Thread: All Things Android

Opera Mini 6 (Which I still think is the best Mobile Browser out there) released last week.

Find it in the Market.

Earlier this week Opera released a new version of Opera Mini for Android. The new version has an updated look and feel which is more polished than before.
There are also new features with the browser offering support for pinch to zoom for the first time. The app also now makes use of Android’s share functionality for sending links. Support for Tablets has also been added although I didn’t have the hardware to test this out.
Although relatively minor, I was also glad to see that links can finally be opened in background tabs. A feature I’ve personally been waiting for since the app was originally released.
As ever browsing is strikingly fast, especially over 2G where it leaves other browsers in the dust thanks to its webpage compression.
You can grab it now from the Android Market.

And a slideshow for the best 15 Android Apps for newbies is here.

Features detachable 10-inch screen with front and rear camera
AsusTek has launched its new Android 3.0 tablet device in Taiwan.
The new tablet device that features 10-finger touch technology differs from other similar offerings with an optional physical keyboard that is "superior" to other docking options for other tablets because of its light weight and flexibility, said the company.
It comes with a detachable front and rear camera for video conferencing.
The EEE Pad Transformer runs on Google's Android 3.0 OS. The device features a detachable 10.1-inch screen with a front and rear camera.
AsusTek CEO Jerry Shen said users can get a full range of functions including 10-finger touch, Flash supported video viewing, e-book reading, and a physical keyboard so they don't have to deal with any inconveniences.
The EEE Pad Transformer is expected to hit stores in the UK on 30 March, to be followed by US sales.
In Taiwan, the 16GB version of the tablet without the keyboard sells for about $500, while the keyboard version is priced at about $600.


(Rumoured to have a 16 Hour Battery life with the Keyboard option).

Amazon have published an Android VM, so you can try Apps before you buy them. Very clever!

Amazon.com lets you play with an Android virtual machine, try apps before you buy them -- Engadget

Has anyone tried "Talk to me" the Android translator?

Coming in at $450 and you can add an SD card, this is great value if you only want a Wifi device. There is a SIM slot but I'm guessing that's for telcos and contracts, etc.

Welcome to the newest Android tablet on the block, Acer’s Iconia Tab A500. This is an Android 3.0 Honeycomb tablet, that being a version of the Google mobile operating system made specifically for tablets, and it’s got a big fat 10.1-inch screen. In the front there’s a 2-megapixel camera for video chat and photos, on the back there’s a 5-megapixel camera for video recording and photos as well. This is a device that will go in direct competition with the Motorola XOOM and the Apple iPad, with a bit of competition from the LG G-Slate, mostly because their dual-core processors come from the same parent: NVIDIA. Will this slice of aluminum carve its way into your Android loving heart?

Hardware

This tablet joins the still small ranks of approximately 10-inch tablets, this one measuring in at 10.1-inches in the face surrounded by a 10.24 x 6.97 x 0.52-inch (260 x 177 x 13.3-mm,) 25.75-oz (730-g) heavy (display included) body. From there you’ll want to notice that the entire back section is made of a thin, light aluminum while either side of the device is made of plastic. There’s a removable cover at the top (or the side, however you’d like to look at it,) that reveals your SDcard slot and future functional slot for LTE SIM card. You can jam up to 64GB of memory on an SDcard in that first slot, while the SIM card slot remains inactive for now.

The form of this device, you’ll come to notice quite quickly, is what sets it aside from the rest of the tablet pack. It also has a lovely Dolby speaker system that’ll blast your eardrums out – except, like all tablets STILL do for some inane reason, the speakers blast outwards from the back of the device. That’s not to say though that you cannot hear their awesomeness, because you definitely can. The TRON test was performed upon this test and it passed with flying colors.

Software

This tablet runs Android 3.0 Honeycomb, a system which, if you’re unaware of, you can learn all about back in our gigantic Honeycomb Guide (SlashGear 101), or see our Honeycomb Review. Besides all the regular bells and whistles you’ll always find in your Google-approved Honeycomb layout, you’ll find a few extra games and demos that’ll whet your appetite for more NVIDIA collaborated-upon high-powered games and fabulous applications.

