Tag Archives: tablet
Chrome 5 Dev Update Makes Bookmark Manager a Tab
Posted on 29. Mar, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 
2 Comments
Along with some improvements to Translate and Incognito modes, the Chrome 5 Dev update also changes the way that the bookmark manager is run. That’s because instead of it running in a windows as it has done traditionally, the Chromium folks have decided to make it run in a tab of its own. This is a good idea for several reasons, but here is a screenshot to explain what I mean because it does look a bit different:
The best part of this is that you can right-click on the bookmark of your choice, delete it, open in a tab, open it in a new window or even go into Incognitio mode in a new window if you want:
Seems like an intuitive feature, and with the impending release of Chrome OS on has to think that Google wants to eliminate any sort of windowing system that they can and keep tasks strictly in tabs. This is especially true for certain platforms like tablets, but it makes me wonder if they will eventually move things like the Task Manager into a tab as well.
I would assume that is the plan, since the whole idea of Chrome OS is to create a totally different type of operating system. That means creating something that is probably going to be based solely on tabs. Of course, I could be wrong but I think that in order for Google to differentiate themselves from other tablet/netbook systems, that is the path which they will take.
Seeing something like this further proves that. We will see more of this in the development version of Chrome browser as time goes on, because it’s the easiest way to get UI feedback for the time being.
If you’re interested in getting the dev channel for Chrome 5, go here.
Kyocera to Release $169 Pre-paid Android Phone
Posted on 26. Mar, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 0 Comments
Kyocera has announced that they will release an Android phone called the Zio M6000 that will cost only $169 upfront, with CDMA technology. This is pretty affordable for those who want to get an Android phone, and since new ones are seemingly arriving every day it seems like buying an unsubsidized on would be the best way to go. Plus, it looks like although the Zio will come with Android 1.6, it will be user upgradeable to 2.1. Check out this video:
While a service provider for this phone hasn’t been announced yet, ARMdevices has said that Kyocera traditionally has been a manufacturer for pre-paid mobile services, which would include companies such as Virgin Mobile, Cricket, Boost Mobile and MetroPCS as possible suitors.
If this is indeed a prepaid phone, it would be a great deal. And it also means that the hardware for Android is becoming cheaper. Take a look at the specifications for the Zio M6000:
3.5″ 800×480 touch screen
600 Mhz Qualcomm MSM7227 processor
3G (CDMA for now), WiFi and stereo Bluetooth
3.2-megapixel camera
Android 1.6 but it will be user-upgradeable to Android 2.1
Sure, it’s not a Nexus One “superphone” but it gets the job done for the average user. Plus, in the video above by Mobileburn, they state that this is one of the lightest Android phones that they have come across.
Although I’m not sure that Google intended to have Android be released on new phones almost every week, I doubt that they are too worried about it. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Chrome OS fragmented in the same way, with Google releasing their own “super” hardware netbook and/or tablet with other manufacturers marketing their own lower cost versions.
We’ve already seen evidence of a $200 tablet by Freescale, and when you consider that Chrome OS will not charge a license fee for its platform I would expect to see devices from manufacturers other than Google releasing gadgets on the cheap, with Google branding their own hardware and commanding Apple-like margins because of their brand value.
Anyways, expect to see the Zio M6000 in the second quarter if you’re looking for a smartphone without a contract.
Does Nexus One’s Poor Numbers Mean a Strategy Change?
Posted on 16. Mar, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 2 Comments
Gizmodo is reporting today that the Nexus One, released in early January as Google’s flagship Android smartphone product has had very poor sales numbers when compared to its competitors. Counting the seventy-four days since the Nexus One has been released, and then comparing the Droid and iPhone the numbers are paltry for Google. While the iPhone and Motorola Droid tallied a million and 1.05 million respectively, the Nexus One has only shipped 135,000 phones.At that number, the highly touted iPad tablet already has more pre-orders than Google’s official phone has sold.
But let’s go back to highly touted. Although the tablet from Apple was never really a for sure thing, there were plenty of news stories about it long before it was unveiled, one of the biggest was the fact that Apple already owned the domain name for iSlate – the supposed name for the device at the time. So what about the publicity for the Nexus One? Pretty slim, and it almost seemed like and afterthought once Motorola hit it big with the Droid that Google felt they almost had to release their own phone.
On the subject of Motorola, keep in mind that the marketing campaign for the Droid was in excess of $100 million dollars. There wasn’t a time you could turn on the TV and hear a robot saying “Droid” in the commercial blitz that commenced at the phone’s launch. By contrast, I’ve never seen a Nexus One commercial – the only ads that I have seen are on Google pages and some ads sprinkled here and there on the internet.
