Editoral – HP have for a while had touch screen PC’s called the touchsmart range. If anyone has used one in the past the it is a responsive and compact PC that is happy on any desk or small workplace. HP have announced a new range of touch smart PC’s including a 20 inch tablet called the HP ENVY Rove²⁰ take it with you around the office, showing off to your workmates! Available in July, ready for the holidays!

PALO ALTO, Calif. — HP today announced the HP ENVY Rove²⁰ mobile All-in-One PC, the company’s first mobile All-in-One PC, which frees the desktop PC from the desk and allows families and friends to enjoy a shared entertainment experience with a built-in battery, unique design and advanced touch technology.

HP also announced new consumer notebooks, all-in-one PCs and printers that give people more flexibility in how they access and share information. With affordable touch technology and new form factors, HP’s new additions provide seamless integration of technology into customers’ busy lives.

“Customers are looking for mobility and flexibility in their computing devices to give families new ways to bring generations together,” said Ron Coughlin, senior vice president and general manager, Consumer PCs and Consumer Solutions, HP. “HP is evolving to meet our customers’ needs by designing next-generation form factors, like the Rove mobile All-in-One PC, which will enable people to connect, share and create in ways they never imagined.”

The desktop that leaves the desk behind

The HP ENVY Rove²⁰ can easily move from upright to completely horizontal for a tabletop entertainment experience. Using advanced multitouch technology, multiple users can interact with games and more at the same time. Multiplayer games such as Electronic Arts’ Monopoly™, Fingertapps™ JigsWar Puzzle, Fingertapps Musical Instruments, and nsquared makewords are an ease to play when the PC is laid flat.

In addition to sharing games, families and friends can enjoy multimedia content on the  20-inch 1,600 x 900 IPS LED panel that enables wide viewing angles, rich colors and sharp graphics, while built-in Beats Audio™ offers crisp, clear sound. Powered by 4th generation Intel® Core™ processors, Intel HD graphics and 10-point touch, the HP ENVY Rove²⁰ packs power for productivity tasks and an immersive entertainment experience with the ease of touch interaction.

Additional information about the HP ENVY Rove²⁰ is available on The Next Bench.

Affordable touch for every task

HP offers an intuitive Windows® 8 touch experience at great value with new all-in-one PCs and powerful consumer notebooks that feature multitouch display technology. With products at a range of price points, touch has never been more accessible. Users will benefit from new design elements that enhance durability, usability and performance.

The new HP Pavilion 20 TouchSmart All-in-One PC and the HP Pavilion 23 TouchSmart All-in-One PC offer a great user experience for the value-conscious consumer. The HP Pavilion 23 TouchSmart features a 23-inch diagonal full HD⁽¹⁾ display and an IPS panel with wide viewing angles for a stunning view of websites, videos and movies.

The HP Pavilion 11 TouchSmart Notebook provides an excellent Windows 8 experience with 11.6-inch, 10-point capacitive touch screen, and is the most affordable HP touch-enabled notebook.

The HP Pavilion 14 TouchSmart Sleekbook is the best-value touch-optimized HP Sleekbook, ideal for work or entertainment. Movies and gaming come alive powered by AMD A-series processors.

To enable hassle-free printing at home and on the go, HP also is introducing two new sleek, compact printers, the HP ENVY 4500 and 5530 e-All-in-Ones. Ideal for printing professional color photos and documents, the HP ENVY 4500 e-All-in-One and HP ENVY 5530 e-All-in-One offer mobile printing solutions via HP wireless direct⁽²⁾ and HP ePrint.⁽³⁾ This allows family members to print from virtually anywhere. Customers also can print photos, tickets, emails and more from their iPad®, iPhone® and iPod

touch® using AirPrint™.⁽⁴⁾

HP also introduced additional HP TouchSmart PCs and a selection of stylish, reliable notebook PCs that offer performance for everyday computing, at a reasonable price.

Enhanced solutions for an intuitive experience

HP also announced a suite of exclusive solutions and services that enhance the Windows 8 experience and help users create, organize and print the content that matters.

Box and HP will provide students and professionals with a cloud-based collaboration solution for storing, managing and accessing content from wherever the classroom or work takes them.⁽⁵⁾ HP ENVY and HP Spectre users will receive a 50GB Box account, valued at up to $19.99 per month. HP Pavilion users will receive a 25GB Box account, valued at up to $9.99 per month. The Box offer is valid in the Americas only.

