Amazon introduced their first Kindle device back in 2007 when the dedicated eBook reader population was made up almost exclusively by Sony’s Reader line of products. The eReader population has grown to include more brands than I can count and in the last 5 years, we’ve seen the technology in this category evolve from e-Ink devices to readers with color LCDs. After several popular e-Ink Kindles, Amazon’s first color device is the Kindle Fire. Although it may look and act like a tablet, Amazon does not want you to compare the Fire to an iPad or dedicated Android tablet. They say the Fire is just a content consumption device for books, magazines, music and video.  Of course telling people not to compare their device to other tablets, will cause them to do the opposite. I’m going to take a look at this already very popular device and let you know what I think.

Note: Click the images in this review to see a larger view.

Hardware Specifications

Processor: 1Ghz Texas Instruments OMAP 4 dual-core processor
Operating System: Android
Display: 7″ multi-touch 1024 x 600 pixel resolution at 169 ppi, 16 million colors
On-device Storage: 8GB internal (approximately 6GB available for user content)
Battery Life: Up to 8 hours of continuous reading or 7.5 hours of video playback, with wireless off. Battery life will vary based on wireless usage, such as web browsing and downloading content
Charge Time: Fully charges in approximately 4 hours via included U.S. power adapter. Also supports charging from your computer via USB
Connectivity: Wifi 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n, or enterprise networks with support for WEP, WPA and WPA2 security using password authentication; does not support connecting to ad-hoc (or peer-to-peer) Wi-Fi networks
USB Port: USB 2.0 (micro-B connector)
Audio: 3.5 mm stereo audio jack, top-mounted stereo speakers
Content Formats Supported: Kindle (AZW), TXT, PDF, unprotected MOBI, PRC natively, Audible (Audible Enhanced (AA, AAX)), DOC, DOCX, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, non-DRM AAC, MP3, MIDI, OGG, WAV, MP4, VP8
Size (in inches): 7.5″ x 4.7″ x 0.45″ (190 mm x 120 mm x 11.4 mm)
Weight: 14.6 ounces (413 grams)

Included in the Box

Kindle Fire
U.S. power adapter (supports 100-240V)
Quick Start Guide

Let me start out by showing you how the compares to the iPad 2 as far as device size. For me personally, a 10 inch display like the iPad’s is the sweet spot when it comes to web browsing and magazine reading. The smaller 7 inch display of the Fire is definitely great for portability, but it feels cramped when I’m using it for web browsing and viewing magazines. That said, I find the screen size of the Fire to be just fine for reading books, watching full screen video and playing games.

The Kindle Fire has a very spartan design. It’s available only in Black and you’ll find no flashy chrome trim, LED status lights or menu buttons on this device. Actually it has only one button… a tiny power button located on the bottom edge.

The front of the device has the display with a narrow bezel around all the edges.

The display is crisp and clear, with colors that are bright and vibrant. It’s not Samsung brilliant, but it’s still very nice. The image above does not do it justice. It’s very difficult to photography glossy color LCDs like the Fire.

The back of the Fire is made of a soft rubber like material that attracts smudges and grease.

Along the top edge are two speakers. Don’t expect to be able to hear audio in noisy environments. Even at max volume, it’s not very loud. In a small room, it works fine though.

On the bottom edge you’ll find a 3.5mm headphone jack, micro USB connector for charging and the power button. That’s it. No dedicated volume buttons, microphone and no camera. These omissions definitely restrict the Fire from being considered a full fledged tablet since you’ll be unable to use it for Skype calls and other video chat type applications. The omissions do not end with the microphone and camera though. The Fire also does not include a flash memory card slot for file expansion and it lacks Bluetooth connectivity as well. The lack of Bluetooth means you will not be able to connect a wireless Bluetooth keyboard or headphones. The lack of a flash card slot isn’t a deal breaker since Amazon gives you free file storage in the cloud for all their content and the built in 8GB of memory (6GB available for user content) enables you to store 80 apps, 10 movies or 800 songs or 6,000 books directly on the device.

In hand the Fire feels really solid. It feels like a slab of Lucite with no flexing, creaking or cracking. It’s comfortable to hold in your hand because the edges are rounded and the back has a slight grip to it.

User Interface

The Kindle Fire is powered by the Android operating system, with a highly modified front end.

The home screen uses a familiar bookshelf motif that consists of multiple shelves. The top shelf is a carrousel / cover flow style stack of icons of the latest accessed apps, books, music, videos and webpages. You can flip through the icons by dragging your finger across the stack. I don’t really like flipping through the icons because frequently I’ll tap an icon and nothing will happen or it will flip to the next icon in sequence and launch that one instead. You can add your own icons to the bottom shelf, which is designated to hold your favorite apps, books and magazines. If you add more than 4 favorites, a new shelf will be created to add more. Then the whole home screen will scroll up and down.

At the top of the screen is a search box that will allow you to search the content on your device. As you type a book title or app name, you’ll see a list of matching items that filters as you continue to type the search criteria. The search feature will not drill down into books though. It will only allow you to find items based on titles, authors and artists.

Below the search box is a navigation bar that takes you to the 7 areas on the device: Newsstand, Books, Music, Video, Docs, Apps and Web.

Like other Android devices, you can view your notifications by swiping down from the top left corner of the display. To access the volume slider and other hardware settings, you tap the little gear icon in the upper right corner.

You will also notice a Home icon and back arrow at the bottom of the display. This is a menu that isn’t static on the screen. You usually have to tap the screen to have it appear. I really prefer a dedicated home button (and volume buttons) of some sort on my devices.

Reading Books

Here we see the book area. You can view your library by cover art grid view…

Or display it as a list which shows the title and author. In list view it also shows a percentage of how much you’ve read for each book.

It would be great if there was a way to file books in named folders, but the only way to organize the book list is by author name, recently read or by title.

Notice the Device / Cloud button at the top of the display. You’ll find these buttons on the Books, Magazines and Apps pages. When you’re on the device tab, you’ll see the books, magazines and apps that have been installed directly on your device in the 8GB of built-in memory. The cloud on the other hand, is an online storage space for you to securely store and access all of your own personal content, from your own personal movies, mp3′s, documents, etc. You can access your “Cloud Drive” on Amazon from almost any device that can access the internet.

Your amazon account includes 5GB of free cloud storage. For $20 per year more, you get 20GB of storage space, plus unlimited space for your mp3 music files. If you need even more memory, there are additional paid plans.

Of course you can access Amazon’s store to browse and purchase books. You’ll need a WiFi connection though as the Fire does not include built in 3G connectivity like other Kindle devices.

I like the interface for the store a lot. It’s simple and easy to navigate. I always found the store on older (non-touch) Kindle’s to be a little tedious to use.

I love that you can download a free sample of a book that you’re interested in buying. The samples show up in your library with the rest of your books.

I found the book reading experience on the Kindle Fire to be enjoyable. I’m already very comfortable reading on devices with a color LCD as I do almost all my reading on an iPhone. I always switch the background to black and the letters to grey, but you can also have a white or sepia background.

When you’re reading there are no distractions on the screen. Just words.

To see the clock, you have to tap the center of the screen. Turning pages is accomplished by tapping the left or right side of the screen. You can select words or phrases for a definition. You’re also able to highlight and make annotations.

You can then view your notes and highlights for each book by clicking the menu button at the bottom of the display.

Reading Magazines

Reading magazines on a 7″ display isn’t a wonderful experience in my opinion because you can’t easily read the magazine pages as intended due to the screen size.

The Fire’s magazine reading interface does offer a solution to that problem by allowing you to toggle into a Text Mode. If you look at the image above on the Left, that’s the normal magazine page. In order to comfortably read the small text, I have to zoom in. But if I toggle to Text mode as seen above on the Right, the article text is reformatted in more of a book style. Pictures are still shown and you can even search text. However, you can’t annotate, highlight or bookmark pages in magazines.

FYI: turning the Fire into landscape view makes things worse. It shows 2 magazine pages side by side with even tinier text.

Listening to Music

The music player on the Fire isn’t overly fancy. It has the necessary features to get the job done. Just remember, that the max audio output from the built-in speakers is pretty low and the Fire does not have dedicated volume buttons. The music player has a volume slider right on the screen though.

You can use the music player to stream music stored in your cloud drive. But of course, you’ll need to have a wifi connection to do so.

Watching Video

The Fire comes with a free month of Amazon Prime service. Amazon Prime gives you free 2 day shipping on tons of products and unlimited, commercial-free, instant streaming of thousands of movies and TV shows at no additional cost along with newer movies and TV shows that can be rented or purchased. For example, right now you can rent The Help for $1.99 for 48hrs. Or buy episodes of The Vampire Diaries for $1.99.

I did cartwheels (ok, not really…) when I saw that the original Star Trek episodes were available for free. I watched the very first episode, which I had somehow managed to have never seen. The episode streamed perfectly with no hiccups, pausing or stuttering.

It’s important to note that the Prime Instant Videos are streaming only. So you’ll need a Wifi connection to enjoy them. However, rented movies and purchased TV shows can be downloaded so that you can view them even when you’re offline.

Apps

The Kindle Fire is powered by Android, but you will not be able to access the standard app market with this device. You’ll only be able to use Amazon’s own appstore, which is a bit of a bummer considering that Amazon’s appstore does not include all the apps that the app market has to offer.

Don’t get me wrong, Amazon offers a very good selection of apps and even offers a paid app for free each day. But I hate not having it all. I’m greedy. One example of an app that I’d like to install on the Fire which is not included in Amazon’s appstore is the official Gmail app.

The good news is that there’s an email app included on the Fire. I set it up to connect to my Gmail account. Yay right? Well… not really. The app is ok for reading and responding to messages.

In portrait mode you can thumb type.

Or kinda touch type on a very cramped keyboard when in landscape orientation. But here’s the bad news… you can’t connect to your gmail/google contacts. What is up with that? Grrrr…

Good news again… you can use the Fire’s web browser to access your Gmail and your contacts.

Web Browsing

Browsing my favorite sites on the Fire is an ok experience. It’s not nearly as comfortable as browsing on the iPad due to the screen size though. You can browse in tabbed mode as shown above.

Or full screen mode, which gives you a few extra lines per screen.

In landscape mode, it’s much easier to read the text, but you have to scroll more often.

Browsing on a small screen can also cause frustrations when tapping links when they are small and next to each other. A lot of times you’ll need to zoom in so that you can tap accurately. I don’t know how many times I tried to tap something and would end up tapping an adjacent link and then have to press the back button.

Book marks can be viewed by thumbnail or list.

One of the touted gee whiz features of the Fire is this new web page loading technology called Amazon Silk. According to Amazon, it’s supposed to be a revolutionary Cloud-Accelerated “Split Browser” that dramatically improves web page loading times. Unfortunately, I really haven’t noticed it being any quicker than surfing on my iPad. If anything, it actually feels SLOWER to me. I wanted to do some speed test with my favorite Speedtest app, but guess what? It’s not in the Amazon market and my attempts to sideload it failed.

Another weirdness I noticed is that some flash based sites like CNN’s video pages, prompted me to install the latest Flashplayer and thought the Fire was an OSX device. Of course trying to install it didn’t work.

I had the same issue with Hulu.com. Android fans always brag about being able to load flash enabled sites but it feels hit or miss to me. I never really notice the lack of flash on my iPad because I don’t visit many (any?) flash enabled sites.

Performance

Changing from screen to screen, app to app, loading books, magazines, etc, all feels snappy. The Kindle Fire has a dual core processor, so it’s not laggy by any means. The only lag I can really complain about is with the web browser. I’m not the only one complaining, so I’m hoping and expect Amazon will improve the tech behind Amazon Silk.

Battery Life

No complaints here at all. Battery life is great. I can get days and days of use out of the Fire before needing to charge. Granted, I don’t watch many videos or surf for long periods of time using this device.

