Microsoft Surface Windows 8/RT tablets unveiled: specs, features, release date and pricing

Original posted by Chris Smith on Jun 18, 2012

Microsoft on Monday unveiled its first tablets ever, a Windows 8 and a Windows RT machine that are both going to be known henceforward as Microsoft Surface. The name seems awfully familiar not only because an earlier report suggested the product will be called Xbox Surface, but also because the company has coined the “Surface” term long ago, although at the time it described a touch-based product that was about the same size of a tablet.
We have recently wondered what operating system the new Microsoft tablet will run, as some sources suggested the device may not be a Windows RT / Windows 8 product since it’s too early in the game to unveil such a device – Windows 8 is expected to become official at some point this fall, with the first Windows 8 tablets manufactured by third party OEMs to hit stores by Christmas or thereafter. But Microsoft made it clear from the start of the media event, the Surface is a Windows-based product.

Surface appears to be a new flagship device for Mircrosoft, a company best known for its software dominance in the PC operating system business, but also for its console gaming hardware such as the popular Xbox and the Kinect. But more importantly, the Surface is Microsoft’s own Nexus-like device, a tablet meant to show the world, and Microsoft’s Windows 8 PC-making partners, how Windows on a tablet should look and feel like.
Surface also appears to be a high-end tablet meant to compete directly against the iPad and the most important Android tablets out there from various manufacturers, unlike the Google Nexus 7 that’s supposed to be a very affordable device meant to take on directly the unexpectedly popular (at least for Google and its Android tablet-making partners) Amazon Kindle Fire.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at the main characteristics of the device, its release dates and pricing.

Spec and Features

Here are the main specs and features of the two Surface kinds, Surface for Windows RT and Surface for Windows 8 Pro:

Surface for Windows RT

• OS: Windows RT
• Light: 676 g
• Thin: 9.3 mm
• Clear: 10.6-inch ClearType HD Display with 16:9 aspect ratio. Corning Gorilla Glass 2 technology also included.
• Processor: ARM-based by NVIDIA
• Energized: 31.5 W-h battery
• Connected: microSD, USB 2.0, Micro HD Video, 2×2 MIMO antennae
• Productive: Office ‘15’ Apps, Touch Cover, Type Cover
• Practical: VaporMg Case & Stand, edges angled at 22 degrees
• Configurable: 32 GB, 64 GB

Surface for Windows 8 Pro

• OS: Windows 8 Pro
• Light: 903 g
• Thin: 13.5 mm
• Clear: 10.6-inch ClearType HD Display with 16:9 aspect ratio. Corning Gorilla Glass 2 technology also included.
• Processor: Intel Core Ivy Bridge
• Energized: 42 W-h battery
• Connected: microSDXC, USB 3.0, Mini DisplayPort Video, 2×2 MIMO antennae
• Productive: Touch Cover, Type Cover, Pen with Palm Block
• Practical: VaporMg Case & Stand, edges angled at 22 degrees
• Configurable: 64 GB, 128 GB

Accessories

• Built-in stand – 0.7mm thick (comes with any Surface)
• Surface Touch Cover – 0.3 mm thick full multitouch keyboard dock that also acts as a magnetic cover, with trackpad included
• Surface Type Cover – similar to Touch Cover but slightly bigger at 0.5mm, it’s a keyboard with actual keys and trackpad buttons
• Pen with Palm Book – a pen that magnetizes to the body of the Surface to offer digital ink support

Microsoft’s execs demoed the product on stage emphasizing its most important features and the design challenges they had to go through to produce this tablet. The device looks, at least on paper, and in the images and video the company showed, like a worthy iPad rival, and certainly a tablet that could become a tough Android tablet competitor in the months to come. But on the other hand, and most importantly, the Surface may become a Windows RT / Windows 8 tablet competitor and therefore cannibalize on sales from Windows partners, something that may not necessarily suit the needs of the company.
Unlike Windows Phones, which are yet to become a worthy third player in the smartphone business, Windows 8 may become a lot more popular as a tablet OS. The only thing we don’t know at this point is how reliable the new software will be on tablets, and wether users will enjoy a Metro UI-based Windows 8 tablet as much as they appreciate other tablet designs.