Other than that, there’s a slightly unique organization app that’ll help you keep track of your apps if you wish, this system taking advantage of Honeycomb’s lovely ability to add a different wallpaper to each panel. There’s an app that goes by the name of Clear.fi that Acer has out, one that’ll let you wirelessly connect to and from other devices in your home network so that you might share your media. It’s an excellent concept and one that’ll be gaining some steam very soon I would educatedly guess. THEN it’s basically nothing but Honeycomb and no obstacles between you and benchmark topping glory. See the performance section for more info.

Camera

This device comes with a front-facing 2-megapixel camera for video, photo, and video chat, and a back-facing 5-megapixel camera for video and photos. As always, I’ll mostly let the media do the talking.

The 2-megapixel front-facing cam is about as good as you’re going to get on any tablet these days, while the back-facing camera definitely could be better. Both the G-Slate and the XOOM tablet have 8-megapixel cameras, while the iPad 2 camera is still up to debate if you ask me, but definitely isn’t better than a 6 (in my best guess, that is.) Definitely an alright camera on both sides, but not perfect.

Performance

Our sister site Android Community has a review with several benchmarks on this device, but we’ll leave those sorts of numbers to them. What you’ll need to know from the SlashGear perspective is that it’s no better and no worse than the rest of the current NVIDIA Tegra 2 suite of devices. A couple of examples: Motorola XOOM and T-Mobile’s LG G-Slate.

If you’re unused to using all of these tablets on a regular basis, you’d be hard pressed to know the difference between the operating systems. They’re all the same and they’re all running NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 dual-core processor. The difference is in the attached apps that, each of them in turn, tell you what the manufacturers and carriers want you to experience. Performancewise, if you’re not going to be testing exact numbers via benchmarking systems, this tablet is the same as the XOOM. If you’re comparing to the iPad 2, to be honest, I’ve experienced more bugs in the Apple tablet due to imperfect tablet interfaces (I’m looking at you, Netflix.)

Battery

The battery on this beast is magnificent. If you plan on doing a full day’s work on this device alone and that means a medium workload, you’ll be set for a full workday. If you want to use it heavily, meaning you’re going to be recording and playing video for example, you’re looking at more like 8 hours. On an average day, give this tablet 24 hours before it runs out of juice.

Wrap-Up

This is a tablet that you’re going to decide on purchasing based on your love for the brand Acer, your love for the unique light aluminum back end, or your dislike of the rest of the Android tablets on the market. If I only owned this tablet and an iPad 2, would I use this tablet more often than the iPad? Personally, no, but that’s because I’m hardcore Android Community and I’ve gotta represent. Might someone else use the iPad 2 more? Probably. Apple has a much more massive hold over the world’s perception of what a tablet should be, and if people would have to choose on the spot, they’d listen to the one that they know other people will love them for.

But if a consumer had both an Acer A500 and an iPad 2 (or heck a, iPad 1,) and wanted to avoid appearing to have the same technology as everyone else, what then? Acer’s made a tablet that looks like none other, and it’s got a nice sound system on it, and it’s mostly metal, and it’s light. And it feels nice to hold, and there’s a USB port in it. And the SDcard port works. What other reason do you need?

Peter Rojas, co-founder of popular gadget website Gdgt, has reignited rumours of an Amazon Android tablet release, suggesting the retail giant has partnered with Samsung to release a device later this year.

Rumours of an Amazon Android tablet have been circulating over the past few weeks, gaining momentum after the company created and unveiled its own Android Appstore application and Cloud Drive digital music locker, services that would perfectly suit an Amazon-branded device should one ever exist.

Rojas says he is “99% certain” that Amazon has worked with Samsung to build its new tablet, speculating that it will not run Google’s Honeycomb Android operating system, given the search giant’s recent moves to tighten how OEM’s customise the platform. Instead, he believes it will use an older version of Android to build a “totally customized experience that tightly integrates Amazon services” – likely incorporating the services suggest above.

