Everybody's talking about tablets, especially those single-pane capacitive touchscreen ones more specifically known as "slates." The iPad is the biggest newsmaker, but there are lots headed our way (most with built-in webcams). Here's how they measure up, spec-wise:

[click to enlarge]

 

As you can see, they have different strengths and weaknesses, some of which will become more clear in the coming months as we learn more about each tablet. (That Dell Mini 5 is especially inscrutable right now.)

The iPad has the most storage, cheap 3G, the time-tested iPhone OS and its mountain of apps, and a serious amount of Apple marketing juice behind it. But it's also famously lacking features common to the other tablets, such as webcam and multitasking (only first party apps like music and email can multitask). The Notion Ink Adam is perhaps the most interesting of the bunch, with its dual-function transflective screen from Pixel Qi: It can be either a normal LCD or, with the flick of a switch, an easy-on-the-eyes reflective LCD that resembles e-ink. Its hardware is also surprisingly impressive—but it remains to be seen if Android is really the right OS for a 10-inch tablet.

The Dell Mini 5 and forthcoming Android edition of the Archos 7 tablet are two of a kind, almost oversized smartphones in their feature sets. Is an extra two or three inches of screen real estate worth the consequent decrease in pocketability? Perhaps not. And finally, there's the maligned JooJoo, formerly the CrunchPad, a bit of an oddball as the only web-only device in the bunch. It doesn't really have apps, can't multitask, and pretty much confines you to an albeit fancy browser, sort of like Chrome OS will. The JooJoo is also the only tablet here to have no demonstrated way to read ebooks.

Update: The two new additions in v.2 of this chart, the Lenovo IdeaPad U1 and Archos 9, are both unusual. The Windows 7-powered Archos 9 has been available since September, is the only slate here that lacks multitouch, and is the only one with a HDD instead of solid state memory of some kind. It's more related to the older tablets, but there's no keyboard, just a 9-inch touchscreen. It doesn't even have specific apps like the HP Slate's TouchSmart, it's just a Windows computer.

The Lenovo IdeaPad U1 is even weirder, in that it's actually two computers—the specs listed in the chart are for the tablet detached, but when it's attached to its base, it switches both hardware and software. In its attached form, it's a Windows 7 laptop with a full keyboard and trackpad, Core 2 Duo processor, 4GB of memory, eSATA, VGA- and HDMI-out, and all the other amenities you'd expect from a modern thin-and-light. We just have see what it's like when it ships in June.



[gizmodo]

That’s where most tablet-like designs guessing at the look and specs of what’s now revealed to be the iPad. But I say to you in great defiance: not this one! This one shall gather a bit of light still! It was conceived before that faithful unveiling day, and its ideas shall be carried on until fruition! I give to you this! The MacView, as designed by Patrycjusz Brzezinski, queller of the hoards of maddened Apple fans.

Oh Brzezinski, you sly one you, how did you think of a device so close to what became the iPad, yet so very much more better?

That sentence was just terrible!

Let’s get to the specs of this MacView:

- A thickness of just 7mm.
- A 1152×720 LED touchscreen display.
- Dimensions of 15 x 24 cm.
- An additional SLIDE PANEL that can be used as a keyboard.
- Light and sturdy outer carbon shell.
- Wifi.
- Bluetooth.
- 4GB of RAM.
- 1TB SSD.
- Full OSX operating system.


And what is this? Is this something that’s invented for the iPad to rest in? Nay! It is invented by Brzezinski for the MacView! It’s a dock that makes the pad into a regular ol’ desktop computer. Mark my words you’ll be seeing these sorts of docks SOON on the secondary market once the iPad is actually on the market.

I don’t like to be quick to judge* *most of the time but I’m definitely for this design over the iPad at the moment. That extra sliding pad underneath would add loads of functionality, not to mention a bit more physical security for the whole device. But then again, all else aside – why again would I want to trade my old MacBook for one of these? The answer to that should be obvious, shouldn’t it?

Because it is NEW!









Designer : Patrycjusz Brzezinski


[yankodesign]

There's no denying the popularity of iTunes — it could be said that iTunes single-handedly took down the record store business model. But think about it. iTunes isn't even a website that you can surf from anywhere. You have to have iTunes loaded onto a computer (or iPhone) before you can buy tunes.

Apple is planning to launch iTunes.com, or iTunes in the cloud, a web-based portal into the store. This will be great for everyone. It will be more convenient for users, who will no longer be tied to a specific computer. It could bring about a huge boost to Apple, who'll be able to link to other websites for one-click shopping for songs. Similar to how you can buy a song used on YouTube from Amazon's music store, imagine listening to Pandora and with one click, purchase a new tune from iTunes. Until this launches, you've still had to launch iTunes on your computer first. This will be uber-easy.

The cloud-based iTunes.com could launch in just a few months. Will you move your library into the clouds?

[dvice]

With the official closure of FingerWorks, the multi-touch interface company Apple purchased five years ago, it is interesting to note just what FingerWorks had to offer and, more important, what Apple may be implementing into the upcoming tablet and, potentially, iPhone 4.0 software.

Aside from the obvious click, drag, and pinch, FingerWorks has a large collection of odd gesture and swipe combinations aimed at making basic data entry easier.

Their two products, a multi-touch touchpad and the odd MacNTouch Gesture Keyboard designed to fit into 13-inch PowerBooks and iBooks. Here’s the original description:

MacNTouch Keyboards integrate the functions of a large-area super touchpad, a multi-hand, gesture input command station, and a ZeroForce ergonomic keyboard, all on the same smooth surface. The MacNTouch’s non-mechanical, silent, ZeroForce keys require only the lightest touch and are remappable to suit the needs of the individual user. MacNTouch users never have to move their hands between the ZeroForce keys and the pointing device since the “mouse” is always under their fingertips.

The layout of the keys is both novel and beneficial. The arch and inward rotation of each key row acts to reduce unhealthy wrist angles that makes conventional laptop keyboard usage cramped and uncomfortable. In addition, the mirror-symmetric slant of the key columns was designed to perfectly fit the fingers’ natural movement, which tends to maximize typing efficiency. Both Qwerty and Dvorak keyboard layouts are being offered for the MacNTouch.

Here are the basic gestures we can expect to see based on current patents. Some of the them are quite crazy but we tried to show as many as we could in the video above – using the Microsft Surface, incidentally.

As we see, the gestures may add an entirely new level of user interaction and experience to the tablet and could offer quite a steep learning curve. Developers have already reported that this is probably the case and we eagerly await the first example of “side non-adjacent sliding and clicking repetitive stress syndrome” reported after extensive tablet use.

Will Apple use all of these? None of these? There’s no way to say, but it’s a fascinating movement towards new and improved pointing techniques.

[crunchgear]