Lenovo gets official with LePad S2005 tablet phone and S2007/S2010 tablets

If you are a Lenovo fan that has been looking forward to some new gear, the company has gone official with new products today. There are three new items including the a 5-inch LePad/IdeaTab S2005 tablet/phone. Along with that tablet phone is also a pair of new tablets with a 7-inch offering and a 10.1-inch version. The tablets are called the LePad S2007 and the LePad S2010 and will hit China in December reports Engadget Chinese.

The tablets have decent specs with a 1.5GHz Qualcomm dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, and the screen is said to be IPS with 1280 x 800 resolution. Other hardware on the tablet includes an 8MP main camera on the back and a 1.3MP front camera. It also has 3G support with China Unicom network. The S2007 has a 3,780 mAh battery and the S2010 has a 7,670 mAh battery.
The S2007 has a battery will last for up to eight hours and the S2010 has a battery good for up to 11 hours of use. The LePad S2005 rocks a 5-inch 800 x 480 LTPs screen with 178-degree viewing angles. That screen resolution leaves a lot to be desired. The operating system is Android 2.3.5. It has a 1.2GHz dual-core processor with 1GB of RAM, 5MP rear camera, and a 1.3MP front camera. There is no pricing announced at this time. A new Lenovo tablet hit the FCC in the US recently with Tegra 2 onboard.
[via SlashGear]

Read more »

ARM Development Studio 5 toolkit launches to public

ARM has released an update to their development toolkit that claims an increase in Java performance by up to four times. Yes, this software is free and DS-5 CE (Community Edition) and some major enhancements from the previous version. The main difference is the including of ARM Streamline Performance Analyzer; this little tool helps developers keep an eye on how efficient their code is as it’s executed, what more could a dev ask for?

This update should spawn many others within the Android Market, as developers may want to perfect their code to this new toolkit’s heightened standards. Taking advantage at optimizing applications to ARM’s processors will supposedly help speed them up too. Take a look at the installation procedure below:




The main difference between the ARM DS-5 and the already released SDK and NDK is simply that the Development Studio is oriented on energy efficiency through proper code execution. And who knows, we may even see some better batter life on our devices when using applications put through DS-5. That would definitely follow suit with ARM’s specific DS-5 motto towards producing “Android apps that stand out from the crowd”. Rapid battery drain problems have been a major issue in so many of the Androids released today.
More information can be found at ARM’s Official Website.
[via SlashGear]

Read more »

Android Market gaming applications now available in Korea

Those of you in Korea can rejoice as many gaming applications previously unavailable in the Android Market can now be purchased. Considering Korea is the second largest consumer of Android applications worldwide, this will mean great growth in gaming developers’ profits. This service has already gone live, so expect an average rise in purchases and downloads now.

Brush up on your Korean (or simply use Google Translate) to translate your app descriptions and push them to Korea’s market so you can take advantage of a brand new audience. Purchases will be billed directly to local carriers, so expect them tacked onto your monthly bill.
Our Android friends in Korea have most definitely been waiting for this moment for two years, so the temptation to buy games has definitely been building up. I couldn’t imagine an Android Market without the “Games” section included, it actually wouldn’t feel like the Android Market at all. I’m sure many people have found alternatives to download their games previously, but making sure they are on track within the official Android Market will make sure they have access to 100% of it.
[via Android-Developers Blog]

Read more »

Android Market offering entire albums for $1.99 this Cyber Monday

How could we finish off Cyber Monday without taking advantage of another great deal in the Android Market? Well it turns out the it’s offering entire select albums for $1.99 until 12am PST. Funny enough, if you click to view songs in the album – they still run at their original pricing.

For example, if you want to purchase Money (2011 – Remastered) from Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon album, you would still need to fork over $1.29 for the single. But for only 70 cents more you’ve got all 10 songs and a great deal to brag about. Other artists with discounted albums include (but are not limited to) Drake, Coldplay, Lady Gaga, Mariah Carey, Rihanna, and our absolute favorite Justin Bieber.
Google Music has really started with a boom, and if it becomes more popular I foresee us seeing even more deals on a regular basis. After all, artists on Google Music receive a much higher profit margin than say those using Apple’s iTunes. And if none of the discounted albums strike your appeal, just keep your eye out for Google’s free song of the day – you might just get lucky.
You’ve still got a few hours left before this deal leaves the table, so take advantage of it while you can!
[via Android Market: Music]

Read more »

AirDroid turns your phone into a LAN-enabled web operating system

There are a lot of ways to control and access your PC or Mac from your Android device, but the ability to go in the other direction has been sadly underrepresented… until now. Android Police made a great find in AirDroid, an app that hosts a local HTTP server on your phone that any web browser. It’s sort of like Motorola’s WebTop interface, without using new hardware. And the things you can do with it, not to mention the interface with which you do them, are amazing.

Essentially, AirDroid turns your phone into a local version of one of those web/cloud operating systems that were all the rage a few years ago. Just start the app, connect to your home WiFi network and log in from a local PC browser. You can access all of the files currently stored on your phone, including a full image viewer and streaming music player. You can access, install, and back up all of the apps on your phone, even the system apps that non-rooted users normally don’t have access to. You have full access to your Android phone’s contacts, call logs and SMS messages. All from a desktop interface that mimics a minimalist Linux distribution.




The best part? It’s all free. If you’re a power user you must check AirDroid out. Sure, you can do some of this with a standard MicroUSB cable, but the way it’s presented and the ease of use is astounding – it’ll make showing off your media, plus sharing apps and files so much easier – I only wish there was a way to display full Android apps across the WiFi connector. It’s nothing less than a major accomplishment for developer Sand Studio, and I can’t wait to see what they do next with this idea. You can download AirDroid from the Android Market right now.

