only one unit in the vicinity — and the suits were relentless in trying to get their paws on it — but we spent just long enough with it to figure out that there are far, far better-suited consumer options out there; as far as we can tell, that’s exactly how Fujitsu wants it. That opinion was further reinforced by the presence of a smart card reader on the side (for secure logins), a fingerprint scanner on back, and old-school pen input, which Fujitsu tells us that legacy tablet users (read: medical personnel and field data entry folks) still want. It can take fingers, too, but we felt like the quality of the display is compromised a bit for the dual-mode support. Interestingly, there’s no place to store the pen in the tablet anyway; you’ll need the accessory case for that.

The company is talking about its custom Windows 7 skin as a key differentiator. The build they had on the demo unit was a little buggy, but at any rate, we came away with the impression that it’s basically just a finger-friendly view to launch apps; fortunately, the full Windows experience — which is just as non-touch-optimized as ever — is just a tap away. We were hoping the Oak Trail guts would keep everything snappy, but the pre-release code here was actually lagging pretty badly as we navigated from screen to screen. Don’t get us wrong: we’re sure these are precisely the specs that some enterprise customers are looking for… but as an individual, gadget-loving, tablet-wanting human being, we’re pretty sure they aren’t the specs that you’re looking for.

Fujitsu Stylistic Q550 hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Mar 2011 14:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Complementing the integrated projector concept introduced at CES last month, MSI brought a new not-for-sale hottie to its CeBIT booth this week in the form of the Dual Pad, which is… well, literally two WindPads placed on top of one another. The idea is that the pads can be taken apart and used as two completely independent Windows 7 tablets when necessary — “you and your girlfriend on a trip” was the example given to us during the press conference — but when you piece them together, they become one mega-tablet capable of operating essentially as a single dual-screen netbook (a hingeless, permanently-open one). Again, it’s a pure concept; there are no plans for commercialization that we could eke out, but we can’t imagine it’d be cheap since you’d effectively be buying two complete tablets. Follow the break for video!

Continue reading MSI Dual Pad concept eyes-on (video)

MSI Dual Pad concept eyes-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Feb 2011 13:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

First they leaked, then they became official, and now they’re at HP’s online store waiting for your name, address and credit card information. The new Pavilion dv6 and dv7 laptops borrow liberally from the higher-end Envy line’s aesthetics — not that we’re complaining — and offer quad-core Core i7 CPUs that max out at 3.4GHz on the i7-2820QM when cranked up using Turbo Boost. The default running speed for that model is 2.3GHz and it has a pair of slightly slower brethren, ticking along at 2.2GHz (i7-2720QM) and 2GHz flat (i7-2630QM), all of which you can own on the dv6t or dv7t. Both machines come with AMD’s 1GB Mobility Radeon HD 6570 graphics chip, while the larger dv7t also brings a two-year warranty as standard. Its 1600 x 900 resolution on a 17.3-inch screen might disappoint those looking for mad pixel density, though few would be able to complain about its price. The dv6t and dv7t start off at $1,000 and $1,100, respectively, and are subject to a $150 instant rebate and free memory (6GB) and hard drive (750GB) upgrades that should make them very appealing value propositions.

HP’s Quad Edition dv6t and dv7t laptops now available, Radeon HD graphics and Core i7 CPUs in tow originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Feb 2011 08:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink LogicBuy  |  HP (dv6t), (dv7t)  | Email this | Comments

This article was written on August 30, 2010 by CyberNet.

Welcome to the WrapUp by CyberNet. This is a collection of news stories, downloads, and tips that we have collected over the last few days, but never got around to writing about. Don’t forget to send in your own tips, or just leave a comment on this page if you think you’ve got something we should include.

–News–

Firefox Mobile 2.0 Alpha Available for Android
The Firefox Mobile browser, also known as Fennec, has branched out to the Android OS with its latest Alpha release.

H.264 Will Remain Royalty Free Forever?
Mozilla feels that the announcement regarding the H.264 codec remaining royalty free forever may not apply to those looking to include the technology in products.

Gmail Users Place 1 Million Calls in 24-Hours
Google’s release of free (to the U.S. and Canada) computer-to-phone calling in Gmail sparked mass interest, and triggered over 1 million calls in the first 24-hours of the feature being available. Of course many of those people, including myself, were just playing around with it.

Meijer Testing Indoor Positioning Item Locator
Meijer has teamed up with Point Inside to offer an iPhone-powered item locator that will tell you exactly where over 100,000 items are at inside the store. It’s currently only being tested in a handful of retail locations though.

Digg Launches Version 4
The new version of Digg has a strong focus on speed, personalization, and making it easier to share content.

