GADGET REVIEWS Just another GADGET NEWS

After months of teasing, Dell’s 5-inch tablet-phone hybrid called the Streak finally has a price tag. The Streak will cost $300 with a two-year contract on AT&T. An unlocked version of the device will cost $550.

Dell is yet to announce exactly when the Streak will hit retail stores in the U.S. but it is accepting pre-sale orders from customers on its site. The device will initially be available in black with a red color variant introduced later this year, says Dell.

Dell launched the Streak in U.K. last month. The Streak is targeted at smartphone users who crave a larger display but still need a device that’s portable and could potentially replace their phone. The Streak has a 5-inch display, a 5-megapixel camera, phone, browser and access to Android apps. But it doesn’t exactly succeed in trying to be bigger than the phone but smaller than the iPad. (Read Wired.com’s review of the Dell Streak.)

A major drawback of the Streak is that it uses version 1.6 of the Android operating system, while most smartphones today run Android 2.1. Google has already released Android 2.2 Froyo and some devices such as the Nexus One have gotten the Froyo update.

The Streak seems woefully behind the times but Dell says a Froyo update is coming “later this year.”

In the U.S., AT&T haters won’t have a choice when it comes to choosing a wireless carrier for the device. Dell doesn’t plan to support T-Mobile’s 3G network or certify the Streak for operation on the T-Mobile network.

Photo: Dell Streak (Jon Snyder/Wired.com)

Source:wired.com

Posted under Gadget Reviews

A prototype tablet from India that looks similar to the iPad but costs a few hundred dollars less than the magical device is on its way, according to the country’s government officials who showed the device at an event Thursday.

The Linux-based tablet from India is priced at $35 with the potential to drop it to either $20 or $10. The device will support video conferencing, wireless, have open source software on it including Open Office and will include a media player. It will also have a solar power option.

Details about the tablet’s processing power, memory or storage have not been disclosed. It is not clear if the device will have a touchscreen or a pen-based input.

The tablet is expected to go into production in 2011.

The success of Apple’s iPad and the demand among consumers for a slick media consumption tablet has spurred the quest for a low cost device that has the looks of an iPad and the functionality of a laptop. The One Laptop Per Child Project in the U.S. recently announced that it is planning to create a $75 OLPC tablet. But the first version of that tablet is unlikely to be available before the end of next year. OLPC’s current low cost laptop sells for $200.

In March, chip maker Marvell showed a prototype that will offer web access and high-definition content for just $100. The tablet called Moby will be targeted at students, says Marvell, and it will run Marvells ARMADA 600 series of application processors. So far, Marvell’s $100 tablets have yet to go beyond a reference design.

Current estimates on the cost of components show that getting the cost of a device below $100 isn’t easy.

The cheapest version of Apple’s iPad costs $500. A teardown of the iPad shows the bill of materials alone for it is $230. A six-inch black-and-white screen on a Kindle 2 alone costs $60, according to iSuppli.

To create its $35 tablet, the Indian government says it partnered with some of the country’s best technical universities including the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT). Students involved in the project created their own motherboard and PCBs for the device, say officials. Interestingly, the government also says private companies in the country showed little interest in the idea.

The bill of materials of a prototype tablet came to $47. But officials didn’t explain how they think that cost can shrink to $35 and lower.

“It could be seen that by customizing the device to the needs of learners across the country, and by utilizing the processor capabilities of the processors suitable for the purpose, it was possible to substantially reduce the prices of such access-cum-computing devices,” a press release from the country’s Press Information Bureau said.

Deciphering that is not easy. Even more puzzling is that the announcement of the tablet did not mention who will be manufacturing the product or how it will be distributed. It is also not clear if the $35 price tag includes a small profit margin or if the product will be sold entirely at cost.

Despite the introduction of the latest tablet with much fanfare, India doesn’t have a history of delivering on its much-hyped promises about electronic devices. For instance, Indian start-up Notion Ink has been promising a tablet for months called Adam that is yet to hit the market. In February 2009, Indian government officials announced a $10 laptop that ultimately proved to be vaporware.

The $35 tablet could go the same way.

Photo: Trak.in

Source:wired.com

Posted under Gadget Reviews

Now that HP has sealed its acquisition of Palm, the PC maker is working hard to get Palm’s webOS mobile operating system onto HP products.

Palm’s webOS will power HP upcoming tablet, says HP CTO Phil McKinney. The tablet known as HP Slate had earlier been designed using Microsoft’s Windows 7 operating system. HP also plans to put webOS on printers, says McKinney.

“There’s a gap for devices that are larger than a smartphone but smaller than a netbook,” he told attendees at the ongoing Mobile Beat conference in San Francisco. “Slates could fit in that category.”

Unlike rival Dell, which chose the Google-designed open source Android OS to create its cellphone and tablet, HP spent $1.2 billion to buy Palm. The transaction closed earlier this month.

HP wants to control all pieces of the mobile ecosystem, says McKinney.

“If you look at success in the market, they are those companies who can control the end user experience and the entire experience stack,” he says.

That sounds more like Apple and less like Google. But it is clearly the direction that HP wants to go. In March, HP seemed poised to launch its Slate tablet offering sneak peeks of the device through carefully edited videos. Leaks of the company’s plans for the Slate pegged the price of the device at $550.

But in a surprise move in April, HP announced its buying Palm and with that it sent the Slate back to the drawing board. McKinney says HP is not yet ready to announce a launch date for the Slate.

“I am not going to pre-announce products but I will say that we are investing money into research & development and marketing at Palm.”

Photo:HP

Source:wired.com

Posted under Gadget Reviews

Dell’s new tablet called the Streak is set to make its debut in the U.S. this summer. But while temperatures have been soaring, there’s still no sign of the device. The Streak, which was launched in the U.K. last month for 450, is expected to be available on AT&T for $500.

