New Technology Reviews!.: mobile computing/tablets

Updated: HP TouchPad UK price drop to £89 confirmed at Dixons

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<span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="strong" mce_style="font-weight: bold;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;">Update:</span> Mark Webb, head of media relations for Dixons Retail, has outed the retailer's prices for the HP TouchPad: you'll be able to nab a 16GB model for £89 and the 32GB model for £115 from Dixons Online later today.</div>
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You'll want to keep a sharp eye out though; it's limited stock only and, by the sounds of things, when they're gone, they're gone.</div>
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Currys and PC World will also carry the reduced HP TouchPads at the same price points, with the sale beginning on Tuesday morning.</div>
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HP's much-anticipated price drop for the ditched TouchPad has reportedly been outed thanks to a phone call with HP's sales reps.</div>
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The HP TouchPad is only going to cost $99 (for the 16GB version) over in the US and UK webOS stalwarts were wondering whether the same super-low cost was going to be afforded to us.</div>
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Many expected a much higher price for Britons, but according to Twitter we're only going to have to pay £89 for a 16GB version of the tablet and £115 for a 32GB offering.</div>
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TechRadar had a word with HP about the mooted price cut, but was told the situation is "still fluid" and the new pricing would be communicated in due course.</div>
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The decision to drop the TouchPad from its line up could cost HP up to $100 million, according to BGR, which cites an earnings call where the company stated it would charge five cents per share to absorb the cost of the written-off stock.</div>
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That would equate to $103 million (£62 million) as there are over two billion shares in the public - showing that getting a tablet strategy wrong in today's Apple-dominated times could be a very dangerous thing indeed.</div>
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Stay tuned for official confirmation of the pricing - but we can see a<span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="em" mce_style="font-style: italic;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">huge </span>demand for the unloved tablet if that's all it costs to get your hands on one - and especially seeing as it will possibly be able to run Android in the future too.</div>
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Updated: HP TouchPad UK price drop to £89 confirmed at Dixons

Update: Mark Webb, head of media relations for Dixons Retail, has outed the retailer's prices for the HP TouchPad: you'll be ...

Updated: Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 UK release date revealed

Updated: Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 UK release date revealed

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 UK release date has been set by Amazon as 12 August. The medium-sized tablet is now available for pre-orde...

