Google Tablet

Google Nexus tablet in next 6 months teases Schmidt

2011-12-21T14:15:00.000-08:00

Google will begin promoting what could be the first official Nexus tablet within the next six months, according to chairman Eric Schmidt, the latest stage in the “brutal competition” between it and Apple. “In the next six months we plan to market a tablet of the highest quality” Schmidt told Italian newspaper Corriere della Sea, while also confirming that Google plans to leverage its voice recognition technology to better challenge Apple’s Siri.

Schmidt was at pains to praise Apple co-founder Steve Jobs for his work in transitioning the tablet from vertical and enterprise markets to a consumer-centric product. “Steve Jobs was the Michelangelo of our time” he told the newspaper, “[he] realized the revolutionary potential of the tablet and has created an amazing product like the iPad.” However, “our companies compete” he continued, “it is capitalism.”

Exact details of the upcoming tablet were not revealed, and it’s unclear whether the slate will be specifically branded with Google’s Nexus nomenclature or be another manufacturer’s model that the search giant will champion. A similar strategy was put in place earlier in the year, when Google worked with Motorola to launch the XOOM, the first Honeycomb tablet on the market.

Now, of course, Google is partway through the process of acquiring Motorola Mobility, and could well use its closer ties with the company to develop a true Google Nexus tablet. Whatever the manufacturer, the slate will likely use Ice Cream Sandwich, the latest version of Android; the tablet UI for ICS was discovered accessible in the Galaxy Nexus late last week.

Google has used the Nexus range – so far limited to phones – to help push its interpretation of how the smartphone should evolve. The first model, the HTC-made Nexus One, led the market in processor speed, while its successor, the Samsung-made Nexus S, introduced features like NFC. Most recently, the Galaxy Nexus arrived, the debut device for ICS.

Android tablets have generally struggled to compete with Apple’s iPad, and even the HP TouchPad managed to squeeze ahead of Android-based models in 2011 sales thanks to its cut-price discounting. Common criticisms include the somewhat jerky performance of Android 3.x Honeycomb, as well as a shortage of slate-scale apps to suit the larger displays.

Source: SlashGear.com - Chris Davies

Link: http://www.slashgear.com/google-nexus-tablet-in-next-6-months-teases-schmidt-19203174/

Google Working on Nexus Tablet to Compete With IPad

2011-12-21T14:11:00.001-08:00

Google is working on a Nexus tablet for release by mid-2012, as the company looks to challenge Apple‘s iPad.

The Mountain View, Calif.- based company’s device will be “of the highest quality,” according to chairman Eric Schmidt‘s comments to Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. Schmidt called Apple co-founder Steve Jobs “the Michelangelo of our time,” but said his company would compete hard in the market Jobs helped create.

Schmidt did not get into details about the potential specs of the tablet, but his company has only used the Nexus label on high-end smartphones that are “pure Google” devices. In other words, Nexus phones contain the stock version of the newest Android OS without bloatware from any manufacturer.

The Nexus tablet will also be high-end and likely run Google’s new Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich platform. The OS is a marriage of Android 2.3 Gingerbread for smartphones and Honeycomb, which has been used for tablets. Android tablets have struggled to gain traction against the iPad, but critics hail ICS as a much improved, cleaner OS that may have what it takes to go up against iOS.

Google’s exact strategy with the Nexus tablet is still unknown. There are no release dates, specs or manufacturing partners yet, but Schmidt’s proclamation that it will directly compete with the iPad is likely what will make it stand out. Companies like HP, Motorola and RIM rolled out tablet offerings priced similarly to the iPad, but all have failed, bringing new players in the market to take on Apple’s device.

Amazon’s Kindle Fire, priced well below the iPad at $200, is aimed at consumers who may find the price of the iPad too steep but are still interested in tablets. Similarly, Barnes & Noble‘s Nook Tablet offers the same type of specs and package as the Fire at $250. The two products are barely a month old, but initial sales have been good for both companies.

The Nexus brand name has accrued favor from consumers in the smartphone, but it remains to be seen if it’s strong enough to compete when attached to tablet that falls in the same price range as the iPad.

Google’s Nexus tablet may give the company the first high-end tablet that’s formidable enough to be labeled a true iPad competitor, but if it fails, it will join a long list of products before it that couldn’t knock the king off the throne.

Source: Forbes.com
Link: http://www.forbes.com/sites/mobiledia/2011/12/21/google-working-on-nexus-tablet-to-compete-with-ipad/

Eric Schmidt : une tablette Nexus dans les six prochains mois ?

2011-12-21T14:08:00.000-08:00

Eric Schmidt vient d’indiquer qu’une tablette Google existait et arriverait dans les six prochains mois !

Depuis l’arrivée d’Android 3.0 (Honeycomb), on sait que Google mise beaucoup sur les tablettes. L’Android Market est un peu vide de ce côté-ci, mais l’accent mis sur la quasi-totalité de cette année 2011 montre un grand intérêt. Des rumeurs sont logiquement apparues indiquant que le géant de la recherche allait sortir sa première tablette, en suivant le même principe que les Nexus (Nexus One, Nexus S et Galaxy Nexus). Jusqu’à présent, la quasi-totalité des rumeurs étaient infondées, mais Eric Schmidt vient de mettre les choses au clair.

Dans une interview à Corriere.it, l’ancien PDG de Google indique qu’une tablette Google existe bel et bien. Il ne s’agit en aucun cas de la Motorola Xoom qui avait servie lors du développement de Honeycomb, mais bien d’un autre produit. Il n’appartient pas forcément à la lignée des Nexus (le nom n’est pas définitif), mais cette tablette arriverait dans six prochains mois. Il n’est pas précisé s’il s’agit de l’annonce ou de la commercialisation. Si vous lisez l’italien couramment, vous pouvez consulter l’interview sur le site du journal.

Eric Schmidt ajoute également qu’un service équivalent à Siri va être lancé. Des ingénieurs y travaillent déjà depuis quelques temps, mais il reste encore beaucoup de travail.

Source: FrAndroid.com - Edouard Marquez
Link: http://www.frandroid.com/actualites-generales/88344_eric-schmidt-une-tablette-nexus-dans-les-six-prochains-mois/

HTC Plans Quad-Core Tablets

2011-11-15T13:28:00.001-08:00

HTC plans to introduce a quad-core tablet device in February, as the company looks to compete in the high-end of the market.

CEO Peter Chou said the Taiwanese company is looking to stand out from competitors by using Nvidia’s quad-core Tegra 3 processor, a significant leap over the iPad’s dual-core A5 chip, will reportedly power the device.

HTC is also expected to debut its quad-core smartphone, called the Edge, along with another Android smartphone at the at Mobile World Congress, according to reports.

HTC has emerged as one of the top Android phone makers in the world, and is now trying to do the same with tablets. The company is no longer content matching its competition and instead is driving forward with truly innovative engineering in quad-core devices.

The tablet market has gotten crowded recently, with Barnes & Noble’s release of the new Nook and Amazon’s upcoming Kindle Fire hitting the market this month. However, while most competitors are attacking the market with low-priced devices to compete against Apple’s iPad, the technology expected to be in HTC’s new tablet may put it in a different category.

A tablet powered by a quad-core processor is likely to sell at an even higher price than the $500 iPad, Apple’s least-expensive offering. In the past, devices like the BlackBerry PlayBook and HP TouchPad have failed to carve out a piece of the market while existing in the same price bracket the iPad. HTC has experienced this firsthand with its Flyer and Jetstream tablets, as poor sales were largely attributed to their high price.

More powerful hardware may be enough for HTC’s tablet to attract customers in the beginning, but as competitors like Apple catch-up and level the playing the field, the company will need something else to separate itself.

Chou believes his company’s tablets will offer that, but he’s not letting anyone in on what exactly that means until February, when the new quad-core tablets are expected to hit the market.

This post originally appeared at Mobiledia.

Source : Forbes.com

Link : http://www.forbes.com/sites/mobiledia/2011/11/15/htc-plans-quad-core-tablets/

Mise à jour planifiée des tablettes Iconia Tab en Android 4 (ICS) ?

2011-11-15T13:26:00.001-08:00

Attention : rumeur non confirmée. On vous aura prévenu ! N’empêche que les tablettes Acer plutôt bien positionnées d’un point de vue tarifaire et toujours pas démodées pourraient recevoir courant 2012 la nouvelle version d’Android : Ice Cream Sandwich.

Mise à jour planifiée des tablettes Iconia Tab en Android 4 (ICS) ?

Nous parlons ici des tablettes Acer Iconia Tab A500 et Acer Iconia Tab A100 notamment, tablettes qui ne sont plus toutes jeunes, qui font partie de celles les moins chères (voir les prix plus bas) et qui tiennent malgré tout encore la route.

Sortie initialement sous Android HoneyComb 3.0, l’Acer Iconia Tab A500 s’est vu mise à jour en HoneyComb 3.1 puis 3.2, la gardant au niveau de ses conseurs qui embarquent peu ou prou la même configuration technique. Quand à sa petite soeur l’Acer Iconia Tab A100 sortie directement sous HoneyComb, elle hérite des qualités (et défauts) de son aînée et d’un positionnement prix similaire.

La rumeur provient donc du site Tablet-online.pl qui nous dit que ces tablettes devraient recevoir la fameuse mise à jour d’Android tout début de l’année prochaine. Certes ça n’est pas une surprise en soi (Google ayant annoncé que les terminaux équiéps d’Android 2.3 et supérieur pourraient recevoir Android Ice Cream Sandwich cela inclus donc les tablettes qui tournent sous HoneyComb). Ceci dit, cela serait cohérent avec ce dont Acer nous a habitué, en faisant bénéficier rapidement ses tablettes des mises à jour logicielles.

Voici ci-dessous les prix à aujourd’hui de ces deux modèles de tablettes Android plutôt compétitifs (au vu des tarifs pratiqués par la concurrence… suivez mon regard…).

