Author Archive: Gareth

Lenovo and a 27" Tablet

Here’s a piece of hardware that will certainly grab your attention. How does a 27" Tablet weighing in at a hefty 17 lbs sound? Yes, you read that right, Lenovo is going to be announcing a Coblet (Computer/Tablet) called the Horizon this week at CES 2013 that features a gigantic 27" full HD multi-touch display (16 by 9 aspect ratio) that runs Windows 8 and features a third-generation Core i7 processor with NVIDIA GeForce graphics. With customized games from Ubisoft and EA, and compatibility with joysticks and other accessories, Lenovo is clearly looking to appeal to the hardcore gaming crowd as well.

When the "tablet PC" goes on sale this summer, the price for this beast is going to drain your bank account with it’s walloping $1,700 price tag. At that price and size we are not entirely sold – no pun intended – on the idea that will attract a lot of consumers, so we want to hear from you. What, if anything, is a deal breaker for you with this "tablet PC"?

Posted by: Gareth

Mobile Tech Addicts Podcast 193: Jingle Balls

It’s the end of the year. James, Gareth and Dan look back at what was a particularly exciting year in mobile technology and pick out their favourite phones, tablets and moments from 2012. In addition they name their least favourite also.

Mobile Tech Addicts Podcast 192: Cobblers

Gareth, James, Matt and Dan chat about the latest mobile news. Firstly Gareth chats to James who then chats to Dan and Matt briefly chips in. Gareth resumes a chat with James before turning to Dan and coming back to James. Matt doesn’t chat for a bit while James and Dan debate some of the chat’s content before handing back over to Gareth to chat a bit about a different subject. This carries on for a good while until the chat gets a bit boring and everyone goes to bed. So, see if you can last as long as the guys do and there will be a prize if you correctly guess at what point Matt stares at the ceiling.

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Acer Chromebook selling now

A rather unexpected addition to Google’s device list on Play was the announcement there would be an all new Chromebook for sale. Whilst we don’t have the $249 Samsung Chromebook for sale to the mass market yet we do have this Acer sitting in the Play store at £199.

Much is being made of the Acer selling for $199 Stateside and the exchange rate being left out of the mix. By comparison to Samsung’s Chromebook that is likely to sell for about £50 more there are a few big differences to justify the pricing. Firstly we have a Intel Celeron processor running at 1.1ghz, whereas the Samsung has a slower atom processor. Battery apparently lasts an alarmingly short 3.5 hours. A standard hard drive that will no doubt run slower than the included 16gb flash drive on the Samsung however it packs 320gbs. The Acer is also larger and heavier.

Could this be a flooding of the market with ultra cheap laptop’s running Chrome like we saw several years ago when Android was taking a tight robotic grasp of the mobile market. Only time will tell and it’s going to jolly exciting finding out, Chromebooks will be the way forward in this writer’s opinion.

Here is the press release from Acer:

Mobile Tech Addicts Podcast 189: Newcomers

Gareth, James and Dan catch up on the latest mobile phone and tablet news. This week Google drops three new devices and Apple a little one. Gareth’s son (Droid) makes a brief appearance and Dan gets angry at EE.

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Featuring – Gareth, James and Dan
Email us: [email protected]  Tel: 0208 123 3757

Apple get told off, told to apologise again

Just last week Apple posted their online "apology" letter to Samsung. They were ordered by a UK court to acknowledge that Samsung did not copy their designs and ordered to host it on the homepage of their website. Unsurprisingly, the letter they posted was hard to find, and was written in a snide and condescending manner. Rather than sincerely acknowledging what the courts asked them to, they talked about how the Samsung tablets were "not as cool" as the iPad, and they also included references to their other victories across the globe in which Samsung was found to have copied. They even published the statement on an unbranded page with a small link from the homepage. This was basically a slap in the face to the UK court’s ruling, and it seems that the court is not too happy about it.

The UK court just found that Apple was in "non-compliance" and ordered them to create a new statement that complies with the order. Apple complained that they would need at least 14 days to draft such a letter, but the judges basically slapped that argument down. Judge Jacob said he "cannot believe" that it would tale that long. He also said, “I’m at a loss that a company such as Apple would do this. That is a plain breach of the order.”

Apple’s 14 day request was denied, and they were given 48 hours to comply with the order. They will also have to leave the new statement on their home page until December 14th, and they must publish notices in U.K. newspapers and trade magazines with details of the ruling.

Posted by: Gareth