Monday, June 27, 2011

Nokia N9, ZTE Light Tab, Huawei MediaPad unveiled at CommunicAsia 2011

2011 CommunicAsia ICT exhibition divulged several brand new smartphones, tablets and other ICT devices from Asian manufactures. The trade exhibition that took place at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore from 21st to 24th June came into large public attention with the products like Huawei’s MediaPad and Nokia N9.

Nokia stole the show in Singapore with its successor to N8 smartphone on MeeGo OS. Despite the partnership with Microsoft Windows Phone 7, the Finnish technology maker announced a great smartphone on MeeGo, jointly owned by Nokia and Intel.

The new Nokia smartphone comes with a cheek design and has a 3.9-inch AMOLED display.

Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and GPS are key features of the device, which will get 16GB and 64GB versions.

Indeed, N9 may be one of final products from the mobile maker on operating system other than Windows Phone. The company has reached in an agreement with Microsoft toll roll out exclusive hardware solutions for the software giant.

Chinese telecommunication product builder ZTE announced its tablet dubbed ZTE Light Tab 2 V9 at the Asian technology trade show. ZTE Light Tab 2 V9 runs on a 1GHz processor and will have a 7-inch display with a 1,024x600-pixel resolution.

Another super hit product of the show is Huawei MediaPad, a tablet on Android 3.2 Honeycomb. Huawei MediaPad has a 7-inch display with dual cameras, Wi-Fi, HSPA+ support and many other features. Sony Ericsson announced its new Xperia Ray, Xperia Active and Xperia Txt in the show.

Huawei MediaPad Will Wield Android 3.2 'Honeycomb'

Huawei is the latest vendor to produce a tablet computer, announcing plans to launch a 7-inch MediaPad based on Google's as-yet-unreleased Android 3.2 "Honeycomb" operating system.

Huawei introduced MediaPad, a 7-inch tablet computer running Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) forthcoming Android 3.2 "Honeycomb" powered by a dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 1.2GHz processor.

Huawei, which unveiled its plan June 20 at the CommunicAsia conference in Singapore, said the device weighs less than a pound and is less than a half-inch thick.

The slate supports 1080P full high-definition video playback and an HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) port, and features a 5-megapixel auto-focus, rear-facing camera with HD video-recording capabilities, as well as a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera to enable video chat.

Intended as a media consumption tablet to challenge the likes of Samsung's 7-inch Galaxy Tab and HTC's Evo View 4G, the MediaPad supports Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) Flash 10.3 and comes preloaded with Facebook, Twitter, Let's Golf and the Documents to Go applications. There is 8GB of internal storage.

The device, shown on Engadget, connects to HSPA+ (Evolved High-Speed Packet Access) networks with a peak of 14.4M bps, as well as WiFi.

The biggest news with this machine is the Android 3.2 platform. Android 3.2 is basically the same as the current Android 3.1 platform—with scalable widgets and USB host support, among other perks—rolling out on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1.

However, 3.2 is tailored for the 7-inch screens and other slate sizes and supports Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) chips, according to This is My Next.

The MediaPad has only 6 hours of playback, which might inhibit some consumers expecting the 10-hour battery life Apple's iPad affords people. The MediaPad could ship in the U.S. in the third quarter of this year.

Huawei is mostly known around the world as a telecommunications solution provider, but the company has launched about 10 low-cost Android smartphones and sold some 7 million mobile devices in the first quarter.

Huawei is just the latest of several companies perhaps unexpectedly coming to the fore with Android tablets.

Panasonic unveiled a ToughBook last week, while Lenovo has two Android tablets on tap for the summer, one for consumers and one for businesses. Toshiba meanwhile is launching its 10.1-inch Thrive Android tablet July 10 for $429.

Monday, June 20, 2011

Chinese Gadget Maker Unveils World's First Ever Android 3.2 Tablet

Google Inc. (GOOG) has been much more choosy with Android Honeycomb than it has with past versions. It did not release the source of the new tablet operating system, despite claiming that it was still open source. And the company frowned on 7-inch Android 3.0 and 3.1 designs, pushing 9 to 10 inch designs instead.

Now a Chinese company, Huawei has unveiled a slick new 7-inch tablet running Android 3.2, a point-release upgrade of Honeycomb. With the new version of Honeycomb, Google is reportedly at last easing up on the pressure against 7-inch designs. In fact, Android 3.2 is tailor-fit for these designs.

Reportedly, Android 3.2 is the final release to come from Google before the long awaited "Ice Cream Sandwich" Android version, which is expected to merge the disjointed tablet and smart phone codebases.

