Hasta La Gadget!

OK, before y’all haters state the obvious in the comments below, there’s actually something noteworthy about this familiar-looking Chinese slate. What we have here is the SmartQ Ten (or T10, as referenced above), a forthcoming Froyo tablet that’ll feature a juicy Cortex-A9 chip plus a Mali 400 GPU, as well as 512MB RAM and a 9.7-inch 1024 x 768 IPS display. This wouldn’t be the first Android device to get the IPS goodness, though, as its predecessor R10 — launched with Android 2.1 and a 720MHz processor back in December — also has the same LCD panel within a seemingly identical form factor. In fact, we stumbled upon an R10 earlier today, and the prettiness of the screen did surprise us.

But what really sells the Ten is its piezoelectric touchscreen, which supports multitouch input even with non-conductive objects like the old school styli. This means said tablet can achieve light transmittance similar to its capacitive touchscreen counterparts but using cheaper parts, as well as having point-input precision similar to those with resistive touchscreens but with better screen clarity. Alas, no date or price has been announced for the Ten just yet, nor do we know if it’ll get Honeycomb in the future, but price it right and it might still get some love.

SmartQ announces Ten, an Android tablet packing IPS display with piezoelectric touchscreen originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Feb 2011 07:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Yikes. We just finished getting our fingerprints all over LG’s Optimus Pad (aka the G-Slate), and now we’re thinking we should have been wearing white gloves while doing so. The tablet is coming in March to the US, but we didn’t know a price. Now we do — in Germany, at least, and get ready to wince: €999. That’s about $1,350 if you do a straight conversion, out-classing even the Xoom‘s eye-wateringly high $1,199 pre-order price, which we’re still holding out hope is a misprint. Maybe the golden goo in Honeycomb really is gold.

Update: Roland wrote in to remind us that German prices include a 19 percent VAT, which would drop this price down to a mere $1,075 if you’re into the conversion game. Well within pocket change territory.

[Thanks, Enzo]

LG Optimus Pad priced at €999 in Germany originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Feb 2011 07:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve just gotten back from playing around with LG’s 8.9-inch, 3D-friendly Optimus Pad (known as the G-Slate in the US). This Android Honeycomb tablets sports a dual-core CPU inside and a dual-camera array outside, giving you both the optical and processing capabilities to produce 3D video. Its screen cannot actually play back glasses-free 3D, but if you really have to have that third dimension on the move, you’ll be able to buy a set of glasses to recreate the effect. The Optimus Pad is slim, though we couldn’t get a great feel for its ergonomics with all the wiring attached to it, has nicely curved corners, a matte black back cover that’s pleasant to the touch and seemingly durable, and an extremely glossy screen up front.

We likened the Pad to the Optimus 2X in an earlier post and it carries over a lot of industrial design elements from its smartphone sibling, including the metallic strip down the middle of its rear branded with a “with Google” logo. That’s actually meaningful this time — the Optimus 2X wasn’t a stock Android installation, it was subjected to LG’s (not entirely successful tweaks), however the Pad looks to be a straight Google Experience Device, in much the same vein as the Motorola Xoom and Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, its nearest and most direct competitors. That being said, the code on the device we handled still wasn’t up to scratch on the software front, as evidenced by us managing to crash both the browser and Google Maps within a few minutes of putting down our first fingerprints on the tablet. The 3D camcorder also seems like a memory hog, we weren’t able to get it started up initially because of the number of apps that were already open (which at the time was no more than four). Let’s remain optimistic, though, this wasn’t exactly a slate we snatched off a retail shelf and LG has time to optimize and spruce things up before shipping this thing out. We’ve got pictures for you below and a press release after the break. Video is incoming at the very fastest speed our wireless connection can carry it.

Update: Video is now in, get to the ogling!

Continue reading LG Optimus Pad first hands-on! (video)

LG Optimus Pad first hands-on! (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Feb 2011 05:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A couple of changes for Motorola this morning. First up is a new version of Moto’s Media Link iTunes sync software. Media Link version 1.5 is available now for Mac users or March for the beige box bunch. More importantly, perhaps, is a new version of Motoblur with enhanced location, messaging, music, and gallery features. The new Connected Music service features streaming lyrics and a social aspect that lets you follow the tracks your friends are listening to. Connected Gallery unites your photos and videos with your friends’ online albums from sites like Facebook, Flickr, Photobucket, and Picasa. Aloga, meanwhile, is a Motoblur-integrated location-triggered push platform that provides third-party publishers with information about your location, identity, and social relationships. The idea is to offer users non-intrusive information about places, events, or bargains for the “channels” they select. Look for the new Motoblur to arrive on “recently announced devices” like the Cliq 2 and Atrix 4G. Full detail in the press release after the break.

Continue reading Motorola updates Motoblur and Media Link client for Macs and PCs

Motorola updates Motoblur and Media Link client for Macs and PCs originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Feb 2011 04:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While we’re probably still years or decades away from getting our very own animatronic clones, Google’s released the next best thing for the time being. Available on the Android Market is this Androidify app, which, as the name says for itself, lets us mere mortals craft our very own Android mascot lookalikes. Hell, you can even slap on some facial hair or a baby droid while you’re at it. We’ll say no more — see the app in action after the break, if you’re not already busy dishing out your new avatar across the web.

Continue reading Google’s Androidify app lets you create your very own bot avatar (video)

Google’s Androidify app lets you create your very own bot avatar (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Feb 2011 02:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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