Release Date and Pricing

The Surface, while interesting enough for tablet fans, will not be available in stores for quite a while now. The company revealed that it took a lot of time to design it – we kind of appreciate the fact that the device was not leaked in the past months – and it will take a lot of time to see it in stores. Unfortunately Microsoft is not ready yet to share actual launch details and pricing details for the Surface at this time, but the execs mentioned more than once the fact that the device will be priced quite competitively, or better said, the two Surface versions, ARM-based and Intel-based, will each come with competitive prices compared to their direct rivals.
The ARM model is said “to be competitive with a comparable ARM tablet” and it will be available in store at the same time Windows 8 launches. The Intel model will be a bit more expensive with a price comparable to Ultrabook-class PCs, which are generally more expensive than traditional laptops. The Intel model will also be available only later down the road, around 90 days after the ARM-based Surface hits stores. If I’m reading correctly between the lines the Windows RT will be the really affordable version, but then again if you want Office 15 and other perks the Windows 8 Pro model will offer then you’ll have to be ready to shell out more dollars for it.

With that in mind, it’s probably safe to say that this winter we’ll have quite a lot of tablets fighting for the cash of the consumer including the iPad, the iPad mini (if certain rumors are to be believed), the Google Nexus 7, the Amazon Kindle Fires (more than one model, again if certain rumors are to be believed), various flagship Android tablets from important Android makers, the Microsoft Surface models, and various other Windows-based tablets coming from other OEMs.

Source: ( androidauthority.com )

Sony Xperia Go, dust and water resistance

 Original posted by Alan F

The Sony Xperia go is not your high-end handset. Take for example the 3.5 inch display offering resolution of 320 x 480 and a low pixel density of 165 ppi. Or even the dual-core 1GHz ST-Ericsson NovaThor U8500 CPU with an ARM Mali-400 GPU and the 512MB of RAM on board. Even the pinstriped suits at the FCC could see that this was more of a low to mid-range model even with the water and dust resistant build and the scratch resistant screen. Instead, they probably noticed the 5MP camera that captures video in 720p, and the 4GB of native storage. Android 2.3 is installed out of the box.

While we have no idea when this phone is going to launch, it did visit the FCC, which is often the signal of an impending (although not imminent) release. While the model of the Sony Xperia go examined by the Feds is the international variant and can run on GSM and EDGE with U.S. carriers, the 900MHz and 2100MHz bands supported by the unit spell out overseas 3G connectivity.

Source: ( phonearena.com )

Samsung reveals Galaxy Chat with full QWERTY and Android 4.0

By Louis Goddard

A leak yesterday has forced Samsung into officially announcing the Galaxy Chat, a smartphone that combines a full QWERTY keyboard with Android 4.0. The device joins a select band of phones which provide the pairing, including the Sony Ericsson Xperia Pro and the upcoming LG LS860. It also resembles Palm's Pixi device, released back in 2009.
Samsung's announcement confirms specs shown on the Chinese government's certification site, including a disappointingly small 3-inch QVGA (320 x 240) touchscreen. The device offers 4GB of internal memory with a microSD slot for upgrades, along with a 2-megapixel rear-facing camera and a 1200 mAh battery. Clearly targeting the budget end of the Android market, the Galaxy Chat will make its debut in Spain later this month, before being rolled out more widely to "Europe, Latin America, Middle East, China, Southeast Asia, and Southwest Asia."

It's an odd design, but one which may strike a chord with some buyers, particularly BlackBerry fans looking to move away from RIM's ailing platform. Samsung is certainly pushing its proprietary BBM alternative ChatON, giving the app a dedicated launch button on the Galaxy Chat.

Source ( theverge.com )

The new 7' iPad mini ?

The new Apple iPad 3 is barely out of its pristinely white box but already a flurry of rumours have hit the web, hinting at the launch of a new miniature version of Apple’s latest slate.
According to reports, the world's most valuable company is expected to release an iPad Mini to fend off stiff competition from rivals Amazon, who successfully entered the tablet fray last year with the Amazon Kindle Fire.
But how much truth is behind the headlines and what exactly can we expect to see from the compact device? We’ve rummaged through the rumours and ‘trusted source’ quotes to find out

The new iPad Mini release date

Update: Analyst Brian White from Topeka Capital Markets has added further fuel to the iPad Mini rumour fire with claims that the device could arrive alongside the rumoured iPhone 5 in September.
He said: "Looking forward to an exciting September from Apple. Regarding the widely anticipated iPhone 5, we believe a September launch is more likely than October."
Although many aren't convinced that Apple will launch a mini version of its newly-released tablet device, another analyst, Shaw Wu from brokerage firm Sterne Agee, believes the release of a mini iPad should be viewed as a “question of when, not if.”

He claims Apple is currently testing several 4-12 inch screen-sporting devices, according Apple Insider.

However, he also says that the company won’t be releasing the tablet so soon after the launch of the new iPad, saying:

"We do not sense that the release of an iPad mini is imminent and quite frankly, exact timing is difficult to predict.

