If you’re running out of things to do with your Honeycomb-powered Android tablet, why not load up the newly-updated Netflix app? The fresh new 1.5 update finally adds support for tablets that run Android 3.x, in addition to spreading the streaming video love to tablets in Canada and Latin America. → Read More
Sling Media, an EchoStar subsidiary, this morning announced the availability of SlingPlayer for tablets running Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) or later. The app is available on Android Market now and costs $29.99, the same price Sling Media charges for any of its mobile applications.
The application basically lets Slingbox owners watch home TV from their Android tablets. (The Slingbox retails for $180 and up). → Read More
Asus does not plan on participating on the recent tablet price cutting wars. CEO Jerry Shen will not race RIM or HTC to the bottom and currently has no plans to cut the original Transformer’s price. This comes by way of a Digitimes report that also states the company is on schedule to launch the second generation Transformer tablet for $499 and meet their initial shipment forecast. → Read More
The Archos G9 tablet comes in two flavors, 8-inch and 10-inch, and runs Honeycomb 3.2. The specs are more than acceptable with the 8-incher starting at $299 for 1 GHz of power and $100 more for a half a GHz extra. The tablets have internal flash memory of up to 16GB or a 250GB hard drive, your choice.
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Just like the rumor stated, Toshiba used IFA 2011 to announce its latest Android tablet and it’s just as tiny as it looked. The AT200 packs a 1.2GHz TI OMAP 4430 CPU, up to 64GB of memory, and most of the ports that made the Toshiba Thrive popular: micro-USB, microSD, and micro-HDMI. Toshiba claims that the battery is good for “eight hours of video consumption.”
The Samsung Galaxy Tab suddenly looks a bit thick. The new Toshiba AT200 measures in at just 7.7mm, which is nearly a full millimeter less than both the slender GalTab and the iPad 2. But unlike the Galaxy Tab, the AT200 shouldn’t be mistaken for an Apple tablet. From the port locations, to the rear camera location, to the entire backplate, the AT200 looks nothing like an iPad. In fact, the brushed aluminum back looks wonderful and full dispels any myth created by the fugly Thrive Android tablet that Toshiba doesn’t know how design beautiful products anymore. → Read More
“It’s not about who makes them first, but who makes them better.” That’s how Sony’s Sir Howard Stringer announced his upcoming tablets. Zing.
Meet the S and P, everyone. Sony just took the wraps off its first generation Android tablets a few moments ago at its 2011 IFA press event. But, as with most non-Apple product launches these days, there isn’t much to report since Sony used teasers and planted leaks over the last few months to generate buzz, which in turn, makes today’s announcement a tad anticlimactic. → Read More
HTC is prepping its first Honeycomb tab for release. Previous rumors placed the Puccini hitting the shelves sometime at the end of August or early September. That seems slightly more likely per a new report that states “late Q3 or early Q4.” But the question remains, does the market need another Honeycomb tablet, even one as powerful as the Puccini, when Ice Cream Sandwich is right around the corner? → Read More
GTVHackers has released an Android 3.1 beta built specifically for the Logitech Revue Google TV device. The hitch? It’s not quite ready for public consumption, it could destroy your user experience, and you could end up with a GTV that can’t be restored to its original OS or that is completely bricked.
You can download the update here and instructions are here.
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Marcia Marcia Marcia! As it was in the Brady Bunch, so it is in real life. Like Marcia, the iPad is getting all the attention. Honeycomb tabs are living a life of obscurity, unable to get a footing in the general consumer mindset, and are genrally as unlikable as an unloved middle sister. Why? Marketing. Apple is good at it and Honeycomb tab makers are bad at it. It’s that simple.
Everyone knows about the iPad. Even my 87 year old grandfather told me about an article in his local newspaper about the device. He’s extremely interested in the tablet despite never using a computer before. This is the man that gifted me his beloved slide rule when I entered high school trigonometry. He knows and wants an iPad; he’s never heard of the Samsung Galaxy Tab or Motorola Xoom. → Read More
I’m currently wrapping up a review of the latest Honeycomb tablet, the Toshiba Thrive. Quick spoiler, it’s one of my favorite Android tablets yet, but I still wouldn’t buy it nor recommend it to anyone outside the dedicated Android fanbase. Just like the rest of the Honeycomb tablets, it lacks any compelling feature over the iPad.
Don’t mistake what I’m saying here. I like the Thrive. It’s well built, has a low price, and more I/O ports than other tabs. I also like Android as a whole — I love my Droid X — but outside of several Google services which are available on the iPad, Honeycomb tabs still don’t have a legitimate advantage over the similarly priced iPad. That said, not all is lost. Google is committed to the platform, as are the dozens of CE brands with Android tablets. The addition of just the following five features would help move Honeycomb tablets closer to mainstream. → Read More
Last week I tuned into a press preview of today’s Lenovo announcement. It was an online presentation so, you know, I went on and did other things while half listening. I was nearly ready to close the tab after listening to 20 minutes of some product manager explaining every little detail about the consumer-oriented IdeaPad K1 Honeycomb tablet. All he really had to say was, “We made a Honeycomb tablet. It’s the same as the rest besides it ships with Netflix. It has 32GB of storage and ships in August for $499.” That’s all I need to report as well.
