Competition - ICD's Tegra 2-powered Gemini Tablet

[tdream]

Built around the 1GHz Tegra 2 SOC, the 11.2-inch ICD Gemini should provide comparable endurance to Apple's A4-sporting iPad, while besting it in the grunt stakes with its glorious ability to chew through 1080p video when required. If that wasn't enough, the rest of this thing's spec sheet reads like a wishlist. Headlined by a 3G connection that allows cellular voice calls (crazy, we know!), it also includes a user-replaceable 40Wh battery, an SD card reader, FM radio, GPS, 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth, MicroUSB connectivity to PCs and USB peripherals, stereo speakers, and dual webcams -- a 2 megapixel front-facing unit and a 5 megapixel autofocusing snapper on the back. Multitouch displays will be available in both resistive and capacitive flavors, with the 1,366 x 768 resolution being filled by Google's snappy Android OS. Oh, and did we mention it will run Flash? Because it will. Full specs and a comparison to its direct competitors await after the break, though we've yet to find out when this JooJoo killer will be making its arrival or at what price.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/06/icds-tegra-2-powered-gemini-is-the-most-feature-complete-tablet/

Well it looks like the iPad just got some real competition. Forget about the Slate, battery life is going to be bad on that device. Specs wise it outshines everything, though it will interesting to see what panel they use in the 11 inch screen. iFixit did the teardown of the iPad and found the panel number used was actually an 11 inch LG screen so it might be the same panel in all it's glory. Android is a good choice for power reasons and with nvidia tegra it will have flash. Specs look somewhat similar to iPad ver. 2.0/3.0

One thing I will say is if you annouce something it better be in the market in less than 8 weeks. Because you strike while the hype is hot and the longer it goes on with delays,etc. the less faith people have in it and by the time it's actually released will be superseded by something else.

 

[GaresTaylan]

Like the joojoo its too large IMO. I thought the iPad was pushing it in size for comfort and ease of use. 11-12" just wouldn't be something I would want to use even if it is just at the couch or in bed. Outside of that it looks fairly promising.

 

[LinMac]

I don't know if I like the iPad yet. It is at its core a very large iPod Touch which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it is also important to remember that a Mac at its core is just a PC. The magic is in the software being used with the hardware.

You can't bolt a touch UI onto Windows 7 and compete with the iPad. It isn't going to work. HTC has tried to bolt the Sense UI onto Windows Mobile 6.5 to sell their HD2 and it is just barely tolerable, but you can see 6.5 holding the phone back. The software just wasn't designed for big fat fingers and it shows.

It is also important to remember that form factor counts. 4:3 may seem awkward when listed in specifications, but holding the device it sounds much more reasonable. The iPhone's aspect ratio works due to the tiny size of the device. Scaling it up it just becomes less reasonable.

I wish Apple's competitors all the luck in the world with their designs and I hope one of them comes out with a credible competitor. Android, WebOS, or even Linux on ARM could be possibilities, but Windows 7 is not.

 

[tdream]

Like the joojoo its too large IMO. I thought the iPad was pushing it in size for comfort and ease of use. 11-12" just wouldn't be something I would want to use even if it is just at the couch or in bed. Outside of that it looks fairly promising.

11-12 inch is almost exactly A4 size, so you can view PDFs fullscreen without having to do any resizing. A lot of people are after a paper replacement and something of that size could fit the bill. There are even rumors that Apple will bring out something larger than the iPad, the next logical step up in size would be around 11-12 inches.