Source : Tablette-tactile.net

Link : http://www.tablette-tactile.net/rumeurs-2/mise-a-jour-planifiee-des-tablettes-iconia-tab-en-android-4-ics-111193/

Test Sony Tablet S

2011-11-15T13:23:00.001-08:00

Rappel des caractéristiques techniques de la Sony Tablet S

- Écran 9.4" True Black (résolution 1280 x 720 pixels)
- Processeur Nvidia Tegra 2 cadencé à 1 GHz
- 1 Go de RAM
- 16 Go de stockage (extensible jusqu'à 64 Go par carte SDXC)
- Port mini USB
- Port de recharge propriétaire
- Appareil photo 5 mégapixels (enregistrement vidéo 720p)
- Webcam 1.3 mégapixel
- Sortie audio jack 3.5 mm
- Émetteur/Récepteur infrarouge
- Connexion WiFi, Bluetooth, DLNA
- Android 3.2 Honeycomb
- Dimensions : 241.2 x 174.3 x 10.1 mm
- Poids : 590 g

Sony Tablet S : un design innovant pour une prise en main optimale

Sony voulait une tablette Android différente de ses concurrentes. Au premier coup d'oeil, on peut dire que c'est réussi. Esthétiquement, la Tablet S ne ressemble à aucune autre grâce à un design audacieux. La coque en plastique propose un format en goutte d'eau (ou un ultrabook) avec sa partie basse plus fine que la partie haute. Posé à plat, l'écran de la Tablet S permet une lecture agréable.

Posée à plat, la Tablet S offre un confort de lecture agréable

Le design atypique de la Tablet S la différencie de ses concurrentes

On pourrait croire qu'un tel design nuirait au confort de prise en main. Il n'en est rien, et c'est même le contraire, puisque la prise en main est vraiment adéquate. La sensation de légèreté de la Sony Tablet S s'avère incroyable grâce à son centre de gravité plus haut et ses 590 g sur la balance. Même en mode portrait, la tablette est agréable à tenir.

À l'arrière, le grip est assuré par deux petits picots. La coque arrière en plastique noir brillant est légèrement rugueuse, ce qui apporte encore plus en confort et réduit (mais pas de beaucoup) les traces de doigts.

Grip et surface granuleuse pour une meilleure prise en main

Les traces de doigts, justement : si vous souhaitez utiliser la Sony Tablet S régulièrement, munissez-vous impérativement d'un chiffon ! L'écran, s'il restitue de jolies couleurs et un assez bon contraste, se révèle être un nid à empreintes digitales.

On retrouve sur le côté de la Tablet S une LED pour signaler les notifications ou indiquer la charge de la batterie, ainsi que les boutons de volume et d'allumage, malheureusement mal placés. On aurait en effet préféré les trouver sur la tranche latérale et non légèrement au-dessus pour une meilleure accessibilité.

Les boutons auraient été mieux placés sur la tranche latérale, juste au-dessus

Au sujet des petits reproches toujours, on regrette le port de recharge propriétaire qui empêche de facto la recharge de la tablette via USB. Les sorties audio sont mal situées (elles se retrouvent sous les paumes lorsqu'on a la tablette en main en mode paysage). Le cache du port mini USB et carte SDXC paraît vraiment trop fragile. On attendait mieux de la part de Sony qui nous a habitués à une finition irréprochable sur ses appareils. Il faut toutefois nuancer en précisant que la qualité des plastiques et d'assemblage offrent une sensation de robustesse.

Le connecteur propriétaire permet une recharge plus rapide, mais empêche la recharge par USB

Les haut-parleurs de la Tablet S sont mal placés : en mode paysage les paumes de mains les recouvrent !

Le cache USB/SDXC est fragile et fait "cheap"

Globalement, la Sony Tablet S est bien conçue, ses quelques défauts esthétiques et ergonomiques sont compensés par la vraie bonne idée d'une tablette au design atypique, qui fera oublier les nombreuses tablettes iPad-like et qui apporte en outre un confort jusque-là inégalé.

Interface sobre, navigation internet rapide

On retrouve évidemment sur la Sony Tablet S l'interface sobre d'Android Honeycomb avec ses cinq bureaux personnalisables : applications, widgets, etc. Les applications de Google sont optimisées comme le client Gmail ou le service YouTube qui propose par défaut les vidéos en HD, ce qui est plutôt bien vu.

L'interface Honeycomb est toujours aussi sobre et soignée

En revanche, on regrette (cela vaut pour toutes les tablettes Android Honeycomb) l'impossibilité de fermer les pages et les applications dans le menu déroulant. Bien que Google a expliqué que les programmes sous Honeycomb, une fois mis en tâche de fond, ne consommaient que très peu d'énergie et rendaient le multitâche plus performant, cela s'avère assez gênant dans la gestion et la navigation globales (surtout après une journée d'utilisation intensive !). Même remarque pour la prise de copies d'écran, inexistante de manière native. Fort heureusement, il sera possible de clore les applications et pages internet indésirables (et de prendre des copies d'écran) sous Android Ice Cream Sandwich, mise à jour qui sera sûrement disponible sur la Sony Tablet S d'ici le printemps 2012.

La navigation internet n'est pas en reste avec une bonne vélocité, améliorée par son moteur QuickView, qui permet de charger dans un premier temps le texte, puis le contenu visuel (notamment les vidéos Flash particulièrement gourmandes). La Tablet S intègre dans son clavier tactile un dictionnaire intuitif, mais surtout un clavier numérique lors de la saisie des mots de passe. La fonctionnalité se révèle très pratique, dommage que Sony ne l'ait pas intégrée de manière permanente, d'autant plus que la présence du clavier numérique ne gêne pas la saisie de texte.

Même en portrait, l'affichage de la Tablet S est agréable

En plus des applications natives (mails, contacts, transferts de fichiers, réseaux sociaux), Sony incorpore sa surcouche logicielle et graphique. L'affichage est sobre, le rangement des applications et widgets facile. Nous reviendrons en détail sur l'apport des applications multimédia propre à la Tablet S un peu plus bas.

L'autonomie est plutôt satisfaisante, entre 7 h et 8 h en utilisation mixte (surf, lecture vidéo, jeux, etc.), mais se révèle assez faible en veille (4 jours maximum) comparée à ses concurrentes.

Lecture et enregistrement multimédia : peut mieux faire

Sans vouloir entrer dans le débat sur l'utilité d'un appareil photo sur une tablette, Sony ne semble pas avoir fait du capteur dorsal de sa Tablet S un argument de vente. L'appareil photo 5 mégapixels est quelconque et la qualité des images se détériore rapidement dès que l'éclairage est réduit. L'enregistrement vidéo (en 720 p) est pire : la partie vidéo est loin d'être transcendante, quant au son, il est tout simplement déplorable. Si vous souhaitez enregistrer de la vidéo sans passer par un appareil photo, nous vous suggérons de regarder davantage du côté d'un smartphone comme le Galaxy S II que nous avons testé récemment.

La qualité de l'appareil photo est quelconque. Quant à la vidéo, elle est tout simplement médiocre !

La Tablet S ne se rattrape guère sur la lecture de vidéos, avec un lecteur qui se contente du format MP4. Pour lire des fichiers au format Avi, Mkv Divx ou autre, il faudra passer par l'Android Market (qui heureusement dispose de plusieurs lecteurs gratuits), en raison de l'incompatibilité native d'Android Honeycomb avec des formats pourtant courants. Là encore, la mise à jour vers Ice Cream Sandwich devrait corriger le tir.
En attendant, il faudra se passer de la lecture en HD, qui saccade en raison du processeur Nvidia Tegra 2 embarqué. Maigre consolation : les sous-titres sont pris en charge, ce qui ravira les amateurs de VO.

Heureusement que la qualité de l'écran rattrape les fonctions limitées du lecteur

Enfin le gros point noir de la Sony Tablet S est l'absence d'un port HDMI (même une connexion avec la norme MHL via un adaptateur USB est impossible). Certes, Sony mise davantage sur la connectivité sans fil DLNA (fonction Throw), et c'est plutôt simple et réussi. Il suffit, lorsqu'on lit un fichier multimédia, de le "jeter" vers le haut de la tablette pour l'envoyer vers un autre périphérique. Mais dans une utilisation multimédia, la sortie HDMI fera vraiment défaut.

Applications Sony : le point fort de la Tablet S

Fort heureusement, Sony a le mérite de se rattraper en termes de multimédia avec sa propre offre de contenus et d'applications. En plus des applications traditionnelles (gestionnaire de mails, de contacts, de fichiers, lecteur de flux sociaux, etc.), Sony propose un véritable catalogue de musiques, de vidéos ou de livres et journaux (ebooks aux formats ePub et PDF supportés par son lecteur, Reader).

Sony offre un large choix de films, séries, musiques, livres numériques, etc.

Évidemment, tout cela a un prix, puisqu'il faut s'abonner aux services Sony Unlimited pour un minimum de 3.99 euros par mois (un abonnement premium existe contre 9.99 euros par mois) pour bénéficier de ce catalogue. En contrepartie, tous les contenus multimédias sont consultables et synchronisables dans les nuages sur les téléviseurs connectés Sony, les smartphones Sony Ericsson de dernière génération, les lecteurs Blu-Ray, les ordinateurs Vaio, mais aussi la Playstation 3 ou la PSP.

On peut synchroniser et accéder au contenu acheté directement
sur la Tablet S et ses autres périphériques Sony

Toujours du côté des jeux vidéos, la Sony Tablet S devrait plaire à tous les amoureux du rétro-gaming puisque la Tablet S se transforme en véritable Playstation One grâce à sa norme Playsation Certified. Certes, le catalogue n'est pour l'instant pas très étoffé (on dispose gratuitement de Medievil et d'un flipper) et c'est assez lent, mais on espère que cela s'améliorera au fil du temps. Seule interrogation : on se demande comment accéder aux traditionnelles "gâchettes" (boutons L1 L2 R1 R2 situés sur les tranches de la manette) qui se retrouvent en haut de l'écran.
Pour les autres gamers, on se tournera plus volontiers vers le catalogue de l'Android Market ou de celui de Nvidia, le Tegra Zone.

La Tablet S est Playstation Certified, permettant à jouer à d'anciens jeux PS One

Télécommande universelle par infrarouge

Sony finit de se démarquer de la concurrence avec une fonction télécommande universelle grâce à son capteur infrarouge intégré, rarissime sur une tablette puisque pour le moment, c'est le seule tablette a en être pourvu. Un port IR sera présent sur la Motorola Xoom 2. Avec plus de 200 marques dans le listing, le catalogue est quasi complet. On peut ainsi commander son téléviseur, sa chaîne HiFi, son lecteur DVD/Blu-Ray, et même certaines box ADSL. La profusion des marques et modèles rendra la configuration parfois difficile (il faut essayer de nombreux profils avant de trouver la configuration adéquate à son appareil), mais une fois terminée, tout fonctionne correctement.

