Monthly Archives: January 2011

VIDEO: RIM shows PlayBook for business too

Posted by on January 31, 2011 2 comments

Shows pairing with BlackBerry Torch
VIDEO: RIM shows PlayBook for business too

Research in Motion has posted a video to YouTube showing how the new PlayBook tablet will talk to BlackBerry smartphones; an indication that the device is not all about watching videos or surfing the web.

The new video features a PlayBook and BlackBerry Torch and shows how users, once the two are connected, can easily pair the two devices together and access the smartphone's email.

Included in the video above is a brief demo of email pairing with your BlackBerry smartphone via BlackBerry Bridge, multi-tasking, viewing Microsoft Office documents, and secure access to business applications such as Flash-enabled dashboards from SAP BusinessObjects Explorer.

Users, for example, will be able to open an email on the PlayBook and have that email automatically labelled as read on the smartphone. Likewise the same will work when you delete emails or add attachments for emailing later.

Pocket-lint played extensively with these new features at CES, when we had a chance to spend some time with the new PlayBook ahead of the official UK launch.

We had the chance to play with a bridged device too, just like the video, with the PlayBook connected via?secure?Bluetooth to a?BlackBerry Torch.

When bridged, a "BlackBerry" tab appears in menu, offering access to services on the handheld device. RIM was keen to push the term "bridging" over "tethering" as?essentially?you're partnering the device rather than just borrowing the data connection.

We tried some calendar updates to find that they instantly updated in the PlayBook. The calendar is another good example of how this bridged?partnership?works. The PlayBook won't run off and sync with your cloud calendar services, but will pick up anything from your BlackBerry handset.

In this scenario you could be syncing wirelessly with Exchange or Google calendars and you'll then have complete access on both devices. Effectively it means you only need to sync once, which does have some advantages when it comes to conflict avoidance.

Read more about what we had to say in our First Look: BlackBerry PlayBook review.

Tags: Tablets RIM BlackBerry BlackBerry Torch Video BlackBerry PlayBook

VIDEO: RIM shows PlayBook for business too originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 31 Jan 2011 23:53:00 +0000

Motorola Superbowl XOOM Tablet Teaser Pokes Apple’s 1984 Macintosh Ad (Video)

Posted by on January 31, 2011 No comments


Some of you might remember the 1984 Apple Macintosh ad, a seriously creepy commercial, that now Motorola makes fun of. They’ve just shown a one minute video that teases the Super Bowl commercial for the XOOM tablet, that will be aired on Sunday. You can check it out below.

With the motto “Goodbye 1984″, this ad promises innovation through dual core and 3G upgradable to 4G, but the ad doesn’t reveal much novelty. We know that the XOOM was one of best gadgets at CES 2011 and that it’s a very promising Android 3.0 Honeycomb unit.

Motorola says that it’s time to live a free life… Well, for the $700 price tag of the XOOM, we’ll be both free and poor.

Related posts:

  1. Motorola XOOM Comes With a Barometer Inside (Video)
  2. Motorola Xoom Price is $699, Coming to Best Buy on February 17th, Now Official
  3. Motorola Xoom Tablet Pre-Order Available With $1023 Price Tag

Dell Streak 7 available 2 February

Posted by on January 31, 2011 1 comment

T-Mobile confirms lowish pricing too
Dell Streak 7 available 2 February

The Dell Streak 7 is all set to ship on 2 February via T-Mobile in the USA, and the pricing details put the 7-incher in below its Galaxy Tab rival.

T-Mobile has tweeted that the Nvidia Tegra 2 powered tablet will be available for $199 (after a $50 mail-in rebate) on a 2-year deal. If you want it off contract it will cost $449.99.

The Dell Streak 7 will come with Android 2.2 at launch, although Dell has confirmed that it will be getting Honeycomb (Android 3.0) very soon after.

The Streak 7’s features include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, front and rear facing cameras (with Qik support), full Flash and, in the US, you'll get 4G connectivity on "America's largest 4G network".

"Once you have the new Dell Streak 7 tablet in your hands, you won’t be able to put it down," said John Thode, vice president of Dell’s Mobility Product Group at the CES launch.

