Sony Tablet P Coming to AT&T March 4 for $399 - Tom's Guide

Sony's clam shell Android tablet will cost $400 with a two-year data plan at AT&T.

AT&T has announced that Sony's second Android tablet, the wacky clamshell-shaped Sony Tablet P, will be available on its 4G network starting March 4. The dual-screen device will be sold for $399.99 with a two-year service agreement in more than 1,000 AT&T company-owned retail stores, and online at www.att.com.

The tablet consists of two 5.5-inch screens with a maximum resolution of 1024 x 480 each. It also sports a front-facing 0.3MP camera for video conferencing, a 5MP camera mounted on the back, Nvidia's 1 GHz dual-core Tegra 2 SoC, 1 GB of RAM, 4 GB of internal storage, and a microSD card slot for adding up to 32 GB of additional storage -- a 2 GB microSD is already inserted. Connectivity includes Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR and 802.11 b/g/n, and Google's Android 3.2 "Honeycomb" is the OS of choice.

As previously mentioned, what makes this tablet unique is the clamshell design. The two displays can be used for different functions such as checking email with one screen while using the other as a keyboard. On the gaming front, supporting apps could slip all touch-based controls to the bottom screen while leaving to top window free of buttons and D-pads. The Tablet P is currently only one of three that's PlayStation Certified here in the States, granting access to Sony's library of classic titles that are also only available on the Tablet S (Xperia PLAY still only has Crash Bandicoot).

"Like its predecessor, Sony Tablet P is PlayStation Certified and provides access to the full suite of Sony Network Entertainment services," AT&T states. "Sony Tablet devices are distinguished by four key features that set them apart from any other tablets on the market. These include: uniquely designed hardware and software, a "swift and smooth" experience (which includes Sony original features, Quick view and Quick touch), network entertainment services and cross-device connectivity."

For consumers who don't want to be bound by a contract, AT&T is selling the tablet for $549.99. Prepaid plans include 250 MB for $14.99, 3 GB for $30 and 5 GB for $50. Otherwise, postpaid data plans (aka contract) include 3 GB for $35 and 5 GB for $50.

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Tablet reading is becoming the norm - CNN

More people in U.S. are getting their reading content on mobile phones and tablets. More than half of cell phone owners get some of their media on mobile devicescomScore finds 47% of all U.S. cell phone owners currently use apps14% of U.S. cell phone subscribers also own a tablet, highest in any countryEditor's note: Amy Gahran writes about mobile tech for CNN.com. She is a San Francisco Bay Area writer and media consultant whose blog, Contentious.com, explores how people communicate in the online age.

(CNN) -- Are you reading this article on your cell phone or tablet? These days, that makes you pretty normal, especially if you're American, according to a recent report from comScore.

According to comScore, which tracks these sort of things, 55% of the 234 million cell phone subscribers in the U.S. are getting at least some of their media diet via mobile devices.

Only Japan and the UK had higher levels of mobile media usage.

People in the United States increasingly purchase more than one device to help them consume all this mobile content. According to comScore, 14% of U.S. cell phone subscribers also own a tablet -- the highest percentage in any of the countries comScore examined.

In contrast, fewer than 5% of Japanese mobile subscribers also own a tablet.

"In less than two years, nearly 40 million tablets were in use among mobile subscribers in the U.S., outpacing smartphones -- which took seven years to achieve the same level of adoption," comScore noted.

Driving this sharp growth was the expanded array of Android tablet options, especially Amazon's Kindle Fire, released in late 2011. Also, the iPad 2 release yielded another spike in tablet ownership.

Does this mean people are shifting their media experience away from computers and smartphones -- or broadcast and print media -- to tablets?

Not necessarily.

Here's what comScore has to say on the matter: "As tablets gain popularity among users, they are not replacing mobile phones or computers. Rather, it would seem that tablets are supplementing a multi-device diet that is increasingly becoming the norm among consumers. ... While smartphones may have provided consumers with a first taste of mobile Internet connectivity, tablets have furthered the rise of the 'digital omnivore' -- consumers who now go about their days engaging seamlessly through multiple online touchpoints."

Seamlessly? Well, sort of.

A "seamless" cross-device media experience implies that you can easily pick up where you left off when switching devices. This is the case when reading Kindle e-books, whether via the Kindle smartphone or tablet app, on a Kindle e-reader or Kindle Fire tablet, or on a computer.

Similarly, when you stream a Netflix movie to your TV or computer, and pause it, you can resume watching it from the same point via the Netflix app for mobile devices.

But not all services work this well. If I'm watching a short film on the new Vimeo app for Android phones, pause it, put down my phone and turn on my TV, bring up my Vimeo account (I use AppleTV for streaming media), and select the movie I'd paused... it takes me back to the start of the movie. It doesn't remember where I stopped watching.

Gamers often experience similar frustration when they try to continue a game in progress on a different device. How well you can sync a game -- if at all -- depends on the game and the devices involved. Sometimes that experience is seamless. Sometimes not so much.

And all those long-form articles you want to read? Features like "Reading List" in Apple's Safari browser for computers and mobile devices -- or third-party services such as Instapaper -- allow you to sync a list of articles to read across devices. But they don't let you just pick up where you left off in the midst of a 8,000-word Harper's feature story. And they may not support offline reading.

Syncing your content across multiple devices is a major technical challenge which will take time to solve. But so far, that kind of syncing isn't a big concern for most consumers.

More commonly, people tend to use different devices to access content at different times of day or in different settings. For instance, comScore's analysis of traffic to news websites found that from about 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on a typical weekday, computers are the leading source of site traffic. Tablet traffic to news sites peaks in the evening. On weekends, however, tablet traffic to news sites peaks in the morning.

Simultaneous use of multiple devices has already become major part of how we experience media. Last October, Nielsen found that 40% of people who own a smartphone or tablet use those mobile devices while watching TV.

What do people do on their smartphones and tablets while watching TV?

According to Nielsen, "e-mail was the top activity for both men and women during television programming and commercial breaks. In addition, women reported engaging in social networking more than men, while men checked sports scores more often."

The opinions expressed in this post are solely those of Amy Gahran.

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Turn a $99 Nook into a Fully Fledged Android Tablet in Four Easy Steps - Lifehacker

The Nook Simple Touch is great for reading ebooks. It's got plenty of storage, it's small enough to carry anywhere, can be used with one hand, can hold tons of books, its e-ink display is crisp and easy to read, and most importantly, it runs a skinned and customized version of Android behind Barnes and Noble's interface. I got my hands on one a couple of weeks ago from a friend, and with about a half-hour, some basic tools, and a little patience, I turned my new Nook into a solid starter Android tablet with complete access to the Android Market, Google apps, your email, and the web. Here's how.

Rooting the Nook Simple Touch is surprisingly easy, and the results are more than worth it. As with all projects of this nature, a bricked device is one possible outcome, and you'll definitely void your warranty. it worked like a charm for me though (as you can see in the video above), and just like rooting an Android phone, it's well worth the risk—especially considering how deceptively easy it is.



Here's a list of the things you'll need to root your Nook and get access to the Android Market, Amazon Appstore, and start tweaking and customizing your device:
One Barnes and Noble Nook Simple Touch, available for $99 retail, cheaper if you're buying used (I got mine for a sweet $20, Thanks Fraize!) The Nook must be registered to a Barnes and Noble account.A 128MB (preferably larger) microSD card. This 16GB microSD card is available at Amazon for $7, but one you may have swapped out of a smartphone or camera will work.An external microSD card reader or microSD to SD card adapter for your computer's built-in reader. I used one similar to this $7 model at Amazon that I picked up at an electronics store.A Google account, preferably the one you used for your Barnes and Noble account, and preferably one with YouTube linked to it (more on this later.) Having one will speed up the process of authenticating to the Android Market and getting your Nook added to your Google account.Nooter, a utility for rooting and enabling market access on your Nook Simple Touch, and a method to write disk images to your microSD card, like win32DiskImager for Windows. Mac and Linux users can use the terminal.About a half-hour or so, and some reading comprehension.
Once you have your tools assembled, you're ready to get started.

There are several tools available to root the Nook, but I used a handy utility called TouchNooter, and followed an excellent guide over at the XDA-developers forum. Part of the reason I picked TouchNooter is because it doesn't just root your device, but it also installs some helpful utilities you'll need once you're up and running. Plus, unlike some of the other tools available, TouchNooter works with all versions of the Nook firmware.

You'll also need a utility to write disk images to your SD card. I used my Windows machine to do this, so I downloaded win32DiskImager. The following steps assume you're using Windows, but we'll get to Mac and Linux in a moment.

