tablet

The iPad Dilemma, To Buy or Not To Buy?

Posted by Aaron Zollo on Mar 5, 2010 in Featured Articles, Other | 0 comments

The iPad is one of those Apple products that was so highly anticipated and expected to change the game that many people forgot what we had just a few short years ago.  To help us decide in our purchasing decisions we need to visit the past as well as the positives and negatives of the iPad.  We are most convinced and think you will be too after some time.

If we take a quick look back at what tablet computing was prior to the iPad or even iPhone we come up with a large, laptop-like device that had a swivel screen that flips around and can be used as a touch interface.  While this design worked, it did not work well enough for anyone for it to have staying power except in specific areas of interest.  Just recently we had quite a few new designs that are flat touch panels with Android or Windows interfaces customized for touch.  We also got a glimps of the Microsoft Courier which is more like a book and has two separate screens with a pen and touch input.

Online Overseas Wholesale Site Showing Tablet Prematurely WIth Specs And Details?

Posted by Aaron Zollo on Jan 27, 2010 in News | 0 comments

On doing a little research via the B2B (business to business) site Alibaba.com, it appears they may have outed the tablet early.  There are numerous sellers now selling the iSlate as a new product on the site.  The distributors are reputable and all show the same image of what looks to be a 7.1inch tablet.  The image looks similar to what we have seen with an iPhone form factor.  The design if accurate also has the home button, and a couple of touch scroll arrows on the face.  The side and/or top shows two usb ports and a headphone jack.  The design definitely looks similar to others we have seen online, but with a different keyboard and what appears to be running OSX with the dock on the top or left depending on orientation.

This photo had me a little suspicious, but then I noticed that specs were shown on the description.  If at all accurate the iSlate will have a 7.1inch display, 2.26 Core 2 Duo with 3MB L2 cache, 2GB RAM and 120GB hard disk for storage.

This was still not good enough as far as the story goes so I decided to question the seller as they were online and available to chat.  I logged into my Alibaba account and spoke to the distributor about the tablet.  My first question was about the availability, seeing how Apple had not yet announced their new device yet.  They promptly responded as having 5 units which would be available within 48hours.  This would not be too far fetched to believe, given the time frame of the announcement and normal distributor channel availabilities.  As far as price goes they said the cost would be $749 each plus shipping.

All of this sounds like it could be an accurate description, although I still remain skeptical.  The price tag is not out of the range that we all expect, but the 120GB hard drive along with the Core 2 Duo does make me a little skeptical if any of this is real. The form factor appears to be right if the iSlate case with camera hole is any proof at all. This was also found on the same site.  Check out the case for yourself and lets all brace ourself to see if Apple can match the hype with their new device.

The other odd thing is the description says used despite what the wholesaler told me.  He also assured me this was the very hyped tablet.  We’ll see tomorrow and the announcement could not come soon enough.  Now lets all get some sleep if we can.

[Alibaba]

Fingerworks.com Pulls Products Prior To Apple Tablet Announcement

Posted by Aaron Zollo on Jan 11, 2010 in News | 0 comments

  Fingerworks.com who was once a stand-alone company, was purchased by Apple about 5 years ago.  Their products were significant in that many of them were intuitive, gesture-based devices made for Apple products.  One of the original Fingerworks.com founders was responsible for the Multi-touch input for OSX and also many of Apple’s multi-touch based patents.  One of the original press releases from Fingerworks, details an interesting interface:

"The MacNTouch Gesture Keyboard is a complete user interface that serves as mouse, standard keyboard, and powerful multi-finger gesture interpreter. Mouse operations like point, click, drag, scroll, and zoom are combined seamlessly with touch-typing and multi-finger gesture everywhere on the MacNTouch’s surface."

All of these details are nice, but what is the real significance you ask?  It appears that a week or so ago this information was pulled from the Fingerworks.com site in the preparation of a possible Apple Tablet announcement. 

If the rumors hold true about an unexpected interface, then this could be what we have been waiting for.  Only a few short weeks and hopefully we will all know what touchiness ensues.

[MacRumor]

Orange Chief Confirms Apple Tablet WIth Webcam

Posted by Aaron Zollo on Jan 11, 2010 in News | 0 comments

  The Chief Executive Officer Delegate of the European carrier Orange today confirmed the announcement of an Apple tablet later this month.  In his radio interview he basically said the tablet is coming along with a webcam.  See the quick interview after the break:

"Jean Pierre Elkabbach: According to Le Point, your partner Apple will launch a Tablet…

Stéphane Richard: Yes.

Jean Pierre Elkabbach: …with a webcam…

Stéphane Richard: Yes.

Jean Pierre Elkabbach: …would Orange users benefit from this?

Stéphane Richard: Sure! They are going to benefit from the web cam, they are going to be able to, in effect, transmit images in real time. We are going to modernize, in essence, the video phone that we knew a few years ago… the size of the resolution, and the quality of the resolution will be better, and it will be available to all in France."

This confirms what we pretty much already knew, but it doesn’t hurt to have the input from someone most likely to be in the know.

[via Gizmodo] [via Nowhereelse]

Microsoft Shows Off The New HP Slate

Posted by Aaron Zollo on Jan 7, 2010 in News | 0 comments

  Jumping into the game early is the HP Slate.  The display runs windows and during the keynote, Steve Balmer showed it running a Kindle app.  The Slate can also run games, is faster than an iPhone, but slower than a full fledged PC.  The details at the moment are a bit short at the moment, but when they do arrive we will be sure to let you know.  See a quick video of the Slate after the jump.