Introduction to the WeTab

Throughout this year we have seen the birth of many new devices. All of them are impressive, some more than others. The iPad was most likely one of the most sought after gadgets in the first half of the year, but now, there is a new contender. The WeTab. As tablet PC’s go, the WeTab is not only a marvel in technology, but also in design. The WeTab is not an ugly and cumbersome device, but it is sleek and stylish. This is probably because it resembles the iPad, though that is not a bad thing as the iPad is a fantastic piece of designing. The technology within the WeTab is truly impressive, it has a large 11.6” screen at a resolution of 1366 x 786 pixels. What will surprise most people with this device is the processor it uses. Unlike the iPad and the Galaxy Tab the WeTab uses a 1.6GHz Atom processor. This means that the WeTab is capable of doing many more things that the iPad and other rivals are not capable of doing. The WeTab has a 1 GB of RAM as it wants the multitasking to go smoothly. This WeTab is full of connectivity, with Bluetooth, Wi-Fi b/g/n and 3G if you want it (although it will cost you more). To surprise us, the makers even threw is an SD slot so you can expand the memory of this device, although with up to 32GB of internal storage, I do not know if you would need to, yet this is not the major surprise, it is the TWO USB slots that this device has that really put this device ahead of the competition.

To compete in the multimedia market, the WeTab also gives Java, Flash and even Adobe Air support. It supports most music file types as well as most video formats. Wanting apps on this isn’t a big problem either as this device runs on MeeGo, which means that it is able to run native Linux programs such as Open Office, but it will also have access to the Android store which is constantly growing. With all of the WeTab’s capabilities, and the Atom processor that it hides in its sleek shell, it would have a laptops battery life, yet the WeTab offers up to 6 hours of battery life.

There is bad news though, which, you have probably guessed is the price that it is going to sell at.

WeTab 16GB+, WLAN 449.- €

WeTab 3G 32GB+, WLAN, 3G, GPS, 569.- €

The HTC Revolution

HTC have always been a brand to bring out new phones, each one better than the other. This month, HTC have brought out two new phones, the new Desire line. There is the Desire HD and the Desire Z.

Both of these phones have some incredible specifications. Yet the specifications are not the only things to focus on with these phones.

The new HTC Sense is a new UI that will enable us to share multimedia through the use of more dynamic camera software. Also, the new Sense will offer HTC Locations, which should give less download times, therefore less roaming charges, which is always good. To keep up with the competition, HTC have introduces a new e-reading experience with the new Sense. It will give us the opportunity to use a Kobo powered book store.

The phones themselves have incredible specifications. The HTC Desire HD has a 4.3” display that supports multi-touch. It is all powered by the new Snapdragon Processor which is clocked at 1GHz. Like the N8, it can record at 720p from its 8Mp camera. You can store up to 32 GB on a microSD and it has 1.5 GB of on-board memory. Luckily, it has a 3.5mm headphone jack and has a Dolby Mobile speaker system. This phone is running Android, so it supports flash 10.1, which means that your web experience will be far better. The processor will also make sure that your whole experience with this phone is incredible.

The HTC Desire Z has a smaller screen at 3.7” but also a smaller processor that clocks in at 800MHz, which is not unreasonable, and will give you an excellent user experience, without any lag waiting for the phone to catch up with your actions. The Desire Z has a full QWERTY keyboard that as a unique hinge for faster access. This phone can also record 720p, but it has a 5Mp camera. The Desire Z also has a 3.5mm headphone jack.

Both of these phones will give you the unique HTC Sense experience. This will also enable you to connect to htcsense.com this will give the user the opportunity manage their phone experience from their computer or phone. You will be able to flag the location of the device on a map or even trigger the phone to ring loudly even if it is on silent. You can send messages and manage your contacts but also manage the personalisation of your phone.

These phones can compare to the Nokia N8 and may even be able to trump in certain ways. The phone that everyone tries to beat has to be the iPhone, these phones do this, the Nokia N8 does this, and so do these HTC’s. Yet without an extensive app store, no phone company will be able to take down the iPhone. Yet Android have a growing library of apps, both free and paid, and it will only be a matter of time before Android takes over.

The dual-core revolution

On my previous post "The new generation of smartphones" I introduced the concept of the a new breed of processors that will be used in future mobile phones. These processors are the dual-core processors that are going to be introduced into our mobile phones.

Samsung and NVIDIA are both releasing dual core processors that are clocked at 1GHz. There is also a company called ST-Ericsson that is releasing a 1.2GHz Dual-core processor. These processors are likely to be released and used on most future phones. The integration of these new processors will effectively allow companies to produce phones or tablets that are far more powerful than the tablets and the phones we have today.

Nvidia

Samsung

These new chips will be able to support better graphics and perhaps be able to introduce 3D to mobile phones. Along with better graphics, these chips will allow us to play 1080p video from our phones and record HD content at 30fps. As these new chips are far more powerful and are most likely to have HDMI support, they will of course be able to support multiple displays. Soon the capabilty of taking a 20Mp still photo will be  possible on your mobile (though I am not sure who would want to do that).

We already have phones that have incredible cameras, screens and can do some things such as surfing the web as well as our computers and cameras, but being able to do so with a more powerful processor will unlock a huge amount of features to the phones that might mean phones or tablets start to replace our computers at home. (Unless you are a hardcore gamer and then you would laugh at having a dual core processor that is clocked at 1 GHz.)

Some people argue that the processors will be far to energy consuming and that having a dual-core processor on your phone or tablet could reduce the battery life drastically and make mobile phone less portable as they will not have the battery life that we all now demand in our every day life.

There have been no confirmed OS' to be running off of these processors, but Android and the new Windows Phone 7 seem to be likely candidates as they will be able to utilise the full potential of these processors. LG and Samsung seem to be the only two companies that have announced their involvement with this new line of processor.