Intel targets Ivy Bridge processors at Windows 8 tablets

Intel says Ivy Bridge tablets could have up to quad-core Core i-series chips and offer 'leading performance'

IDG News Service - Intel's upcoming Core i-series processors based on the Ivy Bridge architecture are being pitched at ultrabooks, but the company is now extending the chips to high-performance tablets with Microsoft's upcoming Windows 8 operating system.

Intel hopes the new Ivy Bridge chips will make it to tablets, according to a slide from this week's Intel Developer Forum trade show in Beijing. The slide shows one tablet with gaming controllers attached on both sides and another tablet with a keyboard attached to it.

The tablets will provide "leading performance," Intel said on the slide. The tablets could have processors with up to four CPU cores, low-power memory and other power-saving features to extend battery life, according to the slide.

Intel until now had established a tablet strategy around low-power Atom chips. The company is due to release its latest tablet chips code-named Clover Trail later this year, which will help Windows 8 tablets offer more than nine hours of battery life.

Intel's upcoming Ivy Bridge mobile processors have been mainly targeted at a new category of thin and light laptops called ultrabooks, which is a way for the company to combat its weakness in tablets. Intel is promoting ultrabooks as an alternative to tablets, as the lightweight laptops let users consume and create content. Intel is implementing some tablet features in Ivy Bridge ultrabooks, with some models meshing keyboards with features such as touchscreens, quick boot and instant connectivity.

Intel could not immediately comment on whether any device makers would offer those tablets. Intel has code-named the Ivy Bridge tablet platform Chief River, which is also the code-name for the upcoming ultrabook platform. The Chief River platform supports USB 3.0 and could also bring Thunderbolt ports to tablets.

Ivy Bridge tablets could be very similar in specifications to ultrabooks, just without the keyboard, said Dean McCarron, principal analyst at Mercury Research. Intel could be pushing the high-performance tablets to test new use cases of x86 devices.

"You are looking at an evolutionary step," McCarron said. "Particularly in the x86 space, the evolution is more the convertible-type design where the keyboard is an optional piece," McCarron said.

The tablet may appeal to customers who need the performance of a Core processor, but also need a more highly portable platform than is currently offered by laptops, McCarron said. Tablet use is on the rise in enterprises, and customers may want a high-performing device resembling a tablet with a separate keyboard.

The Core processors have specific on-chip features that provide the processors a performance and security edge over power-optimized Atom tablet chips. In addition to Windows 8, tablets with Core processors will improve graphics with DirectX 11, which is supported on the Ivy Bridge chipset.

McCarron didn't know the specific tablet implementations Intel was targeting, but said the 7-series chipset accompanying Ivy Bridge processors could be tweaked for tablets. Enterprises are a better fit for Ivy Bridge tablets than gamers, who usually need high-resolution displays, refresh rates and graphics performance, McCarron said.

Most tablets today come with ARM processors, and ARM-based chip makers Nvidia and Qualcomm are targeting faster quad-core chips at tablets. ARM has an advantage on power consumption, while Intel is better on raw performance, analysts said.

Intel is throwing its weight behind its Atom and Ivy Bridge processors to see if it can gain some market share against ARM, said Jim McGregor, an independent chip analyst.

"They are going after every angle they can to get a foothold in a market," McGregor said, adding that Intel has had limited success to date.

Gaming tablets with ARM are now available, and Intel may be targeting Ivy Bridge chips to disrupt ARM's dominance in the area, McGregor said.

Intel is working with Microsoft on Windows 8 tablets, but also has a relationship with Google on Android so the chip maker will have to play its cards carefully, McGregor said. But the higher performance on Intel's Ivy Bridge chips may be relevant for specific productivity applications on both operating systems compared to ARM.

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Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 only $50 with new VZW contract

With the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0) hitting store shelves on April 22nd, Verizon is looking to burn off some inventory of the original 7-in Galaxy tab. Right now on Verizon’s website the 7-inch Galaxy Tab is available for $229.99 minus a $180 promotional discount making the device just $49.99 with a 2-year contract.The Android 2.2 powered tablet has a 7-inch 1024x600 display, 1GHz processor, 2GB memory, 16 GB microSD card, 3-megapixel rear-facing camera, and a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera.

 

The new Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0) will be priced at a competitive $250, so it’s safe to assume that Verizon realized that not too many people would spring $230 for the old model. At just $50 though, the original 7-inch Galaxy Tab is a great value and offers a lot more for your money than similarly priced budget tablets.

