Today at CES, Asus has unveiled their next iteration of the Transformer Prime line of tablets, one that has a 1920×1200 resolution display.
The new Transformer Prime (model TF700) will have the same sized screen as its recently released brother, but with a high-density display that should “make the individual pixels difficult to see even with the screen inches from one’s face.”
Other than the resolution, the only other update to the consumer hardware is a 2MP front-side camera which will enable 1080p video chats. The current model has a 1.2MP camera.
Additionally, Asus has changed the chassis, “taking the spin out of the aluminum back panel and inserting a plastic strip that’s supposed to improve Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS reception.” The Prime, at least in review units, was panned for poor Wi-Fi reception. Asus was even forced to remove GPS from the Prime’s spec sheet since it worked so poorly.
The updated tablet is coming in May with a $100 premium to current models, meaning $600 for 32GB and $700 for 64GB.
Result for: hardware
Microsoft looking to poach webOS devs
Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 21 Aug 2011 14:29
Following HP’s decision to kill off all webOS-based hardware and firesale their Pre phones and TouchPad tablet for $49 and $99, respectively, Microsoft is looking to bring talented webOS devs over to the floundering Windows Phone 7 platform.
Microsoft has had good success in bringing developers over to WP7 and despite mediocre hardware sales the platform has 30,000 apps in record time.
Director for Windows Phone 7, Brandon Watson, has tweeted this weekend:
To any published webOS devs: We’ll give you what you need to be successful on #WindowsPhone, including free phones, dev tools, and training, etc
Microsoft is said to have strong tools and a strong training program for WP7 devs.
Result for: hardware
AMD, the company behind the Xbox 360’s GPU, has said this week that the upcoming next-gen Xbox model will offer graphics on par with those seen in the blockbuster film “Avatar.”
The company says the Xbox will launch with those graphic capabilities, making it much more powerful and advanced than current gaming consoles and PCs, even those with the most expensive video cards.
Director of ISV relationships at AMD Neal Robison would not confirm that the company is working on the hardware for the Xbox, but it would make sense for Microsoft to keep their existing relationships in tact.
Furthermore, Robison says AI in games like Grand Theft Auto will be given individual mentalities, removing them from the unrealistic “mob mentality” of current games.
For example, Robison notes (via Examiner), that in current games, if someone is shot, the entire group around will likely run away and yell in a mob. In the future, each pedestrian will have their own mindset and perform their own action.
