Windows 8 tablets

There are still a lot of unanswered questions when it comes to windows 8 tablets, but the information is starting to come out, and there's no doubt Microsoft is prepared to make a real go of this tablet malarkey.

Windows 8 will use a Metro interface that's much like Windows Phone 7 for when it's used on touch devices, with separate Metro apps. It will support ARM processors, such as Tegra 3, as well, which means manufacturers have options for the hardware they include.

Whether the addition of a new touch interface on top of the traditional Windows look will entice developers and customers is hard to say, but it seems to have the manufacturers on board, and we'll be able to see more when the public beta arrives early next year. If Microsoft pulls it off, it may suddenly become a big mobile player again.

 

New iPad 3

  Launched alongside the new Apple TV, the new iPad 3 looks much the same as the Apple iPad 2. The Home button remains, despite the big tease of the launch invite’s imagery, but where successive iThings of the past have been thinner, lighter and the proud owner of new monikers, Apple’s latest tablet is thicker (by 0.6mm), heavier (by 50g) and has no identifying numbers or letters to its name.

Android aficionados will find 2048x1536 reasons not to buy, but a bitch of a screen ain’t one. Some 3.1 million pixels at 264ppi are now crammed into the 9.7-inch display – the leading Android tablets, the Samsung Galaxy tab 10.1 and the Asus Transformer prime, come in at 1280x800.

 Put the new iPad 3 side by side with the iPad 2 and the improvement is, quite visibly, clear. On the older iPad, apps in folders are just blobs of pixelated colour; on the new one you can almost make out text.
The Apple Retina Display smooths out edges and renders text pin-sharp so ebooks, websites and documents are so much easier on the eye. There’s better contrast, greater definition with still and moving images, and better colour saturation – an improvement of 44 per cent over the iPad 2, Apple reckons.