February 23, 2012

Google Glasses : A Prescription for Disaster


Google’s augmented reality glasses are said to look a lot like the Thump MP3 player glasses from Oakley.
If bad cell phone etiquette annoys you, then Google goggles might just put you over the edge. Within the blink of eye, tilt of the head, a wireless connection to the Internet, and a pair of Google Android-based goggles your know-it-all friend is guaranteed to drive you crazy with random facts over coffee or movie trivia (compliments of IMDB) at the Cineplex.
Google will debut digital glasses by the end of the year, according to the New York Times. That’s right: Android-based lenses overlaying your world with information like maps and data. We all knew this augmented reality product was eventually coming, but it is now looking literally like a disaster (or more) waiting to happen.

How They Work

Here's how you MIGHT look in the Google glasses....We’ll apparently pay between $250 and $600 for glasses with one computerized lens, PCWorld’s Daniel Ionescu noted earlier Wednesday. The lens will be a contextual heads-up display that can tell you, for instance, how far you are from your destination. They aren't designed for continuous wear, however.
Like Android phones, these goggles will be licensed to third-party companies and will use a 3G or 4G connection to download data. And how will you control the menus? By nodding and bobbing your head.
Watch out for that tree!
Early reports say that the glasses aren’t designed for everyday wear, but that’s akin to saying that smartphones aren’t meant to be carried all day or home computers were only for certain tasks--before we carried our smartphones all day and used home computers for most tasks. I doubt that Apple planned on people texting while walking, either.
Glasses are actually the final piece to Google’s mission: To know what a user doing every single moment of the day. The search giant already is unifying some 60-odd products into one log-in for continuous online tracking. And, as we reported last week, it’s enticing you to use Google to come up with those web passwords.
Yeah, the digital glasses will be pretty strange and, at worse, pretty dangerous. Here are the very likely problems with Google’s ambitious product.
Google’s power, however, comes from knowing everything you do online. By wearing Android-powered glasses, you’re giving Google unprecedented access to:
  • Your location at all times
  • Your most common interactions
  • Your closest companions through facial recognition
  • Your eating, shopping, and traveling habits
Remember the fiasco with the Google van snooping on people’s Wi-Fi? You can imagine us having that same conversation about Google recording our movements, our moments, and our life without permission.

Grand Theft Sunglasses

As some commenters have pointed out, glasses theft could definitely rise once these expensive specs come out. If so, that might parallel the high number of iPod and iPhone thefts that occurred when those technologies first arrived.
Worse, imagine being the boy or girl at school with computerized lenses. Aren’t four-eyed school kids getting harassed enough without wearing Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge eyewear?

Coupons 24 hours a day--Now in Your Eyes!

It’s all about location, location, location, and Google's goggles will have a direct bead on you 24 hours a day. On one end are Groupon, Living Social, and other mass-coupon services, and on the other are FourSquare, Gowalla, and other check-in companies. Google jumped into the middle of the fight last year with its Google Coupons app and, more recently, with Google Latitude check-ins.
Both Google Coupons and Google Latitude aren’t making much of a dent in the competition, but having tracking data on users 24/7 would be a huge coup for both services. It would be automatic check-ins, pushed suggestions, and coupons. Lots and lots of coupons.
It’s easy to picture a major food chain, like McDonald’s-owned Chipotle, paying for a top spot on your eyeglasses, kind of like an ad on Google search.
The message could offer you a coupon every time a Chipotle restaurant is within a mile radius (which, at least in my neighborhood, is often). The Times estimates that the glasses will be priced like high-end smartphones, so you can bet that cheaper, subsidized goggles will come along for those willing to see tons of ads throughout each and every day.

