Sunday, at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the USB Implementers Forum (AKA the USB standards setting organization) said that USB 3.0 will reach tablets and smartphones by the end of 2012. USB 2.0 has a maximum data rate of 480Mbps, while USB 3.0 has a maximum speed of 5Gbps.
The devices will see their fairly ubiquitous microUSB ports equipped with the new standard, but because of the lower power requirements of the devices, their USB 3.0 capabilities will be slowed considerably. Rahman Ismail, chief technology officer of the USB Implementers Forum said the speeds would only approach 800Mbps.
"It's not the failure of USB per se, it's just that in tablets they are not looking to put the biggest, fastest things inside a tablet," he said, while adding the positive side of things: "What takes 15 minutes will roughly take 1 minute and 10 seconds."
In addition, recharging will be faster via the USB 3.0 interface. Of course, there are plenty of tablet makers who use proprietary interfaces for charging their devices (ugh), in which case, the charging aspect doesn't matter.
While we already know we'll see Intel (and Apple's) Thunderbolt I/O on iDevices and PCs, we expect to see it on Android tablets and smartphones, eventually, as well. Thunderbolt I/O, formerly Light Peak, provides a 20Gbps data rate currently, and Intel says it will reach 100Gbps within 10 years.
Microsoft is preparing a version of its Office productivity suite that will run on the iPad, the Daily is reporting. Coincidentally, The Daily is Rupert Murdoch's iPad only news daily (iTunes link) that was launched on the iPad earlier this year.
The report cited the typical unnamed "sources." It went on to say that the iPad Office app could be released prior to the next version Office for Mac, which is expected to ship late next year.
It wouldn't be the first iOS app for the Redmond, Wa. company, which also has its own smartphone platform, Windows Phone. Office for the iPad can only help the iPad in corporate environments, but it's also a market just waiting for Microsoft to enter it, with the iPad currently owning some 80 percent (or more, depending on the source) of the tablet space.
Still, with Microsoft's Windows 8 OS capable of supporting ARM-based processors in addition to Intel-based processors, it's widely expected that a Windows 8 tablet will be coming. One would expect that porting Office to iOS might actually hurt those Windows 8 tablet sales.
The Daily said that Office for the iPad would be around the same $10 price point that Apple has established for its Pages, Numbers and Keynote products. We'd assume, actually, that the information is inaccurate, and probably another 0 to the left of the decimal point would be added.
Still, it's a tablet, and a mobile app, and that sort of pricing isn't normal in that realm. We'll see what Microsoft chooses to do.
This is still rumor, and notably, it's hard not to doubt them based on the following: The Daily said the following, speaking of Office for the Mac: "The current version of the desktop package, Office 2011, officially supports iOS versions up to Snow Leopard." Uh, Snow Leopard is Mac OS, not iOS.
On Tuesday, we saw two firms touting their platforms onto the other's turf, with Microsoft showing off a preview of Windows 8, noting its ability to run on ARM-based processors (although the developer preview won't), and Google reaffirmed its Intel partnership.
In fact, Google's Andy Rubin, Senior Vice President of Mobile at Google, announced at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) that all future versions of Android would be optimized for Intel processors and SoCs, all the way from the core of the OS to multimedia performance.
It's known Intel is working on such silicon, and the Cisco Cius tablet uses an Intel Atom 1.6 GHz processor, in fact. It was announced on June 29, 2010 at Cisco Live 2010.
Intel took the opportunity at IDF to tease a tablet and smartphone both running Android on the Medfield chip. No manufacturer was named, but Intel promised phones running on Intel chips in "early 2012."
You can view a video of Rubin's announcement below. Interestingly, blowing up images of the tablet and looking carefully, one can see an NFC logo on the back of the tablet (not National Football Conference for you Fantasy Football fans, but Near-Field Communication), which Google has said it believes will replace credit cards in the future (Google Wallet).
We reported back in mid-May that an update to the MacBook Air, including Intel's new Sandy Bridge processors and Thunderbolt I/O was due sometime in June or July. Reports are that the refresh is scheduled for Wednesday, June 15.
To be clear, Apple retail stores are scheduled for one of their "overnights" on Tuesday night, which points to some sort of event, but reports also indicate that the overnight is for the aforementioned MacBook Air refresh. In addition, it looks like Apple will also include preparation for a Wednesday launch of its annual Back to School promo as part of the Tuesday "overnight."
The Back to School promotion typically offers a free iPod touch, or $229 off another type of iPod with any Mac purchase. It's been rumored that this year, the promo might include $229 or so off an iPad 2, instead.
It looks like the latest model in the ultra-thin laptop wars will launch on Tuesday. It's expected that Dell's XPS 15z model will be released that day, joining Samsung's Series 9 as current MacBook Air (MBA) rivals.
Dell's first attempt at an MBA rival fell flat, partly because of pricing, but this model won't have that difficulty: it will ship priced at $999 to start. The Samsungs, encased in aircraft-grade materials and sporting Intel's new Sandy Bridge platform, are a bit heavier on the wallet, at $1,200 for the 11-inch model and $1,650 for the 13-inch model.
Meanwhile, the XPS 15z, which has been teased via video, but without much more detail revealed, is expected to be a 15.6-inch laptop, with Dell saying it will be the thinnest 15-inch laptop in existence.
If the specifications are right, this could be a hit. We'd hope for Sandy Bridge, a solid-state, not hard drive, an optical drive, and gaming-quality (though obviously, not ultra-gaming) integrated graphics.