Conclusion

The Kindle Fire is already a wildly popular device because of its sub $200 price tag and Amazon’s brand reputation. The reasons why I like the Fire are its price, compact size, nice display, snappy performance and good battery life. The reasons why I don’t like this device are the lack of 3G, Bluetooth, dedicated volume and menu buttons, laggy web browser and no access to Google’s app market or core apps (Gmail, Calendar, etc.). I understand that this is Amazon’s first “tablet” device, so I’m cutting them some slack and am hoping that that future models will address at least some of these deficiencies.

I don’t consider the Amazon Kindle Fire to be a real tablet.  But it will be many people’s first taste of Android and using a tablet style device. I think this device is causing ripples in the tablet market which will benefit all of us. Even an iPad fan like myself.

Filed in categories: Android related, eBook Readers and Gear, Featured Items, Reviews, Tablet Computers and Gear

Tagged: Android, ereader, Kindle, Tablet

Amazon Kindle Fire Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on January 31, 2012 at 11:10 am.

Those of you who lug around a lot of gear like myself, and remember my article on a single convergence device, might just find this concept design by Indian Industrial Designer Prashant Chandra very interesting. His entry in the Fujitsu Design Awards competition, the Lifebook2013, was shortlisted to the top 100 from over 3000 entries from 99 countries. Consisting of a notebook, tablet, phone/MP3 player, and camera, the unit doesn’t actually have a physical keyboard, the tablet becomes a virtual keyboard when docked. When connected, the unit shares hardware and storage and only needs a single power charger.

“Our life in this IT age typically consist of these digital devices that we use everyday to do our work, entertain ourselves, enjoy our hobbies, save our memories and share and socialize with our family & friends. Presently we buy each one of these devices separately and then struggle to keep them all synchronised with our data. Also we always use these devices one at a time. This means a lot of wasted hardware which is repeated in these devices and is sitting idle in one device, when we are using other. If there was a device that could have these devices integrated into one thereby making synchronization a seamless process and overall cost of ownership lesser than what I would spend for four individual devices, it would truly be my Lifebook.”

More pictures and details can be seen in Prashant’s portolio on coroflot.com

Filed in categories: Gear, Laptops and Gear, News

Tagged: concept product, notebook, Phone, Tablet

Lifebook 2013 Concept – A single convergence device? originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on January 21, 2012 at 1:00 pm.

Should Amazon be worried that ARCHOS has just announced a 7 inch Android 3.2 (Honeycomb) tablet for $199? If I were faced with a buying decision between the Kindle Fire and this new ARCHOS 70b Internet Tablet, I would pick the ARCHOS due to the specs alone. The processor is faster than the Fire’s at 1.2Ghz, it has an HDMI out port, a SD card slot and the full app market. It won’t be in stores till January, but that’s just a hop, skip and a jump away. Which tablet would you choose between the two? Full press release after the jump.

ARCHOS Unveils the ARCHOS 70b Internet Tablet, the First Android Honeycomb Tablet Under $200

DENVER, CO – (December 20, 2011) – ARCHOS, an award-winning innovator in consumer electronics, announced today the upcoming availability of the first android 3.2 ‘’Honeycomb’’ tablet under $200, the ARCHOS 70b internet tablet. The new ARCHOS 70b IT is an enhanced version of the ARCHOS 70 IT Gen 8 that features an upgraded capacitive touch screen and a powerful processor at 1.2 GHz.

The ARCHOS 70b internet tablet runs Android 3.2 Honeycomb, Google’s full suite of mobile applications with Android MarketTM, giving users access to over 300,000 applications such as games, books, social media and news. With Honeycomb, users will have faster and smoother transitions between different applications, and more intuitive navigation to and from home screens.

Very slim and light, the newest version of the ARCHOS 70 internet tablet Gen 8, offers the best performances in terms of portability, immediate internet access, multimedia, apps and affordability.  This new version has a higher resolution capacitive screen (1024 x 600) for vibrant colors and crisp clarity and has doubled the RAM to 512 MB for a smoother web experience and more efficient multi-tasking.

This connected mobile device with a sublime user interface, 3D Graphics accelerator and Wi-Fi connectivity, also comes with a full pack of connected apps such as a web browser and email application, HDMI output and Micro SD connectivity.

With this enhanced Android tablet, users will benefit from:

•    An affordable price starting at $199 for 8GB
•    Smoother multi-tasking and a faster web experience thanks to the upgraded RAM
•    Brighter colors with a high resolution capacitive screen
•    Android 3.2 Honeycomb, the Android version designed for a tablet
•    Access to a full array of apps with the Android Market and its 300,000 apps such as news, eMagazines, eBooks, social media, games and more
•    A full multimedia experience with upgraded multimedia ARCHOS apps for video and music
•    HDMI output, giving users full access to their Android experience on their TV including all the pre-loaded apps, video playback, 3D games, photos and all the Android Market apps

Availability & Price The ARCHOS 70b internet tablet will be available in stores starting in January with the recommended retail price of $199.

About ARCHOS ARCHOS, pioneer in the portable audio and video player market, and now specializing in Android Tablets, has repeatedly revolutionized the market for consumer electronics since 1988. Today, ARCHOS offers Android Internet Tablets, Tablet PCs and MP3/MP4 players. In 2000, ARCHOS launched the Jukebox 6000, the first MP3 player combined with a hard disk. Then in 2003 ARCHOS introduced the first portable multimedia players with TV recording. In 2006 Wi-Fi is implemented and then touch screens in 2007. In 2008, ARCHOS launched the first generation Internet Tablets, and then the first ever Android powered tablets in 2009. ARCHOS has offices in the United States, Europe and Asia. ARCHOS is quoted on Compartment C of Eurolist, Euronext Paris, ISIN CodeFR0000182479. Website: www.archos.com.

Connect with us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ARCHOS.EntertainmentYourWay Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/ARCHOS_US

Filed in categories: Android related, News, Tablet Computers and Gear

Tagged: Android, Tablet

ARCHOS Unveils the First Android Honeycomb Tablet under $200 originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on December 20, 2011 at 12:54 pm.

“The pen is mightier than the finger”

-Ian 2011
(Apologies to Edward Bulwer-Lytton)

Let me start this article by saying that if you’re looking for a technical review of the new Lenovo Thinkpad Tablet then this is not the article for you. There’s quite a few speed and feed reviews out there, but what I want to cover here is how the “business grade”  Thinkpad Tablet differs from most of the other tablets out there in the market, and how these features  work for me especially in regards to its pen input.

Still interested ?  Read on ……….

I’ve stated in several forums (including this one) that I thought that the 7″ tablet format was what I believed to be the perfect form factor to me, however when I was offered a (very) good deal on a Thinkpad Tablet I had to have a long, hard think if I really wanted to purchase one. I didn’t want to blow money on something that was basically just a bigger version of my Samsung Galaxy Tab 7″, even if it did have “bigger and better” specifications. After reading many reviews of the unit it became clear that the pen input really set this unit apart from all the currently released Android tablets out there. I could see where this could be potentially very useful.

It’s worth noting that I have played with various pen based Windows units through the years, and to me they were never quite good enough, or didn’t have that killer app, or didn’t fuse into the total pen/tablet experience.

95% of this review has been written with my Thinkpad Tablet, all the text, all the pictures, the whole lot. Note that this is meant to be more of an “experience” article rather than a hardware or software review.  All apps are available from the Android Market except Mobile Notes (which is OEM only) - some free, and some fee-based, and some in both formats.  It’s worth noting that many of them will work without a pen as well.

Firstly some semi-technical stuff that differentiates this tablet from most of the tablets on the market (and a chance to demonstrate marking up a jpeg ).  While some of the features individually exist on any other tablet on the market today, the Thinkpad is the only one with this unique combination of features.

• Full size USB – allows use of USB keys, hard drives, keyboards, mice
• 4 Physical function buttons ( Orientation Lock/Browser/Back/Home )
• Full Size SD – easy transfer of information from notebooks and digital cameras
• Optional plugin keyboard folio case
• 10.1″ Duosense touchscreen that allows for either finger input or the Thinkpad Pressure Sensitive Pen

It’s the last feature that really stands out here. I’ve had some form of PDA since the days of the early Sharp Organisers and the Palm 100; however, since then I’ve never found a PDA/Tablet that really suits my needs for taking everyday notes.  Now I don’t actually write much these days (as you can probably see from the quality of my writing in the picture above ), but I still carry a diary or a notebook and pen with me wherever I go just to jot down notes or doodle pictures.  Keyboards, whether physical or virtual, have never done it for me while say taking notes at a client visit. It’s just not fast enough and to me seems a bit intrusive during a meeting. The idea of being able to write notes was very appealing, but how well would they work in real life ?

The included OEM app for the pen supplied with the tablet ( Notes Mobile ) allows you to create notebooks to classify your information and supports pen pressure.  It supports automatic OCR,  freehand, or a combination of both.  You can also write in freehand and convert it to OCR later. Here’s an example of freehand:

And here it is after it’s been OCRed:

Actually , if you look at the translation above, the OCR isn’t that bad given my chicken scrawl… It does have some cool features like being able to scribble things out to delete them and a long vertical line will add a space.  As an included app, this works pretty well. Changing OCR font, pen size or color isn’t intuitive, quick or easy while working, and the recognition still isn’t 100 percent -but as mentioned in the note, that might just be my bad handwriting  The program is quite useful for writing short notes that you require OCRed and then shared into Gmail or Evernote.

One of the bugbears currently is palm rejection.  The screen basically has a single digitiser that  detects capacitive (finger) input and  active (pen)  input.  When the pen’s being used, palm rejection should disregard finger/palm input; however this seems to work in varying levels in the different applications. With the badly implemented apps, you end up with artifacts on your picture/note/form where you’ve rested your hand. Have a look at the Notes Mobile screen above, and in the bottom right there’s a small dot. That’s an artifact from where palm rejection hasn’t worked properly.

Primarily the tablet will be used for work purposes. Below is an example of a typical page of notes I might take during a client visit. This is created with Quill, which was itself developed on the Thinkpad Tablet.  There’s no notebook support in Quill   ( V7.0 – 28/12/12 now supports notebooks) and  you can use a tag system to sub classify your notes.  Quill supports the pen pressure and makes it easy to do all the things you need to do, like changing pen size and colour (though it could be easier) . Palm rejection works perfectly On returning to the office or wirelessly, I can then attach my notes to an email, an appointment, or into our CRM system for future reference. For freehand notes, this is really where the tablet, pen and software come into their own. This is currently my must have app for freehand notes and workflow.

Ever been emailed a PDF form that you have to fill in and email back?  This normally involves printing out the file, filling it in with pen, scanning it back in, and then emailing it off. The same goes for papers for comment or approval or photos etc. With the Thinkpad Tablet and EZPDF you can fill it in with the pen and send it back. You can fill in fields, highlight and annotate in different colours and font sizes. Very useful  If I can get PDF’s of presentations I can see myself using this during training or conferences to write notes during the sessions.

I’m a bit of a doodler as you can see from my headline picture on this article. The pressure sensitive pen and the right app allows you to digitally doodle. Autodesk has released Sketchbook for Android. It supports layers, heaps of pens and effects and much, much more than I’ll ever use. Note the varied thickness and trailing in some of the lines due to the pressure sensitivity. While it’s not as good as a dedicated graphics tablet you can see that the results can be quite good and all this on a single fully contained portable device that is as small as a normal graphics tablet by itself. Here’s a quick pic I created while watching tellie last night. You can also use Sketchbook to markup and change graphic files as well ( as per my Tablet “spec” sheet above ).

All the programs above have the capability of being able to export your creations into a variety of  apps including Evernote, Dropbox, Gmail etc.  So getting information off your device after creation doesn’t mean having to connect it to your PC or muck around with SD Cards.

