14 DAY TRIAL // HTC doesn't sell much besides smartphones, but its second tablet, powered by the most recent ARM platform, has now appeared, or at least a photo of it did.
By the most recent ARM platform, we mean the NVIDIA Tegra 3 SoC (system-on-chip), also named Kal-El, after the superhero icon.
Indeed, HTC made one of those beasts (or is well on the way to its completion) that stalk consumers under the guise of apparently harmless tablets, all the while waiting for a chance to reel in susceptible users and drive them to browse the web, watch HD videos and even play games for hours on end.
E-book reading and apps are available too, since the Android operating system is the software managing the hardware.
Speaking of hardware, the quad-core (well, five-core really) Kal-El is accompanied by 16 GB of built-in NAND Flash storage.
Also, the 10.1-inch LCD (liquid crystal display) isn't one for modesty, with a native resolution of 1,280 x 768 pixels.
Then again, given what Kal-El can do, anything less would not have come close to doing the chip justice.
HTC Quattro (this is just a codename, for now) has a thickness of under 9 millimeters.
Within that much space, the company crammed, in addition to what was already mentioned, a 1.3 megapixel front webcam, Beats audio technology (high-quality pair of speakers and microphones), a back camera of only 2 megapixels (other slates have 5 megapixel back cameras) and WiFi / WiFi + 3G.
Finally, Quattro will (or should) have access to an HD version of the HTC Watch movie store (it implies that a complementary Dropbox account will be given to buyers) as well as the HTC Scribe pen input technology.
2012 (next year) is when the formal release is made, possibly during CES (consumer electronics show) or close enough that prospective buyers won't have to wait overmuch.