Tag Archives | Tablets

More and More iPadversaries: ViewSonic, Toshiba, Archos

Posted by Harry McCracken on September 7, 2010 at 11:00 am

A few weeks ago, I rounded up scads of current and upcoming tablets–ones from big companies, ones from little companies, ones that look a lot like the iPad, and ones with personalities all their own. It wasn’t the least bit shocking that my list was incomplete when I published it, or that it grows more out-of-date every day.

Gizmodo’s Gary Cutlack has a new post up about five tablets that weren’t among the thirty-two I wrote about. One’s the iPad itself (hey, it’s a tablet and it seems to have potential!). Another is the reasonably interesting Samsung Galaxy Tab, which I saw last week at IFA.

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Samsung's Galaxy Tab is Going to be Pricey. Or Cheap. Or Maybe Both.

Posted by Harry McCracken on September 6, 2010 at 11:13 am

How much will Samsung’s Galaxy Tab tablet (which I tried at IFA last week) cost? One report says it could go for around $1000, or twice as much as the cheapest iPad. But others quote less alarming estimates of $200 to $400.

Actually, all the figures could be correct: They involve multiple countries, and some are full price while others are what you’d pay after signing up for a 3G contract. (Samsung plans to sell the tablet exclusively through carriers, so most or all of the folks who buy one will presumably get a subsidized price.)

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Portable, Stable, Fashion…

Posted by Harry McCracken on September 5, 2010 at 1:18 am

From IFA in Berlin, a handout from Taiwan’s interestingly-named Ontop Technology, which was exhibiting a tablet. (I say “exhibiting” rather than “demonstrating” because it was turned off, and nobody at the booth seemed interested in powering it up.)

I’m not sure why an iPad is shown here–is Ontop makes another tablet that looks exactly like Apple’s product (unlikely!), or saying its tablet compares favorably with the iPad, or just basking in reflected glory?

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Twitter for iPad: Great Work, Loren Brichter! What's Next?

Posted by Harry McCracken on September 2, 2010 at 9:19 pm

Loren Brichter–the creator of Tweetie, the app that became Twitter’s official Twitter app–is a genius. Or at least one of the smartest software interface designers who’s ever coded. His latest work is Twitter’s official iPad app, and he’s done it again.

As with Tweetie Twitter for iPhone, this new program manages to be exceptionally approachable and remarkably deep at the same time–and it feels like its iPhone predecessor while simultaneously taking full advantage of the iPad. The interface uses ingenious sliding panels to let you drill down into tweets, Twitter users, and embedded content–you can look at Web pages and even watch videos without leaving the app.

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Hands on with Samsung's Galaxy Tab Tablet

Posted by Harry McCracken on September 2, 2010 at 8:16 pm

Thursday morning at the IFA show here in Berlin, I attended a Samsung press conference and watched one of the company’s executives brandish its new Galaxy Tab tablet. It was intriguing. But I had a much better time that evening at the Showstoppers press event, where I was able to spend some time exploring the Tab for myself.

The Galaxy Tab I tried clearly wasn’t a done deal: Its touch-screen froze for several minutes then began to work again, and its browser didn’t seem to want to load anything except Google. It’s too early to come to any firm conclusions, but I did discover aspects I liked (the basic form factor, some of the software) and problem areas (other software).

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Samsung's Galaxy Tab is Official

Posted by Harry McCracken on September 2, 2010 at 4:30 am

I’m in Berlin for IFA, Europe’s biggest consumer-electronics trade event. The show floor doesn’t open until tomorrow, but yesterday and today have been filled with press conferences by major tech companies–and Samsung’s conference this morning ended with the official introduction of its Galaxy Tab tablet, the biggest IFA news so far.

The Tab is certainly an iPad-like device, but there are some striking differences. Its screen is 7″, making the device a bit larger than a Kindle and substantially smaller than a 9.7″ iPad. (Samsung says it’s pocketable, and it is…if you’re wearing a jacket.) The Tab weighs 13.4 ounces–far less than the pound-and-a-half iPad. It has cameras on the front (for video chat) and back (for snapping photos and apps such as augmented reality). And like the 5″ Dell Streak, it’s not only a 3G data device but a 3G device that can make phone calls.

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Best Buy to Sell Tablets This Year–Yep, That's Plural!