With “tight” integration of its services, including the Kindle bookstore, Amazon would be able to price the device aggressively, relying on its users to pay for value-added services to offset the production cost of the tablet. Amazon brilliantly marketed its Kindle e-reader, there is nothing to suggest it couldn’t do the same for its own-brand tablet.

A Summer release date is speculative, linking Amazon’s release date to the August release date of the Kindle 3.

Amazon could change how tablet devices are perceived in the market, offering services over hardware but also pricing its device a number of different ways.

We hope confirmed details become available soon.

I am ready to buy a Galaxy I9100 S 2 when they are released in Singapore - it seems to have what I want in an Android package

Samsung I9100 Galaxy S II - Full phone specifications

^Yea that new Galaxy S is a dandy piece of kit, I reckon I'll get one too.
Somewhere else I think I read that the CPU will be 1.4Ghz dual core processor.


Has anyone tried out any of the Android translator apps yet?

Hi
I bought my galaxy s late last year, at that point samsung had a thai/english app available but I noticed after going to froyo firmware the app download was deleted from the samsung apps range

Only played with Google translate.

But Google's aim is to produce a version that can translate voice in real time.

Now that will be something.

You just go into the settings and change the default language as far as I know. Shouldn't have to reflash to do that!

An el cheapo Galaxy Tab without the phone capabilities:

So you want a cheap Android-based tablet? Check the Archos 7c

Category: Tablet - PDA - Tags: 7-inch, 720p, Android, Android 2.1, Archos 7c, budget tablet, Capacitive Screen, cheap tablet, cortex a8, Wi-fi, Wifi

Many people are complaining about the price of “certain very famous tablets” being very very expensive for their requirements. There are plenty of Chinese rip-offs floating around, but then again you are putting yourself at the risk of unsolid capacitators assembed by a 12y old in a well hidden back room.
So essentially until now you only had the really expensive tablets which boast more features than an Italian speaking expresso machine, or the Chinese HQ alternative (where HQ prossibly stands for the region code of the shabby office). Actually, there are a few ‘inbetweeners’ in the sub-500 dollar segment, but nothing that will blow your socks off.
Do not fear, Archos 7c is here. In short it is a budget tablet running on Android’s Eclair-flavor with a Cortex A8 processor. 720p HD video playback on its 7 inch display, capacitive screen (800*480px,), 802.11 b/g WiFi, 8GB storage space, microSD/SDHC slot, USB connectivity. Expected for next week’s release at a mere 219 USD.
In the end, very basic with minimal features, not to be compared with Motorola’s Xoom or LG’s G-Slate. But hey, it’s cheap!

The "Sony Tablet" S1 has a single screen and is for home use while the portable S2 has two screens, Sony told a news conference.

The tablet devices will have access to online content to buy and download videos, music and other entertainment and be compatible with existing PlayStation games, Sony official Kunimasa Suzuki said.

Digital books can also be downloaded and read on the multimedia computers which are Wi-Fi and 3G/4G compatible for email and Internet access.

The S1 has a 9.4 inch (24 centimetre) screen, and front and rear cameras while the folding clamshell S2 has dual 5.5 inch colour touchscreens and fits into a pocket.

"This design is particularly relevant for reading digital books whose content is displayed on screen as two pages side-by side," Suzuki said.

Both screens can be used together as a single large screen or for playing games on one and displaying control buttons on the other.

The S1 can also work as a universal remote to control audio-visual equipment or send content to television screens or music to wireless speakers, Sony said.

The two devices use the Google Android 3.0 operating system, known as Honeycomb, which is optimised for devices with larger screen sizes.

"I'm excited about 'Sony Tablet' as it will further spur the development of applications and network offerings which users are looking for," said Andy Rubin, senior vice president of Google's mobile division.

The announcement comes as Sony looks to focus more on pushing its content such as games and music through hardware platforms including game consoles, smartphones and tablet computers.

Sony said earlier this year it planned to be the number-two tablet maker by 2012 but until Tuesday had given little indication of how it intended to compete in a market already dominated by Apple's iPad.

