Will Toshiba learn from its past mistakes?

Way back when consumer slate tablets were in their infancy, before anyone had christened 2010 to be the “year of the tablet,” Toshiba announced that they — as a leading electronics company — were going to lead this slate crusade with their JournE Touch. Mind you, this was back in September of last year, but at that time they were the first big company to announce their tablet intentions. Excitement was in the air. Finally were were going to see the fulfillment of the promise of tablet PCs. Then they announced the specs.

It was soon clear that Toshiba really didn’t have a clue about tablet PCs. Their answer to trying to be the first of this increasing tech fad was to load their JournE Touch with poor hardware and software and rely on a form factor to sell it. It ran Windows CE and used the archaic IE6 web browser. The screen resolution was a minimal 800 x 480 resolution. It had a 2200mAh battery which lasted an abysmal two hours per charge. The JournE Touch was clearly not the direction we wanted to go.

Now Toshiba has woken up and smelled the roses… or Apples if you want to be particular. They’ve realized that tablets aren’t going to be the next disposable form factor, but perhaps the evolution of computer design. With this in mind they’ve announced that they’ll actually put some thought in their tablet executions this time (maybe) and gear up for a family of consumer slate tablets in late 2010 and early 2011. Will it be enough? Will it be too late? Guess we’ll have a definitive answer by this time next year.

Source: Fortune via Akihabara News

The much more inviting JooJoo interface

In the last chapter in the JooJoo/Crunchpad saga, the JooJoo needed to take a break. It wasn’t you, it was them. They needed to enlist in a period of self-discovery (and fix their capacitive touchscreen problems) so they pushed back their launch date by a month. Well now it looks like Fusion Garage — makers of the JooJoo — has put that time to good use and come back with a new look and better features.

To start, the JooJoo now has an interface that you can look at. Gone is the random solid color screen and tiled interface. It has been replaced by a full screen image, left menu and icon column that makes the screen look oh so much better. Gone is the pinch gesture dedicated to backing out of applications. Now it’s a much more intuitive swipe down that displays a menu with home, navigation controls, status and URL/search function (similar to Android). They’ve also added gestures including scroll wheel using two fingers and single-finger pan control.

In addition to revising the onscreen keyboard (it now has smaller keyboard that you can position for one hand typing and the full screen keyboard supports multiple touch input) Flash is now fully up and running. YouTube runs smooth and quick and, although you can still use it, doesn’t require the H.264 player the JooJoo used in the past to play video files. They’ve also changed the case color from the classic black to a champagne brown.

While these changes may not be enough to breath life into the already delayed and litigated device, they’re certainly improvements that we’re happy to see. The main question will be exactly how well the cloud computing concept of the JooJoo stands up to MID capability of the basic iPad model. Will anyone take a chance on it and see?

Update: The FCC just published their overview of the JooJoo and the news isn’t so great. It will be powered by an Intel Atom N270 processor. That means a not-so-good battery life between 2 to 3.5 hours. That’s not a time frame you want to hear considering this is supposed to be a mobile tablet.

Source: Engadget

The Teclast C430 model PMP

Teclast is expanding their PMP line with the newly announced C430H and C430TH PMPs. Both the Teclast C430H and C430TH will feature a 4.3-inch touchscreen, T8100 chipset and will play RM, RMVB, FLV, AVI, WMV, MPG, VOB, 3GP and DAT video codecs and support 1080p HD video (as well as stream it via HDMI). They also play MP3, FLAC, WMA and ACC audio and come with microSD expandable card slots.

As for the differences, the C430H has 4GB of storage and will cost a minimal 299 yuan (around $45). The C430TH has 8GB of storage, a 800 x 480 resolution and will cost 399 yuan (under $60). Both are expected to launch by the end of the year.

