The OnLive Desktop App is now available for free in the Android Market. OnLive is known for its cloud-based gaming service, which delivers console-quality games that are synchronized, rendered, and stored on remote servers and then streamed over the Internet to compatible devices. At the Consumer Electronics Show in January, the company announced the “OnLive Desktop App” for the iPad, and now an Android version is available as well. The app uses virtualization technology to create a remotely hosted, fully functional version of Windows 7 desktop on your tablet. The basic OnLive Desktop service is free with a “Plus” version available for $4.99 per month, which features gigabit-speed accelerated web browsing and access to other cloud storage services such as Dropbox. The OnLive Desktop app requires at least Android 2.3 and is compatible with the Acer Iconia Tab A500, ASUS Eee Pad Transformer, Motorola XOOM, Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 and 10.1, and HTC Jetstream. Read on for OnLive’s press release.
At OnLive, we don't like to rest on our laurels. So we didn't stop at bringing instant-action cloud gaming to your Android tablet. Now we're delivering OnLive Desktop as well—an instant-response Windows desktop loaded with full Microsoft Office apps, Adobe Reader and, with the OnLive Desktop Plus service, gigabit-speed* accelerated browsing.
The OnLive Desktop App is now available free in the Android Market, empowering you to get your work done anywhere with unprecedented speed and efficiency. Enjoy a no-compromise, media-rich, multi-touch Windows desktop on your tablet, with fully functional applications such as Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Adobe Reader, along with 2GB of cloud storage. The OnLive Desktop Plus service, available for $4.99/month at desktop.onlive.com, provides all OnLive Desktop Standard features plus our gigabit-speed accelerated browsing—the world's fastest browsing experience, whether you're connecting over Wi-Fi- or 4G LTE. Together, we think they'll change the way you look at your tablet forever.
Let me give you an example. Say you're in transit to a meeting and you need to put some finishing touches on your PowerPoint presentation. You can just upload it from your PC or Mac into your free OnLive storage at files.onlive.com (or, if you have OnLive Desktop Plus, save it into third-party cloud storage like Dropbox) and open it instantly on your tablet on the go. Create new graphics, add in videos … with full app functionality and instant-response multi-touch gestures, you'll feel like you're working locally. And, with a Bluetooth keyboard and/or mouse you may forget you are not using a local PC.
With OnLive Desktop Plus, you can even email your presentation to co-workers for input or approval and make changes on the fly. Webmail attachments, even 50 MB ones, transfer in less than a second. By the time you arrive at your meeting, your presentation is polished, up-to-the-minute accurate and ready to present, either directly from your tablet or by simply signing in to OnLive Desktop from a different device. (OnLive Desktop is also available on iPad. Smartphones, PCs, Macs and monitors/TVs are coming soon.)
Simple, right? You look professional and your work does, too. No time lost. No compromises. Even better, OnLive Desktop Plus can actually reduce Web browsing data usage by a factor of 10 or more, since only the top layer of the current view of a website is sent over your local Internet connection**.
The OnLive Desktop app requires at least Android 2.3 and is compatible with the following tablets: Acer Iconia Tab A500, ASUS Eee TF101, Motorola Xoom, Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 and 10.1, and HTC Jetstream. For more details—and to sign up for your free OnLive account—check out desktop.onlive.com.
The high flying HD-recording AR Drone 2.0 quadricopter that was announced at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, will be released in May for $299.99. The drone is equipped a 720p front-facing camera that allows users to capture their flights in HD, and a 3-axis accelerometer, gyroscope and magnetometer. The device also features a new “absolute flight" mode that will allow users to steer the AR Drone by tilting a smartphone or tablet, and the accompanying Android and iOS apps can be used to share flight data with friends as well. In order to expand the drone’s capabilities, Parrot has also provided Android and iOS developers with a software development kit. Limited quantities will be available April 9th from Brookstone and can be reserved starting today. Hit the break for Parrot’s press release and AR Drone 2.0 commercial.
The Parrot AR.Drone 2.0, the new generation of Parrot’s renowned high-tech quadricopter that can be controlled by Wi-Fi using a smartphone or tablet[1], will land in the US in May 2012. With a new high-definition camera, video and photo recording and sharing, new piloting mode, increased stability and brand-new look, the AR.Drone 2.0 offers an experience like no other!
A flying HD camera While in flight, the Parrot AR.Drone 2.0′s front camera transmits real-time what the quadricopter sees onto the pilot’s device screen. For the first time the AR.Drone 2.0 camera, with a 1280×720 resolution, shows a view from the sky in high definition with smooth and unbelievable images. The pilot enjoys an experience like never before, as if he was on board. For gaming purposes, this camera also can recognize specific shapes and colors to show augmented-reality elements on the smartphone’s screen.
Record and share flying experiences Thanks to the new AR.FreeFlight 2.0 piloting application, players can record their own HD flight videos and pictures on their piloting smartphone’s or tablets’ memory and share them with the AR.Drone community using YouTube or Picasa. The pilot can also save images or videos on a USB key (not included) using the dedicated USB port hidden under the hull, close to the battery.
AR.FreeFlight 2.0, a new piloting and sharing platform In addition to flying the AR.Drone, new application AR.FreeFlight 2.0 – available to download for free from the AppStoreSM and AndroidTM Market – offers players a new interface and several options.
FreeFlight: Access to the piloting application. Recording flights’ HD pictures and videos in the piloting device or a USB key. Photos/Videos: Directly access your own videos and photos. Watch or upload to YouTube or Picasa for the community to enjoy. Drone Update: Access the AR.Drone 2.0′s free software updates. AR.Games: Access applications/games available for the AR.Drone. Get your AR.Drone: See an overview of the AR.Drone 2.0, videos and practical information. Coming soon – AR.Drone Academy: Place for meeting and sharing content with the AR.Drone community. Get geolocation data of the best flight zones, watch other pilots’ videos and access their shared flight data (high, speed, duration, geolocation…).
‘Absolute Flight’, a revolutionary ultra-intuitive flight mode After the AR.FreeFlight 2.0 pilot application has been loaded onto an iOS or AndroidTM smartphone or tablet, the Parrot AR.Drone 2.0 connects to the device via Wi-Fi. After connection, all the on-board instruments appear on screen with a cockpit view.
Press the take off button briefly and the four brushless motors turn on. The AR.Drone 2.0 takes off. Flying is very simple. With your thumbs placed on either side of the screen, a control button automatically forms beneath: · Press and hold the left button and the AR.Drone 2.0 follows the movement of the pilot’s device: it moves forward, backwards or sideways when you tilt the tablet forward, towards you or to the left or right. · Slide your finger over the right button, and the quadricopter rises, descends or rotates right or left.
Thanks to Parrot’s patented new ‘Absolute Control’ mode, the player accesses an even more intuitive piloting system.
With a 3D magnetometer, the AR.Drone 2.0 knows its precise orientation with respect to the smartphone, which becomes the reference point. The pilot no longer needs to care about the orientation of the AR.Drone 2.0′s front camera, which will accurately track the smartphone’s motion and tilt. Experienced players will select ‘Relative Flight’ mode, the conventional flight mode. This disables Parrot AR.Drone 2.0′s magnetometer. The pilot manages the quadricopter’s orientation with no assistance.
AR.Drone 2.0 stunts For more enjoyable and exciting flights, the AR.Drone 2.0 is equipped, for the first time ever, with a ‘Flip’ feature. Double tap on the button placed on the right side of the piloting device screen and the AR.Drone 2.0 will perform a loop. Both experts and untrained can be a stunt pilot!
Surprising stability at any altitude The heart of the AR.Drone 2.0 contains MEMS (microelectromechanical systems). A 3-axis accelerometer, a 3-axis gyroscope, a 3-axis magnetometer and a pressure sensor give the Parrot AR.Drone 2.0 surprising stability, complete with: 2 ultrasound sensors, which analyze flight altitude up to 6 meters. A pressure sensor completes the device and provides great vertical stability. 4 blades, specially designed for the AR.Drone 2.0, make it possible to carry out smooth flights. A second camera, placed beneath the quadricopter and connected to the central inertial unit, measures the craft’s speed using an image comparison system.
2 hulls made for both types of flight The Parrot AR.Drone 2.0 has 2 hulls with specially designed contours. Made of EPP (a material used in designing car bumpers), they are light, highly resistant and protect the quadricopter. For outdoor flight, the contoured hull, available in three colors (orange/yellow; orange/green; orange/blue), reduces wind resistance and preserves the AR.Drone 2.0′s handling and stability. When indoor, a second hull protects the blades from any impact. The black-and-white cockpit, underlined with a red stripe, reinforces the quadricopter’s mysterious, thrilling appearance.
Finally, light-emitting diodes (green in front, red in rear), positioned on the landing gear, help the pilot track the orientation of the AR.Drone 2.0 for easier flying.
An Open Development Platform In order to expand the use of the Parrot AR.Drone 2.0 and its compatibility with other operating systems and to develop new flying games and applications, Parrot is providing developers and members of the Apple® and AndroidTM communities with a software development kit. By logging in at https://projects.ardrone.org and accepting the terms of the license, developers can access the source code used to fly the AR.Drone 2.0. A wiki and a tutorial also are available. A forum is available to discuss new developments and share feedback with Parrot engineers. *** The Parrot AR.Drone 2.0 runs on a rechargeable lithium-Polymer battery (included).
