1/30/2012:  Kindle Fire Outsells Estimates

Now that the bean counters have finished their tally sheets, it appears that Amazon actually sold 6 million of the $199 Kindle Fire in the fourth quarter.  This estimates comes from Stifel Nicolaus, an analyst, who put this in his recent note.  Earlier prediction of Kindle Fire Sales were in the area of 5-million units  for the period.

This is an impressive figure given that Amazon came from nowhere in the tablet market, and its sales didn’t start until mid-November.  Apple last week said it had sold 15.4 million iPad tablets in the last quarter, more than double the number it sold for the same period in 2010.

Some have estimated that the Fire accounts for up to 40% of Android sales during its first month and a half of its existence.

1/29/2012:  ARM Ultrportables on Windows 8

The ultraportable laptop category of PC is soon to get a major boost.  ARM chips, which began their life in America primarily as the brains of cell phones, has since graduated to tablet computers, running both iOS and Android designs.  But soon, beginning in February, ARM designed for laptops will be enabled to run Windows 8. 

An ARM based ultraportable will not be seen immediately on dealer shelves—I would look for that much later in the year.  But it is strongly rumored that Microsoft will release an ARM-based version of Windows 8 to developers in February.  This release is enabled by the fact that, again, according to reliable reports, Windows 8 has become stable on the new platform.

Some laptops and tablets running Widows 8/ARM designs were shown at the recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, but they were shown only behind glass walls, and nothing moved on the screens other than a fixed display sequence.  No hands were allowed to touch these devices—Win 8 was not yet stable enough to allow such liberties.  But, now, the project moves to the next stage where developers can begin testing the new OS on tablets and laptops of their own design.

The picture at right, taken at CES, shows Windows 8 running on an ARM designed device.

For those of us who use these types of machines, this is unambiguous good news.  ARM chips were originally designed to run by sipping only the slightest amount of juice—extended battery life was their reason for existing.  The only way this could be achieved was to reduce the instruction set that powered the functions of the chip.  Reduced Instruction Set Chips (RISC) were not new, but they found new life under the ARM design by being adapted for cell phones, smart phones, and, more lately, on tablets.  The iPad, iPhones, iPod and Android devices all use ARM designed chips.

What has given this design new life is the expansion of the RISC concept by introducing multiple cores in the central processing unit.  Apple’s iPad and iPhone ARM design use dual cores now.  And late last year quad-core designs were perfected, opening the larger tasks required by PCs to its domain.  Nvidia was the first fabricator to make a commercially available quad core design, and Asus was the first to market with its Tegra 3 ARM on the their Transformer Prime tablet.  Many other tablets will be seen in the coming months running Nvidia’s and other quad core ARM designs.

It is thought now that using an ARM design will reduce the price of a laptop by a couple of hundred dollars per unit.  Thee savings will be about the same whether the chip is fabricated by Texas Instruments, Qualcomm, Samsung, Nvidia, or Apple.  This means we could see fully functioning Windows 8 apps on ultraportables for $800 or less and even further as production costs are reduced by the economies of scale that invariably follow wider use.

Although there is no official announcement that Microsoft’s Office suite of apps will run under the ARM based version of Windows 8, unofficial reports say that all the Office apps run fine.  This development will be, I believe, one of the larger tech stories of 2012.  The practical implications are huge.

1/27/2012:  Moto Moves a Million

Motorola, in its quarterly statement released yesterday, assets that it shipped one million Android tablets during 2011.  The only tablet they sold during the year was the Xoom—their newer tablet, the XYBoard did not begin selling until 2012, although some could have been shipped in December.  The last quarter saw 200,000 units shipped, according to the report.

One million units is not great when compared with the 10.5 million Android tablets shipped during the year, but it may be enough to keep Motorola in the game.  Perhaps the XYBoard will sell better.

 

1/26/2012:  Android Tablets Close the Gap With iPad

At last there are real numbers that show the Android assault on the iPad is beginning to take effect. Although the data provided is of shipments—not sales to consumers—it can reasonably be assumed that the items shipped will eventually be sold. The shipments reported are for both the iPad and Android devices. The weakness in the data is that no distinction is made between shipments of 10-inch tablets and those of 7-inches. This is, in my view, an important distinction, since there is little basis for comparing a 7-inch screen with an iPad or 10.1-inch screen.

Regardless of the weaknesses of the data, it is all we have for now.  It is supplied by Strategy Analytics, a firm that advises Global 500 firms on technology issues. They specialize in tracking, analyzing and forecasting technology markets including consumer electronics and wireless devices.

According to their report, about 26.8 million tablets were shipping in the fourth quarter of 2011. Apple iOS devices accounted for 15.4 million units and Android about 10.5 million. Therefore, for the last quarter of 2011, the iPad had about 57 percent of the tablet market and Android at about 39 percent.

This is impressive when the same shipments are compared with the fourth quarter of 2010. In that year, as can be seen in the table below, Apple iOS shipments were 7.3 million units and Android 3.1 million. So, last year Apple’s share of the market was 69 percent and that of Android 29 percent.

For total units sales, Apple more than doubled its shipments and Android more tripled theirs.

This is good news for both Apple and the Android vendors. Android can compete with the iPad, but probably at lower prices overall, and the more capable Android 4.0 will probably help them compete with iOS.

Tablet Shipments Q4 10 vs Q4 11

It also convinces me that there is room for a Windows 8 tablet in the market. Windows 8 tablets are slated to debut later this year, probably in the third quarter, so the new OS will have only three or four months to work out the bugs before the 2012 Christmas selling season begins. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a slow start for Windows 8, because no matter how much in-house testing is done on a new OS, consumers always find ways to foul the best laid designs on engineers. Quick fixes are a fixture in this type of business, and wise buyers will be aware of early and unexpected problems. This may slow their initial adoption.

1/23/2012:  RIM Makes a Management Move

RIM has provided a press release that former co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie are passing the reigns to the company’s former co-COO Thorsten Heins.  Mr. worked with Siemens AG before joining RIM in 2007.

The announcement is not a surprise.  It is clear that Mr. Lazaridis and Mr. Balsille failed in their attempt to turn BlackBerry around.  Last year RIM owned about 35.8 percent of U.S. smartphone market. By November of 2011, that number had dropped almost in half to just 16.6 percent.  The stock value has faired even worse.  RIM is in deep trouble, and there are many within the industry who doubt that the latest move will be enough to turn things around.

1/21/2012:  eBook Borrowing Doubles

The demand for e-books at some major public libraries more than doubled in December and January compared to a year ago.  The Boston Public Library, the nation’s oldest, reports eBook borrowing more than tripled in December, compared to December 2010. For the first half of January, more than 700 people a day tried to borrow an e-book, or added their name to a long waiting list for some of the more popular titles.

At the New York Public Library, 2,907 e-books and materials were checked out on Dec. 26, 2011, nearly double the 1,523 checked out on the same date in 2010.  The New York Public Library carries over 20,000 eBook titles.

The increase in demand is closely tied to so many eBook readers as gifts during the Christmas season.  And this last season saw a record in eReading device sales.  It is estimated that the Kindle Fire sold over f.5 million units this last season.

Public libraries are stressed with the influx of orders.  First, they are restricted to lending of their electronic titles.  Different publishers limit the number of times an electronic title can be loaned, and some publishers do not have electronic editions.  There are some publishers who publish electronic editions but refuse to sell to libraries.  

Waiting lists for popular titles are long.

1/16/2012: Windows 8 for October?

A Microsoft executive, in an interview at CES, mentioned that it is generally three years between major upgrades to Windows, implying that October of this year is a likely time for the final release of Windows 8.  He was careful to note that this was not an official statement, but one of historical continuity, more or less.

This is important to Microsoft, of course, but it is important to the entire industry, because Windows 8 will feature a touch-screen orientation written from scratch for the first time.  Although Windows 7 was patched to add touch operations, it remained a mouse-centric OS, and the touch interface was a kludge and clumsy add-on.  Windows 8, it is hoped, will remedy these deficiencies.

But on an even larger scale, Windows 8 will also be written to run on ARM chips for the first time.  ARM is the family of Reduced Instruction Set Computers (RISC) that has taken over the cell and smartphone markets as well as tablets.  Apple uses a dual core ARM design for the iPad3, and iPhone.  Samsung, Toshiba, Motorola, Texas Instruments, Qualcomm, Acer, Asus and many others produce tablets or parts for tablets that use ARM architecture as the CPU on their devices.  Plus, the new generation of quad-core ARM chips brings its raw processing power up several notches to where it can now match the Intel designs in horsepower, at least ways important to tablet and general PC use

Of course none of the existing ARM-based tablets can run Windows.  Rather they operate on iOS, Android or QNX.  This means that owners of tablets of these devices will not be able to run any of the Windows’ Office Suite of productivity applications– Word for Windows, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.  And this limitation is the major stumbling block for making the tablet a computer capable of producing content rather than merely consuming it.

Microsoft apparently has its collective mind set on having a new generation of tablets using ARM designs but running Windows 8 as the operating system.  Owners of such a tablet could purchase an ARM-compatible Office Suite and thus not have to give up using their familiar productivity applications.

