Displaying items by tag: Tablet

In our second dive into the Non-Apple Tablet market we take a look at one of the more popular Android based tablets available right now. This is the Asus EEE Pad TF101 known more affectionately as the Transformer. This 10.1-inch Tegra 2 sporting device was first shown off at CES earlier this year. It generated quite a bit of interest as it not only works as a tablet but also has an available dock that lets you use it like a small netbook (and get a few extra hours of battery life).  The Transformer comes in two flavors; one with 16GB of internal storage and one with 32GB. Other than that they are identical. You get the dual 1GHz Tegra 2 SoC (which features an nVidia GPU core and Cuda Acceleration for Flash) plus 3D SRS surround sound, MicroSD and SD Card readers (the SD card comes with the Dock) and much more. The best part of all of this is that you can get the 16GB Transformer with Dock for only $50 more than an iPad 2 16GB WiFi. Now the question is, is it worth that much and have we found a non-Windows tablet that is anything other than a toy? Read on to find out.

The day before Apple holds its three ring circus for the next generation of iPhone Adobe shows off a few choice apps for Android’s Honeycomb Tablet Operating system. One of these is their top end Photoshop app with a completely new touch interface. Now, Adobe does have these out for both the iOS and for Android (both free and paid versions), but these new flavors appear to much more specifically designed for the larger screened Android based tablets. It is also worth mentioning Adobe’s partnership with nVidia here as there are a number of tablets based on the Green Teams dual core Tegra 2 SoC.  

Of the six Apps shown off (Photoshop Touch, the other apps are Collage, Debut, Ideas, Kuler, and Proto) one already exists for Apple’s iOS as it is now and one has existing versions (although not as complete as the new Photoshop Touch) for both Android and iOS. The other four are new and from the look of them are aimed squarely at the Android platform.  

The releases are interestingly timed. All of them appear to be developed using Adobe’s AIR platform, which technically is capable of developing across multiple platforms.  However, our guess is that this is a subtle slap in the face of Apple for their former CEO’s obnoxious rejection of Flash based applications and at one point an outright ban on any app that was developed in Flash (even if it was later packaged to operate without the need for Flash). What better way to pull some potential clients away than to announce a group of “professional” applications designed for the competition?  The question is, with the launch of these apps slated for November will this make any difference at all? Our guess is no, after all people that want an iOS device will get one and the people that want an Android Tablet will get that. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses. In the long run, a few people may opt for Android over iOS if they are looking for a tablet in that time frame, but if someone already owns an iPad or iPad2 they are unlikely to make that bold of a shift just because of Adobe. Plus Adobe has already alluded to the fact that they plan on versions for the iOS later…

But all the posturing aside it is nice to see some serious productivity apps hit the non-Windows based tablets. Now if they could only come up with a decent office suite it really could pull the tablet out of the “cool toy” category and make them truly useful.

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Day one was a lot of prep work. The first thing I did was to download all of the drivers and utilities from Asus’ web site for my tablet. This was just in case I needed them to get everything working. Next was to back up my favorite tablet by using a system imaging software. I used the Acronis software that comes with the Kingston SSD Now kits. This worked great an in a little over an hour I had a full block level image of my old system.

Next  step was the actual installation. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the touch screen worked even during beginning phases of the install. Under Windows 7 (when I ran a full installation) I did not get full touch screen access, I had to have a keyboard plugged into one of the USB ports. This small victory had me in good spirits as I watched the installer do its job. The actual install only took about 20 minutes and boot time was amazing right around 8 seconds from power on to login screen. This is to be expected with a Core i5 470UM, 4GB of RAM and an 80GB Intel SSB under the hood. Once the installation was done I started to load up drivers….

Here is where I ran into my first issue (and one that took almost 6 hours to get past). After installing the HotKey Service I would get an error at every boot. “Missing Asus ACPI Driver, Please install Asus ACPI Driver” The only option was OK, but you had to click it about 10 times before it would stop. I tried everything. I uninstalled the driver, reinstalled, ran compatibility mode, everything. In the end I had to disable automatic updates and set it to “download but let me chose when to install them”. Once that was done I had to install Microsoft Update (in place of Windows Update). Suddenly there was an update for the ACPI Utility Driver. I ran this update and the error went away.

