General Gaming Article

General Gaming Article

Cisco Kills The Cius Tablet

Posted: 27 May 2012 09:43 AM PDT

CiusThe little big tablet that almost nobody has ever heard of… has died. The Cisco Cius tablet was an Android based device that was customized from the ground up to be a corporate solution, which as it turns out nobody wanted to buy. In a blog post entitled "Empowering Choice in Collaboration", Cisco used every marketing term they could think of before admitting, "they will no longer invest in the Cius tablet".

To make matters worse anyone who bought devices up to this point will be forever stuck in time since development of the platform is also coming to a halt. We are paraphrasing a bit of course, but you get the idea. If you are one of the unfortunate few who picked up a Cisco Cius, you got yourself a fancy piece tablet history, but sadly not much else.

Announcements like these are not just a blow to owners of the platform, but the entire non-iPad tablet movement. Abandoning users means no future updates or support, and that's never a good thing. At least with the iPad you know Apple has you covered, and Windows 8 should theoretically offer the same piece of mind.

Toshiba Gives Up On Netbooks in North America

Posted: 27 May 2012 08:08 AM PDT

ToshibaTwo years ago netbooks were all the rage, but how quickly fortunes can fade. Over the last year the market has been losing share to low cost notebooks and tablets at an astonishing pace, leading some manufacturers to back out completely. Toshiba is the latest OEM to call it quits, and the new Toshiba Portege Z830 shown here will never see the light of day here in North America.

The Portege looked like a pretty impressive machine by netbook standards, featuring the new N2600 Cedar Trail Intel chip, however unless you happen to find yourself vacationing in "emerging markets" it will probably be a bit hard to track down. Acer, Asus, and HP are still selling netbooks in North America if you are looking for alternatives, but we can't help but wonder if this isn't the start of a larger trend.

With volumes dropping off, and margins so thin, will netbooks die a slow painful death over the next few years? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below. 

Steve Ballmer has 80 Inches....of Computing

Posted: 27 May 2012 07:27 AM PDT

Windows 8 MetroIn a recent interview with Wired UK, Microsoft VP Frank Shaw admitted that CEO Steve Baller has an 80-inch Windows 8 tablet hanging on the wall in his office. What did you think I was going to say?  "It's his whiteboard, his e-mail machine," Shaw said, "and it's a device we're going to sell." Windows 8 was shown off at last years CES on an 80-inch Sharp Aquos touch display, however the model Shaw is referencing here is something new.

According to Ballmer "Every screen should be touch, every screen should be a computer and should be able to see out as well as see in. That is the way the world is heading [and] those screens are going to be big, small, wall-sized and desk-sized."

Microsoft's decision to focus so many of their resources on products without a proven market demand is arguably one of the boldest moves the company has ever made, and it will be interesting to see where this goes. Windows 8 will ship on exponentially more laptops and desktops when it hits the scene later this year, we just hope they strike the right balance. The last thing Microsoft needs at this point is a Vista style reputation blow that leaves people scrambling post launch to find Windows 7 downgrade options.

Would you hang an 80-inch Windows 8 Touch PC on your wall? If you cut a hole in the wall and mount a camera on the back you could actually make it into a real window!
Posted by Shri Krishna

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