Plug in your microSD card to your card reader, and confirm it's mounted to your computer. We're going to wipe it, so back up any files from it you may want now!If you haven't already, extract the Nooter disk image from the archive, and put it somewhere you can find it. The desktop works.



Extract all of the files from the win32DiskImager archive and drop them in the same place. Double-click Win32DiskImager.exe to run the program. As long as all of the other files in the archive are in the same place, it should open without issue. You may get an error message about a device being in use—acknowledge it and move on.Point the "Device" drop-down menu at the drive letter assigned to your microSD card.Click the folder icon and select the TouchNooter image file to write to the SD cardTake a deep breath and click "Write." This will wipe your sdCard and write the TouchNooter disk image to it.When it's finished, dismount the microSD card, remove it from the reader, and grab your nook.

That's the hard part, actually. Mac and Linux users can write the disk image to their microSD cards at the terminal using the "dd" command to write the image. Even though they use a different rooting utility for the job, the instructions at NookDevs.com to root the Simple Touch explain the terminal commands clearly—just be careful you're writing to your microSD card and not an attached hard drive on your system.

It's important to use some kind of external SD card reader for this task. Trying to write to the microSD card while it's in your Nook and attached via USB, or some other device connected to your computer with an SD slot in it (a camera, a smartphone, or some other device) will cause problems, and most people who complained about bricked Nooks pointed to this as the reason it happened. Let's continue.
Power down your Nook.Open the microSD hatch on the side, and remove the card inside. Set this off to the side, you'll need it again in a moment.Install the microSD card with the TouchNooter image on it, close the hatch, and turn on your Nook.You'll see a TouchNooter splash screen. TouchNooter is working its magic behind the scenes, and it'll advise you to wait until the screen flashes dark before doing anything else. Be patient.When the screen flashes dark, your Nook is rooted! TouchNooter has turned the device off for you. Open the hatch and remove the TouchNooter microSD card. Install the microSD card that you set to the side.Power on your Nook. The first thing you'll be presented with is whether you want to go to the Nook launcher or ADW Launcher, which TouchNooter took the liberty of installing for you.
That's all there is to it. If you've followed along up to this point, you now have a fully rooted Nook Simple Touch. Still, there are a few things left to do to set up your device before you can make the most of it.



As soon as you turn the device on, you may be prompted to log in to your Google Account. If you are, skip it—we're not ready for that yet. The first thing you want to do is connect to a Wi-Fi network, if your device wasn't connected to one before you rooted it. Mine was, so it remembered my wireless settings after I turned it back on.

By default, the "n" hardware button at the bottom of your nook will bring up the Nook system menu—the one Barnes and Noble installed. The NookTouchTools app (which TouchNooter also installed for you) lets you change this, and you can set the button to be your "home" button if you like. I actually prefer it set to the Nook system menu—it means I can quickly get back to my book or the Nook software whenever I choose, effectively giving me a one-button switch out of "tablet mode" and back into "Nook mode." The status bar at the top of the Nook is the same as it was before—you can still tap the book icon to go back to the page in the book you were reading last. The "back" and "menu" buttons in the status bar will work anywhere, including the home screen and app drawer.

NookTouchTools also allows you to configure the hardware buttons on the left and ride sides of the Nook to do whatever you like. At the very least, familiarize yourself with the defaults. You also get a transparent Button Savior menu that sits on top of any running apps that will quickly take you back to the home screen or bring up the menu in any app. Once you have the controls down (or configured to your tastes,) it's time to finish the setup.
Open Gmail (already installed) or Youtube (already installed) and log in to your Google account. If you use YouTube, your phone will sync your Gmail without you having to log in to the app, and will add your Nook to your Market account. If you have any new messages, they'll be available from the notifications button in the status menu at the top of the screen.Open the NookColor Tools app (already installed) to enable non-Market installs.Go ahead and try to access the Android Market. It will likely fail right away, but wait about a day and the Market will let you in. Honestly, I'm not certain why there's the one-day lag, but the developer behind TouchNooter notes that future updates will fix this.You don't need the Android Market anyway—you have the Amazon Appstore! Open it and download any apps you want right out of the gate. I started with Dropbox so I could side-load APKs that I wanted to install, like the Kindle app. More on this later.
At this point, your Nook is connected to your Google account, will fetch your email for you and let you browse the web (Opera Mini is pre-installed, but feel free to install any browser you like)like any other Android device. Of course, you can still read your Nook books on it. If you've waited a day, you'll see your Nook in your list of Android devices in the Android Market, and you can push apps to it. Congratulations—your Nook is rooted and pulling double-duty as a tablet and an ereader!



You can stop here if you like, but one of the biggest reasons I chose to root my Nook Touch is so I could read Nook books, Kindle books, Google books, and any other books I wanted to on an e-ink display. I also wanted light tablet features, like email, a little Twitter, maybe some Google+, and light web browsing. I got the latter immediately upon rooting, but let's talk about the former.

Now that you have access to the Market, you can install any ereader you prefer. We're partial to Aldiko, but many of you prefer Moon+, among others. Go ahead and install it.

The Amazon Kindle app for Android gave me some trouble. Unfortunately, even in the Amazon Appstore, the Nook didn't show as a compatible device for the Kindle app for Android. Market access wasn't enabled yet, so I couldn't try installing it through the Market. Thankfully, APKs for the Amazon Kindle app are available at Freeware Lovers. The most current version of the Kindle app, 3.3.1.1, didn't want to install, and I had to back up to version 3.0.1.70 to get a version that would install properly. I downloaded the APK and side-loaded it through my Dropbox. Once the Kindle app was installed, it worked like a charm. I could log in, access my books and documents I'd sent to my account, and most importantly, read those books on my e-ink display.

Others at the XDA-developers forum have noted similar problems with the Kindle app. Some say waiting for Market access will fix the problem, others took my approach. I was impatient, so if you have time to wait, you may try the market. If it doesn't work though, my method is surefire.

The last tweak I made to my tablet was inspired by this post at the XDA-developers forum, where user marspeople built an app that drastically improves the response time of your e-ink display. You sacrifice the grayscale depth, and you may be eating battery life while the toggle is active (I didn't notice that much drain, but it was definitely faster than otherwise) but the ends do justify the means: your Nook's display will respond much faster than before.

Marspeople's packaged an APK that you can download in this thread. Once installed, launch it, and turn on fast refresh with a four-tap sequence that took me a while to get used to (four successive taps on the screen, in any app, starting in one place and then each tap down and to the right of the last tap.) Once you master it, you can toggle fast refresh on and off whenever you want it.

The video here shows a rooted Nook running games like Angry Birds—I wouldn't recommend that, the e-ink display just isn't good enough for full-motion gaming, but it is great for surfing the web, scrolling through your inbox, or flipping pages in your ebooks that much faster, if the response time is a bit too slow for you. It's definitely a hack, and it falls in the "highly experimental" category, but if you really want to power up your newly rooted Nook, give it a shot.



The Nook Simple Touch is a great ereader, and with a little time and energy, you can turn it into a pretty decent Android tablet. Keep its limitations in mind though—you're not going to turn the e-ink display into a color screen, you're not going to hack the thing to the point where you can play full-motion games on it, and you're not going to compose your next masterpiece on it.

You will, however, make a great ereader even better, and drastically increase the bang you get for your $99 bucks (or less, if you can find one used.) Instead of just a touch-sensitive ereader, you get a real, portable Android tablet with access to the Market, your email, your social networks, Google docs, multiple ebook stores and ereaders, Dropbox, any anything else you care to do with it. If an e-ink based ereader is up your alley, but you wish you could find one that can at least pull its weight for other tasks, and considering the Kindle Touch is the same price and nowhere near as useful once rooted, we'd say it's worth the money if you want the best of both worlds.

Have you rooted a Nook Simple Touch? Did you choose a different approach? Perhaps you've rooted a Kindle Fire or another tablet or ereader? Share your experiences in the comments below.
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With Apple iPad 3 Coming, Android Tablet Market Should Be Shaking in Its Boots - Minyanville.com

There is no doubt that Apple (AAPL) is about to unleash the iPad 3, the third edition in the company's series of dominant tablet computers.

Apple recently sent out an invitation to reporters, including a graphic of what is almost undoubtedly an iPad, along with the message: "We have something you really want to see. And touch."

In fact, anticipation of the iPad 3, and the iPhone 5, has Apple blasting its way over the $500 billion market capitalization mark, much to the chagrin of crybaby bears that regularly fall over themselves to call the top.

