PC Sales Show Biggest Quarterly Decline Ever

via allthingsd.com

Sales of personal computers were very nearly twice as bad as previously expected and experienced their worst year-on-year decline ever in the first quarter of 2013, according to the market research firm IDC, in a report released this afternoon.

Worldwide PC shipments came in at 76.3 million units in the first quarter of the year, amounting to a decline of nearly 14 percent. That’s much worse than the firm’s forecast, which called for a decline of 7.7 percent.

The findings also amount to the fourth consecutive quarter in which sales declined compared to the previous quarter. Neither new versions of Windows from Microsoft nor faster chips from Intel spurred new interest among consumers or businesses. Meanwhile, mini-notebook sales hurt the low end of the market.

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Mobile Video Views Up 300% In 2012, With Tablets Driving The Charge With A 360% Increase

via techcrunch.com

Adobe has released its Digital Video Benchmark for the U.S. for 2012, wherein the Digital Index team shows what it learned monitoring video performance throughout the year across digital platforms. The study compiles data from Adobe Marketing Cloud customers, scoring viewing habits and also monitoring ad performance. 2012 saw a massive increase in mobile viewership, according to Adobe’s numbers, though desktop still dominates when it comes to online video.

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Apple working on its own gamepad for iPhone and iPad

via digitaltrends.com

Apple has repeatedly claimed again and again during the company’s meteoric rise to consumer electronics dominance: It’s not making a video game console. Why should it? The iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, and the iTunes App Store have fundamentally changed the nature of the video game business, making mobile gaming into a cultural and commercial force to be reckoned with. Mac sales even hit enough of a critical mass for Valve to bring Steam to Apple’s devices a couple of years back. Living room entertainment remains a quirky side project for the company, what with streaming gaming available by pairing the iPad and Apple TV, but it’s not a priority. Apple tried it once with the Pippin and failed, so why mess with success now?

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Razer Edge Pro review: can a tablet double as a gaming PC?

via engadget.com

Portable gaming isn't what it once was. Sure, you can still snag a handheld device from Sony or Nintendo, but today's video game industry is far more diverse. Gamers on the go have no shortage of hardware to pick from: tablets, smartphones, gaming laptops and purpose-built handhelds are redefining what a mobile gaming platform is. Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan must have felt the winds of change blowing his way when he cooked up Project Fiona, now known as the Razer Edge. The company's marketing material frames the curious device as an all-in-one gaming arsenal; it's a tablet, says the product page, as well as a PC and console. Above all, it's modular, a souped-up tablet with a small collection of docks and cradles designed to scratch your gaming itch from all angles. All told, Razer calls it the most powerful tablet in the world. Kitted out with the specs of a mid-range gaming laptop, it may very well be that -- but we couldn't let the proclamation pass without giving it the once-over ourselves.

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The future of tablets, according to Amazon: No batteries, no processors, all streaming

via extremetech.com

Those of you that follow the tech world closely enough might already think tablets are so last year. It’s not impressive when they get a power upgrade, as those upgrades are expected, and the industry norm of iterative upgrades don’t raise the specs enough to warrant a raised eyebrow. The future of the tablet seems to just be a stronger tablet, but what if that future involved getting rid of batteries and processors? A new patent aims to do just that.

A recently published patent application, that happens to list Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos as an inventor, describes a device similar to tablets that is essentially just a remote display. Imagine a tablet, but then you rip out all of its guttyworks — battery, processor, etc. — and leave the Retina-class display. What do you have? Perhaps the future of tablets, if this patent application ever becomes reality, at least. The tablet would work with the help of — you guessed it — cloud computing. A central box would handle all of the processing and beam it over to the device, and more amazingly, would also wirelessly power the device. (See: How wireless charging works.)

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Report says that tablets will outsell desktops this year

via digitaltrends.com

There’s no doubt about it: sales of tablets have been steadily increasing over the years, particularly now that there are so many affordable options for people to choose from. But as Mashable published earlier today, the uber mobile computers will outsell desktops this year, according to a report conducted by research group IDC. Tablet sales are expected to grow by 48.7 percent, while desktop sales will drop by 4.3 percent. What’s more, next year tablets will even begin to outsell laptops.

The trend, according to IDC, is due to the emerging market sales. “In emerging markets, consumer spending typically starts with mobile phones and, in many cases, moves to tablets before PCs,” said Megha Saini, a research analyst with IDC.

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Portable Holographic Displays On Your Phone or Tablet

via businessinsider.com

Mobile holograms may soon be popping up everywhere from phones and tablets to billboard advertising.

HP is in the process of developing a 3D mobile display for images and video that can be seen from any angle, which they've just published and described in the journal Nature.

