Tag Archives: surprise

Dec 12

Facebook’s mobile surprise allays growth ...

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SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Facebook Inc grew mobile advertising revenue several times in the third quarter, a faster-than-expected pace that helped drive shares in the world’s No. 1 social network nearly 13 percent higher.

Facebook said on Tuesday that it now gets 14 percent of its advertising revenue from mobile ads, helping to reassure investors that the social network is beginning to figure out how to earn money off smartphone and tablet users.

Mobile ad revenues totaled roughly $150 million, up from an estimated $40 million to $50 million in the second quarter and almost nothing in the first.

“This certainly dispels the most bearish view, that Facebook couldn’t monetize people on phones or tablets,” said Colin Sebastian, an analyst with Robert Baird & Co.

“In about a six-month period they’ve actually started to generate decent revenues form their mobile applications,” Sebastian added, though he said Facebook still needs to show that its mobile ads can command the same rates as its traditional ads and that they can deliver results for marketers.

Mobile advertising has been among the key investor concerns hanging over Facebook, helping slash more than $40 billion off its market value since its May IPO. As its users increasingly access the social network with their smartphones, Facebook has struggled to transition its business to mobile devices.

The mobile ads helped reignite Facebook’s overall advertising business during the third quarter, following several consecutive quarters of slowing revenue growth that raised questions about Facebook’s long-term prospects.

Advertising revenue increased 36 percent to $1.09 billion, up from 28 percent growth in the second quarter. But revenue from its payments and other businesses increased just 13 percent to $176 million.

Mark Zuckerberg, the 28-year-old chief executive who created Facebook in his Harvard dorm room, said mobile was the “most misunderstood aspect” of the company and took issue with the “myth” that Facebook could not earn money on mobile.

“Over the long run we’re going to see more monetization per time spent on mobile than on desktop,” Zuckerberg said on a conference call with analysts on Tuesday.

The company’s shares leapt nearly 13 percent to $21.97 in after-hours trading on Tuesday.

Facebook said it had crossed the 1 billion threshold for monthly active users by September 30, of which 604 million were mobile users, a gain of 61 percent from a year earlier.

The shift to mobile has challenged many of the Web industry’s top companies. Google Inc is the No.1 provider of smartphone software with its Android operating system. But the company missed Wall Street’s revenue targets in the third quarter, with some analysts blaming the shortfall on its increasing reliance on lower-priced mobile ads.

Social game maker Zynga Inc, which announced layoffs of 5 percent of its staff on Tuesday, has suffered as it struggles to translate its hit games to mobile devices and as the use of its games on Facebook’s service declines.

NOT PLEASED WITH GAMING

Zynga’s woes were visible in Facebook’s results, with Facebook’s payments revenue from the maker of Farmville down 20 percent year on year.

Zuckerberg said he was not pleased with revenue from gaming, but said that beyond Zynga – which accounts for 7 percent of Facebook’s total revenue – the situation was brighter.

“The interesting thing is that the rest of the games ecosystem has actually been growing. Our monthly payments revenue from the rest of the ecosystem increased 40 percent over the past year, since payments has been adopted,” he said.

Zuckerberg also said Instagram, the photo-sharing app that Facebook acquired for roughly $750 million this year, now has 100 million users, up from 27 million when Facebook bought the company.

Facebook posted a net loss of $59 million or 2 cents a share in the three months ended September 30 after booking a big provision for income taxes. Excluding share-based compensation and income tax adjustments, it earned 12 cents a share, a penny higher than the average analyst expectation.

Facebook Finance Chief David Ebersman said the company would continue to invest aggressively during the fourth quarter, though the company did not provide a specific financial outlook, in keeping with its previous practice.

Ebersman said that the total number of ads that Facebook delivered in the third quarter increased 27 percent year-on-year and that the average price per ad increased 7 percent.

Facebook’s third-quarter mobile revenue marked a big jump from the second quarter, when Facebook said that it was generating more than $1 million a day from a new class of ads that appear in users’ newsfeeds. Facebook said that roughly half of that revenue was from mobile ads, suggesting that mobile advertising revenue totaled $45 million in the second quarter.

Stifel Nicolaus analyst Jordan Rohan said that Facebook’s mobile ad revenue was impressive, but said that Facebook needs to proceed carefully so as not to damage the user experience by overloading its service with too many ads.

And he said that Facebook’s desktop PC advertising business appeared to have shrunk by about $40 million from the second quarter. Rohan said he would rather see the desktop ad business remain stable as the mobile ad business grows.

Facebook’s third-quarter revenue of $1.26 billion was a hair above the average analyst expectation of $1.23 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

(Reporting by Alexei Oreskovic; Editing by Phil Berlowitz and Mark Bendeich)

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/facebooks-mobile-surprise-allays-growth-fears-014400877–finance.html

Aug 29

Dell Trips – DELL, HPQ, IBM, MSFT, ORCL ...

