Introducing the NAV 7 – As the Tablet Parade Continues

Netbook Navigator has finally announced that their NAV7 Slate PC Tablet Running Windows 7 is currently Available for Pre-Order. This great little mobile device features the first compact 7-inch, 1024 x 600 pixel multitouch display as well as a 1.6 GHz Intel Atom Z530 processor, runs Windows 7 and is loaded with some innovative best-in-class features, including 2 USB ports, a front-side webcam, WIFI, Bluetooth and optional embedded 3G broadband. The NAV7 is essentially a full computer that can be carried with you practically anywhere.

The base model runs about $649 dollars and comes with 1GB of RAM, a 16GB solid state disk, WiFi, Bluetooth, the 2 USB ports, and an Ethernet jack, but absolutely no operating system. Windows 7 Home Premium will jack up the price to around $749. You can also configure the Nav7 with 32GB of 64GB of storage, 2Gb of RAM, and an optional 3G model. If you want to go all out, the top of the line model still runs less than $1250.

The Nav 7 weighs 1.25 lbs and is equipped with  1.8″ Solid State hard drive with up to 64GB of storage, as well as a unique combination of features not seen before on a 7-inch tablet, including a back-side touchpad with mouse buttons, a swappable battery good for at least 4 hours per charge, and an integrated accelerometer.

The NAV7 is now available for pre-order in limited quantities on first come, first serve basis with over 30 different configuration options starting from $649. Orders placed in March are expected to ship on or about May 2011.

Aircell smartphone announced

Making calls while you’re in the air is something that most of us try to avoid – after all, we’re told to turn off our electronic devices especially cell phones since they are said to interrupt with the aircraft’s communication systems, so the other alternative if you have a really desperate call to make would be to swipe your credit card and make taht really, really expensive phone call.

The next time you want to do so, why not do it in style with the Aircell? This is the first inflight smartphone of its kind in the world, where the next-generation cabin handset was specially designed for business aircraft. Hmmm, sounds as though normal economy class folk won’t be seeing it in action anytime soon. Anyways, enough ranting, let us take a closer look at what the Aircell offers in the extended post.

First of all, the Aircell smartphone will boast intuitive, menu-driven features, letting passengers place and receive voice calls aboard business aircraft in a way that is as easy and convenient as one would do whenever they have their feet firmly planted on the ground while holding a smartphone in their hand. It will run on the popular Android OS platform that will certainly mean you might even get Angry Birds installed on it to keep you occupied apart from the usual movies that they show in the small screen in front of you.

Other groundbreaking capabilities of the new Aircell smartphone includes the best voice quality in aviation, a bright, color touchscreen display that is touted to be the largest in the aviation industry where a telephony device is concerned, Bluetooth connectivity for a hands-free operation, an ingenious design for interchangeable wireless or wired operation, and integrated audio jack for wired headsets & earbuds among others. Expect the new Aircell smartphone to ship from late 2011 onwards, so your company’s business jet probably won’t see this upgrade just yet.

Resources : http://www.coolest-gadgets.com/20110326/aircell-smartphone-announced/#more-55039

Apple iPad update: 1,000,000 sold, international pre-orders just beginning

Apple's iPad certainly made a splash when it was announced in January, but critics wondered if the masses would truly find a use for this new form factor device. But less than a month after sales opened in the US 1,000,000 iPads were sold, and international pre-orders have only just begun. Does Apple still have to defend its product, or do the numbers speak for themselves?

The iPad was revealed to the world in late January with all the typical sort of Steve Jobs mumbo jumbo (words like automagically come to mind) and more hype than anybody knew what to do with. Remarkable the tablet surely was, but a surefire hit? When it had no camera, no Flash capabilities, no multitouch, no USB port... didn't people need these things? A million sales later, perhaps that question is answered.

According to an Apple press release from May 3rd, it took 28 days for the millionth sale to be completed, notably less than the 74 it took to reach similar numbers for the popular iPhone. Of course, Apple and the iPad have ridden the popularity of the iPhone to this success, much as the iPhone rode the success of the iPod to its own fame (a quick eyeball of this chart suggests that selling the first million iPods was more a matter of months or years than days or weeks). But that's not a huge knock against Apple - they have earned their reputation, and it's just good PR.

Sales begin internationally on May 28th, and pre-orders have already begun pouring in as of yesterday. We may yet see another million sales or more by month's end.

While I'd love to play around with one, I still don't know what people are using these iPads for beyond eReading (which several people I know have purchased one for). While it's certainly handier than a laptop for reading or browsing documents, it needs to do more than that for me before I can justify its cost. I seem to remember Steve Jobs saying something about how it does things we don't even know we want to do, but I have enough trouble budgeting for the things I already know I want to do - in terms of both time and money. If you're using an iPad out there, I'd love to hear your story of how you're liking it. One way or another though, it's clear the iPad has been a great success for Cupertino so far.

