tablet

GridOS

16 August 2011

Wou! Google buying Motorola and Fusion Garage coming back from the dead what a day yes-ter-day!

tablet reboot? Grid10 new proposal by FusionGarage

I’ll dig into MojoGoGo another day but for now lets focus on this orphan. One of those new promises (this time with bigger budget, ambitions and expectations) that we have big mixed feelings about…

After the failure of the original CrunchPad that then became the Joojoo tablet that then didn’t end up doing anything we’ve had an array of tablets and substitutes not only with Android, iOS or Windows flavors but with many custom-made operating systems (remember the German WePad then WeTab?). That trend is now dead and since the explosion of Honeycomb tablets it seems there’s not even room for WebOSes or BlackBerry Tablet OSes neither.

Ok so FusionGarage proposes a smartphone and a tablet based on Android’s kernel, so they get to completely redesign the User Interface…. and that’s about it, maybe redefine some specs of the OS for a better performance with their hardware partners.. but not much more because at the end of the day it uses Android apps + those they’ve specifically designed for their products.

A product which looks like someone’s already pointed out: the orphan kid of Windos8 meeting Ice Cream… but something went wrong in the conception.  Either way, after their arguably “successful” viral campaign (with a big lack of taste from our humble point of view) behind the TabCo pseudo, GridOS and its 2 first products were unveiled and went on sale yesterday. A dedicated website… and all the things that go with it.

And after a quick look at the specs and despite already being available for purchase on the US we’re really afraid Fusion launched a bit too late once again, less drama yes, trying something fresh again, yes, but in terms of most specs… it’s already outdated.

Oh well, excitement killed. Next?

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Padfone

30 May 2011

Is it a bird? Or is it a plane? A bit of a ridiculous (but funny) teasing that Asus has been carrying for the past few days and that was unveiled earlier today at Taiwan’s Computex. And even if we were far more impressed with the also announced UX21 laptop series (a serious MacBook Air competitor), the Padfone was the start of the day.

What Asus proposed today (and should market by the end of the year when Google’s Android Ice Cream version is out), is as simple as a Tablet with a dock for your 4.3″ Asus smartphone. Smart? Well… I’m pretty sure Telco operators aren’t very keen on it (you would only need the phone’s 3G/4G connectivity), and personally I’m a bit reluctant about its future success; but hey… they introduced the transformer, the slider & the MeMO and they didn’t seem that crazy at first…

As in most cases when the product is announced more than half a year before its release, most specs and design might change, so a few ports will be added here, and a few slots there but you get the basic idea. However there’s one thing they should definitely attempt to radically change… their PR events & their advertising… just as bad as Microsoft’s.

What we know however from the presented mock-up (it wasn’t even a working prototype because they probably don’t even know what Android’s next iteration looks like) is that the tablet should have a 10.1 inch screen…. and that’s about it.

More pics on the Asus website.

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Sony’s honeycomb tablets

26 April 2011
the S2... which looks more like a 90s Casio agenda

It’s been a while since the last gadget whim I wrote about. And when I woke up this morning to  the announcement of Sony’s first Honeycomb tablets I thought “that’s it, that’s my future honeycomb tablet” (S1 I mean of course). But after a careful look and despite all the goodies & potential this product may offer (synchronisation & control of all your other Sony products, Qriocity, Playstation-only games.. blablabla), then I realized this may not be my tablet. I may just go for the 9mm thick Samsung 10.1 model.

Where do I go with a tablet that has a “curved wrap design that resembles a folded magazine”?

S1... the magazine

 

 

What about the tech specs?

They may change again but apparently the S1 will be a 9.4inch model with a front- and rear-facing cameras. While the S2 has two 5.5-inch displays (1,024 x 480 res), Tegra 2 SoC, and a camera… and obviously both will come in wi-fi or 3G models, come PlayStation Certified and support DLNA.

They should be made available globally next fall (when any other manufacturer in the world will already have released a tablet)… and pricey, like any other Sony product.

I’m sure they’ll look good, Sony will add a great laggy user interface on top of Honeycomb which will look amazingly polished & integrated with their media services but might destroy the rest of the experience. (still remember the SonicStage). We’ll see.

more info on Sony’s press release site.

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MeMO

5 January 2011

We’ve been saying 2011 is the year of the tablet for a while now. Apple may have set the referent (as usual), Android and Honeycomb are about to explode and Asus was just the first @CES to unveil a few of those netbook cannibals…

Continue reading MeMO

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BB Playbook

28 September 2010

And another “hot” tablet was just unveiled yesterday to join those Galaxy Tabs, iPads, Streaks & co… and to crunch & reduce the netbook market to an even minor percentage if possible.. the BlackBerry Playbook… with its very own specific OS developed by the acquired QNX (some say it’s a bit WebOS inspired) and trying to out stand where the iPad can’t….

Continue reading BB Playbook

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