Hasta La Gadget!

While we expect Amazon to refresh its Kindle Fire tablet sooner rather than later, Demos Parneros, president of US retail for Staples, has told Reuters that the online book-seller has bigger plans. Amazon apparently aims to introduce five or six new devices (or SKUs, stock-keeping units), though as noted by Android Central‘s Phil Nickinson, these could thin out to just two tablet models and several storage variants. According to the exec, the tablets will come in a range of sizes and would include a new ten-inch device — going directly against another popular tablet. No word on whether these five or six device would include a smartphone, as screen sizes get increasingly closer. Amazon has also announced that it’ll be creating a new R&D hub in London, focusing on its services and APIs for TVs, consoles, smartphones and PCs, aimed squarely at rolling these out across the globe. The original Kindle Fire — and its Android app store — is still not available outside of America. However, public plans for the new Amazon base currently center on relocating both Lovefilm and Pushbutton to this new hub. However, it’s been about a year; about time for Europe to get a taste of Amazon’s wallet-friendly tab.

Filed under: Tablet PCs

Amazon plans for ‘five or six’ new tablets, will include 10-inch model, says Staples president originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Jul 2012 08:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging for an update. From time to time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are floating around that it’s easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the mix. To make sure they don’t escape without notice, we’ve gathered every possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery we could find during the last week and crammed them into one convenient roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy!

Continue reading Refresh Roundup: week of July 16th, 2012

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablet PCs, Software

Refresh Roundup: week of July 16th, 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 22 Jul 2012 21:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Huawei’s 10-inch FHD tablet has been anything but shy since its little-known early days, well before its unexpected introduction to the masses. But since we’ve now seen it (and felt it) in most of its glory, we shouldn’t be surprised that its creator’s taken the time to put together a quick promotional vid ahead of an expected launch next month. The MediaPad 10 teaser, naturally, touts many of the slate’s own features, including the sensational 1920 x 1200 IPS display, Huawei’s in-house K3 Balong CPU, as well as its “refined metallic surface” and “luxurious yet subtle” design. Of course, there’s a lot more where that came from, so head on past the break to watch the ballyhooed clip for yourself.

Continue reading Huawei’s MediaPad 10 teases all of its traits in soothing promo video

Filed under: Tablet PCs

Huawei’s MediaPad 10 teases all of its traits in soothing promo video originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 22 Jul 2012 01:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’re rather big fans of the Nexus 7 here at Engadget HQ — it’s just hard not to like a $200 tablet with a Tegra 3 SoC and 7-inch glass-bonded IPS display running pure Jelly Bean. Of the few missing features, there’s one we’re bemoaning more than the lack of rear camera, and that’s the absence of any kind of HDMI or MHL video output. So far, watching movies with the Nexus 7’s been relegated to using a Nexus Q and streaming content from Google Play or YouTube.

Enter Wi-Fi Media, an app available for free on Google Play that lets most Android devices like the Nexus 7 play movies, music and stills on any screen via any Cavium PureVu-compatible streamer, such as HTC’s $90 Media Link HD. We tested Wi-Fi Media with our Nexus 7 and Media Link HD and found it to work pretty much as advertised except for some caveats. First the app doesn’t mirror your screen — you’re limited to playing content stored on the tablet or on the network via DLNA, which means no YouTube, Netflix or games. Second, the app doesn’t handle some common file types — like AVI, for example.

While it supports watching movies, listening to music and looking at pictures, keep in mind that Wi-Fi Media is not a particularly polished app. In addition to playing local and remote DLNA content, you’re able to login to Facebook and Picasa and stream images directly from these accounts, but that’s pretty much it in terms of functionality. There’s also no way to configure the Media Link HD, so you’ll need a sanctioned HTC handset to setup the multimedia streamer before using it with a Nexus 7. Want to know more? Peek at our screenshot gallery below and hit the break for our hands-on video.

Update: Since there’s some confusion in the comments, we’d like to clarify that the Media Link HD is not a DLNA device. It normally only works with select HTC phones like the One X, One S and EVO 4G LTE. WiFi-Media’s primary purpose is to connect with a Media Link HD — the app also just happens to support DLNA.

[Thanks, Matt]

Continue reading Wi-Fi Media lets your Nexus 7 play movies on any screen via HTC’s Media Link HD (hands-on video)

Filed under: Cellphones, Home Entertainment, Tablet PCs, Software

Wi-Fi Media lets your Nexus 7 play movies on any screen via HTC’s Media Link HD (hands-on video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 21 Jul 2012 19:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Comcast subscribers who have already received their Nexus 7 tablets or are sporting Android 4.1-powered phones should cast an eye towards Google Play for an updated version of the Xfinity TV Player app. Version 1.0.2.001 adds beta support for Jelly Bean in general and the Nexus 7 tablet specifically. It also fixes a nasty bug that would leave users stranded after upgrading their operating system, and promises a UI designed for 7-inch tablets in the next update. We saw Netflix get a compatibility update for Jelly Bean the day it launched, and Sky Go only just made the jump to supporting Ice Cream Sandwich, whether or not you have access to this app, have early adopters spotted any other laggards that might stop working when a long-awaited upgrade hits devices?

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Tablet PCs

Comcast Xfinity TV Player for Android updated with beta support for Jelly Bean, Nexus 7 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Jul 2012 19:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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