Reviews and Articles

It looks like a new Android-based tablet enters the market each week, and they may all seem to look the same on the outside. Recently though, we have had a lot of very interesting new entrants, as seen by a comparison between our two current pugilists, the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer and the Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet. What sets them apart from other tablets is that both of them come with an optional dock accessory that turns them into road warriors fit for business types who want to up their productivity. They also both have a 10.1-inch touchscreens and are powered by Honeycomb. Let’s see if they match pound-for-pound in other areas, shall we? Software The software on the Transformer is mainly a ‘vanilla’ version of the Honeycomb OS, despite the fact that ASUS features its Waveshare UI on the Eee Pad Transformer. Extras include a file manager, the MyLibrary books app, as well as a MyNet app for streaming multimedia content. The MyCloud app features one year of unlimited storage,...

You thought 2011 was going to be the year of the tablets, but ended up disappointed with the showing of tablets in 2011? I don’t blame you. Both Google and the initial tablet manufacturers screwed up with the launch of the “real tablets” with Android 3.0x Honeycomb. Google did it with the half-baked Honeycomb, and it was obvious it was rushed with Motorola scrambling to release it before the iPad 2, with features that weren’t even ready for launch. Little good did that do for them, when they released the Xoom with a starting price of $800, which brings me to the failure of the manufacturers to release a tablet at a competitive price with the iPad. Specs are almost irrelevant if you can’t compete on price. It’s even worse when you offer less value for a higher price. Even though I knew the botched Honeycomb and Xoom launch would set Android at least 6 months back in the rapidly growing tablet market, with such lost momentum, I was still rooting for the Xoom to be a failure. But w...

As you can see from the video above, the  iPad 2  using the  Apple A5  chip combined with more RAM performs  much  better than the original iPad when browsing in Mobile Safari. If you load up all nine tabs, you’ll see that the original iPad starts to choke up pretty badly when compared to the iPad 2. This is due to the original iPad only coming with 256MB of RAM while iPad 2 comes packed with 512MB. (We hoped for as much as 1GB in the video before getting more test results back. Maybe next year!.) The original iPad tends to “kill” background tabs whenever it runs out of available memory, which can get pretty annoying if you use the iPad primarily for web browsing. The iPad 2 performed flawlessly and had no hiccups when browsing. Also the dreaded “checkerboard effect” — where significant lag would occur before Safari could render the web page content — is nowhere to be found. Scrolling in Safari is smooth as butter, and gone are the days when switchin...

Comparing the pros and cons, costs and features, between Apple’s iPad 2 and iPod touch, and Amazon’s new Kindle Fire Trying to decide between an Apple iPad 2 or iPod touch and an Amazon Kindle, either for yourself or as a gift for someone else? There’s a lot to consider — the quality and dimensions of the hardware, the features and flexibility of the operating system, the availability and diversity of the content, the difference in cost and value, and we’ll take you through all of it, point by point, to help you decide. Full iPad 2 review  |  buy the iPad 2 now Full Kindle Fire coverage  |  buy the Kindle Fire now Full iPod touch review  and  iOS 5 update review  |  buy the iPod touch now Location The first and easiest filter is simple geography. If you live outside the U.S., Amazon has such limited content support that it might as well be non-existant. Apple by contrast has good support for apps and increasing support for musi...

The advent of Google Android OS has given new incentive and opportunity for manufacturers to produce tablets with exciting features. And now, with Google launching the  new Honeycomb OS , which is exclusively designed for tablets, things are looking up for Android lovers world-wide. The Motorola Xoom is looking it has what it takes to be a serious contender in the tablet wars of 2011. Apple iPad VS Motorola Xoom: 1)  Screen  – The iPad has a 9.7-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit glossy widescreen Multi-Touch display with IPS technology and 1024 x 768 resolution. Motorola Xoom comes with a massive 10.1-inch dispaly with a resolution of 1280×800 pixels and a 160 dpi pixel density. 2)  Operating System  – iPad runs on a Apple iOS 4.2 with multi tasking. Here, Motorola Xoom beats iPad with Android Honeycomb OS, which is specially designed for tablets with an attractive User Interface. Also it allows installing third party applications. 3)  Processor and RA...

With the iPad 2 having been formally announced yesterday, the blogosphere is hard at work comparing the latest and greatest Android Tablets, and Apples latest iteration of the iPad. While the Motorola Xoom and Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 are certainly the more technically superior devices, and initial reviews of Android 3.0 Honeycomb have been quite positive, it will ultimately come down to which one sells more. Currently, Apple has dominated the tablet market, but this is without any competition. Things are about to heat up. Already, competition is doing wonderful things for consumers. When the Motorola Xoom was introduced, we were led to believe that the price would be in the $599 range for the Wi-Fi only model, and $799 for the 3G(4G) model. Within 24 hours of the iPad 2 being announced, Motorola has changed its tune, and there are now reports that the Wi-Fi-only model will be selling for $539.99 at Sam’s Club. Certainly, a lot of the Xooms’ and Galaxy Tabs’ specs are s...