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Sony hits the market with an 11.6-inch Windows 8 Tablet

September 9, 2013 by Leave a Comment

vaiotap

Sony continues to search for the right mix in the tablet space and its latest offerings is the VAIO Tap 11, an offering that will be running Microsoft’s Windows 8 operating system and comes with a host of additional features.

Sony is being coy about some details such as exactly which processor it is using, although it does say that it s one Intel’s latest quad-core offerings. The Tap 11 at 9.9mm thick, without keyboard, is one of the slimmest on the market.

It supports a maximum of 4GB of RAM and 516GB storage with a HD 1920 x 1080 11.6-inch display. The display comes with a digital stylus and a magnetically attached keyboard cover, enabling users to have a variety of input and operating options.

It has an autofocus 8 megapixel rear facing camera as well as a front facing HD camera that also includes autofocus capabilities. There is a variety of interconnect capabilities including WLAN 802.11a/b/g/n; USB 3.0 with USB charge (x1); Bluetooth standard Ver. 4.0 + HS.

The tablet s expected to go on sale this fall, with the pricing to be announced at a later date. Microsoft has struggled to establish a solid presence in the tablet space since its introduction of Windows 8 and Sony has struggled to move up into the ranks of Apple, Samsung, and a few others. The pricing on this platform could be key for helping to reverse the fortunes of Sony and Microsoft in this space.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, Intel, iPad, Microsoft, Sony, Tablets, Windows 8 Tagged With: , , , , , ,

New Tablets from Samsung, Asus and Amazon

September 6, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1, 2014 Edition.

Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1, 2014 Edition.

As expected a number of new tablets have started to hit the airwaves this week and Samsung, Asus and Google are among the players that have brought new products to see the light of day, with LG already having been covered here. This is just a sampling of the latest announced and we plan to follow up next week with additional coverage.

Leading off is the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1, 2014 Edition. The tablet features a 10-inch 2560 x 1600 pixel display, a choice of either a 1.9GHz Octa Core processor for the LTE version and a 2.3GHz Quad Core for other versions and 3GB of RAM. It has a feature called Multi Window that enables users to run separate instances of the same and use the new enhanced S Pen to drag and drop content from one window to another.

Other features include an 8 MP rear facing camera and a 2MP front facing camera, a choice between 16/32/64 GB of storage with an optional MicroSD card also available. It will come in three connectivity options: Wi-Fi Only, Wi-Fi and 3G, Wi-Fi and LTE and will be available starting from Q3, 2013.

Asus MeMO Pads
If you are looking for budget offerings then Asus might have what yu are looking for, in both 8-inch and 10-inch formats. The company is showing off its MeMO Pad 8 and 10, both touted as budget offerings that it expects to ship my year’s end.

Both feature a 1280 x 800 resolution display, with the MeMO Pad 8 powered by a 1.6GHz quad core processor with a 5MP rear facing camera and 8GB of storage. The MeMO Pad 10 has a 2MP camera and an option for either 8GB or 16GB of storage. They each have an expansion MicroSD slot and a 1.2MP front facing camera. Pricing and availability will be announced at a later time.

Kindle Paperwhite

Kindle Paperwhite

Kindle Paperwhite
Amazon is not one to be left behind and it has released an upgraded Kindle Paperwhite e-reader that includes new display technology with higher contrast, a faster processor and a host of enhanced features. One that stands out is its Kindle Page Flip that lets a user skim through pages or chapters. Another is the ability to read footnotes without leaving the page with its In-Line Footnotes feature. The Paperwhite is now available for preorder at Amazon.

Filed Under: Amazon, Apps, Asus, Samsung, Tablets Tagged With: , , , ,

Samsung Starts the Clock on the Smartwatch Battle

September 5, 2013 by 1 Comment

galgear

Samsung the first among the major consumer electronics players to take the wraps off of its smartwatch with its unveiling yesterday of the Galaxy Gear smart watch as that space takes a major step forward becoming a reality.

The Galaxy Gear features a 1.63-inch display and is designed to connect to a Galaxy phone providing e-mail alerts and news routed from that device. However it is more than a glorified pager as it also features a 1.9 megapixel camera that will enable point and shoot photography. It has a built-in microphone that can be used for composition of memos, emails, calendar appointments and more.

One of the areas that early smartwatch pioneers have worked to cultivate has been in the exercise and training field and the Galaxy Gear is designed to compete in that space as well and will support a number of popular apps in that space such as RunKeeper and Life360 and can function as a pedometer.

