(Update: iPad 2 has been launched in South Africa)

If you are one of the people who have been dying to get an iPad, but somehow did not manage to get one through “unofficial” channels up until now, you are in luck. As of today you can finally buy the Apple iPad in official Apple reseller stores in South Africa. The best part is the price – where SA has traditionally always had ridiculous pricing when it came to Apple products, the iPad prices are actually surprisingly good, as you can see here (Digicape pricing):

Take into account that the cheapest iPad in the US trades for $500, this is not too bad. For way to long Core insisted on taking the US price and just multiplying it by ten. Good for them for changing that (I am not trying to get into another pricing debate here, I am actually complementing them). I still want to see what they charge for accessories as well though.

While its great to finally have the iPad available via official channels, I just have to point out something. It is today also exactly one year after the iPad has been announced in the US, so you might want to ask yourself if you so desperately need the first generation iPad now. My little bit of advice is to wait for the second generation iPad. While everything is just rumours up until now, you can expect a lot of improvements on the next generation model, and possibly even at a lower price point. If history is anything to go by – look at the jump from the first generation iPhone to the iPhone 3G… I think I will do a small experiment the weekend and ask some iStore / Incredible Connection salespeople if they recommend getting the iPad right now…

But all in all – it is wonderful news to finally have the iPad officially here in SA!

If you want to get one, it is available at iStores, Dion Wired, Incredible Connection and of course the best Apple Premium Reseller – Digicape. I recommend you phone ahead if you are driving out to get one. Something tells me it will sell out fast. You can also see where to get the iPad here.

Update: our man on the ground, Seb Stent went to go test out iStore’s salesmen about the iPad. If you want to see if they know their stuff – just click play! Sorry about the dodgy sound!

Image from Engadget

I have to be honest – I have become quite numb in reading about all the new tablets coming out, especially the Android ones. They all seem similiar, yet only one or two stand out, like the Motorola Xoom. I am much more interested to see what HP is working on. See, HP bought out Palm (one of the great names in PDAs) a while back, primarily for their beautiful operating system called WebOS. In South Africa we are not used to WebOS, seeing as the Palm Pre cellphone never officially arrived here.

You might remember a while HP announced the “slate” with Windows 7, but apparently it was not the greatest device to use. Windows 7 is not a tablet friendly operating system – for stylus use, sure. But we are all moving to finger input, and Microsoft just does not seem to get it yet, despite their “touch packs”. In fact, the “slate” was such a disaster that HP focussed the device only to its enterprise customers, and as you might have noticed, it is not available in SA.

But lets see what we can expect from the HP WebOS tablet (codenamed “Topaz”):

• 9.7 inch screen (same as iPad), XGA (1024 x 768) resolution
• 1.2 GHz Qualcomm processor
• Adreno 220 GPU
• 512MB RAM
• Dual Camera
• 16, 32 or 64 GB storage
• And of course – WebOS

And here is the leaked image if you want some more details (from Pre Central):

Cannot wait to get my hands on this. Lets hope it does better than the Palm Pre phones…

Guest Post: Albert is a developer, gadget geek, and all-round nice guy. He’s passionate about Android, and writes for ZADroid, a new blog that covers Android in South Africa. However, anything shiny and sufficiently technologically advanced puts a smile on his face. Above and beyond that, Albert loves the web and the technologies that drive it, good design, and original ideas.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab is somewhat hard to get hold of, but we’ve managed to get our grubby paws on not one, but two of these nifty little devices (not official Samsung review units, though, seems they’re quite attached to it). Both Philip and I have had the opportunity to spend some time with the Tab.

The Galaxy Tab is a seven-inch (~18cm) Tablet device, which measures 190.1×120.6×12.0mm.

You would think that using a Galaxy Tab right after the deluge of Honeycomb and Android Tablet news from CES would detract somewhat from the experience, and after the first few minutes with my unit I thought it was going to be a bit of a “meh” review, but I ended up being pleasantly surprised. You’ve probably heard people saying it’s like a giant Galaxy S. That’s both spot on, and way off the mark. Let’s get into the details, and you’ll see what I mean.

