Spanish tech news website, Clipset, is claiming [translation], after getting some hands-on time with the HP Slate during a presentation, that the device will officially launch this June and be available in Europe for €400 by September. HP further confirmed that the Slate will run Windows 7, be powered by an Intel Atom processor, support Flash content, will include USB connectivity, a memory card reader, and have a camera located on its rubberized backplate. Clipset points out in their post that the HP Slate has a lot in common with a netbook, while the iPad, in comparison, is more of an extended iPhone — which I would say is a fairly accurate assessment being that you can install any Windows-based software on the device and even use a 3G wireless USB dongle for mobile connectivity. More pics and a Flash demo here. [via]

It seems a lot of people are enamoured by Microsoft’s new Windows Phone 7 Series smartphone OS. So much so, in fact, that an industrial designer by the name of Umang Dokey has rendered a 8-inch tablet mockup running the OS and sporting a few trick features like 3D video conferencing via its dual front-facing webcams, a kickstand that can double as a keyboard, and a pair of backplate located joystick nubs for gaming. Honestly, it’s not bad — though it would be interesting to see how well the actual OS would scale up for tablet use. [via] MORE »

Love it. The underdog, Fusion Garage, is showing off a slick, new UI days before the JooJoo tablet launch exclusively to Engadget (ETA: March 25th). You can say the UI has been overhauled and refined from what everyone got a glimpse of a few months back on the development tablet. Gone are the ugly multi-colored homescreen and wireframe icons. The new UI, with its swappable wallpaper and translucent menus, has more of a netbook look now — somewhat reminiscent of Joicloud. Anyhow, it’s got my attention. In addition, JooJoo has reworked the gesture controls for scrolling (one-finger “pan”, two-finger “page scroll”), improved the keyboard interfaces, and replaced the pinch-to-go-back gesture with a vertical screen swipe that brings down the top control panel. Lastly, Fusion garage is confirming that the JooJoo tablet will only be sold in the black and champagne color scheme for the time being (a black-on-black version was also shown to the press at one time and is currently displayed on the site’s accessories page). And in case you were wondering… yes, JooJoo supports Flash and H.264 video for a “full web experience.” NEW: JooJoo’s internals revealed via the FCC. MORE »

Attached here is a video from Mobile World Congress 2010 with Freescale’s product manager of software development explaining that Freescale’s sub-$200 ARM (i.MX51 Cortex-A8) tablets will be compatible with just about any Linux distribution that supports ARM processors like Ubuntu, Chromium OS, and Android. And not only that… Freescale’s tablets are able to play Flash 10.1 content and HTML5 video. It’s unclear exactly who will be selling the tablets, but my guess is that they will be branded and sold by partners running Freescale’s in-house developed OS. Or perhaps the partners will load whichever OS they choose? In any case, this is great news for Linux enthusiasts ’cause it means they now have a tablet that they know they can easily tweak and customize to their heart’s desire. Hey, Freescale…! If you’re reading this post, consider including Linux multi-touch support – details. MORE »

Last night you may have caught Apple’s first iPad commerical during the Oscars — it wasn’t bad. But did you know HP posted their Slate commercial a couple days earlier on YouTube? Yeah, I didn’t either. I’m not even sure if it’s been broadcasted on TV yet. In any case, attached below is HP’s Slate TV commercial and a video demo created by Adobe showing off HP Slate’s uncompromised internet browsing experience using Flash and its ability to run Adobe AIR applications like the Times Reader 2.0 and Pandora One from the Adobe AIR Marketplace. On top of that, you’ll also get to see glimpses of Slate’s UI and multiple views of the hardware itself, which looks pretty much finalized. No word on launch, but you can sign up for updates at hp.com/slate. MORE »

Don’t like Android? Can’t stand the iPad? You’re in luck! On March 3rd you’ll be able to order DigitalRise’s new X9 multi-touch tablet PC powered by Windows 7. The X9 offers a 10.2-inch (1024×600) touchscreen, Intel Atom N270 1.6Ghz processor, 2GB of RAM, 160GB hard drive, 1.3MP webcam, 3G via SIM, 802.11g Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, 3 x USB 2.0 ports, and a 4-in-1 memory card reader. Price: $799 @ ChinaGrabber.com. However, if you can’t wait ’til then, or you don’t need multi-touch, you can pick up the original Digitalrise S1 touch tablet — with essentially the same specs — for $659.99 today. Below is a video demo of the DigitalRise X9 in action. [via] MORE »

The Wired Reader tablet app demo you’re about to see was created using Adobe AIR, while all the digital magazine content shown via the app was produced with Adobe InDesign. What’s interesting is that magazine layout designers, according to Wired.com, can create the print and tablet version of the magazine simultaneously using the same tool — unlike how print publications’ online properties are created today. All they really need to do is create an additional horizontal layout in Adobe InDesign for each print page to accommodate a tablet’s portrait and landscape modes. In addition, were starting to learn that Adobe is taking great strides to make Adobe AIR/Flash content available to all OS platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux) and device types, including Android-powered mobile devices and Apple’s iPhone/iPad (more on that here). Lastly, it’s obvious from the demo that advertisers are going to eat this medium up due the ad spots’ interactivity/metrics features, as well as the ability for users to track down ads through the page navigation with ease for later reference. MORE »

CES 2010 had no shortage of Android tablets on display and the same is happening at Mobile World Congress 2010. Attached below are select videos found via YouTube and other sites being introduced by various manufactures. While some are protoypes, others are actually coming to market at some point in the near future. I’ll keep adding videos to this post as I find them. MORE »

The folks at Technoholik, an ET Now television production, were lucky enough to get an exclusive interview with Notion Ink’s Founder and Creative Director, Rohan Shravan, on the eve of Adam’s debut at MWC 2010. In the video we get confirmation that the Adam tablet shown is the final design (it’s just like the pics we showed you earlier) and all that’s really left to do is finalize the custom tablet UI layer (built on top of Android) by May so they can launch the product this June. A couple things revealed in the interview that folks following the product’s development might find interesting is that the Adam truly does have a trackpad located on its backplate and that the 180-degree rotatable webcam can be used at 90-degrees to, say, video record class instruction while using the device to take notes (kind of cool!). MORE »

Excellent! Today we’ve got two videos showcasing the prowess of the NVIDIA Tegra 2 platform. The first video by SlashGear shows the Notion Ink Adam Internet Tablet playing Flash video via Adobe’s still-under-development Flash 10.1 plug-in for Android. The second video, recorded by Armdevices.net at MWC 2010, shows one Android tablet playing Flash video in fullscreen mode and a second running Unreal Tournament on top of Windows CE. As you’ll see the Flash video plays back fairly smoothly, while the Unreal Tournment game play looks outstanding. FYI, the NVIDIA rep. says the Tegra 2 dev. board runs $400 a pop — in case you’re interested in creating a DIY tablet or nettop. MORE »