Not even a week’s time is left in the starting up of CES 2012 in Las Vegas and HP has started up teasing their second Ultrabook after their 13.3 inch Folio that was announced in November. An FCC filing was leaked last week which suggests that it will be offering a 14 inch display and ‘Ivy Bridge’ processors from Intel which is due in the early second quarter.

It is believed that Ultrabooks will be taking the central place in the upcoming Consumer Electronic Show and prove beneficial in boosting up the PC sales in 2012 which have been lagging from some time. Around 50 new Ultrabooks will be getting launched in the CES to be held in Las Vegas, as per the CES representatives. The manufacturers participating in the show will be introducing their devices competing against Apple’s MacBook Air. Intel will be delivering a keynote address in order to announce their next generation chips.

The popularity of Ultrabooks is because of its portability and instant-on capabilities that it took from the tablets as well as the better performance and convenience that it inspired from the notebooks. If reports are to believe, HIS iSuppli projects ultrabooks will have made about 43% of PC shipments globally in 2015 from just 2% in 2011 and 13% 2012.

Whether an Ultrabook will be successful or it’ll be a failure, it depends on its pricing decision; however, there can be some improvements if the devices like Toshiba Portege Z835 of HP’s Folio 13, which are selling in the price-range of $800 and $900, are considered. Not just the decision of placing the Ultrabooks at lower prices but also the upcoming release of Windows8 in the later part of the year will prove beneficial in the success of the Ultrabooks.

A leaked picture has come to our notice that has given some authenticity to the rumors related to the forthcoming smaller equivalent of Asus’ 10 inch Transformer Prime. Though it has not yet been made clear that would it be one or two of the 7 inch devices coming up with speculations around the 7 inch Transformer Prime as well as a refreshed version of the last year’s Eee Pad Memo.

However, the rumors around are confidently announcing that either one or may be a blend of the both will be making its presence during the Consumer Electronic Show this year.

The picture of the device published by Notebook Italia, an online media brought the device to the world which is quite similar to the Transformer Prime in terms of its aesthetics and has some resemblance with the Memo which is found to have bulkier edge. The rumor monger site is pretty sure that the mini Transformer will be introduced as a separate device but interestingly no specifications are revealed yet other than the commonly known ones like – a hardware keyboard attachment, Android (probably Ice Cream Sandwich), and a price tag which can easily be afforded (something like $299).

Notebook Italia seems quite sure that the overhauled Eee Pad Memo will be available with a capacitive display of 1280X800, Qualcomm Snapdragon Processor of 1.2Hz, an integrated flash memory of between 16GB to 64GB and Wi-Fi as well as 3G connectivity. And there’s also a possibility of Ice Cream Sandwich to be present at the time of the launch. Though extra details are yet to be made available, on the basis of the name of the device, it is being assumed that the device will be supporting pen input as well as the handwriting software.

These upcoming products from Asus will be competing with numerous other second-gen products in the 7 and 10 inch product range. Sadly, the market hardly looks any changed compared to how it was doing last year. However, it appears there will be a little less cluttering as some of the major playing PC makers would be concentrating on the Ultrabooks in place of tablets. But then, there are sure signs that the first half of 2012 will be ruled by Apple’s iPad & Amazon’s Kindle Fire and some of the Android devices that have made some place in the market.

Amazon has just come up with its Kindle Software’s 6.2.1 version. The main reason behind this update seems to be the requirement to improve the UI performance, which has been a complaint against the software ever since it came into being.

The update can be received over-the-air, however, if you face troubles in receiving it, you can consult the instructions present at the end of this article.

Amazon boasts that this new version namely 6.2.1 offers some of the most wonderful features, which are:

• Enhanced fluidity & Performance: Earlier, the user interface offered quite a choppy experience especially in the case of the items such as cover flow of “carousel” feature.
• Touch navigation responsiveness is much improved.
• Special option is added to choose the items to be displayed on the carousel which you want and remove the ones that you don’t. Earlier, there were some privacy issues as the carousel could then display all the items, even the once which you didn’t want others to see.
• Special password lock for Wi-Fi access – This will prove helpful for the parents as they’ll be able to make sure that their kids are reading books and not wasting their time watching YouTube videos.

It is notable that even when people made comparisons between this $200 device and iPad 2, its $500 competitor, it is found to be more appreciated ever since its release on November the 14th. And in fact, Amazon had to increase the production repeatedly from time to time in order to fulfill the consumer demand and it became the “hottest table” at “Target” and “Best Buy” just the last month.

