Hasta La Gadget!

We know it’s been a long wait since CES, but after getting pawed at by both Blake Griffin and yours truly, the Vizio Tablet is starting to show up in stores right about on schedule. Frequent Engadget commenter DaHarder took a step away from the Disqus box and snagged this tablet at a local Costco store for $329 ($20 off the regular price), an achievement also unlocked by the folks at Mobileslate. According to their reports you may have to ask around to find out if the VTAB1008 is actually in stock but it may be lurking along with its $40 Accessories Kit, while it’s already showing in stock on the Vizio online store. Impressions so far suggest a “budget” tablet experience above that of the flood of craptablets with decent hardware and battery life, but a software experience behind the top of the line slates due to the custom UI, small internal storage and RAM and slower single core Marvell CPU. Our review is yet to come, but if there’s around three bills burning a hole in your pocket and you’ve just got to have an Android tablet with integrated IR blaster, we’re not seeing too many other options available.

[Thanks, DaHarder]

Vizio Tablet tiptoes into retail, starting at Costco originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 22 Jul 2011 07:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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BlackBerry used to rule the boardroom, but over the past few years we’ve seen a steady uptick in the number of enterprise users switching to their OS of choice. So who’s going to be the successor to the BlackBerry throne? Well, according to Good’s latest report, Apple devices have fast become the preferred companions for its customers, and it looks like the iPad’s leading the way. The enterprise provider shows that in Q2 2011, users activated more iPads than Android smartphones and tablets combined. What’s more, iPads made up 95 percent of tablet activations, with Android tablets taking in only 3.1 percent. Smartphone adoption was a slight bit more balanced, but Apple still came out on top with 66 percent over Android’s 33 percent. That’s all well and good, but what we really want to know is who’s got the stuff to win the three-legged race at the company picnic? For those of you visual learners, a representative bar graph of Good’s results awaits you after the break.

Continue reading Apple tops Android in enterprise; little green robot still gunning for corner office

Apple tops Android in enterprise; little green robot still gunning for corner office originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 21 Jul 2011 20:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you’ve seen this handsome screen on your Asus Transformer, it means you’ve finally managed to root it. Congratulations. And yet, it’s all so… anticlimactic. What was the point of it? In fact, what’s the point of anything? Hey, don’t go down that road. Install Netflix instead, courtesy of a new patch from XDA Developers at the source link below. Then watch Kung Fu Panda one more time and the sense of order in your life will magically return. Like the wise Oogway said: “You may wish for an apple or an orange, but you will get a peach.”

[Thanks everyone who sent this in]

Netflix patch arrives for rooted Asus Transformers, it’s okay to be happy originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 21 Jul 2011 14:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The third installment of a trilogy is typically the most satisfying. The Empire Falls, Frodo destroys the ring, Cinderella goes back in time. (Okay, that’s a stretch.) Our protagonist in this tale is the Droid 3, which bears an uncanny resemblance to its dad and granddad— but Verizon’s added a few new components and made some minor design tweaks in attempt to improve the overall experience.

Are these adjustments enough to save the series? The original Droid launched with much fanfare, a device that steered Motorola back onto the path of success from its post-RAZR Hades. It had a refreshing gold-laden design that oozed elegance, top-of-the-line specs for its time, and was the pioneer that helped usher Google’s mobile OS into a new era. Each new iteration has received less attention than the one before, however, and the Droid 3 experienced such a quiet launch that we blinked and almost missed it. No matter, though — as long as the phone can speak for itself, it doesn’t need the confetti to accompany it. But is the third time another charm for the Droid? Or will it be buried by other heavyweights like the Droid Bionic or Samsung Galaxy S II Function? Join us after the break to find out.

Continue reading Motorola Droid 3 review

Motorola Droid 3 review originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 21 Jul 2011 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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After plenty of hands-on time with SwiftKey X, we reckon it’s probably the best virtual keyboard you can get for Android phones. And, for the next 21 hours or so, it’s even better than that — because it’s free at Amazon’s Appstore. So, if you’re brandishing Android 2.1 or higher and you type in one of the 17 supported languages, then the source link below beckons. Come back quickly, though, or we’ll miss you terribly. (The tablet version of the app is still $4.99, mind — but there’s always tomorrow.)

SwiftKey X keyboard app is free today on Amazon, be swift or pay $3.99 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 21 Jul 2011 07:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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