I would prefer to see Microsoft write a special version of the Office Suite for ARM chips using Android or iOS, but this probably won’t happen at first if ever.  Microsoft does sell operating systems as well as specific applications for productivity, so it seem reasonable to expect them to keep their legacy apps for their own customers. 

For now, and for the near future, iPad and Android tablet owners will have to be satisfied with working around the problem with Dropbox or other cloud solutions, but none of these solutions allow for easy creation or editing of Word, etc. documents.  However a new entry into the Office-Suite-for-iPad  category of cloud computing, Onlive Desktop, offers the most complete solution to this problem.  I will have a review of this new app in the next few days.

1/15/2012:  Sony Shows Ultraportable at CES

Sony is thinking ultrabook.  But, it doesn’t have one ready to sell yet.  It did show a preproduction model, however, but no one could put their hands on it.  From the view provided the ports can be seen: 2 USB ports including 1 USB 3.0 port. There’s also an HDMI port, VGA port, headphone jack, Ethernet jack, and a card reader which supports SD cards and Sony Memory Stick Pro Duo.

The thin laptop is also the same thickness front and back, abandoning the MacBook Air’s design of sloping to a near razor’s edge at the front.

Sony would not provide any pricing or availability information on their new ultra, so we can only surmise that it will come in a 3lbs or less, given its 13.3-inch screen.  Other specs will follow when they become available.

1/5/2012:  Acer has a New Iconia Tab

Acer is updating the 10.1-inch tablet with their new model, the Iconia Tab 200.  Their new entry into the crowded Android tablet market has graphics with a 1280 X 800 pixel screen and an NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual core processor that runs at 1 GHz.  These are fairly average numbers for tablets on the market today.

Acer insists the new model will be available in stores on January 15th, and, happily, its price will start at $329 at the low end with 8 GB memory.  The 16 GB model will sell at $349.

  This is good news for those looking an Android tablet.  The first wave of Android 10.1-inch tablets were priced at $499, and none sold well.  But, those prices have begun to fall.  It seems to me that a $300 entry price may have some chance of selling a significant number of units.

The Iconia 200 will not ship with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, but it will be up-graded from Honeycomb 3.2 to the newer Operating System in February. 

Lenovo Revamps Their ThinkPad Line with Thin and Light and a Hybrid Intel/ARM Model

Lenovo is redefining the ThinkPad line of notebooks, going with thinner, lighter models and instant-on features that are generally redefining notebooks in the new year.

A most interesting model is their X1 series of notebooks.  The X-series has always featured  ultra-small designs, and usually featured the most powerful ultras one could find.  Expense was never an objective for this line. 

The new X1 Hybrid is well within this tradition.  It features a fanless “Instant Media Mode” of operation that does not load Windows or rely on an Intel processor.  Rather Lenovo has put a Qualcomm dual-core processor on the motherboard that runs on a version of Android when the Intel processor is not running.

This feature allows many functions to be completed without using the more powerful Intel i5 or i7 capabilities.  Web surfing, video and picture viewing, check email or listen to music—all can be done using the Qualcomm ARM chip while the Intel chip is turned off.

Among the benefits of this configuration is that the battery life is doubled to 10-hours, and an instant awakening from an idle mode.  If more heavy duty work is required, Windows apps can be invoked by starting up the Intel engine.

The weight of the new X1 is 3.7-pounds chassis,  a 13-inch (1366 x 768) Gorilla Glass display. It’ll be offered with Core i3, i5 and i7 processors, a 3G radio and a slice battery that adds up to five more hours of battery life. It’ll be available sometime in the second quarter for $1,599 and up.

The dimensions are not published, but it will probably about the same thickness of last year’s model, so it cannot bear the new definition of Intel’s Ultrabook specifications, but it will be still be thin compared with the older line of Thinkpads.  It will also have the fabulous keyboard that is unique to Thinkpads.  The Android Marketplace will not be available to this version of Android.

There are many new Lenovo models announced that do qualify for the Intel definition of Ultrabooks, and they will be detailed in another post.

1/3/2012:  Asus to Debut New 7-inch Tablet at CES

Asus has released the picture at left of their new Eee Memo Pad, a 7-inch tablet that is run by a 1.2 GHz Snapdragon dual core processor and supports 16GB to 64GH of internal storage.  It will have a built in 3G and WiFi, with a screen resolution of 1,280 X 800. 

No word on pricing yet, but it will most likely be shown at the up-coming CES in Las Vegas on January 10th.  The new tablet is slated to be introduced in Asia before making it to America.

RIM puts BlackBerry Playbook on Sale

Research in motion has put its Blackberry Playbook on sale from its web site for $299.  The odd part of this story is that the price of the 16GB, 32GB and 64GB units all sell at the same price.  They are probably looking to sell out their existing inventory, so the larger memory units will probably go first. 

It makes me wonder if RIM will stay in the tablet business given their terrible experience with their first try.  But, they have a large installed base of business accounts that want tablets, so they may feel the heat to come out with a new, improved tablet to satisfy this critical part of their market.

1/1/2012:  Sony’s S Tablet Price is Cut $100

Happy New Year!  I look forward to an exciting 2012, with hundreds of new products slated for introduction over the next twelve months.  I also look forward to lower prices on many products that help readers in their quest for convenience in pursuing their hobby.

To start the new year off, Sony is reducing the price of their S Tablet by $100.  A brand new 16GB model of the S will now retail for $399, and the 32GB model will hereafter sell for $499.

Their Android S Tablet has generally had good reviews.  It is often the second choice to the iPad2, coming in ahead of the Galaxy Tab 10.1.  Some of the reviewers put it just behind the Galaxy.

The screen size of the S Tablet is an odd 9.4-inches, but its operation is similar to the 10.1-inches of most Android devices and the iPad2’s 9.7-inch screen.

With its ability to play PlayStation games, it was expected to sell well, but has not generated the revenue Sony anticipated.  There is a review of this model here at ereadersreview.net(Click here for review)

Of all the Android-based tablets that have been brought to market this near, none have made any significant progress against the leader, the Apple iPad, except the recently introduced Kindle Fire.

Wisely avoiding a head-to-head competition with the iPad, Amazon chose a smaller form factor and one oriented more to the e-reader market and its needs than to the wider audience that the iPad appeals to.  Yet the Fire is, after all, still an Android-based machine, but with extensive customization of the interface and tight integration with all of Amazon’s products and services. 

Now we have the beginning of estimated sales data, and the data supports the wisdom of Amazon in doing with their new tablet what they did.  A business information services company, HIS says:

“. . .Amazon will ship 3.9 million Kindle Fire tablets during the last three months of 2011, giving the company a 13.8 percent share of tablet shipments in the fourth quarter, beating out the 4.8 percent held by Samsung. Apple is pegged to control 65.6 percent of the market.”

The same data also shows that Barnes and Noble did a good job on their new tablet, the Nook Tablet.  It has established itself solidly behind Samsung in fourth place with around 4% of the market. 

The success of the Fire, specifically, shows the marketing muscle of Amazon, and is a tribute to their design team—as is the Nook Tablet.  The iPad can be taken on, but the most successful firm in doing it did it with a smaller (e-reader-sized) screen and a reduced functionality.  But, more importantly, it also comes in less than half the price of the iPad.  These factors, coupled with Amazon’s loyal customer base and marketing muscle, explain much of their success.

This success story may give other manufacturers some hope, but it also a warning.  Android cannot take on iOS directly.  Their interface is not as polished or consistent, although I hope the newest version, 4.0, will go some distance in closing this gap. 

But close is not good enough in the tablet market.  A price reduction is mandatory for those who aspire to take on Apple.  Look at the failures of Motorola’s Xoom, RIM’s BlackBerry Playbook and HP’s tablet.  Close isn’t enough. 

BlackBerry, similar to HP, has found, perhaps a sweeter spot at $200 than at $500, but it is far from clear that their 7-incher is yet a viable product.  This venerable firm had to take a half-a-billion dollar write-down on their existing inventory this last quarter.  I can’t see how this is good news for anyone but to the guys and gals from Cupertino.

Another piece of good news for those of us who buy this stuff, is that the 7-inch segment of the tablet market may have found its proper place.  At $200, it is viable.  The problem with this is that no one can make and sell a good quality 7-inch tablet at that price.  It is reported by those that follow the accounting statements and finances of Amazon that the Fire costs them a dollar or two more than $200—but they can make up the difference with the sale of all the other stuff they sell.  Samsung, HTC, Motorola, Toshiba and countless others don’t have this luxury.

Perhaps I should exempt Motorola from this category, however, because it is now owned by Google.  It is understood that Google does have aspirations to rival Amazon in the sale of books and other stuff, and they have made moves in that area.  But the Xoom is supposedly an autonomous division of Google, so on their own, the executives of that division could not sell their product for less than it costs to produce it.  Google has some organizational issues to deal with if they want their product to compete in this market.  They may have to adopt the old Gillette strategy of giving away the razor to make their profit on the blades.

 

The honor of being the first tablet running the new generation quad-core processor belongs to Asus.  Using the brand-new Tegra 3 (you remember, the Tegra 2 had two cores, so the Tegra 3 has four?), the new Transformer Prime blows away all other tablets running on an ARM-based chip.

