Ekoore - The Ubuntu Linux 11.04 Powered Tablet PC Series!

Although we have the MeeGo powered WeTab Tablet PC which also supports GNU/Linux in general (obviously) but the latest news is that an Italian based manufactured called Ekoore has released a series of Tablet PCs that come pre-installed Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal by default!.

Although I said a "series" of products, actually you can choose between two Tablet PC models called Drake and ET10TA. And unlike with others (such as the WeTab) Ekoore does allow you to make certain customisations concerning the hardware, online such as change the HDD capacity, RAM, Operating system, 3G support, etc and the company has an interesting "explanation" for such availability... below, quoting themselves.

"Ekoore has always worked according to a precise philosophy, that hardware and software components are two important but distinct and separate parts of the informatcs... It is why every product we distribute, the user is free to choose in the first hardware configuration they prefer..." Sounce:- About Ekoore.

Main hardware features...

The only difference between the two Tablet PCS when compared...

Drake - 10.2 Inch multitouch screen and an Accelerometer no 3G but can be configured manually.

The "multitouch Drake"...

ET10TA - 10.2 Inch touch-screen and no Accelerometer but has 3G by default.

The "touch only" ET10TA...

Other than that, they both almost the same hardware characteristics such as...

*. Support both Ubuntu 11.04 and MS Windows 7 (MS gonna make your wallet hurt :/).

*. Inter Atom N450 1.66GHz processor. 

*. 1024x600 resolution display.

*. 1GB DDR2 RAM (can be upgraded up to 2GB).

*. Optional 3G support.

*. Wi-Fi built in.

*. RJ-45 Network adapter. 

*. 160GB Sata HDD (can be upgraded up to 320GB).

*. GPS (optional).

*. 1.3 Megapixel front web camera.

*. 945GSE Intel chip-set (including an Intel GPU/VGA).

*. 3 USB (2.0) ports, 1VGA port, Card Reader (SD/MMC/MS/MS PRO) including SDHC support, microphone input and Realtek audio output (built in 2 Stereo speakers). No Bluetooth it seems.

*. 3000mAh battery (lasts about 2.6 hours according to the manufacture).

Well, the hardware seems pretty darn good. Except for the battery life which is not that impressive in today's standards. + When considering the price of 489 € only for the Ubuntu version (=$693), it's a slight disappointment.

The package also includes a stylish pen and a leather carrying bag as well.

I'm not sure about the real performance since I don't have it :/. Anyhow, interested you can check out their official page for purchasing (both online and off-line stores) and if you do so, would you be kind enough to tell me about the actual performance ;-).

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The Excellent Linux Tablet PC - Called, "WeTab"!

The hard work, mostly done by Ubuntu (although not everyone is a fan of it these days, me including) and other major GNU/Linux operating system developers is finally paying off, it seems. Something that would've been "too much to ask" in the recent past has now become a reality.

A German manufacture called "WeTab" (formerly known as the WePad, remember :D), they've redesigned that Tablet PC to run nothing but GNU/Linux. Finally, a true Linux Tablet PC!.

It won't come with Unity pre-installed but comes with an operating system called WeTab OS which is actually a derivative of the MeeGo OS (a Linux platform especially designed for mobile devices, funded by Intel and other big names in the industry).

It's not available world wide (only available around Europe at this stage, it seems), but from WeTab home page you can get additional information about its availability.


Main hardware specifications...

*. 11.6 inch, 1366-by-768-pixel resolution touch sensitive screen.

*. Comes with an Intel 1.66 Atom PineView processor.

*. 1GB of RAM.

*. Pre-installed 16/32GB of SSD drive.

*. Storage can be expanded using SDHC upto 32GB.

*. Operating system as mentioned above is the WeTab OS and has a video player, audio player, Web browser, Adobe flash player, HTML5 support, Open Office suite, eBook reader, photo manager, E-mail client, file manager, multitasking support etc... it's a complete OS.

*. 1.3 Mega Pixels of front web camera.

*. Pre-installed proprietary codec support such as MP3, WMA, AAC, WAV, OGG
H.264, AVI, MP4, DivX, WMV, OGG. Thank you :D.

*. Gorgeous looking Magnesium-Alloy body.

*. Ambient Light Sensor, Acceleration Sensor, GPS.

