Hasta La Gadget!

Corporate earnings calls can be tedious affairs. But sometimes, if you listen closely enough, you’ll be treated to a nugget of product strategy in between those bursts of mind-numbing financial data. Intel’s call was just such an affair, with chief Paul S. Otellini providing a quick update on Intel’s tablet and smartphone plans. Regarding the emerging tablet market, Otellini said that Intel will have “quite a bit of tablet demonstrations” at Computex running MeeGo, Windows, and Android operating systems. “We’re heads down on a number of designs on tablets on all three of those operating systems,” he added. Regarding Android, Intel’s fifth CEO said, “We’ve received Android code – the Honeycomb version of Android source code – from Google, and we’re actively doing the port on that, and expect to be able to ramp those machines over the course of this year for a number of customers.” Yes, we’re looking at you right now Acer — wink, wink.

Regarding smarpthones, Otellini told reporters and analysts, “In terms of phones, obviously, we lost Nokia, which took a lot of the wind out of the sails for phones this year. We’ve redirected those resources onto a number of other major accounts focusing on carriers who want their own devices and also own handset manufacturers. They are all based on Medfield.” With regards to timing, Otellini observed, “The limit in terms of them getting to market is going to be the interoperability testing of the networks at this point in time. I would be very disappointed if we didn’t see Intel-based phones for sale 12 months from now.” Us too Paul, us too… ARM’s not exactly standing still.

Intel porting Honeycomb to its tablets, Medfield smartphones on the way originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 20 Apr 2011 05:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Toshiba’s first Honeycomb tablet, which we first laid hands upon back in January, has finally been priced with an honest to goodness ship date. Unfortunately, this 10.1-incher with 1,280 x 800 pixel display, USB, HDMI, and 5 megapixel rear-facing cam is Japan-only for now, where the Tegra-2 powered Android 3.0 tablet has just made its official debut as the Regza AT300 with a ¥60,000 price (about $723). Look for it to hit the hard streets of Nippon in late June. Now if we could just get a name, date, and price for locations a bit closer to home we’d be all set.

Toshiba’s 10.1-inch Regza AT300 Honeycomb tablet hits Japan in June originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 20 Apr 2011 01:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s been a while since we last saw Philip’s GoGear Connect PMP, and in the meantime it’s acquired a new look and a new flavor of Android. The new GoGear has gone from white to black, lost its trackball in favor of a capacitive touchscreen display, and exchanged the lowly Android 2.1 for Gingerbread. Like its competition from Samsung, the device also has access to the Android Market and all those apps that lesser PMPs lack. After getting some quality time with a prototype of the new device, we found the copper-colored buttons and speaker grill running along its right side to form an intriguing design, but the overall fit and finish — not to mention the lack of a backlight for the screen — demonstrated that it wasn’t quite ready for primetime. Luckily, there’s plenty of time to work out the kinks, as Philips has pegged a September debut for the 8GB and 16GB versions (at $179 and to-be-determined price points, respectively), and promised a 32GB iteration will come later. PR after the break.

Continue reading Philips GoGear Connect gets Gingerbread and some new threads, we go hands-on

Philips GoGear Connect gets Gingerbread and some new threads, we go hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Apr 2011 19:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Could Toshiba’s nameless Honeycomb tablet finally have a proper name? Thanks to a helpful tipster, we now have our clearest indication yet. Toshiba just filled a trademark application for the name “Thrive” last week and, as you can see above, it clearly describes the goods and services being trademarked as a tablet computer. What’s more, it seems that the company’s also gone on a bit of a domain name buying spree as of late, with it snapping up a number of “Thrive” variations including ToshibaThrive.com, ThriveTablet.com, ThriveToshiba.com and TabletThrive.com (none of which actually go anywhere just yet). Of course, this isn’t the first possible moniker for the tablet that’s cropped up. The name “Antares” surfaced way back at Mobile World Congress, which could account for the ANT model name we also spotted, although it certainly sounds more like a codename than “Thrive” does to our ears — and, as far as we can tell, Toshiba hasn’t attempted to register a trademark for Antares (or any other names recently, for that matter).

[Thanks, Babyfacemagee]

Trademark filing, domain names suggest Toshiba’s tablet might be named ‘Thrive’ originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Apr 2011 15:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Acer’s Iconia Tab A500 is one of the latest Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) tablets to hit the market. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

After Google’s tablet-optimized version of its Android OS debuted on the Xoom in February, manufacturers have been scrambling to bring their tablets to market. Next up on the list is Acer’s offering, the Iconia Tab A500.

If you haven’t used Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) before — and unless you own a Xoom, odds are you probably haven’t — it takes a bit of getting used to. Eliminating the four buttons that anchored so many Android phone faces means re-training yourself to handle a new UI. Instead of physical buttons, the system bar that lines the bottom of the screen holds three “soft” navigation buttons.

The Iconia Tab’s form takes advantage of the new UI, as the large amount of screen real estate allows for lots of room to customize the five different home screen menus.

Like a number of its Android brethren, the Iconia Tab is running on Nvidia’s dual-core, 1 GHz Tegra 2 processor. Playing one of the HD games that came loaded on the tablet showed solid performance, and the integrated GeForce GPU handled the graphics well.

The tablet also supports Adobe Flash (unlike the iPad 2), though as of now the Flash player release for Honeycomb tablets is only a beta version. And believe me, it shows. YouTube test videos were unreliable, running smooth at some points, and choppily at others. Some Flash games ran well enough (Bejeweled), while others were nearly unplayable. In a recent interview, Adobe told us the delay in producing a final version for Honeycomb-based tablets had to do with “fundamental changes in the browser implementation,” which held up the plug-in’s release even for the launch of the Xoom.

At 1.69 pounds it’s only slightly heftier than the comparable Xoom (1.6 pounds), though its metal exterior would fool you into thinking otherwise. The 10.1-inch display runs 720p HD video quite well, though don’t expect to be watching any 1080p until a software update coming later this summer.

It has two cameras — a 5-megapixel back-facing camera and a 2-megapixel front-facing one for video chat. Nothing really new here, except for the interface on which you take your photos. Shooting pictures on a Honeycomb tablet for the first time is, frankly, a little weird. Holding the tablet in both hands and pointing feels like trying to deflect debris with a cafeteria lunch tray.

Acer’s tablet has a 5-megapixel back-facing camera for photos. Be forewarned — taking pictures with a tablet takes getting used to. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

Much like the Xoom, Acer’s tablet is seriously lacking in the sound department. The speakers are located on the back side of the device, projecting audio away from the viewer. Even if you were to flip the tablet around while listening, speaker quality just isn’t there. Tinny, distorted highs and crunchy lows makes for an awful aural experience.

Acer has decided to price the Iconia Tab at $450, cheaper than most of the premium tablet releases we’re going to see released over the next few months. Since the tablet seems a bit like plain vanilla to us, the relatively low price is probably Acer’s best bet to steal customers away from choosing Apple, Motorola or RIM’s recent BlackBerry PlayBook tablet.

The Iconia Tab A500 is currently up for pre-order on Bestbuy.com, and will be available exclusively at Best Buy retail stores and online April 24.

See Also:

• Acer's New Wi-Fi Android Tablet Unveiled
• Report: Motorola Xoom Tablet to Cost a Hefty $800
• Motorola Xoom Launches Without Flash
• Motorola Xoom, Atrix Too Pricey for the Public
• Video: Android 'Honeycomb' Tablet OS Revealed
• Google Unveils Graphics, Other Enhancements to Honeycomb
• What We Know About Honeycomb, the Android for Tablets