Hasta La Gadget!

Xperia Play coming to Canada, exclusive to Rogers? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Feb 2011 15:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We knew Motorola’s tablet release would make waves upon its release. But with a hefty price tag and data plan strings attached, it may be more of a cannonball.

The Xoom tablet will debut on February 24 at an $800 price, according to a leaked Best Buy ad. And in a small disclaimer line underneath the picture of the tablet, the ad claims that “a minimum of one month data subscription is required” in order to unlock Wi-Fi. If the ad is accurate, that means even if you don’t want to go 3G, you’ll have to buy the 3G service for a month to unlock Wi-Fi access on the tablet.

The ad provides a list of rates for different data plans, with 1GB/month costing $20, 3GB/month at $35, 5GB/month at$50 and 10GB/month at $80. Surprise surprise, there are no unlimited data plans on Verizon’s network. But we’ve been expecting it, as Verizon has been saying for some time that it would eventually do away with its unlimited data package.

As the flagship tablet for Android’s upcoming version 3.0 (Honeycomb) OS update, Motorola’s tablet has received lots of attention from the tech community. Motorola has positioned its tablet offering as a direct challenger to the iPad’s extremely strong 75 percent hold on tablet market share, recently taunting Apple in a Xoom-focused Super Bowl commercial.

The Xoom touts an impressive spec sheet — a 1-GHz dual-core Nvidia Tegra 2 processor, 10.1-inch HD display screen, 5-megapixel back facing camera with 720p HD video capture and 2-megapixel front facing camera for video chat.

But even with admirable hardware, the company may find it difficult to get the tablet off the ground if customers feel bogged down with a hefty initial price tag and strings-attached data plan options.

Requests for comment from Motorola were not returned as of this article’s publishing.

Photo: Motorola Xoom Tablet/Duncan Geere

[via Engadget]

See Also:

• Motorola Bashes Apple in ‘1984′ Superbowl Ad
• Motorola’s Atrix Smartphone Coming in Early March
• Motorola Previews New Android Tablet, Droid Smartphone
• Report: Motorola Xoom, HTC Thunderbolt Due This Month
• Verizon Memo Leaks Motorola Xoom Pricing: $799

Businessweek has managed to track down an insider with information on the plans of both Sprint and Kyocera, and he (or she) has been talkative enough to confirm that a Kyocera Echo is all set for launch on the Now Network at an event later today. Sprint’s tagline for said event was that it’ll deliver an “industry first” that makes us believe “the impossible is possible,” and with all due respect to Kyocera, neither of those really sounds like the company’s upcoming Android handset. The first time we got wind of the Echo, however, it was accompanied by a tip about a Windows Phone 7-based HTC Arrive, a more likely candidate for that industrial innovation prize — there are no CDMA WP7 devices quite yet. We could imagine the Arrive being a carrier-specific brand name for HTC’s 7 Pro, which is already expected on Sprint and has even cleared the FCC in a CDMA flavor. But again, that doesn’t fully satisfy the bluster about the impossible becoming possible, so maybe Sprint will have even more to show us — we’ll be attending its shindig tonight to make absolutely sure.

Sprint expected to introduce Kyocera Echo at event later today, HTC Arrive also indirectly corroborated originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Feb 2011 02:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We saw it teased right around 48 hours ago, and now Motorola’s full Xoom Super Bowl ad is out and about for the world to see. It aired just moments ago during Super Bowl XLV, and it’s fairly obvious where it took inspiration. It’s easily one of the best tech spots we’ve seen in quite some while, and as much as Motorola has been hyping its Honeycomb-based superslate, we’d say it better sell quite a few to recoup what it’s already lost in marketing — even at $800 a pop, it’ll still take a boatload. The real question, however, is this: will today’s America even get it? Hop on past the break and mash play if you missed out.

P.S. – Missed our coverage of Super Bowl Media Day? Catch up here!

Continue reading Motorola’s Xoom Super Bowl commercial tips hat to Apple’s ‘1984’ spot (video)

Motorola’s Xoom Super Bowl commercial tips hat to Apple’s ‘1984’ spot (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 06 Feb 2011 19:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Over the weekend, a surreptitious new photo of the new HTC Desire 2 hit the world wide web, and in addition to the image, the new handset has found its way into Vodafone Germany’s inventory system (along with several other goodies) — meaning that the second coming of the Desire is likely imminent. Word on the street is that it has a Super AMOLED screen of unknown resolution and runs Android 2.3.1 (Gingerbread). Examination of the spy shot reveals that HTC swapped out the tactile buttons of the original Desire for the capacitive variety, added a front facing camera, and made it slightly smaller than its predecessor. It seems that HTC has failed on the ‘quietly’ part of its slogan, but at least it looks like the company didn’t botch the ‘brilliant’ bit as well. Stay tuned to find out — Mobile World Congress gets going in under a week, you know.

[Thanks, William and Robert]

HTC Desire 2 picture leaked, also shows up in Vodafone’s inventory originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 06 Feb 2011 13:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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