Category: Latest

All the Latest, News, Reviews, Updates, How To, Mobile Phone news, Global and International News, From Cameras to Automobiles, from TV To PC and a lot more! Constantly updating!

Google Launches Chrome Beta Channel For Android

Google has finally launched a beta channel for its own Android web browser, Google Chrome. The beta, now available in the Google Play Store, will be updated more frequently with the latest work-in-progress features for users to try out before they’re ready to go stable. You’ll have to note that betas are not promised to be perfect, so while this is a great way to test new features you might also encounter some bugs and rough edges.

The company posted a blog post citing massive increases to Javascript performance, better HTML5 integration and, hopefully, smoother scrolling on tablets like the Nexus 10.

[quote]Chrome for Android now benefits from all the speed, security and other improvements that have been landing on Chrome’s other platforms. For example, in today’s Beta update we have improved the Octane performance benchmark on average by 25-30%. In addition, this update includes interesting HTML5 features for developers such as CSS Filters. This is just one step of many towards bringing beautiful experiences to the mobile web.[/quote]

It looks like this beta version is running the same source code as the current desktop beta: 25.0.1364.8.

You can grab the new version from the Google Play store now. You will need to use the link as the app can’t be found by simply searching for it.

January 11, 2013
Apple VP Phil Schiller : “Cheap Smartphones Will Never Be The Future Of Apple’s Products’”

Apple’s senior VP of worldwide marketing Phil Schiller threw Apple-watchers for a loop on Thursday by stating that cheap smartphones will “never be the future of Apple products.” Schiller made the comments to the Shanghai Evening News, noting that Apple’s goal is to use the best technology available in order “to provide the best product to the market.”

Rumours were rampant earlier this week about Apple potentially coming to market with a low-cost iPhone that could possibly compete with Google’s entry-level Android devices. Both the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg‘s sources indicated that we’ll finally see Apple launch an iPhone around the $150 mark by the end of 2013. Unfortunately, as expected, this dream has been shot down by Phil Schiller.

[quote]According to a translation from The Next Web, Schiller said, “At first, non-smartphones were popular in the Chinese market, now cheap smartphones are more popular and non-smartphones are out … Despite the popularity of cheap smartphones, this will never be the future of Apple’s products. In fact, although Apple’s market share of smartphones is just about 20%, we own the 75% of the profit.”[/quote]

Despite these comments, one can simply look at Apple’s iPod lineup to see lower cost alternatives to the iPod touch that wouldn’t be considered cheap yet cost less and still use the best technology available.

January 11, 2013
Google Allows Developers to Respond to Play Store Comments

Big news for small developers: regardless of size, presence or popularity, all devs can now respond to comments in the Play Store.

Way back in June of 2012, Google began letting developers reply directly to user comments in the Play Store. The one catch with that, this was made available only for a select group of developers, those sporting a “Top Developer Badge.” And well, flash forward back to the present day and it looks like this is now rolling-out to all developers.

Not only will this help establish better relationships between app developers and their customers, but it will also allow developers to provide feedback and answer questions to critical comments or concerns. Trevor Johns, developer programs engineer at Google, previously said that “conversations are meant to be two-sided, and facilitating discussion between developers and users will ultimately yield better apps, to the benefit of everyone.”

The feature doesn’t seem to have rolled out in full, though it should only be a matter of time before your complaints can be heard, and dealt with, in one fell swoop.

Google+ integration was also recently added to the Play Store, forcing members of the social network to post comments under a real name, opening up richer commentary and preventing troll culture from taking over.

January 11, 2013
Apple Updates App Store Screenshot Rules To Kill Scam Apps

Have you ever been scammed into buying an app because of a screenshot that falsely represented the app you were buying? If you have, then there’s some good news for you.

Apple today announced on its Developer Portal that screenshots added to app descriptions will be locked in place once an app has been approved.

