Hardware > Earlier Tablets
It's official: Mac users are morally superior to Windows users
The online donation–management company Qgiv has analyzed the charitable-giving patterns of 165,000 people and found that Mac users are far more benevolent than Windows users.
Qgiv analyzed 320,000 donations given through their donation platform from November 2011 through November 2012, and discovered that the average donation …
iPad mini to outsell iPad, get Retina Display? iPad to slenderize?
It was close. We Apple fanbois nearly had to endure an entire week without an iPad rumor, but as the week drew to a close those intrepid rumor-mongers at DigiTimes gifted us with two – in the same brief article, no less – and NPD Display Search added a third.
Rumor #1: According to the ocasionally accurate Taiwanese market …
Analyst offers cut-price fondleslab recipe
SSA Digital is a little-known Chinese company that is very good at two things.
One is getting spam through the filters here at Vulture South, which is the only reason we know about the second thing at which it excels: making seven inch tablet computers so cheaply it is prepared to sell them for just $US40 apiece in lots of 10, …
Review: Apple Mac Mini 2012
Update On 10 December 2012, Apple posted the called for Mac Mini HDMI-centric firmware update, after this review was written and published. We will be testing the machine with the new code, and will report back here shortly.
I should say right up front that, much as I quite like the Mac Mini’s form-factor, looks and, more particularly …
The best tablets for Christmas
Thank God for Microsoft. Without it and its new Surface tablet this article would be nothing more than me running around having an Android versus iOS argument with myself. Thankfully, as with smartphones, the arrival of Windows 8, here in its RT incarnation, has saved mankind from a bipolar tablet OS nightmare.
More importantly …
Slash A THIRD off Surface RT price or it's toast, Microsoft told
Microsoft needs to hack a third off Surface RT prices and widen distribution to give the fondleslab a fighting chance to compete, said equities analyst Detwiler Fenton Group (DFG).
The ARM-powered device isn't winning many friends apart from the software giant's rank and file. Only last week the firm was reported to have halved …
The Times offers subsidised Nexus 7s to get subscribers
One day on from the announced closure of The Daily - which was Rupert Murdoch's first attempt at a fondleslab-only newspaper - his British broadsheet the Times is flogging cheap Nexus 7 tablets to those who subscribe to the paper.
The Google tablet normally retails at around £199, but Times and Sunday Times readers who sign-up …
Android seven-inchers swipe rug from under Apple
The question is, does Apple’s tablet market share - or Android’s for that matter - actually matter? Apple is certainly selling more of the darn things, but after a brief year’s relief, sales of Android alternatives are rising even more quickly.
According to ABI Research, a market watcher, Apple’s share of the world tablet market …
Datawind insists $42 tab isn't Chinese
British tech firm Datawind has been forced to deny reports from India at the weekend that its low-cost Aakash 2 device, marketed as an innovative locally-made product, was actually bought off-the-shelf from China.
The Hindustan Times, citing an unnamed source, claimed that DataWind had no role in the design or manufacturing of …
Convert your iPad into a foosball table and relive the dot-com days
Sometimes an idea is so effing brilliant that we face-palm our foreheads and wail, "Why didn't we think of that?"
Behold "Classic Match Foosball, The Ultimate Mutliplayer [sic] Experience for your iPad," created by New Potato Technologies and brought to our attention by Technology Tell.
Classic Match Foosball, The Ultimate …
Samsung Google Nexus 10 tablet review
Why would you buy a tablet other than an iPad? Obviously, some don’t care for Apple’s locked-in system and others like the way users can dig more deeply into the workings of Android. Good enough reasons, sure, but the truth is that until the day dawns when a tablet is of comparable specification, but substantially cheaper than …
Kobo Glo illuminated e-reader review
Kobo’s Glo is yet another of the current wave of e-readers with what amounts to a backlit screen.
Yes, the light isn’t situated behind the screen, but let’s not split hairs. The system works by shining LED light through the screen and bouncing it back off a reflective layer toward the reader, but the effect is much the same. …
ViewSonic VSD220 22in Android mega tablet
Depending on how you might want to look at it, the ViewSonic VSD220 is either an expensive 22in monitor or an inexpensive tethered Android tablet. But then you'd be missing the point: it's actually both and neither. It's an unusual mashup for which ViewSonic deserves credit simply by giving it a go.
ViewSonic VSD220 Android AIO …
Kobo Mini 5in compact e-reader review
If you think the Kindles and Nooks of this world are too large, Kobo has an alternative: the Mini, a pocket-sized e-ink e-reader with a 5in screen.
Kobo Mini Kobo's Mini: pocket friendly for your e-paperbacks
Most e-readers out there have 6in panels, but the Mini’s is no less readable for the reduction in size. Kobo’s own 6in …
Amazon Kindle Paperwhite review
Kindle came first, of course, but is it the best ebook reader still? After all, there is a wide range of alternatives from multi-talented colour-screen machines like the Google Nexus 7, Kindle’s own Fire and Fire HD models and now the iPad mini. Those are designed to offer greater versatility with apps galore. But they lack the …
Google to refund some pre-price drop Nexus 7 buyers
Google, like Asus, will compensate folk who purchased a Nexus 7 just before it reduced the tablet's price, on 29 October.
