Acer’s 7-inch Iconia Tab A100 priced at £300 in UK, launching April 20th

Boy oh boy, these Taiwanese companies are seriously gunning to take the bottom out of the Honeycomb tablet market. After we saw ASUS stride forward with very competitive pricing on its 10-inch Eee Pad Transformer, we’re now being treated to Acer’s riposte, an eminently reasonable £300 ($483) price tag attached to its 7-inch Iconia Tab. Nothing is really skimped on here, you get the dual-core Tegra 2 and Android 3.0 one-two punch of hardware and software that’s become so popular lately, and of course the RAM is 512MB, not KB as indicated on Amazon’s listing. Perhaps the 8GB of storage will be a little on the light side, but given the price, we consider that a most forgivable shortcoming. Amazon notes the release date as April 20th in the UK and we doubt the rest of the world will have to wait much longer either.

Acer’s 7-inch Iconia Tab A100 priced at £300 in UK, launching April 20th originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 04 Apr 2011 04:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HTC confirms Flyer tablet will get Honeycomb… sometime

HTC hasn’t said much on the subject of Honeycomb for its Flyer tablet since its big announcement back at Mobile World Congress, where it said it chose not to use the OS for the tablet because it didn’t have enough time to customize it with its Sense UI. It’s now finally chimed in on the matter again, however, and replied to a question on Twitter by saying that it “will be offering a Honeycomb upgrade when it’s made available.” Of course, that statement’s noticeably lacking a specific date (or even a hint of one), and it may well be wise to not hold your breath for an upgrade anytime soon given Google’s recent talk of a tighter grip on Honeycomb. Still, it looks like it’s definitely still on the table as far as HTC is concerned.

[Thanks, Lewis]

HTC confirms Flyer tablet will get Honeycomb… sometime originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 01 Apr 2011 22:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ASUS Eee Pad Transformer shows up at Best Buy for $400 (update: dock price)

Never mind the cringe-inducing advertising, ASUS has given us a much better reason to care about its Tegra 2-toting Eee Pad Transformer: a $400 price. The 10.1-inch Honeycomb tablet (with 1280 x 800 resolution on an IPS display) has quickly moved from its Taiwanese release, through yesterday’s UK pricing announcement, to today showing up at Best Buy in the US, so we suspect its global shipping can’t be far off at all. With a sticker that’s a clear $99 less than the cheapest iPad and a good deal more affordable than its Android competition like the Xoom and G-Slate, the Transformer could yet take the tablet world by storm. Do take note that the keyboard dock that inspires this slate’s name is an optional extra, but given the starting price, the whole package might still end up less than what others will ask.

Update: Whack attack! Best Buy has pulled the Transformer page and it no longer shows up in search results on the site. Was the price too good to be true? Thanks, Jaime!

Update 2: It’s looking likely that the price info was accurate, as 16GB and 32GB versions have shown up elsewhere on the web for $400 and $500, respectively, though both are currently out of stock. Thanks, Sam and James!

Update 3: Ah, and now we have the price for the dock alone: $149. Thanks, Peter C.!

ASUS Eee Pad Transformer shows up at Best Buy for $400 (update: dock price) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 31 Mar 2011 10:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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How Much Did the iPad Crush Everyone Else in 2010 [Chart]

There’s not much else to say about this chart. According to Gartner, the world spent $9.6 billion in tablets. According to Apple’s official numbers, the iPad got $9.566 billion. More »

One Month Later, Android Tablet Platform Has 50 Apps

Motorola's Xoom, the first Android tablet to run "Honeycomb." Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

Motorola’s Xoom tablet is the first promising alternative to Apple’s iPad, but the sickly condition of Android’s tablet app ecosystem may end up stalling the platform’s progress.

One month after its launch, the Xoom currently has about 50 native apps available for Android 3.0 Honeycomb, Google’s version of Android optimized for tablets.

That’s pitiful compared with the iPad, which was released last year with approximately 1,000 native apps on launch day. The Xoom debuted with a paltry 15 Honeycomb-native apps available for download in its catalog.

