Hasta La Gadget!

Android Honeycomb OS, 10-inch screen size with 1280 x 800 resolution, and NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 (T20) chip on the inside. If those specs sound familiar, it’s because most manufacturers already have a tablet just like Dell’s upcoming Streak Pro. This slate from Round Rock got us a little hot under the collar recently, when it appeared it would ship with the T25 Tegra 2 silicon — which runs at 1.2GHz and offers 3D support — but nope, it’s same old, same old from Michael and company. Still, the Streak Pro will apparently come will a brushed aluminum back, 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB storage options, dual mics, dual cameras (2 megapixel on the front, 5 megapixel ’round back), and a choice of four colors: blue, pink, black, and red. If that’s not enough customization for you, Dell’s also adding its Stage UI atop Android, while support for AT&T’s LTE network is also said to be under consideration. You can see some of the new tablet’s accessories at the source link below, which also advises us to expect the Streak to go Pro in June, as previously anticipated.

Dell Streak Pro Honeycomb tablet pictured, likely to be with us in June originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 May 2011 03:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We couldn’t help but notice that a lot of you want to buy the Eee Pad Transformer; it’s just that your quest for one is turning up dry. We asked ASUS for an update on the shortage and the company said it’s cranking ’em out at a furious pace to meet strong demand. Here’s what a PR rep had to say:

We are ramping production every week to address the supply concerns, including almost daily air shipments into North America. We expect the supply line to improve significantly over the coming weeks.

So there you have it: if you live on the North American continent, at least, you’ll soon be able to find an elusive Transformer — and just in time for a much-appreciated Android 3.1 update.

ASUS ramping up Eee Pad Transformer production, says they’ll be easier to find in the ‘coming weeks’ originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 18 May 2011 09:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, that was fast. Almost immediately after Google unveiled Android 3.1, Motorola was first out of the gate with an update, and now, not even a week later, Acer and ASUS are following suit with plans to freshen up their respective tablets with the newly minted software. To recap, 3.1’s benefits include resizeable widgets, support for USB peripherals, and new Movies and Books apps, among other perks. Acer confirmed to us that it aims to start selling the Iconia Tab A500 with 3.1 next month, as well as upgrade existing units running Android 3.0. ASUS, meanwhile, has been touting the impending update for the Eee Pad Transformer on its Italian Facebook page. To which we say, grazie!

Acer Iconia Tab A500 and ASUS Eee Pad Transformer getting Android 3.1 updates in June originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 May 2011 15:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Looks like Acer’s 7-inch Iconia Tab A100 has opted for a fashionably late entrance. We’ve just been informed by the company that its Honeycomb-sporting, Tegra 2-powered slate will not be arriving, as had been expected, right around now, but will in fact make its debut in the second half of 2011. No reasons have been given for the move, other than to say that the device has been postponed. The thing that prompted us to query Acer’s PR team was a report out of Poland suggesting the A100 had been cancelled. Acer’s UK reps are adamant that’s not been the case, but anyone who was looking forward to grabbing one soon will be disappointed either way.

Acer postpones Iconia Tab A100 launch to second half of the year originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 May 2011 06:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Motorola's Xoom — the first Honeycomb-powered tablet device to hit the market — isn't selling as well as Apple's iPad. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

Nvidia’s head honcho knows that sluggish sales of Android tablets are a problem, but says it won’t be that way forever.

“I think that the vast majority of tablet users are actually buying from retail, and Wi-Fi only,” said Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang on a quarterly earnings conference call with reporters, explaining why sales for Android-powered tablets have been lackluster so far. But, he explained, you couldn’t buy Wi-Fi-only versions at retail outlets. “The first generation of tablets initially came out from our carriers, and with 3G,” said Huang, whose Nvidia Tegra 2 processors can be found inside multiple Android tablets currently on the market.

Despite a wealth of options from different hardware manufacturers, Android-powered tablets don’t have the same momentum as the iPad. Apple’s tablet still accounts for 82 percent of the tablet market, according to Nielsen.

Huang’s statement places much of the blame squarely on Motorola’s release strategy for the Xoom, Google’s flagship tablet product running Android’s tablet-optimized version 3.0 (Honeycomb) software. The Xoom debuted on Verizon’s 3G network in February for $600 with a two-year Verizon contract, or without a contract for a whopping $800.

And some say that’s not the way we want to buy our tablets. “Our data shows that [people] don’t want to be tied in to a fixed data contract, and they don’t want to buy from a carrier,” wrote Forrester analyst Sarah Rotman Epps in a blog post. “Meaning that pricing strategies that work for mobile phones won’t work for tablets.”

Apple’s baseline, Wi-Fi only version of the iPad 2 costs just $500.

Take a look at some of the raw numbers for the sake of perspective: In the first weekend of the original iPad’s release, Apple sold more than 1 million devices. Compare that to the 220,000 units shipped in the Xoom’s first month of release.

Last month, Motorola’s CEO Sanjay Jha cited a different reason for the Xoom’s relatively poor sales: Android’s app ecosystem. “Consumers want more apps for Android tablets,” Jha said during the company’s quarterly earnings call in April.

Huang agreed with Jha to a degree. “It’s a software richness-of-content problem,” Huang said in an interview with Cnet.

The forecast for Android-powered tablets to come in 2011 isn’t entirely grim. Huang — whose company certainly has skin in the game — remains optimistic. “We’re going to expect another wave of tablets that are coming out to the marketplace now. Ones that are even thinner and even lighter than the best offerings from any place,” Huang said, most likely referring to Samsung’s soon-to-debut Galaxy Tab 10.1.

Huang is also betting big on the new version of Honeycomb released for Android tablets (3.1), currently available only for the Motorola Xoom tablets but will roll out to other Android tablets in the next few weeks. The update includes support for peripheral USB devices and user-interface enhancements, among other improvements.

And finally, Huang hinted at Nvidia’s integration with Google’s software: “We’re working very closely with [Google’s] teams on the Ice Cream Sandwich,” Huang said, though he wouldn’t go into further detail. Google teased details of the upcoming Android software version, codenamed “Ice Cream Sandwich,” at its I/O developer conference in San Francisco last week.

As for issues with Android’s app ecosystem, Google seems to be trying to remedy the situation. The company recently added a number of lists and sections highlighting the most popular apps across specific categories — gross sales, number of downloads over a seven-day period, top free apps downloaded — in an attempt to make the market easier to browse for consumers, as well as a more lucrative venue for developers who want to sell their apps.