[quote]Beginning January 9, app screenshots will be locked in iTunes Connect once your app has been approved. New screenshots may be uploaded when you submit a binary for an update to an existing app or a new app.[/quote]

Before the new policy went into place, app developers would often upload legitimate game screenshots to accompany the app description, then switch them out for screenshots that resembled more popular games once the app was approved. The switch often snagged unsuspecting victims who assumed they were downloading a different app.

For example, in one instance, an unofficial Pokemon Yellow app was uploaded to the App Store. The app snuck by Apple using an unobtrusive set of screenshots, and then switched them out with photos from the Nintendo game, which thousands of people then purchased.

While this presumably means that scamming developers will no longer be able to game the App Store, it also hobbles legitimate developers trying to keep their app descriptions up to date.

[CNET]

January 10, 2013
Nokia Sold 4.4 Million Lumias in Q4 2012, Says Mobile Division “Exceeded Expectations”

Nokia sold 4.4 million Lumia smartphones during the fourth quarter of last year, as the company’s Devices & Services unit exceeded expectations, according to preliminary data.

[quote]Stephen Elop, the company’s often-criticized CEO said, “We are pleased that Q4 2012 was a solid quarter where we exceeded expectations and delivered underlying profitability in Devices & Services.” While net profit was minimal at around $262 million USD, there is reason to be bullish for the next several quarters as Lumia sales continue to rise as the company releases its phones into more markets.[/quote]

The next 12 months will be key for Nokia and Microsoft, and the sale of 4.4 million Lumia smartphones is a step in the right direction, according to Pete Cunningham, principal analyst at market research company Canalys.

Nokia also sold 9.3 million Asha touch smartphones, as well as 2.2 million Symbian smartphones.

During the fourth quarter in 2011 Nokia sold 113.5 million units, including around a million Lumia devices and a total of 19.6 million smartphones.

The 4.4 million Lumia smartphones Nokia sold also compares to the 2.9 million it sold during the third quarter. The company could have sold even more if it hadn’t been for supply constraints, which especially affected the Lumia 920.

Nokia is also getting a €50 million sum from non-recurring IPR income (coincidentally, RIM recently had to pay Nokia €50 million after a patent settlement).

Anyway, the Nokia Siemens networks also exceeded expectations and posted a profit for a third quarter in a row. The non-IFRS operating margin for this division in Q4 2012 is expected to be 13-15%.

While Nokia is ending 2012 on a positive note, the start of 2013 will be less rosy – the seasonally weak quarter will lead to a non-IFRS operating margin of negative 2% (+/- 4%).

Meanwhile, Nokia today launched the Lumia 920, 820 and 620 at an event here in New Delhi.

January 10, 2013
Samsung Announces Galaxy S II Plus With Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean, Lesser Storage

Samsung has been enjoying a really successful time of things in the last year or so in the smartphone market with a number of hugely successful products on offer. Its recent successes were arguably built on the Samsung Galaxy S2 that was released in 2011 and is still available today. Now though the company has revealed the Samsung Galaxy S2 Plus and we have the official specs and details for you.

Initially outfitted with Android 2.3 Gingerbread, the original S2 received an update to Android 4.0 last June and is finally due up for Android 4.1 sometime soon.

Otherwise, most of the tech specs between the S2 Plus and the original S2 are the same.

Like its precedessor, the Galaxy S2 Plus will offer a 1.2 GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, and a 4.3-inch WVGA Super AMOLED Plus display. An 8-megapixel camera with an LED flash is on the back, while a 2-MP camera graces the front. But the rear camera now comes with a zero-lag shutter speed that can more easily capture fast-moving objects.

The new phone offers 3G in the form of 21Mbps HSPA+, dual-band Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 3.0.The Plus’s built-in storage has been trimmed in size to 8GB from the original’s 16GB or 32GB. But the new model’s SD storage can handle up to 64 gigabytes of data, while the original maxed out at 32GB. The Plus also includes an option for near-field communications support so people can use the phone for mobile payments.