50 apps is a pretty small number, and the actual total may be even smaller. The official Android online market, as well as other online message forums for Android enthusiasts, place the number of Xoom apps somewhere close to 50. But this number hardly seems accurate, as it includes existing Android applications which have been re-sized to take advantage of the tablet’s larger screen. The number of apps with interfaces made specifically for the tablet is probably diminutive.

Still, it’s unclear why more developers haven’t taken the short cut and re-sized their apps for Honeycomb. It could be that developers aren’t sold on the idea of re-sizing their apps to fit more screen real estate, as opposed to “building a true tablet experience that takes advantage of the new platform’s possibilities,” iOS developer Justin Williams told Wired.com in an interview.

And even if developers wanted to create such a “true tablet experience,” they’re hard-pressed to do it without the source code for Honeycomb, which Google is currently keeping a tight reign over. The big device manufacturers working on Honeycomb-powered hardware — like HTC, Motorola and Samsung — all have early access to the code, but only after licensing agreements were made with Google. Smaller developers don’t have this luxury.

“Apple was wise to have the tools out there months in advance of launch,” Williams said, “as compared to Google who made them available only a short time before.”

To be fair, the Xoom is currently the only Android tablet on the market running Android 3.0. Once the glut of Honeycomb-running hardware devices arrives — like the June release of LePad from Chinese electronics manufacturer Lenovo, which was delayed specifically to ensure the tablet will run Honeycomb — we could reasonably expect to see more tablet-optimized applications available. Samsung’s redesigned Galaxy Tab 10.1 will also run Honeycomb, and will also launch this summer.

“Google needs more hardware,” says Williams, “and they need to get developers excited about building tablet experiences, not just larger screened phone apps.”

Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

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Motorola Xoom officially landing in UK next week, still has to finalize pricing and SKUs

As much as we love our rumormongering, a good hard confirmation never goes astray around these parts, and we’ve just heard directly from Moto that its Xoom tablet will be arriving in the UK next week. When precisely, we don’t know, but the major electronics retailers will all be playing their part — Dixons (and its subsidiaries Currys and PC World) plus the Carphone Warehouse were specifically named. As to pricing, we’ve seen pretty strong indications that it’ll be £500 for the WiFi-only version and £600 for the 3G-equipped one, though there’s no immediate confirmation about which (or if both) will be coming next week. Either way, the important thing is that the world’s first Honeycomb tablet will be on sale in some form just as soon as the next British fiscal year gets started.

Motorola Xoom officially landing in UK next week, still has to finalize pricing and SKUs originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Mar 2011 12:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Rumor: Google and LG to Team Up on Android Nexus Tablet

Korean electronics manufacturer LG may be working on a Google-branded "Nexus" tablet.

Google is preparing its own hardware entry into the Android tablet market in collaboration with device manufacturer LG, according to a report circulating Monday morning.

The device will be an LG-made “Nexus” tablet, Google’s signature product name for its collaborations with independent hardware manufacturers, the report says.

The tablet could be complete by mid-summer to early autumn, according to speculation from tech site Mobile Review. The site did not disclose any further details or hardware specifications on the speculated device. One caveat: the LG-produced device could just be a prototype used internally by Google for development, as noted by The Boy Genius Report.

Google did not respond to our request for comment on the matter.

If a Google-branded tablet hits market, this wouldn’t be Google’s first entry into branding devices from outside manufacturers. Google’s previous Nexus devices include the HTC-manufactured Nexus One smartphone, which was widely regarded as a failure after lackluster sales and a lukewarm reception from the general public. The Samsung-produced Nexus S followed in late 2010, a phone that garnered much hype upon its initial release, but has been passed over by the myriad 2011 smartphone releases, which boast beefier hardware profiles and heftier ad campaigns.

A Google-branded Nexus tablet may have a better chance at success than its smartphone Nexus predecessors, however. Among other reasons, the Nexus One’s difficulties lay in AT&T’s and Verizon’s unwillingness to subsidize the handset — only T-Mobile (the carrier in last place in the U.S. in terms of adoption) backed the release.

