If you need to run legacy Windows 8 application, you will have a choice to get the Samsung Series 5 Slate Tablet. Staples will be selling the Samsung Series 5 Slate online only, would have been nice if Staples would carry these tablets in store. This would give the consumer a better look at the slate and more exposer for Windows 8 tablets.
The Samsung Series 5 Slate is not the same as ATIV Smart PC Pro 700T that will have an Ivy core processor, but will be powered with an Intel Atom Z2760 1.5GHz processor, 64GB SSD, 2GB DDR3 system memory, 11.6-inch HD SuperBright Plus screen, 1366 x 768 resolution, 1.6 lbs, 2MP HD front facing camera, WiFi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, Windows 8 64-bit OS, Micro HDMI, USB 2.0 and Intel HD Graphics. This will not have the Windows 8 Pro version, but with 64GB SSD, I am a bit worry that after all the OS installation it won’t leave you with much space. We will have to watch and see how this turns out, but again from past experience, Windows OS should take about 7GB of SSD space.
With the 11.6-inch display and having the optional keyboard dock, this will make your production level much better as you will be able to turn the Samsung Series 5 Slate into a Ultrabook. This should come in size with a MacBook Air, but not as powerful, unless you move up to the ATIV 700T which should give you the best of both worlds, speed and great balance of a nice tablet, with the power when you need it.
Samsung has also included the S Pen, conveniently embedded in a slot on the device. This will make Series 5 Slate better for inking as it will have a digitizer and 1,024 levels of sensitivity giving you the ability to draw or markup with varying thickness. Marking up PDF’s, documents or just to respond to emails with a stylus will make the Series 5 Slate a great choice, giving that Windows 8 is more of a touch screen and stylus OS than ever before.
From short video reviews we have seen Windows 8 running on a Atom processor seem to be fluid, but we are yet to see once users load applications and run several open tabs in Internet Explorer along with Word, Excel and Outlook.
If you had your eyes set on the Microsoft Surface Tablet but just didn’t place your order in time, well your in luck as Office Depot will be selling the Asus VivoTab RT TF600T. It will set you back $599.99, that’s $100.00 more than the $499 32GB Microsoft Surface Tablet without touch cover.
The Asus VivoTab will be sold in stores at Office Depot so you can head down to your local store starting October 26. You can also Pre-Order now and make sure you get your Asus VivoTab come release date.
What you get for $599.99 is a 10.1-inch HD, 1366x768 touch screen, 2GB of RAM powered by NVidia Tegra 3 T30 processor cloaked at 1.3GHz quad-core, WiFi b/g/n, 4.0 Bluetooth, Rear 8-MP rear and 2-MP front facing camera, Micro HDMI, MicroSD card slot, Windows RT operating system, and 10 hours of battery life that should get through the day. If 10 hours is not enough, Asus has the optional keyboard that adds up to 6 additional hours of computing for a true all day solution. The keyboard dock will cost you an additional $170 depending where you order it from.
I really like the true keyboard dock solution, as I have tried the Asus Transformer Prime in the past. This would give you the best of both tablet mode and laptop mode. One thing Asus has done great job since the Asus Transformer Android tablet is the keyboard dock solution. Asus has kept the optional keyboard dock slim as possible and is very useable when you need a real keyboard to type out documents, excel sheets and for those long emails you have to type out. I really was hoping that the Asus VivoTab RT would have included a digitizer for using a stylus. I might still try to pick up the VivoTab come Friday October 26 to give it a try.
Just as quickly and hot on the heels of AT&T’s Windows Phone 8X showing up at the FCC, a CDMA version with what appears to be labeled as the PM23100 having all radios compatible on the Big Red’s network. Nice to see that it will also make the cut with NFC and GSM frequencies to get you roaming while traveling abroad. It will also support the 700MHz 4G LTE on Verizon’s network, so you can enjoy the good old 4G download speed to make those Skype calls come in smooth.
As we are getting closer to the end of October, we are going to be seeing more information get leaked out, so we can be sure to get more information on pricing and availability.
Not to sure if I will be picking up a Windows Phone 8 this time around, but looking forward to more smartphone choices. Will you be picking up a Windows Phone 8?
Just as Google promised, except the update comes a day early from the promised Thursday release date. If you head on over to the Play Store and go to your Apps, you should see Street View ready to be updated to bring Street View to the native mobile Google Maps. I went ahead and updated and gave it a spin. Works great, really like that you now can see what is around before heading out without having to load up Google Navigation. This makes it easy for a quick view of the street.
