Tablets and Virtualisation | News from Fenestra Ltd

Updated list of Recommended Tablets

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 17:06:39 GMT

The tablet landscape is changing quite fast - and the recommendation have changed to. The Apple iPad 2 stays put, as does the Asus Transformer but there are new entries from Sony, Samsung and Archos.

Archos vs. Cambridge Sciences - which Tablet Manufacturing Brand is More Real?

Thu, 8 Dec 2011 17:46:36 GMT

Neither of these tablet makers really figures in the marketing war between the many companies making tablets, but both have singled themselves out from the crowd of "white box" manufacturers by producing Honeycomb tablets well before most of the Chinese manufacturers and even before some of the more famous global brands.

Sorry, LG, Time for the Optimus Pad to Go

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 16:02:51 GMT

It's being retired from the our main comparison table and replaced by the Motorola Xoom 2.

Update of Amazon Top Twenty Selling Tablets

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 16:34:35 GMT

Some prices still dropping! Budget tablets seem to be on the rise! But there are also some new branded offerings on the way and a bit more bad news for Intel.

Carphone Warehouse confirms Best Buy closure

Tue, 8 Nov 2011 15:32:18 GMT

The statement confirms what we heard. But also "Wireless World" opening.

So... is it good news or bad news?

Read more

Bye bye, Best Buy, bye bye

Mon, 7 Nov 2011 17:04:00 GMT

Best Buy are closing their UK megastores. What went wrong? And were our predictions right six months back?

And perhaps most important, should you pop in tomorrow to buy stuff?

More HP Touchpads Available

Mon, 7 Nov 2011 16:56:56 GMT

Perhaps HP are changing their minds about the Touchpad. After the Fire Sale comes a tentative offer of a new batch of the one-off WebOS tablet for those who might be prepared to call themselves WebOS developers.

First Budget Honeycomb tablet coming to the UK next Week

Tue, 1 Nov 2011 17:43:04 GMT

Archos are delivering the first of their Gen9 tablets to the UK and one of them creeps under the bar and makes it into our budget tablet list.

Top Twenty Bestselling Tablets at Amazon updated

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 17:30:28 +0100

New budget tablets seem to be on the rise! Check out what's going up and what's falling and see if you agree with some of our suggestions as to the reasons behind current and predicted trends.

The Amazon Kindle Fire: 5-fact, 5-minute Summary

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 15:10:53 +0100

Amazon's new tablet, announced by Jeff Bezos in an orgy of hype, is the latest, and perhaps the most credible, device to threaten Apple's near total domination of the sector.

But how much do you really need to know? Not that much as it turns out - and it's all here.

Trends in the Amazon Tablet Bestseller Lists

richard.fieldhouse@gmail.com — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 16:30:28 +0100

We've been tracking this list for a couple of months now and while it changes quite a bit over the short term, there are also interesting trends beginning to appear. Check out what's rising and what's falling and see if you agree with some of our suggestions as to the reasons behind current and predicted trends.

Finding the Amazon Android Tablet on a map of 2D-Matrix World

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 17:00:31 +0100

I once spent time (and money) on an MBA course and one of the most important things I learnt was that almost anything can be portrayed on a 2D matrix. So here, tablets and eReaders are shown in their own 2D-matrix world¹. So where will we find the new Amazon Android Tablet - perhaps it might be called the KindleTab?

Curry's/PC World to offer free Sony Bravia TV to early-bird Tablet S customers

Thu, 15 Sep 2011 16:19:22 +0100

The whole saga of the HP TouchPad firesale showed that there are millions of potential tablet consumers out there that won't really take the plunge unless they feel like they're getting a bargain. Well for 100 lucky customers, a bargain is exactly what Curry's/PC World are offering at their London Tottenham Court Road stores.

Simply be one of the first 100 through the door at Friday 15th September's release of the Sony Tablet S, buy the new £400 tablet, and you'll get a free Sony Bravia TV also worth £400 (via T3). The exact model of the TV is unknown but we can be more specific with the tablet - check out our tablet comparison chart and you'll see that it comes with a 9.4" touchcreen, runs Android 3.1 and has a 5MP camera.

