8:24 PM
Simranpal SIngh
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus Root Method Available
December 8 is Transformer Prime
One of the tablets that has us really excited is the Asus Transformer Prime. There had been rumors that the tablet would be launching on December 8 with that date surfacing for shipping on Newegg this week. Asus has now reportedly confirmed to the geeks at NetbookNews that December 8 is the US launch date. That date is a week after the tablet launches in Taiwan.
If you are in Europe and are lusting after the Transformer Prime you will have to wait longer than geeks in Taiwan and the US, the European launch is set for January. We already know all there is to know about the tablet and it sounds to be a very nice one indeed. It will rock the Tegra 3 quad-core chipset for instance and will have an optional keyboard dock that turns it into a notebook and adds extra battery life.
In the US, the 32GB version of the tablet will sell for $499 and the 64GB offering will go for $599. If you want that cool keyboard dock, it will run you an extra $149. The machine comes in gray or champagne colors and both run Android 3.2 honeycomb when it hits store shelves with an Ice Cream Sandwich update coming later.
[via SlashGear]
If you are in Europe and are lusting after the Transformer Prime you will have to wait longer than geeks in Taiwan and the US, the European launch is set for January. We already know all there is to know about the tablet and it sounds to be a very nice one indeed. It will rock the Tegra 3 quad-core chipset for instance and will have an optional keyboard dock that turns it into a notebook and adds extra battery life.
In the US, the 32GB version of the tablet will sell for $499 and the 64GB offering will go for $599. If you want that cool keyboard dock, it will run you an extra $149. The machine comes in gray or champagne colors and both run Android 3.2 honeycomb when it hits store shelves with an Ice Cream Sandwich update coming later.
[via SlashGear]
Volume fix for Galaxy Nexus rolling out now OTA
If you are a proud owner of a Galaxy Nexus smartphone and have been waiting with baited breath for the volume fix to land today is your day. Word is that the volume fix is being pushed out OTA today by Samsung. The roll out will be staggered according to Clove in the UK. Staggered would mean that not all users of the smartphone will get the update at the same time.
Oddly enough, the handsets that were expected to arrive with the volume issue fixed turned out to not have the fix applied after all. Buyers of the new devices that still have the issue will be prompted to download the update shortly after turning their new Galaxy Nexus on. Our own Chris Davies has a Nexus in his possession and has reported that the update isn’t available for him at this point.
The volume bug plagues Nexus devices that are running on a 2G network at 900MHz. Carriers in the UK commonly use this. This would explain why some users that are in areas with good 3G connections haven’t had issues with the bug.
[via SlashGear]
Oddly enough, the handsets that were expected to arrive with the volume issue fixed turned out to not have the fix applied after all. Buyers of the new devices that still have the issue will be prompted to download the update shortly after turning their new Galaxy Nexus on. Our own Chris Davies has a Nexus in his possession and has reported that the update isn’t available for him at this point.
The volume bug plagues Nexus devices that are running on a 2G network at 900MHz. Carriers in the UK commonly use this. This would explain why some users that are in areas with good 3G connections haven’t had issues with the bug.
[via SlashGear]
Samsung Exynos 5250 running at 2GHz coming by Q2 next year
We’ve been dreaming about it, but not quite sure when we would see the first Android device clocked at 2GHz (officially of course). The Samsung Exynos chips running at 1.0GHz, 1.2GHz, and 1.5GHz have functioned amazingly well in their Galaxy S II line, and knowing we should see the 2.0GHz SoC in a future tablet is definitely good news. Samsung was very clear this SoC would be geared towards high-end tablets, but maybe we’ll find it in a few smartphones too.
At the rate Android and the overall technological world is progressing, it wouldn’t be so surprising to see 2.0GHz as the new “norm”. Either way, the chip is said to double the performance of the current Exynos 4212 and even offer 4X speedier graphical rendering.
The new chip will also support displays up to a 2560×1600 pixel resolution, talk about a crystal clear picture. How that may effect the battery life I haven’t a clue. Hopefully, we will see it in some devices during CES 2012, but I’m even more interested in benchmarks of NVIDIA’s Kal-el quad-core processors. Last year’s CES introduced the world’s first dual-core smartphone, so it would be quite fitting that this year’s center around a quad-core.
