Samsung Q1 UMPC

Samsung officials say the company will be ready to launch a new slate PC in the second half of 2010. APC Magazine reports that the computer will have a “PC-grade” processor. There’s no information about exactly what that CPU will be, or what OS the tablet will run. But it sounds like Samsung is convinced that the iPad has limited appeal due to its ARM-based processor and smartphone-style software ecosystem. The Samsung tablet will reportedly be powerful enough that some people might consider using one as their primary PC.

Of course, Samsung would hardly be the first company to enter the tablet PC space with an x86 processor and a desktop operating system like Windows 7. In fact, Samsung’s done it before. The company introduced a couple of tablets a few years back, when they were called UMPCs, cost too much, and din’t sell in great numbers.

But Samsung has been pumping out some pretty high quality netbooks over the last two years, showing that the company knows its stuff when it comes to mobile devices. Samsung also has a pretty strong cellphone business. There are plenty of reasons to be optimistic about the new slate PC… even if we don’t really know anything about it yet.

via jkkmobile

While the world waits for new tablets from Apple, HP, Dell, and others to hit the streets, I’ll let you in on a little secret. There are already a fair number of tablets available. Some have been available for years, while others are new models with Intel Atom processors running Windows 7. The latest version of the Archos 9 tablet is the latter, and Laptop Magazine has published a detailed review of this $549 tablet with an 8.9 inch display.

Unfortunately, the verdict is that this tablet probably ain’t worth the price.

Reviewer Mark Spoonauer wasn’t impressed by the resistive touchscreen, the poor on-screen keyboard, lack of finger-friendly features, and overall sluggish performance.

The Archos 9 has a 1.2GHz Intel Atom Z515 processor, 1GB of RAM, and a 60GB hard drive. It has an 8.9 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel display and runs Windows 7 Starter Edition — which lacks some of the touch-friendly features available in Windows 7 Home Premium.

The device dos have 802.11b/g WiFi and Bluetooth wireless capabilities and a 1.3MP front-facing camera. So you can use the 1.8 pound tablet to surf the web, chat over Skype, and even watch Flash video — something the iPad won’t be able to do. But Mark says the touchscreen was unresponsive, the computer got uncomfortably hot, and the battery was good for just 4 hours. While that’s better battery life than you’ll get from the Hanvon BC10C tablet, it’s less than half the run time Apple is promising for the iPad.

Of course, you could always pick up one of the other tablets from Archos, including the Google Android powered Archos 5 Internet Tablet or the new Archos 7.

The Asus Eee PC T101MT hasn’t started shipping yet, but we’ve been seeing pre-release versions for the last few months. And the verdict has generally been that the computer feels a little sluggish and the touchscreen was a bit unresponsive. But it looks like the final production version of the netbook is much better.

Andrei Mihai at Netbook Live managed to snag some time with an Asus Eee PC T101MT convertible tablet style netbook — and his demo unit is basically the same as the ones that Asus will begin shipping son.

He says the production model has a much better touchscreen. You can use either a stylus or a fingertip to interact with the multitouch display. Handwriting recognition seems to work reasonably well, but you’ll notice that Andrei doesn’t place his palm on the display as he writes, so don’t expect a true “inking” experience.

The user interface seems a bit zippier and more responsive on the T101MT than on the 9 inch, Eee PC T91MT. That makes sense, since aside from having a larger, 10 inch display, the T101MT also has a faster, 1.66GHz Intel Atom Pine Trail CPU, while the T91MT is stuck with a 1.33GHz Intel Atom Z520 processor.

You can check out Andrei’s video overview below. It’s worth pointing out that the YouTube video he tested in the review was a stop-motion film, so the video playback wasn’t actually that choppy. But while standard definition Flash video should be fine, I wouldn’t expect HD Flash video to play smoothly on this netbook.

via Engadget

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Most of the slate PCs I’ve seen over the past few months have sported either low power ARM processors or Intel Atom chips. The Hanvon BC10C is something different. It doesn’t have the guts of a smartphone or a netbook. Instead, it has the guts of a thin and light computer with an Intel Consumer Ultra Low Voltage processor.

Jkkmobile got a chance to spend some time with a Hanvon BC10C table, with a 1.3GHz Intel Celeron ULV743 processor, and Intel GMA 4500MHD graphics and Windows 7 Home Premium. On the bright side, the processor and graphics gives the BC10C much more oomph than a typical tablet. It has an HDMI port for pumping out HD video to an external display.

Hanvon also didn’t skimp on the buttons and ports. There are 5 buttons on the side of the device for launching applications. You get a wireless switch, a rocker dial, 2 USB ports, mic, headphone, SD card slot, and a VGA port (which requires a dongle). There’s also a built in optical mouse on the front of the tablet. And of course, you can use the 10 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel touchscreen display to interact with Windows 7.

The tablet got about 3.5 hours of run time, which several other sites are complaining about. But that’s not bad for a tablet, especially one with a relatively speedy processor and full blown desktop operating system. It’s not really fair to compare a tablet like the Hanvon BC10c with an ARM-based system running Google Android or the iPhone/iPad OS.

You can check out jkkmobile’s video review after the break.

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Part of the reason smartphone have largely replaced PDAs over the last few years is that there are a growing number of activities that require an always-on internet connection. But another reason is that people don’t like carrying around two or three devices when they can stuff just one item in their pocket. Who needs a phone, PDA, and digital camera when you’ve got a smartphone?