Customers can receive greater phone and online support, beyond the standard product limited warranty, for these and other new products with the new HP Care Pack. HP CarePack offers an easy-to-access suite of services including Accidental Damage Protection and HP LoJack to help consumers breathe easier when theft or accidental drops, spills and surges occur.

Source - http://www8.hp.com/us/en/hp-news/press-release.html?id=1414208#.UZ-OnUAWKtY

Lenovo’s influential laptop designs are legendary. Despite being, in most cases, re-branded IBM computers, there was a time when the Lenovo laptop was the only model to be certified for use in outer space (I’m not joking). The Lenovo ThinkPad 2 tablet is hoping to take this tradition of quality merchandise and trusted branding into the world of the tablet PC. In the process, Lenovo are hoping to exercise the demons awakened by this tablet’s predecessor…

Yes, the original Thinkpad was a bit crap. It wasn’t stunningly awful, but it certainly wasn’t anyone’s tablet of the year. Why not? Well, for starters the battery life was shorter than Mini-Me’s understudy. Secondly, the general operation of the computer was slower than Wayne Rooney’s Sudoku record. Thirdly, Android doesn’t really do that many ‘pen friendly’ apps.

So, how is this new version different? Let’s find out…

THE SPECS

The first major difference between the Thinkpad 1 and the latest model is the OS. The original model ran Android, but not especially well. This new version runs Windows 8 and is, dare I say it, much better for it. Lenovo principally make computers for Windows, so having them back on home territory can only be a good thing.

The second thing you’re likely to notice is that the bodywork has been completely overhauled. This new ThinkPad now comes complete with a rubberised finish that feels comfortable and pleasing to touch, a vastly improved screen (1366 x 768, nicer, but still not HD) and a cute little keyboard that is fantastic, both to look at and to use.

The ThinkPad 2 is lighter than the older model (from 1.58lbs to 1.3 lbs) and you get about 8 hours of battery life.

THE PRICE

Available at around £430, this is actually one of the cheaper Windows 8 tablets around. It’s a bit pricier than other hybrids, of course, but is probably worth the extra money in the long run. If you really want Windows 8 on your tablet, but you don’t want to pay the funny money, this one could be a decent choice.

NOTE: Sadly, the keypad itself will set you back another £80, bringing the total up about £510. This is still a decent price compared to some of the others out there, however.

THE PERFORMANCE

This tablet performs pretty well. The processing speed is suitably fast and the general look and feel of the tablet implies comfort, durability and professionalism. It handles the Internet with no problems at all and the apps also work well without hiccups.

One minor annoyance is the pen. That stylus just doesn’t want to come out of its friggin’ holster. Ever. It’s actually embarrassing when you’re in public and struggling to pull the f****r out.

As a negative point, I wouldn’t say that there was anything especially exciting about this tablet. It works fine; it’s not the fastest tablet in the West, nor is it the most energy efficient model ever. It is neither great value nor a ripoff and it runs Windows 8, which is a plus or a minus, depending on your perspective.

It is, however, miles better than the previous model. It represents a genuinely huge improvement on the ThinkPad 1.

THE VERDICT

Generally speaking, I liked this tablet. I don’t know if it will feature on anybody’s ‘best of the year’ lists, as I said of its predecessor, but that doesn’t make the ThinkPad 2 a bad tablet.

All in all, it’s just a standard Windows 8 tablet. Don’t expect a dazzling Retina display, don’t expect the hardware of the Microsoft Surface, don’t expect the brand pull of some of the other tablets out there and don’t expect a major bargain. What you see is a nicely made, reliable tablet at a reasonable price.

And what you see is ultimately what you’ll get.

Sony are sort of perennial outsiders, or ‘nearly men’ in the tablet PC marketplace.

They’ve tried very hard not to be, in fact, they’ve ploughed millions into the development of various tablets. From the underrated Sony Tablet S to the pretty dismal Sony Tablet P and onwards to the mis-step of the first Sony Xperia, it seems like everything they touch is doomed, inexorably, towards slow sales and mediocre reviews.