Last but not least the Galaxy Gear also serves as a wristwatch and includes several face options and will come preloaded with 10 different clock options and more choices will be downloadable via Samsung Apps. It will be available in six colors that will be available at launch: Jet Black, Mocha Gray, Wild Orange, Oatmeal Beige, Rose Gold, and Lime Green. The company said it would ship on September 25th and it will listed at under $300.

There has been a great deal of talk over the last year about smartwatches-which companies will or will not release one, when that will occur and if this means the death toll to the smaller players such as Pebble that have been working to pioneer this space.

Apple has been another of the players that have been rumored to be in development in this space, and recently Google announced made a major move into the space (which actually closed last year) with its purchase of WIMM Labs, a company that first showed its smartwatch design in 2011. Expect others to follow suit in the near future.

It will be hard to predict how this space will pan out. Will the devices be viewed as a fad with a fast adoption rate and an equally fast abandonment rate? Remember a few years back when the race in smartphones was to see who had the smallest form factor? Then as apps started to make them multifunctional they went to larger and larger formats, and now the phablet space is a huge one with oversized screens.

Watches will have small displays. They are good for quick updates and alerts and a surprising range of other features, but they also duplicate everything that is on a smartphone, and so will the majority of users want to carry two pieces of hardware when they have one that already does all of the tasks and more?

It will also be interesting to see if their is a backlash like there appears to be for Google Glass. Will casinos ban smartwatches and how will they do that?

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, Google, Live Sports Video Consumption, Samsung Tagged With: , , , ,

Friday Grab Bag: Tablet Rumors Galore

August 16, 2013 by Leave a Comment

With Apple, Samsung and others either preparing new tablets Amazon is also preparing a new set of releases.

As it does so it needs to rid itself of older inventory and so has cut the prices on existing models with the current generation Kindle Fire HD now starting at $159.


Samsung Smartwatch due next month?
With the changing of the leaves that herald the coming of fall, also so do the increased number of rumors about hi-tech products that are slated for the back to school market. The latest is that Samsung may beat the field to market with its smartwatch, delivered Sept. 4.

The news comes to us from Asia One, who are forwarding a tip from Sammobile, claim that Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch will make its first public appearance at the Samsung Unpacked Episode 2 event that starts on that day. Stay tuned.

LG Tablet in the works
Speaking of third hand rumors here is a report that a new tablet is about to emerge from LG that will be called the LG G Pad. It is expected to be in a 8.3-inch form factor that will feature a 1920 x 1200 display.

Other supposed details include a quad-core microprocessor, 2GB of memory and that is about it so far. Since no ship date was rumored we may see more details prior to a release.

Fox Sports 1 starts tomorrow
We mentioned it last week but it bears repeating that the latest rival to ESPN, Fox Sports 1, will start Saturday. It is expected to be available in 90 million homes on launch.

A piece at Sports on Earth really told the tale. It does not matter if the channel is more or less intellectual than ESPN, what will determine its success will be the number and quality of its live sports offerings.

Archos GamePad spotted via FCC filing
TechRadar is reporting that Archos looks to be refreshing its GamePad dedicated tablet device with a second generation offering ahead of what looks like a deluge this fall in similar products from a host of rivals.

Its first generation offering came out at the start of the year and now will have Bluetooth and Wi-Fi support in the latest offering. Expect to see a number of other dedicated pads from the likes of Amazon and others available soon as well.

BlackBerry up for sale?
BlackBerry’s board has formed a special committee that will be tasked with looking at strategic alternatives for the company’s future, including how to boost sales of its flagship Blackberry 10 smartphone.

It will look at the possibility of selling the company or try to enter into strategic partnerships or joint ventures with other companies.

Filed Under: Amazon, Android, Apple, Apps, BlackBerry, ESPN, Fox Sports, Samsung Tagged With: , , , , ,

Friday Grab Bag: Fox Sports 1 around the corner

August 9, 2013 by Leave a Comment

If you have been waiting for a new 24-hour national sports broadcast network then your dreams have been answered as Fox Sports 1 is set to launch on Aug. 17 as the network once again challenges ESPN for sports supremacy.

The network already has a very full array of content teed up from different sports and leagues such as MLB, NASCAR, FIFA World Cup, UFC as well as college football conferences such as the Big Ten, Big 12 and the Pac-12.

Hopefully the fight between the two powers will be a bit more mature than the last time when they would both superimpose their logos over scenes so that if the rival carried the broadcast they had to show the logo.