With the launch of Street View, iOS users will be happy to hear that they also will be able to join on in the party as they will be able to use Street View using the mobile browser. It wont be the same as using Street View in the native application, but it is better than not having it at all.
You will be able to click and hold the location that you would like to be able to use the Street View. This will bring the tab that will allow you to click on and brings the option to go to Street View. With this update it also brings a icon to go directly to navigate and use Google’s Navigation application, down at the bottom which you also see, you get the Search, Navigation, locations to see what’s around you and layers.
I use Google maps quite a bit and really like what Google has been doing to update the Maps, which is often bringing some great features that are easy to use.
As Apple released the new iPhone 5 Friday, 9/21 we heard reports of users having issues with the new mapping software that Apple so much taunted to replace the Google maps from its previous iOS.
Apple decided that keeping the iPhone 5 with a 4-inch display would be a better user friendly phone, while most other phone manufactures are designing mobile phones around a 4.5-inch and bigger display. Makes more sense to have a bigger screen, not only is this helpful when viewing webpages, but for serious use of a mobile phone to view, documents, PDF files, Excel sheets and if you’re a business user, you would really appreciate the bigger screen for this types of files. And lets not forget when viewing email. Yes you could always view on a smaller 4-inch screen, but why? This also leads to why would Apple just use a dual-core processor at 1GHz? Yes I know that most of the software that runs on iOS 6 doesn’t require faster processor but, lets think about this. When Apple releases another iPhone, it will require a faster processor so you will be left out with your current iPhone 5. Yes you will be able to upgrade to the next generation iOS 7 but, most of the time there will be features that will not be available to older iPhones due to not having the hardware to run the newest iOS. As Apple try’s to catch up in the processor department, all of the newer Android devices are starting to ship with Quad-Core processor that are very powerful devices to handle high end HD content. This will be excellent as Google releases new Android OS, you will be able to use your phone for the next 2-years of your phone contract without worrying too much about not having to be able to use all the new features of the new Android OS.
The talk time that Apple is claiming on the new iPhone 5 is 8 hours, which is much less then most newer Android phones. Some users have already claimed that they are getting 12 –14 hours of battery life which is not ideal in my tech use. Again, this is what we had seen many users complain 3 years ago with Android devices, we will have to see how this spans out. My Galaxy SIII gives me an easy 22 – 27 hours with heavy use, this includes having WiFi, GPS, NFC and Bluetooth radios on including LTE when in the area. I was surprised to see a 1440mAh battery while most of the newer Android mobile phones are starting to pack a removable 2100mAh and higher battery that will give you longer talk time and use.
The iPhone 5 does have an excellent display at 1136 x 640, IPS LCD, 326 ppi but does fall short of HD quality. You shouldn’t notice this on the smaller display, but in comparison to other mobile phones with 1280 x 720 resolution and around 306 ppi you get more of a true HD display to watch movies and other media on the phone.
For now, we will see how Apple will continue to improve the iOS to give users more features and easier to use the new iOS. If you were one of the lucky ones to get your new iPhone 5 and had the iPhone 4, would you say besides the newer 4-inch screen, is there much more of a difference? Does the iOS look different? Is there any new way of customizing the home screen? I should be picking up the iPhone 5 to give it a try and compare to my older iPhone 4.
US Cellular is now showing the Samsung Galaxy Note II up for pre-order with a price of $299.99. Unfortunately no release date is yet shown on US Cellular website, but we could expect to see the Galaxy Note II start to shipping at the end of October, so we could see it hitting store shelves early November.
The Galaxy Note II has much improved over its predecessor and now will include a bigger and more massive 5.55-inch HD Super AMOLED+ display. If you thought the original Galaxy Note had a massive display, well now at 5.55-inch, this might just fall at borderline for a small tablet. I myself really don't mind the size of the Galaxy Note, as I have the Galaxy Note 5.3-inch and really like it. It will also be powered by the Quad-Core processor running at a whopping 1.6GHz, could be the fastest mobile phone out there, 2GB of RAM, 1280 x 720 display, 16/32/64 GB of internal storage, MicroSD slot, 8MP rear camera, 1.9MP front facing camera, BT 4.0, WiFi, NFC, S-Pen, and 3100mAh battery to keep this beast from running out of power.
I will be looking forward to getting the Galaxy Note II, which will replace my current Galaxy SIII.
Samsung will be releasing the Galaxy Note II with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean right out of the gate, and with 4G LTE capable, this will make an excellent mobile phone/tablet to carry around as a power user.