Physical Features

The Galaxy Tab is a seven-inch (~18cm) Tablet device, which measures 190.1×120.6×12.0mm. It’s a bit thicker than I expected, but that being said, it’s still pretty thin. It’s difficult to differentiate these all-screen devices, but Samsung have pulled it off with the interesting white plastic back (which holds up pretty well to scratches and dirt). The unit is lighter than expected, a bit plasticky, but quite solidly built and quite durable. Unfortunately, the Tab has Samsung’s standard 4 capacitive buttons right beneath the display. With a device like this it’s even easier to accidentally brush against these with undesired effects following. On top of the device is a standard 3.5mm headphone jack, on the left sits the microphone, on the right is the power switch, a very nice volume rocker, and nicely concealed SIM card and SD Card slots. On the bottom is the dock connector and speaker ports. It’s a pity that the 30-pin connector is non-standard (it almost looks like a flipped-over Apple connector), which means you’re shit out of luck if you lose your cable.

It’s difficult to differentiate these all-screen devices, but Samsung have pulled it off with the interesting white plastic back.

All in all, the seven-inch form factor turned out to perfect for prolonged, yet comfortable use, quickly stuffing in an average-sized pocket, and leaving on the nightstand for a charge.

Display

The Super TFT LCD on the Tab is a better-than-average display. Running at a resolution of 1024×768, with a pixel density of 169ppi, text is sharp, colours are bright and vivid, and graphical elements just look better than usual. It even performs surprisingly well in direct sunlight, with a little bit of wash-out, but not to an unusable degree. The Galaxy Tab’s display is covered by a sheet of Corning’s Gorilla Glass, which makes it the ideal toss-it-in-the-bag tablet.

It’s no Super AMOLED, but it’s good enough, and a damn sight better than some other tablet displays out there.

Other Bits and Pieces

The Galaxy Tab has the usual array of extras: 3G and WiFi connectivity, aGPS, and Bluetooth, as well as an ambient light sensor. Nothing out of the ordinary here, and they all work as expected. It’s curious that Samsung has decided that the GSM functionality shouldn’t be limited to data on a Tablet device. You can actually make phone calls if the included headset is used, or on the built-in speaker if private conversations aren’t your thing. A nice extra.

For those intending to use the Tab without a SIM card, the Tab offers a Flight Mode toggle, which will disable the GSM/3G and Bluetooth radios, but leaves WiFi as an option to enable. Be aware, however, that for some reason the Samsung Apps application that is pre-installed on the device will refuse to start if a SIM card is not present. The annoying thing about this is the fact that, even if it knows very well that it won’t run without a SIM, it will still present you with a notification that you can download application updates using it.

Performance & Battery Life

The 1 GHz Hummingbird processor (an ARM processor featuring package-on-package construction) is the same that can be found in the Galaxy S Phone. Samsung takes advantage of the Package-on-Package architecture by embedding 8Gb of MLC Flex OneNAND, 1 Gb of OneDRAM and 3Gb of Mobile DDR into the processor. We already know this makes for a snappy experience, but it felt even quicker on the Tab. It may be down to software tweaks and optimizations. Whatever it is, the Tab is blazingly fast, even with multiple applications running. You also get 16 or 32 GB of internal storage capacity (depending on the model), which can be expanded with a microSD card. The Galaxy Tab also packs 512 MB of DDR RAM, which is less than expected, but it doesn’t seem to hamper performance.

The Galaxy Tab feeds off a massive 3.7V/4000mAh Li-Ion battery, and Samsung claims up to 7 hours of video playback. We didn’t get quite those numbers, but the battery lasted a little bit more than a day and half with regular use. The battery isn’t user-replaceable, but at the pace gadgets are becoming obsolete these days, it shouldn’t be a problem.

Camera(s)

The Tab has two cameras: 3.2 MP rear facing camera and 1.3 MP front facing camera.

The Tab has two cameras: 3.2 MP rear facing camera and 1.3 MP front facing camera. You’d expect a camera packing slightly more mega-pixels from Samsung, whose cellphone cameras are generally very good. So, the main camera isn’t wonderful, but it does the job. The front-facing camera couldn’t be tested with video calls, but the pictures it produced in self-shot mode were useless. That being said, the Camera application almost redeems the lackluster hardware. It has a few very nice features like an auto-stitching panorama mode, and smile detection.

Software

Up to the Galaxy Tab, Android just wasn’t meant for screen sizes large than 5 inches. Samsung worked with Google to bring a modified version of 2.2 (Froyo) to the Tab, which scales correctly, and has a few display tweaks such as larger fonts and buttons (and a different, quite pleasant colour scheme). Samsung has also pre-installed a few applications specifically created for the Galaxy Tab and its form factor. Among these are e-mail, calendar, a media player, and one or two other bits and bobs, like a calculator. It is evident that a lot of thought and care was put into the development of these applications, as they are a joy to use. Also included is Samsung Applications, an extra software repository with Tab-specific extras.