La fonction télécommande universelle de la Tablet S permet de contrôler de nombreux appareils parmi un large choix de marques (plus de 200)

La Sony Tablet S face à la concurrence

Que vaut la Sony Tablet S par rapport aux (très nombreuses) tablettes Android concurrentes ? Déjà, comme nous l'avons dit plus haut, elle se démarque par son design, qui en plus d'être atypique, se révèle agréable en termes de confort de lecture et de prise en main. Ensuite, elle propose un catalogue d'applications et de contenus multimédias supérieur. Hormis l'Amazon Kindle Fire, qui est attendue seulement aux États-Unis à la mi-novembre (et encore, ce ne sont pour l'instant que des spéculations, il faudra voir en pratique ce que cela donne), les autres tablettes ne proposent pas (pour l'instant ?) une offre ludique aussi large que Sony.

Pour le reste, ne vous attendez pas à des miracles : la Tablet S reste une tablette Android avec la même architecture technologique (processeur Nvidia Tegra 2 et 1 Go de RAM) que les concurrentes de dernière génération, donc avec les mêmes qualités et les mêmes défauts. On attend avec impatience le rendu des premières tablettes Ice Cream Sandwich pour voir l'évolution d'une génération à l'autre. À ce petit jeu, Sony pourrait pâtir de la jeunesse de sa Tablet S par rapport à d'autres constructeurs (Samsung, HTC, Motorola, Acer, Asus, etc.) qui ont une plus grande expérience.

Verdict

Globalement, nous sommes satisfaits de la Tablet S. Sony avait jugé bon de prendre son temps pour sortir sa tablette tactile, et nous lui donnons plutôt raison. Si la structure même de la Tablet S ne diffère pas des autres tablettes Android, c'est sur son design innovant et sur son offre multimédia que la Tablet S marque des points. Les fonctions DLNA et télécommande universelle font de la Sony Tablet S un bon périphérique audiovisuel, qui trouvera facilement sa place dans votre salon. Toutefois, l'arrivée tardive de Sony sur le marché pourrait également nuire à la Tablet S, qui devra bientôt se retrouver avec ses concurrentes de nouvelle génération. Il faudra voir en l'état une fois que la Tablet S aura elle aussi droit à sa mise à jour vers Ice Cream Sandwich, d'ici le printemps 2012. La bataille ne fait que commencer.

Nous avons aimé :
- le design qui se différencie vraiment de la concurrence
- la prise en mains légère et confortable
- la rapidité du navigateur web
- la surcouche graphique de Sony qui reste sobre
- l'accès au très large catalogue multimédia Sony (uniquement par abonnement)
- la fonction télécommande universelle

Nous avons regretté :
- l'écran brillant propice aux traces de doigts
- certains éléments ergonomiques mal pensés (boutons, cache périphériques auxiliaires, haut-parleurs)
- le manque de fonctionnalités dû à Android (lecteur multimédia complet, gestionnaire d'applications...)
- la qualité quelconque voire médiocre de l'appareil photo

Source : Zone-numerique.com

Link : http://www.zone-numerique.com/test_212_test_sony_tablet_s.htm

Développeurs : la Kindle Fire séduit, Windows Phone aussi

2011-11-15T13:20:00.001-08:00

En jouant sur sa double nature de liseuse et de tablette tactile, la Kindle Fire brouille les pistes et a été vue comme potentiellement capable de prendre rapidement la tête du marché des tablettes non iOS et même de l'affronter directement en lui prenant des parts de marché.

Cela reste tout de même un produit assez spécifique, avec son OS dédié, bien que reposant sur Android, et ses services Amazon que l'on ne trouvera pas ailleurs, tout en maintenant le lien avec la famille des liseuses Kindle et leur catalogue d'ebooks.

Alors que le public s'apprête à donner une réalité ( ou pas ) au succès annoncé, la commercialisation de la Kindle Fire débutant ce 14 novembre aux Etats-Unis ( un jour avant la date initialement prévue ), la sociétéAppcelerator, qui propose un environnement de développement pour applications mobiles natives et Web en HTML5, a réalisé une enquête en collaboration avec le cabinet d'études IDC auprès de 2160 développeurs dans le monde entier pour déterminer quelles plates-formes mobiles ont leur préférence.

Il apparaît que sur un choix de 15 tablettes Android, les développeurs se disenttrès intéressés par la tablette Kindle Fire pour y développer des applications. Le produit d' Amazon se place juste derrière la tablette Galaxy Tab de Samsung au plan mondial et légèrement devant elle sur le marché US.

Cet attrait est à peine inférieur à celui suscité par la tablette iPad d' Apple à l'aube de son lancement en avril 2010. Et elle possède un argument de poids, celui de son prix ( 199 dollars ), qui reste un élément essentiel au succès des tablettes Android, selon les développeurs.

Parmi les écueils possibles au succès de la Kindle Fire, les développeurs interrogés citent le problème de la fragmentation et l'absence de certaines fonctionnalités comme l' APN ou la géolocalisation.
Windows Phone reprend des couleurs, BlackBerry OS s'enfonce
Un autre point important ressort de l'enquête d' Appcelerator : la remontée de Windows Phone. Ils sont désormais 38% à la trouver très intéressante dans une perspective de développement d'applications mobiles. Microsoft réussira-t-il son pari d'en faire la troisième plate-forme principale, après Android et iOS ?

L'annonce de la famille Lumia sous Windows Phone Mango chez Nokia semble en tous les cas avoir été perçue favorablement, avec un intérêt bien plus fort que pour Symbian ou même MeeGo en leur temps.

Le grand " perdant " de cette enquête n'est autre que le fabricant canadienResearch in Motion ( RIM ) qui voit l'intérêt des développeurs pour la plate-forme BlackBerry OS chuter de 7 points, à 21%, tandis que celui pour BlackBerry Tablet OS ( QNX ) perd 6 points pour atteindre 13%. En attendant BBX début 2012 ?

Du côté des Web apps, HTML5 reste plébiscité, 66% des développeurs se disant très intéressés pa r la conception de sites mobiles en HTML5. Mais l'intérêt pour les opportunités autour des TV connectées s'est largement affadi, que ce soit pour la Google TV ou l' Apple TV.

Enfin, chez les OS préférés des développeurs, peu de changements. iOS garde la tête, avec 91% de sondés se disant très intéressés pour le développement d'applications iPhone, et 88% pour celui d'applications iPad. L'arrivée de iOS 5 n'y est sans doute pas étrangère.

Cette pression fait légèrement reculer l'intérêt pour la plate-forme Android, qui intéresse 83% des sondés côté smartphones et 68% pour les tablettes.

Source : Christian D. - Generation-nt.com

Link : http://www.generation-nt.com/idc-appcelerator-enquete-developpeurs-applications-actualite-1502161.html

pouce google android tablet pc LY901

2011-11-15T13:15:00.001-08:00

Cette Ly901 HDMI Tablet PC a le systèmе d'exploitation 2.1 android de google, adn a la caméra avec
pouce google android tablet pc LY901
1077;t il prend en charge la fonction externe de la 3 G, si vous souhaitez que la fonction 3 G, vous pouvez payer plus USD 29,pouce google android tablet pc LY901
puis il nоus ajouterons à cette tablette PC.аnd il construit le président et le soutien de MIC.it 32 Gо TF flash max de carte mémoirepouce google android tablet pc LY901
Couleur : Rouge, noir, argentpouce google android tablet pc LY901
CPU: Rockchip2818 700 Mhz OS: Google Android 2.1 RAM: 256 MB DDR2 stockage: 2 nand flashpouce google android tablet pc LY901
Affichage: 7 pouces TFT résistance-type touch écran 800 * 480pouce google android tablet pc LY901
ASUS а récemment annoncé le lancement de son édition Eee Tablet PC – un cahier numérique qui оffrе impressionnant écran tactile et apparaît соmmе un hybride de preneur de note et eBook reader.pouce google android tablet pc LY901
Caractéristiquespouce google android tablet pc LY901
ASUS Tablet PC comprend 10.1 pouces haute résolution Stylus basée 2450 dpi avec écran tactile résistif basé affichage, probablement alimentée par Tegra graphiques chipset par NVIDIA et empreints d'accélérateur 3D. Cela permet une résolution complète de 108 p de 1024 x 768 pixels, comme dans le cas des dispositifs EE Pad lancées récemment par Aѕuѕ.pouce google android tablet pc LY901
ASUS prétend quе l'affichage à l'écran tactile donne à l'utilisateur un sentiment commе si il est écrit sur papier, lui permettant de non seulement avoir un bloc-notes électronique, mais aussi un e-reader еt un lecteur multimédia.pouce google android tablet pc LY901
Configurationpouce google android tablet pc LY901
Propulsé par le processeur ARM, les EE Aѕuѕ vient avec une mémoire flash de 64 Go. Il est également équipé d'un appareil photo numérique de 2.0 méga pixels, permettant à l'utilisateur de saisir des conférences diapositive screenshots еt instantanément écrire des notes sur eux. En оutrе, interface utilisateur de l'appareil оffrе soutien de marquage, permettant à l'utilisateur de récupérer et de repérer l'information rapidement.

Source : Jual-mesin.net

Link : http://www.jual-mesin.net/pouce-google-android-tablet-pc-ly901

Livraison anticipée et production renforcée pour la tablette Kindle Fire

2011-11-15T13:11:00.001-08:00

Best-seller avant même d'arriver chez les consommateurs, la tablette Kindle Fire du distributeur en ligne Amazon a vu ses livraisons anticipées d'un jour et sa production renforcée, en dépit d'avis partagés des chroniqueurs spécialisés sur ce concurrent de l'iPad d'Apple.

Amazon a indiqué lundi qu'il avait pu avancer d'un jour, de mardi à lundi, la distribution du Kindle Fire, qui doit affronter dès cette semaine la concurrence d'un autre appareil visant un public similaire, le Nook Tablet, du libraire Barnes and Noble.

Les deux appareils, vendus 199 dollars pour le Kindle Fire, 249 pour le Nook Tablet, sont réservés au marché américain, largement dominé par l'iPad d'Apple, dont le modèle d'entrée de gamme coûte 499 dollars.

