Hasta La Gadget!

Hot on the heels of yesterday’s leaked 10.1-inch ThinkPad tablet comes another juicy tidbit about another forthcoming device from Lenovo. This is my next reports that in the PC-maker has a 7-inch Honeycomb-equipped slate in the pipeline sporting a high resolution 1280 x 800 display and ARM dual-core processor. The slides also indicate the presence of the “Lenovo family UI,” which most likely means Le OS. Release is purportedly slated (ugh) for Q4, but given the presence of a placeholder image and the fact that these slides are at least a month old, most of this is subject to change. Still, we hope Lenovo takes the time to get things right with its Honeycomb customizations, since its the little differentiating touches that make all the difference in burgeoning sea of screen-centric devices.

Lenovo 7-inch Honeycomb tablet coming Q4 according to leaked PDF, Le OS genetics in tow originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Apr 2011 15:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Nook Color (center), flanked by Amazon’s Kindle (left) and the iPad. Photo: Tim Carmody/Wired.com

Barnes and Noble has touted its Nook Color as “the reader’s tablet” since the product’s inception. But after the company announced the launch of an Android OS update and extended features on the device this week, we’re not sure what to call it anymore.

E-reader? Tablet? E-Tablet?

Version 1.2 of the Nook Color’s firmware launched Monday morning, bringing Android OS 2.2 (Froyo) to existing users of the e-reader tablet. The software includes expansions to web surfing on the device, including Adobe Flash and Air support, as well as the ability to receive e-mail.

The company also announced the launch of the Nook App store. Customers are now able to download and use apps on their Nook Color devices, while still being able to purchase books from the Barnes and Noble reading catalog.

The Nook Color app marketplace will launch with a relatively scant 125-plus apps — less than the amount launched with RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, which debuted with 3,000-plus apps, though more than Motorola’s 50-ish Honeycomb tablet apps available for the Xoom upon its launch. Barnes and Noble says its app market will grow, as over 5,000 developers have already registered for the Nook Color developer program, and hundreds of already-submitted apps are in line for vetting by Barnes and Noble before being released for purchase.

One big drawback: users of the Froyo-based Nook Color won’t be able to download Android apps directly from the Android Market. They’ll have to wait for developers to port versions of apps over to the Nook Color. That’s a gigantic ecosystem — approximately 200,000 apps — that’s completely out of reach for Nook users.

But Barnes and Noble says it’s easy to port Android apps to the Nook Color. “Our SDK [software development kit] is an extension of the standard Android SDK,” said Claudia Romanini, director of developer relations for the Nook Color. “Developers don’t have to do much other than remove features not supported by our hardware (GPS, camera, telephony), and then rescale the app in terms of font sizes and graphics, to make sure it works on our display.”

The Nook Color’s transition into an e-reader-tablet hybrid may be a smart move for Barnes and Noble. Gartner research forecasts sales of 11 million e-readers in 2011, but it’s a much smaller market than tablets, where IDC predicts 44.6 million units to ship in 2011 (IDC defines media tablets as iPads or Android tablets that don’t rely exclusively on E Ink displays).

The Nook Color also edges itself into a smaller market, both figuratively and literally. It’s a seven-inch device, on par with that of the Samsung Galaxy Tab (which also runs Android 2.2 Froyo) and RIM’s PlayBook, and significantly smaller than the 10.1-inch Xoom (Android’s flagship tablet product) and the 9.7-inch iPad 2. The smaller form factor could appeal to audiences that don’t want the unwieldiness that comes with extra screen real estate.

Barnes and Noble’s tablet falls short of other tablets in other respects. The Nook Color is running on an 800-MHz processor with 512 MB of RAM, inferior to the slew of dual-core, 1-GHz-plus processors featured in most 2011 tablet debuts. Also, the Nook Color is currently available in a Wi-Fi only version, but not 3G or 4G. And it’s not running the most recent versions of Android, Android 2.3 “Gingerbread” or the tablet-optimized Android 3.0 “Honeycomb.”

The price, however, is hard to beat. At a paltry $250, the Nook Color’s bottom line bests the priciest of the new tablet debuts, many of which start at upwards of $500.

“The Nook Color with its new Froyo upgrade is not an iPad,” Gartner analyst Allen Weiner wrote in a blog post, “not even close. But those who are looking for a great cross-media reading device with some nice new multimedia bells and whistles, it remains a go-to device.”