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by Callum Turcan – August 28, 2012 | Tickers: DELL, HPQ, IBM, MSFT, ORCL | 0 Comments

Callum is a member of the Motley Fool Blog Network — entries represent the personal opinions of our bloggers and are not formally edited.

Weakness in Sales

On Tuesday, August 21, Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) reported earnings that didn’t please investors. In afterhours Dell was down over 4%, and fell 5.35% the next day. so what happened? Second quarter earnings fell to $732 million ($0.42 a share) from $890 million ($0.48 a share) last year. Excluding one-time items, earnings came in at $0.50 a share, versus an expected $0.45 a share. that sounds like good news right? well, you can’t cost cut your way to profitability forever, and revenue declined to $14.5 billion for the quarter, less than the $14.6 billion expected. if you have been following the PC market, then this wouldn’t come as a surprise to you; consumer revenue fell 22% (year over year) to $2.6 billion as the PC market remains extremely weak. this is why Dell is trying to shift away from the PC market. now, the consumer side (PC and laptop) division of Dell is only about 20% of its total business. when the PC market is weak, all major PC manufactures from Dell to Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) “race to the bottom” with pricing, which eats into margins and sales. if Dell cuts prices by 10%, HP cuts them by 15%, and Acer cuts prices by 20% and so on and so forth. this is why both HP and Dell have been shifting their focus away from PC’s and into services, servers, software, and storage systems. IBM (NYSE: IBM) in late 2004 sold off its PC business to Lenovo Group Ltd in order to get out of the PC business. after the sale, IBM shifted towards more of a service based company like Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL), which has higher margins and “stickier revenue”, as it is a pain to switch to a different company. Both of these companies have been doing really well over the past several years, with Oracle shares up from $26 in the beginning of the year to almost $32 now, and with IBM rising from $184 in the beginning of the year to almost $199 now. to put this in perspective, Dell’s stock has fallen from $15 to $11.25, and HP has fallen from $26 to $17.60 in that same time period. My point is that the more service based companies like IBM and Oracle are doing well, while the more hardware based companies like Dell and HP are getting hit hard. a bright spot with Dell was in its enterprise services and solutions division, which saw sales up 6% to $4.9 billion. While I am well aware both Dell and HP are aggressively shifting away from the PC market, they still have a large part of their revenue coming from the hardware sector.

Moving Forward

What also really hurt Dell’s stock price was its forecast. back in February, Dell’s management forecasted earnings per share of $2.13 for the 2013 fiscal year, but that has now since been pushed down to $1.70, which is 20 cents less than the average estimates from analysts. one discrepancy I saw was how Main Street views Dell versus Wall Street. On the Motley Fool’s Caps website Dell gets a rating of 2 out of 5 stars (which points towards an underperform going forward), yet on Marketwatch.com the average recommendation is for an outperform, so Wall Street and Main Street seem to differ on their views of Dell. if you are a Dell shareholder, in the short term one thing you should watch out for is analyst downgrades. before earnings Wall Street was already guessing that Dell was going to release weak earnings. now that those earnings were even weaker than expected and Dell’s forecast came in well below expectations, expect several downgrades going forward. now, if you are bullish on Dell but haven’t bought in yet or plan on buying more shares, wait for these downgrades and the ensuing drop in Dell’s stock price before you get in. no reason to buy high and wait for a turnaround play when you can maximize your returns and buy in lower. In July Dell agreed to buy this company called Quest for $2.4 billion, which makes software that helps corporations manage their computer systems. this helps show investors that Dell is serious about moving into the very profitable services sector.

Tablets and PC’s

Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ: MSFT) said that Dell is going to be one of several companies that are going to manufacture their own tablets and run them on Windows 8, which was designed for tablets. Dell predicts PC growth will be very weak for the next 3 years as tablets and smartphones continue to eat up consumers dollars for electronics. currently Dell is selling the Dell Streak 7 Wi-Fi tablet, which runs on Google’s Android system. it didn’t get great reviews; on Amazon.com, it gets a 3 out of 5 star rating, and cnet.com gave it 3.5 out of 5 stars. its new tablet better be packing some serious punch, because so far reviews for Google Nexus 7 are very good, with the Nexus getting a 4.4 out of 5 star rating on Amazon.com, and cnet.com giving it 4 out of 5 stars. also, Amazon.com is expected to be released the Kindle Fire 2 this fall, which will further increase competition in the already ferociously competitive market. I wouldn’t bet on Dell doing very well in the tablet space, but on the plus side, it only has market share to gain. IDC, a 3rd party research firm, is expecting that total tablet sales will double from 107.4 million this year to 222.1 million in 2016. IDC earlier in the year expected the PC market to grow at a 5% clip, but now sees that coming in at a much lower pace of 0.9%. In IDC’s June 19 press release they stated that ”Windows 8 could help to reinvigorate a consumer market that has lost a degree of enthusiasm in recent years”, which is what is going to power the PC growth. Now personally I think tablets will sell much better than expected and that PC sales will remain weak until we see a pickup in the US labor market and global growth above 4%. plus, a big part of the PC markets success is based on how well consumers take to Microsoft’s revamped OS platform. If IDC is right, expect continued weakness in Dell’s PC business. 

