HP replaces the Slate 500 with the Slate 2, adds Swype and cuts the starting price to $699

Until Microsoft gives Win8 the final seal of approval, the Windows tablet show must go on, right? Right. HP just refreshed its enterprise-friendly, Windows 7-flavored Slate 500 with the Slate 2, and took the opportunity to knock the starting price down a hundred bucks to $699. In terms of design, there’s nothing much to see here — it’s the same 8.9-inch tablet that’s been on sale for the past year. Only this time, HP added Swype, refreshed the CPU with Intel’s Atom Z670 and proffered a smaller 32GB SSD option to appease the IT guys who are going to heavily lock these down anyway. Speaking of security, it also packs TPM circuitry and Computrace Pro for tracking lost or stolen laptops and then deleting the data remotely. It’ll be available worldwide this month — just in time for corporate to buy you a lil’ somethin’ somethin’ for the holidays.

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Tags: Computing, HP, HP Slate 2, HP Slate 500, Intel Atom, SSD, Tablet PC's, Windows 7, Windows OS

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Disk prices double after flood – and could ‘double again’

Platter chatter says Thai flood will affect us all

Hard disk prices doubled in the past fortnight following the severe flooding in Thailand and could potentially rise by the same amount again, channel sources have warned.

The world’s second largest producer of drives behind China, Thailand, is dealing with the aftermath of flooding that has killed 380 people, inundated 14,000 factories and left 660,000 people out of work.

The average price of a 1TB drive was £45 prior to the disaster, but such disks are now being flogged for a 100 quid or more, a distie source told The Reg, adding that given the scarcity of stock “prices could double again”.

The severity of the shortfall in supply means that additional price rises are on the cards, predicts James Ward, boss of specialist storage distributor Hammer.

“Shortages became so severe so quickly and will have a lasting impact on the industry for at least the next six to nine months,” he said.

Sukh Rayat, senior veep at distil Avnet, added: “Prices could go up significantly further based on what we are seeing in the market.”

Not all of the major distributors were willing to make a call on incremental price hikes.

“I believe that for the quarter shipments will be significantly down. I don’t know if we’ll able to sell more than 40 to 45 per cent of what we could,” Alain Maquet, EMEA president at Ingram Micro told The Reg.

Taiwanese vendor Acer has confirmed pending PC price rises due to the supply problems and Asus said it will run out of drives by the end of this month.

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Tags: Accessories, Computing, Hard Drives, Storage, USB Storage

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Asus roadmap sees Windows 8 tablets coming your way next year

A leaked PowerPoint file revealed more than just Asus’ third quarter earnings – it also opened up the door to the rest of the Taiwanese company’s strategy for their Eee Pad range. It seems that the Eee Pad Prime is more or less guaranteed to hit the markets this coming November 9th, with a couple more Android-powered slates being, er, slated for a Q1 2012 rollout to boot.

Asus does seem to be hedging their bets though by revealing that they have also thrown their hat into the ring with Windows 8 on the other hand, but it will still take a good one year or so before that happens. Guess it does not matter whether you are part of the Google or Microsoft camp – there is a little bit of something for you to look forward to, although those siding Mountain View will be able to get their hands on it sooner than a Windows 8 tablet.

I am not quite sure just what ‘hero products’ mean in the leaked slides, but it does sound like something huge, perhaps in the flagship level. What do you think?

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Tags: Android, Asus, Computing, Tablet PC's, Windows 8

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Amped Wireless gives your WiFi 1.5-mile range: never lose signal in the garden again

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Tags: Accessories, Amped Wireless, Computing, WiFi

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Windows 8: Half million previews downloaded in 24 hours

Half a million previews of Windows 8 have been downloaded by developers since the software became available on Tuesday, Microsoft has announced.

Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer stated that it showed the strong developer interest in Windows 8, the re-imagining of Windows for the brave new world of fondleslabs. Built to re-conceive Windows for a world of phones, tablets and cloud computing, and to beat Cupertino’s iPad at its own game, it has had a warm reaction so far: see our analysis of how it lines up.

“While it’s clear we have a long way to go still with Windows 8, we’ve been gratified by the reactions and the interest,” Ballmer told a bunch of developers today in a conference in Anaheim, California.

The OS should be able to run thinner, lighter tablet machines with battery power that can rival that of the iPad, although x86 applications will not be able to run on the ARM-based systems expected to form the majority of Windows tablets.