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Toshiba's 13-inch Excite: does the world need a tablet this large?

When Toshiba announced its 13-inch Excite tablet Tuesday, the company made an argument that one size does not fit all when it comes to touchscreen devices. But who will actually use such a large slab of mobile computing?

"The Excite 13 is what we see as a home tablet," Jared Leavitt, a Toshiba spokesman, told Wired. "The larger size makes it an ideal kitchen tablet. You can watch how-to videos while you're cooking, or look up recipes. And then later, you can bring it into the living room to watch videos with the kids, or to look at family photos with friends."

Thankfully, Toshiba is shipping the Excite 13, which runs on Google's Android 4.0 operating system, with a stand that will relieve owners from having to hold, or prop up, the large device themselves.

And despite being bigger than pretty much every other competing tablet on the market, the Excite 13 is fairly thin and light for its size, Leavitt said, noting that it will weigh 2.2 pounds and measure 0.4 inches thick.

Nonetheless, anyone who's watching the tablet market has to wonder why Toshiba is releasing a tablet behemoth in a world enamored with smaller devices. After all, the first tablet to gain any widespread consumer adoption other than Apple's iPad is the 7-inch Kindle Fire.

And looking forward, the hottest rumors focus on an iPad mini and a 7-inch tablet that would be Google's next flagship mobile device. In short: Small is in, and big isn't even part of the conversation.

Jared Spool, the CEO of User Interface Engineering, a usability research firm, agrees that Toshiba is thinking about tablet design in a way that its rivals aren't. But Spool doesn't agree that the world needs, or wants, a 13-inch tablet.

"This is the sort of typical maneuver of just adding another feature without improving the actual user experience," Spool told Wired. "It's just bigger, and it's not clear to me that anyone is asking for bigger. You can only get the iPad in one size and nobody is saying, 'Gee, it just feels a little too small to me.'"

But while there seems to be no consumer demand for larger tablets, the use case of watching movies as a group, or flipping through photos with loved ones on the couch, on a 13-inch slate isn't too hard to imagine, says Jakob Nielsen, principal at the Nielsen Norman Group, a usability research firm.

"If a small group of people is trying to use the tablet together, sitting on the couch and consuming content, this size makes sense," Nielsen told Wired. "But I do think [the Excite 13] might be a bit of overreach. I don't think that people only need one computer. Nowadays, most people have two computers, between a laptop and a smartphone. But where this Toshiba tablet fits in -- between those devices and the TV -- I'm not sure. It's not likely to be a big success."

Spool also predicts that the Excite 13 will be neither an iPad killer, nor a top-selling Android tablet.

"These types of enhancements are knee-jerk reactions from companies who are trying to 'out feature' other companies," he said. "But what this comes down to is that it's not the specific technology in a tablet that makes it exciting. It's the user experience. And there's just a lot less to do on an Android tablet than an iPad. And what there is to do is much clumsier because the screen sizes and specs for Android tablets are all over the place. A 13-inch screen and a bunch of top specs do nothing to change that."

Among the other specs the Excite 13 touts are a quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 processor, 1GB of RAM, a 5-megapixel rear facing camera, and four rear-mounted speakers to blast audio from the tablet's aluminum back.

The tablet also sports a 1,600×900 screen resolution, a micro-USB port, a micro-HDMI port and a full-size SD card slot.

The Excite 13 sits at the top of a revamped tablet line for Toshiba, in terms of both price and screen size with a price tag of $649.99 for the 32GB model, and $749.99 for the 64GB model, when it hits stores in early June.

For those looking for a more traditionally sized tablet that still packs a quad-core punch, Toshiba will also ship in June a 7.7-inch version of the Excite (known as the Excite 7) at $499.99 for 16GB of storage and $579.99 for 32GB.

A 10-inch Excite, dubbed the Excite 10, will ship in May for $449.99 with 16 GB of storage and $529.99 for the 32GB. The Excite range of tablets replaces Toshiba's old line of Thrive slates, which were offered in both a 7-inch and 10-inch model.

In case you're wondering why is the Excite 7 more expensive than the Excite 10, Leavitt explained: "Smaller is harder to do."

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Samsung Announces Lower-Cost Android 4.0 Tablets

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 got its official U.S. launch today, with pricing and general availability revealed for the first time since the Galaxy Tab 2 series was quietly shown at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona two months ago.

Back at MWC, the Tab 2 played second fiddle to the company's attention-grabbing Galaxy Note 10.1, itself a larger version of the Galaxy Note phone.