Growth for Dell?



Where Dell is growing is in its server and networking business, which saw 14% growth. as I said before, their enterprise and solutions and server business saw 6% growth, and now is 1/3 of their total revenue, which is bigger than their consumer division. This is the division they have most of their focus on and several of their acquisitions helped them gain more ground in this space. In the second quarter, they closed the deal for both Wyse (cloud computing) and SonicWall (firewalls and cyber client protection). another big part of their growth comes from services, which “continues to deliver solid results. Business grew 3% to $2.1 billion driven by 7% growth in support and deployment and 35% growth in our security business. – our Services backlog increased 5% with balanced growth in contracted services and extended warranty” (from their earnings call transcript). Dell wants to be a one stop shop for companies and corporations, where you go to them for servers, cloud computing, security and other services, plus computers. Dell has been aggressively taking up market share in the server sector; last February Dell has 14.8% of the total market share, up from 13.1% a year ago, according to Gartner (another 3rd party research company). one of the reasons for this share grab was gains Dell had in the x86 processor market, where its share grew from 22.1% of total sales to 23.4% in a year. Watch Dell’s server division, it has room to grow and is doing very well. HP’s service division didn’t do so well in its latest quarter, so that is a little disconcerting. recently, Dell hired ex-HP executive Marius Haas as their next new president of enterprise solutions, replacing Brad Anderson, to try and spur more growth in this area. Marius has a fair amount of experience in this area, so it will be interesting what he brings to the table.

Catalyst?

One catalyst for Dell in their consumer division is the back to school shopping season. when people enter college, a lot of them need a PC or laptop nowadays. According to the US Census Bureau, “19.7 million – the projected number of students enrolled in the nation’s colleges and universities this fall. this is up from 14.4 million 20 years ago”. this is a very bullish trend, as more PC’s will need to be sold, because in 2010, 89% of students had a computer, with half of those less than a year old (from EDUCAUSE). In 2005, according to Market Data Retrieval, there were 14.2 million PC’s for classroom use, which is about 1 per 4 students, up sharply from the 1 per 63.5 students in the 1984-1985 school year, and a big improvement from 1 per 6.3 students in the 1997-1998 school year. if this trend continues, more students in K-12 will mean more PC’s need to be sold, just as more college students means more PC sales as well. While this is just a small part of Dell now, it could help the struggling PC market.

Final Thoughts

Dell is more than just a PC maker, it has a strong service sector, is doing well in the sever market, and is expanding its cloud services. many have the stigma around companies like HP and Dell that they are just hardware companies, when is reality they do much more than that. Dell will continue to diversify itself and try to “pull an IBM” and get a better footing in the very lucrative services market. the problem with the services market is getting the clients, but once you get the client, that’s very sticky revenue with high margins. Dell is a possible turn around play; now while there probably won’t be any significant improvement in the PC market, if they continue to expand their IT services, Dell could turn itself around and reserve its slide.

Dell Trips – DELL, HPQ, IBM, MSFT, ORCL – Foolish Blogging Network

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Aug 16

Motorola Xoom Android 4.1 Jelly Bean Update Starts ...

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The Motorola Xoom Android 4.1 Jelly Bean update has begun to roll out to owners just after the software reached the hands of soak testers.

We’ve heard from several Motorola Xoom owners who claim that Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is rolling out and this seems to be confirmed by numerous reports which claim the same thing.

As of right now, we’re unsure whether this is a full on roll out or if the update has hit a select group of people to start. Owners of the Wi-Fi Motorola Xoom should head into their device’s settings, go to the About section and check to see if an update is available.

If it is, owners will be prompted to install Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, Google’s latest piece of software and an update that just recently was unleashed to soak test members to ensure its stability.

Typically, updates roll out just a few days after hitting the hands of soak testers so it’s no surprise that we’re seeing the roll out this soon after.

The Motorola Xoom was one of the original batch of devices that were promised Android 4.1 Jelly Bean from Google. Remaining on the list are the Nexus S 4G on Sprint and both the Verizon Galaxy Nexus and the Sprint Galaxy Nexus.

We assume now that the Motorola Xoom, Nexus S, and Samsung Galaxy Nexus HSPA+ have gotten their upgrades to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, those devices should be next in line to see the new software.

