Tablets

Joby, maker of a distinctive line of knobby-legged flexible tripods for cameras and other devices, has entered the iPad market with two products that serve both as cases and props.

First is a flexi-legged iPod holder called the GorillaMobile Yogi. It attaches with a protective polycarbonate case and can used to simply prop up an iPad in portrait or landscape orientation or, for the more adventurous, attach it to something with the legs. Joby suggests glomming it onto kitchen fixtures to show recipes, but I'd watch out for the flour and flecks of olive oil.

Second is a folding … Read more

A year ago, Lenovo's bold concept device, the IdeaPad U1 Hybrid, astonished us not only for its neat transforming design and its detachable tablet, but for anticipating the year in tablets to come. Indeed, we're still wondering how laptops and tablets can play well together.

Back then, the U1 had a tablet running a Linux-based Skylight OS developed by Lenovo, while the base laptop it attached to had undefined specs. Now, the U1's specs are clear: Windows 7 Home Premium and a 1.2 GHz Intel CULV Core i5-540UM CPU, 2GB of DDR3 RAM, and a 320GB … Read more

Forrester Research has more than doubled its long-term sales forecast for tablets to reflect consumer demand.

About 10.3 million tablets were sold in the U.S. last year, the market researcherestimates. It expects sales to more than double this year to 24.1 million units. From there, sales growth will gradually start to plateau with 35.1 million units, 39.8 million units, and 42.3 million units sold in 2012, 2013, and 2014, respectively. Tablet makers will sell 44 million units in 2015, the researcher predicts.

As recently as June, Forrester was predicting tablet sales to reach … Read more

The stateside arrival of a 10.8-inch tablet is typically a cause for wild celebration, but this latest arrival at the FCC doesn't seem to have the makings of an iPad-killer.

Instead, it looks like the Sharp Galapagos e-reader has finally trickled out of Asia, gracing us with its Linux-based, large format design. If you're looking for an oversize Nook Color, minus the core Android features, this could be just the thing.

To my eye, though, the design looks too polished to be cheap, and the features seem too limited to justify a high price. The addition … Read more

Let's all give a round of applause to Toshiba, who instead of giving us a prolonged tease for its Android Honeycomb tablet (ala Motorola), had the courtesy to just lay it all out there for us. CES may be in Vegas, but that doesn't mean every great product needs to go all "Showgirls" on us.

Here's the deal. Toshiba has a 10.1-inch Android Honeycomb tablet due out the first half of 2011 (price TBD, but in the iPad ballpark). The system uses an Nvidia Tegra 2 dual-core processor, capable of 1080p video decoding, smooth Adobe Flash support, and full-resolution video output via the integrated HDMI port.

Like the iPad, the screen is glass-covered, capacitive, LED-backlit, and supports multitouch and accelerometer screen reorientation. Unlike Apple, Toshiba set the screen resolution to a 1,280x800-pixel resolution, fixed at a 16:10 aspect ratio. Users are also treated to a haptic feedback touch-screen keyboard and dual cameras--one facing you with a 2-megapixel resolution, and the other facing out with a 5-megapixel sensor.

Around the edges you get ports for HDMI, full-size USB, Mini-USB sync, and SD card expansion. Onboard storage is yet to be announced, but other specs, such as 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, stereo speakers, GPS, and digital compass, all come standard.

Another key feature worth noting: a removable battery. Granted, with all that horsepower, you'll probably need more than one battery to match the iPad's 10 hours of runtime--but it's still a feature not offered by any competitors. … Read more

Apple's iPad has a lot of things going for it, but ports aren't one of them. The ever-more-crowded tablet landscape is getting a number of intriguing Android products, and the AOC Breeze 8-inch tablet, announced this morning, is yet another one. What the 8-inch Android 2.1-running device does have of note is a full USB 2.0 port. Another advantage: it costs less than $200.

An 800x600-pixel display, 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi, 4GB of flash memory, Rockchip processor, and microSD card slot aren't exciting, and the system doesn't really stand out at first glance, … Read more

TV maker Vizio is entering the smartphone and tablet business.

The company said today it will launch the Via Phone and Via Tablet, both of which will feature Google's Android operating system, Vizio's Via Plus technology to offer a unified interface across different devices, and an infrared blaster with a universal remote control app that can control Vizio TVs and other devices.

With a 1GHz processor and a 4-inch high-resolution touch screen, the Via Phone will offer 801.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connections, a MicroSD card slot, and HDMI output to play video on an TV. The phone … Read more

Flat-screen TV maker Vizio is making the jump into the smartphone and tablet computer markets, tapping Google to take on the likes of Apple and Research In Motion.

The company, which teased the move in an ad that ran before the Rose Bowl game yesterday (see below), is expected to reveal its wireless products tomorrow during a news conference before the Consumer Electronics Show kicks off in Las Vegas later this week, according to reports by Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal.

Vizio's Via Phone will have a 4-inch screen and front- and rear-facing cameras, while the Via Tablet … Read more

RIM has rebutted recent claims that its upcoming BlackBerry PlayBook tablet is hampered by a short battery life.

On Tuesday, Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu issued a report in which he cited unnamed sources saying that the PlayBook's battery lasts only a few hours, compared with Samsung's Galaxy Tab, which lasts for six hours, and Apple's iPad, which runs for 10 hours on single charge. The analyst pointed to the weak battery life as a reason why Research In Motion has delayed the launch of the device until the company's May 2011 quarter.

But in a … Read more