WSJ: Google to sell ASUS, Samsung tablets from its own online store

In a move that would be reminiscent of its initial plans for the Nexus handsets, the Wall Street Journal suggests Google will open its own online store this year, but stocked with tablets instead of phones. The Android tablets would be built by Samsung and ASUS who already offer the well received Galaxy Tab and Transformer lines, but have been unable to make a dent in marketshare comparable to that of Apple or even Amazon. Other details seem to be less clear, including the possibility of the lineup including Google branded tablets - like the one hinted at by Eric Schmidt in December - or that the store could offer a new tablet from ASUS (maybe running Jelly Bean, maybe not), or the chance that Google will follow Amazon's approach by subsidizing the upfront cost. Right now it seems that all possibilities are still in Play, but if the rumor is right we'll see the store launch this year - any suggestions for the folks at Mountain View?

LuvPad WM701 is a rugged splashproof tablet

With the number of portable consumer electronics devices that we tote around these days, it is no surprise to take good care of them – by getting them the right cases and what not. After all, replacing an iPhone or an iPad is definitely not cheap at all, and I have heard enough horror stories of dropping a smartphone into the toilet bowl due to carelessness to make sure mine is carefully secured each time I head to the loo. Sometimes, however, we cannot tell just when we are going to get caught out under foul weather, and if you get soaked, so too, will your beloved gadgets. This is where a device like the LuvPad WM701 would come in handy, thanks to Mouse Computer of Japan. Powered by Windows 7, this tablet is splashproof and can shrug off drops from up 70cm. It will run on an Intel Atom Z650 processor accompanied by 2GB RAM, a 32GB solid state drive, a 7″ display at 1,024 x 768 resolution, and Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity thrown into the mix. Do take note that being splashproof means water repellent, and you should not go scuba diving with this!

Google to sell Nexus tablets on its own

As you may already know, Google is getting ready to introduce a Nexus Android tablet this year. We've recently heard that the first Nexus tablet would be manufactured by Asus. And now The Wall Street Journal seems to confirm this. Moreover, the publication cites "people familiar with the matter", saying that Google will sell the own-branded tablets directly, through an online store. This move would be similar to what Google has done in 2010, when it started selling the Nexus One smartphone online. The WSJ is also reporting that Samsung will manufacture a Nexus tablet, too, although it's not clear exactly when. Both Samsung (with it Galaxy Tabs) and Asus (with its Transformer series) are already quite successful in the Android tablet space. (this is obviously not the Nexus tablet)

Eken A90 is one cheap Android tablet

If you're looking for an Android tablet that isn't going to break the bank and features decent specs, the Eken A90 might fit the bill. Priced at only $157.99, this Android tablet features a 9.7″ (1024 x 768) display, an Allwinner A10 processor clocked at 1.2GHz, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage, and support for 2160P HD video playback. It features a pretty slim body at only 11mm thick and packs 2 micro USB ports, a 3.5mm earphone jack, a microSD card slot and a HDMI port. The Eken A90 has a 2-megapixel rear camera and a 0.3-megapixel front facing camera as well for your photo taking needs. The tablet runs on Android Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0.3 and has Google Play support, which means you'll have access to over 300,000 apps to install.

