Photo: HP

In a move to both tackle the Apple iPad, as well as bring touchscreen computing to the desktop PC, HP has unveiled its reclining PC. The device, much like its name suggests, will take the shape of a desktop monitor that is capable of reclining in place to allow for using as a touchscreen without being too strenuous to use.

How it works

The HP reclining PC works by letting users recline up to 60 degrees from the standard, starting position of most PC monitors, which is at a an upright 90-degree angle. The latest entry in the HP TouchSmart PC lineup, it also has the ability to swivel from side to side, sports a 23-inch screen, and runs Microsoft ubiquitous Windows 7 desktop operating system.

Customer-facing business

HP was quick to distance this TouchSmart PC from a direct head-to-head comparison against the iPad by saying they’ve designed this computer with both consumers and customer-facing business like hotels and restaurants. Essentially, most anything that requires a booking system of sorts that’s easily customizable – and sped up – using big, touchscreen-based icons, is what HP is looking towards.

Pricing and availability

HP has different devices for consumers and businesses. The consumer HP Touchsmart reclining PC is on sale for $899 (about £560) now. The business-focused devices are scheduled to go on sale sometime in May.

The requisite posturing

Of course, Hewlett Packard used this opportunity to get a few words in today. James Mouton, an HP executive, said that: ‘As a leader in touch computing, HP has made each iteration of the TouchSmart PC more intuitive, resourceful and fun for users’ prior to adding that ‘the latest generation is no exception with a new design that makes it easier and more comfortable to use, and it allows business to integrate the TouchSmart where convenience, space constraints and appearance matter.’

Personally, we’d rather see the webOS tablet PC, but it will be interesting to see how the HP reclining PC does against traditional tablet PCs.

Photo: CES 2011 / T3

Even with all the hate Windows 7 as a tablet PC mobile OS gets, manufacturers across the spectrum are backing the company and experimenting with the tech, if CES 2011 is anything to go by. Samsung is one such company with its TX100 slider PC effectively being a Samsung tablet PC meets a regular notebook.

What is it?

The Samsung TX100 is a 10.1-inch Windows 7 touchscreen tablet PC that has a slide-out keyboard and trackpad for using as a regular notebook. Though details on specs for this hybrid Samsung tablet PC are limited, processing is provided by Intel’s Atom chipset, and the displays resolution is (an unusually high for tablet PCs) 1366×768.

Requisite gushing

Accompanying the reveal of the tech at CES 2011 was the required press release saying how it will change your life. The Korean company claims that it is ‘the perfect fit for creating consumer content, whatever your digital lifestyle.’ As to the benefits of using Windows 7 as the mobile OS platform, the Korean company says that ‘the Samsung TX100 maximises the benefits of a tablet PC with its compact, light, and easy to go design, as well as features that provide easy typing and enhanced productivity and performance.’

Microsoft’ Steve Guggenheimer, who is the Corporate Vice President of the company’s OEM division, said that: ‘The Samsung TX100 is a great example of the deep collaboration between Microsoft and Samsung, from engineering to marketing.’

This might be interesting

What will be interesting about the Samsung TX100 after prolonged use is whether one uses it more as a tablet PC or more as a notebook. As long as it sells many units, Samsung doesn’t really care what consumers’ bias is, but for Windows 7 as a viable mobile OS platform, customer usage will be very telling. Surely this is a Samsung tablet PC first and a notebook second, but if consumers treat it otherwise, it could reaffirm suspicions that Windows’ OS isn’t built for tablets.

Our CES 2011 coverage will continue over the next few days as we see what other surprises tech companies have in store for us.

Photo: CES Web

On the eve of CES 2011, with several pre-show announcements and many products likely to be unveiled during the expo, the eyes of technology lovers, press and even mainstream media will be focused on the expo. For many companies, this CES more than any other represents do or die – okay, well that was melodramatic. Perhaps put up and prosper or fail and struggle. Here’s what will be the major trends at the Consumer Electronics Show 2011.

Tablets, tablets, tablets

Tablet PCs are all the rage in tech these days, and CES 2011 will see tons of tablets launched by both high profile companies and smaller ones. Perhaps the most anticipated of the tablets being shown off is the Motorola tablet, the first of many Google Android Honeycomb tablets to be shown in the coming months.

