Hasta La Gadget!

It’s been nine months — nine months! — since Acer first announced it was getting into the tablet game, with a promise of both 7- and 10-inch slates. Well, the 10-inch Iconia Tab A500 has been on the scene for months, but until now we’ve been tapping our feet impatiently waiting for the other tab to drop. Acer came out and said it wouldn’t be here until the second half of the year, and meanwhile we’d heard rumors it would arrive in September and that it was delayed due to “Honeycomb compatibility issues“.

Well, folks, dog years later it’s finally here. Say hello to the Acer Iconia Tab A100, the company’s first 7-inch tablet, and the first 7-inch tablet to run Android 3.2. Other than its OS, its specs are fairly run-of-the-mill: a Tegra 2 SoC, five- and two-megapixel cameras, and micro-USB and micro-HDMI ports. And rejoice, geeks, because that’s vanilla Honeycomb loaded on there — you won’t find any custom skins or proprietary widgets clogging your home screens. As much promise as these vitals might have for nerds, though, Acer is clear the tablet is for mainstream consumers (“moms,” among others, according to the press release). We’re not sure how your mother would feel about the precious pattern on the back, but chances are she’d appreciate the bargain factor: the 8GB version costs $329.99 while the 16GB number rings in at a reasonable $349.99, undercutting the 16GB HTC Flyer by $150. We’ve been lucky to get some quality time with the A100 the past few days, and let’s just say we’re coming away with some mixed feelings. But do we like it enough that we feel this little guy was worth the wait? That’s a toughie, guys.

Continue reading Acer Iconia Tab A100 review

Acer Iconia Tab A100 review originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Aug 2011 08:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s shaping up to be a busy month for Pandigital. Two days after we spotted the Nova at Best Buy, the astronomically-inclined company has decided to officially unveil the Android tablet alongside the Planet and Star, with a fourth “flagship” device slated for release in September. Each of the three slates is powered by an A9 Cortex processor, and boasts a seven-inch touchscreen display (800×600 resolution on the Planet and Nova and 800×480 on the Star, pictured above). As far as storage goes, both the Planet and the Star offer 2GB of onboard memory, with the Nova packing 4GB, and all three offer WiFi and HDMI connectivity. The slabs also come preloaded with Barnes & Noble’s eBookstore app and provide access to GetJar’s app download store, rather than the Android Market. Honeycomb enthusiasts, however, should probably look elsewhere, as both the Planet and the Star run Android 2.2 Froyo, while the Nova ships with Gingerbread. But considering their prices, that shortcoming may be easy to overlook. The Planet, available now, will run you $189, as will the Nova, scheduled to ship later this week (though, again, you can also find it on Best Buy, for $170). The Star, meanwhile, will hit stores in mid-August, for a paltry $159. Rocket past the break for some photos of the Nova and Planet, along with more details, in the full press release.

Continue reading Pandigital unveils Nova, Planet and Star Android tablets, ‘flagship’ device coming next month

Pandigital unveils Nova, Planet and Star Android tablets, ‘flagship’ device coming next month originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Aug 2011 04:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We spied a mystery FCC listing just the other day, filed under a no-name company but bearing some unmistakable Lenovo markings. Now we have another unidentified device bearing the same branding and, according to our friendly neighborhood tipster, this is the company’s 7-inch IdeaPad, which might be (internally) dubbed the A1-07. It’s said to be powered by a TI OMAP3621 processor (which also drives the Nook Color), features a 7-inch 1024 x 600 touchscreen, a Broadcom GPS unit, 3G wireless with a SIM slot, and room for a microSD card as well. A 3,700mAh battery supposedly keeps things juiced, both front- and rear-facing cameras are on offer, and it’s all wrapped in a glossy plastic styling that makes it look a little like a TouchPad with some bare metal highlights. It also features three buttons up front that we’re hoping don’t mean it’s been relegated to Android 2.x. Now, the image above (and the second one, below) have obviously been crudely modified to hide something, and we can’t be sure of what we’re looking at here, but it’s interesting enough for us to pass these along. Have a gander and let us know what you think in comments.

[Thanks, Anonymous]

Continue reading Lenovo’s 7-inch IdeaPad caught by Mr. Blurrycam?

Lenovo’s 7-inch IdeaPad caught by Mr. Blurrycam? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 22 Jul 2011 10:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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RIM sure is working fast to bring its 500,000-strong BlackBerry Playbooks up to functional par. The tablet’s been on the market for three short months and is already set to receive its fourth software update. This go ’round, RIM added the ability to save attachments to a removable SD card or your phone’s internal storage, extract zip files from email (although you’ll have to use Bridge and port from your BlackBerry smartphone), a pinch-to-zoom feature for video viewing and — winner of the duh award — portrait viewing for photos. Also, the software now supports 15 additional languages — great news if you speak Galician. If you’re planning on picking up this QNX tab, you’ll receive the v1.0.7 update as part of the setup process. Current owners can wait for an update notification, or just pull it manually. So, what are you waiting for? Get downloading.

Update: And it’s gone. Seems some folks who downloaded the update were having connectivity issues using BlackBerry Bridge. RIM posted on Twitter saying users should expect a fix later this week.

BlackBerry PlayBook update brings zip extraction, more storage options for attachments (updated) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Jul 2011 11:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading iRiver’s MX100 Android tablet spotted in China? (video)

iRiver’s MX100 Android tablet spotted in China? (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Jun 2011 11:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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