CES 2012 and Device Rumours

This time of year is not about January sales, but CES in Vagas and the new electronic gadgets and devices on show or rumours afoot. This year may not be so exciting as previously, there are some very interesting developments.

Ultrabooks

There will be more tablets this year, but the question remains as to whether they are seriously going to compete with the iPad at the high end and the Kindle at the low end, or end up as RIM, holding the baby? Are the manufacturers going to avoid the tablet and concentrate on the ultrabooks? The ultra thin 'weightless' models that are now starting to flood into the market to compete with the Macbook Air. Its just as if everyone wants to be Kate Moss! Personally we have been eying the Asus ultra model for a couple of months. With laptops now weighing in at just over 1Kg why do we need a tablet? These models are not new, but the $100 per device incentive from Intel to manufactures to build them is. As a result there are expected to be about 50 ultrabook designs on show, costing around $1,000 and as we all need to upgrade some time, why not with a device that is as light as a feather..

OLPC Tablet

We have always love the One Laptop Per Child project and it is now set to unveil its long-awaited tablet for $100. The tablet will feature an 8-inch 1024x768 screen, a Marvell Armada PXA618 chip and 512MB of RAM, running either Linux Sugar or Android OS. It will be able to be powered by hand-cranking and even has a solar panel optional extra! We love the housing and design and it shows that a $100 tablet is now a reality.

We recommend viewing Engadget’s video review of the device.

Google tablet?

Rumours are rife again on Google introducing a low end tablet early this year. This would probably follow their tie ups with Motorola and partnership with Samsung on Nexus. However do they have the media to make it attractive or will it remain an also ran like many other tablets?

Wii U Media Console?

There are the rumours that the Wii U will support a touch screen in the next generation console. The feature will have Ereader features which would allow users to download not only books, but newspapers, magazines, comics but much more. The touch screen will be used in a typical fashion to scroll of flip pages and would make the Wii U a more services orientated console and widen its appeal to be more of a entertainment and media than just a gaming device. There are even reports that Nintendo is secretly building its own Apple-like app store for the upcoming Wii U console.

Reading on Kindle via solar power?

Finally, Gizamo reports on a new leather Kindle case with an integrated reserve battery that can store solar energy to power a built-in pop-up LED reading lamp for up to 50 hours.