<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><root available-locales="en_US," default-locale="en_US"><static-content language-id="en_US"><![CDATA[<p>For the longest time, Sony maintained a rather conspicuous silence on the tablet market, waiting in the wings for the right time to hit the market with a sufficiently differentiated offering. So there's little surprise when its long awaited iPad rival — the Tablet S — is about as hatke as they come.<br> <br>Straight out of the box, the Tablet S looks quite unlike any tablet I've seen thus far, thanks in large part to the same wedge design as the company's line of Vaio laptops. So while the tapering design (think of a folded magazine) does add visual bulk and doesn't allow for the most comfortable portrait orientation usage, it does offer a few benefits. Set it down on a table and the raised screen angle makes it comfortable to type, and the thick edge and textured rear panel gives you a good grip to hold onto while carrying the tablet around. In landscape mode, this is exactly what a tablet should be. The flip side is that, in portrait mode, the tablet design is more hit-or-miss. If you hold it with one hand on the thicker side, you get a much more solid grip than you'd get with an iPad or the Samsung tablets. Grip it on the thin side, and you'll be struggling to hang onto it not only because of the weight imbalance, but the fact that the textured rear panel doesn't extend all the way to the thin side.<br> <br>Plus, I'm not a big fan of the recessed memory card and micro-USB ports, a decision that looks to have been made to please the design-conscious but isn't too usable in the end, especially if you want to reach out for these slots often. Also, the microUSB isn't for charging, as the Tablet S has its own dedicated charger that sits along the bottom.<br> <br>The spec-sheet is pretty mainstream fare — a 9.4-inch screen, a 1GHz dual core processor (using Nvidia's Tegra 2 chipset), 1GB of RAM, 16GB of storage. The screen is a tad smaller than the iPad's 9.7-incher, but packs in a higher resolution of 1280x800 pixels, though it has to be said that the brightness levels and color reproduction of the leading Android tablets edge this one out by a slim margin. Pretty bog-standard stuff, eh?<br> <br>The key to the Tablet S is Sony's software. Sony may have been unable to resist the temptation to heavily customise the underlying Android Honeycomb 3.2 platform, but it backs it up with some heavy hitting software. It's PlayStation certified, which means Sony will make older PlayStation games available for the Tablet S. Now while these games may be dated, the potential is huge given Sony's vast library of titles, and just think if the company was to ever tie in PlayStation Portable or PlayStation 3 games! However, unlike PS-certified phones, the Tablet S only has touchscreen controls – I certainly wouldn't have minded physical controls, they just handle better for gaming. Now that would differentiate this as a true Sony PlayStation tablet!<br> <br>I did like the DLNA feature that lets you ‘throw' content from a PC to the tablet or from the tablet to the TV – not the first time I've seen this feature on a tablet, but certainly the most elegant. There's no HDMI out though. Possibly the most useful addition is the built-in universal remote (an app with infrared sensor) which lets you configure the tablet to control your TV, DVD, set-top box etc – certainly beats plonking down extra cash for a dedicated universal remote.<br> <br>Has the S been worth the wait? It certainly has, and the "It's a Sony" crowd has reason to cheer. Wait for the 3G version to launch though, and take your pick.<br> <br><strong><img src="/businessworld/system/files/images/Jan_12/mfp_side_en-us_300dpi_300x200.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 5px;" width="300" height="200">Rating:</strong> 8/10<br><strong>Price:</strong> Rs 29,990 (16GB Wi-Fi only version, 3G version expected mid-Jan 2012 for Rs. 33,990)<br><strong>URL:</strong> http://bit.ly/rS7ep3<br> <br><strong>Smart And Secure</strong><br>The Internet is a pretty wild place for kids these days, and parents face the tough job of allowing legitimate access for study and leisure, while keeping the content safe for their kids. McAfee Family Protection can help take that load off your shoulders, to a large extent. After the install, all you have to do is setup a McAfee online account and a username/password for each child, and the app pre-configures default settings based on the age range you select, which you can later tweak as well.<br> <br>Once its active, McAfee Family Protection can filter web content, white list or blacklist certain sites and force ‘safe search' on most popular web portals. The content filtering is browser independent, so the kids can't evade it by finding a little used browser. In addition, McAfee uses YouTube's "inappropriate content" flag along with tags, titles, and metadata to block inappropriate videos, both on YouTube itself and embedded in other pages (or limit videos based on movie rating). There are stricter controls available as well, such as the ability to restrict the use of web based email or instant messaging programs, set time-based usage of the Internet and generating reports on usage.<br> <br><strong>URL:</strong> http://bit.ly/tYLUxx<br><strong>Price</strong>: Rs. 2,270<br> <br><strong><img src="/businessworld/system/files/images/Jan_12/Targus-1_300x200.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 5px;" width="300" height="200">Right On Target</strong><br>Presentations give you the chills? Try the Targus Laser Presentation Remote, a wireless multimedia laser presenter with a patent-pending KeyLock technology that prevents accidental pressing of buttons during a presentation. Apart from features like a laser pointer and backlit buttons, the remote works on RF 2.4GHz cordless technology which lets you control a presentation from up to 50 ft away, without having to point in the direction of the laptop.<br> <br><strong>URL:</strong> http://bit.ly/vShQuP<br><strong>Price:</strong> Rs 1,999<br><br><br><br>technocool at kanwar dot net<br>twitter@2shar</p>