The Galaxy Note 10.1 was launched at the 2011 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. This tablet is just like the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 but with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich by default, and a very useful pressure sensitive S Pen digitiser which allows the user to more precisely take notes, sketch and draw on the device’s surface.

Other features include a quad-core processor – the Exynos 4412 clocked at 1.4GHz – with 2GB of RAM, a 10.1in 1,280 x 800 pixels display, a 7,000mAh battery, 16GB of on-board storage, a microSD card slot that takes card up to 32GB, AllShare play and cast, the Learning and Video hubs and Wi-Fi bonding capabilities.

Samsung has also included a number of applications like Photoshop Touch, Polaris Office or Peel Remote which make the tablet a great all-rounder.

The big price drop is likely to have been caused by the combined effect by the Nexus 7 and the Nexus 10, produced by Asus and Samsung respectively, both of which are causing havoc in the Android tablet market.

by Desire Athow

The Nexus 4 will be powered by a quad-core processor, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon  S4 Pro, with 2GB of RAM. It will boast a 4.7in display with a 1,280 x 768 pixel  resolution, an 8-megapixel rear camera, a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera, and  will support 3G, wireless charging and NFC. The handset will measure in at 133.9  x 68.7 x 9.1mm, with a weight of 139g. It will ship in 8GB and 16GB variations,  which will cost £239 and £279, respectively.

Meanwhile, the Nexus 10 is being billed as a high-end tablet, with its 10.1in,  2,560 x 1,600 pixel display boasting a pixel density of 300ppi – higher than the  iPad’s Retina display. It will be powered by a dual-core A15 processor, which  Google claims will make it much faster than previous offerings. The tablet has a  battery life of up to nine hours, front-facing stereo speakers, and will be the  first device to feature Google’s new ‘Play Music’ service, suggesting that  Google is preparing to take on Apple’s iTunes. The Nexus 10 will cost £319 for a  16GB model and £389 for a 32GB version.

Both the LG Nexus 4 and Samsung Nexus 10 will run on Android Jelly Bean 4.2,  the latest version of Google’s mobile operating system, which will reportedly  introduce new features like Photo Sphere (a new photo app), Gesture Typing and  wireless display support. It will allegedly be the “simplest and smartest  version of Android yet.”

Google also announced an update to its budget Nexus 7 tablet – the Asus-produced device will now be  available with 16GB or 32GB of storage, as well as with 3G mobile capability,  which will make it a more viable competitor to Apple’s iPad mini.

Check back for more updates about UK pricing and availability, as well as  details about the Google Play Music service.

by Rawiya Kameir,                                            29 October, 2012

The product is expected to be launched approximately 90 days  after Windows 8, which points to a February release roughly three weeks after  the Consumer Electronics Show which will be the focal point for the tech  industry in the first quarter of 2013.

But last week the spotlight was squarely on Windows RT with the Surface  tablet based on this operating system getting all the love. As it stands,  Surface Pro doesn’t have a set release date or a price, and you can’t even  pre-order it.

What’s odd though, is that there’s no clear indication why Microsoft chose to  launch Surface Pro well into next year. That model, after all, uses existing  rather than next-generation technology, and the OS that powers it is already  out. Indeed, there are products like the Dell XPS 12 convertible tabletnow on the  market that offer similar features.

Conspiracy theorists will posit that Microsoft wants to give a head start to  Surface with Windows RT, although the models are aimed at different audiences.  There are at least two other reasons to explain why Microsoft nudged the launch  of Surface with Windows 8 Pro till next year.

Firstly, it wants to give its partners a head start in the all-too-important  enterprise segment and give them more time to get their products ready (in  comparison, there’s no Surface by Windows RT rivals on the market).

Secondly, next year will see the launch of Intel’s fourth generation Core  processor based on the Haswell microarchitecture, one which, we suspect will be  launched at CES in 2013. Could Intel and Microsoft work together to coincide the launch of Haswell with Windows  8 Pro on Surface? Totally.

Haswell will, according to Intel, “deliver better graphics support, new  instructions for faster encryption and performance, new hardware-based security  features and low-power processor sub-states to enable longer battery life”. These promises could be enough to convince Microsoft to push back the launch of  Surface Pro by a few months.

by Desire Athow,                                            29 October, 2012

Early pre-orders of the RT-powered tablet will not reach UK shores until next  week as the software developer has had problems shipping units abroad. UK Surface orders were originally set to be fulfilled on 26  October, a deadline which has since been revised for 2 November.

Microsoft had previously refuted the reported disturbance to its shipping  schedule, though there was an apparent miscommunication, as the tablets only  began to ship on 26 October.

The computing giant has now sent out an apology to aggrieved customers, which  is accompanied by a £50 voucher code that can be redeemed in the Windows  Store.

New orders for the £399 32GB tablet now have an estimated three week waiting  period. Meanwhile, the more expensive £559 64GB version is less in demand and  consequently does not have such a long wait time.

by Oluseun Alufa,                                            29 October, 2012

Acer presented the Iconia Tab A700 tablet at a press event in Hamburg, Germany and hinted that the entry level model will cost as little as €549 with no 3G and 16GB onboard storage.

According to German website Tablettest, the company also aims to sell the 64GB version with 3G capabilities for €749. The tablet is likely to be put on sale in April in Europe although this may well depend on market conditions.

