Miss Teen Universe: Tablets

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Thursday, 14 July 2011

Tablets are the new PCs and therefore will run Windows 8, not Windows Phone - Microsoft

Claiming that tablets should be considered personal computers rather than new age mobile devices, Microsoft on Tuesday again dashed hopes of tablets running the company's new mobile Operating System (OS), Windows Phone 7.

Speaking at Microsoft's Worldwide Partners Conference, Windows Phone President Andy Lees argued that consumers “want people to be able to do the sort of things they do on a PC on a tablet.”

"We view a tablet as a PC," he said.

As such, Lees maintained that using the OS Microsoft built for phones on a tablet would be "in conflict" with its belief in having the complete power of a PC on any design.

A few years back, virtually every tablet on the market ran some flavor of Windows.
That quickly changed with the advent of the Apple iPad in 2010, which took just 9 months to eclipse a lifetime of prior Windows tablet PC's sales.
Since then, Windows-based tablets have continued to plummet, and now account for a meager 1% or less of the overall market, according to market research firm IDC.

During his keynote speech, Lees instead turned his focus to Windows 8 OS and its expected networking and printing support enhancements, which he expects will drive adoption of Windows tablets moving forward, adding that the software will run on “systems on a chip” designs.

In time, he expects that PCs, tablets and phones will come together into a “unified ecosystem.”
Lees' remarks echo comments made by CEO Steve Ballmer earlier this year promising that "Windows will be everywhere on every device without compromise."

Windows 8, expected to launch sometime in 2012, will be the only tablet OS issued by Microsoft. It is also suspected that when the next incarnation is released, Windows Phone 7 will be faded out and replaced completely by Windows 8.
Ballmer admitted on Monday that sales of Windows Phone 7 have gone from "very small to very small," though he believes the company will make "a lot of progress" in the smartphone market going forward.

Windows 8 was announced by Mike Angiulo, Corporate Vice-president of Windows Planning, Hardware and PC Ecosystem at Microsoft, during a technical demonstration in early June this year.
In a move seen as an attempt to break into the tablet market, the company has designed the new OS to run on ARM-based architectures in addition to x86.

According to Angiulo, Windows 8 aims to make the “user experience a natural extension of the device, from the time you turn on your PC through how you interact with the applications you know and love.”

View the original article here

Sony S1 and S2 Android tablets preview

14 July 2011Sony S1 and S2 Android tablets preview Sony has taken some heat for being late to the tablet party, but we cut it some slack the minute we glimpsed the S1 and S2 tablet prototypes back in April 2011.

Both tablets promise a unique spin on what has so far been a series of cookie-cutter 10" Google's Android tablets.

Sony may be late, but at least it's bringing something special.

Though they won't hit shelves until the fall, we were lucky enough to get our hands on both tablets yesterday.
Sony is mum on pricing, but given Sony's history, we think it's fair to say these tablets will not be positioned as a cheap Apple's iPad alternative.

To give each tablet sibling its fair time in the spotlight, here's our separate take on each of Sony's Android Honeycomb tablets.

Sony S1

The Sony S1 Android tablet uses a wedge-shaped design.

Let's clear something up right at the start.
Sony insists that the names "S1" and "S2" are still product code names and not the final product names.

We're glad Sony is finally seeing the light on bestowing genuine names to its products instead of the expected alphanumeric mess, but it's not terribly reassuring that the company hasn't pulled a name out of a hat yet.

One thing Sony is exceptional at, though, is designing elegant hardware.

The S1 is a beautiful tablet.
Its wedge-shaped design makes it one of the most comfortable Honeycomb tablets we've held.
The 9.4" (1,280x768 pixels) touch screen offers great viewing angles and vivid colors, seemingly comparable to the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 (though we couldn't get a sense of its brightness range).
The back uses a subtle textured finish that offers a little extra grip and disguises smudges.

Whether it's a trick of the asymmetric design or some ingenious shrinking of the internal components, the S1 manages to feel relatively lightweight.
The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 still gets the prize for lightest design, but to Sony's credit, the S1 seems more durable while still maintaining a light and high-end feel.

On the sides of the S1 you'll find a socket for the power adapter, along with a headphone jack, USB sync port, and buttons for power and volume.

Compared against the ever-expanding sea of Honeycomb tablets on the market, there are a few key features that set the Sony S1 apart, aside from its design.
The Android 3.0 experience looks largely unchanged, but Sony has added a unique "Favorites" pane to the top navigation bar, displaying a quick view of your recently accessed and favorite content.
It has also added an optimization to the browser called Quick View that gives the illusion of faster page downloading by prioritizing a page's images ahead of JavaScript.
If you prefer to load your pages the old-fashioned way, the Quick View feature can be switched off under browser settings.

The S1 is also fully compatible with Adobe Flash and Adobe Air.
To spur the development of tablet-optimized apps built on the Adobe Air platform, Sony is sponsoring an App Challenge in the hopes of reaping some unique content.

Sony also touts its proprietary Quick Touch Panel enhancements to the panel used on the S1 (and S2), allowing for more responsive multitouch input.
With our limited time with the products, it's hard to say how much these optimizations mean for performance.

If nothing else, it's nice to see that Sony is sweating small details like these.