February 22, 2012

LG Optimus 3D Cube


The next generation of 3D smartphones has begun to drop here just one year after we first saw similar devices drop at Mobile World Congress 2011. It appears that LG will be the first big manufacturer to come back swinging with a new Optimus 3D, this time called the LG Optimus 3D Cube complete with 3D video editing. At the moment it appears that this device is only set to be released in Korea, but afterwards we can expect this handset to hit at least one carrier here in the United States – bet on it!
This device continues the trend of adding more and more letters to the name of a device in order to make it seem more awesome, this time actually improving the specifications along with the name though as well. What we’ve got here is a massive 4.3-inch IPS display for brightness and beastly sharpness, a dual-core 1.2GHz processor from what we must assume is Texas Instruments OMAP line once again, and a very similar shape to the last Optimus 3D model all around.
This time around though the device is much thinner than before, it measuring in at a tiny 126.8 x 67.4 x 9.6 mm, this including an NFC chip as well. This device is coming with Android 2.3 Gingerbread with no word on a timeframe for Ice Cream Sandwich and does include a custom user interface like the first 3D model from LG with lovely 3D glasses-free excellence across the display.
This device also works with the awesome LG Tag system which allows you to make groupings of settings then attach those settings to an NFC-activated label. You can then switch the way your phone looks and acts by simply placing it near the card with the NFC tag in it whenever you wish. In addition, the LG Optimus 3D Cube has full 3D video editing software as well as a 3D mapping application right out of the box.
Source:http://www.slashgear.com

February 17, 2012

Best features of OS X Mountain Lion



RemindersReminders is a new dedicated app in Mountain Lion that looks just like the iOS 5 app. A relatively bare-bones app, it lets you record reminders, to-do lists, grocery lists, and the like. You can set a reminder date, change priorities, shuttle information within lists, and sort tasks by date. Reminders seamlessly syncs between iOS, Google, and Yahoo Calendar, as well as the other OSX apps. This is a straightforward program, but once used, if you lose the capability you will miss it.

NotesAll operating systems for personal computing have some form of note-taking app, however crude. Apple has again lifted their Notes app directly from another Apple product, this time the iPad Notes app.
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Using Notes in OSX is straightforward - a click opens a note, while a double click opens a note in a standalone window which stays open even when you quit Notes. The standalone window can be set to stay on top of the screen stack.

Notes has flexible formatting choices, and also allows you to insert inline images and links. Your notes sync automatically with iCloud, and Notes can also be set up to also sync with Gmail, Yahoo, and other services that support notes.

NotificationsIt took what seemed like a lifetime to get a Notification Center onto iOS, and now here comes one for OS X Mountain Lion as well. It will work in a similar manner to its mobile counterpart with notifications being linked to their corresponding application: Click on it, the app opens and you can take care of whatever it is you need to look at. The notifications are said to only appear on screen for a brief time to minimize how much they intrude on whatever else you may be doing.

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Twitter IntegrationApple has integrated Twitter into OS X Mountain Lion, the next-generation operating system for Macs announced Thursday and slated for summer release. The decision has profound implications for Twitter and will, should recent history repeat itself, help it dramatically increase signups and tweet volume across the world.

Twitter will be baked into the new Mac operating system in much the same way that is weaved into the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad experience today.

After signing into Twitter once, members can tweet links, photos, and content from the share button built into Apple’s Safari, Notes, Reminders, Photo Booth, and iPhone apps, and from third-party apps that update to support the integration. Twitterers will also receive notifications for Twitter mentions and direct messages on the desktop, and notifications will appear in the new Mountain Lion Notification Center.

iCloud integrationOne of the major new features in OS X Mountain Lion is greater integration with iCloud, with one of the additions being new Documents in the Cloud functionality. As noted by John Gruber, the feature expands significantly on the existing feature that allows limited syncing and transfer of iWork documents across their iOS devices and Macs.

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Apple is of course already extending this functionality beyond iWork in OS X Mountain Lion, with the iCloud file storage showing up in other apps such as TextEdit. Apple is also releasing APIs to allow third-party apps to take advantage of the feature.

The functionality is naturally being compared to that of Dropbox, which allows users to save files directly to their Dropbox accounts for access anywhere, but Apple's new iCloud solution offers the advantage of displaying only those files intended for use with the app being used, helping to filter the list of documents and offering iOS-like folder organization of files.

Game CenterThe true purpose of most computers is, of course, testing one's skills in any one of a number of directions by playing games.

