Although it’s almost a given that the Apple iPad will sell well, there are still many complaints about the lack of various features such as multitasking (which might appear later this year), and the lack of flash support, pen input amongst other things. There are a number of alternatives out now or soon to be out though. CrunchGear put together a list of seven alternatives that are either available, or arriving this year sometime. There’s actually eight although Crunch Gear for legal reasons cannot specifically mention the JooJoo due to the Crunchpad/Fusion Garage break up late last year.

Rather than rehash the complete list here, I’ll just mention a few of my favourites which can be found below. [Read more…]

The FCC has taken a look at the JooJoo tablet and as well as giving it a thorough check over to make sure it complies with certain standards, they also have a picture of the inside as well as the details of what powers the device.

Just yesterday we heard about the JooJoo tablet getting a user interface makeover making it look a little bit more attractive to use. This new user interface mixed with the revealed hardware specs make it appear to be quite an impressive machine.

The JooJoo runs an NVIDIA Ion along with an Intel Atom N270 CPU. We also hear there is integrated 3G built in which was contrary to reports heard before. The worrying thing is that the JooJoo appears to run standard hardware and if not optimised just right, we could see that NVIDIA Ion chip suck a lot of power out of the battery making it a lot lower than it’s main competitor the Apple iPad (which just became available for pre-order in the last hour). [Read more…]

The pre-order day has finally arrived and Apple [AAPL]have now put the Apple iPad available in store ready for you to purchase although you’ll need to wait till April 3 to receive the product. April 3 is a Saturday, so Apple also point out that if you order online and your are doesn’t have Saturday deliveries then it will be delivered on Monday 5th April.

Both versions of the Apple iPad are available for pre-order in the US only although only the Wi-Fi model is shipping April 3 with the Wi-Fi+3G model shipping sometime late April.

As previously announced, prices start at $499 for the cheapest Wi-Fi model which has 16GB of flash memory. Each wi-fi model jumps up $100 a time making the 32GB model $599 and the 64GB model $699. [Read more…]

Today is March 12 and according to Apple [AAPL] it’s the day they start taking pre-orders for the Apple iPad in the US. After visiting the Apple site today the regular “We’ll be back soon.” was presented in the Apple Store indicating that Apple are in the process of updating to allow for Apple iPad preorders.

As well as the US store being down, other stores around the world are down. It isn’t known if just the iPad is going to be available for pre-order in the US, or perhaps if the other countries who are getting ready to sell the iPad are also able to pre-order. [Read more…]

The JooJoo was scheduled to launch a few weeks back originally set for an end of February launch. We then heard it was being pushed to late March. This extra month has given the JooJoo creators a chance to fix issues with the capacitive touchscreen as well as give the user interface a little overhaul.

Previously the user interface looked quite basic with line art covering a solid colour background. The new UI has been spruced up to give the icons a more rendered look along with wall paper that can be customised.

Gestures have also received a few changes with the JooJoo now using a swipe to access the home screen from what was previously a pinch gesture. [Read more…]

There doesn’t seem to be a week pass where a new netbook is announced, especially with the likes of ASUS launching new Eee PC’s every week it seems. Pioneer are now launching their DreamBook Lite which has a 12.1 inch screen and runs either a 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450 processor or a slightly faster Intel Atom N470 running at 1.83GHz.

The 12.1 inch screen is LED which we should see benefit from that in terms of a clearer image. For connectivity it has Wireless that can connect up to 802.11b/g/n networks as well as a bunch of ports on the side including USB 2.0 and a wired LAN port.

The DreamBook Lite comes with a 4 cell battery although if you go for the optional 6 cell battery the netbook can achieve about 10 hours of usage between charges. [Read more…]

After about 4 months of waiting, MSI have now started to ship the MSI Wind U230 that we mentioned back in November 2009. The new netbook computer comes running an AMD processor and has a 12.1 inch HD LCD display.

The new MSI Wind U230 was designed to replace the U210 netbook that MSI say was a favourite among MSI users.

The Wind U230 weighs 3.3 pounds and comes in two different variates. The first is the U230-033 with the other model being the U230-040. Each of the models ship with 2GB of DDR2 memory along with a 6 cell battery and for the OS, each run Windows 7 Home Premium. [Read more…]

Information has been found about the Dell Streak (previously called the Dell Mini 5). Although it has been called the Dell Streak, this could also be just an internal name given by Dell prior to launch.

The Streak has a 5 inch screen that has a WVGA resolution capable of displaying 800 x 480 pixels. A 5 megapixel camera with autofocus and a flash is also included along with a front facing camera allowing for video calls over Skype for example.

It appears from the image above that the Streak will come in a variety of colours as well as being able to use the Design Studio to get art work on the back cover too. [Read more…]

Lenovo are launching a new tablet style netbook that has a 10.1 inch capacitive touchscreen (multitouch). The screen can be rotated 180 degrees turning the device in to a tablet and then back to a netbook.

Inside an Intel Atom N450 CPU is found that is clocked at 1.66GHz. Memory wise it has 2GB of DDR2 RAM and for storage a 320GB hard drive. The graphics are provided by the regular onboard Intel GMA 3150 chipset.

All the usual connectivity can be found inside too which includes wireless networking that can connect up to 802.11b/g and n networks. Bluetooth 2.1+EDR can also be found inside. [Read more…]

MSI have announced another new notebook computer called the MSI X-Slim X360. Inside the X360 is a Core i5 CPU along with Intel Turbo Boost/Hyper-Threading technology. The notebook is capable of 9 hours of run time on a single charge.

The X-Slim notebook measures just 1 inch in thickness and has plenty of other features packed in too that includes 4GB of DDR3 memory a 13 inch 1366 x 768 pixel display. Options of 3 hard drives that come in capacities of 250GB, 320GB and 500GB. A memory card reader is included along with a couple of USB 2.0 ports. Outputs include a HDMI and VGA output.

For connectivity the MSI X360 has Wireless and Bluetooth 2.1. [Read more…]

Several HP netbooks have gone on sale over at Amazon today that see the various models dropping in price in some cases by over $100.

Included in the sale are eight variants of the HP Mini 210 series with a ninth being on sale which is the HP Mini 311. Although 8 different model variations are included in the sale, there isn’t much between them other than a bit more storage space and some have 802.11b/g while others also include wireless n. [Read more…]

ASUS are continuing to expand their Eee range of netbooks by launching the ASUS Eee 1005PR netbook. The 1005PR is based around the ASUS 1005PE and has a 10.1 inch LED backlit screen with a resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels. The netbook has a Broadcom BCM 70015 HD decoder built in allowing to to recreate HD content in 720p.

The 1005PR netbook is powered by an Intel Atom N450 processor. The netbook has 1GB of DDR2 memory built in that can be upgraded to 2GB if required. For storage it has a 250GB hard drive along with 500GB of ASUS online storage that can be utilised.

For connectivity it has 802.11b/g/n and Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR. In the bezel of the screen is a 0.3 megapixel camera. [Read more…]