Here's the invitation, courtesy of our friends over at The Verge:

Let's break this image down. The size of the finger relative to the icon and the bezel indicates that the iPad 3 won't be any smaller than the 9.5" x 7.3" iPad 2.

As for the text, "we have something you really have to see" could mean that a) the device itself is spectacular looking, b) the screen has been massively upgraded, or c) both.

I'm going with "c."

Unlike its competitors, Apple seems incapable of making even a mediocre-looking product. Even if you hate how they operate, you have to admit that Apple's products all look great.

It has been rumored that the iPad 3 would receive a significant upgrade in screen resolution from the iPad 2's 1024 x 768 display, and it makes sense that Apple's going to raise the bar on the iPad's resolution for the first time.

The rumored resolution of the new screen is 2,048 x 1,536, which is more than enough to display full 1080p video, though on such a small screen, it's more or less pointless.

Additionally, a big upgrade in screen resolution will likely mean the iPad 3 will be powered by a quad-core processor, and the 3G models will be upgraded to 4G/TE. Higher resolution requires more processing power, and a 4G data feed would certainly be helpful in streaming 1080p video from Netflix (NFLX) or other sources.

If a 4G iPad is a reality, however, I would certainly hope that the wireless carriers are upgrading their networks in advance of the coming data deluge.

Ultimately, however, I don't think much of this matters, because Apple product buyers tend not to concern themselves with technical specifications -- they just want their gear to look good and be easy to use.

That's why I'm far more intrigued by the phrase, "And touch," which implies a significant upgrade in the touchscreen interface.

In July of 2010, I discussed how companies like Apple and Nintendo (NTDOY.PK) changed the games in their respective industries with advancements in the human-gadget interface (see: Tech Stock Winners Demonstrate the Power of the Interface).

To make a long story short, when you give people a new way to interact with technology products, they tend to pay attention -- and pay up.

Remember when Activision's (ATVI) Guitar Hero took the video-game world by storm back in 2006-2008?

The fact that Apple is stepping up its advancements in the interface yet again should have the Google (GOOG) Android tablet market shaking in its boots.

Think about this.

The Apple iPad 2 has beaten the living daylights out of the Android tablet industry, even though that model actually wasn't much different than 2010's iPad 1.

You don' t believe me? Fine. Let's talk stats.

Let's look at fourth-quarter tablet market share, courtesy of our buddies at Strategy Analytics:

The dark side of Android is the fact that 40% of its slice -- or 16% of the entire tablet market -- is comprised of the cut-price, money-losing Amazon (AMZN) Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble (BKS) Nook Tablet.

This means that Apple's iPad is still at least 2.5 times as big as its real competition, assuming we don't worry about "Other" (58% divided by 23% = 2.5).

In fact, considering how many junkie, low-priced Android tablets are floating around, the iPad could easily be four to five times as big in tablets priced, say, $400 and up.

And this is with an iPad 2 that was barely upgraded over the 2010 model!

Remember, the Kindle Fire and NOOK tablet have destroyed the notion of making money in low-end Android tablets. And since they came to market in the fourth quarter of 2011, they accounted for a disproportionate portion of Android tablet growth.

Android tablets are growing faster than Apple on a unit basis, but not on a profit basis simply because the Android market is being boosted by unprofitable models that wreck things for the rest of the competition.

The Bottom Line

The low end of Android is owned by the Kindle Fire and NOOK tablet, which are not designed as profit centers in and of themselves, but as entries into Amazon and Barnes & Noble's content ecosystems. Apple doesn't care about this market, and rightfully so.

But what's going to happen to the high end of Android, which as we've shown isn't very big, when Apple releases the first significant upgrade to the iPad line?

Remember, as it stands, nobody's making big money in pricey Android tablets, except perhaps for Samsung, which is incidentally the only competitor left standing in smartphones, as evidenced by the fall of Research In Motion (RIMM), Motorola Mobility (MMI), and HTC.

Bottom line is, the Google Android tablet world is in a lot of trouble. The Kindle Fire and NOOK tablet have destroyed the notion of making money at the low end, and the high end is about to be walloped by the iPad 3.

A Word on the Stocks...

I remain long and strong Apple as I continue to believe the competition in every product category is getting weaker, and the coming Apple television (just don't ask when...) represents an annual revenue opportunity of $25 billion-plus.

I covered my Amazon short yesterday to cut losses on my put option position, but will look to get on that again before earnings.

Twitter: @MichaelComeau

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Android Smart Tablet

Seven-inch TFT full touch screen Mobile network technology: GSM/WCDMA/Wi-Fi Web Browsing with Chrome Lite High definition video playback About 500 g (including the battery)

Touchscreen

Resistive touchscreen by default and customizable capacitive touchscreen, with a gravity sensor

Display

Type: TFTSize: 7 inchesColors: 262 kResolution: WVGA (800 ? 480 pixels)

SIM/USIM card interface

Standard six-pin SIM card interface that also supports a 1.8 V or 3 V USIM card

WCDMA

Standards: 3 GPP FDD Release 99 and Release 5 (International standard, 3GPP R5)Customizable concurrent frequency bands: WCDMA 2100 MHz, WCDMA 1900 MHz and one of WCDMA 900/850/800 MHz WCDMA 2100 MHz, WCDMA AWS and one of WCDMA 900/850/800 MHzWorking frequency bands: WCDMA 850 MHz: 824–849 MHz/869–894 MHz (uplink/downlink) WCDMA 900 MHz: 880–915 MHz/925–960 MHz (uplink/downlink) WCDMA 1900 MHz: 1850–1910 MHz/1930–1990 MHz (uplink/downlink) WCDMA 2100 MHz: 1920–1980 MHz/2110–2170 MHz (uplink/downlink)

GSM/GPRS/EDGE

Standard: 3GPP Release 99Working frequency bands: GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850 MHz: 824–849 MHz/869–894 MHz (uplink/downlink) GSM/GPRS/EDGE 900 MHz: 880–915 MHz/925–960 MHz (uplink/downlink) GSM/GPRS/EDGE 1800 MHz: 1710–1785 MHz/1805–1880 MHz (uplink/downlink) GSM/GPRS/EDGE 1900 MHz: 1850–1910 MHz/1930–1990 MHz (uplink/downlink)

3

HSDPA/HSUPA

Standards: 3 GPP FDD Release 99, Release 5 (International standard, 3GPP R5) and Release 6 (International standard, 3GPP R6)Data Service: HSDPA (Maximum 7.2 Mbit/s) HSUPA (Maximum 5.76 Mbit/s)

IEEE 802.11n: 15 dBm (65 Mbit/s)

Sensitivity IEEE 802.11b: –76 dBm (11 Mbit/s)

IEEE 802.11g: –65 dBm (54 Mbit/s) IEEE 802.11n: –64 dBm (65 Mbit/s)

Bluetooth

Standard: Bluetooth 2.1 + EDRProfiles: A2DP, HFP, and HSP

Keys and Indicator

Physical Power keyPhysical Volume Up/Down key5 illuminated soft keys: Home, Menu, Back, Call, and EndClickable OFN keyEvent Indicator: LED

Connectors, sensors, and audio

3.5 mm stereo headset jackMicroSD card slot: compliant with SDHCUSB port: Micro USB 2.0 SlaveDock interfaceSIM/USIM card slotBattery slotAmbient light sensorBuilt-in microphones and speakers

4

GPS

Qualcomm GPS/A-GPS

Processor

SnapdragonTM

Memory

LPDDR RAM: 512 MB by default, and customizable for 256 MBNAND Flash: 512 MBEMMC: 4 GB by default, and customizable for 8 GB or 16 GBMicroSD card: 0 GB by default, and customizable for a capacity of up to 16GB

Power adapter

Input: 100–240 V AC and 50/60 HzOutput: 5V DC and 2.0 A

< 6 W

Ambient temperatures

Operating temperature: –10°C to +45°C (14°F to 113°F)Storage temperature: –40°C to +70°C (-40°F to 158°F)

Relative humidity for operation

5% to 95%, non-condensing

Camera

2-megapixel CMOS camera

Antennas

Five frequency bands: 2100 MHz, 1900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 900 MHz and 850 MHz by defaultWi-Fi antenna: 1 ? 1

5

Maximum wired transmission power

UMTS 2100 MHz: 24 dBm [+1/–3 dBm]UMTS 900 MHz: 24 dBm [+1/–3 dBm]UMTS 1900 MHz: 24 dBm [+1/–3 dBm]GSM 850 MHz: 33 dBm [±2 dBm]GSM: 33 dBm [±2 dBm]DCS: 30 dBm [±2 dBm]PCS: 30 dBm [±2 dBm]

