Just couple of hours left from the Apple Showdown!…Have your dinner and come back right here…By the time, you can also look at rumor round-up and also look at other details like specs and stuff like iPad 2 price in India.

Be Ready !

……Live blog: Apple Event, March 2, 2011……

• Well, the crowd has turned in big numbers and everyone is just waiting for someone to take the stage.
• Gosh! the magical man is here himself….huge applaud for Steve Jobs! Nobody expected him to attend the event but that’s the Apple factor.
• Steve is briefing up the past successful products….iPod, iPhone and the latest being iPad.
• Steve is also boasting the success of iBooks which got over 100m downloads in such short span.
• 100Mn iPhones sold…Another big milestone !
• Apple sold 15Mn iPads last year. More than total tablets devices ever sold. Awesome!
• iPad commands more than 90% of tablet market share right now.
• 65000 iPad apps in App Store.
• Steve showing up slides featuring iPad getting used in daily work by various people in different industries.

• Now some rants on iPad competitors. Steve calling them Copycats!
• And here comes the iPad 2..Huge applaud!
• Steve is going through all the salient features of iPad 2.
• In short, the new iPad 2 is lighter, slimmer and multi-folds faster than previous iPad.
• It’s got cameras, VGA on the front and 720p at the rear side.
• Gyroscope, HDMI Output comes as well
• iPad 2 will come in black as well as White.
• And did we forget to say that the battery performance will not at all be affected with all the iPad 2 enhancements
• The pricing remains the same. Bingo!
• …For more details, read full specs and iPad 2 Price info here…
• Now Steve is talking about the smartest accessory of all, the iPad 2 Smart Cover. No more cases required.
• Now you can get a light-weight Smart-cover that self-cleans the glass surface, sticks to the surface with magnetic hinges, folds in seconds and becomes a stand for vertical viewing/Photo frame. Made up of Poly-urethane and leather. 10 color options.
• Hurray! Facetime(Wi-Fi video calling) comes to iPad 2
• iPad 2 will land on both AT&T and Verizon.
• Launching March 11 in U.S. Will be launched in 26 more countries by March 25, 2011
• Now some video about iPad 2 and how amazing it is…
• Now, the talk is shifting to iOS 4.3
• iOS 4.3 brings lot of things on board such as ‘Personal Hotspot’ !
• Lots of other iOS 4.3 improvements….
• Well, the major things are done. Some video playing up right now and that’s it!
• Event wrapped up. Hands-on time!
• Thanks for joining us in this live-blogging event with us over here…

Enjoy the hands-on video from Engadget!

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Feature-wise, Notion Ink Adam beats any other existent tablet device hands down. From 10.1-incher PixelQi display that enables dual display(LCD/e-paper) modes to USB port availability, from 3.2 MP Auto Focus Swivel Camera to Integrated stereo loudspeakers, the list goes on and on…

From hardware perspective, this uniquely designed and feature-packed Android beast is by far the best Android tablet produced this far, well above the widely advertised Samsung Galaxy Tab or even Apple iPad but early product reviewers have reported some sluggishness of the Android UI customized for Notion Ink Adam.

Here are full tech specs of  Notion Ink Adam:

Size+Weight

• Thickness: ~14 mm
• Width: 191 mm
• Length: 269 mm
• Weight: ~1.6 pounds

Here’s a video demo of the Notion Ink Adam…

As Notion Ink Adam is already in the pipeline to get FCC approval, it may become available in US during Christmas holidays or early 2011. The company behind Notion Ink Adam is targeting global audience so Europe and Asian markets will also get to have the tablet during the same timeframe. Pricing will remain competitive, that is, ranging around $400-500 or Rs.20k-25k.

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At their global conference, Acer has just unveiled 7-incher and 10.1-incher Android tablets(Froyo), slated for launch in April 2011. With holiday season just around the corner, Acer’s intentions of giving a teaser of their upcoming tablets is pretty obvious.

With sneak peak of their tablets, Acer’s underlying message to consumers is..

“Don’t you spend your money on iPad, Galaxy Tab or any existing tab…We aren’t too far away and we’ve got much more to offer”

Tech specs for 10.1-incher Acer tablet

• Screen size: 10.1-inch
• Software: Android 2.2(Froyo)
• Screen: Ten point Multi-touch
• Processor: Dual-core 1GHz processor
• Screen resolution: 1280×800 (!) screen resolution
• Camera: 5MP rear camera, HD front facing camera for video calling
• Other features: Inbuilt Gyroscope for gaming, WiFi, 3G support
• Video output: 1080p output over HDMI

With big names like Amazon, Sony jumping into tablet space with their e-reader cum tablet, HP already selling its enterprise tablet and preparing for upcoming WebOS tablet, Samsung Galaxy Tab looking strong and now Acer chipping into this booming market as well, iPad will sure have to juggle with much more competitors in 2011.

For now, 2010 is all about iPad. Holiday season is about to begin and no competitive tablet, except Galaxy Tab, is up for sale. This Black Friday, Apple is sure to record new sales milestones.

Source

WePad is no more….No, no..don’t take it the same way you interpreted the news of HP Slate’s project shutdown or Microsoft Courier’s brutal slaughter. It’s just that the brand ‘WePad’ is no more.

WePad has now officially changed its product name to WeTab. Here is the official statement from Neofonie..

To clearly differentiate our products within the international market for tablet computers, as of today we have changed the product name of our tablet computer from WePad to WeTab. Similarly, the company formerly known as WePad GmbH will now trade under WeTab GmbH. This change only concerns the name of the product and company. All other particulars and pre-orders are not affected.

