Is This The 10-Inch BlackBerry PlayBook?

Photos of what could be the 10-inch version of BlackBerry’s PlayBook tablet have surfaced on Vietnamese forum Tinhte.  If real, the tablet looks very much the same as its smaller, 7-inch brother, with a simple, black design, relatively wide bezel and a BlackBerry logo on the bottom.  The device sports a SIM card slot and a sign that says “BlackBerry4G PlayBook,” which imply cellular connectivity of the fastest order. Other than that, no specifications have been revealed.  Check out many more photos of the device over at Tinhte, including a comparison with the 7-inch PlayBook and several photos of the device’s insides.

[Source: Mashable]

Huawei reveals the Mediapad 7 Lite, exact specs a mystery

What we see here is the latest Android device to emerge from Huawei, the Mediapad 7 Lite. We'd love to be able to run through the full list of specifications, but as yet very little has been revealed about this tablet. From the press shots it appears to be running pretty much stock Ice Cream Sandwich, but otherwise it's a pretty mysterious device thus far.  What we do know about the device is that the 7-inch IPS display will be capable of full HD video playback. Additionally, the Mediapad 7 Lite will be a metal unibody construction, house a rear facing camera, and be capable of 3G cellular voice, SMS and MMS. 7-inch phone anybody? Otherwise, we know nothing of the processor, the RAM, on-board storage.   It looks really well designed, and packing cellular features could potentially make it a bit of a hit. We'll have to sit tight for the time being though, as there is no indication of launch date, price, or which markets will be seeing it. 

[Source: Android Central]

Google Nexus 7 available at Carphone Warehouse from 26th of July

Wanting to get your hands on the Google Nexus 7 in the UK, but come up empty-handed so far? Carphone Warehouse sends word that it'll be stocking the highly-anticipated (and highly-demanded) Jelly Bean tablet from this Friday, July 27. Carphone's only stocking the more expensive 16GB version, which retails for £199.99 in the UK. That's also the version that's currently sold out on Google Play, so if you want to get hold of a 16GB Nexus 7 in Old Blighty, this may be your best bet.  In addition to the option to buy an N7 outright, Carphone is also offering the ASUS-made tablet on a tethered contract, which includes a Mifi and an (undisclosed) data allowance. Normally we'd say you'd have to be a bit mad to pick up a tablet on-contract with a mobile operator, but if you're after a Mifi anyway, you could certainly do worse than picking yourself up a free Android 4.1 tablet in the process. Prices on the tethered contracts are said to start at £20.50 per month.

[Source: Android Central … Click to read full story]

Asus Transformer Pad Infinity set for UK Launch August 31st

The Asus Transformer Pad Infinity, already out in the US as well as other parts of Europe, has finally been priced and dated for the UK market. It'll be available from Amazon UK on August 31st in 32GB or 64GB configurations, with an asking price of £599.99 (around $930). It's unclear what exactly you'll get for your money right now — Engadget reports the £599.99 price is for a 64GB model with included keyboard dock, while Phandroid maintains it's for a 32GB tablet.  No matter which site turns out to be correct, it's safe to say that the Transformer Pad Infinity is one of the more expensive tablets around — so what will you get for your money? Well, there's a 1920 x 1200 10.1-inch Super-IPS+ display, a quad-core Tegra 3 SoC clocked at 1.6GHz, 1GB of DDR3 RAM, and, of course, the keyboard dock accessory, which transforms the tablet into an Android-powered laptop. The Transformer Pad Infinity will arrive with Android 4.0 installed, and Asus has confirmed that its tablet will get an update to Jelly Bean in "the coming months."

[Source: The Verge]

Nexus 7 Stupid Hard to Unbox

This video is so so funny… seems that the Google Nexus 7 is in the hands of many, but takes a LOT of extra effort to actually get in your hands. Check out the video to see exactly what people are having to go through.

Google Nexus 7 Tablet Outed

Google were just about to start their Google IO 2012 Keynote and they outed their new Nexus 7 tablet early. Here it is.