So at a time when some companies are betting that we need a new category of device to fit between a phone and a notebook computer, it looks like others are trying to figure out how to cram even more functionality into a portable phone. The folks at Go Rumors noticed a patent application from Taiwanese OEM Qualcomm that details a single device with three displays that you can fold or unfold depending on your needs. It can function as a phone when it’s at its most compact. Unfold all three panels and you have a tablet. Arrange them so that the device can be propped up like a laptop and you can use it like one, with an on-screen keyboard taking the place of a physical keyboard.

This is just a patent application at this point, and there’s no guarantee we’ll ever see a real product based on the design. But at least one inventor has been pitching something similar for a while now.

Toshiba JournE tablet

Toshiba is making it known that the company ha s no intention of sitting out the tablet PC revolution. You know, if it actually turns out to be a revolution.

Netbooks began to take the world by storm when Asus introduced a consumer oriented low cost mini-laptop in late 2007. It took half a year for HP to introduce the first real competitor for the Eee PC 701, and another few months before the rest of the PC industry really caught up.

Things are moving very differently in the tablet space. Everybody has their eye on the upcoming Apple iPad, but HP, Asus, MSI, Lenovo, and other PC makers have already announced plans to launch their own slates. And now we can add Toshiba to the lineup.

A Toshiba exec tells Fortune Magazine that it will bring out a whole line of slate devices later this year or early next year. No word on what kind of tablets we’re talking about. They could be Windows tablets with x86 processors, or ARM-based tablets running Linux, Google Android, Chrome, or another OS. Or maybe all of the above.

Make sure to check out the Fortune article for a good overall look at the tablet landscape. The Toshiba revelation is just a small part of the article.

via Engadget

Taiwanese PC maker Quanta produces computers that are sold by companies ranging from Apple to Lenovo. And that’s why I have no idea what brand name we’ll eventually see on this convertible tablet that popped up at the FCC web site this week. But as Wireless Goodness notes, it appears that the tablet has 802.11b/g/n WiFi, and measures about the size of a 8.5″ x 11″ sheet of paper.

That could mean it will sport an 11.6 inch screen, but since the measurements aren’t precise, we could also be looking at a ten inch model. It seems that the computer has both a keyboard and a touchscreen display which you can rotate 180 degrees and fold over the keyboard for use in tablet mode.

And that’s about all we know for now.

Update: Mystery probably solved: It certainly looks a lot like a 4th generation Intel Classmate PC, doesn’t it? That means we can probably expect a 10.1 inch touchscreen display and slightly ruggedized case, which explains why this model is a little big for a 10 inch tablet.

Just in case you had any doubts that the JooJoo tablet was real, the FCC is here to help. The federal agency has published a series of documents related to the upcoming tablet, which is expected to begin shipping by the end of the month. Hot on the heels of Engadgets’ new photos of the JooJoo’s flashy new user interface, we can now take a peek beneath the tablet’s hood thanks to the FCC’s penchant for ripping the lid off of wireless devices.

So here’s what we know at this point. The tablet sports an Intel Atom N270 processor and NVIDIA ION graphics. It supports 802.11b/g/n WiFi and there’s a SIM card slot for an optional 3G module.

While JooJoo plans to sell the tablet with a custom Linux-based operating system, it has an x86-based processor which means it can run Windows, OS X, or pretty much any other OS you care to cram on its relatively small solid state disk. In fact, Wireless Goodness noticed that the JooJoo tablet appears to be running Windows Vista in one of the test setup photos.

The 5 hour battery is not user removable.

The JooJoo tablet is scheduled to start shipping on March 25th.

The Viliv S10 Blade is a 10 inch netbook that can function as a tablet thanks to a multitouch display and a hinge that lets you fold the screen down over the keyboard. Chippy from UMPC Portal and jkkmobile both have pre-production units, and they got together last night for an “open review” where they tested and talked about the laptops live on camera.

In a nutshell, they were both quite impressed with the build quality. And while they didn’t do a comprehensive battery test, it looks like you should be able to get around 7 to 8 hours of run time.

The laptop comes with a choice of a 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z530 or 2GHz Atom Z550 processor and it should come as no surprise that the 2GHz model is faster. It’s also capable of playing some 720p and even 1080p HD video smoothly with the proper codecs installed — as well as 720p HD flash video using the latest beta version of Adobe Flash Player 10.1.

For more details, check out Chippy’s review session debrief or watch the two videos from the live session.

Apple launched the first TV spot for the iPad last night during the Oscars. For the most part, the video appears to show an oversized iPod that’s a bit zippier, and better suited to reading books and newspapers due to its large display.

But here’s one thing you may not notice unless you pay extra close attention: Almost every shot of a person actually using the iPad shows legs contorted into unusual positions. Because while you can hold an iPod in one hand and poke at the screen with the other, the iPad is really just too big to use this way. So Apple is suggesting you prop it up on your legs — and that makes it all but useless if you’re sitting in a normal position.

If you place a notebook computer on your lap, you can still see the screen because the keyboard rests on your legs and the screen extends upward. When you put a slate PC like the iPad on your lap, the screen is where the keyboard would normally be. You’d have to bend over awkwardly and incur neck and back pain to use it like this.

Instead, you’re going to have to get a foot stool, prop our feet up on it, bend your legs, and then slouch back in your chair while using the iPad.

OK, presumably there may be some other comfortable positions. This thing’s probably going to be great for reading books in bed, for instance. But it’s clearly not meant for setting on a table or on your lap the way you would with a laptop computer.

Video after the break.

via TUAW

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