Slate design Windows tablets are few and far between these days. Those that are available tend to be expensive vertical market solutions or under-powered and under-sized models from small makers. Asus has entered the market with the game changing Eee Slate EP121, a 12.1” Windows tablet with high end specs generally seen only on expensive verticals at a price that’s consumer-friendly. You’d think Asus has a slam-dunk since the market for a capable Windows slate tablet offers little competition; but the bigger problem is Windows’ somewhat unearned reputation for being a poor tablet platform.  Though there’s some merit to these complaints, many dings rise out of ignorance: the platform has been around for 10 years and many reviewers dismiss Windows 7 tablets based on dated experiences. It hasn’t helped that several small manufacturers (generally Asian companies whose products arrive here online or through importers) went with underpowered Intel Atom CPUs and screens that are too small to work well with Windows. The Eee Slate uses a 12.1”, 1280 x 800 pixel display; the sweet spot for Windows tablets and the most common size for mainstream convertibles like the HP TouchSmart TM2 and the Lenovo ThinkPad X201t. It runs on a ULV Intel Core i5 CPU for plenty of processing power and ships in 2 gig/32 gig SSD and 4 gig/64 gig SSD versions. The display handles both capacitive multi-touch with 2 touch points, and it has a Wacom digitizer with EMR pen for note-takers and artists. It runs Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit and performance is better than the capable Lenovo IdeaPad U260 12.5” notebook and worlds better than Intel Atom and AMD Fusion ultraportables (Fusion does have a gaming advantage though). Asus likes to bundle accessories in the box, a rare treat these days, and the Eee Slate comes with a leather portfolio case that can act as a stand and an Asus-branded Microsoft 6000 portable Bluetooth keyboard that’s received solid reviews of its own. The leather case’s functionality as a protective device and stand are very good but we weren’t terribly impressed with the uneven bonding of the leather to the semi-rigid inner backing material (there are ripples in the surface). The keyboard is excellent: it’s compact with a gentle curve for better typing ergonomics. Since it’s wireless Bluetooth, you can set the Eee Slate on a tablet in front of you, and use the keyboard in your lap (excellent for us couch potatoes). The Eee Slate weighs 2.5 lbs. vs. 1.5 lbs. for mobile OS tablets and its battery life is shorter at 3 to 3.5 hours. Though it runs a full Intel CPU with all the usual PC parts inside, the 2 fans are quiet and the machine stays uncannily cool, even when streaming Hulu or Netflix over HDMI to an HD TV.  The Slate has 2 USB ports, Atheros WiFi 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0 and a mini-HDMI port. There is no wired Ethernet port, and that means you’ll need a USB Ethernet adapter if you use a wired network connection.

Display and Digitizer

Asus Eee Slate vs. iPad 2 size comparisons.

Horsepower and Temperatures

Windows Experience Index:

Inside the Eee PC Slate: Opening it Up

Battery Life and Charger

Over the last 10 years, we have witnessed a change occur in nearly every other technological service. Little though has happened in the gaming industry, especially in online gaming. In fact some companies are yet to embrace the aspect of online gaming due to the challenge of monetization. However, a few have shown interest and in the process some have paid the price for that. For instance, Zynga (NASDAQ:ZNGA) and Caesars Entertainment (NASDAQ:CZR) have struggled in recent years due to slowdown in income.
Specifically, the case of Zynga is incomparable to any other because the company solely relies on online social gaming. Surprisingly, Zynga is one of the few companies that seem to understand the future of gaming.
Social gaming is the next frontier in the gaming industry and at the moment Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:EA) and Zynga along with a few others seem to be pursuing this new market with intent. Other companies like Sweden-based Net Entertainment are also in pursuit with slots like the Wonkywabbits game and Starburst slots among others.
Nonetheless, the overall case scenario at the moment is that gaming companies are making more money from non-social games, which begs the question on whether they will be putting more money in developing top class social games.
Since Zynga’s Farmville, King Digital’s (NASDAQ:KING) Candy Crush Saga, and Rovio Entertainment’s Angry Birds, there has been hardly another social gaming Franchise that can claim to have hit the scales in the recent past.
This is probably due to the manner in which both Zynga and King Digital have failed to deliver in terms of revenues in recent quarters. Companies are now caught up in two minds on whether to pursue this interesting market and risk compromising on income, or limit investing in the market and risk trailing others by the time someone finally finds the magic that could help monetize social gaming. A part of the problem for gaming social gaming companies has been due to the shift to mobile platforms with many people now playing the various social games via mobile.