There are several preliminary reviews out, and all of them remark on how blazingly fast the new chip is.  J.R. Raphael, reviewing the new Transformer for Computer World said: “. . .at first impression, the Transformer Prime just flies. I mean, this tablet is fast. I’m honestly not sure quad-core is something an average tablet user truly needs at this point, but for a power-user, gamer, or anyone who just wants top-of-the-line technology, the added processing muscle puts the Prime in a league of its own.”

Other reviewers have said about the same thing.  There will be other quad-core tablets coming out by the beginning of the year.  The iPad3 may have one, too.

But that is not the entire story of the Transformer Prime.  It has been significantly slimmed down from its earlier form, and the build quality is uniformly praised.  Android 3.2.1 is the version it is shipping with now, or will on December 19th.  But Asus promises an early upgrade to the newer version 4.0 soon.

Notice from the picture above that the tablet part of the Transformer docks with a keyboard and becomes an almost regular notebook computer.  The picture below is blown up a bit to give a better picture of how the two items work together. 

Of course, it is not mandatory that a buyer of the tablet purchase the keyboard dock.  It runs an extra $150, but it includes both a full sized USB 2.0 port and SD slot.  It also included an extra battery that adds an extra six or so hours to the otherwise long battery life of the tablet.  The tablet itself has a mini HDMI out and mini SD port.

The full review can be read by clicking on this link.

The new Transformer has a suggested retail price of $499, which puts is squarely in the iPad2 camp.  Quite obviously Asus feels that with its full slate of attributes it can go head-to-head with the Apple product.

Asus does not have a full monopoly on a transforming system.  Apple, Samsung, Motorola, and Toshiba all have special keyboards that fit their tablets.  But, these are simply keyboards.  The Asus product is a full-fledged dock.  It has all the docking facilities we expect, including enhanced battery life and other ports.

This development also points out another problem that is infecting all of today’s tablets, except those that run Windows.  The problem is that there is not a full-fledged word processing application that runs on the ARM systems. 

Microsoft has promised that it Microsoft Office suite will soon be re-written to run on the ARM architecture, but no specifics about features, prices or when it will be available. This leaves tablet owners with the distinct disadvantage of not being able to bring full production capabilities to this form factor.  And with the power of a quad-core processor, surely ARM could handle the Office suite’s heavy processing requirements.

Once these legacy applications are brought to the tablet, then an entirely new group of buyers will be drawn to this new phenomenon, and tablet sales will become stratospheric compared to what they are today.  At that point, a transformed tablet will be the equivalent, or at lease near-equivalent, of a laptop computer.

The iPad at least has Pages, its native word processing application.  And, it sells for $10.  Although it is anemic compared with Word or Word Perfect, it does allow a reasonably competent system of creating a text document with graphics, too.  But getting Pages data into a Word document requires multiple steps.  A native Word for the ARM world will solve many problems, and I am sure the hardware folks are licking their chops at the prospect.  It will probably be done sometime in 2012.

Bllack Friday is coming up soon, and the special items that retailers use to attract customers to their store are booming this year.  Some of these offers are especially attractive to those who like to read electronically, so I have filtered through the offers to construct the list following:

• BestBuy:  Acer Iconia A100 @ $190. 

The Acer Iconia A100, shown on right, is a normally much more expensive, but it is going for $190 at BestBuy only on Black Friday.  This tablet is not the equal of the latest Samsung Tab 7.0 plus or the HTC Flyer, but is equal and exceeds the Kindle Fire, at least in some uses.  Being a “pure” Android 2.3 device, it has full access to the Android Marketplace, which means it will run virtually everyone’s eReading software:  Kindle, Nook, Sony, Kobo, Google, and many others.

So if eReading is one of the things you would do on a Kindle Fire, look to the A100 as equal to the task.  Although you would give up the tight integration into the Amazon website for movies, books, music and magazines\, you can surf much faster, check you email well, and run all the Android apps.  I would give serious thought of using this device in place of the Fire if you want to have a more competent tablet as a tablet plus as an eReader.

• Asus Transformer:  @ $250.  The Transformer turns a 10.1 inch tablet, which seems competent in its own right, into a netbook, if you buy the keyboard/docking station that is sold separately.  So, for an extra $100 you get the best of the tablet and netbook.  At $250 it is only $50 more than the Kindle Fire, and it will run all the Android eReading software.  Something definitely worth checking out.

With a regular price of $399, it is $50 less than half price. If you are considering a netbook, this one is worth checking out.   It runs a verson of Andoid that has all the imporant eReader software availeble, so it would make a fine eReader machine plue a more fully functioning tablet/netbook.

Toshiba Thrive 10.1-inch Tablet @ $280. Running Android 3.2 with 8 GB of memory, this is a great price for a full-featured tablet computer with WiFi.  It will also run all the Android eReading software.  For another $50 you can upgrade to the 16Gb version.

Staples:

• BlackBerry Playbook, WiFi @ $199.  This tablet, highly touted when first introduced earlier this year, is still less than a fully function tablet, but the omissions to its feature set will be corrected in early 2012.  As asubstitute for the Kindle Fire it might be a good replacement.  It has the same internal processor as the Fire, but it has a excellent new OS dubbed WebOS.  An innovative design with fast execution and a bright screen, at this price is competes well with the Fire and Nook Tablet.  I don’t know if the Nook reader is available yet, but the Kindle Reader is.
• Acer Iconia A500 (10.1-inch screen) @ $300.  I don’t know the build quality of this Acer product, but if it is a solid machine, it represents a good value for an iPad substitute.  Android, at its current stage of existence, is not a full substitute for the Apple product, but with every new iteration of its OS it get closer.  At almost half the price, it is well worth checking out, especially as an eReader.

 

Office Depot:

• Lenovo Idea Pad K1 10.1-Inch Tablet @ $300

The Lenovo K1 is a competent 10.1-inch tablet with specs equivalent to many of the Android 10.1-inch tablets on the market today.  This $300 price may represent the new pricing point for those devices not quite up the the iPad standards, and $200 lower in price 

This tablet will have all the eReader software available to other Android devices, and would represent  a good buy for a well designed and built machine.

Apple Stores and Apple On-line

• MacBooks (Air, and Pro Models) off up to $101.

Apple doesn’t often discount its products, but Black Friday gives them a chance to clear out the inventory of many of their products.  The MacBook Air, a popular ultra-thin portable, will be about $100 less than usual, according to some rumor sources.  The MacBook Air represents the standard of the new ultra-thin portables.  No other vendor can match its looks or performance.  $101 off is not a steep discount, but it represents a fairly consistent way Apple cleans out its inventory with shallow discounts.  Such is the demand for their products.  The Air is available in 11.6-inch and 13-inch models ranging in regular price from $999 to almost $1300 for the 13-inch screen.  These will probably be the best prices one can expect for these highly valued machines.  Both the Air and MacBook Pro models have good eReading software from everyone who counts in the industry.

The MacBook Pro, the heavier model that has, for years, represented Apple’s standard for a conventional portable computer, is now giving way to the Air, with its lighter, thinner design.  You can go all the way up to an Intel i7 with this model, and a $100 off is probably is as good as it’s going to get.  

The model will probably be around for a few more years.  It has, of course, all the eReading software one could ask for.

 

iPad 2 @ $41 to $61 Off

The iPad 3 is headed to market by March or April of 2012, so Apple has some iPad2’s to close out.  As discounts go, these are not killer amounts, but it what we should expect from Apple. This firm has always maintained it high price points.

It looks like an exciting day on the busiest shopping day of the year. BestBuy is opening their stores at midnight. Arrive early if you have your sights set on a particular product. eReading on the iPad is fine, but it is a little heavy for long-session reading.  The King of the tablets gives nothing away as the best of the best in the tablet world.

Bon shopping.

9/30/2011:  Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus Coming

The Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus was unveiled today, delivering an Android 3.2 Honeycomb tablet that comes with a 7-inch display and a 1.2GHz dual-core processor. Boasting 802.11n wireless support as well as HSPA+ compatibilities, the new tablet also comes in two sizes: 16GB or 32GB with a microSD slot to add more storage.

No pricing is available yet which is not surprising given the blockbuster pricing announcement made by Amazon a couple of days ago.  It is rumored the Tab 7.0 Plus will sell for $200 with a 4G data plan contract with T-Mobile., but this has not been verified, nor has the availability of this new tablet.

It will be rolled out in Australia in October, and, presumably, later in the U.S. market.

9/27/2011:  Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 In Next Few Days

The Galaxy Tab 8.9 will be available for sale in the United States beginning October 2, according to Samsung.  Along with the announcement of the new device’s availability Samsung also mentioned a 4and 5-inch media player that will be available soon after that.

The price of the Tab 8.9 is said to be $469 for the 16GB version, with higher prices for more memory.  The new model is also apparently a WiFi-only model.  Perhaps 3/4G versions will be offered later.  Screen resolution is strong, at 1280 X 800, so the graphics should be great.

8/26/2011: Motorola Xoom in New 8.2 and 10.1-inch Models?

