Archive for Computex Coverage
MSI Windpad 100A Review from Computex
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When we were in Taipei, Taiwan last week for Computex,, MSI had 3 different tablets at their booth, such as the 120A! Today we take a look at the MSI Windpad 100A and see how it stacks up.
The Windpad 100A gives you a 2.3 Google Android experience, which is ok by 2010 standards, but with all of the Honeycomb tablets coming out this is hurting. The Nvidia Tegra 2 processor and the fact it has a 10.1 inch screen with a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels with an IPS display helps. It has a rear facing 5 MP camera and a front facing 2 MP edition for video conferencing. You will have around 16/32 GB of internal memory and can further enhance it via Micro SD. It has WIFI for browsing the internet and has 1 GB of RAM. It has 2 USB ports, HDMI, docking port, and headphone jack.
The model we saw at Computex had a SIM card slot so you will be able to upgrade to 3G. No idea on vendors or what frequency the 3G runs at. There was also no word on price or release date but MSI is notorious for showing tablets off at tradeshows and never releasing them.
Goodereader Radio Show – Computex 2011 Review
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The last week we were in Taipei Taiwan for the Computex show! Here we saw the new technology that will be coming out later in 2011 and beyond! They had many new tablets and e-readers at the shows but what ones were the best? In this edition of the Good e-Reader Radio Show we talk about our favorite gadgets at the show!
We cover the Asus Padfone, Asus Memo Pad, Acer Iconia 500, Viewsonic Viewpad 7x and 10 Pro and Pixel Qi.
We caught up with Mary Lou Jepsen, the CEO of Pixel Qi and John Ryan who walked us through some of the new products and screen technology the company has been working on.
The company has been working fervently on the next generation of Pixel Qi technology to provide a low power, high resolution display panels. They also showed us some new devices hitting the market soon that utilizes their screens. One of the main new functions was using Infrared technology called IR Touch, this is the same technology found in the new Kobo Touch.
Lets talk about the new display panel offerings the company has been developing first. The first screen was a seven inch panel that has a resolution of 1024×600 and draws tremendous low power from the battery. While the second screen was 10 inches and had 1280 by 800 pixel resolution. This new 10 inch screen was specific designed to be an Android 3.0 tablets, which is why they went with IR-Touch technology. Both of two new screens will basically save you 80% battery life. These two screens will see full production in the fall of this year, hopefully we’ll see some new tablets using it.
One of the huge benefits of using Pixel Qi technology in screens for Tablets us because of the size real estate. The color is vibrant but they are VERY small compared to LCD based screens. This means the companies technology is 3/4 the size smaller then normal screens and can provide ultra thin tablets in the future. The company showed us their new solar powered tech that would further reduce the size of tablets that utililze both Pixel QI and the Solar powered battery. Most tablets are bigger and bulkier due to factors like screen density and battery. Being able to shave both screen size and battery size will go a long way to creating ultra thin devices.
The company using solar power technology takes its roots from Pixel Qi’s first project, One Laptop per Child. Originally the technology had to be readable in sunlight and have long battery life. Combining these two factors has created low cost ($130) computers for some of the poorest countries on earth. Being able to implement the solar powered technology within the One Laptop Per Child framework would further reduce the costs for the end user. So the display panels the company makes are not just limited to tablets but can be used in low production cost netbooks and laptops.
Pixel Qi has signed on some major new partners which they announced at Computex 2011. We saw the finished product for the largest telecommunications provider in China ZTE. The new device was a 7 inch Google Android product called the ZTE light, it should see the light of day around Fall 2011. Also on the new hardware front we saw another great Google Android tablet that was designed very well.
Finally, don’t forget about one of the major partners of the company that issued a new tablet this year, the Notion Ink Adam. Many customers have been dismayed that the Adam was very reflective and glossy when out in the sun or under direct light. Part of this was due to the dual panel the tablet used and contributed to a lackluster experience. Pixel Qi has developed a new screen type customized for the Adam and should be used in future device manufacturing. While checking out an Adam with the new screen that was on-site we saw a tremendous improvement. Check out our video on the Adam display panel HERE.
