The Prognosis Is Grim

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Remember netbooks? Those inexpensive, highly portable, long-battery-life laptops made primarily for lightweight tasks like Web browsing? Netbook sales have declined. In the United States, sales have dropped precipitously since 2010, and the trend in the rest of the world is starting to follow.

When netbooks burst onto the scene in 2007, they seemed to be ideal for people looking for a lightweight, on-the-go computer. As the name suggests, netbooks were designed for Web browsing and online content consumption, as well as for light office work. Performance was limited, however, partly because the machines used the first Intel Atom CPUs and partly because the starter versions of Windows imposed crippling requirements. Microsoft’s licensing limited initial Windows netbooks to a scant 1GB of RAM. In addition, most early netbooks shipped with cramped keyboards, plus tiny, 7- to 10-inch, low-resolution screens.

Despite their limitations, netbooks filled a valuable niche when released. Inexpensive, lightweight, and fairly rugged, netbooks arrived just as the fast and reliable 802.11n Wi-Fi standard began to take off, and most were equipped to support it. Netbooks became the hot new category, and companies rushed to fill a niche pioneered by Asus’s original Eee PC, the first publicly announced netbook.

Today, netbooks have faded from the scene. Dell has stopped selling netbooks altogether. HP seems to be positioning its sole remaining model, the Mini 1104, for the education market. Although netbooks remain available at retail and online outlets, new models are few and far between. Asus, the original netbook maker, is still selling several netbook models.

Starting in early 2010, sales of netbooks “took a nosedive,” IDC analyst David Daoud notes. Netbook sales in the United States in particular fell off a cliff.

The numbers in the chart above represent unit sales in the United States, in millions (source: IDC). The message: Netbook sales have rapidly declined, and continue to drop in one of the world’s biggest PC markets.

Other parts of the world trailed the U.S. trend, however.

Netbook sales growth continued in most of the rest of the world through 2010, but began to tail off sharply in Western Europe by early 2011. Today, growth has all but halted in most areas, except for Latin America. Most of the growth has been in the developing world.

Put all of that data together, and you end up with worldwide netbook sales showing a gradual decline over the past two years, with the trend moving downward overall.

What is happening to netbooks is a classic case of technological innovation killing a product niche, particularly in the United States. When netbooks first launched, users noticed their sluggish performance, mediocre keyboards, and tiny screens. Some manufacturers built netbooks with larger screens, but the increased price and weight made higher-performing laptops with battery like dell J399N battery, dell Inspiron 1440 battery, dell Inspiron 1750 battery, dell Inspiron 17 battery, dell Inspiron 14 battery, Dell RM791 Battery, Dell Studio 1735 Battery, Dell Studio 17 Battery, Dell Studio 1737 Battery, Dell MT342 Battery seem a better deal.

The most important thing that happened over the past couple of years was the release of Apple’s original iPad in April 2010. By the launch of the iPad 2 in the first quarter of 2011, netbook sales had started falling more sharply.

It’s unlikely, however, that people who might have bought inexpensive netbooks ran out and bought pricier iPads instead. “The fast decline of the netbook has been the result of many factors," IDC’s Daoud suggests. "First is mainstream consumers' lack of interest in a product that features tiny screens and keyboards. This was at the same time Apple released its first generation of iPads, shifting consumer attention to the tablet. Meanwhile, the PC industry has been refocusing its efforts on higher-margin systems that produce better profits, such as the Ultrabook and upcoming releases of new classes of tablets. All these factors and many others are currently conspiring to bring the netbook into a tiny niche market.”

In other words, users became disenchanted with the sluggish performance and poor experience that netbooks offered, and Apple’s shiny new toy--with its emphasis on responsiveness and ease of use--exacerbated the flaws of the netbook in the eyes of potential buyers.

What’s more, netbook margins were very low, so manufacturers abandoned them. Brian Pitstick, who runs the marketing effort for Dell’s consumer, small, and medium business laptops, notes as much: “The netbook category has declined because netbooks did not deliver on the overall user experience, but rather addressed the category on a price basis.”

Even Asus, which still offers a broad netbook-product portfolio, acknowledges the reality of the market. “Clearly, demand for netbooks is declining and many think this product category is all but dead," Asus's Kevin S. Huang wrote in an email exchange. "Asus created the netbook category, and I think netbooks today still provide the most cost-effective computing product solution servicing certain user segments--i.e., the K-12 education market.”

Intel was one of the prime beneficiaries of netbook growth, with its first-generation Atom processors powering most of the netbooks sold. Intel’s Kathryn M. Gill told us that the company is aware of the decline of the netbook, but remains bullish about its prospects in other markets. “From Intel’s perspective, netbooks, tablets/hybrids, and Ultrabook devices each provide distinct and unique value propositions. The worldwide landscape for computing devices will continue to grow, not decrease. In other words, for the foreseeable future, we see devices coexisting and serving different market segments as well as different user needs, and spanning a wide range of system price points. We believe our 32nm Medfield, Clover Trail, and Cedar Trail products offer winning lineups for 2012.”

Apple is likely responsible for another factor in the decline of the netbook. In late 2010, Apple released a more affordable MacBook Air, replacing the original, pricey 13-inch model with lower-priced 11- and 13-inch models. The base 11.6-inch model costs $999. Taking note of the MacBook Air’s success, Intel developed the Ultrabook idea, a branded standard for very thin laptops. Manufacturers looking to build higher-margin products in the ultraportable-laptop segment, at least for the U.S. market, have turned to Ultrabooks. The jury is still out on the long-term success of Ultrabooks, but early reviews have been favorable.

Dell Precision M6600

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The Precision M6600 is not in the least bit 'flashy' to look at; instead, it exudes understated professionalism. Built around a sturdy magnesium chassis, it's clad in slate-grey anodised aluminium and feels solid — as it should, weighing 3.5kg. Not only does the M6600 look the part, it also satisfies the MIL-STD-810G stipulations for resistance to extreme temperature, vibration, dust ingress, altitude and shock.

The military-grade Precision M6600 offers a 17.3in. screen, a full-size keyboard with separate number pad and a highly configurable specification

Reassuringly, there's surprisingly little flex in either the large lid section or the full-size keyboard — which, thanks to the system's 41.76cm by 27.05cm footprint, also accommodates a separate number pad to the right of the QWERTY keys. The lid is also solidly hinged and has a no-nonsense dual-latch open/close mechanism.

The screen on our review unit was a 17.3in. LED-backlit UltraSharp display with a native resolution of 1,920 by 1,080 pixels. It's a matte-finish unit with an anti-glare coating that delivers particularly good viewing angles in the horizontal plane, along with good colour fidelity. There's no built-in colour calibrator, though, as in Lenovo's ThinkPad W701. If you want the highest-performing display, an IPS RGB LED-backlit screen will cost you £408 (ex. VAT) extra; a touchscreen version of the standard panel, with stylus, is also available for £256 (ex. VAT).

As mentioned above, the keyboard — equipped with the optional (adjustable) backlight on our review unit — is full-size with a separate number pad. The layout features sensibly large Enter, Shift and Backspace keys, although we're not sure about the placement of the PgUp and PgDn keys in the interstices of the 'inverted-T' cursor key cluster, or Calc and the media control trio (forward, play/pause, back) at the top of the number pad. In the latter case, many workstation users might prefer Home, End, Insert and Delete in that position.

The keys have a good degree of travel and deliver reasonable tactile feedback, although we found it quite 'bouncy' to type on. These things are always subjective, but we'd classify the M6600's keyboard as 'good, but not up to classic ThinkPad standard'.

For navigation there's a decent-sized three-button multi-touch touchpad in the large wrist-rest area — the central button controls the scrolling function. A second set of three buttons above the touchpad works with the pointing stick that sits between the G, H and B keys. Although these work well enough, we much prefer using a decent wireless mouse on a large-screen notebook such as this.

There's a fingerprint sensor on the right-hand side of the wrist-rest area, while the area between keyboard and screen is occupied by — from left to right — volume mute and down/up buttons, a pair of speaker grilles and the power on/off button.