There’s also a quad core Nvidia Tegra 3 Quad core chipset, 1GB RAM, an eight megapixel rear camera with a two megapixel front-facing one, microHDMI, microSD and microUSB ports, 3G, UMTS, Bluetooth, and a massive 9800mAh battery.

Asus is the only other manufacturer which has announced a tablet touting a quad core processor, the Eee Pad Transformer Prime, which was the first to come with the Tegra 3, which replaces the dual core Nvidia Tegra 2 cpu.

Recently, Razer released the Project Fiona concept PC gaming tablet. The new device features attached Hydra-style controllers and has been designed for offering “ultimate tablet gaming experience”.

The device comes with joystick controllers that are attached on both sides. The tablet also features a magnetometer as well as accelerometers which enable motion control. The high powered device has 1280×800 multi-touch display and it runs on Intel Core i7 processor.

The company’s website states that, “Adapted from a full featured PC gamepad, Project Fiona’s integrated dual controllers coupled with its advanced multi-touch screen are designed to make complex game navigation ergonomic and intuitive without compromising on the portability of the tablet,” reported Digital Spy.

According to Razer other gaming tablets available in the market are good for the casual titles with limited navigation and control capabilities which makes these devices “impossible for hardcore PC gaming”.

The new PC gaming tablet is first-of-its-kind that has integrated dual controllers high power gaming that requires headshots as well as commanding troops rather than casual games. The concept of Project Fiona, according to reports, might hit the market in the fourth quarter of 2012 and the pricing will be below $1,000.

According to PC World, USB Implementers Forum said during the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas that microUSB ports supporting USB 3.0 technology will come fitted in smartphones and tablet devices in 2012.

Rahman Ismail, chief technology officer of the USB Implementers Forum informed that data transfers between mobile devices and host devices like personal computers will be done at greater speeds. USB 3.0 is capable of data transfer speeds of up to 800 megabytes per second.

Usually, USB 3.0 is capable of data transfers at much higher speeds between PCs and compatible storage devices compared to tablets and smartphones. The speed is less in mobile devices because implementing full speeds in these devices will affect the battery life of the mobile devices.

“It’s not the failure of USB per se, it’s just that in tablets they are not looking to put the biggest, fastest things inside a tablet. We’re coming out with new specs, new areas where we will make it very power efficient, power friendly” Ismail said.

On-line mobile phone news website BGR has published the exclusive news that Samsung is to be announcing a new Google mobile OS based tablet at MWC in Barcelona – with a retina resolution, similar to that of Apple’s mobile phones.

Boy Genius Report has it that Samsung is even to beat Apple to market, with a retina-resolution tablet – which the iPhone maker has still yet to deploy in their iPads, which has a resolution of 768×1024 where the 4S has a 640×960 display.

The website has learnt this information from a trusted source where the Samsung 11.6-inch tablet will most likely be unveiled at Mobile World Congress in February.

BGR goes on to note that even though the tablet features a larger display than Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 they are told that the tablet is “barely larger” – due to the fact the slate will have a thinner bezel with a whopping 2560×1600 resolution, 11.6-inch screen with a 16:10 aspect ratio.

The tablet will use a dual-core Exynos 5250 CPU clocked at 2GHz , where the website has heard that Apple’s new A6 CPU will be very similar to the Samsung CPU, which is a dual-core Cortex A15 chip.

Source:

Software giant Microsoft is planning to bring its immensely popular Office productivity software suite to Apple’s iPad tablet device.

According to a report on iPad only newspaper The Daily, Microsoft is ‘actively working’ to bring the software to the iPad.

The move could be the next logical thing for Microsoft to do considering the dominant position the iPad has in the tablet market and the popularity of Microsoft Office. The Office would be a success on the iPad for sure, but it would also mean that Microsoft would have to share the revenue with Apple as well.

The Daily speculated that the stand-alone Office apps will be available at a significantly lower cost, around the $10 price point set by Apple for its Pages, Keynotes and Numbers apps.

It is also expected that Microsoft would make the apps compatible with Office 365, Office for Mac and Office Hub platform that comes with Windows Phone 7 devices.

Microsoft is also planning to launch a new version of Office designed for Apple’s Mac OS X Lion platform, which would be launched sometime next year.

Google has started displaying advertisements on its Chrome web browser.

According to an articleon Cnet, the Android maker now has a new medium in its vast online advertisement empire that accounts for a significant portion of its revenue.

The ads started appearing on the new-tab page on the Chrome web browser, which is soon expected to surpass Firefox as the second most popular web browser in the world.

As of now, the ads promote Google’s own Chrome OS based Chromebook netbook device. Chrome OS is based on a cloud based version of Chrome, with a philosophy that most computing is done on the web, instead of physical computing environments.

The in-browser ads don’t intrude on the web browsing experience and don’t compete with  regular ads on the web pages. The placement of the ads is important because the new-tab page is gaining popularity among users because it has Chrome web apps and is home to the Chrome Web Store.

Google has big plans for the Chrome web browser. Apart from advertising, the company also plans to new introduce features in January, in the form of native support for game pads, microphones, webcams, and real-time web communications standard webRTC.

Source: Erica Thinesen