"Kindle Fire est rapidement devenu l'objet le plus vendu sur tout (le site) Amazon.com, et au vu de la réaction des consommateurs, nous en fabriquons des millions de plus que ce que nous avions prévu", a souligné, dans un communiqué, Dave Limp, le vice-président d'Amazon chargé de la ligne de produits Kindle, à l'origine de simples liseuses.

Mais, comme à son habitude, Amazon n'a fourni aucun chiffre de vente.

Le Kindle Fire, présenté en septembre en même temps que la gamme rafraîchie de liseuses en noir et blanc d'Amazon, est doté d'un écran de 7 pouces (17,8 cm), plus petit que celui de l'iPad (9,7 pouces ou 24,6 cm de diagonale). Il fonctionne avec le système d'exploitation Android de Google.

Dans le cadre des compromis décidés par Amazon pour rogner sur le prix, l'appareil est connecté uniquement aux réseaux internet sans fil (wifi), et non sur les réseaux cellulaires 3G, et il est dépourvu d'appareil photo.

Parmi les chroniqueurs spécialisés, David Pogue, au New York Times, assure que le prix bas de l'appareil "se sent à chaque glissement de doigt" sur l'écran tactile. "Si vous êtes habitué à l'iPad ou à une +vraie+ tablette sous Android, les tours joués par son logiciel vous rendront dingues".

Dans le magazine Wired, Jon Phillips a écrit que "Fire est un portail de vente diaboliquement efficace déguisé en tablette de sept pouces". Mais pour lui, "il ne fait rien très bien, à part lire des vidéos, faire fonctionner plusieurs applis Android et faciliter" les achats sur Amazon.

Plus charitable, Sam Biddle, sur le blog Gizmodo, estime qu'Apple a des raisons de craindre cette nouvelle concurrence: le Kindle Fire, très adapté selon lui à la lecture, aux vidéos et à la navigation sur le web, "n'est pas aussi puissant ou polyvalent que l'iPad, mais il coûte aussi une fraction de son prix".

C'est "une tablette vraiment géniale pour le prix", estime aussi Joshua Topolsky surTheVerge.com. "L'appareil a un design pas mal, et les logiciels, bien qu'ils manquent un peu de finition, restent excellents par rapport à à peu près tout ce qu'on trouve à ce prix".

Selon le cabinet Gartner, l'iPad restera cette année la tablette la plus vendue, avec 73% du marché, soit 63,6 millions d'unités vendues.

Pour ce qui concerne le Kindle Fire, l'analyste Justin Post, chez Bank of America Merrill Lynch, compte sur au moins 4 millions d'appareils vendus d'ici la fin de l'année, puis 16,3 millions l'an prochain et 22,1 millions en 2013.

"Le risque est que plus de Kindle Fire vendus entraînent plus de pertes à court terme" pour Amazon, ajoutait-il. Une étude du cabinet IHS iSuppli a en effet estimé à presque 210 dollars le coût de fabrication de l'appareil.

Mais l'appareil est pour Amazon une façon de pousser la vente des livres, films et musiques en ligne. Le patron fondateur du groupe Jeff Bezos a récemment indiqué qu'il avait "budgété des centaines de millions de dollars" pour l'achat de droit d'exploitation de biens numériques afin de renforcer son offre.

Source : Chris LEFKOW - AFP

Link : http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jt6r1ClzggtwrFO_t5SwhcSVzeoQ?docId=CNG.09ba7400d211e8b447e81230cc94605c.471

Samsung Tab 7.0 Plus Tablet Is Petite With Punch

2011-11-15T13:07:00.001-08:00

Lightweight, compact and speedy, Samsung's Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus is an Android 3.2 Honeycomb tablet with few minuses. Unfortunately, it costs twice as much as the Amazon Kindle Fire.

Samsung Tab 7.0 Plus Tablet Is Petite With Punch
( Page 1 of 2 )

One of the toughest challenges I thought I'd have in reviewing the Samsung Galaxy 7.0 Plus Android tablet is its availability relative to Amazon's (NASDAQ:AMZN) Kindle Fire tablet.

Fortunately, I started playing with the Plus last Friday and have left the Kindle Fire, which arrived yesterday morning, relatively untouched. I do want to compare them but not without giving the Plus proper lip service.

Honestly, the device deserves it. The Plus, with its 7-inch, WSVGA (1024 x 600) Plane-to-Line Switching (PLS) LCD weighs only 12.2 ounces and has a metallic gray enclosure. It is the Android tablet Samsung should have launched in 2010 to challenge Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPad instead of the awkward, chunky Galaxy Tab 7.

While the original 7-inch Tab only weighed 13.5 ounces, it was a full 0.5 inch thick. But that wasn't the bad part; the original 7 made application access awkward because it ran Android 2.2 Froyo, which is decidedly not fit for consuming applications on the larger tablet form factor, with a 1GHz, single-core processor.

In my tests of the WiFi-only model, applications run beautifully on the Android 3.2 Honeycomb-powered Plus, which has a great, speedy little 1.2 GHz processor. The tablet UI also benefits from Samsung's TouchWiz user interface, which is super-friendly to consumers who enjoy customizable widgets.

The Social Hub application widget, for example, elegantly lets users link their email, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts with the tablet, which renders messages and updates in one consolidated view with headshots associated with contacts' profiles.

Netflix and YouTube played well on the Plus, as did the magazine-reading application Next Issue and Samsung's Media Hub for movies and TV shows.

The Plus has some of the more useful applications I've ever seen preloaded on a Honeycomb tablet, including Google Maps with Navigation turn-by-turn GPS directions, which lets users type or speak their intended destinations into the Plus.

These include the pen memo note-taking application that lets users write notes on the tablet with their fingers and save them for later; a photo editing application for pictures you snap with the tablet; and Polaris Office, which lets users read and edit documents formatted for PCs on tablets and smartphones.

One of the bigger draws to this tablet is Peel's Smart Remote application, which lets users manage their home entertainment content and systems from the tablet.

There is also a screensaver application and a dedicated screen-capture button in the Honeycomb navigation bar, accessible via any of the five home screens.

The tablet has 1GB of RAM and is available in 16GB and 32GB options, though both are expandable to 64GB with a microSD card, providing more than enough storage.

Source: Clint Boulton - eWeek.com
Link: http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Desktops-and-Notebooks/Samsung-Tab-70-Plus-Tablet-is-Petite-With-Punch-184769/

Netflix Goes Android-First with Tablet App Redesign

2011-11-15T12:52:00.001-08:00

Thanks to the Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet, Android tablets are getting a redesigned Netflix app before Apple's iPad.

The new Netflix app displays recently watched movies and TV shows as thumbnail video stills instead of simple buttons. Categories, which previously displayed only four selections each on the home page, now appear in rows that users can scroll through. Netflix says the new interface displays twice as many movies and TV shows as before. The overall effect is an app that looks more modern than its predecessor.

Netflix's app update is available now on all Android tablets, including Amazon's Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble's Nook Tablet. An update for the iPad will be ready "in the coming weeks," Netflix said in a blog post.

For mobile apps, and especially for tablet apps, going Android-first is a rarity. The number of tablet apps in the Android Market is tiny compared with the number of iPad tablet apps, and many popular apps such as Facebook, Twitter and Pandora still haven't been optimized for Android tablets. Even Netflix's Android phone app took nine months longer to arrive than the iPhone version, although that was mainly due to DRM issues.

Although Netflix didn't explain why it's bringing the update to Android tablets first, I can make a guess: The company wants to provide a great experience on the Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet to compete with Amazon's own streaming video service, especially with so many people buying the Fire sight unseen.

If that's the case, the Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet may actually be a boon for all Android tablets, prompting developers to stay competitive by optimizing their apps for larger screens. They just needed a top-selling tablet as motivation, and now they've finally got one.

Follow Jared on Facebook, Twitter or Google+ for even more tech news and commentary.

See more like this:
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Source: Jared Newman - PCWorld.com

Link: http://www.pcworld.com/article/243888/netflix_goes_androidfirst_with_tablet_app_redesign.html

Amazon’s Android Tablet May Be the Best and Kill the Rest

2011-10-03T02:30:00.000-07:00

The Kindle Fire could be the first truly successful Android tablet. It touts a very reasonable $200 price tag, a well-curated app store, easy access to Amazon’s cloud-based services, brand trust and recognition. It’s Amazon’s most ambitious foray into hardware since the original Kindle’s debut.

And the Fire has the potential to engulf all its Android tablet brethren.

To date, Android tablet sales have mostly been lackluster. The Motorola Xoom only shipped 440,000 units in its first three months. Samsung’s 7-inch Galaxy Tab fared better, hitting the one million mark before it had been on the market for two months. But there are countless other Android tablets, and none of them are making a big splash in the iPad-dominated space. Many have taken to slashing their prices just to make a tiny grab at the tablet market.

But the Kindle Fire has the ability to change all that.

The failing point of many existing 7-inch tablets as that they thought of the iPad as their competition. But a 7-inch “tweener,” as Steve Jobs dubbed it, is an inherently different device, and Amazon, with the Kindle Fire, has embraced that difference.

The Kindle Fire is a device created for content consumption, not creation — for reading, listening to music and watching video. As such, at least to start, it’ll rely heavily on Amazon’s own apps and services.

Whether Amazon’s 7-inch tablet fires up Android development will depend on the success of the device.

“It’s a bit of a chicken and egg problem,” Gartner analyst Van Baker says. If the tablet is successful with consumers, then it will spur Android tablet development.

But it really doesn’t look like the Kindle Fire will have any problems being successful.

Forrester analyst Sarah Rotman-Epps expects “rapidfire adoption” of the tablet, which will finally give developers a reason to develop tablet apps. Elaine Coleman of Resolve Market Research shares a similar sentiment. The Kindle Fire will elevate Android app development because Amazon has already done such a standout job of establishing itself in the space with customers, and the Kindle Fire has direct access to its built-in app store.

“This will finally give mobile app developers a much stronger alternative and opportunity to develop their apps beyond the Apple App Store,” Coleman says.

What do developers think? Reviews are mixed.

“The Amazon Kindle Fire looks like an amazing product,” says Eric Setton, co-founder and CTO ofTango. As Tango is a video calling service, his product won’t be compatible until Amazon outs a tablet with a front facing camera.

