Lots of Samsung news this week as well as the good, the bad and the ugly in regards to Microsoft. All external links go to Tom’s Hardware unless otherwise stated. Tablet Announcements: More news on Samsung’s upcoming 8-inch Galaxy Note Phablet: Pictured: The 8-inch Galaxy Note Bound for MWC – SamMobile site has posted a picture (not yet authenticated by Samsung) of the monster Phablet. Samsung’s Massive Galaxy Note 8.0 Spotted in the Wild – Italian site dday.it published a picture of the 7.9-inch Samsung Galaxy Note 8. No work whether the tablet in the photo is the final model or…
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However, they are not for consumers. These Firefox OS (formerly Boot to Gecko) phones are being made by a Spanish company GeekPhone for the purpose of allowing developers to create apps for the new platform. Currently there are two phones the Keon and Peak which both house 4 GB of ROM, 512 MB of RAM, a MicroSD slot, 802.11n wireless networking, light and proximity sensors, GPS, an accelerometer, as well as a camera flash. The lower end Keon has a 1GHz Qualcom Snapdragon S1 processor, 3.5-inch screen, 1,580mAh battery and a 3-megapixel camera. While the higher end Peak has a 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon…
However, they are not for consumers. These Firefox OS (formerly Boot to Gecko) phones are being made by a Spanish company GeekPhone for the purpose of allowing developers to create apps for the new platform. Currently there are two phones the Keon and Peak which both house 4 GB of ROM, 512 MB of RAM, a MicroSD slot, 802.11n wireless networking, light and proximity sensors, GPS, an accelerometer, as well as a camera flash. The lower end Keon has a 1GHz Qualcom Snapdragon S1 processor, 3.5-inch screen, 1,580mAh battery and a 3-megapixel camera. While the higher end Peak has a 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon…
Not as much Tablet news this week around now that CES has wrapped up. All external links go to Tom’s Hardware unless otherwise stated. Tablet Announcements: Gigabyte Announces Two Windows 8 Tablets – The 11.6-inch S1185 and the 10.1-inch S1082. Both seem to have decent specs and both will use Windows 8 Pro. Pricing not yet announced and likely won’t be until we get closer to the February 2013 and March 2013 releases for the S1082 and S1185 respectfully. Archos 80 Titanium tablet has same resolution as iPad Mini for $169 [C|Net] – Mentioned this new product line from the French…
Many have wondered if Microsoft used the same desktop Windows Kernel on the Windows Phone 8. The answer is yes as indicated by this tweeted photo of the error screen: Microsoft says ‘normally’ users should never see this error and therefore don’t have to try to figure out just how to insert an install CD into their phones. It seems this particular person was trying to flash their phone when something went horribly wrong. This also serves as an example of how to ‘brick’ your phone. No indication is Microsoft was going to offer any support, other than may be have the user…
Java Release 7 Update 11 (released January 13, 2013) fixes this issue. More info here. US Department of Homeland Security is advising computer uses to temporarily disable their browsers’ Java Plugin(s). This comes after after Thursday’s advisory concerning vulnerabilities in the current Java 7 Release 10 plugin. Experts believe hackers have found a flaw in Java’s coding that creates an opening for criminal activity and other high-tech mischief. How to disable Java plugin on your browser: Firefox: in the address bar type about:addons and press enter. The add-ons manager will open. On the left side select Plugins. Locate the plugins you want to disable and click the Disable button. Note: a browser restart may…
Looks like 2013 is going to be the year tablets really start taking off. There has been a lot of tablet news this week which is likely because of The Consumer Electronics Shows (CES) this week in Las Vegas. All links are to Tom’s Hardware unless otherwise noted. Tablet Announcements: Archos Shows New Titanium, Platinum Android Tablets – French company – tablets will feature white finish instead of the typical black/aluminum finish and some will support a 2048 x 1536 resolution (for about half the price of the iPad). Panasonic Announces Android, Windows 8 Tablets – Panasonic might be taking a bit of risk here doing both Android and Windows 8…
So it was reported on January 9th that Microsoft had sold 60 million Windows 8 licenses. While at first that may sound impressive, especially given the lack luster reports on the sales and response of Windows 8 it really isn’t. They key word in this statement from Microsoft is licenses. This is not the same as ‘copies of Windows 8’ or number of ‘Windows 8 PCs’ sold. A better way of looking at this is 60 Million copies of Windows 8 have been produced or made. This figure includes both Windows 8 software only and Windows 8 installed on new PCs. However, it does not reflect how many copies…
I think we have come to the point that our smartphones and tablets are more powerful than our traditional desktop/laptop computer. At their keynote address on Thursday, January 10th at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Samsung’s Stephen Woo announced the world’s first eight-core processor for smartphones and tablets, the Exynos5 Octa. However, it is not a true 8-core (or octa-core) as it is really 2 quad-core processors. My HTC Sensation phone only as a dual-core processor and the new (for 2012) Samsung Galaxy Note II phone/tablet as a quad-processor. The Asus Nexus 7 and Microsoft Surface tablets also have a quad-core processor….
Touch screens are becoming more and more common. From Smartphones and Tablets to touchscreen monitors that take advantage of Windows 8 Metro Interface. However, trying to put a touch screen in a car while can work for some of the ‘physical’ controls, should not be a replacement for all all of those said controls. Unfortunately, that is just what Cadillac’s CUE system has done, it has eliminated all the physical controls for climate control as well as the entertainment system. The 8-inch screen does support a really nice 800×480 resolution and runs off of Linux (hate to think if it…