Gareth
Seasoned tech blogger. Host of the Tech Addicts podcast.
Gareth and Matt are joined by James live from Blackberry World where Kevin and Chris from CrackBerry make a swift appearance. This weeks podcast is heavily BlackBerry with some exciting new innovations from RIM. James also touches on the Samsung Galaxy S Advance he has been playing with.
Sony Mobile has shared their update schedule for Ice Cream Sandwich on their devices. Additionally, the Sony Tablet S is currently receiving the update OTA, starting even before the time of this article. Here’s a quote with some details:
Quote:
As for Sony’s 2011 Xperia phones, the update is “progressing as planned” and will be deployed as planned. Here’s a list of the handsets that will get ICS first:
- Xperia arc S,
- Xperia neo V
- Xperia ray
Gareth and James discover that Archos are looking to produce a gaming tablet, the BlackBerry Curve 9220 looks a like a great budget BlackBerry, The JCB Toughphone is extra tough and the secret to making an excellent Bluetooth headset.
The idea of gaming themed Android devices is nothing new, especially since we have the Xperia Play along with a few other Playstation Certified devices along with GameStop tablets with their controllers. The fact is mobile gaming is a huge industry already and it is still growing. Archos sees this and is planning on developing a gaming-centric Android tablet to cater to mobile gamers.
In an interview with The New Ecomiste (French), the CEO of Archos, Crohas, goes on to talk about the company’s troubles in the past and how it has revitalized itself through Android tablet sales. Crohas goes on to say that they are developing the first Android tablet that will essentially be a gaming console. What exactly this entails remains to be seen of course but Archos recent additional to their line of tablets happens to be sporting some pretty potent hardware.
We will soon be certified a tablet-type game console. A first. I strongly believe in this market segment. Moreover, the classic game consoles will disappear." – Crohas, CEO of Archos (loosely translated from French)
Crohas goes on to say that he believes the death of the home gaming console is inevitable. While we don’t believe that will happen, especially with new versions of the Xbox and Playstation already in development, we do see a large chuck on that market switching to mobile gaming down the road as mobile technology catches up and quickly at that.
It will be interesting to see what this gaming-centric tablet from Archos will come with in terms of hardware and special features making it basically a gaming console. Of course we could speculate which is always fun but with Tegra 4 on the horizon, it could be a safe bet that the chip could appear in this upcoming tablet.
Posted by: Gareth
Gareth and James investigate the HTC One V and determine it might not be as great value as you would initially expect. Gareth lines up some interesting bargains and James gets excited about a BlackBerry update.
Gareth, Matt and James go LIVE in front of an audience, much like The Gadget Show. You don’t need to go and see the expensive Gadget Show when you can listen to this stunningly Professional Live Broadcast.
We have some news from Toshiba this morning. The company officially launched their new Excite line of Android Tablets. Toshiba has taken things to a new level with the Excite, by heavily stepping up the specs, reducing the size and weight, and adding a unique new size category, the monstrous 13-inch tablet! For reference, there are several specs that all of these tablets have in common. Here is a list of all the specs that they all have, prices are only listed in dollars and then below that we have each individual tab with their differences:
- Fixed Back Covers with an Aluminium Surface and styling
- Dual Cameras – 2MP for the front and 5MP for the back that can handle 1080p HD video
- Tegra 3
- 1GB DDR3 Ram
- Gorilla Glass
- Stereo Speakers with SRS Surround
- WiFi
- Android 4.0/Ice Cream Sandwich – Unskinned & Stock from Google
- BioManager Utility to improve battery life
According to a report on DroidMatters, RIM wants to avoid, what it calls the "chaotic cesspool" of piracy on Android’s Google Play Store (quote from RIM.) They shall will be locking the BlackBerry PlayBook to keep users from being able to side-load Android apps. Alec Saunders, VP of Developer Relations at RIM, announced these plans on Twitter. Mr. Saunders claims, without citing sources, that over 25% of Android device apps are downloaded illegally. RIM plans to create the lock in a future update.
Things have developed now and Mr Saunders has confirmed what direction RIM are taking with side loading apps over on the BlackBerry developer blog.
We’re not getting rid of side-loading on the BlackBerry PlayBook OS or in BlackBerry 10.
Side-loading on our platform is changing in nature. Side-loading is a developer feature. It exists so that developers can load their apps onto their own devices to test. It’s there so developers can send a beta release to their testing community for review. It is definitely not there for some people to side load a pirated app.What are we doing?
Starting with our next release of the BlackBerry PlayBook OS, we’re introducing a feature that will encrypt apps so they can only be run by the user who purchased the app.What’s next?
We’re working with you, our developer community, to ensure you can still quickly and easily test your apps on real hardware. That’s one of the reasons we’re kicking off BlackBerry 10 Jam by giving each developer attendee a prototype device to start building on. I’ll be on-hand at the show to answer your questions – look forward to seeing you there.Let’s Jam.
@asaunders
While it can be argued that there are some piracy issues with Android, the Google Play Store can hardly be called a "chaotic cesspool" by any means.
Posted by: Gareth
Lenovo has officially released details on their newest IdeaTab Android tablet: The S2109. You can see the new device in the video below, and it has the following specs:
- 9.7" 4:3 IPS display
- TI OMAP chip
- A microSD slot
- Android 4.0/Ice Cream Sandwich
- Unibody 8.9mm thin shell with gunmetal finish
- 1.3 Megapixel front camera
- SRS Trumedia
- Quad speakers for stronger bass
- Micro-HDMI
- Micro-USB
- 10 hour battery
- 1GB of RAM
They still haven’t released details on pricing or availability, but we will keep you apprised as we find out more. Check out the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=__5DlnyEsy4&noredirect=1
Posted by: Gareth
Rumour has it the Google Nexus tablet may be delayed until July. According to the reports, the delay is likely caused by some design changes that are meant to bring the cost down from one of the suggested $250 price-points. Apparently, the specs still include the NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor. Further speculation suggests that we may see this new tablet announced at Google I/O and probably be available as a "free" gift for attendees.
If it turns out to be true that it is delayed to reduce costs and get it to a lower price-point, then that means that it really was originally slated for the $250 pricing. If so, it almost makes you wonder of some of the rumours of a $150 Google Nexus created a self-fulfilling prophecy. Badly kept secrets can sell devices faster.
Posted by: Gareth
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