Microsoft Surface tablets: the differences between Windows RT and Windows 8 Pro models

admin    Gadget, IT News, Microsoft, Tablet    

Surfaces. Turns out, the plural form of Microsoft’s new tablet range rolls off of the tongue with ease, but understanding the differences between the first two models may not be quite as easy — particularly for the everyman, or folks intimately familiar with Microsoft’s other Surface. Two editions — Surface for Windows RT and Surface for Windows 8 Pro — were unveiled today in Los Angeles, and while the exterior of each one looks nearly identical, the innards expose major differences in architecture. Let’s break it all down after the break, shall we?

Microsoft Surface Glamour Shots

Surface for Windows RT tablet

• Processor: NVIDIA Tegra-based ARM chip
• Weight: 676 grams
• Thickness: 9.3 millimeters
• Display: 10.6-inch ClearType HD capactive touchpanel
• Battery: 31.5Wh
• I/O: microSD, USB 2.0, Micro HD Video, 2×2 MIMO antennae
• Software: Windows RT + Office Home & Student 2013 RT
• Accessories: Touch Cover, Type Cover, VaporMg Case & Stand
• Capacity: 32GB / 64GB
• Availability: “Around” the Windows 8 launch (fall 2012)
• Pricing: To be determined

Surface for Windows 8 Pro tablet

• Processor: Intel Core i5 (Ivy Bridge)
• Weight: 903 grams
• Thickness: 13.5 millimeters
• Display: 10.6-inch ClearType Full HD (1080p) capactive touchpanel
• Battery: 42Wh
• I/O: microSDXC, USB 3.0, Mini DisplayPort, 2×2 MIMO antennae
• Software: Windows 8 Pro
• Accessories: Touch Cover, Type Cover, VaporMg Case & Stand, Pen with Palm Block
• Capacity: 64GB / 128GB
• Availability: “Three months after” the Windows 8 launch this fall
• Pricing: To be determined

So, what’s the story? Well, for one, Microsoft’s playing coy when it comes to both CPU speed and available memory. Not unlike Apple and its iPad, actually. We’re guessing that the company will try to push the user experience instead of focusing on pure specifications, and it’s frankly about time the industry started moving in that direction. Pure hardware attributes only get you so far, and judging by the amount of integration time that went into this project, Microsoft would be doing itself a huge disservice to launch anything even close to not smooth-as-butter.

It’s worth pointing out that the ARM-based WinRT (psst — you can catch up on what exactly Windows RT is here) model is both thinner and lighter than the version with Windows 8 Pro. Moreover, the battery is sized up in the latter, presumably to handle the higher power drain of the 1080p panel and the Core i5 processor. Strangely, microSDXC and USB 3.0 are only supported on the Win8 Pro model; we’re guessing it’s either a platform limitation, or just run-of-the-mill cost cutting. That said, bundling Office with the WinRT edition is apt to make Win8 Pro buyers salty; why not include it with the slate that’ll be priced like a laptop (i.e. well north of what a lot of buyers will be willing to pay)? While we’re comparing and contrasting, it’s also vital to note that the WinRT variant won’t ship with a 1080p panel; Microsoft didn’t get specific on screen resolution, but a paltry 1366 x 768 is going to look mighty pixelated sitting next to a 1080p Win8 Pro sibling, a Retina-equipped iPad and ASUS’ 1080p Zenbook / Transformer lines.

Those looking for a complete Windows experience in the form of a tablet will obviously need to pony up for the Windows 8 Pro model; those content with new, Metro-style apps engineered for Windows on ARM will likely save a few bucks by selecting that Surface. The real issue here is the murkiness when it comes to pricing. Microsoft is shying away from specifics, only saying that “pricing for Surface for Windows RT will be on par with other Windows RT tablets,” and “pricing for Surface for Windows 8 Pro will be on par with Ultrabook-grade laptops.” Unlike Apple, Amazon and Barnes & Noble, Microsoft is in a tricky situation; it can only do so much on its own before it ticks off those all-important OEMs that’ll also be making Windows-based slates in the near future, and undercutting those guys on pricing won’t go over well in terms of business relationships.

