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Developing Story

HTC announced today the HTC Flyer Tablet.  The first HTC tablet to feature HTC Sense.  Just like majority of HTC products, it will run Android.  Along with Android the hardware is a 7 inch display with a 1.5 Ghz processor, 1GB Ram, 32GB internal, 5 MP  camera, 1.3 MP front-facing camera, Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0, micro-SD card slot, and HDMI-out.

Press Release:

HTC UNVEILS HTC FLYER™, THE FIRST TABLET WITH HTC SENSE™

Aluminum unibody design with touch and pen interaction make HTC Flyer unique

First tablet with HTC Watch™ video service, HTC Scribe™ Technology and OnLive® cloud gaming

BARCELONA, SPAIN – Mobile World Congress – February 15, 2011 – HTC, a global leader in mobile innovation and design, today announced its first tablet, the HTC FlyerTM. HTC Flyer blends HTC’s trademark design language with an all-new HTC Sense user experience that has been reimagined for the tablets. Using an intuitive and innovative approach to tablets, HTC Flyer combines natural touch and pen interaction. HTC also announced HTC Watch, a new connected video service that will debut on HTC Flyer tablet, and will collaborate with OnLive, Inc. to launch the first cloud-based mobile gaming service on a tablet.

“Clearly, smartphones have transformed our lives but as we observed how people use smartphones, computers and other technologies, we saw an opportunity to create a tablet experience that is different, more personal and productive,” said Peter Chou, CEO of HTC Corporation. “We are progressing down a path as an industry when people will no longer be in a single device paradigm, but have multiple wireless devices for different needs; this is the direction we are moving.”

Encased in a sleek aluminum unibody, the HTC Flyer tablet exudes the iconic style and build quality HTC is known for. It is also ultra-light, weighing as little as a paperback book, and compact enough to fit in a jacket pocket only. With a seven-inch display, lightning fast 1.5Ghz processor and high-speed HSPA+ wireless capabilities, the HTC Flyer tablet is perfect for those who have been waiting for a tablet that is both compact and powerful.

HTC Sense for Tablet
HTC Sense revolutionized smartphones by placing the person at the center of the experience. HTC Flyer’s tablet-focused HTC Sense experience focuses on surprising and delighting people with its gorgeous 3D home screen. A unique carousel of widgets puts a user’s most important content and information at the visual center of the experience. The HTC Flyer tablet also offers uncompromised Web browsing with Flash 10 and HTML 5.

HTC Scribe Technology
Touch interaction lights up the HTC Flyer tablet experience, but it also offers a groundbreaking pen experience. With the new HTC Scribe Technology on the HTC Flyer tablet, people can rediscover the natural act of writing. HTC Scribe Technology introduces a wave of integrated digital ink innovations that make it easy and natural to take notes, sign contracts, draw pictures, or even write on a web page or photo.

HTC Scribe Technology on the HTC Flyer tablet transforms traditional note-taking into smart note-taking by integrating natural onscreen writing with thoughtful and integrated innovations. A feature called Timemark enables you to capture the audio of a meeting in line with your written notes, so tapping on a word in your notes instantly takes you to that exact place in time in the audio recording of the meeting. Notes are also integrated with the calendar so when there is an appointment reminder you are automatically prompted with an opportunity to begin a new note or in the case of recurring meetings, to continue where the last meeting left off. In an industry first, the HTC Flyer tablet also features built-in synchronization with Evernote™, the world-leading notes application and service.

Streaming Mobile Movies with HTC Watch
The HTC Flyer tablet premieres HTC Watch, HTC’s new video download service. The HTC Watch service enables low-cost on-demand progressive downloading of hundreds of High-Definition movies from major studios. The intuitive, natural design of the HTC Watch service makes it easy to find the latest movie and video content, while advanced technology on the back-end enables instant playback over the HTC Flyer tablet’s high-speed wireless connection.

