MSI Announces Low Priced Tablets for India - ENJOYPAD 7 and 10

MSI’s WINPAD tablet running Windows 7 was unveiled last year Computex 2010 but never really made much of an impact on the Indian market. It does however appear, that they fully intend to launch their budget priced tablets viz. the ENJOYPAD 7 and 10 (not really the best name out there) for this market.   Low priced and ready to go The new Enjoy series of tablets feature a 1.2 GHz ARM Cortex-A8 processor and 512 Mb of RAM. This means new slim tablets will be running Android 2.3.3 aka Gingerbread out of the box. Perhaps Honeycomb would have required them to up the price. There's been no word on whether or not these devices will be upgradable to Honeycomb at some later date. The tablets will have Adobe Flash 10.1, support for better web browsing and feature display resolutions of 800 x 480 pixels for the 7-incher (16:9) and 1024 x 768 for the larger 10-inch device (4:3). Aside from that both tablets will be equipped with dual 2 megapixel cameras for video calling and images. Other features include Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP. These ENJOYPAD tablets will come with 4GB of internal memory and support for microSD cards up to 32GB. MSI has stated that the battery life (4000mAh Lithium battery) on these devices have a target of 4-5 hours of usage. We can only confirm this after our own tests of course.    The tablets are priced at Rs. 14,999 for the ENJOYPAD 10 and Rs. 13,999 for the smaller ENJOYPAD 7. They can also be ordered online from http://in.msi.com/.

Your Tablet Choices Available on the Shelves 2

With a fresh batch of tablets due to arrive in the months to come, we as consumers are once again spoilt for choice as every manufacturer is trying their best to out-do the competition with price cuts, freebies etc. Galaxy Tab P1000 With its elder brother all set to make its debut anytime now, the Tab P1000 is still a good option for those who don’t want to spend too much and require a more compact form factor. You can buy the 3G version of the Galaxy Tab P1000 for Rs. 24,700 which makes it a pretty good deal. Still offers good value A few facts about the Tab P1000: 7.0-inch capacitive touchscreen Supports resolution of 600x1024 pixels 3G, Wi-Fi Bluetooth v3.0 + EDR and A2DP 3.1MP rear AF camera with LED flash, 1.3MP forward facing camera for video calling. HD video playback, DivX/WMV/Xvid/H.264/H.263support Stereo speakers Expandable memory up to 32GB Viewsonic Viewpad 7 Viewsonic’s Viewpad 7 has the potential for a decent tablet but it was too overpriced for a 7-inch form factor. To add to its woes, it's quite underpowered as well, if you think about the measly 600Mhz CPU. We just got a update from Viewsonic regading the pricing which has now dropped to Rs.17,999. Unnecessarily expensive The Viewpad 7 includes the following feature list : 7.0-inch capacitive touchscreen Supports resolution of 800x480 pixels 3G, Wi-Fi Bluetooth v2.1 + EDR and A2DP 3MP rear AF camera , 0.3MP forward facing camera for video calling. MP4 and 3GP support Stereo speakers Expandable memory up to 32GB Viewsonic Viewpad 10 The Viewpad 10 is a completely different beast compared to its younger and more timid sibling. This tablet lets you dual boot between Android and Windows 7 and instead of an ARM CPU, it's powered by Intel’s Atom N455 processor. The Viewpad 10 is priced at Rs. 30,000 with 16GB built-in memory and Wi-Fi only. Windows or Android? How about both The Viewpad 10 Features: 10.1-inch capacitive touchscreen Supports resolution of 600x1024 pixels Wi-Fi support Bluetooth v2.1 + EDR and A2DP 1.3MP forward facing camera HD video playback, MP4/WMV/H.263/H.264support Stereo speakers Expandable memory up to 32GB Olive Pad V-T100 The Olive Pad and the Viewsonic Viewpad 7 are practically identical as the OEM that's built the tablet appears to be the same. It is cheaper though at Rs. 24,900 for the 3G version, mostly due to the fact that  they don’t have to charge a premium for the brand name. Affordable 3G tablet The Olive Pad has the following features : 7.0-inch capacitive touchscreen Supports resolution of 800x480 pixels 3G, Wi-Fi Bluetooth v2.1 + EDR and A2DP 3MP rear AF camera , 0.3MP forward facing camera for video calling. MP4 and 3GP support Stereo speakers Expandable memory up to 32GB Zinglife E-Pad ZL-101 The E-Pad could have sold really well with the whole iPad look-a-like design but sadly it's not the most user friendly tablet. It does manage to playback 720p videos smoothly though, I’ll give it that. The pricing is good for a 10.1-inch tablet at just Rs. 15,000 but honestly, I would give this one a skip. Buy it if you dare Some facts about the E-Pad ZL-101: 10.1-inch resistive touchscreen Supports resolution of 600x1024 pixels Wi-Fi support Bluetooth v2.1 + EDR and A2DP VGA forward facing camera for video calling. HD video playback Stereo speakers Expandable memory up to 32GB Creative ZiiO 7 Last but not the least we have Creative’s own ZiiO 7 PMP. I refuse to call it a tablet since you can't really do much beside watch videos or listen to music. It packs in a great audio chip, the X-Fi, which helps quite a bit for music and videos. It’s a little pricey at Rs.17,999 but it’s any day better than the Zinglife. A good PMP, but that's about it It packs in the following features: 7.0-inch capacitive touchscreen Supports resolution of 800x480 pixels  Wi-Fi support Bluetooth v2.1 + EDR and A2DP VGA forward facing camera for video calling. H.264, MPEG4, WMV9, MOV, AVI, MKV support Stereo speakers Expandable memory up to 32GB That's all for now folks. Be sure to read up on reviews before you make a buying decision. It's recommeded to try out the tablets before since many of them may look identical on paper but the real world experience can differ greatly.

