Dell launching 7-inch Android tablet in ‘next few weeks,’ 10-incher to follow a few months later

Good news, folks. It’s looking like the tablet pool will be enriched with another 7-inch contender, running Android, within only a few weeks. The Wall Street Journal cites Dell’s Greater China President Amit Midha as saying that the 7-inch slate we witnessed Michael teasing a few short days ago will be with us “very, very soon.” Reiterating earlier promises of a family of tablets, Midha claims there’ll be “a whole slew” of new devices emerging from Dell’s labs over the next 6 to 12 months, which will include 10-inch, 4-inch and 3-inch form factors. Android is confirmed as the OS on the 7-incher, but Windows will be making an appearance somewhere along the line as well. Plenty to look forward to, then.

Dell launching 7-inch Android tablet in ‘next few weeks,’ 10-incher to follow a few months later originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Sep 2010 04:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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10-inch Galaxy Tab promised for 2011 by Samsung Ireland General Manager (updated)

Tucked away at the bottom of a news story about who’ll be carrying the 7-inch Galaxy Tab in Ireland this year is the promise of a 10-inch Tab (presumably for the whole world) next year. This comes straight from local General Manager Gary Twohig, who seems to have casually disclosed his company’s plans for a 10-inch Android slate in the first half of 2011. Beyond that, all we know is that it’ll include the V8 JavaScript Engine that first showed up as a touted feature in Froyo, though if we had to bet our Led Zep record collection, we’d probably say this 10-incher will be holding out for Android 3.x — either Gingerbread or Honeycomb — for an experience better optimized to run on larger screens. In fact, that may be the likeliest reason why this new tablet didn’t debut with its 7-inch sibling: waiting on a better OS.

[Thanks, Iain]

Update: The original story has undergone a bit of massaging since we first reported on it and the connection between Gary Twohig and the 10-inch Tab has now been removed. We’re still inclined to believe the content, however, as Samsung itself has not been shy about its plans to bring multiple Galaxy Tab sizes to the world.

10-inch Galaxy Tab promised for 2011 by Samsung Ireland General Manager (updated) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Sep 2010 07:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceSilicon Republic  | Email this | Comments

Sony Ericsson’s CEO promises ‘big surprises in the next few months’ (video)

The grand opening of Sony Ericsson’s new Americas HQ in Atlanta isn’t the sort of thing we spend sleepless nights thinking about, but a PSP Phone is. It’s mighty encouraging, therefore, to hear the company’s CEO Bert Nordberg tease “big surprises” coming from his team over the next few months. That revelation was accompanied by plentiful references to SE as an entertainment phone maker, a sly grin, and the usual disclaimer that “we never announce them in advance” — though considering the gap between the Xperia X10 announcement and arrival to market, maybe Bert should reconsider that part. Either way, unless SE’s big surprise is the delivery of a smartphone with an up-to-date OS and cutting-edge components on time (which would, admittedly, be a surprise), we’re happy to take this as a sign that the Android 3.0-powered gaming platform-cum-smartphone is brewing nicely behind the scenes.

Continue reading Sony Ericsson’s CEO promises ‘big surprises in the next few months’ (video)

Sony Ericsson’s CEO promises ‘big surprises in the next few months’ (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 22 Sep 2010 15:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HTC said to have placed production order with Pegatron for mythical ‘tablet PC’

DigiTimes reports can be shaky at the best of times, but this one takes the digi-biscuit. Reporting on an apparent order by HTC with Pegatron for the production of a new Android-based “tablet PC,” DigiTimes claims the new development will help Pegatron achieve its goal of being one of the top four global notebook manufacturers. So is this a tablet or, dare we say it, a smartbook? Nobody clarifies that point, but specs are said to include a 1280 x 720 widescreen display, a 32GB SSD, 2GB of RAM, and Tegra 2 under the hood. Android Market support is also expected (huzzah!), though pricing might be steep at around $790 unsubsidized. At this stage, we’d be more surprised if HTC doesn’t bring out a tablet in the next few months, but we wouldn’t invest too much of our emotions into this report just yet. Maybe once Mr. Blurrycam decides to join the fray and give us something to look at.

HTC said to have placed production order with Pegatron for mythical ‘tablet PC’ originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 20 Sep 2010 09:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Motorola ‘eager’ to get into tablet market, but won’t do so until next year

Motorola’s been thinking about tablets for a while now, but according to Sanjay Jha, it won’t be entering that flourishing new market segment until it’s absolutely certain it’ll have a product that’s “competitive in the marketplace.” Depending on how you perceive the Droid X, Moto might arguably be said to already have a tablet out on sale, but rumors have mostly circulated around a 10-inch slate device, most probably in partnership with Verizon and most likely using Android 3.0 as its OS. Google itself has admitted that Android won’t be fit for tablets until Gingerbread is delivered, and Jha’s reluctance to introduce any new hardware before 2011 seems to be motivated by a corresponding desire to have the latest and greatest version on board from the start. Can’t say we blame him.

