Hasta La Gadget!

Asus has confirmed that three of its upcoming tablets will run the next version of the Google mobile operating system, Android 3.0. aka Honeycomb.

The Eee Pad tablet will run Honeycomb and start shipping this summer, Asus spokesman Gary Key told Wired in an e-mail message.

That contradicts a report in The Inquirer, in which Asus marketing specialist John Swatton said Asus Android tablets would not launch until the fall.

Information around hardware requirements and technical specifications for running Honeycomb has been murky at best. Korean consumer-electronics firm Enspert originally speculated that Honeycomb would require a dual-core processor in order to run. But according to a Twitter status update sent by Android Open Source lead Dan Morrill, there’s no “hard minimum processor requirement” to run version 3.0.

By way of comparison, Samsung’s Galaxy Tab is running Android version 2.2 Froyo, and will be upgradable when Honeycomb is officially released. Motorola’s Xoom tablet will launch with Honeycomb in the spring. It hasn’t been said if that’s the case for the Eee Pad series or not.

Photo: Courtesy of Asus

According to a post that’s just gone live on Boxee’s blog, users of the Boxee Box won’t see VUDU or Netflix content on their TVs until January. We know, the wait will be painful. According to the Boxee team, VUDU offerings should hit the platform as soon as next week, but Netflix won’t be made available until the end of the month. The company claims that both services are up and running in its offices, but more time was needed to “test each application to make sure they are ready for launch.” It’s nice to know where we stand, though it would have been even nicer to get more frequent updates on the status of these apps, instead of a last-minute blog post on New Year’s Eve.

Still, the post has equal touches of hopefulness for the bright future Boxee sees for home entertainment, and acknowledgment of the massive challenges the startup faces in the coming year. In their words: “As we get ready for the New Year tomorrow and CES next week, it’s clear that in 2011 we will be competing with companies that spend more feeding their employees that we have to pay ours. We’re confident though that our small team will continue to push the envelop of what people expect from their TVs.” Here at Engadget, we’re eager to see how it all plays out, but we’re definitely rooting for underdogs like Boxee who have pioneered so much of what the world is just waking up to. 2011 is going to be a crazy year!

Netflix and VUDU not hitting Boxee Box till January… as if you couldn’t have guessed originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 31 Dec 2010 21:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you’ve been keeping an ear to the techie ground, you’ll probably have heard some analyst chatter suggesting RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook may be delayed due to issues relating to its supposedly poor battery life. That scuttlebutt has now turned out to be mostly unfounded, with RIM clarifying the situation through a communiqué sent to Erictric:

“Any testing or observation of battery life to date by anyone outside of RIM would have been performed using pre-beta units that were built without power management implemented. RIM is on track with its schedule to optimize the BlackBerry PlayBook’s battery life and looks forward to providing customers with a professional grade tablet that offers superior performance with comparable battery life.”

To be sure, it’s not an outright denial that there may be PlayBooks floating about with disappointing battery performance, but the immaturity of the software on them is clearly such as to invalidate any conclusions drawn. Perhaps more important than the imprecise discussion of battery longevity (what does “comparable” even mean in this context?) is the note that the company is still on track to complete its software optimizations and deliver its first tablet on schedule. Guess we can all quit worrying now.

RIM: BlackBerry PlayBook battery life is still being optimized, won’t cause delays originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Dec 2010 04:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It was only a couple of weeks ago that BlockBuster and Warner Bros were trialling the release of DVD titles into the former company’s rental kiosks on their day of commercial release, but it seems like that’s a future we’re not going to see any more of. The pair have now announced a partnership whereby BlockBuster will offer WB’s new DVD titles for rent 28 days after launch, matching Redbox and Netflix who are also subject to a four-week delay. This follows similar deals being concluded by BlockBuster with Universal Studios and 20th Century Fox, with the major benefits being lower acquisition costs and a direct relationship with the studio. We just wonder if those savings will be worth losing the one big differentiator BlockBuster had working in its favor.

Continue reading BlockBuster to distribute Warner Bros DVD rentals 28 days after release, losing edge on competition

BlockBuster to distribute Warner Bros DVD rentals 28 days after release, losing edge on competition originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Dec 2010 03:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’d been following this story for a few days and holding off on calling it a delay since even the quickest orders weren’t expected to arrive in owners’ hands until today, but would-be Venue Pro owners now seem to be getting emails directly from Dell that their orders have been officially delayed until early January. The reason for the delay is anybody’s guess, but it’s an open secret that Dell’s been having quality control issues on the Venue Pro through its ODM, Qisda — and we’ve already seen issues with WiFi (allegedly a software issue alone), mislabeled batteries, and SIM card registration in the field. We’ll be keeping our fingers crossed that some miracle gets the early orders delivered sooner than 2011, because seriously, we can think of a few nerds that would love one of these bad boys in their stockings this year. Launch bugs are a serious bummer, aren’t they?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Update: We’ve just gotten an official statement from Dell on the matter — it doesn’t really clarify anything, but at least they’re acknowledging the situation:

“Dell continually monitors its manufacturing and supply for all its products. We are looking in to potential ship date changes and will issue an update as soon as it’s available.”

Dell Venue Pro apparently delayed again, targeting January now (update: Dell ‘looking into’ delays) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Dec 2010 13:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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