A key design advantage of the Precision M6600 is the ease of access to its innards — just remove the battery such as dell Inspiron 5150 battery, dell Inspiron 1150 battery, Dell 312-0660 Battery, Dell XPS M1530 Battery, Dell TK330 Battery, Dell RU030 Battery, Dell XT828 Battery, Dell 310-5351 Battery, Dell G5226 Battery, Dell C5340 Battery and a couple of screws, and the baseplate slides off easily (see above). Next to the battery compartment is a housing for a second 2.5in. SATA hard disk, held in place by three screws. The optical drive on the right-hand side slides out after you remove one screw. The primary hard disk is immediately above the battery, and is removable by undoing a single screw and activating a sliding latch. The DIMM slots are bang in the middle, with, above them, two half-size and two full-size Mini-PCI slots. Our review system used one of each, for Wi-Fi and mobile broadband respectively, leaving two free Mini-PCI slots for further expansion.

Like all Dell systems, the Precision M6600 is highly configurable. Our review system had a collection of premium components on-board, starting with Intel's Core i7-2920XM, a quad-core Extreme Edition processor running at 2.5GHz (3.5GHz under Turbo Boost). There's 8GB of 1,333MHz dual-channel DDR3 RAM (2x4GB), with various options up to 32GB (4x8GB) or 16GB (4x4GB) of faster 1,600MHz memory. The full 32GB will cost you an eye-watering £1,291 (ex. VAT) on top of the 8GB price.

Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit was preloaded on our review unit, with Professional optionally available for £50 (ex. VAT) less. The basic software bundle includes a 15-month subscription to Trend Micro Worry Free Business Security 3.5 and Microsoft Office 2010 Starter. You'll pay £324 (ex. VAT) more for a full copy of Office 2010 Professional. Also on-board our review sample were various bits of system management software from Intel, Nvidia and Dell (Intel Control Centre, Intel Management and Security Status, Intel Rapid Storage Technology, Intel ProSet Wireless; Nvidia Control Panel, Nvidia 3D Vision Pro; Dell Power Manager, System and Devices Manager, Dell Webcam Central). Generally, though, the M6600 is admirably free of 'bloatware'.

Graphics are handled by Nvidia's Quadro 4000M with 2GB of dedicated GDDR5 RAM. This is a high-end workstation-class GPU with 336 CUDA cores and an extensive set of ISV certifications. The 4000M also supports Nvidia's Optimus technology, allowing it to make use of Intel's CPU-integrated HD Graphics 3000 module for less demanding applications, in order to minimise power consumption. If you want the ultimate GPU option, the 384-CUDA-core ECC-supporting Quadro 1510M with 4GB of video RAM, you'll have to pay £1,323 (ex. VAT) more.

Storage is provided by a 256GB Samsung PM810 solid-state drive in the main hard disk bay. If you need more capacity, there are plenty of options: you can spend £236 (ex. VAT) less and specify a 750GB hard drive spinning at 7,200rpm, or £400 (ex. VAT) more for a 512GB SSD; there's also the second 2.5in. hard drive bay available, and the mSATA-compliant Mini-PCI slot. As for the optical drive, our review unit came with the premium Blu-Ray writer option (a Matshita BD-RE UJ242); if you don't need this, you can spend £358 (ex. VAT) less and get a slot-loading 8X DVD+/-RW drive instead.

There's connectivity aplenty on-board the M6600, in the shape of dual-band Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n), Bluetooth (3.0), mobile broadband (HSPA) and Gigabit Ethernet. Dell's Mobile Broadband Manager software helps you manage your HSPA connection.

As far as ports and connectors go, you're spoiled for choice. The back of the system carries Ethernet (RJ-45), VGA, HDMI and USB 2.0/eSATA ports, along with the power connector.

The left-hand side, from front to back, has a 54mm ExpressCard slot, a SmartCard reader and a reader for SD-compatible media above the optical drive and, further back, a pair of audio jacks, a six-pin FireWire port and two USB 2.0 ports.

Precision M6600, left-hand side (showing the slot-loading DVD drive, rather than the tray-loading Blu-Ray drive in our review unit)

The right-hand side has, again from front to back, a hardware switch for the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth modules, the primary hard drive slot, two USB 3.0 ports and a DisplayPort connector. Underneath, there's a proprietary connector for Dell's E-Port range of docking options.

Precision M6600, right-hand side, showing a pair of USB 3.0 ports and a DisplayPort connector

Note that you have three options for attaching external monitors, even without a docking station — VGA, HDMI and DisplayPort. However, if you want to use the notebook's screen at the same time, you'll only be able to use two external monitors when undocked.

Starting with the basics, the Precision M6600's Windows Experience Index (WEI) of 7.2 (out of 7.9) is the most impressive we've seen to date. The fact that the lowest-performing subsystem (which corresponds to the WEI) is a tie between Graphics (desktop performance for Windows Aero) and Gaming graphics (3D business and gaming graphics performance) is testament to the quality of the other subsystems. These deliver near-perfect scores: 7.6 for Processor (calculations per second) and 7.7 for both Memory (RAM) (memory operations per second) and Primary hard disk (Disk data transfer rate).

NZ incuded in Sony laptop batteries recall

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Sony is recalling its 2.15Ah Lithium Ion batteries used in Hewlett-Packard, Toshiba and Dell notebook computers.

New Zealand is part of computer manufacturers' global recall of 100,000 laptop batteries made by Sony Corp after 40 incidents of overheating world-wide.

Some users reported smoke or flames. Four of the incidents resulted in minor skin burns while 21 of the cases caused damage to property, Sony said.

Details of the laptop models affected were available on the various company websites.

Laptop owners were advised to immediately remove the recalled battery like dell Precision M6400 battery, dell HW905 battery, dell XPS M2010 battery, dell Latitude E5400 battery, dell Latitude E5500 battery, dell Latitude XT battery, dell Inspiron 1410 battery, dell Vostro A860 battery, dell Vostro 1014 battery, dell Inspiron 5000 battery, from the computer and request a free replacement battery through the company's website.

After removing the recalled battery, the AC adapter can be used to power the computer until a replacement battery arrived.

Sony said the defect appeared to have been caused by a problem with a production line during October 2004 and June 2005.

Its own VAIO notebook computers were not affected by the recall.

In 2006 Sony was hit by recalls of almost 10 million of its batteries for laptop computers because of fears they could catch fire, burning a deep hole in the Japanese giant's profits.

We tested the Asus UL80Vt (from about NZ$1480), which lasted 4 hours and 30 minutes in our challenging battery test - an astonishing figure for a machine that has a large screen (14 inches) and is still light, at just 4.6 pounds. In less taxing use, it could live up to the manufacturer's claim that it could run for up to 11.5 hours.

A good graphics card and a DVD drive make this a formidable, 1-inch-thick entertainment package. It also contains an innovation that's showing up in several laptops: a button that boots up the computer in eight seconds. That launches a different operating system, not Windows, but it does have a Web browser, and it could be useful for quick e-mail checks and the like. Only complaint: the mouse button is too stiff. This computer is best found online.

The recently updated Apple MacBook ($1,699) is slightly heavier and thicker, with a smaller screen. But it has a full-power Intel chip, making it much more capable at heavy-duty applications such as video editing.

The slick and friendly software and huge touch pad make the job easier.

When tablets and laptops combine

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Dell has taken a different approach with the Inspiron Duo, which sells for $US550 but is yet to make it to New Zealand. It also looks like a 10.1-inch Windows 7 netbook running on an Intel Atom processor. The magic trick is that the display flips backwards - swivelling inside the bezel. Now you can fold the lid down to create a tablet. It's not exactly a feather-weight, weighing in 1.5 kg and measuring 28.7mm at its widest point.

The Fujitsu Lifebook TH550 is a 10.1-inch notebook which packs an Intel Core i3 processor. The TH550's entire lid swivels sideways and then folds down onto the keyboard with the screen facing upwards to form a tablet. It's another beefy tablet substitute, measuring 32.4mm thick and weighing in at 1.4 kg.

Rather than hiding the keyboard, Acer's Iconia 14-inch dual-screen notebook abandons it completely in favour of a virtual onscreen keyboard and trackpad on the lower screen. The Iconia packs an Intel Core i5 processor, but there's no optical drive so it's not quite a fully-spec'd notebook. It weighs in at a hefty 2.8 kg, so it's too big and cumbersome to hold sideways like a book.

So far we've covered clunky Windows 7 devices trying to hide their keyboards in order to mimic a tablet, but there are more innovative products around.