Although if a sleeping bag is out of the question, don't get your hopes up - it's gonna be a busy one. With doors opening at 7am, I wouldn't be surprised at all if a queue formed many hours before that.

Not everyone will judge queueing in the cold (and possibly rain) as completely out of the question, however 100 is a very small number so fair play to anyone who gets their hands on one.

A Year in Tablets: A review of the year for the IFA

Fri, 2 Sep 2011 00:00:00 GMT

The start of the Berlin consumer electronics trade show (IFA) is a good time to review the past year in tablets. Last year at this time the internet was buzzing with news of the new Apple iPad and the upcoming launch of Samsung's Galaxy Tab. But the all-pervading optimism of twelve months ago is now tinged with more than a little realism.

..but first, the good news.

Before getting to the reality checks, there is some good news. By the time we got to the CES show in Las Vegas in January there were perhaps ninety tablets on show from different manufacturers, the majority running some form of Google's Android platform. From amongst these some serious and entertaining tablets have emerged some of which have joined our recommended list.

There is also a good crop of new tablets due for release over the next few weeks. Amongst these, the HTC Jetstream and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 look very promising together with a pair of tablets from Lenovo (the Ideapad and the Thinkpad) and a pair of tablets from Sony (called "S" and "P"). Last, but almost certainly not least, the tiny Samsung Galaxy Note with a screen of just 5.3" could show many users what Android can do in a format larger than the average smartphone.

From your point of view (and ours) the best products and platforms will result from healthy market competition. The presence of Apple's iPads and their iOS platform should be balanced by the open-source Android platform introduced by Google and available to many manufacturers. It is also healthy to have additional alternative platforms waiting in the wings, but realistically these will struggle to make money. From the point of view of balancing competition, it is a good thing that the trailing platform in the tablet market (Android) is lengthening its lead in the larger smartphone market. Android now has a 41% share compared to 27% for iOS.

Does Android lack the physical presence needed to challenge Apple's iPad?

Wed, 31 Aug 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Fancy an iPad? You probably do.

You wouldn't want to buy it without an idea of what it's like now, would you? Why not go along to one of the 330 Apple Stores worldwide (31 are here in the UK) and have a play with one! Have a question? Just ask any of the multitude of helpful smiling faces ready to soothe any possible concerns you have about spending over £400 on a tablet.

Thinking about an Android tablet? Maybe.

Want to have a play around with a few Andriod tablets? Unfortunately..you can't. At least, not easily. You could traipse around your local high street's Carphone Warehouse, Dixons or PC World to see whatever range they've decided to stock (or even drive all the way to a Best Buy, like we did). Just don't ask any difficult questions - you'll have to ask the manufacturers.

And this could be the reason for Android tablets' poor performance against the iPad. When it comes to the mass-market (where the money is), devices running the techy-OS-of-choice are struggling to keep up with the iPad and looks like doing so for some time to come.

Since you're reading this article, written on a technology-info website, you probably rate Android over iOS. And you may well be right to do so: but you're not most people. You're a techy in one sense or another. Most people who haven't bought a tablet yet aren't sure why they need one, or are worried they won't know how to use it.. and that's where the Apple Stores come in. Whether they've actually ventured into one in the past or just walked past one in their local shopping centre, potential tablet buyers are given the impression that if anything were to wrong with their beloved iPad, there are 50 staff members dressed in blue ready to sort it out. Apple's Stores, full of grandparents receiving iMac demonstrations and 10 year old kids playing with iPhones, give off the impression that there is no type of person that buys an iPad. Everyone buys one.

HP pulls all WebOS devices - including the TouchPad 9.7"

Mon, 22 Aug 2011 00:00:00 GMT

In a relatively surprising turn, HP has revealed that it is 'discontinuing operations' for any devices running its operating system WebOS - including its TouchPad tablet. This 9.7" tablet was launched only a few short months ago, so there will be a number of disappointed customers finding themselves over £300 out of pocket with an 'orphaned' tablet.

