Toshiba’s 7-inch Thrive available now

I’m sure there’s at least one person out there who absolutely loved everything about Toshiba’s 10-inch thrive Honeycomb tablet (even the headache-inducing commercials) except for its to-inch size. Well rejoice, One Guy, because the long-leaked 7-inch variant is available from Toshiba now, and should be hitting US retailers in the near future. The 16GB and 32GB versions will set you back $379.99 and $429.99, respectively.

Under the hood you get the same 1Ghz Tegra 2 dual-core process and 1GB of RAM, speedy enough to handle the vanilla Honeycomb 3.2 interface with ease. The display is an impressive 1280 x 800 pixels, matching competitors like the T-Mobile Springboard and the upcoming Galaxy Tab 7.7 for resolution and density. Expansion options are varied, with a mini USB port (not micro USB), HDMI out and MicroSD card support, plus a physical lock switch. Unfortunately a proprietary port is the only way to charge and sync, and that probably means no trickle charging from a computer, either. WiFi is the only way to access the Internet, but the junior Thrive does feature Bluetooth 3.0. It inherits the rather chunky profile of its big brother, and Toshiba claims six hours of battery life. Built-in apps include Kaspersky, Silvercreek’s suite of board games, MOG Music, QuickOffice and (sigh) Need For Speed Shift.
Don’t break out your wallet just yet, folks. Aside from the fact that the excellent Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus lies right in between the 16GB and 32GB models as far as price goes, Toshiba’s razor-thin Excite tablet is expected in February of next year. If portability and weight is a concern, the new model will definitely beat out the Thrive, though the battery life issues experienced on the former may still be a problem.
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Sony Tablet S vs Asus Eee Transformer Prime

Asus' Eee Pad Transformer Prime is a tablet that is enjoying a lot of publicity in the run up to its expected December release. But this isn't all that surprising when you consider its pakcing a next-generation chipset and bleeding-edge hardware.

It's important to look past the 'power is everything' mantra though, as Apple's iPad 2 has decisively proven, and with that in mind we've selected a stellar Android tablet – the Sony Tablet S – to hold up against Asus' new creation to get a view of exactly how much it offers.

Display

The Asus Eee Transformer Prime ships with a 10.1-inch Super IPS+ LCD display with a resolution of 1280x800 and a pixel density of 149PPI, which is well above average in the current market.

Sony's Tablet S is similarly well equipped too, with a 9.4-inch TFT operating at 800x1280 and boasting a pixel density of 161PPI.

While similarities are undoubtedly evident, the Asus' Eee Transformer Prime's more modern screen tech easily takes the tape ahead of Sony's good, but unspectacular display.

Winner - Asus Eee Transformer Prime

Software

Both tablets run on Google's very capable Android operating system, specifically version 3.2 (Honeycomb) which has been optimised to provide a solid experience on tablets.

The platform features re-designed core applications, new holographic-style UI which includes a new persistent 'action bar' for user alerts and a spiffy new keyboard to make typing from your tablet easier than ever.

Beneath the aesthetic refinements Honeycomb offers the same excellent basic functionality that every other iteration of the OS provided. It's customisable, very easy to use and has a huge app catalogue for users to select from in the form of Android Market.

One area to watch out for is the lack of tablet-specific applications on Android. Sure, it's something that Google is working with developers to improve, but right now Honeycomb is meagrely catered for in terms of unique apps.

Winner - Draw

Camera

Sony's Tablet S features a 5-megapixel camera with auto-focus, image stabilisation, geo-tagging, face & smile detection and 720P video capture, which performs well and is capable of producing some top-quality images in good conditions.

The device also features a secondary 0.3-megapixel camera for video calling.

Asus' Eee Transformer Prime ups the ante with an excellent 8-megapixel camera with autofocus, LED flash, geo-tagging and 1080P video capture, as well as a secondary 1.2-megapixel snapper for video calling.

Images and videos produced by the Asus were way above our expectation and, in our opinion, the best quality that we've seen on any Android tablet to date.

Winner - Asus Eee Transformer Prime

Power

The Asus Eee Transformer Prime boasts a quad-core 1.3GHz CPU and ULP GeForce GPU, giving it a huge advantage over any other tablet on the market, and many laptops too.

As you would expect apps run at full-tilt on the device, and games are handled perfectly thanks to the cutting edge graphics technology.

In addition to its mammoth chipset the Transformer Prime boasts 1GB RAM, 32 or 64GB on-board storage and support for micro SD cards up to 32GB in size, making it easily the most powerful tablet on the planet right now.