Today, though, the Galaxy Tab 2 series has the spotlight to itself. A light refresh of earlier tablets, the Tab 2 Series comes in 7.0 and 10.1-inch versions and features similar specs, with a few differences.

The biggest news surrounding these tablets is their markedly lower price. The Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 is priced at $250, goes on pre-order April 12, and on-sale 10 days later. The Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 is priced at $400, will go on pre-order May 4, and ships May 13.

Those prices are especially noteworthy given the red-hot tablet market. At $250, the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 sets its sights squarely on its bargain-priced $200 Amazon Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet competition. All three of those models have 7-inch 1024 by 600 pixel displays, and all three come with just 8GB of memory on-board. But of those, only the Galaxy Tab 2 has an infrared port for controlling your TV and entertainment components, and only the Tab 2 has Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (both Amazon and Barnes & Noble are using their own versions of Android, built on-top of 2.3 Gingerbread).

Meanwhile, the Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 price reflects a 20 percent drop as compared with last spring's original Galaxy Tab 10.1. Both old and new 10.1-inch models had 16GB of memory and 1280 by 800 pixel resolution, but this year's version adds the microSD card slot and IR port, so you can use the tablet as a remote control.

Both of the new Galaxy Tabs have a 1GHz dual-core processor, though Samsung did not divulge if they were the same Nvidia Tegra 2 processors as in previous dual-core Tab 10.1 Wi-Fi, for example (presumably, it's not since they're not saying). The new models will replace the existing like-sized Tabs in the market, the 10.1 Wi-Fi and the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus. Oddly, when comparing the Tab 2 7.0 to the Tab 7.0 Plus, the latter—a late-2011 model--was actually more tricked out than the Tab 2, with a 1.2-GHz processor and 16GB of memory. The rear-facing camera's spec (on both models) of 3 megapixels stays the same as on the original Tab 10.1 Wi-Fi; but oddly, the front-facing camera drops from 2 megapixels on the 10.1 to a sub-megapixel 640 by 480 on the new models.

The physical specs of the Tab 2 models are virtually the same as on their respective predecessors. Likewise, physical build is comparable, too, to previous models (not to mention that it's notably better than the chintzy impression the Tab 2 series left in its pre-production state at Mobile World Congress two months ago). The Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 weighs the same as the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus: 0.76 pounds, with a similar design and build quality, and similar dimensions (4.8 by 7.6 inches, but slightly thicker at 0.41 inches, to the 7.0 Plus' 0.39 inches). The Tab 2 10.1 also has similar dimensions to its predecessor, 6.9 inches by 10.1 inches, but slightly narrower (0.34 inches to 0.38 on the original Tab 10.1 Wi-Fi). Oddly, the new 10.1-inch model's weight is ever-so-slightly more, 1.28 pounds to 1.25 pounds.

In its launch, Samsung emphasized aspects of its software additions to the Tab 2 series. Among them: a year of included Dropbox service with 50GB of storage; the IR remote control capability, powered here by Peel's app; and features like Smart View for mirroring content from your TV on the tablet, and Remote Viewfinder for use with Samsung's Wi-Fi cameras. This feature could have some interesting applications for group photos, for example; using WiFi Direct and an app on the tablet, you can use the tablet to control the viewfinder, shutter, zoom, and flash of the camera.

The Smart View TV-to-tablet mirroring feature will work with only Samsung 7000 series LED HDTVs, circa 2011 and beyond. It was fairly nifty in a demo, requiring just a few taps to share a television's feed with the tablet; I noticed a fair amount of macroblocking and artifacts in the image on the tablet, but it's unclear if that's because of the tablet itself or the available Wi-Fi bandwidth. The image was certainly watchable in a pinch; and it sufficed compared with some other middling streamed images I've seen over time. Also, I noticed that, as compared to the same 720p image broadcast on a Samsung HDTV, the image on the tablet frankly called attention to the color reproduction deficiencies of the tablet's screen.

Is all of this enough for Samsung to stay competitive in a crowded tablet marketplace? Maybe, but it's still a tight call. These tablets are obviously being positioned as the company's “value” hitters—no 4G, no pen input as on the upcoming Galaxy Note, no high-resolution display—and that makes the inclusion of an infrared port an even larger coup.

Still, these models must compete with the Apple juggernaut along with the Android masses. And that might be a tough proposition without better, higher resolution displays, thinner designs, and better cameras. I also wish that Samsung had included its own universal remote control app with the tablet, rather than relying solely on a third-party app to do the heavy lifting instead.

