Hasta La Gadget!

If Samsung’s Galaxy Tab reads like a how-to for making a decent Android tablet, Toshiba’s Folio 100 seems to serve an opposite purpose (starting with that unfortunate name), which is disappointing for a company like Toshiba. The tablet just got official here at IFA, after being spotted on the show floor earlier today, but there’s nothing in the press release to change our initial impressions of the device. There’s a 1024 x 600 10.1-inch capacitive touchscreen, Tegra 2 under the hood, 16GB of built-in storage, SD card expansion, HDMI out, 802.11n WiFi, a 1.3 megapixel webcam, and Android 2.2 with Flash 10.1 running on top of it all. Toshiba claims 7 hours of battery of “regular” use (65% web browsing, 10% video playback, 25% standby), and everything is packed into a 0.55-inch thick form factor that weighs 1.7 pounds. Software-wise Toshiba has baked in Opera, Toshiba Media Player, FBReader, Fring (for video calls), Documents To Go, and Evernote, with Toshiba offering its own app marketplace and developer platform for tablet-specific apps. Unfortunately, the tablet ends up in person as less than the sum of its parts, and while Toshiba might be able to redeem itself slightly with perhaps a surprisingly low pricepoint, we don’t imagine ourselves yearning for this device to escape the bonds of its initial Europe, Middle East, and Africa launch markets. PR is after the break.

Update: Toshiba just said that the suggested retail price will be €399.

Continue reading Toshiba Folio 100 goes official, lands in Q4

Toshiba Folio 100 goes official, lands in Q4 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Sep 2010 10:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Even without yesterday’s premature video promo, you had to know Motorola wouldn’t leave its international audience without a successor to the Milestone, so today — surprise, surprise — we’re being treated to the Milestone 2’s launch. The first thing to be said here is that if you’ve handled a Droid 2, you’ve also handled a Milestone 2 — the new phone follows Moto’s tradition of being a simple rebadge away from the Verizon-friendly Droid naming scheme, which means it retains the same 1GHz OMAP SOC, 512MB of RAM, 5 megapixel camera, 8GB of integrated storage (plus an included 8GB MicroSD card), and Android 2.2 as the default, albeit Motoblured, OS. Also, we got this straight from the Motohorse’s mouth: Motoblur’s not going anywhere, it’s the company’s “Android solution” and is here to stay.

One advantage over the Droid 2 here is the addition of 720p video recording. It’s still the exact same imager as on the back of the first Milestone, but now you can catch moving visuals in HD resolution. Moto were keen to point out the 5-device hotspot capabilities (courtesy of Froyo) on the Milestone 2, but they showed it off using a wired connection since the demo handset’s O2 SIM card wouldn’t permit wireless tethering. Well, that was a grand demonstration of how vulnerable our Android 2.2 goodness will be to the whims of mobile carriers. The Milestone 2’s expected to launch around Europe in Q4, with carrier-dependent pricing as per usual.

Update: Hands-on video now available after the break.

Continue reading Motorola Milestone 2 arrives, 720p HD video, Android 2.2, and Motoblur Enhanced in tow

Motorola Milestone 2 arrives, 720p HD video, Android 2.2, and Motoblur Enhanced in tow originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Sep 2010 04:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

“How do you tablet?” Oh yes, that’s Archos’ new tag line when it comes to its growing number of Android tablets. Good timing since, you know, it just went ahead and released a quintuplet of new gadgets. The offerings range from small PMP-like devices with 2.8- and 3.2-inch screens to higher-end 4.3-, 7- and 10.1-inch tablets. All will ship with Android 2.2 “Froyo” and will include accelerometers, while only some have capacitive touchscreens, front-facing cameras and 1GHz processors. There’s a lot more to them all — we’re talking five different devices, of course — so we suggest hitting the break for a short rundown of each of them along with our early impressions. And don’t forget to check out the the gallery of hands-on pictures and videos below.

Continue reading Archos unleashes five (five!) new Android Froyo tablets, we go hands-on

Archos unleashes five (five!) new Android Froyo tablets, we go hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 Aug 2010 14:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

We know you’re positively giddy with excitement to get at this OlivePad rebadge and ViewSonic is today fanning those flames of desire with a little bit of pre-IFA PR. Made official today, the 7-inch ViewPad 7 will try to lure in Android lovers with its tasty Froyo parfait, underpinned by hardware that includes front- and back-facing cameras, 3G for both phone and data transmissions, and a full-sized SIM slot. It doesn’t seem to have an earpiece so we’re unwilling to grant it the claim that it offers “full” phone functionality, but we’d be more worried about the unlisted internal specs on this thing — the OlivePad makes do with a 600MHz ARM CPU and an underwhelming 800 x 480 resolution, neither of which should be making the iPad quake in its well padded boots. Price is expected to be “no more than £350” ($543) in the UK, though all we know about availability is that review units will start showing up in October. Ah well, the wait for a quality iPad alternative continues.

Continue reading ViewSonic ViewPad 7 official: Android 2.2 and ‘full’ phone functionality

ViewSonic ViewPad 7 official: Android 2.2 and ‘full’ phone functionality originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 Aug 2010 07:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Far be it from us to use a screen shot as proof that Android 2.2 has been ported to a particular device — they’re impossibly easy to ‘shop and hack, after all — but there’s a groundswell of information today that a legit build of Froyo is in the wild for the Samsung i9000, better known as the Galaxy S. Early indications are that the build and the update process aren’t without their issues, suggesting we might be looking at a beta release — but if you’ve got a European version of the phone and you have no desire to wait for Samsung or your carrier to give you a proper build with proper instructions, this is your best bet at the moment (and it seems that GPS performance is improved at least a little bit). Owners of Vibrants and Captivates in the US need not apply here since the model numbers differ, but we’re foolishly hopeful that Sammy can bust all of these updates out in rapid-fire fashion.

[Thanks, Frederik]

Samsung Galaxy S update to Froyo leaks originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Aug 2010 10:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink SamFirmware (Twitter)  |  SamFirmware, xda-developers  | Email this | Comments