"This would mean you would see something like in 'Star Wars,' with the famous hologram of Princess Leia," study researcher David Fattal, of HP, told New Scientist. "If you were to display a 3D image of planet Earth, by turning around the display, you'd be able to have a view of any country on the globe."

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New 3D Display Lets Phones and Tablets Make Holograms

via mashable.com

A new kind of three-dimensional display developed at HP Labs plays hologram-like videos without the need for any moving parts or glasses. Videos displayed on the HP system hover above the screen, and viewers can walk around them and experience an image or video from as many 200 different viewpoints—like walking around a real object.

The screen is made by modifying a conventional liquid-crystal display (LCD), the same kind of display found in most phones, laptops, tablets, and televisions. Researchers hope these 3D systems will enable new kinds of user interfaces for portable electronics, gaming, and data visualization. The work, carried out at HP Labs in Palo Alto, Calif., relies on complex physics to make 3D displays that are as thin as half a millimeter.

Conventional 3D—the type found in movie theaters—provides the viewer with only one perspective. The key to making a multiview 3D display is reproducing all the light rays reflecting off an object from every angle and to get a different image to the left and right eye of the viewer. Some systems for producing multiview 3D images require rapidly spinning mirrors; others use systems of lasers and multiple graphics processors.

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$100 Amazon Kindle Fire tablet rumored

via digitaltrends.com

The current, entry-level Kindle Fire is looking a bit over-priced lately, and it appears Amazon has noticed, as according to a new rumor the company is working on a Kindle Fire tablet which will cost just $100. This is according to an anonymous source speaking to TechCrunch, who has told the site the cheap tablet will be more like the Kindle Fire HD than the non-HD original model.

Apparently, the screen will be another 7-inch panel, but the resolution will be upped to 1280 x 800, which is identical to the Kindle Fire HD. A Texas Instruments processor will keep the tablet up and running, but it’s not clear whether it’ll be the OMAP 4430 found in the standard Fire, or the OMAP 4460 with its improved 3D graphics performance used in the Fire HD.

A Kindle Fire HD costs $200 at the moment, making a comparable Kindle tablet priced at $100 look like a real bargain. Recently, Amazon cut the price of its Kindle Fire HD 8.9 tablet to $270 for the Wi-Fi model, and launched the device internationally; could this signify we’re about to get a new Kindle range entirely, and Amazon are attempting to get rid of the outgoing hardware?

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Google’s New Nexus 10 Tablet Commercial Focuses On Its Multiple Account Feature, And That’s An Advantage

via techcrunch.com

Google has been on a bit of a roll with its commercials lately, especially for its gadgets. Today, the company unleashed its latest commercial for the Nexus 10, its iPad killer competitor. The video tells the story of a couple who has just found out that they’re having a baby. Google has woven the Nexus 10 Wi-Fi-only device into the story quaintly.

The feature that Google decided to focus the commercial around? Its multi-user Android one. Yes, Google’s competitive advantage is apparently the fact that you can share the device with someone else. Is that enough? Have a look at the commercial...

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Tablet Mobile Web Traffic Now Eclipses Smartphone Traffic [Charts]

via readwrite.com

If you are surfing the Web from a mobile device these days, odds are you are doing it not from a smartphone, but from some type of tablet. According to a study done by Adobe, for the first time tablets have surpassed smartphones for percentage of website views.

Adobe analyzed more than 1 billion visits for more than 1,000 websites and found that 8% of traffic came from tablets. That ranks ahead of the 7% of visits that came from smartphones. Of course, that leaves 85% or so percent of Web traffic still coming from desktop PCs and laptops.

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BlackBerry exec allegedly confirms a new BB10 tablet will launch in 2013

via engadget.com

The company formerly known as RIM is currently rolling out two devices running the new BlackBerry 10 OS, and apparently that's not all it's got in store for 2013. Know Your Mobile India reportedly heard from the Head of Developer Relations for Asia Pacific at BlackBerry, during the recent Z10 launch in India, that a "BB10 tablet is definitely coming later this year." We already knew that BB10 was to be shoehorned onto the PlayBook, and the same exec confirmed that it's still in the works, so your old slate won't be left with outdated software when this new hardware arrives. We've reached out to BlackBerry for confirmation or comment, and will update you when we hear back.

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Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 preview: an 8-inch S Pen tablet that's also a phone

via engadget.com

An updated, larger Galaxy Note from Samsung was inevitable. Given the undeniable popularity of mid-size tablets (see: Apple iPad mini), it's no surprise the Korean electronics giant would want to strengthen its foothold in a category it helped create. It was just three short years ago that Samsung introduced the Galaxy Tab and now, three Notes later, it's ready to perfect the one-handed experience. With this new Note, the company's culled the best of what's around its Galaxy into an 8-inch form factor, housing a 1,280 x 800 TFT display, Exynos 4 Quad with 2GB RAM (clocked at 1.6GHz), TouchWiz-skinned Android Jelly Bean 4.1.2 OS, S Pen (and suite of associated apps), as well as radios for HSPA+ and WiFi into that familiar, lightweight plastic body.

