Posted: 22 Feb 2012 04:42 PM PST  “Divided we stand, together we rock” is the catchy tagline chosen to emphasize the three piece combo of phone, tablet and docking station. The latest teaser shows that the Padfone has gone through a complete redesign when compared to the original leaks late last year. The original concept of a phone that docks into the back of a tablet remains however the new info suggests that Asus will also be offering a keyboard dock as per it’s hugely successful Transformer series. The Padfone is a 4.3″ Android Ice Cream Sandwich smartphone that docks into, and powers, a 10.1″ tablet. The tablet is set to be compatible with the TF201 keyboard dock from the Transformer Prime. The full technical specifications aren’t known at this point however I suspect we won’t have to wait long to find out. The timing of the announcement is certainly opportune with the web awash with rumours that Android 5.0 Jelly Bean is set be an all encompassing, dual-boot Operating System. Perhaps the innovative Padfone trio is exactly the kind of hardware Google has in mind whilst working on Android’s next big release. Asus tells us that “1 + 1 + 1 = Endless Possibilities” and with their stellar track record in Android tablets, we’re certainly looking forward to seeing the combo in action. Check out the teaser video below and be sure to keep tuned in to TalkAndroid for news from MWC 2012 as it breaks. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Lz9tHiQS2uk source : androidcommunity Visit TalkAndroid for Android news, Android guides, and much more! |
Posted: 22 Feb 2012 01:20 PM PST  Just like the OG transformer, you would be hard pressed to find a Transformer Prime in stock anywhere (at retail price), even if you were ready to drop at least five bills. This thing is sweet. Albeit it had a rough start given all the software glitches the early adopters had to deal with, now that it has seen a few updates (including ICS), I can totally understand why this is the tablet to beat. At first, when I was waiting for my Transformer Prime to arrive from backorder, I would sit back and read all the forums that were discussing the Prime. There were so many people who just couldn’t deal with the software problems it was having, threw in the towel, and got a refund before it was too late. So many people were complaining, ASUS even went as far as extending the return period so that they could drum up an update in hopes of changing peoples mind. A few updates came and went but it wasn’t until one of the most recent updates hit that the device started to truly shine. What makes the Transformer Prime so special you ask? I am not saying the device is without faults by any mans, but it is most definitely the best Android tablet to date. Let’s break it down, showing the good and the bad. And if you haven’t seen it already, you can check out our initial hands on as well. Design The original Transformer had nice styling, but the Transformer Prime is a major improvement. The metallic finish is not only a pleasure to look at, there is something about it that just screams quality when you hold it in your hands. The aluminum comes in two different colors, Champagne Gold and Amethyst grey. Kind of a weird choice of color descriptions if you ask me because the way I see it, the Champagne Gold looks more like pewter and the Amethyst Grey appears like a dark purple. Anyway, whatever the colors are, ASUS went the extra mile to add a touch of class to the metallic finish. Unlike the iPad’s trademark matte aluminum finish, ASUS added a spun pattern into the metal. It actually looks kind of like a drum cymbal does and once you see it, you will never mistake the Transformer Prime for another tablet because it’s just that unique. My only worry with the tablet’s casing is that it feels like it might be easy to ding or dent. Obviously they didn’t want to make the metal super thick for weight reasons, but if you were to bump it on the corner of a desk for, example, it would most likely dent. You don’t need to baby this thing, just don’t go hucking it from one end of the couch to the next when playing Scrabble with your friends. Another downfall of the aluminum housing is that it is a known culprit for degraded GPS signal, which I will address later.  As I hold the Prime in one hand, and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the other, I can’t help but feel like the Prime is a more solid, sturdy and well built device. Now I’m not saying the Galaxy Tab feels cheap by any means, it’s just that the Prime has a more robust feel about it. I don’t hesitate throwing it into a bag amongst other electronics and stuff. The button layout is a bit different this time around as well. They moved the power button to the top left as opposed to the top left side and added a tiny indicator LED. The original had it just above the volume rocker which I found to be annoying because I would many times hit the power button when I was trying to adjust the volume. I am all for the new arrangement and haven’t had any fumbled button use yet. Good call ASUS.   