Static sensitivity

UMTS 2100 MHz: better than –117 dBm/3.84 MHzUMTS 1900 MHz: better than –115 dBm/3.84 MHzUMTS 900 MHz: better than -114 dBm/3.84 MHzGSM 850 MHz: better than –102 dBm/200 kHzGSM 900 MHz: better than –102 dBm/200 kHzDCS 1800 MHz: better than –102 dBm/200 kHzPCS 1900 MHz: better than –102 dBm/200 kHz

Certification

CE, FCC

Software Specifications

Operating system

Google Mobile Suite

Google mailGoogle SearchGoogle TalkGoogle MapsGoogle CalendarYouTube™Android Market

Language

English by defaultGermanCustomizable multiple languages

Input Methods

IME with Zi™ engineEnglishGermanCustomizable multiple input methods

Multimedia

Video, audio and picture formats: Video: MPEG4 (.mp4, .3gp, .3g2), H.264 (.3gp, .mp4, .3g2), H.263 (.3gp, .3g2), and up to 720p@30fps decoding Audio: AMR-NB (.3gp, .amr) , MP3 (.mp3), AAC (.3gp, .mp4, .m4a, .3g2) , AAC+, eAAC+, Ogg Vorbis (.ogg), PCM (.wav) and MIDI Picture: BMP, PNG, JPEG, WBMP and GIFMedia players: Music library and music player Playing music in the backgroundVideo player: Playing streaming mediaDigital photo frame: Managing and browsing photosTaking pictures and recording video clips: Coding formats for recording video clips: MP4 and H.264 for video, and AMR-NB, QCELP, EVRC and AAC for audio Coding format for taking pictures: JPEG

Browser

Chrome Lite (WebKit)BookmarksWeb protocols: HTML 4.0, CSS 2.1, XHTML 1.1, XML 1.0, and Java Script

Contacts

Personalized ringtonesFast search for a contactSpeed dial, group management, and photo caller ID displayImporting the phonebook on the SIM card

SIM/STK and USIM/USAT

Specification of the SIM Application Toolkit for the Subscriber Identity Module - Mobile Equipment (SIM - ME) interface3GPP TS 11.143GPP TS 11.11SIM and IC Card Requirements TS 21.111Characteristics of the USIM application TS 31.1023rd Gen. Partnership Proj Tech. Spec. Group Terminals and SIM App. Toolkit (USAT) TS 31.111

Wireless Voice calls

voice callsVoice codec format: AMR-NB

SMS and MMS

UI design integrating SMS and MMSExtra-long text messagesRead text messages on the SIM card and in the local memory of the S7Attachments to multimedia messagesMaking a voice call to the number in a text message

Call logs

Recording missed calls, answered calls, and dialed callsStoring up to 500 recordsAccessing Call Logs by pressing the call key

Recording audio clips

Recording the voice of the other part during a callCodec format for recording audio clips: AMR

8

File Management

Managing the contents stored in the local memory and those on the microSD cardCutting, copying, pasting, and deleting files and their contents

Settings

Such as language, text input method, date and time, date format, shortcuts, wallpaper, 3GPP 3rd Generation Partnership Project A2DP Advanced Audio Distribution Profile AAC Advanced Audio Coding AC alternating current AMR Adaptive Multi-Rate AMR-NB narrowband AMR AMR-WB wideband AMR AP access point AWS Advanced Wireless Service BMP bitmap CMOS complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor CSS Cascading Style Sheets DC direct current DCS Digital Cellular System DHCP Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol DLNA Digital Living Network Alliance DMC digital media controller DMR digital media renderer DMS digital media server eAAC High-Efficiency Advanced Audio Coding EDGE Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution EDR Enhanced Data Rate eMMC embedded MultiMediaCard

9

EVDO Evolution Data Only FDD frequency division duplex GIF Graphics Interchange Format GPRS General Packet Radio Service GSM Global System for Mobile Communications HD high-definition HDMI High-Definition Multimedia Interface

High-Speed Downlink Packet AccessHigh-Speed Uplink Packet Access

HSP Headset Profile HTML Hypertext Markup Language MPEG Moving Pictures Experts Group OFN Optical Finger Navigation PCM pulse-code modulation PCS Physical Coding Sublayer PNG Portable Network Graphics POP Post Office Protocol P Point-to-Point Protocol RSS Really Simple Syndication SDHC Secure Digital High Capacity SIM Subscriber Identity Module SMS Short Message Service SMTP Simple Mail Transfer Protocol STB set-top box TFT thin-film transistor UI user interface UMTS Universal Mobile Telecommunications System USB universal serial bus USB OTG USB On-The-Go USIM User Service Identity Module VC voice codec WCDMA Wideband Code Division Multiple Access Wi-Fi Wireless Fidelity WPA Wi-Fi Protected Access

10

WPS Wi-Fi Protected Setup WVGA Wide Video Graphics Array XHTML Extensible HyperText Markup Language XML Extensible Markup Language

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Pantech Element, a waterproof Android tablet, review [Video]

The Pantech Element isn't the best Android tablet on the market and it doesn't promise to be. But the Element is the only tablet I know of that can be dropped into a sink full of water or held under a faucet for a few minutes and come out unaffected -- two things I've done myself.

For that reason, the Element is a tablet that appeals to my gadget-loving heart, though it didn't entirely win me over.

While it may not be the most common of problems, nearly all of us know someone who has lost a cellphone, MP3 player or other gadget to water damage -- a pool, a toilet or a washing machine is often the culprit. Losing a device you use day in and day out is no fun at all. And while there are plenty of unexpected hazards out in the world, all too often, warranties for our devices don't protect against water damage.

If you're looking for a tablet you can use in the kitchen, around small children or in other potentially spill-prone environments, the Element is worth your consideration. Impressively, Pantech says the Element can go as deep as 3 feet into water for as long as 30 minutes.

But how is this tablet as an actual tablet? Not bad, but certainly not among my top choices for an Android slate to live with.

The Element is solid hardware, with a sturdy, hard plastic body and a balanced weight of 16.57 ounces. The back is slick but not slippery and the rounded edges are comfortable to hold in the hand. The Element's simple look reminds me a bit of the understated style of the deceased HP Touch Pad.

I like that the Element is largely logo-free on the back, with a nice carbon-fiber-looking design on the rear and a subtle, small dark gray AT&T 4G logo letting you know this device can run on the carrier's fastest network available.

I don't like the Pantech and AT&T logos on the front, sitting above the 8-inch screen (with a 1024 x 768 pixel resolution), but such logo placement is sadly a standard design choice with far too many Android devices.

The Element's touch screen always felt slightly slow to respond, and loading apps, websites and photos and videos on the 5-megapixel/720p camera on the back wasn't the fastest either, but speeds were consistent. The display offered visuals that looked good, but by no means high definition, despite a technically HD resolution screen. 

Speaker placement on the Element is a bit odd, with a single speaker sitting on the front of the tablet, beside the display. I found myself, on multiple occasions, watching a video in landscape orientation with my hand covering the speaker -- not at all ideal. There's also a 2-megapixel front-facing camera right beside the speaker, which can be used for videos and photos as well.

Given that the Element is waterproof, its ports are thankfully covered with plastic doors -- including mini-USB and mini-HDMI ports, a microSD card slot, sim card slot and headphone jack. The doors feel somewhat sturdier than what I've seen on many phones and tablets, but they still feel as if they would eventually break off, which would likely compromise the waterproof feature that the Element touts so proudly.

Built-in storage comes in at 16 gigabytes (though the Element will accommodate a microSD card of up to 32 gigabytes) and the device has 1 gigabyte of RAM. The Element is powered by a 1.5-gigahertz dual-core processor and ships running Google's Android Honeycomb operating system.

The price, for this mid-range tablet, is reasonable as long as you're willing to sign a two-year data plan with AT&T. Off contract, the Element is overpriced compared with the (not waterproof) competition.

On contract, AT&T sells the Element for $299.99. For $249.99, the Element can be had with a free Android smartphone, the Pantech Burst (this offer is good only for those who sign a two-year data plan for both devices).

With no data plan, the Element runs $449.99.

Considering that superior-performing devices such as the iPad, Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and Motorola Xyboard 10.1 start at just $50 more, and the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus and Xyboard 8.2 sell for $400, I can't see many consumers choosing the Element over what else is out there unless they absolutely need a waterproof tablet.

Hopefully, the Element and Xyboard (which is water-resistant but not waterproof), are the start of a trend of such features becoming standard rather than exceptional. 