South Korean Education to Get Tablet-Based By 2015

Adapting to latest technology may seem challenging to some. However, for existing students in South Korea, and for those who’ll join that demographic soon, this will instill right where they begin their formal education – school.

Future Perfect?

In what comes as the latest move in this direction, by 2014, the entire lot of elementary-level educational materials will be digitized, and a year hence, all of South Korea’s school curriculum will be digitized. In a $2.4 billion move, the country will begin the purchase of tablets, and also carry out the process of digitizing the educational content for them. And considering the upper handedness of Samsung in its hometown, it wouldn't take a rocket scientist to guess where all the tablets will come from.

However, even before these systems are put to place, a very basic issue stands unresolved. Will the technology provided by the next-generation gadgets match the comprehensiveness, liberalness of a text book?

Getting Under The Hood of a Tablet

Since tablets are light and compact, their primary purpose is mobile computing. This means that they must have sufficient battery life, despite the large display screens and touch interface. Here’s the hardware that helps manufacturers make that happen. Processors The brain of any tablet is the processor that powers its core working. Since most devices are touch sensitive, and need to connect to the Internet and offer a long battery life, the processor should be light on the system. Most tablets today are powered by the processors from ARM or those based on Intel’s x86 architecture. A typical chipset based on the simple ARM architecture can handle 4 million instructions per second at 8 MHz (ARM1) to a maximum of 220 million instructions per second at 200 MHz (ARM9E). The architecture is licensed to a host of companies to develop their own processors, including the Qualcomm Snapdragon, the Samsung Hummingbird, Nintendo, Nvidia Tegra and the Apple A4. Intel has developed the Atom processor based on its x86 architecture. The Atom Z6xx codenamed Lincroft, offers GPU speeds of 1.6 GHz. Operating Systems The heart of the tablet is its operating system. There are several OSs that are device and vendor specific, while others are multi-platform. The most prominent OSs for tablets include iOS (a proprietary OS for Apple devices), Microsoft Windows 7 and Google's Android OS and now the more recent Blackberry Tablet OS or the Playbook tablet. More OS' are expected to come up in the future, which will include the Maemo operating system based on Linux, which is being developed by Nokia, and the webOS, originally developed by Palm, which would now power tablets and smartphones from HP. There are also talks of Chrome OS for Google tablets being developed by Google and HTC. The two mobile opertaing systems that have yet to be spoken of in terms of tablet technology is Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 and the on-its-way-out Symbian opertaing system, butyou never know. The Apple iPad's innards Storage Space Tablets come with varying memory capacities, starting from 2GB (Wespro Epad) to, as much as 64GB (Apple iPad) built-in storage space. Tablets usually come with an SD card slot to increase storage space, but that is of limited use if the device is powered by Android 2.1 or lower, as those don’t let you install apps on external storage. Moreover, if your tablet offers USB ports, you can attach an external hard drive to get extra storage space for your data. Touch Screen UI A touch screen user interface is a bit different from the graphical user interface primarily due to touch-based inputs. While this kind of interface is useful to make the command selection via text more accurate, they offer extended features like adding widgets and live wallpaper to make your device more interactive. The iPad features a proprietary UI developed by Apple, there is the TouchWiz UI from Samsung, and the Sense UI by HTC. Sensors The touch screen in a tablet is not pressure-based, and relies on several sensors. The high-end tablets include an accelerometer, ambient light sensor and temperature sensor. The accelerometer or the gravity sensor helps to change the orientation of the screen in terms of how it is held. The ambient light sensor adjusts brightness and contrast of your tablet screen with respect to lighting conditions. The temperature sensor intimates you of your battery heat levels. The Galaxy Tab exposed Connectors Most of the tablets offer several ports like the USB and HDMI, plus audio connectors and SD card and SIM card slots. However, the iPad is one of the few tablets that sports only one outlet that doubles as a charging port for the device. Camera Tablets usually feature a front camera for video calls on-the-go. The camera quality ranges from VGA quality right up to 8 megapixels. With the introduction of the Android 3.0 OS, which supports 3D, tablets are likely to sport dual cameras to help capture 3D pictures and video.