Instructions:

Download your Software: first click on the link given below for downloading the software update file right into your computer: Download Software Update 6.2.1

Transferring the Software to your Kindle: for this, you’ll have to turn your Kindle Fire and unlock the screen.  After this, connect it to your computer with the help of a USB cable. Now drag and drop the new update file right from your computer to the Kindle updates folder on your Kindle drive. You’ll get to see this drive displayed as a “device” icon.

Monitoring the File Transfer and Disconnection: Now simply check the progress of the file transfer to make sure that the file has successfully transferred to your Kindle Fire. Once the transferring is done successfully, simply tap on the “Disconnect” button of your Kindle Fire screen and have it successfully disconnected from your computer. Now disconnect the USB cable from your computer as well as the Kindle Fire.

Generally, AMD goes for a launch of new graphics products for desktop high end models and then it moves forward in developing them for laptops. But, this time, it is doing an entirely opposite thing by coming up with the launch of Radeon HD 7000 family for the mobile that comprises of entry-level and midrange 7400M-, 7500M-, and 760M- series. AMD is doing this because it is creating arrival time for real next-generation Radeons.

If you are expecting the new GPUs to be based on TSMC developed 28nm production process, you’d disappointed as this isn’t so. The chips are rather using the 40nm Turks and Caicos GPUs which are currently used by the 6000M series. However, a little tweaking will be done here and there for improving the performance. And the users will get increased shader count, slightly improved clock speeds compared to what 6000M has in its stock.

The actual models are yet to be revealed but AMD has come up with some specification for each of the series. The Radeon HD 7400M series offer processing of 40nm, DDR3/GDDR5 memory type, 64-bit memory bus width, 160 stream processors and an eyefinity support up to 4 monitors. It is targeted to the value segment. Radeon HD 7500M series also offer a 40nm processing, a 64-bit memory bus width, DDR3/GDDR5 memory type and an eyefinity support for up to 4 monitors. However, this series is targeted to mainstream segment and use 480 stream processors. Then comes the Radeon HD 7600M series targeted to performance-thin segment, offering 40nm process, DDR3/GDDR5 memory type, 128-bit memory bus width, use 480 stream processors and provide support for up to 6 monitors.

Apart from these specifications, AMD has also given a slight insight of the features of these three GPU series which include DisplayPort 1.2 and HDMI 1.4a connectivity and support for DirectX11, AMD HD3D and Blu-ray 3D. HD 7500M series use 80 more stream processors compared to the HD 6000M series, but nothing further is known yet.

AMD will soon be launching the 28nm graphics as the reports suggest. Though the “Southern Islands” architecture of AMD was to be arriving by the end of the year, it got delayed to the early part of 2012 because of some issues with the production of 28nm.

HP has rolled out its X7000 Wi-Fi Touch Mouse pretty secretly. This slick and smart pointer combines the wireless connectivity along with touch sensitive technology. The uniqueness of the shape which gives it a unique curved shape and makes it arc to the right creates a slight trouble for the left handed users. They may not feel comfortable in using this pointing device.

When the Wi-Fi Mobile Mouse from HP was checked out a few months back, it was found to be working elegantly well even though its click zone on the left and right click buttons was found to be not so good.  Now HP has involved the same Wi-Fi technology in the X7000 which indicates that it isn’t paired with a Bluetooth adapter or a USB dongle instead the mouse is directly connected to the wireless connection of your notebook.

The touch sensitive strip present on X7000 is something which isn’t found on the mobile mice in general.  This makes it look pretty similar to the strip that you’ll find on the Microsoft’s Explorer Touch Mouse that helps you to speed up across the web pages smoothly and quickly with simple click of your finger.

You even get an adjustable laser sensor at 1600 CPI, six special programmable buttons including one which helps in uploading to Facebook, Teflon feet and rubber side grip. The battery life is claimed to be of nine months.

It is 4.86 inches in length, 3.52 inches in width and is tall by 1.83 inches which clarifies that it is a full size desktop-type mouse which makes you think that it isn’t one of those models that you can easily pack up in your travel bag.  It shouldn’t be a trouble to use it with traditional desktop but you’ll have to install a wireless card or have a native support for this feature on your motherboard.

One thing needs to be noted here is that you’d need Windows7 for using it. HP X7000 can be bought at $59.99 from the company’s online store.

Toshiba to land the ultrabooks market with its first ultrabook, Portege Z835 with a Best Buy exclusive at a price about $900 which happens to be $200 less than the price at which the ultrabook of Asus is available and $400 less than the price at which Apple is offering its baseline 13.3 inch MacBook Air.

