In a few days from now, Microsoft is scheduled to release the very much awaited update on its operating system – Windows 8. Based on the consumer preview that Microsoft has made public a few months ago, this new operating system promises a fully revamped architecture and user interface design that works well both on laptops and desktops but as well in tablets.

Although Microsoft is also set to release their own surface-branded tablet, we are already seeing a lot of devices from other manufacturers slowly making an appearance to coincide with the launch of the new OS. In this edition of Tech Tuesdays at TFL, let’s breeze through some of those devices.

Samsung Ativ Tab

Samsung was one of the first manufacturers to announce a Windows 8 powered tablet. Their Ativ Tab measures 6.61” tall, 10.46” wide and 0.35” thick and weighs around 1.2 pounds. The device also has a 10.1-inch HD LCD display.

It also has USB and Micro-HDMI ports, a microSD card slot, NFC, and Wi-Fi & Bluetooh 4.0 capabilities. In terms of performance the Ativa tab will be powered by a 1.5GHz dual core processor on a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 chip, and 64GB of internal storage. It will also feature a 5MP rear camera with LED flash while the front will have a 1.9MP camera.

The Ativ Tab will come with a trial version of Microsoft Office 2013 plus a few extras from Samsung such as ChatOn, and Samsung’s music portal and photo editor.

Asus Vivo Tab

Asus’s Vivo Tab looks pretty much like the Asus Transformer Android tablets. The Vivo Tab will come with an 11.6-inch Super IPS+ panel with a resolution of 1366x768 pixels and will have support for 10-finger multi-touch. The device will be powered by the next generation Intel Atom processor (possibly from the Clover Trail Family) and will have 2GB or RAM plus 64GB of on-board storage. In terms of connectivity, the Vivo tab will have support for Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0.

Moreover, it will feature a G-sensor, a gyroscope, a light sensor and e-compass as well as an 8MP autofocus camera with LED flash at the back, a 2MP front facing camera for video calls and conferencing and a 1024-level Wacom digitizer stylus.

Acer Iconia W700

The Acer Iconia W700 will come in three versions on October 26: Two models will have 64GB of storage and will run on an Intel Core i3 Ivy bridge processor while the third model will have an Intel Core i5 processor with 128GB worth of storage.

The Acer Iconia W700 will feature an 11.6-inch screen with support of up to 10 touch points. It will have an IPS display with a resolution of 1920X1080 pixels, a USB port and a micro-HDMI output. The W700 can be used with a wireless Bluetooth keyboard together with a tilt-able cradle dock which will provide an additional 3 USB ports when used with the tablet.

The W700 will also have an Intel HD Graphics 4000 chipset with 4GB of memory plus a Dolby Home Theatre v4 audio-enhancing technology. At the back of the device is a 5MP camera capable of recording 1080p HD video while a 1MP camera can be found at the front of the device.

Sony Vaio Duo 11

Another big name to announce a W8 tablet last week was Sony with its Vaio Duo 11. Unlike other tablets in our list, the Vaio Duo 11 features a full slide-out keyboard. The Duo 11 also has a HDMI and USB ports and surprisingly a full-sized VGA port.

The Vaio can come with an optional battery extension that doubles operating time but puts additional girth into its already chunky profile. The built-in keyboard is slightly more compact than most notebooks and features a trackpoint-style navigation nub in the middle.

As for computing power, the Duo 11 will have an Intel Core i7-3517U processor with 4-8GB of Ram and up to 256GB of SSD storage. The 11.6-inch display of the Vaio will have a resolution of 1080p and according to reports provide incredibly bright and crispy images.

HP ElitePad 900

HP on the other hand announced its business oriented W8 tablet – the ElitePad 900. The ElitePad 900 is a 10-inch tablet that runs on an Atom-based Intel Clover trail processor with up to 2GB of RAM. It has a Core i5 processor and comes with either a 32GB or 64GB eMMC drive.

The screen is 400-nit IPS display with Gorilla Glass and has a resolution of 1280x800 pixels. It also has an 8MP rear camera and a 1080p front facing camera. As with other tablets these days, it will have Wi-Fi and Bluetooth support. However, the ElitePad is lacking a USB port, and instead only has a micro-SD card slot and a USB adapter.

But HP is offering a host of extras for the ElitePad 900. For starters, users can get a dock for the tablet that offers a lock slot, an additional 4 USB ports, HDMI and VGA connectors, a line-out jack and Gigabit Ethernet. HP will also be selling those so-called “Smart Jackets” which are tablet cases that have additional features such as USB ports, HDMI output and optional battery slice.

Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet 2

And last but definitely not the least is the Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet 2. The ThinkPad Tablet 2 is the Windows 8 version of the first ThinkPad tablet was released last year and ran on Android 3.1 Honeycomb. The ThinkPad Tablet 2 now runs on Windows 8 with a 1.86GHz Intel Atom processor from the Clover trail family.

The screen is around 10.1 inches with a resolution of 1366x768 pixels. There will also be an optional dock that comes with an Ethernet port, 3 USB ports and an HDMI output. There’s a fat chance that the ThinkPad Tablet 2 will come with the full version of Office 2013 and will cost around $799 with the keyboard.