The iPad, which was released in April of last year, accounted for 83.9 percent of the total 17.6 million tablets sold in 2010, according to technology research company Gartner.

New entrants have flooded into the tablet computer market, but Sony's devices are not due to go on sale around the world until the northern hemisphere autumn, well behind its rivals.

The company did not give any indication of pricing.

Sony also announced a new line of "hybrid" notebook computers which feature a slide screen covering a keyboard.

the Archos 7c

Expected for next week’s release at a mere 219 USD

I will be interested to see if they can be found for this price somewhere within reach

the Huawei Idios 7 capacitive must not be far off either - wonder what it will be priced at

Originally Posted by baldrick

the Archos 7c

Expected for next week’s release at a mere 219 USD

I will be interested to see if they can be found for this price somewhere within reach

the Huawei Idios 7 capacitive must not be far off either - wonder what it will be priced at

Do you mean this puppy?

Link

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

Do you mean this puppy?

the original had a restistive screen - a new one with a capacitive screen was dues out 2nd quarter of this year

Originally Posted by baldrick

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

Do you mean this puppy?

the original had a restistive screen - a new one with a capacitive screen was dues out 2nd quarter of this year

Ah OK. And what are the benefits?

While Apple are desperately trying to include iPods to show that iOS is still the dominant mobile OS, here's a more meaningful statistic:

Nearly one-third (31 percent) of consumers planning on getting a new smartphone want a device with the Google Android operating system, while 30 percent want an Apple iPhone and 11 percent want a RIM Blackberry, according to the Nielsen Company’s monthly surveys of U.S. mobile consumers from January 2011 – March 2011.
Some 20 percent of survey respondents were unsure of what device they wanted.

The results represent a shift from Nielsen’s survey from July to September of last year, which found that 33 percent of consumers wanted an Apple iPhone, while 26 percent wanted an Android device and 13 percent wanted a RIM Blackberry. Nearly 18% were unsure.

The shift in consumer sentiment is already translating into sales, with half of those surveyed in March 2011 who purchased a smartphone in the last six months having purchased an Android phone, compared with 25% who bought an Apple iPhone. Some 15 percent said they had purchased a Blackberry phone.

In terms of current market share, Android now holds 37%, while Apple’s iOS has 27% and RIM BlackBerry’s OS has 22% as of March 2011, Nielsen said.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

Ah OK. And what are the benefits?

only having used resistive before I can only guess that a capacitive screen is more finger friendly and not susceptible to screen sag

Google has confirmed Google Talk with video and voice chat for Android phones.

You can video or voice chat with your friends, family and colleagues right from your Android phone, whether they're on their compatible Android tablet or phone, or using Gmail with Google Talk on their computer. You can make calls over 3G or over Wi-Fi connectivity.

In your Google Talk friends list, a video or voice chat button will appear next to your contacts and you can simply touch the button to connect with them. Any text chats from the person you're talking with will be overlaid on your phone's screen so you can read them without having to leave the video.

And, if you need to check something else, the video pauses automatically so you can go back to your phone's home screen or another app. The audio will keep going even though the video has paused.

Google Talk with video and voice chat will gradually roll out to Nexus S devices in the next few weeks as part of the Android 2.3.4 over-the-air update and will launch on other Android 2.3+ devices in the future.

