Archive for the ‘Tablets’ Category

Huawei teases us with the MediaPad

Picking up cues from ASUS’ teasing campaign they pulled off last week for the Padfone, Huawei has also on in the mysterious tablet game, except that Huawei isn’t as mysterious as ASUS’ giving us a full-frontal shot of the tablet, as well as a side view. Judging by the objects around the tablet, it looks like it’s going to be pretty small, relative to a tea cup and a watch. Huawei also claims “the MediaPad is our smartest, smallest and lightest tablet ever – guaranteed to transform the consumer’s entertainment experience”.

Other than that we have no clues to what it could be. We’re thinking a mini, slim, entertainment-focused Android tablet. Since Huawei has been doing pretty well in the budget phone sector, let’s see how well they can handle the tablet market. Stay tuned for more details when the tablet is revealed.

Huawei teases us with the MediaPad, By Ubergizmo. Top Stories : Galaxy Tab 10.1 Review, iPad 2 Review,

Research In Motion Is Testing a Tablet

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion is testing a tablet that could act as a “companion” to its BlackBerry phone, says the Wall Street Journal.

The BlackBerry tablet is reportedly in the early stage of development and will tether to the the phone. Last month, the Boy Genius Report web site said the BlackBerry tablet is likely to have an 8.9-inch screen and include Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity.

Since Apple introduced the iPad in April, other PC and smartphone makers have announced that they are working on tablets of their own. In less than 60 days since the iPad was launched, Apple said it sold more than 2 million of them.

Earlier this month, Dell announced it will introduce a tablet called ‘Streak’ that will have a 5-inch display and run Google’s Android operating system. The Streak also has a SIM card so users can make calls with it. The device is currently available in the U.K. now and is expected to launch in the U.S. next month for $500.  HP is also working on a tablet computer called the HP Slate.

RIM hopes to introduce its tablet to complement its BlackBerry phones. The move evokes Palm’s failed experiment with the Foleo. In 2007, Palm announced the Foleo as a companion device to its Treo phone. The Foleo priced at $500 would sync wirelessly to Treo phones. But, after much criticism, Palm cancelled the device even before it could make it to retail shelves.

RIM’s tablet might be better received. A tablet could help RIM compete better with the latest generation of smartphones. Except for the BlackBerry Storm, RIM hasn’t released any smartphones with touchscreens. A tablet could help bridge the gap between its keyboard-focused phones and the fast growing market for touchscreen devices.

See Also:

• BlackBerry Maker Overhauls Phone Operating System
• 5 Things RIM Needs to Fix in its BlackBerries
• Gallery: 8 Tablets That Aren’t Made by Apple
• Hands-On With the Apple iPad

Photo: (ichibod/Flickr)

New iPad Options For Comics Fans

Comic book fans with iPads: You have two new reasons to get excited today.

A new application, Comic Viewer, has just been approved in the App Store. And today’s update of the popular e-reading app Stanza enables it to work on the iPad — and, more importantly, to display comics.

Comic Viewer comes at a reasonable price of $5, compared to the $8 you have to spit out for Comic Zeal, another comic-reading app. Still, that’s five bucks more than you’ll be spending on either the Marvel or Comics apps, which are currently free.

Comic Viewer, developed by the same guys who made the popular Kevin Smith iPhone app, has most of the features found in other comic book readers: The ability to load it up with CBR and CBZ scans, transfer files via iTunes file sharing, and read in landscape mode.

The problem is that the application doesn’t offer anything radically new or better to distinguish it from the competition. It doesn’t have Comic Zeal’s over-the-air syncing ability, or Comics’ bubble-by-bubble navigation.

Worse yet, it’s less than polished. You can pinch to zoom in, which makes reading the text easier, but then you can’t scroll or pan around the screen. You have to zoom out if you want to move onto the next image.

It does a solid job of displaying content in landscape mode, unlike Comic Zeal, which mostly fails to recognize double spreads. But you can’t zoom in at all while in landscape mode, making it virtually impossible to use.

A neat feature is an integrated web browser used to download content. That’s much less annoying than, say, the Kindle app, which launches Safari to browse the Amazon store.

So how does Stanza fare? Stanza is a popular e-reading app on the iPhone, and its appearance on the iPad should get us all excited. Just like most document-handling apps, you can use iTunes to transfer your files and load up your comics selection onto it.

Though not primarily a comic book reader, it does a good job of displaying CBR and CBZ files. In fact, it might be the snappiest of all the comics apps out there.

Comic Viewer and Stanza join a growing selection of comics readers on the iPad. Yet there isn’t a clear leader of the pack. Comics and Marvel, built on the same Comixology platform, make digital comics look beautiful, but they suffer from a limited selection and lack of flexibility.

Other readers are far from perfect, with annoying little flaws often hindering the reading experience.

Perhaps we’ll have to wait for the Panelfly app, due to come out this summer.

(Photo: Comic Viewer, Denvog.com)

JooJoo Now Available To Unsuspecting Europeans [Joojoo]

Perhaps JooJoo will be one of those things—you know, like David Hasslehoff or cheese fondue. Big in Europe. Maybe they’ll even sell more than 64? Available to France, Germany and the UK now, for €359.00/£319. [JooJoo via Blogeee] More »

JooJoo Tablet Gets a Makeover Before Launch

JooJoo, the tablet formerly known as CrunchPad, is set to land at the end of this month with several new features that weren’t seen in the early prototype.

Most noticeably, the drab, solid-colored home screen seen in the JooJoo prototype (below) has been replaced with an elegantly polished icon grid laid on top of a customizable wallpaper (above). Engadget, who first reported the story, has some exclusive screenshots posted, in addition to the one above.

Also interesting is the addition of a new text-entry option allowing you to display a smaller keyboard designed for one-handed operation, which can be dragged around to avoid interfering with content. There’s an option for a larger virtual keyboard for two-hand typing as well. The one-handed typing solution is intriguing to me, and it makes me wonder whether Apple will do something similar with its iPad. From my hands-on time with the iPad, I found the larger virtual keyboard to be unpleasant to type with compared to entering text on the iPhone.

Some more factors competing with the iPad: Flash is now fully working on the JooJoo. Videos can also be played from a thumb drive plugged into the JooJoo’s USB port.

Oddly, the hardware has changed color as well. Rather than black, it sports a champagne exterior, JooJoo maker Fusion Garage told Engadget.

The JooJoo looks sweet, and that home screen is quite attractive. But as I’ve said before, I have doubts that a vertically integrated product from this small company will succeed. The JooJoo runs its own custom operating system, and it’ll be difficult for Fusion Garage to persuade developers to code apps for a device with a relatively small user base. We’ll just have to see what happens when the JooJoo goes on sale March 25.

See Also:

• Hands On With the JooJoo, Formerly Known as CrunchPad
• JooJoo Tablet Faces Uphill Battle Against iPad
• JooJoo Tablet Set to Ship Around Same Time as iPad
• Startup Disses Arrington, Relaunches CrunchPad Tablet as JooJoo …

Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

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