Parrot AR.Drone 2.0 will be available for purchase at selected retailers in May 2012 in the United States for $299 MSRP
Pre-orders can be placed online or in-store at Brookstone starting March 1, 2012
HTC is confident the company’s new One series smartphones will rescue the company from slowing sales, propelling it to the No.5 smartphone vendor spot and beyond. “We are confident this year will be … a much better year,” HTC’s chief of European operations Florian Seiche said to Reuters. “Even with the Q1 not being the ideal fast start right out of the gate in January, which of course we would have preferred, even with that we are very confident.” During the company’s Mobile World Congress 2012 press event, the Taiwanese smartphone maker announced the HTC One series. The first three HTC One phones focus on three main pillars, amazing design and user experience, an amazing camera, and an amazing multimedia experience. HTC feels these key components will combine to reignite consumer interest in its smartphones, and early response has been very positive.
Verizon Wireless on Thursday announced that the company was ranked No.1 in network quality in five of the six regions covered by a recent J.D. Power and Associates survey. Between July and December 2011, J.D. Power conducted customer surveys that found Verizon had the best network in five regions covering 44 states. “This study is yet another acknowledgement of Verizon Wireless' dedication to the overall customer experience,” the company said in a statement. The announcement follows the carrier’s recognition as J.D. Power’s top wireless customer care provider. “Not only is Verizon Wireless leading the way as the nation's largest 4G LTE and fastest 4G network, but the company is focused on staying ahead of customers' needs, understanding that its network is the backbone of everything its customers do with their wireless devices,” the company said in a statement to the press, which follows below.
Verizon Wireless Ranks Highest in Network Quality in Five Regions According to J.D. Power and Associates
When it comes to wireless calling, messaging and data services, which company do wireless users rate highest in the United States? According to the latest J.D. Power and Associates 2012 Wireless Network Quality Performance Study℠, Volume 1, issued today, Verizon Wireless continues to lead the industry in network quality in five of the six regions with 11 PP100 in each region.
Between July and December 2011, J.D. Power and Associates surveyed customers and found that Verizon Wireless ranked highest among national wireless companies in five regions covering 44 states and outperformed the industry average nationwide.
This study is yet another acknowledgement of Verizon Wireless' dedication to the overall customer experience, following the company's recognition for having the "Highest Ranked Customer Service Performance among Full Service Wireless Providers" by J.D. Power and Associates last month. Not only is Verizon Wireless leading the way as the nation's largest 4G LTE and fastest 4G network, but the company is focused on staying ahead of customers' needs, understanding that its network is the backbone of everything its customers do with their wireless devices.
Fortune on Thursday published its list of the “World’s Most Admired Companies” and as expected, Apple came in on top. “To say it was another big year for Apple would be a gross understatement,” the publication stated. “With the passing of Steve Jobs, questions swirled around the company's future. But under new CEO Tim Cook's guidance, Apple continues to prosper.” The Cupertino-based company is coming off its best quarter of all time, which boosted its market cap to over $500 billion, making it the most valuable company in the world. Rounding out the top-10 were Google, Amazon, Coca-Cola, IBM, FedEx, Berkshire Hathaway, Starbucks, Procter & Gamble and Southwest Airlines. Apple’s 2012 ranking marked the fifth consecutive year that the company has topped Fortune’s list.
Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom on Thursday questioned his accusers’ motives while speaking to The Guardian. ”I’m no piracy king,” Dotcom told the paper. “I offered online storage and bandwidth to users and that’s it.” Dotcom was arrested in his New Zealand mansion on January 20th after his notorious Megaupload service was shuttered earlier that week as part of a multi-agency sting across several countries. He was released on bail and it currently awaiting trial, having been accused of money laundering, violating piracy laws and a number of other crimes. ”It’s kind of like weapon of mass destructions in Iraq, you know?” Dotcom said during an interview with The Guardian. “If you want to go after someone and you have a political goal you will say whatever it takes.” Read on for more.
“Where does piracy come from? Piracy comes from, you know, people, let’s say, in Europe who do not have access to movies at the same time that they are released in the US,” Dotcom said. “If the business model would be one where everyone has access to this content at the same time, you know, you wouldn’t have a piracy problem. So it’s really, in my opinion, the government of the United States protecting an outdated monopolistic business model that doesn’t work in the age of the internet and that’s what it all boils down to.”
The 38-year-old German millionaire says that hundreds of other services similar to Megaupload exist and continue to operate while he is being “insanely” singled out and made an example of. Megaupload was estimated to be responsible for as much as 80% of all file-sharing traffic, or between 2% and 3% of all global Internet traffic, before it was shuttered last month. A recent study suggests that the service’s closure did nothing to slow piracy, however, as people have simply looked to other services in place of Megaupload to share pirated movies and music.
Samsung confirmed earlier this week that the company has sold 2 million Galaxy Note handsets since the device launched last October, according to Forbes. The South Korean manufacturer has high hopes for its “phablet,” and plans to sell another 10 million units by the end of 2012. The Galaxy Note was introduced in the United States with a $10 million anti-iPhone ad campaign during the Super Bowl. BGR reviewed the Samsung Galaxy Note last month and while the vivid display absolutely blew us away, we found the device far too large overall to be used comfortably as a cell phone.
In the early days of Android, HTC Sense was welcomed with open arms. Since then, however, companies such as Motorola, Samsung and others have drastically improved their own skins. As we said in our review of the HTC Rezound, it’s almost as if HTC’s Sense offers too much customization — and apparently this is a sentiment that HTC’s own chief product officer shares. Read on for more.
In an interview with Pocket-lint, Kouji Kodera said the company’s user interface has become too cluttered and complicated. “From the original Sense up to Sense 3.5 we added too many things,” he said. “The original concept was that it had to be simple and it had to be easy to use and we had that philosophy, but over time it got cluttered.”
The company’s new One smartphone series ships with Sense 4.0, which brings the user interface back to its roots. “There where too many things in there,” Kodera continued. “Even on the home screen we had four or five icons before consumers got a chance to add things themselves. For the HTC One range we have taken it down to Sense 2 again.”
HTC’s newest version of Sense promises to deliver a “good balance” of Google’s stock Ice Cream Sandwich interface and HTC’s UI. “What we’ve done right now is a good mixture of keeping Sense and Google’s Ice Cream Sandwich element in a good balance,” Kodera told Pocket-lint. ”We haven’t tried to change everything here. We have kept a lot of the ICS element but still added the Sense flavour on top of it.”
The New York Times reported on Tuesday that due to a permission loophole, third party app developers could access an iPhone’s photo gallery app. The paper is now reporting that Google’s Android operating system suffers from a similar security hole. Unlike the iPhone however, which requires an app to have permission to access location data, an Android device that has permission to access the Internet can copy photos to a remote server without notice. “We can confirm that there is no special permission required for an app to read pictures,” said Kevin Mahaffey, chief technology officer of Lookout Security. Read on for more.
A Google spokesman told The Times that the lack of restrictions on photo access was a design choice from the way early Android phones stored data. The first Android smartphones had the ability to store photos on a removable memory card, which complicated the issue of photo access.
“We originally designed the Android photos file system similar to those of other computing platforms like Windows and Mac OS," the spokesman said. “At the time, images were stored on a SD card, making it easy for someone to remove the SD card from a phone and put it in a computer to view or transfer those images. As phones and tablets have evolved to rely more on built-in, non-removable memory, we're taking another look at this and considering adding a permission for apps to access images."
Ralph Gootee, an Android developer and CTO of Loupe, created a test application in the form of a simple timer. After installing the app, a pop-up notification requested access to the Internet. When a user sets the timer, however, the app is able to access the photo library and retrieve the most recent images without the user granting the app permission to do so. “Photos if anything are the most personal things," Mr. Gootee said. “I'm really kind of shocked about this."
Microsoft announced on Thursday that its Windows 8 Consumer Preview has been downloaded a million times. “One day later…one million downloads of the consumer preview,” a Microsoft spokesperson posted on the company’s Building Windows 8 Twitter account. Microsoft unveiled the latest version of its upcoming desktop and tablet operating system during a press conference on Wednesday, and response has been generally positive. BGR published a full review of Microsoft’s Windows 8 Consumer Preview on Wednesday and called it “the future of computing.” Windows 8 marries a Metro-based touch-friendly tablet platform with a Windows 7-like desktop experience, creating a single operating system that is both versatile and powerful. Microsoft said it plans to launch Windows 8 later this year.
Google’s answer to iTunes, Spotify, Pandora and other popular digital music services may be in serious trouble. Reports surfaced last week suggesting Google Music wasn’t living up to expectations and now, according to music industry insider Wayne Rosso, the service may be in deeper trouble than initially thought. ”I've never seen anything like it," an unnamed digital music executive told Rosso.”It's astounding. It's hard to believe that with an install base of over 200 million Android handsets they're actually losing customers." The well-placed source explained to Rosso that Google Music is losing customers on a weekly basis, and that it has gotten to the point where record label executives are worried Google may discontinue the service. First launched this past November, Google Music is a music store and cloud-based digital locker combination that allows users to purchase or upload music, and then stream songs to any computer or Android-powered device.
Apple’s share of global smartphone and tablet usage skyrocketed in February after remaining somewhat flat over the previous three months. Analytics firm Net Applications on Thursday released mobile phone and tablet operating system share data for February, and Apple showed the most gains last month by a wide margin. The Cupertino, California-based company saw its share increase to 60.59% from 53.65% in January as Android inched up less than a point to 19.02% and RIM’s BlackBerry platform slid nearly a point to 2.59%, it’s second lowest monthly share over the past 12 months. Java ME share of mobile and tablet operating system usage plummeted to 14.16% from 19.19% in January, and Symbian dropped to 2.77% from 5.20% over the same period. A chart outlining Net Applications's data follows below.
