Blue Bugle: Mobile, Desktop & Web Technologies

We did a short review on Surface RT tablets earlier in the blog. We also checked out Surface Pro, and their performance . Also, Surface RT is a tablet quite different from what you expect from a Windows tablet, and as a result they failed in the market . With these said, Microsoft has sent out invitations for an event in NYC on Sept 23 , where they will unveil the next generation of the tablets—Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2. Let’s check out what you can expect from these tablets. Also, there is the rumored Surface Mini that may be unveiled too. Basically, a few things that we have been able to confirm about these tablets are these: NVidia Tegra 4 processor  on RT; Intel Haswell processor on Surface Pro 2; 1080p HD screen; two-step kickstand that helps maintain orientation on uneven surfaces; a battery-powered keyboard cover, known as power cover; an upgrade to RAM to about 4 GB or so; Windows RT 8.1 on Surface 2 tablet. What’s Wrong With Surface RT? Earlier when Surface RT...

The latest innovation from Samsung is the ATIV Q tablet, a streamlined 13-inch tablet that is extremely powerful and not that chunky for a tight competitor to the likes of Microsoft Surface Pro. It is thin, extremely powerful, and has a large brilliant QHD resolution screen, which is higher than Full HD. QHD is 3200x1800 pixels, while FHD is 1920x1280 pixels. Let’s take a brief look at this device. Technical Specifications The tablet-laptop mash-up is not yet in the market. We may update this post as it is made available in the market. Here are the brief technical specifications of the tablet. Display 13.3 inch; 3200x1800 px (the highest in the market); 16 million colors Processor Intel Haswell Core i5 processor (details unknown) RAM 4 GB Graphics Intel HD 4000 Storage 128 GB SSD Battery life 9 hours of usage Operating system(s) Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean; Windows 8 ...

With the current technological advances, we have, such things as S-pens, C-pens, Wacom iPhone styli, etc., to help more natural pen input on touch devices. With these technologies, one might expect the way we be creative should change. One might expect to see a lot of mainstream drawings being done on such devices as the Galaxy Note. I mean, we are no longer in the era where styli were used just for navigation as in this PDA: So, why does that not happen? Why do the people still stick with the old style notepads for note-taking and the old-style canvas or plain paper and brush for painting? (You might say there are drawings made on Note, but the number is still low, and people still don’t find it quite enjoyable to draw on a tablet like Note; you can’t deny that.) The reason is that it is not a perfect technology quite yet. You can create a drawing on a Note but it takes time and effort, and it is not as natural as Samsung would want you to believe. In short, when you draw on a ...

In the last few hours, I was engrossed in all kinds of thoughts and skepticisms about the latest tablet PC from Acer, Aspire R7. The tablet computer runs Windows 8 and comes with what most people call a ‘weird design’. However, is that really the case? How good or bad this new product really is? Let’s find out through this article. The First Impressions on the Design I looked through almost all of the first look reviews I could lay my hands on. Most of them talk about one most important aspect of this tablet PC—its design. Acer Aspire R7 as you can see here in this image is a weirdly designed tablet PC. It is neither a tablet, nor a laptop, nor a PC. Still, it works as all of them. R7 comes with an aluminum unibody design that has a hinge known as ‘Ezel hinge’. With the help of the hinge, this computer can take four different shapes, you know kind of like Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga. Aspire R7 has one of the best design innovations that we got to see in Windows 8 computers . The four...

We know about Surface tablet running Windows RT (Run Time), the ARM-specific Windows operating system that works on tablets. We have looked at the differences it has with Windows 8 regular. Windows RT is a tablet operating system, and hence doesn’t have the capability to install and run regular Windows applications. In one of the recent talks, NVidia’s co-founder and chief, Jen-Hsun Huang expressed disappointment over the sales of Windows RT tablets powered by NVidia Tegra processor. NVidia has reason to talk about the sales of Windows RT devices. Three major Windows RT tablets— Microsoft Surface RT , Asus VivoTab RT , and Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 11  are powered by NVidia’s Tegra 3 SoC. In another recent press conference, JK Shin, co-CEO of Samsung Electronics told to the WSJ : Smartphones and tablets based on Microsoft's Windows operating system aren't selling very well. There is a preference in the market for Android. In Europe, we're also seeing lackluster deman...

