After many rumors, some video leaks, and a promo video with none other than Steve Ballmer, the HP Slate is officially a dead project. What caused this and how bad was this product?
First, the HP Slate was unveiled from Steve Ballmer officially on January 7, 2010 to lackluster fanfare. Basically, the device was set to run the touch version of Windows 7 and looked composed from off the shelf netbook scraps. From the early looks at the device it had a very cheap and thrown together feel. Obviously what happened was that when HP saw first hand how polished and functional the Apple iPad is, they decided to start from scratch. What is amazing is that now HP has purchased Palm, which has a robust and very valuable multitasking WebOS which, if ported up to a more powerful device, would be a much more elegant operating system than a touch version of Windows 7.
What Apple has successfully proven is that previous attempts at tablet computers were horrific because they could do nothing better than a fully functioning laptop. Apple has proven that people are not interested in having a fully functional PC quality tablet device, but one that has a long battery, quick start up time, and robust mobile OS. I believe HP will move in this direction and may utilize WebOS as their OS.
Competition is good but so far the Apple iPad has the competition scrambling to create any type of resistance.
Far from it. HTC has just released their latest phone, dubbed the "Incredible" on Verizon Wireless. The phone retails for the standard price of $199 with 2 year contract.
The specs on this phone make it look like a powerful beast- 1Ghz Snapdragon CPU, 8GB solid memory, 748 mb ROM, Micro SD slot for even more storage, 8 MP Camera with dual flash (yes, 8MP!), 480 x 800 AMOLED screen for sharp displays, and the new Android 2.1 Sense OS. All in all, these specs are complimented by a rather thin and small phone that is probably half the thickness of that fat Motolora Droid.
Stylistically, HTC has designed a phone which does not have smooth angles but rather weird, almost Star Wars like curves and grooves on the back- maaking the phone somewhat more edgy than other HTC phones on the market today. Also, the phone has some red colored spots. These intentional design decisions were made to probably set this phone apart from the many HTC phones which have hit the various carriers this year.
The front of the HTC Incredible has 4 actual physical buttons that do have touch capabilities (Home, Menu, Back, and Search). So in terms of physical looks, you can think of the HTC Incredible as having features of both the Motorola Droid (Edgy masculine feel) and the more polished HTC Eris (Smooth). Most reviewers say that the screen on the HTC Incredible is basically on par with the Nexus One Google Phone. Early complaints have come in saying that the HTC Incredible screen does a very poor job of being readable outside in moderate to mild sunlight.
One of the largest selling points of this phone is the huge 8MP camera. Clearly this is one of the highest spec camera on a mobile device of any kind. The question remains though- Is this camera capable of taking great pics? The answer is yes, the HTC Incredible's 8MP camera does a great job of taking high resolution pics (even in lower light conditions) but is certainly not yet on par with an 8MP digital camera for a few reasons. First, the color reproduction of this camera is very natural and it does not change the source much with any added spotting or deterioration of the image. Next, the shutter speed is very fast, however, we have noticed some smaller issues with the camera taking a picture before the auto focus had a chance to fix a source. At times, when this happens it will produce an unpleasant blurry image which you will instantly throw in the garbage. The camera also does a good job with video, but is less than 720P quality. Come on people, this is a phone we are talking about!
The sound quality of the phone is also much better than that of the Google Nexus One (which sounded like the treble was cranked up). The HTC Incredible offers sound which is as good as the Motorola Droid. Very robust.
What is very cool about this phone is the storage options. With the built in memory and maxing out the MicroSD, you could conceivably have 40GB of store on this phone. That even puts the high capacity iPhone 3GS 32 GB to sham as well.
Bottom line- If you are looking for the best Android Phone on the market today, the HTC Incredible is the one. It is better designed than the Motorola Droid and works better than the Google HTC Nexus One. All in all, it is fantastic. It does NOT suck.
Apple has carved out perhaps some of the most legendary and game changing devices this world has ever seen- iPod, iPhone, even the iPad is looking to follow suit. Not all of their products are winners, mind you. Most recently, Apple has been trying very hard to put the magic of iTunes inside of your television. This product, creatively called Apple TV has failed to take traction amongst even die-hard Apple fanboys. Why and how is this happening and what can we all learn from this?
Apple TV is essentially a small hard drive box (160 GB) which can hold 200 hrs of video and allows dedicated wifi access using 802.11n. Apple TV retails for $229 and ships with the base unit, Apple remote, and power cord. For HD viewing a high definition television is requires, however, Apple also allows for component video in/out for older low fidelity setups. Includes HDMI in/out for the nerdy types who require the best quality video on planet earth.
Apple TV allows for you to stream all of your content from iTunes running on your desktop (music, video, photos) right on your television. This is done with a pretty slick OS (the new OS 3.0).
