Archos is known for naming the models in its tablet product line according to the device’s screen size. The Archos 32 for example has a display of 3.2 inches, and the Archos 101 has a screen real estate of 10.1 inches. If big displays are a crucial feature for you, then you’ll probably be excited to hear that this French manufacturer may be in the process of putting out a 12-inch slate.

Archos May Be Working On A 12-inch Android Tablet is a post from: Eee PC

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GameStop seems to be planning on making some changes and head out into new territory. One of the major moves it accomplished this year is acquiring the Impulse game download service from Stardock. Then it went ahead and purchased Spawn Labs’ device which allows streaming of heavy high-end games from consoles and desktops. Another is that they’ve started offering Android tablets suited up for gaming. These are available online and across stores in the US. With all these developments, one can’t help but wonder: are they planning to market their own gaming tablets?

It is after all a growing trend with other major online retailers. There’s Amazon and Barnes & Noble who have each come up with their own e-reader slates and met with varying degrees of success. Also, a compelling reason to expand in this direction certainly exists for GameStop. It started out in 1984 as a brick-and-mortar game retailer. By 2009, the company had around 6,450 stores and distributed titles on the global market. Lately however it has been losing ground to the increasing widespread distribution of mobile games. Tablets and smart phones are becoming just as good gaming platforms as dedicated consoles and PCs.

The situation may be somewhat alleviated with the newly acquired download service, streaming technology, and tactic of selling Android tablets. It is somewhat baffling however that the first two solutions aren’t present in the first line up of tablets they’ve offered. This batch includes popular models such as the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, the Asus Eee Pad Transformer, and the Acer Iconia Tab A100. And they come with free pre-installed titles that include Monster Madness, Sonic CD, and Riptide HD. Kongregate Arcade, the company’s Flash game portal is also pre-loaded. For an additional $39, the customer can equip these tablets with a Bluetooth game controller.

It’s not likely that GameStop went into the tablet computer trade just so it could sell a couple of game controllers. Perhaps the Impulse download service and Spawn Labs streaming device are meant for something more ambitious. Current tablet vendors could adopt the technologies GameStop acquired but if that doesn’t happen then the company might come up with their own mobile device that has those features built-in. It’s not going to be easy to transform from retailer to hardware manufacturer. There are the various mobile operating systems and their complementary app stores to consider. But if this idea does push through, the tablet market is going to be a much more exciting option for gamers.

Source: pcworld

Will GameStop Make Its Own Gaming Tablets? is a post from: Eee PC

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Sometimes that giant, corporate-issued laptop won’t satisfy your desires however much trendy its name sounds. But when an echo engulfs your hear bit-by-bit of something lighter, thinner, or perhaps a little bit more tempting. When you hear MacBook Air, it has always meant that sylphlike temptress calling your name, but always a thwart – fairly too slow – all showbiz and no action. That power and endurance to make it a staid candidate for your serious desires wasn’t just there.

Never again with its new refresh, Elemental, brethren: the MacBook Earth, Water and Fire, certainly. What was once a manilla-wear curio turned into a reasonable machine, and never an airless looker? Tired vacationer, finally a laptop that will ease your load and, not forgetting, your pockets too is here…

The Earth is literally a green laptop sheltered in grass on an eco-friendly clay chassis. It’s also powered by wind and solar-fuel. While more importantly it runs on a low-power phosphorescent screen. Secondly, the MacBook Water that will soak your cravings. Get your bottled iFluid and splash onto any leveled surface and ‘Shwaa…’ you’ll see the shape of a keyboard and monitor. Once done, easily mop up and rinse the iFluid back into the bottle; but be careful lest you wipe the hard drive too.

Lastly, the super-fast MacBook Fire, it’s very fast that chips literally explode into flames.  Although, no Flash yet. The Fire should accompany asbestos gloves too. Of course, these are just concepts in the making, but who can’t wait to see such innovation into action?

Source: CNET UK

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For those who are not yet satisfied, post-PC era is already here with us? We can fairly decisively conclude we’ve finally entered a post-netbook time. And this Q2 2011 marks the first time we’ve witnessed netbbooks numbers being eclipsed by tablets, according to ABI Research – where global tablet sales increased to 13.6 million units, than that of 7.3 million netbooks. In fact, Netbooks surged 13% from their first quarter sales of 8.4 million netbooks, and, more significantly, tablet sales really shot up: clocking 6.4 million units in the first quarter of this year.

Cost seemingly isn’t a driving factor as earlier thought – according to the research firm; tablets still maintains an average price of $600 – almost double compared to their typically under-powered netbooks. Oh, by the way, did you know that of the 68% of tablets sold were of Cupertino’s flavor?

Source: CNET UK

Netbooks fall under tablet shipments in Q2 2011 is a post from: Eee PC

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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

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Dell, a world-renowned for its desktops and laptops, is branching out into the tablet market through Streak 5 and Dell Streak 7. It was at first assumed that Dell would stick with Android for at least some of their future tablets. However, the company just announced that the company is betting the farm on Microsoft’s Windows 8 for its future tablets in hopes of dethroning Apple’s iPad2.

Dell Inc.’s founder and CEO Michael Dell stated that the market for Android devices has not developed as they had hoped. And that, ”Android is certainly another opportunity as well, but that market has not developed to the expectations they would have had.”

Windows 8 over Android for Dell Tablets 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

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