Well, isn’t this the mother of all leaks? A Samsung Windows 8 tablet we’ve heard about previously has just leaked ahead of the BUILD 2011 keynote that’s taking place today. You can see the tablet below and originally we were supposed to show you some videos, but we didn’t quite manage to get them to work, since they were pulled from YouTube.
As far as the source goes, the images were posted by Weibo user Michelle Hu and it’s a pretty credible image if you ask me. The confirmation will come in the following hours, when hands on videos with the original Samsung Win 8 slate will appear. Right now we can notice that the device looks like 16:9 aspect ratio material and speculations say that we’re looking at a unit with an Intel quad core CPU inside, although I wouldn’t vouch for that.
Other rumors say that Microsoft has been working on the design of product together with Samsung, so they must have left behind the Courier complex, right? Well, too bad you can’t see the leaked unboxing videos that were pulled, but in case you’re wondering they didn’t reveal much, since the vids were tilted 90 degrees. What we do know is that there’s a nifty keyboard accessory available and the startup time is quick.
We’ll be back with more details once the BUILD keynote plays out.
Germany should be called AppleLand, considering the number of decisions they’ve taken in favor of the fruit and against Samsung. This is the country that originated the European ban of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the same country where the ban still stands and also applies to the freshly announced Galaxy Tab 7.7. And it gets worse…
Now it seems that the local authorities have decided to ban forever the Galaxy Tab and all its versions from Germany. The reason? Samsung is ripping off the design of the Apple iPad, a dispute that’s been going on and on in court and outside it. Most people expected Samsung to win the legal battle, especially with Apple using doctored pictures, but it seems that the fruit won, since the court considered the products are too similar.
Samsung declares that it’s disappointed with the decision and also sees this as a limitation of consumer choices and rights in Germany. An appeal for this ruling is set to come from Samsung’s side in the following weeks. And now HTC is starting a beef with Apple. Will Germany ban HTC devices as well?
ASUS has taken the stealth way to release the enterprise tablet Eee Slate B121, that’s shown in the picture below. No bells and whistles or Unpacked events were used for it, maybe because it’s a 12 inch unit that’s designed for professionals, not the general public.
This tablet PC comes with a multitouch display, compatible with a Wacom digitizer pen. Drawing us back from this device is the huge price of $1499 for the device, which is a bit too much, especially if you’re not happy with Windows 7 Professional on it… The B121 comes with enterprise security options, like remote locking, remote data wipe features, locating lost and stolen devices and much more.
There’s also a dedicated recovery team working with the law enforcement to find your device, cool as that may seem. Windows Bitlocker and the Trusted Platform Module are also on board. And finally there’s the specs list of the new model:
Display: 12.1 inch LED backlit screen, 1280 x 800
CPU: Intel Core i5-470UM
Memory: 4GB RAM, 64GB SSD storage
Camera: 2MP front facing
Connectivity: mini HDMI, 2 USB 2.0 ports, SDHC card slot
Will you get one for the hefty price mentioned above?
Meizu have long time eliminated the stigma of a company that copied the iPhone (among the first with a successful model actually) and are now into serious business, with a new appealing phone and… according to rumors, a tablet as well. The info leaked on the web after a patent application was made by Meizu.
This application was made public by the Chinese State Intellectual Property Office, revealing both a case accessory and the slate. This looks like a device with a full QWERTY keyboard, most likely Android as the OS (Honeycomb) and surely a dual core (at least) CPU. Last we heard, Jack Wong, the CEO of Meizu promised a glorious future for his company’s smartphones, including a quad core model, but no trace of tablet plans was seen so far.
If the company plays its cards right and reveals a products that resembles the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer even a bit and undercuts its price, it may have a chance. Otherwise… it’s just another failed product, like the Toshiba Thrive. How about launching this tablet with a quad core CPU? That would certainly rock the market!
Meizu have long time eliminated the stigma of a company that copied the iPhone (among the first with a successful model actually) and are now into serious business, with a new appealing phone and… according to rumors, a tablet as well. The info leaked on the web after a patent application was made by Meizu.
