CES 2012: Tablets and E-book Readers

LAS VEGAS--Qualcomm's Mirasol display technology, which was supposed to be the next big thing in e-readers, still hasn't made it into a product in the U.S. or Europe, but the Bambook Sunflower E-Reader is coming to China in February.

"With the Bambook Sunflower e-Reader, Shanghai Nutshell and Shanda have raised consumer expectations for digital reading, both in terms of color content and an interactive user experience," said Clarence Chui, senior vice president and general manager of Qualcomm MEMS Technologies. … Read more

LAS VEGAS--$399. Linux. Designed for the kitchen. The Qooq is one of the weirdest tablet computers we have seen in a while. It's selling respectably well in France, we are told, and it's coming to the United States soon.

Qooq (that's "cook," get it?) has unusual specs, sports a too-high price, and is an outlier in the app economy. But it's not a bad product and it may actually have a niche. A small one, though.

The hardware: a 10.1-inch display, powered by a Cortex A9 processor running at 1 GHz. The enclosure: splash-, spill-, and drop-resistant. It looks nice, with its modern-art corner spikes that will keep it elevated off the counter and with a flip-out easel stand on the back, too.

The real weird starts in the software. The Qooq runs Linux. Not Android, not Windows 8, not even Web OS. Just Linux, customized by Qooq for easy set-up and intuitive operation. In the quick demo I got, it appeared to deliver on that. … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Well, it can only get better from here, right?

Acer informally kicked off the Consumer Electronics Show's wave of press conferences today with the unveiling of the Timeline Ultra and Aspire S5, along with a look at its cloud services.

Missing were any concrete details of its tablet, as well as any information on its planned Windows 8 products.

With its laptop announcements, Acer is doubling down on the ultrabook segment. The products underscore the company's need to find a hot new category to spark revenue, particularly with its key Netbook business cratering. The trouble is, the … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Not content to rest on the laurels of its recently announced A200, Acer today unveiled a new Iconia Tab tablet, featuring a screen resolution of 1,920x1,080 pixels (1080p).

Typically, tablet screen resolutions top out at 1,280x800 pixels, but thanks to the faster speed of quad-core processors (Acer didn't reveal which quad-core CPU the new tablet would be using), look for high-res screens like this (and even higher) to become a trend over the next year.… Read more

LAS VEGAS--Acer today unveiled its Aspire Timeline Ultra, representing its latest take on the ultrabook.

The Aspire Timeline Ultra is slimmer and lighter than Acer's previous version, which came out in September. The company plans to start shipping the device in the first quarter.

Acer is just the latest to commit to Intel's ultrabook campaign, which is an answer to Apple's successful--and similarly sleek--MacBook Air. Intel is putting a lot money behind a push to convince consumers that this is a new product category. Industry analysts, however, are skeptical that the market can support so many new … Read more