Pixel Qi is one of the most innovative companies in the current market climate. The company constantly demonstrates new technology and display panels that would be suited for both e-readers and tablets. I long for the day I could use a tablet thinly veiled as an e-reader and actually have Pixel Qi under the hood in order to enjoy full color when I want, then e-ink quality reading experience.
Delta Shows off QRLPD 13 Inch and 8 Inch Screens at Computex 2011
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We first saw some of the Delta and Bridgestone screen display technologies when we were at CES earlier on in the year. When they were at CES they were displaying screen technologies as Delta and their strategic partner for e-paper solutions, Vivitek. At Computex 2011 they were showing off some of their larger screen color e-paper technologies and other cool tech.
QR-LPD is the new screen technology that has been created by a joint partnership by Bridgestone and Delta, it stands for Quick Response Liquid Powder Display. Its basically screen and a logic controller system for electronic readers that promote a low power consumption while displaying 4096 colors. One of the big new factors in this technology is the .08 seconds page update and supports different types of page refreshes. It can do partial page updates, full page updates and supports touch screen and Stylus interactions. The screen technology can support 8 inch all the way to 21 inches and does around 4 levels of gray-scale. Like Pixel Qi the big selling points to clients wanting to employ QR-LPD is the ability to read it in direct sunlight.
The first e-reader we checked out was the e-Pad 8.2 inch e-reader which had a resolution of 960X768, which is amazing for a full color e-reader. Not only is the resolution amazing but it displayed 16 different shades of gray along with showing off 4,096 colors. For memory storage it had 4 GB of iNand and can be upgraded via MicroSD up to 32 GB. The battery being used was a 1,590 mAh 3.7 inch Lithium-ion and had an Micro-USB 2.0 port, headphone jack, and a speaker.
The next model was a 13.1 inch e-Pad which targeted vertical applications in a Linux environment. This unit as well featured a QR-LPD screen technology with 16 levels of gray-scale and over 4,096 colors. It has a screen resolution of 1600X1200 pixels for mono panel and 800X600 for the color panel. Storage capacity is around 4 GB and has a MicroSD slot if you want to upgrade your memory up to 32 GB. Connectivity for this device has a fair number of options with integrated WIFI, and 2G/3G options. Finally, it has a feeble mono speaker, headphone jack, and a stylus to interact with the touchscreen interface.
The devices Delta was showing off during Computex was twofold. The first item was e-paper and it worked as small grocery store price tags. They are a new generation of smart display panels that display 4 basic colors and can generate a bar-code to be read for inventory. The essence of these items are to display prices for canned goods and fruit. The other item was a multiscreen display used for advertising. Delta had told us that currently they have a giant 72 inch multiscreen setup and are working on a single screen display of this size. Considering Dleta at CES had a 21 inch display going the extra 51 inches might not too be to outlandish.
What does Delta and Bridgestone technologies mean for e-readers? Currently they demo e-readers that utilize the screen and really aren’t too bad. They just aren’t optimized for the full e-reading experience due to processors and other internal components. Really, Delta makes the screen technologies and relies on their partners to develop it. I really like the QRLPD technology for the e-reading experience and Delta seemed to think that the e-reader market is too small for their company to be viable. This is why they are cumulatively focusing on different markets for e-paper technology rather then the e-reader market segment.
Freescale Shows off IMX 53 and Next Generation IMX 6 Procesors
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During the last day of Computex we managed to get some time at the Freescale booth where they were showing off their next generation iMx 53 processor and the worldwide introduction of the next generation IMX 6 series.
A little bit of history for those who are unfamiliar with Freescale and what they do; if you look at popular e-readers such as the Amazon Kindle 3, Sony PRS-650, and Kobo all use the processor. It allows the processor to actually have epaper support built right into the chip. This provides faster and more robust page turns along with added refresh benefits.
