HP Windows Slate

Yesterday, all most of the hype in the electronics world was devoted to the rumors that Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer would be using his keynote speech for a big tablet unveil. Would it be the fabled MS Courier? Would Microsoft finally upstage Apple, signaling a new dynamic for a new decade? No, no and a little more no.

Instead, we got peripheral information on an HP slate running Windows 7– a nice-looking little computer, but nothing to live up to all the pre-speech hype. PR fail.

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In an effort to add a touch of affordability and enhanced portability to the powerful gaming PC platform Alienware, Dell has introduced the Alienware M11x. The slimmed-down Alienware M11x offering features an 11.6-inch display, and according to CNET and other sources, it approaches sleekness comparable to a netbook.

A key feature of the new laptop is its switchable graphics which allow users to switch on the Nvidia GT335M GPU for gaming applications and off for less graphics-intensive applications. Dell reports battery life of two hours for gaming with the Nvidia GPU in on position and six hours when switched off. The laptop features DisplayPort, HDMI, and VGA outputs, allowing it to connect directly to a larger monitor or television for enhanced home gaming.

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If you didn’t put yourself on the notorious B&N Nook list last month or jump onto the Kindle bandwagon, you’ll soon see a much larger market of e-readers to choose from. One of the latest coming out of CES is the Plastic Logic Que, which joins the growing trend of bendy, flexy e-readers that offer increased durability.

As you probably figured out, the Que is able to gain some flex and drop some weight by using a plastic, black-and-white display rather than the glass displays common on other available e-readers. The reader was developed over the past 10 years at Cambridge University. Content for the new reader will be available through Barnes & Noble’s store, which provides access to some 700, 000 books. Plastic Logic has also made deals with newspapers including USA Today.

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As expected, Steve Balmer used his Wednesday night keynote speech to unveil a tablet device. It wasn’t the Microsoft Courier that we all were hoping for, but the HP slate doesn’t look too shabby in and of itself. Of course, there’s limited information thus far, but we’ve got some press photos, a teaser video and basics to work with.

The Windows 7 multi-touch slate will be available sometime this year. It will serve as a multimedia player,  gaming device, e-reader and Web browser. HP should be filling in the dire void of specifications some time in the near future, so hopefully we’ll have more tomorrow.

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The electronics world clearly isn’t afraid of offering devices in every shape, dimension and angle imaginable. While consumers still grapple with selections like laptops, netbooks and tablets, manufacturers keep busy filling in those mail-slit-sized product gaps with new devices.

Lenovo has introduced its Skylight Smartbook–not quite as large as that burdensome netbook, but chock full of comfort above and beyond that of the smartphone. The Skylight, which has a rather toy-like appearance, features a 10.1-inch screen and full keyboard. The ultra-slim device is based on a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon ARM II and runs on a custom Linux system that features Web gadgets for accessing your favorites like Gmail and Facebook–18 of those gadgets come pre-installed.

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Scheduled to make its debut at CES later in the week, this iPhone add-on from accessory manufacturer Mophie will turn any iPhone into a mobile credit card reader. Simply swipe cards on the go and make payments without any traditional credit card reading equipment. Mophie’s device will pair a physical card reader with a third-party app to complete credit card transactions. It will join Square, a similar mobile phone credit card processing system that was introduced in beta about a month ago.

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We may still have nearly a month until Apple’s tablet release, but CES promises to fill the void with a slew of tablets from just about every other thinkable manufacturer.

Chipmaker Freescale has gotten the tablet party started a few days ahead of the show with a reference design for a tablet device that will feature a 7-inch touchscreen and run on the company’s low-power ARM-based processor. The tablet will be based around either Linux or Android and will include 3G compatibility and Wi Fi. Other specs include 512 MB of DDR2 RAM, 4 to 64GB of internal storage, Bluetooth 2.1, GPS, 3MP camera and microSD expansion.   Best of all, Freescale aims for a cost of just $200, making it a cheap alternative for those looking to get into the market without blowing the bank.

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