We are just days from Christmas and if you rely on online businesses and shipping, there might be a big chance that you won't get your gifts unless you order pretty soon. With that in mind Amazon has just slashed €30 of the Kindle Fire HDX 7 tablet, at least on its German website.

The new Kindle Fire HDX with a Snapdragon 800 processor, great screen and 16GB of storage features just one downside, a locked down operating system, but then again it is selling for just €199. The 32GB version now sells for €239, while the 64GB version is €279, much less than an iPad mini with Retina with comparable storage.

Amazon wants 14 euro more if you want the Kindle HDX without adverts on it and LTE versions starts at €309 for 16GB, $349 for 32GB and €389 for the 64GB version.

The same deal works for UK customers who can now buy a Kindle Fire HDX for £169.00 for 16GB, £199.00 for 32GB and £229.00 for 64GB, or £30.00 less than yesterday. Amazon was not so kind to French and Spanish customers as they are not getting this rather sizable discount, at least not yet.

You can grab one in Germany here and in Britain you can take advantage of the discount here.

Dell Venue 8 Pro tablet (Image: Dell)

Not for lack of trying, but PC makers haven’t had much luck with tablets. Earlier endeavors were big and heavy, burned through batteries, and were saddled with versions of Windows that weren’t really designed for touch and lacked real apps. They were expensive too.

Now the pieces are falling into place to build at least a credible contender to Apple or Samsung in tablets. Many chip companies offer inexpensive dual- and quad-core ARM processors for Android tablets and Intel’s Bay Trail platform, the first truly competitive x86 alternative, works with either Android or Windows. Microsoft has made real improvements with Windows 8.1 and now throws in a version of Office on smaller devices. For sheer numbers, the Windows Store won’t match Android, let alone Apple, anytime soon, but most of the major apps are now available.

For the past few weeks I’ve been trying out two new tablets from Dell that illustrate how PC makers are trying to catch up on tablets. The first one, the Dell Venue, is based on the older Intel Clover Trail platform and runs Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. It starts at $150 with a 7-inch display, but I tested the 8-inch version, which is $180. I also tested the Venue 8 Pro, which also has an 8-inch display but is based on the newer Intel Bay Trail platform and runs Windows 8.1. It starts at $300.

The Venue isn’t as thin and light as a premium tablet such as the iPad Mini, but it still feels perfectly comfortable in the hand and the build quality is fine. And it’s not really fair to compare it to tablets that cost more than twice as much anyway. The Dell Venue stacks up well to other Android 4.2 tablets with the same display size and resolution such as the HP Slate 7 Plus (Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core, 1GB plus 8GB storage); Asus MEMO Pad HD 7 (1.2GHz MediaTek MT8125 quad-core, 1GB plus 16GB storage) and MEMO Pad 8 (1.6GHz Rockchip RK3188 quad-core, 1GB plus 16GB storage); and Lenovo IdeaTab S5000 (MediaTek 8125, 1GB plus 16GB storage).There isn’t too much to distinguish the Venue from other basic Android tablets, but in a way that’s a good thing--it shows that Intel and the PC makers are finally catching up. Like most tablets in this price range, it has a lower resolution display (1,280 by 800 pixels) and the Cloverview processor (a Z2560 dual-core in the Venue 7 and a Z2580 dual-core in the Venue 8) can’t match the performance of top-end mobile processors, but it gets the job done. Both also come with 2GB of memory, 16GB of storage, 802.11b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0, and a microSD card slot. The Venue 7 has a VGA front camera and a 3MP rear one; the Venue 8 has a 2MP front camera and a 5MP rear camera. Neither one will replace your point-and-shoot, but Dell is hardly alone in that regard--most tablets have mediocre cameras.

The challenge for all of these is that there are much better Android options available for a bit more, in particular the Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire HDX, which both start at $229. But Intel and Dell have succeeded in delivering a competitive Android tablet, and in general, it’s remarkable to see how much you can get for less than $200 nowadays.

The Venue 8 Pro is a bit more interesting since it's one of the first full Windows 8.1 devices at this size and price. The first, the Acer Iconia Tab W3, didn’t get great reviews, but since then Acer has announced the updated W4 and others are starting to trickle onto the market including the Venue Pro, Lenovo Miix 2 and Toshiba Encore. All of these are based on Intel’s Bay Trail platform and have very similar specifications starting with an 8-inch display with a resolution of 1,280 by 800 pixels.

The Venue 8 Pro uses the Atom Z3740D quad-core processor while the others list the processor as the Atom Z3740 (though I suspect some of them are using the 3740D as well). There are some differences between the two, but in practice it shouldn’t make much difference on these devices. Bay Trail is, however, a big step up from the older Atom platform and it provides the performance to run Windows 8 and common productivity and entertainment applications.