The rumor mills are flying now with photographs of two new Motorola Xooms in the factory. The top picture above is of the new 8.2-inch Xoom, supposedly to be called Xoom 2 Media Edition.  The second picture is of the back sides of the 10.1 and 8.2-inch Xoom 2.

The current preproduction models are said to be full of bugs, so it may be some time yet before we see these new machines.

The original Xoom does need an update to be faster and have more capacity, as well as lose some weight.  My first guess is that we will see both these new devices before December.

The news of the leaks have been reported in several blogs this morning.

9/24/2011:  Color Kindle Announcement on Wednesday?

All eyes will be on New York, N.Y. this coming Wednesday as Amazon convenes it recently announced press conference there.  The timing of the announcement and the mailing list of invitees strongly supports the supposition that the announcement will be about the Color Kindle, the highly touted potential competitor to the iPad2.

It is no longer a secret that a Color Kindle is in the works.  This has been confirmed by the top executives of Amazon.  Neither is it doubted that the new device is slated to be available for the upcoming holiday sales season.  Given this state of affairs, an announcement of its future availability will help put a stop to some of the early Christmas shopping for tablets, especially for Kindle aficionados.  It would be a major mistake to wait much longer before at least announcing the details of their new gadget.

It is possible, of course, that they could be announcing a new thinner touch Kindle or some other item.  But this scenario seems decidedly unlikely.  October is less than a week away.  The Christmas selling season is looming large.

I look for a seven-inch device, more like the Nook Color in design and price than the iPad2.  But I don’t know.  It could actually be more than one form factor—perhaps a seven-inch and a 10.1, too.

9/22/2011: Kindle Accepts Library eBooks

Amazon’s Kindle, for most of its existence, has been the leader in both sales and features of electronic books and book readers.  But for the last year or so it has lost the feature leadership to Nook and Nook Color.  The Nook was one of the first to joint the public library eBook lending.  Even the stodgy old Sony Reader series could borrow books from a public library.  Kindle was left out of this important ability, as is has in touch control.

But this changes today.  Now Kindle owners can set up a borrowing account with their local library and “borrow” an eBook for two weeks.

This move was done in the face of a clear trend for public libraries to get into the eBook business—pushed, of course, by the many eReader owners.  The growth statistics of library lending of eBooks is impressive.  From January to September of this year, according the to New York Times, the number of e-books checked out from public libraries increased by 75 percent over the same period last year.

There has also been an astounding growth of libraries around the nation that offer access to eBooks.  Two years ago only 12 percent of public libraries had this ability.  Today it is 67 percent.

Forrester Research estimates that roughly 15 million eReaders would be purchased in the U.S. this year, which will increase the demand for electronic services even more.

It is good to see Amazon responding to this new wrinkle in the electronic reading market.  The strength of the Kindle brand will contribute significantly to the growth of electronic reading of books and magazines, and it will help the Kindle stay competitive to an increasingly effective competition from Barnes and Noble and other reader sellers.

9/22/2011:  RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook Sales  About 1/4th of Projections

In April of this year, RIM forecast sales of 4-5 million PlayBooks in 2011. Unfortunately, RIM shipped fewer than 800,000 units during the first half of 2011 and monthly shipments have dropped to about 100,000 units in the third quarter, according to their manufacturer in Taiwan.

The discrepancy in the difference in forecast and actual sales is attributable to several factors:  features on the PlayBook were decidedly lacking, depending on owning a BlackBerry smartphone to even get one’s email or access to contacts, and the price was too high.

The PlayBook was originally priced at $499—the price of a low-end iPad, but the owner would get only a fraction of the screen size for the same money, not to mention fewer features and a more stable operating system.

In an earlier article I noted that the 7-inch tablet cannot reasonably be expected to sell for the same price as a full-sized tablet.  And, it appears, RIM is getting the picture.  They are offering some Canadian citizens who work for one of the primary cell-phone service providers a half-priced PlayBook.  I hope this price will stick, because that is probably the only way they can begin to meet their inflated sales expectations.

9/20/2011:  Samsung Galaxy 8.9 to Launch Sept. 22 at Best Buy

Samsung has announced that its new 8.9-inch tablet will be offered at most Best Buy stores on September 22.  Some stores will not get their inventory until the 25th, however.

This is a new form factor that places the screen size just under the iPads’s 9.7-inches and 1.3-inches above their new 7.7-inch device.

In my testing I find the 7-inch form factor to be almost unusable for ordinary surfing, since a full web page cannot be viewed in a readable font size.  But, the 8.9-inch may solve this problem, although there will be much added weight.

But the smaller dimensions are handy for eReading, eMail and other activities where the screen size is less critical. The small size make for easier hand holding and stuffing in a back pocket. The industry will, some day, settle on some standard sizes, but in its current stage, every brand seems to be searching for the best size for customers.

The specifications for this new form factor include overall dimensions of 9.1” X 6.2” X .3”.  Weight is under one pound.  This may be a viable product, but the final verdict will have to wait until some hands-on time.  I will file a report as soon as my local store gets its inventory. Comparing a couple of other small screen form factors.

Length/Width	Screen Size	% of iPad 2	Brand
9.1 X 6.2	56.42 Sq.Inches	81%	Galaxy Tab 8.9
7.48 X 4.74	35.45 Sq.Inches	51%	Galaxy Tab 7
10.1 X 6.9	69.69 Sq. inches	100.36%	Galaxy Tab 10.1
9.5 X 7.31	69.44 Sq. Inches	100%	iPad 2

The price of the 8.9-inch tablet is said to be $470 for the 16GB model, which is 94% of the iPad2’s $599.  This makes it more expensive per square inch of screen size, but apparently Samsung is counting on the benefits of the smaller screen and weight to make up for this discrepancy. 

9/16/2011:  RIM BlackBerry Playbook Heading for Lower Price

The rumors are that the BlackBerry Playbook, RIM’s 7-inch tablet, will soon fall in price, although no one is saying how much the price cut will be.  Sales of the Playbook have been from half to one third projections.  About 900,000 have been sold, but the units are nor measured in sales to customers but in sales to stores.  So no one knows yet how many have actually reached customer hands.

RIM’s profits for the last quarter were down over 50% from the previous year, so something must be done to correct the problem.  Since a brisk selling tablet was part of the company’s strategy for success this year, adjustments must be made.

The rumors are also stating that a coming software upgrade will bring a native email application and other enhancements, so the upgrade should help push sales when combined with lower prices.

Prices on 7-inch tablets has been dropping lately, so I would look for a $399 price or even lower. 

9/13/2011:  Windows 8 On Display on Tablet

Windows 8, the new OS from Microsoft that represents Microsoft’s answer to the touch interface of Apple’s IOS, is demonstrated in the video of Engadget. Click her for video and article on a hands-on demo.

5/20/2011:  eBooks at Amazon Outsell All Print Copies

Amazon announced that since April 1 of this year, sales of Kindle books at their site have exceeded sales of all print titles.  According to their press release, for every 100 printed books sold, 105 eBooks are sold.  Furthermore, free books are not included in the sales figures.

This change has been building for several years.  eBooks sales exceeded hard-cover sales last year.  But now both hardcover and paperbacks combined sell fewer copies than the Kindle books.

5/11/2011: New Android Releases To Be Consistent

The Android Operating System has been an astounding success.  According to Google, 310 different devices run on Android, and there have been more than 100 million activations of the OS to date.

But there have been problems.  There are so many versions of Android that work on only one devices, and the versions between devices is confusing to everyone, developers and the public. 

Google announced that a new release out later this year will be of a new type.  Any application written for any Android device will work on any other Android devices.  To accomplish, the app will adjust itself to whatever device it runs on.  Thus, a developer who releases an app for a smartphone will find that the same application will work on tablets and television sets.  The version number will no longer relate to any specific device.

This is huge for Android.  Not only developers but those who use the app will also gain much from this consistency.

5/06/2011:  Kindle to Walmart Stores Soon

Walmart has been selling eReaders for a long time, but they have not sold the most popular eReader, Amazon’s Kindle.  Walmart offered the Nook and a cheap Kobo to their shoppers.  But that deficit will be remedied with a couple of weeks as the nation’s largest retailer picks up the nation’s most popular eReader, the Kindle 3G and the cheaper WiFi-version that is ad-supported.

This is probably the final stage of the life of the Kindle and other E-Ink readers.  Tablets have been eating into their once sacred domain, and recent data from Nielson suggests the transition from a single-purpose reader to a multi-talented iPad, or Xoom or Galaxy Tab is strongly under way.  Only steep price drops will keep the E-Ink devices in the game.  Perhaps we will see a $75 Kindle in the future, or even a $50 price tag for the low end units.

5/5/2011: Barnes and Noble With a New eReader?

Barnes & Noble has filed an 8-K form with the SEC that reveals its intentions to introduce a new e-reader.

“The form, filed earlier today, says that the company "indicated it expects to make an announcement on May 24, 2011 regarding the launch of a new eReader device. . ." Considering the Nook Color just got Froyo, is it possible we’ll be seeing a Honeycomb version come the 24th?” (Engadget)

Nothing more is known about B&N intentions, but I will be monitoring this with great interest.  Is it possible they will beat Amazon to the punch again by bring out a full-fledged Android tablet to market?  Stay tuned.