Read: Verizon Galaxy Nexus still looking like Last Nexus to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.

Sprint and Verizon have not yet confirmed anything.

Android 4.1 Jelly Bean will bring a host of new features to users of the Xoom and other devices including Google Now, re-sizable widgets, customizable Notifications, offline Voice dictation and more.

Any other Xoom owners out there seeing the update?

Motorola Xoom Android 4.1 Jelly Bean Update Starts Rolling Out

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Jul 30

The Consumerist » Toshiba Thrive Tablet ...

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Alex writes that his five-month-old Toshiba Thrive tablet cracked, sort of under its own weight. Is that possible? maybe. stranger things have happened to electronics. But everyone he’s talked to at Toshiba doesn’t think so, and they’re acting like it was accidental damage.

I bought the Toshiba Thrive on 11/2011 and the screen cracked on04/2012 while I was holding the thing. I attached a picture of thecracked thrive and how I was holding it when it cracked. I didn’t dropthe thing and never tinkered with it. This tablet literally cracked inmy hand while I was about to put it down.

I called customer support and to now ones surprise they said theycouldn’t do anything. I spoke to a guy named “E” who was kind ofsnarky with me which I didn’t appreciate. I asked him if there wassomeone else I could talk to. he replied, “I could transfer you butthat person is just going to tell you they can’t do anything either”.

I called support and they told me they couldn’t do anything about it.I am pretty upset at this point and don’t know what to do. I thoughtyou guys would appreciate knowing this about the product.

That’s a scary thought. here are some places for Alex, and anyone else experiencing tech support stonewalling to get started:

  • Call back at a different time of day and try to get another representative. It’s amazing what a difference that can make.
  • Check with your credit card company to see if they have added warranty coverage. Assuming that you paid for the item with a credit card, that is.

The Consumerist » Toshiba Thrive Tablet Cracks While Being Held: Sorry, That’s Your Fault

Jul 29

Apple Developing iPad with Rear Touch Pad

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Patently Apple says:

“The applications cover new navigation and annotation modes that will assist readers working with electronic documents, digital books, newspapers and magazines. at the end of the day, it was quite the surprise to find these patent gems and for students and professionals who need to use annotation tools, this is going to be a huge leap forward for the iPad. It's the kind of tool that will help the iPad push further into the enterprise and beyond.”

Apple has been working on touch panels for the back of tablets since 2006, before the original iPad was even announced, according to a patent filing documenting the technology.

The diagrams filed by Apple show text being annotated by touch gestures to the back of what could be a future iPad, with the user's thumbs used to control the front screen.

Holding the current iPad in such a way might be difficult for users with small hands, so we think it's a technology that could been seen on a smaller iPad mini, if rumours of such a tablet being in development are to be believed.

As well as this innovative rear touchpad, Apple has recently been granted several patents on methods of annotation, and how it would work with the iPad operating system.

Comprehensive annotation of eBooks and magazines, as well as the ability to highlight, comment on and bookmark pages would be of most use in an education environment.

With schools and universities already investing in providing iPads to students, and iBooks Author giving publishers a free tool to create iPad textbooks, Apple looks to be targeting education more than ever, and improved annotation is just another step in that direction.

To report problems or to leave feedback about this article, e-mail: to contact the editor, e-mail:

Apple Developing iPad with Rear Touch Pad

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Jul 14

ARCHOS Arnova 8 G2 4GB (501834) – - Archos ...

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Product Description

ARNOVA introduces the new ARNOVA 8 G2. with its slim and lightweight design and its brilliant 8” screen (800×600 pixel), the ARNOVA 8 G2 is the perfect compromise to enjoy full HD videos and browse the web or read an ebook. This product will also surprise you with its performance. Extra powerful 1 GHz processor, Android Gingerbread, and front webcam, the ARNOVA 8 G2 brings all the features you will need for a daily use.Manufacturer: Archos TechnologyManufacturer Part Number: 501834Manufacturer Website Address: Brand name: ArnovaProduct Model: 8 G2Product name: 8 G2 Tablet ComputerProduct Type: Tablet ComputerProcessor Manufacturer: ARMProcessor Type: CortexProcessor Model: A8Processor Speed: 1 GHzProcessor Core: Single-core (1 Core)Memory Card Reader: YesFlash Memory Capacity: 4 GBOptical Drive Type: NoScreen Size: 8″Screen Mode: SVGADisplay Screen Type: Active Matrix TFT Color LCDAspect Rati

If you’re looking for top recommended ARCHOS Arnova 8 G2 4GB (501834) -, then ARCHOS Arnova 8 G2 4GB (501834) - is our suggestion. Many good reviews already proving the quality of this product. The ARCHOS Arnova 8 G2 4GB (501834) - completed with a lot of capabilities which makes it great product

ARCHOS Arnova 8 G2 4GB (501834) – - Archos Internet Tablets

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Jul 12

Motorola Xoom 4G and WiFi Versions Get Jelly Bean ...

