Well THIS is an interesting development. After the official announcement of the HTC Tattoo a couple weeks ago, we thought we knew everything there was to know about the affordable Android prior to launch. But today we’ve found two additional tidbits that make the phone all that more attractive: it will launch with Android 1.6 (Donut) and a built-in FM Radio!
Introduction
When you think of compact laptops, Asus is one of the names that will spring to mind, having a track record of affordable, decent netbooks. Now they have increased their arsenal with the T91, their first touchscreen netbook/tablet. Weighing up all its features, can this unit be as popular as some of its older brothers and sisters?
What’s in the box?
Take a look at Matt’s Asus T91 unboxing video for more.
Asus Eee Pc T91 Specification
General
At a glance:-
Left side:
Memory expander, USB 2.0 and power socket
Right side:
Ethernet socket, USB 2.0, microphone and headphone socket, stylus compartment.
Front:
SD Memory card slot
Rear:
VGA connector
Display:
Power switch, Touch Gate button, built in array microphone and camera and power, battery, wireless and caps lock led.
Bottom:
Reset switch, memory compartment.
Highlights
Lowlights
Review
From a looks point of view, I really like the T91, with its piano black finish and glossy screen, it emits an air of quality and professionalism. Coupled with the included padded ‘purse’ they have made an effort to make this look like a machine with a much higher price tag. The padded bag just goes to show the thought that Asus put into their products, whether you use it or not, I think the addition of this makes a difference in a world where most accessories are usually extra.
When you switch it on, it loads at a decent speed into Windows XP Home edition. It was an emotional reunion with my old friend XP! By calibrating the stylus by touching 9 points on the screen, the stylus is easy to use and accurate. As well as the standard XP screen there are 2 other screens hidden away until needed. The main one being Touch Gate, a graphical user interface designed for use with the touchscreen. This brings up larger icons, allowing you to use the stylus to do things like surf the net, use it as a calculator or write memos to yourself. I think more people will stick to the standard XP interface but it is nice to have different options. A small point I noticed is that the button below the screen which either launches Touch Gate or rotates the screen, when in Touch Gate mode will only allow the screen to be flipped 180° as opposed to 90° in XP mode.
The memo function did allow me to see how responsive the touchscreen was; I found it a little on the slow side but nothing that was a major issue. I think left handed people would find it easier as (correct me if I am wrong) they tend to write with their hand above the pen whereas right handed people right with their hand below. This made a difference on the touchscreen for me, as I kept resting my palm on the screen which overrided the contact with the stylus and jumped it to my palm. Again, with a little bit of practice (and less laziness) I think this would be easy to overcome. You can see an example of the memo pad in the screenshot. I would like to reiterate that I needed a bit more practice with the unit, which is my reason for having such atrocious handwriting.
The 1.33ghz Atom processor is more than capable of performing basic tasks which you would expect from a netbook, combined with 1gb of memory and a 16GB solid state drive with the ability to increase this capacity via SDHC slots, the whole package is really appealing. Asus do state that an additional 20GB storage facility is available online on their EEE internet storage site but I think that with current ISP upload speeds it might not be a strong selling point, but would be a good place for storing small, important files, as opposed to large photo albums. The lack of CD-ROM drive is both appreciated, due to size constraints, but also not a major issue with external ones available cheaply. This also applies to external hard drives, if you do find yourself filling up the internal drive quickly. I neat design idea was to put a USB 2.0 port on either side of the unit instead of bunching them up on the same side.
Like Matt, I too am a fan of the glossy touchscreen. Not only does it add to the streamlined, state of the art look but it also detracts people from using their fingers as a stylus, which has a lovely weighty feel to it. Outdoor use might get harder with the reflections and brightness but I think that if this did pose a problem to someone, there are options which could overcome this. The screen swivels into place with a solid, robust action and is able to be rotated by 90°, perfect when used in tablet form. Not the brightest of screens, but still easy to see and probably contributes towards the battery life. Asus have also added a built in camera and microphone which is another nice addition especially considering one of the main usages of this would be web related.
Conclusion
As an affordable touchscreen netbook I found the Asus T91 to be very good, I can see these being popular, especially in certain industries, i.e. for drawing floorplans, auditing, stock taking, or even for day to day internet surfing with the added benefit of being able to replace some of the basic laptops available. The keyboard is compact but usable, and the 5 hour battery life is sufficient for a machine of this calibre, but would have been nice to be able to remove the battery and replace it when out on long journeys, but this is a minor issue as most people can get to a power source quite easily nowadays.
In summary, I can’t fault this netbook. It has all the requirements for day to day internet use, as well as some nice features which move it beyond basic surfing. I think this is a nice looking, affordable unit which can be proud to wear the Asus Eee PC badge.
Review by: Gary
Perhaps Palm really does have the “special sauce” needed to attain smart phone leadership,as RBC Capital Markets analyst Mike Abramsky recently claimed. Reporting first-quarter results this afternoon, the company posted a narrower-than-expected loss and announced plans for a common-stock offering of 16 million shares.
Excluding charges related to stock options and other items, Palm (PALM) said net losses were $13.6 million, or 10 cents a share, for the recent period. Revenue slipped to $68 million from $366.9 million in the same period last year. Excluding revenue deferred from sales of the company’s new Pre handset, Palm said adjusted revenue would have been $360.7 million. Analysts had expected the company to turn in a loss of 24 cents a share on sales of $291 million.
