Tech and Gadgets by Peter Bite

City News News

Peter Bite
November 1, 2012

Windows 8 Available Globally Friday

October 25, 2012 by Christina Warren

Microsoft officially announced Windows 8 Thursday at a massive event in New York City.

Windows 8 will be available in 140 markets and in 37 languages on Friday. Users can start downloading Windows 8 at 12:01 a.m. and copies will be available in stores at midnight local time at retailers around the globe.

Existing Windows owners can upgrade to Windows 8 for $39.99.

In addition to Windows 8 and Windows 8 Pro, Microsoft is also announcing Windows RT. Windows RT will come preloaded on ARM devices such as the Microsoft Surface tablet.

At the launch event, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said that Windows 8 is ushering in a “new era for Microsoft.” Windows 8 is the first product of this new era.

Chinese Copycats Make iPad Mini Clone to Sell for $99

October 25, 2012 by Doug Drinkwater for TabTimes

It didn’t take long for a company in China to rip off the iPad Mini –- one vendor has already announced the remarkably similar ‘Goopad mini’ for just $99.

The tablet was first spotted by Chinese tech website Gizmochina and comes from Chinese company Goophone, which also launched the “Goophone i5″ shortly after the launch of the iPhone 5 last month.

However, the company apparently patented the iPhone 5’s design in China, based on early leaks of the device, no doubt in a bid to save itself from a prospective court date with Apple.

While the looks and name of the Goopad mini may make for some amusement, the tablet actually sports some pretty decent hardware specifications.There’s an 8-inch 1024 x 768 resolution display, a dual-core 1.4GHz processor, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of storage and dual-facing cameras. The device seems to run a customized version of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.

The tablet will launch in November for $99, making it $230 cheaper than the entry-level iPad Mini.

This article originally published at TabTimes here.