Asus Eee Pad Slider unboxing

Stepping back for a little bit, we’re getting the chance of checking out that other keyboard packing tablet from Asus' camp, you know, the Eee Pad Slider that we first scoped out at CES. We’ve raved about the convertible design of the original Asus Eee Pad Transformer, since it supplemented its functionality, but for those who’d rather find a built-in keyboard, this is obviously going to fit right into their needs.
Looking at its packaging, it’s very similar to the one we found with the Transformer Prime very recently, as it sports a mostly black exterior, while an image of the tablet is plopped right at the center to show off its slide-out keyboard. Around the sides though, we find a profile view of the tablet in its closed position – though, it’s not scaled to the actual size of the tablet. Furthermore, to show us how the tablet collapses and opens to expose its keyboard, another motion-style image is found properly in the rear. Inside, there’s nothing out of place, seeing that it packs all the usual set of items we’d expect – like its set of documentation, proprietary USB cable, and wall charger.
Just as a quick refresher, some of the big things that jump out at as upon checking out the tablet include its thicker overall size, soft touch covered body, and heavy weight. Then again, when we think about the keyboard its hiding, it all makes plenty of sense, but still, it’s undeniably larger than other tablets on the market. Snapping its keyboard into position, its chicklet style keys are slightly raised to offer us some distinction from one another, but the biggest thing we’re combating from the onset is its cramped feel. For now, we’re going to be reserved and simply use it longer to get a good feel for it all, so expect our in-depth review soon!
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Tablet Shipments To Reach 383.3 Million By 2017, 46% In Emerging Markets

Tablet Shipments To Reach 383.3 Million By 2017, 46% In Emerging Markets

Sarah currently works as a writer for TechCrunch, after having previously spent over three years at ReadWriteWeb. Prior to becoming a professional blogger, Sarah worked in I.T. across a number of industries, including banking, retail and software. ? Learn More
Post-PC era? Here we come: According to new data from NPD, tablet PC shipments are expected to grow from 72.7 million units in 2011 to 383.3 million units by 2017. For comparison purposes, worldwide PC shipments for 2011 were 352.8 million, after seeing a 6% decline in Q4.
While those numbers are remarkable enough on their own, what’s really interesting is where much of the growth will come from: the emerging market.
Emerging markets are expected to account for up to 46% of worldwide shipments by 2017, up from the 36% share in 2011.
“The emerging market opportunity for tablets has been flying under the radar mainly because the device brands aren’t household names and there are concerns regarding the sustainability of the market,” says NPD Senior Analyst Richard Shim. But the firm believes that won’t always be the case. “We are beginning to see investments by some of the better known brands in developing regions, and we expect this to not only continue, but to flourish as competition improves,” he notes.
The tablet surge won’t be courtesy of the iPad alone, especially in these emerging markets. Specifically, the report cited the introduction of new brands like Aakash in India, for example, as well as older brands like Dell, as contributing the overall tablet growth.
China and the Asia Pacific regions are leading in terms of tablet penetration rates in emerging markets at present, but Brazil, India, Russia and other countries are also becoming bigger forces, says NPD. And the key to unlocking this growth comes low-power processors and tablets with price points under $100.
In addition to the growth in emerging markets, NPD also believes that other growth will come as the tablet platform itself evolves through technological advances. That evolution comes first from higher pixel densities, then later from higher performance. The changes will segment the market into “premium” and “value” category tablets. (Any guess where iPad will be?)

Believe it or not, it even sounds like Microsoft might still be in the running as a tablet competitor, if NPD’s related survey data is to be believed. According to a survey of U.S. commercial tablet owners, 39% indicated that having a Windows OS option as a part of their next tablet purchase was “very important” to them. But let’s wait to see which tablet they end up buying – saying and doing are often very different things.

