Hasta La Gadget!

We’ve been waiting for the pricing and availability pieces of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 puzzle, and a short press release from Vodafone Portugal seems to at least help fill out the edges. While we thought Vodafone’s UK branch had exclusive dibs on the 10.1-inch Honeycomb tablet, it looks like it will be hitting Vodafone Portugal first in March for €699. That’s not exactly a bargain, but it’s in line with the pricing of the other Android tablets overseas. Now, if only we knew more about when this one was going to learn English and hit the US. As always, we’re digging as hard as we can on that one.

Updated: It looks like Vodafone Spain announced pricing last week, too. Our friends at Engadget Spanish report that the tablet will go for €349 on-contract sometime this spring.

[Thanks, The Wizard]

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 hitting Vodafone Portugal in March for €699 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Feb 2011 12:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Pretty much everything coming out of Moto these days is saddled with a tightly-locked bootloader paired with one tamper-resistant scheme or another, making custom kernels — the lifeblood of the phone hacking community — tricky at best, nigh impossible at worst. Of course, there was a glimmer of hope last month when the company said that it was working on a solution that’d cater to the developer community, and it looks like the Xoom might be bearing some of that fruit: the bootloader can be unlocked and relocked at will. Now, we’re thinking that Moto might’ve loosened the reigns a bit here simply because the Xoom is running a completely bone-stock build of Android and, as Honeycomb’s launch device, Google might be showing some influence behind the scenes (the Nexus One and Nexus S both have unlockable bootloaders, for instance)… but it’s a good sign.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Motorola bucks its own trend, leaves Xoom bootloader unlockable originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Feb 2011 17:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We found out yesterday that Motorola’s Xoom would be shipping sans Flash support on Verizon Wireless, and while Big Red claimed that an update would be doled out this spring, the folks at Adobe are pointing to a far more specific time frame. In a new post over at the Flash Platform Blog, Adobe has confirmed that “Flash Player 10.2 [will be] pre-installed on some tablets and as an OTA download on others within a few weeks of Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) devices becoming available, the first of which is expected to be the Motorola Xoom.” We’re guessing that the company’s going public with a statement like this to fend off fears that the Xoom may be waiting an eternity for Flash, in essence removing a bit of fear from hesitant early adopters. Either way, it’s excellent news for those eying a Honeycomb tablet of any flavor, and we’re going to take the liberty of taking “a few weeks” to mean “a fortnight.” Cool, Adobe?

Adobe promises Flash Player 10.2 for Honeycomb tablets ‘in a few weeks,’ Xoom gets namechecked originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Feb 2011 15:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Verizon just filled in the rest of the Xoom pricing story — in addition to the $800 off-contract version that’s already up for pre-order at Best Buy, you’ll be able to sign a two-year data contract and pick up a Xoom for $600 upfront. That’s a decent savings, although you’ll be getting just 1GB of 3G data for $20/month, so it’s not exactly a stunning deal in the end: a Xoom and 24GB of data over two years for $1,080. On the plus side, Verizon has confirmed that the Xoom LTE upgrade will in fact be free when it goes live in Q2, which is terrific news — but we’re waiting to see what the LTE data plans look like before we get too excited. PR after the break.

Update: We’re hearing from Verizon reps that the Xoom will also be able to take advantage of the carrier’s larger data plans as well — $35 a month for 3GB, $50 a month for 5GB, and $80 a month for 10GB. Still no word on LTE pricing, though. [Thanks, droiddoesall]

Continue reading Verizon announces Xoom pricing: $600 on contract, $20 per month for 1GB data

Verizon announces Xoom pricing: $600 on contract, $20 per month for 1GB data originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Feb 2011 09:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Visualized: Motorola Xoom rolls into Best Buy originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Feb 2011 17:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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