With so much attention paid to Netbooks lately, the MID category has been largely ignored as a portable device that basically exists for accessing the Internet. But not by Acer, which looks to be readying a device for the category.
Drawing of a potential mobile Internet device from Acer.
(Credit: US PTO)An application filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office shows a small, rectangular device whose front is taken up entirely by screen except for a thin bezel. Besides what appears to be a 3.5-millimeter headphone jack and dock connector for PCs, there's not much else in the way of distinguishing features revealed in the drawing.
It's designed by one Arif Maskatia on behalf of Acer, and the file date was more than a year ago, although the application just recently started gathering attention on tech blogs.
Mobile Internet devices are basically expensive oversized smartphones. They haven't sold all that well because of their "in-betweenness," but things have changed in the past few years. With the increasing ubiquity of touch interfaces and the ability to accomplish more productivity tasks directly in a Web browser, perhaps MIDs could make a push for broader popularity.
Acer proved to be a beast when it comes to selling lots of Netbooks (outselling even global PC leader Hewlett-Packard in Europe) on the strength of aggressive pricing and the option of bundling wireless broadband service. Could it do the same with an MID? Perhaps, but first it would have to actually make the thing. Right now, there's no word on when or if this is going to be available.
Updated at 11:30 a.m. PT with pricing info.
(Credit:
LaptopMag.com)
Intel has a convertible Netbook on tap for the CES 2009 crowd assembling once again in Las Vegas next month.
Laptop magazine got a sneak peek at the newest version of the low-cost Classmate PC. It has an 8.9-inch swivel screen with touch and stylus input, a Web cam, and 1.6 GHz Intel Atom processor, 60GB hard drive, and Windows XP, with a few Intel touches to make XP work for the convertible form factor. So far, that includes Vision Objects Pen Input, which makes anything input via the stylus editable as text, as well as a virtual keyboard.
It's manufactured by CTL, like the original Classmate PC (which Intel will continue to sell). Laptop reports that it will begin shipping in mid-January.
Intel says that the price for the convertible Classmate will be slightly more than the original Classmate. The range will likely be somewhere around $250 and $400, though the company said it can't be more specific right now.
Brooke Crothers contributed to this report.
An Atom-based tablet from Panasonic.
(Credit: CNET)This product is so new, it doesn't even have a name. Yet.
During the announcement of the new ToughBook notebooks, Panasonic also took the opportunity to show off one of its upcoming Intel Atom-based tablets. This white unit is meant for use in the medical field. Aside from a touch-screen display, it has features like RFID and a fingerprint sensor built in. You probably won't see this ToughBook in stores anywhere but don't be surprised if you see a nurse keying in your particulars and medical history on something like this in the future.
The company will officially announce this product later in November.
(Via Crave Asia)
Typhoon Touch is working its way down the tablet PC food chain.
After suing Dell and Motion Computing for allegedly infringing on two of its patents for portable computers with touch-screen technology, Typhoon, and licensing partner and co-plaintiff Nova Mobility Systems, said Tuesday they are targeting three more potential infringers: Xplore Technologies, Electrovaya, and Sand Dune Ventures, which makes tablet PCs under the brand TabletKiosk.
Typhoon Touch says the Sahara TufTab i310XT tablet PC is one of several PCs that violates two of its portable touch-screen patents.
(Credit: TabletKiosk)Typhoon specifically cites Xplore's iX104C series of tablet PCs, Electrovaya's Scribbler SC4000 tablet, and four of TabletKiosk's ruggedized tablets. Typhoon, a Seattle-based firm that creates and acquires patents, has only licensed its patents on portable touch-screen computers to Nova Mobility. The two companies have asked the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Texas for unspecified damages and an injunction on the sales of the computers Typhoon says are in violation of its patents.
A TabletKiosk representative said the company couldn't talk about the lawsuit, and neither Electrovaya nor Xplore could be reached for immediate comment.
The suit against Dell and its Latitude XT tablet PC is still ongoing, but Typhoon settled out of court with Motion Computing last month.
Tablet computing is a very small pond, and it's now home to a very big fish: Dell.
The Round Rock, Texas-based PC maker on Tuesday is introducing the Latitude XT Tablet PC, its first product in the category.
Though it's just one notebook, Dell's entry is sure to cause a stir. It's a modest niche of computing that hasn't really gotten off the ground yet. And the interest of the second-largest PC maker in the world can't help but have an impact on the market.
"It puts the product in limelight," said Richard Shim, PC industry analyst with IDC. "It has potential to bring down pricing on key components that are being priced at a premium."
The Latitude XT at work.
(Credit: Erica Ogg/CNET News.com)Currently tablet PCs comprise just 2.4 percent of the worldwide notebook market, according to IDC. That's about 2.5 million units shipped total. But as Dell joins other high-profile tablet makers like Hewlett-Packard, Toshiba, Gateway, and others, the category is expected to grow to 12.3 million units and 6.3 percent of the notebook market by 2011, IDC said. And as volumes go up, prices are sure to go down.
That Dell would delve into tablets was one of the worst-kept secrets in the PC industry over the last year. The company confirmed the rumors in May and then briefly showed the product during Michael Dell's keynote speech at Oracle Open World in November.
The Latitude XT is aimed chiefly at commercial markets, and Dell says it initially tried to address several of the key complaints expressed by typical tablet users: that they're too bulky, the screen isn't viewable in direct sun, poor handwriting recognition, and inadequate battery life.
Although tablets in general are not marketed toward consumers right now, Dell's entrance could bring component prices down enough to make building and buying tablets affordable for, say, students one day, noted Shim. "Lately we've been seeing manufacturers start to look at the consumer market as an audience for this type of tablet," he said. Particularly because the profit margins are much higher for consumer devices.