All in all I’m really enjoying the experience with the Thinkpad Tablet. The pen adds a new dimension to portable tablet computing. You of course require the right apps to be able to support the pen and to be able to make the pen fit into your workflow.

I’m still finding more and more uses for the tablet everyday and think that the pen support really has the potential to take my mobile computing up to the next level.  I’m slowly working through how this unit fits my work flow, both personal and business. Hopefully it’s a sign of things to come in the mobile computing space and well worth having a look at if you’re given the chance.

Addenum ( 20/11/2011 AEDST ) :

Based on the comments received  I’ve just created the below video.  This is my fully loaded Tablet not some cleanskin demo model that’s tweaked or modded .  It’s an attempt to show the workflow to create a document in Quill, exporting the document to GMail and then using Myscript Stylus as a keyboard replacement to complete the email.  This is to demonstrate the speed, accuracy, responsive of the tablet that can’t be conveyed in still pictures.  Probably a bit slower than in real life than normal as I had to use at an unusual angle to film properly  and was making it up on the spot. Enjoy ! ( and if you don’t I apologise in advance but I can’t give you that 4:04 minutes of your life back )

Filed in categories: Android related, Reviews, Tablet Computers and Gear

Tagged: Android app, Android tablet, digital pen, Tablet

Lenovo Thinkpad Tablet Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on November 16, 2011 at 11:00 am.

Want to introduce your kids to the tablet world but you’re not quite willing to hand them your expensive iPad?  Check out the Nabi Kids Tablet, a Toys “R” Us exclusive.  This 7 inch capacitive multi-touch tablet runs on Android OS (not sure which version) and sports a Duo Core 1.1GHz processor.  The Nabi is pre-loaded with lots of apps, games, learning materials and ebooks that are geared to kids.  There’s also a “Mommy Mode”, which will let mom’s enjoy the full-featured Android tablet.  It’s priced at $199.99 direct from Toys “R” Us.

Filed in categories: Android related, Kid Gadgets, News

Tagged: Android, Tablet

Nabi Tablet – A tablet for your kids originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on November 15, 2011 at 9:00 am.

The wait for Amazon’s Kindle Fire is almost over. Just one week to go and then we’ll see if this small tablet can give Apple’s iPad a run for its money. In case you weren’t aware, the Fire isn’t just a color Kindle eReader. You’ll be able to do a lot more with this 199 dollar 7 inch tablet than just read ebooks and magazines. You can surf your favorite sites via WiFi, watch movies, listen to music and install 1000′s of Android apps using Amazon’s AppStore. Current Android tablet and smartphone users are probably already familiar with Amazon’s AppStore, but for those of you that will get your first introduction through the Kindle Fire, the main differences between it and the regular app store (which I doubt you’ll have access to via the Fire), are that purchases will use your existing Amazon acct and Amazon offers a free paid app every day. It’s also good to know that once you download an app from Amazon’s AppStore, that same app will be available on your other Android devices.

Facebook, Pandora, Netflix, Rhapsody, Games from Electronic Arts, Zynga and Rovio, and Several Thousand More Apps and Games Coming To Kindle Fire Next Week

Just like with movies and TV shows, music, books, and magazines, Kindle Fire offers a fully-integrated Android apps and games experience – purchase or register for an app or game once, enjoy it on your Kindle Fire and other Android-based devices – and all apps and games are backed up in the Amazon Cloud for re-download anytime

SEATTLE, Nov 09, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) — (NASDAQ: AMZN) – When Kindle Fire customers across the country open their boxes next week, they will be able to choose from several thousand of the most popular Android apps and games, including Netflix, Rhapsody, Pandora, Twitter, Comics by comiXology, Facebook, The Weather Channel and popular games from Zynga, EA, Gameloft, PopCap and Rovio. Kindle Fire customers will be able to download these apps and games without having to register multiple times and using Amazon’s simple and secure 1-Click payment technology. Plus, all apps are Amazon-tested on Kindle Fire for the best experience possible, customers can get a great “paid” app for free every day, and once you’ve downloaded an app from the Amazon Appstore, it’s available on Kindle Fire as well as your other Android-based devices.

“We started talking to app developers everywhere the day we introduced Kindle Fire, and the response has been overwhelming,” Dave Limp, Vice President, Amazon Kindle. “In addition to over 18 million movies, TV shows, songs, books, and magazines from Amazon, we are excited to offer customers thousands of apps and games to choose from on Kindle Fire – from Pandora and Rhapsody to Facebook and Twitter to Netflix, as well as popular games from EA, Zynga and many other top game developers. And this is only the beginning – we’re adding more apps and games every day across all categories.”

With the Netflix app, Kindle Fire customers who are Netflix members can browse and instantly watch unlimited TV shows and movies and resume watching where they left off on their TV or computer. “We’re excited to team up with Amazon to give what we think will be a huge community of Kindle Fire owners the opportunity experience all that Netflix has to offer,” said Bill Holmes, Vice President of Business Development at Netflix. “We’re certain that our members will have a great viewing experience on Kindle Fire.”

“EA is proud to be part of Kindle Fire,” said Bernard Kim, Senior Vice President & Head of Global Sales and Marketing at Electronic Arts. “On Kindle Fire, we’re offering some of the world’s most popular titles with incredible gameplay and breathtaking graphics that anyone can play and enjoy anytime, anywhere.”

“Zynga strives to deliver the best mobile social gaming experiences that can be enjoyed by players anytime and anywhere,” said David Ko, Chief Mobile Officer at Zynga. “Teaming with Amazon to make Words With Friends a featured game on the Kindle Fire provides us with a great way to reach new and existing players on a fresh and exciting device.”

“As Gameloft continues to create games for the mass market, Kindle Fire comes as a very exciting new platform for us to offer our games on,” said Baudouin Corman, Vice President of Publishing for the Americas at Gameloft. “Not only does it provide us with an innovative channel for us to reach new audiences, but the tablet is set to enable a great gaming experience as well. In effect, we plan on providing Kindle Fire customers with a large catalog of top quality premium and free-to-play games.”

“We’re excited to be bringing our massively popular games to Kindle Fire,” said Andrew Stein, Director of Mobile Product Management at PopCap Games. “Kindle Fire is a great gaming device, and consumers will love the touch-screen optimized adaptations of top titles such as Plants vs. Zombies.”

“Personalized radio has the power to enhance all types of experiences anytime, anywhere and we’re thrilled that Pandora is a launch app on the new Kindle Fire,” said Jessica Steel, Executive Vice President of Business and Corporate Development at Pandora.

“We are really stoked to offer our members the Rhapsody experience on one of the most anticipated new devices this holiday season,” said Brian McGarvey, Vice President of Business Development for Rhapsody. “We want to make sure Rhapsody is available on every must-have device, including the Kindle Fire.”

“Being a featured app on Kindle Fire will allow The Weather Channel to continue to fulfill our mission of providing consumers with the most reliable weather information to help plan their daily lives – no matter where they are and what device they use,” said Cameron Clayton, Executive Vice President of Digital Product at The Weather Channel Companies.

Additional examples of apps and games that will be available to Kindle Fire customers include Allrecipes, Bloomberg, Cut the Rope, Doodle Fit, Doodle Jump, Fruit Ninja, Jenga, LinkedIn, Zillow, Airport Mania, Battleheart, Pulse, The Cat in the Hat, Quickoffice Pro, Jamie’s 20-Minute Meals, IMDb Movies & TV, and Monkey Preschool Lunchbox.

Kindle Fire offers more than 18 million movies, TV shows, songs, books, magazines, apps and games, as well as free storage in the Amazon Cloud, Whispersync for books and movies, a 14.6 ounce design that’s easy to hold with one hand, a vibrant color touch screen, a powerful dual-core processor and Amazon Silk – Amazon’s new revolutionary web browser that accelerates the power of the mobile device by using the computing speed and power of the Amazon Web Services Cloud – all for only $199. Customers also enjoy a free month of Amazon Prime, providing access to Prime Instant Video with 13,000 movies and TV shows available for unlimited streaming and the new Kindle Owners’ Lending Library where Kindle owners can now choose from thousands of books to borrow for free including more than 100 current and former New York Times Bestsellers – as frequently as a book a month, with no due dates.

Customers in the U.S. can pre-order Kindle Fire at http://www.amazon.com/kindlefire and it ships November 15. For high resolution images and video of the all-new Kindle Fire, visit http://www.amazon.com/pr/kindle.

Filed in categories: Android related, News

Tagged: Amazon Fire, Tablet

Thousands of Apps and Games Coming To Kindle Fire Next Week originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on November 9, 2011 at 2:00 pm.

HP has just released an update for their Windows 7 based slate tablet.  The newer Slate 2 has a faster Atom processor at 1.5 GHz, Swype input support and 32GB SSD to start.  They also changed the backing of their Slate 2 to be flat instead of the diamond style they had in the previous model.  Still no integrated stylus slot and you’re still stuck with a disappointing 3 MP rear facing camera.  On the upside, HP has lowered the starting price to $699.

Filed in categories: Handheld PCs / Ultra Portables, News

Tagged: HP, slate, Tablet

HP updates the Slate 500 and names it Slate 2 originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on November 3, 2011 at 4:00 pm.

When you want to use your smartphone or tablet hands free, you really need some sort of stand for it. Just like cases, there are a wide variety of device stands on the market. Today I want to show you the FoneStand. It’s an inexpensive plastic stand that can be used for iPhones, Android phones and many different tablets. Note: Click the images in this review to see a larger view.

The FoneStand is a sturdy plastic stand that is available in Black or White. It has a nice wide base that is 3.25 inches across.

The back of the stand has a large grippy rubber pad that keeps your device from sliding around.

There’s also an opening in the base that you could use to route a charging cable.

The FoneStand has 4 feet that are also really grippy and keep it from sliding around on your desk or other flat surface.

I tried my iPhone 4S with the FoneStand and found it to work perfectly in both portrait orientation…

and landscape orientation. It can even accommodate the iPhone when it’s in a case.

I found that the FoneStand also works well with the iPad as long as it’s in landscape orientation. If you try to place the iPad in portrait orientation, it will tip over too easily.

There isn’t much I can really criticize about the FoneStand. It’s sturdy, has a nice wide base that doesn’t slide around, a grippy back that keeps devices from sliding around and doesn’t cost an arm and a leg.

The only feature I wish this stand had is the ability to fold up so that I could easily carry it around with me in my gear bag. That said, I think it will earn a spot on my desk either at home or work.

Do you use a stand for your smartphone or tablet? If so, which one do you prefer?

Filed in categories: Android related, iPhone, iPad, iPod related, Reviews, Tablet Computers and Gear

Tagged: Smartphone, Stand, Tablet

FoneStand Smartphone and Tablet Stand Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on October 30, 2011 at 5:08 pm.

So, the Amazon “Kindle Fire” tablet is now reality and I believe it will be a big seller. At $199 it is within shouting distance of that “no brainer” gadget purchase price. Best of all, for us consumers, Amazon is forcing the rest of the tablet market to prove their value and “reason for being”.

That doesn’t mean that Motorola, Asus, Acer, Toshiba, Vizio, Samsung and whoever else is making an Android tablet this week is going to be out of business. Oh, and unless Apple hires Leo Apotheker (former CEO of Hewlett-Packard), I very much doubt the iPad is going to be killed off anytime soon.

There is an “if” though, because I’m writing about a device I’ve only seen in demo videos. Problems have been known to become apparent when a million users fire up a new device or service. But, for the sake of this article I’m going to assume that the demos are real, the people that used the demo units are being honest and that Amazon is sticking with their practice of not releasing products until they are ready. Besides, if Amazon doesn’t deliver it will make for an even better article come mid-November.

First let’s talk about the timing of Amazon’s release. It’s about as good as it could get. The product is available for presale now, on the cusp of the fourth quarter, it will be released over a month before Christmas and most importantly, may be available several months before Apple is expected to announce its new iPad model(s).