In fact, we’ll be eagerly awaiting reactions from the likes of ASUS, Acer, HP, Toshiba, Dell and the rest of the lot — Microsoft just made itself a rival in a lot of ways, and only time will tell how prudent that decision was. It’s also bizarre that Microsoft isn’t opening up pre-orders on these right away. As we’ve seen with Palm, announcing a hugely hyped product with no concrete launch path and no way to get dollars funneled in with pre-orders doesn’t typically turn out well — or, as well as it could have. It’s also downright worrisome that no battery life figures were bandied about. Windows-based tablets of the past have always fallen short due to simply running out of gas in three to four hours, and today’s tablet expectations are far different than even a few years ago. Is it possible for a Windows 8 Pro tablet to last 6+ hours on a single charge? Only time will tell, but we sure wish MS would’ve provided some sort of idea from the get-go.

[engadget]

Apple’s March 7th event roundup: the new iPad, Apple TV refresh and everything else

admin    Apple, Ipad, IT News, Tablet    

Weren’t able to keep up with all the news from the unveiling of Apple’s new iPad today? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered! Whether you’re looking for more info about its Retina Display and LTE-connectivity, the refreshed Apple TV or related bits, we’ve listed links to our coverage of everything “new and noteworthy” after the break. Happy perusing! Oh, and be sure to check back to our the archive of our liveblog and pre- and post-event broadcasts for a few extra doses of “amazing.”

iPad

The new iPad is official, with Retina display, LTE and A5X CPU. Available March 16th

Apple’s new iPad hands-on!

New iPad puts the camera back in focus: 5 MP sensor, AF lens, 1080p video

Here’s the first sample shot from the new iPad’s 5MP iSight camera

Siri sort-of comes to the new iPad, does voice dictation only

New iPad has ‘world ready’ 3G, LTE for Verizon, Rogers, Bell, Telus and AT&T

iPad 4G plans and pricing revealed

The new iPad vs. iPad 2: what’s changed?

The new iPad vs. the tablet elite: ASUS Transformer Pad Infinity 700, Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 and Toshiba Excite X10 LE

AppleCare+ extended to new iPad, adds two years of support for a fee

Apple drops iPad 2 price to $399 for the 16GB WiFi-only model

Apps and iOS

Apple introduces iPhoto for iPad, updated Garage Band, iMovie and iWork apps

Apple reveals next-generation apps for the new iPad: Infinity Blade: Dungeons, SketchBook, SkyGamblers

OS 5.1 available today, brings Japanese-language Siri

iOS 5.1 software update now rolling out to iPhones, iPads and iPod touches

Got an AT&T iPhone? iOS 5.1 now gives you ’4G’

Apple ups over-the-air download limit to 50MB for iOS

Apple TV

Apple reveals new Apple TV, does 1080p video

Apple TV (2012) hands-on!

Apple TV vs. the new Apple TV (2012): what’s changed?

Netflix on new Apple TV supports 1080p, all boxes get integrated signup and pay via iTunes

Fox and Universal titles blocked from Apple TV’s iCloud, HBO is the culprit

Apple TV software update brings new interface to second-gen models

Everything else

FCC wastes no time, approves new iPad and Apple TV

iTunes 10.6 now available for download, includes support for 1080p videos

Apple’s 2012 launch event: watch it online now

[engadget]

Tampilan Ice Cream Sandwich Untuk Tablet

admin    Android, Gadget, IT News, Tablet    

Seperti yang kita sudah ketahui Android 4.0 akan rilis bersamaan dan tertanam pertama kali di smartphone Galaxy Nexus, berita tentang perilisan mobile OS terbaru milik Google ini memang sudah menyebar secara luas, namun sepertinya Google sudah siap untuk menunjukkan kemampuan OS terbarunya itu di device tablet. Yang anda lihat digambar diatas merupakan gambaran resmi Google tampilan ICS di dua device. Device pertama terlihat seperti Galaxy nexus dan device kedua berupa sebuah tablet Galaxy Tab, meskipun bentuknya tidak dibuat sama persis. Google sepertinya akan menampilkan gambar ini di home page mereka.

Dari gambar tersebut anda dapat melihat sekilas tampilan ICS di tablet terlihat tidak jauh berbeda dengan Honeycomb, dengan hadirnya tiga tombol menu di kiri bawah. Susunan ikon di homepage juga sama. Untuk bagian kanan bawah, tata letak agak berubah dibuat untuk tampilan sinyal Wi-Fi dan baterai secara spesifik. Anda dapat menemukan tombol aplikasi di bagian kanan atas, dan sebuah widget pencarian Google di bagian kiri atas.