Upcoming Tablets to Look Out For- july 2011

2011 is indeed the year of the tablets. CES and Computex were bombarded by tablets from every major consumer goods manufacturer and even some not-so-popular brands. The first wave has already hit our country starting with the iPad, followed by the iPad 2 which took everyone by surprise. While the iPad attracted the elite crowd and the Apple fanboys, Samsung’s Galaxy Tab was the only other real option for a tablet. The sub-25K price bracket suddenly witnessed a surge in cheap Android based tablets, most of which were quite bad to be even called a tablet like the HCL Me AE7, ZingLife E-Pad and Creative’s ZiiO 7. Plus, the Motorola Xoom and the HTC Flyer have only just started rolling out, giving you even more choices. It doesn't stop here, let’s take a look at some of the tablets that are yet to arrive in 2011.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1
The successor to the Galaxy Tab P1000, the Tab 10.1 will go up against the Motorola Xoom and the Acer A500 3G variant (if Acer actually launched this). Specification wise, it’s practically identical to the other two, so the deciding factor will have to be the user experience and ergonomics of the tablet. Acer has done little to no customization with the A500 (apart from some widgets) and we’ve not reviewed the Xoom yet, so we can’t comment on that, we really hope Samsung delivers on their TouchWiz user interface. Now I know their UI hasn’t exactly got them many fans when compared to HTC’s Sense but if they can pull off something like they did with the Galaxy S II, then we have some competition. No word on the price yet, but I guess it would launch at around the 35K mark.

Bigger and slimmer

The Galaxy Tab 10.1 Features -

• 10.1-inch capacitive touchscreen with Samsung’s PLS display technology
• Supports resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels
• 3G, Wi-Fi or Wi-Fi only model to be available
• Bluetooth v3.0 + EDR
• GPS with A-GPS support for Google Maps
• 3.1MP rear AF camera with LED flash and 720p video recording capability, 2MP forward facing camera for video calling.
• 1080p HD@30fps video playback, DivX and Xvid support
• Stereo speakers

Available in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB editions with micro SD card support up to 32GB.

Toshiba Thrive
While we rarely see many Toshiba products in India, other than a few notebooks and portable drives, it's hard to say when or if, will this ever come to India. Nevertheless, we shouldn’t ignore this 10.1-inch slab of glass, as it has some very unique features not found in the other tablets. For starters, this is the first Android tablet to have a removable battery and will launch with Android 3.1. It will also feature an SD card slot capable of handling 128GB SDXC cards and will come with a ExFAT driver enabling it to handle up to 1TB external hard drives over the USB port. Hopefully, Toshiba realizes the growing tablet market in India and will launch this quickly.

