Today’s Gear Deal comes to us from the Microsoft Store via our Gear Sponsor and it is a great one! The Samsung Series 7 11.6″ Core i5 Slate is an impressive piece of kit that will only get better with the release of the touch-enabled Windows 8. This model of the Series 7 Slate (model XE700T1A-A04) features an 11.6″ 1366×768 display, an Intel Core i5-2467M processor running at 1.6GHz, 4GB RAM, a 128GB SSD, a USB port, a microHDMI, dual facing cameras (2MP front, 3MP rear), Bluetooth, 802.11n WiFi and a microSD slot. It weighs just 1.98lbs and gets up to 7 hours battery life. Yes, it runs Windows 7 Professional 64 OS but the developer… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

That’s how today’s gear chat on tablet size started–with Francis’ assertion that we all knew–even if some of us didn’t want to admit it out loud–that we really wanted a mid-sized tablet.  You know:  something in between the iPod Touch/iPhone and iPad form factors.  Something around . . . 7″ or so.  And then it was off to the races with your tech-happy Gear Diary team:

image courtesy of BerryReporter 

Clinton recently wrote an opinion piece entitled, “As RIM Writes Off The Playbook, The Pressure is on Microsoft to Make a Complete Windows 8 Tablet“, in which he says:

This morning the Wall Street Journal reported that RIM is taking a $485 million charge for their lackluster tablet, the Playbook.  The charge comes by way of a markdown in the value of the massive inventor that RIM still has of the devices.  It is a brutal and costly reminder that if you kinda-sorta-maybe-woulda-shoulda your tablet strategy, the price can be steep.  Very steep.

and

The challenge facing Microsoft is that they are behind when it comes to a tablet strategy.  Regardless of what

By all rights, Joel should be telling you all about this, because he’s way more up-to-date on this tech than I am.  But I’ll do my best.

The hot new version of Android that is imminent is called “Ice Cream Sandwich.”  Folks who have tested it and played with it say that it’s quite good, certainly the most solid and “finished” version of Android to come out yet.  Developers have had their mitts on it for a while now, and graphics boffins NVidia has announced a mobile quad-core processor, which is slated to debut in the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime tablet.  [pant pant]  Did I get that all right, Joel?

So anyway, here’s a… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Two interesting pieces of contrasting TouchPad news: one about failure and the other success.

From AllThingsD, we get a snip from the recent HP earnings report specific to Palm, webOS and the impact of folding up that business on their results. Here is their quote from the earnings report:

Non-GAAP earnings and operating profit information excludes after-tax costs of $3.3 billion, or $1.56 per diluted share, related to the wind down of HP’s webOS device business, impairment of goodwill and purchased intangible assets, amortization of purchased intangible assets, restructuring charges and acquisition-related charges.

Last month I reviewed the TruConnect ‘pay as you go’ mobile broadband solution, saying:

TruConnect absolutely delivers on their claims of a simple device, easy setup and configuration, and clear pricing of as little as $4.99 per month. Beyond that, every person needs to make their own value judgement in terms of the data fees. For light or occasional use, you can get 250MB for less than $15 a month, but once you break 1GB of monthly data you might be better off with a full access plan. The good news is that you have no contract and no termination fees – you own the MiFi (or USB access point), so you cancel

The continuing saga of the ‘out of stock’ HP TouchPad with a seemingly endless supply returns! From a post at PreCentral we learn about the latest Tiger Direct ‘deal’:

Here’s the deal: buy a TouchPad and any HP laptop or desktop from TigerDirect, pay $299.99 upfront for the tablet, and get a mail-in rebate (sigh) for $150. Or just buy a 32GB TouchPad for $299.99. Yeah, that’s more than they were asking before for the same tablet with accessories that aren’t included here. Supply and demand, folks.

Here is how Tiger Direct shows it:

This week you are going to see 95% of the small tablet news focused on the Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet, but there is another 7″ tablet device that we just got some more pictures of that will never hit the market – the HP TouchPad Go. … Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

From the Editorial Staff of Gear Diary: Is there someone in your life who loves music? If so, here are five gifts with which you can’t go wrong.

We have to start this list with the 11″ MacBook air. It’s small, light, under $1000 and it makes working on the go a pleasure. You’ll quickly forget that it is as small as it is. Judie has one and loves it. Dan has one and loves it. Elana has one and loves it (and she NEVER raves about technology.) Get one at Apple.com

Now that the carnage from HP’s “firesale” has finally settled, HP announced that the Touchpad is officially out of stock never to be heard from again. We can go on about our normal lives of hoping for better tablets while paying a premium price for a good product. The fact that the  hardware is no longer being made basically makes it impossible to to score one unless you stuble upon some old stock leftovers somewhere. Otherwise you can try your chances on Ebay or Craigslist.

There have been a fair share of crappy tablets released in the past few years, mostly third-party resistive screen tablets with some resemblance of Android as the OS… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

As Michael pointed out this week, pricing of some upcoming tablets has shown that the manufacturers haven’t been listening. Some people want tablets, but most want iPads, and to get the average consumer interested, the price needs to be low enough to make it an impulse buy.

Kogan’s new Android tablets look to fit the bill. Available in 8″ 800×600 (SVGA) and 10″ 1024×768 (XGA) models, the tablets come with Gingerbread 2.3 (no Honeycomb here, folks), a single core 1GHz Cortex A8 processor with 512MB RAM, 4GB built-in storage, microSD slot (up to 32GB can be added) HDMI output and a front-facing 2.0 megapixel camera.

Prices start from AU$149 for the 8″ model, and… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Original Image courtesy of RPAD.tv

There is no better way to rain on a geeks parade than to dangle a worthy gadget out there at an unbelievable price, then to quickly slam the door in your face and tell you “it was a mistake.” After seeing news this morning that the HTC Flyer has dropped down to a single Benjamin, I quickly started to get my plan of action together. After my meeting at work, I ran to the local BestBuy Mobile at the closest mall and started a makeshift line so I could ensure that I was walking out of there with a shiny new white Flyer. I showed up at 9:30 and… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

I took advantage of a recent W00t deal, and I now have a US Edition of the Samsung Galaxy S WiFi 5.0. This is the US edition, as opposed to the more common Asian/European version.

Let’s take a look!

Features
• The 5-inch (12.7cm) display allows you browse full web pages and read small text without resizing the screen. The Galaxy S Wi-Fi 5.0 supports various video formats (DivX, Xvid, H.263, Ogg, MPEG4, Flac). It also delivers an impressive viewing experience on the large screen
• SoundAlive maximizes the performance of Samsung mobile devices for real sound quality via Samsung Audio Signal Post Processing… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Image courtesy of Nexus404

If you are one of the unlucky shoppers that had a cancelled order during Touchpad firesale through OnSale (Amazon), then you might be in luck. While doing the usual Touchpad search before bed I came across a link that was posted on the chat over on SlashNet. The link led me to page that required I put in my original order number and email. From there I received a link in my inbox to a generic looking OnSale order form. This process took some serious time and nail biting, probably due to the fact that the server was getting pounded from all those who attempted to originally purchase the… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Tablet computing is all the rage now.  Microsoft coined it, Apple popularized it and there are many others including Microsoft itself that are vying for a piece of the large pie that Apple already owns.  It isn’t the death of the PC, but I am convinced it’s a device almost everyone will eventually own.  Some may replace their computer entirely with a tablet device, while others will just use it to augment the laptop or desktop they use.  Either way, it’s the future and I’ve decided I need to look at getting one.  Follow me along the journey of selecting my first tablet device.

About Me

If you know me, I am a… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...