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Since the Jelly Bean source code was released, developers have been head-over-heels trying to get Jelly Bean on their devices. The first releases will most likely be for devices running the pure Google experience. as the Motorola Xoom happens to be one of those devices, it’s no surprise the tablet was among the first to receive the goods.

Development team teameos has begun pumping out AOSP-built Jelly Bean nightly builds for the Motorola Xoom WiFi and 4G editions—also known as the Wingray and Stingray, respectively. Because they’re nightlies, teameos doesn’t provide a clear list of the features currently working. However, they do provide a change log of what they changed from day to day, so users can at least see what’s been fixed or what still needs fixed.

Depending on the changes the developers made that day, the performance and stability can change drastically from release to release. as some changes can be unstable and some can be stable, teameos gives the customary warning that a particular release may be less stable than an older release. Despite that, user reports have been overwhelmingly positive.

For additional information, download links and more, head to the Wingray thread or the Stingray thread.

[Thanks to XDA Portal Admin willverduzco for the image!]

Motorola Xoom 4G and WiFi Versions Get Jelly Bean Nightlies

Jul 07

AnandTech – Google Nexus 7 and Android ...

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The fact that Google launched a 7" tablet by ASUS isn't a particularly huge surprise, given that ASUS showed off the Eee Pad Memo back at CES. The story goes that Google liked that particular tablet so much, it became slotted in to become the first Nexus tablet, much to Samsung's chagrin. while there have been other "Google Experience" tablets before (for example the Motorola Xoom), there hasn't been a bona-fide Nexus tablet yet, and especially not one at an aggressive price point like this. For that, enter the Nexus 7.

The Nexus 7 comes with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean installed, which we're going over on the next page. It brings improvements to UI performance through Android 

Most important is the Nexus 7's price point, which up until now has largely been one of the main issues with Android tablets – price. It's fair to say that the Kindle fire has done a good job proving that there is indeed a market for lower cost, simplified tablets at an aggressive price point, and the Nexus 7 is Google's answer. Pricing for the Nexus 7 is $199 for the 8 GB model, and $249 for the 16 GB model. there aren't any other differences between the two, nor is there a model with cellular connectivity – this is strictly WiFi only, but again, this is a tablet for the masses without the carrier hurdle. 

ASUS Tablet Specification Comparison   ASUS Transformer Pad Infinity ASUS Transformer Pad 300 Series ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime ASUS Nexus 7 Dimensions 263 x 180.6 x 8.4mm 263 x 180.8 x 9.9mm 263 x 180.8 x 8.3mm 198.5 x 120 x 10.45mm Chassis Aluminum + Plastic RF Strip Plastic Aluminum Plastic + Rubber back display 10.1-inch 1920 x 1200 Super IPS+ 10.1-inch 1280 x 800 IPS 10.1-inch 1280 x 800 Super IPS+ 7" 1280 x 800 IPS Weight 594g 635g 586g 340 g Processor

1.6GHz NVIDIA Tegra 3 (T33 – 4 x Cortex A9)

NVIDIA Tegra 3 (T30L – 4 x Cortex A9)

1.3GHz NVIDIA Tegra 3 (T30 – 4 x Cortex A9) 1.3 GHz NVIDIA Tegra 3 (T30L – 4 x Cortex A9) Memory 1GB DDR3-1600 1GB 1GB 1 GB Storage 32/64GB + microSD slot 16GB/32GB + microSD slot 32GB/64GB + microSD slot 8 GB / 16 GB Battery 25Whr 22Whr 25Whr 16 Whr Pricing $499/$599 $379/$399 $499/$599 $199/$249

when you look at the above specs, it seems puzzling that ASUS was able to get the price down to $199 so effectively. Getting to that lower price point is easier with a few things – physically smaller device and display, exclusion of full size USB or other ports (there's only microUSB), no rear facing camera, and good commodity component sourcing. The added plus is that if you run 1280 x 800 at a smaller size, out comes a pretty high DPI panel at the same time. other than that though, you end up getting a device which is actually very impressive otherwise, with a quad core SoC and attractive form factor.

I like starting with physical impressions since it's the easy route, and so much of one's experience with a given device depends on that ever important in-hand feel. ASUS has taken an excellent direction here and made the back construction of the Nexus 7 a great textured rubber material. There's Nexus embossed in the top, and ASUS proudly at the bottom. Below that is a small notch for the speaker, which goes pretty loud. 