Stands out from the crowd

The Toshiba Thrive also features -

• 10.1-inch capacitive touchscreen with 1280x800 pixel resolution
• Wi-Fi 'n' support
• Bluetooth v2.1 + EDR
• GPS with A-GPS support for Google Maps
• 5MP Autofocus rear camera, 2MP front facing camera
• Available in 8GB, 16GB, 32GB editions with micro SD card support up to 32GB

Dell Streak 7
Dell’s next stint with tablets comes in the form of a slightly larger version of their first Streak phone. Called the Streak 7, the dimensions are more in line with BlackBerry’s PlayBook which will be their first target. The tablet is powered by Froyo and an Nvidia Tegra 2 CPU along with a 5MP auto-focus camera and buttons on the bezel which we don’t see on other tablets. The HTC Flyer which also sports a 7-inch screen should provide stiff competition once this releases. Once again, nothing on the India availability or pricing as of now. The Streak 7 will appeal mostly to people who liked the form factor of the PlayBook, but wanted the flexibility of Android. Sadly, Dell has no plans to launch the Streak 7 in India anytime soon so you'll have to import one if you want to get it.

BB PlayBook, beware!

The Dell Streak 7 features -

• 7-inch capacitive touchscreen with a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels
• 3G, Wi-Fi
• Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP
• GPS with A-GPS support

• 5MP rear AF camera with 720p video recording capability, 1.3MP forward facing camera for video calling

• MP4/H.263/H.264/WMV video playback

• 16GB built-in storage with micro SD card support up to 32GB

The Transformer should be hitting Indian shores towards July end, if rumors are to be believed. This 10.1-inch beast will compete with the big boys like the Xoom, A500 and the iPad 2. Specifications wise, it's once again not very different from the rest and whether it does well or not, entirely depends on the extra features that Asus includes and if they are worth the asking price. We got an update from Asus who say the TF101 will launch for an MRP of Rs.32,999. This is for the 16GB Wi-Fi only version and the release date is 15th July.

Interesting concept

The Asus Eee Pad Transformer features -

• 10.1-inch IPS Panel at 1280x800 resolution encased in Gorilla Glass
• Wi-Fi 'n' support
• Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP
• GPS with A-GPS support
• 5MP rear AF camera, 1.3MP forward facing camera for video calling

Available in 16GB, 32GB editions with micro SD card support up to 32GB

LG Optimus Pad
We heard reports of the Optimus Pad heading to India in June for about 30K, obviously that did not happen. LG’s Pad is quite different from all the other 10.1-inch tablets we’ve seen. First of all, the screen size will be 8.9-inches and will be 3D capable (I’m hoping glass-less, else it would be rather silly). What’s more, it will have the similar 1280x768 resolution seen on the larger sized tablets, so we can expect the picture to be sharper and crisper. Powered by the same Tegra 2 CPU seen in their Optimus 2x, this will certainly be an interesting option if priced right.

3D capable tablet

The Optimus Pad also features -

• 8.9-inch capacitive touchscreen with a 1280 x 768 pixel resolution

• 3G, Wi-Fi with DLNA compatibility
• Bluetooth v2.1+ EDR with A2DP
• GPS with A-GPS support for Google Maps
• Dual 5MP cameras for 3D capture, 2MP front facing camera
• HDMI Out
• Available in a 32GB version with microSD card support

Lenovo LePad
Lenovo’s LePad was quite shaky right from its first announcement at CES 2010 - and then we found out later that it won't go into production. Well, just a few months back we got to know that the LePad is back on track and will be heading to India, some time this year. Although a little late to the party, let’s hope Lenovo beefs up the specifications, before launching it since a single core CPU just won’t cut it anymore given the competition.

Beautifully crafted

Some known features of the LePad -

• 10.1-inch capacitive touchscreen with 1280x800 pixel resolution

• 3G, Wi-Fi
• Will run Android 2.2

There's not a lot of information about the LePad available for now. I guess we'll just have to wait and watch.

So there you go, six more exciting tablets are right on the horizon begging for your hard earned cash. Which one are you going home with?

What Do You Buy Next - Tablet or Smartphone?

Tablets are here, and they are here big time. We might as well call 2011, the year of tablets. With everyone from Apple, to the small time brands, we’ve seen a widening of the price ranges of these products. Tablets start from as low as Rs. 8,000 and they can be as expensive as Rs. 45,000. A big chunk of tablets have prices that clash with those of mobile phones. All of us have phones, but for those using older phones and looking to buy a new product, a questions that’s being asked more often than ever is whether the next purchase should be a large screen mobile phone, or a tablet?

