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In today’s tablet market, one device stands distinctly above all others: Apple’s iPad. With this tablet, Apple did what it always does and created an innovative, must-have device in a once-unexciting category.
That was three years ago.
Now, a company that made its name with high-end consumer electronics wants to give Apple a real challenge. Sony’s Xperia Tablet Z runs the latest version of Android, has a 10.1-inch screen and is the thinnest tablet yet, even thinner than Apple’s iPad Mini.
At 1.09 pounds, it’s lighter than the 1.44-pound full-size iPad. This tablet has infrared that turns it into a universal living-room remote control. And just for kicks, it works even when submerged in up to three feet of water for 30 minutes.
The Xperia is only available in models with Wi-Fi connections, as was the iPad when it launched. The models cost the same amount as their comparable iPad models: $ 499 for a 16-gigabyte Xperia (in black) and $ 599 for the 32-gigabyte model (in black or white). The Xperia is available in Sony stores, at Amazon.com and other online retailers; it will be in Best Buy stores in July.
With all of its ports closed, the Xperia can work submerged in up to three feet of water for 30 minutes.
Sony has been out of the mobile-technology conversation for a long time, and the Xperia Tablet Z’s design and price position the company to get back in the game if it plays its cards right.
Sony also has a smartphone with the same name in the U.S., the Xperia Z, which is available unlocked (without a carrier) for $ 630. Kazuo Hirai, Sony’s president and CEO, recently said the phone will soon be available with a carrier.
I’ve been using this new tablet for over a week and it’s a serious rival to the iPad. Its stylish overall design, screen, fast performance, good camera and noticeably high sound quality make it easy to love. The Android OS, called Jellybean, runs smoothly and more thoughtfully than previous iterations of Android. But the Xperia Tablet Z didn’t fare well in my battery-life test. And some people may find the Xperia’s plastic back feels flimsy compared with the sturdy, brushed aluminum back on the iPad.
I own an Android tablet and have tested several others, but I liked the Xperia Z’s physical design best. Its super-thin build and light weight let you tote it in a briefcase or bag without noticing it. The Z’s speaker openings are smartly situated on the bottom and side edges, giving a full, surround-sound effect that doesn’t get muffled when you put it down on a table.
After putting the Xperia through its paces for a week, I decided to test its water resistance. First, I made sure all of its ports were covered with their attached flip-out doors. This included a Micro SD memory-card expansion slot, USB 2.0 port and a headphone output. I submerged the device in a deep sink filled with water for 10 minutes with music playing from it. I could still hear it underwater.
The built-in infrared remote can control multiple components and lets users change channels with a swipe toward the television.
Most people won’t go for a swim with their tablets, but they will use them in places where splashes and spills are a regular occurrence, like the kitchen and bathroom. Even with wet fingertips, gestures and selections on the Xperia screen were still recognized, however inconsistently.
In everyday use, the Xperia’s battery life worked well enough that I didn’t notice a problem. But it came up short in my battery test. I set the screen brightness to 75%, kept Wi-Fi on to collect email in the background and played a loop of video until the tablet ran out of juice. The Xperia Z died after just under 5½ hours; the iPad lasted for nearly 11½ hours.
In my living room, I tested the Xperia Z’s built-in infrared remote by opening a preloaded Remote Control app. Here, I selected my device type and maker, and on-screen controls appeared that I tested to make sure they worked with my LG TV, TiVo and Sony sound system. This took just a few minutes and could come in handy if you use your tablet while watching TV, but most people probably will use it as a parlor trick.
I downloaded Sony’s TV SideView app, which let me enter my ZIP Code to pull up my cable provider’s channel guide to browse currently playing content from my tablet without disturbing the TV screen.
The Xperia Tablet Z, left, has a 10.1-inch screen and is the thinnest tablet yet.
A handsome “Watch Now” view floated images of currently playing programs on my screen, and I tapped on each for more details, including related Twitter feeds. Swiping a box representing the program toward the TV changes the TV’s channel to this show.
The Xperia Z’s 8-megapixel rear camera and 2-megapixel front camera have more megapixels than the iPad’s 5-megpixel rear camera and 1.2-megapixel front camera, though the cameras shouldn’t be judged solely on megapixels. Photos of the Pacific Ocean, friends and beaches looked rich and crisp. As I swiped through photos, each took a little extra time to come into focus, like what sometimes happens on a digital camera.
If you’re an Android fan and you’ve been waiting for a tablet with a great design, Sony’s Xperia Tablet Z fits the bill. Just don’t expect its battery to last as long as the iPad’s.
Write to Katie at katie.boehret@wsj.com
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58-year old Wen Hsu has lived in the same apartment building in Jilin city, China, for the last 35-years. Recently, all of Wen’s neighbors were bought out of the building by a construction company wanting to build a mall in its location. Except Wen says they weren’t offering a fair price, so he’s staying. And when winter came and he was worried about the pipes in building freezing, he did what anybody else who doesn’t give a damn about the environment would, he turned the hot water on, hosed it out the window, and left it running for the entirety of winter. Up yours, Mother Nature!
He said: “The water running into the pipe is from underground where it is above freezing and that is stopping the water pipes in my house from freezing.