Nexus 7
Unfortunately, the price protection promise only applies to owners who splashed out on or after 14 October, as Google's offer only covers the 15 days before a price cut.
Only the 16GB version is …
Surface sales 'modest' so far, Ballmer modestly admits
Updated Sales of Microsoft’s Windows RT-based Surface tablet are off to a “modest” start according to chief executive Steve Ballmer.
Ballmer is reported to have given the update to French news site Le Parisien.
Microsoft’s chief executive also used the occasion to boost January’s release of the Intel-based tablets.
Ballmer described …
Asus offers compensation to pre-price drop Nexus 7 buyers
Asus customers who forked out for a Nexus 7 before the price drop on 29 October have been offered a £25 gift voucher in consolation.
The coupon is limited to those who bought their device directly from Asus or Google, and not only must the slate be registered with Asus, but customers will have to provide proof of purchase too. …
Amazon Kindle Fire HD 7in Android tablet review
Carl Jung once wrote that a beautiful woman is a terrible disappointment. And so it is with Amazon's long awaited (it's been a year) British release of its Kindle Fire 7in tablets. Having pre-ordered the top-end 32GB Fire HD model, I was thrilled when I found it waiting for me at home and excited as I tore open the box, but grew …
Apple iPad 4 Wi-Fi only tablet review
I didn’t get the iPad at first. When the tablet was first announced, I was interested but couldn’t see the value to me. I had an e-book reader, I had a phone on which I could watch films while travelling and listen to music, and I had a laptop for everything else. Why, I wondered, did I need a tablet too?
I was happy to take …
Microsoft mulls 'Xbox Surface' slate for games
Microsoft wants to release a 7in gaming tablet, with hardware planning for an "Xbox Surface" already in the works, sources claim.
Details of the device - which was first mooted in June when speculation pointed towards an E3 games show reveal - indicate the use of custom ARM chippery and high-bandwidth memory geared specifically …
Surface more profitable than iPad
Microsoft's Windows RT-based Surface tablet - designed to compete with the full sized Apple iPad - has a larger profit margin than its rival, a teardown analysis has revealed.
The Surface, with its minimum 32GB of Flash storage and optional Touch Cover, has a bill of materials (BoM) that totals $271. Chuck in an additional $13 …
Ten... Apple iPad Mini alternatives
Product Round-up Before you rush out and buy a device that the late Steve Jobs said wouldn’t, couldn’t and shouldn’t exist - well, kind of - you may care to consider some of the alternatives on offer, assuming that is you can’t quite make the nut and afford a full-size iPad.
Until Windows RT fondleslabs percolate down to those of us empty of …
Apple iPad Mini 8in tablet review
Hitting the Apple Store shelves a whole week after Amazon's new Kindle Fire HD tablets began arriving in the post, and two months after Google launched the Asus-made Nexus 7, the iPad Mini deserves to suffer in comparison. Even Google managed to slip a new 32GB version of its Nexus 7 under the radar at the beginning of the week …
Acer Iconia A110 8GB Android tablet review
Acer’s Iconia A110 7in Android tablet is the first real competition that Google's Nexus 7 has faced. It’s similarly sized, similarly priced and uses the same quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 underpinnings. It also runs the same Jelly Bean version of Android.
Acer Iconia A110 8GB Android tablet Lucky seven? Acer's Iconia A110
The main …
Apple's iPad Mini released, analysts predict slow burner
Apple's iPad Mini and the fourth-generation refresh of its bigger brother hit stores today as analysts forecast lower than usual sales - for the opening weekend, at least.
In a note to investors, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said he expects between 1 and 1.5 million iPad Minis will sell during the gadget's first weekend on …
Asus pledges Android 4.2 update for Google Nexus 7
Asus has confirmed that the Google Nexus 7 tablet will be getting Android 4.2 “in the very near future”.
It’s no great surprise, the 7 being a Google-branded gadget an’ all, but the new will reassure Nexus 7 owners who noted that while the new Nexus 4 smartphone from LG and the Samsung-made Nexus 10 tablet, both announced a week …
iPad Mini's quite a handful
First Fondle Apple's iPad Mini is not easy to hold in one hand.
The Reg's antipodean outpost took advantage of Australia's time zone and popped into a local Apple store to fondle the new slab. We found the mini is everything one would expect of an Apple product: sleek, pretty and simple.
But a couple of issues quickly became apparent.
One …
Inside the iPad mini: Pray you never have to open one
Teardown It's no wonder why the iPad mini assemblers at Foxconn rioted – its innards are fiendishly complex and tightly packed.