CEO of Cheezburger Network Offers to Buy Reddit
Ben Huh, the CEO of the Cheezburger Network (known largely for the I Can Has Cheezburger site), has made it publicly known that he wants to buy Reddit so that it can have the monetary support it needs.

Apple Holding a Special Event on September 1st
Apple has sent out invitations to the media for an event that will take place on September 1st at 10AM PST. It is expected that they will unveil a new Apple TV as well as updated iPod Touch models.

Google Voice Phone Booths Coming to Universities and Airports?
Google will be rolling out Google Voice phone booths at both airports and universities, which will let people make free domestic and international phone calls.

Microsoft Leaks the IE9 Interface
Mary Jo Foley caught a glimpse of what could be the upcoming IE9 Beta thanks to a screenshot on Microsoft Russia’s press site.

Firefox 4 Beta Updated with Sync and Panorama Capabilities
The newest test release of Firefox 4 includes both syncing and tab organization techniques (note that this feature now called Panorama was previously known as Tab Candy).

Mozilla Breaks Down Private Browsing Usage
A recent study by Mozilla, based on an opt-in service for Firefox 4 Beta users, reveals that the biggest peak in private browsing is at lunch.

–Tips, Tutorials, and Reviews–

5 Free Online P2P File Sharing Services
This set of free online tools all let you share files without ever having to upload them to a third-party site. Instead you can share a file on your machine directly with another user by using the site as a helper. One of the major benefits of going this route is that you can share files without size limitations.

Google Chrome Gets Labs, too
Visiting about:labs in a recent Chromium build will show you some optional features that you can enable instead of having to resort to clunky command-line flags.

New Miranda IM 0.9.0 Released
We’ve covered some of the things we love in Miranda before, and the fact that they’ve just rolled out a major update is pretty exciting. Keep in mind that development for this release has been going on for over a year now.

Microsoft Adds Native H.264 Playback to Vista
This “Platform Update Supplement” for Vista will let you play MP4, AAC, and H.264 files natively in Vista. Note that Windows 7 is already capable of playing all of these natively… so don’t be surprised that this update is only for Vista.

Windows Phone 7 Browser Comparison
PocketNow.com compares the Windows Phone 7 browser to the ones found on iOS and Android 2.2 devices.

CloudMagic Makes Gmail Searching Faster
If you use Google Chrome or Firefox for your browser you may want to consider this third-party email search tool that makes hunting down a particular message extremely easy.

NewsBlur is an Interesting Online RSS Feed Reader
I expected NewsBlur to be another flop when it comes to an online RSS feed reader, but I have to admit that the way it navigates between news articles directly on the feed’s site is kinda slick. Definitely worth checking out.

Change the Default Library Location in Windows 7
This guide explains how you can designate a specific folder as the default for a library in Windows 7. By doing so any files you drag-and-drop onto the library will be saved at that location.

Microsoft Equation Editor Graphs and Solves Equations in Office
You can use the free equation editor plugin for Microsoft Word and OneNote to either assist in solving a problematic equation or graphing it in 3D.

Awesome Windows 7 Theme for Ubuntu Users
This Windows 7 theme is one of the best at making your Ubuntu system look like the OS from Microsoft, and even goes as far as to reference a YouTube video that explains how you can get the “Aero” interface appearance complete with blurring.

–Downloads–

• AIM 7.4.2.22 ^{Beta 1} [Homepage] [Mirror]
• ATI Catalyst Drivers 10.8 [Homepage] [Mirror]
• CCleaner 2.35.1219 [Homepage] [Mirror]
• Firefox 4.0 ^{Beta 4} [Homepage] [Mirror]
• Foobar2000 1.1 [Homepage] [Mirror]
• Google Chrome 7.0.503.0 ^Beta [Homepage] [Mirror]
• Miranda 0.9.2 [Homepage] [Mirror]
• Opera 10.70.9034 ^Beta [Homepage] [Mirror]
• Sandboxie 3.49.03 ^Beta [Homepage] [Mirror]
• SeaMonkey 2.1 ^{Alpha 3} [Homepage] [Mirror]
• uTorrent 2.2.0.21409 ^Beta [Homepage] [Mirror]
• VLC 1.1.4 [Homepage] [Mirror]

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

Related Posts:

MobileMe and Gmail Outage YesterdayVista 5552 Leaked Just Hours After 5536 Is ReleasedCyberNotes: World’s Most Expensive MP3 PlayerApple Boasts 8 Hours Talk-Time with iPhoneWrapUp: Live Mesh for Mac, Amazon S3 Downtime, and More