The Galaxy Tab also boasts Adobe Flash 10.1 support, but this is something of a mixed bag, as some Flash content will completely ruin your browsing experience. As an example, the Flash content on Rockstar’s Social Club website caused the Browser application to eat CPU cycles so badly that the operating system made it go away with nary a peep or a notification. Another huge annoyance caused by the Flash support was that one block of Flash content on a page managed to obscure the Browser toolbar at the top of the screen, rendering one unable to perform almost any kind of useful navigation. It eventually got so bad that we set plug-ins to load on demand, instead of automatically.

Admittedly, these issues may well be the fault of the Flash content creator, but the plug-in should at least ensure that the tablet’s user interface isn’t affected by content it’s displaying.

From a usability perspective, using an operating system I’ve gotten used to on a small screen all blown up like this was strange at first. Every now and then it’s evident that the Android we all know and love just wasn’t meant for Tablets, but for those of us familiar with the ins and outs of the OS, using it is a breeze, and, on the Tab, a joy – as there is little to no lagging. Downloading and installing applications from the Android market happened so fast sometimes, that I missed it.

So yes, this tweaked version of Android works on the Galaxy Tab, but only because it is so familiar. Hopefully the Tab is in line for an upgrade to Honeycomb, so it can run Android as Google intends it to be run on this form factor.

Conclusion

I was prepared to be wholly underwhelmed by the Galaxy Tab. I thought that I was going to brush it off as Samsung’s attempt to get a foot in the door before everyone else. Fortunately, I was pleasantly surprised. Samsung has managed to make a software and hardware pairing that was never intended to be work quite well. It’s a pretty device that is fun to use, and it’s just the right size and weight. Would I buy one off-contract? Probably not. Would I get one on contract? I’d seriously consider it.

Now to see how, and if, Samsung catches up to Motorola, LG, and all the other players that will be releasing very powerful hardware coupled with a flavor of Android intended for Tablets.

Build Quality: 4/5

Performance and Responsiveness: 4/5

Aesthetics: 4/5

Display: 4.5/5

Score: 4/5

Now that CES is over and done, we can finally relax after the flood of tablet related news. Or can we? Clearly many companies believe that tablets are the future of computing, or at least the untapped goldmine that only one company seems to have captured until now. With the iPad selling at a phenomenal rate (Steve Jobs told Walt Mossberg they currently sell an iPad every 3 seconds, and still cannot keep up), other manufacturers have been showcasing what they have been working on for the past year, and Google showed off Honeycomb, the next release of its Android Mobile operating system.

What is interesting is how people have shifted their attention from netbooks (which were very hot sellers up until now) to tablets – and the statistics show that tablets are negatively affecting netbook sales at present. What makes this amazing is that the netbook market is highly commoditized with just about every PC manufacturer out there having a few netbook models in their PC range. On the other hand, tablets are currently dominated by one company and one device. Pretty amazing.

Charl came across this pretty great infographic showing the “Tablet Takeover”, and it perfectly shows what is going on, and why other manufacturers want to get in on this market. The question still remains however – are they maybe too late? The iPad has a year’s headstart, and iPad 2 is on the way. If the iPad 2 is a more evolutionary device with not a lot of OS changes, I reckon Apple might have some trouble on their hands. Android 3.0 looks like a much more full fledged operating system than iOS, but thats just my opinion. On the other hand, perhaps the very thing that makes iPad so popular is the simplicity of the operating system…

Anyway – here is the infographic (I recommend you download it and view it in full screen – it is pretty detailed)

Guest Post: With many people getting their hands on the Kinect this past holiday, we decided it might be a good idea to get some hands-on experience with the device. Is it worth it? Is it kids only at this point? Hans Haupt will be helping out Bandwidth Blog in future with some gaming related reviews... Expect to see some more in future! You can follow Hans on Twitter at @hanshaupt .

The simple truth is that the Microsoft Kinect is a winner. It is also remarkably addictive. From the moment you turn the device on, you will not want to put it off. It usually performs so well that extended periods of use make other methods of controlling media feel instantly dated. In addition to offering you a new way to play games and interact with your television, the device is also a great showcase for the latest in facial recognition, voice interaction and motion tracking technology. That is, when it works.