(Update: WebOS executive for HP Steven DeWitt has said that the WebOS software is 'not dead' and that "We are going to continue to evolve it, update and support it. We stand by it". He did not rule out the licensing of the software to other hardware manufacturers, or even that they might sell the software off completely.)

A high level of competition in markets such as that for tablets is pushing margins down, and it seems that HP isn't content with following the trend. The discontinuation of the device is part of a broader market shift by HP away from consumer-electronics-for-the-masses and towards providing higher-margin business services.

Specifically, it appears that the TouchPad just didn't quite cut it in an already saturated market. With low sales not meeting internal targets, the discontinuation of the TouchPad is simply an admission that HP was never in a position to really stake a claim to any significant portion of a hugely dominated market, with plenty of rivals trying their hardest to grab just a fraction of the iPad's share. It's become clear that the TouchPad just wasn't quite good enough- its specs were nothing spectacular, and maybe more importantly, the WebOS platform failed to entice developers into giving their apps support for the software. As a result, its discontinuation by HP could be seen as a brave move against losing more money than it already has from a tablet that never really looked like taking off.

Budget tablets - are they worth the saving?

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 00:00:00 GMT

With the market for tablets continuing to grow (not rapidly, but consistently), the arrival of a number of budget tablets is inevitable - click here to see our pick of the bunch. These devices are far cheaper, with most coming in at the £150 mark, compared to the £400-500 you'll have to shell out for a top-of-the-range tablet.

..but is there a market for these inevitably lower-specced tablets? Well by looking over Amazon.co.uk's best sellers, many of these budget tabs are better sellers at the retail giant than the more widely known iPads, Galaxy Tabs and Eee Pad Transformers of this world. We obviously can't infer that they are anywhere near better sellers overall, since many of these budget tablets likely are not selling anywhere else but Amazon, but this new strain of budget tablets are definitely worth investigating - especially if you haven't bitten the bullet and bought a tablet yet.

So when we pay £300 less for a tablet, what exactly are we giving up? To get a clear idea, let's go through these budget tablets spec-by-spec to determine how they've cut their costs, and what difference it'll make to the user experience.

Touchscreen

One easy way to cut costs as a budget tablet manufacturer is to issue your device with a resistive, rather than a capacitive, touchscreen.

Only capacitive screens allow multi-touch movements that you may be used to from iPhones or iPads - such as pinch zooming. They are also generally more responsive to the touch and don't reflect as much sunlight when used outdoors. It is these characteristics that have led to a capacitive screen becoming standard in medium to high end tablets.

Things aren't all bad for resisitve screens, however. They don't require direct contact with your fingers to function; styluses work perfectly well, as will a gloved hand. However, the lack of multi-touch capability may prove too much of a sacrifice for many users.

Amazon's Top 10 Bestselling Tablets

Tue, 9 Aug 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Since tablet manufacturers are not always completely truthful in disclosing their exact tablet sales, one way of determining the popularity of the various tablets on offer could be to have a look at what's selling well over at the world's largest online retailer, Amazon.

Let's take a look at the top 10 sellers in the Tablet section of its UK store. Note that this list is as of 09/08/11 so is subject to change; you can check out the latest best sellers here.

If you ever feel like checking out the core stats of any of the tablets on this list, click its name and you'll be directed to the relevant tablet comparison table.

10) Motorola Xoom 10.1

When the Xoom was released earlier this year, a number of issues (such as web pages not rendering properly and a non-functional SD card slot) threatened to prevent Xoom sales ever taking off. Many issues have since been fixed by the release of Android Honeycomb 3.1, although an unsatisfactory level of European customer support has left consumers frustrated, with no timeframe of when their device will be up and running exactly as they expected it to.

This doesn't seem to have affected sales too much and the Xoom just scrapes into Amazon's best sellers at number 10.

Tablet OS Review

Mon, 16 May 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Background

In the beginning there was Windows, and Bill looked out and saw that it was good...

Well, it was.

Five years ago, there wasn't so much of a debate on OperatingSystems: if you bought a PC, it would run Windows XP, because they all did; and if you bought a mobile phone, you wouldn’t really care what it ran because you didn’t ask it to do many complicated things.

