ASUS PadFone unboxed in Taiwan

We’ve been waiting patiently for what seems like years to get our hands on ASUS’ smartphone/tablet/netbook hybrid PadFone, and if you’re currently in Taiwan you can put your money down for one right now. That’s just what Netbook News did, along with the additional keyboard dock and Bluetooth headset-stylus combo, and they were kind enough to post a few minutes of gadget porn for the rest of the Internet to enjoy. Check the video after the break.

For the uninitiated, the PadFone is a one-of-a-kind device that’s designed in three sections. The “core” is a 4.3-inch Android 4.0 smartphone, not unlike the HTC One S. This smartphone docks into a 10-inch tablet shell, which uses Ice Cream Sandwich’s unified user interface to display a full tablet UI on the same hardware. An optional keyboard dock creates a quasi-netbook, very similar to the ASUS Transformer series, and there’s also an optional Bluetooth headset with a stylus on the end of the boom.

The PadFone is on sale now in Taiwan. You can get the core smartphone and tablet shell unlocked for NT$17,990 ($610) with all of the extras combined totaling NT$24,980 ($847). ASUS is planning a European version of the PadFone, but as yet there’s no word on an American version. ASUS doesn’t have the same relationships with US carriers that other Android tablet manufactures do, so an American release looks like a long shot at this point.

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Tags: Android, Asus, Padfone, Smartphone, Tablet PC's, Unboxing, Video

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Motorola Razr Maxx to launch in U.K. and Germany

Motorola has just officially announced the release of the Razr Maxx in U.K. this coming May. The unlocked Razr Maxx, also known as the Droid Razr Maxx in the U.S., will be heading out to British retailers including Expansys, Clove and Amazon. Condescendingly, the said device will also hit Germany on the same month that it will launch in the U.K.

But the interesting thing is that the Razr Maxx will be coming to Germany with the Ice Cream Sandwich on it. Too bad for the Razr Maxx fans in Britain, for the device will be arriving with Gingerbread still on it. The German folks on the other hand, are getting an early bonus for the year.

The Motorola Razr Maxx sports a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Advanced qHD display and it is powered by a 1.2 GHz dual-core processor. It has an 8 megapixel rear-facing camera and a 1 GB RAM as well as a 3,300 mAh battery.

“Razr Maxx isn’t changing the rules – it’s creating a whole new game. Building on the RAZR heritage it combines the pinnacle of design with mind-blowing power and an incredible battery life that is perfect for people who want to push their smartphone to the limits,”said Claudia Laepke, marketing director of Motorola Mobility’s Mobile Devices Germany.

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Tags: 8 Megapixel Camera, Android, Dual-Core, Germany, Motorola, Razr Maxx, Smartphones, Super AMOLED, UK

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Google Drive fully detailed

We saw all the indicators that Google Drive was going to launch today, and now it’s official. Google Drive will offer 5GB of storage for free, which you can increase up to 16TB, provided you’re willing to pony up the necessary monthly fee. Head past the jump for the full details, including videos.

Google Drive will integrate tightly with Google Docs, allowing you to collaborate with colleagues on documents in real time, as well as being able to share and comment all all types of media (PDF, videos, images, etc). Google will let you access files from anywhere, just like competitors, and is offering mobile apps for iOS and Android. You can now head to the Google Play store to download the app with your Android device – soon you’ll be able to download the app from the web as well. Just search your Google Play App Store on your Android device now for “Google Drive” and it’ll appear!

On top of OCR support, there’s also smart tagging and image recognition. Let’s say you upload an image of a red London bus: the next time you enter the search term “London bus”, the image will show up as a result. You’ll also be able to open up to 30 different kinds of files from your computer’s browser, even if you don’t have the necessary software installed. That includes PDF files, high def video, and images from Illustrator and Photoshop. Naturally, Google is priding itself on security, as well as data retention, plus the company is promising 99.9% uptime.

If you want more storage, Google will gladly sell it to you. Prices are as follows: 25GB for $2.49/month, 100GB for $4.99/month or even 1TB for $49.99/month. That storage only applies to Google Drive, and documents from Docs aren’t counted towards the final quota. This service is of course also integrated with Google Chrome – check out all the Chrome apps integrated in the Chrome store now!

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Tags: Android, Apps, Cloud Storage, Google, Google Drive, Google Play, Video

Posted in Android, Apps, Cloud Services, Google, Videos | No Comments »

Samsung teases us with a new website to hype the Galaxy S III

While we’re more than aware that Samsung is set to announce the upcoming Galaxy S III on May 3rd, a new teaser site has popped up that shows a countdown that ends tomorrow.