Lenovo's IdeaPad U1 is a Windows 7 netbook with a detachable display. When separated, the U1 abandons Windows and boots up Android. To achieve this trick it features both a Core i3 processor for running Windows and a separate Snapdragon processor for Android. The U1 has been sighted at trade shows but its release has been delayed and it's not expected to go on sale in the US until the end of the year.

The detachable Android-powered Asus Eee Pad Transformer TF101 tablet tips the scales at 680gm and runs Honeycomb on an NVIDIA 1GHz Tegra 2 processor. It features a mini-HDMI port and micro-SD slot but no USB ports. Instead it relies on a 40-pin connector for linking to your computer, an AC charger or the keyboard dock.

The keyboard's slot is attached to a hinge which lets you fold the tablet down onto the keyboard, like a notebook lid. The dock features two USB ports, a full-sized SD card slot and a 40-pin slot so you can connect it to your computer or AC power. The icing on the cake is a built-in 24.4W battery such as dell Vostro 1510 battery, dell T112C battery, dell Vostro 1310 battery, dell Vostro 1520 battery, dell Vostro 2510 battery, dell Inspiron 1501 battery, dell Vostro 1000 battery, dell T116C battery, dell Y022C battery, dell Latitude E6400 battery, which boosts battery life from 9 to 16 hours. The keyboard takes up almost the full width of the base and about two-thirds of its depth, leaving room for a decent-sized trackpad with left and right-click buttons underneath.

Together Transformer tablet and keyboard are around 25mm thick and weigh 1.3kg, which is comparable to your traditional 10-inch netbook. The tablet, keyboard and touchpad integrate smoothly to offer a decent notebook-esque experience, with support for two-finger scrolling and even a USB mouse.

Another alternative is the Motorola Atrix. It's a 4-inch Android smartphone which slips into an 11.6-inch netbook shell and weighs in at 1.1 kg. The Atrix also runs on a Tegra 2 processor and its strength is the Ubuntu-based webtop interface which launches when you slot the phone into the keyboard. Webtop runs a full version of Firefox 3.6 while also letting you view the phone's homescreen and use all the features. Unfortunately webtop is let down by the shell's small keyboard and limited trackpad.

As Apple's iPad decimates the netbook market, PC makers are looking for ways to fight back.

The latest generation of touch-friendly tablets have taken the world by storm. Apple's wundertablet redefined mobile computing, but today it has strong competition from Android-powered devices running the latest Honeycomb tablet update.

They're not alone, with RIM's BlackBerry PlayBook, HP's TouchPad and a slew of Windows 7 devices also chasing a slice of the burgeoning tablet market.

Today's tablets are designed to hit that sweet spot between phones and computers, targeting people who want to both work and play while sitting at a desk, riding on a train or relaxing on the couch. Such devices are clearly aimed at the same people who might have bought a netbook a few years ago.

While tablets attempt to strike a balance between portability and usability, the new wave of hybrid devices take a different approach. Some let you hide away the QWERTY keyboard when it's not required, while others let you rip the keyboard off completely.

When you're looking to create content, a physical keyboard makes life much easier than tapping away at a slab of glass. Most tablet makers concede this fact by offering optional wireless keyboards, and you'll even find third-party cases with built-in keyboards. Such solutions tend to lack a proper hinge, making it difficult to angle the screen precisely when working at a desk or balancing the device on your knees.

Hybrid devices tend to favour a netbook-style physical hinge to overcome this issue. The beauty of hybrid devices is that when it's time to consume content - reading books, watching movies or playing games - it's easy to get that keyboard out of the way.

PC makers such as Dell, Lenovo, Samsung, Fujitsu, Asus and Acer have all developed radical hybrid devices which convert a netbook into tablet. Meanwhile handset maker Motorola has taken a different approach, turning powerful smartphones into netbooks.

There's more than one way to skin this cat. Samsung's Sliding PC 7 Series looks like a 10.1-inch tablet running a touch-screen friendly version of Windows 7 on an Intel Atom processor. Its impressive party trick is that you can slide up the screen to reveal a keyboard and then tilt the screen forward like a traditional netbook (although you don't have the same control over the screen's tilt angle). The Sliding PC is 21.4mm thick and weighs in at just under 1kg, so in tablet mode it's certainly not as petite as the iPad or Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1v.

Grand Theft Auto II Heads to Mobile Devices

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Rockstar Games, the developer behind Grand Theft Auto III announced that the popular game series made its official release on iOS and Android-based devices on Dec. 15, 2011.

Upon its release, the game would be officially available for downloads in the App store and Android Market. Though that is the case, not all devices would be able to support this game app due to hardware restrictions. Some devices are not able to support this game hence the limit in the list of devices accessible for this game. Here is the updated list of devices that could access this game:

Apple iOS Devices: iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, 4th gen iPod Touch, and both (first and second) generations of iPad.

Android-based Smartphones: HTC Rezound, LG Optimus 2x, Motorola Atrix 4G, Motorola Droid X2, Motorola Photon 4G, Samsung Galaxy R, T-Mobile G2x

Android-based Tablets: Acer Iconia, Eee Pad Transformer, Dell Streak 7 with battery such asDell BATDW00L Battery,
Dell 1X793 Battery,
Dell BAT1194 Battery,
Dell Precision M20 Battery,
dell F5635 battery,
dell YF976 battery,
dell C5974 battery,
dell U4873 battery,
Dell Inspiron XPS M170 Battery, Dell Inspiron XPS M1710 Battery, Optimus Pad, Xoom, Galaxy Tab 8.9 and 10.1, Sony Tablet S, and Toshiba Thrive.

HTC Evo 2 and Samsung Galaxy S2 were originally included in this list but it was suddenly dropped out when the official list came out to the public.

The Grand Theft Auto III version is a 10th year anniversary edition game exclusively for avid players of this game. This is Rockstar's second full title for the App store because back in 2010, Rockstar released Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars to iOS but the response for this app was less than stellar. As for Android, this is the first time that this game is made available for Android users. This 10th anniversary version of Grand Theft Auto III is considered as the first mobile version of the 3D Grand Theft Auto world. Both gameplay and visuals have remained true to its original version though the graphics for this game would closely resemble a PC version on maximum settings. This app version is considered as "sharper" as opposed to the PS2 release.

The Grand Theft Auto III app has a price of US$4.99 and its availability in Australia could be announced immediately after the release in the U.S. market.

Lessons for Rivals to Gain Ground

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One of four basic economic questions: What should be produced? Watch, listen and learn from consumers, their purchasing decisions will provide the answer.

Nokia Oyj, Apple, Inc., Research In Motion, and others have saturated the market with high-end mobile phones that each has a portable media player, a camera, and a web browser, among many features. For advanced computing, Hewlett Packard, Apple and Dell and others already have laptops with battery like Dell RD859 Battery, Dell PR002 Battery, Dell UD260 Battery, Dell PD942 Battery, Dell Latitude 131L Battery, Dell 8F871 Battery, Dell 2G218 Battery, Dell Winbook N4 Battery, Dell F0590A01 Battery, Dell 7T670 Battery and desktops in the market.

In April 2010, Apple launched a device that had with a tablet form factor that can function as an e-book reader, gaming platform music and movie player, Web browser, and word processor.

Since then, Apple has already sold more than 29 million iPad units and has recorded $18.5 billion in revenue in its books. Smartphone makers and personal computers want a piece of the pie.

Supply and demand: the unit price for a particular good settles at a point where the quantity demanded by consumers will equal the quantity supplied by producers.

There is a market for media tablets. From 18 million units sold in 2010, research firm IDC projects that more than 50 million tablets will be sold in 2011.

With a gross margin of over 40 percent, Apple is certainly profiting from the $499 tag price of the iPad 2 in shelves. More than 9.2 million people bought iPads during the most recent quarter.

After the iPad became another cash cow for Apple, which just last week took a stint as the world's most valuable company based on market capitalization, more tablet offerings have emerged: among others, BlackBerry maker Research In Motion's PlayBook, Apple nemesis Samsung Electronics Inc.'s Galaxy Tab, Netbook pioneer Asus' Eee Pad, HTC's EVO View 4G, Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc.'s Xoom, and Hewlett-Packard Co.'s TouchPad. Apple though has continued to take 70 to 80 percent of the market despite hopeful "iPad killers" being launched every month.