In designing the Kindle Fire Amazon looked at their target market and only included hardware necessary to support that offering. The device features:

1. 1 Ghz Dual Core Processor
2. 7″ multi-touch display with IPS (in-plane switching) technology and anti-reflective treatment, 1024 x 600 pixel resolution at 169 ppi, 16 million colors
3. Battery Life – 7.5 hours of video or 8 hours of book reading (WiFi Off)
4. Weight 14.6 ounces (413 grams)
5. Charges from wall adapter OR computer USB port
6. Free cloud storage for all Amazon content.
7. One-month Prime Subscription
8. 8GB RAM
9. Amazon Silk web browser (http://amazonsilk.wordpress.com/2011/09/28/introducing-amazon-silk/)

So, Amazon has developed a device that when coupled with their extensive online content library is clearly aimed at the consumer/home market both in price and capabilities. I doubt we’ll be reading stories about the Kindle Fire being used as a Point-of-Sale system or for navigating commercial aircraft.

However, the Kindle Fire has more than enough processing power to provide for smooth video playback, fast app launches and a responsive user interface. The display is bright, has a higher pixel density than the iPad 2, and (hallelujah!) an anti-reflective screen.

If the battery life lives up to the claims it’s more than acceptable for consumer use and being able to charge the device from either the wall or a standard USB port makes it less likely you’ll have to carry, or hunt for a high-amperage charger when needed. Basically, you’ll be able to charge it with the same charger or cable you’re using for a number of other devices in your home or car.

The Kindle Fire comes with 8GB of storage space and no slot for extra memory. I believe that is going to be sufficient when you consider Amazon is also including free storage on their cloud system. To give you an idea I looked at memory usage on my iPad where I have over 350 apps installed and they only take up about 3GB of space. For further comparison I checked my T-Mobile G2 phone and found that 150 apps there resided in less than 700MB of memory.

This should leave sufficient room for the device to hold several hours of video, books and a lot of music, and provided there’s a WiFi signal available content can be removed from the device and new downloaded from your online library. Once you have purchased content from Amazon it is always available. I suspect that Amazon will charge for non-Amazon content that is uploaded to their service much as they do with their existing MP3 library service (the first 5GB of non-Amazon content is free and 20GB of storage costs $20/year with higher limits available.).

What may also aid in the Kindle Fire being a game-changer is their new “Silk” browser. Amazon is attempting to split the workload of the browser between their “EC2” cloud service and the device. They’ll be caching pages in their cloud service as well as making intelligent guesses (based on data gathered from all of their users) at what links you’re likely to follow and pre-downloading them to the device. They’ll also be optimizing (shrinking) graphics and other content so that it is only the quality and size necessary to look good on the Kindle Fire’s display. Companies like AOL, Opera, Skyfire and a few others have tried similar, albeit less complex, schemes in the past. If Amazon can succeed in speeding up the browsing experience it would become another significant differentiator between them and the competition.

Amazon’s choices of what features they didn’t include in the Kindle Fire are almost as important as the features they did. Amazon’s new tablet reportedly does not include:

1. GPS or Accelerometer (G-Sensor)
2. Bluetooth Radio
3. 3G/4G Radio
4. No Microphone
5. No Cameras
6. No Memory Expansion Slot
7. No HDMI/mini HDMI port

All of these missing features were shaved to reduce cost, size/weight and battery usage. The only item on the list that surprises me is the Bluetooth radio as it would allow people to connect their wireless headphones and external speakers. Perhaps one can be added via the device’s mini-USB port, but that smacks of the same connectivity unfriendliness as the iPad Camera Connection kit for the iPad. Dante’ should have included “dongle usage and storage” as one of the “Circles of Hell” .

Some will complain about the lack of a 3G/4G option, but I don’t believe Amazon wanted to include a feature that would require their customers to contract with a third-party company. The cost of providing an all-inclusive 3G package like they offer on the existing 3G Kindle readers would have been too pricey. Customers don’t like metered service, contracts and, in general, mobile carriers. Even the best of the carriers is ranked pretty low on the American Consumer Satisfaction Index.

I’m sure AT&T’s backpedaling on the iPad 3G’s $30/month unlimited package (it’s now $25/month for 2GB) shortly after the iPad 3G was launched also had struck a nerve. It wouldn’t take many movie downloads to more than equal the price of the device in data charges. That may lead to unhappy customers.

On a side note, I’d suggest that anyone absolutely needing 3G/4G service for their Kindle Fire consider purchasing one of the standalone mobile hotspots. For roughly the same cost you could have 4G service (if available) and use it with a variety of devices. There are also some phones offered by the carriers that allow tethering as part of their data plan (My T-Mobile G2 phone is one of them).

The rest of the items are superfluous to the Kindle Fire’s intended use. The Amazon’s development team was not intent on replacing your computer, car navigation system, smartphone or point and shoot camera. The Kindle Fire is a relatively inexpensive device that is meant to fulfill the desire to watch TV shows, movies, play games, read books, newspapers and magazines, listen to music, browse the web and check things like email and personal calendars. My guess is that list covers about 85% of the use most tablets see today and a far higher-percentage of the use predicted for the hundreds of millions of people that haven’t yet purchased a tablet.

Certainly there are going to be people that want a device that has one or more of the features that Amazon did not include. Amazon is gambling that a lot of consumers are going to decide against paying $200 more for some of the fuller featured Android tablets or $300 – $450 extra for a WiFi iPad/3G iPad with GPS capability.

Presently, there’s only one successful tablet maker, Apple and the iPad. I’m looking forward to seeing how Apple reacts to the Kindle Fire. Their response is going to tell us a lot about Apple’s market strategy moving forward. Do they want to be a sales leader in the tablet marketplace or are they content to be the manufacturer of a highly regarded, high-margin luxury model? Steve Jobs once stated that the Macintosh’s market share was greater than that of Porsche, BMW or Mercedes and being the BMW or Mercedes of the computer market wasn’t a bad thing. We’ll soon get to see if that’s still the Apple strategy or if they’re willing to compete based on price in the tablet marketplace. With their locked-in content libraries (iTunes and the Apple App Store) proving to be a significant profit center for Apple the pressure to drop price or produce lower-end iPads might be very tempting.

While Apple is planning its next move the other Tablet makers need to decide in which segment of the market they want to compete. Google (and its licensees like Asus, Acer, Toshiba, Samsung and even Sony) trails both Amazon and Apple badly in availability of streaming video and other saleable content.

Even if Google can improve its content offerings it would be hard for their partner tablet manufacturers to reduce their margins of the units when they will be sharing their profits from the sale of content with Google or even Amazon’s own Android market offerings.

I expect we’ll see some of these guys pull the plug on their current offerings and others re-work their devices to go after the other potentially large tablet segment, productivity machines. Samsung, Asus, and Acer have always been adept at producing lower-cost versions of products. None has ever shown itself to be a market pioneer or provider of entertainment content. This may lead to some of them jumping ship from Android to Windows 8 and its desktop integration, but that’s over a year away and in a marketplace where the lifecycle of a device can be less than two months (HP TouchPad), a year is a long, long time.

Sony’s choices will also be interesting to watch. While their e-readers have been technically competent they haven’t really challenged Amazon or Barnes & Noble in that marketplace. They have two tablets and, of course, their own library of video and music content. In the past they have licensed that to vendors like Apple and Amazon. I doubt they’re going to pull that content from Apple or Amazon, two significant revenue sources; however tablets like the Kindle Fire do pose a threat to their portable gaming devices, and even to their PlayStation 3 consoles.

My guess, Sony will also focus their tablet offerings to compete in the productivity segment and perhaps work a revenue sharing deal with Amazon for content distribution through their PlayStation devices.

For those old-timers out there like me, I expect that the Kindle Fire could have the same impact on the tablet market as the Commodore 64 had on the personal computer industry back in 1982. Commodore’s CEO Jack Tramiel used to proudly claim that he made, “Computers for the masses, not the (upper) classes.

So, we may end up with the two of the highest rated companies for customer satisfaction in their respective markets going toe to toe (Apple is the highest rated Personal Computer Manufacturer and Amazon holds the top spot among online retailers according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index).

For those that enjoy watching the machinations, sparring and outright wars in the high technology industry this should be a great show.

Filed in categories: Android related, Articles, Tablet Computers and Gear

Tagged: Acer, Amazon, Apple, asus, Commodore, iPad, Jack Tramiel, Kindle, Samsung, Sony, Tablet

Kindle Fire – A Tablet for the Masses? originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on October 2, 2011 at 11:00 am.

As expected, Amazon.com Inc.’s CEO Jeff Bezos announced the Amazon Kindle Fire tablet and a trio of new Kindle e-readers two carrying the name and capability, “Touch”. The Fire will have a 7-inch screen and run on a heavily modified version of Google, Inc.’s Android operating system. Included with the Fire will be a one-month trial to Amazon’s “Prime” service that includes no-additional charge streaming videos and two-day shipping on many of the products sold by the world’s largest online retailer.

First shown were the new Kindle e-readers two of which will utilize an improved e-ink screen with touch capabilities, allowing the company to remove the keyboard and other function buttons.  Page-turning will be accomplished by touching various segments of the screen and be easily done with one-hand.

Pricing for the WiFi version of the new Kindle Touch was set at $99 with ads or $149 ad-free and the Kindle Touch 3G version that reportedly will work in over 100 countries is priced at $149/$189. There is no additional charge for data usage on the 3G model. Mr. Bezos then presented a non-touch screen/non-physical keyboard equipped WiFi Kindle that will sell for $79/$109

While Mr. Bezos didn’t give specifics the devices all look smaller than the existing third-generation Kindles and will have better battery life than existing devices.

The touch-screen Kindles will be available for pre-order shortly and ship on November 21 while the non-touch-screen model is available for sale/shipment today.

The new 14.6 ounce Amazon Kindle Fire tablet is powered by a dual-core CPU, 7-inch IPS display that’s protected by Corning, Inc.’s “Gorilla Glass”. The device will rely heavily on Amazon’s cloud services. Synchronization will be handled by the same Whispersync system that Amazon utilizes with their existing Kindles. This means that if you’re watching a movie, listening to music, or reading a book on one device and move to another device you’ll be able to seamlessly pickup at the same spot. A connection to a PC will not be necessary.

The Kindle Fire is based on Google’s Android, but the user interface doesn’t resemble any Android device released to date. Among other apps, Amazon is providing its own web browser named, “Silk” which will utilize Amazon’s back-end servers to cache and speed-up web page display on the devices’ display in a process they’re calling, “Dynamic Split Browsing”.

The Amazon Kindle Fire will ship on November 15 and is available for pre-order today for $199.

The devices are now available for sale/pre-order.

Filed in categories: Android related, eBook Readers and Gear, News, Tablet Computers and Gear

Tagged: Amazon, e-reader, Tablet

Amazon Announces the $199 Kindle Fire Tablet and Three Kindle E-Readers originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on September 28, 2011 at 11:28 am.

About a year and a half ago Steve Jobs introduced the iPad and declared that we were now in the “Post PC Era”. I purchased an iPad, then I bought an Asus eee Transformer (with dock) and finally bought an HP TouchPad. They all do about the same things with various strengths and weaknesses; overall all of the tablets are pretty much the same when compared to the functionality of a PC. (For the sake of this article a PC is a desktop or notebook running Windows or Mac OSX.)

Tablets have allowed me to move easily away from my desk to read email, read some websites, check Twitter, Facebook, watch some videos, use apps and, of course, play games. This increased mobility is great and this has provided both entertainment value and, in some cases, productivity gains over a PC. Tablets can be a useful tool.

Now, if that’s all you need from a PC then Mr. Jobs is correct and for those people it is the “Post PC” era. But I believe a great many of us do quite a bit more and would suffer major productivity losses if we found ourselves without PCs.

