Gatgets ; Toshiba JournE Touch tablet review

Gatgets ; Toshiba JournE Touch tablet review-The 7-inch JournE Tablet is thin and light, it costs €249 (£220) – but is it more than a web pad?

The Crunchpad was supposed to be a cheap and simple web tablet, but many users want iPhone-style apps on a larger screen as well as web browsing. Toshiba's JournE Touch is a 7-inch touchscreen with an ARM 11 processor driving the latest version of Windows CE (CE 6.0 R3) and it starts up in ten seconds.

There's no accelerometer and the screen doesn't rotate (automatically or manually - although some apps will be able to rotate the screen).

Currently there's a limited list of apps, most of them online tools. Others are less well known; Radeo, a streaming radio service and FrameChannel, a content aggregation service.

There's an RSS reader, and MSN Messenger for instant messaging and voice calls to other Messenger users – easy to use, with the limitations of the on-screen keyboard. Screen resolution of the Toshiba JournE is 800x480; so even though it supports MPEG 4 as well as H.264, you can't watch HD.

There's an icon for Toshiba's own content service, which will offer apps and content; this will be free for the first month while Toshiba gets feedback from the first users but this isn't up and running yet, and Toshiba hasn't finalised the payment system.

The JournE team is working on adding key applications including an e-reader which will rotate the screen into portrait for page layout; it will handle PDF and EPUB but Toshiba can't say if it will work with Adobe Digital Editions.

Does the web work?

For a web tablet, the JournE has some way to go. Initially it comes with a mobile version of internet Explorer 6 similar to the one in Windows Mobile 6.5, with pan and zoom, and Flash Lite support.

Most web pages will load correctly, but more advanced web apps won't always work (certainly not Google Wave and we couldn't get the Office 2010 web apps to run). To keep the cost down, the JournE has a resistive screen, so you can use a finger, fingernail or stylus.

There's no multi-touch and no other gestures.

Remember that the JournE comes from Toshiba's digital photo frame family and it makes much more sense; this is a photo frame that can show photos from Flickr, updates from Facebook, videos from YouTube, messages from friends and other updates alongside your photos in the simplest way we've ever seen.

 

on mobile internet devices, and it is one that sorta kinda makes sense. Touted as the "Ultimate Home Media Tablet" Toshiba's Wi-Fi tablet has its own icon packed user interface on top of Windows CE. A base station will be sold separately that will have USB and HDMI outputs.