Gareth
Seasoned tech blogger. Host of the Tech Addicts podcast.
Google Maps 6.0 for Android was released last Tuesday with several enhancements, the most notable, airports and other public places. Users are able to search throughout floor plans too, which means a traveller can search for a coffee shop or the nearest toilet in an airport. Google Maps floor plans will grow when a user is zoomed-in fully on a building where mapping data is available. The differences between indoor and outdoor maps can be seen in the image to the right.
Indoor maps are currently available in selected locations in the U.S. and Japan. Click here to see the current list.
Maps will contain labels with store names, bathroom locations, ATM icons and airport gates, among other items. Google collaborated with the owners of the mapped venues in this first iteration of indoor maps. However, Google is making available a tool that any venue owner can use to upload floorplans for inclusion in the application’s database at http://maps.google.com/floorplans.
Google Maps 6.0 for Android will work on devices with version 2.1 and higher of the mobile operating system. At launch, the application includes floorplans for Tokyo’s Narita and 17 U.S. airports, including Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, San Francisco International Airport and George Bush Houston International Airport; stores of the retail chains Macy’s, Bloomingdales, Home Depot and Ikea; and malls including Mall of America, Times Square Mall in Mt. Vernon, Illinois, and Liberty Fair Mall in Martinsville, Virginia.
Posted by: Gareth
This leaked video shows the A200 containing the Acer Ring, the company’s overlay software to the Android operating system which has a customisable virtual ring. This is along with USB 2.0 connectivity, a micro SD slot and the Acer Clear.fi feature offering DLNA for the connecting, sharing and watching of media.
The site also has it that the Acer Iconia Tab A200 will arrive with a 10.1-inch 1280×800 touch screen, with an Nvidia Tegra 2 processor and 1GB of RAM, whilst running from the latest version of Android – Ice Cream Sandwich.
You can see the video below. Continue Reading »
It’s just Gareth and James this week covering what was a pretty quiet week in tech. A review of the HTC Titan and a first look at the Nokia Lumia 800 top the show with some superb bargains in the run up to Xmas.
It’s just Gareth and Matt this week for a fun filled show. The Motorola Pro + gets reviewed, Matt has a look at the HTC Sensation and the Galaxy Nexus is unveiled. Gareth finally gets his hands on the Huawei Ideos S7 Slim after about a year of waiting!
Here is an excellent accessory that was revealed for the up-coming Asus Transformer Prime. It’s a magnetic folding cover, similar to the one for the Apple iPad, but it looks vastly improved and far more impressive. In fact, its design looks inspired by the art of origami, although much simpler to operate. Although there is no word on when this accessory will ship, (just as we aren’t sure about the Transformer Prime either), you can already order the origami like add-on on Amazon.de for EUR 39.99.
There is no word on whether a version will come to the States, but perhaps that might eventually happen.
It’s Gareth and James this week as Matt and Tracy are off, well you’ll have to listen to find out why. Covering the biggest and most exciting news of the week the guys actually have a few exciting exclusives from HTC and Orange for you. Prepare yourself!
It appears that the Transformer Prime from Asus, will not be the only Tegra 3 Quad-Core powered device to come along. Engadget report Lenovo is working on a high-end Android tablet of their own, and this baby features some very impressive specs:
- NVIDIA Tegra 3 1.6GHz Quad-Core Processor
- 2GB of 1,600MHz DDR3 Ram
- Ice Cream Sandwich
- Full-size USB port
- Fingerprint scanner & Optical joystick (On back)
- Special Fusion-Skin Body
It seems like the tablet wars are heating up all over again for a brutal beginning of 2012, both in the low-end consumer friendly market and the high-end hardcore market. There are a few more pics of the tablet over at the source link, but they didn’t have any front facing shots.
Posted by: Gareth
Everybody’s favourite budget smartphone and runaway success on Orange is getting a sequel. Engadget spotted the device on the operator’s own Help & Support page, the San Francisco II features an 800MHz ARM11 processor, 3.5-inch WVGA TFT display, a 5 megapixel rear camera and 512MB of onboard memory. The ZTE-built black slab gets the upgrade to Android 2.3 Gingerbread. Engadget appears to mention it comes pre-loaded with both Ovi and BlackBerry Maps for navigation however that might cause you to scratch your head a bit given the Android flavouring. You can try an find it yourself however all links to the source post on the Orange site are dead.
Posted by Gareth
New details about HTC’s first quad-core powered phone, the HTC Edge, have surfaced. Rumour has it may launch in April or May of 2012. The new release timeframe falls in line with HTC’s typical spring product cycle for handsets which make their debut at Mobile World Congress in February.
Most competitors are planning Quad-core phones for 2012 like Motorola, LG and Samsung. We speculate at least one next-gen phone at CES. Even if the HTC Edge is not the first quad-core Tegra 3 phone to hit the market, there’s no denying that it will be a game changer for HTC. In the past HTC has partnered closely with Qualcomm, but the late launch of Qualcomm’s dual-core S3 chip forced HTC to be one of the last Android manufacturers to release dual-core powered devices. Recent numbers show that HTC performed very well over this year, but we expect HTC wants to stay in step with the competition next year in order to improve its market share even more.
Most of the HTC Edge’s rumoured specs are still holding up, but some new details point out that the phone’s thickness could be reduced to 8.8mm and the 4.7-inch 720p S-LCD 2 display will be optically laminated, which bonds the panel to the fascia glass to improve visibility.
Posted by: Gareth
James gets a decent internet connection this week for a wickedly exciting tech fest. This week is review central with the boys looking at the Motorola Defy+, the Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray, the Samsung Galaxy Note, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the Sony Ericsson Xperia Pro. That should make up for last week!
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