The IMX 53 processor is step up from previous iterations mainly found in tablet computers. The main benefit of this new processor is that it will allow tablets to use DDR3 RAM and allow processors to go over the 800 MHZ threshold. This new chip is out now and will be implemented mainly into tablets because the epaper support is not built into this specific chip.
The new IMX 6 series is the next generation Freescale processor and it really takes things to the next level. It supports up to Quadcore processors and up to 4.3 GHZ processing power! We have included in our video the worldwide premier of the new IMX 6 series demo.
Introducing the eWonder Pad! An Interactive Learning Tablet
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Today we take a look at the eWonderPad an interactive learning device and Tablet PC aimed at middle school kids! It gives you the ability to make annotations in books and then they carry over as you open and close them. It is this process that allows students to write answers to math or spelling tests and then have the teacher grade them.
The eWonder Pad runs on the Google Android operating system 2.2 and gives developers the chance to make custom learning application for the eWonder Pad. By default the device comes with a dictionary, internet web browser and a ton of other apps. It will easily read Txt, ePub and PDF books and various music formats.
One of the main innovations on this device is the ability for the teacher to shut off the WIFI so if the kids are in the classroom and you don’t want them checking Facebook and other sites, it is easily shut off. It also has a very sturdy design. The device is going to retail for around $300 and the company behind it will also tailor make content to suit the school and any language localization issues.
Asus DR-900 e-Reader Review at Computex 2011
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This year at Computex it was all about tablets, we literary could not walk fifty feet without bumping into something interesting. It was not until our last day did we bump into an old friend that we have not seen in quite some time, the Asus DR-900 e-reader. This fabled e-reader was rebranded to the Asus TZ-900, but had a English firmware build on it, making it quite attractive as a 9 inch touchscreen e-reader.
The Asus DR-900 is a 9 inch touchscreen eink e-reader with a resolution of 1024×786 pixels. It had 2 GB of internal memory but you could increase the size via Micro SD. The unit itself was very light weight and slim and was probably the most solid e-reader I have had the pleasure to put my hands on this year.
It was brimming with features such as stereo speakers and a headphone jack. I tried listening to audio books and music files and it worked like a charm. It also had plenty of cool features such as a web browser and RSS feeds to take advantage of the WIFI internet access.
Reading books on it was a great experience and the e-ink really popped out at you and displayed very well on the large screen. I tried out ePub and PDF books and most e-readers can’t really handle PDF that well, but it really shined on this unit. Books with pictures and text were an easy read and in the settings menu provided tons of options to change fonts and margins.
In all, this is one of the best e-readers available, it’s just a shame that no one has picked it up to distribute it and Asus does not seem too keen on marketing it effectively.
Hands on Review of the Viewsonic Viewpad 10Pro Android and Windows Tablet
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During our escapades in Taiwan for Computex 2011 we found ourselves a very unique tablet in the form of the Viewsonic ViewPad 10 Pro tablet PC. What makes this tablet so very interesting is due to the fact that it runs both Android and Windows 7. This is not your standard dual booting tablet. It has a simple application that within ten seconds goes to Android mode from Windows mode and vice versa.
The Viewsonic ViewPad 10 Pro is a 10.1 inch capactive touchscreen display running a resolution of 1024x 600 pixels. It is running the very latest Intel Oaktrail z670 1.5 GHZ internal processor and has 32 GB of Solid State memory. If this memory is not enough you can further increase it via the Micro SD card up to around 32 GB. It also comes with 2 GB of RAM and has an embedded Intel graphic chipset.
The new Viewsonic tablet has a USB 2.0 and HDMI port! This is solid because you can actually use a USB Flash drive to transfer data to and from your device. You can also use the HDMI port to stream full 1080p video to your television or computer. It also has a 3.5 mm headphone jack and built in microphone, you would mainly use the mic with your built in 2 MP webcam.