Enter rivals: Hewlett-Packard launched the TouchPad a month ago at prices starting at $499, the same as the iPad and Motorola launched the Xoom at a premium to the Apple device.

However, the iPad doesn't share the same demand curve with the TouchPad or even the Android tablets. Apple has already established its brand in the market place, the iPad 2 is generally bug-free, and there area already more than 100,000 applications optimized for the iPad 2 that are already available in the Apple App Store. Although the other tablets have Adobe Flash support, more advanced cameras, or more powerful processors, most consumers still believe that the iPad still provides more value at $499 (based on weak sales by rivals and the continuing strong sales of the iPad).

The Wall Street Journal, citing industry watchers, says there are more iPads rival tablets sitting in warehouses and stores than current demand for those products.

The Law of Demand: When the price of an item goes down, the demand for it goes up.

Just last week, Hewlett-Packard lowered by $100 the price of its TouchPad just one month after introducing the tablet. TouchPads will now cost only $399.99 for a 16 GB model and $499.99 for a 32 GB version.

The price reductions make the TouchPad $100 less expensive than comparable iPad2 models, which may help the HP tablets draw customers from Apple, said Brian Marshall, an analyst at Gleacher & Co., according to reports by Bloomberg News.

Penetrating strategy in marketing: Gaining market share by sacrificing short-term profits, and hiking the price over time as market share is gained.

Hewlett-Packard, the world's number one seller of laptops and desktops, has enough cash to sell the HP tablets at a loss until it establishes the brand in the tablet market.

ZD Net's Jason Perlow states that while he predicted that HP TouchPad had no chance in hell of succeeding against the iPad or even Android tablets, the recent $100 price cut plus the $100 coupon issued by Staples are now making the TouchPad a "lot more attractive." The $299 for the HP tablet makes the cheapest among Android based tablets. Noting that the double-dipping deal was only short term, Perlow says that for HP to gain any progress, it needs to establish a brand that is identified as the more "affordable" choice than the iPad.

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How to Catch a Cheating Boyfriend

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If you suspect that your boyfriend is cheating on you, your relationship is probably on thin ice. But you don’t want to confront him without having any evidence of an affair. What can you do? Here are some things you can do to find out if your hunch is correct.

1. Be direct and ask him if he’s cheating on you: He may lie or he may tell you the truth. But either way, he will know that his relationship with you is in trouble. Don’t let him off the hook. It’s time to talk about boundaries and trust issues.

2. Look Through His Stuff: Check his mobile phone for phone calls or text messages from other girls. If you can get your hands on his mobile phone bill (on paper or online), you might be able to see who he’s been talking to and texting with. Long conversations and lots of texting to one particular number are red flags.

a) If your boyfriend tends to misplace his phone, another thing you can do is simply take it and let him assume he lost it. Don’t answer it or anything; simply see who calls or messages him.

b) Check his email, Myspace, Facebook, and instant messaging accounts. Many times, cheaters use the Internet to carry on their sneaky business. Check his computer often to see if he forgot to log out. Don’t respond to messages as him, however – that’s an easy way to get caught spying before you catch him cheating!

c) Look through his stuff for love notes, gifts, and photographs. Are there any spots where he might hide that kind of thing? You can also check his computer. He might have pictures of the other girl saved on his hard drive. See How to Find Hidden Files and Folders in Windows.

3. Set a Trap

a) Think of a way to trap him: For example, create a fake MySpace profile that he would flock to like a moth to a flame. Try to get him to talk about whether he’s cheated before. See if you can get him to “cheat on his girlfriend” by offering to meet up in a way that practically guarantees cheating, like at a hotel room. How surprised he’ll be when you show up!

b) Hide a camera or microphone in his room and car. You’ll be limited by battery like Hp Pavilion N6000 Battery, Hp Pavilion N6100 Battery, Hp Pavilion tx1000 Battery, Hp Pavilion tx1100 Battery, Hp Pavilion tx1200 Battery, Hp Pavilion tx2000 Battery, Hp Pavilion tx2100 Battery, Hp Pavilion tx2500 Battery, Hp Pavilion XF125 Battery, Hp Pavilion XF145 Battery, Hp Pavilion XF235 Battery, Hp Pavilion XH156 Battery life (make sure it won’t beep when the battery goes out), but you’ll have a chance of catching him in the act.

c) Set up the perfect opportunity for him to cheat. Pretend you’re going out of town, or doing something that creates minimal risk for him getting caught. But instead, get a wig and borrow someone else’s car and follow him around to see if he gets together with another girl.

Fujitsu Tech Could Turn Us All Into Battery Chargers

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Energy is everywhere--from light to heat to wind and everything in between. And in this era of high fuel prices, we need to find more ways of capturing it on the cheap. And Fujitsu might have come up with an effective way of doing so. Fujitsu's so-called energy harvesting technology works by collecting energy from various sources, such as ambient light, vibrations, ambient heat, and radio waves.

What makes this technology unique is that, unlike technology like solar cells, Fujitu's technology can harvest more than one type of energy at a time--more specifically, light and heat. Fujitsu based the technology on an organic material that it says is inexpensive to use (thoughFujitsu did not say what this organic matter was).

Fujitsu's press release gives more detail into how this new technology works--give it a read if you're curious about the nitty-gritty.

This sort of technology has countless uses: For example, it could be used in to power medical monitoring equipment without requiring wiring or batteries such as Fujitsu FM-41 Battery, Fujitsu FPCBP83 Battery, Fujitsu Lifebook C2320 Battery, Fujitsu Lifebook C6200 Battery, Fujitsu LifeBook P1510 Battery, Fujitsu FPCBP102 Battery, Fujitsu LifeBook P1610 Battery, Fujitsu LifeBook B6110 Battery, Fujitsu FMVNBP136 Battery, Fujitsu FPCBP112 Battery, as Fujitsu suggests. Or maybe it could be made into gadget-charging T-shirts--plug your smartphone into it for a little extra juice. And who knows? Depending on how much energy this technology produces, it could be put to use elsewhere, such as in cars.

But don't hold your breath for human-powered gadgets: Fujitsu plans on testing this technology until 2015.

Fujitsu-Siemens Recalls Faulty Laptop Batteries

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Batteries in some notebook computers from Fujitsu Siemens Computers can overheat, with a risk of fire. The company has recalled the batteries in some of its Amilo notebook computers, and will replace affected batteries free of charge, it said this week.

Customers with batteries affected by the recall should stop using them immediately.

The company recommends removing the battery like Fujitsu Lifebook S6200 Battery, Fujitsu FPCBP80 Battery, Fujitsu Lifebook S6220 Battery, Fujitsu Lifebook S2020 Battery, Fujitsu FPCBP64 Battery, Fujitsu Lifebook S6120 Battery, Fujitsu N5485 Battery, Fujitsu Lifebook T4000 Battery, Fujitsu Lifebook T4020 Battery, Fujitsu FPCBP121 Battery from the computer, which can still be operated on main electrical power.

The rechargeable lithium ion batteries involved in the recall have model numbers ending in G1L1, and were supplied with the following Amilo notebooks: A7640, A1640, M1405, M1424, M1425, M7405, M7424, M7425, and Pro V2020.

The model numbers can be found in the middle of a label on the underside of the computer, the company says.

The batteries went on sale in October 2004, and may also have been sold separately as spares, the company says.

More information about to obtain a replacement battery can be found online.

The company has received four reports of batteries overheating, out of a possible 250,000 units, it says. No injuries have been reported, it says.

In May, Apple Computer recalled 128,000 notebook computer batteries after receiving six reports of them overheating.

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Panasonic HDC-SD900 camcorder

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The HDC-SD900 was the first of Panasonic’s expanded 3D camcorder range to arrive in the UK. It sits below the HDC-TM900 and HDC-HS900 (which offer 32GB memory and 220GB HDD respectively), but shares the same functionality, recording Full HD and 3D video to SD card.

If you’re keen to film in 3D you’ll also need to invest in the VW-CLT1, an optional conversion lens. For a camcorder so feature laden, the HDC- SD900 is a snap to use. A generous 3.5in touchscreen allows easy flipping between a fully automatic IA mode and manual (shutter, iris, WB, focus) controls.

