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Deals of the Day (9-27-11)

Posted: 27 Sep 2011 12:39 PM PDT

Gateway LT2805u

It’s days like today when I have a hard time believing I paid nearly $600 for a 10 inch netbook just three years ago. Office Depot is offering a Gateway netbook with a 10 inch screen and a dual core processor for just $230. It has a low capacity 3 cell battery, but if you’re looking for a bargain on a netbook with a 6 cell battery, TigerDirect has a refurbished Asus model with a single core Atom chip for just $200.

Here’s a roundup of some of the day’s best deals on mobile technology.

You can find more bargains in our daily deals section.

Deals of the Day (9-27-11) is a post from: Liliputing

Intel Atom Cedar Trail chips start shipping

Posted: 27 Sep 2011 11:15 AM PDT

Intel Atom logoIntel has started to supply Cedar Trail chips to computer makers, which means that we could start to see netbook and desktop computers with the new Intel Atom processors by the end of the year.

The Cedar Trail platform covers a range of new chips including the Atom N2600 and N2800 notebook chips and D2500 and D2700 desktop chips. The new 32 nanometer chips are expected to offer better overall performance and much better graphics performance than today’s 45nm Atom processors.

The new processors will have clock speeds as high as 2.13 GHz will be able to handle 1080p HD video playback, HDMI video output, and Blu-ray video.

While most Atom chips on the market today can only support up to 2GB of memory, the new processors will be able to work with up to 4GB of memory — although I suspect most netbooks and other low-priced Atom computers will continue to ship with just 1GB to 2GB of RAM.

Intel Atom Cedar Trail chips start shipping is a post from: Liliputing

Firefox 7.0 now available for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android

Posted: 27 Sep 2011 10:07 AM PDT

Firefox 7.0

Mozilla has pushed out new versions of its popular Firefox web browser for personal computers and Android phones and tablets. The move from Firefox 6.0 to 7.0 isn’t quite as exciting as some earlier updates, since Mozilla is on a rapid-release schedule these days. But there are a couple of major improvements in Firefox 7.0 nonetheless.

The desktop browser for Windows, Mac, and Linux is designed to use memory more efficiently, open new tabs more quickly, and perform better when multiple browser tabs are open. HTML5 games and animations should also be faster when run in Firefox. If you’re using Firefox Sync to keep your bookmarks and passwords synchronized between computers, Firefox will also now sync changes more quickly.

The Android version of Firefox also includes HMTL5 improvements, support for copying and pasting a website into an email message, SMS, or any text field, and support for WebSockets API which developers can use to write web apps that perform better on Firefox.

You can download Firefox 7 for Windows, Mac, and Linux from Mozilla. The Android app is available from the Android Market.

Firefox 7.0 now available for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android is a post from: Liliputing

Skype for iPhone, iPad gets anti-shake video update

Posted: 27 Sep 2011 10:00 AM PDT

Skype for iPad

Skype has pushed out a new version of its voice, video, and text chat app for iOS. Now anyone with a supported iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad can use a Bluetooth headset to make calls from the Skype app — but the most impressive new feature is image stabilization.

Now when you’re shooting video through the rear-facing camera on an iOS device Skype will automatically try to stabilize the video so that it looks less shaky.

That’s the good news. The less good news is that the new app also includes advertisements. If you’re a paying Skype customer with Skype Credit for making phone calls you’ll never see the ads, but if you use Skype to place free calls to other Skype users, the updated app will display ads.

Skype 3.5.8.4 is available as a free download for iPad or iPhone/iPod touch.

Skype for iPhone, iPad gets anti-shake video update is a post from: Liliputing

Motorola’s next-gen tablets coming in November, December?

Posted: 27 Sep 2011 09:00 AM PDT

Motorola XOOM 2

At this point it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Motorola is working on two new Android tablets. We’ve seen plenty of pictures of both, and read plenty of leaked details. But it looks like there’s a little new information today, thanks to reports coming out of Taiwan.

Apparently Motorola will build its new 10 inch tablet in-house, but Taiwanese equipment maker Compal Electronics will be responsible for a smaller model. DigiTimes describes it as a 7 inch tablet, although we’ve previously heard that it will have an 8.2 inch display. Between 250,000 and 350,000 units are expected to ship per quarter.

While we’d heard that the tablets would launch in November, it looks like one or both might not be available until December.

Motorola launched the first tablet to run Google Android 3.0 Honeycomb way back in February. That makes it kind of ancient by Android tablet standards, so it’s not surprising to see new models in the works.