Well, to be honest, we don't really know if the iPad mini's complexity contributed to those Chinese workers dissatisfaction, but if what the tool-parts-and-repair folks at iFixit discovered when they …
Asus: we ship a million Google's Nexus 7s monthly
Asus is shipping around one million Nexus 7 tablets a month, the company has claimed.
Google's affordable fondleslab was hugely popular with consumers and rapidly sold out during its first product run. However, exact figures remained hazy. Now manufacturer Asus finally lifted the veil.
"At the beginning, it was, for instance, …
Hmm, I think I'll order an iPad Mini on Amazon ... Oh no I won't
Amazon has weighed into the tablet pooh-pooh battle, following Apple's blow by blow comparison with a Samsung Galaxy Tab during the iPad Mini launch last week.
The gloves are off down at Tablet Club, and this time the iPad Mini is on the receiving end. Amazon is taking a direct swipe at Apple's littlest Pad with a point by point …
Google goes ahead, unveils Nexus 4 and 10
Google didn’t wait: it has just outed the Nexus 7 with 32GB of storage and the Samsung-made Nexus 10.
The Nexus 7 line now runs from 16GB to 32GB - the old 8GB model is out, replaced by a cheaper 16GB tablet, for $199/£159, and the new 32GB unit, which will cost $249/£199.
Google Nexus 10 Nexus 10: Samsung made with a 2560 x …
EC tells Euro rebels: Hike up your ebook tax to 15%, or else
Luxembourg and France must stop applying a reduced VAT rate to electronic books because doing so distorts competition across the rest of the EU and is in breach of EU tax laws, the European Commission has said.
The Commission said it had issued both member states with "reasoned opinions" formally requesting that countries change …
GooPad's eight-incher gives Apple fans cheap relief
Knock-off iPad manufacturer GooPad has followed Apple and unveiled a mini version of its i-style slate. It packs similar specs, ish, but as you can imagine, has a far cheaper price than the real thing.
The GooPad Mini may be devoid of the highly-sought fruit logo, but with an 8in display at 1080 x 768 pixels, a 1.4GHz dual-core …
Amazon lends e-books free to Prime subscribers
Amazon’s UK wing is now a lending library, albeit a private one exclusive to folk willing to cough up £49 a year.
Yes, Amazon Prime subscribers with Kindles can now borrow any of 200,000 e-books for no charge other than their annual Prime sub. They can pick no more than one book a month, but there’s no digital equivalent of the …
Surface RT: Freedom luvin' app-huggers beware
Review “It’s the ultimate expression of a Windows PC,” says Windows chief Steven Sinofsky... or “a compromised, confusing product”, according to Apple’s Tim Cook, who has not used one. This is Surface RT, Microsoft’s first own-brand tablet, which went on sale today.
Along with the fact that it runs Windows 8, there are two notable …
iPad Mini vs Nexus 7: inch makes all the difference, says Apple CEO
To Apple CEO Tim Cook, an inch is everything.
Apple’s iPad Mini has an 8in display - its closest Android-based rivals all have 7in screens. A big difference, says Cook.
"We would not make a 7in tablet," he told financial analysts and journalist eavesdroppers during a conference call last night. "We don't think they're good …
Surface tablet's touch cover is ZX81 REBORN
FIRST FONDLE The Surface tablet's Touch Cover is eerily reminiscent of typing on a ZX81, The Register can report after fondling one of the elusive (to non Microsoft-adoring press) computers at the Australian launch of Windows 8.
To do so, we elbowed aside other media and scored a few minutes on a Surface running Windows RT. We were able to …
Bookeen lights up Odyssey e-reader screen
Bookeen has become the latest e-reader maker to offer a device with a ‘backlit’ screen.
Enter the Cybook Odyssey HD, a version of Bookeen’s existing reader, this time with a 1024 x 758 screen and an array of LEDs that shine light through the panel to reflect off the screen’s rear surface, highlighting the text.
Bookeen Cybook …
Amazon ships Kindle Fire HD, Paperwhite to Brits
Amazon would like you to know that its Fire HD tablet and Paperwhite e-readers are now available to us Brits. And that Lovefilm, Amazon’s film streaming and DVD rental service, can be accessed on the former.
The Fire HD, with its 7in, 1280 x 800 display - a rather higher pixel density than the iPad Mini - comes in 16GB and 32GB …
Panel production problems may stop iPad Minis getting into fans' mitts
Woe to you, Apple fanboy, you may not be able to get your hands on a shiny new iPad Mini because Apple may not be able to ship enough of them to go round.
So says DisplaySearch, a market watcher, which reckons supply will be constrained by LCD panel makers’ inability to sent enough 8.9in, 1024 x 768 screens to Apple.
Screen …
Amazon quietly un-wipes remotely wiped Kindle
Never let it be said posting your woes on the internet doesn’t yield results. After Linn Nygaard allowed Norwegian blogger Martin Bekkelund to reveal that Amazon had not only wiped her Kindle without warning but had refused to explain precisely why it had done so, the online retail giant has grudgingly relented and re-instated …