Michael Novak, an Android developer with the GroupMe team, has a number of reservations.

Novak is disappointed that the Kindle Fire supports Gingerbread, rather than Honeycomb, Android’s tablet-specific build. It’s not a big issue, because Google has a compatibility library, but he still feels it’s a let down. He’s also more excited about developing for a 10-inch screen, like that of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. Unlike in iOS development, he notes that developers need to pay close attention to user experience on these different-sized screens to ensure they take advantage of all each device has to offer.

Novak is also concerned that the tablet ships with Amazon’s app store — he currently sees far fewer downloads of his app from the Amazon app store than from the Android Market (and also far fewer downloads on tablets compared to smartphones), but perhaps that will change when Amazon’s own tablet starts landing in households.

And existing Android tablets better watch out when they do.

“The Kindle Fire will definitely harm the sales of other Android tablets,” says Baker. So far, 7-inch tablet sales have not been doing well, he says, but what we’ve largely had so far is a piece of hardware without any services behind it. Manufacturers are focused on the hardware features and specs, but that’s not what consumers care about. Consumers want the full ecosystem, something Apple, and now Amazon, are able to provide.

Amazon is bringing far more to the table than its competitors, and will likely dominate the 7-inch tablet market and drive competitors’ prices down. It will also force competitors to adopt more cloud-based services, Coleman says.

The Kindle Fire should give the Android platform a major boost, while simultaneously killing off its many players.

Source: Christina Bonnington - Wired.com

Link: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/09/kindle-fire-android-competion/

Most Tegra 2 tablets will get Ice Cream Sandwich

2011-10-03T02:28:00.000-07:00

A few sources have confirmed that most Tegra 2 tablets you know will get Ice Cream Sandwich. We are still sniffing around to find out if the ICS is going to end up as Android 4.0 but it will bring phones and tablets much closer and should ship in October or November.

Many Asus, Samsung, Toshiba, Lenovo, Sony and any other Android 3.x compatible tablets on market will have a chance to get the new one. The upgrade will come as manufacturers get it ready and customized for its tablets but most tablets will ship with Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich, probably early next year at the latest.

This is good news for many who were brave to buy the first generation of tablets not based on Apple’s architecture and it will help Google to gather even more momentum for 2012. 2012 looks like a year when Google will be ready for real war against Apple, but at the same time, Android supporters fear that Windows 8 will get a lot of attention when it ships in late 2012.

If you have Motorola Xoom, Samsung 10.1 or any other, Asus Transformer/Transformer 2 or any other Android, Tegra 2 based tablet, expect to get Ice cream sandwich.

Source: Fuad Abazovic - fudzilla.com

Link: http://www.fudzilla.com/home/item/24242-most-tegra-2-tablets-will-get-ice-cream-sandwich

Will Amazon's New Tablet Beat Expectations?

2011-10-03T02:25:00.000-07:00

This Tuesday at 1 Eastern/10 Pacific, The Motley Fool's top analysts will be hosting a live blog breaking down what Apple's iPhone 5 press conference means for investors. The best part? They’ll also be taking any questions you have about the phone and Apple as an investment as well. Make sure to set a reminder to come back to Fool.com this Tuesday for all your iPhone 5 news and analysis!

On Wednesday, Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN ) unveiled its tablet, the Kindle Fire. Although there are several tablets and e-readers on the market, the Kindle Fire is attracting significant attention from consumers and investors alike with its $199 price tag.

Here's a peek at what our investor-intelligence community at The Motley Fool has to say about the Kindle Fire.

Bullish on Amazon.com

Motley Fool Stock Advisor member Mwlove, posting on a Stock Advisor discussion board:
Amazon has found a lucrative niche with these new Kindles, and they offer a variety of price points for people to enter the tablet market. The way that both Amazon and Apple (Nasdaq:AAPL ) are integrating hardware with cloud-based media services is going to put a lot of pressure on both Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX ) and Google (Nasdaq: GOOG ) . Having both hardware and content provides a synergy for Apple and Amazon that others can't match. Apple will keep the high-end market of those who want the cool factor; Amazon will appeal to a completely different market, and can subsidize the hardware to drive sales in other areas. The market is large enough for both Amazon and Apple to be successful. But Amazon's moves make it much more likely that Google buys Netflix.

Community member dlchase24, commenting on an article:
I think Amazon realizes that hardware isn't what will rule the tablet market. It is a media consumption device that helps sell their content. It works the same way for Apple; the iPad is really intended to sell their content, and that's likely why other competitors have failed. While some may argue over screen size or lack of HDMI, they should also consider this is a first generation device. A 10-inch option could be in the works. An HDMI option could be in the works, although there are streamers and such already out there for getting Amazon content in your living room. While everyone is happy to point out what new products don't have (even with Apple's products), I think you have to at least be intrigued with this as a first step for Amazon.

CAPS member Yooperking, writing a Motley Fool CAPS pitch:
Amazon's Kindle Fire will rule the day and its all-time high of $244 will soon be a support price instead of a ceiling.

Community member EGTalbot, commenting on an article:
This is not the iPad killer; it's the [Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS ) ] Nook Color killer and the [Research In Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM ) ] killer (not that RIM isn't also suffering from self-inflicted wounds). The key question is whether it will sell, not whether we can find legitimate things to complain about. Given that Barnes & Noble took a less tech-savvy and much smaller customer base and sold 3 million units the first year with a similar tablet that was more expensive, I could easily see Amazon selling 15 [million to] 20 million units in a year. Given that most of the profit will come from content, it's hard to predict exactly how much that increases earnings, but it's a decent upside.

Bearish on Amazon.com

Community member LWILLS, commenting on an article:
My biggest problem is with the size. Younger generations will simply make do with their phone and older generations will find it too small to be very useful. What it could possibly do is bring in new tablet users who have stayed out of the iPad market [because of] price. Once they "get" the usefulness of a tablet but become frustrated [with] the Fire's limitations, they may be more willing to pony up the dough to buy an iPad. My [65-year-old] aunt, an avowed anti-Apple person, recently purchased a Galaxy Tablet for her birthday. After using it a few days and not being able to do what she wanted on it (limited apps), she returned it and purchased an iPad2. And believe me, she is pretty stubborn. So for her to change her mind really caught my attention.

Community member ScottmFool, commenting on an article:
OK, their customization of Android [had] better be off-the-charts awesome, because based on a comparison with the Nook Color, they're virtually identical except the Fire has a (slightly) smaller screen and no microSD slot. The Fire does beat the Nook on price by $50, but how long do you think it'll take [Barnes & Noble] to lower the price? So, unless that Android customization is awesome, this thing isn't even better than a Nook. My initial impression is that this is media hype. I'll wait for the Nook to drop in price [and] then buy that.

CAPS member EnigmaDude, writing a CAPS pitch:
Wish I had bought some back when it was trading for $50 and everyone was convinced they were overpriced. Now that they have come out with a new tablet, the stock really is overpriced [because of] sky-high expectations.

Source: Motley Fool Staff - Fool.com

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2011/10/02/will-amazons-new-tablet-beat-expectations.aspx

Link:

Will Ice Cream Sandwich take a bite off Apple?

2011-10-03T02:23:00.000-07:00

The lavish customisation that Android offers – with cheap hardware and unchecked fragmentation - is the greatest obstacle in building a more cohesive user experience.

A look at why Google needs to get the upcoming platform right.

Henry Ford once said that his customers could have their Ford Model T's in any colour they wanted as long as it was black. Crimping the colour option enabled Ford, the pioneer of mass manufacturing and assembly lines, to crank out then unheard of automobile volumes to cater to the masses.

Apple wears the Henry Ford crown a lot better than most modern day automobile manufacturers do. Customers are free to choose any colour for their iPad or iPhone as long as its black or white. The touch-screen device of their choice sports a screen size of either 9.7 inches or 3.5 inches and one of two processors with similar architecture. The operating system they get to interact with is the iOS, which is designed to run on the company's hardware specs. Basically, it's a highly tailored marriage of hardware and software, a homogeneous product line with few options for consumers - not that many seem to be complaining. Having sold over 120 million iPhones and 30 million iPads, Apple has been laughing all the way to the proverbial bank. Apart from the moolah, the humongous user base has also given Apple the traction needed to build a huge arsenal of applications for consumers to get addicted to.

THE WAY IT WORKS

Apple profits from its hardware and subsequent App Store sales in three ways. First, they earn a massive 30 per cent cut on all products sold through the App Store. This is much to chagrin of sellers like Amazon and the publishing and magazine industry for whom 30 per cent is a sizeable chunk of change. This brings us to the second advantage. Apple, through observing consumer behaviour on the App Store and the iBook store, learns your preferences and spending patterns. This lets them customise and target you with ads or products they think, rather know, you might be interested in. Till date, they've refused to share this knowledge.

The third and most crucial point - as the number of people logging in to the App store increases, more developers are attracted to the idea of hawking their stuff on that platform. Apple makes it easy for developers to create software for the iOS platform - after all, there are only two hardware specs to consider while customising an app. Contrast this with Google's approach to its mobile operating system, Android. The platform is currently the only worthy opponent to Apple's juggernaut. However, Google's approach is in stark contrast to Apple.

GOOGLE STILL ‘SEARCHING'

Google's three year old operating system has met with tremendous amount of success. Google licenses its OS to several hardware manufacturers such as Samsung, HTC, Motorola and several Japanese, Chinese and small, regional manufacturers, for free. The freedom of letting people choose from an array of smartphones - offered by different OEMs and running on different version of the Android platform - has let the Android OS ecosystem dominate 56 per cent of smartphones in the US market.

So, how does Google capitalise on this success? Google's bread and butter comes from the advertisement revenue generated from its search engine. By monitoring key-words and patterns through Google Search, the company gets better at targeted advertising. Google hopes that increased Android usage will translate into more Google searches which would then lead to higher advertising revenues. Android sales have, however, not translated into the kind of success that Apple has enjoyed with its App Store or iTunes.

Rather ironically, the trick that makes Android tick also makes it difficult for the company to tackle competition. The lavish customisation that Android offers – with cheap hardware and unchecked fragmentation - is the greatest obstacle in building a more cohesive user experience.

Developers have a much harder time developing content for Android with its various screen sizes, processors and oft derided user interface skins (a lambasted effort by manufacturers to distinguish their product), than they do with Apple iOS.