Oh, for the certainties of the antique world? Well, not really.

With a virtual monopoly, Microsoft could charge plenty for Windows and make all sorts of decisions where the users - especially the more technical ones - might have preferred to make their own choices. Some disaffected techies started writing viruses and the rest of us ended up paying, not just for Windows itself, but for the antivirus package to protect it and the power to run the antivirus as well as the basic operating system (OS).

Apple, with their own OS and a tiny market share were not so hated as Microsoft and Apple's OS for their Mac Computers (MacOS) did not attract so many virus writers. However, despite pretty graphics, the close and exclusive bond between the "special" MacOS and the "special" Mac processor meant a lot of work for Apple.

Apple goes too far with its patent suit against Samsung

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 00:00:00 GMT

There have been patent wars afoot between technology companies for years which have escalated over the last few months to the point where Apple has gained a temporary injunction in a German court preventing sales of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the EU... because it is apparently too similar to the iPad.

[Update] The date for the full hearing has now been set for 25th August 2011. Until a decision is made, the injuction has been lifted in all EU countries other than Germany.

The court papers cite:
"rectangular product shape with all four corners uniformly rounded, substantial black borders on all sides being roughly equal in width, a grid of colorful square icons with uniformly rounded corners."

This is absurd. At this rate you could patent a pushchair, or a wheelbarrow, or even a wheel. The description above covers most of the tablets on the market, but, interestingly perhaps more closely described the (now discountinued) HP Touchpad than it does the Galaxy Tab 10.1. But Samsung has added two extra sins that aren't listed by name:

They have used Google's Android platform which, being semi-open source, attracts much ire from technology rivals... And
Samsung also commits perhaps the greatest sin of all by not being American.

Prediction: the top selling tablets of 2011

Thu, 12 May 2011 00:00:00 GMT

OK, so the year has already started - quite some time ago, I suppose - but most gadget sales will probably be in the run-up to Christmas, so in creating this list of the likeliest tablet PCs, there is still some element of prediction involved. Well, lets be honest - guesswork.

The list is in the form of a top ten - because it's kind of traditional, and because we marketing types rarely get beyond ten - in fact we're a bit wobbly above five, but here goes anyway.

[Clicking on a tablet's title will get you to the appropriate tab to see its specifications on our tablet comparison table.]

10) Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9

Samsung gained plenty of good experience getting Android to go properly with the original 7" Tab, so the new version should be pretty reliable - and it may benefit from a few repeat sales. They stand a good chance of being able to dominate this in-between space: smaller than the iPad and larger than the almost-pocketable 7" tablets. On the downside, it looks likely that they will repeat their main mistake made with the earlier tablet: expecting people to buy accessories which only work with their special tablet connector.

9) Acer Iconia A500 (10")

This tablet came out hot on the heels of the not-so-well-received Motorola Xoom and my guess ("prediction") is that the Xoom will just get squeezed out of the top ten. This Iconia is cheaper and it comes better set up for memory cards and USB flash memory. This, and avoiding the negative publicity which comes with being the first tablet to market using the new, and not quite ready Honeycomb version of Android, should make put the Iconia ahead of the Xoom in the end.

A Tablet to Reduce Back Pain

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 00:00:00 GMT

No, not a pill... I was asked to suggest a tablet PC that might save a friend having to carry a laptop on fruequent flights for work. She's worried that always carrying the heavy laptop bag, with its weight on one shoulder, together with wearing heels is beginning to cause back ache.

So here, derived from some of the specifications for smaller tablets, are some options. The table is set out in order of weight, with the lightest on the left. I have kind of assumed that anything over 1kg is too heavy.

The 7" tablets also get a green background (denoting a good thing) because the smaller format allows the rest of the bag to be smaller, saving more weight. In addition, these ones will be easier to use in the confined space in an aircraft seat.

Since presentations sometimes come into the equation, I have rated the video output options as important and put the HDMI options on the next row. For anything that requires an extra dock to export HDMI, extra weight will be added to the shoulder bag.

The price ranges shown are only estimates as of today (27 July 2011). There is also a little extra explanation below the table.

