Razer Switchblade headed to China with help from Intel and Tencent

Remember the Razer Switchblade? It’s that 7-inch multitouch gaming device with a fully tactile and adaptive keyboard. It first stole our attention as a Windows 7 concept on the way to wowing us with a hands-on in January. Well, we’ve now got the first official launch country: China, with the help of Tencent Holdings, China’s largest internet service portal. Unfortunately, we still don’t have final specs on the Oak Trail clamshell, a price, or even a date. Fear not rest of world — China’s just the first market announced in what appears to be an attempt to highlight a new partnership between Intel and Tencent. Today the two companies announced plans to staff a new research center with 60 engineers (expected to grow to 200, eventually) who’ll work together on products and services for tablets and gaming in the Chinese market. Good luck guys, we hear the Chintendo Vii is fiercely competitive.

Razer Switchblade headed to China with help from Intel and Tencent originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 Apr 2011 05:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hannspree SN10T1 tablet hits Europe, SN10T2 and SN10T3 to follow later this year

We haven’t heard much about Hannspree’s 10.1-inch HSG1164 tablet since it turned up at the FCC back in December, but a seemingly identical SN10T1 model has now surfaced in Italy, and it’s apparently available right now for €399 (contrary to what the roadmap pictured above would have you believe). What’s more, it looks like Hannspree will also be releasing two more tablets before the end of the year, including a cheaper 8GB model that will run just €299 (or about $430), and a Honeycomb-based model that packs a higher resolution 1280 x 600 display, 16GB of storage and a price tag of €449, or just under $650 — look for those to be available sometime in the second and third quarter, respectively.

[Thanks, Laura]

Hannspree SN10T1 tablet hits Europe, SN10T2 and SN10T3 to follow later this year originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 Apr 2011 02:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Kyocera Echo review

It’s not exactly difficult to put into words what the Kyocera Echo is — it’s a dual-screened Android phone, after all — but it’s a wee bit more challenging to wrap your head around who exactly it’s for. The hardcore gaming contingent already has Sony Ericsson’s Xperia Play, and those obsessed with screen real estate have options spanning the gamut — everything from Dell’s 5-inch Streak to a veritable cornucopia of choices in the 4- to 4.3-inch range. So, where exactly does this oddball fit in? Quite frankly, we get the impression that it’s doing its darnedest to carve out a market of its own, a thought that’s reinforced by Kyocera’s dedicated app development space and two-faced Simul-Task mode. Early critics (read: us) railed on the fact that double the screens meant double the trouble in terms of battery life, and there’s no question that a second cell was included with our test unit. But are the advantages of having a second 3.5-inch WVGA touchpanel enough to overshadow the obvious pitfalls? Join us as we do a little soul-searching in our full review, hosted up just past the break.

Continue reading Kyocera Echo review

Kyocera Echo review originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 Apr 2011 00:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Motorola XOOM available soon at Sprint, shipping with WiMAX on-board?

Motorola XOOM available soon at Sprint, shipping with WiMAX on-board?

We received a tip earlier today that Sprint stores were finding boxes of Motorola Xoom accessories this morning, ahead of what would presumably be a launch of the tablet on that carrier. Now BGR has some pics of what is certainly a Xoom case along with an entry in the store’s inventory system, strong indicators that the tablet will indeed be soon available there. Of course, we’re all still waiting on the LTE wizardry Moto is said to be enabling on the Verizon flavor, but we would naturally expect Sprint’s version to be packing some WiMAX whenever it ships. Word is the tablets themselves will be arriving in stores sometime before the end of the month, but let’s just wait and see what Sprint has to say before we get too excited this Tuesday morning.

Motorola XOOM available soon at Sprint, shipping with WiMAX on-board? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 Apr 2011 08:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Intel rolls out Atom Z670 Oak Trail processor for tablets

Well, it’s a bit past the end of March, but Intel has now finally gotten official with its new Atom Z670 processor for tablets, which you might know better by its Oak Trail codename. Built using a 45nm manufacturing process, the Z670 runs at 1.5GHz and promises to support 1080p video with the aid of Intel’s GMA 600 integrated graphics, while also keeping power consumption to a minimum and allowing for smaller, thinner, and fanless devices. As we’ve seen, there’s also plenty of manufacturers already lined up to release devices based on the processor, and Intel says we can expect to see over 35 “innovative tablet and hybrid designs” from the likes of Fujitsu, Lenovo, Razer and Viliv over the course of 2011. What’s more, Intel also took the opportunity to tease its next generation 32nm Cedar Trail platform that it will be showing off at its Developer Forum in Beijing, saying that it will enable a “new wave of fanless, cool and quiet, sleek and innovative netbooks, entry-level desktops and all-in-one designs.” Full press release is after the break.

