Author Archive: Gareth

The Ultimate Android tablet and bad news for all those early adopters

Google is apparently working with LG on a Nexus-branded tablet running the Android Honeycomb 3.0 software. The tablet could ship as soon as this summer, according to tech pundit Eldar Murtazin, writing for Mobile-Review. Given Google’s history of teaming up to manufacturers to release phones under its brand, HTC for the Nexus One and, Samsung for the Nexus S, it’s indeed possible a Nexus tablet developed in partnership with yet with another manufacturer (LG) is coming up to shape the Android tablet landscape.

No specifications on the this Nexus tablet have been made available. But if past experiences with the Nexus One and Nexus S are any indication, the Nexus tablet would come preinstalled with a new version of Android Honeycomb.

Another revelation from Muratazin could be bad news for owners of Android 2.X tablets like the original Samsung Galaxy Tab. Apparently Google’s licensing agreement with manufacturers specifically prevents them from upgrading the smartphone-oriented Android 2.X to tablet-optimized Android 3.0 Honeycomb.

So if you bought an Tablet before Christmas then it seems likely that Android 2.3.3 might be one of the last upgrades you can anticipate. Expect Ebay to have Android tablets littered about it’s marketplace.

Posted by: Gareth

Sony Ericsson X10 to get Gingerbread

On the Sony Ericsson blog Rikard Skogberg has announced he work on a planned upgrade for the Xperia X10 to Android 2.2.3, Gingerbread. Great news, as last we spoke to Sony Ericsson about the X10 there was no comments, I guess they must have been thinking about it and could say for definite, No. The downside is that Rikard also outlines that there will be no upgrade plans for the X10 Mini, Mini Pro or X8. Bit of a shame. obviously they have been working on 2.3.3 for the new line of phones and realised they could retro-fit the X10. Nice to see. Check after the break for the whole blog entry from Rikard:

Smart cover for iPad 1

Here’s a cheeky little video for all of you who want to look like they have an iPad 2, or more realistically, want a swanky case but don’t want to have to buy the expensive accessory of the iPad 2 to get it. These guys have the solution:

Smart Cover for iPad 1 from Studio Neat on Vimeo.

Posted by Gareth

Want to buy a wireless network?

There is an upcoming auction of the so-called fourth generation, or 4G, spectrum. The last time Ofcom held an auction, for 3G in 2000, it raised a record £22.5bn for the UK Treasury – well before the rise of smartphones that are now so prevalent. The auctions due to happen in 2012.

The additional spectrum to be sold off should mean faster speeds for downloading data to phones. Ofcom says the auction is equivalent to three quarters of the mobile spectrum in use today. The actual parts of the spectrum being sold – at the 800MHz and 2.6GHz bandwidths – will be parts of the wireless spectrum historically used by analogue TV, which is being switched off as digital is rolled out.

Cheques books at the ready then!

Note to Matt – I have 90p in my piggy bank, should we club together and buy it?

Posted by: Gareth

Archos high end devices to be announced in June

An old favourite for many when it comes to personal media players is the name Archos. Whilst the more recent tablet offerings have had mixed reviews it looks like their efforts in the last year have paid off and they have posted a rather tidy profit from the latest generation. With profits of around up from 13.5% to 23.3% it looks like they are doing something right.

What’s next for the little French company? Well, Global domination it seems. Their legacy is primarily high quality audio/video experiences and in the last few years this has changed to cater for cost effective Android tablet experiences. So why not combine them and come up with high quality Android Tablets?

If done right, the following will just be amazing:

LG 3D G-Slate overview… by a girl!

LG is one of the other big names bringing an Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) tablet to the market over the next few months. Their tablet will be available through T-Mobile USA and run on their “4G” network. The LG Girl got some hands-on time with it, and shot a little promo type video. It gives us a little insight on what the G-Slate is all about. We still don’t have a firm release date or price point for the device.

Xperia Arc and Xperia Play appear on Vodafone’s site

Both listed as coming soon we are pleased to see Sony Ericsson, frankly, most exciting phones in a few years appear on the premiere network. Vodafone seem to be pushing out all the big names at the moment and they are the first UK network to fully list these devices.

Check out after the break for a rundown on the Xperia Arc and Play hardware.

Asus to shake up the netbook game

A new rumour has surfaced from DigiTimes reporting ASUS is looking to evolve their netbook game in 2011 with either Chrome OS or – our precious – Android. It’ll be on the affordable side with pricing expected to sit anywhere between £150 and £200. They’re claiming it’ll be a 10 or 11 inch netbook.

ASUS has already shown their Android-based netbook card – they debuted tablet/netbook hybrids at CES this year called the Eee Pad Transformer and Eee Pad Slider (both pictured above). This would be a more traditional netbook, though, which makes things a bit interesting.

As far as processor technology goes, it’s believed that Intel’s established Atom series will be powering things under the hood, though which chipset exactly wasn’t said. While Chrome OS may be a better fit for a traditional netbook experience, Android has quickly become an easily-marketable household name and – to be quite honest – it can do a lot more than Chrome OS can in its current state. We’ll be keeping an eye out for further announcements from ASUS.