There are times, the SlashGear team reminds me, when I sound like a broken record; not least is when I’m bleating on about stylus input and what makes a “proper” tablet. Apple’s iPad convinced the market that fingers were most functional, and the clunky digital pens of Windows 7 slates did little sway them otherwise. Yet with the news that note-taking app Evernote has acquired Penultimate, a digital handwriting specialist, could we be nearing the second coming of the stylus?
During the IDF conference in Beijing, Intel let loose on its checklist of spec requirements for upcoming Windows 8 tablets. The company plans to initially support two basic tablet form factors, one being a 10-inch slab, while the other an 11-inch hybrid with a physical keyboard in tow. The tablets will be running on Intel's Clover Trail Atom Z2760 chips.
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NVIDIA's next-gen Tegra 4 chipset has purportedly been detailed ahead of its expected 2013 release, using the same 4-PLUS-1 configuration as the Tegra 3 but with newer ARM A15 cores. The new chipset will run at between 1.2GHz and 2.0GHz, the slide shared by VR-Zone indicates, depending on whether the device it's inside is targeted at the mainstream or flagship markets, and presumably what form-factor - tablet, phone or something else - is adopted.
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I sent back the iPad 2, but I’m keeping the new iPad. Two years ago I wrote my first iPad skeptic’s review, a more oblique – and personal – opinion on Apple’s tablet than the traditional SlashGear review. A year later I did the same for the iPad 2, finding it improved but, from a combination of hardware and software, not sufficient of an upgrade for my needs to justify keeping it. Now Apple is up to its third-generation tablet, criticized by some as another “minor” refresh but in fact a considerable step up in the overall user-experience.
Nokia is working on a tablet, the company's design chief has reportedly confirmed, with the exec supposedly spending a third of his time on the well-rumored project. "We are working on it" Marko Ahtisaari confirmed to Finnish magazine Kauppalehti Optio, Reuters reports, though declined to be more specific about the incoming slate. However, rumors earlier this week suggested a Windows 8 tablet was in the pipeline for later this year.
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Nokia will launch its first Windows 8 tablet in Q4 2012, insiders have suggested, a 10-inch Windows-on-ARM machine using a dual-core Qualcomm chipset as the company looks to expand beyond smartphones. The move, tipped by DigiTimes sources among component suppliers claim, is expected to buoy Microsoft's position against Android tablet manufacturers, with the slate most likely to be powered by a Snapdragon S4 "Krait" chipset such as inside the Windows 8 developer hardware Qualcomm handed out last month. Update: Nokia statement after the cut.
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The folks at ZTE are making it rain mobile this week at Mobile World Congress 2012, coming in strong with arms full of smart devices running Android and Windows Phone for the international market. In addition to the ZTE Era announced today and the ZTE Mimosa X which we've seen previously, both of them with NVIDIA Tegra 3, there's seven Android devices and two Windows Phone devices, with most of them headed for the UK or greater Europe and a one smartphone and one tablet headed for the USA this year.
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ViewSonic has outed its Mobile World Congress line-up of smartphones and tablets, and with the Android-powered ViewPhone 4s running a 3.5-inch 960 x 640 display it's clear the iPhone 4S is the company's key target. The ViewPhone 4s matches Apple's smartphone with a 326ppi IPS display, but squeezes in twin SIMs and a copy of Ice Cream Sandwich, along with a 5-megapixel camera and a front-facing VGA webcam. It's not the only new ViewSonic device, though; read on for more.
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ViewSonic has unveiled a pair of new 10-inch tablets, along with a smartphone, at CES today, including a dual-boot Android and Windows model along with dual-SIM support. The ViewSonic ViewPad 10pi runs both Windows 7 and Android 2.3 on an Intel Oak Trail Z670 processor, serving both OSes up on a 1280 x 800 IPS touchscreen.
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ASUS has confirmed that there will a 3G-equipped version of the Eee Pad Transformer Prime in March, with the company also saying it plans to launch an ARM-based Windows 8 slate by the end of the year. The much-anticipated tablets were confirmed in a pre-CES briefing attended by NetbookNews, though there's still room for some surprises next week: ASUS says it has two new models for the show, along with a further two tablets pencilled in for the latter half of 2012.
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Dell has ditched consumer netbooks and confirmed it has no plans to launch new budget ultraportables based on Intel's upcoming Cedar Trail platform, shifting attention instead to ultrabooks. All of the company's existing 10-inch netbooks have been removed from sale, Llliputing spotted, with would-be shoppers pointed to the Inspiron 14R instead.
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Over at MIMOmonitors headquarters they've released information on a brand new product by the name of Mimo Magic Touch, otherwise known as the world's first USB-drive capacitive touchscreen monitor. This oddly enticing piece of equipment has a 10-inch touchscreen, connects simply with one single USB cord for both image and power, and is available in 2 models soon! You can use this device as a tiny television that taps or as a tethered tablet for home entertainment control - whatever you like - including turning your PC into a touch machine.
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