Sharp ships 1GHz IS01 developer’s edition in Japan, minus all the goodies
Hoping to get your hot little hands on the tinker-friendly edition of Sharp’s Snapdragon-powered IS01 Android MID? If you live in Japan, today’s your lucky day — assuming you’re willing to overlook the possibility that the developer’s version has been thoroughly neutered. According to a Japanese press release, JN-DK01 dev kits are now shipping, but apparently sans cellular modem (no phone calls, no 3G data) and without API support for FM and 1Seg connectivity. You’ll still get to play around with that 960 x 480 mulittouch LCD, experiment with IrDA and download Android Market apps over WiFi, but we’re not quite seeing the point of working with a cheap-feeling Android 1.6 device stripped of its coolest toys.
Sharp ships 1GHz IS01 developer’s edition in Japan, minus all the goodies originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 14 May 2010 02:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Posted: May 14th, 2010
at 7:48am by Sean Hollister
Topics: 1-seg, 1Seg, API, Android, Android1.6, AndroidMid, DevKit, DevKits, Development kit, Development kits, DevelopmentKit, DevelopmentKits, Fm, GoogleAndroid, JN-DK01, KDDI, KDDI IS01, KDDI au, KddiAu, KddiIs01, MobileInternetDevice, MobileInternetDevices, Sharp JN-DK01, SharpIs01, SharpJn-dk01, android 1.6, android mid, dev kit, dev kits, google android, is01, mid, mobile internet device, mobile internet devices, sharp is01
Sharp’s Snapdragon-powered, Android-running IS01 MID gets a hands-on
Sharp’s new IS01 MID for KDDI au proved to be something of a letdown when it was announced earlier today, partly due to raised expectations, and partly due to a lack of a decent look at it. Thankfully, Akihabara News has now come through on the latter point, and provided a fairly extensive hands-on look at the Snapdragon-powered MID. Anyone hoping for a bit more incentive to buy one may well still come away disappointed, however, as the site describes the device as fairly “cheap” feeling, and says that it doesn’t have multitouch support (although earlier reports have stated that the device has a multitouch display). That said, the Snapdragon processor does apparently ensure that the device is suitably speedy, and there’s always the possibility for some exciting things to emerge from its developer-friendly JN-DK01 counterpart. Hit up the source link for a closer look.
Sharp’s Snapdragon-powered, Android-running IS01 MID gets a hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 31 Mar 2010 03:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Dell’s Tablet Aims to Stick It to Apple’s iPad
Say the words “tablet computer” and ten bucks says it’s Apple’s iPad that springs to mind. But that doesn’t mean other companies aren’t busy building their own version of a touch-enabled, multimedia-sporting, slab of portable computing goodness.
Dell’s first effort at a tablet will be the Mini 5 (a name that is still in beta) — a slice of plastic and glass with a 5-inch capacitive touchscreen that according to Michael Dell will debut “in a couple of months.”
The Mini 5 will sport a 5-megapixel camera on the back, a separate front-facing camera that can be used for video conferencing, a standard 3.5mm headphone jack, Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 1-GHz processor. The 5-inch screen also means it will be be closer to the Sony PSP in its form factor than the longer legal notepad design of the iPad.
The Mini 5 will run the latest version of Google’s Android operating system, version 2.0 or higher. And instead of the 4:3 aspect ratio of the iPad, Dell’s tablets will support the 16:9 ratio. Widescreen films anyone?
“It’s a device optimized for media consumption,” Neeraj Choubey, general manager of the tablets division at Dell told Wired.com. “It will offer the full web-browsing experience so you have something that you are holding in your hand that replaces everything the smartphone does and takes on quite a bit of the features of a laptop.”
The Dell 5 Mini will also just be the first in a series. “We are going to have a family of tablets,” says Choubey. “The first one is a 5-inch screen but we want to scale that up to a variety of screen sizes.”
That means future versions of the Mini 5 could have larger screens that will be closer in size to the iPad.
Dell wouldn’t comment on pricing, beyond saying it will be “competitive,” or when it will launch this year. Apple’s iPad ranges from $500 to $830.
With the launch of iPad in January, the tablet PCs are going through a renaissance. Though PC makers have offered slates and convertible notebooks for nearly a decade, consumers haven’t bought them in droves. With its 9.7-inch display, sleek design and Apple’s relentless hype, the iPad could alter the way we experience mobile computing. And Dell knows this.
Three years ago, Dell started expanding its product line to include mobile products. Dell smartphones are now sold in Brazil and China and it hopes to bring a version to North America. Meanwhile, the company set up a tablet division, and three weeks ago Choubey joined Dell from venture capital firm Venrock.
As he sees it, the Mini 5 will offer the apps that are available on smartphones, a set of specialized tools and programs for business users, a strong movies and music experience and web surfing — flash and all included. Take that, iPad.
Along with the apps on the Mini 5 users will have quick access to e-mail, YouTube, Amazon’s MP3 store for music, as well as spreadsheet, presentation maker and documents. It will also support voice recognition. And these are characteristics that will be common to all tablets from Dell.