Now, as this driver is needed for the hot keys on the device I figured we were all good to go. I was wrong. The button that brings up the on-screen keyboard does not work, The “home/application scroll” button only works like CTRL+ATL+DELETE and will not get you back to the start screen, and as a final item the volume buttons do not work. However, it is the keyboard and home button that is a deal breaker. This single item has stopped everything in its tracks. Without this functionality you get stuck in any of the Apps run on the Metro UI. If you open up the Weather App, there is no way to get back without the start button or a home button.  I am hoping to get in touch with Asus and see if there is anything they can offer in the way of help, after all Microsoft is testing this so there has to be a way around it. For right now I cannot find it and cannot move forward much without this option.
So for now we are stuck with the following items working;

The basic tablet features (touch screen etc)
Wireless
Full Video Support

Here is what is not working
Bluetooth
Full Audio (no microphone or line out)
No HotKeys

We will continue to plow on and work to get this operational before the time runs out on the developer preview. Check tomorrow night for our experiences with Day 2 – Installing productivity applications and hopefully a resolution to the hardware issues we are having.

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Now that Windows 8 has hit the “general public” in the form of a developer’s preview we are starting to see the internet community chime in about whether they like it or not. I have been reading quite a bit of this (as you can imagine) and have been struck once again by how people complain about, yet resist and fear any type of change.

I have been working in the IT industry since the birth of Windows 3.0 one of my first large scale projects was implementing Windows 3.11 for workgroups into Fort Riley during my time with the US Army. I can remember the grumbling prior to this “new” software coming in about how the current system was terrible because it could not do this or that. When we brought Microsoft in (we even brought the early components of Office in) the same people that complained about the current UNIX based system were suddenly its biggest fan. I can remember one clerk who complained loudly and often about the system suddenly thought it was the best one we had. She did not like the new Windowed interface and Word was just horrible compared to her usual word processing application (which was called Wordstar).

Now take a big jump forward in time; Windows 8 is a rebuilt OS with a new (although somewhat cheesy) UI. Microsoft has really put in some effort to move with the market and change the OS to meet the needs of the new tablet based consumer. If you think about it more and more people are moving in the direction of the tablet/smart phone for their day to day needs. I am not saying it is there for productivity but for the general computing people do the tablet is the ideal platform. Microsoft HAD to change and reinvent its OS or it would be lost in the stampede of more and more powerful general usage tablets.

I personally own both an Android and Windows based tablet. One is the Asus EEE Slate EP121 the other is the Asus Transformer. When I want to tinker around or just surf the net I grab the light and small Tegra 2 armed (no pun intended) Transformer. When I want to do some work I grab the EP121 with its Core i5 470 UM and 4GB of RAM.   The problem with Android (and even the iPad to a certain extent) is that there are no real productivity applications that truly work. Polaris Office, Documents to Go, and all of the others that I have tried all fall very short of the mark of MS Office or even Open Office. Apple knew this with the iPad so they came up with light versions of their productivity applications for iPad users. Android has nothing like this so it is hard for me to get real work done. Instead I surf the net looking for news and then add it to my Evernote account and pull out the EEE Slate or power up the desktop to get the real work done.

This brings us to Windows 8; Microsoft is taking a leaf out of Apple’s book here with their development of a light version of Windows 8 for ARM. It will give people a consistent feel to their computing experience. It the OS you run on your tablet looks and feels the same as the one you run on your desktop that is an improved user experience. Now you can also bet there is a version of Office in the works for ARM to keep that the same. It will be like the interaction between the iPad and Apple’s OSX clean and consistent.  Microsoft is doing something very smart with this move and from what we are hearing many of the tablet makers are behind this movement. We know that nVidia certainly is.

Between now and the time that Windows 8 Launches (around November 2012) you will hear people taking sides ARM, x86, Windows 8, Windows 7 (much like those that did not want to leave XP), Tablet, Desktop, Laptop; the choices will be just as confused as some of the reasons to be on one side or the other. Just keep in mind that with one move Microsoft has made it possible to cover all of these. Windows 8 will work for ARM and x86. Windows 8 can run with the Metro UI for Tablets and can also run in Desktop Mode for more traditional PC’s and Laptops (giving you a Windows 7 feel).  No matter the camp you are in it looks like Windows 8 could have something for you.


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Now that the Developer Preview of Windows 8 is out on the streets everyone is working like mad to come up with a review of the new OS from Microsoft. Most of these reviews have been run inside virtualization programs like VMware’s Player, or Virtual Box, or… well you know the thing. However, the thing that I (and many others) would like to know about Windows 8 is; how does this work on its intended platform? We know from past conversations and statements with and from Microsoft that Windows8 was built to run on the increasingly popular tablet PC (and also ARM based tablets).  Of course there are no certified Windows 8 tablets yet and our concern over trying Windows 8 out on a real tablet is having to completely reinstall our favorite Asus EP121 all over again if things go south. Thankfully Microsoft is already on the job.