"It will quickly become the ultimate device for the socially connected who want to do everything from watching great content, to chatting with friends, to taking high-resolution pictures and immediately sharing them with their friends and family."

Pocket-lint has spoken to Dell UK, who stated there are no definite UK release plans at present, so be sure to check back for future updates.

Read

Tags: Dell Dell Streak 7 T-Mobile Tablets Phones

Dell Streak 7 available 2 February originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 31 Jan 2011 15:03:00 +0000

Android Tablets Start Threatening the iPad, Gain Market Share

Posted by on January 31, 2011 No comments


Strategy Analytics has some worrying news for Apple and its tablet biz: Android is picking up pace and gaining market share, through its huge number of slates. In the fourth quarter of 2010 the Android slate market share increased tenfold, decreasing the iPad’s total dominance.

In the three months to December 31, Google OS-based devices stood for 22% of the global slate shipments, up from 2.3% in the previous quarter. Meanwhile, the iPad got 75% of the shipments, quite a decrease from 96%. Apple’s product sold over 14.7 million units since its April launch, but the competition is increasing, as the new devices made by Samsung, Motorola and Acer threaten it.

According to Neil Mawston, Strategy Analytics director, it was the Galaxy Tab driving the Android sales, but we’re also expecting the Motorola Xoom and LG G-Slate to make a good impression in 2011. Market researcher iSuppli predicts 57 million tablets will be sold this year.

Related posts:

  1. iPad Accounts for 95% of the Tablet Market
  2. Acer CEO Convinced Its Tablets Will Dominate the Market
  3. Lenovo’s LePad Tablet Faces Apple’s iPad

HTC Portrait Tablet Concept, Not Quite the Flyer or Scribe

Posted by on January 31, 2011 No comments


Designer Long-Nong Huang must’ve heard that people who take risks sometimes win, so he created an original slate concept. We’re talking about the HTC tablet design, pictured below and dubbed Blackshaddow. This device is a portrait tablet, probably with a 5 inch and most likely based on Android 3.0.

You can consider this more of an enlarged smartphone, than the usual slate and it seems that the device is pretty wide and thin to deserve a case of its own and make the user afraid of putting it in the pocket, for fear of breaking it. Considering that there are capacitive buttons below the screen, this is definitely a portrait tablet, but will it catch on?

Related posts:

  1. HTC Flyer 7 Inch Tablet Coming in March, Running Android 2.3?
  2. HTC Scribe, Next Android Tablet to Hit CES?
  3. HTC Flyer Tablet Specifications Leak; 7 and 10 Inch Units Coming This Year

Android 3.0 Ported on Nook Color, Complete With Graphics Acceleration (Video)

Posted by on January 31, 2011 No comments


Android 3.0 is supposed to debut on February 2nd in a special Google event, but if you’re impatient and you’ve got a Nook Color on your hands, you’re in for a mountain of fun. Turns out that Honeycomb was recently ported to this e-book reader.

Below, you can see 2 minutes of action of Google’s latest mobile platform on the ereader. The OS was ported on Friday to the Barnes & Nobles product, with further work taking place in the weekend. Said work enabled hardware acceleration of the interface, that looks brilliant. You’ll know what we’re talking about if you’ve seen at least one Honeycomb demo till now.

Here’s the eye candy:

Related posts:

  1. Barnes and Noble’s Nook Color Slate Pictured Before Launch
  2. Barnes & Noble Nook Reader is Now Official, Retails for $259
  3. LG G-Slate Android 3.0 Tablet Announced by T-Mobile at CES 2011 (Video)

10 Inch Ubuntu Tablet Specs Available, Demo Too (Video)

Posted by on January 31, 2011 No comments


There’s quite a bunch of Ubuntu tablets on the Chinese market and the model below is truly one you can purchase with confidence. This model comes with a 1.66 GHz Intel Atom CPU and it’s demoed and specced after the break.

This device sports a minimum of 1GB RAM and 16GB SSD for storage, while the screen is a 10 inch capacitive display. There’s also a 1.3MP webcam on board, plus Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and USB ports. “Gravity sensors” are also included and of course, Ubuntu as the main software platform. Pricing starts from $400 for the 16GB model.