Motorola has just announced a new handset this month to add to its growing list of Android devices. But unlike other RAZR phones in the company’s arsenal, The Motorola RAZR i XT890 is not powered by your usual ARM-based processors. Instead the RAZRi is powered by a 2 GHz Intel Atom processor.

This phone is one of a few handsets in the market that is powered by such a processor. This however, is not Intel’s first attempt to get a bite off of the mobile phone processor industry. You may have remembered in the past that Intel tried to win smartphone manufacturers over with various mobile platforms such as the McCaslin, Menlow and Moorestown, all of which had trouble keeping up with ARM’s SOC processors.

Although Intel has been known to produce very powerful processors in the past, this strategy have proven unsuccessful in the mobile processor wars. In contrast to ARM’s battery efficient processors, Intel’s were power guzzlers and it took the company a while to realize that.

Intel therefore went back to the drawing board and created a new processor that would fit the demands of smartphones and other mobile devices. And this is represented by the announcement of the RAZR i.

Other than the new processor, the RAZR i packs relatively the same features as other Android phones in Motorola’s lineup.  For starters, this phone runs on Android v4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich, has a 4.3-inch screen with a resolution of 540x960 pixels. The screen is Super AMOLED advanced capacitive touchscreen protected by Gorilla glass.

It has 8GB of onboard storage with a microSD expansion slot capable of supporting up to 32GB cards. It has 1GB of RAM and supports Wi-Fi 802.11 s/b/g/n standards as well as v2.1 Bluetooth. The RAZR i has an 8.0 megapixel rear facing camera able to capture images at a resolution of 3264x2448 pixels and is equipped with autofocus and a LED flash. Software improvements in the camera include touch-focus, geo-tagging, face detection, image stabilization and HDR. The camera can also capture videos in high-definition at 1080pixels at 30 frames per second.

The phone also has a front-facing VGA camera, an accelerometer, A-GPS, proximity sensor and built-in compass. The RAZR i is available in Black or White and will sell for around US$545 or roughly PHP22,000+ in the Philippines (that is, if it arrives here at all).

So what do you think of the new Intel-powered RAZR phone? Does it have what it takes to get ARM a run for its money? Well, one thing’s for sure, the positive feedback of both smartphone manufacturers and consumers with the new Intel Atom processors will definitely ignite stiffer competition between Intel and ARM which can in turn drive prices even lower. Which is a good thing right?

The tech world is such an ever dynamic place and each day is filled with new technology and new stories that can greatly affect how we live our lives. And since technology is very much intertwined with our lives and our lifestyle, it’s very important that we keep up-to-date with the latest trends, news and innovations about the tech industry.

For this reason, I have decided to put up a special section in our blog that will feature technology news and trends that are most relevant to the common Pinoy. And today marks its first episode! So if you’re ready, let’s begin.

A New Screen: A YouTube video has recently received a lot of attention from the tech savvy community. The video shows a new tactile display that has buttons that rise out of the screen when needed. According to its creators – Tactus Tech, the protruding buttons are made possible with the use of microfluidic technology. It’s a special layer of fluid within the display stack that is activated by pressure causing the protrusion of buttons when needed.

At present, Tactus tech is currently planning to partner with device and component manufacturers to integrate the tactile layer into next-generation devices of mobile phones, tablets and other devices that makes use of touch screens.

Breach: Probably the most important news in the past two weeks was about LinkedIn. The password theft that happened last week shocked the entire LinkedIn community. Around 6.5 million passwords were apparently dumped in a Russian hacker forum, compromising the social networking site’s reputation.

And although passwords were the only ones that the hackers took from the site, experts say that these passwords can be reverse engineered to decrypt other sources of information. During the past few days, LinkedIn has been bombarded by criticisms on how they protect data from their members. And although it still hasn’t affected the performance of their stocks in the market, the world has yet to know the full story and full extent of the damage as the company is mum on the details of the breach.

A New Breed of Asha: It seems Nokia hasn’t given up on Symbian yet. They recently released three new Asha models. The Nokia 311, 306 and 305 will all pack touch screens and as the conventional naming convention suggests, the higher the number will mean that the device will have the higher specs. Prices for the new Asha models will start at 68 euros and will sport the usual set of multimedia and connectivity options like Bluetooth, WLAN (for 311 and 306), 3.5mm audio jack and accelerometer.

Event: One of the most talked about event from last week was Asia’s premier technology and consumer electronics trade show – Computex. Now in its 32^nd year, Computex is now attended by over 120,000 global participants from IT corporations, analyst firms and media outlets, and showcases not only the latest gadgets and technology in the market but also the future of consumer electronics headed to Asia.

This year, the event’s stars were Intel and Microsoft. Intel has created some buzz a few weeks back when they announced the release of their Ivy Bridge processors to the public. And lo and behold, those Ivy Bridge processors were everywhere. Microsoft on the other hand made some noise a few days before Computex when they announced the release preview of Windows 8. In fact Windows 8 was featured in several devices at the event such as the dual display laptop/tablet Asus Taichi, the Acer 5600U and 7600U all-in-one PCs, the MSI slider S20 as well as new versions of Ultrabooks such as the Acer Aspire S7.

And that’s just about it for this episode of Tech Tuesdays. Until next week!

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