4/28/2011:Moto Xoom Sells 250K Units 1st Month

Motorola reported that they sold 250,000 Xooms in the first month of its young life.  Apple’s iPad 2 has sold about 4.7 million over the same period.  There is some speculation as to whether Xoom is a success or a failure, although it is impossible to say unless the sales goals Moto had for its tablet were known. I have yet to read a single review of the Xoom that put it on parity with the iPad, so given its high price and limited configuration offerings, it seems like a moderate success.  Motorola expects to sell 1.5 to 2 million units for the full year.

A better test of Android’s operating system 3.0 will be when Acer, Asus, Samsung and Toshiba announce the sales of their10-inch tablets.  By the end of the first half of the year, we will have a better picture.

4/27/2011: Archos’ Arnova 8 Tablet Now Available

Archos, the maker of cheap tablets and other devices, has their latest tablet, the Arnova 8, a $161 budget tablet, available for shipping at Amazon now.   The tablet has an 8 inch, 800 x 600 pixel display, Google Android 2.1, 4GB of storage, and support for 720p HD video playback.

These are not impressive specs.  It has has a resistive touchscreen rather than capacitive and has an estimated battery life of up to 5.5 hours of video playback.

This device doesn’t qualify as a quality tablet, but at $161 plus shipping it may be of interest to some buyers.  It could do email, for example, and it has WiFi g.

Asus Eee Pad Transformer Sold Out on First Day

“The tablet just went on sale in the States, and it’s already out of stock at most retailers. Buy.com, Amazon, B&H, TigerDirect, DataVision, Newegg, and Best Buy all show the tablet as either out of stock or available for pre-order.”  source: Liliputing

It isn’t known how many units the retailers had in stock when the sale began, but it must have been few.  But all of them running out so soon seems to indicate a strong potential demand for the new tablet/keyboard combination.

4/25/2011: World’s Only Typewriter Factory Closing

The last standing typewriter factory in the world, Godrej and Boyce, is closing its plant in Mumbai, India.

Typewriter sales have plummeted in the past several years: the company sold less than 800 machines in 2010, down from the 50,000 it produced every year in the 1990s.

The last models produced were for the Arabic language.

Time marches on.

4/24/2011:  Nook Color Upgrades to Android 2.2, Adds Apps

Barnes and Noble is sending out an over the air upgrade to its Nook Color owners.  The upgrade will install Android 2.2 on their device and give users access to the Nook Color’s own app store.

The new app store has about 125 appst to begin with, some free, some paid, including Angry Birds, as you can see from the upper right icon on the photo to the right.

The new app also include a default email application, which, when added to an upgraded web browser, brings significant enhancements to the eReader that make it closer to a standard Android 7-inch tablet.

The upgrade will be rolled out over the next few weeks to existing Nook Color owners.

Dell Streak 7-inch Tablet, WiFi Only for $399

Dell is ready to begin selling its 7-inch Streak with WiFi-only for delivery in a week or so.  Dell’s price for the WiFi model is $399.  Amazon is charging $20 less on their site.

04/23/2911 $499 HTC Flyer 7-inch tablet pre-sale next week at Best Buy

Best Buy will begin taking pre-sale orders for the HTC Flyer 7 inch Android tablet on Monday, April 25th. The tablet will be available in the US later this spring at $499.

The HTC Flyer features a 7 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel capacitive touchscreen display.  It joins a fairly limited field of 7-inch screen tablet.  The Flyer will also accept pressure-sensitive input from an included stylus.  This ability gives it an edge against Samsung’s Galaxy Tab and the BlackBerry Playbook, neither of which accept pen input..

The tablet has a 1.5 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon single core processor and runs a customized version of Google Android 2.3. An Android 3.0 Honeycomb update is expected later this year.

/22/2011: Kindle eReader App for Android Up-dated For 3.0

The original Kindle eReader app for android was for smartphone-sized screens.  Although it would work on the Honeycomb 3.0 version, which was designed for tablets, it did not take advantage of the many features of the new OS.

Amazon has now fixed the problem by releasing a 3.0 version of the Kindle eReader software for Android.  This is good news for those who are in the market for one of the many new Android tablets coming to market.

The new tablet version offers a new layout for newspapers, magazines and is optimized to take advantage of the larger tablet form factor.

This was an essential update if Amazon want to continue its “buy once, read everywhere” policy.

4/21/2011;  Asus Eee Tab Transformer in U.S. April 26th, $399

This is good news for tablet buyers.  My earlier article (Click Here) provides the specifications and a couple of reviews.  A keyboard that attaches in a way to give it a notebook look and feel is said to cost another $150.  When Microsoft brings out an ARM based Windows this will be a viable product for laptop replacement.

4/20/2011: Amazon To Allow Kindles to Join Library Lending Services

Amazon announced Wednesday that it would join a library loan program for electronic books. The press release didn’t say the precise day the program would begin, but simply said “Later this year.”

More than 11,000 libraries in the United States participate in this electronic-book-loaning program, managed by a company called OverDrive. To see if your library has a contract with OverDrive, go to overdrivesearch.com and type in your ZIP code.

Amazon is late to the lending party. The Barnes & Noble Nook and Sony Readers already allow users to check out digital books from their local libraries using the service. The company offers more than 400,000 digital books and has had a library loan program for e-books since 2003.

The electronic-book checkout process is similar to that for real-world books. Eligible books are checked out for a certain period of time — two weeks in many cases — after which they become locked and inaccessible on a person’s e-reading device.

One needn’t own a Kindle to use the service, but it is necessary to have the free Kindle app on the device you want to use for reading the book.  This can include Android smartphones, iPads, PCs, BlackBerries, Macs, iPhones, iPods and Windows Phone 7s.

4/19/2011: LG G-Slate on Sale Tomorrow at T-Mobile

LG’s G-Slate for-Mobile goes on sale in the US tomorrow, for $529.99 after rebate with a 2-year service plan. It will run $729 with no contract..

The G-Slate features an 8.9 inch, 1280 x 768 pixel HD display, a 1 GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual core processor, 32GB of storage, and runs Google Android 3.0 Honeycomb. It features an HSPA+ modem for speedy mobile interenet access.

It also has a 3D camera.

The early reviews for the tablet are in, and here’s what people have to say:

• BGR: The G-Slate has excellent build quality, but there still aren’t many apps designed specifically for Android 3.0 tablets. The 3D video feature apparently works well, but BGR dismisses it as a “novelty.”
• Laptop Magazine: The 8.9 inch display makes the tablet smaller than other tablets, but it weighs just as much as the Apple iPad 2. The viewing angles are great and the screen is very bright, but text seemed a bit too sharp on some web pages. (That’s a problem I experience regularly on 10 inch netbooks with HD displays).

• Android Community: The tablet is one of the fastest around in terms of benchmarks, and the battery life is on-par with the Motorola XOOM.
• TechnoBuffalo: The form factor is great, but T-Mobile’s HSPA+ isn’t as fast as Verizon’s LTE.
• SlashGear: Aside from the pointless 3D feature, SG seems to like the tablet — but not the price tag.
• Engadget: One of the few reviews to run a real battery life test, Engadget found the tablet ran for over 8 hours when playing HD video. That’s about the same as the Motorola XOOM but it falls short of the Apple iPad or iPad 2.

Also, Edgadget rated it:

Narrower profile fits nicely in the hand
Lighter than the Xoom
Solid 4G speeds

Plasticy back
No WiFi version available
Poor cameras

it weighs 1.3lb;

Review of Engadget: Click here.

4/15/2011:  E-Book Sales Take Over

From a CNN report:

“The publishing tide is shifting fast: E-book sales in February topped all other formats, including paperbacks and hardcovers, according to an industry report released this week.

E-book sales totaled $90.3 million in February, up 202% compared to the same month a year earlier, according to a study from the Association of American Publishers. That put e-books at No. 1 "among all categories of trade publishing" that month — the first time e-books have beaten out traditional publishing formats.

Update on BlackBerry Playbook Reviews

For an answer to the recent criticism of RIM’s new PlayBook, the BlackBerry CEO, Jim Balsillie, said in a Bloomberg interview that  "We’ll have an over the air email client to announce very very soon. We haveBlackBerry World — our user conference — in a couple weeks. Stay tuned for all capabilities we have coming out on this stuff."

The reference to the email client was the absence of that critical application on the PlayBook itself.  Owners of BlackBerry phones can link their devices to the new PlayBook and take advantage of the phone’s email capabilities, but this was not seen as sufficient for most users.

The reference to BlackBerry World was referring to the absence of many apps for the new device.  Although they promise Android apps and the legacy BlackBerry apps will eventually work on the PlayBook, it is just a promise.  For those buying today, that isn’t much consolation.  If the “couple of weeks” prediction is true, it means that there will be some apps available when the new gizmo begins selling later this month.

RIM stock declined 3% yesterday after the raft of middling reviews were absorbed by investors.