Apple reports that their social gaming network has over 100 million registered users who are provided with access to some 20,000 Game Center-enabled games. This community is only expected to grow now that the MacBook is getting Game Center support. MacBook gamers will now be able to find new games and challenge friends to play live multiplayer games, whether they're on a Mac, iPhone, iPad or iPod touch.

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With the Game Kit APIs tapping into the same services as Game Center on iOS, developers will be able to create multiplayer games that work across Mac, iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. Expect mass porting of iOS games to Mountain Lion this year.

Share SheetsApple deeply integrated Twitter tools into iOS 5, and now it’s carrying that thinking over to Mac OS X. While Twitter won’t be the only sharing tool getting some love in the new “Share Sheets,” you will find lots of ways to share information in just about every Mac OS X Mountain Lion app. You can post images to Flickr, send videos to Vimeo or share Web pages from Safari with ease from here on out.

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AirPlay MirroringConnecting your computer to a TV has been a nightmare in the past, usually involving a mess of cables. iOS 5 simplified that process for those who use Apple’s mobile devices, and now it’s coming to the Macs as well. You’ll now be able to project your computer’s desktop to a TV connected to an Apple TV and you’re off to the races. Whether it be wanting to use a gigantic monitor, showing a presentation in Keynote or sharing a family vacation video, a lot of the work will now be removed from getting that content and information to the TV screen.

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Unified software update into Mac App StoreWhere one would normally hit “Software Update” from the Apple logo to update their machine with bug fixes, software updates, and even entire operating systems, the Mac App Store will become the central hub to all necessary updates.

The Mac App Store, introduced when the recently announced operating system’s predecessor ‘Lion’ was first thrust into the media limelight, was reserved for Apple products and third-party developer applications. It was in effect what iTunes was for music, but for applications and games.

GatekeeperOS X, like most of the Mac operating systems, has a reputation for being resistant to malware, viruses, worms, Trojans, backdoors, keyloggers, and the like. This resistance is partly due to program security, and partly due to the limited use of OS X compared to larger-scale targets - ie. Windows. However, Apple does take security concerns seriously. In adding Gatekeeper to Mountain Lion, Apple allows users to restrict the downloading and executing of unvetted apps.
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There are three levels of security. The strongest is to allow access only to apps obtained from the Mac App Store. The next level limits access to the Mac App Store and the apps of vetted developers. The lowest level is essentially no added security, allowing apps to be downloaded from anywhere. Gatekeeper is still being tweaked to make it easy for users to understand and use without simply accepting the default settings.

What (or who) is a vetted developer? Called an "identified" developer by Apple, such a person simply has to sign up as a Mac app developer and pay a fee of US$99 per year. The apps of an identified developer are not screened or tested by Apple, so the additional security amounts to knowing that Apple will pull the credentials of a developer who issues bad apps,

Will Apple do this on the first bad app? Will they require a pattern of bad apps? Will requirements differ for major app developers as compared to a one-off developer? These and other questions concerning how Apple will control Gatekeeper's access to apps are somewhat controversial, and will in the end determine if Gatekeeper is a benefit or a detriment to OSX.

Other new features in OSX Mountain Lion include a Chinese language GUI, a search/URL bar for internet searches, similar to that found in Google Chrome, a VIP mail area for your favorite contacts, similar to Priority Inbox in Gmail, and a Re-open windows setting for Shutdown and Restart commands.

The operating speed of Lion and Mountain Lion are reported to be equivalent, but startup and shutdown speeds of Mountain Lion are currently considerably slower than those of Lion. This difference may reflect the beta status of Mountain Lion. Battery life is the same with the two OSX versions.

In summary, Mountain Lion is an incremental evolution of Lion, rather than an OS as different as Windows 8 will be compared to Windows 7. Apple has shipped some 20 million copies of Lion, many of which will probably be upgraded in turn to Mountain Lion, at a very low price point


Apple released a preview version of its new Macintosh operating system on Thursday, bringing some features of the iPad to the personal computer.

The Cupertino, California-based company said the updated operating system, called Mountain Lion, will be 
available to Macintosh developers immediately and Mac owners can upgrade to the new software in late summer.

