Google unveils Pixel C flagship Android tablet

As most of you surely know, Google's Nexus lineup spans across handsets as well as tablets. All of those are created in close collaboration the online giant's partners and tend to offer the cleanest Android experience in the realm, just like Google intends it to be.

However, every now and then Google also puts out products that it develops in house from beginning to end. The latest such addition comes in the shape of the Android 6.0 Marshmallow-powered Google Pixel C. Like the name suggest, this new devices comes from the very same team behind the Chromebook Pixel, so we can only expect it to be a benchmark for how far technological advancements have come.

The Google Pixel is a tablet and from the looks of it, one of the most powerful of its kind to date. As far as we currently know, it is equipped with a 10.2-inch display with a resolution of 2560 x 1800 pixes and a density of 308ppi. It has powerful internals - Nvidia's Tegra X1 chipset with a quad-core CPU and Maxwell GPU, paired with 3GB of RAM.

A USB Type-C port will be in too, as in fact it plays a central role in Google's future plans for unifying and standardizing both charging and IO.
The Pixel C is geared towards advanced productivity on the go, which is why it launches along with a dully adjustable keyboard combined with a stand. It attaches to the tablet seamlessly and also charges wirelessly when you fold the Pixel C over it, so you don't have to worry about juicing up one more device. To be even more convenient, it is designed to simply fold and attach to the back of the tablet – always there for your convenience.

The Pixel C asking price is $499 for a 32GB model and $599 for the 64GB one. Sadly, that doesn’t get you the keyboard. It is sold separately for an additional $149.
Availability and release dates are yet to be detailed, but Google promises the Pixel C will be on sale in time for the holidays.

Amazon is dangling a $50 (roughly Rs. 3,300) tablet computer in its latest attempt to lure consumers who can't afford or don't want the more expensive Internet-connected devices made by Apple and other rivals.

The 7-inch Amazon Fire tablet unveiled Thursday marks Amazon's most aggressive attempt yet to undercut Apple, which has been the market leader since its first iPad went on sale five years ago. The least expensive iPad mini, which has an 8-inch screen, currently sells for $270 (roughly Rs. 17,800).
Amazon.com isn't trying to persuade anyone that its cheap tablet matches the quality of its own sleeker, higher-priced Fire HD alternatives, let alone the top-selling iPad line.

But the Seattle company is counting on the new tablet's low price to encourage more people to buy a device that will hook them on watching video, reading books, playing games and shopping on a computer that's easy to carry wherever they go.

In the process, Amazon is hoping consumers will buy more digital goods and merchandise from its store while also subscribing to its $100 (roughly Rs. 6,600)-per-year Prime service that offers a mix of videos, music and free shipping.

"Our tablet focus is in and around content consumption," said David Limp, Amazon's senior vice president of devices.

As with its previous low-priced tablets, the new Fire device will show ads on its screen saver. Avoiding the ads will cost an additional $15 (roughly Rs. 990).

The discount tablet will debut amid a slump in the sale of the devices. The downturn suggests consumers who already own a tablet see little need to upgrade and those that don't have one either aren't interesting in the devices or can't afford one.

Apple's iPad sales have been declining since 2013, spurring the company to take aim at selling more of its tablets to corporate customers and government agencies. Industry-wide, worldwide sales of tablets during the three months ending in June fell 7 percent from the same time last year to 44.7 million units, according to the research firm International Data Corp.

Amazon is hoping that the low price of the new tablet will be so appealing that people will stock up on the devices and have them scattered around the house. As a prod, it plans to sell a six-pack of the 7-inch Fire tablets for the price of five, or $250 (roughly Rs. 16,500).

Although the new tablet is cheap, Limp boasted it is far superior to other discount tablets that are "something you wouldn't want to give your worst enemy, let alone a family member or a kid."
Amazon is promising the discount tablet will have decent processing power, good colour saturation and seven hours of battery life. A more durable version designed for kids will come with a blue or pink bumper and a 2-year replacement warranty if it's broken for any reason. It will sell for $100.
Pre-orders for the tablet will begin Thursday, with shipments expected in two weeks.

Amazon also unveiled updates to larger, more expensive tablets and its devices for streaming Internet video to television sets as it gears up to battle Apple and other gadget makers for the flurry of electronics sales that typically accompanies the holiday shopping season.

Apple got the jump on Amazon last week when it showed off its latest iPhone, an iPad with a 12-inch screen and a long-delayed update of its TV-streaming box for Internet video and music.

