Tablet Showdown

Eee Pad Slider

Price?

Release Date Q2 2011 May

10.1-inch IPS touchscreen
Slide-out QWERTY keyboard
Nvidia Tegra 2
Front-facing 1.2MP camera
Rear-facing 5MP camera
Android 3.0 OS (Honeycomb)
Optional 3G

Eee Pad Transformer

$399.99 w/o Dock
Release Date Q2 2011 March
OS Android 3.0
10.1-inch IPS Panel
Nvidia Tegra 2
Front-facing 1.2MP camera
Rear-facing 5MP camera
Android 3.0 OS (Honeycomb)
mini-HDMI port for external 1080p HD video
Optional docking station with a QWERTY keyboard
Charging Time via USB: 16hrs
271mm x 175mm x 12.95mm

Reviews: Anandtech

Eee Slate EP121

$1200
12.1-inch LED-backlit capacitive touchscreen

1280 x 800 resolution & 178-degree viewing angle

Intel i5 dual-core CPU

Windows 7 Home Premium

32 GB/64 GB of SSD storage (expandable via SDXC)

Up to 4 GB of DDR3 RAM

802.11n Wi-Fi

Bluetooth 3.0

2MP camera

2x USB 2.0 ports

Mini-HDMI port

Viewpad 10s

Release Date Q4 2010

$309.99 as of 4/20/2011

Dual Boot OS: Android 1.6 (2.2 Soon) / Windows 7

10.1" LED blacklit display with 1024x600

700:1 Contrast Ratio

Tegra 2 CPU 1.Ghz Dual Core
Cache 1MB

Wi-Fi N / Bluetooth 2.1

 10.8" W x 6.7" H x 0.57" D
(275mm x 170mm x 16.5mm)

Weight: 1.93 lbs

1.3 MP Camera (front)

4 Hour Battery Life

Review: SteveChippy

Viewpad 10Pro

Release Date Q2 2011 (May)

$580 Price Estimate

Dual Boot OS: Android 2.2 / Windows 7

10.1" LED blacklit display 1024x600 Resolution

Oak Trail 1.5 GHz Processor

2GB RAM 

                                                                                    Wi-Fi N & Bluetooth

1.3 MP Camera (front)

No Front Facing Camera

                                                                                     Adobe Flash

                                                                                     6 Hour Battery Life

Motorola Xoom

Android 3.0 Honeycomb

10.1" WXGA LCD Screen (1280x 800)

1GHz Dual Core

Wi-Fi N & Bluetooth 2.1

249.1 x 167.8 x 12.9 mm

10 Hour Battery Life

2 MP Web Camera

5 MP Camera

HP TouchPad

9.7" display (1024 x 768 screen resolution)

Colors: 262,144

dual-core 1.2GHz Snapdragon CPU

16GB / 32GB of internal storage space

Wi-Fi N & Bluetooth 2.1

GPS (3G model only)

Front Camera: 1.3 MP

Size: 9.45 x 7.45 x 0.54 (240 x 189 x 14 mm)

Weight: 26.10 oz (740 g)

Battery: 6300 mAh

Samsung Galaxy Tab 2

Android OS 2.3 (upgrade 3.0 Honeycomb)

NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor

1024 MB RAM

7″ 2048×1200 Super-AMOLED Display

3D Display

Camera: 8mp  Dual LED flash. 

Web Camera: 3mp

Wi-Fi N & Bluetooth 3.0

64 GB Internal Memory

Tablet Specification Comparison
	Apple iPad 2	ASUS Eee Pad	BlackBerry PlayBook	Motorola Xoom
Dimensions	241.2mm x 185.7mm x 8.8mm	271mm x 175mm x 12.95mm	194mm x 130mm x 10mm	249.1mm x 167.8mm x 12.9mm
Display	9.7-inch 1024 x 768	10.1-inch 1280 x 800	7-inch 1024 x 600	10.1-inch 1280 x 800
Weight	601g (WiFi only)	675g	425g	730g
Processor	1GHz Apple A5 (2 x Cortex A9)	1GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2 (2 x Cortex A9)	1GHz TI OMAP 4430 (2 x Cortex A9)	1GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2 (2 x Cortex A9)
Memory	512MB	1GB	1GB	1GB
Storage	16GB up to 64GB	16GB + microSD card	16GB up to 64GB	32GB + microSD card
Pricing	$499 up to $829	$399	$499 up to $699	$799

Microsoft is adding a "Windows XP Mode" to Windows 7

Now Windows 7 gets built in XP mode..
Microsoft is adding a "Windows XP Mode" to Windows 7, in a move to encourage users to make the switch to the software vendor's forthcoming operating system.

The firm has built its XP mode into Windows 7 by using the Windows Virtual PC technology Microsoft acquired in 2003, to make the OS compatible to run apps designed for Vista's predecessor.
Redmond was keen to emphasise in a blog post late on Friday that it's hoping to woo small businesses to move to Windows 7 by bigging up the XP mode feature.

"Windows XP Mode is specifically designed to help small businesses move to Windows 7," said Microsoft. "Windows XP Mode provides you with the flexibility to run many older productivity applications on a Windows 7 based PC."

Users can install apps directly into the virtualised XP environment. The applications are then published to the Windows 7 desktop and they can be run from within that OS.

Microsoft said it will release a beta of Windows XP mode and Windows Virtual PC for Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Ultimate "soon" but wasn't more specific about when the test builds will land.

When Microsoft released Vista over two years ago, many businesses and individuals complained about compatibility snafus with applications that simply wouldn't work within the new OS

Microsoft: Lots to turn off in Windows 7

Microsoft will expand the list of "features" that can be disabled when the Windows 7 Release Candidate becomes available, including the ability to turn off Internet Explorer 8.
The next version of Windows is giving Microsoft Corp. watchers a peek at how the software maker plans to keep European antitrust regulators from marring a crucial software launch.

Windows 7, the successor to the much-maligned Vista, isn't expected to reach consumers until next year, but more than a million people are already testing early versions. A pair of bloggers tinkering with settings stumbled upon one they hadn't seen before: The ability to "turn off" Microsoft's own Internet Explorer browser.

Microsoft lost a long-running battle with EU antitrust regulators in 2007 over the way it bundled media player software into the Windows operating system. The dust had barely settled when a similar claim was filed, this time over Internet Explorer's place inside Windows. Opera Software ASA, a Norwegian competitor, claimed the practice gives Microsoft's browser an unfair advantage.

In a preliminary decision in January, the EU agreed. Since then, makers of the open-source browser Firefox and Google Inc., which entered the browser market six months ago, have offered to provide more evidence that Microsoft is stifling competition.

In the media player dispute, the EU heavily fined Microsoft and forced it to sell a version of Windows without the offending program installed. This time, Microsoft appears to be offering the check-box solution as a way to head off a similar ending.

The company declined to comment Friday on the connection between the check boxes and the EU's preliminary decision. But in a recent quarterly filing, it said the European Commission may order PC makers to install multiple browsers on new PCs and force Microsoft to disable parts of its own Internet Explorer if people chose a competing browser.

The check boxes, which were described on Microsoft enthusiast blogs http://www.aeroxp.org and http://www.chris123nt.com, also give Windows 7 users a way to disable the media player and hard-drive search programs, among other components, both of which have drawn scrutiny from regulators.

After Windows Vista landed with a thud, Microsoft needs a hit, said Michael Cherry, an analyst for the research group Directions on Microsoft. Beyond appeasing the EU, he said he didn't see much use for the Internet Explorer check box.