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Steve Jobs Mocked in Ad for Android Tablet [VIDEO]

Steve Jobs, sporting a halo and wings, extols the virtues of an Android tablet in a Taiwanese ad that's getting attention in the U.S. for its disrespectful treatment of the late Apple cofounder.

The 20-second ad, which hit YouTube this week, features Taiwanese comedian and impersonator Ah-Ken. Clad in Jobs's trademark black turtleneck and jeans, he says, "Thank God I get to play with other tablets," and takes out Action Electronics's Android-based ActionPad tablet PC and multi-language dictionary. The ad doesn't mention Jobs by name.

[More from Mashable: Have You Seen Google’s ‘Good to Know’ Ad Campaign? [PHOTO HUNT]]

Apple reps could not be reached for comment about the ad.

Chelsea Chen, a spokeswoman for Action Electronics, told Reuters that Apple should see nothing wrong with the spot. "Steve Jobs always promoted things that were good for people, Apple products, so his image can also promote other things that are good."

[More from Mashable: How Ford Used Instagram to Promote the Fiesta’s High-Tech Features]

Jobs, who died on Oct. 5, thought Google's Android mobile operating system was a ripoff of Apple's iOS, which is used in the iPhone and iPad. In Walter Isaacson's authorized biography of the Apple cofounder, Jobs is quoted as saying he effectively "declared war" on Android and that he felt "personally betrayed" by Google.

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Harris Unveils Tablet for Defense and Public Safety Mission-Critical ... - ElectroIQ

Harris Corp., an international communications and information technology company, said it has introduced the Harris Ruggedized Tablet, a secure, portable device that delivers a "smartphone-like" experience to military personnel and first responders who require secure real-time information at their fingertips to execute their missions.

In a release on Feb. 20, the company said the new Harris RF-3590 is a 7-inch ruggedized Android tablet that provides high-performance application and computing capability at the tactical edge

Highlights include:

-Integrates "seamlessly" to the most military and public safety communications platforms, including Harris Falcon III wideband tactical radio networks and 3G and 4G LTE Solutions;

-Delivers targeted suites of mission-critical software applications to users on the battlefield and in first responder roles;

-Supports emerging requirements for video, monitoring position locations, accessing secure databases and other crucial intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance tasks;

-Rated as a ruggedized device to provide reliable operation in heat, cold and other extreme environments.

Harris said it has received initial orders for test and evaluation purposes and is optimistic the product will be well received.

"The new Harris tablet builds on our leadership in mission-critical communications to provide a powerful device for processing mission-critical information,'' said Dana Mehnert, group president, Harris RF Communications. "This tablet was fully designed for the tactical and public safety environment with optimized features for reading in sunlight and size, weight and power. As an Android device, the tablet also is fully upgradeable for emerging applications."

In addition to serving as a network peripheral, the RF-3590 also offers stand-alone computing power. It comes with built-in cameras, an accelerometer, digital compass, pressure and temperature gauges, gyroscope, proximity/ambient light sensors and more. Harris' RF-3590 includes standard USB and Ethernet data interfaces and expansion capabilities. The RF-3590 is built around a dual-core 1.5 GHz processor and supports up to 128 GB of internal non-volatile memory.

Headquartered in Melbourne, Fla., the company has approximately $6 billion of annual revenue and about 17,000 employees, including nearly 7,000 engineers and scientists.
Copyright 2012 AndroidTablet 4.0
All Rights Reserved
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Nook Tablet vs. Kindle Fire: Battle of the cheap tablets - ITworld.com

Barnes & Noble's new Nook Tablet is pretty similar to Amazon's Kindle Fire and you suspect that B&N took a look at the Fire's success and said to their Nook e-reader engineers, "We need a $199 Android tablet, stat!"

While there are some minor differences in the tablets' overall specifications, the real differences come down to what extra goodies you get from Amazon and Barnes & Noble, such as cloud storage and digital newsstands. In this article we'll break down the similarities and differences between the Nook and the Kindle Fire and deliver a verdict on which tablet is most worthy of your hard-earned $199.

PREVIOUS TABLET BATTLE: The Kindle Fire vs. the iPad 2

TECH ARGUMENTS: Amazon Cloud Drive vs. Apple iCloud

Hardware: Have we mentioned that these two tablets are very, very similar? Well, they are. The Nook Tablet has 8GB of internal storage and a 1GHz TI OMAP4 dual-core processor. The Kindle, in contrast, features ... 8GB of internal storage and a 1GHz TI OMAP4 dual-core processor! The biggest difference hardware-wise is the significant improvements in battery life that B&N is promising to deliver with the Nook. So while the Kindle Fire delivers just eight hours of reading time and 7.5 hours of video time on the Kindle Fire even when the Wi-Fi is turned off, the Nook promises 11.5 hours of reading time and nine hours of video. Not too shabby!

Size and weight: The Nook and the Kindle Fire feature identical 7-inch display screens with resolutions of 1024x600 pixels. The Nook's weight of 14.1 ounces is ever-so-slightly lighter than the Kindle Fire's 14.6 ounces. All in all, though, this comes up as a push.

Operating system: They both run on modified versions of Android 2.3 ("Gingerbread"). There's been no word yet on when either device will get upgraded to either Android 3.0 ("Honeycomb") or Android 4.0 ("Ice Cream Sandwich"), both of which are optimized for the tablet form factor.

Price: As mentioned before, both tablets will set you back $199 so pricing comes out as yet another push.

Extra goodies: Finally! A clear, definable difference between these two cheapie Android tablets! And unfortunately for the Nook, this will likely be the advantage that keeps the Kindle Fire on top in the battle of $199 tablets.

First of all, Amazon has been heavily touting its new Amazon Silk Web browser that is directly integrated with its Elastic Computer Cloud (EC2) to deliver users' favorite Web pages at faster loading times than other browsers. The browser keeps track of pages you visit frequently and essentially preorders the page through the EC2 when it thinks you're about to request it. That way, when you do finally request it, Amazon's cloud will have it ready to go for you and will push it right out onto your tablet.

What's more, the Kindle Fire also gives you free cloud-based storage for all applications, songs, books and videos that you purchase through Amazon.com. This means that you won't have to waste any of your 8GB of internal storage on your MP3 collection since Amazon will gladly push it out to you through the cloud when you need it.

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ASUS Tranformer Prime TF300T: Mobile World Congress 2012 Top 10 Tablet Preview - International Business Times

Asus may be ready to take over the Android tablet world in 2012, and they'll have their chance starting Monday at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. That's when they could debut the Transformer Prime TF300T, a follow-up to the original Transformer tablet.

That follow-up was thought to be the Transformer Prime TF201, but the TF300T may end up not being a quad-core device like the 201. It could be a dual-core device like the original, and perhaps not cost quite as much as the 201. Whatever Prime device comes out, it will one of dozens of new devices ready to explode onto the mobile scene.

MWC is the biggest all-mobile event of the year, so everyone will be there, except for Apple. Samsung will not be making a keynote either this year, but they will be debuting new devices. There will be smartphones and tablets and accessories galore, of course, but this is just about 10 of the hottest new tablets we could see at the annual event. Some of them have been leaked, others are just rumors, and still others are much closer to an actual launch.

Of course, not every new device is in this list because not every one has been leaked, but it should be an exciting show for mobile technology fans. Start the slideshow to see the top 10 tablets we expect to see at MWC 2012.

Tell us in the comments which device you are most excited about or most suspicious of.  

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New Adobe stats show encouraging signs of life for tablet magazines - VentureBeat

Magazines on tablets, dismissed by some as a last-ditch effort to save a dying print product, are gaining steam, according to new stats released by Adobe. Tablet-magazine readers are engaged, have long attention spans, and most importantly, actually pay for content.

The company crunched numbers from the 600 publishers that are using its Adobe Digital Publishing Suite (DPS) to produce tablet content. Currently, there are 1,500 iPad, Kindle Fire, Nook, Samsung Galaxy, and other Android tablet publications created with DPS, including 12 out of the 20 top-grossing iPad Newsstand titles.

The first promising stat is that tablet publications keep readers’ attention, with 56 percent of DPS content being read for 25 minutes to 2.5 hours each month. Nine percent of readers spend up to 5 hours a month reading tablet publications. One of the reasons for these un-Internet-like attention spans might be interactivity. Tablet publications are packed with slideshows, videos, 360-degree images, and constantly updated content from the web.

These statistics show how far the medium has come in the two years since Apple first launched the iPad, and the almost five months since it rolled out the Newsstand feature — a hub for all digital publications that live on the iPad home screen. With 16 million DPS digital publications downloaded in the past year, tablets are giving hope to publishers that are hemorrhaging print subscribers.