The Venue 8 Pro I tested also came with 2GB of memory and 32GB of storage. Dell also sells this configuration with a case for $340 or with both the case and a wireless keyboard for $390. With the included Microsoft Office and my Windows 8 apps installed, I had only 6GB of storage left--before adding any music or video files (though it has a microSD slot too). So with any of these 8-inch Windows 8 tablets, I would also recommend upgrading to 64GB, which in the case of the Venue Pro adds $50 to the price. Finally there’s an active stylus pen, which came with my test unit, but costs an extra $30. Put it all together and you are up to $470.

All of these Windows 8 tablets are a bit bigger and heavier than their Android counterparts, and the Lenovo Miix 2 appears to be the thinnest and lightest of the bunch, but the Venue 8 Pro is only 9mm thick and weighs 395 grams. The Acer Iconia W4 and Toshiba Encore are both bulkier, though they have some additional features such as mini-HDMI out, and on the Encore a larger battery and 8MP camera. The Venue 8 Pro gets by with the standard 2MP front camera and 5MP rear camera.

The Windows 8.1 update is a significant improvement for these types of devices with new tile sizes, a Start button, touch-optimized versions of more Control Panel settings, and a bunch of new and updated Microsoft apps. With a few exceptions, most major apps are now available for Windows 8--recent high-profile additions include SlingPlayer, Mint, Flipboard and Facebook. The inclusion of Office Home and Student 2013 adds real value--it sells for $140 separately--though keep in mind that this version doesn’t include Outlook.

But there are still some rough edges with Windows on small devices. Most are little nuisances. For example, the onscreen keyboard covers much of the screen making it awkward to enter information such as usernames and passwords in text boxes. But there’s also one big issue: with the exception of OneNote, Microsoft has yet to release “modern,” touch-optimized versions of its Office apps. For now it just doesn’t make sense to get one of these Windows 8 tablets without a stylus, keyboard or both. (There’s a reason Microsoft pushes the keyboard so hard with its own Surface devices.)

The Venue 8 Pro has a few quirks too. The Windows Start screen button is on the side, rather than on the front like other Windows 8 PCs and tablets, which takes some getting used to. It’s tricky to figure out how to click, right-click and double-click on items using the stylus, and it sometimes didn’t work at all. And while the display is excellent, with a brightness rating of 400 nits, the feature that adjusts the display for ambient light to save battery left it far too dim, so I ended up turning it off. (Note that Dell just released an update for the ambient light sensor which should address this.)

Overall these are minor issues, and I really liked the Venue 8 Pro. It isn’t for everyone, but the concept of a tablet that can also run Office and other Windows desktop applications holds a lot of promise.

Via:ZDNet

Lumia 2520

The Lumia 2520 is Nokia's first attempt at building a Windows tablet. The device runs Microsoft's Windows RT, an operating system dropped by other hardware manufacturers who found little appetite for hardwrae running the OS; as a result, apart from Microsoft itself, Nokia is the only company left still making RT-powered devices now.

I've been using the Lumia 2520 as my everyday tablet for the last couple of weeks and I like it a lot. However, it seems to embody the issues that Microsoft has to tackle when it comes to tablets and the decisions it needs to make around operating systems and the future of Office. (Nokia's devices business will soon be part of Microsoft when its €5.4bn acquisition is complete, of course, and the pair have been collaborating closely on hardware for several years now).

The Bing weather app looks great, as does maps (which I prefer to Nokia's Here), and there's an understanding across the device that big, sharp images play well on tablets. There's clearly a strong design principle behind the UI — the tablet as a next-generation magazine; beautiful, curated, interactive.

But it's striking that the 2520 is also still very much a PC experience, including the irritation of Windows updates. That 16:9 aspect ratio screen that makes it so good for watching video also means that I never felt any desire to use the tablet in portrait mode at all, while the lack of a rounded and bevelled corners (such as on the iPad) made holding it for too long quite uncomfortable and had me longing for a kickstand.

And, while an iPad doesn't feel diminished by the lack of a keyboard, to me the 2520 does — in the same way that the Surface only really makes sense with the keyboard attached. As such, there's something a little bereft about this device, almost as if it's mourning its lack of a keyboard, but soldiering on anyway. Still, Qualcomm's Snapdragon 800 processor keeps everything zipping along.

The Lumia 2520 runs Windows RT 8.1, which does a fine job of the basics. Unfortunately, just doing a fine job of the basics doesn't win prizes anymore. While the default apps are nice, the lack of variety available in the Windows Store (compared to Google Play or Apple's App Store) also reinforces the sense that deep down this machine really wants to be a PC.

One of Microsoft's issues is that Windows has never been a competitive advantage when it comes to selling hardware to consumers: for decades, for most people, it was the only choice they really had.

In the tablet world that's no longer the case: few care that their Kindles or iPads don't run on Windows, even fewer that it doesn't have Office.