 

Tablets were never designed to be mobile phones, in fact they were intended to be a replacement for netbooks. There were attempts in the past, but the end result was an underpowered and oversized product that are the tablets we see today. The new generation of tablets that spawned were post Apple’s iPad launch. There are a number of reasons why tablets could be your next big purchase and a number reasons why it could be a bad idea. Obviously, price plays a major factor in the buying decision.

Larger screen and resolution

The biggest differentiating factor is the screen size and the resolutions offered. Mobile phones, even the ones priced at roughly the Rs. 13,000 mark have started offering 480 x 854 resolutions. Most tablets offer similar or slightly higher resolutions. This depends on the price. In terms of workspace they’re both similar, but the size of the display matters.

Dell Streak - both, a phone and tablet

On one hand, watching content is a more immersive experience on a tablet than it is on a mobile phone. On the other hand, a tablet isn’t really portable. Even the most compact of tablets are required to be carried in a pouch or a backpack. Phones with really large 4.1- or 4.3-inch screens are the only pocket-able devices and they aren’t a lot larger than the usual 3.5-inch or 3.7-inch phones that we’ve seen in the last couple of years.

Power-packed

Demand on processing has increased and very few people use their phone only for making calls and sending SMS’. Playing games, browsing the web and watching movies on the phone is a passtime for many. The new generation of phones coming this year are built around dual-core processors. However, prices of these phones are closer to Rs. 27,000.

Dual-core processors are already here, quad-cores will follow soon

The more popular tablets such as the iPad 2 are priced at roughly the same price range and offer this additional performance. As of today, there aren’t too many apps that require this kind of power. Already, quad-core processors are on their way in and developers will have more power at their disposal. Tablets are used more for productivity and media consumption whereas phones are used primarily for instant communication and alerts. Phones in comparison don’t absolutely require to be really powerful in comparison to tablets. 

Software Platform
The tablet market for the most part is dominated by Apple with their iPad tablets, which runs Apple’s own iOS operating system. The rest of the tablets today run on Google’s Android platform with a smaller fraction of users using the QNX powered OS that RIM’s Playbook uses.

Different devices, similar platforms - iOS and Android

If you buy an Apple iPhone 4 or an iPad, in either case you’ll get the latest iOS platform. In Android powered phones and tablets on the other hand, you have the choice of Froyo or Gingerbread (Android 2.2 or 2.3) on most phones and older tablets and Honeycomb (Android 3.0) on the new generation of tablets.

Usability and Practicality
The mobile phone is a tinier device, which is lighter and easy to carry around. It’s something you can pull out in an instant and type in, read, listen and do a number of things. The tablet, on the other hand requires you be seated ideally, preferably at a desk - it’s more of a notebook replacement. Both phones and tablets have a common problem though.

Onscreen displays use up a lot of the available workspace

The lack of a keyboard means data entry is a little more cumbersome and the on-screen keyboard often blocks half of the workspace. This is a problem that will plague you, unless you buy a compatible dock or wireless keyboard that works with your tablet. Both of these devices aren’t ergnomic either. Both require you to look down while bending your neck and back. The mobile phone if at all is a little easier to hold but you lose out on screen real estate.

The Final Word
Unfortunately, there isn’t one, or a clear one at least. Trying to choose between a tablet and a phone is a recipe for disaster. You’ll always need a cell phone, and a tablet will only complement it. The decision to choose your purchase - phone or tablet, depends on your budget. If you’re looking to buy a tablet for less than Rs. 20,000, you’re probably going to end up with an outdated tablet. There are phones being sold with 1 GHz processors with a 480x800 resolution screen running the latest version of Android. You are better off with one of those. There isn’t much a choice, either. Most of the decent tablets such as the Apple iPad 2, the Acer Iconia A500, the RIM Playbook are all priced above Rs. 25,000, which makes them out of reach for the majority of us.

