Author Archive: Gareth

Asus might be building the Nexus tablet

So fresh off of the press is a new rumour which Android and Me are reporting on regarding the rumoured Google’s 7-inch Nexus Tablet that would be selling for $199 when it is released, if it actually exists. According to two reliable sources that Android and Me spoke with at MWC 2012, Asus will be the company building the device.

Asus has seen quite the success with the Transformer and Transformer Prime line-up of tablets. We really are not surprised if the rumour is true regarding Asus being the company that will build this Nexus Tablet. Other information about this tablet, which is also rumoured to be coming Q2 2012, is that it will sport a Tegra 3 quad-core chipset which is not really surprising at all. Nexus devices have always been the flagship of Android so stuffing as much good hardware into one is essential.

A mysterious new Toshiba tablet appears at MWC 2012

For some reason, Toshiba decided to sneak out a new quad-core screamer of a tablet at Mobile World Congress this year. It’s a 7.7-inch device with a NVIDIA Tegra 3 Quad-Core processor powering it. The device is called the AT270, and is ultra-thin and blazingly fast! In fact, the guys from SlashGear said it was the thinnest at the show and left them thoroughly impressed. Here’s a list of its specs:

• Tegra 3 quad-core
• 1GB of RAM
• 16-64GB of internal storage.
• Rear facing camera and micro-SD slots
• Barely thicker than the 3.5mm headphone jack
• 1280 x 800 AMOLED HD 7.7? screen – extremely vivid and crisp images

Right now, this one is just a prototype, but looks to be something Toshiba plans to bring to market at some point… hopefully soon.

Posted by: Gareth

Viewsonic set to impress at MWC 2012

Viewsonic is really going all out this year for Mobile World Congress 2012. They are bringing five new Android devices and one Windows tablet to the table at the press event this year. One of the devices, a new smartphone, uses the same Retina display that is in the iPhone.

Here is a breakdown on what we know about the phones’ specs:
ViewPhone 4s – (This one looks like an Apple lawsuit waiting to happen.)

• Android 4.0/ICS
• 3.5 screen with 640×960 pixel Retina display

Nexus Tablet may start production in April

Late last year speculation was running rampant after Google chairman Eric Schmidt made the comment that Google was planning to, “market a tablet of the highest quality.” Immediately the dream of a Nexus tablet was spawned and Android and tablet fans began frothing at the mouth. Some of the earlier speculation pegged the device as a 7-inch Nexus-branded device that will run Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and compete with the Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet at the $199 price point in the States. Today there are some new rumours regarding this mythic device. Here’s a quote with some more details,

Quote:

…DisplaySearch analyst Richard Shim stoked the fire, noting that the Google slate will enter production in April and the initial run will yield between 1.5 million and 2 million units. Shim also said that the Nexus Tablet will feature a high-resolution 1,280 x 800-pixel 7-inch display, besting Amazon’s 1,024 x 600-pixel panel. “I don’t know how they plan on marketing it,” Shim said. “If it’s going to be a premium device, or if it’s going to be a Kindle Fire type competitor.” April production could mean the tablet will launch as soon as the second quarter this year.

Hmmm… if this turns out to be true, we could see a Nexus tablet in mid-to-late 2012. The question still remains, would Google really be willing to "bite the hands that feed it" and potentially push some OEMs out of the Android Tablet market by making it too tough to compete with a Nexus branded tablet? Share your reasoning.

Posted by: Gareth

It’s not Tegra 3, it’s 4-Plus-1

NVIDIA wants to make sure that consumers get the full skinny on their new Tegra 3 chip’s architecture. Sometime last year we did an article sharing that the Tegra 3 is actually a 5 core chip, rather than just a quad-core chip. It has 4 primary cores for running intensive calculations, but also has a 5th "shadow-core" (which has also been called the "ninja-core" by NVIDIA). This 5th core is designed to handle easy to calculate and mundane tasks to free up battery life and improve over-all efficiency. Previously, their in-house name for this architecture was "Variable Symmetrical Multiprocessing", but that is rather a mouth-full to share as marketing speak. So, to make things easier, they came up with the simple alias, 4-PLUS-1.

You can see below the quote from NVIDIA’s press post:

Fujitsu announce some insane specs

Fujitsu are set to make their debut in the phone market later this year. According to the Unwired View, Fujitsu’s handset will come packing a Nvidia 1.6GHz Tegra 3 processor – a quad-core chipset, a 4.6in screen (no further details there unfortunately), a 13.1MP camera, a fingerprint sensor, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, as well as "long battery life" and some kind of water and dust resistant finish. Yes, that was a 13.1mp camera!

It’s at a stage where anything can happen in the world of mobiles, as for a company like Fujitsu to make any sort of dent in the market they have to arrive guns blasting. Unless of course they want to take the market slowly, easing in at the bottom of the market like HTC did and ZTE are currently doing. There are concerns with specs like this. That CPU is going to really require a long life battery just to get you through to a day of heavy use.

At any rate, this looks to be one to watch and has the potential of blowing a few members of the competition out of the water!

Posted by: Gareth

Googles lucky unlocky screen

It looks like the crafty folks at Google have decided to "head Apple off at the pass", when it comes to Apple’s slide-to-unlock patent disputes. Google engineers and/or patent experts have just filed for a patent on a new way to unlock devices.

In case you haven’t followed the Apple vs. the "world" news much, Apple is suing Samsung and Motorola for various violations of a "slide-to-unlock" patent, that many people feel is a bogus patent to begin with. Google isn’t having any of that though, and instead of needlessly fighting potentially wasteful battles on that front, they are "going over the top" and skipping the issue altogether in the future. Their new patent application is for an "Input to Locked Computing Device" method of locking and unlocking your device. Here’s a quick quote from Engadget’s article with some more details,

Quote:

…the application claims a method for a device unlocking process using one or more user inputs while simultaneously executing a command — like calling a specific contact or opening an application. Those user inputs can take the form of passcodes, touch and drag, or audio commands. While the application’s drawings depict such a system on a phone, it claims an unlocking system for desktops and laptops as well, so it could easily find its way onto a Chromebook or two.

Clever Google. Very clever…

Posted by: Gareth