This application was made public by the Chinese State Intellectual Property Office, revealing both a case accessory and the slate. This looks like a device with a full QWERTY keyboard, most likely Android as the OS (Honeycomb) and surely a dual core (at least) CPU. Last we heard, Jack Wong, the CEO of Meizu promised a glorious future for his company’s smartphones, including a quad core model, but no trace of tablet plans was seen so far.
If the company plays its cards right and reveals a products that resembles the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer even a bit and undercuts its price, it may have a chance. Otherwise… it’s just another failed product, like the Toshiba Thrive. How about launching this tablet with a quad core CPU? That would certainly rock the market!
TechCrunch has sort of a premiere here, since they’re the ones to debunk the myths about Amazon’s tablet strategy. It appears that they won’t launch two versions of tablets after all, only settling for a 7 incher simply called the Amazon Kindle tablet. One of the guys from the website already played with such a device and detailed his experience in the source link below.
Recent rumors say we might see this unit priced at $250 and TechCrunch seems to be pretty excited about the gadget, claiming it has huge potential. Sadly, there are no pictures available, but they provided a mockup based on their experience. Apparently, the Kindle tablet looks very much like the BlackBerry PlayBook, especially as far as form factor goes.
The 7 incher will come with a capacitive touchscreen display, a multitouch one that relies on two finger touch, instead of the iPad’s 10 finger, but still accurate. We get a full color screen with back lighting, so don’t worry about E-ink on this Kindle unit. The end of November is the target launch time frame and the version TechCrunch tested was a Design Verification Testing unit.
A 10 inch slate might follow next year, but I wouldn’t bet on that. The interface will be Kindle and Amazon into one single experience, with lots of orange, dark blue and black. The main screen looks like the iTunes Cover Flow and displays the content in a carousel. You also get a status bar, that also acts as a notification tray. No physical buttons have been integrated and you’ll bring a navigation menu to the screen simply by tapping once.
You’ll find these details and more over at TechCrunch, so don’t hesitate to check their piece out.
During today’s IFA 2011 debut, Samsung was on a roll, debuting the Wave 3 smartphone with bada OS and two devices with a larger diagonal. The first is the Galaxy Tab 7.7 and the other one is closer to a smartphone than a tablet, with a diagonal of 5.3 inches. I’m talking about the Samsung Galaxy Note, pictured below.
One of the Samsung officials said that devices are divided into 3 segments now: tablets, phones and… Note. This newcomer also brings a stylus, Android 2.3 Gingerbread and HSPA+ connectivity, all of that coupled with an AMOLED 5.3 inch display with 1280 x 800 pixel resolution. At the back there’s an 8 megapixel camera, while upfront there’s a 2MP one and a inside we find a 2,500mAh battery juicing up the slate.
The brain of this Note is a dual core 1.4GHz CPU, the same you’ll find in the Galaxy Tab 7.7. Considering the diagonal of this thing, a 178 gram weigh and 9.65mm thickness isn’t that big… As far as software goes, Gingerbread is customized with TouchWiz and the 7 home screens are here, as usual. Plus, there’s also the S Pen system, that relies heavily on the bundled stylus.
For example, you have the S Planner app, a native calendar with an included to-do list, while the S Memo software is used for note-taking, also supporting voice, photo, text and handwritten input.
With IFA 2011 in full bloom now, Samsung took the stage today to announce the next step in tablet development: its 7.7 inch model. I’m talking here about the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7, the world’s first Super AMOLED Plus tablet and a pretty one, too.
This model uses a 7.7 inch 1280 x 800 pixel display, runs Android 3.2 and relies on a dual core 1.4GHz CPU to do that. The device supports HSPA+ connectivity, reaching speeds of up to 21Mbps, everything inside a package as small as 335 grams and including 16 to 64 GB of internal storage. There’s also a microSD card slot on board, a 5,100 mAh battery with 10 hours of functioning time and support for WiFi, GPS and Bluetooth 3.0.