At the time of writing Samsung has yet to reveal any pricing or availability for the new smartphone, but the device is promised to have a big boost in functionality and usability compared to the original Samsung Galaxy S2.

January 10, 2013
Eight Core Samsung Exynos 5 Octa CPU Demonstrated at CES

Samsung today took the wraps off an 8-core processor known as the Exynos 5 Octa.

Stephen Woo, president of Samsung’s System LSI business, said during a keynote address here at CES that the Exynos 5 Octa will offer a “level of pure processing power never before seen in a mobile device.”

The Exynos 5 Octa is an eight-core SoC destined for tablets and high-end smartphones.

Not all of these CPU cores are created equal: four of them are high-performance Cortex-A15 cores, the very same found in the Exynos 5 Dual that powers the Nexus 10 and Samsung’s ARM Chromebook. The other four are Cortex-A7 CPU cores—these have the same feature set and capabilities as the A15 cores, but are optimized for power efficiency rather than performance.

This makes the Exynos 5 Octa one of the first products to actually use ARM’s big.LITTLE processor switching technology. The SoC is designed to dynamically split the workload between the high-performance and the high-efficiency CPU cores based on the task at hand—less strenuous activities like browsing an app store or checking e-mail might be done on the A7 cores, for instance, while gaming and number crunching could be handed off to the A15 cores.

Both sets of cores are said to work in tandem together and offer great speeds without compromising on battery consumption.This differs from Nvidia’s Tegra 3 and Tegra 4 SoCs, which include a low-power Cortex-A9 and a Cortex-A15 (respectively) “companion core” that can only be used when all of the SoC’s other CPU cores are powered down

The new SoC will be manufactured using a 28nm process as opposed to the 32nm process used by the Exynos 5 Dual, hence claiming to be more power-efficient. According to Samsung, the SoC can deliver twice the performance of quad-core Exynos CPUs, while using 70 percent less power.

What Samsung has not yet revealed is when the first devices running the Exynos 5 Octa will be available on the market, nor at what cost.

January 10, 2013
BlackBerry 10 Demoed on Z10 At CES

It’s coming — soon. But we wouldn’t miss one last opportunity to see BlackBerry 10 before it is announced on January 30th. There are still plenty of features of the OS that we haven’t yet seen and RIM is doing a good job of keeping some secrets under wraps until launch day.

Forbes got a great look at the almost-finished OS running on the Dev Alpha B hardware, which we believe to be quite similar in specs to the finished hardware, which we know as BlackBerry Z10. As we’ve seen before, the exciting things (that have already been revealed) are the keyboard, the Peek and Flow gestures for notifications, and the centralized Hub where all your important content is stored.

As we’ve heard before, the keyboard has heat-mapping which will learn over time where you most commonly hit keys in error and adjust accordingly to increase accuracy.

We’re getting excited as Launch Day approaches, and can’t wait to try out the device for ourselves. What do you think? Does this whet your appetite for the upcoming BlackBerry 10 phone?

[Mobile Syrup, Crackberry]

January 9, 2013
Panasonic launches two new Toughpads, FZ-G1 Windows 8 and JT-B1 Ice Cream Sandwich
Panasonic has just launched two new Toughpads at CES 2013, The FZ-G1 is a 10-inch tablet running Windows 8 Pro, while the seven-inch JT-B1 runs Ice Cream Sandwich.

