Welcome to another exciting edition of the Good E-Reader Week in Review, where we look at all of the most important news relevant to E-Readers, Slate and Tablet PC’s.
This week, saw TONS of news, as the major computer tradeshow Computex came and went, with oodles of new technology items displayed, we had a writer at the tradeshow that got us exclusive stories and pictures of some great looking devices. There was also a fair amount of news outside of Taipei, which as always we will summarize the most news worthy items. If you want more info on any of the articles, click on the title of the article to read the full story.
Asustek Computer’s has launched two Eee Pad tablets which makes it the first Tablet PC that truly has the potential to make things difficult for the high flying iPad. Of course there are a few more tablets waiting in the wings and we might have some good news on them at the Computex fair that’s slated to begin just next month.
But for now, we have the Asus Tablet PC to play around with so we know the Eee Pad EP121 has a quite large 12-inch touchscreen. What’s interesting is that the tablet will have the Intel Core 2 Duo processor at its core and will come pre-loaded with Microsoft’s Windows 7 Home Premium operating system. And yet, Asustek claims the battery will have enough juice to keep the show going for 10 hours before requiring a recharge. This when both Intel and the Windows 7 have been accused to be too power hungry.
The other tablet device – the EP101TC that Asus brought forth packs a 10-inch touchscreen and runs the Windows Embedded Compact 7 software. It will be powered by an Nvidia Tegra processor with other information about the 10 inch tablet pointing to an ultra-slim device that’s just 12.2-millimeters thick and weighs 675 grams. Also as per company sources, price for the 10 in tablet has been pegged at about $399 to $449 though no price details have been disclosed for the 12 inch tablet.
It seems like the Windows 7 OS is dominating right now at the Computex show as here’s one more slate pc – the Tycoon TVB00 that makers First International Computers or FIC unveiled on Day One of the show and it runs, well no points for guessing, the Windows 7 Ultimate Edition operating system. This also makes the Tycoon TVB00 to join the ranks of the MSI WindPad 100 and the ASUS Eee Pad both of which are Windows 7 based tablets.
The rest of the specifications of the tablet look good too. Like it comes with a LED back-light 10.1 inch capacitive touchscreen with 1024 x 600 pixel resolution. Its ‘out of the box’ connectivity options include 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi as well as Bluetooth 2.1. There is a mini HDMI port, a micro-SATA type 1.8″ HDD along with a Broadcom BCM 70015 Crystal HD advanced media processor that makes 1080p HD video playback a breeze. At just 9.59 x 6.9 x 0.6 inches,
It’s also a compact device, which along with a combined weight of 1.87 pounds makes the Typhoon easy to carry around.
LG is making waves into the Slate and Tablet market with an late prototype called the LG UX10 Tablet. It featured a 10.1 inch screen, an Intel Atom Z530 processor, 1GB of DDR2 RAM, Windows 7 Home Premium, a 1.3 megapixel front-facing webcam, an SD card slot, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, a 7200mAh battery and a micro-HDMI output. It also had HD Audio built in and weighed only 850 G, it was equipped with a multi capacitive touch screen, but it was not working when we took a look at it.
Moorestown Quanta Redvale tablet running MeeGo Previewed
Intel’s Computex keynote was brimming with new technology announcements on Day One at the Computex though the one thing that literally swept away everything else was the 10-inch Moorestown Quanta Redvale tablet running on the MeeGo software platform. The demo was brief but was enough to let everyone know that there will be a lot going for the tablet once it reaches markets in 2011.
The tablet itself in far from being complete and ready for mass production. In fact, it’s just the pre-alpha stage Quanta Redvale tablet that was previewed but what caught everyone attention is its sharp features and breezy performance. The latter though can be attributed to the 1.5GHz Moorestown processor that displayed its prowess at the show by enabling the tablet to playback some 720p quality videos without any fuss whatsoever. This when NVIDIA had serious apprehensions of the Intel smartphone chip being able to come up with a credible performance.
Notion Ink Adam Delayed Until Thanksgiving
The CEO of Notion Ink was at Computex and letting people know that due to a few factors such as Flash problems with their internal processor and investors wanting the initial release closer to the X-Mas holidays, the Adam is delayed.
Microsoft Announces Windows Embedded 7 for Slate PC’s
Microsoft made a keynote announcement at the start at Computex which got lost in the shuffle of all the mighty Slate and Tablet PC’s we saw over the last few days. They announced a new operating system that is more multi-media and wireless based called Windows Embedded Compact 7.
It is an operating system seemingly tailored towards mobile devices such as Slate and Tablet systems, to use in lieu of Windows 7 as the only operating system of choice for developers who do not want an Android based system. It is a lighter version of Windows 7 and stripped down to be ideal with touch screen and smaller mobility devices that do not need the horse power of a true Windows 7 OS.
AT&T Suspends Unlimited Data Plan for Apple iPad
Here’s a piece of news that may not be to the liking of future iPad owners –AT&T has decided to scrap its unlimited Internet data plan so that those who hog bandwidth the most will also have to shell out more. The move will affect users of the iPad as well as other smart phones which includes Blackberries or iPhones. AT&T is the exclusive carrier for the iPad in the United States.
