Tech News and Reviews
Posts tagged Android tablets
The Daily coming to Android tablets this spring?
Feb 24th
Been sick with jealousy over all those people reading The Daily on their iPads? Well, it looks like that could all end some time soon if AllThingD’s PKafka has heard correctly. Apparently, News Corp’s tablet-only magazine / newspaper will be heading to Android this spring (or some time in Q2). Considering the team has gotten quite a bit of help from Apple on the development side (word is Apple also rushed to help them fix some of the early bugs) and was the first to use Apple’s new subscription service, that does seem a bit quick, but we’re certainly not complaining about more apps coming to those Honeycomb tablets. We just hope the random crashes and slow load times are fixed by then.
Acer’s Android tablets hands-on!
Nov 24th
We wish we had better news about our hands-on success here at the Acer global press conference, but because all of the company’s Android tablets will run Honeycomb / 3.0 or Google’s “tablet OS” most of the units just weren’t functioning. The 10.1-inch, dual-core Tegra-powered version was the only unit that would power on, and though we did get to see it blaze through some HD video, for the most part it was very sluggish and clearly acting like a pre-production unit. As far as the hardware goes, the display was bright and surprisingly had decent viewing angles. Acer’s been notorious for using terrible LCDs, so this is quite a nice change! Oh, and as you already knew, it does have two cameras.
We eventually convinced a very nice Acer rep on hand to bring out the 4.8- and 7-inch devices for a hardware demo — both of them were also very early units, but they did look nice from afar with glossy black screens and brushed metal backs. The phonlet’s 4.8-inch, 1024 x 480-resolution screen (it has a 21:9 aspect ratio!) makes it much wider than a Streak, and reminded us a lot of the LG GW900 (may it rest in peace). We told you we didn’t have much in the way of impressions, but hit the gallery below for some more hands-on shots and the break for a quick video of the 10-incher in action. April can’t come soon enough, can it?
Marvell prototypes a few good Android tablets, we go hands-on
Nov 22nd
It’s a precarious time to show off new tech at this point — can’t make it to stores in time for holidays, guaranteed to get more exposure if debuted at January’s Consumer Electronics Show. Not that Marvell cares, since its expertise is semiconductors — the stuff with which OEM’s dreams are made. The company was on hand at Pepcom showing off some reference designs for HD tablets with Android 2.2: 10-inch, 1280 x 780 resolution, and an Armada 600 chip. Reportedly it can also output to two external monitors, but all we got to see was one hooked up mirroring our game of Angry Birds. Thin and light, if a bit flimsy in its prototype form. We’ve been told the reference design has been used for a handful of products that’ll show up on the CES show floor. Also on hand were a couple of more education-targeted slates with Armada 100 chips and price points planned in the $100 range (Moby, OLPC, is that you?). Check out our hands-on pics below!
Acer said to be launching 7-, 10-inch Android tablets before the end of the year
Jul 15th
Acer’s already offered some indication that it planned to launch at least one Android-based tablet before the end of the year, and it looks like we’re starting to get few more tidbits of information. According to DigiTimes (reasonably reliable when it comes to Acer rumors), the company is planning to launch both 7-inch and 10-inch tablets sometime in the fourth quarter of this year, both of which will reportedly be ARM-based and run Android 2.2 (complete with Flash support_. Details are otherwise still pretty light, but DigiTimes is backing up earlier talk that Acer’s looking to partner with mobile carriers on the devices, which we presume means they’ll both at least have a 3G option.