In preparation for this review, I dug out a few of my own reviews for the aforementioned products. I believe I can narrow down a few negative points common to all Sony tablets.

1)      The price – even when the tablet is generally sound, Sony lack the reputation required to charge as much as they do for their tablets.

2)      Branding – A single letter name and an offbeat design can make the branding a little too ‘high concept’ for the average consumer and a little too ‘hokey’ for the expert.

3)      The screen – Let’s face it; the screen is, in some respects, the only aesthetic feature a tablet PC has. It is also the first thing that the average customer gravitates to. Sony’s screens have been, by turns, slippery and awkward or just far too polished for its own good (definitely the case with the Xperia).

So, this is the criteria we’ll be looking at as we review the new Xperia Z.

THE SPECS

The screen is, sadly, not much to write home about. It looks nice enough and has a polite 1920 x 1200 resolution, but when measured against the Google Nexus, the Microsoft Surface Pro or the iPad’s Retina Display, it just comes off as inadequate. Of course, this isn’t to say that the screen is bad, just that it is a mid-range, average display.

On the other hand, at 6.9mm, the Xperia Z is the thinnest tablet in the world and exhibits a smart, modern design that really looks the part. Sony’s earlier S and P models indicated a great desire to play with the aesthetics of the form (the ‘rolled up magazine’ model was a personal fave) and, although these desires have since been scaled back somewhat, Sony sure knows how to design a handsome product.

The Xperia is also completely waterproof (and can be dunked into a fishtank if you don’t believe me), this makes it very useful for use in the rain and eliminates the worry that it’ll blow up if a few drops somehow get inside the casing.

THE PRICE

The Xperia is being released to compete with iPad on price. Oh, Sony…

THE PERFORMANCE

Personally, I loved the infrared port, this allows your Xperia to work like an all-purpose remote control, meaning that it can change the channels on your telly if you can’t find the remote. It’s kind of gimmicky, but hey, I like it.

I like Android Jelly Bean as well and there is an opening for a truly brilliant Android tablet to swoop in and become ‘The Android iPad’, however, the Xperia just isn’t that tablet. It is likeable enough, uses good, fast processors and runs reasonably well, but this is, simply, an average tablet. It is not the iPad beater that the inflated price tag is forcing it to be.

When I was at school, I had a friend who was a nice enough guy (if a little annoying at times), but who was, at best, an average student. He wasn’t especially bright, wasn’t particularly athletic and certainly wasn’t an academic. His parents, however, pushed him to believe that he could do anything; in fact, they pushed him so far and so hard, that if he wasn’t a self-made millionaire by his late teens, they would possibly have died of shame. Of course, this friend did his best; he worked as hard as he could, but eventually it all came undone, as it was always going to. Sony, I feel, are like my old friend’s parents, telling him he could crack Unified Field Theory on his lunch break and then getting upset when he failed to do so and proved to be, well, average.

THE VERDICT

Sony does not have a great reputation with tablets. What they need is an innovative, affordable 7” tablet in the vein of the Kindle Fire HD or Nexus 7, something that can build a customer base and then attract customers to the next big, well-branded release.

Releasing their tablet against the iPad will probably doom it to the same ignominious fate as its predecessor. Let’s face facts: the iPad is the best branded, most visible and most popular tablet in the world today. If the average person is going to spend their money on a top-range tablet, what are they going to buy? An untested model that is an update for a low-selling and underwhelming series, or the world’s most famous tablet? Answers on a postcard, please.

As a stand-alone model, I would say that this tablet is a fine computer, like most of its predecessors, but also that it isn’t anything particularly special when held against the rest of the marketplace. As usual, a mediocre screen, branding that is better recognized as a smart phone model and a, frankly, silly price tag have conspired to sink a promising ship.

Editoral – Windows 8 has been a breath of fresh air for the windows platform, the aesthetic improvement has been lead by the tablet revolution. On that note, windows 8 tablets have got off to a slow start in life and it is still waiting for that entrepreneurial tablet to break the seal. We thought that the surface would be that product, and eventually it may do. But for the time being android and iOS are the preferred platform, so Microsoft’s decision to create a 7 inch version is probably a bit premature…. who knows? maybe it will be the kick start the platform needs.