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Intel working with 10 vendors on Windows 8 tablets

Lenovo K800, the first smartphone to use an Intel chip, will go on sale in China in late May

IDG News Service - Intel is working with 10 undisclosed Chinese and global vendors to design Windows 8 tablets using the company's chips, a senior company executive said Wednesday.

"You'll probably see many Intel-based tablets by the end of this year," Intel China chairman Sean Maloney said while speaking at the Intel Developer Forum in Beijing.

Maloney made his comments as Intel has been working to expand its chip business into smartphones and tablets. The company's newest Atom processor, the Z2460 and also code-named "Medfield", is built for smartphones and tablets, and promises to give high computing performance while also offering long battery life.

 The Medfield chip will be used in Chinese PC maker Lenovo's K800 handset, the first smartphone to use an Intel processor. The K800 will go on sale in China at the end of May, according to Lenovo vice president Wayne Chen.

Lenovo share of China's smartphone market last year was less than 5%, according to research firm Canalys. The K800 smartphone is positioned at the "high end", Maloney said.

Intel is also developing another mobile chip, code-named Clover Trail, which is designed for tablets and is scheduled to arrive this year. The chip features a 1.8 GHz processor, according to a slide shown during Maloney's speech.

Although Intel is best known as a PC chip producer, the company has big ambitions for the tablet and smartphone market, especially in China. "Our strategy in China now is to win with smartphones and tablets. We are making progress on it!" Maloney said during an online chat with Internet users earlier this week.

Chinese handset manufacturer ZTE also plans to launch a smartphone using Intel chips during the second half of this year, according to Maloney.

Intel is also developing two other Atom chips for smartphones. The Intel Atom Z2580 will offer twice the performance of the Medfield chip. The Atom Z2000 has a 1.0 GHz processor and is positioned for the lower end of the market.

View orginal artical here-Windows 8

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Review: Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7

On a number of occasions I’ve found myself referring to tablets as a “living room device”. They are something that you can use to check your email while watching the game, pass around to show off pictures of the family, and the device you grab to play a game during the commercials. For most people, I think the tablet is a great luxury machine that could live in the communal place in your house, without having any higher purpose. Samsung took this concept one step further with the Galaxy Tab 7.7 and added an IR blaster, allowing it to not only be a living room gadget, but the gadget that controls your living room.

The Specs

As the name suggests, the Galaxy Tab 7.7 is just slightly bigger than the original Galaxy Tab, but significantly thinner. In fact, I would go so far as to say this tablet borders on being too thin. The delicate balance of making a device razor thin, ultra light, and still be able to deliver days of battery life is certainly at play here. It’s 7.89mm at the thickest point, and that tapers slightly towards the edges of the tablet making it thinner than just about every other tablet out there. The tablet fits in my back pocket with no problems, and at 0.85 pounds you almost run the risk of sitting on it because you forget it is back there.

The back of the tablet is a confused mixture of plastic and brushed aluminum, made slightly awkward by the machines feel of the Samsung logo, which is not only slightly raised on the back of the case, but is almost scratchy due to the surfacing used. Along the sides of the casing you have your standard power and volume rocker, but you also have a microSD slot and a SIM slot for those LTE users out there.

The thing that draws you in about the Galaxy Tab 7.7 is the screen. While it will be some time before any of the manufacturers out there are ready to push anything out that compares to the Retina display on the new iPad, the Super AmoLED Plus screen on the Galaxy Tab is nothing to scoff at. The 1280×800 resolution display is every bit as brilliant as I’ve come to expect from Samsung displays, though this is one of the first times I’ve been able to enjoy it out of the smartphone experience.

The quality of the screen was matched only by the battery life. Being an LTE device, I feared the worst. When using the device on a WiFi network, it was no problem to get eight or nine hours out of constant use out of the tablet, and LTE only managed to shave about an hour of the battery life away.

Using the Tab

I can’t help but feel like there was some sort of horrible communications gas between the people manufacturing this tablet at Samsung, and the people designing the UI. There was clearly some sort of disconnect. In many places, the OS wants to encourage you to use the tablet in landscape mode — something we’re all to familiar with seeing on Android. This experience feels counter-intuitive, since the logos and all of the text on the outside of the device are oriented for the portrait experience. Even the IR transmitter is on the side of the device, so you need to hold the device in landscape in order to use it. Like most Honeycomb devices the camera app is forced landscape, though the camera itself is the top corner of the device when you hold it portrait as if to suggest that it would work to take pictures in either orientation.

