Gadgets and Tech in the Philippines

It seems that Samsung is really going head to head with Apple and all it's products.  First there was the Samsung Galaxy S which went against the Apple iPhone , then there was the Samsung Galaxy Tab which wanted to kill the iPad , now Samsung is at it again with the latest launch of the Samsung Series 9 laptop. The Samsung Series 9 laptop comes with a 13 inch display, yes you guessed it, just like the MacBook Air.  The Samsung Series 9 will be powered by an Intel Core i5 -2547M, running at 1.4GHz and will have a solid state drive with a 128GB storage capacity.  4GB of RAM comes standard. The Samsung Series 9 laptop will be priced at about $1,649 in the United States. Stay tuned for my comparison of the Series 9 and the MacBook Air. Related articles Samsung's WiFi-only Galaxy Tab priced and dated (slashgear.com) Ultra Portable Computers - The Samsung Series 9 Laptop is Lightweight and Durable (TrendHunter.com) (trendhunter.com) Galaxy Tab Wi-Fi final

JBL is coming out with what looks to be another cool speaker for the iPad.  The JBL OnBeat is the latest specialized speaker in JBL's growing line of speakers specifically designed for the iPad, not only the iPad but any iPhone or iPod touch . The OnBeat has a swiveling design, that let's you rotate your iDevice to be on a horizontal or vertical position.  This will work pretty well with the iPad.  JBL has not made an official statement on whether the JBL OnBeat will also work with the iPad 2 , but looking at the design and the dock, it should work with no problems. The JBL OnBeat will retail for about $149 in the United States when it comes out this coming April. Related articles Best speakers for the iPad 2 (sfgate.com) JBL debuts OnBeat iPad speaker dock (news.cnet.com) JBL intros OnBeat iPad / iPhone / iPod speaker dock, prices it at $150 (engadget.com)

We were expecting Acer to come out with the production version of it's latest laptop last December 2010.  Better late than never, the Iconia, Acer's dual touch screen laptop is now out.  The Iconia is a rapid new laptop design in that it uses touch screen in place of the ordinary keyboard.  The touch screen keyboard can also function as an extension to the regular LCD screen . Of course it will take a lot of typing hours to get used to a virtual keyboard found on the Iconia compared to the typical keyboards we have on our laptops now.  But that shouldn't be a problem, we have had a lot of practice with the iPod touch , iPhone and iPads . The Acer Iconia comes packed with the Intel Core i5 -480M processor which should be good for basic to intermediate computing tasks but not that powerful to run hard core games or graphics applications.  Windows 7 home basic comes pre installed (for models released here in the Philippines ). The Iconia comes with a lot of memory,

Samsung officially released the new Galaxy Tab yesterday, March 22.  The 2 new screen sizes are 10.1 and 8.9 inches.  Samsung also boldly declared that the Galaxy Tab is the thinnest tablet in the world today.  Both the 10.1 and 8.9 Galaxy Tabs are only 8.6 mm thin, that's .2mm thinner than the latest iPad 2 which is 8.8 mm thin. In terms of weight, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 weighs in at 595 g, while the 8.9 version is at 470 g, that is also pretty light, considering that the lightest iPad 2 starts at 601 g. Samsung now joins the dual core tablet party, the Galaxy Tab features a 1Ghz dual core processor which makes multi tasking on the tablet possible. The Galaxy Tab also features a 3 mega pixel rear camera and a 2 mega pixel front facing camera capable of 1080p HD video and Flash playback. Related articles Samsung's Anti-iPad 2 Policy: Clone The Heck Out of It (fastcompany.com) Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 and new Galaxy Tab 10.1 hands-on: thinner than the iPad

Image via Wikipedia iOS 4.3 came a week after the iPad 2 launch and was sort of launched by the iPad 2 itself since the iPad 2 came with iOS 4.3 installed.  For those of you who haven't gotten their hands on the iPad 2 yet and are wondering what this latest iOS has to offer, here are the notable new functionalities: Airplay enhancements - Airplay is Apple's technology that allows streaming of video, photos and music from your iDevice to your HDTV by using the Apple TV.  With iOS 4.3, you can now stream videos from your Photos app so you can now shoot home videos and instantly share it with everyone in the room. Faster Safari - Safari, the web browser that comes with iOS devices has now become faster, thanks to the new Nitro JavaScript engine which powers Safari. This new engine is said to be able to run JavaScript up to twice as fast as in the previous iOS 4.2 . With a lot of interactive websites now coming out, the Nitro Javascript engine makes it more fun and quick

Image via CrunchBase In today's Apple Special Event, no other than outgoing Apple CEO Steve Jobs took the covers off the new iPad 2 .  Steve Jobs came out and surprised the audience.  Steve Jobs wasn't expected to be in the event due to his current health status.  "We've worked hard on this new device and I didn't want to miss it", was Steve's intro to the event. 2011 - Year of the copycats? Most of Apple's competitors are coming out with their own tablets, but none has yet come out as the ultimate "iPad Killer".  Also, most tablets of the competitors are just trying to beat the iPad, not the iPad 2 yet.  According to Steve Jobs, 2011 will be the year of the iPad 2. The iPad 2:    All new design - not just tweaks or improvements over the first iPad.  The iPad 2 is a totally revamped design.   Dramatically faster - the iPad 2 now comes equipped with an Apple A5 with dual core processors, up to 2 times faster.  First dual core tablet