Here is why Apple TV sucks. It's not the price- $229 is a decent price for a large hard drive, Wifi unit with HDMI output. The problem with Apple TV is that I don't think most people understand how this unit can help them at all. Basically, what does Apple TV provide that your Xbox 360 cannot do? Basically, you can think about the Apple TV like an Xbox 360 that can't play great quality games. Next, there are no Hulu, Netflix, or other free online video viewing options. I think most people feel like if they shell out over $200 bones for this thing it will likely guilt them into downloading and renting HD movies from the iTunes store. Thus, fear of additional costs and fees make it more difficult to sell people on this concept of Apple TV (television).
Apple is correct that people want to access their content on their televisions, however, they need to roll with what is successful and allow free viewing access to Youtube, Netflix, even Hulu.
What people are really itching for is a reason to ditch cable TV and save money. When they look at Apple TV, it only requires more money to get fresh content on it and for this reason sucks. It does nothing else that the iPod, iPhone, or iPad cannot do. Speaking of the iPad, with the fantastic and successful ABC network app, Apple mayy have just killed the Apple TV for good. With the iPad's large screen, for some people this thing might prove to be a television replacement that has tons of free content. Thus, Apple TV still sucks.
The award winning Native Instruments Guitar Rig series has been popular amongst musicians who are now opting to utilize their home computers more than ever in the creation of music, ad in some cases, aiding in performing live. The Native Instruments Guitar Rig SESSION hardware bundle retails for an amazingly low $129 bucks and provides a player with everything they need to access the fantastic guitar rig software and plug directly into their computer.
The Guitar Rig Session includes a small but powerful USB powered hardward I/O which has good quality 24-bit/192 kHz converters for great sound and is constructed out of high quality aluminum chassis (like Apple).
While Native Studios could have put a guitar input and stopped their, they realized that many people also need vocal solutions and included phantom-powered studio-quality microphone preamp in the back of the device. This allows for just about anyone to go forth and plug a mic into this monster and start laying down vocals over their tunes with Guitar Rig 4 Session. This does make sense though, as Guitar Rig 3 and 4 by Native Studios include many new vocal and live effect patches.
Guitar Rig 4 software is nothing short of amazing. For anyone unfamiliar with Guitar Rig, basically, using modern software technique, this company has ben able to emulate hundreds of quality effects, amp, and mic sounds using powerful software. The resulting sound in Guitar Rig Sessions is convincing, cutting, and recorded in high fidelity. Aside from all that power, it is simply very fun to scroll through the many cool effects and patches which will make your guitar sound like anything you want it to. Basically, if there is a sound in your head, Guitar Rig Session 4 can get it for you.
The full spec inputs for Native Instruments Guitar Rig include: 2 balanced inputs: 1 Mic/Line/Hi-Z (phantom power supplied) and 1 Line/Hi-Z; individual gain controls with activity and clip LEDs.
Software in Guitar Rig 4 Sessions includes over 27 crafted effects, 8 guitar and bass amps, integrated metronome and tuner.
If you are new to this you must realize one thing though- Guitar Rig Session software does not record your music itself, but rather is a plug in which works with your own multi track software recorders, such as Pro Tools, or my personal favorite, Cubase. Thus, in connection with these powerful recorders, Guitar Rig provides some of the best sounding effects and modeling of amps around.
Having spend the last 7 days with the Apple iPad 32 GB I can now fully give a good review of this thing having put it through it's paces in many different ways.
Build Quality
The Apple iPad is amazingly well built, like that of a MacBook Air. You will find a unibody aluminum case which feels incredibly solid and like that of something of very high quality. Again, it doesn't look really like a giant iPod touch but rather it looks like someone sheared off the top screen of a MacBook pro. Many people have complained that perhaps the black area of bezel on the iPad was too thick and looks stupid. In person when you are actually using the device you will find that you hardly notice the size and it is certainly helpful when trying to grip the iPad from the sides.
There are very few buttons on the iPad. Basically you have a volume rocker, power button/sleep, a screen rotation lock, headphone Jack, and dock connector at the bottom. Of course Apple has opted to make most of your controls again center around the home button.
Speed of Hardware
While many nerds would love to rattle off exactly what makes the iPad tick under the hood, it may be of little importance because after of few seconds of playing with an ipad you will see that it feels blazingly fast. The switching between application and the speed at which browsing the web occurs is top notch. The iPad clearly has some fast processors and is powered by Apple's custom A4 chipsets.
Overall impressions
While we could continue to rattle off why we love this thing, clearly a person needs to play around with it at your local Apple store in order to see if it right for you. Obviously, Apple has created a new product category with the iPad. It is compared to netbooks but is really not a net book itself. The iPad seems to be all about fun. It makes for an exciting way to surf the Internet in a new and exciting manner. It certainly may be missing a few key features but essentially it is mind-blowing.
![Apple TV 160GB Mint]](http://thumbs.ebaystatic.com/pict/180880499975_0.jpg)