One of the big missteps in online publishing has been putting content online first, worrying about how to make money off of it second. Most pay walls aren’t working, and online ads don’t make the amounts of money print publishers need to fund high-quality content. Tablet publications are trying to remedy that.

“When we push content online, we’re inviting people to come into the shop and steal our candy without paying,” said Declan Moore, president of National Geographic Publishing. National Geographic uses DPS to make tablet versions of its magazines. “With the app we have a cash register in place, which we didn’t have before.”

The cash register doesn’t appear to be scaring off customers used to getting things for free. Adobe found 68 percent of tablet readers were paying for their reading material: 15 percent paid for a single issue, 26 percent purchased subscriptions, and 27 percent are shelling out for a bundle of print and digital issues.

Even with these up-front payments, ad sales remain an important source of revenue for tablet pubs. Adobe found readers are engaging with ads just as much on tablets as they do in print, and one in every five tablet page views is an advertisement.

“Different mediums lend themselves to different types of ads. Online they’re in a hunt-and-gather mode, on the iPad they’re in a lean-back-and-entertain-me mode,” said Moore. He said tablet magazine ads are more suited for “brand advertising” than online direct-response advertising, where success is measure by click-through rates.

Tablet-magazine advertisements are ahead of online ads in some respects — they are attractive, have high-production values, and can be interactive without being intrusive or annoying. That makes them ideal for big companies like Lexus that are trying to increase brand recognition, not get you to click-through and buy a car right this second.

However, in order for tablet issues to be counted toward a magazine’s general circulation numbers, publishers have to follow rules from the Audit Bureau of Circulations. These regulations are partiality responsible for limiting tablet-ad innovation, and put them behind online ads in areas such as behavioral and demographic targeting.

Interestingly, National Geographic has had impressive success on non-iPad tablets. Moore explained that iPad users own their devices for a variety of purposes — watching movies, playing games, or browsing the Internet. But many Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble Nook owners bought those tablets because they love to read.

The iPad isn’t the only tablet for magazines, and DPS isn’t the only creation option for publishers. Many magazines are using similar tools such as Mag+ (from the makers of Popular Science), Aquafadas, Woodwing, or their own custom solutions (like the New York Times) to create tablet content.

What the tablet publications have in common is they are all hoping to have finally hit on a digital business model that pays.

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Nexus Tablet Roundup: What We Know So Far

For many Android enthusiasts, a purebred Android tablet is the stuff of dreams. Until now, Google’s Nexus program, which showcases Android in its purest form, included three amazing smartphones, with the latest flagship in the series being the Galaxy Nexus. However, when it comes to a tablet receiving the Nexus treatment, all we got was rumors.

But there is hope. Pieces are starting to fall into place for the Nexus tablet. Last December, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt told an Italian newspaper that the Mountain View-based giant would market a tablet of the “highest quality” over the next six months. Boy, we were happy!

A few weeks later, Digitimes (a Taiwanese outlet with deep connections inside the Asian manufacturing sector) fed the rumor mill by suggesting that the Google tablet will be a direct competitor to the Kindle Fire, and not to the iPad, as many have expected. The leak slates the launch of the Nexus tablet (as everyone seems to call it) sometimes in March-April. Moreover, the 7-incher would be priced at an affordable $199, just like the Kindle Fire (and now just like the 8GB Nook Tablet).

Digitimes has a mixed record when it comes to predicting upcoming products, so we all took the report with the proverbial grain of salt. But this time, the Taiwanese seem to have been on to something.

On Thursday, CNET cited industry analyst Richard Shim, who claims that the Google Nexus tablet will indeed be a 7-incher and is likely to enter fabrication in April. Other useful details include the resolution of the reported device (1280?800) and an estimated production run of 1.5-2 million units. Just for comparison, Motorola has sold about 1 million Xooms and Xyboards last year, while on the other end of the scale, Amazon moved 4 million Kindle Fires just in the last quarter of 2011.

Judging from the initial production run, Google is moderately optimistic about the performance of the upcoming Nexus tablet. Two million is a respectable figure, but not that high when you compare it to the numbers that Apple works with, or even with the initial production run of the Kindle Fire, which was four million.

Shim avoided telling if the Nexus tablet will be a premium device or something in the likes of the Kindle Fire. Eric Schmidt did announce a high-quality tablet in December, but that may have been just marketing talk.

For now, we know that the Nexus tablets is likely to have display with a resolution of 1280 x 800, which makes it better than the Kindle Fire’s 1024 x 600. Note: the Galaxy Tab 7.7 also boasts a 1280 X 800 AMOLED screen, but in a 7.7 inch factor. Needless to say, it’s unlikely that Google will opt for this particular display technology, as it would make the device prohibitively expensive, and therefore never a viable competitor to Kindle’s Fire. That being said, we just can’t judge the overall quality of a product based solely on its screen technology or resolution.



If Google wants to tackle Amazon head on, it will need to keep the price of the Nexus tablet close to the $199 psychological price floor. Although the Fire was disappointing in terms of build quality, teardowns have shown that Amazon is selling the 7-inch e-reader/tablet at a loss. Google may try the same strategy with the Nexus; after all, the search business is going gangbuster.

But we think that Google can do a better tablet than the Kindle, and keep the $199 price tag. ASUS will sell its seven inch quad-core MeMo370T for $249, soon, so at $200, we should at least get some decent specs. In addition, Google is in a better position than Amazon to reach the high-quality/low price sweet spot. Not only does Google have better collaboration with manufacturers (see the line of Nexus smartphones), but it may actually pull it off by itself.

Google has a long and fruitful history of collaborating with manufacturers such as Samsung and HTC, which both participated in the Nexus smartphone program. Google also worked extensively with Motorola to create the Xoom, which was the first tablet to run Android 3.2 Honeycomb.

The question now is this: will Google make their own tablet (via Motorola) or will it work with traditional partners? The Motorola-Google deal is coming through very soon, and rumors have already pegged Google executive Dennis Woodside as the next CEO of Big M.



In the past, Google has insisted that Motorola will be run as a separate company and that it will not be given preferential treatment  or special privileges over Samsung, HTC, and other Android partners. But it’s obvious that the Motorola buyout will finally give Google significantly more control over the hardware side. It makes perfect sense for Google to release the Nexus tablet under the Motorola brand – better integration, better control, and less hassle with the partners. And, with Google having worked with Motorola before, on the Xoom tablet, it makes sense. Why would the bosses at Mountain View choose another manufacturer now, when they have all the tools they need, in their own backyard?

The bottom line: although we can’t exclude other options, we strongly believe that Google’s first Nexus tablet will also be Google’s first Motorola device.

With manufacturing starting in April, the Nexus will probably come sometimes towards the end of June. As AndroidAndMe notes, Google has moved its main household event, Google I/O, from May to late June. This would be the ideal occasion to showcase a ground-breaking product like the Nexus tablet.

A mid-year launch would also coincide with the rumored announcement of Android 5.0 Jelly Bean. Remember that Google now controls both the software and the hardware side. Who knows, it may pull an announce-and-launch event, just like Apple operates. In other words, we may actually get to taste Jelly Bean on a Nexus tablet, in as little as four months.

But again, the Jelly Bean rumor is not very reliable – all we have is one source, the same anonymous tipsters of Digitimes. Fragmentation is a major issue for Google, and a premature announcement of a new Android version may confuse (even enrage) some users. After all, ICS is still barely a faint blimp on the radar – just about 1% of all Android devices run Ice Cream Sandwich. We think that Google knows that and that they’ll try to slow things down a little.

The first Nexus tablet is definitely high (first?) on our Android wish list. The perspective of getting the full Google experience (pure Android + optimized hardware) in an affordable package is extremely exciting. Just a few more months to wait…

How about you? Do you think that Google will announce Jelly Bean in June, as well? Can the Nexus derail the Kindle Fire? And what excites you the most about the Nexus tablet?

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Android 8 Inch Tablet

Google android is amongst the primary tablet producers. I purchased android 8 inches tablet a few days back, and imagine just what, it’s incredible and so beneficial in creating your function simple. Let’s begin with the items this Middle Android tablet provides obtained.

Android os 8 inches tablet is while you understand contact display laptop with numerous helping capabilities, I guess you may obtain exhausted but Google android tablet could keep on shifting. It facilitates WiFi to get access in order to internet if you are in a place exactly where you are offered with WiFi support. Its manufacturing plant set up Google stainless -en aning web browser. Once we almost all realize that this internet browser is between the quickest web browsers.

