Another week come and gone, time for a week in review so read along! It’s been a busy week (as always) with some cool stories you may have missed. We posted up our hands on review of the Barnes & Noble Nook last Sunday and it’s so cool. I want one of those so bad maybe I’ll break down and buy it if they ever get them in stock.
Only the other day we were watching the Acer Liquid A1 – the company’s first Android smartphone – being joyously unboxed in a couple of videos, and now there’s talk of the handset landing on AT&T at some point. The Liquid A1 has been spotted running through the FCC’s gauntlet of wireless testing fire, complete with support for the 850 and 1900 bands. They just so happen to be the 3G frequencies AT&T use in the US.
Now there’s no official word from either Acer or AT&T, and of course the FCC has no say in the matter either, so we’re just speculating about the Acer Liquid’s eventual carrier destination. However AT&T are yet to release an Android device, and with their rivals in the US beginning to gather momentum with the platform we wouldn’t be surprised to find that they were shopping around.
How many unboxing videos of the Acer Liquid A1 would you like? If the answer is “two”, keep reading my friend; if the answer is “three” then you’re far too greedy, frankly. The company’s first Android smartphone began shipping earlier this week, and so the first of the unboxing videos have popped up from contented new owners.
Video unboxings after the cut
Continued »
An Android handset arguably doesn't come of age until its been rooted by the modding community, and two recent devices have just now got their stripes. Both the Motorola DROID and the Acer Liquid A1 have been granted pretty much one-click rooting, opening the door for the sort of hacks, ROMS and reskins that have flourished across the Android platform.
Acer’s first Android smartphone – and indeed the first Android handset to be powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processor – has begun shipping in the UK. The Acer Liquid A1 is currently in stock at retailers Expansys and Clove, priced at £339.99 ($556) and £328.99 ($538) respectively.
We were less than enamoured by Acer’s tubby little Liquid A1 smartphone when we had a brief play earlier in the month, but if the touchscreen chunkster has left you similarly underwhelmed, fear not. According to Aymar de Lencquesaing, head of Acer’s phone unit, the company is planning 8 to 10 new smartphones for 2010, and they expect the balance between Android and Windows Mobile in the new range to be “much more balanced”.
Acer have confirmed that their first Android smartphone, the Acer Liquid A1, will arrive in late November, at least in the UK. According to retailer Clove, the Qualcomm Snapdragon based smartphone – which will run Android 1.6 Donut rather than the newer Android 2.0 OS – is priced at £286 pre-tax ($481).
The Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 may have been making the Android headlines this week, but it’s not the first smartphone running Google’s open-source OS to pack a Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset. That honor goes to the Acer Liquid A1 – though the company have apparently underclocked the CPU to 768MHz – set to be the first Snapdragon Android phone to reach consumers’ hands. Arne from the::unwired has been playing with the Liquid and has put together a “preview” review.
Another week come and gone, naturally it is time for the week in review. Monday we pulled the Nokia N900 from its box and videoed the unboxing for your perusal. Those cool Sony Ericsson Satio and Aino are finally hitting stores. The Aino can stream content from a PS3.
Verizon have launched an offensive against the iPhone, with a new campaign called DroidDoes.com for their upcoming Motorola Droid Android smartphone. The handset, previously known by its codenames of Tao and Sholes, is being promoted as offering everything the iPhone eschews: an open development platform, the ability to run background processes, a flexible, open App Store and replaceable batteries, among other things. Verizon have also set up a countdown timer which suggests that the Motorola Droid will arrive on October 30th 2009.
SlashGear JP