New Generation 13.4-inch ultra-portable announced by MSI

My recent post about the new generation of 11.6-inch ultra-portables can be updated for a new entry into the market, although with almost two additional diagonal inches of screen real estate. MSI, the originators of the netbook, announced their new 13.4-inch ultra-portable, the X370.  Their new gadget uses the same AMD Fusion dual-core processor that Lenovo, HP and Sony use, the E-350.

4GB of memory, a 500GB hard drive, HDMI-out are included along with a 1.3MP webcam, a 4-in-one card reader and an 8-cell battery for about 7 hours of use time. It weighs 3.8 lbs with the 8-cell battery.

Listed at $599, Amazon is taking orders for $579.

My review article of the new generation of ultra-portables is seen Here.

For a Laptop Magazine review of the new MSI, click here.

4/13/2011: Video of The New WebOS Emulator in Action

An instructive video of how HP’s WebOS will look and feel when the HP Tab is released.

 

 

4/11/2011:  Kindle Price Falls to $114 With Ads

Amazon announced today that the new Kindle with Special Offers will sell of $114 — $25 less than the currently lowest-priced Kindle.  The price reduction comes at a cost, however, as ads will be shown at the bottom of the device’s home page and its screen savers.  The new units will begin shipping on May 3, and it will also be sold in Target and Best Buy stores on that date.

This is another of a long line of price reductions of the Kindle, which began its life at a price of $399 in 2007.  No word on the Nook, yet.  It will be interesting to see if Barnes and Noble responds or keeps the Nook ad-free.

4/8/2011:  Acer Joins The Tablet Fray:  $450 10-Inch Model

Acer has announced its entry into the tablet world with its Iconia Tab A500 that will be available for sale in Best Buy and other retailers on April 24th for $450.

The new tablet will run Android 3.0, and the specs are impressive, essentially duplicating the Motorola Xoom:  a dual-core 1GHz Tegra 250 SOC, a 10.1-inch 1280 x 800 LCD screen, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of flash storage, a 5 megapixel camera around back and a 2 megapixel imager up front, HDMI-out, not to mention a pair of 3260mAh batteries that Acer claims are capable of eight full hours of life while playing HD video.

No reviews are out yet, but I expect some soon.   This is important because it breaks the $500 price barrier for a full-featured tablet.

Apple Applies For Patent on E-ink/LCD Switching Display

According to information released by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, Apple has applied for a patent that will allow displays on a screen to switch between LCD full color and an e-ink paper.  The device would detect when an eReading environment was needed and switch from internal illumination to e-Ink, making the display easier on the eyes and be capable of being read in direct sunlight.

This must be sending shivers through Amazon’s R&D department, for it would completely obviate the need for a separate Kindle-type of eReader in addition to, say, an iPad.

The sketch to the right is from the patent application according to AppleInsider.

This is only a patent application, so it is far from being a product, but it seems like a sterling idea to me.  I am one of those who likes to read on the light-weight Kindle with its e-Ink screen, so I have to carry it with me if I’m traveling.

Admittedly tablets are heavier and can’t be held as long as the Kindle, but it would still be a big advantage not to have to carry two devices.

 

4/7/2011:  Samsung Galaxy Tab WiFi for $350

The Galaxy Tab has not been a good seller for Samsung.  It was priced too high, way too high, and its feature set was good but not outstanding.  The prices of its 3G models have been slipping, and now the WiFi-only version is to go on sale April 10 for $350.  This price puts it $100 above the Nook Color, but its design and feature set may justify a slightly higher price, but the specs on it are less than compelling than they were last year.

It includes a 1 GHz Samsung Hummingbird processor, a 7 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel capacitive touchscreen display and runs Google Android 2.2. It has 16GB of storage and weighs 13 ounces. It’s also one of the few Android 2.2 tablets to come with access to the Google Android Market  and Flash video.capabilities.  The tablet has 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Blueooth 3.0, and a USB 2.0 port.

The press release mentioned that it will be available at multiple retailers for that price

4/6/2011: Moto Xoom and Atrix Not Selling
Well

A report from analyst James Faucette of Pacific Crest says that neither of these new tablets are selling well.  The Xoom is priced too high and was up-staged by the introduction of the iPad 2.  The Atrix is also too expensive, and dismissed by some as a gimmick. Reviews have been mixed.

The sales of both are well below forecasts, with competition from the iPad 2 and from a welter of new Android tablets contributing to these high profile flops.

4/5/2011:  Dell’s 10-inch Win 7 Tablet Delayed

According to leaked documents from Dell, there is a new 10-inch tablet under development that runs Windows 7.  Its code name is Rosemount.

A recent insider story from Forbes indicates that the Rosemount tablet will be not see its first sale until the fall of this year.  Past rumors had it appearing in the summer months.

This will be a tablet aimed at the business user, and given Dell’s recently released five and seven-inch tablets, Rosemount will not make much of a ripple in the tablet-hungry population.  It appears to be more like the HP Slate rather than the iPad.

3/28/2011:  Samsung’s New Series 9 Challenge MacBook Air

Apple has owned the “Wow” factor for years in the ultraportable category of laptops.  The MacBook Air has been in a class by itself with the thinnest, sleekest, sexiest design available. Although there has always been a tradeoff between thin and performance, the MacBook Air keep its balance in an acceptable zone for those who demand a super thin and light ultraportable.  The image at right has the MacBook Air on the left facing the 13-inch Series 9.

Samsung has now joined the competition with its Series 9 laptops.  The two models are thin, light and powerful with a Sandy Bridge design i3 or i5 Intel processor.  Both the 13-inch and 11.6-inch models are drawing rave reviews for their looks and performance.  Price, as usual, though, is high.

The 13-inch Series 9, shown on the right side of the above graphic, is priced at $1,649.  I have no word on the price of the 11.6-inch version which is to be available in early April.

CNet has reviewed the 13-inch model and has a video of their demonstration.  I like their early statement: “. . .if ever a Windows 7 lover dreamed of getting his or her own MacBook Air, the Series 9 is it.”  This sets the tone of the review.  The new Samsung takes only three seconds to awake from hibernation, for example, and compares well in other categories.

CNet Hands-on Video Here

Their full review can also be read on the same site as the video reference.

3/25/2011  RIM BlackBerry Playbook to Run Android Apps

In an important achievement, Research In Motion announced on Thursday that users of its PlayBook tablet will be able to run Android and Java applications.

If the RIM’s new 7-inch tablet is to be successful, it must be able to have a wide library of applications available to its users.  With a brand new operating system, QNX, however, there would be few to no apps available for the Playbook.  By making the new OS capable of running Android apps, then, RIM has taken that objection away.

The details of the announcement state that the Playbook will be able to run Android apps of version 2.3 and later, and they will not be available on the Android Market.  Publishers will submit their apps to RIM who will make them available in BlackBerry’s own app site.

Rumors now stress mid April as the release date for the Playbook.

 

3/22/2011:  Amazon to Open App Store Tomorrow, We Hope

An unnamed "trusted source" has told Wired that their App store for Android devices will launch Tuesday, March 22. Customers will be able to purchase apps both online via the Amazon website and through a native application designed for Android devices.

It is already known that the store’s launch will come with at least one major exclusive: the latest in Rovio’s Angry Birds lineup, Angry Birds Rio, will launch first in the Amazon App Store before being distributed to other online outlets.

It will be handy to use Amazon’s “One Click” buying procedure on Android Apps, whether for paid or free content.  Also, a hacker got a look at the App Store earlier and found that many of the app prices are lower on Amazon than on the Android Market.

 

3/21/2011:  Asus Eee Pad Transformer in America Soon

Asus has a good idea in its new tablet design.  It may be bought with the optional keyboard that transforms it into a conventional netbook-like device.  Notice that the tablet mounts on the keyboard in a horizontal mode rather than vertical.  Good for Asus: I dislike the iPad’s vertical mount.

The specifications are familiar: A 1 GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual core processor and a 10.1 inch, 1280 x 800 pixel IPS capacitive multitouch display. It comes with 1GB of memory and 16GB to 32GB of storage. While it will run Google Android 3.0.  802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1, a mini-HDMI jack, audio jack, and microSD card reader complete the  basic configuration.

If the keyboard looks and preforms as well as it appears in the picture, this will be an important innovation in the tablet sphere—possibly ending the existing division between netbooks and tablets, although tablets cost much more to buy, a combination would be preferable for those who value the extra flexibility gained by a detachable keyboard.

The new device will be available in Taiwan by the end of this week and in America soon thereafter.

3/20/2011:  Amazon Working on Android Tablet Reader

The rumor that never dies: Amazon is developing a color eReader that competes with the Nook Color and the iPad.  There is a good reason this rumor refuses to die:  Amazon needs to offer a more comprehensive solution to eReading than its black and white eInk Kindle. In the latest round of competitive moves, Barnes and Noble clearly beat Amazon when they introduced their Nook Color. 

The color tablet fro B&N has proven popular, although precise sales figures have not been published.  In the blogosphere many in the technical press have praised the $249, 7-inch eReader/tablet.  It has been rooted and seems to make a credible alternative to other tablet designs.  Surely Amazon has been reading the tea leaves about a color device.  It appears that B&N beat Amazon badly with their Nook Color.

