Archive for December, 2011

Toshiba has revealed its plan to launch a raft of new products at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, with TVs, tablets and PCs being readied for an official unveiling.

New tablet PCs and ultrabooks are expected to provide much of the excitement and interest at CES 2012 and Toshiba is aiming to get in on the act with products to be launched in both sectors. Its new tablet is promised to be the “thinnest and lightest in the world” while its ultrabook will enter the fray at 13.3 inches.

Readers of magazines designed for consumption via tablet computers or an e-book reader are keen for more content to be made available and an expansion of the number of sources via which they can access their preferred publications.

That is according to research carried out by a company called Affinity on behalf of America’s Association of Magazine Media. Just over a thousand mobile magazine users were quizzed on their habits and preferences, with one of the key findings being that tablet computers and e-book readers appear to be having the effect of increasing overall magazine readership.

There looks likely to be a change of emphasis at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show (CES) as many of the industry’s leading players turn away from charging headlong at the tablet market and focus more on developing competitively priced and well-designed ‘ultrabooks’.

A raft of products in the category are now expected to be on show and cause a good deal of interest when they are unveiled at the CES event that will again bring together leading consumer tech innovators in Las Vegas early next year.

Apple’s leading consumer technology devices have come out in front on a list of the items Britons would most like to receive as gifts at Christmas this year, ahead of the likes of the Amazon Kindle and the latest computer consoles.

Amazon’s market-leading e-book readers look set to be popular gifts again during the festive period but in the run up to Christmas 2011 it has been the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S that have most captured the British imagination.

Apple, the world’s leading consumer technology company, saw its website jump to second in the list of the UK’s most visited websites in recent months.

Figures on who is surfing where from Britain’s internet-connected devices are compiled by the web metrics business Hitwise and the IMRG (Interactive Media in Retail Group), with the latest data showing a striking rise up the rankings for Apple.

Amazon is reportedly preparing to enter the smartphone market after making good early progress in the US tablet PC sector with its newly-introduced Kindle Fire.

Until a few months ago, the company’s hardware consistently solely of it range of Kindles, which are used exclusively for the purposes of reading, but Amazon could soon be taking on Apple and Google in both the tablet and smartphone industries.