Coffee shops must embrace the Virtual Office

Thu, 21 Jul 2011 16:07:49 +0100

Today I took a trip through the modern history of the British Raj (known locally as Southall) to visit a client on the other side. All the way, I've seen coffee shops and I've now deserted my usual Starbucks and Fuller's pubs for a few office moments in Costa.

All three chains offer WiFi, coffee and seats and an ambience that's a little less austere than the office - than our office at least. But all is not perfect. Similar issues hunt me down wherever I set up my "office".

The market for accommodating the modern virtual office is huge and growing faster than ever now that

the iPad and its fellow tablets are encouraging all manufacturers to aim for lighter travelling machines with better battery life,
the link from the office to the Cloud has the bandwidth to support a sensible amount of home- our out-of-office working.
Suppliers like VMware, Citrix and LogMeIn are offering the infrastructure that will let us access even the most uncooperative legacy software without actually having to sit in front of a desktop PC.

So now it's perhaps time for the hotels, pubs and coffee shops to meet us half way - especially if they want our valuable trade.

Update: our recommended tablets

Sun, 7 Aug 2011 16:08:28 +0100

It's well over a year since Apple reignited the tablet world with the release of the iPad. Since then the market has evolved quite a bit, but to be honest, not nearly so fast as many of us had expected.

But now, after a few price reductions, and after several tablets have matured a little and started to gain a real foothold in the market, it makes sense to compile a list of the ones that are genuinely worthy of consideration - worth spending money on to use every day for entertainment and for business, not just to see how well tablets work.

Apple iPad 2

The original and best - for now.

This is the second coming of the Jobsian fondle-slab and yes, the iPad still wins most buyers' hearts. And because there are so many iPads out there, you'll get the best choice of apps to buy in the App Store - and the best selection of accessories - including the sexy new folding cover. A wide choice of accessories is a very good sign of a healthy market and promising product - for the iPad and all the other recommended tablets you can see the number of accessories available through Amazon via the link on the left. Today's number is below the link but hopefully new ones will be added over time.

The iPad's screen is clear and bright, and the software is smooth - even the document production and movie editing work pretty well considering the limitations of a touchscreen input.

So why wouldn't you buy an iPad? Well in some ways it's a one-size-fits-all solution - it's a fantastically well-designed compromise of all the options you might value. But if you need something cheaper, smaller, larger, with better cameras, with a more open software environment... or just something that plays Flash. In short, if you value something particular or out of the ordinary, then there'll probably now be something out there that makes more sense. But remember that the iPad's going to be the most popular choice amongst your friends for a couple of years yet.

Best Buy's Worst Ever Buy

Thu, 21 Apr 2011 16:08:55 +0100

Here in the leafy suburbs of southwest London we revel in a kind of glorious isolation. The lozenge-shaped demographer's blob on this map shows an area where we can live out our lives, school our children, get the train in to work at the hedge fund, etc., etc. all in blissful ignorance of what is going on in Libya or Afghanistan, or even, to be honest, in Croydon.

In fact, I'm a bit of a poor relation in the Lozenge of unreasonable wealth. I have no soft-top Porsche or Aston Martin to park in the street like some Lozenge-dwellers do. I sometimes go on the bus. But I do share in the stress that all us Lozenges feel when having to travel to the outside world.

However, Best Buy have built one of their UK mega-stores just 11 miles, according to Google Maps, from my office. They've built it in... Croydon. (Oh dear.) This is a bit of a coincidence, because in just 11 minutes I can walk from the office to my local (fabulous) Applestore in Kingston, admire it, and then walk back again. I can buy an iPad without venturing beyond the borders of the Lozenge. But for most other tablets, I would have to go to Croydon.

While I've been keeping a weather eye on the UK tablet market, Best Buy's move to combine with the UK's own Carphone Warehouse and open a chain of biggish outlets has been quite a major event. The fact that it is now rumoured that they have lost £55 million in a year in just six stores makes a bit of a research visit a priority.

Below I'll outline the joys of the Croydon retail park, and you can check here on the tablets that I saw.