slate

During CES 2010, Hewlett-Packard issued a preemptive strike against the still-unannounced iPad by showing off its own tablet PC at Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's keynote. Only briefly seen and largely undescribed, it may not have left a lasting impression on the audience, but it showed that, like Dell and others, HP was not going to cede the suddenly sexy tablet market to Apple.

In a cunningly timed move, a mere 48 hours after the iPad's retail debut, HP has released a new video demo of the device, which the company refers to as a "slate."

The … Read more

Apple's iPad is apparently a big seller even before hitting its retail release date. So if you didn't preorder, reserve a unit, or plan to line up at 5 a.m. outside your local Best Buy (which will carry iPads in 600-plus stores), it's time to start considering your touch-screen options.

As we've previously pointed out, there are many tablet/slate devices available that do things the Apple iPad simply can't. Though Apple's tablet runs a version of the company's iPhone operating system, most of these tablets run different versions of Windows, and (… Read more

Are iPads and slates trying to forge a new territory between reading and writing?

I've written a screenplay or two in my life, and have as such become a fan of Final Draft screenwriting software. That's why my last trip to the company's Web site caught my attention: a Final Draft app is in the works for Apple's iPad.

I became somewhat excited and interested by this news, because it suggested a possible functionality I can't currently easily get with my laptop: a screenplay reader with the ability to casually edit.

Final Draft sent me … Read more

Samsung will be the latest to jump on the tablet PC bandwagon.

The Korean electronics company said at a technology forum in Singapore Monday that it will sell a slate-like device starting in the second half of this year, according to a report in APC Magazine. Samsung's slate will be intended for the consumer market, though details like size, operating system, and other tech specifications were not revealed.

The company did say that its slate will be faster and more powerful than that other tablet everyone is talking about, the iPad, which a Samsung executive called "a glorified MID (mobile Internet device).&… Read more

While we still don't know when Hewlett-Packard's Slate will be for sale, thanks to two new videos, we certainly know more about how HP feels about Apple.

Just hours after Apple revealed the first iPad commercial, HP has followed with a pair of video demos showing off its own touch-screen tablet, the Slate.

The first video, embedded below, feels remarkably similar to Apple's own ad, just sped up and with backing music that's a little harder-edged than Apple's usual choice of cutesy indie pop. Like the iPad as well as iPhone and iPod Touch ads, the demo features just the screen and a pair of hands swiping and pressing the Slate's screen. The similarity between the demo videos of the two competing devices is made easier considering that the iPad and the Slate also look a lot alike. Check out the video, and you can judge for yourself:

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It turns out Apple isn't the only company readying a touch-screen tablet computer.

We say that half-jokingly, of course. In the last few months, quite a few companies have signaled their intentions to go head-to-head (or at least offer an alternative) to Apple's much-ballyhooed iPad, which should hit stores in March. Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Acer, and Sony have or are in the process of readying gadgets they say will compete with the iPad. We've seen some demonstrations at the Consumer Electronics Show and other trade shows, but several gadget makers admitted to waiting to see what Apple was going to do before setting the specifications and price of their competing touch-screen tablets.

Now that they know, what are they going to do about it? That might sound a bit silly considering companies like HP, Dell, and Acer have larger market share than Apple--when it comes to computers. But in other, faster-growing areas--smartphones and music players--Apple's popularity far outstrips theirs. And in a new device category (it's reasonable to consider this a new category) they're all essentially starting from scratch.

So how will every company not named Apple try to compete for your touch-screen tablet computing dollar, assuming such a dollar exists? They will try to emphasize something about theirs being better, of course, be it in terms of price, style, speeds and feeds, or the movies, books, games, or TV shows available via their gadget. Dell, for example, providing evidence that an old dog can at least attempt new tricks, tends to emphasize style these days. HP's commercials try to sell you on how easily their product fit into your lifestyle.

More than anything, they should try to avoid selling it as a computer, in the classic laptop computer sense. If Dell and HP and Acer and their compatriots do that, they'll end up trying to convince people to spend money on basically yet another Netbook; something that's sort of like a PC, but not quite. It's just smaller, cheaper, and with less functionality than a traditional PC. And after sophisticated smartphones and cheaper Netbooks, do consumers really need yet another device that's not quite a laptop?… Read more

The HP Slate will use Windows 7, but what isn't known is which chip will power the Apple iPad rival from Hewlett-Packard.

This is an important question, as there's a world of difference between an Intel Atom processor and, let's say, a low-power Core 2 or Intel's latest-and-greatest chips based on the "Nehalem" design, referred to commercially as the Core i3, i5, and i7. Atom chips (with one exception) use a single-core processor--which can struggle under moderate to heavy workloads--while the more powerful Core 2 and i series chips use two processing cores.

HP … Read more

A Deloitte research note claims that tablet computers will finally capture the affection of consumers this year.

"Tens of millions of people" will buy a tablet computer--or a "NetTab," as dubbed by Deloitte--in 2010, the company predicted Monday.

"NetTabs are expected to meet specific consumer needs" that aren't being met by either smartphones or by laptops, the company said. Deloitte reasons that smartphones are "still a bit small for watching videos or even Web browsing," while notebooks, Netbooks, and ultra-thin PCs are still "too big, heavy, or expensive."

Deloitte … Read more