The new tablet, dubbed the "MediaPad", features a slick 217 pixels-per-inch IPS capacitive touch panel, indicating an approximately 1200x800 pixel resolution. Also onboard is a dual-core 1.2 GHz Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM) CPU (likely the same model found in Hewlett-Packard Company's (HPQ) webOS TouchPad), 8 GB of Flash storage, a microSD slot, Bluetooth, HDMI (1080p) out, GPS, 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera, 5 megapixel rear-facing camera, and 802.11n Wi-Fi. Battery life is predicted to be around 6 hours and Adobe Flash 10.3 comes preinstalled.

The small slab measures in at a modest 10.5mm thick and weighs 390g (0.86 pounds).

It comes with a built in HSPA+ (14.4Mbps). No plans for a Wi-Fi only version have been announced. Pricing is also not yet available.

The new tablet was revealed at the CommunicAsia convention in Singapore. A wave of invading Android 3.2 slates is expected to hit the U.S. soon as well, though Huawei has not revealed when the MediaPad might land in the States.

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Google Nexus 4G Gets Detailed: 4G LTE, 720p Display, Android 4.0

Now, before we dive in, we should note that the report isn’t sure whether this is a Nexus branded device or if this is just a flagship device that will launch with Android Ice Cream Sandwich much in the same way the Motorola Droid launched with Android 2.0 and the Xoom with Android 3.0. That being said, let’s look at a phone that might just make you foam at the mouth.

First, this Nexus 4G is apparently going to be running on a next-generation dual-core 1.2GHz or 1.5GHz CPU. No, no Kal-El for this thing. Instead, it’ll apparently run an OMAP 4460 or a low powered Snapdragon. In addition, it supposedly has a “monster-sized” screen that has 720p HD resolution and it will apparently come without any of the physical buttons that generally come below the display.

It should also have a 4G LTE radio inside when it arrives which means it’s possibly going to be AT&T’s first 4G LTE smartphone – which also means that it might not be a Nexus device considering all of them have started on T-Mobile – and it might also come with 1GB of RAM and 1080p HD video capture and playback. As for the cameras, a 5MP rear camera with advanced sensor, and a 1MP front facing camera for video chatting.

The Nexus 4G will also apparently arrive with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and may be the first device to do so. All of this apparently will come in a super thin form factor making this one of the most desirable phones in recent memory, if true.

As for a release, it’s supposedly supposed to arrive around Turkey Day which is a couple of months after AT&T is going to be releasing its 4G LTE network upon the world. If you recall, it took a couple of months for Verizon to push out 4G LTE smartphones so these dates seem to be more than just a coicidence.

Even if this thing is not the next Nexus device, anyone out there planning on picking it up?

Google Nexus 4G coming with Android 4.0 and 4G LTE capabilities?

It looks like Google is continuing the Nexus lineage with what might be called the Nexus 4G, and according to rumors it will be a beast of a phone. The device will be the first to feature Android 4.0, also assumed to be called Ice Cream Sandwich. Additionally, it will have a 1.2-1.5GHz processor, which might make the Nexus 4G a powerful device assuming Android 4.0 isn’t a system resources hog. However, BGR reports that it might not be NVIDIA’s Kal-El processor, and instead might be a TI OMAP 4460.

If you think that’s something, the Nexus 4G is also said to have 4G LTE capabilities, which can only mean that it’s going to hit AT&T or Verizon when it’s finally released. I’d assume it’d be for the latter, especially since AT&T will be launching its LTE network starting this summer, and the new Nexus device is slated to be released in November – just in time for the holidays.

Additionally, the Nexus 4G might have 1080p video recording and playback, a 1MP front-facing camera and a 5MP rear camera. However, it sounds like the 5MP rear camera will be more along the lines of the one found on the iPhone, with larger pixels and greater low-light performance.

It almost sounds too good to be true, but then again, if I went back in time two years and told you that smartphones would have 8MP cameras, 1.2GHz dual core processors and day-long battery life with 4G capabilities, you’d probably laugh at me. So here’s to hoping.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Android 3.1 Tablet Review

The tablet race continues to heat up. The iPad set the stage for this generation's tablet race, and although things have definitely tightened up, Apple's wunderkind, like it or not, remains the industry standard by which all others are judged.