Just because the numbers are not that good for Google doesn’t mean that they haven’t learned a lot from this exercise. Remember, this was the first actual product that Google has released. And they decided to do it differently than any other mobile phone manufacturer on the market by selling it themselves. Even though in reality it was made by HTC, it has the Google brand on it.
Now they will sell the Nexus One for AT&T, competing directly with Apple – but you have to pay the full $529 for the privilege.
When it comes time for Google to sell their own computing device, what path will they take? I have a feeling that they will sell one themselves, but they may opt to also get the backing of a large manufacturer as well for mass marketing purposes. Remember, Acer as of late has been doing a lot of posturing about being the first to market with a Chrome OS netbook, that they will sell millions of them this year and so on.
Whatever the choice may be, it’s clear that the Nexus One was a trial run that required very little marketing expense for the company, which is where things could have got expensive. After all, it seems as if HTC is rolling out new phones all the time anyway, why not help Google out since incidentally, the search engine giant lent a hand with the G1 smartphone?
And don’t forget, the Nexus One has received favorable reviews, some calling it the best Android phone yet – even Gizmodo. Google doesn’t care about popularity for its branded devices yet; it’s more concerned with providing the best user experience possible.
Google CEO Says Chrome OS on Track for Release
Posted on 12. Mar, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 0 Comments
Wondering when you can get your hands on a Chrome-powered machine? Expect it sometime in the latter half of the year, just as what Google established as a timeline last year. That’s because the Middle East tech blog T-Break Tech is reporting that CEO Eric Schmidt said yesterday at the Abu Dhabi Media Summit that Chrome OS is still on track for that timetable and that big news will be coming later on this year.
It’s very possible that we have not learned about all of the details about Chrome OS yet.For example, not long after Apple showed off their iPad tablet for the first time, Google quietly slipped some videos of a Chrome OS prototype tablet. There were also some interesting user interfeace designs accompanying the videos. It’s not a far stretch to think that Google plans on offering several varieties of devices in order to filled the segment of gadgets that fit between a smartphone and a a laptop.
That could mean a smartbook, tablet or something else that does not even have a label yet. For example, check out this patent design from Qualcomm. It’s a tablet-netbook-smartphone product that folds and bends depending on how you want to use it.
The reality is that instead of just having one computing machine, many users may adopt a liking to several different ones depending on where they are. For example, there could be a smartbook/phone for being on the go, a netbook for the desk at home and a tablet in the living room. Not to mention your Chrome OS business machine that expected in 2011. All of these devices would be able to access the same data and preferences as needed, or could be configured differently to serve their own purpose.
Regardless, I expect something interesting coming soon.
Computex to Have 50 ARM Products
Posted on 11. Mar, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 0 Comments
Computerworld is reporting that Computex, held the first week of June in Taipei, will have over fifty different devices on display that run on the ARM architecture. ARM is a company based in Cambridge, U.K. that develops and licenses their processor technology to a wide array of manufacturers. You can find ARM chips in your smartphone, and the soon to be released iPad tablet that has been of keen interest in the tech world has an ARM chip in it customized by Apple.
This wouldn’t be news for a mobile phone expo. But Computex is the second largest computer manufacturer conference. Because the chips require less power and produce a lower amount of heat than x86 processors, this technology will become prevalent in the netbook, tablet and smartbook market over the next few years. Many of these gadgets will be offered by wireless companies offering data services bundled together in the second half of this year.
Of particular interest of course is the fact that Chrome OS machines will most likely run on ARM chips. There already has been a successful prototype shown at the CeBIT conference not too long ago, and I would expect to see a good amount of machines running Chrome OS specifically when Computex rolls around. Right now many of these tablets and smaller computers are being shown running Android, however I am not quite convinced that operating system is the best choice for theses machine but instead simply a placeholder as Chrome OS is put through its paces.
Video: $200 Chrome OS Tablet by Freescale
Posted on 08. Mar, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 20 Comments
So it does exist. I had heard that there was going to be a Chrome OS tablet at the Mobile World Congress, and sure enough we finally see in a somewhat lengthy video the folks from Freescale showing off their prototype with a 7″ screen. This was the same model that was shown at CES running Android. The cost? Around $200, running on hardware in the form factor of their model known as the i.MX51. The video shows some locally cached video playback in HTML5:
This is just an observation, but it seems to me that other tablets are going to have a hard time competing against a tablet product that is only a couple of hundred dollars. But let’s face it: this is just a tablet, and there is only so much you can do with them. I’m not even sure how comfortable one would even be to use. Of course I have to admit I have never actually used one.
But in the demo you see that the Freescale product manager is using a mouse and a keyboard. Probably because the touch capabilities and interface for Chrome OS on tablets is not nearly complete. Earlier today I wrote about the business Chrome OS coming out and I explored the concept of Google having several different versions of their operating system. I feel like this demo gives more proof to that concept. The device itself is capable of touch, as they also showed a tablet running some variation of Linux that had capacitive input.