Childcare Experts Warn Parents to Control Their Kids' Tablet Usage

A group of experts on child welfare were speaking at a panel regarding how parents needed to monitor how often their children are using their tablets. This is a comparatively new field of study since the inception of the tablet two years ago. Even then, Warren Buckleitner, who is the editor of Children's Technology Review said, you can't pull it from their hands. Another speaker Rosemarie Truglio from the children's TV producers Sesame Workshop advised for a child's balanced use of technology as it maybe fosters some things but at the same time, it would dampen other things. On the other hand, Lisa Guernsey, author of 'How Electronic Media - From Baby Videos to Educational Software - Affects Your Young Child' said that things are bad when your children cannot focus on your conversation with them for 30 minutes without looking at a screen. Truglio went to to say that researchers have proven that children need that adult-child interaction in addition to electronic interaction and parents were urged to not use tablets and other technology based items as "digital babysitters", a trend highlighted by Nielsen, a market research firm. According to the results of the survey conducted by the firm, there are a few ways in which children used tablets. 75% of the children said that they play downloaded games on their tablets followed by 57% who used the tablet for educational purposes. 55% of the children said that the portable tablet could be used as entertainment during travel, followed by 43% who watched TV shows/movies, 41% who used the tablet at restaurants/events and a drastic drop to 15% for children who used the tablet to communicate with friends and family. Apparently that part of tablet usage only kicks in later. Do you think that tablets would have a positive impact on your children? Drop us a comment with your thoughts on the subject.

Motorola Droid Xyboard 10.1 Review

Motorola Droid Xyboard 10.1 Full Review

There is no shortage of enterprise tablets. From the PlayBook to the ThinkPad Tablet to any number of Windows slates, business users have plenty to choose from. Though it seems like a slick consumer device, the Droid Xyboard 10.1 is Motorola's attempt to tap into that market.

Featuring a larger form factor than its companion, the Xyboard 8.2, the Xyboard 10.1 has 4G connectivity, houses a suite of business-friendly apps, and comes packaged with a capacitive stylus. Do enterprise users have the device of their dreams on their hands? And how does the Xyboard 10.1 fare in other areas besides being business-ready?

Build & Design

With tablets that are anywhere around the 10.1-inch range, it's something of a given that they will be a little unwieldy and uncomfortable to hold with one hand. Nevertheless, I was surprised by how heavy the Xyboard 10.1 was at 1.33 pounds and how quickly I would grow tired from holding it with one hand. Perhaps making this even more puzzling is the fact that the Xyboard is not particularly thick, measuring 10 x 6.83 x 0.35 inches. The tablet is just dense, so I was caught a little off-guard when I first started handling it. But at least it's an improvement over the Xoom, which had a smaller screen but weighed more at 1.6 pounds.

It also has an odd shape that may appeal to some, but not to this reviewer. Its corners are cut off, leaving angles that give the tablet a hexagonal shape. This seems like an unnecessary alternative from the usual rounded corners (or even perfectly rectangular tablets); if anything, it just seems like an attempt to stand out in the crowd in a completely meaningless way.


That being said, what I did enjoy about the build was the fact that it has rubberized material on the back…well, part of the back, at least. The rubberized casing wraps around to the rear where it comes in about an inch on either side on the short ends, enough to give your fingers a place to rest on the back when holding the tablet in landscape mode. I would have preferred that the entire back of the casing be covered in rubberized material, that way I could enjoy it when holding the tablet in portrait mode too (or to provide comfort and grip to those who have longer fingers than I do). Still, the rest of the backing is made from aluminum, so at least it doesn't have a cheap feel to it.

Down towards the bottom of the front of the device is the Xyboard's built-in microphone, and in the middle of the bottom edge of the device, you will find a microUSB port (used for charging) as well as a microHDMI port. To the right of those two ports, there is a covered slot for a microSIM card, but unfortunately there's no microSD card slot. The top edge of the device, meanwhile, has an IR blaster and a 3.5mm headphone jack. The Xyboard's front-facing, 1.3-megapixel camera is centered on the top frame of the device (when held in landscape mode), while the rear-facing, 5-megapixel camera is centered at the top on the back. The speakers are also located on the back of the Xyboard, but also near the top so they aren't covered by your hands when you're holding the tablet.