Microsoft has long been rumored to be working on a 7-inch version of its Surface tablet, but a new report suggests the company may be preparing to unveil it in June. DigiTimesclaims that second-generation Surface devices, with 7- to 9-inch displays, will be announced at Microsoft’s Build developer conference in late June. If the report is accurate, then it suggests Microsoft may be preparing more than one Surface device.

An Xbox Surface device emerged shortly before Microsoft’s official Surface tablet announcement last year, and we understand the Xbox and Surface teams have been working closely on the company’s 7-inch plans. Microsoft is expected to launch a 7-inch Surface-branded tablet, with the company recently changing its Windows 8 tablet specifications to support smaller screen sizes. Microsoft has confirmed it’s working closely with OEMs to bring cheaper and smaller Windows tablets to market. A leaked 8-inch Acer tablet suggests these types of devices are imminent.

MICROSOFT WILL UPDATE SURFACE PRO WITH NEW INTEL CHIPS

Microsoft’s Build conference will focus on itsWindows 8.1 upgrade and the improvements for 7- and 8-inch tablets, we understand. It also follows shortly after Intel’s planned Haswell launch on June 3rd and the annual Computex event where OEMs typically announce devices. Intel’s new Haswell chips are designed to improve battery life and graphics performance, andThe Verge understands Microsoft will continue to update its Surface Pro with the latest Intel chipsets.

With Microsoft’s continued insistence that it is a ”devices and services” company, there has been a distinct lack of devices. Microsoft originally announced its Surface tablets almost a year ago, launching the Surface RT in October, but the company has remained silent on any further plans. Continued smartwatch and Surface Phone rumors suggest the company is investigating additional devices, but a focus on smaller 7-inch devices appears to be the more immediate plan for Surface.

Source  - http://www.theverge.com/2013/5/2/4292676/microsoft-surface-next-gen-rumor-june

Having been saved from the clutches of bankruptcy last year, the UK’s premier game shop has done very well and will hopefully be on our high streets for years to come. They are obviously an astute bunch, in the management offices and they are jumping on the tablet pc bandwagon and they will start stocking tablets, they had a complete sell-out in october 2012, when they started selling the Nexus 7.

GAME exec Charlotte Knight said, ”Tablets are an increasingly popular gaming platform so it’s a natural step for us to be at the heart of providing these to the UK gaming community,”

The Tablets that will be available in GAME shops are listed (and priced) below:

• DGM T-704S (£59.99)
• DGM T-909 (£89.99)
• ARNOVA 10D G3 (£99.99)
• ACER Iconia B1-A71 (£99.99)
• ARCHOS GamePad (£129.99)
• DGM T-1006 (£149.99)
• ASUS Google Nexus 7 32GB (£199.99)
• Apple iPad Mini 16GB (£269)
• Apple iPad 4 16GB (£399)

Aiming for the cheaper end of the market, they are looing to create a new tablet market, compared to other retailers that provide a full range.

Original source - http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-04-04-game-plans-to-sell-a-range-of-tablets-including-ipads

When this question was first put to me, my immediate thought was (adopts Jerry Seinfeld’s terrible English accent) “not bloody likely”. However, after a bit of research, I was surprised to find that it is, in fact true.

In February, research firm IDC confirmed that Samsung had doubled its tablet PC market share in the last three months of 2012. According to BBC news:

“Samsung, which makes the Galaxy range of tablets, sold 7.9 million units, up from 2.2 million a year ago, taking its market share to 15.1%. Market-leader and iPad-maker Apple saw its share slide to 43.6% from 51.7%, despite also seeing a jump in sales. The two have been competing to get a greater share of the tablet PC market, seen as key to their overall growth”.

IDC attributes this rise in growth to a rise in tablet sales generally and to a greater interest in portable technology in recent years. IDC’s Tom Mainelli said,

“New product launches from the category’s top vendors, as well as new entrant Microsoft, led to a surge in consumer interest and very robust shipments totals during the holiday season.”

Microsoft’s Surface only garnered a lukewarm response, shifting 900,000 units overall in the last three months of 2012. IDC believed that the high prices of the Surface (and Windows 8 tablets generally, no doubt) had hurt sales overall. The mixed reviews can’t have helped much, either.