However, we do believe it makes both fundamental and strategic sense for AAPL to address at some point."
Other rumours have also claimed that Apple will be releasing a new slate later this year.
Chinese website NetEase quoted two sources who say that Cupertino-based Apple plans to release the reported 7.85-inch tablet to compete with a string of newly released Windows 8 tablets, believed to be landing around at the same time.
The site, which claims to have inside contacts at the companies that manufacture Apple products, also claimed that Apple will ship 6m units of the device in the third quarter – between July and September.

Source ( t3.com )

Asus PadFone, it's tablet it's phone

By Jon Phillips

• | Edit

The 4.3-inch PadFone inserts directly into the 10.1-inch PadFone Station. Photo: Asus

OK, Asus, you’ve convinced us: You’re a world leader in clever mobile docking strategies.
At Mobile World Congress Monday, Asus announced the PadFone, a 4.3-inch smartphone that can be directly inserted inside a 10.1-inch docking tablet, aptly named the PadFone Station. Think of the system as two devices that share a single brain. It’s a smartphone, sure, but it’s also a full-fledged tablet that’s powered by smartphone processing.

But, wait, it gets more clever still. If you insert your PadFone Station into an optional keyboard dock, your system becomes something akin to a traditional notebook. It appears to be the ultimate, docked-together daisy chain: the phone that becomes a tablet that becomes a serious computing device.
This is so, so Asus. Just look at the Transformer Prime for a glimpse into the company’s obsession with docking strategies.
When operating as a handset, the PadFone offers decidedly high-end features. You’ll get Android 4.0 (aka Ice Cream Sandwich); a 4.3-inch, 960×540 Super AMOLED display swaddled in Gorilla Glass; a 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm processor backed by 1GB of RAM; and an 8MP rear camera. Neither LTE nor specific carrier support was announced, but if Asus sticks to tradition, this will be an unlocked device, and you’ll be expected to sort out service on your own.
As for the PadFone Station, it boasts a 10.1-inch, 1280×800, capacitive multi-touch display covered in Gorilla Glass,. It also increases the PadFone’s battery capacity by 500 percent, says Asus. The PadFone’s 8MP camera continues to work when docked, and the Station also includes speakers befitting a true tablet. According to an Asus press release, the system boasts “Dynamic Display technology which allows seamless transition between the PadFone and PadFone Station display screens.”

Oh, and in case you were wondering what happens when you get a phone call on your docked PadFone, there’s an optional PadFone Stylus Headset. You can use it as a “traditional” tablet stylus, but also transforms into a Bluetooth headset.
We just wish this cleverly integrated system boasted a faster processor, like the quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 that ships in the Transformer Prime. In an integrated system with notebook aspirations, we’d like as much processing performance as possible.

Source  (wired.com)

Windows Phone 8: New Features

by Huei

Thursday, 21 June 2012 11:08 AM

As you might already know, the new mobile OS from Microsoft will come with multi-core support, high resolution display and such, so what else is new? A whole bunch actually, LG announced its Siri-like “Quick Voice” that allows for voice control, Microsoft will also have its own Speech Platform that allows you to search for things and listen to ebooks. This feature will arrive to all WP Mango devices so no worries if you’re an existing user. Windows Phone 8 will also come with a new Start Screen, probably the biggest and most obvious change in terms of visuals. I personally love the new redesign, the current big tiles shows too little information and I don’t think I’m that old to require big buttons, yet. There’ll also be deep Skype integration, offline turn-by-turn navigation maps powered by none other than Nokia, IE10 which smoked Safari and Android browser in the SunSpider Java test, improved camera with panorama and burst shot, ready for enterprise, over the air updates for future WP8 devices, and 18-months support cycle. Interested in windows phone Windows Phone 8? It’s expected in “falls”, which is between September and December so just in time for your Christmas shopping. (Source: Lowyat.Net)

Toshiba Excite 10

Toshiba Excite 10 review: a 10-inch ICS tablet that puts the Thrive to shame

By Sarah Silbert posted Jun 7th 2012 10:00AM

More Info

• Toshiba announces Excite 10, 7.7 and 13 tablets, Thrive slates on their way out
• Toshiba Excite 10 ICS tablet goes on sale, prices start at $450 for 16GB model
• Toshiba AT200 review

In the tablet market, big as it is, one notion generally holds true: thinner equals better. Toshiba, for example, surely tried to equate a svelte silhouette with a premium product in its super-slim Excite 10 LE. And indeed, its 1.18-pound body and solid Honeycomb experience add up to tablet that puts Toshiba's earlier Thrives to shame. That $530 model is definitely priced like a high-end tablet, but it's accompanied by a new, lower-priced Toshiba slate, the Excite 10.
For $450, you get a tablet with a tad more meat on its bones, but that increase in weight and thickness comes with some more powerful specs: a quad-core NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor with 1GB of RAM -- not to mention Ice Cream Sandwich. While you can probably guess which of these slates makes a stronger contender (hint: the one without the "LE"), figuring out the Toshiba Excite 10's place in the grand hierarchy of tablets takes a little more exploration. Luckily, that's what we're here for, so join us past the break as we do our best to get through the review without a single "excite" pun.