As we noted in our review of WePad, the brand name sounded like a cheap copycat of Apple iPad and that’s probably one strong reason why WePad is now WeTab.

Apart from that, another reason could also be Apple’s issues with the closely resembled name of WePad with iPad and everyone knows how fuzzy Apple is about all such things, even when iPad is cruising away and looking almost invincible in tablet space.

R.I.P. WePad !

Source

The S-pad is also said to come up with super-AMOLED power saving screen, which will last for really long time, may be more than iPad’s 10 hours time too.

The S-pad will come only in ‘WiFi & 3G’ model and will also offer desktop dock as an accessory, just like iPad. The tentative month of S-Pad launch is the month of august but it seems that S-Pad will be too late as iPad is just cruising away at the moment and despite some WiFi reception issues, there is no looking back for Apple in tablet space at this time.

But one thing that might work in favor of S-Pad is the latest news of project shutdown of HP Slate as well as Courier killing.

Source

Courier tablet was a two-screen folding tablet device, which was supposed to facilitate both Touch computing and Pen computing on the same device and was more inclined to be a productivity device, rather than Just-for-fun device.

As it was certain that Microsoft would use its own Operating System, Windows 7 in Courier tablet as well, its Killing of Courier project reaffirms HP’s decision to drop the idea of Windows 7 based Courier tablet. All this concludes that there must be major pitfalls in Windows 7 as a tablet OS and therefore, both the companies felt it right to stop investing on something that’s weak from its roots.

This also makes pretty sure that Apple iPad is going to make some serious domination in the evolving Tablet market, before any of its competitors makes it to the stores.

Source

It doesn’t mean that HP will not bring its own Slate. It’s just that Windows 7 will not power the much awaited HP Slate. It appears that HP realized the unsuitability of using Windows 7 as core OS for its first touch-enabled tablet.

It’s a proven fact that hardware will not sell like hot cakes if there’s a poor software setup at its core and HP doesn’t want to take any more chance here.

With recent acquisition of Palm, it could a possibility that HP would also consider Palm’s WebOS power its Slate device but the chances are slim as there’s no established eco-system around WebOS as such.

Will HP turn to Google for Android OS ? Chances are minimal but HP seems to be having little choices here.

Things will get clear after sometime but this is for sure that HP Slates will not make it to market anytime soon and all those tablet lovers can comfortably buy an iPad or WePad if they aren’t willing to wait for really long time, say until end of this year.

Source : TC

Since the first day of iPad launch, Apple did see annoyed users who were complaining about weak Wi-Fi signal while surfing internet through their newly bought iPad. Some thought, it was just a perception issue from user’s end but the crescendo of complaints didn’t stop and humongous uproar from iPad buyers has now gone so loud that Apple had to speak out and admit the Wi-Fi issues with the iPad.

Most of the problems are related to the weak signal reception from WiFi network and the users are reporting that the signal drops drastically once they take iPad away from the WiFi router. The users are so sure about the issues because they have cross-checked the Wi-Fi signal strength with their smartphones(most of them are iPhone guys) and the signal remains absolutely good on their iPhone, Droid or whatever smartphones they have got.

While Apple has only commented on the issue regarding failure of iPad in Automatic rejoining of known Wi-Fi networks, there is still no word from Apple regarding the weak Wi-Fi signal reception issues which are piling up fast on Apple’s shoulders.

The support forum solutions basically suggest getting closer to the Wi-Fi hotspot, which is not an intelligent solution at all.

Now, what do we make out of this ? Is this a hardware fault ? Can it ever be rectified ? Can a firmware update fix all these problems ?

We can’t really say if Apple can fix things with a software update as the problem seems to be a hardware design problem and that can’t be fixed with a software update. We’re keeping a watch over the issue. Stay tuned !

• Display: 8.9-inch 1024 x 600 capacitive multitouch with Pen/digitizer support
• Processor: 1.6GHz Atom Z530 processor with UMA graphics, an accelerator for 1080p video playback
• Data Storage: 32GB/64GB of flash storage with SD Card enhancements
• RAM: 1GB of non-upgradeable RAM (Should have been more for Win 7)
• Battery life: 5+ hours
• Camera : VGA Camera(Inward) , 3MP Camera(Outward)
• Ports: SDHC, USB, SIM card slot for the optional 3G modem, connector for power, audio, and HDMI
• Software: Windows 7 Home Premium + HP Touch optimized UI
• Connectivity: WiFi(802.11b/g), Bluetooth, Optional 3G
• Pricing: $549 – $599

It has not been released officially but it seems that the specs sheet is a real one(the leak might be intentional). HP Slate specs are certainly impressive, actually lot better than iPad but the heart of the Slate, software and UI needs to be excellent. Hope, HP won’t disappoint this time.

Source: Engadget

One such country where gadget freaks are roaring to get this spectacular piece of hardware is India. And all those folks who don’t want to wait for the iPad to launch officially in India (it will take months for sure) and get their gadget right away have got an not-so-affordable option for doing so.

Apple iPad 16GB/WiFi version is available in India for around Rs.38k. 32GB version would come at Rs.44k and 64GB version would come at Rs.50k. The Apple iPad will, of course, be imported to India so the buyer will have to bear custom duty and shipping charges as well(both the charges are included in the price mentioned). The shipping will start April 15 onwards.

Honestly, it’s a costly affair to import the iPad right away from U.S. and it sounds more sensible to wait for the official launch of the device in India. By that time, the WiFi+3G version will also be available to the users, which will be much better option than a WiFi only iPad. And don’t forget the WePad, HP Slate and loads of other slate devices to come in the near future, which will provide plenty of options to pick the best one from. You are going to buy just one slate device so choose wisely.

Of course, the final call is yours !