Continue reading Intel rolls out Atom Z670 Oak Trail processor for tablets

Intel rolls out Atom Z670 Oak Trail processor for tablets originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 14:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Gartner: Apple will dominate tablet space for years, Android won’t drink its milkshake until after 2015

Gartner: Apple will dominate tablet space for years, Android won't drink its milkshake until after 2015

The inundation of tablets upon these very pages from day to day should give you an idea that manufacturers see this as a golden opportunity to grab a big chunk of a fledgling market. According to Gartner, though, the prospects are a little less rosy — for the next five years, anyway. Analyst estimates indicate that the tablet market will boom over the next five years, from 17,610,000 units last year to 294,093,000 in 2015. No, not 294,092,000. 294,093,000. Apple will be the dominant force, its market share not dropping below 50 percent until the terminal year of this study. Android will take up the lion share of the other half, with the remaining dredges shared by MeeGo, WebOS, and QNX. The latter, which powers RIM’s upcoming BlackBerry PlayBook, is scheduled to have a 10 percent share. That’ll be the closest thing to a threat that Google and Apple will face — if you believe any of this.

Update: The figures above are in thousands of units.

Gartner: Apple will dominate tablet space for years, Android won’t drink its milkshake until after 2015 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 09:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Acer’s Windows-powered Iconia W500 up for pre-order for $549, ships April 15th

Acer already announced UK pricing for the Windows 7 and Android Honeycomb versions of its Iconia Tab, and now it’s ready to take both stateside. Days after Best Buy started taking pre-orders for the Android 3.0-powered Iconia Tab A500, the Windows-based W500 has shown up on B&H’s site for $549. Like its cousin, the W500 has a 10.1-inch (1280 x 800) display, HDMI-out and dual cameras, though it steps up to 2GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, AMD Radeon HD 6250 graphics, and a 1GHz Ontario (C-50) AMD Fusion APU. It also comes with a keyboard dock, putting it in the same price range as ASUS’s Android-based Eee Transformer, which costs less but doesn’t include its similar-looking keyboard. Acer rates the W500’s three-cell battery at up to six hours — a far cry from the iPad’s promised 10-hours and, perhaps, a good reason to wait for slates featuring that lower-power Fusion APU AMD’s been shopping around to tablet makers. B&H says it’ll ship starting April 15th, but head on over to its website if you’re psyched enough to place an order now. Or you can keep saving your pennies for Acer’s other Iconia.

Acer’s Windows-powered Iconia W500 up for pre-order for $549, ships April 15th originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 08:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HTC Flyer hits UK pre-order status at £600, comes with 3G and 32GB of storage

The one Android tablet that isn’t riding NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 dual-core chip and Google’s Honeycomb iteration (but might still be worth buying) has this weekend become available to pre-order in the UK. The Carphone Warehouse is listing a £600 ($983) fee for owning the HTC Flyer, which is more or less a match for the €669 price Amazon.de is offering to German slate lovers. In exchange for a dozen rose-tinted notes with the Queen’s face on them, you’ll get a 7-inch, 1024 x 600 display, encased in an aluminum unibody case and powered by a 1.5GHz Qualcomm chip. HTC’s Sense UI has undergone some tablet-friendly tweaks and there is of course that Scribe stylus to flex your artistic muscles with. 3G connectivity and 32GB of storage flesh out the Flyer’s hardware offering, while the underlying Android Gingerbread OS is promised to get a Honeycomb-flavored update, most likely some time this summer.

HTC Flyer hits UK pre-order status at £600, comes with 3G and 32GB of storage originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 07:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EraThink EraPalm runs like a netbook, looks like a portable gaming handheld

Looking at this odd bird of a device on display at the China Consumer Electronics Fair inspires tired cliches about mating gadgets. But really, it took a wild night between a Windows 7 tablet and a portable gaming console (with a possible cameo by a UMPC) to spawn the EraThink EraPalm. This handheld runs Windows 7 and has a 5-inch (800 x 480) capacative touchscreen that slides out to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard — all of which is reminiscent of the extinct OQO Model 02, except for the gaming controls flanking the display. Newpad spent some with the little guy, and reports some netbook-like specs including an unspecified Atom Z processor, 3G connectivity, and Ethernet, HDMI, VGA, and USB ports. (Then again, it does one better with GPS and support for 1080p video.) Want a closer gawk? Click the source link for a couple more hands-on shots.

[Thanks, leungxd]

EraThink EraPalm runs like a netbook, looks like a portable gaming handheld originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 10 Apr 2011 18:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Cloned in China  |  sourceNewpad  | Email this | Comments

E-Noa’s Interpad Android tablet is nowhere to be found

It’s been almost eight months since we introduced you to Interpad’s Tegra 2-packing Android tablet, and now we’re hearing rumors that the thing might never make it to market. The tablet was originally slated for a December 2010 debut, but in August the slab’s maker, E-Noa, released a statement that said the tablet was on hold until January. Well, January’s come and gone, and with a slew of Tegra 2 tablets getting ready to hit the market, it looks like the Interpad might get left behind. Aside from a lack of updates to the company’s website, its Facebook page is devoid of any information, and according to the folks over at Tablet Guys, repeated calls to E-Noa’s office have gone unanswered. Basically, the Interpad’s nowhere to be found, and with Acer’s Iconia Tab slated for an April 24th release and Motorola’s Xoom already making the rounds, the Interpad’s once impressive specs just don’t seem so special anymore.

E-Noa’s Interpad Android tablet is nowhere to be found originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 10 Apr 2011 07:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceTablet Guys  | Email this | Comments