Ad: Manage updates with the Download App
  • CNET
  • All ac100 posts

ac100

Toshiba debuts Android-powered Folio 100 tablet

BERLIN--Samsung's Galaxy Tab got a lot of the attention Thursday, but Toshiba had an Android tablet of its own to debut here at the IFA electronics show: the Folio 100.

Unlike the smaller Tab, the Folio bears more of an outward resemblance to Apple's iPad, the dominant tablet device on the market today. And where Samsung will sell the Tab only through phone companies as a kind of smartphone on steroids, Toshiba's Folio will like the iPad come in 3G and non-3G models when it goes on sale in Europe in the fourth quarter.

The Folio will cost 399 euros (about $511) for the version with just Wi-Fi networking; the 3G version price jumps to 499 euros (about $639). It's got a 10.1-inch multitouch screen with 1024x600-pixel resolution, an Nvidia Tegra processor, stereo speakers, a 1.3-megapixel Webcam, two USB ports, an SD card slot, an HDMI connector for sending video to other screens, Bluetooth communications, and 16GB of memory.

It weighs 760 grams--about the same as an iPad with 3G abilities. The Folio's battery lasts seven hours when being used 65 percent for Web browsing, watching video for 10 percent, and idling for 25 percent, Toshiba said.

Besides the array of Android applications available, the Folio 100 also comes with the Opera Mobile Web browser, the FBReader e-book reader software, Documents To Go for productivity suite, Evernote for taking notes, Adobe's Flash Player 10.1 for running Flash apps, and Fring for video chat. Most of these are useful, so let's hope this doesn't portend the migration to Android of the crapware that bogs down (and subsidizes) many Windows PCs.

I found the Folio 100 to be comfortable to hold and easy enough to use for basic tasks. Its performance didn't jump out at me, and pushing buttons seemed to come with a lag I'm used to on phones, but applications loaded reasonably fast. I found the interface easy to dive into--but then, I'm already familiar with Android quirks, such as how to make the virtual keyboard pop up when you need it and go away when you're done. … Read more

Toshiba's Android Netbook thin, fast

Toshiba's Android Netbook compares favorably with Intel-based Netbooks on thickness--and performance isn't bad either, according to NetbookNews.

Netbooks to date have been an exclusive Windows-Intel club but Toshiba is trying to change that. The Japanese company's new AC100 Netbook (to be sold as the dynabook AZ in Japan) has neither Windows nor Intel. Instead, it comes with Google's Android operating system and a dual-core Nvidia Tegra 250 processor.

NetbookNews, which just got its hands on an AC100, was duly impressed at the hardware. "The AC100 has great hardware...with Nvidia Tegra 2 onboard," the … Read more

Toshiba debuts ultraslim Android laptop

Toshiba announced Monday that it will ship an Android-based laptop, the first among top-tier laptop makers to sport a dual-core ARM processor.

By one definition, the Toshiba AC100 (see video below) is a smartbook: an always-on, 3G-enabled Linux-based laptop using a processor based on a design from U.K.-based ARM. That term--in vogue briefly--has lost its luster, however. Principally because real, shipping smartbooks have failed to materialize.

One of the most highly touted smartbooks, the Lenovo Skylight, has never shipped despite plenty of hype earlier in the year from both Lenovo and Qualcomm--the latter was slated to make the Sklylight's silicon. (The fact that a German company disputed the smartbook trademark didn't help matters.)

And a word of caution: The 10-inch Toshiba AC100 is not yet commercially available though it's slated to ship in the third quarter in Europe. There's no word on availability in the U.S., though a Toshiba spokesman contacted Monday said U.S. availability typically comes a couple of quarters after introduction in Europe.

That said, it is a truly unique design, quite different than its Windows-Intel based Netbook cousins. The two marquee features are its Nvidia Tegra 250 processor and the Android 2.1 operating system. The Tegra 250 is a cutting-edge dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor running at speeds of up to 1.0GHz. Virtually all laptop-class ARM processors shipping to date have used a single-core central processing unit, or CPU, design. Android is Google's popular OS that has been used, to date, almost exclusively in smartphones, such as Motorola's Droid.

Another key feature is the integration of mobile broadband: the laptop is designed to be "always on" like a smartphone, needing less than a second… Read more