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Dell Reveals Specs For the Looking Glass Tablet
adeelarshad82 writes "Dell hasn't officially unveiled its Looking Glass tablet, but it's on record at the FCC. The spec sheets reveal a device with a 7-inch screen, 3G and Wi-Fi connectivity, and an SD card slot. The Looking Glass will likely be announced at next week's Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which is sure to have no shortage of new tablets. Dell filed the documents for device approval by the FCC on December 17. The Looking Glass is expected to be one of the first devices to pack an Nvidia Tegra 2 processor, a powerful chip for mobile devices that can support both typical functions (like e-mail and Web browsing) as well as advanced graphics — all while preserving battery life."
Why are all these ipad competitors doing 7 inch screens?
Because they're probably cheap and don't require the display grunt to drive a larger one. If they can sell for $300 it'll be difficult for the iPad to compete in the 'Entry tablet market'. And it makes it easier for tablets to compete with netbooks.
Unless it includes a fully functional "Young Lady's Illustrated Primer" it's destined for failure.
Just FYI, a recent business IT survey shows interest in iPads stomping all other tablets: about four fifths of companies planning to buy tablets next quarter plan on buying iPads. And it shows satisfaction with iPads vastly outstripping other companies' offerings. (It's also extremely interesting to note that 38% of IT respondants using iPads say they are using them for laptop replacement.)
In other relevant iPad news, holiday sales numbers seem to show iPads squashing competitors in the consumer channel.
: )
Cheshire Kitten
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
Sorry for my ignorance regarding this tablet, but what OS is it planning to come with?
Or in a bag. A 10" tablet is too big for my tankbag for my motorcycle for instance, but a 7" fits nicely.
Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
That's neat, it looks like they're using some kind of inductance interference to register finger proximity to the touch pad, so you don't even necessarily have to touch the screen. They're only using one attenuator/sensor, so it will only serve the purpose of turning the screen/device on when you move your finger near it, but if they were to use several then theoretically you could do away with the "touch" aspect. Forgive me if any of that's olden but it's news to me.
"Stratigraphically the origin of agriculture and thermonuclear destruction will appear essentially simultaneous" -- Lee
Meet the new crap.
Same as the old crap.
...this has not anything to do with Looking Glass does it?
The project seemed to me worth of interest back then.
My ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.
I don't own any, because there's none that I like, but the 7" ones I have messed haven't disappointed me in screen size. Hell, I'm just going to be reading web pages and replying to e-mail on it. If I was going to do anything more and wanted a 10" I already have a netbook.
This seems like ad copy meant to promote a technology that may or may not be successful. The mobile devices that have use the chip, the Kin and Zune, are not widely successful. The tablet that has used this chip, the Folio 100, has evidently been pulled from shelves and has required a firmware update to be minimally function. This is surprising as the chip uses the SOC model that all other tablets use. And there does not seem any cost saving for use the chip and Android, as the prices seems the same as an iPad.
I am looking forward to the tablets, as a $300 tablet will revolutionize the way we interact, but I do not see such devices yet, and this chip does not seem to move the market forward in any meaningful way, other than in the area of meaningless jargon.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
It appears most people want a bigger screen - the size of the iPad for example. The iPad's screen isn't big enough for me! I want a screen that is the size and shape of either A4 or 8.5x11. A true paper replacement. And it would need to be fairly high resolution, and speedy.
No sig for you. YOU GET NO SIG!
I don't know what kind of a tank bag you use but if it can't fit an iPad sized device, it's the smallest tank bag I've ever seen in my life.
My company issues ipads, and after using one for two weeks I returned mine. It just wasn't a significant win in portability over my notebook, which does more and has SD and USB slots. I don't need to carry around yet another device just 'cause it's cool.
If the iPad works for you, great, but appreciate that others have different needs. The 7" form factor will fit in a coat pocket, which means I'm more likely to have the device on me. That it's not made by Apple makes it more likely that it may have the I/O ports I need. A double win.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
My 42 inch TV won't fit in a small bag, but I wouldn't sacrifice its size just so it is easier to move around.
I live in a warm climate and never wear a coat. My iPad fits in my back pants pocket just fine. I carry it there all the time. I just have to remember not to sit on it.
To me, the iPad is the right size because it's big enough to read and slim enough to be portable. A notebook or netbook wouldn't work as well since even the thinnnest is still too thick for me to be willing to carry around in a pocket.
Yeah, it would be completely crazy to take portability and size into account for something like a tablet, which, just like your 42" TV is designed to be bolted into the wall and used in one place and one place only. In fact, we should just jump straight to 42" tablets and be done with it.
Which is why so many people choose not to skimp on size and carry their full-size desktop tower and 22" widescreen monitor everywhere they go. Good point.
Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
portable device against a large screen tv, genius arguement there...
I am very sucseptible to "let's have another drink"
Crunch the numbers on it --- 326 ppi even on the iPad's 10.4" display is _way_ more display bandwidth than any graphics chipset currently available, let alone feasible for portable use.
William
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.
a tool/gadget that i can take with me everywhere is already a superior product.. the fact that it can hold its own performance-wise really is the icing on the cake.
as for usage, for the major computing i have my macbook air 11" so the 10" iPad in a way is irrelevant in my setup. but again, portability of the 7" screens is a huge seller to me and probably others. just my usual .02
It is not about it being 7 inches, it is about it ALL OF THEM being 7 inches.
