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Category Archives: Tablet News

ASUS Confirms UK Availability of the PadFone 2

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Asus PadFone 2Yes, Mobile World Congress is well underway over in Barcelona Spain. This is the big trade show where the big vendors in the mobile device game show off their mobile devices for this next year or so.

However, ASUS has confirmed that they will be releasing an updated version of their PadFone smartphone called the PadFone 2.  It’s an android  device with a 4.7″ screen which then docks into a bigger 10.1″ tablet form factor with a 720p HD screen resolution. On the inside, you have a SnapDragon 1.5GHz Quad-Core CPU, 2GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage.  In terms of software, it will ship with version 4.1(AKA Jelly Bean) of Android.

The PadFone 2 will be available for with pre-orders starting 1st March 2013 at a price of £599.

Sony announces the Xperia Z Tablet

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Sony Xperia Z TabletDuring CES, Sony announced their flagship Xperia Z smartphone.  However, Sony has now announced a new tablet in the same family which is called the Xperia Tablet Z.

The new tablet will have a 10.1″ full HD display, a 1.5GHz quad-core Snapdragon CPU, 32GB of storage, 2GB of RAM and  Android Jelly Bean 4.1.  It will also sport 4G LTE and NFC along with a 4.1 Megapixel Camera.  Although Sony has said that it will be available in Black and White, they have not revealed any information regarding price and availability.

 

Apple loses appeal in UK court against Samsung over the design of the Galaxy Tab

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Here in the UK, Apple had lost a court case regarding a patent that it thought Samsung had infringed upon with the Galaxy Tab in July. The judge stated that the Galaxy Tab line of tablet computers were not as cool as Apple’s iPad, and that it lacked the “extreme simplicity” of the iPad.  Apple were then told that they have to run a statement in select UK newspapers and their website to say that Samsung did not copy the iPad. Since then the High Court in London has considered the appeal and decided that the original decision(which went in favour of Samsung) still stands. As a result, Apple has been ordered to run the statement to say that Samsung did not copy the iPad.

Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet finally on the way to the UK in October!

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Yes folks, mobile device announcement season is well under way.  Today it was Amazon’s turn to announce some stuff.  Just earlier this evening(UK time) Amazon announced a couple of tablets and e-readers.  Amazon have announced an interesting business model where they want to make money when someone uses their devices instead of when they buy a device.

Let’s start off with the Kindle Fire tablet. It will sport a 7″ LCD touch screen, 1.2GHz processor, and 1GB of RAM and will come with a 1 month free trial of LoveFilm(a Movie/TV show streaming service). In terms of battery life, you can get up to 9 hours of battery, meaning it should be enough to last you through a flight from London to New York. I am pleased to report that the Kindle fire will be coming to the UK and will be available for £129 from the 25th of October.

 

Up next was the Kindle Fire HD. Like the Kindle Fire it will have a 7″ screen but it will have a resolution of 1280×800 pixels(just above HD 720p). It will also have 1GB of RAM. However it will have a 1.2GHz dual-core processor with a Power-VR graphics core for some serious performance.  On the audio side you will have dual-driver dolby audio for some awesome sound.  On the battery life, Amazon have said that you should get up to about 11 hours. That should be enough to get you from London to Bangladesh.  The 16GB version of the Kindle Fire HD will be priced at £159 and the 32GB kindle will be priced at £199. The Kindle Fire HD will be coming to the UK from the 25th October.

Though you will have to wait until 25th October, you can pre-order your Kindle Fire or Kindle fire HD right now.  By the way, if you buy either of these tablets then you will get unlimited cloud storage for your content(movies, music etc).  On a side note, I am sure it won’t be long until someone figures out how to root these tablets. After all they are running a customised version of the Google Android operating system(open-source FTW).

Samsung Galaxy 10.1N cleared for sale in Europe, Galaxy Tab 7.7 Still Infringing on Apple’s Patents

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It looks like there is both good news and bad news for those of you in Germany who are after a Samsung Galaxy Tab. Earlier on today, the Dusseldorf higher regional court ruled that the Samsung Galaxy 10.1 N Tab was cleared for sale in Europe, as it has not infringed upon Apple’s Patents.  However, the bad news, is that the Galaxy Tab 7.7 has been banned.

I don’t know about you, but I think that this is not Apple trying to fight against patent infringement. I think that Apple are scared that the Galaxy Tab might become more successful than the iPad. That being said, I do respect the fact that companies need to protect their innovative products.

Nivio gives users access to a Windows 7 desktop

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Many of you might remember something called OnLive desktop. Essentially, it would allow you to access an instance of Windows which would be streamed to your iPad.  However, Microsoft had a look at this and said that OnLive did not make proper use of their Licensing.

However, there is similar service which will launch soon called Nivio, which has made proper use of Microsoft’s Licensing.

You can go with the basic nDrive storage plan and get 10GB of free online storage. You will also get 30 days of free access to a Windows 7 desktop.

You can also get 10 hours of access to a Windows 7 desktop for €5 a month, along with 10GB of free online storage and a 30-day trial of Microsoft Office 2010.

There is also an unlimited access plan, where you can get 10GB of free online storage, unlimited access to a Windows 7 desktop and a free 30-day trial of Microsoft Office 2010. This will cost you €15 euros a month.

It is in beta at the moment, but you can pre-register over at nivio.com. I have pre-registered, so I will be giving you my first impressions as soon as I get my hands on it, so stay tuned!

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1N can be sold in Germany

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There have been a lot of lawsuits going back and forth in Germany between Samsung and Apple.  Samsung have reworked their Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet and the German courts have ruled that Samsung will be allowed to sell their Galaxy Tab 10.1N(the reworked version of the Galaxy Tab 10.1). Of course, it won’t be long before Apple will launch their appeals against this decision.  In addition to that, Samsung has filed some of their own lawsuits claiming that Apple have infringed a few of Samsung’s patents.

Google Android Ice Cream Sandwich(ICS) – now available for HP TouchPad

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The folks over at CyanogenMod have done it again! If you have a HP TouchPad(and want some ICS action), then I have some good news for you.  CyanogenMod have released version 9 of CyanogenMod which allows you to run Google’s Ice Cream Sandwich operating system on your TouchPad.

The folks over at RootzWiki have put up a tutorial that shows you how to put together a build of ICS for your TouchPad.

I should point out that this is still an alpha release so there is no support for this build and there are a lot of features that don’t work.  That being said, if you are going to try out ICS on your HP TouchPad, leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Disclaimer: I cannot be held responsible for any damage this software may cause to your HP TouchPad.