Samsung to debut next Galaxy Note in September
Samsung has sent out invites to a major announcement that the company will be making on Sept. 4, and the line ’Note the Date” is being taken as a sign that the company will be delivering its Galaxy Note 3 at the event.

It is expected to follow in the footsteps of previous Galaxy Notes and be released at the annual IFA trade show that is held in Berlin, where the two previous generations were also unveiled.

Tablet sales slow, IDC says; no new iPad to blame
Market research firm International Data Corp. has reported that tablet sales slowed in the second quarter of this year, down 9.7% from the preceding quarter. However that number is more than offset by the 60% increase sales have increased compared to the same quarter a year earlier.

IDC expects the market to take off in the upcoming months, helped a great deal by the expected release of Apple’s next generation tablets. Apple has not refreshed the lineup in a year. It said it expects ‘impressive growth’ in the fourth quarter of this year.

One area of positive news for iPad rivals is that Windows Tablet sales on the upswing, with a 527% increase over the same period a year ago, reaching 1.8 million compared to the 300,000 shipped a year ago.

Spartan Race World Championship to be broadcast on NBC
The 2013 Reebok Spartan Race World Championship will be the centerpiece of a collaboration between Spartan Race Inc. and NBC Sorts Group for a television special on the obstacle racing sport.

The special will culminate with coverage of the championship that takes place in central Vermont on Sept. 21-22, 2013. That event is expected to draw tens of thousands of participants vying for the $250,000 in cash and prizes.

Apple’s fused glass patent destined for iPod, iPhone, iPads?
The most recent Apple patent application that has come to light shows that the company is looking to secure the rights to a method of fusing glass that the company describes as being applicable to several different products.

As shown on Slash Gear the next generation products that are built using the fused glass would be entirely enclosed by the material, but don’t get your hopes up for the current generation of Apple products expected within the next month or so, this looks to be a year out at the least.

Android-powered game console?
The game console market is a cutthroat business and minor errors in judgment regarding features and functions can alienate legions of fans. According to rumors from Game Informer, that segment maybe drawing a new player into the fold, Amazon.

The rumor is that not only does the company have a console in development that will use the Android operating system but that fans of midnight shopping may be able to get one by Black Friday.

Filed Under: Amazon, Android, Apple, Apps, ESPN, FIFA, Fox Sports, Galaxy Note, iOS, iPad, iPhone, Microsoft, NASCAR, NCAA Hoops, NFL, Samsung, Spartan Race, Surface Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Google’s Latest Nexus 7 Raises the Bar on Tablets

July 26, 2013 by 1 Comment

nex7

Google has introduced its next generation Nexus 7 tablet this week and has incorporated a host of enhanced features as it seeks to maintain the popularity of its top selling 7-inch tablet, which already has a 10% Android market share.

The tablet, built by Google partner Asus, weighs in at slightly more than half a pound (0.64lbs with Wi-Fi, 0.66 lbs with LTE) and runs the Jelly Bean 4.3 operating system. Among the features in the latest Jelly Bean release is parental control features as well as support for the newest energy efficient Bluetooth technology.

The screen is a standout item on the latest Nexus 7 with support for 1080p high definition video that equates to 1920 x 1200 resolution and includes new stereo speakers. The tablet is powered by a Qualcomm snapdragon S4 Pro processor with 2GB of memory and the company said that you get 9 hours with active use from its battery.

The tablet has a pair of cameras with a 1.2 megapixel fixed focus front facing one and a 5MP auto focus rear facing camera. It sports dual band Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, NFC and Bluetooth 4.0 with 4G LTE available as an option.

The Nexus 7 comes with two basic storage capacities, a 16GB model and a 32GB version. The company said that the tablet will be shipping in the US by July 30 with an entry level price of $229 and $269 for the high end model without 4G LTE, and then will start a global rollout.

The company has also delivered a product called Chromecast, a $35 USB dongle that enables you to stream video over Wi-Fi to smartphones, laptops and tablets. It plugs into a television’s HDMI port, you then load an app onto the receiving device and then chose what to watch. Initially Netflix, YouTube, Google Play Music and Google Play Movies are all supported.

It will be interesting to see what Apple and Samsung have in store to combat Google in terms of pricing and features when their next generation 7-inch products hit the market.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, Android, Apple, Apps, Google, iPad, Microsoft, Samsung, Tablets, Wi-Fi Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,
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