Motorola ‘eager’ to get into tablet market, but won’t do so until next year originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Sep 2010 06:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceWall Street Journal  | Email this | Comments

HTC HD7 resurfaces on a T-Mobile accessories list, could be with us by November 1

Aha! The phone you heard about here first has made its second document-based appearance, this time crossing the Atlantic and showing up on a T-Mobile inventory sheet. We can apparently look forward to accessorizing our HD7s with a leather sleeve, a “charge shell,” a pair of different screen protectors, and two flexible protective covers made by Speck. Most of these parts are expected to arrive on November 1, and since accessories aren’t much good without something to put them on, we can probably expect that to mean the HD7 will be dropping some time before November. It’s expected on October 18 in the UK, which dovetails neatly with the idea of it being a headline Windows Phone 7 device from HTC — that’s about the time Microsoft promised WP7’s European launch.

As to that “Dell Claire” you see near the top, we’re hearing it’s the T-Mo version of the Dell Streak.

[Thanks, John and Jakub]

HTC HD7 resurfaces on a T-Mobile accessories list, could be with us by November 1 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Sep 2010 06:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink MobileTechWorld  |  sourceTmoNews  | Email this | Comments

Notion Ink Adam a week ahead of schedule, adds comic book store and replaceable battery ‘concept’

If you ask us, the whole Adam tablet is a concept until Notion Ink delivers something other than promises, but things are looking up for the less jaded among you. Rohan Shravan has updated the world on the Adam’s latest condition, disclosing a new replaceable battery ‘concept’ and the addition of a comic book store. We’re not sure whether that means the final retail unit will or won’t have a user-swappable cell, but at least we now know that both the Pixel Qi- and LCD-equipped variants of the Adam will share one body design. The switch that turns off the Pixel Qi backlight will do the same for the LCD model, saving battery power when you’re either downloading or listening to the Engadget podcast. We’re also told things are moving faster than originally scheduled and the FCC should get a look at this long-awaited tablet a week early. As to the rest of us? Who knows, but maybe there is a tablet god.

Notion Ink Adam a week ahead of schedule, adds comic book store and replaceable battery ‘concept’ originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Sep 2010 15:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Netbook News, Liliputing  |  sourceNotion Ink  | Email this | Comments

Rahul Sood sees an awesome, but distant future for webOS devices

Rahul Sood, founder of Voodoo PC and current innovation tzar at HP, has some good and some bad news for us. On the one hand, the way he sees webOS development from the inside of the HP Palm coupling makes Rahul believe that “everyone will want in once the presentation of hardware is in front of them,” but then on the other, far less happy hand, he urges us to abandon hope of seeing that happen soon. We can’t know for sure what his definition of “soon” might be, but it does suggest webOS 2.0 will likely be a pure software drop later this year, to be followed by HPalm finally unveiling the hot new gear sometime in 2011. Although that’s basically what we were expecting anyway, we can’t help but wonder why it’s taking so long to churn out some new devices — it’s not like they’re being made out of unobtainium… or are they, Rahul?

Rahul Sood sees an awesome, but distant future for webOS devices originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Sep 2010 03:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Pre Central  |  sourceRahul Sood (Twitter) (1), (2)  | Email this | Comments

Intel may finally be ready to embrace USB 3.0

It’s September so that can mean only one thing in Intel land: IDF. The second of this year’s Intel Developer Forums is this year preceded by speculation that the big blue giant’s next motherboard reference design — codenamed Cougar Point — will include USB 3.0 support. Intel’s relationship with the 3.0 interconnect standard can at best be described as strained, but motherboard and laptop makers haven’t shied from integrating it into their wares and as the number of devices supporting SuperSpeed increases, it’s becoming somewhat inevitable that Intel would have to play ball as well. At least until Light Peak shines its “instant obsolescence” ray onto USB cables next year. Then again, bear in mind China’s Commercial Times has been wrong before, so let’s not credit this as fact until someone with a blue name badge tells us so.

Intel may finally be ready to embrace USB 3.0 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Sep 2010 05:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nikon wants to create a ‘new market’ with its new concept

We thought Nikon just wanted to join the burgeoning ranks of mirrorless interchangeable lens shooters that bridge the gap between full-fledged DSLR and pocket-friendly compact cameras. But oh no, as company president Makoto Kimura puts it, Nikon wants to create a whole “new market” with its next big idea. Noting that his lab lackeys have tested all sorts of eccentric possibilities, such as a head-mounted display, Kimura says it’s time for digital cameras to move with the times and Nikon will be ready to take up its usual leadership position. When might that be, you ask? Well, in classic bigwig style, he keeps the roadmap tucked firmly inside the breast pocket of his smoking jacket, but at least we know that Nikon won’t be sitting on the sidelines and letting whippersnappers like Sony’s NEX-5 steal customers away.

Nikon wants to create a ‘new market’ with its new concept originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 04 Sep 2010 06:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Electronista  |  sourceReuters  | Email this | Comments