For example, what probably has been the most popular gaming app under the sun– Angry Birds – was earlier not optimised for the various devices running Android OS. So, Rovio, the makers of the app, were bound to release a less intensive app to run on lower-end Android smartphones. Google's attempt at the tablet-optimised 'Honeycomb' – running on the likes of Motorola Xoom and Samsung Galaxy Tab 750 - has also been received feebly due to its glitchy interface. Honeycomb has failed to generate enough enthusiasm among developers to design exclusively for the platform.

Having been witness to all these factors, it's easy to see why tech addicts are looking closely at Google's upcoming OS release ‘Ice Cream Sandwich'. The company is looking to bring together the successful elements of Android Gingerbread and Honeycomb into a common OS for tablets and smartphones, a la Apple's IOS.

With a much simpler mechanism to devise applications, Google hopes developers will flock to the platform. Ice Cream Sandwich's reception could potentially make or break Google's attempt at cracking the tablet market (a foray complicated by Amazon's Kindle Fire at whose core lies a modified version of Android).

PRESSURE TIME

Simply put, Google needs to make the tablet foray work while at the same time ensure that the momentum that Android manufacturers, such as Samsung and HTC enjoy, is not dissipated by the upcoming iPhone 5 (iOS5) release. It needs to do this while persuading the very same manufacturers that the Motorola acquisition will not make the rest second best in receiving the latest Android releases.

Building a critical user mass is crucial to building a competitive eco-system and bringing news, media and entertainment organisations to offer a broader range of content and media on the platform. Until this happens, Google and its Android are likely to remain one-trick ponies. Thank God for the fact that this pony kicks like a mule!

adarsh@thehindu.co.in

Source: ADARSH GOPALAKRISHNAN - Thehindubusinessline.com

Link:

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/features/eworld/article2503281.ece?ref=wl_industry-and-economy

Acer Iconia Tab A501 Review

2011-10-03T02:17:00.000-07:00

In March 2011, Motorola Xoom was the only tablet running on Google’s latest version of Android, Honeycomb. Not long after that Acer came up with the shiny and super glossy Iconia A500, followed by the launch of ASUS Eee Pad Transformer.
Of course, Samsung was yet to release their second round of Galaxy Tabs and Xoom, at almost Rs 40,000 a pop, was out of everybody’s reach. Even out of the reach of most of early adopters. This paved a perfect opportunity for Acer to popularise the much cheaper Iconia A500, only-WiFi version. It was a few weeks ago, in September, that Acer decided to up the ante by launching the 3G version – Iconia A501.Priced at Rs 32,990, the 3G version is about Rs 6,000 costlier than its WiFi-only counterpart that costs Rs 26,660 on Flipkart. How does Acer’s Honeycomb tablet fare against the rest of the ilk? Is the extra cost for 3G actually worth is, or are you better off with just the WiFi version. Read on to see what we discovered when we took the A501 for a spin.

Hardware Impressions

A first look at the Iconia Tab and we fell in love with that gorgeous touchscreen, with small and shiny black bezel. The tablet is worth every single penny when it comes to its looks. The tablet is 260mm in length, 177mm wide and just 13.3mm thick. The front of the tablet has a LCD capacitive screen with 1280x800 resolution, bordered by about half an inch of shiny black bezel.

If you hold the tablet vertically, then at the top you should find a tiny webcam (undisclosed resolution) that’s very useful for video chats – on Instant Messengers. Video calling via 3G is not supported.

The Iconia Tab is housed in a beautiful aluminium chassis that gives it a classy look without being branded as aiPad clone. The back has the tablet’s ho-hum 5 megapixel camera with a single LED flash in the upper right hand corner and a pair of silver stereo speakers along the bottom edge.

We'll be frank here -- Speakers have been an afterthought on most every tablet we've seen, and they usually range the gamut from "you'll want headphones" to "what are you doing to my ears?" That's not quite the case here. Acer's tiny speakers -- augmented by some Dolby Mobile wizardry -- sound good enough to share. They're still pretty tinny, mind you, and lack any meaningful amount of bass, but the sound field they produce was rich and full enough to accompany movies and games, and sounded good whether the tablet was held in our outstretched hands or lying flat against a hard surface.

The left side of the tablet has the power button, the standard 3.5mm jack and, towards the other edge, a mini HDMI port.

The power button is a bit flushed with the side and is easy not to feel it if you try to press it without looking at it. However, with a bit of practice and getting used to, it was pretty easy to power on the tablet’s screen in a matter of seconds. The translucent button also doubles up as a charging light. It lights up every time the tablet is put on charge.

We're slightly miffed that Acer couldn't cram a full-size HDMI socket in the copious space here, or at least include a mini-HDMI cable in the box. Regardless, the video connection works fairly well, performing full, responsive display mirroring at 720p resolution, albeit suffering from a bit of overscan. (Acer says 1080p video-out will be supported in a Q2 update.)

At the top, there is a volume rocker. While everybody knows what a volume rocker does, this one is an intelligent one that decides which key should increase/decrease the volume depending upon the orientation of the tablet. For example, in the landscape mode, the right side of the rocker increases the volume. However, the same side decreases the volume if the tablet is in portrait mode, because that is the natural way to reducing the volume in that orientation.

Unlike most of its competitors, the Iconia tab has aa hardware orientation lock at the top, that saves you the hassle of digging into the software for the requisite menu option.
Sadly, of these buttons are made of cheap plastic and are stuck into the aluminium frame. While the volume rocker can still be easily used with enough practice, the orientation lock key is very hard to feel in the dark and shall need to be used carefully.

There is a plastic flap beside the orientation lock button that houses the MicroSD card and SIM card slots. The MicroSD cards work out of the box.

On the right side, there is the power jack, a reset button and two USB slots. One is a micro-USB slot that can be used to data transfer and charging the device. The other is a full fledge USB port that can be used to transfer data to and from external USB storage media. Unfortunately, the tablet has no provision of utilising the USB port for a USB keyboard/mouse, or even the USB modems.

The bottom of the tablet has a docking connector for the optional charging dock with infrared remote.

At 777 grams, the tablet is not too heavy. However, since it’s a 10.1” tablet, the centre of gravity is further from the wrist, thus making it feel weighty and long reading very uncomfortable. Nonetheless, while the size of the screen is an important decision to make, every 10-incher should be uncomfortable to use for a long time with just one hand. Yes, that includes the iPad 2 too.

Specifications

Processor / Chipset / Performance

Acer has been quite generous in the performance department by providing a 1GHz Tegra 2 processor, with 1GB of DDR2 RAM. Sure enough, the tablet did not disappoint at all. We had constantly tested the Iconia Tab A501 for a week, and the tablet did not hang or get stuck up anywhere for even once. All the special effects and transitions have been smooth as butter.

The A501 played 720p video like a charm (though not 1080p) and did well in Android 3.0's handful of graphically intensive games, but on rare occasions we noticed some graphical corruption when playing certain videos in RockPlayer.

Touchscreen Display

The TFT LCD Display of 1028x800 resolution has a mirror-like finish. While that does make the tablet looks very stylish, the display also becomes a fingerprint magnet and there is a lot of glare in the screen if its kept under direct light.

Nonetheless, the videos on the display are very crisp. It has a very high viewing angle and gets washed out marginally when viewed from very oblique angles. The clear texts make reading on the Icnonia a pleasure.

Keyboard/Typing

The keyboard is the default one shipped with Honeycomb. The keys are spaced out comfortably, and are pretty large to type. However, as with any other 10-inch tablet, they are a little too big to manage. It is during these times that one is reminded of the thoughtful split keyboard designed by Microsoft for their new Windows 8 tablets. Anyway, if you wish to type with just your thumbs, then you are advised to rotate the tablet in portrait mode. That sure makes life a lot easier. In addition, there is also a XT9 keyboard provided by Acer. Of course, if you are comfortable with neither, you can always download another keyboard from the Android Market.

Battery Life
The battery life is one aspect where no Android device could ever impress the author. And the situation is even worse in the case of Iconia Tab A501. While other Honeycomb tablets like Motorola Xoom and Samsung Galaxy Tab 750 easily last for over 8 hours, the Iconia Tab struggled to survive for over 6.5 hours, thanks to the 3260 mAh battery. It’s a shame that with all the horsepower provided with this stunning the tablet, they couldn’t provide a fatter battery in their effort to keep the tablet’s guts slim.

Audio
As already mentioned above, the Iconia Tab’s audio is hardly praiseworthy. It is actually tinny, at its best. The only silver lining is that the sound is much louder than many other tablets in the market, and definitely better than that of the iPad 2.

Voice Activated Search
I am very excited at the way Google’s developing its speech recognition software. I remember getting blown away by the first Speech recognition demo given by Google at the launch of Nexus One. Sadly, all my excitement was blown to bits when the speech recognition software had gone for a toss during my tests. I realized, like any other speech recognition software, I needed to be an American or a European to be able to make efficient use of them.

I am proud to announce that the voice activated commands provided with Honeycomb is much more efficient and I managed to achieve a success rate of about 90% on it. I admit that I have a neutral accent. But then again, it was me who had tried out the software 2 years ago and was miserably disappointed.

I am hopeful that in another 2-3 iterations of the speech recognition software that ships with Android, it shall be more useful than the keyboard in cases where I shall need to speak just 3-4 words at a time.

Android 3.0 Honeycomb

The Honeycomb homepage actually offers up a great deal of functionality - it isn’t just a collection of your apps. The top left-hand corner offers a Google search area, comprising both text and Voice Search. The text search is a straight Google search returning the results you’d expect. If you’ve not experienced Voice Search before it is worth playing around with.

Move over to the top right-hand corner and it is here that you’ll find the apps menu and the customise “plus” icon we’ve already mentioned. The apps menu simply opens up the full-page menu which scrolls left to right. Again, you can see you have something over the page by an outline of the app icon, which is pretty smart.

The bottom System Bar on Honeycomb swings in and offers some of the (usually) persistent top notification bar you’ll be familiar with in Android on your mobile phone. On the left-hand side it offers three major navigation icons: back, home and recent apps, which pops-up so you can easily switch to something else. These three icons exist in most Honeycomb windows and are always in the same place so you pretty much know what you are doing all the time.