In addition to, the touch screen is genuinely incredible and you are able to contact practically anything at all showing on the display. You are able to glide selections, and one cooler characteristic is pulling and practical symbols. Additionally, you can appreciate the law of gravity realizing online game function. In the event that we discuss about car revolving display, therefore, it provides 4 method rotary displays and this is actually the incredible function and requires you past something. Google android 8 in. Tablet is actually 8? whenever calculated diagonally.

Android os operating method (OPERATING SYSTEM) 1. 6 is employed in this particular tablet which usually can make is greater to knowledge. It’s obtained actually effective processor chip of 600MHz, and also the storage is 128MB (DDR2). The capability is 2GB (although this isn’t adequate for me simply because I am songs cool). Therefore, if you’re a songs fan you may locate this capability reduced, but don’t get concerned you possess a Small SD position in this particular, so you may lengthen its ability.

It functions with extremely devoted sensor techniques, you will find 2 kinds employed in Google android 8 in. tablet, initial one is actually accelerometer and an additional ambient gentle sensor. Middle Android tablet arrives with a number of software program like Google en aning internet browser, Docx to Proceed, Andexplorer, Android Industry, and so on.

In circumstance you aren’t indigenous English, which means you perform not require to obtain concerned about, Google android tablet offers you with multiple language choices. You are able to modify vocabulary from British to German born, French, Japanese, Italian, Chinese language, Russian and numerous more. In the event that we change to energy offer, therefore it has obtained constructed in Li-ion electric battery, also it requires a day time to get exhausted (will depend about utilization).

To determine, I’m actually pleased to suggest Android 8 in. tablet to each personal who is fascinated in acquiring one. It’s not extremely weighty and inescapable characteristic of portability is actually awesome, which means you can easily consider it to fitness center, or playground, or even any exactly where you need to consider it along with you. I acquired my Google android 8 inch capsule as it had been demonstrated in image and additionally the equipment like pier connection to USB wire, documentations, and structure energy adapter every thing was supplied. As well as I should state, proceed and obtain one to sense the engineering.

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The Basics About The Android Tablet

An android tablet, is basically a flat looking, electronic device. It is considered a portable PC, without the luggage. You will notice that it has a big screen, which makes is a great device, for looking at things on Internet and watching movies, and also reading your books.

You will notice, that the android has no keyboard or mouse, it is totally operated, using a touch sensitive screen. There is no need to use a mouse, when navigating the device. You need to get used to the symbols, and the screen itself, and they can also be converted into a virtual keypad.

Tablet sizes

You will find a range of different sizes for your tablet. When choosing an android tablet, it is important that you find a size, which will suit your situation best.

The sizes, you can expect to find, are between 5 inches and 10 inch screens.

Considering choosing a size for your tablet

When you are looking for the right size for your tablet PC it is down to you to find a size that is going to suit your needs.

If it is your aim, to use your tablet, for the Internet, and watching films, then you may want a screen size that is over 5 inches. Images may be a bit too small if it is 5 inches.

A 5 inch screen, is a great device for putting in your pocket. It is just a little bit bigger than a smart phone.

The popular sizes, for a tablet, are usually 7 inches, or 8 inches. This size range, is considered in between the mark. This is a little bigger than a smart phone, but not to big. This makes it easy to put into your bag. It is also good on your eyes, and will not cause too much strain when viewing images.

The iPad which launched in 2010, is most notable for its 10 inch screen. This is full-size, and is best for viewing pictures, images and reading ebooks. The only thing, is the fact that it may not be more portable than a laptop, for some people.

A bigger application, is going to be best suited, for those that are very much into the media side of things. The price range for this tablet device, will range between $200 and upwards. This price varies, depending on the size of the screen you choose, whether it's between 5 to 10 inches.

To get a snapshot, of all the different sizes, that you can buy you should visit a price comparison website. There you will be able to consider how much you can afford to spend also, before you part with your money. All the specifications will be laid out for you as well.

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Google tablet - 7-inch device in the works?

Google will jump into the tablet market this year with its own 7-inch device, according to a DisplaySearch analyst.

The tablet market has experienced rapid growth over the past couple of years thanks to devices such as the iPad 2, Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and Kindle Fire and it looks as though Google wants in on that cake, with its Ice Cream Sandwich operating system providing it with a good starting point.

Speaking to Cnet, analyst Richard Shim suggested that a self-branded, 7-inch (1280x800) Google tablet running Ice Cream Sandwich would start production in April.

Shim went to say that he predicts initial production will be between 1.5 million and 2 million units, but was unable to say if Google would market the tablet as a premium device or a low-end Kindle Fire rival.

It's thought the Google tablet may look to directly compete with Amazon's Kindle Fire 7-inch tablet which has seen strong sales since its launch last year, mainly due to its low price.

Google has recently inherited three tablets after its purchase of Motorola Mobility saw it take control of the Xoom, Xoom 2 and Xyboard tabs and Google chairman Eric Schmidt did hint in December that the company was preparing "a tablet of the highest quality".

Could the tablet Schmidt muses about be this rumoured 7-inch device, or is he referring to a tablet made by a third party manufacture (Motorola perhaps?) which Google will back, a la the Samsung Galaxy Nexus.

We were expecting to see a host of new tablets announced at MWC 2012, but it now looks like that will not be the case.

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8GB Nook Tablet official for $199

Barnes & Noble has officially announced an 8GB iteration of its Nook Tablet at the same price-point as the Amazon Kindle Fire.

Following a leaked memo on Monday, the bookseller has confirmed it will sell the new model, which halves the available on-board storage, for just $199.

B&N hopes that the new model will help it compete with the one-size-fits-all 16GB Amazon Kindle Fire, which still undercuts the 16GB Nook Tablet by $50.

The new 7-inch tablet retains most of its vital stats including an operating system based on Android 2.3, access to thousands of top-shelf apps, 1GHz (dual-core) processor and an impressive 11.5 hours of battery life.

However, the internal memory has been trimmed back from 1GB to 512MB as Barnes & Noble seeks another way to account for the price drop.

The company also announced on Wednesday that the original Nook Color tablet has been reduced to just $149, amid rumours that Amazon is planning to launch a colour screen e-ink Kindle.

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Acer Iconia Tab A500 Android Honeycomb Tablet - Computers - Laptops

Tablet Best Low-price Android Honeycomb first in Indonesia was launched by Acer Indonesia on May three, 201one and is the first android Acer Pill product. Acer Iconia Pill A500, Acer Indonesia finally penetrated the Indonesian market with the discharge Pill in Pill product: A500.
Launch Android ,Acer Iconia A500 as Pill Best Low-price Honeycomb match perfectly with market conditions in Indonesia, officially it will be said that Indonesia people gadget fans are stricken with fever tablets. It's been a ton of Pill product in circulation, however with the Android operating system Froyo actually designed for smartphones with very little screens. Well, currently Acer is prepared to amaze our loyal customers by presenting Acer Iconia A50zero, Tablet-based mostly Android operating system in Indonesia's initial Honeycomb.
As a Pill Android Honeycomb Best first cheap in Indonesia Acer Iconia A50zero incorporates a touch of luxury style. Wrap metal gray end on the casing Iconia A50zero was thick with the aura of a stylish and fashionable minimalist bit screen measuring 10.1 inches that is bright and sharp, terribly ideal if the spacer (Acer fans nickname) fond of reading books or browsing the Web, the text will be displayed comfy with the scale of the eye.
Tablet Best Low-price Android Honeycomb is supplied with NVIDIA Tegra 250 processor Twin-speed 1GHz cortex A9 promising fantastic gaming performance, 1GB RAM, and GeForce graphics chip, Tablet android Iconia A five hundred has new features and applications that aren't owned any different Tablet.
Not solely that given the Android Honeycomb Tablet Best Low-value Acer Iconia A50zero, but Android Honeycomb Tablet Best Low cost Acer Iconia A50zero additionally have ten nice games that are optimized for Nvidia's Tegra platform, that should additionally be extra fun if played in Tablet Best Low price Android Honeycomb Acer Iconia A50zero.
To determine whether a game designed specifically for Tegra or will not be seen from the THD frill that's temporary for High-Defintion Tegra. Game version THD on Pill Best Cheap Android Honeycomb is certain to run higher and a lot of pretty on the Nvidia Tegra-primarily based devices like Iconia Tab A500.
Obviously, the spacer can additionally use it to photograph themselves. The rear camera contains a resolution of five megapixels, with auto-focus and LED flash. This camera is additionally quite powerful for business video, having the flexibility to record HD video in 720p (1280 ? 720 pixels). Now it's come back back to you wheter you wan to shop for this product or not, the choice is in your hands currently.

