Another Tablet Running Android. Available Soon.

By Benedict Wee

Lining up in the queue of unknown China companies producing Android tablets, Camangi's WebStation offers a 7-inch screen, WiFi enabled, GPS built-in, glass touchscreen device running Android 1.5 (Cupcake) for a pretty steep price of US$400/NZ$553. Judging from the videos below it doesn't come with Google services either so that's a dealbreaker for me.

If you are thinking about getting the WebStation, Camangi's offering an early bird discount on their website if you sign up and leave your email address.

Source:

Engadget - Camangi's WebStation tablet ships soon, sports Android, loves early birds (video).

Leaked Video Of Dell's Shiny Mini-Tablet.

By Benedict Wee

A leaked video of Dell's prototype Android tablet has made its way to Vietnamese tech site Tinhte.com. Calling itself the Streak, the device boasts a 5-inch touchscreen, 3G and WiFi connections, a 5MP camera with dual LED flash, a front-facing camera, microSD card slot and a 1300mAh battery.

Although not particularly pocket-friendly, the Streak looks portable (read: thin and light) enough to carry around with you, though its shiny finish does seem like it'll be fingerprint magnet. Something in matte might be nice.

Other details of the Streak remain scant, let's just hope it comes with an affordable price tag when it launches as the only other Android tablet in the market is pretty pricey.

Source:

Gizmodo -Leaked Video: Dell's Streak MID With Android 2.0.

New Apple Tablet Rumors

By Benedict Wee

January 19 2010 has been reported by iLounge to be the specific date when Apple will announce its much-speculated tablet to the world.

Other newly rumored details of the tablet; it runs the iPhone OS on a 10.7-inch screen with a high enough resolution to read books, newspapers and magazines and there will be two versions, one with 3G connections and one without. The 3G version will be like a giant iPhone 3GS while the non-3G one will be a giant iPod Touch.

The Apple tablet is expected to hit around the May/June period (the months where new iPhones are launched) and though these rumors come from a reliable source, they're still subject to Steve Job's scrutiny before it reaches the manufacturing stage. There is a 20% chance that he might kill it.

Source:

iLounge - Ten New Details On The Apple Tablet

Photo:

Gizmodo - Apple tablet mockup

Microsoft's Tablet Makes Me Want To Jump Into A Time Machine And Go To The Future

By Benedict Wee

It seems we won't be hearing about Apple's Tablet in the near future as they decided to stop being the revolutionary gadget designers they were once well known for and decided to concentrate on only minor upgrades of their current products (i.e. the iPod Touch 3rd Gen). That's alright though as Microsoft has decided to play catch up by releasing news on their version of a portable tablet computer.

The Courier is a device with two 7-inch touchscreens held together by a spine, giving it a book-like design. The screens are multi-touch enabled and are made for writing, flicking and drawing with a stylus. The left screen of the Courier is primarily used for reference and gathering information like surfing the web or checking through schedules while the right screen is used to document, paste and record information (presumably there will be a left-handed version that swaps screens). Transferring information like pictures, contacts, documents between screens is done by seamlessly flicking from one screen to another.

There is a 3MP camera with flash on the back of the Courier and charging might be possible through an inductive pad (meaning you don't have to plug it in).

No much else is known about Microsoft's tablet but more details are said to be arriving soon. Looks like I know what I want for Christmas.

Source:

Gizmodo - Courier: First Details of Microsoft's Secret Tablet

Video Of An Android Tablet In Action

By Benedict Wee

I'm starting to lose track of how many Android Tablets are coming out of China. I'm pretty sure I've not reported on this one however.

The MID-560 (cool name btw) -by chinese company SMiT- comes with a five-inch screen, GPS, 8GB storage, WiFi and 3G connections, a video and audio player and an eBook reader. There's an optional screen-holder accessory that you can purchase to use the tablet as a navigation system on your car as well.

The MID-560 will come in four colors and although there's no word on pricing yet, it'll probably be on the cheap side (being from China and all) so you may want to keep your eyes out for it.

Source:

CrunchGear - A 5-inch Android Tablet Lives In China!

Snow Leopard's Virtual Keyboard May Shed Light On Apple Tablet

By Benedict Wee

If you've recently upgraded your Mac computers to Apple's latest OS X you might not notice but the virtual keyboard that comes with Snow Leopard is big enough to use with your fingers should it run on a touchscreen device (read: tablet computer).

The keyboard can be enlarged to encompass the whole width of the screen and is considerably bigger than the pervious OS X versions where they were really tiny (and frankly very useless).

A point to note also is that the new virtual keyboard is now found under "System Preferences -> Keyboard" settings instead of being hidden away in the "System Preferences -> International" section which might mean that Apple might be highlighting the new and improved keyboard as a frequently used feature.

Ach well, nothing is confirmed till Steve Jobs takes to the stage 5 days later so feel free to speculate as much as you want.

Source:

CrunchGear - Snow Leopard's Much Bigger Virtual Keyboard Makes It A great Touchscreen Operating System, Right?

Another Android Tablet Appears!

By Benedict Wee

Archos -makers of awesome touchscreen computers- have had the pictures and prices of their latest tablet leaked online.

The A5 is a sleek, 4.8-inch screen gadget that runs Android, has 720p video output, and comes in two flash (16/32GB SSD) and two hard drive (160/500GB HDD) capacities.

The prices of the tablet are as follows:

16GB - US$294/NZ$435.30

32GB - US$370/NZ$574.82

160GB - US$320/NZ$473.79

500GB - US$420/NZ$621.85

They seem pretty reasonable considering that iPod Touches cost NZ$498 for the 16GB and NZ$659 for the 32GB models respectively.

The actual announcement of the Archos A5 will be on the 15th September and we'll have more details then.

Sources:

Gizmodo - Archos Android Tablet Price And Pictures Leak

Arrr, There Be Android Tablets

By Benedict Wee

Looks like everyone and their grandma are looking at entering the portable tablet market. Screenshots of a 5 inch device running Android have been circulating around the internet for over a week now and Gizmodo has just reported that the gadget in question is the China-made Rockchip tablet.

The Rockchip comes with 800x480 resolution and an 533/667 MHz ARM Samsung chip which runs just as fast as current Android smartphones in the market. It also has your standard WiFi and GPS connections and can decode 720p HD video.

Somehow I'm not very impressed with the specifications, the Zii Egg is a smaller player and it boasts more features than the Rockchip does which puts the tablet at the lower end of the spectrum of Android running gadgets. Size is a problem too, being caught in between an ipod Touch and the rumored 10 inch Apple Tablet makes it too big to carry in a pocket and too small to do actual laptop work on. Perhaps a low price point of the device might make it an attractive purchase though no details were given about how much it'll cost.

Source:

Gizmodo - Ultra-Sleek 5-Inch Android Tablet Looks Like Giant iPod Touch