I started thinking about Android tablets the moment Apple introduced the iPad back in January 2010. After all, if Apple could find a way to make its wildly successful iPhone operating system work on a larger device, it seemed only logical that Google could as well.
Even before Google software engineers adapted Android to run on tablets, Samsung and some other manufacturers figured out ways to shoehorn the phone version of Android to work on larger devices. The results were mixed. But some products, like the Samsung Galaxy Tab, did a pretty good job taking the Android phone experience to a larger platform.
Then in February, Google took the wraps off Honeycomb, a version of Android optimized for tablets.
Motorola was the first to employ Honeycomb with its Xoom tablet at a starting price of $800, which was $300 more than the least expensive iPad at the time. True, unlike the cheapest iPad, the $800 Xoom worked with 3G cellular service. But when Motorola started shipping its Wi-Fi only version, it priced it at $599 and, by that time, you could get a Wi-Fi only iPad for $399 or an iPad 2 for $499.
At those prices, Motorola didn't have a chance of competing with the iPad. Not only was the iPad a lot cheaper, it had already established itself as the runaway leader. For anyone to seriously challenge Apple, they have to figure out a way to make their product either cheaper or better.
Well, Acer definitely succeeded, at least on the price issue. The new Acer Iconia Tab A500 sells for $449, which is $50 less than the entry level iPad 2 (though you can now order a refurbished iPad for $349 from the online Apple store). The new Acer is Wi-Fi only, but if you have a smartphone capable of creating its own Wi-Fi hotspot, you can use that to provide Internet service to a Wi-Fi only tablet or laptop.
Whether Acer succeeded in making a tablet that's better than the iPad is a bit harder to judge. But if you prefer Android to Apple's iOS mobile operating system and want some options like a USB port, a MicroSD card slot and the ability to use Flash, you now have a viable and affordable choice. The Acer also has HDMI out to connect to a TV set.
While Apple pretty much cloned its iPhone user interface to the iPad, Google's Honeycomb is more of an adaptation. Android phone users will figure it out soon enough but there are significant changes, such as the lack of even a single dedicated button to navigate back to the home screen. Instead there are soft keys that show up at the bottom of the screen, regardless of how you are holding the screen. There is also a back key and one that shows you your more recently used applications. There is a physical on/off switch, volume control and lock to turn off automatic screen rotation between landscape and portrait mode.
Although it's optimized for a tablet and is not based on an existing PC operating system, Honeycomb strikes me as a bit more PC-centric than the iPad. For one thing, it supports a more robust form of multitasking, allowing you to see the programs you're running and quickly switch from one application to another.
And the hardware also gives you flexibility to add storage, thanks to the USB port and extra memory slots. For example, for $21 you can buy a MicroSD card that will double the device's storage to 32GB. I plugged in a 16GB external thumb drive full of music and was able to play the songs and see the cover art, though it took a few minutes before the tablet could access the files.
Beyond the interface, Acer did a nice job on the industrial design with a combination brushed aluminum and plastic case. Yes, it's heavier (1.7 pounds versus 1.33 pounds) and thicker (.5 inch versus .34 inch) than the iPad 2, but it also has a larger (10.1 inch versus 9.7 inch) display. Based on my very unscientific "how it feels in my hand" test, I'd say it's slightly better than the original iPad, but not as good as the iPad 2.
At the end of the day, the biggest difference between a Honeycomb tablet and the iPhone is the trade-off between flexibility and simplicity. Apple has designed a system that's very easy to use as long as you want to use it exactly the way Apple intended it to be used. Google offers power, flexibility and expandability.
Using Google's Honeycomb and the hardware that supports it is a little like being around a real Honeycomb. It's a bit complex and, if you're not careful, you can get stung. But once you know what you're doing, it's very sweet.

I won't bother posting the whole things, here's an a few links that might interest you:

15 Best Android Tablets

10 Best Android Apps for Kids

Samsung rolling out Gingerbread update to Galaxy S; Tab to follow

Google is on the verge of revealing an Android based mobile payments service.

People familiar with the matter have told The Wall Street Journal that the company is planning to unveil a near-field communications based mobile payments system at an event in New York on Thursday.

NFC enabled smartphones and services allow users to make small payments from their phones by swiping the device in front of it. Some people think that mobile payments will ultimately replace cash and debit cards in the future.

Source told the WSJ that service will first be rolled out in New York and San Francisco before being available elsewhere. Some of the participating retailers in the new mobile payments service include retailers Macy’s and American Eagle as well as the Subway fast food chain.

The WSJ had earlier reported that Google is partnering with financial companies Citigroup and MasterCard and credit card hardware makers VeriFone Systems and ViVOtech.

Even if Google doesn’t get a significant cut of the transactions, the service will undoubtedly boost its digital advertising business. The company will be able to provide retailers and advertisers with more data about users in order to offer them targeted discounts and ads.