Hasta La Gadget!

Acer’s ten-inch Tegra 2 tablet with Verizon LTE? You’re looking at it right now, courtesy of the NVIDIA booth at CES 2011’s Digital Experience show. It’s just the same engineering prototype with an early build of Android 2.2 we’ve seen before — it’ll run Honeycomb at launch — but this time, we got to touch. The hardware seriously feels final, with a solid metal case and a supremely responsive touchscreen that tracks a full ten points of contact. There’s an interesting array of ports, too, with a full-sized USB port (as well as micro-USB) on one side and a dedicated charging socket too, as well as a dock connector on the bottom. What’s missing are the standard Android Home, Menu and Back buttons, as instead of those, you simply swipe the lower right corner of the screen to bring up a tiny pane of virtual alternatives. No LTE connectivity to be found at Digital Experience, we’re afraid, so we’ll have to bring you speed tests another day — but we’ll have video up soon. For now, peep the gallery below.

Update: Video after the break!

Continue reading Acer Iconia Tab A500 first hands-on! (update: video)

Acer Iconia Tab A500 first hands-on! (update: video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 Jan 2011 00:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Often when you hear minimum spec doom and gloom, it proves to be wildly inaccurate, or only part of the picture. This time, however, it’s worth a closer look. PC Magazine‘s Sascha Segan is confidently citing the director of Enspert, a Korean consumer electronics company (which recently announced its own Android tablet), who claims that Honeycomb will require a dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor. He’s also confident that Motorola’s tablet will be the first device to market with the new version of Android, and his other minimum specs line up with the idea of Honeycomb being initially a tablet-only release. Apparently 1280 x 720 is going to be the minimum resolution, with screen sizes “as small as” 7-inches, though it sounds like 10-inches could be the default. These specs seem to clearly leave out Galaxy Tab, along with anything else on the market or soon to arrive that doesn’t have a Tegra 2 chip. It also makes sense that the Galaxy Tab 2 is going to be using Tegra 2 — Samsung clearly won’t be deterred.

And how about phones for Honeycomb? The picture is decidedly murkier, other than the fact that we could see a temporary splintering of the platform while tablets show off their new Honeycomb digs, with enough battery to back up that dual-core proc. Of course, dual-core handsets are right around the corner, so we doubt handsets will be without Honeycomb for long — Google should know which side its bread is buttered on. There’s also the possibility that this Enspert source is only talking tablets, and phones (which are required to push way fewer pixels, and have much stricter battery requirements) will get a pass on the dual-core requirement altogether. No matter what, you should settle in for a year of entertainment as Google continues to iterate its wildly successful operating system, and manufacturers strain to keep up.

[Thanks, Jason]

Honeycomb to require dual-core processor, initially tablet-only? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 03 Jan 2011 20:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Lookin’ to get a jump on the rest of the folks, eh Onkyo? Rather than waiting for CES to kick off next week, the aforementioned firm has just let loose its TA117, proving that it’s totally kosher with supporting both Microsoft and Google in the tablet wars. A duo of models will be made available — the TA117C3 and TA117C1 — with both of ’em getting a 10.1-inch touch panel (1024 x 600 resolution), Android 2.2, NVIDIA’s Tegra 250 (1GHz), 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, a microSD expansion slot, USB 2.0 connectivity (x2), HDMI out and a 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera. There’s also a docking port to use with an optional stand, and if you’re looking to spot the differences between the two models, the C1 is home to 512MB of DDR2 RAM alongside 8GB of integrated storage, while the C3 doubles up with 1GB of memory and 16GB of NAND. There’s nary a word on price nor release, but we hear Samsung’s Galaxy Tab is now feeling a bit small. If you know what we’re getting at.

Onkyo blesses 10.1-inch TA117 Android tablet with NVIDIA’s Tegra 250 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Dec 2010 12:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The only official timeframe we have for an Android 3.0 Honeycomb release is sometime “next year.” A little too vague for our liking and for a seemingly infinite list of manufacturers chomping at the bit to release their fully sanctioned Android tablets onto the world. Now DigiTimes narrows things down a bit with an off-the-cuff comment about MSI preparing to sell its Tegra 2-based tablets in April or May “after Google releases Android 3.0 in March.” Of course, a March release seems almost definite what with Acer hoping to ship its tablets with Honeycomb in April as well. Hopefully we’ll get this confirmed at CES in early January.

Google’s Honeycomb Android tablet release slated for March? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Dec 2010 06:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s been awhile since we’ve heard anything official from ASUS about its 12-inch EP121 tablet announced back at Computex in May. That changes today as ASUS Chairman, Jonney Shih, promises an “Eee for everyone” at CES 2011 — and that’s not an exaggeration what with 7-, 9-, 10-, and 12-inch Armdroid and Wintel tablets expected. While the video doesn’t show the physical EP121 first revealed as a prototype in Taipei, it does call it an “Eee Slate” (not an “Eee Pad” like before) while demonstrating pen-based input on the multitouch display riding Microsoft’s Windows 7 operating system and a Core i5 processor. Naturally, ASUS is also promising better performance and more flexibility than existing tablets. Don’t worry, we’ll be getting hands-on with this beast in a few weeks before it hits retail sometime (somewhere) in January. Until then, you can watch the teaser after the break.

Update: DigiTimes claims that the EP121 will target enterprise customers when launched. Additionally, two 10-inch Eee Pads (one with Windows 7 on Oak Trail and one with Android on Tegra 2) will hit retail as early as March for $499 to $599. Meanwhile, 7-inch Android models will also launch as early as March featuring either Tegra 2 or Qualcomm chipsets with at least one model featuring a “3.5G” radio for “phone functionality.”

[Thanks, Sal]

Continue reading ASUS 12-inch Windows 7 ‘Eee Slate’ EP121 and more teased for 2011 (updated)

ASUS 12-inch Windows 7 ‘Eee Slate’ EP121 and more teased for 2011 (updated) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Dec 2010 04:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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