The control icons in the bottom left-hand corner will change - for example when you tap the recent apps icon, the back button turns into a down arrow to close that menu. You’ll also get a menu icon appear in relevant apps, which opens the regular app menu for your Android application. It’s here that things are a little inconsistent as native apps (Chrome browser, Gmail, Google Talk, Music, Books, Android Market, YouTube, Calendar, Contacts, Google Maps, Movie Studio), which have all been written for Honeycomb, feature a menu button in the top right-hand corner when open on the Action Bar. As a result, existing apps and new native apps are controlled slightly differently. It isn’t a huge deal once you know about it, but it would be nice to see a degree of uniformity for something as simple as menus.

The bottom right-hand corner of the System Bar is all about information. It is here you’ll find the time, the connection status, battery life and notifications. Honeycomb is lightyears ahead of iOS when it comes to notifications. Notifications will appear as icons in the bottom right-hand corner, so will inform you of emails, tweets, app updates and so on. These can be tapped to pop them up and deleted individually, or again tapped on to open up the relevant app.

It’s a sensible approach to notifications, meaning you can be getting on with whatever it is you do and deal with those over events as and when you like - be that an IM chat over Skype, checking your new emails or a reminder from your calendar. It is similar to the existing Android notification system, but given the extra space, there is more information which is exactly what you want from a tablet.

The Honeycomb browser is well designed. It packs in a lot of functionality familiar to those who’ve used Google’s Chrome browser, with a little twist for especially for the space conscious tablet user. First and foremost, it will offer up a regular browser window very much like chrome in appearance, with tabs across the top of the page so you can very easily switch between different browser windows. Beneath this is a very standard set of controls (back, forward, refresh) and your address bar, which also doubles as search. You get the option for Voice Search again and finally you have a bookmarks icon.

Like Chrome for your PC, you can opt to have the start page of the browser open on your most visited websites and you have the option to open an Incognito window which will let you research nefarious content without that activity finding its way into your most visited sites or search history.

It is incredibly fast to load pages and because this is Android, it will also offer up Flash content once you’ve downloaded the update from the Android Market. At the time of writing Flash Player 10.2 is classed as a beta build for Android 3.0.1, and we found it to be mostly stable, but not entirely adept at controlling the Flash content it was dealing with.

We love Honeycomb and there are so many things about it that feel right and it is useable at the moment, but it isn’t the polished experience that iPad owners get, and Android users expect. Yes, the iPad is a year older, the OS is more established, but Apple would never put a product on sale that failed as often as the Honeycomb tablet we’ve been using.

Source: Shayon Pal - Hindustantimes.com
Link: http://www.hindustantimes.com/Acer-Iconia-Tab-A501-Review/Article1-752983.aspx

Test des tablettes Carrefour Touch Tablet CT704 et CT1002

2011-08-22T14:17:00.000-07:00

Test des tablettes Carrefour Touch Tablet CT704 et CT1002

Après plusieurs jours d’essai, d’utilisation, et de bidouilles, voici le test complet et des solutions pour rendre encore plus performantes ces tablettes tactiles plutôt abordables distribuées par les magasins Carrefour. Enjoy !

Tout d’abord une petite correction : depuis les premiers éléments envoyés par Carrefour, la tablette 7″ CT704 n’est plus proposée à 149€ mais bien à 129€. Latablette 10″ CT1002 reste à 199€.

Ensuite un petit avertissement : nous parlerons dans ce billet de bidouilles qui modifient en partie la tablette (de manière logicielle). Même si cela n’est pas très compliqué, cela est tout de même réservé aux utilisateurs avertis. Ni Tablette-Tactile.net, ni ses rédacteurs et administrateurs, ni même la société Carrefour ne pourraient être tenus responsables d’un dysfonctionnement total ou partiel de votre tablette tactile après une manipulation de ce genre. Si vous ne savez pas ce que vous faites, passez votre chemin, ou demandez-nous sur le forum

Épisodes précédents

Vidéo de test détaillé et avis sur les tablettes Carrefour

Avis de la rédaction et des lecteurs

Ces deux tablettes étant selon nous assez proches, nous en donneront un avis global :

Il s’agit donc de deux tablettes très abordables avec un excellent hardware pour leur prix, qui permettront de faire découvrir les joies du tactile et des tablettes au plus grand nombre. Malheureusement, le software n’est pas le plus à jour et aucune mise à jour majeure n’est prévue pour le moment (Android 2.3 en novembre 2011, mais pas d’HoneyComb à l’horizon). Le choix de l’absence de l’Android Market est étonnant pour ces tablettes car l’on voit qu’il est effectivement installable et fonctionne plutôt bien (dans une version un peu ancienne néanmoins). La présence d’un vrai market officiel serait un vrai plus, surtout que ces tablettes font tourner une version d’Android pour laquelle sont disponibles des milliers d’applications (contrairement aux tablettes nouvelle génération tournant sous Android HoneyComb).

L’absence des applications GMail, Google Agenda et autres outils de la suite Google est tout aussi dommageable, et comme les “bidouilles”, quoi qu’accessibles font peur à bon nombre de néophytes, il est probable qu’une partie des acheteurs seront déçus par ces tablettes, alors qu’elles pourraient tout à fait faire beaucoup mieux, sans coût majeur réel de la part de Carrefour.

Peut-être que la copie sera revue et corrigée pour prendre en compte ces remarques. Il n’empêche que pour le prix, au vu de la fluidité et des possibilités des ces tablettes, cela peut être un bon choix, surtout si vous n’avez pas peur de bidouiller un peu, ou à celles et ceux qui se limiteront à un usage très simple, à savoir web, musique, vidéos, lecture de e-books ou de BD, etc.

http://www.tablette-tactile.net/test/test-et-avis-sur-les-tablettes-carrefour-touch-tablet-ct704-et-ct1002-16927/

Source: tablette-tactille.net - Cédric
Link:

Scala as a Java Replacement on Android

2011-08-22T13:51:00.000-07:00

Mike Burns (thoughtbot)

11:35am Monday, 10/10/2011

Platform Development Grand Ballroom A

Android is not limited to just Java and C++. Anything that compiles to the JVM is fair game, opening up the possibilities to modern rapid development languages. Scala is one such language, combining various concepts from Ruby, Java, and Haskell, compiling down to high-performing Java. In this talk we present the Scala programming language, show how it integrates with the Android SDK, explore debugging, and discuss limitations and existing bugs.

Scala has a vibrant and social community pushed by both academic research and high-performance work. Interesting concepts such as monads, nullables, lenses, traits, and non-strict evaluation can be explored in an efficient framework that compiles down to normal Java. All of these modern developments can be used in Android, and demonstrate that in this talk.

http://androidopen.com/android2011/public/schedule/detail/20978

Link:

Source: Mike Burns by Open Android

Google tablets seen overtaking iPad in 5 years

2011-08-22T13:48:00.000-07:00

(Reuters) - Tablet computers running Google's Android software will catch up with Apple's iPad and surpass it in 2016, research firm Informa said.

Informa said it expects Apple's current 75 percent market share to fall to 39 percent in 2015, when Android market share will grow to 38 percent.

"From 2013, as cheaper and more advanced Android tablets enter the market, we forecast that sales will pick up considerably, eventually surpassing iPad sales in 2016," analyst David McQueen said in a statement on Wednesday.

Samsung Electronics Galaxy Tab has been the best-selling Android tablet so far, but also other vendors including Motorola Mobility (MMI.N) use it on their devices.

"We have seen a huge explosion in the tablet market in recent years, driven primarily by the iPad, and we estimate that the market will go from strength to strength, growing from under 20 million tablets sold in 2010, to over 230 million in 2015," McQueen said.

Source: Reuters.com - Andrew Callus

Link: http://in.reuters.com/article/2011/07/30/idINIndia-58479520110730

Are Google Android SmartPhones and Tablets Too Disposable?

2011-07-28T11:40:00.000-07:00

No one likes the idea that $500 tablet or smartphone they just purchased will be obsolete in just under a year’s time. Still, I’m starting to detect a trend in the Google Android device world. Unlike their Apple counterparts, it looks like Android devices are seemingly disposable and become outdated pretty darn quickly. Does that mean Android devices — and more frequent hardware purchases — will cost businesses more than Apple device refreshes over the long haul? Here are some thoughts.

Let’s start by looking at the Apple market. Currently, the iPhone 3GS — a phone that is well past its prime at over 2 years old — is still alive and kicking, selling well and serving up the latest and greatest apps from the App Store. The iPhone 3GS runs iOS 4, and it’s even slated for the iOS 5 upgrade. In theory, that adds at least another year to its lifespan.

Now, let’s shift to some Android market history.

Is Verizon still selling the original Droid? No.
Is there talk of continued support from Motorola for the device? No, not really…

Google and parts manufactures are churning out new versions of Android and mobile CPUs as fast as they can, so yesterday’s Android devices are getting left behind.

That doesn’t mean your old Android smartphones and tablets are useless. But as many hardcore Android users have found, getting the latest updates and stable versions of Android is a task that’s better left up to the 3rd party developers. I have a friend with an aging HTC Aria that has received zero updates from AT&T, and another who saw his HTC Incredible slowly but surely fade away without software updates until he purchased an HTC Thunderbolt.

The Big Difference

Why is there such a difference between long-term Apple iOS and Android device support?

I believe it’s because Apple has tight control over the OS and hardware, allowing Apple to envision a product lineup and see where older products fit into the future, and tweak software to play better with older devices. Even though Apple is notorious for leaving the past in the past, there’s still a threshold of longevity. When you buy an iPhone or iPad, you can rest assured that even if a newer device comes out, it’s more than likely your old device will support the new software, be it apps or operating systems.

There are no such guarantees in the Android world, since developers for Android need to calculate where best to put resources right here, right now. Often the latest whiz-bang apps that will wow customers will also only run on the latest mobile CPU. With a variety of SDK tools for developers to use, there’s also no guarantee that “Awesome New App” will run on your Galaxy Tab in 2012, or even be built with it in mind.

Meanwhile, take a look at the impressive 3D graphics coming from Epic’s Infinity Blade,which still runs on the 3GS. That’s not to say developers won’t built regular apps that run on all Android devices, but as the OS and hardware grows, fragments and accelerates, it’s going to be harder for Android devs to keep up with cross-platform Android support, since there’s no general standardization for hardware.