FG-Z1 10-inch Specs
- 1,920 x 1,200 display
- 1.9GHz Ivy Bridge Intel Core i5-3437U vPro CPU
- 128GB SSD (upgradeable to 256GB)
- 8GB of RAM
- eight-hour battery
- optional microSD slot
- USB 3.0 and 2.0 ports
- Bluetooth 4.0
- 802.11 a/b/g/n WiFi and 3G
JT-B1 Specs include
- 1,024 x 600 display
- 1.5GHz dual-core TI OMAP 4660
- 16GB storage
- 1GB RAM
- built-in microSD slot
- 13-megapixel rear camera
- 1.3-megapixel forward facing cameras
- 5,720mAh battery.
The FZ-G1 will go on sale in March for $2,900 (or about INR 149,000) the JT-B1 will be available in February and will cost $1,300 (or about INR 71,500). So if you are ready to take your tablet to the extremes, you might want to hold up some spending.

[toggle_box title=”Press Release” width=”Width of toggle box”]

PANASONIC EXPANDS TOUGHPAD™ ENTERPRISE-GRADE TABLET LINE

Ten-inch Windows 8 Pro-based and Seven-inch Android™-powered Tablets offer Choice to Meet Expanding Business Tablet Expectations

Las Vegas, NV, January 9, 2013 – Panasonic, an industry leader in rugged, reliable mobile computers since 1996, today expanded its Toughpad™ line of enterprise-grade tablets with the introduction of the Toughpad™ FZ-G1, a 10″ tablet featuring Windows® 8 Pro, and the availability of the Toughpad JT-B1, a 7″ Android™-powered unit. Both devices follow the original 10″ Android-powered Toughpad FZ-A1 which became broadly available late last year. With the Toughpad (#Toughpad) family of ruggedized tablets, businesses and government institutions have a single partner delivering a selection of highly reliable and purpose-built devices ideal for numerous operational needs.

“For nearly 20 years, Panasonic has engineered the most reliable mobile computing devices on the market,” said Rance M. Poehler, president, Panasonic System Communications Company of North America. “Because our customers know they can count on our products to deliver performance and return on investment, Panasonic – through its Toughbook brand – holds nearly 80 percent market share in the rugged mobile device space. We believe our engineering acumen, vertical market expertise and reputation for reliability, backed by our world-class service, will result in the Toughpad family being the leading B2B tablet solution in the coming years.”

Hide Harada, Director, IT Products Business Unit added, “The goal for Panasonic is to achieve 50% market share in the ruggedized tablet space by 2015.”

Toughpad tablets are designed for mission-critical and highly mobile workers in fields such as the military, construction, healthcare, public safety, utilities, retail, maintenance, supply chain logistics and insurance. The devices are ideal for a host of usage scenarios, including inventory control, eForms, field sales, field service, route delivery, eCitations, electronic medical records, inspections, mobile point-of-sales and GIS.

Panasonic Toughpad FZ-G1: Key Features

Operating System: Windows 8 Pro
Processor: 3rd Generation Intel® Core™ i5-3437U vPro™ 1.9GHz up to 2.9GHz with Intel® Turbo Boost Technology
Memory: 128-256GB SSD, 4-8GB RAM, optional micro SDXC
Rugged: MIL-STD-810G, 4′ drop, IP65, 14° to 122°F (operational temp range)
Display: 10.1″, sunlight viewable, touch screen and active digitizer, 800nit, WUXGA (1920×1200)
Battery: 8.0 hours (user-replaceable)
Dimensions: 10.6″ x 7.4″ x 0.75″
Weight: 2.43lbs
Wireless: Bluetooth V4.0, 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi, optional embedded 4G LTE or 3G
I/O: Full size USB 3.0, HDMI, optional micro SDXC, Full size USB 2.0, wired LAN, true serial port or dedicated GPS.