The only other controls on the Xyboard 10.1 are the power/standby and volume up/down buttons, and they are designed in the same atrocious manner as the ones found on the Xyboard 8.2. They are placed way too closely together on the back of the right short side of the tablet, with the distance between volume down and up being the same distance between volume up and the power button. As such, it's virtually impossible to tell which button you're pressing just by feel without looking. And not only are the buttons located on the back, they're barely raised, so they're more or less flush with the surface of the device. So even if you are lucky enough to find the button that you want without having to stare at it, it's not particularly easy or comfortable to press it.
Screen and Speakers

The screen on the Xyboard 10.1 certainly looks crisp enough, given its 1280 x 800 resolution, but I will admit that it looked better on the Xyboard 8.2 thanks to the greater pixel density (it had the same resolution, but on a smaller screen). Still, the viewing angle is very wide, colors looked vivid, and HD video was a pleasure to watch on the display.

Aside from the fact that they're rear-firing, I think that the speakers are well-placed up towards the top on the back of the device, since they have no risk of being accidentally covered. They are surprisingly powerful too, but just because they can be loud doesn't mean that they're of good quality. Like 99% of tablet speakers, it's not like you'll get any rich-sounding audio or bass out of them; they're still tinny and flat-sounding.

Specs

• Android Honeycomb (3.2)
• 10.1-inch TFT IPS touchscreen display, 1280 x 800
• 1.2 GHz dual-core processor
• 1 GB RAM
• 16 GB, 32 GB, 64 GB internal storage
• Front facing 1.3 megapixel, rear-facing 5.0 megapixel webcams
• 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, Verizon LTE
• microUSB 2.0, microHDMI, 3.5mm audio input
• 10 x 6.83 x 0.35 inches
• 1.33 pounds
• Ships with microUSB wall charger, microUSB to full USB cable
• Price at launch: 16 GB: $529.99 subsidized, $699.99 full retail; 32 GB: $629.99 subsidized, $799.99 full retail; 64 GB: $729.99 subsidized, $899.99 full retail; 16 GB, Wi-Fi only: $499.99

Peformance

Like the Xyboard 8.2, the Xyboard 10.1 features a dual-core, 1.2 GHz processor that has a respectable amount of power, enough to give it some legs before it has to step aside to really usher in the quad-core processor era. Its performance in our benchmark tests was good, but not out of this world; it ranked behind some of the more recent tablets with its Quadrant and Sunspider performance.

The Xyboard ships with Android Honeycomb 3.2, which is a perfectly serviceable OS, but thankfully it will also be upgradeable to Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0) in Q3 of this year, according to Motorola. Anybody who has used both operating systems knows that they're solid, but ICS packs a ton of new features and is generally more convenient and user friendly. And while my experience with Honeycomb 3.2 on the Xyboard was generally stable, I did experience a couple of lockups that required me to do a reboot of the device.

The startup time wasn't great, taking about 40 seconds or so from a cold start. Looking at my editor's review of the Xyboard 8.2 (which had roughly the same startup time), he seems to think this is an acceptable boot time for this generations' tablets, but I thing that's a bit on the long side. To put things into perspective, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus takes 20 seconds from a dead start. At least the Xyboard 10.1 shuts down almost immediately, only taking about five seconds to close up shop.

Quadrant measures CPU, 3D, and memory performance. Higher numbers are better.

Sunspider is a Javascript benchmark for measuring browser performance. Lower numbers are better.

The battery on the Xyboard 10.1 is decent, and I definitely do not think it's as poor as many other reviewers have claimed. With light usage (say, half an hour of navigating, taking photos, internet browsing or downloading apps a day), I was able to get it to last almost two weeks. Admittedly, once you step up the usage for more intense operations like video streaming, gaming, video chatting, etc., the battery life obviously doesn't have the same longevity, but I could still get a solid day and a half out of it even after watching a full streaming movie. I will also concede that if I had been using 4G, battery life probably would have been a lot worse.

Yes, the Xyboard is a Verizon 4G LTE-enabled device, which is a nice touch that keeps its connectivity on the cutting edge, but unfortunately we were unable to test out this feature due to the fact that we did not have any micro SIM cards lying around the office. So for this review, I relied on Wi-Fi connectivity, which always worked just fine. I've had problems with other Android tablets where the Wi-Fi goes on the fritz and seemingly had a mind of its own, switching between networks or disconnecting at will. But no such issues arose during my time with the Xyboard 10.1, which was refreshing.

