Written by Chris Davies on September 3rd, 2010 in News.
With a sub-£350 price tag for a 7-inch Android 2.2 Froyo tablet, with 3G voice and data, a capacitive touchscreen and digital camera, we were wondering where the catch was with the ViewSonic ViewPad 7. Having used the compact slate at IFA 2010 this morning, we’re still left searching for the compromise: on the face of it, you’re getting much of what Samsung is delivering with the Galaxy Tab, only at (perhaps) half the price.
Despite the budget tag, the ViewPad 7 feels solid and well made. The rear panel is glossy, fingerprint-loving plastic (and had already acquired a few scratches) but the metal-effect surround seems sturdy and the capacitive touchscreen itself was reasonable responsive. A 3-megapixel camera is the only thing on the back, aside from the company’s logo, and lacks any sort of flash, but there’s also a second camera, on the front, for UMTS video calls.
ViewSonic ViewPad 7 hands-on:
Like the Galaxy Tab, you’ll be able to use the ViewPad 7 as a phone – Samsung told us yesterday that around 70-percent of people they questioned said they’d like to use their tablet as a cellphone too, so it seems a sensible feature-addition for ViewSonic to make. It’s worth noting that the sub-£350 price is unsubsidised and unlocked, so if ViewSonic can find a carrier partner then it might easily drop down to free with a new contract.
Viewsonic have sensibly left Google’s own UI to do its thing, rather than mess with customisations, though they couldn’t tell us what Gingerbread 3.0 plans they might have. The 600MHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor isn’t as speedy as some of the 1GHz slates we’ve been seeing at IFA this year, but Android itself doesn’t appear to have suffered too greatly. Page rendering in the browser was quick, and games played with no lag.
It may be a rebadge of the OlivePad, but that doesn’t appear to have hurt ViewSonic too much. There’ll be plenty of competition by the time they reach the market later in a month or two, but given the price and the recent version of Android they’ll likely find plenty of buyers.
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Written by Shane McGlaun on September 3rd, 2010 in News.
I am glad to see that there are more and more projectors coming onto the market. The downside is that all of these small pocket size projectors are still not bright enough to use in rooms that are moderately lit.
Toshiba has announced its own new pocket-size projector called the Lumileo P100. The little projector measures in at 116 x 50 x 18mm and weighs 96g with the battery installed. The little projector has a resolution of 640 x 480 and it has a scant 14 lumens of light output.
That battery is a rechargeable lithium-ion unit and the projector has a contrast ratio of 200:1. Inputs include RCA and VGA and the P100 has manual focus and a 0.5W stereo speaker. The projector is good for an image up to 65-inches in a dark room. Pricing is unknown at this time.
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Written by Adam Flaherty on September 3rd, 2010 in News.
It's time again to fire up the ol' grill. Check out this itsy bitsy BBQ grill made out of an Altoids Sours tin. Instructables user vmspionage was inspired to build the little guy after seeing the eBq. [via Slashgear]
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Written by Shane McGlaun on September 3rd, 2010 in News.
Having to dig around and find the charger that fell behind your desk to plug in your phone sucks. We have all been there at one point or another. Thankfully there are all sorts of wireless induction chargers on the market that let us just sit our smartphones on a pad to charge them up.
Energizer has jumped into the inductive space with a new product called Energizer InductiveCharger. Other than the world’s most unoriginal name, the product looks like most of the other similar chargers on the market with no cords and a charge plate large enough for two gadgets.
The inductive plate measures 7.27″ W x 0.93″ – 0.39″ T x 7.918″ L and weighs 0.8 pounds. The inductive charge plate works with cases and battery doors for the Blackberry Curve 8900 and a sleeve that fits the iPhone 3G/3GS smartphone. Both the Blackberry and iPhone accessories are Qi-enabled. Pricing and availability are unknown at this time.
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Written by Shawn Ingram on September 3rd, 2010 in News.
Section: Gadgets / Other
It’s never been much of a secret, but now it’s finally official: Samsung has announced the Galaxy Tab, and has confirmed the final specs. The announcement happened at IFA in Berlin, so we haven’t had a chance to actually touch it yet, but we at least have final specs.
The Galaxy Tab is officially a 7-inch Android tablet running Froyo with TouchWiz on top of it. It was announced for Europe as having HSUPA and HDSPA+ 3G, and not the Verizon-approved CDMA, but that could always come later. It has two cameras, a 3 MP back-facing camera with LED flash as well as a 1.3 MP front-facing camera for video chat. Inside there’s all the standard accelerometer, geo-magnetic sensor, light sensor, WiFi (802.11n included), Bluetooth 3.0, and Samsung even managed to add in a gyroscope just like the iPhone 4. For storage, the Galaxy Tab comes in 16 and 32 GB models, both expandable with microSD cards. It runs on a 1 GHz Core A8 processor, and Samsung says the battery will last for seven hours or video playback. To top it all off, the 7-inch screen has a resolution of 1024x600, which gives it a higher pixel density than the iPad.
