Tablet

Nvidia CEO: New Android tablets are vast improvement

Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang says the second round of Android tablets are far better than the first generation of devices, which were met with complaints about pricing and performance.

During a conference call to discuss his company's quarterly earnings yesterday, Huang said concerns over the first generation of Android tablets, many of which did not have an operating system designed for tablets, have been "largely addressed."

"The first generation of tablets initially came out from our carriers and with 3G, and I think that is recognized that the vast majority of tablet users are actually buying … Read more

Report: ViewSonic to win 7-inch Honeycomb tablet race

ViewSonic is set to unveil the industry's first 7-inch Android Honeycomb tablet at month's end, according to sources cited by tech site Pocket-Lint.

The ViewPad 7x will debut on May 31 at the Computex computer show in Taipei, Taiwan, Pocket-Lint reported, and will be a follow-up rather than a replacement to ViewSonic's existing ViewPad 7 tablet, which runs Android 2.2, aka Froyo. Following its late May unveiling, the device should reach consumers in June.

Details are scarce, but according to Pocket-Lint, the ViewPad 7x will sport an Nvidia Tegra 2 dual-core processor, cameras in front and back, and support for the high-speed HSPA+ networks offered by AT&T and T-Mobile. The tablet would also include both HDMI and DLNA ports to pipe content through a TV or media center device.… Read more

B&N updates Nook for Android for tablet users

Android tablet owners take note: Barnes & Noble has just updated its free Nook for Android app for users with 7-inch and larger tablets that have high-resolution displays. Technically the update is called Nook for Android version 2.61.

Not surprisingly, because of those high-res displays, Barnes & Noble is touting the app's "comprehensive selection of digital periodicals," which includes more than 140 magazines and newspapers. B&N says the update also provides an optimized library grid view and tweaks to the reading interface, with enhanced book margins and line spacing, plus improvements to the shopping &… Read more

Chromebook, Netbook, iPad: Which would you rather spend $500 on?

Yesterday's formal introduction of Chromebooks marked yet another category of portable computing gadget in a landscape that's starting to feel overrun.

For $499, the Samsung Series 5 Chromebook has its work cut out for it--namely, because tablets and "high-end" 11- and 12-inch laptops and Netbooks (some with faster processors) have already occupied the same landscape.

It's a question we've been pondering for a while now, writ again: what truly constitutes the perfect small-screen portable? Suddenly, instead of one or two OSes to consider, there are four: Windows 7, Apple's iOS, and Google's Android and Chrome.

While the high end of the computer spectrum remains relatively stable (desktops, laptops), the increasingly fertile (or, perhaps, unstable) ground between laptops and smartphones has bred a variety of tech forms that all, in some way, are portable. Options have never been more diverse, or confusing.

Which one would you rather spend about $500 on? Well, let's see what you get.… Read more

Bezos hints at Amazon tablet in interview

For months we've been talking about the impending arrival of an Amazon Android tablet and Amazon's CEO Jeff Bezos didn't quite let the cat out of the bag--but he came close.

In an interview with Consumer Reports, when asked about the possibility of Amazon doing a tablet, he replied, "stay tuned."

Bezos also said that if Amazon were to do a tablet, it wouldn't replace the Kindle but be sold alongside it. That seems rather obvious, but that he was even talking hypothetically about such a scenario strongly indicates that a tablet is coming; … Read more

Older iPhones, iPads, outselling Android devices

Apple's mobile products seem to be so popular that even older models are outselling the competition, according to reports from investment firm Canaccord Genuity.

In a series of research notes sent to investors earler this week, technology analyst Michael Walkley shared his findings on how Apple fared in the mobile retail market in April. The analyst confirmed that the iPhone 4 was the top-selling smartphone at both AT&T and Verizon last month, while iPad 2 sales stayed strong as consumers overwhelmingly chose it in favor of rival tablets.

But thanks to discounted prices, even the iPhone 3GS and the first-generation iPad are outselling the competition, according to Walkley. Specifically, the iPhone 3GS outsold both the Motorola Atrix 4G and the HTC Inspire 4G at AT&T, while the 16GB and 32GB original iPads were sold out at Verizon less than two weeks following the debut of the iPad 2.

"Interestingly, our April checks indicated continued strong demand for the iPhone 3GS at AT&T and iPad 1 at Verizon, as these older generation products with reduced prices often outsold new Android products," wrote Walkley in his note. "We believe this highlights Apple's significant competitive advantage, and these older products help Apple offer a tiered pricing strategy at key channels and the older Apple products are still very competitive versus new competitor products."… Read more

The 404 818: Where we get more competition through lotion signal (podcast)

Yesterday's Google I/O event announcements give us plenty of Android-related topics to discuss today. As if you needed another reason to fear Google, the company is asking you to invite them into your home with Project Tungsten, which could potentially control any electronic device from irrigation systems to game controllers and even lightbulbs.

Google also teased its new cloud-based music system and a 3.1 update to its Android operating system, but it's not all tech talk, though! Tune in for listener photo submissions for Jeff's Honeybadgers hockey team logo and a review of Fast Five!

The 404 Digest for Episode 818

Google I/O day one: Android is on top. Android.next: Honeycomb 3.1 now, Ice Cream Sandwich later. Google's unlicensed cloud-based music service arrives in beta. Brooklynbri and Kodzo's Honey Badger hockey team logos!

Episode 818 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

Cisco bringing Cius Android tablet to AT&T

The Cisco Cius tablet will connect to AT&T's HSPA+ wireless network when it launches this fall, the companies announced today.

Cisco Systems' upcoming Android-based tablet, which boasts a 7-inch display, is designed with business users in mind. The device will support Cisco's collaboration software, and thanks to its dual cameras, allow for video conferencing over Cisco's TelePresence service. Outside of that, the tablet will work like most others, offering Web browsing, e-mail, and the ability to store content on its 32GB of internal memory.

Cisco's partnership with AT&T doesn't end with … Read more

NPD: Don't blame iPad for weak PC market

Though the consumer PC market may be in the doldrums, you can't pin the blame on the iPad, at least according to the folks at research firm NPD Group.

Many analysts have attributed the latest slump in portable PC sales to cannibalization by the iPad, claiming that consumers are opting for the popular tablet instead of buying notebooks and Netbooks. But in a report issued yesterday, NPD's Stephen Baker disagrees, saying that the rate of cannibalization has actually dropped in recent months.

Surveying Apple iPad owners in March, NPD's "Apple iPad Owner Study II" report found that only 14 percent of early iPad buyers (those who've owned one six months or more) chose an iPad instead of a PC. And over the recent holiday season, that number dropped to 12 percent, according to Baker.

Related links • 2010 PC growth sees slowdown, tablet cannibalization • Has Apple's iPad finally killed the Netbook? • The 'post-PC era' might be closer than we think • Tablets are the 'post-PC era'? I beg to differ

Looking further, the cannibalization of Netbooks by the iPad has actually fallen by 50 percent among recent iPad buyers compared with the earlier adopters. Overall, more than 75 percent of the people polled said they bought an iPad without any intention of buying anything else.

So if the iPad isn't the culprit, what's to blame for the downturn in PC sales? Baker looks a bit farther back in time.… Read more