No One Uses Android Tablets (Or No One Has Android Tablets to Use) [Tablets]

By Casey Chan Oct 11, 2011 9:48 AM 22,833 293

There's something like 8,142* different Android Tablets on sale right now yet it seems like no one is really using them. I mean, I've yet to see one in public! But that's an inexact method of testing. More exact? How the iPad usage obliterates Android tablets in web traffic. According to Comscore, iPads made up for 97.2% of all tablet web traffic. That leaves 2.8% for the other tablets to split.

That's, um, a startling number. Where are all these Android tablet users? Actually, are there any Android Tablet users? The exact number of Android tablet users has always been doubted (some semantics on whether shipped or bought equals market share) but as late as July of this year, some folks were guessing only a million or so have been sold (compared to nearly 30 millin for the iPad at the time). With so few Android tablets around for people to use, I guess it should be no surprise that web traffic from Android tablets are so low.

And Android Tablets shouldn't feel too bad, the iPad now accounts for more web traffic than the iPhone too (46.8% vs. 42.6%). These numbers are crazy. [ComScore]

*exaggerated

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This App Could Make Tablets Accessible to the Blind [Video]

By Andrew Tarantola Oct 10, 2011 7:00 PM 5,913 14

The Braille system has allowed blind people to read the written word since 1825. Unfortunately, Braille doesn't translate well to the glossy smooth surfaces of modern touch screen tablets and phones. A new app thinks it can change that.

Each character in the Braille system—developed by Louis Braille for the French military—consists of a series of raised dots laid out in a 2-by-3 grid that are read with the fingertips. There are 63 possible character variations using the system, which is enough for the English alphabet, 10 numbers and a few punctuation marks. Characters beyond these are written using character-modification keystrokes on the traditional eight-button keyboard of Braille laptops. The problem is that these laptops are both expensive (some upwards of $6000) and only have limited functionality in real-world situations.

The new app was created by NMSU undergraduate Adam Duran, Stanford Assistant Professor Adrian Lew, and Stanford Doctoral candidate Sohan Dharmaraja as part of the Army High-Performance Computing Research Center's (AHPCRC) annual two-month summer immersion course. It allows the blind to use tablets via the Braille eight-button keyboard but with an important twist.

Instead of requiring the user to find virtual buttons on a glass surface (how frickin' impossible is that?), the individual keys orient themselves to the correct finger whenever the user touches the screen. "They're customizable," Dharmaraja said in a press release. "They can accommodate users whose fingers are small or large, those who type with fingers close together or far apart, even to allow a user to type on a tablet hanging around the neck with hands opposed as if playing a clarinet."

It's still in the prototype stage but, if it is able to be brought to market, it could be "a real step forward for the blind," said Professor Charbel Farhat, executive director of the summer program. "No standard Braille writer can do this." [Phyorg]

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The Samsung Windows 8 Tablet Appears [Tablets]

Hey, look, it's Samsung's rumored Windows 8 tablet, appearing in a box before it's announced. The word on the cyber street is that this thing packs quad-cores, but we'll find out soon. Shocker: it looks kinda like an iPad!

The spy shot surfaced on Chinese Twitter clone Weibo, and looks legitimate enough, with the expected Microsoft and Samsung packaging. There's really nothing else we can surmise from this, other than the fact that it's a Samsung tablet running Microsoft software, and it has a screen. And it'll come in a box. The bezel does look a bit thick though. More details we get 'em from somewhere better than a Chinese Twitter clone. [BGR via This Is My Next]

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Archos' G9 Android Tablets Have Superfast Processors and... Hard Drives? [Android]

Archos Android tablets. Typically considered also-rans, but these things do have a 1.5GHz dual-core processor and up to 250GB harddrives.

UPDATE: Archos accidentally sent us a lot of incorrect info on these. Pardon all of the corrections.

The 10-inch G9 "Turbo" are each is packing Texas Instruments 1.5 GHz dual-core OMAP 4 processor, and Archos claims that will make page loading 50 percent faster than competitors tablets (which typically run 1GHz dual-core Nvidia processors). I cannot wait to find out if that's actually true. The 8-inch model also use a dual-core TI OMAP 4, but it will only be clocked to 1GHz.