In Depth: Windows tablets: 8 features we want to see

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Competition among tablets is fiercer than ever. The HP TouchPad is out, and there are a handful of compelling Android tablets available now. Even the BlackBerry PlayBook has a lot to offer.</div>
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Meanwhile, Microsoft - who never garnered much interest for the Tablet PC platform - has announced that Windows 8 will run on computers and on a new breed of Windows 8 tablets.</div>
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Details are sketchy, however. Here are 8 must-have Windows tablet features we want to see at launch.</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="strong" mce_style="font-weight: bold;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;">1. True multitasking</span></div>
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If Windows tablets do not provide real multi-tasking, and instead work more like a Windows Phone, the platform will start off slowly. On the PlayBook, you can run a game in the background and it will continue to run. You can even upload files to Dropbox and switch over to your e-mail and send attachments. On a Win 8 tablet, multitasking would be a major differentiator.</div>
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<img alt="Multitask" class="aligncenter" height="148" mce_src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/classifications/computing/mobile-computing/Tablets%20and%20touchscreens/win8tabs/multitasking-420-90.jpg" src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/classifications/computing/mobile-computing/Tablets%20and%20touchscreens/win8tabs/multitasking-420-90.jpg" style="border-width: 0px; clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px auto 12px; max-width: 640px;" width="252" /></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="strong" mce_style="font-weight: bold;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;">MULTITASK:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="em" mce_style="font-style: italic;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">On the BlackBerry PlayBook, games will run in the background even if you switch to a different app. Windows 8 tablets need to follow that lead; apps should not just pause</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="strong" mce_style="font-weight: bold;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;">2. Outlook Cloud</span></div>
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Microsoft has experimented with cloud email since the original Hotmail, yet they've kept the basic Outlook client in tact. (Exchange Online is a step in the right direction, though.) On a tablet, Outlook should become a full cloud-based client like Gmail. On your computer, a Windows Phone 7 device, or Windows tablet all email should be a click away.</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="strong" mce_style="font-weight: bold;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;">3. Zune video rentals</span></div>
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Not all Android tablets offer a video store - the Motorola Zoom and HTC Flyer do, but not many others. Microsoft will likely port Zune software to tablets, offering video downloads as they do now on a Windows Phone. To compete with Netflix, Microsoft should also offer a monthly plan to stream at least a few major Hollywood releases and not just for-rent downloads.</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="strong" mce_style="font-weight: bold;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;">4. New touch features</span></div>
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Windows 7 hinted at some innovative touch features - on a touchscreen laptop, you could spin a globe, rotate photos, and play a few touch-enabled games. Windows 8 needs to go beyond what Apple offers with the iPad and include quick gestures for deleting emails, photo rotation, and a new way to control games. The challenge is to make the most powerful apps, say for project management or video editing, work with gestures, zooming, and swipes.</div>
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<img alt="Gestures" class="aligncenter" height="158" mce_src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/classifications/computing/mobile-computing/Tablets%20and%20touchscreens/win8tabs/gestures-420-90.jpg" src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/classifications/computing/mobile-computing/Tablets%20and%20touchscreens/win8tabs/gestures-420-90.jpg" style="border-width: 0px; clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px auto 12px; max-width: 640px;" width="252" /></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="strong" mce_style="font-weight: bold;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;">GESTURES:</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="em" mce_style="font-style: italic;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">Gesture control on an Android tablet means swiping through a music library and zooming in on photos. Windows 8 tablets need to go even further and offer swipe gestures for email and other apps</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="strong" mce_style="font-weight: bold;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;">5. Grouped documents</span></div>
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The HP TouchPad enables you to group documents together even if they are from different apps. On a Windows tablet, we want a feature for grouping documents from Excel and Word, add related emails, and even Internet Explorer pages using the tile interface. This grouping would help organize projects in the same way you'd group files on a computer. A way to then e-mail all grouped docs would be a bonus.</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="strong" mce_style="font-weight: bold;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;">6. Full Office apps</span></div>
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The Apple iPad lets you view and edit Office documents, but not with full desktop-like applications. Windows 8 tablets provide the Office suite for editing rich documents, making pivot tables in Excel and adding charts, and making PowerPoint slide sin a way that competes with Keynote (templates, slide-sharing). And, each app needs to print over Wi-Fi.</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="strong" mce_style="font-weight: bold;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;">7. Surface mode</span></div>
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Here's a unique feature that could set Windows tablets apart. Microsoft should take what they have learned with the Surface Table and move it to the small screen. This should include two-player chess and checkers, shared photos that multiple people can stretch and rotate, and a full-screen browser that works faster than Google Chrome on a desktop machine.</div>
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<img alt="Microsoft surface" class="aligncenter" height="168" mce_src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/classifications/computing/mobile-computing/Tablets%20and%20touchscreens/win8tabs/surface-420-90.jpg" src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/classifications/computing/mobile-computing/Tablets%20and%20touchscreens/win8tabs/surface-420-90.jpg" style="border-width: 0px; clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px auto 12px; max-width: 640px;" width="252" /></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="strong" mce_style="font-weight: bold;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;">SURFACE:</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="em" mce_style="font-style: italic;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">Microsoft Surface is a multiuser touchscreen table, but many of the concepts could be ported to Windows 8 tablets</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="strong" mce_style="font-weight: bold;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;">8. Ported Xbox 360 content</span></div>
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We want to see a version of<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="em" mce_style="font-style: italic;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">Halo<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span>running on Windows 8 tablets at launch, plus other Xbox 360 games like<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="em" mce_style="font-style: italic;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">Gears of War</span>. Too much to ask? If Microsoft really wants to dethrone Apple, it should start by making the Windows 8 tablet the go-to platform for games, include achievements and link into the console version of the game -- maybe even as an extra controller.</div>
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In Depth: Windows tablets: 8 features we want to see

Competition among tablets is fiercer than ever. The HP TouchPad is out, and there are a handful of compelling Android tablets available...

Tablet sales up 300% year on year

Tablet sales up 300% year on year

Global tablet shipments have increased to over 15 million units in Q2 2011 with Apple's iPad range coming out on top. The figures...

Rumour: RIM cans rumoured 10in PlayBook

<p style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" class="aligncenter" height="80" src="http://cdn.mos.techradar.com/Review%20images/TechRadar/Computing/BlackBerry%20PlayBook/overview-200-200.jpg" width="120" /></p><br/>It's a RIM rumour overload as an anonymous tipster reveals that the BlackBerry maker has cancelled development of the never-confirmed 10-inch PlayBook tablet.<br/><br/>According to this source, the company has ditched the larger tablet in favour of cracking on with its first QNX-based superphone, which you'd think they'd have already been working on.<br/><br/>The source came up with some specs for the handset, too – a single-core 1.2GHz processor, 900+ resolution and a 4.3-inch touchscreen.<br/><br/><strong>Facts like gold dust</strong><br/><br/>Two rumours don't necessarily make a respectable supposition, but some of these specs do match up with what Carlo Chiarello, VP of the GSM business unit at RIM, told TechRadar back in May:<br/><br/>"That [QNX] experience is going to start to come in to our high tier products. I can't tell you when… But it's absolutely part and parcel of what we're working on now.<br/><br/>"I can tell you that it's going to come in to the higher tier value propositions first. It'll probably come into an all-touch first, more than likely."<br/><br/>As much as we'll concede that a 10-inch PlayBook would have been a sensible thing for RIM to consider and that focusing on its smartphones might be a better use of its time, we can't help but feel this particular set of rumours could have come from the land of mobile phone unicorns and dancing tablet nymphs.

Rumour: RIM cans rumoured 10in PlayBook

It's a RIM rumour overload as an anonymous tipster reveals that the BlackBerry maker has cancelled development of the never-confirmed 10...