*. 6 Hours of battery life.

*. 2USB ports, SD slot, mini HDMI output, 3.5mm stereo jack, Sim Card slot, built in speaker and microphone.

*. Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and optional 3.5G support. 

*. Also supports MS Windows OS.

*. Weight - 995g.

It also fully support Gnome/KDE and most other GNU/Linux and its "portions" which is obvious. And will we be able to run Unity?, of course!.

The price is roughly about $505 and even though it's available in Amazon but it only seems to for German citizens at the moment. It's more than capable of running HD videos easily and when considering the hardware details... it is certainly a powerful Tablet PC.

Well done WeTab, I'm loving it already :D. Even though it's been a while since they first released it, but let's hope that it'll be available for the "rest of the world" quite soon.

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Ubuntu Tablet ,The TENQ P07

Although still finding a decent Ubuntu Tablet PC is really hard despite the fact that Ubuntu is now, somewhat largely popular and all that. But I think unlike in the past with the introduction of the Unity desktop, which is optimized for touchscreen based mobile devices, within the recent future we'll few of (hopefully) Tablet PCs that are capable of running GNU/Linux from major vendors such as HP/Dell, etc.

Anyhow, few months ago (around December 2010) we heard a rumor about an Ubuntu Tablet PC called TENQ P07 (Chinese) which featured the, now "old" Ubuntu Netbook edition. Although it's been few months now, yet when considering the hardware details of the P07, if it's gonna be available any sooner, then I think it should be able to run Unity (Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal) easily.

Here are few of the main features...

*. 1.66 Intel Atom CPU.

*. 1/2GB DDR3 RAM.

*. 16-32GB SSD drive.

*. 10 inch touch screen (resolution is still unknown).

*. 1.3 MP front web camera.

*. HDMI output. 

*. Wi-Fi/3G and Bluetooth.

*. 2 USB ports (high speed 2.0).

Those are the main features according to GizChina blog post, which was "revealed" in 2011 January after seeing the positive feedback from the community, yea, like that was a surprise. And other factors such as weight are still unknown. But the actual testers say that the Tenq P07 booting time was almost instant (not to mention of the impressive speeds of the SSD drives) and has gravity sensors, etc as well.

Although at the time this was "shown" Canonical haven't released the Unity desktop, so as said it came with the old netbook edition. Again, it is more than capable of running Unity quite comfortably but since everyone knows the fact that Unity needs Compiz by default then the TENQ P07 better come with a reasonably powerful GPU with hardware accelerated 3D capabilities or else we can use the 2D Unity as a workaround :). But again, when considering RAM, etc I think it should be able to Unity without much of a hassle nonetheless.

Anyhow, it's been few months since it was first "rumored" and lets hope that the Tenq P07 Ubuntu Tablet PC is gonna hit the market pretty soon because it's a bit unfair to the GNU/Linux fans not to have a tablet PC of their own!.

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Plasma Active : The Emerging "Software Contender" for Tablet PC Type Gadgets??

Well in truth, it could be too early to tell. But the rest assured, Plasma Active looks pretty darn amazing!. I'm also really new to Plasma Active project... if you have no idea of what it is, then "PA" is actually a project for creating a gorgeous looking interface (using the KDE's plasma desktop "frame-work") which is specifically built for Tablet PCs type electronic gadgets that comes with touch screens.

Let me quote it in the exact words of the developer himself...

"The goal is to Create a desirable user experience encompassing a spectrum of devices... we want to create something, people want, and people want to use. It means we are less technology-focused, but are taken a user-centered approach..."

It's very new actually, so currently I think it can be run in 3-5 specific Tablets... but that will/may change in the future. Anyhow, Plasma Active is basically another shell environment in which you can create a different application GUI's which are, again, optimized for Tablet PCs like devices.

Well, that's the idea...

In general Plasma Active runs on top of the KDE's plasma (obviously) and uses the OpenSuse 11.04. But again, PA can easily be ported into other GNU/Linux distributions as well. Few hours ago, Sebastian announced (one of the main contributors) few other new "invented" features for the PA project such as amazing virtual keyboard, activity switcher, etc.

The new, virtual-keyboard...

The "activity switcher"...

Have a look at the below video to get a better idea ("feat" Sebastian Kügler :P)...

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