While carrier subsidies can help sales, a new tablet’s popularity isn’t necessarily contingent on whether or not the major carriers are willing to play ball. Wi-Fi only versions of tablets like Apple’s iPad and the Motorola Xoom are sold at significantly lower prices than their 3G network-enabled counterparts, which means more potential sales without the headache of carrier choosing for customers.

But any new entry into the already crowded tablet market must take into account other factors, including a healthy media ecosystem and competitive pricing. Currently, the Android Market hosts over 200,000 apps for download, with many more available on independent, unofficial markets. Apple’s app store is home to double that amount at over 400,000. Recent improvements to Android’s payment system such as the launch of its web-based Android Market in February, however, could give Google more traction in developing its app environment.

LG is already producing its own Android-based tablet in collaboration with Google, the brevity-lacking “T-Mobile G-Slate with Google by LG.” The G-Slate will run Android version 3.0 (Honeycomb), and will be capable of playing and recording 3D and full HD video content.

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LG’s 3D-shooting Optimus Pad nabs March 31st retail date in Japan as T-Mobile fiddles

Japan’s NTT DOCOMO just announced a March 31st retail offering of LG’s Optimus Pad. The Honeycomb tablet listed as model L-06C is the same 8.9-inch 1280 x 768 pixel slab known as the G-Slate ’round T-Mobile subscribers. Besides its 1GHz dual-core Tegra 2 processor and internationally compatible 3G data and GPS, the Optimus Pad’s most noteworthy features are the stereoscopic rear-facing video cameras capable of 1080p 3D capture which can viewed directly on the L-06C with a pair of passive glasses. Unfortunately, NTT DOCOMO is mum on pricing. Remember, although T-Mobile originally hedged with a spring launch (recently rumored for April 20th), LG told us that it’d be arriving on US soil in March. So… T-Mobile, anything you’d like to add before Thursday?

LG’s 3D-shooting Optimus Pad nabs March 31st retail date in Japan as T-Mobile fiddles originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Mar 2011 03:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ainol Honeycomb tablet surfaces with Cortex A9 processor, buttons aplenty

It’s been quite a while since Ainol last popped up on our radar, but it looks like the company is now busy preparing a Honeycomb tablet that might actually stand out from the pack — for better or worse. According to a couple of teasers that have cropped up in recent days, the tablet will apparently pack an ARM Cortex A9 processor, a 1,280 x 800 IPS display of unspecified size, WiFi and 3G connectivity, a microSD card slot, HDMI out and, most noticeably, a full suite of buttons that adorn what appears to be a somewhat chunky design. Still no indication of a price, but the tablet is apparently due out sometime next month.

Ainol Honeycomb tablet surfaces with Cortex A9 processor, buttons aplenty originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Mar 2011 02:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Tablet Has 16 Hour Battery

ASUS Eee Pad Transformer. How well can a tablet OS run on a laptop?

Looks like Asus couldn’t decide whether it wanted to make a tablet or a netbook, so it made both. The Eee Pad Transformer is a tablet which docks itself to a hinged keyboard and offers a long, long battery life of 16 hours.

It will be very interesting to see if this actually works. The tablet component uses the 1GHz Tegra 2 processor, has 1GB RAM, a Gorilla Glass multitouch screen (10.1 inches), 1.2 and 5MP cameras, gyroscope, compass, GPS and so on. The keyboard is little more than a dock with a trackpad and battery (without the dock, the battery life drops to 9.5 hours).

It seems like a great idea, but I wonder just how well the Android 3.0 Honeycomb OS plays with keyboard and trackpad. Anyone who has teamed the iPad up with an external keyboard knows that it works great if you have some text to type, but anything else is a pain. The OS just isn’t designed to be controlled with a keyboard.

Still, if you’re going to carry a keyboard with you, the extra battery life is nice.

Prices are still unannounced, as are U.S launch dates, but you can see a full spec sheet in the linked press release, and if you live in Taiwan, you can pick one up today.

ASUS Transformer Eee Pad Official Taiwan Release Coming Friday [Netbook News]

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