Hasta La Gadget!

Heads up high-speed data fans — more carrier-exclusive smartphone and tablet offerings are headed your way.

On Wednesday morning, T-Mobile announced its Galaxy S 4G smartphone and G-Slate tablet. The phone will be available sometime this month (we’re speculating a release in conjunction with the forthcoming Mobile World Congress), while the tablet has an even more vague drop date of “spring” availability. Neither have confirmed price points as of yet.

The Samsung-manufactured Galaxy S 4G isn’t drastically different from its 3G predecessor, the Vibrant. It’s got a 4-inch capacitive touch screen (like the Vibrant), a 1-GHz Hummingbird processor (see: Vibrant), plus a 5-megapixel camera capable of capturing 720p video and a pre-installed 16-GB microSD card (Vibrant, Vibrant, Vibrant).

In fact, except for the newly-installed front facing VGA camera for video chat and 4G-capable ST-Ericsson radio, this thing ain’t much different than a Vibrant. (The 4G does, however, come with Inception loaded onto the phone in its entirety, instead of Avatar, like the Vibrant.)

But Samsung’s first Galaxy series of smartphones did break the 10 million sales mark in early January, so popularity and user-familiarity could outweigh a lack of product innovation.

The T-Mobile G-Slate with Google by LG (yes, that mouthful of a title is accurate) is a bit more exciting to us. The 8.9-inch capacitive touch screen will be capable of both playing and recording 3-D and full HD video content, complete with in-box 3-D glasses to watch your 3-D home movies with (here’s to hoping they aren’t the cheap cardboard kind).

The “with Google” branding counts for something as well. The G-Slate will run the much-anticipated Android version 3.0 (a.k.a. Honeycomb), Google’s Android OS update “optimized for tablets.” And just like the forthcoming Honeycomb-powered Motorola Xoom tablet, it’ll be running on a 1GHz Nvidia Tegra 2 processor.

The tablet will also include a back facing 5-megapixel camera capable of recording 1080p HD video as well as taking snapshots, and the front facing 2-megapixel camera comes stock for all your video chatting needs. The 32GB of on-board storage will hold your glut of jpegs and video files.

While the new Galaxy S 4G isn’t wowing us on pure spec-power alone, we’re excited to see what the G-Slate has in store for us.

Photo: Galaxy S 4G/ Courtesy of T-Mobile

See Also:

• Report: T-Mobile to Offer Upgraded Samsung Vibrant 4G
• Wired Explains: What U.S. Carriers Mean by ‘4G’
• Wired Explains: Everything You Need to Know About 4G Wireless …
• Hands-On With T-Mobile’s 7-Inch Tablet, Due Feb. 2
• Verizon Memo Leaks Motorola Xoom Pricing: $799
• Motorola Previews New Android Tablet, Droid Smartphone

Though it was technically announced back at CES, T-Mobile just barely talked about the LG G-Slate there, spending more time chatting up Dell’s Streak 7 and letting Motorola’s Xoom get virtually all of the Honeycomb attention. Well, that’s changed today with a handful of official new details: turns out the G-Slate features a 1GHz dual-core Tegra 2 processor, 32GB of internal storage, both a gyroscope and accelerometer, and — this is key — stereoscopic rear-facing video cameras capable of 1080p 3D capture, one of which doubles as a 5 megapixel still camera with LED flash. There’s also a third 2 megapixel camera up front for video chat over T-Mobile’s HSPA+ network or WiFi. Going back to that 3D business for a moment, you’ll need glasses (it’s unclear if they’re active or passive) to enjoy recorded or downloaded 3D content on the G-Slate’s 8.9-inch display — but you’ll also be able to output 1080p video over HDMI to the external display of your choice. Pricing is still an open question, but the companies are now comfortable enough to say that we can expect it “this spring,” so go ahead and start thinking about all the blooming springtime plant life you’ll be filming in three glorious dimensions. Follow the break for the full press release.

Update: While T-Mobile hedges its bets with a “spring” launch, LG says that it’ll be hitting US soil in March as one of the first Honeycomb tablets. The honor of being first will almost certainly go to the Motorola Xoom — Google’s in-house “dogfooding” tablet.

Continue reading LG G-Slate fully detailed by T-Mobile: 3D viewing and recording, available March (updated)

LG G-Slate fully detailed by T-Mobile: 3D viewing and recording, available March (updated) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Feb 2011 00:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

If you were to prepare a list of most under-served smartphone form factors, portrait QWERTY ranks high on the list; few manufacturers have dared to dabble in it so far, despite the fact that there would seem to be a treasure trove of potential users in the BlackBerry realm who live and die by the Bold / Curve layout. Motorola has given it the most high-publicity shot so far with entries like the Droid Pro, Charm, and Flipout, and it looks like Samsung might be prepping a head-on Droid Pro competitor for Sprint thanks to some shots that have emerged on PocketNow today. We have precisely zero details on the hardware specs, the possible launch time frame, or really anything else at this point, but we’ll keep an eye out.

[Thanks, Theodore L.]

Samsung prepping portrait QWERTY Android phone for Sprint? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Feb 2011 23:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  PocketNow  | Email this | Comments

The rumors about 3D support on LG’s G-Slate tablet (both recording and viewing) have reached a dull roar in recent days, and a little teaser just posted on T-Mobile’s official Facebook account certainly isn’t going to do anything to quell the trend. The simple clipart image of some old-school red / blue anaglyphic glasses pretty much says everything you need to know — that there’s something 3D in store from these guys — and the Honeycomb-powered G-Slate is the only thing in T-Mobile’s immediate future that we know has had 3D rumors attached to it. Any other solid theories out there?

T-Mobile teases 3D capability (on LG G-Slate, probably) in the vaguest possible way originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Feb 2011 21:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  T-Mobile (Facebook)  | Email this | Comments

Comcast announced live streaming to its iPad and (upcoming) Android Xfinity TV apps was not far off last month, and now it’s announced a new long term deal with Time Warner that brings more content to all of its TV Everywhere-related efforts. That means shows from TNT, TBS, CNN, HLN, truTV, Turner Classic Movies, Cartoon Network and Adult Swim on Xfinity TV.com, cable VOD and mobile apps and the addition of live streaming video later this year as part of a larger agreement between Time Warner and Comcast. The keen eyed will notice that window of “a few weeks” for the debut of live streaming to iPads has expanded to simply “later this year,” let’s hope this doesn’t slip while the company focuses on other balls in the air like its purchase of NBC, a potential new set-top box interface and apps for Smart TVs.

Continue reading Comcast, Time Warner deal ensures TNT, TBS shows for VOD, live streaming

Comcast, Time Warner deal ensures TNT, TBS shows for VOD, live streaming originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Feb 2011 16:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Comcast Voices  | Email this | Comments