 

[teknoup]

iPad dan iPhone Kuasai Traffic Internet Mobile

admin    Gadget, Ipad, IT News, SmartPhone, Tablet    

7% dari traffic internet dunia sekarang berasal dari handset mobile dan gadget berbasis iOS memimpin traffic penggunaan handset mobile di seluruh dunia. Menurut laporan dari AppleInsider dan data comScore, iOS secara total menguasai 58,5% traffic internet mobile dunia.

Pada Agustus lalu 6,8% akses internet berasa dari mobile dan 2/3 dari traffic tersebut berasal dari smartphone dan sepertiga sisanya dari tablet.

Diantara kaum tablet, iPad sangat mendominasi traffic internet dengan 97% traffic tablet berasal dari iPad, sementara 3% sisanya berasal dari pemain tablet lain. iPad juga sudah mengalahkan traffic iPhone dengan perbandingan 46,8% vs 42,6%.

Jika dilihat dari data comScore, meskipun perangkat berbasis Android menguasai 43,7% pasar smartphone pada Agustus lalu, tetapi banyak dari pengguna Android tidak menggunakan / memiliki koneksi data ke internet dan itulah alasan mengapa pengguna iOS sangat mendominasi traffic internet mobile. Dari total keseluruhan device yang terkoneksi dengan internet, 43,1% diantaranya adalah gadget berbasis iOS, disusul Android dengan 34,1%.

Untuk bulan Agustus, Android menguasai 31,9% traffic internet, Blackberry ditempat ketiga dengan 5%, dan platform lain seperti Windows Phone, Symbian, dll dengan 4,6%.

Dari data traffic internet comScore ini, muncul spekulasi mengapa Android yang kini mendominasi hampir setengah pasar smartphone ternyata tidak begitu dominan di penggunaan internet. Salah satu alasannya karena banyak nya handset Android yang dijual murah dengan fungsionalitas layaknya feature phone biasa. Ponsel-ponsel seperti itu mencetak banyak sales dibeberapa tempat tetapi tidak berefek besar pada traffic internet. Apalagi jika pemain tablet lain yang dibandingkan dengan penguasaan internet iPad yang hingga 97%.

[teknoup]

Aplikasi Android bisa di jalankan di iPad

admin    Android, Ipad, IT News, Tablet    

Kalahkan Galaxy Tab 10.1, Asus Transformer Jadi Tablet Android Terlaris

admin    Asus, Gadget, IT News, Tablet    

Meskipun ngebut diawal dan melambat diakhir, penjualan tablet Asus Eee Pad Transformer terbilang sangat memuaskan dengan total unit terjual hingga lebih dari 400ribu unit dan menjadikannya tablet kedua terlaris di bawah iPad. Penjualan tinggi dari Transformer diberitakan oleh Digitimes karena Asus membandrol murah tablet ini dan kemampuan tambahan sebagai semi-laptop dengan dock keyboard.

Secara spesifikasi, Transformer memiliki fitur tidak jauh berbeda dari kompetitor sesama Honeycomb nya bahkan kelebihan Transformer adalah harga nya yang lebih terjangkau. Asus membekali Transformer dengan layar IPS 10,1 inci dan prosesor dual core Nvidia Tegra 2. Sistem yang tertanam juga lebih baru yakni Honeycomb 3.1, daya tahan baterai yang diklaim tahan hingga 16 jam dengan dock, dan kualitas suara 3D dengan SRS premium sound. Seperti dikatakan sebelumnya, kelebihan dari Eee Pad Transformer ini ada pada dock keyboard nya dan juga Polaris Office for mobile yang membuat tablet ini menjadi lebih produktif untuk profesional.

Asus membandrol tablet ini seharga $400 untuk tipe 16GB dan dock keyboard seharga $149.

[teknoup]

Game iPad buatan Indonesia Masuk Top 10 di AS

admin    Games, Ipad, IT News, Tablet    

Sebuah game iPad sedang banyak digandrungi di Amerika Serikat. Game berjudul Hachiko HD itu ternyata buatan Indonesia.

Hachiko HD Lite, versi gratis dari Hachiko HD, sempat bertengger di posisi 7 dari daftar aplikasi gratisan terpopuler di iPad untuk pengguna di AS.

Game tersebut merupakan karya Touchten, sebuah developer asli Indonesia yang didirikan Anton Soeharyo, Dede Indrapurna dan Rokimas P Soeharyo.

Game itu memang memiliki ‘rasa’ Jepang karena sang pembuat pernah menimba ilmu di Jepang. CEO Touchten Anton Soeharyo mengatakan game itu terinspirasi kisah anjing setia di Jepang.

