Posted by Stuart Miles on April 18, 2011 0 comments
There'll be trouble when the kids come out
You’ve probably heard the dozens of stories and seen the multitude of videos showing under 5-year-olds using an iPad or an iPad 2 with ease.
Apple's?seen those too, it seems, and has signed a deal with Toys R Us to sell the newly launched iPad 2 in their stores across the United States.
What the Cupertino corporation probably wasn’t banking on, however, was the giant toy retailer changing the iconic Apple font to something a little more kid-friendly.
In a move that is likely to have Apple brand police seething with rage, Toys R Us has decided to turn to a font more akin to Comic Sans in order to promote the device in store and on its website. It’s even given it a funky blue tint as well.
The “Thinner. Lighter. Faster. FaceTime. Smart Covers. 10-hour battery.” message is still the same though.
Perhaps Lucida Grande, the font Apple traditionally uses on the web, is just too scary for little ones and parents looking to spend $700 on them. If so, we suggest labelling your home cinema kit with the font - then you might not find toast jammed into your DVD player.
Kogan Agora is an Android tablet that will set you back a mere 89 quid and for this price you get Froyo, a capacitive touchscreen display and a 1GHz processor. We must notice however that the design of this 7 inch device is basically identical to the one of the Allview AllDro tablet we reviewed here.
However, this model is also cheaper and better specced than its twin. Kogan Agora weighs 390 grams and measures 12.4mm in thickness, while under the hood you’ll find a 1GHz Samsung ARM Cortex A8 CPU, 512MB of RAM and 4GB of internal storage. The device’s 7 inch screen is a capacitive one, not resistive, like on the Allview Alldro.
There’s also a microSD card slot in there, a miniHDMI port and the device is bundled with a HDMI cable, too. HD 720p playback is among the specs, too and for this very low price, you might as well get yourselves such a slate.
Posted by S. Alexander on April 17, 2011 0 comments
We’ve finally managed to get hold of an iPad 2 WiFi 16GB unit to unbox for you. The packaging is pretty simplistic, with the box not even revealing that it has an iPad 2 inside and sticking with the iPad marking. At the inside we find the product, wrapped in plastic for protection, its charger and the cable needed to connect the device to the PC or Mac.
Also on the inside we find a tiny manual and a sticker with the Apple logo on it. The device is sleek and quite thinner and lighter than the first iPad and something we can notice immediately is the presence of a camera at the front and another one at the rear, very discretely integrated.
The only thing I didn’t like about the iPad 2 are its lock/mute key and volume key, that feel pretty rigid and they’re hard to reach, since you don’t seem them if you’re facing the screen of the tablet. Other than that, the display is incredible, the interface is fluid and everything seems to work perfectly. We’ll be back with more info in the full review.
Remember the Toshiba tablet we tested back at MWC 2011 and showed you here? Well, now the device finally got a name, so it will be called Toshiba ANT. We’re talking about a Honeycomb device here, one that costs $450 in the most basic version, according to product pages on Newegg.
Toshiba ANT-100 with 8GB of storage is the one with the price mentioned above, while the 16GB ANT-102 goes for $500 and the 32GB ANT-104 costs $580. What these devices have in common are some pretty appealing specs: 1280 x 800 multitouch display, Nvidia Tegra 2 dual core 1GHz processor, WiFi 802.11n and Bluetooth support.
The battery life should be around 7 hours, thanks to a replaceable 6 cell battery. The product also comes with a 2 megapixel front webcam and a 5 megapixel camera at the rear with autofocus, so image capture is secured and the content can even reach your TV via a HDMI connector. The back plate of the Toshiba ANT is interchangeable and the Easy Grip finish will ensure a firm grip of the device.
Posted by S. Alexander on April 16, 2011 0 comments
LG’s Optimus Pad tablet, with its 3D cameras and 3D screen has just started arriving in stores and as proof we have some unboxing pictures below. Also dubbed the T-Mobile G-Slate, this device comes with Honeycomb and 3D features and it might be available in T-Mobile stores starting April 20th.
There’s also a pair of red/blue 3D glasses included in the box, according to the people who unboxed the unit. As far as connectivity is concerned, you get HSDPA 10.1 Mbps, GSM, UMTS, Bluetooth and WiFi. T-Mobile G-Slate measures 12.8mm in thickness, weighs 630 grams and packs a 8.9 inch capacitive touch display.
32GB of internal memory await you, plus a HDMI port and DLNA support. A dual core CPU is also at the inside, for 3D capture, processing power and 3D playback.
Posted by Stuart Miles on April 16, 2011 0 comments
To be used in cars rather than tablets
Intel looks have found a new friend in LG for it’s barely alive tablet operating system, MeeGo, following Nokia’s sudden announcement in February that it was backing Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 horse instead.
According to Valtteri Halla, a member of the technical steering group of MeeGo, talking at a developer conference on Friday, LG Electronics has joined a working group to develop a handset version of the software, joining companies like ZTE and?China?Mobile.
A spokesman for LG said the South Korean company was collaborating with MeeGo in various working groups reports Reuters.
"At this point in time LG has no definitive plans to mass produce devices with MeeGo other than car infotainment systems," the spokesman said suggesting when it comes to Tablets, LG is happy with Android for now.
Between Android, iOS, QNX, and WebOS 3.0 you would forgiven to question whether we need yet another tablet operating system, and judging by LG’s comments it looks like they think so too.