Google (GOOGL) is busy inventing your future.
And judging by the company’s new products and initiatives, it hopes to be as disruptive as a modern-day "Big Bang."
But if you think that its ultra-futuristic inventions won’t be around for many years yet… you’re dead wrong.
At the company’s annual I/O conference for Android and other developers last week, Google showed that the future is happening today by introducing some remarkable new innovations that are already available.
Let’s dig in…

Innovation #1: Welcome to "Brillo"

What’s the only thing better than the internet?
Why, the internet of everything, of course!
At Wall Street Daily, we’ve already covered the Internet of Things (IoT) pretty extensively as one of today’s fastest-growing tech trends. And Google is right in the mix here.
For example, I’ve written before about how Google and Facebook (FB) are creating various internet universes, in hopes of driving the IoT revolution themselves.
With Google specifically, I noted how the company is centering its ambitions on the Nest smart thermostat.
But Google just gave its universe a big bang!
It’s making the creation of IoT devices easy for developers by designing a new operating system called “Brillo.”
Brillo is essentially a scrubbed-down version of its Android system, which is layered on top of the existing Android platform. The communications language behind Brillo will be called Weave – and between the two new creations, Google will put IoT devices within reach of anyone who currently develops Android products.
Think about that: Thousands, if not millions, of developers and companies around the world will now have a brand-new, easy platform to create their IoT-enabled products.
The other “universes” I mentioned will have their uses… but this one is as big a kick-start to the IoT revolution as can be imagined.

Performance and Horsepower

More Specs at a Glance

Design and Ergonomics

Voice and Data

Display and Sound

Camera

Battery Life

As with other recent HTC unibody phones, the battery is sealed inside, so you can’t swap in a spare as needed on the road. As a consolation, the 2020 mAh Lithium Ion Polymer battery has good stamina despite the big high res display and 4G LTE. Chalk that up to excellent power management and the Qualcomm S4 Pro’s power frugalness. Like most powerful, big screen smartphones, you’ll likely have to charge the phone nightly with moderate use (some calling, web, push email, music and 30 minutes of video playback), but we routinely ran the phone from 8am to 10pm without running out of power.

The fight against cancer has risen to a fever pitch in the last decade, with new research avenues increasing almost by the day. If we are to believe Ray Kurzweil and the singularity folk, the specter of cancer may soon be a thing of the past. Lending credence to such optimism, new research by a team at MIT and UC San Diego employs genetically engineered bacteria to detect cancer, and perhaps someday treat it as well. Enlisting the help of bacteria in the battle against cancer may prove key in turning the tables on this awful menace.
The basis for this new form of cancer diagnosis is the unusual relationship between cancer and bacteria. Whereas healthy human tissue will aggressively fight off most bacterial infestations, the immune system within tumors has been compromised by the many mutations taking place there, and so bacteria accumulate in them at a higher-than-normal rate. The researchers exploited this characteristic to devise a means of detecting tumors long before other methods could catch them.
By removing a snippet of DNA programming found in fireflies and transferring it to a harmless form of E. Coli bacteria, the researchers were able to cause these bacteria to fluoresce at the critical concentrations that occur within tumors. The analogy would be to that of creating a flashlight that automatically turns on when it finds a tumor. The ability to detect tumors as small as one cubic millimeter makes this one of the most sensitive diagnostic tools to date. In treating cancer, early detection is pivotal, since the sooner a tumor is detected, the easier it is to contain and eliminate.
But before letting out a collective sigh of relief, it should be kept in mind that this method has only been successfully applied to liver cancers. Early on in the study, the researchers realized the orally ingested bacteria would not reach sufficient concentrations throughout the whole body to successfully detect all tumors therein. For instance, the blood brain barrier prevents the bacteria from entering the human brain as would be necessary for this method to detect brain tumors. The liver, however, proved an exception, in that the E. Coli bacteria in question naturally occurs there and would multiply rapidly in the presence of a tumor.
Despite its limitations, this is nonetheless a significant development. Many tumors that begin in the colon quickly spread to the liver, where they prove difficult to detect and go on to infect other parts of the body. Therefore, catching liver cancer early can play a key role in preventing cancers in many other place of the body.
The scientists involved in the study, including Tal Danino and Arthur Prindle, are now hopeful that the same bacteria can be programmed to fight cancer as well. The goal is to engineer the bacteria to cause genetic disruption of cancer cell function, deliver drugs, or signal the immune system to destroy the cancer itself. In the future, the cup of yogurt you have in the morning may not only improve digestive health, but simultaneously track down and eliminate cancers growing within the body.