The new  rumors are fueled by hiring ads for Amazon’s Lab 126 website.  The New York Times reported: “At least five new jobs were added in the last week alone seeking developers with Android programming experience.”

Although Android programmers could be doing many things, the arrow seems to point to a new machine, and few would argue with the need for such a device from Amazon.  They have nothing on the market to counter B&N’s tablet/eReader, and they need one.

If Amazon is working on a competing device, I hope they go all the way with it and omit the proprietary layer of software that surrounds the Nook Color.  A pure Android OS would, in my view, be a much more competitive device.  It would capture some of the pure tablet market as well as conventional eReading, and Amazon’s marketing muscle could help them gain a foothold in this new market.

3/16/2011:  Motorola WiFi Only on March 27th

Motorola has officially announced that a WiFi-only version of the XOOM tablet will be  web available in the US starting on March 27th for a retail price of $599.  The WiFi + 3G model currently sells for $799.

Amazon, Best Buy, RadioShack, Staples, and other US retailers are reported to be authorized resellers and should be available in those stores on the launch date.

3/15/2011: HP Touch Pad With WebOS in June

The new CEO of HP, Leo Apotheker, announced that the TouchPad will be available for purchase in June.  HP announced the Tab in February for Summer availability. The Tab will sport a 9.7 inch display, a dual core 1.2 GHz processor, WiFi, Bluetooth, a 1.3MP camera, and a 6300mAh battery.

Significantly the tablet will be the first device to run webOS 3.0, a version of HP and Palm’s webOS smartphone operating system optimized for tablets

The new OS is what excites most of the technology  community.  The forerunner of this new OS was written by Palm for smartphones, and the reviews of it from the technical side were quite good.  It was praised by programmers as friendly and competent.  HP has spent the last year working on it to make it usable on larger, tablet-sized screens.  This device will be as highly anticipated as the Xoom was for Motorola and the Playbook for BlackBerry.

3/9/2011:  Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9” Set For 3/28 Debut

Samsung has made it official.  Their 8.9-inch Tab will be unveiled at a special press event on March 28th.

This side shot shows an exceptionally thin tablet, so it will rival the iPad2 thinness.The bulge is to accommodate the headphone jack, so you can get an idea of how thin it is if you look closely.

Samsung also has a 10-inch model that will be revealed sometime soon, giving them a total of three models: 7-inch, which has been out for months, a 8.9-inch and a 10-inch model yet to be shown.

 

Nook Color Gets GPS App Via Smartphone Tether

In a novel adaptation of a software app for the Nook Color, you can now use a $2.99 app to tether your smartphone to the Nook Color and get driving directions on the larger screen.

TetherGPS is available from the Android Marketplace for $2.99.

 

3/4/2011: Motorola Xoom WiFi Only for $539 as Sam’s Club?

An employee at Sam’s Club has leaved a photo of a large sign showing the Motorola Xoom with WiFi and no 3G for sale for $539.  This may or may not come to pass, but if it does it will relieve some of the pressure against Motorola for pricing its new baby too high. A $40 premium over the iPad 2 is certainly justified by the huge advantages of more storage memory, external ports and system memory on the Xoom.

3/4/2011:  Windows 8 Will Run on ARM Chips

Microsoft announced that the next versions of Windows, Windows 8, will run on System on a Chip (SoC) processors, including ARM.  Microsoft also demonstrated Office applications running in native mode on an ARM SoC device.

For the entire press release: Click here..

This is huge for the entire industry.  ARM chips are powering most of the tablet computers, such as the iPad, Motorola Xoom, Galaxy Tab and RIM;s BlackBerry Playbook.  ARM chips also run almost all smart phones. And most of these devices run either Android, iOS or RIMs older OS,  With this move, Microsoft has made itself a player.

Using tablets and smartphones with native Windows applications will open up portability of documents between architectures for the first time.  It will eliminate the often clumsy and time-consuming steps of converting documents from Word format, e.g., into Pages format for the iPad or other word processing apps on all the other ARM based tablets.

Partners on the new SoC project include NVIDIA, Texas Instruments, Qualcomm, Intel and AMD.  I would expect a rush of all the other OEMs to jump on this bandwagon soon, as it would be a huge competitive disadvantage not to have the ability to read and write legacy Windows application programs.

The big looser in the long run may be Android, which is now the leading operating system for tablet and cellphone devices.  The ability to run Word, Power Point and Excel files will give Google a serious run for its money.

The release version of Windows is expected in 2012, with Beta release expected in the second or third quarter of this year.

3/1/2011:  Barnes and Noble Selling Nook Color for $199 on eBay

Engadget reports that Barnes & Noble is currently selling itsNook Color on eBay with a $50 coupon code.  This bring the final price down to $199, which is $50 less than it sells them for in stores or on its own website.

This may be B&N’s way of testing the waters for how elastic demand is for their flagship product.

2/28/2011:  AT&T To Sell Kindle 3G in March

AT&T announced today that they will carry the Kindle (3) with 3G and WiFi connections in their company-owned stores in the United States.  Sales are set to begin on March 6, one week away.

The 3G part of Kindle relies on AT&T 3G signals, so it is natural for them to sell Kindles.  This will certainly increase the availability of Kindles, but the price will stay at $189.  For a video of a Kindle commercial look below.

2/25/2011:  Google Books Available on Androids and PCs

Google has created a new Books section of the Android Market. The Books tab shows up if you’re running the Market app on a tablet with Google Android 3.0 Honeycomb (such as the Motorola XOOM which hit the streets today). But you can also browse the book listings in the web version of the Android Market by visiting market.android.com/books in a browser.

You don’t need an Android tablet to use the new books directory. You can select any title and click the “Get it Now” button to add it to your Google Books account. From there you can read the title on any computer with a web browser, or access the books from a mobile device running the Google Books app for Android or iOS. The Barnes & No

 

2/23/2011:  New iPad to be Announced March 2nd

Apple has scheduled an event for March 2nd, and according to Kara Swisher at All Things D, the company will likely unveil the second generation iPad at the event.

There isn’t much speculative about Apple’s plans to up-grade the iPad with new features.  This has been in the works since the day after the first iPad was introduced.  Rumors about new features include a much higher resolution screen, dual-core processor, and two cameras.  Light Peak ports are also talked about as well as multiple 3G mobile broadband capability.

2/17/2011:  Kobo Assures its Borders Customers All is Well

It was some months ago that Borders decided not to develop their own eReader hardware or  its own library of electronic book titles.  Rather than make a major investment in the new technology, Borders farmed the entire job out to a third party, Kobo.

It was Borders’ attempt to get by on the cheap; in retrospect, probably not a good idea.

Now that Borders has filed for bankruptcy, Kobo is out with a note to their Borders clients that there will be no interruption to their reading experience.  Kobo is financially independent of Borders and can continue supporting their clients.

I wonder without the draw from Borders how Kobo will do in the future.  Of course, Borders will emerge from bankruptcy eventually, but their long term survival is by no means assured.  Their management was too far behind the curve to make the cut in the new electronics world.

There seems to be a misunderstanding about eReading on the various operating systems that power many of the new tablets coming to market this year.  Some fear that the larger screens and new operating systems will not be able to read electronic texts of the major vendors.

Each of the major new tablets is reviewed below for its ability to read Kindle, Nook and Sony electronic formats.

Android Tablets

There are four Android tablets that are either out now or will be soon.

· The Motorola Xoom is on sale now at Best Buy and at Verizon stores.

· The LG G-Slate is expected this month.

· Galaxy Tab 10.1 doesn’t have a date set, yet.

· Acer has its Iconia Tab A500 set for a date sometime in April.

All are slated to run Android 3.0, the Honeycomb version, and the first Android system made for large screen formats. The new version of Android is a source of much of this confusion. Earlier versions of Android were written for cell phones with their 3 and 4-inch screens. It appears that some believe that the new software will not work with the older eReader applications that were written with small screens in mind. The pictures below show the Kindle apps that Amazons offers its customers.

Note that the second icon from the left, the Kindle for Android, is depicted as a smartphone. This is probably the origin of some of the confusion. Android versions from the first through version 2.2.1 were written for this size screen. However, the new Android 3,0 scales these apps to larger screens with good results.  The problem of clunky graphics that plagued the iPad for apps that were brought over from the iPhone, are largely avoided by Android. (Update 4/23–Amazon announced a few days ago that they were re-writing their Kindle App for Adroid 3.0.  So any problems with the larger screens will be addressed with the new release. RH)

The Galaxy Tab 7 uses the older version Android eReading apps, and the Kindle eReader works well on it. The same is true for the new Honeycomb versions of tablets. I checked Motorola’s Xoom yesterday and the Kindle app scales well on the larger 10.1-inch screen. I can say the same for an independent eReading app from Aldiko. The reading page looks fine on both apps and all the font and brightness controls available on the small-screens  work as they are supposed to.

The only drawback to the scaling is that when the Xoom is turned horizontally, neither the Kindle app not the Aldiko switches to a dual-pane display—this feature isn’t available to the small-screen versions of eithr reader.  I suspect that Amazon will make this adjustment quickly, however. They made it for the iPad within the first month it it going one sale.

