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The Vega tablet: killer Android device?

(Credit: ICD)

As if Apple and Microsoft didn't already make it clear (editor's note: by Apple, we mean the ever-pervasive rumors of their upcoming "slate"), 2010 looks like the Year of the Tablet. First viewed sitting on a table of an Nvidia executive, the Vega tablet will try to beat Apple's tablet (if the rumors are true), Microsoft's in-process Courier concept, and the semievaporated Crunchpad to the punch.

ICD, the manufacturer of the Vega, has confirmed the existence of the tablet as a real product, whose details will be more fully revealed at CES. Vega...Vegas...it seems appropriate.

The sleek black pad will come in sizes of 7, 11, and 15 inches, and will run Android OS 2.0. Its internal processor will be a Nvidia Tegra, which means that HD and even gaming-level graphics should indeed be possible.

The Vega tablet from the back.

(Credit: ICD)

Other specs, according to ICD:

• Resistive touch-screen display
• 1,366x768 screen (for the 15.6-inch model)
• 512 DDR/512 NAND storage
• 1.3-megapixel Webcam
• MicroSD card slot
• Bluetooth 2.1
• 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi
• USB 2.0 port/s
• 2g/3g data accessible
• Magnetic docking
• Accelerometer
• Dual microphones

We like that dock.

(Credit: ICD)

The fact that it has magnetic docking and an accelerometer sounds promising, and ICD also claims video chat, gaming, and "on-demand Web TV" as features.

The dock, in the photos, seems to allow the Vega to be stood up like a photo frame, which is a nice touch. The most disappointing aspect: ICD's fact sheet claims 4 hours of battery life. We also would have preferred a capacitive touch display, like the iPhone's, as opposed to a resistive.

What's the cost? Well, we'll find out that soon enough.

I don't remember hearing so much talk over a product that nobody has even seen, but the scuttlebutt continues, this time from Australia.

Apple is reportedly shopping its rumored tablet to media companies in Australia to gauge interest in having their products available on the device when its released, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. While specifications of the device were reportedly sent to the companies, nobody would confirm it on the record.

One thing to come out of the Australian talks that we haven't heard before focuses on pricing, and more importantly for the media companies, how much they will get to keep.

The Herald says that it expects Apple to give the media companies a similar price offered to iPhone app developers. Apple keeps 30 percent of the sales and the media companies would pocket 70 percent.

If true, that would be a significant raise for the media companies over what Amazon was offering the companies to have its content available for the Kindle. Amazon's deal was reportedly exactly the opposite--70 percent would go to Amazon, while 30 percent would stay with the publishers.

On Monday, news from an off-the-record meeting with the digital staff of The New York Times revealed that Executive Editor Bill Keller may have knowledge of Apple's tablet as he was preparing the company for platforms of the future, including the "impending Apple slate."

Episode 52 of the Digital City, where we talk about the latest Apple tablet rumors, dissect Kindles on campus, bemoan the use of single-core CPUs in 13-inch laptops, and worry about NYC's growing rep as a surveillance state.

The 404's Jeff Bakalar pops by to fill the absent Joseph's seat, as we compare notes on Uncharted 2 and complain about how hard it is to actually get any content onto a PSPgo.

Related links:
>>Newly revealed Apple patent application
>>Do Kindles really work on campus?
>>Hands on impressions: Is Uncharted 2 worth the wait?
>>Special pre-Halloween bonus: Dan as Kratos; and Dan as Marcus Fenix

>>Watch the Digital City live every Monday at 3pm EST on CNET Live!
>>Subscribe to Digital City on iTunes
>>Join the Digital City Facebook fan page
>>Need more? Follow Dan on Twitter!

(Credit: USPTO.gov)

The sharp-eyed bloggers at AppleInsider have noted a newly revealed patent application related to multitouch surfaces--leading to further speculation about Apple's purported tablet PC project.

As per usual, the application came through law firm Morrison and Foerster, and was originally filed in June of this year. According to the paperwork on file at USPTO.gov, this is:

A method of performing operations on a computing system having a touch-sensitive surface, the method comprising; tracking the paths of multiple distinguishable contacts, the contacts corresponding to touch devices as they move on or near the surface at the same time, wherein tracking is based on at least shape and position data corresponding to the contacts; determining scaling motion information corresponding to two or more of the multiple contacts based on the tracked paths of the contacts; generating a scaling gesture control signal based on the scaling motion information.