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Tags: Computing, Microsoft, Steve Ballmer, Windows 8, Windows OS

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HP Webcam HD 5210 lets you Skype in HD

If there’s one thing great about technology, it’s the ability to keep in touch with the people we care about even though they’re thousands of miles away. We’ve come a long way since the introduction of 320 x 240 webcams (remember those days?) and now HD video calling is slowly becoming the standard. HP’s latest entry to the webcam market, the HP Webcam HD 5210 is one such camera.

It allows 720p video streaming or recording in full 1080p HD (for you aspiring YouTube stars), so you can be sure that your videos will look top notch. An auto-focus lens and HP’s TrueVision auto light exposure also help in that department. With software to help you perform one-click uploads to Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Flickr, sharing your videos isn’t going to be a problem.

The camera’s mount allows it to swivel up to 270 degrees, and two premium noise-cancelling stereo microphones onboard ensure your voice is heard. The HD 5210 can also take still photos with at 13-megapixels, and has 5x digital zoom in the event the need ever arises. The HP Webcam HD 5210 will be available on September 21^st with a price tag of $99.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntmFWLjcXIM

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Tags: 1080p, 720p, Accessories, Computing, HD, HP, Skype, Video, Webcam

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Netgear NeoTV turns your HDTV smart

Netgear is taking on Apple TV, Roku and others with its new NeoTV streaming player, a compact set-top box packing integrated WiFi b/g/n and capable of funneling 1080p Full HD content to your TV. Billed as a straightforward way of making your dumb TV smart, when the $79.99 streamer goes on sale later this month it will offer over 100 “internet channels” including Netflix, Vudu HD, YouTube, Pandora and Vimeo, as well as social networks like Facebook and Twitter.

Connectivity includes HDMI, a wired ethernet port, 300Mbps WiFi (with a 2×2 antenna) and an S/PDIF digital optical audio, and while Netgear will bundle a simple remote with the NeoTV NTV200, the company will also offer smartphone remotes. iPhone or Android handset owners will be able to download a free remote control app from their respective software stores, with gesture control for channel navigation as well as an on-screen QWERTY keyboard for easier text entry and search.

Netgear promises to add more channels all the time, but with Vudu HD there’s already support for Blu-ray quality streaming movies accessible at the same time as their physical release. For free content, there’s YouTube Leanback, while a clever “Fling” feature allows you to instantly send videos you’re watching on your laptop straight to the NeoTV, and pick up watching them on your big-screen TV instead.

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Tags: Accessories, Computing, HD, HDMI, HDTV, NeoTV, Netgear, Smart TV, Streaming Media, WiFi

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Logitech’s Wireless Touchpad Is a Magic Trackpad for Windows

You might be one of those people who find the old mouse and keyboard standbys inadequate. Quaint, even! Maybe you embrace touch as the future of computer interfaces. You might envy the Magic Trackpad, but lack a mac. Envy not!

The Logitech Wireless Touchpad doesn’t quite have the same pizazz in form or name, but looks like it could at least replicate some of the functionality of OS X’s stroke-able pad. At 5 inches across, it’s got pretty much the same surface area as its magic Apple brother and supports up to four fingers at a time, though lacks the Bluetooth beaming and, very frustratingly, OS X support. Why not throw it in there and give Apple some competition? Logitech’s mice are a hell of a lot better than anything Apple makes—it could very well be the same for this desk swiper too. [Logitech]

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Tags: Accessories, Computing, Logitech, Windows OS, Wireless Touchpad

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Build 2011: Microsoft details ambitious, tablet-friendly Windows 8

As expected, Microsoft used Build 2011 to show off its upcoming Windows 8 platform and the operating system is described as a re-imagining of Windows for devices that can be 7 inches or 70 inches. Can Windows 8 make the iPad and Android Honeycomb shake in its boots or is Microsoft’s one-platform-for-all-form-factors strategy destined to fail?

Windows 8 takes many design cues from Windows Phone 7, as users will immediately recognize the live tiles that greet you at the start screen as well as the lock screen which displays ambient information like missed instant messages or upcoming calendar appointments. These apps are all designed in a “Metro-style” which means clicking on them will take up the whole screen and they follow a certain design aesthetic – think of how the Facebook Windows Phone app has its own look but still fits inside of the Windows Phone motif.

There are a lot of similarities between Windows Phone and Windows 8, as the virtual keyboard looks and sounds the same, the loading animation with apps is the same, the calendar, Mail and SkyDrive integration will be instantly familiar with those who have used the smartphone. But the major differences between Windows Phone and Windows 8 are size and power.

Microsoft said that the larger form factor of tablets and computers make for a fundamentally different design experience for apps and interacting with the system. While Windows 8 will work just fine with a mouse, keyboard and keyboard shortcuts, it’s clear that this thing was meant to be touched. The fluid nature and overall visual pleasure from flicking through panes of live tiles should make this a solid tablet platform.

