Hasta La Gadget!

Wrigley, Hancock, Millennium, Gallo, Sterling, Rosemount, Silver Oak, Peju and Opus One. What are we rattling off? Oh, just the list of codenames from one of the largest leaks we’ve ever seen out of Dell. WPCentral and Android Central got their hands on alleged smartphone and tablet roadmaps for the entire year, detailing the company’s plans for devices running operating systems that have yet to be formally announced, including Android Ice Cream (yes, Ice Cream!) and Windows 8 as well as the tablet-friendly Honeycomb. Here’s the full rundown.

Smartphones:

• Things look pretty boring (and by boring, we mean beautifully curvy) until approximately mid-April of this year, when the Venue Pro gets some “additional features and enhancements” which we’re pretty sure we can name.

• Then, Q3 brings the Wrigley, what looks like a vertical QWERTY slider identifying itself as “Windows Phone 7 Next Gen,” and sporting a 1GHz CPU, 4-inch 800 x 480 screen, and a 8 megapixel camera with 720p video recording. Nothing out of the ordinary, as far as we know.

• By September, things should get very interesting as Android Ice Cream will apparently be out, and Dell’s Hancock will scoop it onto a 4-inch qHD screen with dual cameras, dual-core processing and 1080p recording.

• Starting Q4, would-be Hancock buyers will have a dual-core multimedia slate alternative, as the Millennium drops the keyboard for a larger 4.3-inch screen and DLNA support (though the front-facing camera is limited to VGA resolution.)

Tablets:

• Dell’s Streak 10 won’t keep us waiting for long: come April, the Gallo will reportedly be chomping away at some tasty Honeycomb. But that’s not all — Dell lists a handwriting update for the Gallo in October or thereabouts. There’s also a Streak 7 update scheduled for July — we imagine that’s the point when Dell believes it can shoehorn Android 3.0 onto its older brother.

• Meanwhile, Dell’s 10-inch Windows 7 slate, internally known as Rosemount, is slated for June, with a 1366 x 768 resolution that should allow for native playback of 720p video.

• We can’t tell you what the Sterling is, but it’s likely a mid-sized one, as it’s slated to take over the Streak 7’s duties in or about October with Android Honeycomb on board.

• Finally, come CES 2012 in January, we now expect Dell to drop three new tablets at once: the Opus One and Silver Oak running Android Honeycomb, and the Peju with Windows 8. (The Streak 10 / Gallo will apparently soldier on.) Numbers on the left of the charge suggest that the Opus will be small, the Silver Oak mid-sized, and the Peju large.

As noted at the head of the slide, all details here are subject to change, but we’re sure as heck a lot more confident that Dell plans to do something with all those tacky mockups. One more chart after the break!

Continue reading Dell’s 2011 smartphone and tablet lineup leaked: Android Ice Cream, WP7 sliders, and a slate running Windows 8

Dell’s 2011 smartphone and tablet lineup leaked: Android Ice Cream, WP7 sliders, and a slate running Windows 8 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 Feb 2011 17:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Can you handle one more Android tablet? Let’s find out. That one up there is Huawei’s IDEOS S7 Pro, which is not to be confused with its new IDEOS S7 Slim. The Pro didn’t get a formal introduction here at MWC 2011, but it was lounging around the Huawei booth with a placard revealing its specs. Unfortunately, this one won’t be launching with Honeycomb — it packs a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, Android 2.3, HSPA+, WiFi 802.11bgn, and two cameras. The metal model on display seemed to be just a mockup, and despite the LED buttons lighting up, it wouldn’t actually boot. We overheard a company representative say that it would be launching this spring and our comrades at Engadget Spanish have also heard that it will launch at 10-inch version later in the year. You know what that means? Yep, even more Android tablets!

Huawei IDEOS S7 Pro tablet sneaks out, coming this spring originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 Feb 2011 13:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Think for a second, what major consumer electronics company doesn’t have a tablet to show? Right, Sony. In fact, the rumor womb has been conspicuously barren of salacious Sony tablet tattle ever since Apple’s iPad was announced back in 2010. Oh sure, Sony’s owned-up to the development of prototypes that fill a “very important position” somewhere in between its own Vaio PC lineup and the Xperia Play byproduct of its Ericsson commingling. But beyond that: zilch, nada… until today.

We have a couple of tablets we’d like to tell you about, starting with a 9.4-inch honeypot of an Android 3.0 tablet. Details of which have been confirmed by two highly trusted and independent sources. Known by its “S1” codename internally, Sony is busy customizing Matias Duarte’s Honeycomb interface to its own specification. Although, we’re skeptical of Sony’s software capabilities, we’ve been assured that Sony’s work is cutting edge stuff created by a talented engineering team spanning Sony’s VAIO, Reader, PlayStation, and Sony Ericsson product groups. The team is lead by the VAIO organization but will probably launch as a Sony product without VAIO branding, according to one source. Sony’s custom-built transitions and UI elements have created a user experience that rivals and at times improves upon the iPad’s renowned experience. The tablet itself, we’re told, is 100 percent focused on Qriocity, Sony’s music, games, ebooks, and videos on demand service that’s just been launched in Europe. It comes preloaded with Sony PS One games, a Bravia Media Remote, and yes, PlayStation integration — though it’s unclear if that’ll be limited to Remote Play or if the Android tablet will be PlayStation Suite certified. One source speculates that it could very well get the PlayStation gaming seal of approval by the time it ships — but that’s just an educated guess.

Update: We now have confirmation that the S1 is indeed PlayStation Certified making this a full-blown media and gaming tablet. We’ve also revised the illustration above to make the top less pronounced.

So what about that curvaceous mockup above? A design described to us as “beautiful, the best thing” one source has ever seen from Sony. Click through the break and we’ll explain.

Continue reading Exclusive: Sony ‘S1’ PlayStation tablet (updated)

Exclusive: Sony ‘S1’ PlayStation tablet (updated) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 Feb 2011 12:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading The stylus isn’t dead: more pen-based tablets and apps coming this year

The stylus isn’t dead: more pen-based tablets and apps coming this year originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 Feb 2011 08:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In a world of 10-inch dual-core Androids, HTC has opted to tread its own path by cranking up processor speeds, sticking to a 7-inch form factor and eschewing the latest Honeycomb build for a Gingerbread version it could customize more comprehensively with Sense. All that’s well and good, but sometimes all it comes down to is how these gadgets look and feel. So to help you wrap your mind around the Flyer’s new aluminum body, we present a couple of comparison galleries with it set against two devices that need no introduction. Get clicking!

HTC Flyer vs. Galaxy Tab vs. iPad… fight! originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 Feb 2011 06:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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