The Galaxy Tab 10.1 is the first consumer tablet to ship and be thinner (even though it's only thinner by the smallest of margins) than the iPad 2. Samsung actually went out of their way to make a tablet that was slimmer than their primary competitor's tablet, nixing the original Tab 10.1 (actually, renaming it the Tab 10.1v) and forging ahead with a new plan. The new plan has resulted in this: one of the first tablets to ship (as in, not be upgraded after unboxing) with Android 3.1...

Read more: http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=15516&Itemid=99999999

Toshiba Tablet with Android 3.1 Honeycomb launching in Canada in August

Toshiba has officially announced that its very first Android 3.1 Honyecomb tablet would be available in Canada starting August.

Now, this tablet is the Thrive that we’ve seen several times before, but Toshiba Canada doesn’t call it like that. It simply refers to it as the Toshiba Tablet. Maybe it plans to re-brand it for the Canadian market, who knows?

Anyway. The tablet – the Toshiba Tablet – features a 10.1 inch screen with 1280 x 800 pixels, “Adaptive Display and Resolution+ video enhancement technologies” for image sharpness and clarity, Wi-Fi, GPS, HDMI, stereo speakers with SRS Labs sound enhancement, 5MP rear camera, 2MP front-facing camera, and a dual-core Nvidia Tegra 2 processor.

The tablet’s prices will be as follows:

$429 (8GB version)
$479 (16GB version)
$579 (32GB version)

Read more: http://www.unwiredview.com/2011/06/15/toshiba-tablet-with-android-3-1-honeycomb-launching-in-canada-in-august/

Saturday, June 4, 2011

Toshiba Thrive: Android 3.1, Tegra 2, Quick Charging Battery All For $429

Toshiba’s finally getting into the Honeycomb tab game after numerous public delays. The Android 3.1 Thrive is set to drop next month with an aggressive $429 price for the 8GB model. $479 will net buyers the 16GB model while the 32GB costs $579. Not bad, right?

Under the 10.1-inch 1280 x 800 screen is a Tegra 2 chipset, WiFi, Bluetooth and a battery that can be charged to 90% within an hour and a half. A full size USB host, HDMI, and a full size SD card slot round out the connectivity options while a 2MP camera is embedded on the front side with a 5MP one is around back. Overall it seems like just another WiFi-only Android slate with the notable exception of coming in a variety of colors including blue, black, purple, green, pink and silver. Every likes colored tabs.

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Asus Eee Pad Transformer Android 3.1 Update Today, UK Tomorrow

The Android 3.1 Honeycomb update for the Asus Eee Pad Transformer is rolling out today for most, and customers in the UK it will happen tomorrow (Wednesday 1 June).

The Asus transformer tablet PC will be getting the Android 3.1 update, which is said to include features such as Movies in the Market, a few UI (User Interface) tweaks, re-sizable widgets and more stable set-up.

The update has already been done on the Motorola XOOM, and for information on this to get an idea how it runs, please visit Droid-Life.

If you visit the AsusUK Twitter page you will see a tweet saying “Eee Pad Transformer with Android 3.1 supports XBOX 360 & Playstation controllers. UK FOTA Wed AM.”

Droid-Life mentions that there is a leaked build of this update in a few forums, but personally we here at phonesreview.co.uk always recommends you use the official release and always back-up before any update installation.

If you have already used the update could you please let us know how you got on, your personal reviews will help us understand the new update a little more. Thanks

Enterprise Mobility: Android, Chromebook Questions Stick Around After Google I/O

Google I/O served as the launching pad for major news announcements in the past, with Google Wave unveiled in 2009 and Google TV premiering in 2010. Wave is dead and the jury is out on Google TV, which is unlikely to go away anytime soon. The search engine has a lot riding on Google TV because it uses the Android and Chrome-based platform as its main vehicle for porting YouTube to consumers' living rooms. Perhaps the biggest news out of the fourth annual Google I/O developer conference earlier this month was that Google gave out 5,000-plus Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 devices and 5,000-plus Chromebooks to the show attendees. Okay, that might be a bit simplistic. Google had a lot of interesting things to say. On May 10, we learned about the impending launch of Android 3.1 "Honeycomb," the confirmation of the next Android smartphone build, dubbed “Ice Cream Sandwich,” and some developer APIs for open access and the Android@Home initiative. On May 11, we learned that the long-awaited, much-ballyhooed Samsung and Acer Google Chromebooks will launch June 15. Consumers can snap them up online from Best Buy and Amazon.com. But Google will also sell businesses and schools Chromebooks on a subscription basis for $28 and $20 per user, per month, respectively. Google told us a lot about these new products, partnerships and initiatives. But this eWEEK slide show runs through some key questions that remain unanswered in the wake of Google I/O.