But for a couple of bills and with an ARM processor, how could you go wrong? It even appears to have a camera. That explains the large bezel.
Shout out to Armdevices.net.
The $100 Tablet, $85 Netbook
Posted on 04. Mar, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 0 Comments
It hasn’t been surprising that there aren’t too many Chrome OS products on display at Germany’s CeBIT conference, which is the largest computer manufacturer meet in the world. While I had heard rumors of Chrome OS ARM devices popping up there, nothing of interest has shown up yet. The best bet is that the largely Taiwanese manufactures of netbooks such as Acer, Asus and MSI are planning to reveal some interesting things on their home turf at Taipei’s Computex, set for the first week of June.
So while we sit through this lull before the exciting developments come to fruition, there are some really cheap gadgets that are coming out of CeBIT. And both of these prototypes could possibly be loaded with Chrome OS. It’s hard to tell because the Chromium projects site doesn’t offer me too much information on minimum requirements.
The first is a tablet, set at a price point of $100. It’s the 7″ Hivision Speedpad and it comes with a ARM 11 chip by Samsung, 2GB of storage and 256 MB of RAM. Did I mention it’s loaded with Android? Based on these specs, it may be difficult to run Chrome OS on this machine, but with ever falling component prices it may not be a far flung reality:
And then there’s the $85 netbook, or perhaps best described as “mini-netbook”. Made be Coby, its dubbed the NBPC722. It has a Marvell ARM, has a 7″ display and is running Windows CE. I couldn’t get any info as of yet on storage or memory, but I’m betting because it’s running Windows CE, these specs are pretty dimunitive:
Conclusion? Expect to see more devices like this coming in the next few months. While these two are running operating systems befit for a mobile phone or the distant past, I see them simply as placeholders for a time that will soon come where we see a browser-based OS being the standard for these devices. This is because that is the core function these products will provide for users.
What would you do with one of these?
Dell Chrome OS Build Has Been Updated
Posted on 18. Feb, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 0 Comments
The Linux team at Dell has been periodically releasing builds that are focused on testing what Chrome OS can do for their line of Mini netbooks. A few days ago, they put out a build based on the latest Chromium Project version from February 11. Also in this is support for the latest Broadcom drivers, however there is a user that has reported that they are having issues with wi-fi with their Mini 9 netbook.
Regardless, this has been tested by Dell for the Mini 9, Mini 10, 10v and Latitude 2100. It’s pretty cool to see them doing this, and prior to releasing these builds I had not idea that they had dedicated support for the Linux platform. In the public eye, Dell is showing us that they are preparing for a time when they will sell commercial products that are loaded with Chrome, and there are several benefits for them to do this.
This is especially true in terms of being competitive on cost for netbooks and eventually tablets or other gadgets as well. With every computer manufacturer moving into smaller devices, expect to see a mobile computing market have an array of devices that people can choose from.
You can get more information here:
• README: http://linux.dell.com/files/cto/README-Feb11.txt (please read this FIRST)
• Image: http://linux.dell.com/files/cto/ChromiumOS_Mini10v_Feb11.img.gz
DISCLAIMER: This image is totally UNSUPPORTED with no WARRANTY – USE AT YOUR OWN RISK.
Another Samsung Chrome OS Post: Yeah Blah Blah
Posted on 17. Feb, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 0 Comments
So Samsung is working on a Chrome OS product. What a shock. Although maybe in a dry news cycle there is an appetite for anything related to Chrome OS, that unfortunately doesn’t really strike me as news. Maybe I’m cynical, maybe I’m a realist (I could also be dumb, you could comment upon that if you want). The truth is that there are probably a whole slew of manufacturers that want to be the first that gets into the genre of Google’s cloud computing platform. But in being realistic that means that the one that offers the most compelling device specs for the initial launch will win.
It would really be no coincidence that Samsung has initialized a partnership with ARM to provide graphics capabilities to their mobile devices, but other sites are not reporting this little nugget of information. Instead of providing specifications for a future netbook, the interest that I have is more about the synergy that Samsung and ARM will create with this partnership.
Sure, its just a press release, but the reality is that Samsung doesn’t need an integrated processing and graphics solution for a television or a mobile phone. It’s to get into the netbook/tablet/smartphone market. And say what you will about them, but their products are pretty good. Mind you, to compete in the soon-crowded cloud operating system market they are going to be dealing with Taiwan companies that have been successful in the netbook market such as Asus and Acer. However, I would not be surprised to see Samsung do some innovative development that puts them ahead of the pack and eventually have a Chrome OS product that is ahead of their competition.
