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Author Archive: Ian McGurren
Fresh off of the presses from IDF is news of a forthcoming Dell tablet hybrid armed with a dual-core Atom processor. Hybrid you ask? Yes it seems it’s another Transformer netbook, allowing you to flip the body and hide the keyboard. It shows the device running Windows 7 with a selection of big, finger friendly media icons for those not wanting to get PC about things, plus it certainly looks like a capacitive screen of around 10". Not much more is known yet but it certainly looks exciting and quite powerful compared to other netbooks.
Source – UMPCPortal
More shots after the break:
No Nokia haven’t fallen on such hard times that they are giving their latest handsets away, but three of the major operators (Vodafone, T-Mobile and O2) have confirmed you can walk out of their doors with a shiny new N8 without handing over a penny. The catch? Well, you’ll instead hand over £35 a month to them for the next 2 years so ok, it’s not quite the offer it first appears. In fact this is right in the mid to high-end handset sweet spot of £30-35 / 24, putting the N8 up against big Android players like the Galaxy S and Desire, but still representing better value than the year old iPhone 3GS. At that price, it may even have to defend it’s 12mp Symbian^3 OLED screen equipped self against a kicking from the soon-to-be-revealed Windows Phone 7 devices. This quarter is shaping up to be one of the most interesting in mobile tech for years.
Posted by: Ian
Think you’ve had one of those Mondays? Well spare a thought for Japanese software dev Nocchisan. The programmer tweeted the at first innocuous “On November 20th, the 11 goods I designed for use with the 3DS will go on sale”, a sentence that admittedly isn’t too bad – unless, like Nocchisan, you add the word “simultaneously” on the end. Presuming he doesn’t mean simultaneously with something totally unrelated so simultaneously with the hardware the said goods are designed to work with seems more likely. I’m no expert but this is likely a tiny breach of any NDA he’ll be working under, and Nintendo are not likely to look favourably at his faux-pas. So, is the 3DS going to be this Xmas’s massive hit or will we in the West have to wait the customary long and drawn out months before we can join the autostereoscopy party? Not long until we find out. 3D Mario without glasses? Yes please Santa.
Posted by: Ian
After recently announcing that Android would be their primary mobile operating system, leaked shots of the GT-i8700 show Samsung isn’t quite ready to commit. These shots leaked to Gizmodo show a Galaxy S sized device with a generous screen, which to my eyes has that Super OLED depth of contrast. So while WP7 may not be Samsung’s OS of choice, it’s certainly not giving it a technological stillbirth.
We know that Redmond has specified WP7 devices to be 1 GHz minimum and from the shots we can make out the device contains an LED flash and likely 8GB of storage, although it’s not clear if that is all onboard or bolstered by SD card. There also appears several switches on the side of the device, one looking suspiciously akin to a + & – rocker and one the opposite side possibly one for locking and another for photographs. While it may be the Galaxy family’s WP7 counterpart, it doesn’t look as slim as the flagship S, possibly down to a larger battery, and therefore it may run on a more power hungry CPU than the Hummingbird powering the Galaxy series, or alternatively it may simply have a discreet GPU for the Xbox Live games.
While we’ve just got a confirmed price for Samsung’s hotly awaited Galaxy Tab, it seems the rest of the world is still in confusion. UK retailers Clove.co.uk have price the 16GB version at £616.88 (inc VAT), that just over $800. This price is for a SIM-free version so it does appear that the device will be priced rivalling a high end phone (which are always expensive) as opposed to rivalling the Netbook sector that tablets are expected to eclipse next year. Similar high prices are popping up in the EU with Amazon.de having the device for €699 and €799 for the 16GB and 32GB versions respectively (that’s over $800 or $1000!), which is perilously close to the price of the Apple device it’s meant to be rivalling.
