Categories
Gadgets Google

Panasonic Android OS TV Not To Be Reality

Android OS is free and is still among the most popular OS on smartphones. It was hence seen as an ideal platform that television manufacturers would need to bring web applications to TV. However we hear that Panasonic has dropped the idea to bring Android OS based Television due to the costs involved.

According to a Robert Perry, senior vice president of Panasonic Consumer Electronics Co, deployment of Android OS on Panasonic’s television sets would require the company to install “pricey” chips from Google’s partner, Intel Inc. which could make the television unaffordable.

Panasonic’s decision follows a similar move by Samsung earlier this month to reject Google’s proposal for a Google TV due to the high costs involved. What do you think? Is Google TV plagued by high associated costs?

[via Bloomberg]

Categories
Gadgets

Acer Touch Screen Laptop : Aspire Ethos

Acer has announced its new range of Aspire Ethos laptops that will come with touch screens. Unlike touchpads that are so ubiquitous on the modern day laptops, the touchscreen on Aspire Ethos will replace this touchpad and will carry icons for users to navigate through the various files.

ComputerWorld writes,

“The extra touch screen, placed below the keyboard where a touchpad would normally sit, can display icons that make it easier for users to navigate through movies or music, said Alison Williams, an Acer spokeswoman. The screen will also allow users to do things like adjust the volume or sort through images.”

Besides this, the Aspire Ethos range of laptops will run on Core i5 and Core i7 processors and Advanced Micro Devices ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5000 series graphics card. There are two display dimensions of 15.6″ and 18.4″ and the laptops will provide 1.28 Terabyte of space through two 640 GB drives.

Your dream machine?

[via CW]

Categories
Gadgets

TiVo Premiere XL To Bring Facebook And Twitter Feeds To TV

Popular DVR company TiVo launched its new TiVo Premier and TiVo Premiere XL boxes yesterday that will bring a whole lot of new features to your television. Prominently, the integration between web and TV content is even higher with these new products.

However, one of the important introductions yet to be made on TiVo Premiere is its integration to Facebook and Twitter. In a recent interview with ZDNet, TiVo’s Senior Vice President of Corporate Development & Strategy Naveen Chopra indicated that integration with these social networking websites will be the next in line for the company’s strategy. TiVo has already partnered with FrameChannel in this regard. Talking of the partnership, Chopra says,

“It’s a company that allows us to provide some new interactive and social media functionality on the TV set, most notably to people’s Twitter and Facebook feeds. It’s a great example of how people will use Facebook on the television set differently than they’d use it on the PC. we haven’t announced [the date], but we update fairly frequently. What is available now is Pandora, which means you can set it up on your TV in the living room, sit back and listen to music Pandora has chosen for you.”

Social networkers rejoice

[via ZDNet]

Categories
Asus Gadgets

Asus Tablet PC Launch In June

A month after hinting at an upcoming Eee Book, Asus Chairman Jonney Shih has once again set the rumor mills in action. However, this time, he was more explicit.

In a recent interview to Forbes, Shih revealed that his company will be launching “at least two” tablet PCs in the next few months. When is the launch going to be? We do not know. But as speculated earlier, it could happen in June during the Computex trade show.

Shih’s revelation could also mean the Eee Pad and Eee Book could actually be two different products and not the same device as earlier speculated.

What do you think?

[via Forbes]

Categories
Apple Gadgets

Apple iPad Touch Panel Supplier Changed

Apple has faced a lot of trouble of late in sourcing the components for its iPad so much so that the launch of the device itself is said to have been delayed from late March to early April. It now appears that the scapegoat for this delay has been identified and duly replaced.

Folks at DigiTimes have reported that TPK Touch Solutions – the Taiwanese firm that had bagged the contract for the supply of capacitive touch panels for the iPad has lost its contract to Wintek.

Wintek is currently only in the business of producing small to medium sized LCD panels and is expected to bring in a touch module production line shortly. Foreseeing a spike in iPad demand over the next few months, the company is expected to bring in this additional capacity. Wishful thinking.