Some of the highlighted features of the upcoming OS X Mountain Lion are -

MessagesMessages is a little like iChat, but it lets you send messages to iOS devices via iMessage, and if you have Mac OS X 10.7.3 on your computer, you can actually start using the Messages beta today. Just download it, install it, and start keeping your messages in sync across all your Apple devices.

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Kindle Fire Vs. iPad 2: Tablet Troubles

FixYa, a troubleshooting community website, has compiled an index of the most prevalent issues reported by users of Amazon's Kindle Fire and Apple's iPad 2.
Whether issues identified affect 1 in 100, 1 in 1,000, or 1 in a 1,000,000 iPad or Kindle buyers isn't clear. A spokesperson for FixYa said that its report doesn't try to make that determination.

But there may be some value in the FixYa's Tablet Index nonetheless, to give potential device buyers a sense of the most commonly reported problems. The company claims that its index was generated from tens of thousands of issues posted to the community Q&A site.
[ Apple's keeping specs on its upcoming iPad 3 close at hand. Read iPad 3: 9 Things We Really Want. ]
In general, the iPad 2 comes out ahead of the Kindle, which perhaps should be expected given the price differential. The iPad 2 starts at $499 while the Kindle Fire sells for $199. There is some truth to the notion that you get what you pay for.
FixYa says that the Kindle is plagued by more problems and is less secure than the iPad 2, due to lack of password protection. The company notes that Wi-Fi connectivity can be a problem for both devices, but more so for the Kindle Fire. The iPad 2 is more customizable than the Kindle Fire but buying things is easier on the Kindle Fire (that includes inadvertent purchases, which presumably isn't desirable).
For the Kindle Fire, the top complains are as follows:
Can't Turn Off One-Click Shopping (30%)
Why is this not surprising? FixYa says there's not much one can do to get around this other than setting up a Wi-Fi network password. Amazon is said to be working on a fix.
Wi-Fi Connection Issues (25%)
FixYa says this is a significant problem, given that the Kindle doesn't have a cellular connectivity option. The report suggests upgrading Kindle's software to Version 6.1 or 6.2, resetting one's router before logging on, and setting up a static IP address for one's Kindle Fire through the Advanced Settings menu.
No Parental Settings (15%)
FixYa again suggests setting a Wi-Fi password to deny network access to children and also advises parents to be more careful about leaving their Kindle Fire tablets lying around the house. Promises of punitive action may also have the desired effect.
Touch Troubles (15%)
Dissatisfaction with the precision of the Kindle Fire's registration of touch events also represented 15% of complaints.
USB Issues (10%)
About a tenth of the complaints had to do with trouble users had connecting their Kindle Fire tablets to their computers. FixYa suggests trying a different USB port--keyboard USB ports can be flaky or may lack power--or resetting the Kindle Fire or restarting the computer with the Kindle Fire attached.
Users of the iPad reported a different set of problems:
Wi-Fi Connection Issues (35%)
Like Kindle Fire owners, iPad owners report occasional Wi-Fi problems. While it could argued that this is a user problem rather than a technical flaw, FixYa offers some common remedies: turning Wi-Fi off and then on again; renewing the device's DHCP lease; selecting "Forget This Network" in the Wi-Fi Networks settings panel and then reconnecting; and selecting "Reset Network Settings" from the General>Reset settings panel.
LED Display Issues (15%)
FixYa suggests that while this is a hardware issue, users can minimize backlight bleeding by selecting a screen brightness appropriate for the lighting in their environment.
Microphone Quality (15%)
Complaints about the iPad's microphone can be found in Apple's support forums and have been documented elsewhere. Possible fixes: Hope your iPad 2 doesn't have this problem or wait for the iPad 3, which should be along shortly.
USB Issues (10%)
As with the Kindle Fire, USB connections aren't as reliable as one might hope. Powering devices off and on and plugging cables into a different USB port, preferably one with power, may be your best bet.
Screen Issues (10%)
iPads sometimes have screen problems. Not a lot, or Apple wouldn't have sold so many iPads. But for those unlucky enough to have received a bad unit, the Apple Store is your best bet. Screens and display electronics are not easy-to-fix components. 

