Tools N Gadgets » mid

Sharp ships 1GHz IS01 developer’s edition in Japan, minus all the goodies

Sean Hollister — Fri, 14 May 2010 07:48:00 +0000

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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Sharp’s Snapdragon-powered, Android-running IS01 MID gets a hands-on

Donald Melanson — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 08:09:00 +0000

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

Priya Ganapati — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 22:57:43 +0000

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.

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Photo: Dell Mini 5 (ndevil/Flickr)

MTube Android MID streams media to the TV and back via touchscreen (video)

Joseph L. Flatley — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 22:56:00 +0000

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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eviGroup’s Pad is a 10-inch 3G tablet with personality

Vladislav Savov — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 19:24:00 +0000

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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Kohjinsha PA series tablet ships in November, value not guaranteed

Tim Stevens — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:27:00 +0000

Kohjinsha had a slew of portables on display at CEATEC earlier this month, including the classification-bending PA. Its design fits in somewhere between a MID and a tablet netbook, with its 4.8-inch, 1024 x 600 touchscreen and 1.33GHz Atom processor, but now we’re learning that it’s price roughly equates to a netbook and a MID. The device hits Japan early next month for ¥69,800, about $770. That’s certainly not cheap, but if you need one elsewhere you’re probably going to need to go through an importer, and there prices are ¥79,800 and up. That’s about $870. Yikes.

Filed under: Handhelds, Laptops

Kohjinsha PA series tablet ships in November, value not guaranteed originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 26 Oct 2009 09:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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SmartQ V5 MID strives to be relevant, may succeed on some level

Joseph L. Flatley — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:48:00 +0000

Not to be confused with the SmartQ 5 (how could you ever, right?), the SmartQ V5 MID is essentially a V7 with a less spacious screen. Within, you’ll find a 600MHz ARM11 processor, 256MB of DDR2 memory, WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, 2GB of internal storage and an SD expansion slot. There’s also USB 2.0 connectivity, an HDMI output good for shooting out material at up to 1080p, a 3.5 millimeter headphone jack and a 4.3-inch touchscreen (800 x 480). You’ll also find a format support list longer than your latest cellphone bill, though both a price and release date have remained elusive thus far. Here’s hoping it’s cheap enough to matter.

[Via PMP Today]

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

SmartQ V5 MID strives to be relevant, may succeed on some level originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 22 Oct 2009 10:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Is Dell Working on a Mobile Internet Device?

Priya Ganapati — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 23:23:39 +0000

Dell’s plans for Google’s Android operating system could go beyond cellphones. Leaked photos and a video (above) show Dell may have a mobile internet device (MID) running Android 2.0 in the works.

The device codenamed ‘Streak’ looks bigger than a smartphone and has a vivid touchscreen display, a 5-megapixel camera and WiFi connectivity.

Streak will be Dell’s second attempt Android-based device. Dell has said it plans to launch an Android smartphone in the U.S. next year. Android has become a favorite among mobile phone makers such as Motorola and HTC because it is open source and can be customized easily. The OS has now extended its tentacles to gadgets beyond cellphones. Barnes & Noble’s e-book reader Nook launched Tuesday uses Android OS.

“Dell continually develops and tests new products that extend the mobile experience. We have not made any product announcements and do not comment on speculation, rumor or unannounced products,” says a Dell representative.

The MID category that Dell is targeting with Streak is a tricky one. MIDs have been the star of Intel’s annual developer conferences for the last two years. Yet these devices–neither as compact as a mobile phone nor as versatile as a netbook–have found it difficult to grab consumer attention. Based on what we can see, Streak doesn’t look much different from current MIDs.

Instead, Dell may be better off focusing its resources on creating a tablet, rumors of which we have heard before.

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Dell Streak is a 5-inch Android 2.0 MID, packs 3G and WiFi (video)

Vladislav Savov — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:08:00 +0000

Well, hello there! Those Dell MID rumors we’ve been hearing have finally received vindication in the form of a nice, picture-heavy leak courtesy of some industrious folks in Vietnam. What we know as of now is that there’s an 800 x 480 capacitive touchscreen display (with multitouch zooming), WiFi, Bluetooth and 3G WWAN connectivity, all riding atop an Android 2.0 (aka, ~~Donut~~ Eclair) install. A dual-LED flash 5 megapixel camera adorns the back, and there’s a 1,300mAh battery to power all that goodness. See pics below and a video awaits after the break, where an old friend of ours plays with the jumbo smartphone.

[Via SlashGear; Thanks, Nicky N.]

Gallery: Dell Streak is a 5-inch Android 2.0 MID, packs 3G and WiFi

Continue reading Dell Streak is a 5-inch Android 2.0 MID, packs 3G and WiFi (video)

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Dell Streak is a 5-inch Android 2.0 MID, packs 3G and WiFi (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 21 Oct 2009 06:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Leaked Video: Dell’s Streak MID with 5-inch Touch Screen, Android 2.0, Wi-Fi, and 3G [Dell]

Danny Allen — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 10:32:05 +0000

We heard Dell was developing a couple of Android prototypes, the first being its Android phone. So is this the second device? Video, pics, and a size comparison after the jump.

This apparent engineering sample was leaked by Vietnamese site, Tinhte.com, and appears fairly legit. It suggests the Streak has an 800 by 480 touch screen, 5-megapixel camera with dual LED flash, microSD card storage, and a 1,300mAh battery.

As you can see in the video, it also looks like there will be a front-facing camera for video calls. Slashgear also points out that the engineering sample is labeled as a US variant. You’ll know more when we do. [Tinhte via SlashGear]