NPD Group is a provider of consumer and retail market research information for a wide range of industries. The company specializes in providing consumer behavior and point-of-sale (POS) information.
Learn more
View the original article here

WiGig: Panasonic Tablet Wirelessly Transmits A Full DVD Video In 60 Seconds (Video)

WiGig: Panasonic Tablet Wirelessly Transmits A Full DVD Video In 60 Seconds (Video)

Dr. Serkan Toto currently works as the first and only Asia-based writer for the TechCrunch network, mainly covering Japan-related technology and web companies for TechCrunch, CrunchGear and MobileCrunch. Serkan also works full-time as an independent web and mobile industry consultant with a focus on the Japanese market. He is sept-lingual, holds an MBA and is a PhD in economics. Serkan... ? Learn More
WiGig, a multi-gigabit speed wireless communications technology, was first announced back in 2009, but it’s taking companies like Panasonic quite a while to come up with applications that make use of it. Via WiGig, devices can communicate with each other at multi-gigabit speeds using the 60 GHz frequency band.
Panasonic has developed a prototype system, in which WiGig is embedded in a tablet that can wirelessly transmit data like photos or videos to displays mounted in the passenger seats of a car. That car has to be nearby: while Wi-Fi typically has a transmission range of about 30m, WiGig’s range is just 1-3m (Bluetooth: around 10m).

The tablet you can see in the video embedded below transmits a “full DVD video” in 60 seconds, according to Diginfo TV (which shot the video). WiGig, in the 1.1 specification, boasts a data transmission rate of up to 7 Gbit/s.
Panasonic is currently in the process of developing WiGig SD cards that are supposed to be commercialized in summer next year. WiGig-compatible phones are apparently on their way, too.
Here’s the video (in English):

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Tablet Shipments To Reach 383.3 Million By 2017, 46% In Emerging Markets

Tablet Shipments To Reach 383.3 Million By 2017, 46% In Emerging Markets

Sarah currently works as a writer for TechCrunch, after having previously spent over three years at ReadWriteWeb. Prior to becoming a professional blogger, Sarah worked in I.T. across a number of industries, including banking, retail and software. ? Learn More
Post-PC era? Here we come: According to new data from NPD, tablet PC shipments are expected to grow from 72.7 million units in 2011 to 383.3 million units by 2017. For comparison purposes, worldwide PC shipments for 2011 were 352.8 million, after seeing a 6% decline in Q4.
While those numbers are remarkable enough on their own, what’s really interesting is where much of the growth will come from: the emerging market.
Emerging markets are expected to account for up to 46% of worldwide shipments by 2017, up from the 36% share in 2011.
“The emerging market opportunity for tablets has been flying under the radar mainly because the device brands aren’t household names and there are concerns regarding the sustainability of the market,” says NPD Senior Analyst Richard Shim. But the firm believes that won’t always be the case. “We are beginning to see investments by some of the better known brands in developing regions, and we expect this to not only continue, but to flourish as competition improves,” he notes.
The tablet surge won’t be courtesy of the iPad alone, especially in these emerging markets. Specifically, the report cited the introduction of new brands like Aakash in India, for example, as well as older brands like Dell, as contributing the overall tablet growth.
China and the Asia Pacific regions are leading in terms of tablet penetration rates in emerging markets at present, but Brazil, India, Russia and other countries are also becoming bigger forces, says NPD. And the key to unlocking this growth comes low-power processors and tablets with price points under $100.
In addition to the growth in emerging markets, NPD also believes that other growth will come as the tablet platform itself evolves through technological advances. That evolution comes first from higher pixel densities, then later from higher performance. The changes will segment the market into “premium” and “value” category tablets. (Any guess where iPad will be?)

Believe it or not, it even sounds like Microsoft might still be in the running as a tablet competitor, if NPD’s related survey data is to be believed. According to a survey of U.S. commercial tablet owners, 39% indicated that having a Windows OS option as a part of their next tablet purchase was “very important” to them. But let’s wait to see which tablet they end up buying – saying and doing are often very different things.

NPD Group is a provider of consumer and retail market research information for a wide range of industries. The company specializes in providing consumer behavior and point-of-sale (POS) information.
Learn more
View the original article here

The Apple iPad has replaced laptops for 12% of global enterprise users

The Apple iPad has replaced laptops for 12% of global enterprise users

 [ Click for zoom ]

IDG Connect has finished its "iPad for Business Survey 2012" which is a result of interviews with global IT and business professionals. And the result of the survey shows that many of these enterprise users have put down their laptop and have replaced it with Apple's tablet. The figures show that 12% of those surveyed have replaced their mobile computer with the Apple iPad. 54% said that the iPad has "partly" replaced their laptop and complements the latter. The report says, "If a majority of professionals still use laptops, the iPad has certainly curtailed usage levels. Nearly three-quarters of respondents say that they 'carry their laptop around less' now that they own an iPad."