Speaking of Honeycomb, the Galaxy Tab 7.7 arrives on the scene some three months after the release of the first ICS device by Samsung and yet Android 4.0 is nowhere to be found on this tablet. Instead, the device is optimized by Samsung’s TouchWiz for tablets. I wish I had something, anything nice at all to say about Samsung’s UI over Honeycomb. I find the colors used, especially the bright green in the stock clock and the quick settings in the action bar to be flat out offensive to the eye. It is my deepest wish that Samsung just release stock ICS to the Galaxy Tab 7.7 and allow their users to enjoy the experience unfettered by their attempts at improving the experience.

Despite all of the above, the tablet is truly enjoyable based solely on its size and portability. I can either carry it around with me anywhere I go, or leave it in my living room to use as I pass through. The inclusion of the IR transmitter encouraged me to leave it in the living room to see if I could enjoy using the Peel app that was included on the tablet to control my home entertainment center. In a world where our televisions and set top boxes are getting smarter, most people still have plenty of things in the living room and bedroom that require an IR transmitter.

The Peel app has a remarkable significant database of devices, and setting up multiple rooms in my house to all be controlled by the Peel remote was incredibly easy. In about five minutes, the Galaxy Tab 7.7 not only became my go-to remote, but is also became my TV Guide. Since the Tablet also has access to things like Air Play, Google TV, and Roku, the tablet can even be used to control the fancy new set-top boxes as well as the “old school” IR controlled devices.

Final Thoughts

I’m not totally pleased with the Galaxy Tab 7.7. I really like the hardware, especially when used as a “living room device” but the Samsung overlay and the outdated version of Android really take away from the experience. The Galaxy Tab 7.7 is only available at Verizon Wireless in the US, although the WiFi version is available internationally and can be ordered online for about $500.

Verizon is selling the Galaxy Tab 7.7 at the laughable price of $699 without a contract, and $499 with a two year LTE contract. Basically, while the Galaxy Tab 7.7 has some amazing potential, the US exclusivity agreement with Verizon has priced itself out of the market.

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Apple Wins Permanent Ban on German Sales of Samsung Tablet

In addition, Samsung Germany may not sell the device in any other European Union country, although other Samsung divisions may sell into those countries, a spokesman at the court said.

Samsung will appeal the decision in the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court, a spokesman said.

"We are disappointed with this ruling and believe it severely limits consumer choice in Germany," he said via email.

Apple had filed a lawsuit claiming that the Galaxy Tab 10.1 infringes on the design of the iPad 2, which is registered with the E.U.'s Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market.

"By imposing an injunction based on this very generic design right, this ruling restricts design innovation and progress in the industry," the Samsung spokesman said, adding that the decision is inconsistent with the August 24 ruling by a Dutch court on a separate case involving the two companies, which found the designs of Samsung's Galaxy products don't violate Apple's design right.

In the German case, Apple was granted a preliminary injunction about a month ago preventing Samsung from selling the tablet in all E.U. countries except the Netherlands, where a separate case is pending. A week later the ban was lifted in all countries except Germany, because the court wasn't sure it had the authority to stop a South Korean company from selling its products outside Germany.

On August 25, the injunction was upheld, following a hearing that focused on the accuracy of evidence supplied by Apple, with Samsung accusing Apple of deliberately distorting images of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 so that it looked more like the iPad 2. Earlier, an investigation by IDG publication Webwereld showed that at least one of the Galaxy Tab pictures that Apple provided as evidence in the case was wrong or had been manipulated.

The global legal battle between the two companies even made its presence felt during the Internationale Funkausstellung (IFA) consumer electronics show in Berlin, where Samsung removed from its stand all traces of the Galaxy Tab 7.7, the 10.1's smaller brother, just two days after launching the product there. That device is the subject of a separate injunction from the lower court. Samsung can still challenge that ruling in the lower court.

However, in Japan, the CEO of mobile operator NTT DoCoMo said on Thursday that his company's launch of the Samsung Galaxy Tab next month will not be affected by a patent-infringement lawsuit Apple has filed there against Samsung.

Meanwhile, Samsung has vowed to keep up its legal counter-offensive. "We will take all available legal options including continuing to aggressively pursue Apple for its ongoing violation of Samsung's wireless technology patents around the world," the Samsung spokesman said.

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