LG already offers phones with both Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 OS and Google’s Android and is about to launch its first tablet - the Optimus Pad (or G-Slate if you are in the US) in the next couple of weeks.
Hannspree announced it was to make the jump from novelty TVs to comparatively sensible tablets back at IFA 2010 and during the IFA Global Press Conference in Alicante, we managed to get our hands on their first foray into the field.
The Hannspree SN10T1 is a 10.1-inch tablet running the Tegra 2 chipset but just an Android 2.2 Froyo set up rather than the made-for-tablet 3.0 version of the software that is Honeycomb. Why? Well, Hannspree is looking to keep costs down and, given that Google currently has a set of minimum hardware specs to carry its latest update, it drives up the price of production. According to the product manager of Hannspree, Jordon Popov, jumping up from a 1024 x 600px display to a the Honeycomb required 1280 x 800px more or less doubles the retail price point on its own.
So, the good news about the SN10T1 is that its fairly affordable at €349. For that you still get Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 16GB of internal storage expandable by microSD card and an HDMI-out socket to ship your media from A to B. What's more, Hannspree doesn't leave you high and dry with a mobile phone operating system stretched onto the device. The company teamed up with Boston-based UI outfit TapTap to give Froyo a custom make-over specially for the 10-inch tab, and, from our brief play, it's not too bad at all.
It defintely still feels like Android. There's no unnecessary hubs that get in the way and TapTap has done its utmost to make even their own customisations of the settings menus and weather widgets blend with Google's own design. In short, it works and without getting in the way of the Android experience either.
As for the tablet itself, well, it's no iPad 2 but, actually, it isn't too far off the original iPad. Naturally, the touchscreen isn't quite as smooth and is probably the one aspect that gives away the SN10T1's budget credentials but otherwise it seems like a respectable piece of kit. The three Android touch sensitive keys on the top right of the tablet's frame aren't perfect but they work and the ports - all located on the one side - are rather nicely labelled from the underside.
In all, it's an interesting enough option for anyone who's tempted by the tablet market but doesn't want to pay the earth to get one. All the same, if money saving is really what you're after, then you might do better to wait a few months to pick up the Hannspree SN10T2. It doesn't have Tegra 2 SoC but you do get a camera and for €50 less as well.
BlackBerry PlayBook has had its very first reviews published online, with not so favorable opinions from experts. Actually, the pile of reviews was so important that the RIM stocks went down, as we informed you here. Now, the officials of the Canadian company jumped to their product’s defense. One of them is Mike Lazaridis, who calls the PlayBook “superior”.
Meanwhile, VP Todd Wood is saying that the design of the tablet is “iconic” and co-CEO Jim Balsillie also spoke of the fact that the press was claiming that the slate lacks key features. These include having to access the browser in order to reach the email and the feeling that the PlayBook is in fact a BlackBerry companion.
Balsillie considers saying the product lacks keys feature isn’t fair, since there are many users looking for a secure and free extension of their BlackBerry. Will this slate ever sell if even its makers call it a BlackBerry accessory? If we gather all reviews, one thing jumps out: the device is considered halfbaked and rushed, but with some upgrades and updates, it might turn into something good.
However, at this point the PlayBook is no match for the iPad 2…
With RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook tablet coming next week, reviews of the product have started to appear and most of them don’t flatter the device at all. It seems the product is considered halfbaked and unfit for challenging rivals like the iPad 2 to a duel. Walt Mossberg explains that only future updates might provide the needed features on this device. Such reviews were enough to make the stocks of the company take a dive…
Meanwhile, Joshua Topolsky considers this a solid slate, but there’s no reason to purchase it, if you have the iPad 2 or Motorola Xoom as the option. This means that the PlayBook has nothing extra compared to other tablets on the market and even its 4G update won’t mean that much when it comes.
As the reviews started popping up, the company’s share price went down almost 4% Thursday afternoon and will continue to do so today, according to analyst reports. The same specialists are saying that they’re not surprised with the stock value drop, considering the worry of investment communities concerning the lack of native email on the product.
You’ll have to use tethering to a BlackBerry smartphone to get features like email, contacts and calendar on the PlayBook and weaker battery life is yet another concern… 5-6 hours of normal use are mentioned, in spite of RIM saying you’ll get 8-10 hours out of the tablet.
It's been rumoured and suggested since Android 3.0 was announced but Pocket-lint has had it confirmed that Google does indeed have a set of hardware restrictions for devices looking to carry the Honeycomb OS.
At the IFA Global Press Conference in Alicante, the product manager of Hannspree, Jordon Popov revealed the information when explaining why only one out of the company's three tablets lined up for 2011 so far featured the made-for-tablet Google software. He said:
"While Google hasn't released Honeycomb openly, they have certain requirements for those who are bringing it to market, two of which are a minimum screen resolution of 1280x800 and also having a dual front and back camera."
Initially, it had been thought that a dual-core CPU or perhaps even the Tegra 2 SoC was required for Android 3.0 but the notion had been debunked by?Android Open Source & Compatibility Tech lead, Dan Morrill, over Twitter with the words.
"#dejavu Random note: there's no hard minimum processor requirement for Honeycomb. Trust me, if there were I'd know."
While there's no reason to believe that Morrill's statement is not true, it is clear that there are other hardware limitations placed on companies looking bring a Honeycomb tablet to market.?Pocket-lint contacted Google to find out what other hoops need to be jumped through but the Internet giant decline to comment.
Whether the restrictions on the OS will be released once Google does release the source code for Android 3.0 is unclear but would seem likely.