[via AusDroid]
At the rate Android and the overall technological world is progressing, it wouldn’t be so surprising to see 2.0GHz as the new “norm”. Either way, the chip is said to double the performance of the current Exynos 4212 and even offer 4X speedier graphical rendering.
The new chip will also support displays up to a 2560×1600 pixel resolution, talk about a crystal clear picture. How that may effect the battery life I haven’t a clue. Hopefully, we will see it in some devices during CES 2012, but I’m even more interested in benchmarks of NVIDIA’s Kal-el quad-core processors. Last year’s CES introduced the world’s first dual-core smartphone, so it would be quite fitting that this year’s center around a quad-core.
[via AusDroid]
Samsung and its Galaxy Tab triumph over Apple’s temporary ban
What a great feat for Samsung today! As you may have heard, Samsung has been in quite the legal battle with Apple Inc. in recent months over whether their Galaxy Tab 10.1 could rest on Australian shelves. Court rulings had prohibited sale of the device with a temporary ban until now.
Australians rejoice, for you’ll be able to buy as many Samsung products as you want – and just in time for the holidays too. Hopefully, Samsung lawyers can cook up some more magic in the case against blocked tablet sales in Germany. Either way, hard-core Android followers will surely get there hands on one – even if they’re required to hop a train towards nearby France to pick it up.
It’s hard to even think of the iPad and Galaxy Tab lines as similar. With so many divergent characteristics in the actual OS, you would have thought to even consider banning one would require never turning on the device. The iPad has a completely icon-dependant homescreen where the Galaxy Tab 10.1 layout is showered with many different widgets. Both sport completely different lockscreens – the differences are practically endless. It seems Apple wants to make sure its competitors refrain from designing anything that comes close to their tablet’s dimensions – well that’s just not going to happen. I’ve got a nice block of wood about the size of an iPad, maybe they’ll come for me too.
[via Phandroid]
Australians rejoice, for you’ll be able to buy as many Samsung products as you want – and just in time for the holidays too. Hopefully, Samsung lawyers can cook up some more magic in the case against blocked tablet sales in Germany. Either way, hard-core Android followers will surely get there hands on one – even if they’re required to hop a train towards nearby France to pick it up.
It’s hard to even think of the iPad and Galaxy Tab lines as similar. With so many divergent characteristics in the actual OS, you would have thought to even consider banning one would require never turning on the device. The iPad has a completely icon-dependant homescreen where the Galaxy Tab 10.1 layout is showered with many different widgets. Both sport completely different lockscreens – the differences are practically endless. It seems Apple wants to make sure its competitors refrain from designing anything that comes close to their tablet’s dimensions – well that’s just not going to happen. I’ve got a nice block of wood about the size of an iPad, maybe they’ll come for me too.
[via Phandroid]
Google claims volume fix will be pushed within the week
In case you haven’t heard, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus has had a few volume bugs; very unfortunate for such an anticipated device. On the bright side, updates for the Galaxy Nexus come straight from the team at Google. They’ve always been punctual at releasing proper fixes soon after an obvious issue arises. It turns out that Google themselves now claim that “We’re currently rolling out a fix for the volume issue which will reach everyone in the coming week”.
We’ve know for about a week now that a fix was indeed coming, but now that a general timeframe has been set we can rest assured that it will be early December by the time it reaches everyone. It will be pushed via an OTA (Over-The-Air) update, so be patient and wait for it to show up in your notifications. And if you fairly new to the Android game, then you can always force your system to perform an update check by tapping Menu > Settings > About Phone > System Updates.
Overall, I’m quite impressed on how Google handles bug fixes and updates to their Nexus line.
We’ve know for about a week now that a fix was indeed coming, but now that a general timeframe has been set we can rest assured that it will be early December by the time it reaches everyone. It will be pushed via an OTA (Over-The-Air) update, so be patient and wait for it to show up in your notifications. And if you fairly new to the Android game, then you can always force your system to perform an update check by tapping Menu > Settings > About Phone > System Updates.
Overall, I’m quite impressed on how Google handles bug fixes and updates to their Nexus line.