The Sony Tablet S features a dual-core 1GHz ARM Cortex-A9 CPU with ULP GeForce GPU and performs excellently as a result. The device also offers up 1GB RAM and either 16 or 32GB of storage for your consideration too.

On any normal day the Tablet S' drive-train would be perfectly impressive, but the Asus Eee Transformer Prime is a bit of a bully in the power department, making Sony's device look a little bit laboured.

Winner - Asus Eee Transformer Prime

Form & Build

Asus Eee Transformer Prime - ?, 8mm thickness, 586g
Sony Tablet S - 241.2 x 174.3 x 10.1-20.6 mm, 625g

Sony know a thing or two about design and its acumen is easy to discern when looking at the Tablet S.

The device is beautifully crafted and features a very unique fold-around form factor which balances it and adds to its ergonomic qualities superbly.

At 625g it's no lightweight, but rather than feeling encumbered holding the device we felt that the little bit of extra ballast added to its comfort.

Great work, Sony!

The Asus Eee Transformer Prime is a nicely designed device and with its thick bevel and minimalist good looks reminded us of a certain other fruity tablet that shall remain nameless.

The Transformer Prime is a decent weight, and luxuriously thin at just 8mm too. We really couldn't fault it aside from feeling that the Sony just felt more premium. Far from scientific, we know, but the feeling was something palpable and, heck, palpable matters!

Winner - Sony Tablet S

Well, perhaps unsurprisingly the newer, higher powered tablet has won the day.

The Asus Eee Transformer Prime is, quite honestly, a beast of a tablet. It's fast, sleek and offers excellent performance on the whole, including peerless photographic performance.

It's only let-down really is the lack of tablet-centric applications, but that can't be attributed to the hardware. Once things improve in that department the Asus Eee Transformer Prime will be a true force to be reckoned with.

In defeat the Sony Tablet S is a fantastic device though. It's nicely designed, well built and has solid performance across the board but it just couldn't hold a candle to Asus' next-gen device, and as such we really can't recommend you choose one over the former, unless you can pick one up for a song.

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Samsung Galaxy M Pro up for pre-order in the UK

There aren’t too many Android phones that feature physical keyboards these days, and even less that feature candybar, BlackBerry-style ones. Well, if you’re living in the UK and you’re looking for such a device you’re in luck because one has just gone up for pre-order. Samsung’s Galaxy M Pro, which was introduced back in August, can now be pre-ordered in the UK. Unfortunately no release date has been mentioned, but hopefully it won’t take too long to make the change from pre-order to being delivered.
The Samsung Galaxy M Pro features a 1GHz processor, a 2.66″ 480 x 320 display, a 5-megapixel rear camera, a VGA front-facing camera, microSD card slot, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, a 1,350mAh battery and of course Android 2.3 Gingerbread with Samsung’s TouchWiz UI. It also features a candybar form factor with a BlackBerry-style QWERTY keyboard which is great for folks who are making the transition over from a BlackBerry device to Android, or who just want a physical keyboard without having to slide it out all the time. No word on whether we’ll be seeing this phone in the US.

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10 Billion Apps promo, day 7: Super KO Boxing 2, Flight Control and Doodle Jump for 10¢

Google’s celebration of 10 billion Android Market app downloads continues into its seventh day, with a catalog of heavily discounted games and entertainment apps. The Android creator is partnering with top developers on the Android Market to mark down paid apps to jut 10 cents / pence, focusing on the ever-popular game section. Today’s deals include Super KO Boxing 2, Flight Control and Doodle Jump.

Here’s the list of today’s newly discounted apps: Doodle Jump, When I Get Bigger (another “Little Critter” motion book), Flick Soccer, SUPER KO BOXING! 2, Blow Up, Roll in the Hole, Block Breaker 3 Unlimited HD and Flight Control. SoundHound and Beautiful Widgets, the first paid Android app to reach a million downloads, are repeats from previous days. To see and buy all the apps on one page, click here.
With Google repeating two apps every day in the ten-day promotion, it looks like the final tally of almost-free paid apps will be somewhere in the 85-90 range. That’s a lot of money saved if you’ve been keeping up daily, since most of the apps go for between $2 and $6, and a full collection of the discounted apps would set you back less than $10.