Apple’s next-generation iPad tablet will be named the “iPad HD” according to a recent report. A purported parts list from accessory vendor Griffin that included multiple entries for iPad HD accessories was published on Twitter by Michael Fonfara on Thursday. Fonfara claims to have somehow confirmed the name with Belkin as well. Apple will unveil its next-generation tablet during a press conference in San Francisco on March 7th. The new iPad is expected to feature a high-definition 2,048 x 1,536-pixel display, a quad-core Apple A6 processor, 4G LTE connectivity, a slightly thicker aluminum case and an updated version of Apple’s mobile operating system, iOS 5.1. An image of the purported parts list follows below.
AT&T on Thursday announced a revision to its smartphone data throttling policy, which impacts users who have chosen to retain the unlimited smartphone data plan AT&T discontinued some time ago. AT&T’s policy had been ambiguous until now, with the carrier stating simply that the top 5% of smartphone users would experience slowed data speeds until a new billing period began. It was unclear how much data a subscriber had to use in order to approach the top 5%, however, and a number of reports claimed users were being throttled after using 2GB of data or even less. Now, AT&T is clarifying that it will only begin throttling smartphone users with 4G LTE devices after 5GB of data has been used in a single billing period, and subscribers with non-LTE devices will be throttled after 3GB of usage. AT&T’s full statement follows below.
With mobile data usage continuing to skyrocket and the availability of spectrum scarce, AT&T, like other wireless companies, manages its network in the most fair way possible so that we can provide the best possible mobile broadband experience for all our customers.
How we're managing the network only affects a small minority of the heaviest smartphone data users still on unlimited plans. Put another way, this does not impact more than 95 percent of our smartphone customers.
Our unlimited plan customers have told us they want more clarity around how the program works and what they can expect. Here's what customers need to know:
· Customers with a 3G or 4G smartphone – who also still have our unlimited data plan – will see speeds reduced if they use 3GB (gigabytes) of data or more in a billing cycle. Speeds will return to normal at the start of the next billing cycle. For context, less than 5 percent of smartphone customers use more than 3GB per month.
· For customers with a 4G LTE smartphone – who also still have our unlimited data plan – data speeds will be reduced if usage is 5GB (gigabytes) or more in a billing cycle. Speeds will return to normal at the start of the next billing cycle.
Customers will get a text message from us before experiencing a change in speed.
Even with reduced data speeds, these customers will still be able to email and surf the web, and continue to use an unlimited amount of data each month.
Not impacted by this program, launched last year, are customers on our tiered data plans.
The reason reduced speeds only apply to unlimited smartphone customers is because their data usage is significantly higher than those on tiered plans. For example, in January, the top 5 percent of our unlimited data plan customers used an average of over 50 percent more data than the top 5 percent of customers on tiered plans.
Because spectrum is limited and data usage continues to soar, we manage our network this way to be as fair as possible and so we can provide the best possible mobile broadband experience to everyone.
We encourage all of our customers to use Wi-Fi whenever possible – especially when watching video, which is the most data-intensive activity.
Apple on Thursday won an injunction in Germany against all of Motorola’s Android devices, according to FOSSPatents. The ruling comes on the heels of another victory Apple scored in a German appeals court on Monday. Judge Dr. Peter Guntz ruled that Motorola infringed Apple’s patent for a “portable electronic device for photo management.” Motorola smartphones apparently use Apple’s patent for page-turning in zoomed-in mode — but not zoomed-out mode — in the photo gallery app. If Apple enforces the injunction, it can require Motorola to destroy any infringing products in its possession in Germany and recall, at the company’s expense, any infringing products from German retailers, which will then be destroyed as well. The Cupertino-based company previously attacked Samsung over the same feature, however Samsung modified its code to avoid a ban in the Netherlands — a move Motorola may follow. Read on for Motorola’s statement.
UPDATE: Motorola issued the following statement to BGR. “Today's ruling in Munich, Germany on the patent litigation brought by Apple concerns a software feature associated with performing certain functions when viewing photos in a 'zoomed in' mode on mobile devices. We note that the Court ruled that performing the functions in a 'zoomed out' mode does not infringe on this patent. We expect no impact to supply or future sales as we have already implemented a new way to view photos on our products that does not interfere with the user experience.”
Apple on Thursday won an injunction in Germany against all of Motorola Mobility’s Android devices, according to FOSSPatents. The ruling comes on the heels of another victory Apple scored in a German appeals court on Monday. Judge Dr. Peter Guntz ruled that Motorola infringed Apple’s patent for a “portable electronic device for photo management.” Motorola smartphones apparently use Apple’s patent for page-turning in zoomed-in mode — but not zoomed-out mode — in the photo gallery app. If Apple enforces the injunction, it can require Motorola to destroy any infringing products in its possession in Germany and recall, at the company’s expense, any infringing products from German retailers, which will then be destroyed as well. The Cupertino-based company previously attacked Samsung over the same feature, however Samsung modified its code to avoid a ban in the Netherlands — a move Motorola may follow.
UPDATE: Motorola issued a statement to BGR in response to Judge Guntz’s ruling. The company’s response now follows below in its entirety.
Today's ruling in Munich, Germany on the patent litigation brought by Apple concerns a software feature associated with performing certain functions when viewing photos in a 'zoomed in' mode on mobile devices. We note that the Court ruled that performing the functions in a 'zoomed out' mode does not infringe on this patent. We expect no impact to supply or future sales as we have already implemented a new way to view photos on our products that does not interfere with the user experience.
Apple on Thursday won an injunction in Germany against all of Motorola’s Android devices, according to FOSSPatents. The ruling comes on the heels of another victory Apple scored in a German appeals court on Monday. Judge Dr. Peter Guntz ruled that Motorola infringed Apple’s patent for a “portable electronic device for photo management.” Motorola smartphones apparently use Apple’s patent for page-turning in zoomed-in mode — but not zoomed-out mode — in the photo gallery app. If Apple enforces the injunction, it can require Motorola to destroy any infringing products in its possession in Germany and recall, at the company’s expense, any infringing products from German retailers, which will then be destroyed as well. The Cupertino-based company previously attacked Samsung over the same feature, however Samsung modified its code to avoid a ban in the Netherlands — a move Motorola may follow.
Apple’s highly anticipated iPad 3 will reportedly be in short supply until some time in the second quarter according to a new report. Industry watcher DigiTimes on Thursday cited anonymous sources from within Apple’s supply chain in claiming that the high-resolution 2,048 x 1,536-pixel display panels being supplied to Apple by Sharp may be in short supply. Initial shipments are expected to be limited as a result, and production supposedly won’t be ramped up until some time in the second quarter. Apple will unveil its next-generation iPad 3 at a press conference on March 7th and the tablet is expected to become available soon after. Reports suggest the iPad 3 will feature a high-resolution 9.7-inch display, a quad-core Apple A6 processor, embedded 4G LTE and a slightly redesigned aluminum case.
Research In Motion is likely to report a disappointing February quarter according to Jeffries & Company analyst Peter Misek, and the company may soon pre-announce results as a warning. ”We are cutting our RIM estimates and target based on our belief that there is a greater than 50% chance that RIM will negatively pre-announce the February quarter," Misek wrote in a note to investors on Thursday. “We believe sales of both RIM's low-end and higher-end phones continue to be challenged." Read on for more.
The analyst cut his earnings projections for RIM’s fourth fiscal quarter to $1.87 per share, down from his earlier estimate of $2.00 per share. Wall Street is expecting RIM to report earnings of $3.00 per share in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2012. Misek also now sees revenue of $4.2 billion in the fourth quarter, down from his earlier $4.6 billion forecast.
“We believe higher-end handsets are doing poorly outside of Enterprise sales with continued iPhone 4S and Android momentum (especially Samsung) causing issues," Misek noted, adding that the launch of the iPhone 5 ahead of RIM’s first BlackBerry 10 handset will be “particularly troubling.”
Apple is reportedly planning to launch a smaller version of its popular iPad tablet that will enter production during the third quarter this year at the earliest. DigiTimes on Thursday reported that Apple’s scaled-down iPad is already being assembled by the company’s manufacturing partners. Samples are currently being delivered to Apple for verification and volume production is rumored to begin in the third quarter. The new tablet will feature a 7.85-inch display to compete with Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble’s Nook Tablet, and pricing is expected to fall in the $249 to $299 range according to DigiTimes’s sources. The site had previously reported that Apple’s “iPad mini,” as some have called it, could launch as soon as the third quarter of 2012.
Apple may introduce a less expensive version of its popular iPad 2 tablet next week when it unveils its next-generation iPad 3. Citing unnamed sources from within Apple’s supply chain, DigiTimes on Thursday reported that the Cupertino, California-based technology giant will announce 16GB and 32GB versions of the iPad 3 during its press conference in San Francisco on March 7th. At the same time, Apple is expected to reveal a new cheaper version of its iPad 2 tablet that will only include 8GB of internal storage. Apple had previously been rumored to be planning to drop the price of the current iPad 2 by at least $100 following the launch of the iPad 3, which is expected to include a high-definition 2,048 x 1,536-pixel display, a quad-core A6 processor, embedded 4G LTE and a slightly thicker case.
Toshiba on Wednesday confirmed that its ultra-slim and light Android tablet, the Excite 10 LE, will be available on March 6th for $529, a day before Apple’s iPad 3 unveiling. The slate, originally called the Excite X10, was announced at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show and is equipped with a Gorilla Glass-covered 10.1-inch HD display with a dual-core TI OMAP 4430 processor clocked at 1.2GHz. The device also features 16GB of internal storage, a microSD slot, a 2-megapixel front-facing camera, a 5-megapixel rear camera and Android 3.2 Honeycomb, with an upgrade to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich promised to be coming in the spring. The Excite 10 LE is also “the world’s thinnest and lightest 10-inch tablet measuring just 0.3 inches (7.7mm) thin and weighing just 1.18 pounds (535g).” Toshiba’s press release follows below.