While Android smartphones are now outselling the Apple iPhone, Android tablets haven’t gained as much traction in the marketplace yet, and it’s interesting to see companies taking a rather un-Apple-like approach to compete with the iPad.

While the iPad comes in one size only and Apple typically only sells one model at a time (if you want a first generation iPad, you’re going to need to buy a used or refurbished model), Motorola, Samsung, Acer, Asus, Lenovo, and other companies are taking a shotgun-style approach by offering Android tablets with multiple screen sizes, processors, and price points.

I guess the idea is that if you give people enough choices, maybe at least one of the products you offer will turn out to be a hit.

The new tablets are expected to run Google Android 3.2 Honeycomb at launch, and feature IR remote control features. The smaller model is expected to weigh less than a pound while the 10 inch model will reportedly have a 1.2 GHz dual core processor and 1080p HD video recording capabilities.

Motorola’s next-gen tablets coming in November, December? is a post from: Liliputing

Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 visits the FCC, gets benchmarked

Posted: 27 Sep 2011 07:49 AM PDT

Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 is an Android tablet with… you guessed it, a 7.7 inch display. But while many device makers are slapping 1024 x 600 pixel and lower resolution screens on anything with a screen smaller than 10 inches, Samsung is going all out with screen quality on this device. It’s expected to pack a 1280 x 800 pixel AMOLED display. It will also have a speedy 1.4 GHz dual core processor.

While it had been reported that Samsung had “no plans” to launch the tablet in the US, I’ve often found that no plans is just public relations-speak for “we just haven’t made any announcements yet.”

Sure enough, this week the Galaxy Tab 7.7 showed up at the FCC website. Any device with wireless capabilities has to pass through the Federal Communications Commission before it can be released in the United States. So while the FCC listing doesn’t guarantee a US launch, (companies sometimes submit documents and test results just in case they later decide to release a product), it’s a pretty good sign that Samsung is at least thinking about offering its latest tablet Stateside.

The tablet will be available with 16GB to 64GB of storage and front and rear facing cameras. It’s expected to run Google Android 3.2 Honeycomb with Samsung’s TouchWiz software interface at launch.

Some early benchmarks for the Galaxy Tab 7.7 have shown up at the GLBenchmark website, and it looks like the tablet is noticeably faster (at least at some graphics and video tasks) than anything with a 1 GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual core processor, with frame-rates that are about twice as high as those notched by the Motorola XOOM in most tests. The Apple iPad 2 still trounces the Galaxy Tab 7.7 in most test though.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 benchmarks

While it’s still not clear if or when the Galaxy Tab 7.7 will be available in the US or how much it will cost, Samsung did just announced launch dates and details for three other devices: The Galaxy Tab 8.9 tablet and Galaxy S WiFi 4.0 and Galaxy S WiFi 5.0 handheld Android devices. All three should be available in October.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 visits the FCC, gets benchmarked is a post from: Liliputing

ZTE shows off one of the first NVIDIA Kal-El tablets

Posted: 27 Sep 2011 06:40 AM PDT

ZTE T98 Kal-El tablet

NVIDIA is expected to launch a new low power, high performance processor for smartphones and tablets later this year. The Kal-El chip is the sequel to the popular NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor, but while the Tegra 2 is a dual-core chip, Kal-El CPU will feature 4 powerful processor cores along with a fifth, lower power core that kicks in when the device is in standby to help provide longer battery life and lower power consumption.

While NVIDIA has been showing off prototypes for a few months, the company hasn’t yet officially launched the Kal-El chip. In fact, Kal-El is just a code name. The processor will probably be called something else (like Tegra 3) when it’s released.

But that hasn’t stopped Chinese device maker ZTE from showing of a 7 inch tablet featuring the new processor. On the surface, the new ZTE T98 looks like any other 7 inch Android tablet. It has a 1280 x 800 pixel display, a black border around the screen, and front and rear cameras. The tablet runs Google Android 3.2 Honeycomb and I wouldn’t be shocked if it never shows its face in America… although we have seen signs recently suggesting that ZTE will soon start selling tablets in the States.

Under the hood, the T98 has the new Kal-El processor. While the chip normally runs at 1.5 GHz, the version in the ZTE tablet appears to have been underclocked to run at 1.3 GHz.