Source: Akihabara News

The Archos 5 Internet Tablet better watch its back, yo. It looks like the Hott MD500 is steppin’ too, you feel me?*

The Hott MD500 features a 4.8-inch touchscreen powered by an ARM9 Rockchip CPU. It seems that Hott has forgone the Windows CE OS like on their HOTT MD700 MID and replaced it with Android for the MD500. That puts the MD500 in direct comparison with the popular Archos 5 Internet Tablet. Charbax, who shot the video, from ARMDevices as very impressed with the compact nature of the tablet and liked its minimal screen bezel. The MD500 supports nearly all the video codecs in addition to 720p HD video. It also has a microSD card for storage expansion and a battery that will power the tablet for up to five hours.

The only bone we have to pick is with companies who refer to their product as an “iPad killer” when their tablets aren’t even in the same category. A 5-inch MID is not the same thing as a 10-inch MID. Size does matter. So check yourself!*

We can forgive Hott for that infraction as they’re selling the MD500 for under $100 — $92 to be exact if buying in mass quantities. This is why it’s Hott.

*Please note that all “urban speak” was learned from seasons 1, 3 and 5 of The Wire. It’s possible that the lingo is now outdated and that I’ve greatly embarrassed myself and my profession by trying to speak it.

Source: ARMDevices

Runwei A50, MD

Here’s a question: what do you get when you remove the “internet” from “mobile internet device?” Well, according to the Runwei A50, you get an eReader.

At least that’s how Runwei is positioning their new A50 tablet. The Windows CE powered device has a 5-inch 800 x 600 resolution LCD touchscreen and is powered by an ARM9 500Mhz processor with 2GB of memory. The thing is, there’s no WiFi included in the device. Instead of a MID, which is normally what these specs would offer, the A50 is trying to turn itself into an eReader. While there are many PMPs that offer no internet connection and basic eBook reader programs (usually only supporting TXT), the Runwei tablet offers supports for PDF, TXT, XLS, PPT, ZIP, UMD, DOC, HTML and CHM formats (notice the lack of ePub).

In addition to the eBook reader, it’s loaded down with other MID-like features. It has media playback, supports Flash, plays games, has recording, calculator, notepad and paint software, plus a lot more. Still, the lack of WiFi makes it hard to find the tablet desirable. We guess it could open a medical practice. After all a MID with no internet is really just a MD (wakka, wakka, wakka!).

Source: Cloned in China

HP will be the first real computer company to offer competition to Apple’s iPad. The HP Slate isn’t anything particularly groundbreaking, but it does offer a marketing budget that can compete with Apple. From the looks of these two videos, that’s exactly what HP has in mind. That and touting the Flash capabilities of the Slate tablet.

HP is firmly planting itself on the pro-Flash side of the fight — which is smart. One of the handful of blunders found in the iPad is Apple’s lack of compromise when it comes to the internet’s most popular media programming language. The HP Slate will represent the antiPad to most — a full OS, Flash support, the ability to load programs (not just apps) and no crippled storage or streaming constraints. And if HP can tap into the iPad backlash properly, they could see the Slate launch itself as a viable contender for tablet computers.

We still think there are much better tablet offerings than the HP Slate — all the new Tegra 2 powered tablets and the Notion Ink Adam immediately come to mind — but there’s no doubt HP could tap into the mainstream market easier than smaller companies with less marketing budgets.

Source: Engadget

To say the tablet market has been flooded with new entries in the last months would make even Noah blush. It seems that the CES, MWC and CeBIT shows were primarily composed of tablet booths — each from a new manufacturer and all having different, if forgettable, names. That’s not necessarily the case though. Many times these “new” tablets represent older OEMs — or “original equipment manufacturers” — that have been rebranded and had slightly different software upgrades.

Today the new tablet story was about the Ezy Tablet PC. This tablet features a 10.2-inch 1024 x 600 resolution multitouch screen, an Intel Atom N270 processor and Windows 7 operating system. You may have heard of similar tablets with those configurations in the past. Check that, you may have already heard of this tablet in the past.