Toshiba Excite 10

 

 

 

 

Hardware

If you've ever had your hands on -- let alone glimpsed -- the Toshiba Thrive 10, the first thing that will strike you about the Excite 10 tablet is the slimmer silhouette. While the Thrive measures 0.6 inches (15.24mm) thick, the Excite is whittled down to 0.35 inches (8.89mm). Similarly, Toshiba has cut down on weight: the Excite 10 weighs 1.32 pounds (21.12 ounces) compared to 1.6 (25.6 ounces) for the Thrive 10. This, of course, makes it much more comfortable to hold for extended periods of time.

The Excite 10 ditches the Thrive's rubberized cover for a classier aluminum backing.

Toshiba clearly went back to the drawing board to improve upon the chintzy build quality of its Thrive slates. In addition to slimming down the design, the company opted for more premium materials. The Excite 10 ditches the Thrive's rubberized cover for a classier aluminum backing. It doesn't sacrifice a good grip, thanks to a dimpled texture. While the slate is comfortable to hold, it bears mentioning that the design doesn't feel very sturdy -- if you press on the back, you'll notice a bit of flex.

The Excite 10 has the right idea when it comes to ports. The left side of the slate houses a headphone jack, micro-HDMI connection, micro-USB 2.0 and a full-size SD card slot that lets you add up to 128GB of external storage (and theoretically more). The left side sports the power button, a lever for locking screen orientation and a volume rocker, while the top has the 2-megapixel front camera and 5-megapixel rear-facing shooter.
Moving on to the display, we have a 10.1-inch Corning Gorilla Glass panel with a 1280 x 800 resolution. At 149ppi, that pixel density isn't anything out of the ordinary, but the screen at least delivers good viewing angles and accurate colors. One pitfall, though, is that the display exhibits some backlight bleeding. This is most noticeable when you're viewing darker screens, and while it doesn't make it impossible to enjoy movies and YouTube clips on the tablet, it does separate the Excite 10 from higher-end slates.

Performance

	Toshiba Excite 10 ($450)			ASUS Transformer Pad TF300 ($379)	Acer Iconia Tab A510 ($450)	Acer Iconia Tab A200 ($350)	Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 ($400)
Quadrant (v2)	4,016			3,695	3,754	2,053	2,602
Linpack single-thread (MFLOPS)	45.8			41.7	47.8	37.2	35.6
Linpack multi-thread (MFLOPS)	121.9			89.8	120.5	60.4	57.1
NenaMark 1 (fps)	85.4			60.3	62.8	45.6	29.5
NenaMark 2 (fps)	47.8			46.9	55.8	20.4	19.0
Vellamo	1,471			1,320	1,500	1,290	Would not run

With a quad-core NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor and 1GB of RAM, the Excite 10 provides performance that's nothing to sniff at. In benchmarks such as Quadrant, it posted a high score of 4,016, which bests the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 (2,602), the Acer Iconia Tab A510 (3,754) and the ASUS Transformer Pad TF300 (3,695).
Scrolling through web pages on the Excite is fluid, with only the occasional lag in registering swipes, but zooming in often causes white tiles to appear before the page reloads. Light gaming on the tablet is a pleasure -- we quickly rekindled our love for Angry Birds Space on this 10-inch touchscreen. We never experienced any glitches when streaming HD video from YouTube.
Still, the tablet didn't handle everything seamlessly. When we took the Excite 10's camera for a test drive, the device got significantly warmer. Worse still, the camera app once crashed, and took us to a home screen plagued by errant blue pixels. Cold-booting into Ice Cream Sandwich takes about 30 seconds.