If Samsung is really interested in entering this market and competing on price, then they could do well. Their track record in consumer electronics is pretty good. But HTC, which came out of nowhere, is currently dominating in Android mobile phone sales because they are ambitious and were willing to take risks that traditional mobile phone manufacturers were not willing to do. Is it going to be a consumer electronics company like Samsung that can heed the call for emerging web operating systems? We will see.
Low Powered Mini ARM? It is Now Possible
Posted on 13. Feb, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 2 Comments
University of Michigan researchers have made what will be a breakthrough in processing power for mobile computing – an ARM processor that is smaller than a penny and uses a miniscule amount of power. The energy requirement for this chip right now is provided by a small solar powered unit, and eventually could be derived by other sources such as the body heat of a human. The goal of this project is to develop monitoring devices for health purposes but I can see a bigger use for something like this in the technology industry.
For those who are not aware (I’m one of those) ARM is a company based in Cambridge that has a business based on the Qualcomm model – they don’t manufacture their products, they simply research, develop and license them to others for use in electronic products. You might be surprised to know that ARM processors are already in 95% of the mobile phones that we use. In fact, the current ARM products are so successful because they work on the idea that low enegy and low heat dissipation is the reason why we enjoy phones that don’t melt in our pockets the way that laptops do when they’re sitting on our legs.
So it comes to no surprise that the next generation of laptops, netbooks and smartbooks are probably going to be based on this technology. Qualcomm has already released their processor for the mobile computing market, dubbed the Snapdragon. Expect to see products being released in 2010 with these processors, because their power and heat use are low enough to not require a fan for releasing heat from the chassis of a mobile computer.
Of course, I expect that Intel will come out with something to combat ARM processors like the Snapdragon, as the most popular netbooks right now use their Atom architecture. But for the time being, ARM is going to be the way to go when looking at computers that are light and fast – which is the model for what Google’s Chrome OS is expected to run on. Don’t be surprised if initial machines running Chrome OS that hit the market are using ARM processors.
Also, think about the applications for a processor that small. While it may be far off, think about the implications of tablets that could theoretically unfold out of your pocket and provide all of the processing power that you would need.
What kind of applications could you develop for a platform like that?
You can read more about the University of Michigan research project right here.
JooJoo Looks to be Dark Horse in Tablet Race
Posted on 05. Feb, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 1 Comments
Fusion Garage, a privately funded start-up established in 2008, has a tablet product up its sleeve called JooJoo and it has some hardware specifications that directly go after its competitors. This is a device with a 12.1″ screen, has an integrated camera, boots in nine seconds and supports multitouch. It also has HD capability for video. Check out a short clip of this device:
One concern I have is price. At $499, JooJoo is not offering any sort of competitive advantage against Apple. This also appears to be running a proprietary “browser based operating system” that is developed by Fusion Garage. Since I could not find any other information about it on their specifications page, that’s all I have on what type of operating system this device is running.
With only 4GB of solid state internal memory, this tablet would strictly be used in a cloud environment. Plus, with HD video built-in, the only way for the JooJoo to get content for large high-def video files would have to be from the web. In this case, it would be beneficial for Fusion Garage to get the support of developers who will ultimately need to be able to provide the tablet with applications that it will need in order to go up against the iPad.
Of course, their strategy may be to support web-only applications that are being developed in HTML5 that Google plans to support, with hopes of riding the Chrome OS tablet wave with a product that has some nice features in terms of technical capabilities.
Though JooJoo hasn’t been released yet, it is supposed to be available this month.
Report: Tablet Sales Will Top 4 Million in 2010
Posted on 03. Feb, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 0 Comments
Computerworld is touting a recent report released by ABI Research, Inc. predicts that tablet sales will be over four million this year, and by 2015 will be at 57 million sold per year. That seems to me like a huge number of devices sold in a market that barely exists. Yet.
ABI is defining a tablet as a device that is between five and eleven inches, has wi-fi and video capability. That certainly fits into the Apple iPad and Chrome OS tablet specifications perfectly. The interest in these devices is high, but we shall see whether this amount of tablets are actually sold. The major concern for a tablet is how much in terms of creation you will really be able to do. Without a keyboard or other input devices such as a camera (for now) the iPad along with other low-cost tablets popping up in the news are lacking the tools needed in order to create content for the web and otherwise.
That begs the question: are users going to be hooking up an assortment of other devices to tablets in order to make them function more like a regular PC? If that were the case, it would totally defeat the purpose of even having a tablet in the first place. Of course with Apple, they control the hardware specifications of the iPad, and can limit the number of ports thus the number of accessories that could be attached. Expect to see Google, which has already been adamant about Chrome OS hardware specifications, to do the same thing.
While this technology seems interesting, I’m not completely convinced that a tablet fills a specific need that I have unless it is for quick information retrieval. In that case, the device better be pretty low-cost.