Dell now says it has been testing the device and hopes to have it in the hands of U.S. consumers soon. The company still won’t disclose the exact availability. Meanwhile, Gadget Lab got some hands-on time with the U.S. version of the Streak.

Nearly 30 percent thinner than the iPhone 3G S, the Streak bills itself as a tablet but also offers the option of a SIM card in it so you can make phone calls. The device includes 3G connectivity and a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor.

Think of it as a turbocharged phone.

“The 3.5-inch to 4-inch screen devices are optimized primarily around the phone experience,” says Kevin Andrew, product manager for Dell.”The Streak is for those who want something bigger than a phone but not something so big they have to carry it separately.”

The Streak fits the bill. It is ultra-thin, lightweight (7.8 ounces) and extremely easy to use. Read on for our hands-on impression of the tablet.

The Streak’s five inch touchscreen display is just a little bigger than the latest crop of Android smartphones (HTC Evo and Droid X sport a 4.3-inch touchscreen) but significantly smaller than the iPad’s 9.7-inch display. That puts the Streak in an awkward netherworld: too big to be a phone, too small to be directly take on the iPad.

But the Streak’s 5-inch display looks much better in real life than it sounds on paper. The screen is smooth, responsive and big enough to comfortably type and access different widgets.

The device itself is ultra-thin, just 9.9 mm thick compared to the iPhone 3G’s 12.3 mm thickness and almost on par with the iPhone 4. It slips easily into your jeans or the jacket pocket and doesn’t feel awkard if you hold it up to your ear to make a phone call.

The Streak has just one 30-pin connector and no USB port.

The Streak runs Android 1.6, which seems ancient considering that Google has released Android 2.2 or Froyo.

But Dell says it has created an enhanced version of Android 1.6 that puts it almost on par with Android 2.2 or ‘Eclair.’

“If you compare Android 1.6 on the Streak to Eclair, the only feature that is missing versus Eclair is the live wallpapers,” says Andrew.

The Android experience on the Streak is very similar to what we have seen on the latest Android cellphones. The Streak supports up to six home screens. The main screen (shown above) has icons for phone, calendar, messaging, browser, maps and market among other things.

A small round dot at the top left corner of the screen acts as a shortcut to applications. Streak users can download apps from the Android market.

The Streak has a 5-megapixel camera on the back and 0.3 megapixel VGA camera in the front. It can also shoot videos upto 720p (1280 x 720 pixels resolution). Sharing photos is easy and should be familiar to most Android phone users–click on the photo, choose the share button from the virtual menu and pick Facebook, Twitter or Flickr to upload it to.

Dells also offers an accessory dock, with an HDMI output that can be connected to a TV.

The Streak will have a user-replaceable battery, internal storage of 2 GB and additional storage using a microSD card for up to 32 GB.

Overall, the Streak is an exciting, well-engineered device that should appeal to consumers who want to super-size their phone. But that’s also means its unlikely to have Apple or iPad fans quaking. The Streak seems like a tablet for a very different audience than the iPad.

Photos: Dell Streak/Priya Ganapati

Source:wired.com

Posted under Gadget Reviews

LG has been slow to hop on to the Android bandwagon but the company hopes to make up for lost time with the launch of two new phones and a tablet over the next few months.

The devices will be part of a new portfolio called Optimus and are LG’s idea of an “aggressive strategy” to grow market share in the global smartphone business.

The two Android-powered smartphones in the pipeline are called LG Optimus One and LG Optimus Chic. The phones will run Google’s latest version of Android, Android 2.2 or Froyo.

LG will also be introducing its first tablet device running Android later this year, says the company.

“LGs tablet will deliver vastly superior performance than other similar devices currently on the market while still managing to be thinner and lighter than competing devices,” the company said in a statement.

Since Google introduced Android in 2008 as an open source mobile operating system, LG’s rivals such as Motorola and HTC have bet big on the platform. So far, Motorola has launched at least 11 smartphones using Android and the company’s Motorola Droid is the most popular phone among Android users. Meanwhile, HTC has also used Android to churn out new smartphones that have put it at the top of the pack. Last week Samsung introduced its first 4G Android handset called the Samsung Epic on Sprints network.

LG says with new Android phone launches this year, it will catch up. So far, it has not offered any details about specs, pricing or availability for these devices.

Photo: LG Optimus Chic/LG

Source:wired.com

Posted under Gadget Reviews

The beauty of the Intel incarnation of the Macintosh is that, if Apple doesn’t make the Mac you want, you can hack your own. It takes some work, but in theory it is possible to run OS X on any modern Intel x86 machine. Here we see a Mac tablet, put together by YouTuber stulowe2006.

This particular Hackintosh is based on a Dell Gigabyte M912. Internally, it’s just another netbook, with a 1.6GHz Atom processor. Outside, it has a Touchscreen and a flimsy hinge to allow the machine to be folded into a tablet PC. Stulowe2006 has obviously got the touch screen drivers to let the Mac OS recognize the input.

What this video shows us, apart from a rather masterly piece of OSx86 hacking, is that the current Mac OS is pitifully inadequate for tablet use. Even with the Dell stylus it seems difficult to hit the right spot on the screen, and Stulowe2006 is also stuck using the on-screen keyboard to type. The Mac does have “Ink”, a handwriting recognition engine, but it is truly awful.

Still, you can use the real keyboard if you have to. And for couch-based IMDB browsing, this looks just about perfect.

Touch Screen Mac OS X on a GigaByte M912 [GottaBeMobile]
Hands-On with the Gigabyte M912 [Laptop Mag]

Posted under Gadget Reviews