This reminds us of an earlier Apple touch technology patent application we looked at more than two years ago, for a wide laptop touchpad that could distinguish between intentional and unintentional input. The new application also takes current tablet and touchscreen technology to task, saying:

Touch screens and touchpads often distinguish pointing motions from emulated button clicks or keypresses by assuming very little lateral fingertip motion will occur during taps on the touch surface which are intended as clicks. Inherent in these methods is the assumption that tapping will usually be straight down from the suspended finger position, minimizing those components of finger motion tangential to the surface.

(Credit: USPTO.gov)

There's little else to tie this documentation directly to an Apple tablet, a project long-rumored, and currently thought to be coming sometime early next year, and some commentators even think this patent refers to mouse technology, not a tablet screen.

Interestingly, this comes on the heels of the recent rumors about an imminent refresh of the MacBook laptop line, keeping Steve Jobs and company in the public eye as we head into the all-important holiday shopping season.

(Credit: williamcronon.net)

An interesting report from Princeton University regarding its pilot program to test Kindle DX units in an academic environment has revealed something notable: namely, that Kindles still feel awkward to students currently in college. Feedback from some students complained about the Kindle's annotation system being "too slow" to keep up with the thinking of a reader who wants to effortlessly mark up text. Others called the entire Kindle device "a poor excuse for an academic tool."

This matches a fear I've had since using my iPhone as a makeshift mini-Kindle, replacing my own reading of paper books for recreation and research: while I enjoy the portability and capacity that e-readers provide, their lack of tangible material creates a helpless feeling for those who enjoy note-taking, highlighting, or otherwise interacting with their books. Unlike my iPhone, however, the Kindle DX was intended to be a savior for universities, an educational aid to rival the old textbook industry. According to this first wave of Princeton feedback, however, it still has a long way to go.

Rather than focus on size or screens, maybe the real holy grail for e-readers of the future lies in finding ways to make digital text as easy to interact with as possible. Apple, we hope you're listening, because if the doorway's open for you to take over the e-reader industry with your magazine-redefining tablet, this might be the best path to true success. ... Read more

Michael Tchao

(Credit: CC Michell Zappa/Flickr)

Those expecting Apple to introduce a new tablet computer soon may have another clue to the device's imminent arrival.

Apple has rehired Michael Tchao, one of the original developers of Apple's Newton personal digital assistant, according to a report Monday in The New York Times.

Tchao, who rejoined Apple on Monday as vice president of product marketing, most recently served as general manager for Nike Techlab, where he oversaw creation of new digital products and services for fitness enthusiasts. Tchao spent 10 years at Apple, overseeing product marketing for the Newton and reportedly persuading former Apple CEO John Scully to include the company's handwriting-recognition technology into what would become Apple's first consumer device.

Introduced in 1993 as the brainchild of Sculley, the handheld was plagued by poor reviews that pointed to the difficulty in its handwriting recognition capabilities. Beyond the initial snags, the Newton and other Apple handheld technologies never seemed to catch on, and Apple announced in 1998 that it would discontinue development of the Newton operating system and Newton-related products.

Rumors of an Apple tablet have been swirling for a couple of years, but speculation has ramped up in recent months, including reports that Apple CEO Steve Jobs has been focusing intensely on a tablet device since returning to work in June after a liver transplant.

Apple representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday evening, but Apple has apparently been laying the groundwork for a tablet PC for years. The company was granted a patent in 2005 for tablet PC design, and the company was granted a patent last year for a tablet-like device that incorporated a touchscreen. Apple has also long had some of the key technologies for a tablet computer with Inkwell--a handwriting recognition feature having been in Mac OS X for some time.

The Viliv S7: ahead of the curve, or missing the point?

(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)

The Yukyung Viliv lineup ultraportable of mini-computers is, in a way, a bit of a throwback to the days when UMPCs and MIDs ruled the pocket-gadget landscape and laptops were bulky and expensive and didn't have any great battery power to speak of. Back in the days of the OQO and the Samsung Q1, you didn't expect an ultraportable to have the same productivity power as a full-fledged computer...you were, in fact, happy when it just did one or two things right. Those days are over, though. For $300 you can now get a Netbook which, while lacking the horsepower that modern PC users expect, can still run rings around laptops from the days when the Patriots still won Super Bowls.

