Open webOS: Now Too Late

It was a year ago that Open webOS beta was released.

There was a minor flurry of excitement as various people got it semi-working on a bunch of devices.

Then silence.

Then along came MultiWindow Android.

And MultiWindow Android is just better.

LG is supposed to be using webOS for a Smart TV. With Chromecast having shown people that a $35 dongle can make an ordinary TV smart enough, I think LG has placed a losing bet.

In addition, combining MultiWindow Android with Miracast and a large-screen TV is superior to any Smart TV that’s ever been produced.

webOS was cutting edge for its day but I think that day is now over.

I’m moving on.

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Huawei Mate 2 Phone: eInk Device Size

The Huawei Mate 2 phone will have a six-point-one-inch screen [Google English].

eInk eBook devices such as the Kindle, Nook, and Kobo have a six-inch screen.

The Singularity is here.

(Yes, the Samsung Galaxy Mega has a bigger screen, but the Huawei Mate 2 seems to be closer to 4:3, like an eInk screen.)

“Brainwidth”

How Poverty Taxes the Brain

In a series of experiments run by researchers at Princeton, Harvard, and the University of Warwick, low-income people who were primed to think about financial problems performed poorly on a series of cognition tests, saddled with a mental load that was the equivalent of losing an entire night’s sleep. Put another way, the condition of poverty imposed a mental burden akin to losing 13 IQ points, or comparable to the cognitive difference that’s been observed between chronic alcoholics and normal adults.

The finding further undercuts the theory that poor people, through inherent weakness, are responsible for their own poverty — or that they ought to be able to lift themselves out of it with enough effort. This research suggests that the reality of poverty actually makes it harder to execute fundamental life skills. Being poor means, as the authors write, “coping with not just a shortfall of money, but also with a concurrent shortfall of cognitive resources.”

Boldfaced emphasis added by me.

It takes science to explain what any person with sufficient verbal skills touched by poverty could have told them.

This is a fundamental flaw of some science. How many damn “anecdotes” does it take to make something rise to the level of requiring actual study?

And they’re not done yet. There are types of poverty too. This nation wasn’t founded by millionaires. The majority of people were literally “dirt poor” (didn’t even own dirt!). Yet they rose. Why? That’s what they need to study next. And as soon as possible.

Ainol Working On 3G iPad Mini Clone

Not something get excited about. It will combine a dual-core AllWinner A20 CPU with 3G [Google English]. 3G will be via a new UltraStick standard developed by Huawei [Google English] and already adopted by Chuwi in a new Retina-class tablet [Google English].

First Video Of Teclast P89 Mini

Although the iPad Mini is shown above, it’s really compared only in thickness and weight. The Android vs. Android is between the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 and the Teclast P89 Mini.

Then the P89 Mini is shown demonstrating WiDi to a large screen TV (not without a few hiccups).

Video after the break.

MSI Primo 81 Goes On Sale In France

This is an AllWinner A31s-based clone with 1GB of RAM, similar to the Onda V818 Mini.

MSI has now listed it on their global website. It’s not at their American website.

Europeans interested in an A31s-based clone yet are hesitant to deal with international sellers and the possibility of having to return a defective unit might have better after-sale support getting it from Generation Oueb. It seems a bit expensive at 224 Euros, though. There’s a five-page brochure, in French, for it [direct PDF link].

Previously here:

MSI Announces iPad Mini Clone: Primo 81

Teclast P89 Mini: 1GB RAM, Evaluated Twice

Let’s get the bad news out first: Early reports were incorrect. The Teclast P89 Mini has just 1GB of RAM, not 2GBs. I understand that the RAM is likely more expensive, but this tablet is likely going to be pricey as it is (locally, the rumor is above 1,000), so why not also offer a 2GB version to appeal to users who really want all that CPU power?

Ramos K1 Tablet: So Pretty, So Sad

PC Pop has a gallery of images, some of which I’ve cloned for this post (click any for large).

The Ramos K1 is, as expected, gorgeous.

It is also, as originally rumored, quite sad.

Partial specs (no one seems to have them all yet): Quad-core AllWinner A31s CPU, 1GB RAM, 16B storage, 7.85-inch IPS screen at 1024 x 768, electronic compass, gravity sensor, HDMI-out, GPS, 2MP front and 5MP back cameras, microSD card slot, USB port, 373.7g, 5,500mAh battery.

Ramos K2 Tablet Leaked

Ramos has sprung a leak [Google English].

That doesn’t look like an HTC One at all. What happened?

Specs: 1.2Ghz quad-core MediaTek MTK8389, PowerVR 544 GPU, 1GB DDR3 RAM, 16GBs storage, 7.85-inch screen at the usual 1024 x 768 pixels, 2MP front and 5MP autofocus rear cameras, 3.5mm headphone jack, USB 2.0 port, electronic compass, gravity sensor, GPS, 3G (WCDMA) and GSM network calls, 373.7g, 5,500mAh battery, Android 4.2.2.

This is not the tablet for me. That 1GB of RAM is also very disappointing. So is its design.

The Ramos press conference has not yet begun as I type this. Likely I will have to be asleep when it does, so unless there’s another leak soon, the K1 tablet will be covered here tomorrow.

Tomorrow: Ramos K1 & K2 Tablets

I am looking forward to it. I like that design.