Tablets

It may be carrying a heavy lawsuit on its shoulders, but Singapore company Fusion Garage is not ready to throw in the towel yet.

While its first stab at the slate market, the JooJoo tablet (pictured at right), did not go down well with the market, the company is getting ready to launch a second wave. But instead of Fusion Garage's custom interface, the new device will be based on the Google Android operating system.

Still, it will not exactly be an Android tablet, as the company intends to customize the operating system so much that the device may … Read more

Is Apple's new 11-inch MacBook Air the ultimate ultraportable laptop? We compare and contrast with Acer's similar TimelineX, and also debate everything from the Samsung Galaxy Tab's contract-required pricing to the latest in privacy-invading body scanners coming to JFK and other NY-area airports.

Don't forget: You can download the show's theme song as a free MP3 here for a limited time!

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Update: CNET's full, rated review of the Samsung Galaxy Tab is now available.

Sprint announced today that it will offer the Samsung Galaxy Tab starting November 14 for $399.99 with a two-year contract.

Customers will be able to choose from two 3G Tablet Mobile Broadband plans: a 2GB data plan with unlimited messaging for $29.99 per month or a 5GB data plan with unlimited messaging for $59.99 per month.

By contast, Verizon is offering the Galaxy Tab for $600 without contract and data plans starting at $20 per month for 1GB of data.

Sprint customers can … Read more

When it comes to the future of technology, Jeff Han literally has his finger on the pulse.

Han, best known for creating the giant touch-screen "Magic Wall" used by CNN, has been a pioneer in touch technology since his days at NYU. His 40-person company, Perceptive Pixel, is hardly a household name, but the company has carved out a niche for itself selling the kinds of touch wall systems used in defense, government, and medical-research markets.

"We're trying to understand how multitouch is useful to the knowledge worker (to) get real work done," Han told CNET. His comments come just as Perceptive Pixel has landed a new wave of funding, including an investment from products giant 3M. It's the second round of funding for the start-up, which now has offices in New York, Palo Alto, Portland, and Washington, D.C.

While Apple and Microsoft focus on the consumer and retail end, Han has zeroed in on the upper echelon of the business. His only real consumer play was a brief appearance in the Neiman Marcus holiday catalog back in 2007.

Although Han is focused largely on large-screen touch interfaces, one area he is also eyeing is the intersection between touch screens and "Minority Report"-style in-air gestures. On their own, he said, the in-air stuff is fairly imprecise, largely useful for games and entertainment--much the way Microsoft is using it for Kinect. Combine those gestures with a touch screen, though, and things get a bit more interesting, he said.… Read more

Even before Apple's iPad was officially announced, HP was showing off a prototype tablet on stage at CES 2010. Since then, the company and its slate have been in and out of public view, offering up tantalizing sneak peek videos, followed by rumors of delays and OS changes, further complicated by the company's merger with Palm.

At long last, an actual HP tablet is being officially released--but it may not be exactly what you'd expect. The HP Slate 500 Tablet PC is a 9-inch Windows 7 slate, aimed at business and industrial users, rather than casual consumers. In fact, it seems to be exactly the same product we obtained a series of leaked photos of several weeks ago, right down to the leather case and docking stand.

We got a chance to sit down with the HP Slate 500 recently, and found it to be a lightweight, sturdy device, with a slick industrial design and several hardware advantages over the iPad, especially when it comes to ports and connections. … Read more

Thanks to an e-mail CNET received, we have images and detailed specs for the long-awaited Windows 7 slate that Hewlett-Packard originally promised at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. We hear that it will be formally introduced on Monday.

There have been some leaks here and there, but now we know, based on this HP document, that it's officially called the HP Slate 500 Tablet PC. As HP had said before, it comes with Windows 7 and is aimed at corporate customers. We've listed all the specs below, but some of the ones that popped out at us: … Read more

Perhaps Microsoft isn't so stubborn about Windows 7 tablets after all. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer may have just left himself an out to pave the way for a Windows Phone 7 tablet. The official line is that Microsoft will not offer a Windows Phone 7 tablet.

Ballmer, speaking at the Gartner Symposium in Orlando, was set up for a rough keynote from the beginning. A video of tech exec questions all asked whether Microsoft could compete with Apple on the iPad and iPhone. Gartner analyst John Pescatore noted that "no one is lining up in the snow to get that hot new Windows phone and there's no hit movie about SharePoint."

Gartner set up the interview as a consumer/enterprise dueling banjos sort of thing. The big topic was Windows Phone 7 whether it could appeal to both the business and consumer markets. Naturally tablets came up. When asked about whether there would be a Windows Phone 7 tablet instead of a Windows 7 slate, Ballmer held up a WP7 phone and said:

"This is Windows too. Could be this Windows or another Windows. There are technical details I'm not getting into today. We get multiple experiences."

Microsoft has officially said that there will be no Windows Phone 7 tablet. Indeed, Ballmer could have been referring to Windows embedded and Windows 7 on tablets. However, Ballmer seemed to indicate that Windows Phone 7 would be a possibility - or at least that experience. The Gartner analysts had noted they wanted the Windows Phone 7 experience on a tablet.

Reading the tea leaves, it sure sounds like Microsoft is at least open to a Windows Phone 7 powered tablet. That's a move that would make a lot of sense. Windows Phone 7 appears to be much more suited to tablet use. And if Microsoft can leverage its PowerPoint franchise, a WP7 tablet could be a winner. Instead, Microsoft seems to be force-feeding Windows 7 on the tablet form factor.

Ballmer was cagey throughout the interview about tablets, which were a big focus at the Gartner conference. On Windows tablet availability, Ballmer said:

… Read more

Taking a cue from LG, Lenovo has pulled back from releasing an Android 2.2 tablet. PC World reports that Rory Read, COO of the company's U.S. operations, feels Lenovo would be better served waiting until the tablet-friendly version of Android (Honeycomb) arrives next year. Initially expected by the end of 2010, this means the "LePad" will not arrive until around the summer of 2011.

Aside from the Samsung Galaxy Tab, I would not expect to see many Android tablets from some of the bigger players. As Google puts the finishing touches on Gingerbread, it's … Read more

Here's some Apple news that has nothing to do with today's Back to Mac announcements: The Dev Team today released PwnageTool 4.1, a jailbreaking app for OS X that allows users of iDevices--iPod Touches, iPads, iPhones--to load custom firmware on their gadgets.

The tool uses a variety of exploits to maintain carrier unlocks on unlocked devices, and works on any device that can run iOS 4.1 (3.2.2 for iPad users). The only devices it doesn't work on are the original iPhone and the first two generations of the iPod Touch, the Dev Team … Read more