Toshiba Brings World’s Thinnest 10-Inch Tablet to U.S. Market
World’s Thinnest and Lightest 10-inch Tablet, Excite 10 LE, Available for Purchase on March 6, Starting at $529.99
IRVINE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Toshiba’s Digital Products Division (DPD), a division of Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., today announced that the Excite™ 10 LE tablet will be available for purchase from select U.S. retailers on March 6. Previously introduced as the Excite X10, the Excite 10 LE is the world’s thinnest and lightest 10-inch tablet measuring just 0.3 inches (7.7mm) thin and weighing just 1.18 pounds (535g).
“We have engineered this tablet with premium materials and components, given it elegant yet durable styling and more connectivity options than any other tablet in its class, while fitting everything into an astonishingly thin and light design.”
The Excite 10 LE tablet, powered by Android™, carries a starting price of $529.99 MSRP2 for the 16GB model and $599.99 MSRP for the 32GB model. “Excite 10 LE embodies what a luxury tablet should be,” said Carl Pinto, vice president of product development, Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., Digital Products Division. “We have engineered this tablet with premium materials and components, given it elegant yet durable styling and more connectivity options than any other tablet in its class, while fitting everything into an astonishingly thin and light design.”
A More Premium Design with All the Essentials
The thin and light Excite 10 LE features a vivid high-resolution 10.1-inch diagonal AutoBrite™ display3, delivering optimum browsing, reading and entertainment. Designed for durability and style, the device also features a high-quality magnesium alloy surface and scratch-resistant Corning® Gorilla® Glass display with an anti-smudge coating for greater resiliency. The tablet also comes with an array of connectivity interfaces and ports on board, including micro-USB and HDMI® ports, a micro-SD slot to share content and files with other devices, plus Wi-Fi® and Bluetooth® connectivity. Stereo speakers with exclusive sound enhancements by Toshiba and SRS® Labs deliver superior audio capabilities. Front and back HD cameras provide convenient photo capture, plus 1080p video recording and video chatting.
Smart Multicore Performance with Long Battery Life Powered by the 1.2GHz Texas Instruments OMAP™ 4430 multicore mobile processor4 and dual-channel memory, the Excite 10 LE offers smooth web browsing and multitasking plus the performance for high definition video and entertainment. Extremely power efficient, the Excite 10 LE delivers up to 8 hours of battery life.
Powered by Android
The Excite 10 LE tablet features Android 3.2, Honeycomb, and will be upgraded to Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich later this Spring. Also included is a full suite of familiar Google™ Mobile Service applications, including the Android Market™, YouTube™, Gmail™, Google Maps™, Music, Videos. Additionally, the tablet comes pre-loaded with a mix of Toshiba software and third-party applications including TOSHIBA App Place, TOSHIBA Book Place, TOSHIBA Media Player, TOSHIBA File Manager as well Netflix™ and Zinio™.
Docking and Accessories
Toshiba will also offer a suite of tablet accessories for the Excite 10 LE, including a docking station, multiple cases and more.
Specifications
• Android 3.2, Honeycomb (upgradeable to Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich) • 10.1-inch diagonal LED Backlit widescreen Corning Gorilla Glass display with IPS technology and 10-finger multi-touch support • 1280 x 800 resolution, 16:10 aspect ratio • Texas Instruments OMAP 4430 multicore processor; 1.2GHz with 1GB LPDDR2 RAM • 16GB and 32GB configurations6 • 2 megapixel front-facing camera • 5 megapixel rear-facing camera with LED flash • Micro USB, Micro HDMI ports • Micro SD card slot • Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n) and Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR • Gyroscope, Accelerometer, GPS, eCompass and Ambient Light Sensor • Stereo speakers with sound enhancements by Toshiba and SRS Labs • Built-in 25 watt-hour rechargeable lithium ion battery • 10.1″ (W) x 6.9″ (D) x 0.3″ (H) • 1.18 pounds (535g)
Google on Tuesday announced on the company’s developer blog that it has updated its Android Application Statistics tool in an effort to provide more detailed information to developers. The tool originally provided apps’ performance throughout various countries, system versions and device models, among other data. The update brings a new way to analyze data as well as a redesigned user interface and new installation metrics that can measure unique user and device stats. Developers can view active installs, total installs and daily installs of their applications along with unique user and device data, and they have access to uninstall data as well. Additionally, developers will be able to monitor which carrier customers are on and which version of each app customers are using.
Microsoft is testing a Windows Phone 8 handset with a dual-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm MSM8960 chipset for Sprint’s network, The Verge reported on Wednesday. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S4 processor has posted impressive performance when powering Android devices, beating out Samsung’s Galaxy S II (Exynos) and Motorola’s Droid 4 (TI OMAP) by a wide margin in many tests. Microsoft hopes the chip will bring similar performance to the Windows Phone platform. Sprint has reportedly shared its LTE specifications with Nokia and may not introduce any further Windows Phone devices until Windows Phone 8 is launched later this year, The Verge claims.
Hewlett-Packard will cut 275 of its 500 remaining employees on the webOS team as its mobile platform transitions to open source, WebOS Nation reported on Tuesday. “As webOS continues the transition from making mobile devices to open source software, it no longer needs many of the engineering and other related positions that it required before,” the company said in a statement. “This creates a smaller and more nimble team that is well-equipped to deliver an open source webOS and sustain HP's commitment to the software over the long term.” While positions are being cut, HP hopes to redeploy employees to other areas of the company. The move leaves the webOS team with roughly 225 workers.
Microsoft previously disclosed that Windows on ARM will feature a desktop mode to ensure an identical user experience between ARM and Intel-based tablets. On Wednesday, however, the software giant revealed that Windows on ARM won't offer certain manageability features, AllThingsD reported. “Although the ARM-based version of Windows does not include the same manageability features that are in 32-bit and 64-bit versions, businesses can use these power-saving devices in unmanaged environments," Microsoft said. In addition to the lack of manageability, businesses may be hesitant to use Windows on ARM due to its inability to run, emulate or port existing x86/64 desktop apps. Read on for more.
Microsoft detailed a new feature on Wednesday called “Windows To Go," which will allow a business to offer access to Windows 8 and corporate apps on a thumb drive. “Growing mobility and consumerization trends pressure IT professionals to provide users with secure access to a corporate operating system and apps in situations when a device or network is out of the IT department's control,” Microsoft said. “Windows 8 includes the ability to provide users with a full corporate copy of Windows (along with user's business apps, data, and settings) on a USB storage device.”
The feature is compatible with both Windows 7 and Windows 8 machines. “When users insert their device into any Windows 7 or Windows 8 compatible PC and restart the PC, they get their entire personal environment, and operate as a fully managed device,” the company added. “When they sign out, they can remove the USB device, and it is ready to use on another PC.”
Sony has no plans to launch smartphones with more powerful quad-core processors this year, a Sony Mobile Communications executive confirmed on Wednesday. Speaking with CNET Asia, Sony Mobile product marketing manager Stephen Sneeden said he believes Sony will wait until 2013 to launch smartphones powered by quad-core processors like NVIDIA’s Tegra 3. ”We’re going to join quad-core when we feel that the performance matches the battery efficiency,” Sneeden said. “Because right now we don’t feel that is there. What we are going to be doing in the second-half of the year is moving to the Cortex A15 architecture, which we feel outperforms the current quad-core architecture.” While smartphone vendors like HTC, ZTE and others were busy unveiling quad-core Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich phones at Mobile World Congress this past week, Sony took the wraps off two new dual-core Xperia smartphones that will launch with Android 2.3 Gingerbread. ”You’ll see in 2013, as we’re evaluating the quad-core performance where it makes sense, where you’re not suffering in quality and the performance truly is there, and there really is something that demanding applications need,” Sneeden added. “That’s when we make the right move to quad-core.”
Facebook on Wednesday announced at the company’s Marketing Conference that premium ads will now appear in its mobile application. Advertisements will be displayed on mobile news feeds — much like Twitter’s “promoted” tweets — starting immediately, with desktop logout screen advertisements scheduled to roll out in April. Previously, users would only see ads in the sidebar and news feed on the desktop version of Facebook. The move comes as the social networking giant is in the process of going public, and just after Twitter announced that it will bring ads to its mobile application.
As promised, the $35 Raspberry Pi Linux computer was made available for pre-order on Wednesday. The single-board computer is equipped with a 700MHz processor, 256MB of RAM, SD card support, two USB ports, an Ethernet hookup and both HDMI and RCA outputs. Despite the low cost and small size — which is roughly equal to a credit card — the Raspberry Pi computer is powerful enough to run games such as Quake III Arena and power 1080p video. Additionally, the cheaper Model A unit, which removes the Ethernet hookup and a USB port, received an increase from 128MB to 256MB of RAM and will be on sale later this year. “Raspberry Pi provides a revolutionary low cost platform, which opens up programming to a whole new audience,” the company said in a press release. “We are very honoured to have been chosen to work with the Foundation as a distribution partner at the launch of this exciting new tool.” Users interested in the device will have to be patient, however. The Raspberry Pi Twitter account confirmed that Farnell’s stock was depleted after less than a day of pre-order availability, and further inventory is expected in about a month. Read on for the company’s press release.