Sony has been making and marketing tablets since April, 2011 . The Japanese tech giant made an entry into the Android tablet world with Sony Tablet S with the folded-newspaper design and Tablet P having two 5.5 inch displays. The entry however has not been quite profitable for Sony. Here is IDC’s global market share of tablets up until the fourth quarter of 2012, and in the statistic, Sony doesn’t even have its name. Apple and Samsung are the only OEMs turning any real profit out of tablet business. In these extreme conditions, Sony is coming up with a new tablet, Xperia Tablet Z. Xperia Tablet Z has been unveiled officially in the Mobile World Congress, Barcelona yesterday. Just as Sony’s upcoming flagship, Xperia Z smartphone , Tablet Z is also waterproof. Let’s check out the new tablet from Sony and see whether it can be a really good buy or not, based on the available data. Technical Specifications First of all, let’s check out the technical specifications of Xper...

Right when you were confused as to which small tablet to buy, here is Samsung with Note 8.0, the mid-range S-pen-included version of the popular Note series. You probably know about Note II  and Note 10.1, the other two in the Galaxy Note family. While Note II has carved a special niche for itself in the form of a phablet, Note 10.1 hasn’t quite been a favorite. The specialty of Notes is the added S-pen for note-taking. Note 8.0 is no different. Also, with an 8 inch slim screen, it takes Apple iPad Mini head on; we were not fond of iPad Mini  from the beginning anyway. Galaxy Note 8.0 was launched in the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Here is a look at the device, thanks to Engadget: In this article, let’s look at the advantages and disadvantages of Galaxy Note 8.0 and see whether it is a good buy or not. Technical Specifications Here are the announced tech specs of the device. When it actually comes out, the specifications could change. Here I have, a compari...

Recently, there has been a report about HP coming up with an Android tablet . Speculation is that it will be powerful, powered by Tegra 4 , and will prove to be a big win for Google. Is it really the truth? Let’s think about it a bit. HP’s latest product is a Windows 8 powered tablet known as ElitePad. It is a head-on competitor to Microsoft Surface Pro. Here are the technical specifications comparing Surface Pro and ElitePad. Spec HP ElitePad Microsoft Surface Pro OS Windows 8 Pro Windows 8 Pro Display 10.1 inch capacitive multi-touch; 1280x800 10.6 inch; 1920x1080px Processor Intel Atom 1.8 GHz dual-core Intel Core i5-3317U dual-core 1.7 GHz (Turbo Boost up to 2.6 GHz RAM TBA 4 GB Camera 8 MP (1080p) 1 MP (720p) Storage 64 GB 64/128 GB Accessories All sold separately: keyboard, productivity jacket, tablet pen, docking station, ...

In my search for tablets, I have from time to time come across some pretty cheap tablets: Those which are cheaper than Nexus 7, Kindle Fire, and B&N Nook. I decided to look through the performance and features of these tablets, and I was actually astounded by that. Most of them are capable of performing much better than your popular tablets out there—from Google, Asus, Samsung, HP, etc. These tablets are quite offsite in fact, available only in select markets in the Asian countries and some European countries. Here’s a list of those high performance tablets that you may have never heard of. 1. Gotview Smart 10 IPS This is a Russian powerhouse of a tablet. It is manufactured by the company, Gotview which you probably have never heard of. It is no simple tablet though. It has a 9.7 inch display and Rockchip 3066 dual-core processor clocked at 1.6 GHz, which is based on ARM Cortex-A9. Rockchip is a brand of processors mainly used on embedded systems (those systems with their own...