Battery life

Tablet	Battery Life
Toshiba Excite 10	9:24
Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7	12:01
Apple iPad 2	10:26
Acer Iconia Tab A510	10:23
ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime	10:17 / 16:34 (keyboard dock)
Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1	9:55
Apple iPad (2012)	9:52 (HSPA) / 9:37 (LTE)
Apple iPad	9:33
Motorola Xoom 2	8:57
HP TouchPad	8:33
ASUS Transformer Pad TF300	8:29 / 12:04 (keyboard dock)
Acer Iconia Tab A200	8:16
Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus	8:09
Amazon Kindle Fire	7:42
Galaxy Tab 2 7.0	7:38
Acer Iconia Tab A500	6:55
Toshiba Thrive	6:25

Though the Excite 10 is significantly thinner than the Thrive 10, it doesn't sacrifice endurance along with the heft. In fact, this tablet has respectable, if not stellar, endurance. On our video rundown test, the Excite lasted 9 hours and 24 minutes, which tops the Thrive 10's 6:25 run time. That time is about on par with the original iPad (9:33), though the Iconia Tab A510 has it bested by almost an hour (10:23), and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 blows it out of the water with a lasting time of 12:01.

Though the Excite 10 is significantly thinner than the Thrive 10, it doesn't sacrifice endurance along with the heft.

Software

The Excite 10 runs Ice Cream Sandwich (build 4.0.3, to be exact), and as with past tablets, Toshiba didn't tamper with Google's interface. Yep, it's pretty much stock Android here, and that's not a bad thing. Ice Cream Sandwich's streamlined interface shines on the 1280 x 800 display, and the tablet isn't bogged down by obtrusive bloatware.
Toshiba pre-loaded the full host of Google apps -- including Calendar, Gmail, Play Market, Search, Voice and YouTube-- along with its own branded utilities. There's Media Player for playing music and watching videos, File Manager for keeping tabs on your media and News Place for, well, catching up on the headlines. The third-party apps are for the most part useful; you get Adobe Reader, Netflix, Quickoffice and the Zinio e-magazine reader. Sure, there are five games, including Backgammon and Solitaire, pre-installed, but these are pretty inoffensive.

Camera

Like most tablets, the Excite 10 is no point-and-shoot camera replacement, and the 5-megapixel shooter won't deliver any frame-worthy shots. In fact, the camera is downright bad -- images look fuzzy and lack detail, and zooming in only makes matters worse. Expect the washed-out colors that come standard on mid-range tablets' cameras. No vivid reds and blues here; pics we snapped on the street looked dull and overexposed. Moreover, images show pixelation and, even when we pinpointed our focus spot, not very sharp.

Toshiba Excite 10 sample shots

The Excite 10 is capable of capturing 1080p video, though the muted hues and lack of image stabilization don't add up to great HD footage. Still, video is pretty fluid -- especially if you're not moving it around too much -- and the tablet does a good job at capturing ambient sound.

Configuration options and the competition

For $450, you can get an Excite 10 tablet with 16GB of storage. Stepping up to 32GB will cost you $530, while the top-of-the-line 64GB version goes for $650. It's not the most expensive tablet out there -- ergo, it falls short of the new iPad -- but it's priced along the lines of the Acer Iconia Tab A510 ($450) and the ASUS Transformer Pad TF300 ($379). The Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 may be $50 cheaper, but that slate trailed behind other similarly priced options when we ran it through our benchmark tests.
Taking a closer look at those competitors, we have a strong contender in the Iconia Tab A510. Like the Excite 10, that slate starts at $450 and runs a Tegra 3 processor, and it offers excellent performance and long battery life (10:23 hours) in a slightly heftier package than the Excite 10 (1.5 pounds versus 1.3). Then there's the ASUS Transformer Pad TF300 ($379), which offers solid performance of its own and stellar longevity when you add in the keyboard dock. And though the Android purists among you can skip past this sentence, it's worth mentioning that the iPad 2 is now priced more competitively than the Excite 10 ($400 versus $450).

Wrap-up

Toshiba hasn't exactly positioned the Excite 10 as a high-end tablet, and its $450 starting price is par for the course for a mid-range product. We'd choose the Excite 10 over the $530 Excite 10 LE in a heartbeat, as it offers much better performance and Ice Cream Sandwich in a package that's only slightly bulkier. And compared to Toshiba's earlier Thrive tablets, not to mention most other competitors, the Excite 10 has an attractive, streamlined design.
As it becomes easier to find a good sub-$500 slate, it's also becoming more common to see quad-core NVIDIA Tegra 3 processors on the spec list. That's all good news for you, dear readers, and the Toshiba Excite 10 has many of the makings of a great Android tablet. The thin and comfortable design, full-size SD card slot, clean build of Ice Cream Sandwich and Tegra 3 power all add up to a good user experience, but shortcomings like backlight bleeding and occasional performance glitches hold this tablet back from earning a glowing endorsement. While $450 is not chump change, the Excite 10 might be worth it if you have your heart set on a 10-incher running Android. However, for the same price, you can get Android tablets from Acer and ASUS that provide longer battery life and equal -- if not better -- performance.

Source - Engadget