Mobile Cloud Gaming with OnLive
HTC takes mobile gaming to an entirely new level by being the first mobile device in the world to integrate OnLive Inc.’s revolutionary cloud-based gaming service. OnLive is leading in the home gaming market by letting people play top video games on their televisions and computers without the need to buy expensive gaming hardware or software. When integrated fully, the OnLive service will enable customers to pipe the OnLive service through the HTC Flyer tablet’s broadband wireless to their television sets, or let them play directly on the tablet. When integrated on the HTC Flyer tablet, people can play a variety of games, including hits like Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood™, NBA 2K11 and Lego Harry Potter™.

Bloomberg reported yesterday that Blackberry playbook and phones will run Android Apps.  This is a huge move by RIM, since their app store is lackluster and Google Android Marketplace is growing massively.  There will be a google launcher to use the Apps.. possible a Java VM.  Chalk up another win for Google.

So we have the Apple iPad, and we’ve seen what the new Android 3.0 OS can do on the Mircosoft Xoom. Now we have HP Touchpad out running the latest version of Web OS.  As the original release of Web OS, the interface is very fluid and highly comparable to iOS. Will HP be able to make WebOS into a winner? Something Palm lacked doing?  Along with the HP touchpad, they also released Pre 3, and a smaller version of the WebOS phone.  Rumor has it the HP TouchPad will go for 699. Apple 16 GB version is looking like a rockstar right now.

Features

• Google Android 2.1 OS
• 8-inch touch screen with auto-rotation
• Wi-Fi 802.11b/g
• 4GB internal memory
• Full USB 2.0 port
• Additional ports: USB OTG, 3.5MM stereo headphone jack, DC in jack
• Micro SD card reader
• 12 hrs audio playing time/up to 6 hrs video time

AOC Breeze will be at CES2011 in Las Vegas this week

The VIZIO VIA Phone features a 1 GHz processor, 4″ high-resolution capacitive touch screen, 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, GPS, a MicroSD card slot for memory expansion and HDMI output with HD video playback.  It also features a front-facing camera for video chats and a 5 megapixel rear camera for photos and HD video capture.

The VIZIO VIA Tablet also features a 1 GHz processor, with an 8″ high-resolution capacitive touch screen, 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, GPS, a MicroSD card slot for additional memory expansion, HDMI output with HD video playback, and a front-facing camera for video chats. It also boasts a unique three-speaker design for stereo audio in both portrait and landscape modes.

Both products will be shown off at CES Showcase this week starting Jan 6.

Specs:

• Full Adobe® Flash® 10.1 enabled
• Built-in support for HTML 5
• 7″ LCD display, 1024 x 600 screen resolution
• 5.1″ x 7.6″ x 0.4″ (130mm x 194mm x 10mm)
• 0.9 lbs (400g)
• Built-in microUSB connector
• Multi-touch capacitive screen
• Wi-Fi® 802.11 a/b/g/n
• On-screen keyboard
• True multi-tasking
• 3 MP high definition forward-facing camera
• 5 MP high definition rear-facing camera
• Codec support for superior media playback, creation and video calling
• 1080p HD video; H.264, MPEG4, WMV HDMI video output
• Micro USB, Micro HDMI, and DLNA media streaming
• 1 GHz dual-core processor
• 1GB RAM
• Supports POSIX OS, SMP, Open GL, BlackBerry® 6, WebKit, Adobe® Flash®, Java® and Adobe Mobile AIR
• Price: TBA

Information is pretty limited on the website. But it will be a Widescreen HD display. (1366 x 800 resolution) for the 10.8″

There is also a 5.5″ version that will have 1024 x 600 resolution.  It clearly look like it will not be using android.  Seems to be another OS.

At the last Apple Keynote everyone was expecting something big from Apple. An Apple table specifically.  Something that would change the game for tablet computing.  Instead we got a few mac updates and ipod beefed up.  On Thursday Apple stock jumped 7 dollars , closing at 209.10, the highest its closed since earning reports last November.  Reports by several media houses are expecting a tablet from Apple as soon as February.  Only question is will this tablet be successful??

Will the table be a larger ipod? will ipod apps be ported to it. Will it be a more versatile interface, enabling programmers to expand on cocoa programming? Its unclear what Apple has in store for us. But answer may be near.

Image via TheAppleCollection

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