Like most new products, Kinect is not perfect. It has its kinks and flaws but when it works it generally does so with aplomb. Considering the device is only a few weeks old and has already sold well over 3 million units, not to mention the strides those in the open source community have made with hacking Kinect, we can give Microsoft’s latest gaming peripheral the benefit of the doubt. Although the steep price may keep some people away at first, Kinect is hands down the best option for motiongaming. Bar none!

In addition to the innovation Kinect brings to gaming, the device also changes the way you can interact with the Xbox dashboard. From subtle voice commands like “Xbox Open Tray” to “Xbox Recommend Movies” within the Zune interface, to waving your hands about a la Tom Cruise in Minority Report to navigate around menus, dress your avatar or view achievements; what Kinect does it does supremely well. In fact, prolonged use of Kinect began to make handling an Xbox 360 controller feel alien and unnatural. This is a great sign, for it means that Microsoft is on the right track with Kinect.

Several launch games are currently available in SA for Microsoft’s latest peripheral. However, because Kinect is new, game developers have yet to harness the obviously untapped potential of this new device. Therefore, although Kinect’s launch line-up does a fair job of offering a taste of what Kinect is capable of, there are no mind blowing titles on offer. With that said, the games which are currently available for Kinect are fun, easy to play and can be enjoyed by many.

So which games should you get? Here is a quick overview of some of Kinect’s launch titles:

Kinect Adventures is the game which ships with every Kinect unit and serves as a fantastic introduction into the Kinect universe. The set of games which make up Kinect Adventures are bright, well-paced, fun, easy to play and are surprisingly well polished. It is the perfect way to become acquainted with controller free gaming, which can take some getting used to depending on your level of coordination or fitness levels. The game is loaded with a variety of unique activities, each with four difficulty settings, multiple levels and the ability to earn a variety of interesting and interactive achievements. Surprisingly, Kinect Adventures is the kind of game that you will end up playing again and again, especially with friends and family!

Kinect Sports:

Kinect Sports is very much like Wii Sports, only controller-less. The game offers a variety of sporting games to play, either alone, with friends or even via Xbox Live. Although not playing with a controller can be quite an odd sensation, it makes for interesting and intuitive gameplay. As fun and entertaining as this sporting game can be, and it is, it does suffer from the occasional motion tracking glitch. This is by no means a deal breaker but it is annoying none the less. However, the overall quality of the game does save it from the occasional glitches and, as a launch title, it is a worthy and enjoyable sports title to own.

There are no delusions that children were the intended audience for Kinectimals. Kids will love having their own cute panther cub to care for and literally play with, while they spend hours exploring all that the Kinectimal Island has to offer. With that said, the game does have plenty of extras to keep even the most seasoned of gamers entertained. It will mesmerise gamers of all ages and it will bring out the kid in pretty much anyone who plays. If nothing else, Kinectimals is a great showcase for all that is Kinect.

Kinect Joyride is a simple arcade racer at its core with the primary difference being that you use only your arms and upper body to play the game. Lean back for boost, push your arms out to activate boost, spin around or lean to your sides to perform tricks, and always remember to keep your arms out to hold the imaginary steering wheel. It is a simple game which offers only a few moments of pleasure throughout the games very short campaign. Sadly the game is a rather barebones racer and pales in comparison to the other much more accomplished launch titles on offer. If you are desperate for a Kinect inspired racer then give it a go, but it would be advisable to wait for future racing titles before ‘jumping in’.

Dance Central is probably one of the best and most polished games in the Kinect launch line up. Think of it like Rock Band, except you are the instrument. In addition to the game exuding graphical eye candy it also features one of the most intuitive and easy to use menu systems in a Kinect game. As good as the game is, however, it could have been so much better if the developers had just added a few additional modes, some extra features and more than just a handful of songs. Even so, the core mechanic of the game works flawlessly, making this a must have title for every Kinect owner or aspiring ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ competitor.

Your Shape: Fitness Evolved is basically your very own digital personal trainer. It aims to be your one stop home workout solution, which is able to track and audibly correct your movements as you progress through the various exercises and activities. The title is certainly innovative and offers a great showcase of the technology while implementing one of best interfaces for a Kinect game, but any fitness buff or regular gym goer will probably not really benefit from what this game has to offer. For everyone else, however, expect plenty of sweat and many sore muscles after each intense and fun workout or activity. The potential for a good home based video game gym solution is ingenious and is no doubt a sought after idea. Your Shape: Fitness Evolved is therefore a good indication of the future possibilities of the technology offered by Kinect.

