HP has just put out a new video that shows they’ll be working with Adobe for Flash support on their upcoming Slate device. The move is seen as a one-up move over Apple’s iPad (and Apple’s insistence on skipping Flash support), allowing HP’s portable to show Flash-based websites such as Hulu, along with a rather large percent of the top websites that use Flash animation and Flash-based video streaming. So take that, Apple. Or not. Since, you know, Jobs doesn’t care much for Adobe.
Still no word on when HP’s Slate will come out, although it does look pretty cool from where we’re sitting. The interface isn’t as polished as Apple’s, but it’s a Windows 7-kind of cool. Which is pretty much our way of saying “hey, at least it’s a full-featured porta-PC.”
There are iPad clones and there are iPad clones that are designed to look like the real thing. This latest iPad “inspired” device, the 10.2-inch Ezy Tablet PC looks pretty close up front, but the sides give it away. Other things that give it away? It’s powered by an Intel Atom platform and runs on a Windows 7 OS. But that’s not such a bad thing, mind you.
Before anything else, let’s clear things up: specifically, they’re claiming that the Toughbook C1 is the world’s lightest 12.1-inch convertible tablet PC. Just so we can eliminate weight comparisons to slates that “cheat” by dropping the keyboard. Now that that’s out of the way, here’s the C1’s deal: weighing in at 3.2 pounds, the Toughbook C1 features a system built around Intel’s Core i5 processor, and a shell that can survive one-foot drops and up to 225 pounds of pressure. The keyboard is spill-resistant too, so you can rest assured that it’ll also survive the misadventures of the typical office klutz.
HP has just turned out a couple of new entries for their EliteBook range of business-geared porta-PCs, highlighted by the EliteBook 2740p Tablet PC, a convertible tablet that comes with a 12.1-inch multitouch display, a 3.8-pound weight, and a high-end spec if you need premium performance to go with the thin-and-light frame.
According to a WSJ report, HP execs will be meeting in the US and Taiwan to tweak prices and features on HP’s keyboard-less tablet called the Slate. Obviously positioned as a PC-version to rival Apple’s iPad, HP is discussing selling a version of the Slate with a spec that matches the iPad for a price below Apple’s $629 asking price (this would be the 16GB iPad that comes with a 3G connection along with Wi-fi).
An update from lenovopress says that they’ll be coming up with new “exciting” products to announce this month, along with a link to the YouTube clip shown above. The clip of Lenovo’s Howard Dulaney doesn’t really hint at anything other than how IBM came up with the first ThinkPad tablet from way back (the touch-only ThinkPad 700T that also featured a 20MB solid state drive), but at the end, he talks about convertible tablets with removable displays. Is he talking about the U1 Hybrid? Are they hinting at more hybrid tablets with detachable screens? Will it be a significant Windows-based rival for Apple’s iPad? We won’t know until the month closes, but until they come out with an actual product launch, consider us intrigued.
UK-based X2 Computing has just launched a range of touchscreen tablet computers called the iTablet just weeks after Apple officially unveiled the iPad. Unlike the iPad, this portable computer will run on Windows or Linux operating systems though, offering a number of features that we all wished the iPad came with, but didn’t.
The details and the sources are a bit sketchy, but it seems our baseless, heavily speculative (meaning we were either drunk, high or both at the time, and it just so happened that we were discussing it. You know how these things go.) “MacPad” prediction might prove to be true. Based on a “good source,” Techcrunch posted a rumor that says Apple may already be working on a tablet that’ll run on a modified Mac OS X operating system to make for a more full-featured, more powerful device that’s more “Mac” than “iPhone.” But then again, Apple is always working on multiple projects—some that turn out to be the iPad, and some that will never see the light of day. Techcrunch’s unnamed source cuts the timeline though, saying that the “MacPad” could be out as soon as next year.
Oh the irony! A PCWorld report has a Chinese company called Shenzed Great Loong (yeah, two ‘O’s. Can it be any ‘longer’?) Brother Industrial thinking about suing Apple, saying that Apple copied the design of their Windows-based P-P-P88 netbook tablet released last year. This would have been just another story, until you learn that the Chinese company is known for producing knock-off phones themselves, called “shanzhai” or “bandit” phones.
“For this thing we are not shanzhai, because we were first,” said a company representative named Wu. If you read between the lines, Wu-man sounds like he just said “yeah, we know we copy stuff, and you know we’re rip-off artists, but this time someone stole from us. That ain’t fair, and we’re out for justice!”
We can’t say we didn’t expect it, but French-based ExoPC just came out with the Slate (click here for the translated page), an 8.9-inch touchscreen tablet that looks like Apple’s iPad, but probably better if you’re looking for full operating system features. Now, it might not come with Apple’s slick interface, but it does run on Windows 7, giving you multi-tasking, full PC functionality, a full browser with Flash, and more flexibility regarding content and functions.
According to a 
The details and the sources are a bit sketchy, but it seems our baseless, heavily speculative (meaning we were either drunk, high or both at the time, and it just so happened that we were discussing it. You know how these things go.) 
Oh the irony! A 
We can’t say we didn’t expect it, but French-based ExoPC just came out with the 