The SD900 offers a variety of 1080i AVCHD shooting options (you can choose from four quality grades distinguished by bit rate, of which the best overall option is probably HG), as well as 1080/50p for the highest possible picture (with a massive 28-Mbps bit rate), plus iFrame for Apple fans. I suspect the latter will be a huge draw for users of Mac editing packages, as it eliminates the need for time-consuming file conversions. Note iFrame records in a 960 x 540/30p format.

Naturally, the SD900 will also shoot digital stills and these clock up a respectable 13.3Mp in size. There’s an integrated auto flash, featuring red eye correction, for when light levels dip. The film/camera mode selector sits near the viewfinder and is easily manipulated. Alternatively, you can grab snaps during live filming. 

Also on-board is Panasonic’s Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS) handshake-compensation tech. It’s a lifesaver on the brand’s Lumix compacts and disguises a world of fumbles when you can’t be bothered to use a tripod.

2D Full HD picture quality is excellent. There’s a stunning amount of detail in the SD900’s hi-def images, and colour performance is outstanding. Much of this can be attributed to the 3MOS image sensor, which offers thrice the fidelity of cheaper, single chip 1 MOS shooters. Wildlife footage shot on a crisp, bright day zinged with colour; with big close-ups of hungry swans revealing scads of feathery fine detail.

Positioned above the lens barrel is nest of microphones able to record in a 5.1 sound format. The audio quality from this array is impressive. While the surround sound element is a little thin, the stereo staging is expansive. If you’re lucky enough to shoot when wind noise is low, the results are surprisingly good.

Out and about, the SD900 handles well. It fits snugly into the hand and is nicely balanced. The battery such as canon NB-1L battery, canon NB-2L battery, canon BP-511 battery, canon NB-5L battery, canon NB-4L battery, canon NB-5H battery, panasonic VW-VBD1E Battery, panasonic VW-VBD1 Battery, Panasonic CGA-S002 Battery, HITACHI DZ-HS300E Battery, Olympus FE-230 Battery, canon MV930 Battery runs for upwards of an hour on full charge with near constant use.

Of course, the fact that this camcorder can shoot in 3D is a major attraction. The optional converter lens locks onto the barrel of the HDC-SD900, and once attached must be aligned using a simple cross hair system. Convergence takes little more than a minute to achieve, although you will have to do this every time you attach it. The zoom is disabled when the lens is attached.

The camera shoots in a side-by-side, half resolution, 3D mode. While there is clearly a hit to be taken in terms of clarity, the sense of depth you can achieve is reasonable compensation. For the most convincing 3D effect, you need to frame your movies with a dominant foreground object, close to the lens. This is because the limited interaxial distance between the two lenses on the converter makes it difficult for the camcorder to create a convincing sense of depth from mid-distance.

Cisco Flip Mino HD 8GB video camera

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Appearing in its second-generation guise in March this year, the Flip Mino HD received a few refinements, the most obvious being the larger 2in screen and an 8GB version allowing for up to two hours of video recording. Yet this popular pocket video camera has always lacked image stabilisation, that is, until now.

Both the Mino HD and the UltraHD have been upgraded with this feature, long-awaited by Flip fans. As with other Flip cams with the HD moniker, the 720p HD video is captured in MP4 format using the H.264 codec but it’s now at 50fps in PAL territories (60fps NTSC), up from 30fps.

The 4GB (one hour) Mino HD sports fashionable, metallic finish, the matt black version signifies it’s the revised 8GB model. The on/off button at the side falls neatly under the thumb. Give it a firm press and let go and it’s ready to shoot in a couple of seconds.

On the control surface, the Flip Mino HD has just one big, hard to miss, red button for recording video clips. If you hold this as it powers up you get the setup options for language, time, bleeps and recording light.

Surrounding the red button are illuminated touch-sensitive keys. The forward/backward controls scroll through existing clips or move along the timeline during playback. Use the +/- keys to operate the zoom when recording or vary the playback sound level. Just below the display are two slightly recessed buttons for playing and deleting files.

The screen itself is a big improvement compared to the earlier style models. Bright and crisp, it looks great and, appears a good deal more scratch resistant than others I’ve tried, such as the Sony Bloggie. It also comes with a soft cloth bag, which helps sustain its good looks and is certainly better than nothing, considering that it’s £30 for Sony’s Bloggie pouch.

For a point and shoot camera, the image quality turns out to be surprisingly good – just about sharp enough to live up to the HD tag, and with bold, strong colours. However, in strong sunlight colours could appear washed-out and some detail burnt out too. In fact, up against the same style Mino HD (but lacking the image stabilisation and increased frame rate), the new version seems even more prone to over-exposure, yet the contrast appears less harsh, so there is more detail in the shadows, but the edges aren't so crisp.

Certainly, you can perceive somewhat smoother shooting thanks to both the faster frame rate and image stabilisation. Cisco describes the latter as "Digital with hardware sensors…" The rest of the explanation is a bit of a blur. "With the mechanical gyro sensor we don’t lose the quality that digital typically implies, since we have a sensor that shifts the frame to centre the objects and reduce shaking." Well, it seems to work.

Even so, with its candybar phone size and light weight, the Flip Mino HD is very susceptible to every little move of your hands, and while the results seem more steady now, given the on-the-go nature of the camera, shake is something to expect. Still, if you really need it, there’s a tripod mount at the base, adjacent to the mini HDMI port.

The fixed-focus lens works between 0.8m to infinity (and beyond), and even clips shot within a range of 2 feet were acceptable. Yet used in low light conditions, the results were rather patchy. They don’t look bad on the small display but blown up on a computer screen, the recordings do exhibit a fair amount noise and some colour smearing, exacerbated when using the 2x digital zoom. Still, the Mino HD does well to capture reasonably well-defined footage in difficult conditions, and just about every time gives you something useable, so long as you’re not too fussy.

The Mino HD has a built-in USB connector that, er, flips up from the top – by sliding a switch on the side – and simply folds away again when not required. Dispensing with the need to carry USB cable when travelling, the Flip doesn’t need a separate charger either. Hook it up to a Mac or PC and it starts charging – with a full recharge taking about 3 hours. The internal lithium-ion battery like sony NP-F550 battery, sony NP-FR1 battery, sony NP-FM50 battery, sony NP-FM51 battery, sony NP-F10 battery, sony NP-FE1 battery, sony DSC-T7 battery, Panasonic CGA-S101A Battery, Olympus Li-10B Battery, Olympus BLM1 Battery, panasonic NV-GS10 battery, panasonic VHS-C Battery, canon EOS 400D Battery lasts for about 1.5 hours on a good day, but is non-interchangeable.

Toshiba Satellite Pro C650

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Toshiba has built its Satellite Pro C650 into a chassis that feels rather cheap and not especially cheerful. The deck around the keyboard has a curious textured finish that shows greasy fingerprint marks horribly.

Furthermore, the layout of the hardware appears to be guided by the price rather than by good engineering. The DVD writer is on the right hand side, the SD/MMC card reader is on the front and the handful of ports and connectors are on the left hand side, not that there are many of them as you only get two USB ports and can forget about luxuries such as an HDMI output.

The quality of the screen and keyboard are average but passable.

The C650-121 comes with a number of Toshiba utilities, in particular the Toshiba Bulletin Board that flashes messages such as 'there are three alerts' in much the same way that Windows Updates nags and nags again.

These alerts turned out to be an update for Tempro, a utility the "allows you to fine tune the performance of your laptop", a Bios update and a wireless network driver update, but these are laborious tasks to perform and not for the faint-hearted. For instance the wireless driver update requires that you know whether the adapter like Toshiba Portege M700 Adapter, Toshiba Satellite A10 Adapter, Toshiba Portege R600 Adapter, Toshiba Portege PPR65U Adapter, Toshiba Satellite A75 Adapter, Toshiba Qosmio G25 Adapter, Toshiba Qosmio F50 Adapter, Toshiba Tecra A1 Adapter, Toshiba Tecra A9 Adapter, Toshiba Tecra R10 Adapter, Toshiba Satellite R10 Adapter inside your laptop is made by Atheros, Broadcom, Intel or Realtek. Fine for Reg Hardware readers, less so for their aged parents or young offspring.

The Toshiba doesn't have much to spare in the way of hardware resources and all this software, along with Service Station and McAfee Internet Security, surely doesn't help the cause.