The greatest failing of the tablet is data input. On-screen keyboards for phones are problematic, but we put up with them because we’re rarely typing more than a sentence or two. On-screen keyboards for tablets are just horrendous. You can either put yourself through the torture of thumb-stretching in portrait mode or try laying the device down on a flat surface and hoping it doesn’t slide, rock, or shift screen orientation while you hunt and peck on a keyboard that can require shifts, functions keys and keyboard changes to do something as mundane as typing your address. All the while giving up half of an already too-small screen and guaranteeing that your display will quickly look like it was the test blotter for a fingerprinting kit.

Much to the chagrin of some, I happen to write documents longer than a two sentences. Call me crazy (you won’t be the first), but I’ve even been known to have five or six applications open and running at the same time. Sometimes I even utilize two monitors.

Those aren’t things that Tablets do very well if at all. When it comes to replacing the computer…I just don’t see the tablet taking its place. Sure, it is a substitute for some functions, just as it also serves the purpose of a gaming console, portable gaming console, and TV at times. Actually, if anything, it’s the TVs and gaming consoles, which have the most to worry about from tablets.

While a tablet won’t take the place of your 60-inch flat screens it is stealing the TV’s lock on our attention. For years companies have been trying to bring the internet to the TV screen. There have been devices that allow people to read their email on a TV, browse the web and lately they’ve been pushing accessing Facebook and Twitter on our big screens. Problem is the only thing worse than typing on a tablet is trying to type on a screen that’s 10-feet away. It doesn’t work, and why would anyone really want to do it anyway?

Now, while we’re watching that episode of “Jersey Shore”, we’re bringing the internet with us to check on whether Sammy and Ronnie really worked it out. Some are even skipping the TV altogether and watching their video entertainment entirely on the tablet.

We also use tablets the same way we use TVs. Instead of clicking a remote and going from CBS, to NBC to HBO…you’re going from You Tube to Facebook to Angry Birds and then maybe to Netflix or Hulu. The newer tablets like Sony’s S1 and Vizio’s VTab both include extensive TV remote control functionality and all of the manufacturers continue to expand their entertainment offerings.

Recent studies have shown that more than half the homes in the United States have three or more televisions. I see that number beginning to shrink as the TV becomes more of a special events product. Sure, we’ll probably all gather around the large screen for big events like the Super Bowl especially if the TV developers can come up with workable 3D technology that doesn’t require everyone in the room wearing a battery-powered pair of Groucho Marx glasses.

As for the PC, I believe it to be a long way from dead. Yes, just as gaming consoles took over as the major gaming platform from PCs, tablets may begin to erode PCs being used for non-productivity web use, portable gaming and basic video entertainment viewing. But it’s the keyboard/mouse, larger displays and significantly more powerful processors that will keep the PC as the primary computing device at work, at schools and in the home…just not the living room sofa.

Filed in categories: Articles, Miscellaneous

Tagged: Android, HDTV, iOS, iPad, post pc, steve jobs, Tablet

Post PC? It Looks More Like the Post TV Era originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on September 20, 2011 at 11:00 am.

The stylus is making a comeback in a big way this year. We’ve reviewed quite a few here on The Gadgeteer (see the list of related posts below for just a few of them…). I’m still trying to find the BEST stylus out there and I’m thinking that the XStylus Touch might be it. I can’t be sure till I get my hands on one, but it looks pretty cool from the demonstration videos I’ve seen so far. The only problem is that the XStylus Touch isn’t yet available for sale. It’s part of a crowd funding project at IndieGoGo (similar to Kickstarter) that has 29 days to go. This capacitive stylus is weighted and can attach magnetically to your iPad when it isn’t be used. I’ve never given my money to a crowd funding project before, but I think I’m going to take a chance on this one… What is your favorite capacitive stylus?

Update: I just contributed $25 to this project. It’s the first crowd funding project that I’ve participated in. If the project doesn’t get all the funding needed, my contribution will be refunded.

Filed in categories: iPhone, iPad, iPod related, News

Tagged: Capacitive, iPad, Stylus, Tablet

XStylus Touch – Best Capacitive Stylus Design Yet? originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on September 17, 2011 at 3:11 pm.

Lately, most of the tablet talk has centered on HP and the TouchPad/webOS soap opera. The drama continued today when various tech news outlets reported that HP may be making as many as 1,000,000 more TouchPads to fulfill commitments with their supply-side vendors. At an estimated loss of almost $200 per unit I’ve got to believe that those vendor contracts must have had some significant penalty clauses. In any event, in just a few weeks everyone’s $99 TouchPad dreams may be answered and the eBay scalpers may be facing a bit of a nightmare.

With TouchPad fans now in a waiting game, and Apple not introducing a new iPad until sometime in 2012, tablet fans turned their attention towards Germany and IFA 2011 (a super-sized version of the Consumer Electronics Show). Everyone is chasing after the iPad and using different methods of attack. Google’s Android OS is the base for at least three major manufacturers to launch tablets of different sizes, shapes, designs and price points.

Sony entered the tablet wars with a couple of devices; a standard full-sized slate (SonyTablet S) and an interesting clam-shell design (Sony Tablet P). Toshiba added a second tablet to its lineup, joining the “Thrive” is the super-slim (.3-inch) Toshiba AT200. Toshiba has always been great at making computing devices smaller, lighter and thinner. I expect their latest handiwork will be well received. Lenovo, who already has two full-sized and priced tablets on the market appears to be trying to garner some of the low-priced TouchPad interest with its announcement of the 7-inch IdeaPad A1 priced at $199.

Then it was Samsung’s turn…and today they decided to go small rolling out a new Samsung Galaxy Tab at 7 inches and a 5.3-inch little gem called the ”Galaxy Note” that made my heart flutter.

The Galaxy Note is a 5.3-inch phone/tablet that includes all of the usual top-of-the-line bells and whistles; HD Super AMOLED display, 1.4ghz dual-core processor, and dual cameras (8mp and 2mp). The big difference though is a real, honest-to-goodness stylus. You can use the stylus or your fingers interchangeably throughout the UI and it includes handwriting recognition capabilities.

Yes, I know that Steve Jobs has declared the stylus a sign of device design failure, but for those of us that need to input text or are sick of pressing the wrong link or are just tired of carrying screen cloths everywhere we go the stylus is a wonderful implement. Hey, Steve, we all finger-painted at one time, but most of us progressed to crayons and then pens and pencils.

My first tablet was the Apple Newton MessagePad. I purchased it back in 1993. While it took Apple a few revisions to get it right the Newton 2100 became my constant business companion. It was the right size for taking notes in a meetings, reading and composing emails, looking at websites without having to scroll side-to-side or zoom in and it could easily be held in one hand. While writing by hand isn’t nearly as fast as typing on a full-sized keyboard it sure beats pecking away on glass or, even worse, the thumb stretch we’re all trying to do with our iPads, TouchPads, etc.

When the iPad came out,  Steve Jobs made a brilliant strategic move in downplaying a design decision Apple had made. Rather than be faced with the iPad as a finger only device and the others as the stylus UI he discredited the concept entirely. It worked, at least for a while; his competitors went along with the Jobs’ law of tablet input and created finger-only work-alike devices.

It’s my belief that there is a significant market for people that want a device that is smaller than carrying a “netbook-sized” screen around and larger than an iPhone-sized mobile phone. There was a time when almost every businessperson carried a calendar/notepad of sorts. Generally men carried them in the inner pocket of their suit jacket and women had them in their purse or business case. They were close by and allowed for notes to be quickly jotted down. In the early 90s companies tried to replace this item with the Personal Digital Assistant. It was a bit smaller, had a stylus for input and allowed for some form of handwriting recognition.

Then Handspring/Palm decided to insert a phone into the mix and created the Treo. Somewhere along the line the basic functions of taking notes, and real calendar functions got pushed into the background and gaming, video, and  internet/app use took over.

There’s nothing wrong with playing games, watching videos, running apps or reading the web, but as screen size has grown to accommodate those needs phones are becoming more and more cumbersome to carry. A mobile phone should be smaller, and meant for the quick retrieval of information, short text input and even an actual phone call or two. The smaller and lighter the phone is the more convenient it becomes.

When we’re going to be in a situation where we need more such as a business meeting few people are going to try and type notes on their phone…or pull out a full-sized tablet. That’s the time for what I hope devices like the Samsung Galaxy Note will become. Small and light enough to carry around regularly, but not all the time, fully stylus capable for relatively quick and accurate input and still large enough to allow it to make sense as a notepad, calendar, email client and even a semi-reasonable browser in landscape mode.

Hey, we know that all of this technology started with Gene Roddenberry and Star Trek…and Starfleet officers always carried a communicator (which got smaller as the series went on ) and a tricorder for gathering information and then when it was time to kick back with a video they pulled out their larger PADD. If they all could work in the 26^th century…I think they can work now.

Filed in categories: Android related, News, webOS

Tagged: Android, HP, IFA 2011, Lenovo, Newton, PDA, Samsung, Tablet, toshiba, webOS

Samsung Galaxy Note – Boldly Going Where Tablets Were Meant To Go originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on September 2, 2011 at 3:00 pm.

Most Wacom tablets have to be connected to a computer for it to work.  But what if you prefer drawing on physical paper with a pen?  That’s where Wacom’s Inkling comes in.  It works similar to the Livescribe but the Inkling doesn’t require special paper.

The Inkling uses a clip-on receiver that you attach to your notepad and then you sketch with the included Wacom ink pen which has 1024 pressure points.  Your sketch then gets transmitted to the receiver which can then be plugged into the computer so you can upload your sketches.  What’s amazing is that the receiver has a button which will add new layers to your sketch.  Once imported, you can edit these layers in Photoshop.

Wacom has nicely bundled everything into a small charging case ready to go at a moments notice.

Wacom’s Inkling will be available in mid-September at $199. Check out the video after the jump.

Filed in categories: Miscellaneous, News

Tagged: Drawing, Tablet, wacom

Wacom’s Inkling lets you draw without a tablet originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on August 30, 2011 at 2:00 pm.

Asus’ Honeycomb-enabled tablet the Eee Pad Transformer TF 101 received an over-the-air upgrade yesterday that enabled U.S. owners to watch Netflix “Instant Watch” content and Sony’s Crackle. The Transformer has been running the latest version of Android (3.2) for a couple of weeks but required an additional patch to enable the Netflix server to allow a connection. Details on how to get it after the jump.

If you haven’t received a notification about the update yet, you can download it manually:

1. Fully charge and/or plug-in your tablet.
2. Tap Settings
3. Tap About Tablet
4. Tap System Firmware Update
5. Tap Check Update
6. Follow on-screen instruction
7. After the install is completely done. I like to reboot my tablet by turning it off and on.
8. If you also own the Transformer’s matching keyboard dock, you’ll want to now plug your tablet into that dock and allow it to update that device as well.
9. You should now be running Bulid number HTJ858.US_epad=8.6.5.9-20110816

Netflix still shows as not being compatible in the Android Market, but you can download it other ways and it will run. This link will take you to a site that has full directions. If you would rather wait, I expect that Netflix will update the Market in the near future. Crackle is now available directly in the Android Market.

Filed in categories: Android related, News

Tagged: Android, Tablet

Netflix & Crackle Now Running on Asus Transfromer originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on August 24, 2011 at 3:00 pm.

Back in December of last year, I had the opportunity to review Samsung’s first Android tablet, the Galaxy Tab 7″. I liked it well enough, but ended my review saying that I really wanted an iPad sized Android tablet because a 10″ screen is the sweet spot for me. Since that time I’ve reviewed a handful of other Android tablets, both big (iPad sized) and small. The Motorola Xoom running Honeycomb came the closest to making me want to shell out my own cash for one, but I kept dragging my feet on making the purchase. Now it’s 8 months later and there are quite a few 10″ sized Android tablets running the latest and greatest version of the OS (Honeycomb). Verizon was kind enough to send me the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 4G LTE to try. Am I tempted to buy one for myself? Let’s see.

