• 21Jul

    WiiPad Android tablets: Two buzzwords in one

    We’ve seen roughly 2,743,138 companies introduce Google Android powered tablets over the last 6 months or so. But very few have actually made it to market in the US. While we wait for big name companies such as Toshiba, Lenovo, Asus, and HP to launch Android tablets, there are a handful of options available. Archos and Camangi already sell 5 and 7 inch models in the US. And some companies have started importing the cheap Chinese tablets we keep seeing to sell in the US.

    WiiPad is one of those companies. While the company from having a ridiculous name that looks like someone threw darts at a consumer electronics buzzword chart, the tablets actually look kind of interesting.

    First up is the WiiPad Slim 7 inch Android tablet, which has a starting price of just $155.02. This model has 128MB of RAM, 2GB of solid state storage, and an SD card for additional storage. It has a 7 inch, 800 x 480 pixel display, 2 USB ports, WiFi, and a 2500mAh battery.This model runs the increasingly outdated Google Android 1.5 operating system.

    I’m a bit confused about the processor, which is described as both 600MHz and 1.1GHz.  My money is on the former. WiiPad says the tablet can play 720p HD video. The most exciting thing about this model is probably the low price tag.

    The company is also taking orders for a 10.2 inch tablet called the WiiPad Neno. This model has a 1GHz ARM Cortex A8-based processor, 256MB of RAM, and 2GB of storage. It has a 10.2 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel display and support for WiFi or an external 3GB modem.

    The 10.2 inch tablet runs Google Android 2.1, has 3 USB ports, an SD card slot, and can handle 1080p HD video playback.

    If the 10.2 inch model looks familiar, that’s because it may just be a rebranded version of the Zenithink 10.2 inch tablet we spotted a few months ago.

  • 16Jul

    UEFI could replace BIOS, lead to faster boot times

    Pretty much every PC that ships today uses a system called BIOS to allow the operating system to interact with your computer’s hardware. The BIOS software is basically the firmware that’s loaded on your motherboard. And it looks like something that was designed decades ago… because it was. When you want to change BIOS settings, you have to load up a text-and-arrow-key based user interface and navigate through a series of clunky menus. But there’s an alternative in the works, called UEFI.

    UEFI has a graphical user interface, which means you can navigate the settings with a point-and-click device like a mouse. That’s kind of cool. But what’s even cooler is that UEFI is designed to work better with modern PC hardware including hard drives larger than 2TB. And as Lenovo points out, you can configure UEFI in a way that could dramatically improve Windows boot times.

    Lenovo loaded up a ThinkPad T400 laptop with UEFI and demonstrated that the  machine can now boot Windows 7 in just over 10 seconds. Like, cold boot. As in, you hit the power button and the operating system loads that quickly — not just resumes from sleep. That’s pretty cool.

    You can check out the video after the break. It’s worth noting that even though Lenovo had replaced the T400 with a faster, more powerful T410, the ThinkPad T400 with its 2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU is still a heck of a lot more powerful than your typical netbook — so don’t expect 10 second boot times on a machine with an Atom processor anytime soon. But it looks like hardware that can support UEFI may benefit from improved boot speeds.

  • 14Jul

    Swiftpoint launches a tiny mouse for your tiny notebook

    Ever notice how a normal sized mouse looks absolutely enormous when you set it down next to a 10 inch or smaller netbook? That’s one of the reasons I’ve been using a tiny travel mouse for the past few years — that plus it takes up less space. But the problem with an itty bitty travel mouse is that it’s a bit harder to grip than a full sized model. Swiftpoint’s latest travel mouse has a fix for that.

    The company’s new Swiftpoint mouse is a wireless mouse that features a pen-like grip.

    You can dock the mouse on the side of your computer with a USB connector, which also charges the mouse. Swiftpoint says that just connecting it for 30 seconds gives the battery enough energy to power the mouse for up to an hour.

    It’s nice to see someone try to shakeup the portable input device space. It would be nice if that shakeup also included a reasonable price though. The Swiftpoint mouse sells for $69.95.

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