Hasta La Gadget!

We’ve heard an awful lot about a forthcoming Android tablet rocking an Amazon logo, including a little teasing from CEO Jeff Bezos back in May, and now The Wall Street Journal’s adding flames to the slate fire saying the hotly anticipated tab could be on its way before October. According to those oh so familiar “people familiar with the matter,” the Android-based slate would rock a nine-inch screen and, surprisingly, lack a camera, making it ill-suited as an iPad competitor — the tablet would apparently be focused on offering media purchased from the online retailer. What’s more, those sources are also spreading word of two new Kindles coming in Q3 — one with a touchscreen, the other a budget version of the current e-reader. Of course, it’s all just rumor for now, but that’s a whole lot of rumor.

Amazon Android tablet coming before October? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 Jul 2011 16:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s been a few months since Sony made its (tardy) entrance into the tablet market, and since then it hasn’t been sharing details so much as teasing them in whimsical, perplexing ads. Finally, the outfit’s ready to take specifics. We’re sitting at a roundtable with Sony executives, and just learned that its clamshell S2 tablet is headed to AT&T’s “4G” (read: HSPA+) network, confirming what we already suspected after peeping a tell-tale FCC report. Sony’s is quick to remind us that “S2” is just a codename, so don’t be surprised if it surfaces with a completely different moniker. Otherwise, the company didn’t get too chatty: we still don’t know how or when AT&T will begin selling it nor how much it will cost on contract. Also still MIA: details on when, where, and for how much you’ll be able to nab that folded magazine-inspired S1. Check out the press release below.

Continue reading Sony’s S2 tablet coming to AT&T, price and availability remain a mystery

Sony’s S2 tablet coming to AT&T, price and availability remain a mystery originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 Jul 2011 09:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We thought Haier’s HaiPad looked oddly familiar, and a quick trip down memory lane suggests we aren’t (completely) bonkers: it’s a rebranded Quanta we spied at CES. The 7-inch slate now sports a custom Froyo skin from DianXin, an 800MHz processor, 802.11 b/g WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1, and a WCDMA radio. We’re told that last antenna provides the slate with phone and texting capabilities just like some versions of another 7-incher we know. Also present are “dual-cameras” (which we assume means one on each plane), availability in five “stylish” hues, and a vague August ship date. With less than a month to scrounge up 3,299 RMB (about $500) and train to fight off thousands of felines, you had better get cracking.

[Thanks, Marco]

Haier’s HaiPad ships in August, to become the preferred tablet of lolcats everywhere originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 Jul 2011 08:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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By this time, hopefully, all of you who were on the hunt for a Transformer finally got your mitts on one. If you were holding out for the 3G version, though, you can stop fidgeting — it’s already been priced in mainland Europe, putting it almost a month ahead of its expected arrival in the UK. Notebook Italia spotted both the 16GB and 32GB iterations listed online, fetching €499 and €599, respectively, VAT included. Notebook Italia also grabbed a screenshot of an updated product page on ASUS’s Italian site, though when we peeped the listing we just found the WiFi-only versions, with predictably lower prices to match. Either way you slice it, though, both the instruction manual and illustrated product guide are alive and well on ASUS’ site, suggesting you should see this on the streets of Milano soon enough.

[Thanks, Marco]

3G ASUS Eee Pad Transformer spotted online, priced starting at 499 euros originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Jul 2011 12:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tragic. Just tragic. It seems like just yesterday we were dashing to our local Kmart in hopes of securing one of the hottest, most demanded products on the market. First, it was the $99 GenBook, and days later, it was the Gentouch 78. Now, it appears that neither of those absolutely astounding pieces of kit will ever be produced again, as Augen’s website has been cold and unresponsive for the better part of a month. It’s not picking up the phone, and it’s not replying to emails. We’d bother to weep, but we have to wonder how bad things truly are if it took the world four full weeks to notice one’s disappearance.

Augen mysteriously dies, dirt-cheap Android tablets can’t keep it afloat originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 07 Jul 2011 19:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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