You see, the Ezy Tablet is the same piece of tablet hardware as the Digitalrise X9, eviGroup Paddle, iiView Vpad, Cool Rui X9 and probably a few more that we may have missed. Now, there’s no conspiracy here or any type of underhanded dealings afoot — this is just how the industry works. One company makes an OEM and then sells the product as a wholesale unit. Many other companies buy the OEM and market it themselves by rebranding it, renaming it and offering different hardware and software configurations.

This can result in a lot of confusion for people and blogs that follow tablet PCs. Sometimes we don’t catch the similarities in product due to the sheer quantity of reporting. And that means we end up reporting about the same tablet multiple times just because of brand and name changes. As it stands, the Ezy Tablet is nearly the same product as the Cool Rui X9 which was introduced in November of last year.

So if you are interested in the Ezy/Digitalrise/eviGroup/iiView/Cool Rui tablet, make sure you do some serious price and option comparisons before committing to the buy button. And be on the lookout for other multi-branded OEMs. There’s plenty out there and the price differences between them are sometimes fairly significant.

Source (on Ezy Tablet): Chip Chick via Crunchgear

The Onda Vi20 Touch

Onda has recently come out with two more PMPs to add to their already massive portable media player product line.

The Onda Vi20 Touch has a 5-inch 800 x 480 touchscreen and supports 720p HD video playback. It also supports the usual video formats, such as RM, RMVB, AVI, MKV (H.264), FLV, MPG, MOV, VOB, DAT and MPE. Throw in MP3, WMA, FLAC and APE audio plus an FM radio and eBook reader for TXT files and you have yourself a rather well-rounded device. The only other information we have is that the Vi20 will features a USB OTG and microSD slot which can expand the unknown onboard storage by up to an additional 32GB.

The Onda VX530

Source: Cloned in China

Here’s a video by Charbax from ARMDevices showing off the Million-E Culture MReader eReader which offers a resistive touchscreen, WiFi and 3G connection and a eerily similar iPod Touch/iPhone look for around $220.

The MReader has a 6-inch 600 x 800 resolution resistive touchscreen with 16 shades of grayscale along with SD card which can increase the storage to a maximum 16GB. The eBook reader supports ePub, PDF, TCR, PRC, PDB, MOBI, OPF, OEB, HTM, HTML, TXT, CHM, FB2, DJVU, IW44, IW4, DJV, PNG, GIF, FIT, BMP, JPEG and MP3 eBook/audio/image formats. It has USB and headphone ports, external stereo speakers, measures 7 x 5 x 0.39 inches and weighs around half a pound. They also offer non-touchscreen version for $20 less.

Since it is resistive you’ll notice quite the murky screen in the video — similar to the Sony Reader touchscreens. Million-E plans to increase their MReader line with a nine-inch version which should be available within the next month or so.

Source: ARMDevices

Another look at the Microsoft Courier

We were starting to worry about the Microsoft Courier. After hearing plenty about it September of last year there was no mention of Ballmer and Co. during the CES keynote or any real information leaked in a couple of months. It was starting to seem that the Courier would go down as the latest Microsoft vaporware victim.

All of that is starting to change, however, as today Engadget posted some rumors from what they consider a reliable source. The Microsoft Courier is coming and it is still headed in the right direction.

First, the Courier will forgo a Windows 7 OS and instead join the ranks of the Zune HD and Windows Mobile 7 Series by using Windows CE 6. It will also be powered by a Tegra 2 processor (extremely fast CPU that has a low power consumption rate). The focus of the Courier will remain that of a “digital journal” and will rely heavily on stylus input and handwriting recognition. The hinged tablets will fold down to around 5 x 7 inches, be under an inch thick and under a pound in weight.

Of course those are all goals at this point, but they’re admirable to say the least. There will also be a camera, headphone jack and, keeping in the thinking of a journal, an emphasis on reading — specifically eBook reading. A main feature of the Courier will be its use as an eReader.

So how long do we have to wait for all this dual-screened goodness? Only until the second half of this year according to Engadget’s source. That’s a very large and drafty six month window, but even at that it seems a little rushed. After all, we’ve only seen renderings of the Courier at this point and not one solid piece of hardware.

Source: Engadget