Motion Tablet Boasts New Pentium M, Leading-Edge Features

When Intel Corp. rolls out its 1.1GHz Pentium M mobile processor today, Motion Computing Inc. will be among the many OEMs touting new systems built around the chip.

For more on the Pentium M announcement, click here.

The 3-year-old, privately held Motion will release the M1400 Tablet PC, a 3-pound tablet that offers a handful of leading-edge technologies, such as fingerprint scanning for quick authentication and an ambient light sensor that automatically adjusts screen brightness to suit a users location.

The $1,999 notebook, designed by Motion and built by partner Compal Electronics Inc. of Taiwan, also features integrated Bluetooth and built-in WLAN support through Intels 802.11b/g card. In addition, the unit supports up to 2GB of memory and a 12.1 XGA TFT wide-viewing display.

The built-in fingerprint scanning technology, which is based on an AuthenTec Inc. chipset and Softex Inc.s OmniPass password management software, allows for system authentication, but has also a kind of single-sign-on ability. As a result, M1400 users surfing the Web need only run their index finger across the fingerprint reader thats built into the top of the chassis instead of entering a password.

Click here for a review of Motions new tablet.

Also new with the M1400 is the systems Speak Anywhere audio system that features such technologies as beam forming dual microphones, which allow users to record a wide range of sound in order to pick up the voices of people in a meeting. Users can also record with a narrow range of sound and, through acoustic echo cancellation technology, can record their own voice clearly and without background noise.

Because of such built-in features, Motion, of Austin, Texas, will target the M1400 at such vertical industries as health care, legal and education.

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