[via DigiTimes]

Categories
Gadgets Miscellaneous

WePad Tech Specs And Features

The WePad has come a long way from being ridiculed as the plural form for iPad. Folks at Ubergizmo have dug out some pretty interesting information on the WePad’s technical specifications. One striking observation is that the WePad appears to be much better than the iPad, but for its battery life.

Display : 11.6″ diagonally
Resolution : 1366 x 768
Processor : 1.66 GHz Intel Atom N450 Pineview-M
Memory : 16GB NAND Flash (optional 32GB NAND internal)
WebCam : 1.3 MP

Here is a comparitive chart of WePad and iPad. Note that the chart is in German

WePad vs. iPad tech specs features

[via UberGizmo]

Categories
Gadgets Miscellaneous

Dell Moving Out Of China?

Dell has recently started its operations at its new India plant. On the sidelines of it, Indian Prime Minister hinted at Dell’s statements that implied that the popular hardware manufacturer could be pulling out of China owing to legal and political uncertainties.

Mr. Singh is quoted as saying,

“This morning I met the chairman of Dell Corporation. He informed me that they are buying equipment and parts worth $25 billion from China. They would like to shift to safer environment with climate conducive to enterprise with security of legal system.”

While a statement from the Indian Prime Minister cannot be taken at face value to gauge Dell’s business strategies, the move however could be interesting considering that Google and now GoDaddy have decided to cease their China operations.

[via Engadget]

Categories
Apple Gadgets

Apple Store Expansion Influence On Mac Market Share Gain

As Apple has been expanding its retail footprint, there is a positive change in the corresponding market share gained in the company’s Mac segment. Silicon Alley Insider notes the increase in three of Apple’s most important markets : USA, West Europe and Japan. Here are the number of stores added between 2004 and 2009 and the corresponding market share gain observed on the sale of Macs

USA : 123 (4.3%)
W. Europe : 33 (2.8%)
Japan : 5 (1.1%)

Categories
AMD Gadgets

AMD Upcoming Processor Specifications

AMD is coming up with several CPU processor lineups over the next two quarters. Folks at DigiTimes have got hold of the technical specs and features of the several core processors that are expected to be launched during the second and third quarters of 2010.

Here is a summary of AMD’s processor specifications and estimated launch date in brackets

Six Core Phenom II X6 1035T : 2.6GHz/95W (Q2 2010)
Six Core Phenom II X6 1055T : 2.8GHz/95W (Q2 2010)
Six Core Phenom II X6 1075T : 3.0 GHz/125W (Q2 2010)
Six Core Phenom II X6 1095T : NA (Q4 2010)
Quad Core Phenom II X4 940T : NA (Q2 2010)
Quad Core Phenom II X4 955 : 95W (Q2 2010)
Quad Core Phenom II X4 640 : 95W (Q2 2010)
Quad Core Phenom II X4 645 : 95W (Q4 2010)
Quad Core Phenom II X4 610e : 45W (Q2 2010)
Quad Core Phenom II X4 615e : 45W (Q3 2010)
Triple Core Athlon II X3 445 : NA (Q2 2010)
Triple Core Athlon II X3 450 : NA (Q4 2010)
Triple Core Athlon II X3 415e : NA (Q2 2010)
Triple Core Athlon II X3 420e : NA (Q4 2010)
Dual Core Athlon II X2 260 : 65W
Dual Core Athlon II X2 200u series : 25W
Single Core Athlon II X2 100u series : NA
Sempron 145 : NA (Q2 2010)

Categories
Gadgets Samsung

Samsung Tablet On Android OS With 4G Connectivity

Late last week, Philip Newton, the director of Samsung Australia’s IT division had hinted at the possibility of a Samsung Tablet PC launch later this year. While no specs were offered then, we are now hearing fresh rumors that the slate could be truly revolutionary with several interesting features on offer.

First thing : The Samsung tablet could run on Android OS powered by an ARM architecture. Also, there are possibilities that the new Samsung tablet device may come with a headset that supports calling via VoIP, 3G or even 4G technology.

Other details are sketchy though with whatever information is available, we think the game is on to out-do the iPad in every possible way.

[Tweakers via BGR]