This is where we get to the good stuff. Full specs include a 10.1-inch LED Super IPS+ (1280 x 800) display, Tegra 3 quad-core processor, 1GB RAM, 8MP rear camera with f2.4 aperture lens ( with 1080p video recording), 1.2MP front camera, 32GB or 64GB of internal memory, microSD slot for up to an additional 32GB, micro HDMI, and SonicMaster sound technology. Battery The battery is rated at 12 hours, but with the keyboard dock (see below) you should get up to 18 hours. Battery rating can very depending on what performance setting the tablet is set to. The options are Power Saving mode, Balanced, and performance, and each will result in different battery life longevity. When set on Balanced mode and 50% brightness, the tablet was able to continuosly loop video for just over 10 hours, rivaling that of the previous industry leader, the iPad 2. When dialed up to performance mode, you can expect to loose about an hour and a half and the opposite can be said when dialing back to Power Saving Mode. You can see the power options and battery meter in the screenshot below.  Performance The Tegra 3 quad-core processor really flies in this thing. It utilizes Nvidia’s new SoC technology (system on a chip) and sometimes I swear I can see smoke coming out of the speaker grill. No but really, it is pretty fast. The Tegra 3 runs 5 times faster than its predecessor, the Tegra 2. You won’t find many apps that can take advantage of the quad-core processor, but I was able to play ShadowGun THD (high def version) with absolutely no lag. I have played the standard version of the same game on my GalaxyTab 10.1 and often times the game hangs for a few seconds at a time. Even with regular usage, you will notice better speed on the Prime as compared to any other Android tablet. The original Transformer was very nice, but it easily got bogged down, especially with a decent amount of apps installed. Even if you can’t fully tap into the device’s power at this point, there is a quick setting that lets you dial back the processor speed (seen in the settings pop-up in the above image). The Prime is so quick in fact, it’s often used as a top comparison in many benchmarking and speed testing apps. Scrolling left and right on the home screen is a quick and snappy affair, and opening the app drawer when filled with a ton of apps is virtually instantaneous.  One major downfall (if you could consider it as such) is the devices lack of GPS signal. In the begining, ASUS branded the device as a GPS unit even without any carrier radios on board. The device is (somewhat) capable of picking up GPS signal without the use of Wi-Fi but when Wi-Fi is active and locked on, GPS signal is much stronger. Many people were dissapointed to find this to be the case and were expecting the Prime to act as a full-on GPS unit while driving around in their car. When the ICS update hit, people claimed that was the culprit for poor GPS signal when in fact it wasn’t really the issue at all. ASUS has since stated (and removed such marketing) that the Transformer Prime is never going to be a reliable GPS device. The way in which the device is manufactured prevents it from being so and the full metal back is to blame. Of course there is the few tablets that ASUS has gotten in return that atually had GPS antennas that were properly attached but ff you were hoping to use this device to double as a GPS reciever, I strongly suggest using your phone or getting a Garmin. The only step ASUS has taken to retro this issue is to not repeat the mistake. If you will notice the design of the upcoming Transformer Prime 700 you will see that the back plate is not a solid piece of metal. There is a strip of plastic running along the top edge that covers all of the devices antennas and should provide a interference free experience. If you can wait until June you may want to wait for that device to get released instead. Accessories As many of you already know, ASUS has designed the Transformer series of tablets to work in conjunction with a matching keyboard dock as referred to earlier. The keyboard dock runs an additional $150, and when coupled with the tablet, could fool many into believing it was an actual laptop. The design of the dock perfectly matches the tablet and the additional ports and battery life will be well worth the extra cost to some folks. In addition to the extra 6 hours of battery life, the dock provides a full size USB 2.0 port and an SD card slot to boot. When the dock is connected to the tablet, it becomes somewhat of an extended battery of sorts, charging your tablet with any juice the dock might have. When you plug the proprietary charging cable into the dock, both the dock and the tablet charge simultaneously. The dock for the Transformer Prime differs slightly from the dock that was built for the original Transformer in that it provides longer battery life and vast improvements have been made to the keyboards track pad. The new track pad is much more responsive than before and provides more of a laptop-esque experience. There is hardly any noticeable lag and accidental palm activations while typing is a thing of the past. While there is no way of disabling the trackpad, I found that it was small enough to be out of the way when typing. The trackpad also has two small buttons that are located at the base of the pad within one narrow strip. If you accidentally tap the middle of the button hoping for a right click, you Will get nothing. you must either tap the far-most left or right sides in order to activate the buttons. To some this may be an annoyance, but with spending a little time with the machine you can easily get the hang of it. The actual keyboard of the dock is