Smart TVs

While mobile computing will see a high presence of touchscreen devices, home entertainment’s big play at the Consumer Electronics Show 2011 will be what some people have begun dubbing smart TVs. More specifically, next generation systems like 3D TV, as well as web-integrated systems like Google TV. While Google has reportedly asked manufacturers not to show the hardware off at the convention, but it’s likely some rogues will show off their wares nevertheless.

Major absentees

Even though it’s easy to think that the whole technology landscape will make an appearance at the expo, there will certainly be some glaring absentees. As is usually the case, Apple, who likes to do its own thing won’t be there. Furthermore reports have emerged that HP Palm won’t be there, which, considering webOS was a billion dollar acquisition, is a bit surprising. The company would do well to resurface again.

Other

In addition to the hardware, we expect to see a few major component demos at the Consumer Electronics Show 2011, too. More specifically, there’s been much talk about dual core processors in smart devices, so we expect to see those appear in a few smartphones and tablets, as well as hopefully testing them out.

Furthermore, with Intel Sandy Bridge finally shipping to manufacturers, there is hope that several devices at CES 2011 will demo just how dramatic the much-talked about speed boost is in Intel’s new chipset.

Photo: Dekuwa / Flickr

One of Apple’s execs, Phil Schiller, has on several times mentioned that a touchscreen laptop or desktop would be uncomfortable to use, due to them being upright and not natural for your arm to constantly reach out. For this reason, Apple opted to leave touchscreen computing to the iPad, while adding a multitouch interface in the form of the Magic Mouse and the Magic Pad to the desktop line.

Well, if a patent reported by patentlyapple is anything to go by, the company is presently experimenting with touchscreen displays on traditional notebooks.

Upright stack

The US patent and trademark office published 20 new patents for Apple Inc. this week alone, with the touch display being one of them. This patent details an integrated touchscreen, with touch-sensing circuitry built into the screen pixel stackup of an Apple display. And, in case you were thinking the description could limit it to just the iPad anyway, the Apple patent specifically names devices where this could be applied, including media players, mobile phones and notebooks.

What else is patented

While the touchscreen display patent is by far the most intriguing, Apple Inc. also had a few other patents of interest granted. One detailed an important on-chip decompression engine for the A4 processor found in the company’s iPhones, while a number of them were granted for Pro photography application Aperture.

A button less future

With the iPod, the first signs that Apple wanted to do away with buttons became evident. The company would later launch mouses with fewer buttons, all the while reducing the number of buttons on the iPod. By the time the iPhone and iPad arrived, Apple had managed to get their marquee devices down to one main button – the home button. While I don’t think this Apple patent spells the end for buttons on notebooks, it is interesting to see the company is all-in when it comes to touch computing.

Photo: Josh Bancroft / Flickr

Cast your memory back to 2007, when most ‘smartphones’ still had what Steve Jobs referred to as that ugly ‘lower 40 percent’ – the place where all the buttons go. And shortly thereafter he revealed a completely touchscreen handset – the original iPhone. While millions of tech lovers worldwide were gob smacked in disbelief at how the tech work, RIM, the makers of the BlackBerry, did not believe the tech actually worked, so claims a former employee of the company.

10^th January was all-hands on deck day

According to Electronista, a former employee said that RIM had a full-on internal panic in the wake of the iPhone’s unveiling, as well as multiple all-hands-on-deck meetings on 10 January 2007, a day after the iPhone was unveiled.

Why the disbelief?

Why was RIM in such disbelief about the iPhone’s capability, going so far as accusing Apple of actually lying about the smartphone’s usage? The giant display and what it meant for the battery. According to a former RIM employee and a commenter on a Shacknews post, supposedly the Apple smartphone ‘couldn’t do what [Apple was] demonstrating without an insanely power hungry processor, it must have terrible battery life,’.