Whether or not we get that, remains to be seen. Watch the latest teaser video below.
The iPad 2 was introduced slightly earlier than a traditional annual refresh would require, and it appears the MacBook Air is heading in the same direction. DigiTimes, which receives its usually accurate information from the Asian supply chain, says that Apple is aiming for a June / July refresh for the ultrathin laptop, last revised last October.
The new versions will carry Intel's new Sandy Bridge processors, as well as the new Intel Thunderbolt I/O ports. Both were recently introduced in the MacBook Pro refresh in late February. Earlier this month, new iMac all-in-one desktops with Sandy Bridge processors and Thunderbolt were launched.
Apple has always had to squeeze ports into the MBA, so we'll see how things work out. While Thunderbolt is undersupported peripheral-wise, it's speeds tantalize: up to 10 gigabits per second, which makes USB 3.0 looking sad, five times slower than Thunderbolt (nee Intel's Light Peak). It is 12 faster quicker than Firewire 800, and let's not even discuss USB 2.0.
Just as with the current MBAs, the new revisions will sport 11.6-inch and 13.3-inch screens. Shipping in June or July, the new MBAs might take the heat off Apple for slipping the next-generation iPhone 4S into the September timeframe (at least, that is the widely believed rumor).
The Dell Adamo is dead, but just as it teased the original Adamo, Dell is teasing the successor to its original, ultra-thin laptop.
The new line of laptops will start with an initial entry sized at 15.6-inches. According to sources , the still unbranded laptop will be the thinnest in its class. Destined to emerge in the next few weeks, it will sport the latest Intel "Sandy Bridge" Core i5 and Core i7 processors, have a high-resolution display, and be crafted from special materials, all in a sub-$1,000 package.
An SAI article wonders if maybe, just maybe, Microsoft CTO Craig Mundie wasn't just trying to save Microsoft some face a few weeks ago when he commented that tablets were just a fad. Instead, it openly wonders if tablets are just a fad.
A couple of the data points used are:
1) Apple's disappointing iPad numbers in its fiscal Q2 2011 (calendar year Q1 2011). The company shipped 4.7 million iPads, hardly chump change, but at the same time analysts expected 6 million sold. [Counter: Apple sold more iPads than it could ship, 5.1 million, meaning it probably could have sold 6 million if it could have gotten that many]
2) Intel's reported earnings showed growth across the board, and far above Wall Street estimates. Intel's PC business showed little harm from the iPad and other tablets. Instead, it grew 17 percent year-over-year and 12 percent from Q4 2011. [Counter: Chip analysts wonder if Intel's growth could be due to an unnecessary inventory build-up by its customers, with a correction coming later this year]
After all, it's been said that Apple developed a product that no one really knew they needed: the iPad.
What, then, could fuel the sales of the iPad, such as they are? The iPhone, says the article.
Folks using the iPhone and loving it, using it daily and even at night on the couch, realize that they could do so much more if they just had a device with a larger screen and soft keypad. The iPad fits that description precisely.
Interestingly, that is the same experience some Android users have noted about their smartphones. While sales of the Xoom are admittedly tepid when compared to the iPad, some interviewed note that they loved their Android smartphones, but had the same experience described above for iPhone users: they knew they could do so much more with a larger screen and larger device.
[Unlike the iPad, the UI for a Honeycomb device (Android 3.0, the first tablet-optimized Android version) is significantly different than the smartphone version. The iPad has been criticized by some for being just a big iPhone.]
Meanwhile, others note that the iPad is fun, and has its uses, but can't replace a computer. Certainly, while it's possible to write a book on it, it's not as though the software available is capable of fulling replacing Word [this applies to Android, as well]. For example, there are plug-ins and add-ons for Word that format a document in a style necessary for a particular task, such as writing a screenplay or an APA document.
So, does that mean that the tablet is a fad? No, it doesn't.
As noted above, to do certain types of serious work, it's necessary to have a laptop or personal computer. That doesn't mean the iPad or other tablet can't do serious work, itself, though, in certain segments. A good example of what a tablet could be used for was shown when HP launched its Windows-based Slate 500: medicine.
That, and other vertical markets are perfect examples of "real work" a tablet could be used for. Android's openness, vs. Apple's closed iOS, could make that platform more attractive to some. Either way, the genie is out of the bottle, and it's not going to go back in.
Researchers at MIT, the University of Washington: Peter Henry, Mike Krainin, and Intel Labs Seattle have used Microsoft's Kinect motion controller to turn a Quadrotor system (sort of a mini four prop helicopter) into an autonomous robotic device.
It's not the first such hack of Microsoft's gaming controller, and it won't be the last. Microsoft announced earlier it would soon be releasing an SDK to enable development of PC-based software for the device.
Living Social continues to make inroads on Groupon's market share with nationwide as well as local deals. Living Social's last big nationwide hit deal deal was an Amazon.com deal that was 50 percent off (spend $10 for $20). On Wednesday, the company announced a new deal involving TigerDirect.com which is even better: 52 percent off.
TigerDirect.com, although not as well-known as Amazon.com, focuses on electronics and computers. The selection isn't as great as Amazon.com, but we personally have found some deals there that exceed Amazon.com's. Additionally, you can use rebate sites such as MrRebates to get rebates on purchases there, something not available at Amazon.com (although if you use an Amazon VISA you get a 3 percent rebate).
The new Living Social deal is $12 for $25 at TigerDirect.com. A few examples of the deals you frequently find at TigerDirect.com (from an email they sent us this morning).
Recent Comments