In a recent interview with IDG, Jonny Shih -the chairman of ASUS- has mentioned that his company is working on a “Secret Weapon” that no one has seen yet, but that the world will soon see as we get closer to the launch date.
He also said that he already knows about some details of the upcoming iPad 2, such as details about the system on a chip (SoC) that the next iPad will run on.
You’ve probably seen the Fling, which is TenOne’s stick-on joystick for the iPad. Now ThinkGeek has introduced a competitor — the Joystick-It is another stick-on joystick for the iPad’s touchscreen, this time styled a little more closely to an actual arcade controller. The bottom of the stick has what looks like a suction cup that attaches to the device, and then you can move the stick around to control a capacitive widget on the bottom that acts as your finger normally would on the touchscreen.
Google has released an early preview of the Android 3.0 software development kit (SDK). Android 3.0—codenamed Honeycomb—introduces Android’s new tablet user interface, which is expected to officially debut next month on Motorola’s Xoom tablet. Developers will be able to use the SDK preview to get a head start on updating their applications to support the tablet form factor.
The SDK also offers Android enthusiasts an early look at the new tablet user interface. It includes a partial Android 3.0 environment that runs in the Android emulator. Due to the emulator’s glacially slow performance, however, we weren’t really able to get an accurate feel for the responsiveness of the interface. The following screenshots highlight some of the major characteristics that differentiate Honeycomb’s tablet interface from Android’s conventional smartphone interface, but keep in mind that it’s still just a preview build for developers and might not accurately represent what the platform will look like on an actual product.
The Honeycomb home screen comes with sophisticated scrolling widgets and can accommodate much more content than the conventional Android home screen. Like the traditional Android home screen, it still comes with multiple pages that the user can rotate through by swiping right and left.
By now, you know how HP’s new slate compares to the crowd — now, see how it looks up close and personal. We just got our hands on that dual-core Palm webOS tablet here in San Francisco, and it’s a beaut, with a slim black profile that highlights the brilliant 9.7-inch screen. We’ll be back in a jiffy with some impressions of that newfangled Tap to Share and card-based multitasking, but for now, simply feast your eyes on our gallery below.
The Google executives were still on stage at the Android Honeycomb event yesterday when a reader of our live coverage chimed in to respond to some chatter about Honeycomb not offering anything to make it better than the iPad. His comment was simple but it stuck with me.
He wrote: If it’s as good and not Apple, I’m fine with it.
Clearly, this reader isn’t a big Apple fan – so he has other motivations. But that got me thinking about whether the Motorola Xoom – the first tablet to be powered by Android 3 (aka Honeycomb) – needs to actually be better than the iPad. Is “just as good” enough?
After all, being “just as good” as the iPhone is how I initially saw Android smartphones. Don’t get me wrong. The iPhone is an amazing product and one that I wanted desperately – but wasn’t willing to do the AT&T thing. Now, I’m a big fan of the Android OS and have no desire to switch to the iPhone, regardless of which carrier it’s on. Never do I feel like I’m compromising my smartphone user experience because my device is powered by Android instead of Apple’s iOS.
Now that we’re moving into tablets, it needs to play out the same way. Google needed to make sure that the Honeycomb experience would be just as good as the iPad experience – and from what I’ve seen it is. And, based on some of my own personal metrics, it’s actually better.
Flash is still a big deal. Android tablets will run Flash while iPad doesn’t. And as much as Steve Jobs wants all of us to hate Flash as much as he does, it really does make me stop and pause. Flash exists in my world and I can’t just not have it – especially in a tablet.
The same goes for expandable storage. I never liked that Apple prices its devices – all of them – based on storage capacity. I love the microSD card in my Android phone – that’s where I store my music and photos. And with Xoom coming in with 32 GB of internal storage and the ability to expand to 32 GB more, it’s a one-up over the iPad.
Still, none of that matters if Google and partners don’t get the pricing right.
We still don’t have any pricing information for the Xoom. If Google or the partners don’t come in lower than the iPad, then it’s going to be an incredibly tough sell. If this experience is the same and the pricing is the same, then they’ve just handed the people who were on the fence over to team Apple. After all, the iPad is already a proven winner. Why would anyone pay the same money for a crapshoot that might or might not live up to the hype? I cannot overstate this: Pricing is key.
Certainly, the forthcoming release of iPad2 will be something to watch, especially if there are significant changes to the device or software. But if Google can build a following with tablets the way it has with smartphones, it can be go head-to-head with Apple – forcing both companies to compete on innovation, as well as pricing.