To install the new firmware, you can download it from Barnes and Noble’s site and then sideload it onto their device. Or you can wait for an over-the-air update that will be pushed to all Nook Color customers next week.

Welcome to the latest episode of the The Engadget Show, in which we change things up just a little bit. Everything starts with a trip to the New Mexico desert for a ride on the Shredder, love child of a tank and a skateboard. Next, Tim and Associate Editor Jacob Schulman sit down with RIM’s Ryan Bidan to talk about the BlackBerry PlayBook. Then, Tim has a chat with Ford President and CEO Alan Mulally about the future of transportation, and just what’ll be driving you in to work in 20 years.

After that, Engadget founder Peter Rojas joins Tim and Managing Editor Darren Murph to look at a plethora of tablets. Favorites are chosen, lines are drawn, and allegiances pledged. There’s also talk of Amazon’s next play in the tablet space, the death of Flip, and what’s up next for GDGT.

It’s an action-packed show and it’s ready for you. What are you waiting for? Watch it now! The video stream is above, or download the show in HD below!

Hosts: Tim Stevens, Darren Murph, Jacob Schulman
Special guests: Ryan Bidan, Alan Mulally, Peter Rojas
Produced and Directed by: Chad Mumm
Executive Producer: Joshua Fruhlinger
Edited by: Danny Madden
Music by: Sabrepulse
Visuals by: Paris and Outpt

Shredder segment music: Minusbaby

Taped live at AOL Studios

Download the Show: The Engadget Show – 020 (HD) / The Engadget Show – 020 (iPod / iPhone / Zune formatted) / The Engadget Show – 020 (Small)

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The Engadget Show – 020: RIM’s Ryan Bidan, GDGT’s Peter Rojas, Ford CEO Alan Mulally, lots of tablets, Shredder test-drive originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Apr 2011 12:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Some lucky Aussies might have been able to pre-order the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1v ahead of the rest of the world, but it turns out the Portuguese will actually be taking this Honeycomb tablet home first, starting tomorrow. Originally known as the Galaxy Tab 10.1 but quickly superseded by a slimmer, impending model, said transitional device is now listed on Vodafone Portugal’s website with a more delightful €589.90 ($860, which is no doubt off-contract) tag to go with its HSPA+ radio, along with a big red “available from April 26th” stamp. We dug through Vodafone’s other European sites and the only country that also mentions this Tegra 2 slate is the Netherlands, though it only indicates a “week 17” launch — in other words, any time between now and May 1st. If you’re in Europe and don’t mind this slightly out-of-date whopper, be sure to check back as we’ll be keeping our eyes peeled for more details.

[Thanks, Carlos O.]

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1v available tomorrow for €590, starting with Portugal originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Apr 2011 05:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Remember the ultra-thin Lenovo ThinkPad X1 we detailed just a few hours ago? The document that dished those secrets also mentioned an “X Slate,” which made us wonder if Lenovo’s LePad was finally hitting the states… but This is my next seems to have stumbled across a grander piece of technology than that oft-delayed slate. According to a presumably leaked company presentation, Lenovo’s planning to release an Android 3.0 tablet this July with a giant raft of specs — a 10.1-inch 1280 x 800 IPS capacitive multitouch panel, a Tegra 2 processor, up to 64GB of storage, front and rear cameras, a full-size USB 2.0 port, mini-HDMI out, a genuine SD card reader and up to 8 hours of purported battery life in a package about 14mm thick and weighing 1.6 pounds.

What’s more, it will reportedly have an optional dual-digitizer with “true pen support” and an optional keyboard case, possibly aping ASUS’s recent Slate and Transformer tablet input mechanisms by allowing for both simultaneously. There’s also apparently plenty of software support for the business-minded, including IT integration as well as anti-theft and remote wipe options, and all this will apparently start at the competitive price of $499 — assuming these documents are legitimate and still valid. You see, they look a little preliminary for a slate supposedly sampling in just a couple of months, and there are contradictions here and there, such as the mention of a 1080p display in one slide, and some watermarks from 2009 in others. Still, Lenovo, if you’re indeed producing a tablet today, we’re liking its proposed specs — don’t suppose we can get a Tegra T25 chip while you’re at it? Find a few extra renders and plenty of slides at our source link.

Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet leaks out with Honeycomb, IPS screen, optional stylus and keyboard folio? originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 24 Apr 2011 17:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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