Sebelumnya Touchten pernah merilis game berjudul Sushi Chain yang telah diunduh oleh lebih dari 2 juta pengguna iPhone di seluruh dunia.

Anton berjanji perusahaannya akan terus mengembangkan game di iOS. Targetnya, suatu saat Indonesia bisa menghasilkan karya yang mampu menyaingi popularitas Angry Birds.

[detikinet]

Tablet PCs ViewSonic ViewPad 10Pro boots an Intel Oak Trail CPU into either Android or Windows 7 Pro

admin    Gadget, IT News, Tablet    

The ViewPad 10 era is over, here comes the epoch of the ViewPad 10Pro. Beyond the introduction of Intel’s Oak Trail Z670 1.5GHz processor, the new Windows 7 Pro / Android 2.2 dual-boot tablet throws in a 3G radio, 32GB of onboard storage (expandable via MicroSD or USB), and a 3500mAh battery that’s rated to last for 4.5 hours of 1080p video playback. It’s one of Intel’s promised 10+ Android tablets coming at this year’s Computex, though it has the appreciable advantage of being able to switch over to Windows 7 pretty much instantaneously. Check it out in the gallery below and you can expect a more in-depth look from us later on during the currently ongoing Computex 2011 trade show.

ViewPad 10Pro hands-on

[engadget]

Acer Iconia Tab A500 review

admin    Acer, Gadget, IT News, Tablet    

Last month, the Motorola Xoom was the only officially sanctioned Android 3.0 tablet available in the United States. Now there are four — the T-Mobile G-Slate arrived last week, the Acer Iconia Tab A500 this week, and the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer is on sale today, assuming you can find one. All have the same basic silicon inside, but oh-so-slightly different approaches to shape, such that price might honestly be the deciding factor these days. That’s where we thought this WiFi-only Acer Iconia Tab had an edge, launching at $450, but now that ASUS has shaken the money tree with a $400 figure for the Eee Pad Transformer, we doubt other price tags will stick. It could be the tiniest of differentiators that shifts your opinion in favor of a particular slate. What’s a prospective tablet buyer to do? Join us on a tour of the Acer Iconia Tab A500′s particular perks and quibbles after the break, and we’ll tell you.

Hardware

We first saw Acer’s 10-inch Android tablet five months ago — when it didn’t have so much as a name — but by golly, it doesn’t look like the hardware has aged a single day. In some ways, that’s a wonderful thing, as we’re big fans of the stylish brushed aluminum case, which plays off of the iPad aesthetic without looking like a blatant clone. On the other hand, we were disappointed to find that a few of the iffy design decisions we noticed in earlier prototypes have carried over to the final frame — that aluminum sandwich has very visible seams (one snagged an armhair) and the back sometimes creaks when squeezed. At 1.69 pounds and 13.3mm thick, the A500′s most definitely portable, but still slightly heftier than the Xoom, and of course it feels positively portly beside an iPad 2. The rounded edges make single-handed reading possible, but the weight means you won’t want to hold it over your bed. Enough of that for now, though — let’s describe what you’re actually getting.

Acer Iconia Tab A500 unboxing and hands-on

Like most Android Honeycomb tablets, the Iconia Tab’s front is all bezel and screen (and a tiny front-facing cam), intentionally designed without any buttons to let you hold and use the slate in any orientation. However, unlike most of its competitors the Iconia Tab has an orientation lock switch (on its “top” edge) to save you the trouble of digging through a software menu. There’s also a volume rocker up top, which performs a neat orientation trick of its own — it’s contextual, meaning the switch changes volume up or down depending on how the tablet is held. Sadly, both of these buttons are made of cheap plastic, sunk into the aluminum frame, and rather difficult to press, which somewhat detracts from the generally classy feeling of the Iconia Tab. There’s also a plastic flap right next to the buttons, where you can insert a microSD card (yes, they work out of the box) and a blank space where we expect the AT&T model (or perhaps, the Verizon LTE version that disappeared into the ether) would store its SIM slot.

Moving onto the left side, we have the translucent power button, which doubles as the charging light, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a mini-HDMI port. We’re slightly miffed that Acer couldn’t cram a full-size HDMI socket in the copious space here, or at least include a mini-HDMI cable in the box. Regardless, the video connection works fairly well, performing full, responsive display mirroring at 720p resolution, albeit suffering from a bit of overscan. (Acer says 1080p video-out will be supported in a Q2 update.) On the bottom, there’s just a docking connector for the optional charging dock with infrared remote, and on the right side you’ll find the dedicated power jack and a pair of USB slots: one micro-USB to transfer data to the tablet, and one full-size USB port which connects with both your storage drives and keyboards right out of the box. (Again, you’ll need to wait for an Acer update to enable USB mouse support.) Last but not least, the back has the Iconia Tab’s ho-hum five megapixel camera with a single LED flash in the upper-right-hand corner — more on that in a bit — and a pair of silvery stereo speakers along the bottom edge.