The power / lock and standby buttons get placed on the top right corner, and both microUSB and the headphone jack are located at the very bottom. there are also some pogo pins on the bottom left, just like the Galaxy Nexus. no doubt these will work with some future unannounced accessories.

The Nexus 7's construction is downright impressive. while I haven't been doing regular tablet reviews (that has become Anand's domain largely), I have handled a number of recent tablets big and small, and some feel downright cheap to me thanks to the back plastic. I would not have guessed that the Nexus 7 is a $199 device based on how it feels. There's no flex or creaking at all, it feels absolutely rigid. The tradeoff is that the Nexus 7 is slightly thicker than some other devices, at almost 10.5 mm (compared to 8.5 or 9), but that larger thickness also permits a bigger edge bevel radius. I feel that 7" is an ideal tablet form factor for me personally. 

so the next logical question is what performance is like on the Nexus 7. I asked around, did my own digging, and wound up confirming that what's inside the Nexus 7 is indeed a Tegra T30L SoC. this is a lower leakage / lower binning T30 that no doubt is offered at a cost advantage to ASUS – I was expecting a T30L inside and am wholly unsurprised to see one. The only difference is that CPU clocks are 1.15 GHz for all four cores at 100%, or 1.3 GHz on a single core. The GPU clock is also slightly lower at 416 MHz. The Nexus 7 also ships with 1 GB of RAM, and I'm pretty certain this is DDR2 at 500 MHz based on what I see from the digging I've done. 

I've borrowed Anand's TF700T review graphs and added data from the Nexus 7 that I hastily ran this afternoon. The results are in line with my expectations for T30L and other devices with T30L inside that we've already benchmarked. 

The Transformer Pad 300 uses the same T30L SoC as the Nexus 7, so it isn't surprising to see the two post numbers very close to each other in so many places. 

I should note on the browser synthetics that we're also talking about Chrome here, not "Browser" as the Nexus 7 is the first Android device to ship with Chrome as the default browser. in this case, that means there's no "browser" to be found anywhere on the device. You can still install Flash from the Play Store, it just doesn't do anything anymore.

Speaking of digging, I sent Francois Simond (@supercurio) a voodoo report from the Nexus 7, and he has graciously done a component analysis just like we've done with other devices in the past. there aren't too many surprises inside. WiFi and Bluetooth is courtesy the ever-ubiquitous BCM4330 module, which no doubt has gotten cheaper now that BCM4334 is out. The front facing camera is a Aptina MI 1040 1.3MP CMOS with 3.6µm pixels and 1/3" optical format. NFC comes courtesy a new NXP PN65 controller which is best I can tell a PN544 with embedded SE (secure element). 

The next question is what that display looks like. We've seen other lower cost tablets ship before, but usually the first thing that gets skimped on is the display. in the case of the Nexus 7, ASUS notes that the panel is an LED backlit IPS panel with 10 point multitouch and 400 nits maximum brightness. Resolution is of course WXGA (1280 x 800) at 7". if you do the math out, that's a pretty high PPI, and in person it looks great – I can't see pixels unless I look very closely. 

since I expected having to do something of a tablet review on this trip to Google I/O, I brought along my i1D2 colorimeter. I took measurements on the Nexus 7 using my normal workflow – a combination of Francois' Voodoo Screen Test Patterns and Color HCFR. 

Brightness falls a bit short of the advertised 400 nits at just 312 nits. I'm actually not sure whether there's some of Nvidia's Prism power saving tech going on here (there's no toggle anywhere for it), but that's as bright as I could get the Nexus 7 to go. Contrast on the other hand is pretty good, at 850, and blacks are very good at 0.37 nits. 

The rest of the display metrics are a bit interesting, with color temperature hovering around 5500K which is a bit warm for my taste, and gamma isn't flat over the grey scale either. What's really curious to me is that the greens seem undersaturated (the larger triangle is sRGB), which was my first impression on seeing the Nexus 7 while installing some apps from Google Play (which has lots of green). again I'm not sure whether this is some power saving Prism technique at work here. 

I feel like those metrics could mislead you into thinking the display is bad, on the contrary it's obvious this is an IPS panel based on the viewing angles, which are superb off axis in the horizontal and vertical. You just can't get away with putting a TN in a tablet because of how bad viewing angles are immediately visible on a big surface device like a tablet. The Nexus 7's IPS display is very contrasty and has a high enough PPI that I'm not wishing for higher resolution.

  Left – some bundled Google Play books, Right: Notice the new rotation lock toggle on the notification shade, and new style

Google is also doing something interesting with the Nexus 7 by bundling a $25 Play Store credit which pops up in your account after signing into your Google account for the first time. The strategy seems pretty obvious here – get Nexus 7 buyers to at least check out the Play stores. in addition, they've preloaded a number of books and videos which should bait users into at least checking out the respective Google Play applications. 

