Snow blankets northern Saudi region of Al-Jouf    Syrian Air to resume operation between Damascus and Jeddah on Nov. 7 after a hiatus of 8 years    21,370 illegal residents arrested in a week    Bronze Age town discovered in Khaybar Oasis    New mechanism for reviewing taxi fares via applications    Harris and Trump in dead heat as Election Day nears    Spain flooding one of many global extreme weather disasters: UN weather agency    EU braces for potential shifts in transatlantic relations ahead of US presidential election    Israeli army nearing end of ground offensive in southern Lebanon, reports indicate    Al Hilal sets record for longest unbeaten streak across all domestic competitions    Al Nassr and Al Hilal share points in intense Riyadh Derby draw    Riyadh's Sports Boulevard receives Platinum ActiveScore certifications    ImpaQ: Riyadh to host first Impact Makers Forum in December    Saudi Arabia ranks 12th globally in international visitor spending in 2023    Hidden sugars in Asia's baby food spark concerns    Saleh Al Shehri strike seals Al Ittihad's Sea Derby win over Al Ahli    HONOR unveils pre-order of the stunning HONOR MagicBook Art 14 Featuring an ultra-slim design, HONOR Eye Comfort Display and AI Cross-OS WorkStation    Derby Week makes its debut in the Roshn Saudi League    Teri Garr, Young Frankenstein and Tootsie star, dies at 79    Indonesia Days event celebrates cultural diversity at Al Suwaidi Park    India puts blockbuster Pakistani film on hold    The Vikings and the Islamic world    Filipino pilgrim's incredible evolution from an enemy of Islam to its staunch advocate    Muted Eid celebrations for millions of Nigerian Muslims    Exotic Taif Roses Simulation Performed at Taif Rose Festival    Asian shares mixed Tuesday    Weather Forecast for Tuesday    Saudi Tourism Authority Participates in Arabian Travel Market Exhibition in Dubai    Minister of Industry Announces 50 Investment Opportunities Worth over SAR 96 Billion in Machinery, Equipment Sector    HRH Crown Prince Offers Condolences to Crown Prince of Kuwait on Death of Sheikh Fawaz Salman Abdullah Al-Ali Al-Malek Al-Sabah    HRH Crown Prince Congratulates Santiago Peña on Winning Presidential Election in Paraguay    SDAIA Launches 1st Phase of 'Elevate Program' to Train 1,000 Women on Data, AI    41 Saudi Citizens and 171 Others from Brotherly and Friendly Countries Arrive in Saudi Arabia from Sudan    Saudi Arabia Hosts 1st Meeting of Arab Authorities Controlling Medicines    General Directorate of Narcotics Control Foils Attempt to Smuggle over 5 Million Amphetamine Pills    NAVI Javelins Crowned as Champions of Women's Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) Competitions    Saudi Karate Team Wins Four Medals in World Youth League Championship    Third Edition of FIFA Forward Program Kicks off in Riyadh    Evacuated from Sudan, 187 Nationals from Several Countries Arrive in Jeddah    SPA Documents Thajjud Prayer at Prophet's Mosque in Madinah    SFDA Recommends to Test Blood Sugar at Home Two or Three Hours after Meals    SFDA Offers Various Recommendations for Safe Food Frying    SFDA Provides Five Tips for Using Home Blood Pressure Monitor    SFDA: Instant Soup Contains Large Amounts of Salt    Mawani: New shipping service to connect Jubail Commercial Port to 11 global ports    Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Delivers Speech to Pilgrims, Citizens, Residents and Muslims around the World    Sheikh Al-Issa in Arafah's Sermon: Allaah Blessed You by Making It Easy for You to Carry out This Obligation. Thus, Ensure Following the Guidance of Your Prophet    Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques addresses citizens and all Muslims on the occasion of the Holy month of Ramadan    







Thank you for reporting!
This image will be automatically disabled when it gets reported by several people.