Google I/O 2012 Live

Today sees the Google I/O 2012 Keynote address kicking off at Moscone West where we should see the latest version of Google Android aka JellyBean revealed. The event may also hold a surprise announcement of a new 7-inch Nexus Tablet. The event is being streamed live, so come back here at the times below to watch things unfold.

Pacific – 9:30 AM
Mountain – 10:30 AM
Central – 11:30 AM
Eastern – 12:30 PM
London – 5:30 PM
Tokyo – 1:30 AM (June 28)
Sydney – 2:30 AM (June 28)

Apple are the Smart Ones !

Something compelled me to write this article today… I shall tell you what it was… it was information overload coming out of Mobile World Congress and it made me smile. When I am touting an iPhone 4S people brand me as an Apple fanboy, put an Android based mobile phone in my hand and now I am a Google fanboy. What I have come to realise is that I can happily sit on the fence just enjoying my technology… watching in as everyone goes into a mad frenzy about the latest tech. For the most part I am very quiet and that is what made me smile.

Time after time, Apple play this same strategy, they are cunningly quiet. They do it around the time of the Consumer Electronics Show, Mac World and of course Mobile World Congress. Never do they rush to market with something, they just quietly watch on, making digital notes (on their iPad 3), ticking the relevant boxes that ensure they remain one step ahead.

We have just been treated to details of Quad Core mobile phones, alongside new tablet devices, from all the manufacturers. You can bet against me if you wish, but Apple have already got their iPad 3 and iPhone 5 ready in the wings, they just watch on and tweak almost ready designs, so that when they launch it beats all these new devices AGAIN. They are the smart ones… that is what keeps them at the top of their game.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 Launched

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd introduces its first line-up of tablets for 2012 with the launch of the Galaxy Tab 2 series, further expanding the choice of Samsung tablets available to consumers. The Galaxy Tab 2 series includes both a 7” and a 10.1” version and will be available in the UK from March onwards.

 

The Galaxy Tab 2 series, available in both 3G and WiFi, are light weight and portable. The larger Galaxy Tab 2 (10.1) is well-suited for those that like to carry a larger screen or for use at home and by all the family.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 Launched

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd introduces its first line-up of tablets for 2012 with the launch of the Galaxy Tab 2 series, further expanding the choice of Samsung tablets available to consumers. The Galaxy Tab 2 series includes both a 7” and a 10.1” version and will be available in the UK from March onwards.

 

The Galaxy Tab 2 series, available in both 3G and WiFi, are light weight and portable. The Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0) is ideal for people that like to carry pocket sized devices.

Photos & Specifications just below;

FLASH KICK in London [Project Teamwork - GALAXY Note]

"A football match has just broken out at London Victoria Station." 

Watch to see how four footballers use fancy footwork, along with the brilliant screen and innovative S Pen of the Samsung GALAXY Note, to transform a routine commute into a spectacular event for Londoners. 

Check out more Project Teamwork videos from Samsung Mobile and ESPN at 
http://www.espn.com/projectteamwork

Blackberry PlayBook OS 2.0 Features

This week at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ: RIMM; TSX: RIM) will be previewing new features of BlackBerry® PlayBook™ OS 2.0 that will enable customers to stay even more connected and productive in their personal and professional lives. 

 

“BlackBerry PlayBook is already recognised for delivering powerful performance, true multi-tasking, advanced web browsing and HD multimedia in an ultra-portable design,” said Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO at Research In Motion. “With BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 we are building on this strong foundation, as well as leveraging our strengths in communications, social integration and productivity, to allow people to use their BlackBerry PlayBook in new ways throughout the day.” 

 

CES 2012 attendees who visit the BlackBerry booth at CES (South Hall 3 Booth # 30326) will get a sneak peek of upcoming BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 functionality including:

 

Advanced Messaging Experience: 

• New unified inbox - a powerful unified inbox within the built-in messaging app allows users to quickly manage their personal email and work email accounts as well as the messaging capabilities of popular social networking sites like Twitter®, LinkedIn® and others – all in one place.

• Multi-tasking within email – by extending the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet’s multitasking capabilities to ‘tabbed email’, users are able to reference one email while they compose another.

• Rich-text email composing and editing – new features within the Messages app enable users to benefit from full support of fonts, formatting and editing of email threads, offering a robust email experience similar to that of a PC or laptop.