Still it will be a hard sell to consumers, says Van Baker, an analyst with research firm Gartner.
“If all you are bringing to the market is another media-playing or handheld-gaming device, then it’s not going to work,” he says. “It’s all about the services you have behind the device.”
And that’s where the iPad scores, with its strong developer ecosystem and 100,000 apps, along with iTunes and iBooks, says Baker.
Dell is betting it can offer that and add a compelling value proposition for business users: a promise that its tablet won’t just be a coffee-table device but instead a powerful productivity tool.
“There’s no reason why you can’t use the tablet to take notes in class,” he says.
Dell will also offer services such as syncing that will allow users to move music, documents and other data between their PC and tablet easily.
“At a very basic level, you would have a service that will share content across the devices seamlessly and have it in the cloud,” says Choubey.
Dell also hopes to draw on the Android ecosystem by offering developers the opportunity to port their Android apps to the Mini 5 and its successors.
For the Mini 5, though, its PlayStation Portable-like form factor could be a big drawback, says Baker. The Dell Mini 5 is closer in its looks to gadgets better known as mobile internet devices or MIDs, a category that has been languishing despite products from companies such as Lenovo and Archos.
“If the Dell Mini 5 is this small and it is pocketable, then why isn’t it a phone?” asks Baker. “If I am going to carry a second device, it better have something that’s a significant advantage over what I can do with my phone. With the iPad, the value proposition is a much larger display.”
But Choubey says the innovation is not just in the form factor but also in the business model. Dell will work with carriers to bundle inexpensive data plans for the Mini 5 and other tablets.
“That type of model — the way iPad was able to do with AT& T — will become more prevalent with these tablet devices,” he says. “It allows the carrier to increase number of devices per user.” Apple introduced a $15 for 250 MB, or an unlimited $30 a month, no-contract data plan for use with the iPad.
See Also:
- Dell Plans Its Own Smartphone, Analysts Say
- Why 2010 Will Be the Year of the Tablet
- Can Apple’s iPad Save the Media After All?
- Hands-On With the Apple iPad
- Designers Unearth Apple Tablet Prototypes — From 1983
Photo: Dell Mini 5 (ndevil/Flickr)
MTube Android MID streams media to the TV and back via touchscreen (video)
MTube, known most famously in these parts for its diminutive, WiMAX-sportin’ media player, seems to be putting some time and effort into Android as of late. While the MTube II hybrid Android / XP / tablet / netbook has certainly inspired its share of techno-lust, the Android MID hits us where it counts: in front of the television. The unholy union of a handheld and a multimedia controller, this guy lets you drag and drop video from the device to your TV, stream media to the TV or vice versa, and transfer files between multiple MTubes — all this in addition to the core functionality of the OS. Details are still scant: although we know it’s rocking an ARM Processor, a 7.6-inch 800 x 480 capacitive touchscreen OLED, and Android 1.6, there’s no word on storage or memory, or even how the video is streamed (we think that WiFi might be a good guess). As it stands, the thing is most certainly not ready for prime time (as becomes painfully obvious when the system crashes at 1 minute 45 seconds), but as a taste of things to come we’re definitely intrigued. Peep the video after the break to see for yourself.
Continue reading MTube Android MID streams media to the TV and back via touchscreen (video)
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Portable Video
MTube Android MID streams media to the TV and back via touchscreen (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Posted: October 28th, 2009
at 6:56pm by Joseph L. Flatley
Topics: Android, AndroidMid, BroadbandShow2009, Home Entertainment, HomeEntertainment, MtubeAndroidMid, android mid, broadband show 2009, mid, mtube, mtube android mid
eviGroup’s Pad is a 10-inch 3G tablet with personality
Time to freshen up the old netbook market with a dash of Windows 7, a pinch of touchscreen functionality, and a generous helping of… Seline10? eviGroup, the crew responsible for the attractive 5-inch Wallet MID, has announced the 10.2-inch Pad, whose pièce de résistance is the Seline10 artificial intelligence software that’s been in development for a decade, if you can believe it. Its purpose is to act as your secretary / assistant, and while the novelty’s good, we all know how well Clippy worked out. Fret not though, it’s just an optional extra and shouldn’t detract from the appeal of a device that offers 3G and a/b/g WiFi connectivity, one VGA and three USB ports, multicard reader, webcam, microphone, and the old faithful 1.6GHz of Atom power. A price of under €500 is being touted, with further details set to emerge over the coming days.
Filed under: Handhelds
eviGroup’s Pad is a 10-inch 3G tablet with personality originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Posted: October 26th, 2009
at 3:24pm by Vladislav Savov
Topics: 3G, ArtificialIntelligence, EvigroupPad, HandwritingRecognition, InternetTablet, Seline10, Windows7, ai, artificial intelligence, eviGroup Pad, evigroup, france, handheld, handwriting, handwriting recognition, internet tablet, mid, pad, tablet, touchscreen, win7, windows 7