“If that had happened I really would have had to move out. They want me to move but what they were offering was not enough for me to get another place so I’m refusing to leave.”
Honestly, I’m surprised some assassin from the construction company didn’t climb that ice waterfall and snuff Wen out in his sleep. I’ve seen movies before, those big construction companies don’t dick around. One minute you’re refusing to sell your apartment, the next you’re DRINKING THROUGH A STRAW THE REST OF YOUR LIFE. “You mean eating?” Dammit, can I get a do-over?
Hit the jump for a closeup.
This is Steve Norris’s Patrolbot Mark II. You can tell it’s not CHUCK Norris’s Patrolbot Mark II because you’re monitor didn’t just explode. Are Chuck Norris jokes still fashionable? No? What about baggy sweaters? Patrolbot is a remote controlled security robot Steve uses to patrol his yard with a flashlight, night-vision camera, and water sprayer. What the hell Steve is patrolling for is beyond me, but he does spray a concrete rabbit sculpture at the end of the video. Hoho, you sure showed it! You hear that, garden gnomes? PATROLBOT KNOWS NO MERCY.
Hit the jump for a video demo.
Remember the series of bald guys with breaking water balloon “wigs”? Well here’s another series of the same thing, except with bald women. As you can see, this lady here looks suspiciously like a cyborg, so she probably short-circuited right after the picture was taken. Reminds me of the time I 9-volt batteried my nips in the bathtub. Unrelated depressing fact: I just found out I have lower back hair. It’s like, between my spine and love handles. I discovered it when I was checking my ass in the mirror for dingleberries and almost passed out from disgust with myself.
Hit the jump for more.
This is a short video of a magic knife slicing a water droplet in half. Except it’s not really magic, because scientists had to go and ruin all the fun for us. You could have lied to us, you know. The government does it all the f***ing time.
The core of the blade is two 0.020-inch thick zinc and copper sheets. After forging it, it was cleaned with acetone, ethanol, deionized water and then air-dried with nitrogen. Then the researchers dipped it in “a 10 nanomolar aqueous solution of silver nitrate for approximately 20 seconds.” Finally, they added the magic element, dipping it in a 1 nanomolar solution of substance called HDFT.
This seemingly magic material and manufacturing method can revolutionize biomedicine, allowing the separation of proteins in biological fluids “without troubling satellite drop formation.”
Hey, I’m all for revolutionizing biomedicine and all, but I’m also all for cutting water balloons perfectly in half with a ninja sword. Think about how cool that’ll look in slow motion! “I think you’re missing the big picture here, GW.” A MOVIE?! We could totally make it a movie!
Hit the jump for the video.
In outerspace news, the Curiosity Rover just beamed back some pictures to earth that scientists are saying provide proof-positive evidence that flowing water once existed on the red planet. Cool, now maybe if we time traveled back a billion years we could drink it.
Scientists are studying the images of stones cemented into a layer of conglomerate rock. The sizes and shapes of stones offer clues to the speed and distance of a long-ago stream’s flow.
“From the size of gravels it carried, we can interpret the water was moving about 3 feet per second, with a depth somewhere between ankle and hip deep,” said Curiosity science co-investigator William Dietrich of the University of California, Berkeley. “Plenty of papers have been written about channels on Mars with many different hypotheses about the flows in them. This is the first time we’re actually seeing water-transported gravel on Mars. This is a transition from speculation about the size of streambed material to direct observation of it.”
Damn, they even calculated how fast the water was moving! That’s science right there. SCIENCE, BROBRO. I love that stuff. E equals McSquares and all that.
Hit the jump for a closeup with the head of a peen-shaped rock circled for good measure.
If Google-lovin’ Koreans were a little jealous after seeing Eric Schmidt turn up in Japan with a Nexus 7-shaped gift under his arm, they needn’t be. It looks like the Executive Chairman brought another one along with him on his Asian travels. It wasn’t just the hardware that came along for the ride either, with The Next Web reporting that the firm also made movies available in the countries edition of Google Play. The Korean asking price will be a reported KRW 299,000 (about $ 267) for the 16GB edition, a smidgen less than its neighbor’s (¥19,800 / $ 312). We suspect, though, not quite enough to warrant a ferry ride.
Filed under: Tablets
Nexus 7 comes to South Korea, causes price envy across the water originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 27 Sep 2012 11:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Although TDK mentioned its Wireless Charging Cube at IFA with the rest of its latest portable audio wares, it wasn’t until today that we got a look at the speaker. The six by six by six-inch (yes, you read that right) unit features the same retro, black and gold aesthetic as TDKs other Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR speakers, but it’s notably housing a Qi-compatible inductive charging base at the top (just like JBL’s Lumia-styled Power Up speakers). Along with being splash-resistant enough to stay safely within range of your sink, an internal rechargeable battery will net you roughly six to eight hours of untethered play time. We had a very brief ears-on with this $ 400 unit, so join us past the break for more details and our initial impressions.
Filed under: Portable Audio/Video
TDK’s Wireless Charging Cube pumps out the jams, juices your Qi devices and resists water (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 Sep 2012 19:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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