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Ubuntu for tablets unveiled: A crazy idea that might just work

via extremetech.com

Canonical has unveiled the tablet interface for Ubuntu, and the key features of Ubuntu Touch — the version of Ubuntu that will run on ARM smartphones and tablets. The Touch Developer Preview of Ubuntu, which you can install on your Nexus 7 or 10 tablet, or Nexus 4 smartphone, will be available to download on February 21.

The standout feature for Ubuntu Touch — if you believe Canonical’s hype machine, anyway — is side-by-side multitasking of Ubuntu phone and tablet apps. Ubuntu Touch (or whatever it ends up being called) introduces a new feature called “side stage” that looks almost exactly like split-screen mode in Windows 8′s Metro interface. The idea is that you can run a smartphone app on the smaller portion of the screen (which is portrait-oriented, like a smartphone) and a tablet app side-by-side. This sounds kind of cool until you realize that Ubuntu smartphones and tablets will run the same operating system (Ubuntu Touch), and that “side stage” is ultimately just a mirror of Windows 8′s split-screen mode.

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Microsoft Surface Pro 128 GB Sold Out

via businessinsider.com

Microsoft's Surface Pro is only a few hours old, but the top-of-the-line 128 GB model has already sold out online.

Microsoft's online store lists the 128 GB as "out of stock," but the cheaper 64 GB is still available.

You can also buy the Surface Pro at Best Buy, Staples, or Microsoft Store retail locations. It starts at $899, but you'll want to spend another $120 on one of the special keyboard covers to get the full experience.

The Surface Pro is a bit different than the original Surface that launched last year. This model is a full fledged computer in a tablet form factor, meaning you can run older Windows apps in a classic desktop environment.

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7 Uses for Your Outdated iPad

via gizmodo.com

While most tablets have a shelf life longer than six months (*cough* iPad 3 *cough*), they all grow obsolete eventually. When the march of technology sends your slate to the junk drawer don't just sell it off. Recycle it into a high-powered specialist device.

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Video Review: Microsoft's Surface Pro Tablet

via businessinsider.com

Microsoft will launch its newest tablet, the Surface Pro, in the U.S. and Canada this week starting at $899.

Check out some of the most important features of the Surface Pro in our video review below. You can also check out our full written review here.

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Of Course Nokia Is Building a Tablet

via allthingsd.com

If there was any doubt that Nokia has a Windows 8 tablet in development, if not in the pipeline already, it dissolved today with some forthright remarks from CEO Stephen Elop.

In an interview with the Australian Financial Review, Elop conceded that Nokia is interested in the tablet space, but stopped short of offering any hard details on where that interest might lead.

“We haven’t announced tablets at this point, but it is something we are clearly looking at very closely,” Elop said. “We are studying very closely the market right now as Microsoft has introduced the Surface tablet, so we are trying to learn from that and understand what the right way to participate would be and at what point in time.”

Presumably, the “right way to participate” would involve extending Nokia’s smartphone partnership with Microsoft to tablets. And Elop noted that this would likely be the case, though, again, he stopped short of committing to anything.

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Apple Sets Sights On Microsoft Surface With 128 GB iPad

via readwrite.com

Apple announced a new version of its fourth-generation iPad today. Apple’s newest will be a 128 GB version starting at $799 with cellular connectivity at $929 and hits stores on February 5th. With the tablet industry trending towards smaller, cheaper versions, why would Apple buck the trend and release one of the most expensive tablets on the market?

The answer has little to do with Google, Amazon or the Android Army. For Apple, the 128 GB iPad is all about business and enterprise. What company controls the enterprise software market and is releasing its own expensive tablet?

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Official: Microsoft Surface Pro Launches in US and Canada on February 9

via www.gadgetell.com">technologytell.com

It’s not usually wise to unveil a new gadget and then wait more than six months to start selling it and when dealing with an “experimental” device running a new mobile OS, the risk doubles. Still, Microsoft has done exactly that with the Surface Pro tab introduced to the world in June 2012 and ready to see the light of day just now.

Well, more like in a couple of weeks, as the exact release date in US and Canada is February 9, but hey, what are a few extra days when you’ve been waiting for half a year, right?

The 10.6-incher will be made available via Microsoft’s online and offline stores, but also from Best Buy and Staples starting at $899. That’ll buy you a 64 GB version of the Intel Core i5-powered Win 8 slate with an included Surface pen, which is pricey, but certainly not shocking.

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