Truth be told, nothing about this logic by RIM was absurd. That screen was huge and intuitively would guzzle a lot of battery power to get any moderate use out of it. The commenter would later say: ‘Imagine their surprise when they disassembled an iPhone for the first time and found that the phone was battery with a tiny logic board strapped to it.’ Here’s iFixit’s teardown of the first generation handset to confirm this very finding.

Microsoft taken aback, too

Apparently it wasn’t only RIM whose engineers couldn’t figure out how Apple could actually achieve this, but Microsoft’s engineers, too, as well as employees at other handset manufacturers. The question one should then ask is why they thought it was impossible, when clearly Apple had actually pulled it off. Given that in terms of raw ability, RIM and Microsoft engineers are likely as knowledgable and as talented as Apple’s, it can’t be put down to personnel.

The commenter suggests that it was the mindset behind the BlackBerry that led RIM down the the route it could not see outside of – that smartphones were supposed to be extensions of pagers. Apple flipped the script, and what we expect of smartphones has changed fundamentally since.

Regardless of the truth value to this story [Ed: it sounds believable], there is certainly a case study of the innovator’s dilemma at play here, with the Apple smartphone doing what those who came before it hadn’t fully perfected yet.

Now we expect smartphones with gorgeous displays to be touchscreen, but one forgets that January 2007 was a mere four years ago.

Photo: 3water / Flickr

Assuming your mum is tech savvy – or shows an interest in tech – getting a gadget for her this Christmas might make for a welcome change from whatever you usually give (everybody has a ‘usual’). Below are our three favourite holiday gadget gifts for mums.

Amazon Kindle 3

Our parents, thankfully, come from a generation where a high volume of reading was commonplace and celebrated. While books no longer hold the significance in popular culture they once did, some people still enjoy reading, and any technology to help indulge in reading will be celebrated. One of the gift ideas I’m endorsing wholeheartedly is the Amazon Kindle 3 for various members of the family, and pre-purchasing about £100 of Amazon credits.

The benefits to this approach to reading are manifold, and the Kindle, with its technological sophistication yet almost analogue simplicity is an amazing gateway device into the wonders of technology in general. If we had to pick only one gift idea, this would be the must-have holiday gadget for mums.

A tablet computer

Tablet computers are celebrated for being wonders of technology. Few can doubt this is absolutely true and blatantly obvious. One area of touchscreen computing that is under celebrated is how incredibly intuitive it is, when compared to traditional computing.

Photo: Keegan Jones / Flickr

Contrary to popular belief, there are many people, even today, who do not know how to use computers or are intimidated by them, and it’s possible your mother may be such a person. With a touchscreen computer – where the interface is streamlined, through the removal of a pointing device, to the usage of the most natural pointing device in the world, the finger – even children as young as four have an immediate sense of how to use these devices. The same will likely apply for your parents and grandparents, and this could be a fantastic Christmas gift to help your mum become more comfortable with computers.

Digital frames

While a tablet computer can fully replace any digital frame, on price and dedicated use alone, we think mums will love these. If you can afford to buy more than one, and place them around the home with different themes, mothers, who are the most sentimental people on the planet, will be enamoured with these moment capturing holiday gadgets.

Remember, when shopping for gifts for mums, don’t default to the obvious. You’ll be surprised at how they might take a liking to the things you love.

Photo: Viewsonic

In a hot tablet market filled with various competitors and multiple operating systems, how do you stand out from the pack? In the case of the Viewsonic ViewPad 10, you install two operating systems, allowing your users to choose whether they want to power up their device running Android 1.6 or Windows 7 Home Premium. And, as brilliant an idea as this is on paper, its execution leaves a lot to be desired.

Hardware doesn’t matter

What is becoming increasingly evident in tablets is that hardware does not matter. At 10 inches, the ViewPad hardware is nigh-on identical to the iPad in every way that matters – it has a big piece of touch-responsive glass, with a large bezel around the edges. And this will hold true for most every tablet from hereon out.

Sure, the responsiveness of the touch interface is important, but the discrepancy from device to device is becoming negligible. Furthermore, the fact that an Intel Atom N455 processor clocking in at 1,66GHz powers the Viewsonic ViewPad 10 is impressive indeed, but it’s the only standout hardware configuration next to its 10-inch 1024×600 WSVGA display, dual cameras, 16GB hard drive and 1GB of RAM. No 3G, sadly, so network connectivity is limited to wi-fi.