Guest Post: Albert is a developer, gadget geek, and all-round nice guy. He’s passionate about Android, and writes for ZADroid, a new blog that covers Android in South Africa. However, anything shiny and sufficiently technologically advanced puts a smile on his face. Above and beyond that, Albert loves the web and the technologies that drive it, good design, and original ideas.

Yesterday was a big day for Android. Gingerbread was officially announced, the next version of Android (Hummingbird) was demoed by Andy Rubin on a dual-core tablet at All Things D, and Google unveiled their next flagship phone, the Nexus S.

The Nexus S is is manufactured by Samsung, and is based on the very popular Galaxy S. Obviously, it is the first phone that will ship with Android 2.3 right from the get-go. It has set a new benchmark for Android phones with interesting features like a curved display, dual cameras, 1GHz Hummingbird processor, a whopping 16GB of memory, and Near Field Communication capability. The first review has been extremely positive, but there are one or two things that have people scratching their heads, like the lack of a MicroSD slot, no indicator LED, and a somewhat plasticky build.

Google has also made an official Nexus S site available that has an impressive overview with videos of most of the features.

Here are the specs, directly from the official Nexus S site:

Display

• 4.0″ WVGA (480×800)
• Contour Display with curved glass screen
• Super AMOLED
• 235 ppi
• Capacitive touch sensor
• Anti-fingerprint display coating

Size and Weight

• 63mm x 123.9mm x 10.88mm
• 129g

Hardware

• Haptic feedback vibration
• Three-axis gyroscope
• Accelerometer
• Digital compass
• Proximity sensor
• Light sensor

Processor and Memory

• 1GHz Cortex A8 (Hummingbird) processor
• 16GB iNAND flash memory

Cameras and Multimedia

• Back-facing: 5 megapixels (2560×1920)
• 720 x 480 video resolution
• H.264, H.263 MPEG4 video recording
• Auto focus
• Flash
• Front-facing: VGA (640×480)

• 3.5mm, 4-conductor headset jack (stereo audio plus microphone)
• Earpiece and microphone
• Software noise-cancellation

Battery

• Talk time up to 6.7 hours on 3G (14 hours on 2G)
• Standby time up to 17.8 days on 3G (29.7 days on 2G)
• 1500 mAH Lithum Ion

The Nexus S will land in the US on the 16th of December, and the UK on the 20th. No word yet whether we’ll see it over here in South Africa. Samsung has a strong presence in SA, though, so here’s hoping. If you want some more Gingerbread goodness, you can actually download the Nexus S manual right here.

I really do hope that Google makes the Nexus S available to Africa, in general, as I see huge potential for new, interesting applications from budding entrepreneurs with regards to Near Field Communication. And if we don’t get the Nexus S, let’s hope that more and more phones in the future will have this capability by default.

As for the Nexus S itself, seeing as it’s basically just a spruced-up Galaxy S (click here for review, is already availably here), it won’t be long until we see a port of Gingerbread for the Galaxy S by the likes of Cyanogen or Modaco.

Once again, 2011 is going to be an interesting year for Android.

Ed: Thanks to the Android guru, Albert Cornelissen from ZADroid for this post!

Last week on Memeburn Matthew Buckland wrote a piece entitled “5 reasons why the iPad is a fat waste of money“, and it was subsequently passed around on Twitter. Now, the iPad is not perfect, granted. In the past I mentioned my top 10 grievances with the iPad (which are mostly now fixed with the new software update), but not once would I say it is a waste of money. In fact, I believe it is a very valuable platform, and (excuse the cliche) a good indication of what the future of computing is all about.

Here is my opinion on Matthew’s reasons for stating that the iPad is waste of money:

1) It’s too expensive. OK, the iPad starts at $500 for the entry level Wifi one, and $630 for the 3G one. True, first generation devices are typically more expensive, and yes the iPad 2G will most probably be cheaper, granted. But even at $500 the iPad is still coming in at a lower price than similiar devices which are only being released 8 months after the iPad. Samsung’s Galaxy Tab is coming in at a higher price, despite having a smaller screen and plastic construction. And this is not a Android vs iOS thing – in terms of cost and build quality, the iPad looks like pretty good value in my opinion. (If you want an Android user’s opinion of the iPad, read our review) And do not try to compare it with Netbooks either, the iPad is pretty cutting edge technology compared to the highly commoditized netbook market.

