It will probably be over $1000, but this is a nice looking device by Toshiba called the Libretto W100. Unlike Samsung who is waiting for who-knows-what to post their own pages of their upcoming tablet, Toshiba is all over showing with official pictures and detailed information.
So what does the Libretto W100 have?
Dual 7″ Multi-touch screens
802.11 N Wi-Fi
Full Windows 7 Home Premium
Webcam
Lightweight at 1.5 lbs
Bluetooth Toshiba Bulletin Board software (for notes and organization)
The screens look quite beautiful, as expected from Toshiba. The video below demonstrates an ebook displaying on both sides. It’s the hinge that looks burly and engineered well. Let’s hope that fans of this device can get their hands on it. Once again I’m wishing if only it had a Pixel Qi screen. But it looks like it could make a nice companion device to have, more protected than an open tablet.
Things we wouldn’t know if it weren’t for Slashgear:
Pentium U5400 processor
62GB Solid State drive
2GB of DDR3 RAM
Battery Life
single USB 2.0 port
microSD card reader
built-in accelerometer
ReelTime document browsing software
The prototype or mockup video of the concept “Courier” impressed a lot of people when it was first leaked many months ago. Leaked is the wrong term. It was intentionally put out there. The video was way to polished to be for internal use only. It was created to get a sense of the buzz around the device. Smart idea actually. It got a lot of people talking.
Anyway, the Courier was to be a folding dual-screen tablet running a dead simple operating system, focused on content creation stuff like note-taking, journaling, planning and information gathering. It was a pen-usable tablet.
We hear from Gizmodo today that the courier project is now dead. Why would that be if so many people were interested? The Courier looked to be the anti-iPad. This was the tablet many were holding out for. It was for the student, the idea-person and the responsible spouse or employee in all of us.
My easy answer to the reason for deadness, battery life. I have no doubt in my mind that battery life is why product isn’t feasible now. Having 2 screens, you of course have a lot of power consumption right there, plus the touch input on both, and the video and information processing. This thing wouldn’t be able to be made at a reasonable price or weight either. And a device maker would be discouraged even more with $300 netbooks everywhere. Is this product impossible? No it’s very possible. A lighter operating system based on the WinCE kernel could be tied specifically to the Courier and run quite well. We’ll never know if that was the plan I guess.
Sadly (for Microsoft) the idea is out there for the taking by another company now. So if they want to return to the project later, it’s possible they are beaten by someone else. This is good for those of us who just want the tablet or reader that meets our needs. A smaller niche company can be more flexible with the solution, using a modded platform that might work perfectly, one that Microsoft would never think to touch.
For those of us who thought the Courier was their shining light, let’s see if the Notion Ink comes through to save the day, or maybe the HP Slate will surprise us. The last few months we’ve had too many heartbreaks. We deserve to have our day.
Update: The HP Windows 7 Slate was cancelled too, probably for good reason, (bulky Win7 OS). Now that HP has recently purchased Palm, they also own the Palm WebOS and will likely be using that for their slate tablet projects.
Ars Technica / Engadget have some leaked specs on the HP Slate Tablet coming out. If you haven’t heard much about this device, don’t feel bad. It was announced at CES, by Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer, but with no release date given and not more than a trickle of details until now. The device was already at the stage where the form factor was established though, and that was before any kind of iPad announcement. I say this because some critics see the device and scream “iPad copy!” but it’s just not that simple. You could say both devices copied the bezel of Sharp and other LCD TVs too. Black plastic, silver, aluminum, they’ve been done everywhere in many appliances, not just the iPhone ok!. /end rant
So back to the important stuff. The chart pulled from information from an HP internal meeting lists a 5+ hour battery. I’d REALLY like for it to be a true 8 hours and I think a lot of people will feel that way when they are shopping for these. Realistically, I can still use a device with 5 hours quite well. If I’m a full-time student in classes a lot of the day and wanting this to be my main input device, I’d be interested in knowing how I could supplement the power with device case / battery add-on. The iPad is over 10 hours with a 30 hour standby. That’s significant.
I like how it’s the HP Slate has full Windows 7, but I think that will only work for newcomers if this HP Touch UI overlay works REALLY well for basic tasks. Windows Media Center overlays are decent so if they went that direction I think people will like the experience.
This is a real computer. What do I mean by that? I mean it’s customizable to a certain degree. It will work without any kind of tether to an app store. If you have utility apps you like on your home PC, or things you program yourself you can use those with this device. It’s got a camera, USB port, HDMI out, nice storage specs at 32 and 64, plus an SD (High Capacity) card slot. Price is close to lower priced iPad at $550 and $600 with more features, but less battery life. It’s nice to have more information now about it.
HP video from January 2010 just after HP slate was revealed at CES
