Archive for IFA
Good E-Reader IFA Exclusive – Archos launches 5 Android tablets
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Remember the 5 Android tablets from Archos that we had discussed here before? Today, they have been officially announced at the IFA and they promise to undo many of the shortcomings that Archos’ earlier tablets have been accused of. In fact, it’s only the 5 inch Archos that found mass acceptance, though the same can’t be said of the other tablet offerings from Archos.
The latest tablet quintuplets start with the puny 2.8 inch sized screen while the biggest tablet comes with a 10.1 inch screen. Price starts from $100 for the Archos 28 and goes all the way up to $300 or $350 for the 8 GB and 16 GB respectively of the 10 inch sized Archos 101 tablet .
All the models are are ok alterntives, especially at the price, but they do have their drawbacks: Archos tablets have no access to the Android Marketplace, meaning you’ll need to shop through Archos’ own — and seriously limited — app store. Also, none of these tablets feature 3G, so we would recommend a different tablet if speed and apps are important to you.
Archos 28 and Archos 32 will be available by mid September while the remaining three tablets, that is Archos 43, 70 and 101, will make it to the retail scene by mid October.
Good E-Reader IFA Exclusive – The Toshiba Folio 100
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At the IFA show in Berlin, Germany we have seen many new e-readers and tablets being shown off, such as the ViewSonic Tablet, the BenQ Tablet, and the Samsung Galaxy Tab. All of those tablets are quite dandy, but today we got our hands on the new Toshiba Folio 100 Tablet PC!
This Tablet is great! Tt comes bundled with Google Android 2.1. Many people are reporting that it uses 2.2 out of the box, but that is not the case.
Now let’s talk hardware. This device has a 10.1 inch compacitive multi touch screen interface, with a resolution of 1024×600 pixels. The Folio 100 measures 28 centimeters by 18 cm by 1.4 cm. There is an Nvidia Tegra 2-processor under the hood and 16GB of built-in storage, which can be expanded using an SD card. Battery life should give you around 7 hours of constant use and WI-FI for surfing the internet. Toshiba mentions that there will be 3G support for this soon, as they try and get agreements with major telecom providers. You will also be able to use Bluetooth with the Folio 100, so you can use it for Skype phone calls. Finally, it has a HDMI port, USB port, and built in speakers.
Toshiba has loaded the Folio 100 with a mix of its own software and third-party apps. Each device comes preloaded with the Opera browser, Toshiba Media Player, FBReader, Fring (for video calls), Documents To Go, and Evernote. Toshiba has also decided to not rely solely on the Android Marketplace for apps, although it does have full access to it. The company is encouraging developers to create apps specifically for the Folio 100. Developers can visit this LINK to find out more information on application development.
The Folio 100 Wi-fi will be available in Europe in November for 429 Euro. The Folio 100 3G comes in Q1 2011 for 529 Euro. No word on American release dates as of yet, but we surmise with it should be around Q1 2011 for the WI-FI and Q2 with the 3G.
Good E-Reader IFA Exclusive – Samsung Galaxy Tab now available on pre-order
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Things have suddenly increased their pace! It was just yesterday that the much awaited 7 inch tablet from Samsung, the Galaxy Pad, was announced at the IFA in Berlin and now the latest tablet PC news has it that the UK retail giant Expansys is currently accepting pre-orders for the Galaxy Pad. The price mentioned therein is £679.99 per unit, which translates to about $1,046 USD. This will fetch you a 3G / WiFi enabled Galaxy Pad having 16 GB of internal storage. Availability data has indicated October 12th.
Interestingly, Samsung is refuting the prices mentioned and has stated that no official price has yet been released by the company. The price that is floating around is a bit on the higher side though there seems no respite in sight as Samsung itself is rumored to have said the Galaxy Tab will be priced around the $1,240 mark. All the prices mentioned are before any subsidy, so a subsidized version might see a drop in price.
Good E-Reader IFA Exclusive – ViewSonic’s 10 inch tablet preview
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ViewSonic has come to the IFA with two tablet devices. Of the 2 tablets, the one with the 10 inch screen is said to dual boot both the Windows 7 and the Android, and it is this tablet that was largely shrouded in mystery with the only thing that was known for sure is that it would have a 10 inch screen. However, that’s not the scenario anymore as ViewSonic has come up with a healthy dose of info about the tablet that has been elusive so far.
It’s built around an Intel Atom N455 processor and will have 1 GB of RAM along with 16 GB of SSD. The 10 inch capacitive touchscreen has a 16:9 widescreen ratio screen and surprisingly, boasts of the same 1024 x 600 pixel resolution as the Galaxy Tab as well as the nReader R100 tablet from BenQ. This in spite of the fact that the Galaxy Tab has a 7 inch screen while the ViewSonic and the BenQ offering comes with 10 inch sized screens.
However, with the capability to boot both Windows 7 as well as Android aside, the things that casts a pall of gloom is that the tablet will run a somewhat outdated version of Android, version 1.6 to be precise. This while everyone else is looking forward to the Android 2.2 Froyo or maybe even the Android 3.0 Gingerbread.
The quality of the display is also not the best in class and leaves a lot to be desired, though (thankfully) the touchscreen is responsive and manages to make up for the lack of pixel density to some extent.