Panasonic Toughpad JT-B1: Key Features

Operating System: Android 4.0
Processor: TI OMAP4460 1.5GHz Dual core
Memory: 16GB ROM, 1GB RAM, micro SDHC
Rugged: MIL-STD-810G, 5′ drop, IP65, 14° to 122°F (operational temp range)
Display: 7″, daylight viewable, 500nit, WSVGA (1024 x 600)
Camera: Front: 1.3Mp fixed focus, Rear: 13.0Mp auto focus w/ LED light
Battery: 8.0 hours – Large 5,720mAh battery (user-replaceable)
Dimensions: 8.7″x 5.1″ x 0.7″
Weight: 1.2lbs
Wireless: Bluetooth V4.0, 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi, optional embedded 4G LTE + 3G
I/O: Micro USB

Toughpad tablets are MIL-STD-810G tested for drops, fluid ingress and temperature, to assure they deliver reliable performance under circumstances that render typical tablets non-operational. Devices feature daylight viewable screens, user-replaceable or serviceable batteries, a stylus for signature capture and handwriting (on the FZ-G1 and FZ-A1 with 3rd party apps), and multiple options for peripheral connectivity.

“Our Toughpad tablets were designed based on years of input from customers,” continued Poehler. “This customer feedback is a critical part of the development process and will continue to shape Toughbook and Toughpad devices in the future. The wide variety of devices in the Toughbook and Toughpad families is a clear indication that we build products to meet our customers’ needs.”

Enterprise-class mobile computing requires an enhanced level of device security and the Toughpad family is designed with this in mind. Security features like encryption, IPsec VPN, trusted boot, root protection and FIPS compliance are available in various configurations of the Toughpad FZ-A1 and Toughpad JT-B1. Compatibility with world-class Mobile device management (MDM) tools are also available to allow IT managers to manage applications, secure devices from unauthorized use and perform many other tasks.

Toughpad tablets are supported by an ecosystem that includes an enterprise-focused app store, developer tools and deployment support. Panasonic will offer a full set of professional-grade accessories to support the Toughpad line, including cases, mounts, printers, keyboards, magnetic stripe readers, smart card readers and multi-unit storage and charging solutions.

Pricing and Availability
The 10″ Windows 8 Pro-based Toughpad FZ-G1 will be available in March starting at $2,899. The 7″ Android-powered Toughpad JT-B1 will ship in February starting at $1,199. The 10″ Android-powered Toughpad™ FZ-A1 is now shipping, starting at $1,299. All Toughpad tablets can be purchased through authorized Panasonic resellers.

Toughpad FZ-A1 LTE Certification
Powered by Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich), the 10″ Toughpad FZ-A1 is now certified on the Verizon Wireless 4G/LTE network.

All products in the Toughpad family come standard with the industry’s most comprehensive 3-year warranty.

[/toggle_box]
January 9, 2013
Bajaj Launches New Discover 100T

Bajaj Auto on Monday launched its new 100 cc motorcycle Discover 100T at the top end of the mass market category to compete with Honda Dream Yuga and Hero Passion Pro for a volume of around 125,000 units a month.

The Discover 100T is powered by a 100cc engine which delivers a peak power of 10.2PS at 9000rpm and a peak torque of 9.2Nm at 6500rpm. Bajaj proudly says that the Discover 100T is the first 100c bike in the world to feature the 4-valve DTS-I technology and will offer an impressive mileage of 87kmpl.

[quote]

“We invested Rs. 20-30 crore on the platform and made an additional investment of Rs. 6 crore for the new bike. We will launch another model on the same platform later this year,” said Bajaj.

Bajaj has bigger models in its Discover and Pulsar series of bikes slated for launch later this year. “We have reasons to hope that our market share will go up from the current 26%,” he said.

[/quote]

The bike features gas-filled Nitrox shock suspension. Its standard features include electric start, auto choke and DC headlamps. The Discover 100T will be available in four colours viz., flame red, brilliant blue, black red and black blue.

The vehicle is currently produced at company’s Auarangabad facility and within a fortnight the Pantanagar plant will also start production, Bajaj said adding this particular product has seen an investment of Rs 5-6 crore only.

January 8, 2013
Jabra Announces Revo Wireless Stereo Headset

Jabra has just announced a new suite of corded and wireless stereo headphones said to “elevate music and multimedia experiences to a new dimension of sound performance”. The headphones, Revo Wireless, Revo corded and Vox in-ear earphones, are designed for “hard-wearing, everyday use and portability”.

