Archive for May 10th, 2011

Android Ice Cream Sandwich coming to all device types in Q4

The pace of Google Android development won’t cease or slow down any time soon, and over at Google I/O there are some major changes being shown off in the successor to Honeycomb. First and foremost, the tasty new treat is dubbed “Ice Cream Sandwich”. It is a bit more of a mouthful than previous names, but it also comes with a slew of new features.

This version will run on both phones and tablets, intelligently scaling the UI for use on many different resolutions. This means that eventually we’ll see the same Android firmware across all types of devices, and not the phone or tablet specific versions we have now. Another major feature are the new camera functions, namely face recognition and tracking. For the homescreen, widgets are now resizable. USB host is now native, so USB devices from cameras to game controllers can be plugged in just like a traditional PC. Over in the US, film purchases and rentals directly from the Android Market is on its way, as well as cloud storage and playback for your tunes; it’s currently unclear whether these will be arriving at our shores here in the UK. Finally, the ‘Android Open Accessory’ program certifies Android compatible accessories from game controllers to exercise bikes. There’s even a demo of a real Labyrinth gameboard controlled by an Android device!

Perhaps one the most pleasing things Google is announcing however, are the new guidelines for post-purchase support. HTC, Samsung, LG, Sony Ericsson and Vodafone are among partners in this scheme who will be committed to providing timely updates for at least 18 months after release (hardware dependant). This is huge news, giving consumers confidence that their device will be riding the newest OS for quite some time after purchasing.

Sounds super sweet to me!

Posted by: Vince

HTC Puccini: 10-Inch LTE Tablet

According to Pocketnow we will soon see the HTC Puccini, a rumoured 10-inch tablet HTC is preparing to follow its seven-inch Flyer. All fingers seem to be pointing at AT&T right now for release and the Puccini will be one of the first devices compatible with their "true 4G" LTE network. Specs for this model remain unknown, although it’s likely to run Android 3.x Honeycomb and support HTC’s Scribe capacitive pen input technology. Since Giacomo Puccini was a 19th and 20th century opera composer (La Boheme, Madame Butterfly), there may be a musical focus here as well.

Exciting stuff and it will be nice to see HTC release a hefty tablet to take on Motorola, Samsung and LG as the Flyer looks a little paltry in comparison.

Posted by: Gareth

HTC ChaCha and Salsa on pre order from Amazon

HTC’s two ‘Facebook’ phones look like landing with us next month. The two devices have shown up on Amazons UK site and are showing a release date of June 26th.

Now we know that these things are often subject to change so I wouldn’t get your heart set on that date. It may be sooner or later than June 26th. However, if you want to know what we think of the two new handsets we will have them for review prior to them going on sale so stay tuned (even though we are not on the radio!)

If you want a quick reminder of what the ChaCha and Salsa are all about you can find the details below.