On the camera side, we get a 3MP unit at the back and a 2MP cam upfront. Honeycomb 3.2 runs on this device with TouchWiz UX customization, that includes A Live Panel menu for home screen customization with digital pics, websites and social network feeds. There’s also a Mini Apps tray feature for commonly used functions (calendar, music player and more).
Look out for a price and launch date in the following hours from IFA 2011!
Some of you may remember the whole scandal surrounding the JooJoo tablet, that at some point was called the CrunchPad, as its maker worked with TechCrunch and Michael Arrington. Well, now the device got a successor, the famous TabCo being revealed to be in fact this newcomer, also called the Grid 10.
After months of huge teasers, such as the planes writing on the sky or the skyscraper with lights spelling the date August 15 2011, it’s time to learn what TabCo really is. Unfortunately, it’s not Nokia, or HP, or Microsoft as some people speculated, instead it’s Fusion Garage and their latest project, the Grid 10. There’s also a smartphone in the making, called Grid 4.
What sets this apart from other tablets is the resolution, an incredible 1366 x 768 pixels of fun. The price of the Grid 10 is also pretty good, $499 and an extra $100, if you want 3G on the device. You’ll find the tablet on Amazon today and as far as the smartphone goes, the Grid 4 will come with a 4 inch display, 480 x 800 pixel resolution and 16GB of internal memory. The price will get $399.
Back to the tablet, the new Fusion Garage slate will pack dual core Tegra 2 processor and most likely 16 or 32 GB of storage. The platform on board is Grid OS, a pretty unique ecosystem, that seems to be fond of rows of flowing icons, that for a while reminded me of MeeGo in teasers.
For a moment there I believed that this new Tegra 2 ASUS Tablet was better than the Transformer model I’ve previously reviewed. However, when realizing that this is almost a kilo of machinery in my two palms, it’s hard to call this a very portable device. What’s more, it’s possible that the sliding keyboard is not to everyone’s liking.
However, I really, really liked this device and appreciate what ASUS is doing for the tablet segment, that is innovating its every aspect. They’ve delivered the Transformer, with its detachable keyboard and huge battery life, now the Slider and soon the PadFone, a combo between smartphone and tablet. Moving back to the Slider (unboxed here), this device comes with a 10.1 inch display, a dual core Tegra 2 processor and a 5 megapixel camera at the back.
You also get a full USB port, that I used to connect a wireless mouse to the tablet and an USB drive, that allowed me to see the media on it. There’s also a camera upfront and this model measures a pretty big 17.7mm in thickness. The full QWERTY keyboard is a breeze to use, but its drawback is that when closed, the speakers hidden at the back are covered and the volume goes down a notch.
As far as the display is concerned, we get a 10.1 inch LCD with 1280 x 800 pixel resolution and the other specs include the usual microSD card slot, 32GB of internal memory, 1GB of RAM and Android 3.0. WiFi and Bluetooth handle the connectivity, while a HDMI port is also present for duty. ASUS customized the experience on this device, especially in the web browser, where you can view the entire screen without that address bar. It only appears as you’re typing the name of the website you’re searching.
Also, ASUS implemented an unique menu that appears on the side of the web browser when you keep it pressed. It’s a semicircular blue area with all the usual options of a browser: new tab, refresh, back, bookmarks and other such feats. Another customization is in the virtual keyboard on the Eee Pad Slider, that received a numeric row about the alphabetic one. Plus, you get a cool MyZine widget to have fun with. Other than that, it’s pure Honeycomb experience.
The movie playback is shown in HD on the device, but no .mkv support for now, in case you’re wondering. The physical keyboard is comfortable to type on and you’ll get used to it really fast, in spite of the strange angle that the screen has next to the keypad. A thing I didn’t quite like was the seemingly fragile sliding mechanism from the back of the slate. If you want, you can compare the idea of the slide part with the Nokia E7, which is good thing honestly.
The 5MP camera does its duty, but don’t expect the most beautiful shot on Earth from it. However, for a vacation, it’ll have to do. In the end, this tablet is excellent and if you don’t mind carrying a kilo of tablet with you, it’s the perfect choice. I wouldn’t even trade it for an ASUS Eee Pad Transformer.