Amazon tried to counter the iPhone's popularity with its own smartphone last year, but it never caught on. The company no longer sells its Fire phone, though it's still available in other online stores.
Despite that the phone's flop, Limp insisted "there's a lot of good things happening across (Amazon's) device business."
The company's holiday line-up includes a more durable 8-inch Fire HD tablet with faster processing speeds than last year's model that will sell at prices beginning at $150 (roughly Rs. 9,900). An upgraded 10-inch Fire HD tablet will sell for $230 (roughly Rs. 15,180), or 42 percent less than the least expensive $400 (roughly Rs. 26,400) iPad with a comparable display size.
Amazon is adding a remote control with a voice-activated search option to its Fire stick for Internet video streaming. The streaming stick will sell for $50, up from $40 (roughly Rs. 2,640) for last year's version without voice-recognition technology.

Amazon's Fire TV box will now be able stream ultra HD video with technology that is also supposed to deliver a better picture to screens with standard HD, too. It will sell for $100 compared with $150 for the new Apple TV box scheduled to go on sale at the end of next month.

iPad mini 4 Teardown Reveals Smaller Battery, iPad Air 2 Similarities

In addition to unveiling the Apple TV, iPad Pro, iPhone 6s, and the iPhone 6s Plus at its mega event earlier this month, Apple also unveiled the iPad mini 4, the successor to the iPad mini 3. The company says that the new iPad mini comes with largely the same hardware specifications as the iPad Air 2, while being thinner and lighter than the iPad mini 3. How true is that claim, and moreover, how do other changes to the real estate look from inside? We now have a more concrete answer, based on a teardown of the tablet.

Folks over at iFixit have cracked open the new miniature tablet from Apple to reveal information about each component the iPad mini 4 comes with. As per the teardown, the iPad mini 4 features the same full laminated screen technology - with the glass and display fused together - as seen in the iPad Air 2. Furthermore, much like the iPad Air 2, the Touch ID cable on iPad mini 4 is now integrated directly into the display cable. On the flip side, this makes it harder to fix the display panel.

The company has made some changes to the battery design as well, making it easier to swap them out if required. Instead of two cells stacked together, the iPad mini 4 comes with a single cell battery, which is smaller and thinner than the battery in iPad mini 3. The iPad mini 3 shipped with 23.8Wh lithium-polymer battery, whereas the iPad mini 4 comes with 19.1Wh battery. The antennas have also been reordered inside the mini 4. Half of them are now on the top of the device, whereas the rest is located on the bottom.

The iPad mini 4 sports an 8-megapixel rear-camera coupled with 1.2-megapixel front-facing camera. It has Apple's A8 processor -- which is actually not the chipset as the in the iPad Air 2. The Air 2 shipped with A8X processor, the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus shipped with A8 processor. The device comes with M8 coprocessor.

The iPad mini 4, much like most Apple products is harder to repair. The immense amount of adhesive inside the device, and the fact that Lightning connector is soldered to the logic board makes the device incredible difficult to open and repair. The iPad mini 4 has been given a repairability of 2 out of 10.

Microsoft Rolls Out Start Menu to Windows RT 8.1 Devices

Microsoft has rolled out what could possible be the last feature update to Windows RT 8.1 devices. The update dubbed KB3033055 or Windows RT 8.1 Update 3 among other improvements and features, adds a Start menu to a range of devices including Surface RT, and Surface 2 RT tablets.

The Start menu looks similar to its Windows 10 counterpart, and while Microsoft has not made any announcement about the rollout, this could be what the Redmond giant had promised for the platform back in January - bringing some Windows 10 features to Windows RT.

Windows RT 8.1, a stripped down version of Windows 8.1 for tablets and laptops running ARM-based processors, has largely remained uncared for ever since its inception. This is precisely why the newly rolled out update is so interesting. The new update offers Windows 10-esque Start menu to the operating system - with icons of legacy apps placed on the left side, and modern apps icon placed on right.

The Start menu, however, doesn't offer power-off icon and it also lacks settings option. It's an optional addition, do note. Those who are happy with the Start Screen, can continue to use it. In addition, the update also makes changes to the logon screen, adding support for circular profile images.

While this update won't affect a lot of users, it is still a nice addition for users rocking the Surface, the Surface 2 RT, the Nokia Lumia 2520, the Asus Vivo Tab RT, and the Dell XPS 10 tablets.

To snag the update on your computer, fire up Windows Update on your device (search for it on Start Screen) and check for the update. This unfortunately is likely the last major update Windows RT devices will get as Microsoft has previously confirmed that it wouldn't be offering Windows 10 to the said lineup.