Hasta La Gadget!

Too often, choosing a budget-friendly device involves settling with a small, under-powered handset with lackluster specs and an old version of Android. Fortunately, that is slowly changing, with more mid-range handsets hitting the market with a reasonable price tag. One such handset is Lava Mobile’s XOLO A1000, a 5-inch Android smartphone that has all-around nice specs with a low price tag of $259 USD.

The XOLO A1000 has a sleek white body that resembles certain popular Galaxy handsets, as well as mid-range specs that are certainly high enough to please the average smartphone user looking for a handset with a large screen and powerful enough hardware to play their favorite mobile games. For now, the handset is only available in India for 13,999 rupees.

The A1000 features a large 5-inch IPS display with a 720p 120×720 resolution. Inside, users will find a MediaTek MT6577 1GHz dual-core processor and a PowerVR SGX531 GPU. There’s 1GB of RAM and 4GB of internal storage space, with a microSD expansion slot for more memory if the on-board isn’t enough. Around back there’s an 8-megapixel camera, as well as a 1.2-megapixel front camera.

The handset is said to run Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, and sports a decent sized 2100mAh battery, which is large enough to keep the handset powered for awhile without constantly having to plug it in, but not quite as large as would be comfortable for a 5-inch display. The handset comes in black and white and is unlocked. No word on whether we’ll see it in the States.

[via Android Community]

Lava Mobile offers budget XOLO A1000 5-inch Android phablet for $259 is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Microsoft has been having troubles keeping the 128GB model Surface Pro tablet on virtual and actual store shelves, but it looks like the drought, as promised, is ending. The tablet’s now up for pre-order on the Microsoft Store website with an estimated March 1st ship date. Best Buy will also be receiving shipments of the slate soon and is also willing to take your money now to reserve one. Alas, our friends north of the border in Canada are still without a 128GB Surface purchase option, but at least the folks at the Surface Blog have promised to provide more info on the matter sometime soon. Don’t believe us? Head on down to the source and see for yourself.

[Thanks, Jon]

Filed under: Tablets, Microsoft

Comments

Source: Surface Blog, Microsoft Store

Today, we dealt with an asteroid and a meteor. The 2012 DA14 asteroid zipped passed Earth today and a meteor exploded over Russia. What the heck is the difference between an asteroid and a meteor? And a meteorite? And a meteoroid? Not too much, apparently! More »

WASHINGTON — The mother of slain Chicago teenager Hadiya Pendleton on Friday released a public service advertisement urging members of Congress to support gun-control legislation.

“When my daughter Hadiya performed at the president’s inauguration, it was the happiest day of her life,” Cleopatra Cowley-Pendleton says in the ad, her voice narrating video clips of President Barack Obama’s inauguration and photos of her daughter. “A week later, she was murdered. Gunned down near her school.”

Pendleton, whose daughter was an innocent bystander to gang-related violence, says, “Congress is debating how to fix our gun laws [and] they can start with background checks for all gun sales, [so] no parent has to go through this heartbreak.”

Read More…
More on Gun Control

The resignation of Pope Benedict XVI and the issue it raises of how his successor deals with a living ex-pope has touched off a heated debate among presidential historians about how American presidents deal with their predecessors. Here are some examples.
Read More…
More on Satire