Apps

The Xyboard 10.1 seems to have business users in mind and as such, it comes preloaded with a number of enterprise-oriented apps that many will find useful. While some are more common like the ubiquitous Quickoffice, there are few gems like Fuze Meeting, Citrix (which allows you to access cloud storage or virtual desktops), Motocast (also a cloud/file streaming service), GoToMeeting, Polycom Video, and Evernote (packaged in support of the stylus, which we'll get to later).

There are some other preloaded apps that are geared more towards entertainment, too, like Kindle, Blockbuster, Skitch (it lets you doodle on pictures, essentially), The Daily, Netflix, Dijit (universal remote app), Videosurf, and a link to Motorola's app marketplace, MotoPack. But unfortunately, the Xyboard also features its fair share of garbage that only serves to clutter up your app space.

For instance, I was extremely excited to see Slingbox in my apps when I first loaded up the tablets; alas, it was only a link to purchase the $30 app. Same went for the games (Let's Golf 2, Madden), which were only brief demos of the full versions. The worst part? As far as I could tell, the links to this nonsense could not be removed from my apps section, permanently causing clutter.

Stylus

The Xyboard 10.1's capacitive stylus support has a lot of potential, especially given that the device seems to be aimed towards the enterprise demographic. Besides, it's really the only unique aspect of this particular device that's afloat in a sea of Android tablets. That's not to say that there aren't other Android tablets that include styluses, but it's not an especially common feature and it's nice to see Motorola try something a little different. Unfortunately, the company floundered in its execution of stylus support and it ends up coming off as more of a gimmick than anything especially useful.

The biggest problem with using the stylus is that the Xyboard 10.1 does not feature palm rejection. As a result, it's completely impossible to write naturally with your hand against the tablet; if you try, its detection completely freaks out and you'll end up with a few random dots and squiggles in the area where you just attempted to write words. Even if you try writing without your hand touching the screen, which is incredibly uncomfortable and unnatural, the handwriting recognition is poor. The stylus works well for navigation, but that's about it.

I can appreciate the inclusion of certain stylus-ready apps that are housed in the system tray on the bottom right of the screen, including Evernote and Sticky Note, and I like that the usual Android keyboard that pops up for input can be switched to stylus/handwriting input. These inclusions encourage the use of the stylus and note taking, which shows Motorola's commitment to the idea of the stylus. And they would be welcome inclusions…if writing with the stylus wasn't such a hassle.


Conclusion

The Xyboard 10.1 is a good attempt from Motorola to provide the enterprise crowd with a reliable tablet option. In some ways, in succeeds: if you avoid video-intensive activities, battery life is solid, it has 4G connectivity, and many of its preloaded business apps are extremely useful. But on the other hand, the inclusion of the stylus proves to be more or less useless beyond serving as a navigation tool. It had massive potential, especially for the enterprise demographic, but any attempt to use it for input will be inconvenient at best; at its worst, it just won't work at all thanks to the Xyboard's lack of palm rejection.

There aren't enough serious flaws for me to just write the Xyboard off completely. But there are enough flaws to balance out its strengths and make it a middle-of-the-road option for business users. More casual users looking for a device for content consumption, however, can probably look elsewhere. You can probably knock a few bucks off the price if you opt for a device without 4G, stylus support, and preloaded business apps (and encryption). There is a Wi-Fi only option of the Xyboard 10.1, but it's still $500 with 16 GB of memory. Casual users are better off going with another option rather than paying $500 for a feature set you mostly don't need.

Dell To Release a Windows 8 Tablet For End of 2012

With all the attention focused on the iPad, Dell is looking to turn the tides by scheduling a Windows 8 tablet for release later this year.

Dell’s chief commercial officer Steve Felice said that the tablet market was still open and that it is looking to create a tablet that would appeal to everyone from casual users to business users.