Note: Click the images in this review to see a larger view.

Hardware Specifications

Processor: AP (nVidia T20, Dual Core Cortex A9, 1GHz) + CMC220(LTE) + VIA CBP 7.1
Memory: 16GB or 32GB internal –actual formatted capacity will be less
Operating System: Android 3.1 (Honeycomb)
Network: Verizon 4G LTE/3G and Wi–Fi (802.11 a/b/g/n)
Display: 10.1” 1280×800 WXGA 16M PLS TFT screen
Camera: 3.0MP rear–facing camera w/auto–focus and flash, 2.0MP front–facing camera for video conferencing
Bluetooth: v2.1 + EDR
Battery: Usage time up to 12 hrs OR Standby time up to 400 hrs
Dimensions: 10.10”x6.90”x0.34”
Weight: 1.25 lbs

Hardware Tour

Out of the 10″ sized tablets currently on the market, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is probably the most iPad like as far as looks go. It’s thin, sexy and even weighs a little less than the iPad 2.

The tablet has a brushed grey shell with rounded corners. The casing looks like metal, but it’s plastic as far as I can tell. Even so, it has a very nice feel to it and it’s really attractive.

The front of the device is taken up entirely by the 10.1 display. There are no buttons, just a Black bezel around the screen with the front facing camera on top.

On the back, there’s the main camera and LED flash.

On the left side of the tablet, you’ll find a speaker grill (there’s another one the opposite side), power / wake button and volume button.

Listening to music and audio through this tablet is enjoyable. Max volume isn’t deafening, but the quality of the audio through the side firing speakers is much better than I expected.

The earphone jack and 4G SIM card slot are located along the top edge.

The docking / charge connector and microphone are found on the bottom edge.

The Galaxy Tab 10.1 feels really solid and doesn’t creak, crack or rattle when I perform my patented squeeze test on it. Except for the fact that it has a plastic shell instead of a metal back like the iPad 2, it feels every bit as good in hand. The texture of the back gives it a better grip than the iPad too.

Samsung is known for the AMOLED displays in their smartphones, but unfortunately this tablet doesn’t have such a display – probably because AMOLED displays aren’t yet available in this size. Even so, the display is bright, crisp and easy to read, with a wide viewing angle. I have no complaints about it at all when it comes to visibility.

Watching video through the included Media Hub application (sorry, no Netflix…) is very enjoyable with the large display.

As far as touch sensitivity, this display feels responsive. However, I have noticed some issues in various apps where my taps are sometimes ignored, but I think this is due to some software glitches and not the display itself.

Camera

The camera built into this tablet takes mediocre pictures. Indoors they are a bit grainy… but outdoors they fare better. Of course I don’t see anyone using a 10 inch tablet as a camera, so this isn’t a make it or break it feature. Here are a couple sample images (cick to see the full-size):

I do like that you can tap on an area in the viewfinder to focus on. That’s a feature of iOS that I’ve always liked and I’m glad to see it here too.

System Performance and Battery Life

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is a snappy performer. Apps launch and lists scroll quickly. Using WiFi to watch movie previews through the included Media Hub app is smooth with no hiccups.

Using 3G (we don’t have 4G in my area) has been a decent experience too. Not having to worry if there is free WiFi available makes it very convenient. Of course, you have to pay for that convenience. Monthly data plan rates will set you back 2GB $30, 5GB $50, 10GB $80 per month.

I’ve been impressed with battery life while I’ve been testing this tablet. I don’t have any real data to share, but I’ve been able to use the tablet for a few days between charges. Battery life seems to be on par with my iPad 2.

Software

This tablet is thankfully NOT loaded up with a bunch of junk applications that you’ll wish you could delete. In addition to the normal suite of apps like the Calendar, Contacts, Gmail, Browser, Calculator, Market, Music, Camera, Clock, Maps, and Talk, you also get Quickoffice, Movie Studio, Media Hub and a GPS Navigator.

One of the first things I tried to find after getting this tablet setup was a swype style keyboard. I’ve been using Swype on my Droid X and love it. I ended up installing the demo version of an app called SlideIT, which works pretty well. I wish I could have this type of keyboard on my iPhone/iPad <sniff>

Some of you hate it when I compare the iPad to an Android tablet, but I can’t help it. The iPad is a standard that I hold similar gadgets up to because I like it so well. That said, there are several things that this particular Android tablet beats the pants off the iPad:

• You don’t have to sign into the market every time you download a new app
• Home screen widgets
• Flash support in the stock browser
• Swype and similar alternative keyboards
• Bluetooth mouse support

I’d like to note that the last item in the list above is pretty important to me if I need to use this tablet as a laptop replacement. I’m happy to report that I was able to pair a Bluetooth keyboard AND mouse with this tablet at the same time. When you pair a mouse with the tablet, an arrow cursor appears on the display and you can move it around exactly like you do on your laptop.

I’d love to be able to use this tablet (or an iPad) as a laptop replacement when needed. Although the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 comes pretty close to being able to do so, it still fails – for me. I say “for me” because I’d want to use it to do blogging work through The Gadgeteer’s WordPress admin interface. It has some issues with being able to upload images and editing posts. It can be done, but it takes too much effort to make it easy and enjoyable.

But using the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 strictly as a tablet is a very good experience. It works well for emailing, surfing, playing games, watching movies, etc. I really enjoyed my 2 weeks with this device and really don’t want to send it back to Verizon… That said, I probably won’t buy one for myself because of the fact that I can’t quite use it as a laptop replacement for blogging. If someone would ask me which tablet I’d buy between the iPad 2 and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, I’d have a hard time giving them an answer because I love both devices. I’d like to take the apps and accessories for the iPad and add them to the ability to add desktop widgets and view Flash content with the Android and create my own Frankentablet. Sadly I can’t…

Bottom Line

If you want an Android tablet that is thin, sexy and weighs very little, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is a good choice. It’s a little pricey when you figure in the 4G data plan, but you can get this tablet in a WiFi only version…

So tell me, what is your favorite Android tablet right now and why?

Filed in categories: Android related, Reviews

Tagged: Android, Tablet

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Verizon 4G LTE Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on August 18, 2011 at 11:00 am.

I know there is a lot of debate regarding Android vs iPad tablets (cue comment along the lines of “What debate, x is clearly superior) but one exciting thing about Android tablets is the variety of creative products possible. Asus has already seen some success with their Transformer series of Android Tablets (and you have to like the “Robots in Disguise” implication). With the Transformer, you can put the tablet in a keyboard dock complete with touchpad. With the SL101, they are taking it one step farther, by integrating a keyboard in the design of the tablet. They are not listing price and availability yet, but it looks promising.

Cool design is fine and all, but what about the specs. You can check out the full specs on their product page, but what stuck out to me were:

• Android 3.1 (they are confirming 3.2 upgradeable, but offer no timeline)
• 10.1″ WXGA (1280×800) display
• Gorilla Glass with 178° viewing angle
• Multi-touch (10-finger)
• NVIDIA Tegra 2 1 GHz dual-core CPU
• 1 GB Memory, 16GB/32GB Storage
• MicroSD slot (they call it a Card Reader)
• 1.2 MPixel Front Camera, 5 MPixel Rear Camera
• Rated 8-hour battery life
• Mini HDMI port
• Audio Jack (can be Headphone/Mic-in)
• USB 2.0 port

Filed in categories: Android related, Tablet Computers and Gear

Tagged: asus, honeycomb, Tablet

Asus Announces Android Tablet with Integrated Keyboard originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on August 15, 2011 at 9:00 am.

The HP Touchpad that’s been available in the US since July  finally has a release date of August 15th in Australia. Following it’s permanent price drop in the US, the Australian release price  will also  be $100 cheaper than first indicated.  Harvey Norman will be the initial exclusive retail partner.

Will webOs have the  features and the the backing of the development community to be able to compete with Apple and Android in Oz ?

I must admit I have a soft spot for any Palm based OS as my first handheld was a PalmPilot 1000 ( with the 512KB upgrade )  

For more information see HP’s Website 

16GB Wifi  $ 499AU     32GB Wifi  $599AU   64GB Wifi  $699AU

Note: HN is offering a bonus prepaid  3G wifi modem router with min 4GB of data with purchase  until 11 Sept or until sold out

See here  :(

Filed in categories: News, Tablet Computers and Gear

Tagged: australia, Palm, Palm OS related, Tablet

HP Touchpad Australian Touchdown – Bonus 3G Wifi Router originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on August 12, 2011 at 2:00 pm.

VIZIO‘s 8” Tablet with WiFi is now available through retail outlets such as Sam’s Club, Walmart, Costco, Amazon, and other VIZIO retailers at $299. This Android tablet has a cool feature not found in other tablets on the market. You can use its built-in IR blaster and app to turn it into a universal remote control. The app communicates with your home theater devices so that you can control them with the tablet. You can even set up a profile for each room in your house and then control those devices as you move from room to room. There’s also a built-in HDMI port so you can output HD video to your big screen HDTV. Is this the Android tablet that you’ve been waiting for?

Filed in categories: Android related, News

Tagged: Android, Tablet

VIZIO Tablet now available at Walmart and other stores for $299 originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on August 9, 2011 at 2:54 pm.

There isn’t a shortage of bags and sleeves designed for carrying an iPad or any other similarly sized tablet device. Finding one that matches your particular style  might take a bit of shopping though. In an effort to give you yet another option, I want to show you the WaterField iPad Travel Express which can be used as a storage sleeve or a shoulder bag. Let’s take a look.

Note: Click the images in this review to see more detail.

The iPad Travel Express has been designed to accommodate the original iPad or the iPad 2 with or without the Smart Cover.

The bag is made of durable black ballistic nylon (the same material used in bullet-proof vests) with a narrow stripe of color. You can choose from 6 different stripe colors: Black, Copper, Flame, Green Pearl and Pine. I was sent the Flame version of this bag to review.

The Travel Express differs from most sleeves / bags in that it has a zipper that not only goes across the top, but also goes down one side. The YKK zippers are heavy duty and have an attached loop to make them easy to open. The only weird thing I noticed is the way the ends of the zipper have been sewn into the bag. As you can see from the image above, they are sort of wrapped around each other. Visually, it’s not a big deal, but functionally, I found the zipper doesn’t want to completely close. A small fingertip sized opening remains. This will probably either bug you a lot or not at all.

The zipper issue has been resolved since they sent my sample. You can see the improved design in the image above.

If you’re willing to add an additional $5 to the price of the bag, you can have 2 metal D-rings added so that an optional shoulder strap can be attached. One D-ring is located on the Left side.

The other D-ring is sewn into the top back Right corner.

I was sent their suspension strap mini to test with this bag, which costs an additional $22. Also available is a simple strap mini for $12.

The shoulder pad has nubby rubber surface to keep it from sliding around while you’re wearing it.

Heavy spring loaded clips connected to the ends of a narrow woven strap that can be adjusted for length.

Unzipping the Travel Express reveals the iPad pocket which is lined with a soft knit material that protects the contents from scratches.

The front and back of this pocket are lined with a rigid plastic insert to offer additional protection.

Sewn into the front of the iPad section are 2 stretchy pockets that can hold various items. Here you see that I’ve placed a Rhodia notebook into one of the pockets. The Rhodia is similar in size to a small Moleskin notebook.

Two more pockets are attached to back wall of the bag. These are thicker pockets that work perfect for holding accessories such as the iPad’s AC adapter and charging cable.

The Travel Express can even accommodate the Apple wireless keyboard.

Like other WaterField products that I’ve reviewed and used over the years, this bag is constructed very well. I could find no defects in the materials or workmanship. I can honestly say that if you buy this bag, you’ll probably never need to buy another as it will last longer than you’ll have your iPad. I’ve been using the same WaterField wallet for almost 6 years and it still looks great.