ARCHOS Tablets to Feature Seagate Momentus Thin HDD

Seagate have announced that they will be delivering hard disk drive storage for the ARCHOS G9 8-inch and 10-inch tablets. These will be the first tablets to have hard disk drives. This HDD featured in these tablets is the Seagate Momentus Thin which Seagate claims is a speedy notebook drive with a super-slim 7mm profile. The company claims that the performance and capacity of the Momentus Thin drive are the perfect complement for the cutting-edge speed of the ARCHOS G9 family of tablets that features the dual-core 1.5 GHz processor. They go on to state that the strength of the Momentus Thin drive gives users 250GB of capacity which is eight times more than a standard 32GB tablet but at the same cost thus making the ARCHOS G9 one of the tablet industry’s best cost-performance values.

The ARCHOS G9 tablets

Speaking on the announcement of the Seagate Momentus Thin hard drive, Rocky Pimentel, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer of Seagate said that the company continues to break new ground in the development of products and technologies that matter most to customers by delivering the Momentus Thin drive for these powerful ARCHOS tablets. He went on to add that this drive gives tablet buyers a compelling option, providing great storage capacity and performance that dovetail with the processing power of the new ARCHOS products for great Android and multimedia experiences.

The 7mm thin hard disk drive

The features of the Momentus Thin hard drive are

• 2.5-inch hard drive with a 7mm profile
• Seagate SmartAlign technology to smooth the transition to 4K sectors without the need for software utilities
• 320GB, 250GB and 160GB capacities
• 7200RPM and 5400RPM spin speeds with 16MB of cache

Seagate states that an optional feature included with this dive is a Government-grade encryption to protect computer data where it lives on the hard drive for powerful data security. ARCHOS 80 G9 which is the 8-inch product and ARCHOS 101 G9, the 10-inch model are scheduled to be available in late September at an estimated MSRP of Rs. 12,589 and Rs. 15,748 respectively.

Sony's S1 and S2 Tablets Featured in a New Teaser Video

Looks like Sony is leaving nothing to chance with their upcoming tablets and have released a first in a series of videos for the S1 and S2 tablets. The first video tagged “The First Impression” is a little misleading, since we can’t really get a good look at the tablets themselves. The video is beautifully done though with the whole domino effect going on. I really like the way they’ve used the lighting and placement of power lines and trees to create a cool shadow effect. Towards the end you’ll notice both the tablets running Honeycomb but that’s about it. We’ve covered the announcement of the S1 and S2, back in April itself in depth, so you can take a look here for more information. Most likely, the features and specifications shouldn’t change much, but we’ll know soon enough. For now, enjoy the video.

BlackBerry PlayBook Unboxed

It has been a long wait, but it’s finally here. BlackBerry’s spanking new tablet marks RIMs official entry into the tablet rat race. We had reported earlier about the arrival of the PlayBook on June 22, 2011 and so far that seems to be on track. We’ve managed to get our hands on a retail version of the PlayBook and put together a little unboxing video for you, feast your eyes on it -

Unboxing the Blackberry Playbook

If that doesn't do it for you, then head on over to our gallery section for some prime pictures of the Playbook.

There's the old BlackBerry Logo

For those still living under a rock, here’s a little glimpse at some of the highlights of the Playbook -

• 7-inch LCD, 1024 x 600 (WSVGA), capacitive touch screen with full multi-touch and gesture support
• Wi-Fi ‘n’ with support for tethering to your phone
• Bluetooth v2.1 + EDR with A2DP
• 5 MP camera with autofocus, 3MP front facing camera
• 3.5mm audio jack
• Internal 16/32/64 GB storage, no expandable memory option

The tablet packs in a 1GHz dual core processor which lets it handle full HD content with ease. That goes for video recording as well. The rear 5MP cam is capable of 1080p video recording. It also has full support for Flash 10.2 and HTML 5 for a desktop like browsing experience. There are a whole bunch of apps developed specially for the PlayBook which include most popular ones like Facebook, YouTube, Skype, Twitter, among others. Finally, if you have a BlackBerry phone, you can easily sync your data between the two devices through BlackBerry Bridge. Be sure to catch our in-depth review of the PlayBook, very soon.

REVIEWS / TABLETS / CREATIVE TECHNOLOGY Creative ZiiO 7-Inch: Not Really a 'Tablet'

When it comes to multimedia products Creative is one of the oldest companies that have been churning out competitive products starting off with PC peripherals like speakers and then branching out into components, media players and now tablets. In order to keep up with the public demand to stay current, it’s only natural for any company to try their hand at what’s currently trending in the market. Creative have launched two tablets under the ZiiO branding, a 7-incher and a 10-incher. Today, we’ll be reviewing the former that’s available in two memory capacities - 8GB and 16GB.