RS Components Announces Launch of Raspberry Pi $35 Computer
New low cost credit card sized computer now available to pre-order from RS websites
OXFORD, England–(BUSINESS WIRE)–RS Components (RS), the trading brand of Electrocomponents plc (LSE:ECM), the world’s leading high service distributor of electronics and maintenance products, today announced that the revolutionary credit card sized single-board computer from the Raspberry Pi Foundation is now available to pre-order from RS websites around the world. Created for educators, programmers, developers and IT enthusiasts, the kits can be pre-ordered at rswww.com.
“Raspberry Pi provides a revolutionary low cost platform, which opens up programming to a whole new audience. We are very honoured to have been chosen to work with the Foundation as a distribution partner at the launch of this exciting new tool.”
The Raspberry Pi Foundation is a charity established to promote the development of computer development skills in education across the globe. Its vision is for Raspberry Pi to provide budding IT developers and programmers with a base platform to exploit the full power and potential of computing within the Linux environment, at a remarkably low cost. As such, Raspberry Pi computers act as an enabler for the next generation of programmers to enter the IT industry.
RS was selected as a distribution partner for Raspberry Pi because, in the eyes of the Foundation, it connects with engineers across the globe throughout their careers. As such, the company is well positioned to provide Raspberry Pi adopters with support, advice and access to additional resources as they embark on new development activities. It was particularly impressed with the DesignSpark community and resources provided for new developers working on Open Source designs.
“RS has always been a trusted and reliable partner for engineers across the globe. The RS DesignSpark community and their free PCB design software connects with engineers throughout their career, and is being adopted by many universities around the world,” said Eben Upton, founder and trustee of Raspberry Pi. “This ethos of providing resources for engineers, along with the company’s support for open source design, makes RS the ideal distribution partner for Raspberry Pi.”
Glenn Jarrett, Head of Marketing, Electronics, at RS Components, added, “Raspberry Pi provides a revolutionary low cost platform, which opens up programming to a whole new audience. We are very honoured to have been chosen to work with the Foundation as a distribution partner at the launch of this exciting new tool.”
A new report from Seth Godin of PaidContent claims Apple is rejecting eBooks from its iBooks store that contain links to Amazon. “I just found out that Apple rejecting my new manifesto Stop Stealing Dreams and won't carry it in their store because inside the manifesto are links to buy the books I mention in the bibliography,” Godin stated. In an email, Apple’s review team told Godin the book was rejected due to “multiple links to Amazon store.” The Cupertino-based company’s move is causing quite a stir, and some argue that if Amazon and Barnes & Noble were to employ the same practices, the world of eBooks would become closed off and censored. “I think that Amazon and Apple and B&N need to take a deep breath and make a decision on principle: what's inside the book shouldn't be of concern to a bookstore with a substantial choke on the marketplace,” Godin concluded. “If it's legal, they ought to let people read it if they choose to.”
Following LG’s statement that the company is “heavily in discussions” with Google to become the next Nexus partner, HTC said it too is in discussions with the software giant. According to a new report from TechRadar, the Taiwanese handset maker is in talks with Google in hopes of being selected to design the company’s next flagship smartphone. Google previously worked with HTC to craft the original Nexus One. “Google hasn't chosen its Nexus partner for (Android) Jellybean as yet. So right now all the manufacturers are crossing their fingers,” HTC’s global online communications manager Jeff Gordon said in a statement that has since been removed. Gordon said that the notion of being the next Nexus partner is “still very attractive to all OEMs, despite the imminent takeover of Motorola.” Gordon didn’t give an exact date as to when Android 5.0 would be released, but stated the company’s current priority is to bring Ice Cream Sandwich to its current device lineup.
UPDATE: HTC contacted BGR via email to clarify that the comments above were taken out of context, and Gordon was misquoted at least once as well. TechRadar, the source of the statements quoted above, has pulled the original article on its own volition as a result.
Following LG’s statement that the company is “heavily in discussions” with Google to become the next Nexus partner, HTC said it too is in discussions with the software giant. According to a new report from TechRadar, the Taiwanese handset maker is in talks with Google in hopes of being selected to design the company’s next flagship smartphone. Google previously worked with HTC to craft the original Nexus One. “Google hasn't chosen its Nexus partner for (Android) Jellybean as yet. So right now all the manufacturers are crossing their fingers,” HTC’s global online communications manager Jeff Gordon said in a statement that has since been removed. Gordon said that the notion of being the next Nexus partner is “still very attractive to all OEMs, despite the imminent takeover of Motorola.” Gordon didn’t give an exact date as to when Android 5.0 would be released, but stated the company’s current priority is to bring Ice Cream Sandwich to its current device lineup.
Fragmentation is a recurring issue that haunts the Android ecosystem in many ways. While Google’s latest version of the Android platform was intended in large part to address the issue — which many believe to have peaked when the software giant launched Android 3.0 Honeycomb and maintained two entirely separate versions of Android for smartphones and tablets — Ice Cream Sandwich has not yet done its job. Four-and-a-half months since its debut, only 1% of Android devices currently run the unified Android 4.0 operating system according to Google’s own data. To compound matters, a recent report suggested Google may launch Android 5.0 Jelly Bean as soon as this summer. There is no question that fragmentation is a real issue for the Android platform, but is it really as big a deal as some make it out to be?
Fragmentation is an issue on two fronts. On one hand, developers have problems with Android fragmentation because it forces them to create and maintain different versions of the same application to work across various Android releases. This issue has theoretically been addressed by Ice Cream Sandwich, and developers will be able to build one app that works on both smartphones and tablets moving forward. Today, however, the problem remains. In fact, vendors are still launching new smartphones running Gingerbread at this year’s Mobile World Congress trade show.
One the second front, fragmentation is an issue that directly affects users. As we have seen time and time again, updating smartphones to new Android releases is a tall task that often takes vendors many months of hard work. In the meantime, users are left waiting for the great new features, security fixes and other enhancements Google introduces with each new release.
While we have established that the problem is real, the question of its severity remains a topic that is debated quite often. In an effort to make sense of the noise, industrial and graphic designer Chris Sauve compiled data from a number of sources and created a formula by which Android fragmentation can be measured.
The above graph, which Sauve included in a post on his pxldot blog earlier this week, displays Android version distribution between December 2009 and February 2012. This graph showcases the issue quite clearly — despite two new versions having been released since Android 2.3 was first introduced, Gingerbread’s installed base is currently at an all-time high.
The more interesting graph, however, might be this one:
Simply looking at Android installed base figures over time is not an accurate way to measure how “bad” fragmentation is, Sauve argued. Instead, a model that measures the distribution of one Android version against others is needed. Sauve did this using two key factors.
“The more handsets on the most recent version, and the less divided the remaining installed base (aside from those on the most recent version), the better,” Sauve wrote on pixldot. “Using these two factors I built a formula that provides us with a value of how ‘bad’ Android fragmentation is; it can theoretically go from 0–12.5, with higher numbers indicating ‘worse’ fragmentation.”
As can be seen in the graph above, Android fragmentation is not necessarily a problem that has grown worse over time as many have claimed. Using Sauve’s model, it actually appears to be a cyclical issue that was at its lowest level ever just two months ago in December, after Ice Cream Sandwich had been released.
Sauve goes on to take a deeper look at the issue of Android fragmentation, and he reaches some interesting conclusions. Among them an observation that may come as a surprise: despite the recent release of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and the upcoming launch of Android 5.0 Jelly Bean, Sauve believes 2012 will be “the year of Gingerbread” in terms of version distribution. ”Gingerbread appears to be on the verge of peaking as a percentage of the total devices in use, but it took Froyo over 6 months after reaching the peak of its relative distribution to be overtaken,” he noted. “Gingerbread is still adding devices 14 times faster than ICS.”
Interpol on Tuesday announced that 25 suspected members of the hacker group “Anonymous” have been arrested in a raid across Europe and South America. The suspected members ranged in age from 17 to 40 and are accused of planning coordinated cyber-attacks against various government institutions, such as Colombia's defense ministry and presidential Web sites, Chile's Endesa electricity company and national library and other targets. The arrests were the result of an ongoing investigation by local and federal police agencies, which searched 40 locations in 15 cities and seized 250 pieces of technology equipment since mid-February. “This operation shows that crime in the virtual world does have real consequences for those involved, and that the Internet cannot be seen as a safe haven for criminal activity, no matter where it originates or where it is targeted,” Acting INTERPOL Executive Director of Police Services Bernd Rossbach said. Read on for Interpol’s press release.
LYON, France ‒ An international operation supported by INTERPOL against suspected hackers believed to be linked to the so-called 'Anonymous' hacking group has seen the arrest of some 25 individuals across four countries in Latin America and Europe.
Operation Unmask was launched in mid-February following a series of coordinated cyber-attacks originating from Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Spain against the Colombian Ministry of Defence and presidential websites, as well as Chile's Endesa electricity company and its National Library, among others.
The international operation was carried out by national law enforcement officers in Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Spain, under the aegis of INTERPOL's Latin American Working Group of Experts on Information Technology (IT) Crime, which facilitated the sharing of intelligence following operational meetings in the four participating countries.
Some 250 items of IT equipment and mobile phones were also seized during searches of 40 premises across 15 cities during the operation, as well as payment cards and cash, as part of a continuing investigation into the funding of illegal activities carried out by the suspected hackers who are aged 17 to 40.
"This operation shows that crime in the virtual world does have real consequences for those involved, and that the Internet cannot be seen as a safe haven for criminal activity, no matter where it originates or where it is targeted," said Bernd Rossbach, Acting INTERPOL Executive Director of Police Services.
INTERPOL working parties on IT crime were created to facilitate the development of strategies, technologies and information on the latest IT crime methods. There are regional working parties for Africa, the Americas, Asia and the South Pacific, Europe, and the Middle East and North Africa.
The main activities of the working parties rest on three pillars: facilitating operations against IT crime among INTERPOL's 190 member countries, capacity building and addressing emerging threats.
