transformers

I love conducting in-depth analysis of technology; however, the problem with such analytic endeavors is that the deeper you go, the more time it takes to reach your goal.

This is why I'm always impressed with the abyssal depths of analysis DisplayMate's Ray Soneira travels when he covers display quality. In his latest article, the man gets downright subterranean.

Soneira takes the iPad 2, Xoom, and Asus Transformer and completely scrutinizes their screens on the basis of brightness, contrast, color quality, screen reflectiveness, viewing angle, and backlight power consumption. That's pretty much anything and everything important when … Read more

Asus is ramping up production of its EeePad Transformer tablet and wants its competitors to know.

Asus CEO Jerry Shen was quoted yesterday in the Taiwan Economic News saying that he plans to outship all other tablet makers this month. Except for the iPad.

Asus will ship 300,000 of the 10-inch Android tablets in the month of June, according to Shen. That, he points out, is an increase over the 200,000 per month Asus was shipping in April and May. Shen believes the tablet will account for 10 percent of Asus' revenue.

His comments appeared to be aimed … Read more

When Google announced Android 3.1 Honeycomb was coming to the Xoom last week, I was pretty excited. Honeycomb's already a great tablet OS, so any improvements could only add to its functionality and efficiency. Unfortunately the version 3.1 update was released over the air and was rolled out in spurts. Our Xoom didn't receive its update until earlier this week. Google detailed changes to expect, but I wanted to check and see just how well some of them were implemented.

Browser Aside from a few annoyances, I thought the Chrome browser in Honeycomb 3.0.1 … Read more

Yes, I'm a huge Mortal Kombat fan. This should be evident to anyone after watching the video above. However, I can't take credit for the whole tournament idea. That was the brainchild of my producer, Jamie Yee (she's actually a hidden Easter egg in the video, if you watch closely). Jamie's a huge sports nut (or at least, an San Francisco Giants nut) and apparently thinks only in terms of brackets and tournaments.

Anyway, last week was a fairly busy week for the CNET tablet reviews team. Donald Bell and I received three new tablets in the span of only a few days.

With all that glamorous reviewing we were doing, I didn't really have the bandwidth to conduct any official speed tests, until now.

As I alluded to before, we split the tests into two rounds. The first round, featuring the Acer Iconia Tab A500, T-Mobile G-Slate, and the Asus Eee Pad Transformer, would determine which tablet would take on the Xoom and iPad 2 in the final round.

So yeah, it's a two-round tournament. We thought about extending it, but decided that doing so would involve too much repetition in the video.

Check out the results below (or above if you prefer your results in talkies form).… Read more

When it comes to tablets, we're not really ready for software keyboards, are we? Or maybe the developers of software keyboards aren't yet ready for us.

This week, we received the Asus Eee Pad Transformer tablet. Like with most new tablets that enter this building, it was immediately pounced on by a pack of ravenous wolves group of my coworkers.

What made the Transformer's debut more exciting than most was its primary claim to fame and origin of its namesake: the keyboard/dock accessory.

If not for the keyboard/dock, most would have mistaken it for one … Read more

It seems Best Buy has completed the first two parts of its tablet magic trick. According to a post at Engadget today, Asus' EE Pad Transformer appeared on BestBuy.com for $400 and was subsequently pulled from the site a short time later.

Back at CES 2011 in January, Asus announced that the Android 3.0-enabled EE Pad Transformer would debut some time in the spring for a price ranging from $400 to $700, depending on the storage capacity of the version purchased.

If this price holds true, this would place the Transformer a full $100 cheaper than the iPad 2 … Read more

It used to be that movie merchandise and memorabilia meant posters, clothing, and toys, but now we even have things like the Hasbro Transformers Cine-Mask 3D glasses.

Available in either Optimus Prime or Bumblebee versions, these kid-size 3D goggles cost $10 each and are supposedly compatible with most 3D cinemas featuring RealD 3D technology. Could this be the beginning of an era of funky 3D masks? Looks like Hasbro and Hollywood have just found a new cash cow to milk moviegoers.

(Source: Crave Asia via Engadget HD)

This week, your regular Cravers are joined by special guest Brian Seitz, senior marketing manager for Windows Phone. Despite what that implies, we're largely up to our regular shenanigans. Namely, giant robots, anthropomorphized gadgets, and artery-clogging edibles. If that's not enough to pique your curiosity, we're hoping that Optimus Prime, an emoticon keypad, and a Jedi mind-trick of an iPhone accessory will draw you in. Plus, Jasmine actually ate this week's fat-worthy item.

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