Looking good

Design
The ZiiO comes well packaged with all the basic accessories including a handy travel case. The 7-incher is only available in white so you might want to keep it in the case if that’s not your color. It's fairly lightweight at 415g and built well so it feels sturdy. Most of the ports are placed on the top which include the power button, 3.5mm headphone jack, mini HDMI (cable not included) and a mini-USB port. The volume rocker button is on the right while the micro-SD memory card slot is on the left. There were some issues with the card slot on our unit though, everytime a mciro SD card (2GB, 4GB, 8GB) was inserted, the tablet would stop responding and behave erratically. Creative also includes a thin-pin power adapter for charging although you can charge it via USB as well. The usual sets of touch sensitive shortcut buttons on the front similar to many Android based tablets and phones are located just under the display. The 7" screen sports a resolution of 480x800 pixels and is 13.7mm thick.

AMD's Z Series APUs in High Demand

While Intel's new Oak Trail Atom processors have been doing their rounds in tablets, there’s no escaping the fact that they aren’t as power efficient as AMDs Z series APUs. Rumor has it that Acer has placed an order for 80,000 Z series APUs from AMD although neither of the companies has confirmed this. The future for tablets? AMD has started production of the Z series APUs in full swing through TSMC’s 40nm fabrication process. They expect the shipments to reach around 500,000 units in the second half of 2011. Currently, Google’s Honeycomb operating system is far from perfect and all the little bugs should be ironed out in their upcoming update codenamed Ice Cream Sandwich which is scheduled for a Q4 launch. As it turns out,  Acer is not the only one interested in AMDs tablet offering. MSI has also shown some interest in the new APUs. Just like AMD’s embedded Fusion APUs took the netbook world by storm, we may very well see the same happening in the tablet space, as well.

Update: BlackBerry Playbook Most Likely to Hit Indian Shelves By June 22

The BlackBerry Playbook page is back up with the option to pre-register for the tablet. Advanced booking of the Playbook begins today where one can visit a BlackBerry retailer and fill out the registration form. Also those who purchase the Playbook between the 23rd to the 30th of June, 2011 are eligible to receive a free HDMI cable and a leather case.

For all you BlackBerry aficionados out there, this will be some interesting piece of information for you. The BlackBerry Playbook is likely to come to India by the 22nd of June. The business oriented tablet which was initially supposed to be launched across the world by the end of last year, with the Indian launch touted to be in May will finally make its way here.

BlackBerry Playbook coming to India!

Our sources reveal that this information is true with further confirmation coming in the form of an advertisement on the first page of the Mumbai edition of the Times of India. The advertisement states that one can pre-order the tablet before June 22nd and will be available to get premium accessories which are a leather case and a HDMI cable free.

A brief view on the specifications of the BlackBerry Playbook:

• 7-inch LCD, 1024 x 600, WSVGA, capacitive touch screen with full multi-touch and gesture support
• BlackBerry Tablet OS with support for symmetric multiprocessing
• 1 GHz dual-core processor
• 1 GB RAM
• Dual HD cameras (3 MP front facing, 5 MP rear facing), supports 1080p HD video recording
• Video playback: 1080p HD Video, H.264, MPEG, DivX, WMV
• Audio playback: MP3, AAC, WMA
• HDMI video output
• Wi-Fi - 802.11 a/b/g/n
• Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
• Connectors: micro HDMI, micro USB, charging contacts
• Open, flexible application platform with support for WebKit/HTML-5, Adobe Flash Player 10.1, Adobe Mobile AIR, Adobe Reader, POSIX, OpenGL, Java
• Ultra thin and portable:
• Measures 5.1”x7.6”x0.4” (130mm x 193mm x 10mm)
• Weighs less than a pound (approximately 0.9 lb or 400g)

To get more information and to pre-order the Blackberry Playbook visit http://in.blackberry.com/playbook. To find the nearest retailer in your area, you can send an SMS by typing “PLAYBOOK <pincode> to 56070.”  We tried logging onto this page, however we got a 404 error saying, “Sorry. The page you requested has been moved or no longer exists.”  We will keep you informed on the status of the upcoming tablet from BlackBerry.