February 14, 2012

Touchscreen that works inside your pockets


Researchers have developed a prototype for a touchscreen that can allow its users to send text messages even when it is kept inside a jacket or pants pocket.
The stealthy screen works when it is touched through the fabric, whether it is silk, cotton or even thick fleece, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
In classes or meetings of the future, with your hands tucked underneath the conference table or desk, the user may rest a fingertip tactfully on the pocket that holds the touch screen and handle a call by tracing a message like “Running late. In a mtg.” on the fabric above the hidden screen.
The touch screen will comprehend the message - it has a program to decode handwriting, even of the scrawling sort.
So even while a person is writing on his pocket, he can maintain polite eye contact with the group, no longer betrayed by those telltale downward gazes necessary to text with a standard screen.
The technology, called PocketTouch, is the brainchild of Microsoft researchers Scott Saponas and Hrvoje Benko with Chris Harrison, a PhD student at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
The prototype uses sensors similar to those used in most touch screens, and is mounted on the back of a smartphone case.
“There are a lot of situations where this technology could be useful,” said Jeffrey Bigham, an assistant professor in the computer science department at the University of Rochester, who chaired a conference panel on computer user interfaces where PocketTouch was demonstrated.
“It’s a way to send short messages when it is not socially appropriate to fish out your device,” he said, or in many other instances when people simply don''t want to go to the trouble of removing a device from a pocket.
“Most touch screens are calibrated in a static way, only responding to direct touch with a finger, and rejecting a slightly different signal,” Benko added.
On the contrary, PocketTouch calibrates continuously, adapting to different kinds of fabrics.
source: The Times of India

February 2, 2012

Lenovo Thinkpad Tablet Review

           With their virtual keyboards and focus on media consumption, most tablets appeal more to couch-cruising consumers than professionals looking to get some work done. Built for productivity, the ThinkPad Tablet breaks the slate mold by providing first-rate digital pen support, business-friendly software, a durable design, and plentiful ports. With a starting price of Rs 22,500, Lenovo's first Think-branded Android slate isn't perfect, but it is the best content creation tablet on the market.


DesignThe ThinkPad Tablet incorporates the same raven-black aesthetic we've come to know and love in Lenovo's ThinkPad business notebooks. Made from Corning's scratch- and break-resistant Gorilla Glass, the glossy screen is surrounded by a thin black bezel emblazoned with light gray ThinkPad and Lenovo logos. At the bottom of the front bezel sit four physical buttons with functions like auto rotate on/off, web browser, back, and home. Too bad the buttons are stiff; we found them more difficult to press than we'd like.
The rubberized back and sides reminded us of the sleek sof-ttouch lids we've seen on notebooks like the ThinkPad T series. The back panel features a silver ThinkPad logo with a red light that illuminates whenever the tablet is in use. It's a nice touch.

At 10.3 x 7.2 x 0.6 inches and 1.6 pounds, the ThinkPad Tablet weighs the same as the Toshiba Thrive (1.6 pounds) and the Lenovo IdeaPad K1. However, both the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 (1.2 pounds, 0.34 inches thick) and the Apple's iPad 2 (1.3 pounds, 0.34 inches) are significantly lighter and thinner. Still, we like the solid feel of the ThinkPad Tablet, and it's easy to lean the device against your lap when taking notes with the included pen.

PortsThe ThinkPad Tablet has a broad selection of ports and slots. On the short bottom side of the chassis sit a headphone jack, mini HDMI out, microUSB, and docking station ports. Beneath a flap cover you'll find a full-size SD card reader and a SIM card slot (which only works on 3G versions of the device).

The long left side of the tablet houses a full-size USB port that you can use to attach a USB Flash drive, external hard drive, or keyboard/mouse. Lenovo's USB File Copy app allows you to transfer data between the tablet's internal storage and an external drive, but it doesn't let you perform other file management functions such as moving files within the storage system or launching installers and media files. You'll need to install a third-party app such as Astro File Manager for that.

Thankfully, the ThinkPad Tablet charges via a standard microUSB cable, not the docking connector. In our tests, the slate was able to sip some power from our desktop's USB port, but we recommend using the bundled AC adapter instead. Additionally, it was interesting to note that the mobile phones could easily be charged via USB using the tablet's full-sized USB ports.