Read more »

Twitter acquires Android security firm Whisper Systems

Here’s an odd bit of M&A news. Wired reports that Twitter’s latest acquisition is a tiny Middle Eastern company whose sole focus is enterprise-grade security for Android phones. Whisper Systems, made up of notable computer security guru Moxie Marlinspike and CTO Stuart Anderson, gained the public’s interest when it developed a secure, encrypted calling service called RedPhone in the wake of the revolution in Egypt.

“As part of our fast-growing engineering team, [Marlinspike and Anderson] will be bringing their technology and security expertise to Twitter’s products and services,” Twitter wrote in an announcement on its corporate blog. “We’re happy to have Moxie Marlinspike and Stuart Anderson onboard.” The duo will gradually shut down their satellite projects, but RedPhone will be shuttered immediately – an unfortunate circumstance, as many Middle Eastern countries are still in the throes of citizen revolt. Whisper System notes that RedPhone will live on in “some form”, perhaps precipitating an open-source release.
But what could Twitter want with Whisper? Well, the primary Twitter service itself isn’t that secure. It’s possible that the company just wants to beef up its own security after years of high-profile hacks and celebrity identity theft. Plus, Twitter’s already investing in the Android ecosystem. Twitter has purchased TweetDeck, makers of popular Twitter clients across all platforms, including and Android app that technically competes with the official version of Twitter. We’ll me watching misters Marlinspike and Anderson with interest.

Read more »

First Nvidia Tegra 3 game gets screenshots and video at Tegra Zone

Good news: Tegra 3-enabled games are starting to appear in Nvidia’s Tegra Zone! Bad news: it’s only a pinball-style game at the moment, and a demo at that. Worse news: there’s actually no hardware on sale that can take advantage of it – the first Tegra 3 device, the Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime isn’t due until December. But hey, look at that quad-core rendering action! “Glowball” will be available in the Android Market, and on some Tegra 3 devices it’ll come pre-loaded.

An Nvidia engineer shows off the new game in a video, demonstrating an underwater level with some truly impressive graphics. In the demonstration all four cores are being used actively on a Honeycomb-equipped Transformer Prime, though the Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade is slyly mentioned. The lighting and volumetric effects are dazzling, especially when pitted against a non-optimized version – it’s like jumping from the PlayStation to the PS3 instantly.You can even see the water reflections on the bottom of the ocean floor.
Check out the demonstration below:


Obviously this is just a small taste of the potential of Tegra 3 and other quad-core system-on-a-chip designs. We won’t be able to try out games like these first-hand until December, but the wait might not be as long as all that – Newegg has listed the Transformer Prime for a December 8th release, next Thursday. Here’s hoping the tablet – and its ICS upgrade – get here sooner rather than later.

Read more »

Google’s latest ad shows off the Galaxy Nexus, Google+ and… beatboxing

OK, Google gets some points for innovative integration with this one. After a series of rather tame Google+ ads that ran over the holiday weekend, the company has busted out a new one featuring a group of friends who all have a Galaxy Nexus. (We suppose it’s set in the future or something.) Demonstrating remarkable technical awareness, not to mention no small amount of rhythm and/or blues, they pass the time with a mobile beatbox session.

They’re using the Google+ Android app‘s Mobile Hangouts feature to set up a 10-way video conference using all mobile connections. Grandstanding aside, it’s a pretty awesome demonstration, even if the video quality on display is a little optimistic. The new version of Google+ running in its native Ice Cream Sandwich environment isn’t lost on those of us still waiting to try it out. Bonus points for harmonica action.
Check out the ad below:


The new commercial is the second notable bit of Android marketing to come along in as many weeks. If you haven’t seen Samsung’s awesome Galaxy S II ad, in which some very opinionated fanboys and fangirls gets their horizon broadened, you need to. The extended cut is even better. In the meantime check out our hands-on footage of Ice Cream Sandwich and the Galaxy Nexus to tide you over until the phone’s US release… whenever that might be.

Read more »

Samsung Galaxy Note LTE gets official in Korea

Lots of news in the Galaxy Note department today, though sadly none of it will be much comfort to users waiting for the superphone to appear in other markets. OLED-Display reports that Samsung has announced an LTE variant of its supersized flagship phone for its home country of South Korea, giving users a chance for 4G connectivity in addition to the device’s other numerous charms. This comes just hours after the company released the first version of the SDK for the Galaxy Note’s unique S-Pen.

Aside from a speedy new Long-Term Evolution radio, there doesn’t seem to be any major changes to the Galaxy Note. You still get that gorgeous 5.3-inch 720p Super AMOLED display, a 1.4Ghz dual-core processor and 16GB of storage space. Patience should yield an eventual Ice Cream Sandwich port as well, upgrading Samsung’s TouchWiz version of Gingerbread. South Korea is also getting the Galaxy Nexus, and the LTE version of the Galaxy S II is making its way to NTT DoCoMo in Japan.
The Galaxy Note still doesn’t have a home in the United States – if you want one you’ll need AT&T service and a pricey import model. But the creation of an LTE version bodes well. Verizon is the largest LTE provider in the world, and Samsung would probably like a slice of that pie, even if they’re concerned that Americans aren’t ready for such a large device. (Psst, Samsung. We can handle it. We’ve seen the Dell Streak – you can do better than that, right?) A version with AT&T HSPA+ bands made its way through the FCC, but so far nothing has come out of that development.

Read more »