Toshiba has gone all in for Android. At the IFA electronics show in Berlin, it displayed its Folio tablet and its AC 100 Netbook. Here's how they looked.
Stephen Shankland
Stephen Shankland worked at CNET from 1998 to 2024 and wrote about processors, digital photography, AI, quantum computing, computer science, materials science, supercomputers, drones, browsers, 3D printing, USB, and new computing technology in general. He has a soft spot in his heart for standards groups and I/O interfaces. His first big scoop was about radioactive cat poop.
BERLIN--Toshiba debuted its Folio 100 tablet here at the IFA electronics show. The tablet has a 10.1-inch multitouch screen and comes with or without 3G wireless network support.
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Toshiba Folio 100 profile
The Folio is slim, with a depth of 14mm.
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Android interface on Toshiba Folio 100
The Android interface is mostly intact on the Toshiba Folio 100. Here, testers have left duplicate clocks and music-player widgets; across the bottom are applications that can be launched.
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Toshiba Market Place on a Folio 100
Toshiba Place service comes with a Market Place component for buying movies, music, books, news, and applications. This component, though, is used to publish content to specific Web sites.
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Android icons on a Folio 100
Android phone users will be familiar with the application icons on the Toshiba Folio 100.
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Toshiba Folio 100 with Opera
Android comes with its own browser, but Toshiba installs Opera Mobile onto the Folio 100.
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Toshiba AC100
The Toshiba AC100 Netbook, like the Folio 100, features a 10.1-inch screen, but it's got a keyboard, too, and the display isn't a touch screen.
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Slender Toshiba AC100
The AC100 is a slim package. It uses an Nvidia Tegra 250 Mobile Processor, an ARM-based model running at 1GHz.
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Android 2.1 in the Toshiba AC100
The Folio 100 uses Android 2.2, aka Froyo, but the AC100 uses the somewhat more limited Android 2.1, aka Eclair.
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Rendering difficulty
The Toshiba AC100 comes with an e-book reader app, but at least on this model it didn't handle landscape orientation well.
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Google Maps on Toshiba AC100
The Android browser in the Toshiba AC100 can be used for a variety of tasks, but those accustomed to PC browsers will have to learn a different interface.