Here I am wearing the Travel Express. It’s a great bag that can hold just the right amount of gear.

If I had the ability to make a couple changes to to this bag, I’d fix the zipper issue (see above) and add an additional flat pocket on the exterior that could hold a magazine or plane tickets. That it would make a perfect travel companion – for me. As is, I still really like this bag because it fits my style. It’s not flashy, but stylish at the same time. It’s made extremely well and does exactly what it’s meant to do – protect a tablet and accessories.

Filed in categories: Gear, iPhone, iPad, iPod related, Reviews, Tablet Computers and Gear

Tagged: Bag, iPad, Tablet

WaterField iPad Travel Express Bag Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on July 26, 2011 at 3:25 pm.

About 3 weeks ago, a box from Sprint arrived. Inside the box was a kitten. No, sorry…actually it was this nifty 7″ Android tablet from HTC, the EVO View 4G. After using it almost daily, and discussing it with everybody I could corner, I’m still somewhat conflicted about whether or not I’d buy one. By the end of this review, hopefully you’ll know what I mean.

HARDWARE

The EVO View’s full tech specs are available on HTC’s website, but the main highlights are a 1.5 GHz processor (single-core…sorry, gang) and 4G WiMax. Oh, and it has this interesting stylus, too, but more on that in a bit. Other hardware specs are very much in-line with most other 7″ tablets: a 1024 x 600 resolution LCD screen, 32GB of internal flash storage, front- and rear-facing cameras (1.3MP and 5MP, respectively), stereo speakers and mics, and all the usual ports (microUSB) and buttons (power and volume).

There are some touches that make the EVO View (and it’s non-Sprint 4G cousin, the HTC Flyer) interesting. For one, the ends of the tablet (left and right when held in landscape orientation) have these little plastic lips on them that give an excellent sense of grip to your thumbs and fingers. It’s almost like HTC took a cue from SLR designers in that regard, and is definitely an improvement (IMO) on the standard “slab” format of most tablets today.

Another nifty bit is that HTC has made the extra effort to have the capacitive buttons (Home, Menu, Back, and Stylus) rotate from portrait to Landscape. When in portrait mode, the buttons illuminate below the screen (as above). But, if you rotate the device 90 degrees counterclockwise, the screen rotates AND the buttons move to the long edge now underneath the screen (i.e., the buttons shown above de-illuminate and new ones get illuminated on the left-hand bezel, which is now below the screen). It’s a small touch, but really helps with the overall user experience.

One thing I did not appreciate is HTC leaving off a dedicated capacitive button for Search, as every Android phone has. I’ve gotten quite accustomed to using that to initate searches, both within apps and in general, and not having it is aggravating.

Missing from the list of hardware features are an LED flash for the rear camera, an HDMI port, a kickstand, a removable battery, and, most surprisingly, a MicroUSB slot (so there’s no adding extra storage). [Edit: there's a microSD slot behind the rear cover / thanks, Bruce!]

One thing you’ll notice about the EVO View is that it seems rather heavy for its size. Specs show that it weighs 15 ounces, 1.5 ounces more than the similarly sized Samsung Galaxy Tab, but in the hand, it feels substantially heavier. On the upside, however, the EVO View can be charged with a regular microUSB cable, so no proprietary nonsense there.

SOFTWARE

If there’s anything I’ve come to expect from HTC on its Android devices, it’s some interesting, and often useful, software enhancements. I’m a fan of Sense, and the EVO View has the latest version, 2.1, of HTC’s custom UI layer. With that, you get improvements like carousel-style homepage rotation, a very nifty lock-screen (which gives you immediate access to up to four apps), some updated widgets (including yet another gorgeous weather widget, at which HTC seems to be rather proficient), and a raft of tiny UI tweaks (e.g., up to 10 most-recently used apps listed right in the notification shade, and one-tab access to “Quick Settings” from within the notification shade).

HTC has also included its new Watch video rental service as well as HTC Likes (an app recommendation service), HTC Hub (a mini “store” for HTC apps, widgets, backgrounds, etc.), and HTC’s Reader e-book app. The EVO View does media sharing via DLNA and comes with Polaris Office for viewing and light editing of standard Office documents.

As has become the norm for Sprint’s 4G Android devices, there’s a widget to enable/disable 4G (when disabled, the device uses Sprint’s 3G network, which I’ve found to be generally quite adequate  for normal use). Sprint has also graced the EVO View with a view of its own apps (some of which are of dubious value), including NASCAR, Raging Thunder Lite, Sprint Mobile Wallet, and TeleNav GPS Navigation (which is a reasonable alternative to Google Maps, at least for driving nav purposes).

The version of Android that comes on the EVO View is surprising: it’s Android 2.3.4. Putting Gingerbread on this instead of Honeycomb (3.0 or 3.1) might have enabled HTC to get it out the door more quickly, but it did make this tablet seem a bit dated even before it came out. I would not be surprised if the EVO View were to get Honeycomb in the near future.

STYLUS

One thing I like about HTC is that it’s more willing than most phone/tablet OEMS to experiment. Sometimes, it’s not so great (e.g., the HTC Surround, with a slide-out speaker (wha?)), but other times, it can be interesting, if not downright compelling. The stylus HTC developed for the EVO View (and Flyer), which they call the Scribe, made nearly everyone I showed it to perk up with interest. After all, it wasn’t that long ago that a stylus was an assumed accessory to every smartphone and PDA being sold.

The HTC Scribe is a capacitive stylus with a small, pressure-sensitive tip and two buttons, one for “erase” and the other for “highlight.” It’s powered by a single AAAA-sized battery. When the EVO View is triggered to accept stylus input, the stylus control “wheel” pops up in the lower right corner. From there, the user gets access to a variety of colors, drawing instruments, tip sizes, and functions (delete, undo, etc.).

The Scribe is integrated into the EVO View experience in three ways. One way is Scribble, which essentially lets you take a screenshot of whatever the EVO View is displaying at the moment and then annotate that screenshot using the stylus. If I was critiquing webpages or marking up photos a lot, that function might be useful…but I don’t.

The second way the Scribe is used is in the standard apps that you’d expect. You can highlight and mark up ebooks and it will save those marks on a separate layer within the ebook. You can highlight and markup Office and PDF files as well, just as you’d expect. And, those marked-up files get saved in the original format (a .doc stays a .doc even after being marked up, with the markups saved as individual objects, editable in Word). That by itself is pretty cool and something I’d consider using when reviewing & revising papers.

The third way is via the HTC Notes app. Notes is an all-purpose note-taking app that focuses on stylus input, but also accepts keyboard text and photos (direct from the camera or from the gallery). Plus, you can attach any document or file to a note, or attach a note to a calendar event. It’s a surprisingly nice app with a robust feature set. Also, Notes integrates directly with Evernote, so any note you make can be automatically saved to your account, uploaded to Evernote’s servers, and OCRed (my tests were impressive, with Evernote being able to make my scrawling handwritten text searchable about 90% of the time). Below is a photo of me making a note and the corresponding Evernote screenshot.

But (you just knew there had to be a “but”), as good as it could be, the actual experience was a little frustrating for me. For one, the screen still seems a little small to write on. While using a real pen on a piece of paper 6″ tall by 3.5″ wide (the EVO View’s screen dimensions) would be no problem, the EVO View doesn’t have the resolution to allow me to write as small or as clearly on its screen as I would on paper. So, the word “reflection” above is about as small as I can comfortably write without ending up with a nonsensical mishmash of scribbles. As a sidenote, Evernote was unable to OCR “reflection” or “pencil” above, but it did OCR correctly “marker” and “pen,” so there are limits to this input method.

Also, the sound of the stylus on the screen is, well, annoying. It’s tap, tap, tap, tap, tap….tap, tap, tap, tap. The Scribe’s tip is pressure-sensitive (to give control over line width), but that also makes it clicky, so any extended writing session is going to drive those around you to distraction…or murder.

Finally, there’s no convenient place to keep the Scribe. The EVO View (or Flyer) doesn’t have a stylus hole, and the Scribe doesn’t even have a clip. Moreover, because it’s metal, you don’t dare let it come in contact with the EVO View’s screen in a bag, so it has to go in a separate pocket. So, you end up with this stylus (which is perfectly round) rolling off tables, getting lost in pockets and bags, and generally not being handy. And that pretty much obviates the whole point, which is to make free-form text entry easy.

Notes is very good, but has some limitations. For example, when you insert a photo, it’s stuck there at that spot at that size. You cannot crop, resize, move, or alter in any way the photo, which seems silly given the app’s other thoughtful touches.

CONCLUSIONS

Overall, using the EVO View was enjoyable. It never seemed slow or laggy, and it’s been quite stable and well-behaved. Battery life has been very good…almost as good as the 7″ Galaxy Tab’s (which is stellar). Generally, I had no complaints about the hardware other than the weight and the lack of a MicroSD slot.

The HTC EVO View 4G on Sprint is a nice, small tablet. For some, it could be the ideal tool for their use case. For others, it will be too small, or too heavy, or not running the right version of Android. For me, the stylus was surprisingly well executed, but I think I’d need a bigger screen for it to be truly compelling. If a 10″ tablet is on the drawing board of someone at HTC, please do me a solid and include Scribe support. Thanks.

Filed in categories: Android related, Reviews

Tagged: Android, Tablet

HTC EVO View 4G Android Tablet Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on July 11, 2011 at 11:00 am.

Dedicated eBook reading devices tend to fall in one of two categories: E-ink or Color. Examples of E-ink eBook readers are the Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook (the original and new Simple Touch version) and various Sony Readers. The most popular color reader is currently the Barnes & Noble Nook Color. But today I’m going to show you another, the Nextbook Next6 tablet. Is it a better choice than the Nook Color? Let’s see.

Note: The images in this review can be clicked to load a larger size.

Hardware Specs

Android OS 2.1
CPU: ARM926EJ Dual Core 600MHz
7” TFT 800×480 Capacitive Color Display
WiFi 802.11 b/g
Built-in 4GB Memory Storage
Built-in G sensor
Build-in Speaker
SD/MMC Card Slot for Memory Expansion
Ebook Supported Formats: PDF, EPUB (open and Adobe DRM), TXT, FB2, PDB, RTF
Music Supported Formats: MP3, WMA
Photo Supported Formats: BMP, JPG, GIF, PNG
Video Supported Formats: FLV, MKV, MOV
Built-in Rechargeable Li-polymer Battery
Dimensions: 7.48 x 5.11 x 0.44″
Weight: 0.92 lbs

Package Contents

Next6 Multimedia tablet
Protective case
AC Power Adapter
USB Cable
User’s Manual

The Next6 is a very nice looking device with its completely flat top surface that reminds me of an iPad. I love that it doesn’t have a raised bezel. The top is a very shiny Black plastic, while the back surface is also Black, but with tiny sparkles.

The display is bright and vivid. It doesn’t have has high a resolution as the Nook Color – 800 x 480 vs. 1024 x 600, but this didn’t cause me to have problems reading books, webpages or viewing videos. Of course, color eBook readers have a big disadvantage over E-ink readers – glare and outdoor visibility. Unfortunately, you’re not going to be able to use the Next6 to read your favorite novels out in the direct sunlight. The display washes out and is very hard to read. If you’re an avid outdoor reader, stick with E-ink.

There is a button on either side of the display that can be used to page forwards and backwards through your ebooks. These buttons are generously sized and have very good tactile feedback.

All of the ports and switches are located along the bottom surface of the device. There’s a power button with a tiny LED that glows red while charging and turns green once charging is completed. Next the power button is a somewhat old fashioned mini USB connector that you can use to copy files to and from the reader. Next in line is an earphone jack, a full sized SD card slot and the power port. The two horizontal slots that you see are the built in speakers.

I have no major complaints as far as the Next6 hardware goes. This device looks nice, has a quality feel to it and is very solid. There’s no flexing, creaking or cracking of the case while you use the reader.

