In a bid to gain more market share, makers of 7-inch tablet PCs have started dropping prices as a way to attract more consumers. This same move has also apparently been applied to tablet PCs with 10-inch screens nowadays. The quest for the top of the tablet PC space has become much harder with the recent introduction of the very affordable Amazon Kindle Fire, plus the fact that there are so many smartphones these days that are capable and much more pocketable (which is a plus to a lot of consumers).

Recent examples of cheap 7-inch tablet PCs include the ViewSonic ViewPad 7e, which was launched for $199 but now reportedly costs even less than that. However, it’s interesting to note that certain companies like Asus still insist on putting a high price on their products (such as the recently unveiled Transformer Prime 10-inch Android tablet). I’m curious to see if this type of strategy will still fly when the soon-to-be-launched Apple iPad 3 finally becomes available.

Via DigiTimes

7- and 10-inch tablet PC prices starting to drop dramatically is a post from: Eee PC

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Far from unifying the smartphone and tablet PC markets, it looks like the introduction of Google Android 4.0 a.k.a. Ice Cream Sandwich may have made the gap between the two market spaces even wider. Android 4.0 brings many improvements over Honeycomb, its predecessor which can be found on many of today’s most popular smartphones and a handful of tablet PCs. Although you might think that PC vendors would love the idea of Google unifying all development efforts towards just one operating system, the reality is a lot more complicated than that.

At the official announcement Android 4.0 or Ice Cream Sandwich yesterday, the focus was mainly on Samsung’s new Galaxy Nexus, a device with a very large screen, to be sure, but is certainly not something that would be considered a tablet PC. What has gotten certain PC makers and some market watchers a bit worried is the fact that Google made no mention of tablets at all at yesterday’s official Ice Cream Sandwich announcement. Does this mean there will be a renewed focus on the smartphone space and tablet PC makers will be left out of from now on?

This is a major concern for tablet PC makers who are pinning their hopes on Android to compete with Apple’s iPad. With the imminent launch of the Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime, Google is expected to give a lot more than just a few new UI enhancements and novel features for the market of Android tablets to really catch up to the competition.

Via Digitimes

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It looks like Asus is planning to make moves just in time for the official release of Android 4.0 a.k.a. Ice Cream Sandwich. While talking on stage at AsiaD with the Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg, Asus head Jonney Shih unveiled the “next-generation Transformer tablet”. Much like the original Asus Eee Pad Transformer, this new one will feature a 10-inch screen and Android as its mobile operating system. However, it’s gonna pack a lot more punch than its predecessor due to its quad-core NVIDIA Tegra 3 chip. Other features include a built-in SD card slot, mini-HDMI port, and 14.5 hours of battery life. Asus has decided to officially call this new tablet the Transformer Prime, and it will have an official launch in two weeks time–November 9. We’ll be privy to more details about the Asus Transformer Prime then, so watch out for updates.

Via Engadget

ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime Android tablet unveiled by Jonney Shih is a post from: Eee PC

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A tablet PC with a built-in keyboard, but somehow not quite like a convertible touchscreen netbook. That’s essentially what the Asus Eee Pad Slider SL101 tablet PC is. It has a 10.1-inch touchscreen display, a slide-out keyboard, and lots and lots of fun in between. I managed to get my hands on one a couple days ago, and here are my first impressions of the said device after having used it for a while.
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Read the rest of Asus Eee Pad Slider SL101 tablet PC first impressions (579 words)

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Ever since Amazon divulged the fact that its latest tablet e-book reader called the Kindle Fire was running Android 2.3 Gingerbread, a lot of people have wanted to learn one thing: can it be rooted? Well, actually, some people would say that it’s only a matter of time until the Kindle Fire gets rooted, since the device is indeed running some form of Android, has a USB port, and can go into mass storage mode once connected to a computer. But there are cases wherein rooting is prohibited due to a device having a locked bootloader (this has happened to devices from other manufacturers several times in the past).

The director of Amazon’s Silk browser Jon Jenkins has shed some light on the matter in a talk with PC Magazine. “It’s going to get rooted,” says Jenkins, “and what you do after you root it is up to you.” Well, that certainly clears one thing up: if you want to root the Kindle Fire, Amazon won’t get in your way. After all, when you pay a good $200 for an electronic device, you should be able to do with it whatever you want. No matter if certain companies tell you otherwise (and after charging you much higher, at that).

Via PCMag

Amazon: Users are free to root Kindle Fire is a post from: Eee PC

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Apparently, Intel still won’t budge and just won’t give PC makers such as Acer the CPU price subsidy necessary to launch sub-$1000 ultrabooks. And even though people like Acer Taiwan president Scott Lin appear confident about future sales of ultrabooks (compared with tablet PCs), it seems that the whole industry is a bit cautiously optimistic about the whole thing.