The big draw on this device is the fact that it can easily jump between Windows 7 and Android 2.2 at the launch of a small program. This app is called “instant switch” and when you jump to Android you can load in apps via alternative Android Markets such as Slideme or AndAppstore. When you want to jump back into Windows you can click on the Windows icon built into the Android menu and go back.
I really like this device although it only runs Froyo, and I can see this device really catching on if they get the price right for end users and be big for developers. The fact that you don’t physically have to boot the device into the other operating system is huge. I also dig that it is DLNA compliant so you can easily access data right off of your PC or media center.
Finally, Viewsonic is packing in a docking port for this tablet so you can have two additional USB ports, HDMI and an Ethernet port. The docking station was said to be around $80.00 and the ViewPad Pro will be around $300.00 and available July 2011.
Review of the Gigabyte S 1080 Windows 7 PC
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The Gigabyte booth at Computex 2011 had only 1 new unreleased product and that was the new Windows 7 based Gigabyte S-1080 Tablet PC! This unit had a ton of accessories that made it stand out from the other tablets in attendance, such as a docking station with a DVD drive and a ton of ports.
The Gigabyte S-1080 features a 10.1 inch capacitive display with a resolution of 1024×600 pixels and is running on an Intel Atom Dual Core 1.66 GHZ processor. It has 2 GB of DDR2 RAM and 320 GB internal memory to store all of you data on the unit. It is brimming with ports such as USB 2.0, USB 3.0, Ethernet, VGA and an SD card reader.
Finally, it did have a SIM card slot, which means it supports 3G and Gigabyte said it would come unlocked so you might be able to ride a sweet connection to connect up the internet. If 3G is not your thing it also comes with WIFI and Bluetooth. It has a front facing web cam, but it is only 1.3 MP, so while you might not get the best resolution, at least it’s something. The one thing I really liked about the device was the inclusion of the Ethernet port so you can physically connect it to your modem or router.
My impression was that it felt rather heavy in your hands and might not be too easy to always be holding it with one hand to do your mobile computing. It seems though Gigabyte intends for you to not hold the device exclusively, but using the optional docking station. The docking station is very sweet! It had 4 USB ports, microphone, headphone jack, VGA, and a HDMI connector to plug it into your monitor. Gigabyte mentioned the docking station will not come with the tablet, but will offer it for around $60 to $100.
All in all, this seemed like a very responsive unit and it also has a optional mouse on the side of it in order to not rely on using the touch screen to move the cursor around. Unlike other Windows 7 based tablets there was no custom UI. The best example of a custom UI in a Windows based tablet has to be the EXOPC, and I would recommend that over this one.
Viewsonic Viewpad 10h Honeycomb Tablet Due out October 2011
Posted by: | CommentsViewsonic had a preview tablet at their booth behind glass that will be running on the Google Android Honeycomb operating system. It will be 10.1 inch capacitive touchscreen with over 10-finger multi-touch support. It will be running a Nvidia Tegra 2 – 1 GHZ processor, so the speed should be very solid. It has dual cameras with the rear facing one having 5 MP and a LED flash, while the front facing one has 1.3 MP.
There are a fair number of ports on the device including Micro USB and Micro HDMI. Battery life was expected to be around 8 hours and it was DLNA compliant.
Intel Displays Meego and Android Tablets at Computex 2011 – Video
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During Computex 2011 in Taipei, Taiwan we have seen many tablets and of course the Intel booth was absolutely brimming with them. The main operating system that seemed to be taking center stage was Meego, which is a joint venture between Intel and Nokia. It was originally developed because Microsoft did not offer Windows support for the Atom processor. The other operating system we saw running on the Intel architecture was Android. We also saw devices running Green Ridge, Pinetrail, and Oaktrail.
We’re sharing many of the tablets we saw in the video below, which illustrates the different companies jumping on the Meego bandwagon. One of them was Berlin based Neofonie with the Wepad.