somewhat cramped when comparing to a laptop, but considering this is actually a 10-inch tablet with an attached accessory, it fared rather well in our tests. Having not spent much time with the original transformer or netbooks with similar layouts, it took me a little bit of time to get used to the chiclet keys being so close together. After spending a full day of writing articles for the site, I became a seasoned pro. I have even opted to use the docked Prime in lieu of my laptop when out and about out of sheer versatility. All in all it is nothing to be too concerned about unless you have overly large hands and/or fingers then it might prove to be an annoyance. If anything you could use it to prolong battery life but then again that would add up to quite an inexpensive extended battery. The dock won’t be for everyone. You can check out our video review of the keyboard dock below. Click here to view the embedded video. Another slick accessory that up until now has been damn near impossible to find, is the Origami sleeve. This is ASUS’ take on Apple’s smart cover and instead of relying on magnets to hold it to the tablet, the tablet has slots along one of the edges to latch the cover on. The Origami case is rightfully named because there are two different ways in which you can fold the cover that each result in different ways to prop up the tablet. The first and probably most useful way creates a wedge of sorts and tilts the Prime in a way that is condusive to a more comfortable typing position. The second way allows you to stand the tablet upright so you can view the Prime in landscape mode for watching videos or viewing a slideshow of pictures. Check out the Origami case in our video review below. Click here to view the embedded video.Software The Prime shipped with Honeycomb 3.2, but in early January, it became the second device to get Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. If you have had the pleasure of experiencing ICS on a phone, but not a tablet, just wait until you do. ICS takes what was great about honeycomb and made it even better. ASUS went the extra mile (as do most manufacturers) and added a bit of their own flair on top of ICS. Not to be confused with tacky UI overlays such as TouchWiz or Blur, the ASUS overlay is subtle and effective. ASUS also included a few of their own widgets that are actually quite useful such as MyZine, weather, email/date, Battery monitor, and a One-click Clean widget. The One-Click Clean widget acts as window that monitors your ongoing applications and allows you to kill them all at once or only the ones you want closed. As far as bloatware goes, your going to get Amazon Kindle, App Backup, App Locker, Google Books, File Manager, Glowball, Movie Studio, MyCloud, MyLibrary, MyNet, Netflix, Polaris Office, Press Reader, SuperNote, Tegra Zone, WebStorage, and Zinio. Glowball is the only free game that comes with the retail version and I believe they included it to showcase the tablets 3D rendering powers. The game looks amazing and has graphics that are unlike any you’ve seen on a tablet before. Tegra Zone is an app where you will find all the Tegra 3 compatible games in one place. I had to check out Riptide GP and Shadowgun THD, two games that have taken 3D rendering to a whole new level. Riptide is a wave runner game that has super realistic water effects and when the water hits the screen you could swear there was liquid running down the inside of your display. Shadowgun on the other hand is a first person shooter that has a realistic word in which you can interact and like Riptide, the water effects and subtle ways in which the background changes, will make you feel like you’re really there. Camera For those of you who are at all familiar with the ICS camera app you would know that this is Android’s best version yet. Incorporating an on screen wheel next to the shutter button, the camera’s functions and settings are only a thumb swipe away. Settings that can be adjusted within the settings wheel are zoom, flash, white balance, exposure and scene mode. At the bottom of the screen in the camera apps is where you can switch to video camera and panoramic modes.       Sure, the Transformer Prime isn’t going to double as your in-car GPS, a point-and-shoot camera, or a definitive laptop replacement when coupled with the keyboard dock, but when used soley as a tablet? Good luck finding anything on the market that compares. This thing rocks. And like I said earlier, after getting all the wrinkles ironed out with software updates, I am hard pressed to find anything to really complain about, especially when I have seen what the other tablet options are these days. I even owned, pardon my french, an iPad 2 , but after getting my hands on the Transformer Prime, that quickly went up for sale on Craigslist. You have got to give props to ASUS for this one. The prime is a device to be reckoned with, one that all tablets are going to be compared against this year, and a tablet that ASUS should be proud of. The sheer build quality and processor speed provides an experience that is simply unmatched by any other tablet on the market right now and considering you get all this and 32GB of storage for only $499, that’s one hell of a deal. Especially if you’re willing to dish out an additional $149 for the keyboard dock, it’s capabilities are expanded even further. If you are in the market for a tablet, whether it be Android or otherwise, the Transformer Prime is the one to get. I have no hesitations saying it is THE BEST tablet available. Period. Visit TalkAndroid for Android news, Android guides, and much more! |
