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HTC hero
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With all the hype around Apple's still-mythical tablet, it's easy
to forget that HP has been making a 12-inch consumer tablet
for several years.
In fact, the product that started life as the HP tx1000, and is
now called the TouchSmart tm2, is one of the only convertible
tablet laptops aimed at mainstream entertainment consumers;
most tablets are intended for medical, educational, or other
specialized markets.
While convertible tablet laptops, which have screens that
rotate 180 degrees to fold down over their keyboards, have
never been a mainstream product, there's a certain appeal to
using the multitouch touch-screen features, and carrying them
around in your arm like an oversize Kindle.
CONTINUES ON NEXT PAGE
In our anecdotal hands-on use, the
tm2 screen was not as fast and
responsive as, say, an iPhone or iPod
Touch, and the cursor dragged just
slightly behind our fingers. That said,
the option to use a finger or digital
pen is a nice one, and there's a
custom touch interface you can
launch from a button on the side of
the display.
That custom interface gives you access to touch-friendly
photo galleries, as well as Web-based apps such as Hulu
and Twitter.
With a standard Intel Core 2 Duo CPU, optional discrete ATI
graphics, and Windows 7, it's also a easy to speculate that
the tm2 will be more powerful and easier to adapt
to traditional computing tasks than Apple's tablet.
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LAPTOP
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What better way to test Sony's new
PSP Go than to take it on holiday?
Yup, I thought so too. But after two
weeks in Spain how did the
download-only Go stack up?
Well, good and bad, but first a
quick history lesson. You probably
know the handheld gaming story
by now but if not here is the gist.
Nintendo has historically dominated the handheld market with
the Game Boy. Sony entered the market in 2005 with the
PSP. Aimed at adults and with a great screen, movie
playback and net access the PSP seemed sure to gain the
upper hand against the ugly and seemingly faddish Nintendo
DS which launched the same year.
How wrong we were. Brain Training
and a sleek redesign gave the DS
market domination. Meanwhile the
PSP appealed to core gamers only
and despite building up a solid user
base the lack of releases and failure
of the disc format for movies has
slowed growth.
First up, let me say that I’m still
not entirely convinced that there
is any need for the Ultra-Mobile
PC platform. With ultra-portable
notebooks like Sony’s TZ11MN,
Asus’ U1F and Samsung’s own
Q40 already offering very
lightweight computing on the
move, I can’t help but wonder
who would choose a UMPC over
a conventional ultra-portable
machine. But it’s clear that my
personal views aren’t inline with
the technology industry, with the
likes of Samsung, Sony, Asus,
Intel and niche concerns like
OQO firmly behind the handheld
computer model.
The original Q1 looked great
– Samsung definitely got the
design part right.
Unfortunately the great
design didn’t extend to
usability, and the lack of
built-in keyboard definitely
counted against the Q1.
That said, a built-in
keyboard is only worthwhile
if it’s usable, as the Sony
UX1 proved – the slide-out
keyboard on the UX1 was
just too tiny to use.
Ubuntu is described as 'Linux for human beings' -- the name is an
ancient African word, meaning 'humanity to others', and also 'I am what
I am because of who we all are'. As you might expect from this, Ubuntu
is big on sharing: it is, and will remain, free of charge (although support
can be bought), and comes in regular six-monthly updates under the
guidance of charismatic South African entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth,
who also has the distinction of being the first African citizen in space.
The latest Ubuntu version, 5.10 (also known as the 'Breezy Badger'),
was launched in October 2005, and -- from its name at least -- sounds
an improvement over version 5.04 (a.k.a. the 'Hoary Hedgehog'). It has
had glowing reviews, won awards, and gone to the top of download
lists. For distro-watchers, Ubuntu is based on Debian.
A free operating system sounds consumer-orientated, but Ubuntu is
pitched at the enterprise -- witness the recent announcement that it has
been certified for use with IBM's DB2 database. The main source of
commercial support is Shuttleworth's Canonical organisation, but a
number of other companies offer services in Europe, including some 13
in the UK.
Ubuntu is straightforward to download from the Ubuntu site, in two
forms, each of which fits on one CD. The same disks are also available
by post -- and at present even these are free -- to anyone with an
account at the open-source community services site Launchpad.
What operating system do Apple laptops
and pc’s run on?
A. Mac
B. Windows
C. Linux
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