Also, as things stand now, switching between the operating systems will require a reboot of the tablet PC, though ViewSonic has stated the final version would fare better by the time the tablet is ready for launch.
Keep watching as more details emerge of the tablet device and hopefully the next time that we talk of the 10 inch tablet from ViewPad, we have a definite name of the tablet to refer to.
Good E-Reader IFA Exclusive – Samsung Galaxy Tab
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Welcome to a Good E-Reader IFA Exclusive! The first moments of the IFA trade show in Berlin, Germany is upon us, and the show kicked started up with the device everyone has been waiting for, the Samsung Galaxy Tab.
Many people have been salivating to get any news or new pictures of this device. We have been continously posting videos the last few days, about this little Tablet PC in action. We now have a little bit of hands-on experience with this new device that is blowing us away.
First of all, the Samsung Galaxy Tab is a 7 inch Android 2.2 driven Tablet PC, that Samsung is billing as a new breed of entertainment device. It only weights around 300 G and can easily be held in one hand.
Under the hood we have a 1GHz chip Cortex A8, PowerVR SGX540 graphics and 512MB of RAM. It has 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth 3.0, 5.76 Mbps HSUPA and HSDPA 5.6 Mbps. You can upgrade the memory to 16 or 32GB. The battery is labeled a 4,000 mAh, which Samsung says can support up to seven hours of video playback.
Visually, the Tablet has a resolution of 1024 by 600 on a full color TFT touch screen, which gives almost PC like graphics and most things look so great there is little need to zoom in. Samsung announced the availability of the latest version of Flash Player - 10.1 – is on the device and working fine. They also mentioned that it was completly compatible with HTML 5. You can also do some Video-conference with the 1.3 megapixel front camera, and switch the conferencing between portrait or landscape mode. There is also a dandy 3.1 MP camera on the back of the device, to take pictures with. The Camera quality does not compete with some higher end smart phones, but we will take it anyways.
Now let’s talk about some applications! Google Maps and other Google core applications are built into the device, and unlike the woeful Augen Gentouch78, the Galaxy Tab has full access to the Android Market. We mentioned earlier today that Samsung had partnered with Kobo for the new Readers Hub Application, they also showed off Media Hub and Music Hub. We will report back with further news on these two new applications. One of the cooler applications shown off were the augmented reality applications
The device also includes the new Swype input method, allowing users to drag their finger over each letter, rather than tapping each letter individually to input text. Some mobile operators will offer a second SIM card so customers can use the Tab and their mobile phone from a single account.
Many people at the conference were referring to this device as a tablet, which incurred the ire of Thomas Richter, Samsung’s head of product development which continually pounded into the packed room that this device was in fact a “Smart Media device.”
When prodded for more information on subsequent rumors of follow up devices to the Tab line, Samsung executives said that the company will probably launch several more Tab models next year, possibly with different screen sizes, to target different audiences. DJ Lee, a senior executive had mentioned that many different devices are in testing.
The one facet of this device, that left the whole room groaning, was that there was no definitive price yet. When asked for comment DJ Lee had said “Our business model is to go through global telephone operators,” Lee said. “The final price setting, including the rate plan, will be finalized by the rate plan operators. We cannot give an exact number. We are working to keep a very attractive and competitive price to offer the end user.”
IFA Exclusive – Kobo and the Readers Hub for the Samsung Galaxy Tab
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Welcome to a Good E-Reader IFA Exclusive! The CEO of Samsung used the opening of the conference to show off the new Samsung Galaxy Tab Tablet PC! More to follow on the semantics of the Galaxy Tab in another post, but what breaking news we discovered is that Kobo is deeply embeded into this new device.
The New software Kobo has pioneered for this device is called the “Readers Hub”. This new application was designed specifically for the Android 2.2 driven Galaxy Tab from the ground up. Kobo and Samsung both worked in conjunction on this application amidst great secrecy to give owners of the Galaxy Tab a viable store to use their device as an E-Reader.
Kobo is billing this new application as an application easily used and accessible for all readers. The Kobo application will allow users access to the entire book store, which features around 2.2 million popular ebooks in ePub, PDF, and Adobe DRM. The Application will even allow you to add ebooks bought or downloaded from other sources. This new application allows the user to Tap or Swipe to turn the pages of the ebook, or use the interactive table of contents to flip to specific chapters. The application also has a ton of fonts and different sizes of the fonts, so it will allow people to heavily customize their e-reading experience.
With the Samsung Galaxy Tab’s built in Accelerometer you can easily switch your viewing of ebooks from horizontal to landscape mode at the drop of a dime. This new application will also be used on all Samsung Devices going forward, including their new line of Smartphones.
For International users, this new application is great, because it will deliver localized languages on ebooks for people who live in Europe, Asia and other major language demographics.
It really looks like Kobo is stepping up their game by closely working with emerging Tablet Computers and spreading their eBook store across many platforms, from Android to Apple and more.
Also announced during the press conference not only was the Reader Hub was announced but also the ‘Media Hub,’ a gateway to a world of films and videos, and ‘Music Hub,’ an application giving access to a wide range of music tunes.
Read the updated Press Release just posted