They have quite a few existing Windows 7 tablets in the lab right now and are testing the Windows 8 touch interface to make sure that It is running properly and also that it is not a pain to use. This was something that was left out of previous editions of Windows (going all the way back to Windows XP Tablet Edition). The touch interface was an after-thought and not something that was built into the OS from the ground up. This time Microsoft knew what the market layout would be and has developed Windows 8 more for the touch screen than the keyboard and mouse.  They have a list of tablets that is quite impressive that they are currently testing all of which are currently on the market. We have reproduced the list from their Developing Windows 8 Blog below.

We are very tempted to back a backup image of our EEE Pad EP121 and load up the new preview just to see how it works. We will let you know if we get that brave. For now we will stay in the safety of VMware and will let you know our thoughts on this early preview soon.

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Yesterday all of the news was about Microsoft’s Build Developer conference out in California (Anaheim to be exact). Now this conference is (as you could guess) all about developing applications and software for Windows operating systems and also about Windows in general. So it should come as no surprise that one of the highlights was the talk about Windows 8. Attendees at the conference were treated to a preview of Microsoft’s next OS even though the Developer’s blog on Windows 8 has been very handy in keeping the press and the rest of the world up to speed on things. We have reported on one or two new features highlighted on that site and are looking forward to hearing about more of them in the near future.

However, all that aside, back to the Build conference. The attendees were not only treated to a more in-depth preview of Windows 8 they also heard from some of the manufacturers that are going to support Win8. One of these was nVidia as they talked up their new developer program for Windows 8 on x86 and Tegra. nVidia has been talking about Windows 8 for some time (as have we) and they are looking forward to it launch so that they can begin rolling out the Windows 8 based tablets for their Tegra SoCs.

Windows 8, unlike previous versions of Windows, will be something of a game changer. Microsoft has worked pretty hard to make this OS more hardware friendly including showing that you can run this on an older Atom CPU with as little as 1GB of RAM. Other nice options (very tablet friendly options) are things like full NFC (Near Field Communication) support. This allows you to interact with items like Bluetooth headsets with a single tap, tap-to-share file access, and other items once reserved for smartphones.  We have to wonder if Google and Apple are getting a little concerned about the Windows 8 right about now.

For those of you looking to try things out, there is a developer preview available for download.

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About two years ago, roughly the same time as the ZuneHD hit the market with the first Tegra inside, nVidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang made a prediction of sorts. He stated that he envisioned a time when the GPU was not the bread and butter of nVidia. Instead he saw the mobile CPU and the SoC (system on chip) as the wave of the future. Of course he could not get away from his graphical legacy, so his vision also included an nVidia GPU (or two) along with the mobile CPU. At the time the press sort of overlooked the story. It was not that news worthy. After all the Tegra only had one well known design win (there were others but many never reached the market) the ZuneHD. Arguably it was (and still is) a great product, it just was marketed VERY poorly and was going head to head with the greatest show on Earth; the Apple marketing team.

Jump forward to today and we find the Tegra and the Tegra 2 in many devices. In fact one of the best-selling Android tablets on the market today has a Tegra 2 dual core SoC inside (for those of you that do not know it is the Galaxy Tab 10.1) this is followed by devices like the Asus EEE Pad Tansformer and others. They really have come a very long way in terms of the smartphone and tablet market.  Of course they still have Apple to contend with (and their legal and marketing teams) so the battle is not won just yet. However, what we are seeing is that Huang’s vision is coming to pass. nVidia just might find itself earning more than 50% of their income from the tiny SoC and not their high-end GPUs.  
Still the road ahead is not completely clear, nVidia will face competition in the form of Qualcom (which just bought BigFoot Networks), as well as Samsung and Even Apple (to a lesser degree) in this new market. As for Intel, Huang says they are not worried about them because the Atom is not an ARM CPU and is not even “speaking the same language”. He feels that the lower cost ARM based tablets will be more attractive to the consumer looking for a small and light system. With the advent of Windows 8 for ARM people will also gain the ability to move back and forth between ARM and x86 keeping things on almost the same platform.  This will help to bring the more “desktop centric” consumers into the fold especially with the prospect of a quad core ARM CPU running Windows 8 on the horizon.

It is when companies have to innovate to survive that some of the coolest things arise. I wonder what we will see from Tegra in near future and what lessons from Tegra will nVidia take to other departments to help improve them?

