Microsoft’s Surface tablet has inspired a few clones during its short history, but the latest rip off comes from three ex-Google engineers. Jeremy Zhou, David Ko, and Ben Luk used to work on products like Google Maps and search at the web giant, and formed Jide Technology in 2014 to create a combined tablet and laptop. The result is an "ultra tablet" with a magnetically attached keyboard and a kickstand that all looks identical to Microsoft’s Surface tablet. Jide Technology hasn’t just stopped at the hardware, though. Even the "Remix OS" rips off Microsoft’s work in various ways, including a mail client that’s a straight copy.
So what’s the justification for such a blatant rip? "We can't stand the drawbacks of the tablets and laptops on the market today and we wanted to do something about it," reads a statement on the company’s site. Jide’s creation is an 11.6-inch tablet that runs a modified version of Android that takes a lot of design cues from Lollipop and Microsoft’s "Metro" design language. Specifications include a 1920 x 1080 display, 2GB of RAM, and an Nvidia Tegra 4+1 processor. Android Central got a quick look at the tablet at CES this week, and notes that it also includes a 4-pin charging connector at the side and support for multiple windows with Android apps.
Jide plans to launch the Remix tablet in the US this year priced at $349 for the basic 16GB model, but we have a feeling Microsoft might have something to say about it.
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