We’ll be frank here — Speakers have been an afterthought on most every tablet we’ve seen, and they usually range the gamut from “you’ll want headphones” to “what are you doing to my ears?” That’s not quite the case here. Acer’s tiny speakers — augmented by some Dolby Mobile wizardry — sound good enough to share. They’re still pretty tinny, mind you, and lack any meaningful amount of bass, but the sound field they produce was rich and full enough to accompany movies and games, and sounded good whether the tablet was held in our outstretched hands or lying flat against a hard surface.

Display

And thanks to the fairly stellar viewing angles of Acer’s 10.1-inch, 1280 x 800 TFT LCD display, sharing such multimedia might actually make sense. It’s no IPS screen, to be sure, and we won’t make any excuses for the incredible amount of glare and raw fingerprint grease attracted to its mirror-like finish, but for a plain-jane LCD panel, it’s surprisingly good. Text is crisp, colors pop, whites get blindingly bright and blacks fairly dim, and those features only wash out marginally when viewed at oblique angles. Acer’s capacitive digitizer is also blissfully responsive — Honeycomb struggles to keep up — and tracks ten full points of contact simultaneously (we checked) for whatever multi-finger gestures app developers might eventually roll out. Weaknesses include pixels visible with the naked eye and the near-uncertainty of being able to see anything on the screen outdoors, but we’ve seen plenty of sub-$1,000 laptops that wish they had the screen Acer brings to the table here.

Performance and battery life

We’ve said much about the potent performance of the dual-core 1GHz Tegra 2 system-on-chip, and as much as we ragged on NVIDIA’s seeming inability to deliver the the processor last year, it’s at the heart of some of our favorite devices today — including the T-Mobile G2x and the Motorola Atrix, not to mention every Honeycomb slate. However, Acer oh-so-slightly bucks the trend here by providing the A500′s Tegra 2 with 1GB of DDR3 RAM — likely faster than the DDR2 chips used in its close competitors.

Sure enough, the slate seemed slightly speedier in our benchmark suite, as where the Xoom pulled down 1,801 in the general-purpose Quadrant test (and the T-Mobile G-Slate did 1,879) the Iconia Tab pulled ahead of the pack with a score of 2,228 and pushed 2,300 several times. The A500 also regularly delivered over 42 MFLOPS in Linpack — recall that it took a overclocked 1.5GHz Xoom to blaze through 47 MFLOPS. The A500 even pulled slightly ahead in the SunSpider Javascript benchmark, completing a run in just 1,988ms, where the Xoom took 2,042ms. Still, those aren’t terribly significant differences, and in real-world testing we didn’t see a noticible impact — in fact, if anything, the graphical performance had a couple niggles on our Acer review unit. The A500 plays 720p (H.264) video like a charm (though not 1080p) and does well in Android 3.0′s handful of graphically intensive games, but on rare occasions we noticed some graphical corruption when playing certain videos in RockPlayer or scrolling Android menus, the likes of which never cropped up in our Xoom testing.

No, our only genuine disappointment with the Acer Iconia Tab A500 was its sustained battery life.

Acer includes a pair of 3260mAh batteries under that shiny rear cover, and for the most part they worked just fine. The battery meter still read 80 percent after a day of idling, and had only dipped to 53 percent by the time we woke up the next morning — with two push email accounts constantly running over WiFi the whole while. After charging up once again, and with moderate use of email, web, a smidgen of video and gaming, and plenty of music playback during a second day, we hit the pillow with 32 percent of battery life remaining. However, when it came time for our standard battery drain test (where we loop the same standard-definition video with the screen at roughly 65 percent brightness, and WiFi on) the A500′s lithium-ion cells gave us only 6 hours and 55 minutes of playback, a good sight worse than any 10-inch Honeycomb tablet we’ve tested thus far. Mind you, that’s still enough oomph to last you a transcontinental flight, but it’s a little weak compared to the alternatives here, and that’s surprising considering both the underlying silicon and batteries here are supposedly identical to the immediate Android competition.