Qualcomm Reveals New Dual-Core Chip at Computex
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To be at Taipei during this time of the year does make strong business sense. Right now, Taiwan is playing host to the who’s who from the tech world for the week long annual Computex event. This has prompted Qualcomm to maintain a presence in spite of it having its own Uplinq conference taking place at San Diego. The chip maker did not disappoint either, as it had come along with some cool hardware developments that did turn quite a few heads, while also leading to a few raised eyebrows as well.
Qualcomm revealed its latest dual core Snapdragon processor that will surely make NVIDIA Tegra 2 chips feel the heat. Up until now, all tablets running Android 3.0 almost exclusively had a Tegra 2 chip at their core. For a change, there is also a tablet from Quanta that has been built around the Snapdragon dual core MSM8960 chip. Qualcomm’s dual-core MSM8660 has also reached the market, though at present, the CPU has made its debut in the HTC smartphone and not in a tablet.
The tablet made by Quanta is only a reference design right now, though it can be picked up by any company and then sold under a different brand name. The tablet on display packs in features such as a mini HDMI port, micro USB port, a microSD card slot, and an audio jack. The tablet also includes a built-in 3G module and a camera, each along the front and back of the tablet.
Running Android 3.0, another extremely nice aspect of the tablet is its display which can be considered at par as a Super AMOLED display. According to Qualcomm, the new processors should be ready for a market release towards June, by which time there is likely to be at least 40 new tablets vying for consumer’s attentention all built using Snapdragon chips.
via slashgear
Hands on with Nvidia Tegra 3 “Kal el” Quad Core Processor – Video
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Nvidia had one of the more impressive booths at Computex in Taipei this year. One particular tablet really caught our eye, locked behind thick glass. This was the fabled first preview of the new Nvidia Tegra 3 Quad-Core processor, dubbed Kal El. They had 3 units encased behind bullet proof glass and many of the Nvidia reps said it would be impossible to get some hands on time with the unit. We saw them push away various people asking about it, but at Good e-Reader nothing is impossible. Not only did we journey over 10,000 kilometers to get here, but we were not willing to take NO for an answer. We managed to get nearly 15 minutes hands-on review time with this prototype tablet and its new processor! Although the new quad core processor is named “Kal el” right now, the reps did mention a few times during the interview that it was going to be known as “Tegra 3.”
We met with 2 senior Nvidia representatives who gave us a technical demonstration of the prototype Nvidia Tegra 3 quad core processor. This unit was amazing featuring 12 GPU cores! The resolution for this new processor does take it to the next level with 1440p! This is two times 720p and is 1.5X better then the latest 1080p. This is indeed next level of processing power and is absolutely a very adequate progression from Tegra 2, which featured only 2 cores.
Not only will this new Nvidia Tegra 3 processor be able to handle superior resolution, but the lead engineer told us that it easily handles 3D. In general, 3D requires double the frame rate (120 frames per second) and double the pixels.
Many of the features they showed off will allow specific vendors to take advantage of some very handy new features. The Tegra 4, or Kal el, processor will allow for higher polygon count characters and scenes in video games. Often in the video games industry one of the limiting factors when developing games for consoles and PC’s is the dreaded polygon count. In order for hardware to render things properly you need to have a certain number of polygons on the screen at any given time. This includes character art, environments and all other assets included in any given scene.
Not only will the Tegra 3 processor be able to display more polygons on the screen at any given time, but it will allow for dynamic cloth and dynamic lighting. In the video below you will notice many lights and cloth fabrics dynamically changing depending on how you interact with it on the screen. Not only will this help attract AAA publishers to make content for tablet computers, but it will allow for some excellent artistic applications and games. Speaking of games, we saw a preview of Lost Planet 2 for tablets and some cool stuff by Capcom.
Nvidia was hesitant to give us any kind of details on vendors who had signed on to implement the quad core processor, but did say we will see it displayed on tablets in Q4 of 2011.