The Next6 is powered by Android OS version 2.1. The good news is that the interface is easy to navigate if you’re already familiar with Android.

There is a bar at the top of the display that has icons that will take you back to the Home screen, back one ‘screen’ and bring up the menu for the currently running application. You have 4 home screens that can be customized with widgets and app icons just like you’re used to with your phones and other Android tablets.

The bad news is that the Next6 doesn’t have a full installation of Android. Some important (to me) apps are missing.

What you see above minus the Android Pipes game, Kindle reader, app and Aldiko reader apps, which I installed, are all the apps that come installed on this device. Missing are the calendar, contacts, Gmail and Android App Market.

I did test the photo viewer, music player, video player and web browser apps, which all worked pretty well. I did experience a few random app force closes though.

Although the official App Market is not included, you can install 3rd party apps through the SlideME Marketplace. Weird name huh? There are many paid and free applications available for download through your wifi connection, but you won’t find all the apps that you can find in the App Market. For example, searching for Angry Birds yielded a whole bunch of apps that have absolutely nothing to do with the ever popular game. But, I was surprised to find the Kindle and Aldiko apps. The Kindle app is a pretty old version (1.1) though. However, the Aldiko app is up-to-date.

I should note that the SlideME Marketplace app is a bit buggy. More often than not, it would freeze up on me with a syncing routine when I would try to do searches.

Since the Next6 is being sold as an Android tablet and not just an ebook reader device, it’s unfortunate that the full version of Android hasn’t been included. Another gotcha is that this device can’t be upgraded to newer versions of Android.

Let’s read some books…

The Next6 is preloaded with 2 eBook reader applications and 25 free books. The books include classics such as Huckleberry Finn, Dracula, A Tale of Two Cities and many more. These books are read using the main reader app that you see above. The interface is attractive and easy to navigate.

Reading using this application is pretty straight forward as it lacks any advanced features. Basically, all you can do is change the font size (not type or color) and turn pages. The hardware buttons can be used to turn pages or you can use the touch screen. If you’re familiar with the page turning animation that the iPad has, where it looks like you’re turning an actual physical page, this app does that too. The biggest problem with this app is that it doesn’t save your place in the book and saving a bookmark doesn’t work at all. You can create a named bookmark, but when you try to use it, it doesn’t take you anywhere. I ended up creating a bookmark and naming it the page number that I wanted to remember. When I would go back to reading, I’d have to look at the bookmark name and then use the go-to feature to go to that page number. Not very elegant to say the least.

Another problem I noticed with this reader app is that when you turn the reader to landscape mode and back to portrait, it will skip ahead a page. Argh.

There is another reader included with the Next6. It’s the Kobo reader and book store app. You can use this app to buy current books as well as download a large selection of free books. It works better than the other reader in that it accurately saves your place when you leave the app. But, it feels pretty sluggish to me and it seems that I was always staring at the spinning timer when turning pages and going from chapter to chapter. My advice is to use Aldiko.

The Next6 claims to get about 10hrs battery life per charge. I didn’t do any detailed tests to verify this claim, but 10hrs does sound about right. I know I was able to read a couple hours a day for several days without needing to recharge.

Nook Color on the Left, Next6 on the Right

I like the Next6 hardware quite a bit. Sometimes it actually feels a little snappier to me than the Nook Color and I found the multi-touch capacitive display to feel more responsive than the Nook as well. The things that bother me about this player are the buggy reader and market apps and the fact that it can’t be upgraded to newer versions of the OS. For these reasons, I’m torn as to whether I can really recommend the Next6. Although the advertised price for this reader is $279.99 on the Nextbook website, I have found it for $100 cheaper on Amazon. That makes it more attractive. As is, I wouldn’t pay $279.99 for it and would be more likely to pay $249 for a Nook Color because I am more confident that it will be supported with firmware updates. I’m not confident that the Next6 will be supported with any updates at all. Since receiving this reader to review, Nextbook released the Next7, which has a 1GHz processor and Android 2.3. Sounds like that one is the better choice…

Filed in categories: Android related, eBook Readers and Gear, Reviews

Tagged: Android, ebook, Tablet

Nextbook Next6 eBook Reader Tablet Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on July 8, 2011 at 5:29 pm.

HP has created a new competitor for the iPad 2, the TouchPad.  The TouchPad comes in 16GB and 32 GB for internal storage space and is priced similarly to the iPad2, $499.99 and $599.99, respectively.  It features webOS 3, has Adobe Flash-enabled web browsing, 1.2 GHz dual-core Snapdragon, WiFi, and features BeatsAudio.  With webOS, TouchPad allows you to easily multitask.  Begin just about anything without starting an app, receive text messages and answer calls, print via wireless to compatible networked HP printers, use pre-installed software of Quickoffice, Google docs, or Box.net, and receive notifications without disruption, to name a few.  The HP TouchPad weighs 1.6 pounds, measures 13.7 mm thick, and has a 9.7 inch LED back-lit multi-touch display . It also has a front-facing 1.3 megapixel webcam, support for video calls, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR.   There are a few accessories that are sold separately:  HP Touchstone charging dock that charges the TouchPad automatically with nothing to plug in (~$79), a case (~$35), and an optional HP wireless keyboard(~$66).  You can check out more details at:  http://www.hp.com.

Filed in categories: News, webOS

Tagged: HP, Tablet, webOS

New Competition For iPad 2 – The HP TouchPad originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on June 30, 2011 at 2:58 pm.

Being both a gadget geek and a dad, I am very familiar with LeapFrog’s collection of gear. Their latest gadget is the LeapPad Explorer. It is a tablet designed for the 4-9 year-old set. My 4-year old loved playing with the Xoom while I had it, so I wondered what value could a kids version provide. Well, it didn’t take me long to discover 500+ reasons. That would be the difference between the $99 for the LeapPad and the $599 + monthly service fees for the Xoom.

From their press release:

LeapFrog brings to the table (or the back seat) what parents seek and kids crave:

• Breadth of Learning: The largest-ever learning library at launch: 100+ learning games, videos, e-Books, flash cards, and more, featuring kid’s favorite characters. Compatible with the entire existing Leapster Explorer library.
• Education: Curriculum covers everything from spelling, phonics skills and mathematics to creativity, science, music, geography, and more. Included stylus also lets kids practice writing.
• Creativity: The first kid’s tablet with built-in camera, video recorder, microphone, and animation studio allows for creative exploration that can be shared with family and friends.
• Personalization: Automatically adjusts the learning across experiences so kids can learn at their own pace.
• Engagement: Tilt-sensor for game control and 5″ brilliant color, finger-touch screen create an interactive experience that puts kids in the middle of the action.
• Durability: Though sleek and thin, LeapPad Explorer can withstand roughhousing and is designed for little hands.

The specs include:

• 5″ 480 x 272 display
• 400 MHz processor
• Uses 4 AA batteries
• 2 GB of memory
• Built-in camera
• Built-in Microphone

You will be able to download applications for $5.00 and up, and it will also take game cartridges with an MSRP of $24.99. There is a part of me that says my son is worth a $500+ tablet (and he is), but a bigger part of me likes the idea of him using a $99 tablet that is probably more durable.

Filed in categories: Kid Gadgets, News

Tagged: leapfrog, Tablet

LeapFrog Announce LeapPad Explorer Tablet originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on June 29, 2011 at 3:00 pm.

Julie got the first look at the Xoom, and did a couple of excellent posts on it including a First Looks and the full review. If you are wanting the complete run down on the tablet I highly recommend these posts. And, as always on The Gadgeteer, the comments are full of great additions as well.

Julie may have received it first, but I got to spend a long time with mine, so I wanted to share my observations. Also, she did such an excellent job with the nuts and bolts, I will focus on more general observations.

The Xoom is certainly not the first tablet. There have been a few based on the Android OS that even predate the iPad, but it was the first that ran Honeycomb. This is designed from the ground up to be a tablet OS. If you are used to Android, it’s not a big change, but there are some adjustments.

There are no buttons on the front. The power button is on the back, and a rocker volume button is on the side. I like buttons, but I was all right with it after a while. You do have a toolbar visible at the bottom of every screen:

The first icon takes you back, the second icon takes you to the home screen and the third displays the recent applications. If the current page of the application has a menu, a grid icon can be touched to display the menu. On the right side you have icons for any notifications. On this screen the first is the debugging notice (I use that to grab screens), the second tells me Words With Friends is ready for my next move, then you have the current time, signal strength and battery level.

If you tap the settings, you can see more information:

Tapping the settings icon (sliders underneath the time) gives you access to common settings.

So two taps takes you to a screen to control Airplane Mode, access Wireless settings, turn on/off auto-rotate, set brightness, turn off notifications and finally get to all the Settings.

The ability to  turn off notifications is a great feature. Especially if you are using it as a reader. Late at night, my wife can deal with the glow of light, but is not a fan of the occasional alert tones.

Room to Breathe

Apps designed to take advantage of the new real estate on the display really shine. Of course Gmail embraces it:

I really like the layout in landscape. I have my inbox on the left, and the contents of the e-mail on the right.

One of the first applications designed for tablets was the CNN app. Once again, a nice use of the layout:

Battery Life

I thought the battery life was good. I mean, after all, I need to sleep sometime. Even while playing some intensive games (like AirAttack HD) I was at 2-1/3 days before wanting to recharge:

Reading actually took the most out of my battery, since the screen was on the whole time. This was one of the worse results:

One disappointing thing about the Xoom is you cannot charge via USB. This is a big deal for me, I have far too many adapters to track as it is. However, I think this is the current state of tablets. I assume the batteries are too big to efficiently charge via USB. I just wish it was an option for when you find yourself without the adapter.

The Home Pages

If you are used to iOS, you may be confused by the home screens in Android. With Honeycomb, when you download an application from the market it does add it to a page for you (unlike previous Android releases). But the icons you see on pages are just shortcuts, not the apps. Managing this is very easy, and I am still a widget fan:

Form Factor

You know what I want? A tiny tablet that will fit in my change pocket and expand to give me a 17″ display. Yeah, we are not there yet. To me this is always about tradeoffs. I love my Sony Reader that conveniently fits into my coat and jacket pocket. The Xoom won’t. But the screen real estate is great. I still would like to try a smaller tablet on for size. I am just not convinced I want one this big. It is also heavy. However, it has a great display and a sturdy feel. I am a big fan of the rubberized finish, and have become accustomed to the size. I’ve now borrowed and read most of the first three books of the the Songs of Ice and Fire series on the Xoom. So I guess that speaks to the form factor issue. However, since returning it I have returned to my PRS-700 Sony Reader, and have been enjoying its weight, size and portability. I am still a fan of e-ink for reading, but the display on the Xoom was very acceptable for reading.

Half-Baked?

One of the complaints about the Xoom is that it was rushed to market, and is half-baked. It does appear rushed, but I think it is more like 7/8ths baked. Yeah, I kind of made that up. But still, it would be nice if it shipped with 4G and the SD card enabled, however the fact that it can be upgraded to 4G and the SD Card slot will be activated with an update makes it less of a big deal for me. It did not ship with Flash capability, but that is already fixed. And 4G and SD card capability will never be coming to the iPad or iPad2.

Bottom Line

Is it worth it? Will I buy one? The answer to both is maybe. I like it more than I expected to. It is a great tool for surfing the web, working on e-mail, using twitter and reading. Do I need it? No. Do I want it? Yes. The issue to me is the cost. If you can justify the purchase I think it is a great choice in the tablet space. If I had the money, and had to choose one now, I would be getting this. Am I saying it is better than the iPad? No. I haven’t used an iPad for any length of time, and trying to label one “best” is pointless to me. It’s just a better device for me than the iPad.

Filed in categories: Android related

Tagged: Motorola, Tablet

Living with the Motorola Xoom originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on June 24, 2011 at 1:00 pm.