Review: $550 tablet doesn't make Windows look good
By Peter Svensson
Published in The Saudi Gazette on 12 - 02 - 2010

IT will be a couple of months before Apple brings out its tablet computer, the iPad, but other companies are already preparing a new batch of tablets running Windows. Judging by a model that's already out, the $550 Archos 9, the Windows tablets have a rough road ahead.
Windows just doesn't seem at home when squeezed into this 1.8-pound (0.8-kilogram) slab, with a touch-sensitive screen that is 8.9 inches (22 centimeters) on the diagonal.
It's sluggish, and the controls aren't adapted to the size of the screen or the fact that there's no real keyboard or mouse. On-screen keyboards kept popping up in the wrong places, blocking the fields where I wanted to enter text and the buttons I wanted to push. I struggled to hit the little “x” in the corner of the window to close it, so I had to fall back on guiding the mouse cursor with a small touch pad that's built into the tablet's frame.
It's also a bad idea to couple a touch screen with a slow computer. When I pressed an on-screen button, I found myself wondering whether the computer had failed to register the press or whether it was just working on reacting. I kept jabbing at the screen like I was poking at a lazy dog, just to be on the safe side.
Archos 9 is lethargic because it runs Windows 7 on a processor that's even slower than those used in netbooks - those slow, small laptops. How slow is it? Windows rates computers from 1.0 to 7.9 based on how fast the hardware is, and places the Archos 9 at a 1.3 - the lowest I've seen. It takes nearly two minutes to boot up. TV shows on Hulu.com stutter so badly they're like slide shows with a soundtrack.
It's a little disconcerting that the Windows tablet experience is so poor, nine years after Microsoft made a big push for its Tablet PC version of Windows XP. Clearly, Microsoft hasn't really adapted Windows properly for this type of device.
Now, the fact that the Archos 9 has a full-blown desktop operating system does mean it has some features the iPad won't match. It has a USB port, so you can connect a DVD drive, flash drive or printer to it. It runs ubiquitous Windows applications. It has a camera, so you can use it for videoconferencing, at least at very low resolutions.
Perhaps the best feature is a fold-out stand, so you can prop the tablet up on a table.
Also in its favor, the Archos is relatively cheap, especially compared to the Tablet PCs of old. Still, it's hard to imagine what the tablet is really for.
It's not good for playing games, taking notes or writing e-mail. You might use it as an extra device for casual Web access when roaming around at home. The built-in Wi-Fi antenna provides excellent reception. If you attach the Archos 9 to a cabinet door, it could be a pretty good kitchen computer, for recipes and music. Too bad it plays online video so poorly.
It does do a decent job of playing videos that are stored without copy protection on its 60-gigabyte hard drive. The battery lasted for four hours doing this, which is pretty good. When I tried to play copy-protected video bought from iTunes, it was back to the slideshow effect.
It's not designed for vertical use, so forget about flipping it around and using it as a full-color Kindle e-reader replacement. You could go into the settings and change the screen to a vertical orientation, but all the hardware buttons will end up in the wrong places. Also, the screen's image quality is not very good.
It's likely that other Windows tablets this year will be better than the Archos 9, particularly if they use a different touch-sensing technology. Archos chose a so-called “resistive” sensor, which isn't as sensitive as the “capacitive” type used in the iPhone. That means the bezel is raised, making it hard to touch things at the edge of the screen, where Windows puts a lot of important buttons. The touch overlay is also the reason the image quality is poor. At the Consumer Electronics Show in January, Microsoft gave a brief glimpse of a tablet from Hewlett-Packard Co. that appeared to have a capacitive touch screen, which avoids all these issues.
But if tablet computers are ever going to be a mainstream product, they'll probably need a complete rethinking of the software. That's what Apple will be providing with the iPad. Rather than scaling down its Mac OS X for the tablet, Apple is scaling up its iPhone operating system. With software designed for much more modest chips, the iPad will be a lot snappier than the Archos 9, with a longer battery life. It's anybody's guess whether this will be enough to finally take tablets to the big time, but it seems like a good way to start.


Clic here to read the story from its source.