Posted by Harry McCracken on August 20, 2010 at 9:37 pm

Forbes’ Elizabeth Woyke reports that Best Buy intends to have a variety of tablets in stock by the holidays–which means that it shouldn’t be too long until the iPad isn’t the only iPad-like device sold by the nation’s largest electronics retailer. I’m dying to know which models it expects to be available this year. Shawn Score, the Best Buy exec quoted in the story, isn’t naming names, but says there will be a “great selection.”

(Oddly enough, he also says “it won’t be 32”–which is precisely the number I rounded up last week.)

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Can a Chrome OS Tablet Make It Without Apps?

Posted by Harry McCracken on August 18, 2010 at 12:31 pm

The list of present, future, and speculative iPadversaries I compiled last week wasn’t comprehensive–for instance, I didn’t include Samsung’s Galaxy Tab. And it’s growing more incomplete every day. Download Squad, for instance, is reporting a rumor that Google and Verizon will release a tablet on November 26th. Unlike the scads of Google-powered tablets that will run the Android OS, this one is supposedly powered by the still-unreleased Chrome OS.

I don’t know if there’s anything to Download Squad’s story, but it would be stunning if Chrome OS didn’t wind up on one or more tablets in the next few months. When Google announced the OS thirteen months ago, it looked like a glimpse of one potential future for personal computing. But the intended hardware–clamshell case with physical keyboard–no longer feels like it’s part of the next wave of anything. And another aspect of the OS–its dependence on the Web–feels like it might be part of the next wave after the next wave, not the immediate future.

The obvious point of reference for a Chrome OS tablet is the iPad. But from everything we know about Chrome OS so far, there’s one crucial point of differentiation: iPads are all about local apps, and Chrome OS (like the JooJoo) is designed to subsist entirely on Web apps. (Google is readying a Chrome OS app store, but the apps in question will all live on the Internet.)

If Verizon is involved with a Chrome OS tablet, it’ll presumably have built-in 3G connectivity, which means that the notion of it living off Internet services isn’t completely screwy. But I’m convinced that when it comes to mobile devices, apps are where it’s at–for the next couple of years, at least–and that a platform that doesn’t even try to play catchup with Apple’s iOS would be operating at a severe disadvantage.

Your thoughts?

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E-Readers are Dead. Long Love E-Reading!

Posted by Harry McCracken on August 16, 2010 at 12:46 pm

Over at Ars Technica, Jon Stokes is noting that the explosion of new e-readers that seemed to be coming this year has turned out to be more of a whimper than a bang. Plastic Logic’s Que ProReader is dead, Hearst’s Skiff reader shows no signs of life, Samsung’s E-Ink reader is apparently skipping the US market, and none of the umpteen readers from lesser-known companies has become a breakout hit.

Still in the game: Amazon’s Kindle (the e-reader that’s synonymous with e-readers), Barnes & Noble’s Nook (which B&N is about to double down on), and Sony’s Reader (the first modern e-reader). Oh, and there’s Kobo, the Canadian e-reader backed by Borders. I don’t see any of these going away anytime soon–actually, as Slate’s Farhad Manjoo points out, the likely scenario is that they’ll get even cheaper and sell even better.

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Asus Offers Proof That the iPad Hurts Netbooks

Posted by Jared Newman on August 16, 2010 at 10:36 am

Whether Apple’s iPad is killing netbooks remains a touchy subject, but Asus has added fuel to the fire by lowering its netbook shipments for next quarter.

According to DigiTimes, Asus president and chief executive Jerry Shen acknowledged that the iPad was cutting into netbook sales, which fell short of expectations last quarter. At a conference for investors, Shen reminded the audience that Asus is working on its own tablet and e-reader, but said the company will continue offer the Eee PC netbook line.

There is at least some other proof that the iPad is hurting netbooks. A Morgan Stanley/Alphawise study conducted in May showed that 44 percent of U.S. consumers who planned to buy an iPad were doing so in lieu of a netbook or notebook PC. And why not? Between smartphones and PCs, there might be room for a third device, but four is a stretch, especially when tablets and netbooks overlap in their ability to check e-mail and surf the web. That doesn’t mean the iPad is killing netbooks, it just means consumers will make a choice, which explains why hardware makers besides Apple are trying to push out their own tablets.

Still, I’m taking Shen’s claims about his company’s netbook performance with a grain of salt. Keep in mind that Asus lost netbook market share between 2008 and 2009, and could lose its second place standing behind Acer with strong netbook sales expected of Samsung. Even before the iPad launched, Asus was already seeing flat-to-meager increases in netbook sales. Meanwhile, iSuppli expects overall netbook sales to grow by 30 percent this year.

In other words, Apple’s tablet makes a good scapegoat.

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