No release date, yet, but the Tenq P07 (apparently that’s the product name) is coming soon.

Related posts:

  1. Sharp PC-T1 Ubuntu Tablet Shown in Front of Camera (Video)
  2. Ubuntu Tablets Ready for the Market?
  3. Nav 9 Multitouch Tablet Detailed: Pricing and Full Specs Updated

iPad 2 Features 1.2GHz Dual Core CPU, 5 Million Units Ready for Q1 Shipment

Posted by on January 31, 2011 269 comments


The last iPad 2-related scoop details a bit of the slate’s internals and also mentions that we’ll see around 5 million units in Q1. The info on the new slate’s specs comes via a note from analyst Ming-Chi Kuo at Concord Securities. He claims that new Apple iPad is a dual-core device, based on an ARM Cortex A9 CPU, running at 1.2GHz.

The iPad 2 also gets a dual core PowerVR SGX543MP2 chipset, related to the quad-core MP4 used on the brand new PSP console, Sony NGP. 512MB of RAM are also included on the specifications list, but with a memory clock upgrade to 1,066MHz. Reports also claim that Foxconn still remains the single iPad maker, with 4.5 to 5 mil units ready for Q1.

Back to the analyst mentioned above, he also mentions that the new LCD display on the slate is a third thinner and gets the anti-reflective treatment, for better outdoor visibility. Cameras are also expected on the device, one upfront and one at the back, based on those found on the iPod touch. There’s a 1MP unit at the back and a VGA one upfront, a pretty disappointing choice, if you ask me.

The rest of the part suppliers are detailed in the table above.

Related posts:

  1. iPad 2 to Feature a Dual-Core CPU
  2. New Tablets Based on Dual-Core Intel Atom Processors, Ready to Challenge the iPad
  3. Under $200 Dual-Core Tablets? Yes, From Pioneer and Based on Android!

LG G-Slate Android Tablet Teased on MysteryGuitarMan’s YouTube Vid (Video)

Posted by on January 31, 2011 1 comment


LG’s going the Nokia way in promoting its upcoming G-Slate tablet, but they haven’t used celebrities like Pamela Anderson, but rather more indie names. For starters we spotted the G-Slate in K-Pop artist Seungri’s video and now it has surfaced again for a few seconds in a video posted on the MysteryGuitarMan’s YouTube channel.

The device is incredibly sleek, it’s Google-branded and strangely, it’s not similar to the one seen in the Seungri video, or at least its back isn’t. There’s a metallic strip that separates the cameras and the Google logo at the back, remind us of the LG Optimus 2X design. Also, there’s an LED flash in there and some mysterious connectors at the bottom, possibly having to do with the use of the slate in landscape mode.

To skip straight to the G-Slate in the video, go to 3:40:

Related posts:

  1. Motorola Android 3.0 Tablet Teased on Video, Ready for CES 2011 (Video)
  2. LG G-Slate Android 3.0 Tablet Announced by T-Mobile at CES 2011 (Video)
  3. Motorola MOTOPAD Slate to Run Android 3.0, Features 7 Inch Display

Marvell Moby Slates to Launch in India; Details Here

Posted by on January 31, 2011 No comments


Marvell has just announced that it intends to launch some tablet PCs based on the Moby reference design and these products will be made available in India in the first half of 2011. These devices will be based on the Armada 168 CPU, that has the advantage of low power consumption.

Among the devices announced by Marvell there will be a $99 educational slate prototype, but it’s likely that in the end the product will cost more than double the amount. This is due to the distribution and custom duties. We also learn that the models available in India will also reach China and then Latin America and Eastern Europe.

Marvell’s partners will provide 7 inch slates with specs like capacitive LCD displays, 720p video capture and WiFi. These models will run Android and rely on open source software. The Moby reference design will most likely generate a bunch of hot selling products, thanks to their low price point and specs.

Related posts:

  1. Marvell Showcases Prototype Devices, Android Tablet Included
  2. Marvell 10 Inch Android Tablet Shown at Netbook Summit
  3. CES 2010: Marvell Multimedia Tablet Made for Third Parties, Disappointing?