This is not to put this tablet’s technical specifications down, since they’re up there with the best, but beyond a certain threshold on tablet PCs, hardware no longer matters.

It’s all about the operating system

And since hardware is of no concern on tablets anymore, it comes down to operating systems and the software that runs on these operating systems. And, sadly, the Viewsonic ViewPad 10 is doomed on both counts. The challenges of running Google Android 2.2 on a tablet PC are well documented, but to ship a new device in October/November 2010 with Android 1.6 is an insult to consumers and the progress Android has made since.

Furthermore, we’ve discussed at length – here and here - the problems with running a tablet on an operating system designed for mouse and keyboard use, which is exactly what Windows 7 Home Premium is. In short, Microsoft’s desktop OS wasn’t designed for mobile touchscreen use, and to force it into the package is to the detriment of consumers.

When theory and practice are identical

And these fundamental OS problems translate directly to the user experience with the Viewsonic ViewPad 10. In short, it’s mind-bogglingly frustrating, with Windows 7, as capable as it is, feeling out of place on the tablet, and Android 1.6, with its limited tablet functionality, when compared to its smartphone functionality, does a barely competent job.

The company will have you believe this dual-boot was to give users added value, but all it does is show how non-committal the engineering team behind this tablet was, building a device that could have been significantly more polished if it was built for one dedicated OS instead of two.

We want an alternative, and this is not it

What’s a little disappointing about the Viewsonic ViewPad’s performance is how badly we wanted it – or any other tablet, really – to pose a legitimate threat to the iPad. And unfortunately it doesn’t quite manage.

If you must buy an Android tablet, the Samsung Galaxy Tab is light years better than this as is most of Archos’ tablet offering – what’s more, they ship with Google Android 2.2 out the box. If you’re an operating system agnostic, the iPad 16GB wi-fi only model costs less money than Viewsonic’s tablet effort.

Don’t mistake our sentiment – the groundwork is certainly there – and there is something to build on, but what was competent before is no longer good enough today, and you’d be well served to get your tablet fix elsewhere.

Photo: Lenovo

Chinese computer developing company Lenovo has recently announced that it will more than likely soon be releasing its latest innovation to the USA and hopefully Europe. The Lenovo LePad is a tablet PC that will see Lenovo competing with other tablet manufacturers such as Apple and Samsung.

Hybrid capabilities

Lenovo revealed a hybrid prototype of the LePad at CES last year which functioned both as a laptop and a tablet. While the hybrid idea has been scrapped, Lenovo are still scheduled to release the tablet soon. The hybrid device, which will consist of a special case including a keyboard and laptop hardware, will hopefully be released shortly after.

Advantages

Tablets have become extremely popular over the space of a few months, yet touchscreen interfaces can be limiting. It seems the new generation of tablets, due to necessity, will be hybrids. Using a touchscreen to type or record data can be quite tedious, but with a QWERTY keyboard included as well as a separate OS from where Windows programs may be run, it seems the LePad will be an excellent option for business people.

Specs

Internal specs are still to be released regarding the laptop side of the LePad but according to information published by Engadget the tablet part of the device will run the Android platform and the separate keyboard and case will probably run Windows 7 with an Intel processor. We will have to wait and see, though. According to Engadget the tablet is set to be released in the US but as for now the hybrid option will only available in China. As demand grows that is sure to change.

Photo: Garmin

Even with the current doomsaying about the GPS industry, there is certainly life left in it still. The recently reviewed TomTom Go 1000 Live confirmed this, and while the Garmin Nuvi 1490t is not a like for like comparison, this 5-inch GPS device is another example of what makes the stand-alone satnav device still attractive in a post-GPS smartphone world.

So, what is it?

The big deal ‘feature’ of the Garmin Nuvi 1490t touchscreen GPS device is its large screen – at 5 inches, it’s notably larger than the industry norm of 4.3 inches, making reading directions off of the screen a synch.