Sammy set the stage for the new site in a simple tweet, “Destination: tgeltaayehxnx”. The anagram spells out The Next Galaxy, and if you direct your browser to tgeltaayehxnx.com, you’ll find the countdown. Said countdown ends tomorrow, so we know it’s not for the actual device itself but it does look like Samsung wants to let us in on some information pertaining to its next flagship device.

Above the counter, it says “You can take the next step in”, which probably means that we can expect teases like this until the official announcement. Even though the announcement itself is in less than two weeks away, giving something for us to bide our time with should help things go a bit faster.

The Galaxy S III should easily put shame to just about every Android handset on the market when it’s released, with the HTC One X remaining the only alternative. We’ve heard countless rumors about the Galaxy S III, from a 1080p display to eye-tracking software to wireless charging. While we have our doubts that we’ll see a 1080p display on the handset, it should nonetheless become one of the go-to Android handsets for the rest of the year.

After doing a little digging within the website’s HTML code, you’ll also find a line stating  ”Discover how Samsung is about to challenge the way you view the GALAXY once more.”

Whatever awaits at the end of the countdown, we’ll be there to fill you in.

Check out the next galaxy site here.

Article: RSS via IntoMobile

Tags: Android, Galaxy S III, Samsung, Smartphone

Posted in Android, Samsung, Smartphones | No Comments »

HTC One X gets OTA update fixing issues

While the HTC One X has been met with high praise, it has a few niggling little issues that need addressing. HTC has begun rolling out an OTA software for the handset to fix them. The main issue that’s been addressed is battery life, and other problems such as instability and unresponsive on-screen menu items.

The update has hit our our handset here at SlashGear, and is numbered 1.28.401.9. This is purely an update for software fixes, and doesn’t update the version of Android, which still sits at 4.0.3. Other fixes are said to include a tweaked auto-brightness algorithm, as well as a resolved issue where text and icons would appear glitchy in the notification bar. General performance has reportedly improved, leading to higher benchmark scores.

The update is around 30MB in size, and you can check manually for it by going to Settings, About, and hitting Software Updates. Kudos to HTC for pushing out an update for these issues in a timely fashion. That kind of customer service can go a long way to building trust with the brand, something HTC needs after a disappointing 2011 smartphone line up. The HTC One X and One S have certainly impressed reviewers, and the One V isn’t a bad offering either.

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Tags: Android, HTC, One X, Smartphones, Software Update

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Meizu announces MX Quad-core with Exynos processor

Just five months after the Meizu MX became official, it’s getting the quad-core processor that the Chinese superphone was rumored to get in the first place. But this time there’s a surprise: the MX Quad-core is using Samsung’s Exynos A9 architecture for its system-on-a-chip, something that should make performance junkies ecstatic even without a given clock speed. Meizu announced the new phone today with a planned release in June, claiming a 60% increase in processor performance and a 50% jump in GPU performance over the previous version.

Interestingly, Meizu announced an increased DPI for the high-end phone, but not the screen size. If the screen stays the same size at 4.0 inches, its resolution would need to increase to 1024×600 to achieve the 292 DPI that the company claims. The 8 megapixel camera is paired with a F/2.2 lens. The new model will be a modified “Flyme” OS based on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, an improvement over the Gingerbread-based MX. Capacities of 32GB and 64GB will be offered for 2999 yuan and 3999 yuan respectively, the equivalent of about $475 and $635. The phones will go on sale through Meizu’s retail partners in mainland China and Hong Kong, with no international plans for the moment.

Effective immediately, the original MX will be discounted to 2399 yuan (check out our in-depth review here). Whether it’s worth it to grab the older model or wait for the newer one will rest almost entirely on how much you value speed. In a surprising move, the MX Quad-core will be available in the four pastel colors shown above in addition to the standard black and white. Quad-core smartphones have truly come to the forefront now – it’ll be interesting to see how the offerings from NVIDIA, Samsung and Huawei differ, and how Qualcomm’s Krait platform competes when it arrives.

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Tags: Android, Meizu, Meizu MX, Meizu MX Quad-core, Quad-Core, Smartphones

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Sky Cloud WiFi app released

Sky has released its Sky Cloud WiFi application, that will make it easier for Sky Broadband customers to log on and use The Cloud hot-spots for free.

The app itself is free in the Apple App Store and Google Play store, and allows you to register the device it is running, with a limit of six devices linked to your Sky Broadband web login.

The maps scale for larger screens, but using an Asus Transformer Prime (Ice Cream Sandwich) reveals a bug, where the application is firmly stuck in phone screen orientation mode, ignoring screen rotation requests.