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Android tablet price war - Marketing

Acer, Lenovo, Dell, Asus ... ... the face of the impact of Apple iPad, PC industry giants have finally started to expand the "counterattack." Tablet PC's "Hundred Flowers", may soon trigger a price war.

Sources yesterday on the "First Financial Daily" said Acer android Tablet PC with China's market to promote new growth. "The afternoon of 15 will be released in Beijing." The source said.

JT Wang, Acer's chairman and CEO, a few days ago set the tone for this strategy: 7 May, he presided over in Lake Lugano, Switzerland in a note to investors, on the topic specifically as "Towards a mobile terminal Leaders of the Road "and stressed that if the Tablet PC shipments this year goes well, will be able to recover behind schedule.

This is known as "King of artillery," the PC leader stressed that Acer would not deliberately impulse, will focus on the value of tablet PCs, and will increase R & D investment. External rendering seem to be afraid of Apple, last week, Acer announced that specially in the United States took the lead, will be launched this month, 24 cellular Tablet PC, Apple iPad 2 cheaper than the low $ 50 minimum configuration version.

Lenovo has not bet all of the resources in the open source operating system, and yesterday it announced this year in June, the new Tablet PC will be available worldwide, in addition to Android version of the Microsoft Windows version will be released, and, also with the naming Music Pad differ.

"We will also introduce for enterprise users of tablet computers, integrated business features Thinkpad advantage." Yesterday afternoon, Chen Danqing Lenovo spokesman told this newspaper that it is only the beginning, Lenovo's mobile Internet product strategy planning than these to much richer.

The advantage may lie in temporary factory prices of flat products to push their new Apple iPad 2 basic than the lower price.

The PC giant trailing Apple's big push Tablet PC, even with short term price advantage, but in terms of core competencies, and perhaps find it difficult ahead of the competition.Although selling Apple hardware terminal, but its core competence lies in the back of the online services platform. As of now, Lenovo is in addition to rapid adoption of its "App Store", the other PC companies have not yet matured plan. The number of software downloads Apple APP Store has already more than 100 million times.

Analysts believe that as soon as possible if you can not build an application model, these swarms of tablet PCs, next year may fall into a price war. "It's like the market of netbook in 2009."

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Tablet Price List - Shopping - Electronics

The new 10.1-inch tablet from Samsung is the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 powered by a Nvidia dual-core Tegra 2 processor, 16GB or 32GB of storage, and sporting dual camera with front-facing 2 megapixel camera for video calling and 8 mega-pixel camera at rear. The tablet is pre-loaded with the latest Android v3.0 OS. It aliases as Samsung P7100 Tablet.

The Galaxy Tab 10.1 weighs only 5.99gm , more than 1 kg lighter than its key competitor 9.7-inch Apple iPad 3G, where the possibility is that the iPad 2 will be more lighter !. Being the successor of the popular 7-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab tablet, tt features dual surround-sound speakers,enabling users to enjoy multimedia to the maximum extent without having to compromise mobility.

It features high speed 3G HSPA+ connectivity and Wi-Fi n support.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1-inch Tablet key features:

10.1-inch high resolution multi-touch display

Latest Google's Android Honeycomb OS (v.3.0)

Light weight - 5.99gm

Dual camera - front and rear

8 MP rear camera with Full HD video recording

1GHz Dual core processor

Flash 10.1 support

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is yet to be launched is India. It is announced that it should be launched in India in the month of July,2011. It is to be priced in India for Rs. 37000 approx.

Dell Tablet Price

The tablet from Dell the Dell Streak is priced at 24,399 in India and is a 5-inch Android-based tablet combining the most popular features of a smartphone and a tablet and designed to provide people the best "on-the-go" entertainment, social connection, and navigation experience.

The tablet from Dell is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8250 mobile processor. It is, in fact, the world's first Snapdragon based pocket tablet. The display size of 5-inch screen is ideal for experiencing thousands of Android Market widgets, games and applications. It has built-in 3G HSUPA, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity.

The Dell Streak is a full-function 3G phone and supports integrated social networking widgets and gives access to tons of apps through the Android Marketplace. The device supports real-time Facebook and Flickr support and lets you upload your photo or video online almost instantly. It allows full-fledged multitasking capabilities.

The Streak's UI supports the drag-and-drop functionality for almost all apps. Google Voice Search support works with all commonly used apps(including Maps, IMDb&Youtube), just hit the microphone button and speak your search term and it returns the relevant results.

The smartphone sports dual cameras, a user-facing VGA digital camera and a rear-facing 5MP digital camera with Dual LED flash. Choosing between the different 6 scene options (Automatic, Night, Portrait, Landscape, Sport and Snow) and each adds a specific ambiance to the picture which supports four White Balance presets and you can even alter brightness and contrast.

Blackberry Tablet.

BlackBerry PlayBook.

The newly launched BlackBerry PlayBook is a Tablet. BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet has a display of 7 inch WSVGA capacitive touch screen display with 4-finger multi-touch and gesture support and 1024 x 600 pixels screen resolution.

The BlackBerry Playbook runs on BlackBerry's Tablet OS the QNX and the device is powered with 1 GHz dual-core processor. The 7-inch tablet from BlackBerry features dual cameras, 5 MP 1080p HD rear-facing and a 3 MP 1080p HD forward-facing.

The BlackBerry Playbook equipped with Micro HDMI port, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, USB data, GPS support and Email, IM, Social networking, Games, Media, Apps, HTML 5, Adobe Flash 10.1 enabled.

BlackBerry Playbook Tablet Features and Specs:

Dimensions: 7.6?5.1x.4 inches

Network:

OS: BlackBerry Tablet OS

Processor: 1 GHz dual-core processor

Display: 7-inch WSVGA, capacitive screen display

1024 x 600 pixels screen resolution

4-finger multi-touch and gesture support

5 MP 1080p HD rear-facing camera

3 MP 1080p HD forward-facing camera

HD Video Playback and Recording

1GB RAM

Micro HDMI port

GPS

Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, USB data

Games, Media, Apps, HTML 5, Adobe Flash 10.1 enabled

Email, IM and Social Networking Support

Standard Battery.

It is available in India and is price at Rs. 27000.

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Beetel Magiq price Ultra-affordable Tablet PC - Technology ...

The Android market is heating-up with tough competition therefore mobile makers introduced feature-packed & affordable Android smartphones. The Reliance Communications & Beetel (subsidiary of Bharti Airtel) have launched ultra-cheap Tablet PCs, priced near around Rs.12, 999 & Rs.9, 000 respectively. Having powered by Android 2.3 operating system it offers decent performance whereas the Reliance 3G Tab has got power of new Android 2.3 OS. Though, the 800 MHz processor of Beetel Magiq leads the race but its 7inches WVGA display screen may make you annoy. The capacitive display technologies may perform better than its touch display. When the screen does't respond instantly to your commands your easily get irritate. But, you will enjoy fast processing, internet services & games that come with its highly-efficient processor.

There is docking port & a micro SD slot on the bottom side track pad & additional buttons are also available for receiving & cancelling the calls. The left side of the tablet has been occupied with four touch sensitive Android keys. The form factor & light-weight design feels quite attractive. Its chrome finish metal battery cover reflects graceful image. Beetel Magiq has got the 8GB on-board storage capacity, which will take care of user's storage requirement.

If you are still expecting for more, then it won't let you down by accepting the external 16GB micro SD memory card. It features dual camera 2MP rear & front facing that perform average job. The picture quality is good but doesn't appeal much. Its videocalling camera also allows you to capture still images in basic VGA resolution by changing the settings. The GPS navigation with A-GPS support and various other location based services are available. The advanced internet connectivity features & instant messaging options bring you unlimited fun of internet & keep you connected with your family & friends respectively. This Beetel table has been equipped with 2200 mAh battery that delivers insufficient talk time. You will get the other useful tablet accessories like travel charger, a USB cable & earphone.

Beetel Magiq price figures open your eyes with surprise. In conclusion, we can say that Beetel Magiq is the lucrative deal for the cost-conscious people who aspire to experience the Android tablet advantages. The details of Beetel Tablets & updated Tablets price in India will easily accessible on - naaptol.com. On this online shopping webportal you will also get available with various other products under the hood of different brands, compare the features & price of the products & get advantage of the best deals with discounts.

Vinnit Alex is an eminent author who provides concrete information about computing devices like computers and computer accessories, Lenovo Tablet, Reliance Tablet and Nokia Tablet are some of the devices he specializes in.

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