Posted: 22 Feb 2012 12:06 PM PST  To top it off, Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress nominees received the special edition phone within a glamorous, gold sequined pouch. Nominees for Best Supporting Actor, Best Actor and Best Director were given a high-end shaving kit as well. Each recipient also received the Motorola Elite Sliver Bluetooth headset. Unfortunately since most of our readers probably aren’t part of the biggest night in Hollywood, everyone will have a chance to win one as Motorola will be giving away 5 of them via Twitter in a contest that starts tomorrow, February 23. The contest will involve retweeting #RedCarpetRAZR, but check out their Twitter page for more info. You can also check out our full review here. Full press release after the break: Motorola Mobility Celebrates Hollywood's Biggest Night with Special Edition 'Red Carpet' DROID RAZR MAXXFans will have their chance to win this special edition smartphone through a Twitter sweepstakesLIBERTYVILLE, Ill. – Feb. 22, 2012 – Motorola Mobility, Inc.(NYSE: MMI) has added another layer of glitz and glamour to Hollywood's biggest night, creating a special edition "Red Carpet" DROID RAZR MAXX by Motorola. The phone, which will go out to select nominees and presenters at this year's event, has twice the battery life of other smartphones. So, this Sunday, nominees with a DROID RAZR MAXX will have what they need to get through the big day – from the minute they wake up until the after-party champagne runs dry. With its sleek design and vibrant 4.3-inch display, the phone will look every bit as good as the stars do walking the red carpet. And with DROID RAZR MAXX's 8-megapixel camera and HD video recording, Hollywood's elite can turn the camera back on the paparazzi and capture all the red carpet action from their perspective. Plus, with up to 21 hours of talk time, the stars will have more than enough battery life to chat with the press, check in at home, surf the Web from their seats or Tweet to their adoring fans – all at lightning-fast speeds. Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress nominees received the phone within a glamorous, gold sequined pouch, just big enough to keep the evening's essentials. Nominees for Best Supporting Actor, Best Actor and Best Director were given a high-end shaving kit, so they can keep their faces as smooth, beautiful and chiseled-looking as ever. We've also outfitted them with a Motorola ELITE SLIVERBluetooth® headset small enough to conceal – and stylist-approved. For mere mortals who don't appear on the silver screen, they'll have a chance to get their hands on a special edition "Red Carpet" DROID RAZR MAXX by Motorola with a Twitter sweepstakes that kicks off Thursday, February 23. Five fans have the chance to win their own device online by retweeting #RedCarpetRAZR. For additional details, visitwww.twitter.com/motorol Visit TalkAndroid for Android news, Android guides, and much more! |
Posted: 22 Feb 2012 11:52 AM PST  HTC is bringing the thunder this year at Mobile World Congress and it looks like they’re enjoying a little teasing with the masses before the big event. The company’s Facebook page is touting the image above and we’re not really sure what to make of it. At first glance I thought it could possibly be their top tier device getting ready to debut with a 5-inch display however, that’s unlikely since we already know there’s at least going to be three devices. Another possibility could be that they’re actually gearing up to release five devices rather than three, but who knows? In any event, we’ll see soon enough for ourselves. In addition to the pic, they’ve supplied the following one liner:
What’s my guess? I’m guessing they’ll reveal their highly anticipated quad-core device and tout the fact that it actually has five cores where one will be primarily used when the others aren’t for low power consumption. But that’s just me speculating at this point, what do I know? Only time will tell as to whether or not their talking about the HTC One X (Edge) or whether it has something to do with the other devices they’ll be showing off like the One S and One V. In addition, there’s talk about the Taiwanese manufacturer dropping a tablet on us too. So, stay tuned to TA as we bring you MWC coverage around the clock. Feel free to speculate along with me in the comments below as well. source: Facebook Visit TalkAndroid for Android news, Android guides, and much more! |
Posted: 22 Feb 2012 11:09 AM PST 
Basically all you’ll have to do is point your mobile browser to google.com/flights and you’ll be able to search to and from destinations with the list of available flights going those directions. It’s available on both the Android and iOS platforms and should make getting up-to-the-minute flight data a lot easier. Add that to the Google Maps indoor mapping and you have yourself a plethora of mobile tools to help with your flying experience. This should definitely be a welcome feature for those who spend a lot of their lives traveling the globe. Hit the break below to check out the intro video and let us know what you think! source: Google’s Inside Search Blog Visit TalkAndroid for Android news, Android guides, and much more! |