Thus: Android devices are disposable in the sense that a purchase is not exactly a long-term investment. This may seem like a simplistic argument, so I welcome dissent and discussion in the comments below. But if you’re off to buy a tablet, think about what you want that tablet to do and how well it will perform that function in the future. Will you go Android or iOS?

Source: Dave Courbanou - Thevarguy.com

Link: http://www.thevarguy.com/2011/07/28/are-google-android-smartphones-and-tablets-too-disposable/

Google delays Android 3.1 until August. Halts Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and 8.9 shipments till then

2011-06-04T05:57:00.000-07:00

Bad news for Android fans waiting to get the latest Honeycomb tablet running 3.1 version of OS. Android 3.1 has problems and Google decided to delay it’s launch until August “for most countries”.

And it gets worse. The tablets that were supposed to ship with Android 3.1 – Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and 8.9 – have been delayed until then too.

For now it’s still a rumor. But it comes from a pretty reliable source – Mobile-Review.com’s Eldar Murtazin – who usually gets things right, especially this close to the device launch. So I’m pretty sure we won’t be seeing Android 3.1 tablets here in Europe until August.

Poor Samsung. With Galaxy line they have been a key part of the Android success story from the second half of 2010. They made the first “official” Android tablet, they even partnered with big G to make the second official Google Phone – Nexus S, they gave 5000 Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablets away at Google I/O event. They have jumped through every hoop Google asked them to and shipped more Android devices then anyone else. Heck – they are kicking iPhone’s arse with Android flagship in some major markets.

And then they get screwed by Google on a major product launch in big way. For the second time in less then a year!

Google first screwed Samsung with the launch Galaxy S smartphone last June. At the time the search giant was very worried that it’s major Android partners were replacing Google’s location technology with the solution provided by a small location service provider called Skyhook. Google first learned about it in April, when Motorola decided to ship it’s next Droid with Skyhook solution. Google then refused to certify Motorola’s Droid 2 as Android compatible device until Motorola removed Skyhook’s location technology. Motorola complied, delaying it’s Droid 2 launch and then shipping it with Google’s location solution which they perceived to be inferior to Skyhook’s. Only to learn that Google allowed Samsung to start shipping it’s Galaxy S handset with the same Skyhook technology that Google now said is not Android compatible.

When Motorola complained, Google ordered Samsung to halt all the shipments of Galaxy S with Skyhook’s tech. Even with tens of thousand’s of Galaxies already sold or on the way to carrier customers. And Samsung had no other choice but to comply, stop all Galaxy S shipments and hastily replace Skyhook with Google’s location provider. Remember all the GPS/location problems Galaxy S had last summer? Yep – most likely it was about that.

Here we go again. With the pre-order options and promised mid-June shipping dates popping up around the world, I’d say thousands of Samsung Galaxy Tabs are en route to the carriers and distributors. And now they will have to sit in the warehouses for a couple of months, until Google fixes whatever last minute bug they found in Android 3.1.

In the meantime, potential customers will keep snapping HTC Flyers, Motorola Xooms and Asus transformers with even buggier Android 3.0 OS.

I don’t think Samsung is happy today.

Source: satska - Unwiredview.com

Link: http://www.unwiredview.com/2011/06/03/google-delays-android-3-1-untill-august-halts-samsung-galaxy-tab-10-1-and-8-9-shipments-till-then/

Google IO: New Nexus Device on the Way!

2011-05-11T07:03:00.000-07:00

In the Q&A Session of Google IO, Andy Rubin has confirmed the release of another addition to the Nexus line of devices. No specifics have been given as yet, but there was somespeculation a few weeks ago that a Nexus tablet could be in the works. The anticipated launch, it’s said, is likely to be Q4 of this year, which is also the expected release for Ice Cream Sandwich, the newest version of Android. Ice Cream Sandwich will combine elements of Honeycomb and Gingerbread to create a singular OS for all future Androiddevices.

Rubin did not say whether the device would be a phone or tablet, but it’s good to know the line isn’t dead. Given information that quad core NVIDIA chips are supposed to find their way into devices before the end of the year, though, speculation has arisen that this device could be of that ilk. As Google does like to lead the way on these things, it would not at all be surprising to see a Nexus device being the first to run the Kal-el chip we saw back at MWC. Of course, this could just be another dual core phone, which would not make us unhappy either. And a new dual core phone running Ice Cream Sandwich? That sounds like a bowl full of yummy to me!

Source: James Cushing - www.thegadgets.net

Link: http://thegadgets.net/2011/05/11/google-io-new-nexus-device-on-the-way/

Google Confirms New Nexus Device Is Coming

2011-05-11T07:01:00.000-07:00

Google’s Andy Rubin has confirmed that a new Nexus device will be announced at some point in the future with speculation pointing toward a launch alongside the freshly announced Android 3.4 Ice Cream Sandwich which will be the first version of Android that combines elements of the smartphone OS with Google’s tablet OS.

Rubin didn’t explicitly say whether or not the device would be a phone or a tablet (remember, we heard about an LG branded Nexus tablet a little awhile back) but it’s reassuring to know that Google is planning yet another device with the Nexus branding.

While he didn’t offer any specifics, Android and Me is speculating that it could be a LG-made phone that will be powered by a Tegra 3 Kal-El processor. We know that Tegra 3 powered phones are on the way, possibly as soon as this year, so there is a distinct possibility that a Nexus 3 could be one of the first phones with NVIDIA’s new processor.

Of course, there’s also a possibility that it could be a dual-core Nexus handset which would also be a very attractive option for those that love Android.

So, a new, powerful Nexus device that will likely debut in Q4 with Android 3.4 Ice Cream Sandwich and a powerful processor. Who’s holding out for it?

Source: Adam Mills - www.gottabemobile.com

Link: http://www.gottabemobile.com/2011/05/10/google-confirms-new-nexus-device-is-coming/

Nexus T Toshiba Tablet Next Official Google Release?

2011-05-10T09:46:00.000-07:00

Let’s talk about this situation and see if we can’t piece together a few factoids. First, waaay back at the beginning of this year, a mystery tablet started showing up – one made by Toshiba, having a 10.1-inch screen, and sporting what would become Android 3.0 Honeycomb (testers floating around had Froyo, of course.) Have a look at our big reveal post and continue on – does that look like a tablet that Google would officially endorse as the next step in their flagship series? That very much appears to be what may be happening now!

Our good pals at Metalev have a few clues gathered up that point directly at this device being the next in the Nexus series – Nexus T they’re calling it, and with its NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor, prismatic lithium-ion battery, and 1280 x 800 resolution 16:10 aspect ratio adaptive display, its definitely not out of the question.

What’s a prismatic battery? It’s a big fat battery that has 3 times the life of a standard lithium ion batter in essentially the same package. Besides sounding fantastic, why is this relevant now? Because @googlenexus has a challenge going on with their Twitter followers and the answer to the puzzle on the 2nd of May was PRISMATIC. – this puzzle put together by metalev’s Luke Hutchinson

@googlenexus’ challenge ends right before Google I/O – perhaps some free tablets are in the works for the masses of developers attending?

This tablet has been up for preview at Best Buy for some time now, but without a name and without much branding to go with it. Have a look at the video here and see if you think it’s possible that this is the next in line for Google’s infamous pack of powerful bigtime blasters:

Source: CHRIS BURNS - ANDROIDCOMMUNITY.COM

Link: http://androidcommunity.com/nexus-t-toshiba-tablet-next-official-google-release-20110504/

Google Nexus Honeycomb Tablet On Tap from LG

2011-03-29T04:52:00.000-07:00

Google may sell a Nexus-branded Android 3.0 "Honeycomb" tablet made by LG this year. No word on whether this is a test device or a go-to-market slate.

Google has reportedly tapped phone maker LG to build an Android 3.0 "Honeycomb" for the search engine's Nexus brand, which has been accorded to two smartphone lines to date.

Citing a report from Russian blog Mobile Review, Boy Genius Report said the Nexus tablet would be used as Google's base for development when it's launched in mid-summer or early fall.

"It is important to keep in mind that this device could be an engineering prototype used by Google internally for Android tablet development," BGR noted.

Google declined to comment to eWEEK, though most industry watchers believe a Honeycomb tablet designed by Google will hold true to the Nexus formula in including only Google-approved software. Nexus-branded smartphones such as the HTC-built Nexus One and Samsung Nexus S were co-designed sans carrier between Google and their respective makers.

Knowing that the alleged Nexus tablet would run Honeycomb explains a lot about the product since that tablet-optimized defines the entire Android slate ecosystem at this point. Honeycomb slates include Motorola Mobility's Xoom, the forthcomingSamsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and 8.9 slates, and of course the LG G-Slate.

Less clear is whether the device is WiFi only or, WiFi plus 3G enabled, and if it is the latter, what carriers will sell the Honeycomb tablet. Moreover, it's unclear what the pricing will be if the machine evolves from prototype to market.

The WiFi-only Xoom costs $599, the same as the 4G version Verizon Wireless sells with a two-year data contract. The LG G-slate will cost $529 with a two-year deal from T-Mobile. Samsung will sell its tablets for less than $500 this June.

If Google's Nexus smartphone pricing scheme applies to the tablet, the company will sell it unlocked for the cost of the device, or with a reasonably priced carrier deal.

Google launched the Nexus One smartphone in January 2010, selling the Android 2.1 handset unlocked for $529 or with a two-year contract from T-Mobile for $179.

The device, sold only through a Google owned and operated Webstore, carried only software vetted by Google itself. With the Nexus One, Google had taken the carriers our of the equation so that Gmail, Google Talk, Google Maps, search and YouTube were included without the usual assortment of carrier applications, also known as bloatware.

The Nexus One didn't take off the way Google hoped, as consumers shied away from buying a phone sight unseen. Google shuttered its Webstore and began offering the Nexus One as a test unit.

Rather than punt the Nexus line, Google returned last December with the Samsung Nexus S, a smartphone based on the new Android 2.3 "Gingerbread" OS featuring native near field communications support. This device is currently offeredunlocked for $529 or for $199 with a two-year T-Mobile deal.

Sprint is launching a Samsung Nexus S 4G this spring, providing the third smartphone in the Nexus line.

Source: http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Desktops-and-Notebooks/Google-Nexus-Honeycomb-Tablet-On-Tap-from-LG-752512/