“We’re very encouraged by the touch capability we are seeing in the beta versions on Windows 8,” Felice told Reuters in an interview.

Felice said that Dell has a roadmap for tablets that has yet to be released, but that there will be announcements for the back half of the year. He added that Dell’s relationships with thousands of business customers gives it an advantage over Apple, whose gadgets can create havoc for IT departments because it operates on an entirely different system.

That being said, Dell will have a tough battle to face if it decides to face Apple head-on, with Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, reporting that he was "thrilled" with how the new iPad's release weekend went. Dell will have to blow the tablet market away if they want to give Apple a run for its money.

Lenovo Rumored To Release Windows 8 Tablet In October

Even though word just broke earlier today that Dell has plans to offer a Windows 8 tablet before the end of the year, the competition already seems to be heating up: an inside source claims that Chinese hardware manufacturer Lenovo has plans to be the first company to release a Windows 8 tablet once the operating system becomes available. Though the official release date of Windows 8 is currently unknown, Lenovo supposedly believes October to be the month that Microsoft’s new OS -- and therefore, its tablet -- will be released.

The source, which reported anonymously to tech site The Verge about the tablet's October release, refused to offer any details on the device beyond the fact that it would be powered by an Intel chip. One possibility is the company’s rather unique IdeaPad Yoga, which we managed to get our hands on at this year’s CES. It features a physical keyboard that is attached to the tablet with a 360-degree hinge, allowing users to arrange it in a laptop configuration if they so please. But whether or not this will be Lenovo’s first Windows 8 tablet, and whether or not it will actually be released in October, remains to be seen.

ASUS outs lower-end Transformer Pad 300 tablet with 16GB of storage and 1280 x 800 display

Remember when we said ASUS was adding another tablet to its stable? Let's bump that number to an even two. ASUS just announced the Transformer Pad 300, a lower-end match to the new Infinity Series (and also made a quick appearance earlier this month). Hilariously (if rapidly aging gadgets can ever be funny), the 300 is, for all intents and purposes, the original Transformer Prime - until the most lustworthy tablet. So far as we can tell, the only differences are that it offers different color choices (blue, white and red), a slightly downgraded display and optional LTE. Once again, it has a Tegra 3 chip, 8MP / 2MP cameras, HDMI and a 10.1-inch, 1280 x 800 IPS display. Interestingly, this guy has a regular 'ole IPS screen, not the 600-nit Super IPS+ panel used on the original Prime and the new Infinity Pad. The 300 also comes with a fixed 16GB of internal storage (expandable via microSD), whereas the original Prime packed 32GB at the lower end. Still, ASUS won't skimp on some things: it ships with ICS, like its brother, and promises up to 10 hours of battery life (that's 15 with the optional keyboard dock, which is an hour less than what the Infinity Series claims). No word yet on availability, so expect some further announcements in the coming months with pricing specific to different regions.

Huawei MediaPad 10 eyes-on

If ever there was a "One more thing moment" it came at Huawei's Mobile World Congress 2012 press conference today, where the company's chairman waited until after a Q&A session to say, oh by the way, it'll sell a 10-inch version of its MediaPad tablet. The company stopped short of providing specs, and in the hands-on area outside the event, journalists were prohibited from actually touching the device. Here's what we know, though: it has a 10-inch 1080p, IPS display and the same industrial sign as the original MediaPad (aka the T-Mobile Springboard), with what appears to be a unibody aluminum build. You'll also find that white piece of plastic on the back that brings to mind HTC devices of yore, but instead of capping either portrait end, it stretches across the top of the back, where the 8-megapixel camera is. The tablet will ship with Ice Cream Sandwich, and, as before, the skinning atop Android seems minimal - vanilla, even! Other specs: it has the same new K3V2 chip found inside the Ascend D Quad smartphone announced today. It'll go on sale in markets like China and Europe in Q2, meaning we don't know about US availability yet.