Here we are reviewing one of the most innovative, groundbreaking, apps that lately appeared in the iPhone app store. One warning though: don’t read it if you would like to keep your illusions about music industry!
The Archos 5 PMP was undoubtedly the star of the French company’s launch event yesterday, but they couldn’t help but tease with another new device. The Archos Phone Tablet is, as the name suggests, a PMP/cellphone hybrid; in this case, it runs Android on a 1GHz ARM Cortex CPU, with integrated 3.5G for voice and data access.
I am yet to understand why anyone would want Windows XP on a mobile phone, it would most likely kill off the battery pretty quickly, get very hot, or just downright FAIL. This device is called the ITG xpPhone, the specs are impressive but you should not go by that alone when looking at this phone, i recommend sticking to Windows Mobile instead of this.
* AMD Mobile CPU
* 4.8-inch, 800×480 pixel touchscreen display
* QWERTY keyboard
* 512Mb/1GB memory
* Dual hard drives: SSD (8/16/32/64GB) and HDD (30/60/80/120GB)
* Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g
* Bluetooth
* GPS
* WiMAX (optional)
* GSM/GPRS/EDGE/WCDMA (HSDPA/HSUPA), CDMA/CDMA2000, CMDA 1X/EV-DO, TD-SCDMA, TD-HSDPA
* 7 hours of continuous use with standard battery, 12 hours with extended battery
* Windows XP OS
You can pre-order from their English website
[Source: Mobiletopsoft]
Kindly tipster eMd points us to this O2 Germany site for the Palm Pre, which lists the Pre as "Exklusiv ab Herbst bei O2." That’s "Autumn" to you English-speaking folk, and it’s just a bit more specific than the "before the end of the year" target we’ve heard before.
As we’ve said more than a couple times, the rumormill and tipline started coalescing around October, which we’re still keeping an eye on despite how quickly it’s approaching.
Also, Germans are able to enter for a chance to win one of ten Pre phones they’re giving away by answering a question – don’t worry if you get it wrong the first time, O2 is forgiving.
So it’s "Autumn" for the Pre, which is good, but not nearly specific enough to end this particular silly season. We wouldn’t mind knowing the price, either.
[Source: Precentral]
It isn’t really our area of expertise, but we’ve gotten word that Microsoft will unleash two new Smartphones, probably at CES in January 2010. Developed under the project "Pink" moniker, these two slider phones stem from the aquisition of Dangerand will continue to use Sharp as the manufacturing partner (not HTC as previously rumored by the WSJ). In fact, they’ll be co-branded as "Microsoft+Sharp" products.
One device is "squircle" in shape like the past Zune’s buttons. The slide out keyboard houses the mic at the bottom and it is meant to be open when being used as a phone. This device is code-named "Turtle" and looks like a dressed up Motorola QA1.
We’ve recently had some requests from readers to review some more entry-level handsets as not everyone wants a smartphone. It’s a valid point and not everyone wants a large touchscreen phone.
So I got in contact with Nokia to see what they had that fits the bill. They sent me the Nokia 3720 Classic. To be honest it amazed me what you get with what they consider to be an entry level handset. QVGA Display, FM Radio with RDS, MP4 Video player, instant messaging, email support and Nokia Maps all on a handset costing under £125 seems quite impressive.
On top of that the 3720 is built to be robust and is water, dust and shock resistant with an IP54 rating. Pretty handy if you are going to be using it in harsher environments.
We’ll review the Nokia 3720 Classic over the next week or so and will have the review online as soon as we are done. Below you’ll find my 3720 unboxing video which includes a little look at the OS too. Note that the video was recorded on the Sony HDR-FX1000 that we are reviewing at the moment too.
Nokia 3720 Classic specification:
Robust.
A phone you can rely on; IP 54 certification for water, dust and shock resistance for increased durability. The powerful battery lets talk longer between charges.Share.
Capture quality images and video using the 2 mega-pixel camera then share with friends via Bluetooth, email, MMS or Ovi Share. Digital zoom and LED flash lets you capture quality images and video wherever you are.Classic.
Classic design with stainless steel accents, round edges and compact size.Discover.
Pre-installed Nokia Maps lets you discover new places and guides you to your destination easily when coupled with a Bluetooth GPS receiver.
Posted by: Matt
With O2 customers receiving free SMS alerts from Twitter, it’s understandable that Vodafone wants to offer a perk for Twitter users. We’re not sure that the "first interactive real time top 40 for music lovers" is the way forward, however.
Vodafone commissioned developer Ben Marsh to "create a live top 40 chart of what people are listening to on Twitter, to promote the Vodafone Music store", he wrote on his blog. Using the #RealTimeTop40 hashtag, Twitter users can enter the artist and song they’re listening to and then check out www.realtimetop40.com to view what the most listened-to songs are right now.
It’s not exclusive to Vodafone customers, however if you want to purchase one of the songs currently riding high on the chart, you’ll have to be a paid-up customer to do so.
If Vodafone created an app for mobile phones we can see more use out of this scheme, but for now it’s just another way for Twitter users to pat themselves on the back that they all have such terrific musical taste. If Patrick Swayze’s ‘She’s Like The Wind’ can be considered taste.
Link: Real Time Top 40
[Source T3]
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