And it is equally interesting to note that even when priced at such affordable rate, it has a great deal of things to offer. In fact, some reviewers have found it to be offering more features than Asus and Acer.

You get a display of 1366X768, Intel Core i3-2367M processor of 1.4GHz, RAM of 4GB and a SSD of 128GB under the brand name of Toshiba. But there are a few things which will disappoint you a bit like the color and presentation of the notebook is not elegant enough to be called splendid, again its flash drive isn’t that smart as one will expect as it offers a sequential read & writer speed of 185MB/s and 49MB/s that aren’t above the standard 7200RPM hard drive. Coming to Its SSD, it doesn’t do anything beyond imagination.

But then, you have good things that will make you happy. It weighs light with about 2.4lbs lesser weight than the ultrabooks competing it. Its battery life performs much better than those of Zenbook and MacBook Air, so you get a battery life of about 7 long hours when you use Wi-Fi for browsing the internet. Its connectivity offers you USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports, VGA and HDMI out, Ethernet and a card reader.

But what sounds a bit disappointing for Intel and its partners is that ultrabooks didn’t start off that well.  Just in the earlier part of this month, companies like Asus and Acer were expecting to sale out about 100,000 units of their ultrabooks by the end of 2011, which was third of what they had originally targeted. According to the media, Asus and Acer have brought out much lesser than they were expected to do as they have reduced the orders for the ultrabooks by flat 40%.

It is notable that both the companies are pretty certain about the platform for longer time.

A latest report suggests that many popular PC manufacturing companies like HP and Dell have decided to use Windows 8 as the operating system for their tablets. With the coming up of Amazon’s Kindle Fire at a considerably lesser price, the competition among the Android based tablets have got quite tighten making it pretty tough for the devices to continue in the same segment. This has made most manufacturers to leave out Android and start on with a fresher take with Windows 8.

Recently at the Dell World 2011, Michael Dell, the CEO of Dell told that the Android tablet segment didn’t do that well as was their expectation, this made him consider their decision and go for associations with Windows for the development of their new devices. Though, Mr. Dell didn’t say any thing in a clear cut way, it appears somewhat apparent that they will get into this association with their latest tablet by developing it on Windows 8 operating system.

Again, HP is looking forward to go for an entirely new tablet segment after the discouraging performance of its TouchPad.

Dell and HP are expected to release their new tablets around the third quarter of 2012. And as Windows 8 has just touched the market, this time selection seems quite appropriate.

Microsoft is expecting its Windows 8 to perform well with its presence in most of the Microsoft devices that include computer systems, mobile phones, and the tablets. It is believed to be giving a perfectly seamless and quite comfortable performance which will surely be well liked by all the Windows users. Windows 8 will make it possible for the users to work using their keyboard and mouse as well as touch screen.

Dell, HP, Lenovo, etc. are few of the names which are looking forward to make their presence felt by getting a place competing with Kindle and iPad with the Microsoft’s newest presentation. Meticulously speaking, it won’t be wrong to say that Windows 8 is Microsoft’s essentiality for the moment in order to make its presence prominent in the table segment where Apple is yet the king.

It is speculated that if this operating system proves itself successful in giving all that it has promised, it will surely make a special place for itself in the segment.

Now even the poorest lots can think of owning their own tablet with the launch of the world’s cheapest tablet, Aakash in India, coproduced by UK based Datawind.  It will be available for a mere 34 dollars or 22 pounds for the students and for others its cost will be set at 60 dollars or 39 pounds.

The size of the tablet is found to be that of a paperback book and it offers a resistive touch screen, this makes it impossible for the gestures to work on it; however, it shouldn’t be an issue because of the price at which it is available. Users will get a SD card slot along with a 2GB card and a possible support for up to the capacities of 32GB. Its other important specifications include Wi-Fi, USB ports, video conferencing, 256MB RAM, 600MHz processor. The battery life offered by Aakash is 2 hours and it runs on Android 2.2.

Datawind also has plans to roll out a little more expensive “UbiSlate” in December, which is going to be the commercial variant and will include a cellular modem. This special variant will aim at making it easy to access the online content from anywhere through mobile phone reception. This will make it possible for the tablet to function like a mobile phone.

The Indian Human Resource Development Minister, Kapil Sibal gave away 500 units of the tablet to university students for testing. Indian government also has a plan to hand over more than 10 million units to the students in the coming years.