As Google’s vendor partners prepare renewed efforts to push HDTVs and accessories that showcase Google TV, a new report suggests that they have their work cut out for them. First introduced at a press conference in late 2010, Google TV has not seen the success Google had hoped for. The CEO of Logitech, one of the first vendors to launch a Google TV product, went as far as to call its Google TV-powered Revue a gigantic mistake that cost the company dearly. Now, in more than a year on the market, all of Google’s partners have combined to sell fewer that 1 million Google TV devices according to a recent report. Read on for more.
Using readily available installed user base data published within the Android Market, GigaOm was able to deduce that Google TV device sales likely fall in the 500,000 to 1 million-unit range. The site looked at installed base data for a number of applications that come pre-installed on Google TV-powered devices, and they all fell within that range. Mobile analysis firm Xyologic released similar findings earlier this month.
Apple’s iOS platform seemed to come out of nowhere and take the world by storm in 2007. The introduction of the first-generation iPhone set in motion a chain of events that lead up to the holiday quarter in 2011, when Apple recorded the most profitable quarter in technology history thanks mainly to unbelievable iPhone, iPod touch and iPad sales. No platform is selling as quickly as Apple’s mobile platform right now, but iOS is still in its infancy and the fact remains: as hot as iOS is right now, and as popular as smartphones and media tablets are, no platform installed base on the planet even comes close to approaching the size of Windows right now.
The Future
Microsoft said this past December that there are now more than 1.25 billion PCs running the Windows operating system. Billion, with a “B.” Smartphones are the hottest segment in consumer electronics right now and people are buying Apple’s iPad in droves, but even still, more people around the world rely on Windows than ever before. This is because the software that powers countless businesses from the ground up is built on Windows. From web browsers to accounting software to point-of-sale systems to 3D animation software to word processors to custom proprietary solutions and far, far beyond… Entire industries are built on Windows.
The future is anything but “post-PC.”
We are now entering the post-post-PC era, and its focus is the PC. A new, smarter, more versatile PC. A PC that lets users browse the web casually in bed and work with massive databases in SQL Server. A PC that can run a $0.99 news reader as well as it can run proprietary $99,000 CRM software. A PC that is as ideal for playing Angry Birds as it is for running a modeling environment that allows its user to build schematics for a skyscraper. This is the future of computing.
That is not to say Windows 8 is an “iPad killer” or that media tablets are going away. Far from it. While their functionality may overlap in a number of areas, light-duty tablets and full-fledged PCs serve different purposes and will continue to coexist for some time. What we will see, however, is media tablets becoming more capable and more powerful as PCs become better suited for touch input. At some point down the road the two categories may merge, but neither will “win” or “lose.”
The OS
I’ve spent the past week playing with and working on a Samsung tablet powered by Microsoft’s new operating system. It’s nice to be able to work and play on the same tablet.
While Windows 8 is not quite in a state where it is ready to be released to the public, it is a completely different beast than the Developer Preview Microsoft released more than five months ago. During a meeting with Microsoft executives, I was told that the Consumer Preview version of Windows 8 includes tens of thousands of changes compared to the version that was released to developers in September. Thousands of changes are system-level items that I’m sure I didn’t notice, but thousands more are user-facing changes that have helped improve the user experience dramatically.
One of my favorite features is the implementation of swipe gestures. As can be seen in the second and third images within our Windows 8 screenshot gallery, Microsoft has tweaked the main menus used to navigate the OS and perform a variety of key functions. While using a touchscreen to interface with Windows 8, these menus are opened using gestures.
A swipe from the bezel around the screen in from the right opens the start menu, which includes a search button to search for files and apps, a share button to share the current page via email or using other services, a start button, a devices button that lists devices connected to your PC, and a settings button that provides quick access to basic settings such as brightness and speaker volume, as well as a link to more system settings. A swipe in from the left switches between open apps, and a swipe in from the left and back out to the edge of the display opens the app-switcher. Within an app, a swipe down from the top or up from the bottom opens app-specific menus.
While using a keyboard and mouse, gestures from the sides are replaced by keyboard shortcuts or mouse touches to the corners of the screen. A touch to the top-right or bottom-right corner mimics a swipe in from the right and opens the start menu while a touch to the top-left or bottom-left corners opens the app-switcher.
There are countless other great features new Windows 8 Consumer Preview; from picture password, an enhanced security feature that lets the user unlock a PC by tracing preset patterns on an image of his or her choosing instead of using a simple alphanumeric password, to “roaming,” which automatically syncs settings, apps and other data between different Windows 8 computers. While one convertible slate can handle duties as a tablet, notebook and desktop computer, Windows 8 is all about choice. Some users may opt for a single device while others will want a lightweight 7-inch ARM-based tablet in addition to an eight-core beast of a desktop PC.
In terms of performance, Windows 8 exhibited the smoothness and stability we’ve come to expect in a post-Vista world, and this is just a preview version. There were hiccups, of course, but overall the experience was vastly superior than it has been with any other version of Windows. The setup is remarkably fast and easy, touch responsiveness is iPad-like and I was quite impressed with the versatility of this platform. To understand the concept of one device for work and for play is one thing. To sit in bed hopping around lightweight apps and then walk over to your desk, dock your tablet, and have desktop-grade productivity software running on the same device is something else entirely.
The machine I tested Windows 8 on is a pre-release dockable Samsung tablet with a 1.6GHz Intel Core i5 processor and 4GB of RAM. Yes, it’s a tablet with a fan. It’s also a tablet that can run your existing desktop-grade enterprise software, consumer software and lightweight Metro-style apps. Get over it.
The Endgame
Windows 8 gives us a glimpse at the future of computing, but it’s not quite there yet. While the version I spent time with is merely the Consumer Preview and not the release build of Windows 8, it gives us a very good idea of what Microsoft’s new operating system will look like when it launches. The concept is fantastic and I very much like Microsoft’s execution thus far, but it still feels like a marriage of two completely different operating systems rather than a fusion of two experiences.
This is by design, in part. Because the function of a true PC varies so greatly from the function of a media tablet (as we know this category of devices today), Microsoft has created separate experiences for each category. There is a tablet experience with the fantastic Metro UI, a desktop experience reminiscent of Windows 7, and a bit of overlap with each, intended to create some amount of cohesiveness. The end result, however, is not a consistent experience.
There is a disconnect that can be felt across Windows 8. Again, this is mostly by design. In what I call “tablet mode,” the user is presented with an interface that is quite clearly built to be touched. It is characterized by a cascade of large tiles that display live data and can be poked to open apps. The Metro-style apps that are revealed house nice big buttons and a touch-friendly design. Metro-style apps also take up every last pixel of the display, which is a fantastic canvas on which developers can paint terrific experiences.
In “desktop mode,” Windows 8 has the look and feel of Windows 7. In fact, it basically is Windows 7. There are some elements of Metro that spill over into desktop mode — such as the app-switcher and Windows Phone-like lock screen, which displays notifications from up to five apps — but they are effectively completely separate platforms.
Desktop mode has not been optimized for touch at all. In fact, tapping in a text field while no physical keyboard is attached to the tablet doesn’t even bring up the virtual keyboard. Instead, the user must tap on a small keyboard icon in the task bar to open the keyboard, and then he or she must tap another two buttons to close the keyboard once finished typing. And while typing in desktop mode, by the way, I found that the keyboard often obscured the text field in which I was typing.
Perhaps I can better illustrate my point about the disconnect with this simple example:
Windows 8 ships with two completely separate web browsers. One is called “Internet Explorer”. The other is called “Internet Explorer.”
Internet Explorer is a fantastic Metro-style browser that is designed with touch in mind. Controls are large and easy to poke, menus retract and let web pages occupy every inch of the display, and pages load lightning-fast in this lightweight tablet browser. Then, in desktop mode, users can browse the web using Internet Explorer, the same robust web browser hundreds of millions of people currently use around the world on their Windows PCs.
Confused yet?
Microsoft’s inclusion of two completely different web browsers that share the exact same name is indicative of the separation present in Windows 8. One tablet OS and one desktop OS, together on the same machine.
In the end, this disconnect is probably a good thing for now. Windows users come in all shapes and sizes, and millions of people who will upgrade to Windows 8 in the coming years will be terrified of doing so. They are used to Windows as we know it today, and the look and feel of Metro is a complete departure from the Windows they currently rely on day in and day out. After the initial shock wears off, these people who are so scared of change will find themselves eased into the new Windows because desktop mode is so familiar, and because “tablet mode” is so separate from it.
But this is not the future of post-post-PCs.
Windows 8 is the tip of the iceberg. The start of a shift that will eventually see the “tablet” UI and the “desktop” UI merge into one comprehensive user experience. Apple is taking a different approach; as we’re seeing in OS X Mountain Lion, Apple is slowly readying its desktop user interface for a touch environment by taking some of the elements from its gorgeous mobile UI and adapting them for desktop computers. This varies dramatically from the path Microsoft is taking with Windows 8, but the endgame is the same: one experience that is as capable as it is versatile, and as user-friendly as it is beautiful.
This is the future of computing.
Microsoft’s Windows 8 Consumer Preview will become available to the general public on Wednesday as a free download with an initial cache of more than 100 apps in the Store, all of which will be free during the preview period.
Today is the day you can finally reach out and touch Windows 8. Well, the vast majority of you won’t be able to physically touch it — Windows 8 tablets aren’t yet in the market, but you’re free to download the Consumer Preview on your PC. We spent a bunch of time with a reference version tablet device and were impressed with what we saw — plus this is only the beginning. The download comes in around 3GB and if you don’t feel like jumping on your neighbor’s super speedy unsecured Wi-Fi connection, you could always… take your laptop to an Apple store and use their insanely fast Wi-Fi. Oh, yeah.