2) No Front Camera. Have to agree with that one (even though I do not miss it at all). I think they need to do it.. not that they want to do it. The Facetime camera would be perceived ”nice to have” feature, and would probably be part of the next iPad. Apple’s renewed focus on video calling should be a good indication of that. Rear camera – yes, I would like one to quickly take pictures of slides in meetings. Even though lifting up the iPad to take a photo will probably look a little silly.

3) No USB port: This was one of the big criticisms of the iPad when it was announced, and somehow most of those critics have calmed down. Why? Because we are living in the cloud era – our media does not have to be stored on our devices. Case in point – I use Dropbox on my devices, and just like that I have access to all my files.

In terms of video – just use ZumoCast. You can instantly watch videos that are stored on your network, or alternatively, quickly select the video ou want to take with. Also – if you forget to bring with a file, you can always download it from anywhere, provided you have an internet connection connected to your PC. That seems pretty easy to me.

If you want to transfer files for safekeeping on your iPad, you can use iTunes and select files to do that. iTunes is pretty common these days, so just carry around the dock connector cable. Those are pretty common these days as well.

4) Not enough capacity. True, 16GB might not be enough if you are a big media gatherer, but it is most certainly enough for people who will use the iPad as a simple internet device. But 32GB and 64GB is plenty for people who have a lot of music and photos. If you are someone who has a very large photo library I would think that 64GB is awful lot of storage for it – remember, iTunes compresses (or “optimizes”) images to a little more than 1MB per photo before storing them in the iPad photo library as well.

5) Flash support. Yes, this is one of those areas that some people feel the iPad has fallen short. But be honest – how often do you access Flash-only websites? I do not like to have Flash on my mobile devices – in fact I also switch it off on my laptop as well using a Firefox plugin. Why? Because 90% of Flash usage on the web is for intrusive, animated ads. I can do without those, thanks. And online video is already quickly changing to H.264 format.

Like Matthew mentions – yes, there will be a new iPad around April next year, if Apple does stick with its yearly upgrade cycle. I would like to see if Apple would indeed drop the prices somewhat, and also if they will keep the current iPad next year  as a lower cost version (like they currently do with the iPhone 3GS). If I do have to choose a reason not to get an iPad, it would be this – if you are someone who would look longingly at iPad 2G once it arrives, maybe you should wait. But by no means is it a waste of money.

Boy, this is going to be unpopular. Microsoft is dropping its Drive Extender technology in the next release of Windows Home Server (“Vail”), which is one of the most fundamental parts of the personal server operating system. Drive extender is a pretty great flexible storage system that gives you the redundancy of a RAID setup, but with the flexibility of adding hard drives with different sizes, interfaces and speeds. It really works well – simply open your home server case, connect another drive, reboot and then just “add” the disk to storage pool, no mess, no fuss. In fact you dont know where any specific file is necessarily stored, you just know  its safe.

For example, in my Windows Home Server I have a few different hard drives which give a total of 5TB of storage over 4 disks, to which all my machines backup to. This actually adds up to around 3TB, because I have the choice to have certain folders duplicated over more than one hard drive. For example, documents and photos are duplicated, but movies are not. If any one drive fails, you can be assured the files you value would be somewhere else in your storage pool.

So why did Microsoft drop it?

Microsoft gives the excuse that hard drives have grown so big that such a solution is not necessary anymore. That is ridiculous – in fact, with the bigger sizes of hard drives, I would think that some sort of redundancy becomes even more important. If I now lose a 1TB drive, that is an awful lot of data to lose if it is not duplicated somehow.

Paul Thurrott also revealed that one of the reasons of Drive Extender is that it struggles under heavy server loads, which is not exactly relevant to a home server. This is a concern for Microsoft because DE is going to be used in the upcoming Small Business Server 2011 Essentials, and Microsoft wanted to share this with the platform of Windows Home Server v2 (“Vail”). It really is beyond me why MS would want to unify these two operating systems.

So if you want to switch to WHS version 2 when it comes out, you might have to set up scheduled backups to extra hard drives… How boring. Bad move Microsoft. Vail better have great features when it arrives. Personally I want better power management, Apple Time Machine support, and built in video transcoding support (so that Xbox 360 can finally play any video file). Give me those features, and I might consider upgrading.