These seem to be upper estimates though, as O2 Germany later confirmed a price of €99 for the device and a further €27.50 for the line rental over 24 months. This ties in closely with Samsung executive Hankil Yoon’s figures of $200 and $300 given in the Wall Street Journal. This would seem more accurate as at this price point, the Tab’s closest contract rival now becomes Dell’s Streak, a device that has already laid the table for Android tablets and mobile operators. Of course, the Tab betters in most departments and with the right contract and initial outlay, UK operator Vodafone could have a worthy alternative to Dell and Apple’s devices. Galaxy Tab tariffs are expected to be announced next month on Vodafone throughout the EU.
Posted by: Ian
In a strange display of corporate confusion, O2 today released the long awaited Android 2.2 firmware update for the network’s Desire handsets, only to pull it shortly afterwards. Why did the network pull the update so quickly? Well it appears that not all Desires took to the update well, with O2 stating some handsets were experiencing issues. While it’s clearly frustrating – especially as the vanilla HTC update has been around for a while now, and with many UK networks already having their own version out – firmware flashing is a process that can brick a handset in seconds. It seems O2 would rather be safe than very, very sorry. Here’s the situation in their own words:
“As some of you will have noticed the Android 2.2 Froyo update for HTC Desire on O2 went live this morning. While we’re pleased that so many of you have been able to download it successfully and are enjoying the benefits of 2.2, we have seen that a small number of people are having problems installing the update.
While we check out these issues we’re putting the 2.2 update on hold. We’ll update you as soon as possible and would like to thank our HTC Desire customers for their patience.”
Posted by: Ian
Android may have the software but if the rumours of the forthcoming HD3 are to be believed, it could really be the HD7 that James alluded to last week. With stunning specs to make a netbook blush, it may have the first dual-core CPU in a phone (1.5 MHz ARM) and a staggering 1280×800 4.5" AMOLED screen. There’s also a rumoured 8 megapixel camera, 1gb of internal memory and up to 32gb of ‘external’ memory. All this will be the engine for Redmond’s newest and brightest – Windows Phone 7. Many are saying that WP7 has a possibly insurmountable mountain to climb but armed with hardware like this and integrated features like Xbox Live, only a fool would place all the chips on MS’s failure. Is this the beginning of the dreadnought-like uberphones?
Posted by: Ian
Along with Tablet, 3D is the definitely the buzzword of IFA and two more major TV manufactures are getting in on the act. Toshiba, while still not ready to unleash the frankly scary Cell Regza on shores outside Japan, have gone all in with 3D and LED on their latest sets, the REGZA WL768 series. Coming in 40″, 46″ and 55″ flavours, they will hopefully herald a slightly cheaper option to the Samsung 8000 series, currently the cheapest 3D LED option.
Posted by: Ian
Like a dog with a rubber toy, Apple just won’t let go of the Apple TV, but this time it’s looking promising. With refeshing honesty (see Steve, you can admit when things don’t work!), Apple admits that the Apple TV was “not a big hit” so has practically reinvented the device, keeping only the name (which will incidentally still be Apple TV until Jobs buys ITV and forces it from them). They’ve also drastically reinvented the size and the price, bringing both down by about 2/3rds.
Giant Chinese phone and tech manufacturer Huawei have been reported as working with Google on a tablet device which may be announced later today. Details are scant save for the device will run Android 2.2 and may be powered by Nvidia’s Tegra 2 chipset, fast becoming the chipset du jour for the tablet brigade. So far, so like everyone else, so will we get something special from the teaming up with the fathers of Android? Or will we get the tablet equivalent of HTC’s Nexus One – a vanilla device that’ll get the upgrades to Android first? Certainly if it’s the latter, it could be the tablet of choice for the tinkerers and hackers community.
Either way, all will be revealed tomorrow as Matt & James are attending the event.
Posted by: Ian
Fresh off of the presses from IDF is news of a forthcoming Dell tablet hybrid armed with a dual-core Atom processor. Hybrid you ask? Yes it seems it’s another Transformer netbook, allowing you to flip the body and hide the keyboard. It shows the device running Windows 7 with a selection of big, finger friendly media icons for those not wanting to get PC about things, plus it certainly looks like a capacitive screen of around 10". Not much more is known yet but it certainly looks exciting and quite powerful compared to other netbooks.
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