I mention this because on wide screens a dual- pane division is helpful to the reader. Long lines are hard to follow, and a dual pane window solves the problem nicely.

The absence of a dual-pane switch tells me that Amazon and Barnes and Noble will most likely rewrite their reader software for the larger Android screen.

The picture below is of devices for Nook eReaders.

They match up well with Amazon with the exception of a Windows Phone 7 app, but that will probably have one soon. The scalable properties of the Nook are the same as for Amazon and Aldiko, so Nook owners need have no fear of buying an Android tablet.

Other Operating Systems: HP’s WebOS and BlackBerry’s QNX

Kobo is the only eReader app available for the Palm/HP WebOS. The Palm Pre is shown on the far right in the picture below.

The Pre runs the Palm OS that HP now owns.  HP has enhanced the OS and blown it up for the larger tablet screens. It isn’t known how the older apps will scale to the new 10.1-inch dimensions of the HP Touch Pad’s. But I cannot imagine HP not taking care of this issue before releasing their new tablet, scheduled sometime in the summer of this year.

I feel confident that HP’s new WebOS will have a full complement of reader apps when the time comes for them to go on sale. HP has too much credibility in the industry not to be able to convince Amazon and others to build reader apps for its tablet and smartphones.

RIM’s BlackBerry Playbook has several options of bringing their existing eReaders to the new seven-inch platform. First, with their huge installed base of BlackBerry smartphones, no book seller is going to be caught without a new app ready for it the day it is introduced. (Rumor has it that April 10^th will be the day).

RIM has also said that the Playbook will be able to run legacy apps from its earlier OS days, so existing apps from Kindle, Nook, and Kobo, for example, would be able to run on the new OS. There is also the real possibility that the new OS of BlackBerry will be able to run Android apps. Company executives have dropped the hint that they are considering making it compatible with Android —their hardware inside the tablet is certainly capable of being programmed to do it, and I would not be surprised to see it happen.  (Update 4/23–the only eReading app ready on the day of its release was Kobo.  I noticed the Kobo icon on the home screen when I checked the Playbook out at my local Best Buy store.  Kobo will read ePub files, so early adopters of the Playbook will have plenty of reading material available from day one.  RH)

Windows Tablets

On the few tablets that run Windows, all of the major booksellers already have software for it.  If it runs on your PC, it will run on a tablet.

This is not true for Windows Phone 7, however.  The eReader apps will have to be re-written, but that is already underway. Kindle had their app pre-installed on Windows Phone 7 smartphones the day they were introduced. Also, there are no expectations that this new operating system will be ready for a tablet until sometime in 2012.

Whether they will be as easily scalable as Android, though, we cannot know for certain until Microsoft steps forward with more details.

Overall it looks good for those who enjoy reading on electronic devices. The options are growing daily, and many of the new tablets have features that exceed what we have come to expect from laptops and the iPad. With the syncing ability of the major vendors of electronic titles, it is easy to switch devices without losing your place and without having to buy new copies.

As more magazines and newspapers become available in an electronic format, we can expect more and more time spent reading our favorite material whenever and wherever we happen to be. This is the liberating power of the new technology.

For 10-inch tabletsThe iPad has had almost a year’s full run without any significant competition except at the decidedly low end. As a result of the week playing field, Apple has sold about 14 million iPads so far and is now poised to bring out a newer version around April that corrects some of the omissions of the first model.

In the mean time the rest of the industry has been frantically playing catch up, and now, finally,a number of them are poised to put their wares on the table. The first tables most have appeared on were in Barcelona at the World Mobile Congress last week. PC World has posted pictures and brief sketches of their top ten devices. I have used their pictures and added a few comments on some of the models to give a better assessment of how things stand on the verge of a new wave of tablets that will be vying for consumer dollars within the next few months. USB ports and HDMI out, except Samsung.

The first one shown is the Zoom by Motorola, which, in my view will be one of the top competitors, at least according to the specs Motorola has published.

Motorola Zoom 10.1-inch screen:  OSAndroid 3.0

Processor
Cameras	2 & 5 megapixel
Weight	1.61 lbs
Screen Res	1280 X 800

The only problem with this good looking Android 3.0 device is that Flash video will not be available until the “Spring” with a software upgrade, although the word “weeks” has been used by one of Motorola’s executives. Capable of 720P HD resolution video and a great dual core Tegra 2 processor at its heart. WiFi and EVDO wireless reception round out a full-featured tablet. Prices are to be $600 for WiFi only and $800 for EVDO cell service. Verizon is set to be the mobile service provider.

Review of Reviews:  Click Here

For a thorough hands-oReviews:: Click Here

For NY Times Hands-on review: Click Here

For anothr review: Click Here

HP TouchPad 9.7-inch: WebOS

Processor	1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon dual core
Cameras	Single 1.3 megapixel
Weight	1.63 lbs
Screen Res	1024 X 768

The big news for the HP TouchPad is the operating system. It is the fruit of HP’s purchase of Palm last year. They have tweaked the WebOS to scale it up to a tablet size. From my experience with my wife’s Palm Pixie it should be a great tablet OS. Multi—tasking uses a card-stack graphic to show open applications, and the finger work is as good as any I have seen.

For a hands-on review: Click Here

There are about 10,000 apps already developed for this OS and they will run without modification on the TouchPad, but there will be a strong need for apps of the variety available on Android and the iPad, so HP has its work laid out to get up to speed in this area. But HP is no stranger to developers nor to the corporate boardrooms of the world, so their new device will get a share of the market. It looks like a strong entry. And HP has the marketing muscle to get it carried by cell providers and retailers.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1-inch: Android 3.0

Processor	Nvidia Tegra 2 dual-core processor
Cameras	2 & 8 megapixel
Weight	1.3 lbs
Screen Res	1280 X 800

Samsung’s first tablet, the Galaxy Tab 7-inch, has not been well received. Seven inches may be too small to compete directly with the iPad, and other problems with Android 2.2 made is less desirable, especially at the price Samsung put on it at first. The new tablet, at 10-inches fixes the first problem, and using Android 3.0 should go a long way in making their new tablet a strong competitor. Graphics and speed should be great.

For a hands-on review: Click Here

The worst thing about the new one is that it still has a single port, a proprietary port of Samsung’s. This trashes all the advantages of USB and SD compatibility for users who like to connect their laptop to their other devices for sharing data, and I fear this decision will be bitterly regretted by the South Korean giant when the sales figures begin coming in.

LG Optimus Pad 8.9-inches: Android 3.0

Processor	dual-core Tegra 2
Cameras	2.5 megapixel front and 5 MegPix 3D in back
Weightn/a
Screen Res	1280 X 768

The LG Optimus Pad will be offered by T-Mobile with a 3G contract, but no word yet on when or how much.  There is a hands-on review: Click Here

The Tegra 2 comes in handy for graphics.  The LG will record video in full 1080p HD and in 720p HD in 3D.

The screen size is an odd tradeoff—less than the 9.7 of the iPad and more than the 7-inch that is often found on smaller screens.  The video in the hands on link above looks good, so Toshiba may have a winner with its innovative design.  The entire issue of screen size has yet to be judged in the market place.  So far the 7-inch form factor has not garnered much market share.  The BlackBerry Playbook will be a better test of this niche in the market.

Acer Iconia Tab A500: Android 3.0

Processor	Tegra 2 dual core
Weight	n./a
Cameras	5 mp back and front
Screen	1080p

There is a hand- on review: Click Here

This Acer’s first entry into the tablet world, and it overall design looks good for high resolution games and video.  The device shown in Barcelona was not running Android 3.0, but it is said it will when it hits the streets.

This completes the reviews of the large screen devices.  A separate article is being prepared for the 7-inch devices.  Left out of this review is the 10-inch Pro from ViewSonic.  Their previous smaller tablets were not, in my view, worthy of review, and neither is their larger screen  version It doesn’t run Android 3.0. It isn’t in the class of the other devices shown here.

From the specifications these new devices show it looks as if the iPad will finally get some real competition.  Cameras, 1080p, HDMI and USB ports all offer the user a much richer experience than the iPad.  But, Apple has not been standing still, and they will have their new model out in April which will correct some of its earlier limitations.  2011 is just the first for which there is to be head-to-head comparisons.  As consumers, we all stand to gain.

The video below is a fabulous demonstration of one of Morotola’s new tablets slated for introduction in 2011.  The demo is mostly done by showing a new version of Google Maps not yet out.  The new tablet is running a version of Android’s Honeycomb OS, also not released yet.  Click on the link, not the picture.

Video of Moto Demo

From what Andy Rubin, Google’s VP in charge of Android,  was saying, the new tablet appears to have an Nvidia Tegra 2 or even more advanced processor, runs videos exceptionally well in terms of high resolution and high speed.  3D capabilities were also mentioned, so it is obviously a two core processor.

From the size of the thumb in the middle of the screen, this must be close to a 10 or 11-inch screen, although there will be many other models introduced.  Motorola seems to have caught on that tablets are an important new form factor, and their first prototype seems right on target.

As far as a screen this size, this is definitely a major competitor to the iPad and the first I have seen.  Plus, Honeycomb, the next, next release of Android also is mouth watering.