Basically, the Jabra Revo Wireless and Revo headphones are made from aluminium frame. Steel hinges and a shatter-proof headband also adds flexibility.

[quote]”Headphones are subjected to a lot of wear and tear so consumers are demanding that they are designed to withstand the rigours of regular use,” noted Anne Raaen Rasmussen, Senior Vice President, Mobile Division at Jabra. “Jabra’s line of stereo products has been tested to the extreme, undergoing drop tests, bend tests, fold tests, cable tests, dirt tests and more. These headphones are built to last, without sacrificing style or sound quality.”[/quote]

On the other hand, the Jabra Vox is smaller and is built from premium-grade materials. It comes with tangle-free cables and is also made to last. These headphones are Jabra’s latest additions to its lifestyle music category, and they embody the company’s ultimate balance in design, ease-of-use, and outstanding sound quality that music lovers are looking for. Jabra has also integrated Dolby’s Plus technology into its latest stereo headphones which will perfectly go in par with Jabra’s exclusive Sound App for iOS and Android devices. Jabra’s flagship stereo headphones will be coming in Q2 this year.

January 8, 2013
Polaroid iM1836 Android Jelly Bean Mirrorless Camera Introduced!
The first Android based mirrorless interchangeable lens camera from Polaroid (iM1836) is now official and it is indeed produced by Sakar as previously reported.

Following in the footsteps of Nikon and Samsung, Polaroid’s is the first with interchangeable lenses. The camera runs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and has an 18.1MP sensor that can capture 1080p at 60fps.

Of course, it is WiFi-enabled and has Bluetooth connectivity for easy transfer between devices, and is significantly smaller than the Galaxy Camera, with a 3.5-inch multitouch display.

Not only does the Polaroid iM1836 better spec’d than its immediate competition, but it will come in at $399, some $200 cheaper than the Galaxy Camera, and includes a 10-30mm equivalent kit lens.

The Polaroid iM1836 camera looks like fantastic value, especially since it will be compatible with any micro 4/3 lens with an adapter.

Technical specs of the Polaroid iM1836 :
- Powered By Android 4.0 (JellyBean)
- Included 10mm-30mm Lens
- 3.5″ Touch screen LCD Display
- 18.1 Mega Pixel
- Built in Peer 2 Peer WIFI (iM1232W)
- Headphone Output
- HDMI Type B Output
- Face Auto Exposure
- HD Video
- Panoramic Pictures
- ISO up to 3200
- Blink Detection
- SD card Slot
- Compact Micro 4/3 Body
- Pop up Flash
[Engadget]
January 8, 2013
Qualcomm Unveils Next-Gen Snapdragon 800, 600 Series Processors

Not to be outdone by Nvidia’s new Tegra 4 processor, Qualcomm has unveiled its latest high-end mobile-friendly chipsets at CES 2013, with the Snapdragon 800 promising to bring UHD video and mind-boggling battery performance to phones and computers later this year.

Qualcomm says that the high-end Snapdragon 800 will deliver 75 per cent better battery performance than the current top-end S4 Pro.

But the real story here is the new Krait 400 CPU inside the Snapdragon 800: not only does it support four cores at up to 2.3Ghz each, but it utilizes a new 28nm High-K/Metal Gate manufacturing process that ensures the lowest power consumption at high performance numbers. Qualcomm promises much lower latency than previous Snapdragon S4 chips, and improved L2 cache performance.

Qualcomm’s also managed to fit asynchronous SMP architecture in, which ekes the best possible performance from each core without needing specialist cores.

The new chip also handles 4K Ultra High Definition encoding and decoding, and can project resolutions of up to 2560×2048, as well as stream video wirelessly at 1080p to a Miracast-compatible television or dongle.