Mobile World Congress has been a roller coaster ride so far this year. The week kicked off with a bang on Sunday with both Sony and HTC unveiling their latest and greatest smartphones, and the HTC One X was definitely the star of the show. Things were up and down on Monday and Tuesday however, and the show actually got pretty slow for a while there. Our time in Barcelona isn’t up just yet, however, and Microsoft chose today to unveil the latest version of its next-generation operating system, Windows 8. The technology giant released a preview version of Windows 8 last September, but we’re sure plenty has changed over the past five months. And beyond checking out all the new features Microsoft has undoubtedly baked into its new OS, we might finally get a better idea of when devices carrying the platform will finally launch. Microsoft’s Windows 8 press conference is scheduled to begin at 9:00 a.m. Eastern / 6:00 a.m. Pacific (3:00 p.m. local time in Barcelona), so hit the break for our live coverage of the event!
8:49AM:Hey folks. We're in line #2 here at Microsoft's Windows 8 Consumer Preview event. Let's see what they've got for us!
8:52AM:Upbeat music, lots of folks waiting around, and free breadsticks. Great.
8:54AM:This 4-on-the-floor drumbeat is driving us a little crazy...let's go, Microsoft!
9:01AM:Annnnd we're in. Microsof has a bevy of devices on display, all running....Windows 8!
9:03AM:As anticipated, we've got TVs, tablets, desktops, laptops, and more, all in a line
9:07AM:Ok...fake afro-beat music is a bit better but still suspect. We're 7 minutes behind schedule. * mins behind schedule and we're calling it fashionably late:)...
9:12AM:As a side note, this Catalonian sun is not helping keep any of our fellow blogger's and press folk's BO at bay...this room does not smell great.
9:14AM:We're beginning to think that the devices themselves might begin presenting...we haven't seen a single representative from Microsoft go anywhere near the stage yet. Wonder what's keeping em!
9:16AM:Of note, while we wait, there are a total of 13 different devices on stage, all of varying size and shape. Mostly tablets, with one of the largest TVs we've ever seen sitting behind it.
9:18AM:"The show will begin shortly" says the announcer...
9:20AM:lights down...er, lights yellowed...seems like it's finally go time
9:21AM:Lot's of thank you's now going on stage, thank you's to press, devs, etc...you're welcome!
9:22AM:Steven Synofsky hitting the stage now
9:23AM:Looks like we'll have immediate downloads of the beta software available following the release, fyo
9:23AM:"Windows 7 most successful Windows of all time"
9:24AM:Talking now about the compromises necessary with today's stratified mobile vs tablet vs desktop world, speaking to how complicated and unnatural the trade-offs are
9:25AM:Now speaking about how the form factor should drive consumer choice, not the set of compromises that one is willing to make. Microsoft is aiming for
9:27AM:Choice is the key word here, folks. The unified operating system experience is intended to allow consumers to decide what type of device best fits their life, and not have to worry about power management, crippled OS, etc
9:27AM:Every subsystem of Windows 8 has been re-engineered for touch and more
9:28AM:100,000 code changes since dev preview went live
9:28AM:Consumer preview is vastly different from initial dev version. They're calling it "complete" hmmmm
9:29AM:"Beautiful, modern, fast, fluid." It's a generational change in Windows. Stressing revolution vs. evolution of product here, but that it won't be a massive paradigm shift for current Windows users
9:30AM:They're calling Windows 8 a "super fun experience", which seems cute. That said, we're happy to see that they're stressing an enjoyable consumer experience over raw power, specs, and things that might appeal to power users
9:31AM:The notion of scaling is key, with a single OS that is scalable across multiple screen sizes, device type, etc. And having a functioning app-eco system that works together. Apps talking to apps, as opposed to apps functioning as an island in and of themselves. Apps enriching apps...
9:31AM:Pretty sure he's said
9:32AM:Pretty sure he's said "apps" over 59 times. Now stressing that everything is cloud connected, with integrated backups and online support. Also speaking about the current version of the Metro design language, which is design from the ground up with scaling in mind
9:33AM:Now we've got Julie Larson-Green and Antoine Leblond hitting the stage, windows program manager and windows web services manager, to walk us through the app and OS experience
9:34AM:No
9:35AM:Everything will be demonstrated using a prototype device. The device itself was designed from the ground up for usability. She's sitting in a chair, looking pretty damn comfortable, using the dev device. Nice touch.
9:36AM:The device is completely customized for each user, with a familiar lock screen, start screen, app environment, etc on each device that contains your profile info. The home screen adapts to provide the most frequently used tiles in the most convenient locations, etc
9:37AM:She's scanning in and out of home screens now. "fast and fluid" are the key terms, and everything is moving really really well. It's pretty impressive!
9:40AM:Xbox live is integrated from the ground up. We also have casual gaming for things like cut the rope and angry birds, etc etc...
9:40AM:Windows Explorer is killing it right now. The experience is moving so fast, and it actually looks like it's making internet browsing dare we say...fun? This is awesome to watch. Seriously, folks
9:40AM:Video and music stores are built into the preview as well
9:41AM:Now we're looking at a cookbook app. Nothing revolutions, but it does illustrate the beauty of the Metro style across app dev as well
9:42AM:We now have a demo of app switching using gestures. Left thumb flicked left slides back and forth through apps. This is, again, really fast. Really well implemented. We can also bring up a full task switcher by flijing up
9:43AM:Now we're on to social networking implementation. The "people" app function as a centralized hub for all of your social networking accounts. You can also pin this to the start screen with, of course, a live updating tile
9:44AM:Demonstrating multitasking now. We can place IM into a side window dock, while keeping video or any other app running in the foreground. Everything can be dragged around in real time. Awesome!
9:45AM:Nothing overlaps on top of anything else. It just switches back and forth laterally. That way you don't have 400 windows on top of one another. It's clean and efficient, a nice change from existing OS multitasking
9:45AM:The "charms" bar keeps frequently accessed info, like contacts, text, etc...and this is accessible from any app, regardless of where it originated. Apps talking to apps talking to apps...
9:46AM:Ok tablet demo done, on to laptop demo
9:46AM:He's talking about scalability, etc etc
9:47AM:We're looking at non-touchscreen devices now, with mouse and keyboard interface demos
9:47AM:CTRL-ALT-DELETE is a thing of the past!! All you need to unlock is the "enter" key. Ha!
9:48AM:Everything looks super fluid (notice a theme here...) and navigation seems pretty intuitive
9:49AM:Gestures haven't been replicated for mouse use, but 4 hot corners are used for specific "gesture" stuff. The corners are the navigation hot spots. Mouse to bottom left goes to start screen, bottom left to task switcher, etc. Seems smart to us, but we wonder how sensitive this thing is
9:50AM:Zoom in, zoom out, it all works as you might expect. And all home screens and tiles can be easily manipulated and re-arranged.
9:51AM:Task switching via hot corner is pretty...hot. We're impressed, though again...sad to see ctrl-tab go the way of the DoDo
9:52AM:
9:52AM:Kindle app, Weather app, Stocks app, etc...all Metro, all awesome.
9:53AM:The home screen is the new windows key. Hitting Windows button brings you directly to the home screen.
9:53AM:This is cool Start typing "USA" and it immediately brings you to an app list, listing USA Today as the top option. Immediate app search and launching.
9:54AM:Sharing between apps is so easy. The charms bar allows you to drop images from web to wordpress, wordpress to twitter, email to facebook, etc. The base app stays in the main screen, and the destination app comes up in the side bar. Drag, drop, post, boom. This is amazing
9:54AM:All existing Windows 7-compatible apps will work on Windows 8
9:55AM:Ok, now we've got Word coming up!
9:56AM:Office seems to work super well here, but it does just look like another Windows 7 app. We'll have to wait for a Metro version of Office to get super sexy, but at least everything will work out of the box
9:57AM:You can also manage tasks in real time, allowing you to pause tasks that need lower priority, etc
9:58AM:Metro and basic desktop functions to allow old apps work side by side. That's pretty cool, and it definitely illuminates how much cooler Metro is, but we're glad to see the desktop survive the transition
9:59AM:Ok. Now we have touch plus mouse plus keyboard. All three inputs can be used together. This is the marriage of input methods that we've been waiting for. And it looks like touch will probably become the predominant method...
10:00AM:All bookmarks, pins, apps, etc...all of these things travel with you from machine to machine, so your tablet looks like your phone looks like your laptop.
10:01AM:Now we've got a demo of the Skydrive app that allows access to documents from the cloud across all your devices. Skydrive is also working behind the scenes to sync your personlized data, profile pic, contacts, app data, etc
10:03AM:Universal search is pretty cool. Search for Harry Potter and it brings up results from the video store, web, flixter app, etc
10:04AM:Antoine is back to talk about the Windows App Store
10:04AM:The store ahs been designed for ease of access...well, that's good to know....we've got rankings, lists, etc. And then categories. Nothing revolutionary here folks, but we suppose that's not a bad thing
10:05AM:Find app, click on app, read about app, install app. Done
10:05AM:All apps in the store will be free during the preview period. Smart move!
10:06AM:Now he's talking about dev relationships, and how excited devs are to be working with the new software. "The best economics of any major app store..."
10:07AM:Large devs are on board, but they're trying to attract individual devs too. They're announcing the winner of the first apps contest...
10:08AM:Sorry 8 winners, not 1.
10:09AM:Cool. More pounding music...
10:11AM:Now we're talking wrapup stuff. "fast fluid beautiful. Okay, okay, we get it!!!