Article: RSS via ThinkBroadband

Tags: Android, Apps, Google Play, iOS, Sky, Sky Broadband, Sky Cloud, SkyCloud WiFi

Posted in Android, Apps, Broadband, iOS | No Comments »

Pebble smart watch plays nice with iOS and Android devices

Ever wanted a watch those could sync with your iOS or Android device via Bluetooth? If you’re in the market for such a device, the Pebble e-paper watch might be worth checking out. It features a 1.26” 144×168 black and white e-paper display with backlight support, Bluetooth 2.1 EDR, a vibrating motor, an accelerometer and is expected to be able to last for up to 7 days on a single charge.

While it won’t actually let you talk or send text messages via the watch, it will be able to show you who’s calling and display text messages for those times when your hands might be occupied, i.e. cooking, washing the dishes, exercising, driving, in class, etc. On top of that the Pebble watch will support the use of apps that can be used for cycling, jogging and as a golf rangefinder.

Pebble will also release an open SDK that allows developers to create additional apps for the watch, ultimately increasing its functionality. The watch will be compatible with iOS devices and Android devices running on Android 2.3 Gingerbread or later. A pledge of $99 will net you the watch upon its successful funding and release, so for more information head on down to its Kickstarter page.

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Tags: Android, Bluetooth, iOS, Kickstarter, Pebble, Smart Watch

Posted in Accessories, Android, iOS | No Comments »

Temple Run for Android hits 5 million downloads

That didn’t take very long. In a matter of about a week and a half, Temple Run hit five million downloads on Android.

Imangi, the company behind Temple Run and other mobile games, had announced that it would arrive on Android soon only a few weeks before the release. Originally exclusive to iOS, it was released onto Google Play March 27th and quickly rose to popularity there as well. At that time, it had already surpassed 40 million downloads on iOS.

Within three days of being available on Android, it added another one million to that count. The latest combined numbers for both Android and iOS have topped 50 million downloads as of a few days ago.

Cofounder of Imangi, the company behind Temple Run, Natalia Luckyanova tweeted an interesting tidbit regarding the rise in support emails the day Temple Run for Android launched.

“99.9% of support emails are complaining their device isn’t supported. We currently support 707 devices. Mindblowing,” she said.

It’s shocking how fragmentation can be such a problem for some users, who in turn make it a problem for developers. In the case of Temple Run, however, 707 devices supports the overwhelming majority of Android users and it’s clearly enough to skyrocket the game to five million downloads so rapidly.

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Tags: Android, Apps, Gaming, Google Play, Temple Run

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HTC And Sprint Officially Unveil The New EVO 4G LTE

It’s hardly a surprise anymore (as is usually the case) but here it is anyway – Sprint CEO Dan Hesse and HTC President Jason Mackenzie have just taken the stage at their collaboration event in New York, and just officially unveiled the new EVO 4G LTE.

First things first — there’s still no official release date yet, though the device will launch sometime in Q2 and pre-orders are set to begin on May 7. The Evo does have a price tag though, and Sprint customers can expect to shell out $199 for it whenever it sees the lit of day.

For all my moaning about design (more on that later), my mother always taught me that it’s what’s on the inside that counts, and that’s where the EVO shines. Nestled behind its gigantic 4.7-inch 720p Super LCD 2 display is the same dual-core, 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 chipset that powers its One X cousin, along with 1GB of RAM to help keep things snappy.

As expected, the EVO 4G LTE also runs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, with HTC’s thoughtfully-redesigned Sense 4.0 UI on top of it. Some people (myself included) tend to bristle when custom overlays are thrown into the mix, but as I noted when I got to play with the One X, it’s much less clunky than the Sense of days past.

All in all, it’s the same general formula as the lovely HTC One X, just with most of the visual appeal sucked out of the hardware.

Much to my chagrin, the redesign first spotted in that leaked press shot a few days ago was indeed legit, and it extends far beyond the device’s ho-hum front. The back appears to be clad in both glossy and matte black finishes, with a strip of red metal dividing the two (it’s also where the wee little kickstand is). Right smack in the middle of the glossy black zone is the The EVO 4G LTE’s 8-megapixel camera pod is mounted, which (as on the One X) will be paired with HTC’s new camera software for some solid shots.

Thankfully, the EVO 4G LTE does stand out in one place where its more handsome brethren don’t — it includes a discreet camera button along the lower right side, while the others relegate the shutter button to the touchscreen. It may seem like a minor quibble, but it strikes as a rather thoughtful addition considering HTC’s renewed focus on mobile photography.

Now, seeing a device’s specs laid out in front of you is nice and all, but if you want to see the thing in action, stay tuned — I’ll soon be jumping into the fray to score some hands-on photos and video.

Article: RSS via TechCrunch

Tags: 4G, Android, Dual-Core, EVO 4G LTE, HTC, LTE, Smartphones

Posted in 4G, Android, HTC, Smartphones | 1 Comment »