Basic hardware that is topped off with a bunch of Toshiba utilities and then saved from oblivion by a lowish price.

Emulex buys ServerEngines

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Emulex is buying ServerEngines, thus securing its core FCoE technology.

FCoE is Fibre Channel over Ethernet, the sending of Fibre Channel data frames across an Ethernet link. There are two dominant Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapter (HBA) companies: Emulex and QLogic. Both are moving energetically into FCoE and QLogic has an advantage as it owns its own Ethernet intellectual property (IP), whereas Emulex has sourced its Ethernet IP from ServerEngines.

FCoE cards are called Converged Network Adapters such as Dell PA-6 Adapter, Dell PA-9 Adapter, Dell PA-12 Adapter, Dell PA-10 Adapter, Dell PA-3E Adapter, Dell Inspiron 1545 Adapter, Dell Inspiron 1525 Adapter, Dell Inspiron 1420 Adapter, Dell Inspiron 1300 Adapter, Dell Inspiron 1318 Adapter (CNA) and are becoming single chip devices with the Ethernet IP at the core of the chips.

ServerEngines Corporation is a privately-held, fabless semiconductor company founded in 2004 and headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. It has approximately 170 employees, mostly engineers, based in Sunnyvale, as well as Austin, Texas and Hyderabad, India.

There are two product lines. The first is the BladeEngine family of 10Gbit/s Ethernet application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) designed for Local Area Network on Motherboard (LOM) applications. Emulex uses this ASIC for its OneConnect CNA. Second is the Pilot family of server management controllers, which reside down on the motherboard and enable remote IP based “lights out” management capabilities. Pilot ASICs are currently being used by Cisco, HP, NEC and Unisys.

Emulex is paying big bucks for this small company: around $78m in cash plus eight million shares of Emulex stock, which would represent an additional $81m. The agreement also provides for the payment of an additional four million shares of Emulex stock, issuable if the ServerEngines business achieves certain milestones targeted for completion by the end of 2011. Emulex will also assume the outstanding ServerEngines debt, including debt owed to Emulex, which is currently $25m, other liabilities, and ServerEngines stock options upon close.

These numbers add up to about $225m, if the ServerEngines achieves the specified milestones, possibly more depending upon the unspecified debts and stock options.

ServerEngines describes its founding thus: "ServerEngines is very much a restart of ServerWorks; a maker of Intel-based server chipsets that was started in the mid-1990's and was subsequently sold to Broadcom in 2001. In 2003, ServerWorks CEO Raju Vegesna, left Broadcom and began deciding what his next company would be. In early 2004, Raju and the other two founders of ServerWorks, Sujith Arramreddy, CTO, and Sai Gadiraju, VP of Engineering, founded ServerEngines and funded the company themselves."

There was a $2.2m equity funding round in March. That $25m debt suggests Emulex has been funding ServerEngines. So it looks on the face of it as if the ServerEngines founders and shareholders will share about $200m between them. Not bad at all for six years' work.

Both the Emulex and ServerEngines boards have unanimously approved the acquisition and it is expected to be completed in July 2010, subject to receipt of ServerEngines stockholder approval and satisfaction of other closing conditions.

Jim McCluney, Emulex’s President and CEO, said: “The combination of ServerEngines’ Ethernet and Internet Small Computer System Interface (iSCSI) expertise with our own data centre technologies and world-class engineering team in an acquisition provides a significant opportunity to solidify Emulex’s Ethernet-driven network convergence strategy for 2011 and beyond.” With ServerEngines on board Emulex will control its own CNA destiny.

McCluney added this: "We believe that the addition of LOMs and Pilot Server Management Controllers from the acquisition will broaden our strategic position as a key infrastructure provider to server OEMs by providing a single and simplified interface for customers to engage on future development, support and communications as converged networks move out of the labs and into production environments over the next year. We also expect the acquisition will provide a more cost effective model in the 10Gbit/s Ethernet LOM and UCNA markets, as well as enabling us to more effectively address opportunities in the target storage market, as our volumes increase in 2011.”

This is good news for Emulex. It has notched up a raft of design wins for its CNAs, with Dell, EMC, Hitachi Data Systems, HP, IBM and NetApp all on board. QLogic has a real fight on its hands because Emulex will no longer be slowed down by having to be dependent on an independent ServerEngines with its own agenda for core technology developments.

Now Emulex's eyes will turn to FCoE adoption as lossless and low-latency Data Centre Class Ethernet rolls out next year. With this acquisition there's around a quarter of a billion Emulex acquisition dollars riding upon the FCoE adoption stakes. It had better be popular. ®

Macworld’s buying advice

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The SE315’s removable cable enables an easy upgrade to headset functionality. The company’s CBL-M+-K-EFS accessory cable (which I’ll just refer to as the CBL for the sake of both my writing and your reading) is a replacement cable with an inline, Apple-style, three-button remote and microphone module. Those buttons cover volume up, volume down, and play/pause/send/end.

The CBL begins with the same snap-on connectors as the SE315’s stock cable, but these are attached to thinner (but still Kevlar-reinforced) cable that I found more conducive to portable use than the heavy-duty stock cable. The CBL does lack the aforementioned memory wire near the earpieces, which makes dressing the cable over/behind your ear more difficult—a curious omission. It’s also missing the stock cable’s slider to cinch the split cable behind your head—I’m assuming because doing so would negatively affect the position of the inline microphone.

The section of the split cable going to the right earpiece hosts the remote/microphone module, which is noticeably larger than the inline module on most other headphones I’ve tested. Ideally this would be smaller, but the large buttons were easier to locate than with most other models, and the buttons have a satisfying action. Oddly, the side of the cable hosting the inline module was roughly an inch longer than the non-module side. A Shure representative told me this difference was within tolerance, though the representative also said that the company would with adapter like Apple iBook G3 14-inch Adapter, Apple M8576 Adapter, Apple MacBook 13-inch Adapter, Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch Adapter, Apple PowerBook 1400 Adapter, Apple M8243 Adapter, Apple M8942 Adapter, Apple A1021 Adapter, Apple A1184 Adapter, Apple A1036 Adapter, Apple iBook G4 14-inch Adapter replace the CBL in more extreme situations (which was the case with a Macworld reader who reported that his cable was replaced for a 2-inch difference). Despite being within specification, the discrepancy between cable lengths struck me as sloppy, as I’ve not seen that much difference with other canalphones and canalbuds. The only other change in design between the SE315’s stock cable and the CBL is the latter’s lower-profile, 45-degree-angle plug, which should be compatible with a greater range of iPhone and iPod cases than the chunky plug on the stock cable.

In my testing of the CBL’s microphone, people on the other end of calls said my voice sounded somewhat harsh and lacked richness—the CBL fell short of the iPhone 4’s internal microphone and the best headset microphones I’ve heard, but it’s satisfactory for phone calls. Overall, the CBL does a fine job of transforming the SE315 from headphones to headset. At $60, it’s pricey, but it’s an elegant solution, and I like the option to buy the SE315 and upgrade to headset functionality later, rather than having to commit to a single version of the product up front. If you like the SE315 as much as I do, you’ll primarily be pleased that you don’t have to forego headset functionality to enjoy it.

The SE315’s design and ergonomics are as good as it gets for in-ear-canal headphones without stepping up to custom models. The SE315’s sound quality is almost as good as its design, with a neutral balance and great detail, missing only some bass impact and the superior amount of detail found in the best offerings on the market. At $250, the design and sound quality come at a bit of a premium, but I found street prices for both the SE315 and its siblings to be significantly lower, with enough variation that it’s worth checking out current prices before you decide which model offers the best value for you. The $60 upgrade to headset functionality offered by the CBL-M+-K-EFS accessory cable is a great option, but not an inexpensive one. Together, the SE315 and CBL-M+-K-EFS make a great headset with excellent ergonomics and sound quality, albeit one that doesn’t come cheap.

R. Matthew Ward lives in St. Louis and enjoys the finer things in life: food, drink, Apple products, and well-reproduced music. You can find his thoughts on these and other subjects on his personal blog.

Wireless-Ready Multimedia Home Gateway ships in the UK

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Actiontec Electronics' new Wireless-Ready Multimedia Home Gateway is now available in the United Kingdom.