Lenovo LePhone S760 unveiled for China
As far as hardware goes, the phone has a 1Ghz processor and 512MB of RAM, making it roughly the equal of the original Nexus One or DROID Incredible. That’s still plenty of power to handle Android 2.3.5, and should keep the off-contract price nice and low. You can spot front and rear cameras in the trade show photos. Since it’s running a pretty heavily modified version of Android and Lenovo’s shown no hesitance to stray from the safe and happy pastures of Google in the past, we’re pretty sure this one won’t have the Android Market or its associate Google apps.
Like all of Lenovo’s smartphone offerings thus far, don’t expect this one to show up in the US, though Chinese buyers can get one before the end of the year. The company’s 5, 7 and 10-inch LePad tablets from earlier today have a much better chance of crossing the Pacific, and the Tegra 3-powered 1080p monster the IdeaPad K2 tablet is almost certain to show up in the US eventually. So why not smartphone love for Americans, Lenovo? We’re good enough for your laptops, after all.
Dragon Shout Android app is Google Maps for Skyrim
I’m an admitted Skyrim addict, and since the game’s made an impressive $450 million in worldwide sales across PC and console platforms, odds are pretty good that a few of you are as well. The upcoming app will allow multi-touch navigation a la Google Maps across the parchment-style game world. You can make notews at particular locations – very handy for remembering where you left your
The app is slated to release in 2-3 weeks, but considering that the developer’s website is basically a Cupertino take on Skyrim, it might be a while before they get around to porting it to Android. Whether you’re sneaking around Riften for the thieves’ guild, fighting valiantly for the Stormcloaks or just killing as many of those flying jerks as you possibly can, an accurate and annotated map will be a welcome companion. Here’s hoping it comes soon. According to the website, it will be free.
[via Game Rant]
Time Warner Cable tablet app now available for Android, doesn’t stream live TV
We saw a few leaks regarding this application early this year and have been patiently awaiting its arrival. Today the Time Warner Cable app for Android Tablets is finally available over in the Android Market. Before all you TWC TV users get too excited — no it doesn’t stream live TV (like the iPad can), and it only works for a select few tablets. It’s a start though right?
Being called TWC TV in the market and for paying TWC customers this free app will give you all sorts of options and features to enjoy. It’s a TV guide, a full on remote control and you can even set your DVR right from the device, even when your not home. Sadly since we don’t have live TV streaming like that other platform this is basically just a massive remote control for now. I was hoping for a bit more to be honest.
According to the official market listing it’s currently only supported on the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the Motorola Xoom but I’m finding a few others are supported but not all. Most likely it will scale to a few different sizes was my initial thought but all my 7″ devices aren’t compatible. I’m seeing it work with the Transformer, Tab 10.1 and 8.9 but not the Galaxy Tab 7. All the Lenovo tablets also appear to have full access at the moment. They claim 1280 x 800 resolution Honeycomb tablets will all work but the T-Mobile Springboard I have right here isn’t supported either. Most likely it will work with all 10″ Android Honeycomb tablets so give it a try and let us know how you like it via the comment section below.
We are hearing live TV streaming may be coming once Ice Cream Sandwich lands on more devices, but that is not confirmed.
TWC TV for Tablets App
[via Engadget]
Being called TWC TV in the market and for paying TWC customers this free app will give you all sorts of options and features to enjoy. It’s a TV guide, a full on remote control and you can even set your DVR right from the device, even when your not home. Sadly since we don’t have live TV streaming like that other platform this is basically just a massive remote control for now. I was hoping for a bit more to be honest.
According to the official market listing it’s currently only supported on the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the Motorola Xoom but I’m finding a few others are supported but not all. Most likely it will scale to a few different sizes was my initial thought but all my 7″ devices aren’t compatible. I’m seeing it work with the Transformer, Tab 10.1 and 8.9 but not the Galaxy Tab 7. All the Lenovo tablets also appear to have full access at the moment. They claim 1280 x 800 resolution Honeycomb tablets will all work but the T-Mobile Springboard I have right here isn’t supported either. Most likely it will work with all 10″ Android Honeycomb tablets so give it a try and let us know how you like it via the comment section below.
We are hearing live TV streaming may be coming once Ice Cream Sandwich lands on more devices, but that is not confirmed.
TWC TV for Tablets App
[via Engadget]
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