All iPad owners till now have unlimited Internet usage plans that cost them $30 per month and will continue to have the same privilege while they renew their contacts. The same however can’t be said of all new iPad owners starting from Monday as there will be a new two tier data plans to choose from.
So as per plan DataPlus, consumers will have to pay $25 per month and will be offered two gigabytes of data to play around with while any extra usage will be charged at the rate of $10 for every gigabyte of data. However, AT&T says this should be enough for the majority, read 98 percent of smart phone users.
And as per plan DataPro, users will be charged $15 every month for 200 megabytes of data. Breach that and another $15 will be levied for every 200 megabytes of data that is used in excess. AT&T however is of the opinion that this would turn out to be enough for 65 percent of its smart phone customers.
AT&T further revealed that the act of ‘tethering’ a phone to a laptop to avail of Internet access through AT&T’s network will attract an additional charge of $20 every month.
ViewSonic announces the Jin Yong E-Reader
With the Jin Yong VEB362 e-reader, ViewSonic claims what it has is the “the slimmest multi-touch eReader ever” on the back of tight dimensions of 5.28 x 8.39 x 0.35 inches. Matching the compact dimensions is its weight which stands at a comfortable 270 grams or just 0.55 pounds. Internal storage is quite generous at 2GB that’s good enough to lap up 1,500 e-books, though if you still feel cramped, you can make use of a MicroSD card that will expand your storage options further to up to 16GB. This coupled with the customizable categories truly makes the Jin Yong a personal mobile library. The Jin Yong VEB362 also comes integrated with 802.11b/g Wi-Fi which means the e-reader is capable of downloading e-books independently from a range of supported online stores. The e-reader supports PDF, ePub, HTML as well as TXT layouts.
The Latest Good E-Reader News has a twitter confirmation from that not only is Samsung releasing 3 tablets by the end of the year, including the Samsung S Pad but they have posted a new image of new 7 inch Android Tablet called the Samsung Galaxy Tab.
The South African Development team working on all 3 Samsung Tablets did a follow up Tweet that said “This particular one is a 7″ model and has a high-res TFT screen. At the top-end it has a 3.5mm jack”
No other details were given at this time, but we can see that this Tablet maintains Samsung’s TouchWiz UI. We can also see from the picture that it will take a SIM card, so it will be compatible with 3G and WI-FI, and has a MicroSD Icon.
Here and There
June E-Book Preview list is now available on our site, if you want a definitive look at all of the bestselling ebooks to be released this month for E-Readers, check it out.
We have extensive coverage on Computex from our agents in the field, many new Slate PC’s were announced, and you can view the entire coverage list here. https://goodereader.com/blog/Computex-Coverage/
The Good E-Reader Magazine for June has come out, we focus this month’s issue on 30 different Slate and Tablet PC’s to have release dates this year, it’s a very extensive list and gives you all of the information you need to know to make a buying decision.
Apple has released figures that it has sold over 2 million iPad’s to direct customers since April, which is a staggering amount and bodes well for the Slate and Tablet PC market.
The Vega tablet from ICD was announced to be in development and should have a release date soon. First off, there is a huge high resolution 15.6 inch touch screen of 1366 x 768 pixels that acts as your standard interface with the Tablet. This when most tablet manufacturers tend to lose their breath by the time they reach the 10 inch or so mark for their tablet devices. Powering the Vega will be the NVIDIA Tegra 2 Processor and will be running Google’s Android operating system, version 2.0. A 512 MB Flash memory does storage duty and if you are beginning to complain it’s just not enough, there’s a SD card slot that will expand your storage options further. The Vega comes equipped with a 512 MB RAM.
Another Windows 7 PC arrives on the scene with the Carbon Fiber HD Slate. The one thing this tablet has going for it, is the Windows 7 operating system that many users will enjoy on this offering, as well as multi-touch screen support. It sports an Intel Atom Z530 Processor which comes to around 1.6 GHZ. It comes bundled with 2 GB of RAM and a 40 GB SSD Hard Drive.
Cool-ER Compact – Interead has also confirmed that the COOL-ER Compact will also be launched during the same time though what is intriguing is the surprise omission of any mention of the COOL-ER 3G that should already have been with us by this time of the year.
Coming to the COOL-ER Connect, the e-reader will be featuring a touchscreen enabled 6-inch E-Ink screen and will sport a price tag of less than $250. Interestingly, the e-readers will be put together by Netronix who are also known to be the makers of Kobo e-reader. Interead has also confirmed that the COOL-ER Compact too will have a 6 inch screen though it will have a smaller body around it and will be devoid of touchscreen or WiFi. However, no pricing details have been announced of the COOL-ER Compact.
That about wraps it up for another edition of the Good E-Reader week in review on Tablet and Slate PCS! Stay tuned for more Audio Updates and a week in review iTunes edition to come out soon. If you want the latest monthly news on E-Readers and Slate PC’s, subscribe to the Good E-Reader Magazine Today.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
