Digital Home Thoughts - News & Reviews for the Digital Home

Gizmodo has put together an interesting chart that shows the way these devices stack up to each other. Worth checking out!

"For the past six months I’ve been sitting on the sidelines watching Tablet dominate the news cycle. From the Crunchpad to the JooJoo, from the Courier to the iSlate, from the Android Tablet to Windows 7 Starter Edition Tablets – it is almost dizzying to watch. Engadget is covering Tablet like they’ve loved it from the beginning. The New York Times is declaring 2010 to be the year of Tablet."

Image courtesy of Motion Computing.

If the media determined what sold in the marketplace, you would think that by the end of 2010, everyone and their dog will have a tablet. Rob Bushway is right though; Microsoft has been in and dominated the tablet industry for years. Having used various tablets over the years, I have to say that Microsoft seems to have treated their tablets like an afterthought, a sideline to their core business. If would almost compare it to how they have treated their Windows Mobile division for the past few years. With prices on computers having drastically dropped, tablets will likely move out of vertical markets like medicine, warehousing and power business users, to the regular consumer. While there is some evidence of Microsoft turning their attention to tablets and touch, they may move too slowly, and like the media player, give away the market to a competitor.

"The CrunchPad, a highly anticipated 12-inch tablet computer that was named as one of the 10 "most brilliant products" of this year by Popular Mechanics magazine, re-emerged yesterday as the Joo Joo. A legal battle over the Web-surfing device, no matter what its name, is likely to come. The Joo Joo — an African term for "magical," its developer says "because this device delivers magic" — will cost $499, putting it well above the $300 to $400 price range initially envisioned for the tablet by TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington."

The current drama aside, I think a low priced tablet in this size is a killer product. But, I consider this a proof of concept. Regardless, I don't see this being the product that hits it big. My bet is on Apple, whenever they get around to releasing their tablet, if the price is right. If it isn't, netbook makers should be able to pretty quickly come up with some tablet offerings using their current components and probably undercut both on price. If you'd like to see the Joo Joo in action, check out Engadget's Hands On.

"Although previously targeted for launch on October 22nd with a price tag of $500, it looks like Archos’ 9-inch tablet is just now available for pre-order on the company’s web site and priced at $550."

Archos is accepting orders for their take on an Internet/Web Tablet called the Archos 9 but word about customers actually receiving units has been elusive. Tablets are shaping up to be the next hot hardware if you believe what the media is saying with the CrunchPad and the rumoured Apple Tablet. Tablets have been around for quite some time, but they've never been really successful or targeted towards consumers. With that in mind, I think that the first generation is bound to need some polish and it will take the second generation for consumer tablets to really shine.

"Toshiba seems intent on beating the Apple Tablet and CrunchPad to the market. The company today introduced the JournE Touch Tablet. The company had previously reserved the JournE name for its digital photo frames, and to be honest, the tablet looks a bit like a photo frame with a touchscreen."

Rumours of an Apple Tablet has revitalized interest in the category. Yes, tablets have been around a really long time, but it seems only recently that they're really starting to catch the interest of the mainstream community. Toshiba's take looks slick, but the reported 7" 800x480 screen resolution seems a bit anemic. While making it very portable, something a bit larger would make it seem like much more than a really big touchpad controller. The 1080p video and 14 hour battery life are definitely attention getters, but not enough to make the jump without seeing what Apple and a few other manufacturers can do.

"On the hardware front, the Archos 9 boasts a full touch-sensitive 9-inch screen, an Intel Atom Z515 processor (1.2GHz, 512KB cache, 400MHz frontside bus), 1GB of RAM, up to 120GB of storage, 1.3MP webcam, and an optical track-point mouse. On the software side of things, the new tablet will come pre-loaded with Microsoft's upcoming Windows 7 OS. It will also include Microsoft Office and a host of other apps, such as "Web TV & Radio, video conference, antivirus, parental control, photos and movies edition applications, and more.""

Small, inexpensive tablets will probably be the successors to the netbook market. But, I think pricing will be key and I'm betting that this will come in at significantly more than $399. Also, after using an iPod touch for about 6-months now, I think a 9 inch screen is a bit on the large side. With the right browser, I think something in the 5 to 6 inch range would be just about right.

"It looks to have all started in an HP Mini 1000 that had been modified to use a 1.6GHz VIA C7 processor and for the tablet portion a 533MHz Samsung Arm core chip. Check the video below for a closer look at this amazing device!"

Developed by III, an organization in Taiwan, the Hybrid HP Mini is another stab at the modular concept for computing. At its heart is a modified HP Mini that runs Windows XP. However, you can remove the screen which becomes a tablet that runs Google Android. Try and recall the very old idea from IBM called the Metapad. This would be very similar. Do not forget the Celio Redfly, Palm Foleo and Windows tablets using the slate format. So far, the only one I know of that has been successful at all are the slate tablets, and only within certain vertical markets at that. Of course, the whole consumer market has changed, but the way in which this Hybrid has been put together just does not look practical to me. The idea of using two different operating systems could be a bit frustrating for some users. While I can see a benefit, since each OS is better suited to a particular physical format and size, I cannot see any real benefit of this over a two device configuration, that being a phone and a netbook. At least its an attempt at something new and different.

"Gigabyte said it'd be showing off a trio of new netbooks at CeBIT this week and, lo and behold, all three have now emerged from their less than secretive whereabouts and made their public debut, and the good folks from Engadget Chinese were on hand for an up close look. While all three pack more or less the same standard netbook specs, they do manage to differentiate themselves quite a bit from each other around the edges..."

The standard netbook and tablet version are pretty much expected at this point, but I like the idea of the center one. Basically, it includes a vertical dock with connectors to hook up to a full size monitor and other peripherals, giving you in essence a netbook and a nettop. If priced similarly to other netbooks, you could easily pair this with a nice sized monitor and have a desktop and laptop solution that would satisfy modest users for somewhere between $500 and $600.

"The idea is to get a new type of device into people’s hands for as cheap as possible (we were aiming for $200, it looks like $299 is more realistic). It fits perfectly on your lap while you are sitting in front of the TV, so you can look up stuff on Wikipedia or IMDB as you channel surf. It plays Flash video flawlessly so you can watch movies and TV shows on Hulu or Joost or wherever. Or listen to music on MySpace Music. Or use TokBox to have a video chat with your parents. Then check email and call it a day. Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Hulu, Wikipedia, Google Docs and Gmail are the killer apps for this device."

It has been a long time since TechCrunch's last update to their tablet project that some thought it might never see the light of day. Apparently, the CrunchPad is alive and well, and looking better than its predecessor. It still appears to fulfill most of its original intent, which is to provide a day long tablet for browsing. I was not surprised, but disappointed to them change the estimated price from $200 to $299. The update also doesn't mention anything about an estimated battery life. They're currently using Ubuntu as their OS, but short of licensing fees, I'm surprised they are not trying to use something like SplashTop, which would suit the CrunchPad perfectly. I have to say that I am disappointed with what they have come up with so far, but then again, I was quite sure that their goals as a whole were just is not practical with current day technology. Is there someone out there who is enamoured with the CrunchPad? Please tell me why this is more compelling than a netbook, Audrey or even a used tablet pc?