Other features, such as front and rear cameras and an internal speaker, are nice - but expected.
Sony is promising that both tablets will be PlayStation-certified for gameplay compatibility, though, which is certainly a feature that no other manufacturer will be able to brag about.

As far as disappointments go, we really wish Sony would give us a ballpark price.

Assuming the S1 isn't the highest or lowest priced Honeycomb tablet we'll see this year, we can only cite the same issues that dog all the other Honeycomb tablets out there.
The rate of development for tablet-optimized apps for Honeycomb seems slow to pick up momentum.

The battery life of these devices still seems behind the iPad.

Home ecosystem features, such as DLNA support, don't seem to inspire sales.
And on that same note, the S1's lack of an HDMI output seems like a misstep.

One surprise, though, is the inclusion of an IR blaster on the wide edge of the S1, which transforms the tablet into a giant DLNA-compatible universal remote.

Sony S2

The Sony S2 Android tablet uses a hinged design that can fit in your pocket.

The S2 is hands-down the most exotic tablet we've seen.

Using a hinged pair of 5.5" screens, the Sony S2 offers the pocket-size portability of a phone, the total screen size of a tablet, and the dual-screen potential of a Nintendo DS.

Unfortunately, we're not entirely convinced the S2 is going to satisfy in any one of these roles.

The Toshiba Libretto W100/W105 springs to mind.
These clamshell touch-screen devices always seem killer in concept, but it takes a lot of wizardry to make the sum of two good screens greater than a single excellent one.

Once the novelty is exhausted, you're looking at a tablet with a big unusable strip right through the center of the screen.

The unique screen also presents a challenge when it comes to apps.
Sony has put up a US$130,000 bounty to inspire developers to create Adobe Air apps optimized for the S2's unique dual-screen format, but during our limited time with the device Sony would allow us to view only its in-house apps, such as its eBook reader, media player, and a demo of Crash Bandicoot that utilized the S2's bottom display as a virtual gamepad.

It remains to be seen how Android's current catalog of apps will look.
A Sony rep stated that users will have the option to scale third-party apps across both screens (citing Maps as an ideal example) or limit them to a single panel to prevent them from being divided by the bezel.
Either way, non-optimized content will make for an awkward fit.

Still, there's a lot to like about Sony's foldable tablet.

It's a head-turner, for sure, and hopefully a signal that equally daring Android tablet designs are possible.
Also, at the end of the day, at least it can't be accused of copying the iPad!

Parting thoughts

Sony's tablets are the sexiest Android Honeycomb devices we've seen yet.

They're also the latest to arrive in a Android tablet market that is quickly showing a focus on price over all other concerns.

But compared with an Asus or a Samsung, or even an Apple, Sony does have a few aces up its sleeve.
Its legacy in gaming, digital cameras, and portable audio can't be matched by any competitor on all fronts.

There's a sense from what we've seen that Sony intends to leverage these advantages for all they're worth.

Sony will likely stumble on pricing.
The company's pride in its premium brand will probably prevent it from chasing Asus and others down past the US$400 (€283) mark, which is likely to be the norm by the time fall rolls around.

As the tablet market inevitably blooms beyond the iPad, there will certainly be room for two premium tablet brands, but we're not there yet.

View the original article here

Saturday, 2 July 2011

fring Brings Mobile Group Video to Big Screen Tablets

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Qualcomm Introduces Mobile Augmented Reality Platform and Software Development Kit Today in Mobile Technology history - the top story one year ago

fring Brings Mobile Group Video to Big Screen Tablets
Posted: 29-Jun-2011 [Source: fring] [fring announces its iPad Group Video chat enabling four-way video calls. The services can also be used across iPhone, Android, and Nokia devices and over Wi-Fi, 3G or 4G connections.]

London, UK -- fring, the mobile communication service that pioneered mobile video over internet calls across all major Smartphone platforms, now brings the world’s first dedicated Group Video chat service to the leading tablet, the iPad.

fring’s iPad Group Video chat enables four friends to simultaneously video chat one another, & see friends across a host of devices including iPhone, Android & Nokia, over any internet connectivity (Wi-Fi, 3G or 4G).

With fring on the iPad, users enjoy full-size 9.7-inch LED, glossy widescreen Video chat, with Multi-Touch display and optimized picture quality using fring’s proprietary DVQ™ technology.

The fring iPad Group Video chat experience is wrapped in a fun, intuitive, natural gesture- navigation where users drag & drop friends into Group Video chat, move their video chat stream & seamlessly augment video chat with parallel communication like tandem text chatting.

“fring is empowering tablet users to unleash the power of their 9.7 inch screens beyond movie watching and gaming to rich, fun personal video communication,” says Avi Shechter, CEO and Co-founder of fring. “With Group Video on the iPad, we are changing face to face video chat. Users will now be able to video socialize on big screen tablets enjoying seeing their friends wherever they are- as they commute, sunbathe at the beach or wait for coffee at a café.”

In addition to free Group Video chat, fring enables users to make free two-way video chat, voice calls and live chat with friends on Android, iPhone/iPod touch & Nokia Smartphones.

fring’s iPad Group Video is available from Apple’s App Store. A demo video is available here.

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