On the other hand, portables are also the future. From flip-keyboarded smartphones to tiny clamshell "smartbooks" running smartphone processors and mobile operating systems, the old-fashioned concept of a flip-up laptop is bound for a change.

This is where the Viliv devices lie: one foot in the past, one foot in the future, they're transitional evolutionary devices. In some ways, their tablet forms are refreshing. In others, they're less functional than basic Netbooks. And that's a shame, since they also happen to cost significantly more.

Viliv S7 and X70EX

The Viliv S7 and X70EX are two different form factors with the same internal components: both have Intel Atom Z520 processors and 7-inch resistive touch screens, 1GB of RAM, and a smaller-size hard drive or SSD. The X70EX, however, takes the form of a tablet computer, a bigger-screened improvement on the S5. The S7 breaks the mold a little more by adding a convertible laptop/tablet swivel screen to the equation, much like the Asus EeePC T91.

Would either of these be appealing to someone looking for mobile horsepower, or is a smartphone like an iPhone still the way to go? Can either of these Vilivs provide a compelling amount of Netbook in their small-form style, or are these higher-priced items stuck between a phone and a hard place? And here's another question: would you rather see Netbooks get back to these 7-inch sizes, or are you happier with the move to 10 inch and larger Netbooks with better graphics and HD screens?

Or is the future in fact something else entirely--custom-designed tablets like the ones that seem to be around the curve from Apple and Microsoft?

Read our X70EX and S7 reviews.

The Wacom Bamboo Pen & Touch

(Credit: Wacom)

Wacom's pressure-sensitive tablets have already been pretty great at what they do, but they've added a simple and appreciated wrinkle for Windows 7 and Mac OSX multitouch addicts: their new pads now double as giant multitouch pads, too.

Available in a range of sizes and functions, Wacom's Bamboo lineup has pads that are touch-only, as well as touch/pen combo pads. In our opinion, the combo is really the only way to go--Wacom's wireless pressure-sensitive pen is worth the tiny bit of extra investment, and is nearly good enough to drive would-be artists right over the edge into art dabbling themselves.

The larger Bamboo Fun ($199)

(Credit: Wacom)

$69 will get you either a small black Touch pad or a small black Pen pad, but the Pen & Touch combo costs $99. A silver-colored Bamboo Craft edition comes with extra software bundles for crafting and scrapbooking. Meanwhile, at the top end of the line, the $199 Bamboo Fun is larger and has more room for its pen/touch interface. The silver Bamboo editions include Corel Essentials 4 as well as Nik Color Efex Pro 3.0 WE3 and Photoshop Elements 7, while the lower-cost pads include various combinations of one or two of these programs.

Read our review of the Bamboo Fun Pen & Touch.

We couldn't record today's Podcast without spending a little time on Gizmodo's big unveiling of Microsoft's secret tablet PC. The blog is reporting that even though our first inclination is to call it a tablet, it's really more of a booklet, with two 7-inch(ish) screens with multitouch, a 3MP camera on the back, and a fancy stylus for clicking, writing, dragging, and drawing. In typical 404 fashion, we have to poke fun at the fact that while a long plastic pen is very innovative, we wish it had fully functioning voice recognition, but as we've seen from the Google iPhone app, that technology will likely never be perfected. In the meantime, it looks like the Microsoft booklet will materialize before the fabled Apple tablet.

Speaking of Apple, Wilson and I are very psyched for Google to finally release push e-mail support on Google Sync for the iPhone. This means there will always be a connection to Google's servers to keep your mailbox up to date. There's no additional application necessary, just head to m.google.com/sync from your computer and follow these instructions.

If you're a long-time 404 listener, you'll remember a few months back when my iPhone camera stopped working and the Apple Genius at the store told me that my phone had somehow been submerged in water, judging by the indication on the external water sensor. Well as it turns out, that liquid sensor is a filthy liar. There are actually two liquid sensors on the phone, an internal and an external, which more often than not, tell contradicting stories. If a Genius sees the external one is triggered, the official Apple protocol tells them to report that the warranty is now void and Apple is no longer responsible for fixing the damaged phone. More importantly, the protocol says not to open iPhones and check the internal sensor. If you've had a similar experience, we want to hear about it, but you should also head back to the Apple store and ask them to open up the phone and double-check it. Who knows, you might leave with a brand-new iPhone.