Author Archive: Gareth

Fabled Touchpad Go details emerge

Hard to believe that a mere two months ago there was a fire sale on the HP Touchpad. A shrewd manoeuvre by HP to get Touchpads into the hands of plenty around the world to play with and develop. Now it seems the legacy of the Touchpad was to be grander and more ambitious than previously  thought. PreCentral.net just posted exclusive details on the HP TouchPad Go 7 inch version of the TouchPad that was killed before it was released.

After looking at the images, slides, and details, I think I actually may have liked the TouchPad Go since the smaller form factor is appealing for mobile usage, the design looks nicer with a soft touch back, metal buttons, and a higher pixel density display. All the basic elements of the TouchPad are packed into the Go along with a dual-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm processor and GPS receiver. I haven’t seen any of these sneak out on ebay or Craigslist and maybe with the new change at HP there is a chance we may eventually see these released.

Would you have purchased the HP TouchPad Go? Do you find it more appealing than the HP TouchPad?

Posted by Gareth

Archos spec change at the last minute

Looks like Archos is having to review their upcoming 1.5GHz G9 Honeycomb tablets. Apparently, Texas Instruments wont be able to keep their end of the bargain with their 1.5GHz OMAP 4 processors as they are being pushed back until next year. This, in turn, is causing Archos to rethink their tablet loadout. Rather than delay the October launch of their 10-inch (and higher-end 8-inch) tablets, Archos will instead rename these versions “Turbo” and equip them with slightly overclocked 1.2GHz versions of the dual-core TI processors found in the lower 8GB model. Come next year, when Texas Instruments is able to get their act together, Archos will re-outfit these “Turbo” versions with the newer TI 1.5GHz OMAP 4 processors.

Not sure what exactly this is going to do to the price tag or if there will be an option to have the devices re-fit with the speedier processor ala Motorola’s 4G shenanigans, only time will tell.

Posted by Gareth

ZTE show of the first Tegra 3 tablet

ZTE showcased, at the CES (China International Exhibition Center) expo event held in Beijing, its latest 7-inch T98 Android 3.2 Honeycomb tablet powered by Nvidia’s Tegra3 chipset.

ZTE T98 features a 7-inch WXGA touchscreen display with 1280*800p resolution, equipped with a 1.5GHz Tegra3 quad-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 16GB on-board storage, two cameras a 5MP on the back with 1080p HD video rec capabilities and a 2MP on the front for video chat. T98 is 11.5mm thick and it comes with a battery capacity of 4000mAh.

The slate comes with 3G GSM enabled, weird that it doesn’t pack 4G/LTE technology and no mention about NFC support either. There’s no information regarding an availability date, nor any pricing information.

Posted by Gareth

Rather exciting lookin: The Dark Meadow trailer

Phosphor Game Studios’ The Dark Meadow is an action-adventure monster slaying game set in a creepy abandoned hospital. The Dark Meadow is coming next month, and is boasting some incredibly compelling features such as gesture-based combat, "console-level" story and production, and a six-ish hour campaign that will need to be replayed multiple times if you want to see all the game has to offer.

This looks to be a pretty exciting game, and for good reason too. For the hardware and popularity of the iOS devices there should be more projects like this on there way, as sometimes it feels like a waste to be playing simple 2D physics games on iOS devices when they’re totally capable of this.

Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S landing soon

Sony Ericsson are launching a new a smartphone in October and calling it the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S.  It seems the new Arc S is pumped with a 1.4 Ghz processor compared to its predecessor which clocked at 1Ghz. The Xperia Arc S has a 2d to 3d converter which lets you take photos and use ” 3d sweep panorama” application to display 2d photos in 3d if you plug it into a 3d TV or any other 3d display using a HDMI port. The phone will use Android OS Gingerbread 2.3 and have pretty much the same hardware features the original Arc did including ultra thinness at 8.7mm.  The Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S is available in an array of colours :  pure white, gloss black, misty silver, sakura pink and midnight blue.

Posted by Gareth

Android 2.3.6 arrives on………

This morning I rolled over to my Nexus One to see an update message. How very exciting and unexpected. Not much is known about the contents of the software other than it includes ‘important bug fixes and security patches.’ It doesn’t allude to anything in particular so you’re just going to have to download it and see what it takes care of.

The Nexus S recently saw an update to 2.3.6 that included some sort of voice search fix. There have been some unconfirmed reports that the update was breaking USB and Wi-Fi tethering.

So, for those of you that haven’t seen it roll out OTA just yet, here is how to get Android 2.3.6 on your Nexus One at this very moment. The steps are pretty easy so even if you’re not proficient in tinkering with your device, you should be able to do this.

Could Google become a wireless carrier

There is some industry speculation that Google may be planning to take on the role of wireless carrier in parts of Europe soon. In fact, they may have already started testing a Mobile Virtual Network (MVN) in Spain. The images posted are of what appears to be a Google-branded SIM card and a Nexus S running on a network dubbed “Google_es”. According to the report, a few trusted engineers have started receiving this starter pack for testing purposes already. Here’s a quote with a few more details,

HTC and Dropbox to offer 5GB accounts for Sense 3.5 users

HTC has partnered with Dropbox to bring a deal to those who upgrade to an HTC Sense 3.5 device. While we mere peasants are entitled to a paltry 2 GB of free cloud storage, HTC Sense 3.5 devices will get access to 5 GB at no extra price. Pretty sweet deal if you ask us.

Currently, the only device with Sense 3.5 is the brand new HTC Rhyme on Verizon. If you happen to get this device, odds are that it will be through an upgrade or new contract. This means you’ll be hitching your wagon to data caps.

This isn’t exactly a new idea, companies like Asus have been doing it for a few years right back from their original Eeepc. Data caps from network providers do limit what you can do with your phone, Spotify and music and video streaming services are a fine examples.  If you plan to take advantage of those 5 free GB, you’d better keep that unlimited data contract. Your 2 GB will fly away in no time if you use cloud storage constantly. So be careful with those transfers! You can also use WiFi when transferring large files to/from your Dropbox account (or upgrade to a higher data cap).

There’s still no word on whether current HTC Sense users will also get this treat or not. Future Sense 3.5 smartphones will definitely get an extra 3 GB, though. It might not be a major decision factor when choosing your next smartphone, but it’s definitely a nice extra. These devices will also come with the Dropbox app pre-installed. Depending on how you see it, this could be great or just more bloatware.

Posted by Gareth