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China Unicom drops 3G iPad 2 quest

China Unicom must have gotten sit and tired of all the waiting, that the company has decided to give up on introducing the 3G enabled iPad 2 to the masses in China directly. Deputy general manager of the leading telecom carrier in China, Li Gang, recently commented that the iPad 2 was a far more suitable candidate to be sold through the standard IT sales network model, making it very different from the iPhone. This has led China Unicom to ditch their initial plans of introducing the 3G iPad 2 for the moment, where the company will instead work on delivering a more convenient 3G data surfing service to the masses.
I must say, it has been quite some time already that China Unicom talked up about an iPad rollout since last year. Unfortunately for them, the 3G iPad has yet to pick up a network access license from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), so after spending so much time waiting, China Unicom finally decided that they have had enough and will concentrate on other aspects of their business first – that is, unless, the MIIT does an about turn that is so sudden, the possibility of a directly available 3G iPad 2 remains as slim as the device itself.

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Facedroid delivers custom tablet Facebook interface

Independent developer Platinum Apps knows that Facebook has well and truly taken over the world. In fact, Facebook is the most popular app on the Android platform, so much so that Facebook for Android beats out all the other Google-powered software, how’s that for beating Google on their own turf? Well, the app might not be perfect nor does it hold all the bells and whistles that one sees on the desktop version, but at least it is functional enough to be uber popular. Platinum Apps wants to ride on the Facebook momentum with an app of their own, calling it Facedroid – where this is an alternative Facebook client for the Android ecosystem.
Needless to say, the name gives it away, with this being a tablet-only app that is said to deliver a full-screen Facebook experience to large screened devices running on Android 3.0 Honeycomb or above. Not only that, Platinum Apps isn’t asking much for their effort, with an introductory price of just £0.69, surely you can spare them less than a quid to have a more tablet-friendly Facebook experience, right?

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Eric Schmidt: Google Does not Work with or Support Carrier IQ

If the name itself wasn’t enough to suggest that the carriers are the one behind the installation of Carrier IQ onto mobile devices, perhaps the word of Google’s Eric Schmidt can clear things up. “We certainly don’t work with them and we certainly don’t support them,” Schmidt said of the tracking software. Despite the claims of the analytics company to the contrary, Schmidt said of the service, “it’s a key-logger, and it actually does keep your keystrokes.”
Though even if Google does not support Carrier IQ at the OS level, as mentioned earlier network providers still have the option to install the suite of data gathering software. Android is, after all, an open platform. “It’s possible for people to build software that’s actually not very good for you,” said Schmidt, “and this appears to be one.”
[via Reuters]

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Samsung Says Annual Handset Sales have Surpassed 300 Million

Over the past few years, Samsung has been making a case to be the world’s number one mobile handset manufacturer. They still aren’t quite there, but with a few more weeks to go in 2011 they have already surpassed last year’s figure by 20 million. The over 300 million handsets sold this year is the most ever in Samsung’s history as a mobile manufacturer, and the Android-powered Galaxy series of devices has a lot to do with it. Both the Samsung Galaxy S and Galaxy S II were hot sellers this year, their totals supplemented by devices like the Galaxy Note and other devices landing in the more budget-minded end of the spectrum. Non-Android handsets also played a role in the final tally.
For what it’s worth, we’d guess the number is actually totaling units sold and shipped to retailers, which doesn’t necessarily equate to a sale at the consumer level. Still, the demand alone is impressive and looks to only increase in 2012.
[via Reuters]

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The Galaxy Tab gets some iLuv with ArtStation Pro speaker dock

Despite beating the pants off of iOS in basically every market, Android’s plurality of devices and form factors makes it tough for accessory manufacturers to commit to anything more risky than cases and chargers. But iLuv is serving users of one of the most popular Android tablet lines with its very own speaker dock, to the joy of Galaxy Tab owners and the sorrow of their suddenly slimmer wallets. The ArtStation Pro Audio Dock is compatible with the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus, 7.7, 8.9 and 10.1.

Samsung’s tablets use a proprietary iPhone-style dock connector for charging and syncing, much to the consternation of those of use who have a few dozen Micro USB cords lying around. That makes it incompatible with universal docks like Philips’ Fidelio line, which relies on a Micro USB connector for charging. But iLuv’s dock sports the proprietary Samsung connector for both charging and audio playback, meaning no extra cables and no Bluetooth audio quality loss, as in the Philips dock.
The dock retails for $149.99 – pretty pricey for a single-function accessory that only works with four devices. But on the plus side, it comes with a full set of big, easy-to-use playback controls on the dock itself and an infrared remote for good measure. The ArtStation Pro’s unique styling won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but with the market starved for Android-friendly audio docks, beggars can’t be choosers. The dock goes on sale this month at retail outlets.
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