Display and AudioThe 10.1-inch 1280 x 800 screen on the ThinkPad Tablet offered wide viewing angles and colorful, sharp images. When we played HD movie trailers, the picture seemed bright and colorful even at 90 degrees on either sides. Even at 40-percent brightness, colors remained vibrant.

We only wish the ThinkPad Tablet's audio quality matched its display. The single speaker is located on the bottom long side of the bezel where it's easy to obstruct with your finger or with your lap, making the sound even more faint.



We also don't recommend making video or audio calls without attaching headphones. When we tried conferencing with a friend on Google Talk, his voice was like a whisper.

Operating System and InterfaceThough the ThinkPad Tablet is powered by Android 3.1 Honeycomb, Lenovo has added a few unique features on top of Google's popular OS. Instead of the standard Tron-esque wallpaper, this slate has a default background showing a hand holding the Tablet's stylus. The back, home, and layers buttons have a more rounded shape than their stock Android counterparts.

Like the Lenovo IdeaPad K1, the ThinkPad Tablet has the Lenovo Launcher widget on its home screen. The Launcher has five "zones" -- Watch (default launches mSpot movies), Email (Gmail), Listen (Slacker), Read (Zinio magazine reader), and Web browser.

By tapping the settings wheel on the left side of the launcher, you can change where these zones take you and toggle Lenovo's update messages. Occassionally, we were annoyed by alerts telling us to purchase an explicit rap album from Amazon until we disabled the messages.

The ThinkPad Tablet also features Lenovo's App Wheel. Tap the wheel button in the status ribbon and, no matter where you are, a rotating wheel of thumbnail shortcuts to your favorite six apps appear on the right side of the screen. You can add or remove apps from this favorites list by hitting the +/- icon.

Lenovo's biggest improvement to Honeycomb is a subtle change to the recent apps menu, which allows you to close apps by hitting a little red X in the corner of their thumbnails. On other Android tablets, users must go into the settings menu or install third-party software to kill open programs.

Pen SupportThe ThinkPad Tablet's most compelling feature is its optional active stylus. It costs an additional $30, but is definitely worth the investment. Powered by N-trig's duo sense technology, the pressure-sensitive, single-button stylus allows you to hand-write notes, draw pictures, or simply tap your way around the operating system without using your finger.

We've seen N-trig's DuoSense pen technology on the HTC Flyer/EVO View 4G, but those devices suffered from a lack of palm rejection--leaning on the device while you wrote might cause you to hit the back button and lose your work--and their pens only worked in certain apps, not throughout the entire OS. Lenovo also includes a bay for storing the stylus in the side of the tablet when it's not in use.

MyScript Notes mobile allows you to take handwritten notes on a lined notepad background with the option of converting them to editable text. In our tests, the app's real-time OCR capability could convert printed notes with reasonable accuracy, even when someone with terrible handwriting was using the device. However, when we switched to cursive, the software recognized few of our letters.

If you disable the OCR function, MyScript Notes offers plenty of options for inserting and dealing with scribbled text and graphics. Circling an image or set of words allows you to export it or drag it around the page. You can also share your documents as e-mails or other apps that you have installed. Unfortunately, support for Word doc conversion isn't built in. Though you can export notes to any cloud storage service you have installed (ex: ArcSync), we'd also like to see Lenovo add support for automatic cloud syncing while you work.

Notes allows you to change the color of your pen and to choose from more than 20 OCR languages, but it leaves plenty of room for improvement. It lacks a search function for finding your notes, won't run in landscape mode, and it sometimes draws tiny lines or dots when you lean your palm on the screen to write. We also wish the software supported audio capture so we could record classes and meetings. We hope Lenovo will work with the vendor to improve this software, because it has so much potential.

If you want a drawing app or PDF annotator, you'll need to purchase and download them Google's Android Market or Lenovo's App Store.

KeyboardIn addition to the stock Android 3.2 keyboard, Lenovo includes the FlexT9 virtual keyboard and sets it as the default. FlexT9 has some intriguing features, including the ability to trace between letters (a la Swype) and to draw letters with the pen instead of typing. Unfortunately, the pen mode works so poorly we can't recommend it. Almost none of our drawn letters were accurately converted to ASCII text.