Honestly I think ASUS and Google have really done an excellent job here with the Nexus 7. The combination of a quad core SoC, IPS panel, solid construction, and the latest version of Android all for such a killer price point pretty much make it hard to really find any faults. sure, it'd be useful to have a full size USB host port, microSD slot (though no Nexus has shipped with one since Nexus S), 5 GHz WiFi (Nexus 7 is 2.4 GHz only), or cellular, but the tablet wouldn't be $199 anymore. I also really feel like the 7 inch diagonal form factor is an ideal one, and the Nexus 7 is quickly growing on me.

Update: I've had many emails and questions about whether USB-OTG (On The Go) is supported on the Nexus 7, and didn't touch on it when I originally hit publish becuause I wasn't entirely sure. I've now confirmed that USB-OTG is supported on the Nexus 7, and works on the current Android 4.1 non-final build that has been sampled. That's encouraging, and I'll test it myself when I get home and to my miniUSB OTG adapter.

Update 2: I've asked for further clarification about what USB-OTG functionality is supported. Using a mouse and keyboard will be supported, and I saw Google using an ethernet to USB adapter over USB-OTG as well. unfortunately I found out that mounting USB storage will not be supported natively. in addition MHL is not supported.

Now, what about Android 4.1?

AnandTech
– Google Nexus 7 and Android 4.1 – Mini Review

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Jun 27

Toshiba Developing Windows 8 Convertible Tablet

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While it was expected that Windows 8 would be the star attraction of Computex 2012, what did come as a surprise was the number of convertible tablets that manufacturers put up on display. Toshiba also has a convertible tablet to show off (predictably running Windows 8), joining others such as Acer, Asus, and Samsung.

Toshiba seems to be a little more secretive of its device. it is in no mood to reveal what is inside, though it resembles the Transformer Prime, in being attachable to a separate keyboard. The keyboard in turn houses a separate battery unit while also offering three USB ports as well as an HDMI slot. The keyboard is therefore not only serving as an input device but also a power source and connectivity hub.

Another tablet Toshiba displayed comes with a keyboard that is not removable but instead can be slid beneath the display. This reminds us of the Asus Eee Pad Slider and while the concept is good, the keyboard can add to the weight when the device is used purely in tablet mode.

However, while the device Toshiba introduced does not break any new ground, the company, for its part, said: “At this point, we will not be providing any additional information or specs on these products.”

via cnet

Toshiba Developing Windows 8 Convertible Tablet

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Jun 24

Windows Phone 8 Unveiled: Microsoft Modernizes Its ...

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It’s shaping up to be a huge week for Microsoft. on Monday, the company announced its Surface tablet platform at a hush-hush event in Los Angeles, and now Microsoft has unveiled Windows Phone 8 Apollo at its Windows Phone Summit in San Francisco.

Microsoft announced eight specific platform updates for its upcoming mobile OS. We’ve already covered one of the most consumer-facing updates, the new start Screen, but other changes include hardware-related features like multi-core processor and memory card support, a revamped Internet Explorer 10, shared native code between Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8, NFC support, a new Wallet hub, Nokia Maps, and Windows Phone 8 for business.

Many of these updates shouldn’t come as a surprise, considering all the leaks and reports that came out in February. nor was today’s announcement a full-fledged reveal like Apple’s iOS 6 presentation at WWDC. Microsoft says it will unveil more end-user features in the summer. but in the meantime, these platform updates are significant, and Microsoft had a lot to say about them.

Here’s a deeper dive into what we can expect from Windows Phone 8.

As suspected, Windows Phone 8 will support multi-core chips. It’s a move that will make Windows Phone more competitive with the iPhone and Android handsets, which have been able to check off multi-core support on their spec sheets for quite a while. when they launch, Windows Phone 8 devices will run on dual-core processors, specifically those from Qualcomm.

“The experience that people have had on a single-core will get much, much better as we move to dual-core,” Joe Belfiore, manager of the Windows Phone Program, said at the event.

Windows Phone 8 will also support three screen resolutions. (Windows Phone 7.5 supports just one.) The new screen resolutions include WVGA at 800×480 pixels and a 15:9 aspect ratio; WXGA at 1280×769 and 15:9; and 720p at 1280×720 at 16:9.

Rounding out the hardware story, Windows Phone 8 will support microSD card expansion. Hardware manufacturers can include a microSD slot for users to easily transfer information from device to device. “What this enables is that an end user can add a MicroSD card months after they’ve bought a phone and transfer information from PC to phone, and phone to phone,” Belfiore said. “We didn’t want to deliver this feature until we could do it where it’s easy to use.”

Microsoft showed off a new Internet Explorer browser for Windows Phone 8. The new IE 10 features Smart Screen, an anti-phishing filter that uses data from Windows PCs to block malicious websites in real time. Belfiore showed off how IE 10 can protect users who might fall victim to scam links sent via email.