So why has Samsung done so well? The reviews weren’t universally great. Matt Egan of PC Adviser.com, gave the Galaxy Tab 2 a tepid 3.5/5, saying,

“A year ago we liked the Tab 10.1, and for the second generation the hardware specs remain broadly the same, and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 has a much better operating system. All for £100 cheaper than it was. We love the bright screen, and adding SD support and 1080p video capture are both improvements. The problem is the competition: the Nexus 7 in particular has changed the game for Android tablets, and is a little more than half the price of the Tab (albeit with a smaller screen, half the storage and no front-facing camera). Meanwhile the iPad remains a cut above for £100 more than the Tab 2 10.1”.

Meanwhile, Dave Oliver of Wired.co.uk said,

“It’s a step down from the Galaxy Note 10.1, but the Galaxy Tab 2 offers some serious improvement to its predecessor as a good value Android tablet with Ice Cream Sandwich and a fine screen”.

However, the Galaxy Note series is faring somewhat better. Reviewing the Galaxy Note 10.1, Mr. Oliver was a little bit more enthused. Saying,

“The Galaxy Note 10.1 is a top-end tablet with a price to match (same as the iPad, basically). It can’t beat Apple’s sales behemoth on its screen, but in terms of versatility, with its writing interface and expandable memory, plus a good quality camera and very fast quad-core processor, it just about slots in at the top of the Android tablet tree making it a worthy challenger to iPad domination”.

And a worthy challenger it would appear to be, as the Galaxy Note seems to be the reason for the sudden sales spike, at least the most of it. However, Samsung have been putting out quality products for a long time now and that particular trend is showing no signs of stopping, or even slowing down.

The windows 8 take up for tablets has been slow, mostly down to the poor RT verson that came out before Christmas, HP have the first incarnation of their windows 8 tablets called the ElitePad, after their attempted efforts with the HP touchpad and the demise of their OS, this is the first time that HP have created a tablet that incorporates a different platform, having completely bypassed  the android market, their aim seems to be just on windows.

Read more here

Kindle has taken many shapes since the original little e-reader, now we have the Kindle fire and the kindle fire HD, both 7″ full android tablets, and then the original kindle was a huge success, but amazon aren’t a company that likes to sit on it’s laurels and they have improved the kindle ebook reader to include a back light to its paper-like screen, helping you to read in the day and at night. Read the full review here

What is 4K? The term 4K refers specifically to the horizontal resolution of any screen that can display 3,800 pixels or more. By showing around 4,000 pixels, this technology can be used to increase picture quality, colour contrast and depth of field. TV screens are the best examples of this improved HD quality picture, although it is being developed in laptops and tablets.

OK, so What is 4K being used for?

Panasonic have released a 4K tablet, but it is a 20” screen, making it roughly twice the size of the original iPad. As for the laptop version, Toshiba are currently working on this particular problem. Despite the technology’s availability, the industry as a whole has been slow to standardize 4K output (particularly with regards to HDMI) and this serves as something of an impediment to its overall adoption. However, the incredible visuals provided by 4K and the positive customer response to ‘Ultra HD’ as a whole will almost certainly prove to be catalysts for change in this regard.

4K resolution is there to give you the best picture quality money can buy (at least until 8K becomes more widely available). Using 4K TV, your streamed content will look better than ever before (as will your Skype calls) and movies on Blu Ray will be simply astonishing. Such incredible picture will lead to a more immersive gaming experience as well, with the large-scale synthetic worlds of games like ‘Assassin’s Creed’ or ‘Grand Theft Auto’ taking on a new (and jaw dropping) level of realism. Even your old DVDs will sparkle when played on your Blu Ray Player, as 4K brings out the best in absolutely everything it touches.

With thousands of pixels, hundreds of colours and a picture so sharp it could draw blood – what’s not to love about 4K?

As I write this, I am reminded of that episode of ‘Futurama’ when Fry refused to leave his new house. Unless I’m mistaken, Leela scolded him, saying something like “you’re wasting your life watching TV, get out there and see the real world!” to which Fry responded “But this is HD TV, it has better resolution than the real world”. It is a conversation that will soon hit far closer to home than any jokes about robots or flying cars. That’s actually a shame; I really want a flying car robot.

The future is here, which works out well because, thanks to 4K resolution, it looks fantastic.