And when that happens, the consumers – all of us – are the ones who win.
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John Gruber of Daring Fireball sparked the first rumors Wednesday when he mentioned that the HP TouchPad may “bump up against the release of the iPad 3” in a post. HP unveiled the webOS-based tablet Wednesday, though the device will not become available until “later in the summer.”
After speculation arose that Gruber’s comments were based on inside information, he clarified his thoughts as mere guesswork in a subsequent post.
“My gut feeling is that Apple will move the iPad to a September release schedule, alongside the iPods,” he wrote. “But they wouldn’t want to wait over a year and a half from the announcement of the original iPad to announce the second one.”
Gruber guesses that Apple will release the second-generation iPad “fairly soon,” possibly in March with a shipping date in early April. The updated device would be faster, with “more RAM, maybe more storage, thinner and lighter, a front-facing camera.” He also believes iOS 5 would be announced in March and ship in June.
“iPad 3, shipping in September, announced at the annual iPod event. Running iOS 5.1, same as the next-generation iPod Touch,” predicted Gruber, adding that the release may be more like an iPad 2.5, iPad 2 HD or iPad 2 Pro–“a new higher-end model that sits atop the iPad product family, not a replacement for the iPad 2 models.”
Gruber’s conjectures were followed by a report from TechCrunch’s MG Siegler that lent credence to the speculation, though for different reasons. Siegler cited a “very good” anonymous source that claims Apple is planning a “big fall surprise” related to the iPad 3.
“We don’t have any more concrete information beyond that,” said Siegler. “But, as of right now, the plan is apparently to release one iteration of the iPad in the next few weeks. And then blow the doors open with another new version in the fall.”
He went on to surmise that a third-generation iPad could have “a retina-like display” or perhaps “another, slightly smaller form factor,” though Apple CEO Steve Jobs has downplayed the possibility.
While Apple has yet to formally announce the second-generation iPad, reports of the device have picked up steam as of late. On Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple has begun manufacturing the next-generation tablet. As reported by AppleInsider in January, the iPad 2 is expected to be thinner and lighter, with a faster processor, more memory, a FaceTime-ready camera and an upgraded graphics processor.
Apple is a cyclical creature, like bears, unicorns and ladyfolk. iPods in September; iPhones in June; and likely, iPads in April. April is not so far away! So, unsurprisingly, we’re starting to hear what the next iPad looks like.
The brains – While one generation of devices does not a trend make—three’s a trend, in journo-land—Apple is less mystical and more economical than most internet denizens would suspect. The A4 chip that first showed up in the iPad also made its way into the iPhone 4, iPod touch and re-designed Apple TV. It too, is not all that mysteriousical: It’s a custom system-on-a-chip built around ARM’s Cortex A8 processor that’s clocked at 1GHz with a PowerVR SGX 535 graphics chip (also found in the iPhone 3GS). It’s not crazy that the next generation of Apple’s system on a chip, which Engadget has pegged as the A5, will follow the same pattern, as their sources indicate: It’ll show up in the next iPad, followed by the iPhone 5 (and its iPod touch equivalent, though this goes without saying), and a new Apple TV.
Full size – What’s in this next-gen Apple chip? Well, quite logically (and according to sources), the heart of the A5 (or whatever it’s called) is the next-generation ARM chip. The multi-core ARM Cortex A9 (PDF), already seen in dual-core configurations up to 1.5GHz. A 1GHz dual-core A9 is also the heart of Nvidia’s Tegra 2, which is powering like a bajillion Android 3.0 tablets and steroidal smartphones (Motorola’s Xoom, Atrix 4G and Droid Bionic), and the TI OMAP 4430, powering the BlackBerry PlayBook. Oh, and Samsung’s next CPUs—codenamed Orion—which we can expect to be heart of the next wave of Galaxy phones, tablets and toasters. (Image: Apple’s A4, from Chipworks/iFixit)
The BlackBerry PlayBook is not a bad place to start thinking about the kind of performance we’ll see in the next iPad. It can simultaneously play back 1080p video and run Quake III. Without choking. The TI OMAP 4430 inside not only uses a dual-core 1GHz A9 processor, but a PowerVR SGX540 graphics core. According to AppleInsider’s sources, and driver bundles found in iOS 4.3, the A5 will include a PowerVR SGX543 graphics chip—quite possibly a dual-core version, resulting in 4x the graphics power of the current iPad and iPhone 4’s chips. If the PlayBook can do what it does, imagine what a more powerful, dual-core graphics chip can do. 1080p video is just a start.