Reports out of Berlin seem to indicate that the Galaxy is finally the Android tablet we’ve been waiting for. The screen size means its easy enough to hold with just one hand, and the display is certainly bright and seems to show colors well. SlashGear has noted that while the phone is light, and solidly built, it it a bit plasticky. Kat Hannaford at Gizmodo was apparently down on the device before she played with it, but said she came away impressed with the Galaxy Tab. Finally, Engadget noted that Samsung “has set the gold standard for Android tablets.” Is that’s true, we certainly have a lot to look forward to whenever Samsung gets around to announcing pricing and availability for the US.
Read [Samsung]
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Written by Shane McGlaun on September 3rd, 2010 in News.
I get a lot of use out of my iPad for all sorts of stuff from surfing the web on the couch to reading books. I know some folks like to use the thing a lot for recipes in the kitchen and so on too. Once Hulu Plus lands for us all I will probably use the thing to watch some of my favorite TV shows.
If you want to mount your iPad on the wall or another flat surface in your home like the fridge, a new mount system called the PadTab has surfaced. The PadTab appears to be a plastic tab of some sort that interlocks with a squareish wall tab. The wall tabs are small and can be painted to match your wall to blend in with the décor.
If you have a home automation system that has an iPad app to control it, this might be the perfect way to mount the iPad as a wall control. The Wall Tab has an industrial strength adhesive so you can mount it without having to drill. Each kit will cost you $29.99 and includes two WallTabs. Shipping of the PadTab system starts today.
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Written by Samsung Hub on September 3rd, 2010 in News.
Samsung has launched a new LED monitor for the Indian market. The PX2370 from 70 Series is a 23-inch LED backlit monitor that supports full HD video playback and features 100 percent sRGB color reproduction for natural-looking pictures.
The monitor is 40 percent more power efficient than LCD monitors and comes with other magical features like Magix Lux, Magic Eco, Magic Return and Magic Angle.
Magic Lux automatically adjusts the monitor’s brightness according the ambient lighting; Magic Eco gives four pre-set energy saving option; Magic Return brings back all the content from the second monitor to primary one in case the second monitor is disconnected; and Magic Angle gives the same viewing experience from any angle.
The PX2370 is available now for Rs. 15,300.
Written by Shane McGlaun on September 3rd, 2010 in News.
For a long time the wireless dongles that we needed for things like wireless keyboards and desktops were long and fat adapters that often blocked the surrounding USB ports. Thankfully manufacturers have started making those dongles so small you can plug them in and just leave them there. Flash drives today are mostly like those old wireless dongles.
They are long and fat and when used on a notebook or netbook with USB ports close together you may lose one of the scarce ports. LaCie has unveiled a new flash drive that is a lot like those nano wireless adapters. The new flash drive is called the MosKeyto.
The little thing comes in 4GB and 8GB capacities. The scant size of the flash drive at 21 x 16 x 10mm and 10g of weight means you can plug it in and just leave it in the USB port if you want. The 4GB version sells for $17.99 and the 8GB version will cost you $27.99 with both available right now.
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Written by Shane McGlaun on September 3rd, 2010 in News.
If you have been holding out for a good deal before you jumped into the 3D TV realm with your own set today may be that day. Best Buy has the cool Samsung PN50C490B3D 50-inch 720p 3D plasma 3D TV on sale for $989.
The set has a 600Hz refresh rate and is 2 ¾” deep. Naturally, the big downside here is that the set apparently lacks any 3D glasses. You will have to buy them separately and Samsung gouges to the tune of $150 to $200 per set for the active glasses you need. If you have four people in the family, the glasses will be almost as much as the TV.
Other specifications of the set if you are still interested include a 2,000,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, USB port, three DVI inputs, dual component inputs, 20W internal speakers, and a V-chip. The set measures 31″ tall on the stand, 11-3/4″ wide on the stand, and 2-3/4″ deep on the stand.
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Written by Shane McGlaun on September 3rd, 2010 in News.
Toshiba has announced that it is set to offer a blazing fast SDHC memory card that it claims to be the world’s fastest. The new memory cards are being offered in 4GB, 8GB, and 16GB capacities and are compliant with the SD Memory Card Standard Version 3.0, UHS104.
Toshiba claims that the new memory cards are good for read speeds of 95MB/s and write speeds of 80MB/s. The new fast cards will be offered in 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB capacities. Toshiba also claims more world’s firsts in the memory card market with the unveiling at IFA of several new microSD cards.
The new microSD cards are offered in 4GB, 8GB, and 16GB and are UHS-I cards with SD 3.0, UHS50 compliance. The new microSD cards are the first SD 3.0, UHS50 compliant cards, have read speeds of 40MB/s, and write speed of 20MB/s. Mass production for the microSD cars is set for November.
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