Somewhat overshadowed by the 800 but still impressive is the new Snapdragon 600, intended for mid-to-high-end mobile devices and offering rich graphics and 40 per cent better battery performance than the S4 Processor that’s around now.

It comes with a new Krait 300 quad-core CPU with speeds up to 1.9GHz, a speed-enhanced Adreno 320 GPU and support for LPDR3 memory.

The Snapdragon 600 should also hit phones sooner than the 800, expected by the second quarter of the year (April-June).

[Tech Radar]

January 8, 2013
Vizio Launches New Tegra 4 10-Inch, Tegra 3 7-Inch Android 4.2 Jelly Bean Tablet

Image Courtesy : The Verge

Today, Vizio announced a duo of tablets running stock Android. The first is most similar to the Nexus 10: a 10″ display with the same retina-melting 2560×1600 resolution, only this one is powered by a Tegra 4 processor.

The new Tegra 4 System on a Chip was just unveiled recently in Las Vegas. Tegra calls it “the world’s fastest mobile processor.” Among its features are the following: Cortex A15, four power cores that will have a maximum speed of 1.9GHz plus a companion core, 28nm manufacturing process, and HPL low-power with high-K metal gate.

Image Courtesy : The Verge

According to The Verge, the tablet is “much more than your average iPad knockoff.” For one thing, it is noticeably light and thin, which gives the impression that it is smaller than the Nexus 10 or the iPad, two devices which have similar measurements in terms of screen size.

Image Courtesy : The Verge

For its operating system, the tablet features stock Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, that is, without any custom skin overlaid. It also comes with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity as well as 32GB of internal storage. Two cameras are onboard, as well, although the capacities of their image sensors are still unknown.

The reports coming in from CES haven’t actually mentioned the memory card, but there isn’t much of a chance for such a slot not to be included in the blueprint. Bluetooth 4.0 and Wi-Fi wireless connectivity are present as well.

Image Courtesy : The Verge

The seven-inch Vizio tablet is powered by NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 SoC and has an IPS Display with a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels, 16GB of storage, 1.2-megapixel webcam on the front, and runs stock Android Jelly Bean. Once it will be available the version of the OS will be 4.2.

Image Courtesy : The Verge

At the moment there is no exact information regarding pricing or availability for the two Vizio tablets. But boy are we excited!

[The Verge]

January 7, 2013
Vizio Announces Windows 8 AMD Tablet

Flat-screen TV manufacturer Vizio jumped into computers in 2012, launching its Windows 8 tablet at CES.

The Vizio Tablet is an 11.6-inch slate that will pack a dual-core 1GHz AMD z60 processor, a 1080p display and 2GB of RAM. Other specs include 64GB SSD storage, 2MP front cam, micro-HDMI, and micro-USB.

The Advanced Micro AMD Device’s Z60 processor allow Vizio’s tablet to run older programs on Windows 8, such as Apple’s iTunes.

One of the biggest negative to Windows hardware over the years is that many vendors choose to fill their devices up with tons of bloatware that make them slow and, well, annoying.

Rob Kermode, head of the Irvine, Calif., company’s PC and mobile device efforts, acknowledged that Vizio’s offerings were coming months after some other companies had released their Windows 8 tablets in late October. But, he said, Vizio chose to wait until the Consumer Electronics Show to make announcements because it was watching how customers would respond.

The good news here is that the Vizio Tablet PC has a “Microsoft Signature” software install. For those that don’t know, that means it is a clean installation with no added bloatware. This is perfect for consumers looking for a pure Windows 8 experience without vendor-specific add-ons like start menus and vendor software.

An AMD processor and 1080p display certainly sounds like a unique match. So when is it coming? Unfortunately we have no specific launch date or even pricing at this point.

By comparison, Microsoft’s own Windows 8 Surface tablet sells for around $1,000, and features an 8-inch screen and 720p HD.

January 7, 2013