Yes. While Apple has a strong foothold on the tablet market, their entry has been primarily through retail sales fueled by an excellent marketing engine. Last year Apple held more than 80% of the tablet market and their market share is still in a commanding lead in 2011. That said, developers of Android, Web OS, and Win7 devices are quickly developing advanced products that offer an equal number of apps, provide standard USB connections and allow more standardized desktop plugins to work. Apple has long made great products and will no doubt continue to do so, but their large market share will also no doubt decline in this product line as consumers and businesses find the “right” device for their particular needs. I’ve long been a fan of Apple, but I’m also a huge fan of the right tool for the right job.
HP Slate 500
If you’ve been looking for a tablet that can be managed in your Active Directory environment just like your desktops, laptops and convertible tabs….you’re wait is over. The FedEx truck brought me an HP Slate 500 on Friday and this tablet truly is a business class tablet.
By business class, I mean this tablet will integrate just fine into an Active Directory environment.
The HP Slate 500 comes loaded with Windows 7 Professional on board a 64gb solid state hard drive, 2gb of memory, front and rear facing cameras, a 2.0 USB port, an SD card slot,Integrated 802.11b/g/n + Bluetooth 3.0, an integrated combo headphone/microphone jack, integrated microphone and integrated stereo speakers. It also comes out of the box with a leather case, battery operated stylus, and a docking station that sets the Slate upright to utilize it’s 8.9″ diagonal screen as a monitor and allows you to connect a full size keyboard and a mouse.
Continue reading “HP Slate 500: A Business Class Tablet” »
ViewPad 7
You can almost imagine my excitement when I got an email from my ViewSonic representative that I had a ViewPad 7 on the way to show to clients. I copied the FedEx tracking number and checked on it’s ETA about every five minutes. I have to admit that I’m like a little kid at Christmas when I have new technology on the way, but this one is just a little bit different.
More than six months ago I was asked by my clients to find an iPad alternative. They wanted something that played Adobe Flash, had a USB port, offered Bluetooth and could be controlled in an enterprise environment – preferably with Group Policy. So, I did my good deed and put the challenge out to the manufacturers. This ViewPad 7 is the first to arrive and I anticipate a 10″ dual boot (Win7/Android) ViewPad 10 from ViewSonic in a few weeks. Samsung has a Sliding PC 7 in route and ever elusive HP Slate is still on back order…but I have confidence it will get here.
Continue reading “ViewPad 7: Big Fun From A Little Tablet” »
Since the release of Windows 7, there have been a ton of comparisons between Windows 7 and Windows XP. While it may not be fair to compare the latest OS from Microsoft to their 10 year old OS, but comparing to Vista doesn’t seem to make much sense….we all know how well accepted it was.
Microsoft Windows 7
Most of the independent comparisons will show mixed results. In other words, will upgrading your older Windows XP PC to Windows 7 make it perform better? Well….maybe. Keep in mind these are controlled benchmark comparisons looking at CPU useage, caching, memory consumption and launch times.
Like most of you, I’ve read these comparison results and tilted my head at them like a dog listening to a strange sound. It’s not that I don’t understand them, but I figure their controlled environments have sullied their results…if that’s even possible. Quite frankly, my experience has been that Windows 7 breathes new life into old machines. I had the opportunity to put my beliefs to the test again last week when I got my hands on an older HP 2140 netbook running XP with sloth like tendencies.
I remember thinking when this model first came out that it was a pretty neat netbook. As with all technology there have been great improvements in processor speed, on board memory, and hard drive options in the netbook class of computers since the release of the 2140. And, quite frankly, the 2140 running Windows XP now in my hands runs like a tired horse in the mud compared to an HP 2102 running Windows 7. Continue reading “Windows 7 Vs. Windows XP” »
I have several clients interested in the HP Slate 500 tablet. And, I truly intend to have one in my hands very soon so those clients can run the slate through its paces. I’ve got people in distribution facilities across the country ready to pick one off the shelf and send it to me….as soon as it hits their shelf.
HP Slate 500
If you recall, It was originally unveiled by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer at CES in January of this year…then HP went quiet on the slate’s existence. As a matter of fact, there were all kinds of speculation about the slate being discontinued or being replaced with something else. Frankly, I think they put it on a slow burning back burner while they waited to see how the iPad did in the market.
The Slate 500 headed my way is sporting Windows 7 Professional, 2GB of RAM, a 64GB HD and an 8.9-inch display. It comes with a 3-megapixel camera and an integrated VGA Webcam.
I see plenty of benefits for a device like this in an active directory environment….or shall I say enterprise. Being able to manage these through Group Policy and natively run Windows apps is a big plus over the Android or Apple OS.
Truly the proof is in the pudding….er….slate. I’ll let you know when it shows up.
To find out more about the HP Slate, visit HP.com.
