Sunday, May 29, 2011

Android and Me

Android and Me

ASUS Padfone merges Android smartphone with tablet dock

Posted: 29 May 2011 12:36 PM PDT

What happens when you merge a smartphone with a tablet? You get the ASUS Padfone.

Evan Blass of PocketNow just posted some leaked photos that reveal one of the most interesting hardware ideas I have seen come to Android in awhile. The Padfone is a combination of a normal Android smartphone and a tablet accessory (appears to be 10 inch) that includes a special dock which completely consumes the phone when closed.

The concept is similar to what we saw from the Motorola Atrix 4G and its lapdock accessory which were a major disappointment, so hopefully ASUS has a few tricks up their sleeve to improve the user experience.

No details were provided about the hardware specs, but I’m going to assume the Padfone will feature a multi-core CPU to power that big tablet display. ASUS recently went with the NVIDIA Tegra 2 in their Transformer tablet, but they also have a working relationship with Qualcomm so we could see a new dual-core Snapdragon inside as well.

It was also reported that ASUS is working on devices with the upcoming Tegra 3 processor, but we don’t expect quad-core CPUs in smartphones until Christmas.

Hit up the source link for a couple more pictures. What do you think of this latest design from ASUS? How much would you be willing to pay for a tablet accessory that you could power with your smartphone?

 

Rumor: Motorola to release the first Tegra 3 tablet this Fall

Posted: 29 May 2011 11:26 AM PDT

We were given a taste of Project Kal-El (Tegra 3) at Mobile World Congress, where NVIDIA went as far as showing a working tablet with the first mobile quad-core processor. During this presentation, NVIDIA also shared availability details of these quad-core CPUs, stating that Tegra 3 tablets should be available by August, and smartphones by Christmas (Nexus 3?).

Further proving the accuracy of this statement, Fudzilla’s sources claim that Motorola might be the first to release a Tegra 3 tablet, with a device arriving before "back-to-school time," around September.

Whether this tablet will be named the Motorola Xoom 2, or any other name, it will sure be quite the sensation. Tegra 3 is reported to deliver 5x the performance of its predecessor, with graphics that will blow your mind (New 12-core NVIDIA GPU). Since Tegra processors are built for gaming, we can only expect to have incredible media capabilities and blazing processing speeds from the next generation quad-core Tegra 3 tablets.

Though Motorola might be the first to bring Tegra 3 to the table, we know that it will not be alone for long, as NVIDIA’s future is looking very bright. Jen-Hsun Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, claims that Android tablets will beat iPads in under 3 years, and 10 OEMs are already working on delivering Tegra 3 devices. One of the upcoming Amazon tablets is rumored to ship with a Tegra 3 processor as well, so things are looking very promising for Android’s future.

We do not have many details on this Motorola tablet, but since we all love to speculate, lets see what we can come up with. What do you guys expect of Motorola’s Tegra 3 tablet? What price and other specs do you think it will have? Would you rather wait for another manufacturer to release a Tegra 3 tablet?

Samsung fights Apple back, requesting final versions of iPhone 5 and iPad 3

Posted: 29 May 2011 06:34 AM PDT

Always evolving, mobile technology has become quite competitive. Manufacturers are constantly going at it, suing each other for everything they can. Last month, Apple sued Samsung for copying the look and feel of the iPhone’s hardware and software. Taking Apple’s side, the court decided (last week) that Samsung would hand over samples of their upcoming devices to be further analyzed. Only one condition was established – Apple would not have direct access to these devices, and the hardware would instead have to be inspected by Cupertino’s outside lawyers only. Such devices would be the following: Galaxy Tab 10.1, Galaxy Tab 8.9, Galaxy S II, Infuse 4G, and Droid Charge.

Though said devices were already announced, and much details about them are known, it seems like Samsung is trying to play things extra safely. Proving that it will not keep its arms crossed about the situation, Samsung has just requested that Apple turn in its unannounced, upcoming devices for inspection as well, which include the upcoming iPhone and iPad (Specific names are unknown, but probably something along the lines of iPhone 5 and iPad 3).[1]

The claim is that Samsung would like to have some type of ground to stand on, in order to defend itself from Apple’s upcoming legal actions (or maybe make some changes?). Of course, Samsung agrees to abide by the same rules placed upon Apple, allowing only lawyers to have access to these devices, not Samsung staff/executives.

Samsung’s move will surely make the situation much more heated than it already is. This company’s main concern is that the the upcoming Apple devices will be the ones taken into consideration (not the present ones) if Apple decides to take further action.

We will have to wait and see how Apple responds to this. Given the fact that Apple has not even announced details about the requested devices, it seems unlikely that they will easily give in to such a request. Samsung might simply be trying to make the process longer and more complicated for Apple, for reasons unknown to us.

Though I am biased toward Samsung (I am an Android fan), Apple’s devices are probably not even far into their testing and development. Samsung asking for their final products, and even packaging, seems simply unreasonable (We all know that all Apple devices are very similar anyways). What are your opinions on this? What do you think Samsung’s intentions are? Do you think Apple will be forced to turn over the iPhone 5 and iPad 3 (If that happens, hopefully we get some leaks!).

References

  1. Read Samsung’s statement at thisismynext.com ↩
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