If by "THEM" you mean "tablets that aren't the iPad", they aren't all 7 inches. Of those on the market or announced, the range is something like 4-12 inches. 7 in. seems to be the most common, but it is far from the only size.
There's actually quite a few 11.6" and 12.1", 1366x768 tablets.
If I can get 1920x1080 on a shitty Intel integrated, why can't they just sit down and make something that allows it on a portable device?
The question is mindboggeling!
I've tried them out in stores, but I don't see how a 7" tablet is a tool you can take with you everywhere the way you can a Touch or iPhone or other phone. To me a 7" tablet is just large enough I'd be able to have it in all the same places I can bring an iPad, and then why not have a larger screen?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
It uses a tegra2, and is 10 inches, and is launching at CES. Just thought I would point that out. Oh and looks kick ass.
at first glance it looks like an updated Pocket DJ that Dell made around '05
Even something like 1600x1200 (which would be ~200ppi for iPad) would be a huge improvement. As it is, pixels are really very noticeable on iPad screen. What more, as it uses the same font rendering as OS X, which does a lot of anti-aliasing, small text looks very blurry around the letters, which is very distracting.
The ones that the monitor spins around and you use a pen. Turns out those weren't as wonderful as we thought. Almost everyone used the keyboards after about 5 minutes.
Yup, because they were running Windows in conjunction with mostly off the shelf apps. This meant the UI was abysmal and not at all suited to the new use models.
Some time goes by, and we get the iPad. Its interesting, but I still don't get the *real* point of it.
It's just another form factor of device, one more suited to certain tasks than either smartphones or laptops.
The device itself isn't particularly useful for business.
Business is a vague term. Do you mean office work? No, it doesn't fit well into that market.
Not everyone runs around in fancy suits doing business on the go, smiling like stock photo people... not having time for a PC.
Of course not... but some people do. Lecturers, doctors and nurses, mechanics, field engineers, walking secretaries and receptionist types, etc.
Most of us use a desktop.
In the US and much of Europe I think "most" of us use laptops now.
I don't think screen size is an important factor, and I also don't think that available applications are the factor.
Umm... okay. That's great. Enjoy that belief.
Theres a million for the iphone, yet I only install maybe 10 on mine.
Are they the same 10 as everyone else and are you representative of the market?
Until someone finds a way to do useful database administration, or web development from one of these devices, I don't see them really finding a good use other than entertainment.
Well, then you lack vision. No one wants a tablet for database administration. However, doctors and nurses want them to pull up charts, reference data, light data entry, etc. Lots of other markets do as well. Guess what, you're not a target market. Get over it.
Anyway, If anyone could make a 10" iPad competitor at $500 or less, they'd have done so by now.
There's actually quite a few ~10" Android tablets that have been announced at that price point; all 4 of the Notion Ink Adam 10.1" (1024x600) models which sold out of preorders this month had prices under $550, 3 of the 4 under $500 (all but the Pixel Qi + 3G model).
The ViewSonic G 10.1" (1024x600) tablet that has been on sale since November seems to be $399.99 at most major online retailers that sell it, slighlty lower at some.
That everyone who is trying is coming in at half the screen size should be confirmation.
Actually, several competing models that have been announced (including a few already available) are in the 11.6" to 12.1" range (typically 16:9, 1366x768), and quite a few are 10.1" (1024x600) devices.
Thanks for reminding me of the reason I stopped reading the comments here.
So. How does this work?
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Geez where is the love for the G Tab? Viewsonic has had a Tegra 2 tablet with a dual arm processor on the shelves for months. Sure the default interface is crap...but its nearly the exact specs hardware wise as the "announced" tablets and a standard andoid 2.2 install is pretty simple on the device. The really funny part is the several of the "announced" tablets are actually rebadged viewsonic.
In fact, we should just jump straight to 42" tablets and be done with it.
Let me guess: you're trying to sell us on a Microsoft Surface.
I understand I'm not a target for the market, I just wish I was. Maybe I feel like I'm getting old, (at 30).
You could have that, if you're willing to accept the tradeoff in battery life / performance.
A Retina-display-like 326 ppi would require 2529 x 1897 pixels for an iPad's 10.4" display --- 13.7MB for display alone (up from 2.25MB for 1024 x 768) --- unfortunately, that's not happening in the near future.
William
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.
300+ DPI screens may be tough to scale past 7 inch screens, but there are two sizes that I hope manufacturers don't give up on:
1280x720 at 4.5" (326 DPI)
1920x1080 at 7" (315 DPI)
I still think 4.5" is not too big for a phone, though for some reason it seems everyone stops at 4.3" except for the Dell Streak at 5".
I haven't played with tablet devices to know for sure, but I suspect I'd prefer 6.5-7" over Apple's 10" for the ability to use it one handed and to fit in a jacket pocket.
~7" is the size of the early Newton MessagePads and many other PDAs (also a fair number contemporary ebook readers).
It's a useful size and one which I've found worth carrying around since having shirts tailor-made to have pockets to accommodate my Newton --- even now I frequently carry my Sony PRS-600 in a shirt pocket.
William
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.