The gateway, which is compatible with Mac OS 7.1 or higher, allows desktop and notebook computers to be online simultaneously, and in some cases even eliminates the need to pay for multiple IP addresses, according to the folks at Actiontec. All personal computers equipped with the proper wireless network adapter such as Gateway 3000 Adapter, Gateway 400 Adapter, Gateway CX200 Adapter, Gateway E-100 Adapter, Gateway EC14 Adapter, Gateway LT10 Adapter, Gateway M200 Adapter, Gateway ML3000 Adapter, Gateway MP6954 Adapter, Gateway Tablet PC M1200 Adapter can share the same Internet hookup from any inside location up to 330 feet away from the gateway or any outside location within 990 feet of the unit.

The Actiontec Wireless-Ready Multimedia Home Gateway also allows users to create home networks incorporating both wired and wireless devices. With a built-in four-port Ethernet router as well as wireless capabilities, up to 35 notebook and desktop computers, printers, scanners, CD-ROM drives, handheld computers and other devices can be connected to the network, enabling users to share resources.

The gateway plugs into a power outlet on one end and the cable or DSL modem on the other. Users then install Actiontec's new 802.11b-compatible PCMCIA Wireless Network Card in the first of two PCMCIA slots, and start surfing. The second slot gives users the option of adding new capabilities to their home network. What kind of options? Actiontec is currently developing ones that are expected to include a printer server, and a Voice over IP card enabling voice phone calls over the Internet.

The Wireless-Ready Multimedia Home Gateway offers anti-hacking protection via Network Address Translation (NAT), an Internet standard that makes it possible to use one set of IP addresses for internal traffic and a second set for external traffic. This provides a type of firewall by hiding internal IP addresses from potential intruders, according to Actiontec. There's support for Virtual Private Network (VPN) clients, allowing remote users to access their VPN-based corporate networks securely.

The gateway also has support for the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), a dynamic IP address assignment system that's designed to simplify network administration by eliminating the need to assign a unique IP address to every computer on the network; and DNS Proxy, a standard that simplifies configuration by handling translation of domain names into the corresponding IP addresses. Plus, there's a built-in Manager interface for advanced configurations that's accessible by the embedded Web-based management tool.

The Actiontec Wireless-Ready Multimedia Home Gateway will carry a manufacturers suggested retail price of (Pounds) 129.95 and include the gateway, AC power adapter, a six-foot Ethernet cable for connecting the gateway to the cable or DSL modem and a user guide. The Actiontec PCMCIA Wireless Network Card will retail for (Pounds) 99.95 with a rebate when purchased with the gateway.

Acer Iconia Tab A200

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The Acer Iconia Tab A200 is Acer's latest 10.1" Android tablet, and it's very affordable at $349 for the 16 gig model and $329 for the 8 gig version. In fact, we're pretty impressed at what you get for the price: a sharp and colorful 1280 x 800 capacitive touch screen, a dual core 1GHz Nvidia Tegra 2 CPU, a gig of RAM and 16 gigs of storage (in the more commonly available 16 version that we recommend). Basically, you get a 2011 Android 10" tablet with a full set of features at a low price for 2012. The tablet ships with Android OS 3.2 Honeycomb but Acer promises a mid-February upgrade to OS 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (there's a sticker on the box stating it's ICS upgradable).

Since 80% of Americans are still tablet-less, there's definitely a place for the Iconia Tab A200. Many of you are new to tablets and aren't sure that you want to spend $500 or more, or maybe you've got a tight budget. If that's you, do check out the A200 since it offers a lot of bang for the buck. This is a full-featured WiFi only tablet with single band WiFi 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR and a GPS (that works). It has the full suite of Google apps including the Android Market, Maps, Navigation, YouTube and Google Talk. It compares well against lesser or no-name brands that cut corners by using grainy resistive displays, run old versions of Android meant for phones or lack access to the Android Market.

The A200 is a slightly slimmer and lighter version of the Acer Iconia Tab A500, and to our eye the display has improved. Video playback performance of MPEG4 content is most definitely improved, as you'll see in our video review. And you get that Acer special touch: a full size USB host port that works with USB peripherals including keyboards, mice, game controllers, flash drives and external hard drives (NTFS too!). Only Acer and Toshiba offer built-in full USB ports: some other Android tablets have micro USB ports that are compatible with USB host adapters like Acer Aspire 1200 Adapter, Acer Aspire 1680 Adapter, Acer Aspire 1690 Adapter, Acer Aspire 1600 Adapter, Acer TravelMate 2100 Adapter, Acer TravelMate 290 Adapter, Acer TravelMate 4000 Adapter, Acer Extensa 2000 Adapter, Acer Extensa 6600 Adapter, Acer Ferrari 1100 Adapter, and the Asus Transformer tablets have a full size USB port in the $149 keyboard dock that's sold separately. Acer does a nice job of adding USB driver support to the OS and external storage items like videos and photos appear in Gallery, while music appears in the Music app (if you have a large drive with lots of files this can take a minute or two). There's also a microSD card slot, so storage possibilities are good here.

What's missing from last year's Iconia A500 that launched at $449? There's no rear camera and no HDMI port. There's a good 2 megapixel front camera that works well with Skype and Google Talk video chat, but no rear shooter. There's also no HDMI port, so you'll have to rely on DLNA wireless streaming to get the tablet's contents to play on your (WiFi-equipped) TV.

What do more expensive Android tablets have that the A200 doesn't? Tablets like the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime are thinner and lighter at 0.33" thick and 1.3 pounds. Most other name brand Android tablets have a rear camera and micro HDMI ports (the Samsung doesn't, but Samsung sells an adapter that adds HDMI). While we expect 2012 tablets to run on newer CPUs, the Acer Iconia Tab A200 sticks with the pervasive and pretty decent 1GHz dual core Nvidia Tegra 2 with GeForce hardware graphics acceleration.

If you already own a 10" Android Honeycomb that's promised an upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich, the Acer A200 offers nothing new or better. If you want the latest and greatest hardware, the A200 isn't for you. The Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime with its quad core Tegra 3 CPU, and upcoming tablets from Lenovo and others offer newer generation dual core CPUs with faster clock speeds. But for everyday use that includes web, email, Netflix, YouTube and Office files, you probably won't notice the difference.

Conclusion of Acer Iconia Tab

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This isn't an uber-skinny tablet, but we don't mind because it's actually comfortable to hold and grip. The rubbery backside (available in deep red or dark gray) is easy to hold, though not chic. The Acer A200 with adapter such as Acer Aspire One D250 Adapter, Acer Aspire 5532 Adapter, Acer Aspire 5517 Adapter, Acer Aspire 5315 Adapter, Acer Aspire 5520 Adapter, Acer TravelMate 2440 Adapter, Acer Aspire 1410 Adapter, Acer Aspire 5732z Adapter, Acer Aspire 5610 Adapter, Acer Aspire One Adapter feels and works like a tablet that was meant to be held and used rather than look pretty. The sides are curved for good ergonomics, and ports are located for easy access. The only thing we don't like is the speaker placement: the stereo speakers are at the lower corners where you'll likely grip it in landscape mode. And these speakers are already terribly volume-challenged. You'll need wired or Bluetooth headphones to enjoy music or videos. The 3.5mm jack sounds a bit bass-heavy to our ears, but most folks enjoy plenty of bass these days. Volume is acceptable using wired and Bluetooth audio gear. The mic is happily much better than the Iconia A500's, and we were easily heard over Skype.

The charger has a barrel tip and is the same wall wart charger that's used on prior Acer Android tablets. That means the side micro USB port is available for use when charging, which we like. A full size USB 2.0 port lives on the upper left side (when held in landscape mode), and the microSD card slot and reset hole live under a plastic door on the left side. The tablet doesn't support USB charging.

The 0.48" thick tablet won't win design awards, but it's not bad looking and feels sturdy. The back has a textured pattern and it shows some fingerprints but is easily cleaned with damp cloth and a tiny bit of soft soap, as is the display. The display has decent but not IPS caliber viewing angles, with none of the peculiarities of the Acer Iconia Tab A100 7" Android tablet. Colors are good and brightness is fine for indoor use, but it fades in very bright light and outdoors. It looks good for video watching and photo viewing, as long as you're not in an extremely bright room where the just average brightness and glossy screen glare detract.