Sibal told to the press that their goal is to break the price barriers so that computer and internet access becomes available to all and this is why they have brought out this affordable device which will reach the masses.

India is going to have orders for 100,000 units at a slightly higher price of 45 dollar or 29 pound with an agreement that the orders to be taken in the future will be for as low a price as 34 dollar.

Huawei MediaPad recently boasted to be the world’s first Android 3.2 Honeycomb tablet of 7 inches, and it is all set to be launched anytime in the first week of October. It will be priced at a price lower than Rs. 25, 000.

MediaPad is a strong device that comes with dual core 1.2 GHz processor and is supported by the Hi-Space cloud solution of Huawei Device and Google’s Android Market.

Huawei finds it to be the smartest, slimmest and lightest tablet ever. It weighs about 390 grams or 0.86 pounds and is 10.5 mm or 0.4 inches deep. You get a support for 1080p full HD video playback along with a front facing camera of 1.3 megapixels, auto focus rear camera of 5 megapixels and special HD video recording abilities.

It will prove to be one of the best devices for internet connectivity with its HSPA+”>HSPS+ which is capable of 14.4 Mbps and high speed Wi-Fi 802.

Victor Xu, the chief marketing officer of Huawei Device claimed, “With the Huawei MediaPad, we are demonstrating yet again that design, functionality and performance are within anyone’s reach. The 7 inch tablet remains the preferred size for portability and Android Honeycomb 3.2 is dedicated to enhance the full potential of 7 inch tablets. Huawei is very pleased to be the first to offer this package to consumers globally.”

As MediaPad offers a 7 inch IPS touchscreen, one can expect it to offer commendable visual experience for images, movies and applications. What makes it more appealing is the HD playback capabilities and HDMI port that it offers.

Huawei is looking forward to market the device smashingly well as it has been successful in signing up with Chetan Bhagat, who is one of the most popular Indian writers, as the brand associate of the device for improving its brand visibility in India.

After launching this 7 inch tablet Huawei is looking forward to launching Vision, a smart phone which uses a cloud based service platform.  Huawei Vision is going to be an Android 2.3 smart phone coming packed in unibody frame offering a 3.7 inch capacitive touchscreen, a Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM 8255 processor of 1 GHz along with a battery of 1,400 mAh.

An autofocus camera of 5 megapixels offering LED flash and 720p video recording also comes with the device. Apart from all this, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1, RAM of 512 MB, ROM of 2 GB, micro-USB 2.0 socket for booting purpose and a microSD slot with 32 GB memory are the other important features that it offers.

Interestingly, the features offered by the device don’t stop here yet, and you even get an A-GPS, FM radio tuner as well as a proximity sensor. Users don’t have to compromise over a background of boring color as it comes in silver, gold, and charcoal colored back covers. You’ll find the chassis to be really thin with 9.9 mm and light weighed one too at just 121 grams. And when it comes to its pricing, it is light on the pockets too, as it will be available at a price below Rs 15,000.

The news of Sony’s working on tablets this year has already hit almost all the shores, but there’s a new bit of information related to the Sony’s device that was earlier known as S1. So the latest happening is that this device is reported to have got a changed name, it is now S, and its time to see the light of the world is approaching near as it is believed to be getting released in the first fortnight of September.

Sony made its two tablets, namely S1 & S2 official right in the month of April with a promise of releasing it in the fall in a press event held in Tokyo.

The Sony Tablet – S offers a 9.4 inch screen, a front facing camera of 3 MP and a rear sided shooter of 5MP. It is powered by Nvidia’s Tegra 2 SoC, provides wireless connectivity with the help of Wi-Fi, 3G or 4G. Most interesting thing it offers is the IR port for AV controls including Sony’s range of Bravia televisions along with the other devices that support the standards set by Digital Living Network Alliance.

The tablet will be available with the support for Android 3.1 but it has the provisions for being upgraded to Ice Cream Sandwich, ones it is available, which is believed to be available by October. Users will find several accessories similar to the ones offered by iPad.

Just a few months back, the price for this Wi-Fi enabled Sony Tablet S was guesstimated to be $600, but now it seems that Sony will lower down its price in order to compete with the price offered by Apple’s device.

As Apple has been ruling the tablet market and this has made it really tough for the other competing brands to taste the wine of success, most other brands are forced to lower down the prices. Even HP had to discontinue their WebOS based TouchPad just after the device completed its 49 days on the market leading to a liquidation of the already existing stock of TouchPad at once. And many retailers even started offering the 16 GBa nd 32 GB tablets for just $99 and $149.