10:12AM:Now we're talking about how apps need to be brought up to spec. The OS is there, stable, ready to go. But apps need to catch up. This all makes sense. We're being cautioned not to list, review, or categorize apps, with an eye to the fact that this preview is intended to spurn further development
10:14AM:Get ready for some hardware previews, guys!
10:16AM:Okay okay, here we go. We've got Michael Angiulo to demo some new hardware!
10:17AM:We've got a demo of Windows-on-ARM, which was first announced at CES last year. Speaking to a power profile that allows support from smaller processors, like phone chips, tablet chips, etc. Low power state gives access to background tasks while sleeping, and doesn't give huge power spikes when waking to access information lost while in dormant mode
10:19AM:We've got Tegra 3, Snapdragon 5, and other stuff. This is great stuff
10:21AM:All apps are chip independent, so all apps will work on ARM, x86, etc. This makes a seamless consumer-facing experience. It's all about consistency here, ad this applies to drivers too. Printer drivers, etc will work across the board. Input devices are the same, storage devices, etc. This is revolutionary in the PC world
10:23AM:Windows 8 had to smaller overall to work on these lower power mobile processors, which should make it FLY on desktop-grade systems.
10:25AM:Ok, now on to Ultrabook stuff. We've got an Intel Next-Gen Ultrabook here, and it looks pretty...Ultrabooky. We've got 5 more on hand, ost with Ivy-bridge processors, touchscreens, etc. We've got an Acer book starting up in 8 seconds. Whoa!!
10:26AM:It's also super super thin. Approaching, if not exceeding, Macbook Air levels. This thing also has a motorized port cover. Cool touch, we suppose.
10:27AM:Alright, now we've got an HP Envy with Beats Audio, etc. Gorilla glass cover is amazing, and we're seeing some really really fast performance here.
10:28AM:And now on to Samsung, again with insanely fast performance. He's demonstrating processor adaption, with cores starting and stopping based on performance almost instantly.
10:28AM:Apps don't need to be opened or closed, because they don't use any processor power or memory when dormant
10:30AM:We're on to networking improvements, which speaks to the need to simplify connectivity due to the increased portability of Windows 8 devices
10:31AM:"Cost-based network switching" gives intelligent switching from 3G to Wi-Fi based on pre-defined preferences and profiles
10:32AM:Annnnd now the Lenovo Yoga, a convertible touchscreen-enabled laptop, is up to bat. Cool device, with a convertible screen
10:34AM:Side note, but the Microsoft Mouse is 30 years old today...
10:35AM:They're talking now about how Microsoft 8 will force a re-imagination of input methods, etc.
10:36AM:Ok, now we see why the ungodly large TV was there. It's actually a fully-functional Window 8 PC. It's really a giant Microsoft Surface, build out of Gorilla Glass. It's 82". The largest in the world. And it's running so quickly, so beautifully.
10:40AM:Ok, cool. No we're looking at how NFC inclusion allows seamless transfer of audio from internal speakers to wireless speakers. Walk in room, have music transfer from your headphones to your home stereo.
10:43AM:Alright, we've seen demos of image transfer technology, audio transfer, video editing, and...wait for it....a USB drive being connected to a Windows 8 desktop in Real Time!! Microsoft, this is great, but you had us an hour ago with the app demos. This is getting a little long in the tooth...
10:46AM:Allllllright!! Looks like we've actually hit the end point now. This has really ushered in the era of touch PCs for the consumer environment. The coolest part is that the transition is a metered one, allowing you to choose input method, from touch to keyboard to mouse, based on the usage case.
10:50AM:Now we've got a roadmap. Today, consumer preview available in English, German, Japanese, French, and Simplified Chinese. Visual Studio 11 Beta is available for devs, and preview apps are included with the store today. Beginning "really soon" we'll see updates and drivers. Stressing dynamic consumer preview, with many changes along the way. ceBIT will see enterprise features unveiled. The next milestone will be the Release Candidate, RTM, and General Availability. Preview is live already, with downloads from 70 different countries.
Apple is said to currently be considering the launch of a new MacBook Air notebook PC with a 14-inch display. Citing unnamed sources within Apple’s supply chain, DigiTimes on Wednesday reported that Apple is considering a 14-inch ultra-slim laptop computer to better address consumers in China, where 14-inch models have between 35% and 40% of the portable computer market. The site had previously reported that Apple is working on a 15-inch MacBook Air model, a claim that a number of other reports have mirrored. DigiTimes first reported that Apple will launch the 15-inch Air in the second quarter this year, but then issued a new report two weeks later stating that the 15-inch model was slated to launch in the first quarter of 2012 alongside new 11-inch and 13-inch MacBook Air models. It is unclear if DigiTimes is now suggesting that Apple will launch a 14-inch model in China and a 15-inch model for the rest of the world, or if the company is considering replacing the previously-rumored 15-inch model with a slightly smaller laptop.
Microsoft plans to roll out its Windows Phone “Tango” update for its mobile platform in China some time this year. While the new version of Microsoft’s OS will allow Windows Phones to hit lower price points, Chinese manufacturers are pessimistic about the plan and believe the operating system may not achieve enough success, according to DigiTimes. Android-based smartphones are believed to continue to dominate the Chinese market due to the aggressive marketing of low-end devices from local vendors such as ZTE, Huawei, Coolpad and Xiaomi Technology, and the ease of developing applications through the open-source operating system. Despite unfavorable market conditions, Nokia will lead the charge into China with devices set to launch in the first half of 2012. The publication’s sources also believe Huawei will release several Windows Phones din the second quarter, with Microsoft also looking to partner with Lenovo and ZTE to launch devices in the Chinese market.
AT&T on Tuesday announced the availability of Sony’s dual-screened, folding, Nintendo DS-inspired Tablet P — again. The Honeycomb-powered slate is equipped with two 5.5-inch displays, a dual-core NVIDIA Tegra processor clocked at 1GHz and HSPA+ connectivity. The device also comes with 4GB of internal storage, a microSD slot, a VGA front facing and 5-megapixel rear camera. Along with the Android Market, the Tablet P is PlayStation Certified and has access to the Sony’s entertainment suite and services. The device will be available starting March 4th for $399.99 with a new two-year agreement. Read on for AT&T’s press release.
Sony Tablet™ P Available on AT&T 4G Network
Unique Tablet Design Features Two 5.5 Inch Screens, Easily Fits into a Pocket or Purse
DALLAS, Feb. 28, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — AT&T* today announced Sony Tablet™ P, a dual screen, multi-functional tablet ideal for mobile communication and entertainment, will be available beginning March 4. The 4G tablet will be sold for $399.99 with a two-year service agreement in more than 1,000 AT&T company-owned retail stores and online at www.att.com.
The new Sony Tablet P pushes the design of a tablet even further by elevating the user experience to entirely new levels. The unprecedented dual-screen layout of Sony Tablet™ P allows its two 5.5-inch displays to be used for different functions such as playing video on one screen while using the other as a controller, or checking email on one screen while using the other as a keyboard. Customers can also combine the displays into a single large screen and its unique folding design means it can fit easily into a pocket or purse.
At launch, users will be able to download apps optimized for the dual screens of Sony Tablet P via Sony’s “Select App,” including games, entertainment and lifestyle applications. In addition to optimized apps, Sony Tablet P users will have access to the full suite of Android applications via Android Market. Like its predecessor, Sony Tablet P is PlayStation™ Certified and provides access to the full suite of Sony Network Entertainment services. Sony Tablet devices are distinguished by four key features that set them apart from any other tablets on the market. These include: uniquely designed hardware and software, a “swift and smooth” experience (which includes Sony original features, Quick view and Quick touch), network entertainment services and cross-device connectivity.
Running on Android 3.2, Sony Tablet™ P is 4G**capable and Wi-Fi compatible. With a qualifying data plan, users of Sony Tablet™ P also have access to AT&T’s mobile broadband network and unlimited access to AT&T’s nearly 30,000 hot spots nationwide. With both 4G and Wi-Fi, customers can browse the Internet, access digital content including videos, games, and check e-mail, while on the go, nearly anytime.
Data Plans Customers who sign a two-year service agreement have two postpaid data plan options to choose from, including: AT&T DataConnect 3GB: $35 for 3GB AT&T DataConnect 5GB: $50 for 5GB
Customers may still choose from the existing monthly billing options, or prepaid options, with no long-term commitment. The Sony Tablet P without a long term contract will cost $549.99. The prepaid plan options include: AT&T DataConnect 250MB: $14.99 for 250MB AT&T DataConnect 3GB: $30 for 3GB AT&T DataConnect 5GB: $50 for 5GB
Specifications Display Resolution: 1024 x 480 (each screen) Screen Size: 5.5″ (x 2 – dual screens) Hardware Camera: Front – 0.3 Megapixel Rear – 5 Megapixel Inputs and Outputs Headphone Output: 1 MicroUSB: 1 Memory Internal Memory: 1GB Power Battery Life (Approx): Up to 7 hours (based on general usage) Battery Type: Li-Ion Processor Processor Type: NVIDIA® Tegra™2 mobile processor, dual-core 1GHz Software Operating System: Android 3.2 Storage External storage: microSD card slot (expandable up to 32GB, 2GB microSD card included) Internal Storage Capacity: 4GB Weights and Measurements Dimensions (Approx.): Open – 6.23l x 7.09w x 0.56h (inches) Closed – 3.12l x 7.09w x 1.03 h (inches) Weight (Approx.): 0.83 lbs Wireless/Networking Bluetooth® Technology: Bluetooth version 2.1 + EDR Wi-Fi: IEEE802.11b/g/n
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