Much to its credit, the ThinkPad Tablet is one of the few slates to support haptic feedback. Both keyboards give you the option of enabling "vibrate on keypress" mode, which gives you a pleasant tactile feeling to confirm you've hit the correct key.

AppsIn addition to its security and manageability software, Lenovo includes a couple of other useful utilities for professionals and consumers alike. Lenovo PrinterShare makes it easy to print to your Wi-Fi-enabled or Cloud printer. Documents to Go lets you open MS Office files. OoVoo and Gtalk both enable video calling, though neither service worked well in our tests. Images were blocky and sound dropped frequently.

Lenovo Social Touch is a social feed/messaging app that allows you to see all your latest e-mails, calendar events, Twitter messages, and Facebook updates in a single feed that you can see in the app itself or as a desktop widget.

The ThinkPad Tablet also comes with entertainment apps such as mSpot movies (for renting and buying videos), Netflix, mSpot music for storing and accessing your music from the cloud, and Slacker online radio. Amazon Kindle lets you buy and read eBooks, and Zinio does the same for magazines. Bundled games include Angry Birds HD and a series of card games from Hardwood Games.

If you want more apps, the ThinkPad tablet includes Lenovo's App Shop in addition to Google's official Android Market. All apps in the App Shop have been carefully vetted by Lenovo, and enterprises can limit what apps their employees can download from the App Shop.

Security and ManageabilityThe ThinkPad Tablet provides a host of enterprise-friendly applications that are sure to please even the most demanding corporate IT manager. Lenovo's Mobility Manager allows your company's support techs to perform a host of management functions over the air, including remotely erasing the tablet, setting up encryption on the storage system, changing the password, and monitoring how many failed attempts someone has made to unlock the device.

Using third-party management software from LANDesk, IT managers can also restrict what apps a user can install. They can also set up a customized version of the Lenovo App Shop, which only shows corporate-approved apps for download.

Absolute Software's Computrace Persistence enables corporate IT to control a device remotely and is so secure that it remains intact even if a thief issues a factory reset.
Citrix Receiver is a client that allows users to securely access virtualized desktops and applications remotely. A 30-day trial of Mcafee Mobile Security protects against viruses and allows you to back up your data. ArcSync provides 4GB of free cloud storage and sync.

PerformanceWith its Nvidia Tegra 2 CPU and 1GB of RAM, the ThinkPad Tablet has the same specs as nearly every other Android Honeycomb tablet on the market today. The performance was generally good, whether we were playing HD videos, surfing the web, or navigating around the desktop. The integral MyScript Notes app was a bit slow to load, however, and we noticed occasional lag throughout our testing (as with all Android tablets).

Battery LifeThe Thinkpad tablet belted out about 8.5 hours of endurance, as marketed by the company. After playing with the device for more than four hours at various brightness levels with Wi-Fi on, we were down to 53 percent of capacity.

Accessories and ConfigurationsOur ThinkPad Tablet review configuration retails for Rs 47,000. For that price, you get the device with 32GB of storage plus the stylus, and an awesome USB keyboard neatly packed in a leather folio.

The Keyboard Folio Case provides an island-style keyboard. In our initial hands-on with the keyboard, it offered good tactile feedback. The keys are also larger than what you'll find on the Eee Pad Slider, and you get a tiny optical mouse for controlling the cursor along with two mouse buttons. However, the 1.4-pound weight of the keyboard case is heavier than the iPad 2.

If you're willing to live with less internal storage, you can get the 16GB version, though we highly recommend paying for the stylus and also the attached keyboard to extract the maximum potential out of this beautiful tablet.

VerdictLenovo's ThinkPad Tablet is the first Android device that really gives mobile professionals the tools they need to be productive along with the security IT departments demand. For those who need to edit documents and take notes, the tablet's pen support is invaluable and unmatched in the industry. This tablet's sturdy design also inspires confidence. The audio quality is lackluster, and we'd like to see features such as automatic cloud syncing added to the note-taking app, but overall this slate is worthy of the ThinkPad brand.



source:http://www.hindustantimes.com