Author Archive: Gareth

The Acer A510 looks pretty smart

Acer’s next high-end Tablet, the Iconia A510 has just passed through its FCC certification hoops. The tablet is due to come out in Europe sometime in April. The tab has some fairly impressive specs:

• 1.3GHz quad-core Tegra 3 processor
• 1GB of RAM
• 10.1-Inch screen with resolution of 1280 x 800
• 16GB, 32GB and 64GB versions
• A microSD slot, mini-HDMI and mini-USB

There is no word yet on a potential price as yet however Acer do tend to come in a little lower than the competition.

Poster by: Gareth

A Love story: Google and Motorola Mobility

The Department of Justice gave its seal of approval to Google’s proposed takeover of U.S. cell-phone maker Motorola Mobility on Monday, just hours after European regulators also gave the deal clearance.

The $12.5 billion acquisition positions Google to move into the device market and potentially into more direct competition with companies like Apple.
Google wants to own the hardware to pair with its Android operating system for smartphones, and could use the acquisition to protect patents as well as to develop other devices such as home gaming systems.

“The combination of Google and Motorola Mobility will help supercharge Android,” Google’s Don Harrison said in a blog post earlier in the day. “It will also enhance competition and offer consumers faster innovation, greater choice, and wonderful user experiences.”

The European Union earlier on Monday approved the deal, which still needs the approval of regulators in several other countries, including China.

Posted by: Gareth

Toshiba AT200 arrives

Carphone Warehouse has put the Toshiba AT200, also known as the Toshiba Excite X10, up for sale. The 7.7mm 10 inch tablet houses a 1.2GHz TI OMAP 4430 processor, 1GB of RAM, a 5 megapixel rear camera, a front facing camera and comes in configurations of either 16GB or 32GB. This one’s still running Honeycomb, unfortunately, but Toshiba assures us that it will be getting the upgrade to Android 4.0+ sometime down the line. Pricing is £399 and £449 for the 16GB and 32GB configurations, respectively. Deliver to the mainland and store are free, but you’ll have to wait until February 15th to find it in-stores. Get started here and here.

Full specs after the below:

No Samsung Galaxy S III for MWC

TechRadar received an official statement from Samsung that the much anticipated Samsung Galaxy S III, Samsung’s successor to the Galaxy S II that turns one year this month, won’t be announced at this month’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The official statement says that  "Samsung is looking forward to introducing and demonstrating exciting new mobile products at Mobile World Congress 2012. The successor to the Galaxy S2 smartphone will be unveiled at a separate Samsung-hosted event in the first half of the year, closer to commercial availability of the product". At this point the real reasons for the announcement-shift are unclear.

Rumours have circled the internet of just what to expect from the Galaxy S III’s load out. More recently we have hear it’s going to launch with ICS, the camera is going to be upgraded and 12MP and it will run with a 1.5GHz-1.6GHz quad-core processor. It all sounds like a dream phone but lets not forget The SII rumours were pretty much spot on.

Posted by: Gareth

Sony is the self proclaimed champ of Android tablets

Sony claims that it’s distinctive Android tablets are leading the race to dominate sales in a crowded market. A company spokesman said that Sony’s products accounted for 26% of the UK market in October, the most recent period for which independent data is available. Sony also claims it has had a successful Christmas, but conceded that it was likely to have been beaten on tablet sales by aggressively priced BlackBerry Playbooks.

Wonder if they will learn anything from Blackberry on that strategy?

Posted by: Gareth