The Tegra 2 does well with 3D games, thanks to Nvidia's involvement and promotion of Tegra Zone games. The Acer Iconia Tab A200 does a fine job with Tegra Zone games like Riptide, Grand Theft Auto III, Dungeon Defenders and Shine Runner (see our video demo using a USB game controller below). But the Tegra 2 usually falls short when it comes to playing high profile 720p and 1080p video thanks to less than stellar 2D acceleration. Happily, the Acer has better codecs and drivers, so it can play 720p high profile H.264 MPEG video fine, and it can play 1080p standard profile video competently. Since the tablet has a 720p display and no HDMI out, 1080p high profile content that plays with dropped frames isn't much of an issue unless you're using DLNA WiFi streaming to an HD TV to play videos. If you want to watch Netflix and YouTube streaming video, the Acer Iconia A200 is a fine choice, and it can handle 720p standard and high profile locally stored MPEG4 content but not 1080p high profile MPEG4 content where it drops frames but does much better than the Acer Iconia Tab A500 that played 1080p high profile at 2-4 fps.

Acer claims the 2 cell battery sealed inside the tablet is good for 8 hours of use. While that won't break any tablet records, it's acceptable and ours manages 7 hours with brightness set at 50% and WiFi on with mixed use that includes web, email, streaming Netfix video for an hour and playing a few YouTube videos.

For the price, we really like the Acer Iconia Tab A200. Acer's doing a good job of chasing the affordable and entry level market with their tablets, and we can see the A200 selling well in Walmart where the Iconia A500 once reigned king. The tablet is sturdy, has a decent capacitive display that's fine for indoor viewing, solid Tegra 2 performance and a full size USB port and 8 or 16 gigs of storage plus microSD card expansion. It's not razor thin, but it's comfortable to hold thanks to its more ample girth and grippy back. At 1.5 lbs., you'll notice the weight after 30 minutes of use vs. lighter tablets like the Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime, Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and iPad 2. If you're in the market for an affordable tablet that's upgradable to Ice Cream Sandwich, the A200 is worth a look as long as you don't want a rear camera or HDMI port and can live with the whisper-quiet speakers.

Apple iOS and Google Android Too Insecure for Enterprises

Welcome to a IBM Ac Adapter specialist
of the HP Ac Adapter

While Apple claims that nearly all of the top companies within major Fortune 500 markets are actively using iPad slates to improve workflows, business processes and customer engagements, Hewlett-Packard claims that neither Apple iOS- nor Google Android-based media tablets are secure enough for enterprises. When it comes to security, HP bets on Windows 8.

"Clearly, there is a need in the enterprise for a tablet that has enterprise grade security that the iPad and Android products don’t have. I think security is actually the biggest challenge in the marketplace today WebOS brought a degree of enterprise grade security and Microsoft will bring that same set of capabilities," said Todd Bradley, executive vice president of the personal systems group, in an interview with CRN web-site.

Media tablets like Apple iPad or Samsung Galaxy Tab are by definition made to consume content and not to create it. Nonetheless, overall popularity of slates among end-users and demands for productivity applications for them catalyzed hundreds of companies to develop productivity apps for the iPad, Samsung Galaxy Tab and even smartphones.

It is not a secret that many users now do certain elements of their jobs on mobile devices (e.g., monitoring of news-wires and RSS can be made on a smartphone or a tablet quite comfortably), which raises questions about security of corporate communications and corporate data that will inevitably be accessed or used insecurely. Large enterprises can afford creating their own apps for their employees, but this may not guarantee 100% security.

HP is planning to re-enter the tablet market when Windows 8 arrives, initially with an x86 model, and possibly with an ARM model. In HP's view, Microsoft's enterprise background and security expertise will make HP's Windows 8 tablets more attractive to businesses than Apple iPads and Google Android-based tablets. It remains to be seen, however, how successful will those tablets be as they will only arrive in the second half in 2012, when the market of slates is completely different from today's.

i just have a brand new HP Slate 2 tablet on my desk for demo purposes and if it's HP’s understanding of tablet experience, then it’s a FAIL on a whole new level. The axed-doomed touchpad was miles ahead.

First, the hardware:

* screen is miserable. Viewing angles are poor, contrast is non-existent, there’s a silk effect on a glossy screen (I thought it's IPS only issue for matte screens), colors are very dull, it’s like shades of grey. My mobile phone screen (and it’s not fancy samoled or ips or anything, just standard lcd from motorola) is miles ahead.

* it’s smaller (width by height) than any today’s full size tablet (ipad, transformers, 10’ galaxy tabs); yet it’s a lot bulkier (depth about 16mm) and weighs more.

* comes with a power adapter such as Lenovo N100 Adapter, IBM Thinkpad 240 Adapter, IBM Thinkpad 600 Adapter, IBM Thinkpad A30 Adapter, IBM Thinkpad R30 Adapter, IBM Thinkpad R51 Adapter, IBM Thinkpad R60 Adapter, IBM Thinkpad T42 Adapter, IBM Thinkpad X60 Adapter, IBM 92P1025 Adapter and a power cord (EU) which weighs more than the tablet itselt. Come on, HP, this is ridiculous. It’s not a coffee machine or an iron, it’s ultraportable device which consumes less than 20 watts. Give us a proper size, make a slim power brick (dell does it with 12 inch latitudes) or equip a smaller plug cable (fujitsu provides ones). It’ll never fit any skin-type bag. Carry a full size laptop bag just because of a large power brick and a cord?

* now the worst: it comes with with a w7 pro preloaded. w7 and touch basically requires a stylus operation on a small screen (i’ve used windows tablets in the past, like x60 tablet for a 3 years). the fonts and the links are so small that 8.9 screen is useless for fingers. special apps maybe, but not the system itself. In my office, i can plug a USB mouse or keyboard, but the stylus is essential for the touch mode on the move. BUT, there is NO way to attach the stylus to the body (there’s not a hole or clip for it), there’s a 0,5m long cord to tie to, but where? Leave it hanging? how lame is that? Now, nice thing that is comes with a decent leather booklet skin and this has a pocket to put a stylus in, fine, but it’s is not usable when this booklet is in desk-standing mode and moreover, you cant charge it in desk mode or with a booklet closed. ROFLMAO ergonomy.

*they provide a dock, but it has a shoddy build quality. the usb ports are facing slightly down and any usb plug longer than 5cm (maybe a USB thumb drive or card reader) can be plugged in or out only with rising a dock.

* as a business oriented device, it may be used with external screen throuhg a hdmi port. nice, yet, non of the current hp-compaq business class monitors carry a hdmi port. They put a displayport on elitebook laptops nowadays (i have a 8440p and a decent hp la2306x screen) and yet this business-oriented device comes with a hdmi port. displayport it not bigger than hdmi.

*touch responsivness is worse than a donkey year old. it’s worse than my t60 tablet from year 2007. you just never feel when you pressed something.

it comes with a fully fledged Windows 7 Pro, which is nice. yes it’s like a slow-mo on a poor atom z670 and multi-tasking is a chore, but i understand as this is netbook class product. W7 is next to useless for a small screen touch operation. it’s just no good. i struggled on my 12inch lenovo tablet and this is even worse. forget meeting memos, it’s like writing to a post-it paper at best. a couple of lines maybe. i wanted to „up“ the UI experience with a custom tablet user interface, i found a couple which emulates upcoming METRO UI. This requires aeroglass and 3d perfomance and this atom just struggles. idle perfomance was 25-30% CPU usage. The battery will never last more than 2-3 hours on this.

I have a developer edition of a windows 8 that i tried and this was a killer-blow. nothing worked normally (i dont count hardware or drivers as they might be not available), opening control panel tab took more than 3 seconds just to go there + rendering icons. And, they could talk about UI whatever they like, main things (browsing files, control panel, connection switching) is still like old ways and requires a stylus. okay, maybe they do something different in a years time for final version, but as of today, as a tablet device and w8, it’s looking grim.

It is a hopless device. On a transformer TF101 i can at least do things well, like browse and listen music and it’s convenient. Heck, my under 2 year old kid learned how to play, browse, scroll and change downloaded videos on an iPAD i had for a couple of weeks. this hp slate is not a tablet, it’s a CRIPPLED KEYBOARDLESS NETBOOK that somehow has a touch screen fitted to. How bad is the idea of A crippled netbook? what next?