Asus is also expected to launch a Tegra 3/Kal-El tablet soon. Recently we spotted a leaked series of benchmark results showing a next-generation Asus Eee Pad Transformer tablet. According to the test scores, the Transformer 2 will likely be one of the fastest Android tablets around, thanks to the new chipset — at least until NVIDIA’s competitors release their new quad-core chips.

via Engadget

ZTE shows off one of the first NVIDIA Kal-El tablets is a post from: Liliputing

Archos Arnova 10 G2 tablet now available for $200

Posted: 27 Sep 2011 05:24 AM PDT

Arnova 10 G2

The Arnova 10 G2 is a tablet with a 10.1 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel capacitive touchscreen display, a 1 GHz ARM Cortex-A8 processor and Google Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating system. The tablet is part of the budget-line of Arnova devices from Archos, a French company that offers tablets and media players.

The publisher of the Philadelphia Daily News and Inquirer newspapers recently partnered with Archos to offer the Arnova 10 G2 for $99 and up when they signed up for digital newspaper subscriptions. That made Philadelphia Media Network the first company in the US to offer the new tablet. But now you can pick one up without subscribing to a newspaper.

TigerDirect is selling the Arnova 10 G2 through its eBay store for $199.99. Oddly the tablet still isn’t available from the TigerDirect website.

While the Arnova 10 G2 doesn’t have a dual core processor, Android 3.x Honeycomb operating system, or some of the other features we’ve come to expect from top tier tablets, it doesn’t look like a bad device for a tablet that sells for $200. It weighs about 1.3 pounds, has a g-sensor, mic and speaker, and support for 1080p HD video playback and 720p video recording. The tablet has only 4GB of on-board storage, but it does have a microSDHC card slot for expansion.

One thing the Arnova 10 G2 is missing is official support for the Google Android Market. But you can easily add any number of third party app stores to the tablet, and hackers have been unofficially adding the Android Market to Archos devices for years. I suspect it won’t take long for someone to discover a way to do the same with the company’s latest 10 inch model.

thanks Nards Barley!

Archos Arnova 10 G2 tablet now available for $200 is a post from: Liliputing

Acer Aspire One 522, 722 notebooks get a spec bump

Posted: 27 Sep 2011 04:15 AM PDT

Acer Aspire One 522

This weekend we spotted a new Asus Eee PC netbook configured with a shiny new 1.33 GHz AMD C-60 dual core processor. Now it looks like Acer is giving its low cost Aspire One notebooks the same makeover.

The Acer Aspire One 522 10 inch netbook and Aspire One 722 11.6 inch model originally shipped with 1 GHz AMD C-50 processors and Radeon HD 6250 graphics. But Notebook Italia spotted versions of each which have the new AMD C-60 chip with more powerful Radeon HD 6290 graphics.

You won’t exactly get desktop-class performance out of the new chips, but the new processors should offer a little more power without actually using more energy. The C-60 chip has a TDP of 9W, just like the older C-50 processor.

Acer’s Aspire One 522 netbook features a 10. 1inch, 1280 x 720 pixel display and 1GB or more of RAM.

The Aspire One 722 has an 11.6 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel display, up to 4GB of RAM and up to 500GB of hard drive space.

Both laptops have 802.11b/g/n WiFi, 6 cell batteries, and flash card readers.

There’s no word on if or when we’ll see the updated laptops in the US, but in Europe they’re selling for 250 Euros and 400 Euros, respectively.

Acer Aspire One 522, 722 notebooks get a spec bump is a post from: Liliputing

Smart Tab7 could be ZTE’s first Android tablet for America

Posted: 27 Sep 2011 01:00 AM PDT

ZTE Smart Tab7

Chinese device maker ZTE announced plans earlier this year to start offering Android tablets in the US. Now it looks like we may have a sneak peek at the first model, courtesy of the FCC. A listing for the 7 inch ZTE Smart Tab7 showed up at the Federal Communications website today.

The tablet will be available with WiFi and 3G capabilities. The FCC document doesn’t have much more to say, but Engadget noticed that it shares a model name with the Smart Tab 7 recently unveiled by European phone company Vodafone.

If this is the same tablet, we could be looking at a device with Google Android 3.2 Honeycomb, a 7 inch, 1280 x 800 pixel display, a 1.2 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon dual core processor, 1 GB of RAM, and 16GB of storage. It will likely have front and rear cameras, and may measure about 0.44 inches thick and weigh about 0.84 pounds.

Unfortunately there’s still no word on that ZTE Light 2 tablet with a Pixel Qi sunlight-readable display we saw earlier this year. I’m not sure that model will ever see the light of day in the US.

Smart Tab7 could be ZTE’s first Android tablet for America is a post from: Liliputing

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