IE 10 also receives a JavaScript update — JavaScript is now four times faster than the browser in Windows PHone 7.5, according to the company. There’s also twice as much HTML5 support.

How does mobile IE 10 compare to other mobile browsers? according to recent SunSpider scores that measures a browser’s JavaScript execution performance, IE 10 performed the best.

Windows Phone 8 will share native C and C++ code with Windows 8, making it easier for developers to create apps for both platforms. It’s not something that consumers will immediately notice when they use the OS, but Microsoft hopes native code support will lead to better, easier app development — and thus more quality apps in Windows Phone Marketplace.

“The biggest effect this will have is we’re going to see some freaking killer games this year,” Belfiore said.

At its developer summit, Microsoft continually hammered on how easy it will be for developers to port games from Windows 8 to Windows Phone 8, and vice versa. “Suddenly, with Windows Phone 8 with that shared core, taking an app from the PC to phone is very straightforward,” Belfiore said.

In essence, native code will enable developers to write high-performance code — which is why games are such a big deal — and drive hardware acceleration. “You’re going to see some beefy, powerful phones running some amazing games this year,” Belfiore said.

As suspected, Windows Phone 8 devices will support NFC sharing. NFC isn’t a totally new technology, but it’s far from ubiquitous, so it’s interesting to see Microsoft pushing it forward. Belfiore demoed how NFC would work in a Lexus advertisement with an embedded tag — he used the April issue of Wired magazine, actually: With a simple tap of his phone on top of the advertisement, he transferred product information directly to his Windows Phone.

Also, sharing isn’t limited to just phones. The new Microsoft platform supports NFC between phones, laptops, slates, and PCs. and NFC also has an important role in the next platform update….

Windows Phone 8 will feature a new Wallet hub where users can store their credit and debit card information, third-party loyalty and membership cards, and coupons and deals. It’s not unlike Apple’s iOS 6 Passbook app. but Windows Phone Wallet experience will also support NFC tap-to-pay.

Yes, it’s like Google Wallet, but with one fundamental difference. all of your credit and debit card information will be stored in a secure SIM card, not in an on-device system. Google Wallet is built directly into a device, making it impossible to move your Wallet info from one device to the next, but Windows Phone has opted for a more transition-friendly option.

Microsoft’s approach is also an experience that carriers prefer. but don’t get too excited just yet, as the NFC tap-to-pay capabilities won’t be coming to the United States until next year. At launch, the capability will be limited to the France-based Orange carrier. US Windows 8 consumers, however, will still be able to access the Wallet hub as their central location for cards, third-party services, and deals.

Say goodbye to Bing Maps. Windows Phone 8 maps will run on Nokia’s mapping technology, built directly into the onboard Maps app. There’s not too much news on this front, but this development isn’t surprising considering Microsoft and Nokia’s close ties. Some key features include: Global NAVTEQ map data, offline map support, turn-by-turn directions, and map control for developers. 3-D navigation didn’t make it.

Microsoft has always had a strong hold on the enterprise market with Windows, and now it’s taking all of that work and pulling it together with a business-friendly Windows Phone platform. Windows Phone 8 will come with a complete security platform with Secure Boot and encryption (which is a derivative of Windows Bitlocker). It’ll make app distribution and deployment flexible for business, offering up a mechanism for private distribution and full-on onsite management.

Businesses will also be able to manage Windows Phone 8 devices through a software management system. and finally, Windows Phone 8 will run the Microsoft Office suite — though we have yet to see how it will look in that mobile form.

Ah, the new start Screen. “It’s the sexiest thing in Windows Phone 8,” Belfiore said. and this should definitely the case for more visually motivated users. as we wrote in our story about the start Screen and current Windows Phone devices, the new start Screen is the most visible end-user feature of Windows Phone 8 (at least that’s been announced so far).

Microsoft has taken its Live Tiles and made them more customizable, bringing a new small size to the experience.

“These live tiles are the heart and soul of the Windows Phone,” Belfiore said. “We know that our users really love their phones, and we think the biggest reason is because Live Tiles make the phones so special and so personal.”

Users will be able to choose between a small, medium and large size for their Live Tiles. and now the entire screen is available for Live Tile pinning — the arrow and empty space on the right-hand side have dissapeared. To that end, users can pin more on their start Screen.

And of course, Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 are coming even closer together. as Microsoft said, they’re “better together.”

“The intent in our changing the Live Tiles support is not just to make Live Tiles more personal, but to give a more consistent experience between Windows 8 Live Tiles and Windows Phone 8 live tiles,” Belfiore said.

Windows Phone 8 Unveiled: Microsoft Modernizes Its Mobile OS

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