Kindle Review – Kindle 3 Review, iPad Review

Let’s start with the $99 Marvell Moby Tablet because the price is a marvel and it’s being pitched as a textbook replacement that Marvell hopes will revolutionize education.

Marvell’s Moby Tablet for $99

Here’s what’s being promised for your $99 (courtesy CNN Money) -

1. WiFi and GPS. 
2. Armada 600 series processor with gigahertz speed.
3. High performance 3D graphics.
4. Support for both Android and Windows Mobile.
5. Bluetooth support.
6. Flash support.
7. 1080p HD playback.
8. FM radio.
9. It’s supposedly designed for long battery life. 
10. Ultra thin and light, weighs less than half a textbook, and holds a year’s worth of textbooks - Sounds like the TARDIS .  
11. The $99 Marvell Tablet is supposed to launch by end of 2010.

If they can get in all the features that are being promised this will be a hit. Forget $100 – If they can get these specs into a $200 device they’ll have a mega hit on their hands. Do note that this is a prototype/design and they might not manufacture it.

Marvell claim they’ll soon announce a partnership with the District of Columbia -

… in partnership with the District of Columbia Public School system (DCPS) where the Company will donate a Moby tablet to every child in an at-risk school as part of a multi-year program in new media and learning.

Marvell’s press release talks a lot about the opportunity to keep textbooks current and reduce textbook prices – will believe it when it happens. To actually reduce textbook prices they’ll have to get textbook publishers on board and that’s unlikely to happen any time soon.

The comments from Marvell’s founder are interesting (it seems they really do want to make a positive change in education) -

Education is the most pressing social and economic issue facing our country and our times. I believe the Marvell Moby tablet can ignite a life-long passion for learning in all students everywhere.

Marvell’s Moby tablet recognizes that every student learns differently and so it delivers an array of media choices for different learning styles.

There are some interesting comments about the $99 Moby Tablet at Tom’s Hardware – the general consensus seems to be that at $99 everyone and their goat would buy one.

€400 HP Slate arrives in June 2010

Spanish site Chipset (via Google Translate) lets us know that the HP Slate will have a June launch with availability in Europe by September.

They also have a few pictures and lots of details -

1. The 400 euros translates to $541 although devices in Europe generally cost more and it’s a given that HP will match or beat the entry level iPad’s $499 price.  
2. It’ll have Windows 7 and Flash support.
3. It will run on an Intel Atom processor with USB ports and a memory card reader and an integrated camera.
4. The outside is non-slip rubber and looks like a set of triangles of rubber pasted together – in a not-good, not-bad sort of way.  
5. Clipset say it’s thicker than the iPad.
6. They also point out that the HP Slate seems to have evolved from netbooks while the iPad seems to have evolved from the iPhone. It’s a pretty valid point.
7. There also seems to be a docking slot at the bottom (might be just a USB port). A docking slot that lets you add an optional keyboard would be good.

Engadget cover it and add a very good HP Slate picture which illustrates just how much more time Apple have spent on the design of the iPad.

The comments at Engadget mostly talk about the seeming lack of pen input (the touch capabilities are not known at this time) and how pen input and OneNote would make this a must-get device. A lot of people are upset with the choice of Windows 7 – some would prefer a mobile OS and others want Apple’s simplicity.  

How Important are Slates and Tablets for Reading?

It’s interesting to see Tablets and Slates be positioned as (and get treated as) eReaders and eTextbooks. Take the Moby Tablet, the iPad, and the HP Slate -

1. How good will they be for reading?
2. How much of a difference does eInk vs LCD make?
3. How long will the battery life be?
4. Will the distractions be too much?
5. The Marvell comes in at a ridiculously low price of $100. However, the other two are around $500 – Will that rule them out for people looking for an eReader? 

What makes things even more interesting is that we haven’t had a chance to look at the Wacom enabled Samsung E6 and we don’t know what Kindle 3 and Nook 2 will bring to the table.