This interface also means that there are new system-wide gestures which will have to be learned (although you can access these with right clicks on the mouse and such). Swiping from the top or bottom within an app will bring up a contextual menu for settings, swiping from the right brings up “Charms” which allow for quick access to system settings (controls, search, etc.) and swiping from the left will let you switch between full-screen apps. The gesture controls are not as fluid right now as something like the BlackBerry PlayBook but this is still an early build of Windows 8, so it should improve with time.

That power also means that you’ll be able to do real multitasking. Yes, Windows 8 will support nearly every legacy Windows 7 app and if you’re in the Desktop app, you’ll have a traditional Windows 7 experience with folders, ribbons and more. But within the Metro-style UI (they keep calling it “Metro style”), dragging an app from the left about halfway into your running app will “snap” it into place on the side. You can then run these two apps at the same time and adjust the size accordingly. Think about having an IM client constantly running while you’re browsing or having a calculator open while you’re doing homework.

The thing about the Metro-style UI on Windows 8 is that it’s not just a skin, as Microsoft is very clear that this experience and multitouch capabilities are a vital part of what the platform aims to deliver. It will have clever things like a power-saving mode on ultra-portable devices (tablets, netbooks) which will let it maintain good battery life but still giving the apps enough leeway to update once in a while.

The user interface and strong touch capabilities are obviously the things that jump out at you with Windows 8 but there are a ton of other improvements including increased security, an upcoming Windows Store which will deliver certified Metro-style apps a la the Apple Mac Store, a neat warning which will pause your scheduled downloads or warn you if you’re on a metered data connection and a lot more.

Seeing and playing with Windows 8 for a while is actually quite a joy. It’s fluid, looks highly modern, the touchscreen interaction is spot on and this will have all the power you’re used to with Windows 7. Of course, Microsoft is trying to be everything to everyone with Windows 8 and that type of strategy rarely pleases anyone. Already, I can see jarring UI issues when jumping between legacy or traditional apps and the sleek-looking Metro-style apps. Heck, power users may even think the Metro-style UI is just unnecessary window dressing.

Because it has hundreds of millions of legacy users, Microsoft couldn’t and wouldn’t just break from previous Windows versions and leave users in the cold. It’s not good for the users and it’s not good business (also, they’re not Apple). Still, the advancements in Windows 8 with user interface, touchscreen controls and app ecosystem really could help Microsoft flex its muscles in the burgeoning tablet space.

We still don’t have a solid release date, there may be issues with what apps ARM vs. X86 can run, hardware makers have to provide a great product with good battery life and Apple’s iPad 3 and the next generation of Honeycomb tablets could leave Microsoft in the dust by the time this lands in 2012. Still, I really want to use a Windows 8 tablet for a long, long time and it’s actually cool and fresh.

Here’s a quick demo of the interface and some apps, we’ll have a lot more for you once the keynote’s over.

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Tags: Build 2011, Computing, Metro UI, Microsoft, Tablet PC's, Video, Windows 8, Windows OS

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G-Technology by Hitachi throws dual drive 8TB RAID Thunderbolt external HDD onto market

It’s no surprise that G-Technology by Hitachi has unveiled a new external HDD today that has 8TB of storage inside. Seagate unveiled its own 4TB external yesterday and it’s normal for others to come out with similar gear shortly thereafter. The G-Technology drive has some really cool features though and looks like it was meant to coordinate with a Mac style wise. The drive is called the G-RAID and as you might guess, it has a pair of HDDs inside.

Each of those HDDs hiding inside the shiny aluminum enclosure has 4TB of storage so this is an 8TB total capacity drive. With two drives inside the storage device, it is configure with RAID 0 right out of the box. The drive is going to be offered with a Thunderbolt port for your Mac providing 10 Gbps of data transfer to make for some speedy backups and file transfers. Other interface versions will also be offered. The drive is specifically designed with video editing in mind and promises excellent cooling.

The drive is preformatted for use with Mac OS X computers and the fan inside the enclosure to keep the drives cool is very quiet. The HDDs inside the enclosure are the new Hitachi 4TB 7,200 rpm offerings. Each TB of storage space on the drive can hold 2.5 hours of HD 1080/60i video. The drive will also be offered with eSATA, FireWire 800 and USB 2.0 ports. It will land in October with the Thunderbolt version coming in Q4. Pricing is unannounced.

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Tags: 8TB, Accessories, Computing, G-RAID, G-Technology, HDD, Hitachi

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