Via: ZDNet

The Surface Pro 2 is best described as a tablet with the performance of an Ultrabook. The follow-up to the first Pro looks very similar to the original, but the hardware has been overhauled. The Pro 2 runs on a fourth generation Intel Core i5 processor and comes in a number of different versions.

Compared to the new iPad Air or the Surface 2, the Surface Pro 2 feels thicker and heavier. The tablet itself weighs 907 grams and measures 1.3 cm in height. In comparison, the Surface 2 measures 0.94 cm and the iPad Air 0.75 cm. The Surface 2 weighs 680 grams and the iPad Air weighs about 470 grams.

The Pro 2 is really for consumers that want a real PC in tablet form, with the performance of a fast Ultrabook. So while it's bulkier than the products we just mentioned, for actual productivity with more demanding Windows applications, this is the better option. Unlike the Surface 2, the Surface Pro 2 comes with the full version of Windows 8.1 and is compatible with all standard Windows software.

Source & Image : Hardware.info

Kindle

A recent survey revealed that people who own Amazon Kindle devices — the Fire tablet, original Kindle, Paperwhite $119.00 at Amazon series — are more inclined to purchase other items online.

The online retail giant eats about $18 for every Kindle Fire sold at full retail price, due to manufacturing costs and other factors. But the company has said repeatedly that it aims to make up for it through sales of Amazon ebooks, apps, and other products via those gadgets.

Without specifying exactly what people are buying on the site — be it ebooks, Kindle accessories, lawn furniture, or luggage — CIRP reported that 40 percent of all Amazon shoppers are Kindle device owners.

In fact, those who own an Amazon-branded tablet typically buy items from an average of 6.4 different Amazon departments; 50 percent go as far as to shop in seven or more categories. Comparatively, non-Kindle device owners stick to an average 5.5 departments.

CIRP estimates that Amazon Kindle device owners spend about $1,233 per year, compared to $790 annually for other customers, according to co-founder Josh Lowitz. "They do so because Kindle device owners buy over 50 percent more frequently than other customers," he said.

Almost 30 percent of Amazon.com customers own a Kindle Fire $229.00 at Amazon tablet, while another 21 percent own a Kindle e-reader. Meanwhile, 9 percent of customers own both, "suggesting how well Amazon has done to drive sales of what amounts to a portal to Amazon.com," Lowitz said.

CIRP co-founder Mike Levin agreed, saying that the Kindle Fire tablet provides easy online access to everything Amazon sells, while Kindle e-readers have "become the way that Amazon customers buy books, Amazon's original product line," he said.

Microsoft Store : Dell Venue 8 Pro tablet selling for $99

They might not get the love that Apple stores often do, but Microsoft has slowly amassed more than 40 retail locations over the last couple of years. If you haven't been to one yet, and you're in the market for a new Windows 8.1 tablet, you might want to pay a visit this coming Monday.

That's because Microsoft is offering the Dell Venue 8 Pro for just $99 on December 9 -- and only through its physical stores. That's a massive discount from the $299.99 price that Dell itself sells the base model for. In fact, Dell didn't even offer much of a deal on it during Black Friday/Cyber Monday, choosing just to throw in a free case and a year's worth of accidental damage service if you purchased at the full price.

Of course there's a catch. Only the first 20 Venue 8 Pro tablets sold in each location will be available at the $99 price. After that, the price shoots up to $199 as long as stock lasts (though it may be as little as 10 additional units at a store). That's still a pretty good deal, but the price difference should prompt you to arrive early if you want a chance at the better bargain.

While your best opportunity to score the Venue 8 Pro for dirt cheap is by physically showing up at a Microsoft store, the company's online store will also offer the $99 price for the first 100 units sold. Again, once that quota is reached, the tablet will be available for $199 until supply runs out.

Is the $99 price enough to get you to go to a Microsoft store on Monday to buy a Venue 8 Pro? Let us know in the Talkback section below.

Via The Verge

Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 Lite

Samsung has already revealed its intentions about focussing on the tablet segment in the coming year. Now, a new report claims the South Korean major might launch its most affordable Galaxy tablet yet, believed to be called the Galaxy Tab 3 Lite, in January next year.

Sammobile in a report has claimed that a new tablet rumoured to be called the Galaxy Tab 3 Lite with model number SM-T11 is in the works and that it would be priced at 100 euros, roughly translating to Rs. 8,500.

Unfortunately, the report does not reveal any details about specifications of the alleged Galaxy Tab 3 Lite but does say that it would be available in Wi-Fi and 3G variants. Further, the report claims that the Wi-Fi model of the alleged Galaxy Tab 3 Lite in Cream White colour will be rolled out to markets by the second week of January 2014, which will be followed by the 3G model in the same colour in the third week. In addition, the report reveals that an Ebony Black colour variant of both 3G and Wi-Fi model of Galaxy Tab 3 Lite would be available by the end of January.

Source : NDTV Gadgets