Dell may have come clean regarding their Mini 3i Android-powered smartphone earlier this month, but hard specifications for the touchscreen handset were tougher to come by. Happily a China Mobile press release has filled in some of the technical blanks, confirming that the Dell Mini 3i headed to their shores later this month has a 3.5-inch 640 x 360 16:9 display and measures 58.35 x 122 x 11.7 mm.
Continued »
Week in review time again, here we go! The Lenovo IdeaPad Pineview netbook hit the FCC Monday. The FCC is one of the most prolific leaker of gadgets and gear around and we love them for it. The CrunchPad is now said to be steamrolling toward a launch and may have a sponsorship deal in place. Word was a few weeks back that the tablet was dead.
Google has more than emphasized that its Chrome operating system will be super speedy; it will boot in only seven seconds and surfing the web will be just be quicker. The irony is that you will actually have to wait for Google’s OS to arrive and for a pretty long time in the technology world. After giving a preview yesterday of what is in store from the Internet giant’s computing platform, Google’s Sundar Pichai said that they are “a year away” from releasing products with the operating system. Yep, we are going to be waiting for a solid 365 days!
Continued »
Having had a reasonably prolonged fondle with Quanta's Android Smartbook prototype yesterday, we're actually quite excited by the platform's prospects. According to one of Pegatron's general business managers, we shouldn't have too long to wait, either; Jeremy Shu is claiming that the company has received orders from a number of clients for large volumes of Smartbooks, and he expects them to launch in Q1 2010 alongside carrier partnerships for the integrated 3G connectivity.
We’d forgive you for having forgotten about C-motech’s Mangrove UMPC; after all, the market for a 7-inch touchscreen tablet running Windows Mobile 6.5 is hardly vast. Still, we were interested to see the unit at Qualcomm’s event today, though its tubby form-factor was a whole lot less impressive when sat next to the Quanta Android Smartbook.
We were hoping Qualcomm might whip out Lenovo’s upcoming Smartbook at today’s event, but unfortunately the diminutive all-day ultraportable is still being nursed for an official CES reveal. Instead, the company had Quanta’s functional Android Smartbook prototype and a non-working Smartbook/Tablet concept out for us to play with.
Video demo after the cut
It’s been a rainstorm of Archos 5 Internet Tablet newness over at UMPC Portal today, with our friend Steve Paine taking delivery not only of the Archos 5 Mini Dock but the latest firmware which has also released today, v1.3.07. Together they’ve taken the Android-based Archos 5 even closer into MID status: USB host support means that you can plug a full-sized keyboard and mouse into the Mini Dock’s USB port, while the new firmware now supports full-screen YouTube HD playback together with outputting that content, via HDMI, onto your TV.
Video demo after the cut
ZiiLABS’ ZMS-08 chipset was certainly enough to get us interested last week – the promise of a 1GHz ARM Cortex A8 processor, Blu-ray quality video playback and parent company Creative’s X-Fi audio tech will do that to a geek – and now they’ve gone and got us hot under the collar with the promise of an Android smartphone. Set to be demonstrated at the Zii Summit 2009, to be held in China on December 1st, the device is described as a Zii Optimized Android Phone platform, albeit based on the (still pretty impressive) ZMS-05 chipset.
Here we go with another week in review. Monday IDC released their data on the number of CPUs shipped for Q3 2009. The number of CPUS shipped grew 23% for the quarter compared to the previous year. ZiiLABS unveiled its new ZMS-08 Blu-ray quality media processor this week. The processor promises to be full 1080p HD video support and more for portable devices like tablets.
What does $80 buy you these days? If Menq have their way, and sort out their supply chain, it could get you an Android based netbook; the company’s EasyPC E790 has a 7-inch 800 x 480 display and a Samsung ARM926EJ-S3C2450 processor, and while right now it runs Windows CE, Menq will be pushing out an Android firmware update within a month. That’s good news for techvideoblog’s Charbax, as he’s been playing with a review unit.
Video demo after the cut
Chrome OS: Waiting Is The Hardest Part…Though Necessary
Apple is no longer the Nordstrom of Tech, they’re the “New Nordstrom”
Can Anything Replace Windows XP As the Best Netbook Operating System?
Hey, Premium Notebooks or Netbooks, Get the Basics Right!
SlashGear Japan
