HP Slate
This particular tablet will run on Windows 7 with touch optimised user interface, setting it apart from the iPad running the iPodOS. It will have a slightly smaller screen and five hours of battery life compared to ten on the iPad, but on the plus side, it has a 1.6GHz processor, flash for your Facebook games, USB Port, pen support so you can use it as a digital sketchpad, web cam in the front as well as the back for all your video conferencing needs, and a conventional SIM card tray so you can use our trusty Bangladesh-wide internet on-the-go. Not to mention that it can run all the applications you already run on your desktop. Cost? A cool US$549

enTourage eDGe dualbook

One look at this thing and you can tell something is different. Two screens, combined with a hinge that holds a speaker. It’s not just an e-reader and an Android (a Google OS) netbook bolted together either. This truly shows how tablets aren’t just for everyday Joes, but more so academia. The concept is great for school. In one hand you can read, while on the other touch screen, you can take notes and annotations. It’s available now for around $499.

Microsoft Courier
Yet another dual screen? I think not. Unlike the enTourage eDGe it doesn’t have an e-ink display. Also unlike the eDGe it is not only for the academia, but diverges into a more multi-purpose front. With two seven inch multi-touch screens, this Wi-Fi ready device is rumored to be priced around $500 and weighing only a pound. Running on the Windows CE this isn’t the jack-of-all-trades that iPad wants to be, but rather wants to be your ultimate and infinite journal. And from the demo videos, one can tell it does what it does remarkably well.

WePad
The Neofine WePad has similar form and function of the Apple iPad. It’s just bigger, stronger, and cheaper. The choice of OS is a little peculiar: a Linux derivate with Android on top. That’s Linux with Linux inside. Take that Intel! It boasts a 11.6 inch screen compared to 9.7 of the iPad, and also a faster processor, a webcam, 2 USB ports, SIM card slot, card reader, and flash support. Unfortunately compared to iPads ten hours battery life, it only has six. Also, although it has been announced to be cheaper than the iPad, it’s not up for sale just yet.

Notion Ink Adam
Last, but not least, this Indian company plans to bring forth an Android powered tablet featuring Pixel QI screen. Supporting video at high quality 1080p where iPad sports only 576p, this 10-inch device boasts a 3 mega-pixel camera (on a swivel, no less) and HDMI and USB ports whereas the iPad has none. Its secret weapon is the aforementioned Pixel QI screen which lets you jump from backlit for web browsing, to non-backlit for when you are reading. This, coupled with Tegra 2 power can make the battery life jump from 16 hours to a mind-boggling 160. Unfortunately the screen, the manufacturer and the device are all untested. It’s one thing to promise the moon, and another to deliver it.

Published in Rising Star, The Daily Star, 14 April 2010

Let’s face it. Apple is a cut-throat, money sucking corporation. It’s not meant for people who use computers, but for those who swim on money. Carrying a pretty looking white trash worth two machines with better functionality is probably a fascinating financial style statement to many. Sure, the $500 base price is much lower than what many tech journalists predicted, but ultimately it’s not a replacement for netbooks (what Steve Jobs called “not being better at anything”) but rather, just an iPod Touch with a bigger screen and a few small bonuses.

Firstly, it runs on iPhoneOS 3.2, and if we know anything about the iPhoneOS, is that it does not support true multitasking. We all do it – even while browsing most of us have a little music running in the background. Apple apologists might claim that the tablet is for browsing only, thanks to it having WiFi and 3G, but here’s the kicker, it does not have Flash. An internet device that does not have Flash. Wow, genius!

Four iPods stuck together is still better than the iPad. At least it can multi-task!

Oh, you want to chat? How, exactly? We can’t imagine typing would be very easy on the screen anymore than typing on your trusty cell phone would be. You want to Skype? Nope, doesn’t come with a camera up front either. You can get a keyboard, of course, but it’s not like you get one in the box. iPad doesn’t support USB either. Get ready to buy another overpriced Apple accessory for that.

The iPad comes with a new Apple software, iBooks, for all your reading needs. But as anyone who reads for a prolonged period of time on the LCD screen will tell you, your eyes get really tired really fast. Granted, the pictures of an open book in the iPad display will look really cool! But that’s only in Apple-controlled indoor conditions. Think about how it may look in direct sunlight! Alternatives such as Amazon’s Kindle (which uses eInk Display) are still better at reading books. Plus, weeks of reading time and free 3G internet on Kindle beats iPads 10 hours and AT&T price plan any day.

The video capabilities aren’t so hot, either. It can run Youtube vids, sure (through HTML5 technology as opposed to Flash), but 10″ isn’t very great for watching anything more than maybe half an hour. And really, unless you are propping it up against something, you need to hold the 10″ device in your hand… while watching a video! It doesn’t have HDMI either, and the aspect ratio is a boring 4:3. You’re better off with a local eSys LCD screen!

If Steve Jobs is asking for us to replace our trusty $300 laptops with iPads, we have to call shenanigans on that. It doesn’t have the specs (1GHz processor, 16GB non-expandable SD) to appeal to power users. It’s too expensive to act as a secondary device. Hell, it’s not even better than any existing device. We might have said something different if the rumours were true and it bought a new push in the content marketplace. Instead, we just got a cool toy. A cool toy we have to prop against our knees while lying in the couch or cling between our thighs. Err, awkward?

Published in Rising Star, The Daily Star, 02 February 2010, in collaboration with Sabhanaz Rashid Diya