The primary features it ships with are Garmin’s brilliant City Xplorer maps, Bluetooth hands-free dialing, which is always useful, as well as free FM traffic data – remind us why we’re ‘paying’ for ‘Go Live’ service, please, TomTom. In addition, for the fuel economic amongst us, which is everyone in our struggling British economy, Garmin’s GPS has a nifty EcoRoute function, which helps you get to your destination while saving on fuel expenditure.

What we loved

In many ways, the Garmin Nuvi 1490t feels like a device that was built on the back of an R&D session where the general theme was doing away with giving customers ‘too little’. As previously mentioned, the 5-inch screen makes reading directions from it impossibly easy. It’s much like getting spectacles when in fact you didn’t realise you needed them – we didn’t know 4.3 inches was insufficient, but going back now feels extremely cramped and uncomfortable.

And while they added screen real estate, the team paid careful attention to how the device sounds, too, with a notable max volume increase over other Garmin models and most every satnav device in the game.

Lest we sound like old folks with ailing hearing and fading sight, we soon remembered why Garmin was able to rise to the top so fast – their user interface is incredibly simple to use and understand, even upon first use. Voice prompts, text searches, location additions and the like all made perfect sense, unlike many satnav devices or GPS devices that require you have knowledge of the manufacturer’s OS quirks.

What we’re not so hot for

Back to that display, though, even though Garmin has upped the size of the display, screen resolution did not receive a similar boost, meaning the display has really bad jagged lines at times, making for unpleasant viewing.

And, while we suspected it was our review unit acting up initially, we weren’t so pleased with the responsiveness of the touchscreen. Having tried another unit, we soon discovered that it wasn’t the model, but the GPS device itself. Soon, after trying a few satnav devices, we realised that it wasn’t the Garmin Nuvi 1490t’s fault, but rather us being spoilt by how good technology on capacitive touchscreen smartphones has become.

A gap is beginning to emerge between the touchscreen responsiveness of dedicated satnav devices and top tier smartphones, which makes transitioning from the one to the other after extensive use a little unpleasant.

To buy or not to buy

The Garmin Nuvi 1490t has a lot going for it, with most everything coming back to that large screen. Honestly, the difference the large screen makes to your driving experience cannot be stressed enough, and, in many ways, one hopes this becomes the new standard in GPS device screen size. Outside of that, the price, while a little on the steep end is justifiable, and you’re also purchasing a trusted brand. If this review has you leaning towards a ‘buy’, then by all means, do it! When it comes to dedicated satnav devices, Garmin rarely disappoints.

Photo: Ford

Recent technology advancements have been able to make the experience of driving your car far more luxurious. A few years ago, a limousine was the only car you’d find that actually had a movie screen in it. In-car DVD players and screens have now become very popular, along with satellite GPS systems. Digital technology has made driving a lot safer and simpler in some respects.

The MyFord Touch is a new development by Ford which aims to provide a really comfortable and enjoyable driving experience through the use of an easily navigable digital dashboard.

The interface

The MyFord Touch system uses touch sensitive buttons, a touchscreen and voice recognition to operate a variety of digital devices. There is an 8-inch touchscreen in the centre which uses colour coded tabs in the corners to switch the screen between four main functions. The four menus are listed under audio entertainment, navigation, phone and climate control and a ‘home’ option which allows for personalized settings.

The steering wheel has touch sensitive buttons on either side and interacts with two smaller screens on both sides of the speedometer. From here, you can control the temperature within your car or adjust music volume and playlist options, all without having to take your hands off the wheel.

Features

The whole MyFord Touch system is able to use voice commands to control pretty much every function on the menu. This is great for the GPS system, which requires little interaction with the main screen. This also makes handling phone calls far simpler and less dangerous while driving.

A USB drive or mp3 player can easily be attached to the system and operated via voice command or the navigation buttons on the steering wheel. Plugging a phone in is a simple procedure and the Touch interface even allows for the setting up of a wireless network, although the feature is only compatible with certain modems.

Is it safe?

Overall the MyFord Touch is a useful addition to a snazzy car, yet the question still remains whether it really is safer. Some would argue that having the least distractions as possible is the only way to drive but from a luxury point of view this system works well and is probably as safe as you can get – for now anyway.