Genius MousePen M508W unveiled

Genius has released their Mouse Pen M508W for those living in North America – yes, that means the US as well as Canada. This is a 5″ x 8″ wireless graphic-design tablet which will connect to a notebook or desktop through a USB receiver, working over the 2.4GHz wireless technology spectrum. Of course, with that connection, you are able to move around without any interference, and Genius intends to target the M508W at art teachers, students and graphic-design professionals, offering them wireless freedom to paint, draw, write, and edit.

Sporting a high-performance stylus that is tilt sensitive ±60 degrees and comes with 1024 pressure levels (the latter is normal), it is a snap to make the right brush strokes, whether they are meant to be thicker or thinner, as it all depends on how hard the stylus is pressed. Graphic-design professionals will also find that the MousePen M508W will offer one a similar experience as that of using paint and canvas.

iPad 2 cost only a few dollars more to build than original iPad

An analysis of iPad 2 finds that Apple's total cost to produce the tablet is almost identical to that of the original iPad introduced a year ago.

Apple was able to keep costs down despite the fact that a number of iPad 2 components, including the display subsystem and battery, are considerably more expensive than those of the original tablet.

The analysis breaks down the components of the iPad 2, assigns a price tag for each, and estimates the actual manufacturing costs to come up with a total. There's only a $3 difference between the GSM- and CDMA-equipped 32GB iPad 2 models: $336.60 for the former, $333.25, according to IHS iSuppli.

TEARDOWNS: iFixit looks inside the iPad 2 and its Smart Cover

Most of that total is a tally of the bill of materials (BOM) -- all the chips, memory, the display components, and so on -- totaling $326.60 for the GSM model, and $323.25 for the CDMA model. iSuppli estimates the cost to manufacture each tablet is $10.

The most expensive components: display, at $127; memory (for the 32GB model) at $65.70; mechanical/electrical (enclosure, connectors, etc.), at $35; and the battery, at $25.

The total BOM for the iPad 2 is only just a few dollars more than the total for the original iPad, which iSuppli put at $320 when it the tablet was released in April 2010.

Among other things, Apple may have been able to leverage its supply chain relationships in light of the much higher anticipated unit sales of iPad 2. The original iPad sold about 15 million units in the nine months it was available in 2010. Estimates of iPad 2 sales typically start at about twice that and go up.

iSuppli's analysis shows that the components and vendors for iPad 2 are little changed from the original tablet. "The iPad 1 and iPad 2 use the same components and suppliers for the NAND flash, the multi-touch controllers and touch screen drivers, as well as the same core chip in the wireless section as was found in the iPhone 4," says Andrew Rassweiler, senior director and principal analyst and teardown services manager for IHS, in a statement. "Many of the other components -- including the apps processor and the Bluetooth/frequency/global positioning system/wireless local-area network chips -- have the same suppliers and are essentially new revisions of the chips found in the previous iPad and other iPhones."

Holding the iPad 2 cost flat is all the more remarkable considering that the new tablet's screen is quite a bit more expensive than the original's, by about one-third, according to iSuppli. The firm estimates the iPad 2 display/touch screen subsystem carries a price tag of $127, compared to the its estimate of $95 for the first iPad.

There are a number of reasons for the jump in costs, most traceable to the manufacturing challenges faced by suppliers. iSuppli: "Production yields, though they have been improving, have been very low throughout 2010, and drove prices to be much higher than initially expected. Furthermore, refinements in the touch screen specifications have driven the price point even higher for the iPad 2. Contributing factors to that cost increases include more expensive glue to improve the efficiency/performance in the bonding, thinner Gorilla cover glass and a more detailed inspection process requiring additional equipment for optical and panel examination."

The new tablet's battery is more expensive, at $25 versus $21 in iPad 1. For the new tablet, the battery is much thinner and uses three cells instead of two. The associated power management circuitry for these batteries is a key reason why Apple can maximize battery life while holding down battery size and weight, according to iSuppli.

The other notably more expensive component is the A5 processor, the first dual-core version of Apple's custom-designed, and Samsung-built, CPU. According to iSuppli, the A5's estimated price of $14 is 75% higher than that of the A4 used in the original iPad. The firm notes that this cost will drop over time as chip production volume increases.

Those components alone add $39.50 to the cost of the original iPad. Yet, somehow, Apple was able to hold down the total cost of the iPad 2 components list plus manufacturing, perhaps by squeezing out other costs from its supply chain. This may explain why one analyst's predicted price cut for the iPad 2 didn't materialize: (See "Will the hottest thing about iPad 2 be the price?")

Former equities analyst Anton Wahlman noted that with iPad 2, Apple "is probably looking to sell 60 million units worldwide starting this March" compared to about 15 million for iPad 1. The much higher volume gives Apple supply chain leverage. Wahlman wrote: "When you go from planning under 10 million units to 60 million, you can negotiate much better manufacturing prices. Components can also be optimized for cost, to a different degree. Apple is pre-paying for critical parts, such as memory and displays, taking risk out of the contract manufacturers, which pressures the price down."

Squeezing out those extra costs let Apple absorb the higher-priced iPad 2 components, keep the total iPad cost almost level, and keep the consumer price tag unchanged, giving it a price advantage compared to rival Android-based tablets, perhaps for many months.

Resources : itnews.com