The biggest point of differentiation is that these guys have the option of gargantuan 250GB harddrives from Seagate. While that's eight times more storage than the more common 32GB tabs, something important to keep in mind is that this isn't SSD, it's a regular old spinning harddrive. Spinning harddrives are bigger, heavier, more fragile, and way more energy-hungry. Not only that, they're slower. Will the spinning harddrive totally hamstring the superfast processor? (To be clear, both tablets come standard with 16GB of flash memory. These larger options are optional with additional cost.) Archos claims that these Seagate drives' special "4GB flash caching system" will make it just as fast as flash. Right. They also note that these drives will spin up only when in use, so it's likely that these tablets contain enough flash storage to run the OS and probably all of your apps, and the 250GB would just be used for storing media.

The G9 80 has an 8-inch, 1024 x 768 4:3 screen, similar to the iPad, aiming more at e-book readers. The G9 101 has a 10.1-inch, 1280 x 800 16:10 screen, similar to other widescreen Android tablets, emphasizing video and multimedia. Both tablets have enhanced video players (more codecs for you sneaky torrenters) and HDMI out, and you should be able to cram 50 hours of 1080p video onto those harddrives. They're both Wi-Fi only out of the box, but you can drop 50 bucks and get an Archos 3G USB dongle, if you so desire. They both run Android 3.2 Honeycomb without any kind of skin.

These suckers are starting at priced to sell at $279 $299 for the eight-incher and $349 $399 for the tenner. Options are the 16GB solid state vs. the 250GB HD, and you can chose to upgrade to a 1.5GHz processor in the 8-inch model, too (see updated price breakdown below). My biggest reservation is the spinning harddrive they've put in these things. While that kind of capacity is neat, do we really need it in a tablet? Further, tablets are portable devices and most standard harddrives don't like to be moved while they're spinning, plus there's heat and energy consumption to think about. Regardless, I like seeing manufacturers differentiating themselves by their hardware, and not by putting a crappy overlay over Android. They will both be available in late September.

Updated pricing breakdown:
• ARCHOS 80 G9 8GB – 1 GHZ at $299
• ARCHOS 80 G9 16GB - 1.5 GHz at $329
• ARCHOS 80 G9 250GB – 1.5 GHz at $369
• ARCHOS 101 G9 16GB – 1.5 GHz at $399
• ARCHOS 101 G9 250GB – 1.5 GHz at $469

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Pixely 90s Computer Cursors Make for Retro-Wonderful Tablet Styluses [Tablets]

There was a lot of charm to the bygone experience of using a computer in the 90s; I remember the nuances of my modem's soothing screech better than the hook from "I Want It That Way" (which is reallyreallyreally well). And the goofy pointer finger cursor was so wonderful that this novelty cursor tablet stylus is actually kind of tempting.

The Big Big Cursor and Big Big Arrow styluses have rubber tips that are apparently fairly accurate, and can glide for scrolling and drawing. But let's face it, if you're buying this thing, it's not for functionality; it's to be the quirky guy in class taking notes on an iPad with a little white finger. The Arrow and Cursor are $13 each and available now. [Big Big Cursor via Wired]

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Mozilla Brings the Best of Honeycomb to Firefox for Tablets [Internet]

Mozilla released a sneak peak at Firefox for Tablets today, a version of the popular web browser built on the Firefox Mobile engine but optimized for a tablet's roomier screen.

As we can see from the screen shots, tabs will now either appear along the left or top of the screen—depending on its orientation. Yes, it looks like Android 3.0, likely because Mozilla drew inspiration from Honeycomb's design language. But, Android influence aside, Firefox's trademark elements like the large Back button and unique tab shape be included. [Firefox for Tablets via Mashable]

A closeup of the design details

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The HTC Jetstream Tablet Is AT&T's First Tablet with 4G LTE [Tablets]

The HTC Jetstream, formerly known as the Puccini, is headed to AT&T on September 4th. It's running Android 3.1 on a 10.1-inch screen (nice!) and will be AT&T's first tablet with real 4G LTE (really nice!). For some reason though, it's going to cost $700 (ugh).

Not only that, the HTC Jetstream is "discounted" to $700 only after you sign up for a 2-year contract that requires a new $35/monthly plan that gives you 3GB worth of data to play around with. AT&T hasn't mentioned how much it'll cost without that $35/month plan.

Other specs of the Jetstream include a Snapdragon 1.5GHz dual core processor, front-facing camera, 8-megapixel rear camera, HTC scribe stylus pen (included for free for a limited time) and HTC Sense running on top of Android 3.1. Everything sounds so good but the price hurts so bad. [AT&T]

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