Sometime in the summer of 2002 (or was it 2003?), there was a knock on the office door. Knowing that it was the postman, I got up and answered it. There was nothing at all unusual about this experience. As usual, I had ploughed my birthday money into the acquisition of CDs and, since then, music of all genres, eras and styles had been arriving through the postbox on an almost daily basis. However, this time, the courier wanted my signature and held a strange device in my direction. It was, I would later discover, a Microsoft Tablet PC…

It was also both the first and the last time I would actually see one up close and personal.

I think I asked what it was, or at least commented on its interesting design. The courier grumbled something unintelligible and handed me the stylus. I jotted my signature on the screen, thanked the man and excitedly unwrapped my CD.

That story is only significant for one reason: if I had not used one to sign my name as recipient of a new CD, I would never have known that Microsoft had ever produced a tablet PC before last year.

Almost a decade later, I would have to have been living in a cave on Mars not to have heard about the iPad. Its image, notoriety and market power completely revolutionised the computer industry, to such an extent that we’re still feeling those effects three years later.

To better understand the appeal of the iPad (and why it succeeded where Microsoft’s earlier version did not), you need to understand people. Firstly, Human Beings are innately social animals; our complex societal leanings are probably the reason that we have evolved to this point in the first place. As such, when a product, idea or abstract concept becomes a hot commodity, everyone wants a piece of it. In addition, there’s the value of familiarity. The Microsoft Tablet was strange, offbeat and odd, not many knew of its existence and few publicly praised it as the future of computing. However, the iPad was like an iPod that could surf the net. It was therefore perfectly suited to its time and place.

Western youth culture had adapted considerably in the first decade of the 21^st century. Social media, social networking and mile-a-minute ‘geek speak’ were in; whatever didn’t fit into the last three categories was out. Kids didn’t watch movies as much anymore, we watched the good bits from movies on ‘Youtube’ or else we just watched them being satirized so many times on TV as to get sick of the original before the copies.

We didn’t write to people, we emailed them. We didn’t phone people, we Skyped them. What we wanted was Internet on the go. Internet on phones was a start, but Internet on tablets just promised more. Microsoft Windows, with its fussy multiple options, ‘right click this, select that, input this number’ mentality was never going to cut the mustard in this lightning –paced world of progress and information.

Conversely, Apple iOS may have been limited by comparison, but you could use it on a train.

People always go for the easiest option. ‘Myspace’, a global powerhouse website (and must-have virtual commodity of the early 21^st century), died a painful death at the hands of Facebook, a site that was, in many ways, vastly inferior. A Myspace page could be customized with music, textures, bells and whistles. With Myspace you could blog regularly, communicate every thought and feeling to your friends (you could even invent all new emotional states unique to you and you alone) and go into massive detail about everything. Facebook was restricted to status updates and feelings were reduced to ‘poke’ or ‘like’. Facebook may have given us a new way of reading the phrase ‘It’s complicated’, but the site really isn’t. In the end, simplicity was the victor.

Twitter is now gaining pace over Facebook, yet again, its far, far more restrictive, but it is much easier (so I’m told). People are trying to get through their increasingly complex lives with a minimum of fuss and, by that yardstick; the Apple iOS is the best operating system in the world.

Yes, you can probably do more on a Windows PC, but who gives a damn? We don’t have the time to figure out how.

I have used a Mac since 2005 and whenever I use a PC, I am armed only with fuzzy memories of GCSE classes and basic experience to guide me.

To return, briefly, to the subject of music: contrast the shimmering, challenging pop music of the 1960’s (with all its long interludes, references to obscure literature and esoteric musicality) with the pop of today’s generation. Essentially, its ‘McMusic’ by comparison, you get a beat, a chorus (usually delivered within 30 seconds of the song) and a rapper, all in just over two minutes. Its music stripped of content, soul and emotion, yes, but it succeeds because its, well, easier. McMusic is easier to find, easier to buy, easier to talk about and easier to forget.

Now, the iPad (and its related family) are far more evolved, because in addition to being ‘Mc’ technology that’s easier to operate than a packet of crisps, they are also the best portable technology that has ever been created, actually packing far more power into that little frame than anything ever has before. Nothing stands up to the iPad, seriously.

The iPad is, in short, a design classic.

That should explain at least some of the appeal of Apple’s main man.