ShinyPlastic: Gadget News and Reviews

Netgear WiFi Range Extender selling fast

Tue, 21 Jun 2011 13:59:06 -0500

Netgear recently released their WN3000RP WiFi Range Extender which promises an easy effective solution to WiFi dead spots.

We get excellent WiFi connectivity all over the house except for out on the back deck, which turns relaxing outside on a sunny day with a frosty beverage and an iPad into a frustrating experience.

The Netgear WN3000RP WiFi Range Extender has been getting excellent reviews so we just ordered one to see if it will cure our back deck blues.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Reviewed

Mon, 13 Jun 2011 13:51:22 -0500

Engadget has posted their review of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1.

Compared to the Xoom the main differences are:

Galaxy Tab 10.1 is 1/10th of an inch thinner and 4 ounces lighter.
Galaxy Tab has better rear camera (1080p vs 720p).
Xoom has HDMI out, Galaxy Tab needs an accessory to do HDMI out.
Xoom has SD card slot, Galaxy Tab doesn't.

They conclude the Galaxy Tab 10.1 is the best honeycomb tablet to date but don't take our word for it, click on the link to the review below and see what else they had to say:

review

FCC Reveals Details of Sony S1 Honeycomb Tablet

Thu, 09 Jun 2011 13:44:14 -0500

The FCC has posted filing for what appears to be various versions of the Sony S1 android honeycomb tablet.

As well as WiFi only versions of the 9.4" tablet there is a version with WCDMA bands II and V which makes a wireless version for AT&T (USA) and/or Rodgers (Canada) seem likely.

source

iOS5 Jailbreak

Tue, 07 Jun 2011 13:23:33 -0500

The developer preview has only been out for a day or two but @MuscleNerd has already revealed a tethered jailbreak for iOS5.

Lets hope this doesn't get patched before iOS5 is released to the public, although with Apple taking every good iOS jailbreak app and building it into iOS we are running out of must have apps that make a jailbreak a becessity.

source

HTC Puccini tablet coming this summer

Thu, 26 May 2011 12:39:23 -0500

According to Digitimes industry sources the HTC Puccini 10.1" tablet is going into volume production in the next couple of weeks.

The Puccini will likely be a scaled up version of the 7 inch HTC Flyer (but hopefully not as fat as the flyer), and it is rumored to have a 1.5GHz Qualcomm processor and Android 3.0.1.

Source: Digitimes

HTC Flyer reviewed

Thu, 26 May 2011 11:13:40 -0500

Boy Genius Report has posted their review of the HTC Flyer and it matches our first impressions of this 7" Android Tablet:

Bulky
Expensive
Hampered by not having Android 3.0/3.1

source

Consumer Reports loves Apple

Wed, 25 May 2011 16:47:37 -0500

The latest Consumer Reports rankings are out and Apple came top in every relevant category:

Best 11" Laptop - Macbook Air
Best 13" Laptop - Macbook Air
Best 15" Laptop - Macbook Pro
Best 17" Laptop - Macbook Pro
Best Tablet - iPad 2
Best Smartphone - iPhone 4
Best Technical Support - Apple

I assume that price isn't a highly weighted factor in their calculations.

source

Samsung confirms Galaxy Tab 10.1 coming in a few days with Android 3.1

Wed, 25 May 2011 16:34:14 -0500

Samsung has confirmed via twitter that their Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet will be released in a few days, they have also announced that it will ship with Android 3.1 already installed.

Everything points to the Galaxy Tab 10.1 being an excellent tablet - android 3.1, thinner than the ipad 2, fast and powerful, the only real question still outstanding is whether it will have a microsd card slot (unlike those handed out to attendees at Google I/O).

source

Business Insider ranks the top 10 AT&T smartphones

Wed, 25 May 2011 16:17:29 -0500

Business Insider has come up with a list of what they think are the top 10 smartphones currently available on AT&T.

To summarize - iphone is better than android, android is better than windows phone 7, windows phone 7 is better than webos, and webos is better than crackberry.

full list at Business Insider

Dell XPS 15z revealed

Wed, 25 May 2011 13:26:52 -0500

Dell did a great job of hyping their XPS 15z laptop to the extent that people were expecting a macbook air killer, but unfortunately the reality doesn't live up to that hype.

That said, the XPS 15z is a well built, thin, attractive laptop with great specs for the $999 price:

5.54lb and under an inch thick
Aluminium/magnesium alloy casing
Sandy bridge core i5 and i7 processors
15.6" full HD (1920x1080) display
NVidia GeForce 525M graphics
4GB RAM
up to 750GB hard drive
2 USB 3.0 ports
HDMI video out
DVD-RW drive

more at Dell

Engadget reviews HTC Droid Incredible 2

Wed, 25 May 2011 13:21:07 -0500

As usual Engadget gets all the cool toys as soon as they are released and they have just posted their review of the HTC Droid Incredible 2.

The Droid Incredible 2 looks to be an excellent Android smartphone that comes in at the higher end of the specs spectrum: 4" gorilla glass WVGA (800x400) display, 1 GHz snapdragon CPU, 768MB RAM, 8 megapixel camera with dual LED flash, and 16gb MicroSD flash card (but only 1.1Gb on board storage).

What was their conclusion? "the Droid Incredible 2 is the best 3G Android smartphone on Verizon today"

Full review at engadget

Barnes & Noble announces $139 touchscreen Nook

Tue, 24 May 2011 13:21:46 -0500

Barnes & Noble has just announced a new Nook ereader.

The device has an e-ink screen, 2GB storage, microsd expansion, wifi, and can last up to 2 months on a single charge. It runs Android 2.1 and costs just $139.

It is available for pre-order now and ships June 10th.

via Engadget

Amazon Kindle Tablet Rumors

Mon, 23 May 2011 13:15:37 -0500

PC Magazine has come out with some rumors and speculation concerning Amazon's entry into the Android Tablet market.

Their sources claim there will be both 7 inch and 10 inch tablets released by Christmas with e-ink/lcd versions to follow in 2012 or 2013.

The other new rumor is that they will be powered by a quad-core Tegra processor.

source

HTC Holiday makes your Android phone feel old and obsolete

Mon, 23 May 2011 13:07:06 -0500

A leaked ROM has exposed some details of the HTC Holiday, a high end android phone coming to AT&T sometime this year.

The specs seem very impressive: a massive 4.5" screen boasting qHD resolution (540x960 pixels), 1.2 GHz dual core snapdragon CPU, 1 GB RAM, dual cameras, and Android Gingerbread 2.3.4.

If phones keep getting bigger and bigger will we see massive pockets and MC Hammer clown pants become fashionable again? I hope not!

source

TMS Ramsan SSD is really fast and has massive capacity

Sat, 21 May 2011 12:59:31 -0500

PCI Express based SSDs just keep getting fast and bigger, and the latest offering from Texas Memory Systems is another step up in speed and storage:

"The RamSan-70 "Gorilla" is a high-performance, half-length PCIe card with 900 GB of usable SLC Flash capacity. Delivering 330K IOPS and 2 GB/s of bandwidth, it offers higher performance and greater capacity than any other half-length SLC Flash PCIe card."

Of course cutting edge speed and storage don't come cheap, and like most PCI express SSDs if you have to ask the price you probably can't afford it.

Texas Memory Systems