August 2013

The Galaxy Note 10.1 is a 10-inch Android tablet with a nicely integrated active, pressure-sensitive pen. As such, it offers content creation capabilities not generally found in media tablets. This a screamingly fast tablet, reviewer Dan Rasmus found, but it's a bit plasticky and WXGA resolution is marginal these days. Still, Rasmus tentatively recommends the Note for folks who like pens. [See Dan Rasmus' review of the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1

Wacom introduces pressure-sensitive active pen for iPad
Wacom introduced the Intuous Creative Stylus, a pressure-sensitive digital pen for sketching, drawing and painting on an iPad. Wacom says the stylus offers a realistic pen-on-paper feel and users can rest their palms naturally on the iPad when using compatible creative apps (such as such as SketchBook Pro, ArtRage, Bamboo Paper, ProCreate and Psykopaint). The US$99 stylus recognizes 2048 pressure levels, uses a AAAA battery, and apparently connects to the iPad via Bluetooth. -- Posted Tuesday, August 20, 2013 by chb

Xplore overall 3rd after Samsung and Apple in ABI Research 2013 Tablet Competitive Assessment
ABI Research, which provides analysis and quantitative forecasting of trends in global connectivity and other emerging technologies, analyzed 19 leading tablet vendors and then classified them in a four-quadrant matrix where the x-axis shows where a company stands in terms of innovation, and the y-axis how well it's doing in implementation. The overall (and innovation) winner was Samsung. Apple came in second and won on the implementation score. The amazing overall third was Xplore Technologies which, according to ABI Research, "came out ahead of the majority of vendors assessed in this vendor matrix with a good balance between Implementation and Innovation." Congrats, Xplore! The full "Media Tablets" Competitive Assessment is part of ABI Research’s Media Tablets, Ultrabooks & eReaders Research Service. [See ABI Research press release] -- Posted Friday, August 16, 2013 by chb

The dawn of Antel?
"Wintel" -- Intel-powered Windows machines -- has ruled the computing scene for a good 30 years, but are we now seeing the dawn of "Antel" -- Intel-powered Android devices? It's hard to imagine Intel not making a major push into tablets, and the introduction of two education-focused tablet reference designs may be a first step. There's a 1.5-pound, Atom Z2460-powered 10-inch tablet, and a smaller 0.8-pound, Atom Z2420-powered 7-inch tablet, both running Android 4.1. Both tablets are loaded with resources for students and teachers from Intel Education Software. [See Intel Android tablet press release and product briefs on the 7-inch Intel Education Tablet and 10-inch Intel Education Tablet] -- Posted Wednesday, August 14, 2013 by chb

Review: Winmate M700D rugged 7-inch Windows tablet
With the Intel Atom N2600-powered M700D tablet, Winmate offers a straight-forward and cleanly designed basic tool for tablet jobs that require Microsoft Windows, yet also a tool that's technologically attractive with capacitive touch, and highly customizable by partners/resellers that may use their own branding. [See full review of the Winmate M700D] -- Posted Wednesday, August 14, 2013 by chb

Trouble using your Windows tablet with touch?
Ever since the iPad, the market has been demanding touch instead of pens. Touch works great with operating environments designed for touch, such as iOS and Android, but not nearly as well with Windows. Capacitive touch and legacy out-of-the-box Windows, in particular, are not a great match. Fortunately, there are ways to optimize the legacy Windows interface for touch and tablets, and RuggedPCReview shows you how. [See Optimizing the legacy Windows interface for touch and tablets] -- Posted Sunday, August 11, 2013 by chb

Group Mobile adds Xplore RangerX rugged Android tablet
Rugged computing equipment vendor Group Mobile announced it extended its product offerings to include the new Xplore RangerX. The 10.1-inch 2.2-pound RangerX is Xplore's first fully rugged Android tablet and offers up to 192GB of storage. The Xplore RangerX, which has a starting price of US$1,349, offers dual cameras, HDMI-out, USB, RFID, and can be equipped with a common access card (CAC) reader, HDMI-in, RJ-45 and more. [See press release and Group Mobile RangerX page] -- Posted Wednesday, August 7, 2013 by chb

2Q13 tablet unit sales up 50% over 2Q12
According to IDC, In the 2nd quarter of 2013, worldwide tablet unit shipments grew from 28.3 million to 45.1 million. While Apple declined from 17 to 14.6 million iPads, other vendors, and Samsung in particular, greatly boosted sales. Measured by operating systems platform, Android's marketshare skyrocketed from 3% to 62.6%, with Apple's iOS falling from 60.3% to 32.5%. Windows marketshare was at 4%, and Windows RT just 0.5%. [See IDC press release and tables] -- Posted Monday, August 5, 2013 by chb