Knowing that PC makers are at least going to need something to help further adoption of ultrabooks once they actually become available, Intel plans on increasing its marketing subsidies to notebook vendors to attract them into promoting the new devices, according to a report on DigiTimes. Now, this might mean that Acer, Asus, and other ultrabook vendors will have to come up with some ridiculous promos to get people to buy their stuff, but let’s just give them the benefit of the doubt.

The good news is that sub-$1000 ultrabooks are still indeed on their way. Unfortunately, these might not make it to market until the 2nd quarter of 2012, in April, with the introduction of Intel’s Ivy Bridge platform. So if you aren’t in a hurry to purchase an ultrabook, you’re in for a great big discount provided that you can keep waiting it out for the next six months.

Via DigiTimes

Intel’s Ivy Bridge platform to herald rise of $700 ultrabooks in Q2 2012 is a post from: Eee PC

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You might be familiar with the HP TouchPad, but are you aware of a little something from HP called the TouchPad Go? The TouchPad Go is essentially a scaled-down version of the HP TouchPad with much of the same features and was intended to be marketed towards business-oriented individuals. However, the HP TouchPad Go will never make it to market, and as such all we can do now is stand in awe at what it could have been based on the full specs as revealed by PreCentral.

Based on the reported full specs of the HP TouchPad Go, it might as well have been an Amazon Kindle Fire. A much more beefier version, even. The HP TouchPad Go features a 7-inch 1024×768 pixel IPS screen, a dual-core 1.5GHz CPU from Qualcomm, 1GB of on-device RAM, and Qualcomm’s Adreno 220 GPU. Other features include a 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera, 5-megapixel main camera with built-in LED flash, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless connectivity, up to 32GB of internal storage, and 3G or 4G wireless configurations.

There’s so much more to love about the cancelled HP TouchPad Go that you have to ask: what did it ever do to HP to deserve getting canned?

Via PreCentral

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With Nokia’s defection and Intel’s relative silence regarding the subject, you might think that you’ve already seen the last of the MeeGo operating system. Well, perhaps, but Intel is keeping MeeGo alive in cooperation with Samsung in a new Linux-based open-source mobile OS initiative called the Tizen project. A post on the official Tizen web site says that it is a new platform intended for use in a number of different ways such as in smartphones, tablets, netbooks, smart TVs and even in-vehicle entertainment devices. Since it was announced only yesterday, Tizen is currently still picking up steam. So far, Intel and Samsung are onboard, and a report on DigiTimes says that it has already won support from the likes of SK Telecom, NTT DoCoMo, and Panasonic Mobile Communications.

At the same time, it is said that Asus and Acer are also coming on board, to add development to this new fledgeling OS. HTC is undecided. This new alliance of tech giants will have to go through a lot of hoops in order to surpass the success of current mainstream options like iOS and Android in the mobile space, but perhaps it will find better luck in other sectors of the consumer electronics market. For Asus, working on Tizen would probably be just like putting out a new netbook that runs MeeGo instead of Windows or Linux.

Via DigiTimes

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Toshiba has successfully developed a new type of wireless chip that will enable devices to communicate with each other and transfer data at close range with maximum speeds of up to 560 Mbit/s. Toshiba’s new chip is called the TransferJet wireless chip, and it is something that the Japanese company hopes will be implemented in new consumer electronics devices coming out next year such as tablet PCs, smartphones, and perhaps even netbooks, too. Toshiba plans to ship samples of its TC35420 chip some time in early 2012, and if it lucks out then perhaps we just might see a new alternative to Infrared on some new smartphones, tablets or netbooks next year.

Via Akihabara News

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Acer Taiwan president Scott Lin knows that tablet PCs are currently selling like hotcakes. Yes, as someone who leads a company that sells devices being taken over by these slate-like contraptions on the market, Lin is bound to realize just how much of an impact tablet PCs are having on computers such as notebooks these days. Well, the tablet PC may be enjoying its ride in the waves of success right now, but according to Lin, upcoming Ultrabooks such as the Acer Aspire S3 will be the ones having the last laugh. Lin’s theory is that since ultrabooks can go toe to toe with tablet PCs not just in terms of performance but also in terms of thinness and lightness, consumers will soon realize that it’s ultrabooks that they want to buy instead of another iTablet from some fruity company in California. Lin bets that Windows 8-powered ultrabooks will be the prime driving force of PC makers in taking the market back from tablets. In a few months, we should be able to see if there’s any truth at all in what’s been said above.

Via DigiTimes

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