Software

We’re not sure what we can say about Honeycomb that you haven’t heard before, but we’ll try anyhow: Android 3.0 is a beautiful, functional operating system that lacks serious software support and has quite a few quirks to boot. Assuming enough of us buy Android tablets, the minds of developers around the globe are quite liable to change, but for now, you can expect a lovely browser, Gmail client, music player, calendar, photo browser, chat and maps application, along with whatever additional Android phone software you can get to properly run on the thing. Acer actually includes its own compliment of applications to get you started, but they hurt more than they help — laughably, almost every one duplicates the functionality of an existing Honeycomb app, most of them perform worse, but Acer sticks them right under your nose anyhow by affixing them to a set of glorified app drawers.

Acer Iconia Tab A500 software

Here’s the basic rundown:

LumiRead is a simple e-book reader that redirects you to the web browser to actually grab any books, an odd addition when Google’s own Books is a tap away; SocialJogger is a Twitter and Facebook status update browser with oversized fonts and a painfully slow UI that could be replaced with the likes of TweetDeck in an instant. There’s also NemoPlayer, an ugly (but speedy) photo, video and music navigator that pales in comparison to Honeycomb’s fast and stylish Gallery and Music apps; Clear.Fi, another multimedia browser that’s slightly slower but prettier; and MusicA, a Shazam-alike that somehow had difficulty recognizing a number of pop hits. The two positive additions here are Acer’s Media Server, which lets the A500 stream content to networked computers and DLNA-capable rigs, and Photo Browser 3D, which uses the tablet’s inertial sensors to flip through graphically pleasing digital scrapbooks of your camera images.

Camera

It’s just a shame Acer didn’t put a little extra effort in to make the slate’s cameras worthwhile. There are two photo-taking implements on the Iconia Tab A500 — one 2 megapixel webcam up front, and a 5 megapixel imager in back — and we’re sorry to say that neither is really worth your effort. Color reproduction actually isn’t half bad on the rear camera, and it can actually take fairly pretty macro shots in bright light, but we couldn’t get the lens to focus on subjects further than a few feet away — which resulted in loads of blurry images, needless to say. We’re still not sold on the idea of taking photos using a ten-inch slab of glass, regardless, but we suppose augmented reality developers (and video chat engineers) with thank Acer for their inclusion.

Acer Iconia Tab A500 sample images

Speaking of video, we’re sorry to say it’s far worse than the stills.

As you can see in our sample video above, the Acer Iconia Tab A500 is technically capable of 720p recording, but we’d be hard-pressed to call it high-definition here — only in a small window on a webpage and with the tablet held perfectly still does it even look even passable. Compression artifacting crops up when making any rapid motion, and the short focus rears its head again, blurring everything more than a few feet away from the slate’s sensor. Audio is also problematic. Even the wind generated by simply walking outdoors muffled most everything else.

Wrap-up

All in all, the Acer Iconia Tab A500 is a solid piece of hardware, if you have to have an Android tablet right now, but we don’t know if we could recommend it in good conscience over some of the competitors on offer. Honestly, we’re still slightly iffy about Honeycomb itself, and the longevity of the Tegra 2 processor, given the lack of Android 3.0 apps and speed at which OEMs are adopting faster and more efficient silicon respectively. At present, ASUS’ Eee Pad Transformer seems the obvious choice if you can’t afford a G-Slate — assuming prices stay the same — but at the same time, we don’t think you’ll be wholly displeased with Acer’s tablet if brushed aluminum’s your thing. Just keep that AC adapter handy.

[engadget]

HP demos Citrix running on Touchpad, tries to make webOS corporation-friendly (video)

admin    Gadget, HP, IT News, Tablet    

Lest you thought HP‘s Windows 7 slate was for large businesses and its upcoming webOS ones were reserved for consumers, not so fast. In a video (embedded after the break for your viewing pleasure), HP touts Citrix running on its forthcoming Touchpad to show it can play nice with enterprises’ IT departments, too. As with Chrome OS, Citrix Receiver runs inside the browser, letting people choose the desktop apps they want. Both platforms, it seems, are capable of running computer-aided design applications in the cloud, with HP showing a 3D model in AutoCAD eDrawings Viewer. The frame rate isn’t as fluid as HP would have you believe, but getting started appears idiot-proof, thanks to some large, tap-able icons. In any case, with 80 percent of the Fortune 100 already deploying the iPad, it’s wise of HP to woo corporate customers with webOS. Isn’t that right, Microsoft?

[engadget]