• Inbox management tools – allows for powerful inbox search across multiple email accounts, as well as the ability to set out-of-office messages and email signatures directly from their tablet.

 

Deep Integration of Social Relationships: 

• Innovative people-centric calendar – in addition to standard calendar features that help users plan and organise their day, the powerful built-in Calendar app provides the unique ability for users to view their calendar by who they are meeting with that day and review valuable information about that contact. Information is consolidated automatically from social networking sites about that contact and/or their company.

• Relationship-centric contacts app - more than just an address book, the new built-in Contacts app serves as a social hub - merging and consolidating information from multiple sources (including email and social channels) into one contact file for each person in their address book.  Each contact file includes information such as recent status updates, conversations, related news articles and mutual contacts that are kept up-to-date automatically. 

 

Making Your BlackBerry Smartphone and Tablet a Powerful Pair:

• Remote control for the BlackBerry PlayBook – new BlackBerry® Bridge™ features allow a user’s BlackBerry® smartphone to act as a keyboard and mouse for their BlackBerry PlayBook – effectively providing a wireless remote control for their tablet. Perfect for pausing a movie when a BlackBerry PlayBook is plugged in to a TV with an HDMI connection, or for using the tactile QWERTY keyboard on a BlackBerry smartphone to compose a message or document on the BlackBerry PlayBook.

• Opening content on the BlackBerry PlayBook – BlackBerry Bridge allows you to take documents, emails, multimedia files and web pages found on your smartphone and open them quickly and directly on the BlackBerry PlayBook so you can use the larger high resolution display for an optimised viewing and editing experience.

 

Improved Mobile Productivity: 

• Updated document editing capabilities - updated Documents To Go® functionality makes it easier for users to create and edit documents while on the go. Improvements include: enhanced support for the virtual keyboard, the ability to view and update embedded charts and chart sheets within spreadsheets, a new formula wizard with over 100 functions as well as the ability to edit presentations including text, bullets and formatting.

• Print To Go application - this app allows users to wirelessly “print” from their laptop or PC directly to their BlackBerry PlayBook over Wi-Fi®. A digital printout is created on the BlackBerry PlayBook so that users can view, sort and manage their digital printouts as though they were physical sheets of paper. The Print To Go app is the perfect way to consolidate info from various related sources like a hotel web confirmation, an airline boarding pass email, the show event schedule or even a map of the destination city and make them available for quick access on the go.

• Increased control and manageability of corporate data – the combination of BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 with BlackBerry Mobile Fusion and BlackBerry Balance will help to overcome many barriers to widespread tablet deployment, including device manageability and the ability to secure, manage and control confidential corporate information on the device. Plus BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 supports dedicated shelf space inside the BlackBerry® App World™ storefront to allow IT departments to control distribution of enterprise applications and to make those approved enterprise applications easily available to the organisation’s end users.

 

New Apps and Content: 

• Your favorite apps plus thousands more - many exciting new applications built for the BlackBerry PlayBook will be made available on BlackBerry App World with the availability of BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0. From gaming and lifestyle to business and productivity, RIM is showcasing some of the latest apps available for the BlackBerry PlayBook at CES 2012 including Angry Birds, Cut the Rope, Groupon, Thomson Reuters, Zinio and many more.  

• Video store – a catalog of thousands of movies and TV shows will be available through the integrated BlackBerry Video Storefront* with new releases to be made available for purchase or rent the same day they come out on DVD. Users will be able to begin watching media as soon as they start to download the file, so users won’t have to wait for the entire file to transfer before they can enjoy great entertainment on the tablet’s high resolution display, or on an HDTV via the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet’s HDMI output.

• Enhanced web browsing - the BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 browser also includes a new reading view, which is designed to make web sites even easier to enjoy by eliminating page clutter at the touch of a button. What’s left is a cleaner format that is great for reading online news articles, blog posts, or websites that contain heavy amounts of text.

 

Availability

The BlackBerry® PlayBook OS 2.0 software update will be available as a free download for all BlackBerry PlayBook users and is expected to be available in February 2012.