As far as desktop computers are concerned, the Apple iPad has replaced 6% of these PC's for those IT and business pros who answered the survey. 33% said that the tablet has "partly" replaced their desktop PC. IDG says, "For most, the iPad isn't a substitute for an existing tool or device. Instead, it's a supplement, albeit one with functionality that overlaps with other devices. As a result, the iPad seems to have carved out a niche for itself at the partial expense of several rival form factors." And iPad usage might increase. While reporting its last quarterly figures, Apple revealed in October that 90% of Fortune 500 firms use or are testing the Apple iPad.

Most business users have had to reach into their own wallet to purchase the Apple iPad of those responding to the survey telling IDG that they paid for their own unit. Employees provided the tablet for only 25% of business users involved in the survey. A whopping 79% of the respondents said that they always use the Apple iPad for Web browsing. Reading on the tablet was next with 76% of users checking that off, followed by news consumption at 73% and work communication with 54%.

A look at the survey results shows that a large majority of enterprise users (91%) are doing things with their iPad at home. A slight majority always use the device at work while 40% say it is used sometimes at the office. The Apple iPad is still the most used tablet in the office as figures from last October show that Apple's tablet made up 96% of all tablets activated in the office.

Source: phonearena

NVIDIA And Asus Announce $249 7″ Tablet With Ice Cream Sandwich

NVIDIA And Asus Announce $249 7″ Tablet With Ice Cream Sandwich

At NVIDIA’s press conference today, NVIDIA had a couple little surprises. Little being the word, there — they announced a diminutive 7″ tablet to compete with the likes of the Nook Tablet and Kindle Fire. The price, $249, is certainly competitive. But the tablet itself, the hardware anyway, blows them out of the water.

Jen-Hsun Huang, NVIDIA’s CEO, described it as being very nearly as powerful as the Transformer Prime, which despite some marketing and naming mishaps, is still a hell of a tablet. To put that amount of power in a smaller package and reduce the price to that level is a nice little achievement.

Like its elder brother, the smaller tablet (which was not named), runs a Tegra 3 chip inside, which is quad-core (not counting the fifth “ninja core” that does random tasks), and will ship with the newest version of Android, Ice Cream Sandwich.

It has a great camera, or so they say, but they didn’t have to convince me that the screen was nice — at 1280×800 and 7″, it’s going to have really nice pixel density, good for reading. Naturally it can’t compete with the Nook and Kindle ecosystems just with specs, but it’s nice to see a power gadget at the budget price.

No dates were mentioned that we noticed, but we’ll keep you posted over the next few months.

Huang also made a surprise announcement that Ice Cream Sandwich would be coming to the Transformer Prime today, as opposed to later this week. Not the biggest announcement of all time, but Prime owners will appreciate it.

Source: techcrunch

Apple to pass HP as the world’s top PC and tablet vendor

Apple to pass HP as the world’s top PC and tablet vendor

When counting tablets as personal computers, Apple will soon overtake Hewlett-Packard as the world’s top PC vendor. Based on a Fortune poll of 42 analysts, iPad sales could hit the 14 million mark in the fourth quarter, a big bump over the 11.12 million sold in the third quarter. Apple previously sold 4.89 million Macs, with holiday sales estimated to exceed 5 million units. When combined, both iPad and Mac sales are expected to be over 20 million units during the holiday quarter, which would be enough to push Apple past HP. The estimated sales would give the Cupertino-based company a 17.6% market share versus HP’s 13%. Asymco’s Horace Dediu noted that Apple has never held the top spot; the company’s market share peaked at 15.8% thanks to the Apple II in 1984. Last quarter, Apple surprised Wall Street when the company announced lower-than-expected earnings, however Apple is expected to crush estimates when it announces its December-quarter earnings on January 24th.

Source: bgr

Samsung Galaxy Note for AT&T passes through the FCC

 
Well that didn't take long. Shortly after getting our grubby mitts on the AT&T variant of Samsung's Galaxy Note at CES, the jumbo phone has made its way into the loving arms of Uncle Sam at the FCC. Naturally, it's not advertised as such, but test documents reveal that a model SGH-i717 handset packing UMTS/HSPA+ (21Mbps) and GSM/EDGE world radios, plus Ma Bell-friendly bands 4 and 17 LTE has passed the FCC's emissions tests with flying colors. So, now that it's got the governmental stamp of approval, all that's left is to find out when we can make with the S Pen action on AT&T's newly minted high speed network. Don't keep us waiting, guys.
source : engadget