Source CNET

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Genius Introduces the Upgraded G-Pen F610 Ultra Slim Graphic Tablet

Now Available in the USA & Canada

Convenience, Control plus Sleek Design

August 4, 2011, Taipei, Taiwan – After its successful debut of the first G-Pen F610 Writing Graphic Tablet, the leading manufacturer of computer peripherals Genius launches an upgraded version with the latest software & package for Windows 7, expected to create yet another heat wave in the market.

As an ultra-slim, 6” x 10” wireless text graphic-design tablet, the Genius G-Pen F610 offers better control than a conventional mouse and a stylish, slim design. The tablet pairs perfectly with either a Mac or PC computer, offering a functional as well as aesthetic tool for taking notes, handling emails (including handwritten emails), handwriting recognition, and professional graphics design.

Genius' G-Pen F610 Tablet makes work more efficient with its 29 programmable “Hot-Key” areas to set up shortcuts for word processing, Internet and operating system tasks. Simply plug the unit into your computer and enjoy built-in, Vista-like functions, such as pen flick navigation. The G-Pen F610 Writing Graphic Tablet works with any screen size, and is perfect for flat and wide screens.

The smart-looking pen packaging along with the Genius G-Pen F610 boasts two buttons and 1024-level pressure sensitivity, allowing graphic artists the subtlety of more pressure levels. The two pen buttons can be programmed to function as left- and right-click mouse buttons. Since the pen battery can last up to one year, the odds of a “power outage” during important work projects are highly unlikely. The pen also comes with a holder that protects the device and its tip, and keeps it handy for use.

The Genius G-Pen F610 includes the following:

• G-Pen F610 tablet
• Cordless pen
• Quick installation guide
• Two additional pen tips & tweezers
• Macro Key Manager
• Power Presenter RE/Free Notes & Office Ink
• PhotoImpact 12SE
• Mac Driver
• One AAA battery included allowing the Tablet to be used right out of the box.

System Requirements:

• IBM PC/Pentium 233 compatible or higher
• Windows Vista/XP/2000
• Macintosh with OS x 10.2.8 or later
• Available USB port
• CD/DVD-ROM drive for software installation

The suggested retail price for the Genius G-Pen F6 Graphic-design Tablet is US$99.90.

More product details are available at:  
http://geniusnet.com/wSite/ct?xItem=16834&ctNode=174

About Genius

Genius is an international leading brand in computer peripherals. Established by KYE Systems Corp. in 1983, Genius offers PC products including computer mice, keyboards, web and security cameras, speakers, gaming peripherals, remote controls, headphones, digital cameras, digital camcorders and digital photo frames. Genius also expanded from computer peripherals into consumer electronic products that include mobile phone accessories, Bluetooth headsets and iPod speakers. Since 2007, Genius has been one of Taiwan’s top 20 Global Brands. For more information you can visit the Genius website at www.geniusnet.com.

Where to buy Genius products:
http://www.geniusnet.com/wSite/sp?xdUrl=/wSite/whereToBuy/whereToBuy.jsp®ion=AM&xAbstract=AM28&mp=4

With every new product that hits the market there are going to be winners and losers. This is true from CPUs to GPU s and everything in between. There is one place where this is more true than any other segment of the market; this is the mobile market. Now the mobile market does not just mean phones (smart or dumb). This market includes everything from portable power sources to fully fledged desktop replacement notebooks. Currently the most competitive market is in the Tablet world. To most people Apple is king. They have the most successful tablet device out and are well into the second generation of the iPad. But first does not always mean best nor does popularity alone indicate complete success (although it certainly helps). Today we have the chance to take a look at one of the competitors to Apple. Not necessarily the iPad, although it will challenge that device in a major way, this is more of a direct threat to the Apple fan base and their tablet/ultra-portable devices. This is the EEE Slate EP121 (also called the EEE Pad) from Asus; a product launched at CES and one that packs quite a bit of hardware including an Intel Core i5 Dual Core CPU and up to 4GB of RAM. So sit back for a good read and decide for yourself if this one falls into the winner’s group or the losers.

While working on my latest round of reviews (making a few calls etc.) I stumbled upon the one thing that could hurt the burgeoning slate market. It was not some great epiphany nor is this hard to spot. This biggest issue that slates will have is storage space. Looking around the market at the various offerings (especially the PC/Windows offerings) I found a disturbing trend. Most of the devices have very limited storage space. Even Asus’ vaunted EEE Slate which comes with a maximum of 64GB of storage. Out of all of the tablets/slates on the market today the one with the largest amount of storage appears to be the Gigabyte S1080 with a whopping 320GB 5400 RPM HDD.