For now, the price is not what you would call friendly to the mainstream notebook buyer. At the starting price of $2,499, the Latitude XT has a 12.1-inch LED-backlit screen, a 1.06-gigahertz Intel Core 2 Solo processor, 1GB of memory, and a 40GB hard drive. It comes with Windows Vista Business edition or XP Tablet Edition. The whole device weighs 3.57 pounds, and has about 5 hours of battery life. It uses capacitive touch input, which recognizes both fingers and an included pen for inputting data. The pen also comes with a right-click button.
The Latitude XT at rest.
(Credit: Dell)To target outdoor, all-day commercial users, the Latitude XT comes with upgrade options of an extra bright outdoor-viewable LCD display (which adds to the thickness of the notebook), an extended battery, which clips on the bottom of the device, as well as the option of an Intel Core 2 Duo processor and a 32 or 64 GB solid-state drive.
Dell calls its capacitive touch technology, which picks up on the electrical current in a person's hand, the "breakthrough" in the device. It also recognizes the difference between the touch of an errant palm or a purposeful press of a fingertip on the screen.
Touchscreen interfaces are a technology area with huge potential, and mainstream interest in multitouch technology skyrocketed this year with Apple's iPhone and Microsoft's demonstrations of its Surface PC technology. Dell has its cooking up its own multitouch technology, which it showed at Oracle Open World, in which all five fingers can be picked up by screen sensors. That won't be available until at least next year, said Glenn Keels, director of Dell's commercial product group.
The biggest delay is the availability of software applications that take advantage of touchscreen technologies. And it's not just Dell, but all makers of tablets. "The (manufacturers) making progress are the ones getting closer to customers, like Motion Computing," Shim said. Dell, HP, Toshiba, and Gateway "have to come up with applications that are a little more mainstream or mass market. The hard part is they're not used to thinking that way, in terms of applications, as (tablet computing) is less and less about speeds and feeds, and more about the experience."
Dell says it will begin to take orders and ship the Latitude XT by the end of the year.
Just because you can't see a sales clerk doesn't mean you can't get help from one--or from a fellow shopper, even one in a distant aisle.
(Credit:
Tim Ferguson/Silicon.com)
That's the premise behind the DIY Shopper project under development at IBM's research facility in a stately Georgian manse in southern England. The concept retail Web site, developed with retail group Kingfisher, uses Web 2.0 concepts--not just blogs, but also buddy lists of in-store advisers and people doing similar projects. While store employees would use tablet PCs to access DIY Shopper and communicate with customers, the shoppers themselves would use their cell phones, as in this photo, where a helpful Stacey has arranged via text message to meet a customer in the garden section "in 2 minutes."
Even more helpfully, perhaps, the system could send shoppers money-off vouchers.
DIY Shopper also interacts with Second Life, meaning your avatar could do a lot of the legwork. IBM's Hursley crew, meanwhile, is working to show how ATM banking channels could be used in the virtual world.
To get a closer look at this technology, check out Silicon.com's photo gallery, via News.com: "Photos: IBM lifts lid on Web 2.0 tech."
A PC with a twisty screen you can write on almost always=cool, and Thursday Gateway will release its latest take on the concept with the E-155C Thin & Light Convertible Notebook.
Gateway's new tablet lets you draw pictures of bottles on your PC
(Credit: Gateway)This one is aimed at students. The E-155C looks like a notebook, but works like a tablet PC with digital pen and touchscreen capability, with a screen that swivels 180 degrees in both directions. It has a 12-inch wide screen, Core 2 Duo processor, biometric fingerprint reader for security, and an alarm and flashing LED light should someone try to break in. All of this weighs in at 4.5 pounds, which isn't the lightest convertible notebook out there, but that's pretty close.
It also runs Vista, which Gateway says improves the digital pen's pick-up accuracy, and has anti-reflection technology for viewing the screen outdoors.
Gateway says the E-155C is available for ordering at its online store now for $1,849.99.
If you like the Mac-style white look for your computer hardware, you're going to appreciate Toshiba's initial entry in the Windows Vista laptop category. The Portege R400 is a beautifully crafted convertible tablet laptop, one that is every bit as expensive as it looks.
The R400 has plenty of high-end features, such as built-in EV-DO support and a small LED readout on the front edge that shows the time, battery level, and wireless signal strength. It can also alert you to new e-mail messages when the lid is closed.
The Portege R400 has a 12.1-inch screen and uses Intel's power-saving ultralow-voltage Core Duo processors, making it a very portable system. To save space, the optical drive has been bumped off to an external box.
The Toshiba Portege R400 starts at around $2,500 (we played around with a $3,500 version) and should be available on January 30.
HP is one of the first vendors to announce a laptop specifically built to run Windows Vista. The HP Pavilion tx1000us is what we call a convertible tablet PC, a standard-looking laptop whose screen swivels 180 degrees and folds down over the keyboard. It has a 12.1-inch screen and falls into the thin-and-light category of laptops.
The tx1000us takes advantage of several of the new tablet features in Windows Vista, including Pen Flicks (quick shortcuts you activate with a swipe of the stylus) and enhanced support for touch-sensitive screens--the kind that work with any pointing device or even your finger.
Most tablets are aimed at business users, but this one is targeted at casual consumers. HP refers to it as an entertainment notebook, and the system includes media control buttons, dual headphone jacks, and a tiny credit card-size remote control.
The basic system specs of the model we looked at were fine for everyday computing and multimedia tasks--an AMD Turion 64 X2 processor, 2GB of RAM, an Nvidia GeForce Go 6150 graphics card, and a 120GB hard drive.
The HP Pavilion tx1000us starts at $1,299 and is set to ship on February 28.
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