But then the presentation went to the ThinkPad tablet and I woke right up. This is the Android tablet the niche market has wanted all along. → Read More
Amid the abundance of nearly indistinguishable Android tablets out there right now, we’re actually excited for Sony’s S1 and S2 tablets, which have interesting form factors and a Playstation pedigree. In April we heard they’d be getting a global release “this fall,” and that appears to be true, as Engadget has received information that the tablets would be available for pre-orders in August and ship by late September, at least in Europe. A little late to the game, but that’s always been the Sony Style, hasn’t it? → Read More
The original GalTab is a tough beast to love. It ran an outdated version of Android in the face of an onslaught of Honeycomb tablets (remember, this was November 2010 when it was launched) and everyone hated on it for being underpowered. Well, the next version should be a bit swifter and, more importantly, run an updated version of Android Gingerbread, 2.3.4. → Read More
Even though we have to deal with 100-degree summers and 15-degree winters, hobos on the subway, and slow-walking tourists, sometimes it really pays off to be a New Yorker. Samsung’s highly anticipated Galaxy Tab 10.1 won’t hit stores nationally until June 17, but a few lucky New Yorkers, and possibly some smart-shopping tourists, will be able to pick up a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 as early as June 8.
The 10.1-inch Samsung slate will only be available at New York’s Union Square Best Buy location, and according to Samsung, there will only be a limited quantity of the WiFi edition Galaxy Tab. Online and in-store pre-orders for the New York inventory will begin on June 8, as well. Unfortunately for the rest of the country, a plane ticket to the Big Apple will be your best bet to snag the early release Galaxy Tab 10.1. → Read More
Just last week had Fujitsu announcing the TH40/D, a 10-inch convertible Windows tablet/notebook. It’s actually aimed more at the enterprise market, but Digitimes reports they have an option coming for consumers as well. It’ll be smaller, with a 7-inch screen, but it’s not clear whether it will have the stylus support and keyboard of the TH40/D. → Read More
Hold onto your seats everybody. The Dell Streak’s big brother, the Streak Pro (it just doesn’t sound good, does it) has gotten a few extremely predictable specs. Are you ready to be underwhelmed?! → Read More
If you’d asked me a week ago what I thought about Honeycomb, the tablet version of Android, I would have said that it was in very bad shape and that it would be several months before it could even hold a candle to the iPad 2. Because despite my excitement to see Android take on Apple’s ridiculously successful iPad, my experience with the Motorola Xoom — the first Honeycomb tablet — has been decidedly poor.
From day one things were off to a bad start. At first, Android Market would crash literally every time I opened it. The Android team fixed that pretty quickly, but the OS was still riddled with weird bugs: swiping between home screens is laggy, widgets go blank and need to refresh, and there are myriad other glitches that pop up at random. And even beyond the bugs, there are weird quirks in the OS that feel poorly thought out (seriously, why does the ‘Home’ button look like an Up arrow?). But now I’ve had some time to test out the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, the new tablet that was given to Google I/O attendees and will be available in stores beginning June 8. And after spending the last couple of days using it around my apartment, I’m much more optimistic. In fact, I’m guessing this device is going to do very well, and that it foreshadows a bright future ahead for Honeycomb. → Read More
Right now there’s no such thing as a 7-inch Honeycomb tablet. There isn’t one on the market. (okay, I looked, but I just know someone is going to link to one in the comments) The Viewsonic Viewpad 7x might be the first one. Pocket-Lint heard through “reliable sources” that said tablet is in the batter’s box, ready to step up to the plate at a Taipei trade conference. → Read More
The march towards the generic Android tablet has begun. Most of the first Honeycomb tablets are indistinguishable from each other save one or two tiny differences. The Xoom hit the market first and still has arguably the best reviews while the G-Slate made a name for itself with 3D movies. Then there’s the Asus Transformer with its $150 optional keyboard dock and the Acer Iconia Tab with, well, a full size USB port. So now the buying points come down to the minutiae. Take the Xoom and the Iconia Tab. There’s a $150 difference in price with the only major hardware difference being the Xoom rocks 32GB of flash memory rather than 16GB. Still, I’ve found several, five to be exact, notable difference between the two. Spoiler: The Xoom isn’t worth the extra money if you don’t care about storage. → Read More
While I think we all knew, deep down inside, that at some point there would be an Android 3.1, it hasn’t actually been mentioned by anyone except as a potential future upgrade. But Adobe let the cat out of the bag today with an update to Flash: the changelog to 10.2 includes a few features with “(requires Android 3.1)” on the end – or at least, it did until they fixed it. Luckily, Droid-Life got a screenshot. → Read More
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