Computex 2010: Show Coverage

Portable storage, the USB skirt

Any visitor to Taipei's Computex can't help but notice the girls. Every major company employs them to attract the attention of the largely male crowd and their costumes are an integral part of that play for attention.

There are girls in camoflauge skirts, frilly skirts, plastic skirts and now .... the USB skirt. In what's probably the most unique portable storage system at Computex, Taiwan's Walton Chaintech has made a skirt out of 600 USB memory sticks

Foxconn, Hardkernel Launch Android Tablet

Two 10.1-inch touchscreen tablet designs that run Google's mobile Android software are on display at the Computex electronics show in Taipei, one from Foxconn Technology and the other by Hardkernel.

The tablet from Foxconn is a reference design made to show vendors what kind of tablets could be put into production quickly, and uses Nvidia's Tegra chipset inside. Few details about the reference design were available. Foxconn is the trade name of Hon Hai Precision Industry, the world's largest contract manufacturer of electronic devices.

Nvidia Optimus GPU Tablets Showcased

Want to know what is happeneding with the Nvidia Optimus GPU. Here's a preview of some of the new machines featuring this graphics-switching technology at Computex.

An Nvidia blog post highlights laptops from Acer, Lenovo, Asus, Packard Bell, Gateway, and MSI featuring Optimus that are on display at this year's Computex show. Asus leads the pack with ten models (including two netbooks) that use Nvidia's latest graphics-switching technology.

AMD shields Fusion demo from Intel's spies

Advanced Micro Devices gave reporters a first look at its upcoming Fusion processors on Wednesday in a demonstration calculated to reveal as few specifics about the chips as possible, lest the information fall into the hands of rival Intel.

AMD is readying two versions of Fusion for release during the first half of 2011, a mainstream version called Llano and a low-power version called Ontario. Both chips are now available in sample quantities and customers are being shown working demos of the chips behind closed doors at the Computex exhibition in Taipei, said Rick Bergman, senior vice president and general manager of AMD's products group, at a news conference

Asus Releases The Eee Pad 121 Tablet PC

Asustek Computer on Monday unveiled two Eee Pad tablets running Windows software and an e-reader, the Eee Tablet, with a note-taking function.

The Eee Pad EP121 sports a 12-inch touchscreen and has Microsoft's Windows 7 Home Premium operating system and an Intel Core 2 Duo processor inside. The device is meant for Internet access, watching videos and other multimedia uses, computing and as an e-reader, the company said in a news release.
People can input data on the device using the on-screen keyboard or by typing on a keyboard that the Eee Pad docks onto. Asustek says the device can run for 10-hours before needing a recharge.

Compal readies Windows, Android and MeeGo tablets

The world's second-largest contract manufacturer of laptops is spreading its bets on tablet PC operating systems. It is building tablets running Microsoft Windows, Google's Android, and the MeeGo OS backed by Intel and Nokia.

Taiwan's Compal Electronics, which develops and manufactures laptop computers for global PC vendors including Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Acer, has also joined the ranks of companies planning to create its own user interface (UI) and other software to support the tablet market.

"We have a lot of customers that are very interested in tablets," said Ray Chen, president and CEO of Compal, at a news conference in Taipei on Tuesday, adding that "demand is getting better and better because of the iPad."
Pixel Qi shows prototype touchscreen displays

Pixel Qi, a display start-up that's generating buzz with a laptop screen that works well under indoor and outdoor lighting, showed off prototype touchpanel versions of the new display on Tuesday.

Pixel Qi's screen technology combines a bright backlight for good indoor readability with a reflective layer that makes it easy to read in bright sunlight.

That combination has many laptop and tablet PC vendors evaluating the screens for use in their products. With the launch success of Apple's iPad, touchscreens are becoming a hot item but the addition of a touch-sensitive layer to a screen typically means a drop in readability for reflective screens."When you are putting [a touchpanel] on top of a screen that is mainly reflective it's quite difficult," said John Ryan, chief operating officer of Pixel Qi. "The capacitive layer makes it quite yellow and fuzzy and it also   dramatically cuts down the intensity of the light, so we've had to work a lot on resolving both of those."
Computex: 3D Comes to PCs
The growing 3D trend has spread from cinemas to TVs and now to computers, with PC makers including MSI and Asus showing off systems at Taiwan's Computex show this week that can play back 3D movies, games and Internet content.

The PCs are home entertainment systems and come with 3D screens, glasses and high-quality speakers, the companies said. Some PCs also include software to convert 2D content to 3D, and HDMI 1.4 ports to play back 3D content on TVs.

A few 3D PCs are already available, but the adoption has been slow because of cost and lack of interest. The 3D technology is now being built into laptops with larger screens and new form factors such as all-in-one PCs to drum up renewed interest. (An all-in-one PC comes with all components built into a panel holding the screen, but with a separate keyboard and mouse.)

 

iPad Vs. Other Tablets: A Fair Fight?
While the announced tablets differ in specifics, they share two major features: they don't run the Apple iPhone operating system, and they don't have access to the Apple AppStore. The question for manufacturers and consumers alike is whether a different set of hardware and software features can rival the iPad experience for users.

ASUS will be showing Eee Pad EP101TC and EP121 tablets which use different versions of Windows to hit different market segments. According to the IDG News Service, the EP121 aims at the laptop world, with a 12-inch screen, Intel Core Duo processor and Windows 7 Home Premium operating system. The EP101TC is more netbook-like, with a 10-inch screen, Windows Embedded Compact 7 OS and NVidia Tegra silicon on the inside.

 

MSI Wind Pad Tablet PC
The MSI Wind Pad Tablet was announced at Computex 2010 in Taiwan. It weighs a mere 800 grams, has a 10-inch multi-touch screen, offers over 8 hours of battery power, uses Intel’s latest power-saving CPU platform and runs a full-fledged Windows 7 operating system. If you were underwhelmed until now by Tablet PCs that were too thick and heavy, and Apple’s iPad that was too restricted and could not run a standard PC OS or do things that normal computers do, the MSI Wind Pad is probably the product to get when it becomes available.

Being a Mobile Internet Device (MID) comes naturally to this well-connected tablet PC. A webcam, USB and HDMI ports, and built-in GPS/3G/WiFi capabilities make it well-suited for wireless urban entertainment users. Unlike the (relatively) emasculated Apple iPad and the equally under-powered devices that compete with it now, the MSI Wind Pad finally looks like a realistically usable general-purpose machine for PC users.