Posted: 22 Feb 2012 10:43 AM PST  The folks over at B&N must feel pretty bad about how horribly the Nook Tablet’s 16GB’s of storage has been poorly allocated because they want to make it right with you. In very fine print, the company has stated that they will be allowing users of the Nook to come in and have their internal storage re-partitioned to a more reasonable configuration, allowing more personal space on the Tablet. As of now, the device offers 16GB’s of storage of which 13GB’s are strictly for Nook Store content. That leaves the consumer with a mere 1 GB of personal space to do with what they please. The decision came in light of the release of the 8GB model of which users had a whopping 4GB’s of the 5 GB’s available to them as personal space. The company added a quiet statement on their home page which states the following: We’re tipping our hats towards B&N for taking the time to perform this daunting task for the consumer, as it shows where their business model lies, obviously with the customer. And we’ll take it. Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments section below. Hit the source link for more information. source: Barnes & Noble via: Android Police Visit TalkAndroid for Android news, Android guides, and much more! |
Posted: 22 Feb 2012 10:31 AM PST  Click here to view the embedded video. Hit the break for Android Market Links Soonr Scribble ———————————————— Hello Crayon / Hello Color Pencil / Hello Chalk ———————————————— Comic Book ———————————————— OmniSketch ———————————————— FreeNote Visit TalkAndroid for Android news, Android guides, and much more! |
Posted: 22 Feb 2012 09:46 AM PST  Well folks we are just a few days away from MWC 2012 and it appears that LG is trying to build up some excitement for its Galaxy Note competitor the Optimus VU.While they’ve been hinting at it and officially dropped the announcement on us last weekend we are now only seeing it on video for the first time. In the one-minute-eleven-second video you will see various closeups of the device along with its screenshot and note taking capabilities. If you are excited for this “phablet” then this video should increase your excitement even more so. Enjoy! Click here to view the embedded video.Visit TalkAndroid for Android news, Android guides, and much more! |
Posted: 22 Feb 2012 09:11 AM PST   I’ve used a lot of RSS readers on both my Android smartphones and tablets, but if you’re looking for an easy to setup RSS reader, that supports both tablets and smartphones alike, and has automatic Google Reader single sign on…grab this app, it’s free.As you can see to the right side, the app has a nice visual interface, almost identical to what you would see in Pulse. Don’t get me wrong, I think Pulse is a great app too, but it can be slow at times, most likely to make way for the visual enhancements it shows. If you have an older Android device, this can slow your smartphone down while it’s updating feeds as well. Anther great feature about gReader (and yes, many other other RSS readers in general) are the widget options. Along the top of your screen when you see your list of feeds, is a simple and modern interface with the options to sort by newest, oldest, and feed. You’ll also see options for podcasts, recommendations and the plus sign to add more feeds if you desire. Along the bottom is the option to refresh your lists, mark as read/unread, and show unread only or all. The gReader app also has the options of saving articles for later offline reading, which is a bonus if you happen to be out of range and have some reading to catch up on. All in all, it’s a well rounded app, with great design options to please anyone using it regardless of your style preferences, and it’s easy on your smartphone and/or tablets resources. It has a paid Pro version as well, which cuts out any ad displays within the app, downloading podcasts option and a couple of different themes. If you already use Google Reader as your RSS feeds manager, this is the perfect companion to it helping you keep things organized and seamless between your computers and Android devices. Give it a try by scanning the QR code under the video demo, or by clicking the Android Market Link. Click here to view the embedded video. Visit TalkAndroid for Android news, Android guides, and much more! |
Posted: 22 Feb 2012 08:53 AM PST  Another Wednesday, another 4G outage for Big Red. While it’s been nearly two months since the last hiccup users this morning are reporting that their LTE service is down and that they are receiving no data connectivity whatsoever. Verizon has responded with the following tweet suggesting that they are investigating the cause of these issues.  As it suggests 3G data, voice and text services are working just fine but users are reporting that they are also having problems with 3G connectivity. Similar to the outages on both December 7th and the 21st it has affected users frustrated. While those outages were explained there is no say as to what is affecting this current situation. Stay tuned and we will update the story as we know more. Are any of you users out there having these problems? Sound off in the comments below. source: VzBuzz |
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Update - 37
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment