The tablet will be the HTC Flyer, and it will be distributed throughout schools in Southeast Asia. This isn’t Wang’s first time distributing the HTC Flyer tablets to schools. Back in August of 2012, Wang donated 6,000 HTC Flyers to 60 schools in Taipei in an effort to increase education in those schools through the power of technology. Wang encourages more women to use and familiarize themselves with technology as it will help them achieve equality.

The HTC Flyer is a bit old. It was released back in May 2011. It has a 7-inch 600 x 1024 resolution display, single-core 1.5GHz Snapdragon S2 processor, 16/32GB of internal storage, 1GB of RAM, 5MP rear-facing camera, 1.3MP front-facing camera, 4,000 mAH battery and it runs on Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread using HTC’s Sense UI. It also features HTC Scribe, which is decent for jotting down notes. You can check out our review of the tablet here.

HTC’s Cher Wang has been named one of the most influential women in the tech industry. She was number 56 on Forbes’s list of powerful women back in August, and is also a co-founder of HTC. She is known for her various acts of philanthropy, including her donation of $28.1 million in 2011 to found the Guizhou Forerunner College that proides free to low-cost education to students from low-income families. She is a huge advocate for women’s rights, and will continue to provide technology and support to help women in various countries achieve a better education.

[via China Post]

The update that most people are seeing is specifically for the 32GB WiFi and 3G version of the tablet. There has been no indication that the WiFi only version is getting the update yet. The update brings the machine to software version 3.55.405.1 and it’s large. The download is 210MB so a WiFi connection would be a smart place to download.

We have also heard that folks in Holland are also getting the update as well. If you find the update is available be sure and let us know how it works and where you are located. This is a nice little early Christmas gift for fans of the Flyer tablet.

[via Android Community]

The HTC Flyer is a 7-inch tablet running on Android 2.3 Gingerbread and powered by a single-core 1.5GHz processor. It features a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera and a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera, microSD card slot, and micro-USB. Its 1024 x 700 pixel resolution capacitive touchscreen display also works with a stylus, the HTC Scribe Pen. Although this is one of its main differentiators, the stylus has so far been sold separately and it doesn’t look like this new T-Mobile offering bundles it in either.

The device is priced at $299.99 when purchased with new compatible individual plans for the tablet ranging from $39.99 for 2GB of data to $79.99 per month for 10GB of data. However, the device will cost $454.99 if you upgrade from an existing plan. For more details on the tablet, be sure to check out our hands-on and review of its WiFi version.

Google expects the new support to be used to improve Android phones and tablets in drawing and sketching applications, as well as boosting precision for gestures. Handwriting and shape recognition are also possible, though currently Android lacks a native handwriting recognition engine.

Stylus input, button support, hover events

Android 4.0 includes full support for stylus input events, including tilt and distance axes, pressure, and related motion event properties. To help applications distinguish motion events from different sources, the platform adds distinct tool types for stylus, finger, mouse, and eraser. For improved input from multi-button pointing devices, the platform now provides distinct primary, secondary, and tertiary buttons, as well as back and forward buttons. Hover-enter and hover-exit events are also added, for improved navigation and accessibility. Developers can build on these new input features to add powerful interactions to their apps, such as precise drawing and gesturing, handwriting and shape recognition, improved mouse input, and others.

Google has added a basic painting app, TouchPaint, to its API demo code, allowing developers to get to grips with the different elements of the new functionality.

It remains to be seen what HTC and Samsung will do regarding their own custom APIs, which each firm had been hoping developers would adopt and build on. Samsung released the Galaxy Note source code yesterday, part of its strategy to get third-parties to produce apps for the S Pen stylus, while HTCdev team told us earlier this month that it, too, was prioritizing the Flyer and Jetstream pen API in its developer outreach.

HTC’s eventual goal, the company said, was to see things like stylus APIs integrated into the core Google Android codebase. Whether it expected to see that happen quite so quickly is unclear.

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich demo:

[via NetbookNews]

On the other hand, many manufacturers, carriers, and stores continue to release tables at $500 and above at the outset – a good example of a device that might well be so overpriced that a price cut might be imminent is the HTC Jetstream [check out our hands-on video here], a device we’ll be reviewing here on SlashGear soon, which has been released for $699.99 attached to a 2-year contract. Off contract, the tablet costs over a hundred dollars more than the largest off-contract iPad ($699 for the 64GB version) at $849.99. Do you see the problem with this picture?

Then there’s this other list of tablets, mostly Android, one WebOS, one BlackBerry, each of them under or cut under $500 to compete:
HTC Flyer [Android 7-inch] reduced from $499 to $299.99
Lenovo K1 [Android 10-inch] reduced from $499 to $329.99
Asus Eee Pad Transformer [Android 10-inch] $399
Toshiba THRIVE [Android 10-inch] $399.99
Acer Iconia tab A100 [Android 7-inch] $329.99

BlackBerry PlayBook [QNX, BlackBerry 7-inch] reduced from $499 to $299.99
HP TouchPad [WebOS 10-inch] famously discounted from $499 to $100
Amazon Kindle Fire [FireOS modified Android 7-inch] $199

And the iPad 2 retains its belt for best selling tablet on the planet. The only way we’re going to see this end is, if I may be so bold, the market is carved out by several of these $199 loss-leaders working as well (or better) than the Kindle Fire. If there’s such a thing as market saturation, it does not exist here in the mobile operating system world.

No ONE tablet device will ever out-sell the iPad, as it’s not a product, its a means to an end. Each new iPad is the iPad, it’s not a new product, and as price cuts happen on tablets that are already released, like it or not, people lose faith in their ability to get support for these devices in the future. On the other hand they have the iPad, the WORLD leader in tablet sales, one product carried by one single brand, with one mobileOS. Only a combination of future products engaging our interest (in this case, the iPad eroding iPod sales, for instance) and the low prices AT RELEASE TIME of tablets from alternate groups will cause the iPad to lose out on market dominance.

That’s despite the listing still showing up in search results for the Flyer, though the product page itself has been yanked. According to the listing, however, the Flyer was sold out for online sales but could be purchased in-store if stock was available.

Unfortunately, when Gear Diary and Droid Life actually went to pick up the cut-price tablet, Best Buy confirmed it was a mistake. It’s unclear if any online sales actually went through at $99.99 – and, if so, whether they’ll be honored – but there’s no deal to be had in stores.

[via Android Community]

If you’ll take a look here you’ll see that we reviewed this tablet all the way back at the start of May when it was only out in the UK and again at the end of May when it was formally released in the USA to Best Buy stores in the Wi-fi edition you see being price-slashed here. No word yet on if the third edition, the HTC EVO View 4G, will be slashed accordingly. Meanwhile we’ve got reservations again about the highest-priced on-contract Android tablet on the market also put up by HTC, that being the HTC Jetstream, a 10-inch tablet currently set at $700 on AT&T.

Also I’d like to point you in the direction of a post I wrote a few months ago for Android Community entitled Best Buy Takes Tablets Seriously with Massive Floor Setting. Currently Best Buy is quite obviously the most tablet-ready store in the USA, it having the biggest amount of floor space dedicated specifically to the tablet market. Will it be enough to pump up future tablets to avoid windfall from the lower-priced tier of tablets on the horizon?

The screenshots give a nice preview of what Android 3.2 Honeycomb with the new Sense UI will look like on the Flyer. It maintains the iconic HTC Sense Flip clock widget, Home and Multitasking button, a modified clock, as well as notification and battery icons on the bottom right of the screen.

What’s a bit confusing is that the new Sense UI is called “Sense 1.1 for Tablets” whereas the current Flyer shipped with a version called Sense 2.1, which looks a lot like Sense 3.0 running on HTC smartphones.

Also, the Flyer Honeycomb ROM that O’Brien put up is a developer build beta version and thus he offers various warnings of possible device bricking and an extensive step-by-step list for the process. One XDA member, globatron, was able to successfully boot the ROM on a 32GB 3G Flyer, which is apparently the only version the ROM will work on.

Globatron offered up some thoughts on this early developer build, saying that there are more widgets, smooth operation, no real lag, there’s more compatibility in the market, and the pen interaction works everywhere, including for typing and buttons. However, globatron also offers some negatives, saying that the buttons on the bezel are gone, except for a pen action button, everything is optimized for landscape orientation, and phone support doesn’t seem to work yet.

[via AndroidBugle]

Another bit of information we’ve learned recently is that this device will likely go by the name HTC Skyrocket internationally. There’s always several names for a device such as this, one from the manufacturer to identify it before its ready for release, another from the carrier if it has mobile network capabilities, and another for each carrier its on. Plus there’s another possibility of there being a name for the device outside of the USA. That’s a lot of potential names for a simple device whose names then signify the network bands more than anything.

We can also see here that HTC will be using a relatively new interface for its Settings panel, and from what we’ve seen in past screenshots, we know this tablet will be the first to have an HTC Sense look at Android 3.0 (or 3.2+ by the time it’s released), something we’ve been waiting for since our hopes for an HTC Flyer Honeycomb experience were dashed several weeks ago. This tablet will more than likely land inside 2011, and you can bet we’ll have our hands on it for review right at the start!

[via PocketNow]

As in the US, both pay-per-play, outright purchase and the OnLive PlayPack Bundle – which gives unlimited access to over 70 of the titles the service offers – will be available. Pricing is yet to be confirmed at this stage, either for the games or the Micro Console itself; in the US, the console hardware is $99 with further wireless controllers at $49.

The release is also likely to see HTC enable OnLive gaming on its high-end devices, such as the HTC Flyer. While the Flyer launched in the UK before it made its US debut, so far UK gamers haven’t been able to take advantage of HTC’s $40m investment in the games service since it was US-only. It’s not just the Flyer, however; OnLive has generic Android tablet and iPad apps too.

Those attending the Eurogamer Expo may be able to grab one of the “thousands” of free OnLive Micro Consoles the company plans to distribute at the show. Everyone else can sign up for priority access here.

The first big change here is your Home Screen. It’s here that you’ll start your Evernote day and it’s here that you’ll end it. You screen will be dominated by a new “Snippet View” which takes all of your notes and makes them into simple to browse boxes of information. Along the edge you’ll see that you’re able to view notebooks, tags, and notebooks that have been shared with you. Along the top edge there’s a New Note button alongside Map View and Search.

Inside notes, inside New Notes more specifically, you’ll see that along the bottom of the note (and above your screen-based keyboard) there’s a row of options that allow you to interact with your note in several new (and some old) ways. There’s one that allows you to choose a notebook, another to assign tags, you can attach attachments and take snapshots with your built-in camera. You’ll be able to record a note with audio, change your text to bold, italic, underlined, etc and make checklists. Simple and well done!

With Search you’re now able to bring up a Search popover. This popover allows you to, as they say, multitask, as it doesn’t require you to leave one window to search in another. You’re able to hit shortcuts here, see recent searches, and link to notes. Advanced Search allows you to search your notes in the following ways: near your current GPS location, notes containing checkboxes of to-dos, and more!

Single Note View is another place you’ll be quite often, a new feature here being the scrollable sidebar that lets you see other notes that you may want to jump to without leaving single note view. From here you’re also able to share the note to Facebook, email, or other apps (these showing up based on what you’ve got stacked up in your tablet already. Google Plus anyone?) Twitter is also amongst these “other” services.

Map View is an awesome feature that allows you to see the notes you’ve written attached to the GPS coordinates from the place you typed them. You can tap each blue mark with a number inside it to bring up a column of notes. From there you’re able to connect to single note view or hit your back button to get back to mapping.

FOR ALL ANDROID DEVICES, not just Tablets, is the following:

Rich Text! Finally you’ll be able to underline, italicize, and bold your text PLUS you’ll be able to create bullet lists, numbered lists, and checkboxes for all your future-looking listmaking.

Finally, there’s an Evernote Widget that you’ll be able to place on any of your homescreens (provided you’ve got the space) that allows you quick links into a new note, a snapshot that you’ll be able to add to a note, voice recording for a note, and search. You can also see your most recent notes below this first line of shortcuts. Cool beans!

Get out there and get to downloading the app now! Currently you’re only able to grab the original Evernote for handsets (with the rich text addition) but we’re expecting the tablet version soon!

There are no photos of the rear of the dock, but according to Best Buy’s description there’s just one single port: an ExtMicroUSB connector, just like on the Flyer itself. That allows you to plug in the AC adapter to recharge the tablet, a USB cable to sync it with your PC or Mac, or an MHL adapter to hook it up via HDMI to your TV.

Unfortunately, none of those accessories are included in the box, not even a spare USB cable. Considering HTC will have had space on the dock for a full-sized HDMI output, it seems like a rather calculated decision not to include the port and instead expect Flyer users to buy the MHL cable separately.

We’d also liked to have seen a slot where we could store the Flyer’s stylus, given the tablet itself lacks a silo. There’s still no sign of the dock on HTC’s official accessories site, where the MHL adapter is also up for pre-order (with no estimated ship date).

More details on the tablet in our HTC Flyer 3G review and HTC Flyer WiFi review.

[via Android Community]

This device totes what they’re calling the Scribe Pen. This device works much like a pen touching a touchscreen normally would, but because it’s working with Android, much more than you’ve ever had before is in store. The reason a person would purchase this device is its size, it’s ability to use the pen, and/or because they love HTC Sense. The form of the device is beautiful, based heavily on HTC’s popular line of smartphone handsets from this past year, sized up and formed into a very nice tablet form factor. You must decide if all this is worth what basically amounts to the same amount of money you’d be spending on most other Android tablets these days and just about $100 less than an iPad 2. Furthermore, the choice is yours whether you’re going to want this WiFi-only version or if you’re going to want to go 3G for constant connection. Keep all this in mind as you read the following!

Hardware

The HTC Flyer we’re looking at here is sized at 7.7 x 4.8 x 0.52 inches (195.4 x 122 x 13.2 mm) and weighs in at 420 grams (14.82oz). It has a touchscreen up front, a 1.3-megapixel camera in the top-center of the front when held landscape mode, and there’s a Scribe Pen that works specifically with the display’s special setup. On the back there’s a couple of speakers that are OK, the top panel (portrait mode) pops off to reveal a micro-SD card slot, and the camera on the back is 5-megapixels. A lovely raised HTC sits in the center. There’s a 12-pin micro-USB 2.0 jack sitting at the bottom of the device, a headphone jack at the top, and a volume dongle on the side.

What you’re dealing with here is a tablet that you’ll easily be able to hand on to with a single hand while your other hand is tapping the display or holding the special pen for you to be writing with, circling with, doodling with. This device can slide into an average bluejeans pocket, it’s got a gorgeous look to it, and while its neither the thinnest nor the lightest tablet device on the market, it still seems small enough to carry around with you.

The cameras are not generous, but they do take photos and videos, I assure you. See below for examples of both from both the front and the back cameras.

Scribe Pen

This device is made to work with this pen. This pen does not come standard with the Best Buy version of this tablet, instead you’ll be paying a cool $80 USD for it. You don’t NEED to have it, but not having it with this tablet would just be silly. There’s a little green button lighting up your world in the lower right hand corner of your tablet, (regardless of if you’ve got it in portrait or landscape, it comes along for the ride,) that’s just begging to work with the pen.

The pen itself is about the size of a large golf pencil or coloring crayon. It uses N-Trig’s active digitizer technology to create a smooth experience for you that relies not just on the touch of the pen to the screen, but the pressure with which you press. Once you start using the pen you’ll find that this sensitivity will come in handy, especially once you become proficient in the many varieties of brushes and pens and colors and weights.

Software

What you’ll be using here is the newest version of Android not specifically created for a tablet environment, Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread. That may turn some folks off, as Android does have a tablet-centric version by the name of Android 3.0 Honeycomb, but it certainly seems as though it won’t be much of a change for the device once it is upgraded to Honeycomb down the line as it’s run with HTC’s Sense user interface version 2.1 for Tablets. If you do not know, most manufacturers of Android devices have their own slightly unique user interface overlay for their devices. HTC’s version is called Sense and this is the first place they’ve created a version with tablets in mind.

Is it good? Is HTC Sense 2.1 for Tablets good? Sure it’s good, silly, it’s a nice little system with multiple large screens in mind, widgets that fill full homescreens and show you things like small Weather, People + Google Search, Watch (movies you can download via HTC’s Video store – a feature you can use even if you don’t want to watch full videos by selecting your video of choice and watching a full trailer – fun!), My Shelf (containing books from Kobo, run by Adobe), big Weather, Mail, and Friend Stream.

Your dock is unique as well. In it out of the box you’ll be seeing Notes, Reader, and Watch. Watch is again connected to a video store where you can purchase full-length videos to watch on your devices, Reader is connected to Kobo for e-reading of e-books, and Notes (aka HTC Notes) is the place where you’ll be using your Scribe Pen the most. In your apps drawer you’ll find 32 apps pre-installed. Most of these apps you’ll recognize as Google standard, while a few are specific to this tablet including the new Reader, the new Notes, and the new Watch. Plus there’s a child-oriented app called Zoodles which we’ll get into briefly below as well.

HTC Notes

Notes is a new application made specifically for this tablet and its many ways of collecting media, including sound, video, photos, and scribbles, notes, and drawings via the Scribe pen. You may also type via the on-screen keyboard. The greatest part about this app is that it’s connected to Evernote. This system is one that saves notes and writings of yours from any number of devices in the cloud for later reading. It’s not of the biggest names in note-taking and HTC’s been very smart to work with them on this device. Well played!

Is this note-taking system good enough to use during a lecture? Perhaps, but depending on what the lecture requires you to take down, you may well be better just using a laptop. Are you going to many locations in a day and need to take a few specific notes with additional photos for each during the day? This may well be your dream tablet, a tablet of dreams!

HTC Reader

This e-reader app is made by Adobe and works with Kobo for purchasing texts. It’s a rather simple app that allows you to simply read books you’ve purchased. The greatest element here is, again, your ability to use it in collaboration with your Scribe Pen. What you’re able to do is write in your books, underline things, draw, scribble, and highlight. Once you’ve done all this, the app saves your place in the book automatically so you don’t have to go flipping each time.

Zoodles

This sort of app should be much more prevalent than it is because its brilliant. This is Zoodles, an oddly named shining star leading us into the future of computers for humans of all ages. It’s made specifically for kids and teaches them lessons, letters, numbers, sign language, all sorts of stuff in a fun and simple to use environment. With this app your child, (or little brother or sister, or whatever kind of young person you’ve got with you,) will both be occupied with learning and fun, they’ll have a great time knowing that they’re using the big, tough, and now not-so-intimidating technology to get it done!

Camera

This camera is really not the selling point of this device. As Chris Davies says in his review of the 3G Euro version of this device, “The Flyer’s main camera may pack 5-megapixels, but we can’t help but suspect some of them have flown the coop.” Take a look below to see the performance of both cameras on their highest settings for a good look at what you’ll be dealing with.

Performance

If you’ve never used an Android device before, you’ll be happy with how fast this one flies. If you’ve used a dual-core Android device before, you might see a slow moment here or there whilst using the Flyer. If you’re one of those people who takes two tablets and runs the same stuff on both of them and makes final judgements that lead to the ultimate demise of one or the other, you might end up burning the Flyer. However, with a 1.5Ghz processor in this Android 2.3.3 and HTC Sense 2.1 for Tablets running hand-held device right here, you’ll be happy with the real-world effectiveness of all the processes – flipping back and forth and entering and exiting and all that.

That said, don’t expect to be beating the heavy hitters out there unless you really crank up the engine behind the scenes. We’ve not done so as we’ve gotta keep this device completely non-hacked, thusly the real-world benchmarks are below:

Battery

The battery on this device is a fairly impressive 4,000 mAh non-user-replaceable battery. HTC says that this battery should be lasting up to four hours of video playback or between 820 and 1470 hours on standby. So far we’ve been using it for several days directly out of the box without having to charge it, using it a medium amount at very spread-out intervals. Real world use is giving us several days use for real. Charging overnight encouraged, but not required!

Wrap-Up

This device will be running you $499.99 at Best Buy and, if you’re lucky, you can go in your local store and ask and it might be there right now. Online at the moment I publish this they’re still stuck on pre-orders. Other prices include English gems such as £599.99 for the 32GB 3G version, and £479.99 for the 16GB WiFi-only model. The 3G version hasn’t revealed its price in the USA quite yet, but we’re guessing an extra $100 wouldn’t be out of the question.

Is it worth it? We’re getting reports in that worker groups are choosing this device over the iPad 2 because of its size and the fact that it’s got a pen that works with it. Such simple reasons are certainly points HTC were gunning for when creating such a unique set of form factors in the Flyer. Of course then there’s the new version of Sense that’s just the loveliest iteration yet, and the apps working together with the pen aren’t bad either.

When I first saw this tablet I thought it was just beautiful enough to win people over with its looks alone. Now I feel like there’s a bit more to it, but its strongest feature remains its physical form. I’d love to get this new version of Sense on older HTC handsets, but then again there’s the Sensation’s version of it, and we’re still wondering if Sense 2.1 will change with the introduction of Honeycomb to this tablet.

Have a look below and above at the close-up photos, feel the love in the hands-on videos from both yours truly and Chris Davies from his review of the 3G Euro edition. If you’ve still got any questions about this tablet, feel free to ask them below and I’ll do my best to answer them/ run some tests for you. Further coverage of this device will be happening over on Android Community for at least another week or two before we get a slightly different version, if you know what I mean.

BONUS : here’s Chris Davies’ hands-on with the 3G Euro edition:

The difference between the first time I saw this device and what we’re seeing now is about 4 months. When I first had a look at it, I remember thinking how awesome it was that HTC was going to make a tablet, that it was smaller than the standard 10.1-inch standard, and what’s that – a pen! This may well have been the tablet I’ve been looking for. One that I can use like a tablet of paper, one that I could store infinite data on via the cloud, features never before seen on a tablet device, and no less than Android 3.0 Honeycomb at launch. And what is this?

This is a 7.7 x 4.8 x 0.52 inch Android tablet weighing in at 14.82oz with a 5-megapixel camera on the back, a 1.3-megapixel camera on the front, WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0, GPS, an ambient light sensor, g-sensor and a digital compass. There’s a brand new version of Sense, it’s bright, fabulous, and ready to go to work. The scribe pen works like a charm, and you can bet I’m about to bring this thing on a ride through ALL the benchmarks.

But I need your help – I need to know what YOU want to know about this device. You the consumer, you the person who has the most to gain from me doing tests of all types, kinds and sizes. So what’ll it be? What tests do you want me to do? Name them and I’ll perform them!

Furthermore, take a peek at Chris Davies’ review of the Euro edition of this tablet, see how this Best Buy version is up for sale right this second (but secretly,) and see how it might have been possible that the Flyer could have been the tablet given away at Google I/O instead of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 – wowie!

The memo circulated to Best Buy employees notifying them that the HTC Flyer no longer had a hard street date. The memo clearly commands employees to start selling the device immediately. “If you have them, sell them. If not, sell them when you get them! It was previously communicated that this product had a hard street date of this Sunday. That no longer applies.”

Best Buy is carrying just the WiFi version of the tablet, which will cost you $499. The optional stylus is an additional $80. But before you head out, there does seem to be a possibility that not all Best Buys already have them in stock. So, be sure to call ahead. Are you rushing out the door already?

[via AndroidCentral]

The HTC Flyer features a 7-inch capacitive touchscreen with 1024 x 700 resolution. However, it ships with Android 2.4 Gingerbread instead of the Honeycomb tablet OS, and it runs on a single-core 1.5GHz processor. The backside has a 5-megapixel camera, but lacks LED flash, and it supports WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, and microSD. It comes in both a WiFi-only and 3G version.

The version slated for Best Buy is the WiFi-only version, which comes with 16GB of internal storage and will cost $500. The optional stylus is believed to cost an additional $80. There is no information yet on when the 3G version will be available.

[via Wireless Goodness]

That’s because of suggested supply and timing issues, with HTC only just offering pre-orders on the Flyer in the US. The fledgling nature of AT&T’s 4G LTE network, which some Puccini SKUs were tipped to take advantage of, is also given as justification for the delay.

Previous rumors had claimed that HTC had two 10-inch tablets in the pipeline following the Flyer, each arriving with Android 3.x Honeycomb preloaded rather than the 7-inch slate’s Gingerbread (with a Honeycomb update on its way, HTC promises). The company is now unlikely to meet its 2m tablet shipping forecast, it’s suggested.

[via DigiTimes]

“[Nokia's presence] will not change our commitment to Microsoft,” he insisted. “With a new player entering, it should actually help to elevate the relevance of that platform … we actually feel that we should be able to benefit.” That attitude echoes the company line pushed by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer at the joint Nokia announcement earlier this year, when he claimed that the injection of Nokia innovation into Windows Phone would in fact benefit all licensees by making the platform more competitive, sooner.

Seiche also confirmed that HTC is readying its first NFC-enabled smartphone, though would only commit to a 12-month launch window. It’s also unclear whether the handset would run Android or Windows Phone, though Google’s platform seems more likely.

That’s the same chip as at the heart of the MSQUARE MDP, and going by Qualcomm’s promises is quite the potent chunk of silicon. The MSM8660 is tipped to have 5x the performance of the original Snapdragon, 4x the graphics performance, and use 75-percent less power. There’s also onboard LTE support, which is useful for AT&T’s fledgling 4G network; we’d already heard that LTE would be baked in, along with “Magic Pen” stylus support.

That pen support seems to be confirmed by what are claimed to be screenshots from the HTC Puccini, showing the Sense-equipped UI with the Notes app present in the launcher at the bottom. It would appear that the tablet – which could have a 10.1-inch display, like the XOOM, or alternatively an 8.9-inch panel like the LG G-Slate – was running a similar build of Sense to the Flyer, since the UI is simply stretched out somewhat.

HTC is expected to release at least two tablets after the Flyer in 2011, with a June launch previously rumored. The leaks come hot on the heels of our HTC Flyer review; check it out to see just how well HTC has handled the stylus.

[via Android Community]

Hardware

The Flyer’s HTC heritage is clear, looking at first glance like an oversized Desire S with its unibody-style aluminum and white plastic insert-sections. It’s 7.7 x 4.8 x 0.52 inch chassis is a little longer and thicker than that of the original Samsung Galaxy Tab, and it’s heavier as well at 14.82oz. Still, that’s because of the metal used in the construction, and the upside is a far sturdier, more expensive feeling slate.

It’s certainly not too large to hold in one hand, and in portrait orientation we could easily grip the edges; alternatively, the screen bezel is just the right width to hold the Flyer like a book without accidentally tapping the screen. Physical controls are limited to the power/lock button on the top edge (which also has a nifty integrated status light) and a volume rocker on the right edge; you also get a 3.5mm headphones socket on the top, and a microUSB port on the bottom. The latter can be used with the unusually-shaped plug on HTC’s included AC adapter, or with a regular microUSB cable; the Flyer will charge from both, though faster with the former.

On the back there’s a 5-megapixel autofocus camera (which lacks an LED flash) together with stereo speakers. The lower plastic section pulls off to reveal the SIM slot for the triband HSPA/WCDMA (and quadband GSM/EDGE) modem in our 3G review unit, as well as the microSD card slot. Internal storage is 32GB, though the WiFi-only Flyer has half that, at 16GB. Both pack WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0, GPS, an ambient light sensor, g-sensor and digital compass, as well as a front-facing 1.3-megapixel camera for video calls.

HTC Flyer Unboxing & First-Impressions:

Unlike the bigger Android tablets we’ve seen in recent months, HTC has avoided dual-core processors and instead opted for a single-core, 1.5GHz chip for the Flyer. Qualcomm’s MSM8255, it’s paired with 1GB of RAM. It’s worth noting that the Flyer can’t be used as a phone, with its 3G radio only for data connectivity.

Like the Galaxy Tab, the Flyer has a 7-inch 1024 x 700 capacitive touchscreen. This uses an LCD panel, and comes through bright, clear and with decent colors. The Flyer doesn’t get the rotating button icons of the Incredible S, but it does pack a second set of the touch-sensitive keys: hold the tablet in landscape orientation and you get backlit home, menu, back and “stylus” buttons underneath the short edge of the display; rotate it into landscape orientation and you get the same buttons underneath the long edge. It’s all very clever, though ironically considering how we found ourselves holding the Flyer, we wished we could choose which set of keys were active since often it would’ve been easier to reach the alternate set.

The mention of the “stylus” button should have given it away – if you’ve not been following the Flyer’s gestation – but HTC offers a “Magic Pen” with the tablet for text entry, annotation and sketching. Using N-Trig’s active digitizer technology, that allows for far greater accuracy (as well as pressure sensitivity) when writing on the screen. It also automatically shuts off the regular, multitouch capacitive touch panel when the pen’s nib is near, so that you can rest your palm on the display without accidentally triggering anything. In Europe, the Magic Pen will be bundled with the Flyer; in the US, it will be a roughly $80 accessory.

If your mouth has already puckering with distaste at the thought of a stylus, don’t be so quick to judge. The Flyer’s pen is leagues away from the nasty plastic toothpicks of old-style resistive touchscreen devices. Its smooth nib glides nicely across the Gorilla Glass of the Flyer’s display, accurate and lag free. HTC took responsibility for adding digital pen functionality to Android, and they’ve done a solid job; we’ll cover exactly how they’ve integrated them in the software section.

What HTC hasn’t accommodated is the stylus itself. Unlike tablet PCs and resistive touchscreen phones, there’s no slot or silo for the Flyer’s digital pen to hide in; instead, HTC bundles a leather slip case with a magnetic flap and a tightly-fitting loop into which the pen can tuck. While we like the idea of a bundled case, it’s not entirely ideal. For a start, the white finish – although matching the Flyer’s color scheme – seems to invite scuffs and blemishes; leaving the pen on the outside and, for the most part, unprotected also feels risky. Finally, although reasonably close-fitting, it still adds some bulk. That can make the difference when it comes to pocketability: bare, you can easily slot the Flyer into an inside jacket pocket or even the back pocket of your jeans, something that can be trickier or even impossible when the case gets involved.

Software and Performance

The Flyer is smaller than the other recent Android tablets, and it runs older software, too. Rather than Android 3.x Honeycomb, as on the XOOM, G-Slate and Galaxy Tab 10.1, HTC has opted for Android 2.3 Gingerbread, the latest version intended for smartphones. They’ve not left it untouched, of course; HTC Sense makes its usual appearance, though here with some significant modifications to the familiar UI to take into consideration the tablet form factor.

Unlike HTC phones, the Android homescreen now works in both portrait and landscape orientation. Both get a carousel-style interface, with endless rotation; flick the homescreen fast, and the perspective pulls back to show the eight panes spinning. A pinch-zoom gesture shows all eight thumbnailed. It’s slick and swift, the 1.5GHz processor showing its grunt. Pull down the notification bar and there are shortcuts to the last ten apps used as well as settings shortcuts and alerts; in portrait orientation the latter are on different tabs, while in landscape they’re all visible at once.

Along the bottom of the display there’s the app menu button, then shortcuts for HTC’s new Notes app, HTC Reader and HTC Watch, which we’ll cover separately later. There’s also the usual Customize button, which allows you to change the wallpaper, add icons, shortcuts and widgets – both the standard Google fare and HTC’s own – and, for the first time, tweak the lock-screen. That, as we saw on the HTC Sensation, can now show the weather along with four app shortcuts – user assignable, of course. To unlock the Flyer normally, you drag up the large ring at the bottom of the screen; to instantly unlock and load an app, you drag that icon down to the ring. It works well, though we did spot some glitchiness in the animation before the apps loaded.

The usual HTC array of software is preloaded, so you get FriendStream with Facebook and Twitter feeds, the Media Control app for handling DLNA streaming, and the heavily-animated Weather app complete with homescreen widget. There’s also Amazon’s MP3 store app, HTC Hub for wallpaper, ringtone and other downloads, HTC Likes with suggestions, Locations, the Teeter game, a Task Manager app and WiFi Hotspot, for sharing the 3G connection with up to eight WiFi-tethered clients.

Some of the standard Android software comes into its own on the Flyer. The Car Panel, which offers chunky, finger-friendly shortcuts to navigation and multimedia for use while driving is particularly suited to the tablet’s 7-inch display. HTC also throws in Dock Mode, which shows weather, recent FriendStream activity and some app shortcuts (plus has a backlight dim button so that you can use the Flyer as a bedside clock). It can be set to automatically load when you drop the slate in the (optional) dock – which we didn’t have to review – as well as optionally turn on WiFi Hotspot sharing as well.

In addition to the standard camera and camcorder apps, there’s Snapbooth, a somewhat gimmicky app that uses the front-facing camera to take vanity shots that can be mangled with various special effects. It’s good for a few minutes fun, at least. HTC’s online Sense suite also gets an outing, offering remote access, tracking and locking of the Flyer. Unfortunately, you can only have a Sense account active on one HTC device at a time – signing in on the Flyer prompted us to unlike the account from the HTC phone it was currently being used with. Considering the Flyer lacks phone functionality on its own, that means the HTC-faithful will have to pick whether they want to use their Sense account with the tablet or their smartphone, rather than having it on both.

HTC Flyer Highlights:

Most of the time, HTC’s extensive reskin means that the absence of Honeycomb isn’t felt. Still, that’s not always the case. Like Samsung did on the Galaxy Tab, HTC has reworked its Mail and Calendar apps to suit the greater screen real-estate on offer, with a two-column email view when the Flyer is held in landscape orientation, and various day, week, month and year views in the calendar. Both support multiple accounts and are far more usable than their phone cousins. The gallery, too, uses the same two-column layout, with albums on the left and previews – with sharing buttons – on the right. Similarly, the browser has a tab preview bar along the top, showing live thumbnails of all your open pages.

Unfortunately, you don’t get Google’s own tablet-version of Gmail, instead the regular smartphone app. That’s fine on a phone, but is stretched and wasteful with space on the Flyer’s 1024 x 600 panel. Similarly Google Talk is the basic phone version. 7-inch displays are often ideally-scaled to type on with both thumbs, and the Flyer is no different. HTC’s custom keyboard doesn’t stretch to a dedicated number row, but does have navigation keys, sensible auto-predictions like @ and .com in email text boxes, and simple access to Android’s voice recognition. The auto-suggestions are also accurate, with prompted words popping up with no lag or delay.

Performance overall was mixed, depending on quite how much we stressed the Flyer with multiple-running apps. In Quadrant Standard, the tablet scored 1817, while in Quadrant Advanced it managed 2166. Linpack Pro came in at 55.009 MFLOPS. That puts it in the same ballpark as what we’ve seen from Tegra 2 based Honeycomb tablets.

Magic Pen

Say stylus and most people immediately think of the fiddly toothpick that came with Windows Mobile phones. The Flyer has more in common with Windows tablets, though again, don’t let that put you off. Basically, rather than a resistive touchscreen that simply responds to pressure, or a capacitive stylus that pretends to be a blunt fingertip so that the screens used by the iPad, XOOM and other recent slates are tricked into recognizing them, the Flyer uses a special battery powered “Magic Pen” that communicates with a second layer sandwiched with the regular, finger-friendly touchscreen. That second layer knows not only where the pen nib is, but also how hard you’re pressing: that way, lines on-screen are thin when you press lightly, or thick when you press harder.

The pen itself matches the Flyer’s brushed aluminum, and has a pair of buttons on its side. One puts the stylus into highlighter mode, the other text selection. It runs on an AAAA battery – HTC reckons you should get a few months use out of it. Places where the pen can be used are flagged up by the stylus button turning green; tap that, and a radial menu of pens, tools and colors pops up in the lower left-hand corner of the screen.

In most places, the pen is used to grab screenshots or “Scribbles”, triggered by tapping the pen once on the display. The resulting image can be doodled on and annotated and then instantly shared – using the normal Android options – or pasted into a new Notes document (more on which later).

It all works, but it’s not perfect. While the Flyer uses a similar active digitizer to what you’d find in a Windows 7 tablet PC, it doesn’t feel as accurate. That usually means making your handwriting slightly larger, which is frustrating on a 7-inch display. Meanwhile, although HTC claim a couple hundred levels of pressure sensitivity, there’s little visible difference between the two extremes. There’s also no handwriting recognition, and you can’t handwrite emails or jot into text-entry boxes.

More frustrating, though, is the confusion between finger-touch and pen-touch. 99-percent of the interface is intended for finger control, but even if you’d prefer to use the Magic Pen, the Flyer won’t allow you – instead, it just takes a Scribble shot of the screen you’re looking at. When you’re actually in that screenshot, however, and you want to either paste it into Notes, share it or delete it, you can’t tap the buttons with the pen – instead you have to use your finger.

It doesn’t sound like much, but it means lots of flipping between the two, finger and stylus. Even after hours of use, we still found ourselves taking accidental screenshots when we wanted to open menus, simply because the pen seemed the obvious tool as it was the one we were using at that moment. We’ve a feeling HTC took this somewhat draconian attitude in an attempt to prevent commenters from saying the Flyer was a pen-tablet, one of the old-school. In their haste, however, they’ve made it more infuriating to use.

Ironically, it’s an issue many Windows 7 tablets address, and in a perfectly reasonable way. Models with dual-mode pen and finger touchscreens allow either input method, shutting off the finger-control when the stylus is active. The Flyer already knows whether the pen nib is near, so it wouldn’t take much to flip between the two methods accordingly. We’re hoping HTC at least offers the flexibility with a settings option in the future.

HTC Notes

Notes is where the Flyer’s Magic Pen comes into its own, and is arguably the center-point of the whole tablet. As we said, HTC took it on itself to add active stylus support to Android, and Notes is where that energy pays off. On the face of it, it looks like any other memo app: a place for a title then room for notes. However, on the Flyer those notes can either be thumbed in using the on-screen keyboard, or written in using the Magic Pen. The same radial menu of pen types, colors and other tools – offering highlighters, pencils, felt-tips and more – pops up, and you can sketch or scribble away to your heart’s content.

There’s also audio recording, which is indexed according to your note-taking. As you scribble, the Flyer automatically creates bookmarks through the recording that match text with audio: you can either see a thumbnail of the relevant note as the audio plays back, or skip to the relevant section of the audio by tapping on the note. It works, but it lacks granularity: a Livescribe pen, for instance, goes directly to the point of the audio recording, while the Flyer is a little less aggressive with its timestamping. Finally, there’s a shortcut to the camera so that you can shoot an image, have it instantly pasted into a new note, and then annotate it as you see fit.

HTC’s masterstroke, however, is partnering with Evernote, the online digital notetaking service, to manage the jottings created in Notes and allow them to be accessed from other platforms. Evernote is a free service – there are paid subscriptions if you’re a heavy user – with apps for Android, iOS, PC and Mac, among others, allowing for multiple digital notebooks, note tagging, audio clips and more.

There’s also comprehensive search, not only of regular text but of handwritten notes and of text included in images. Once synchronized with Evernote’s servers – where the OCR is done – you can search for, say, “recipe” and see all notes where that’s been typed in, scrawled on or included in a photo. Evernote treats handwritten notes from the Flyer as images – that means you can’t open them up and edit them in, say, the OS X version of the Evernote software – and so can include them in searches. You can also easily review them on other platforms.

HTC Reader

If you’re a Kindle, NOOK or other ereader platform user, you can obviously load up your app of choice on the Flyer from the Android Market. HTC, though, would rather you use its Reader app, offering a variety of titles – both free public domain ebooks and newer, paid ones – for download direct to the slate.

Reader is also the second app in which the Flyer’s Magic Pen gets a proper outing. You can annotate and sketch, either keeping neatly to the margins or scrawling all over the place, as well as highlight passages. Reader automatically slots in a bookmark on any page you write on, so that you can more easily find your notes later.

HTC Watch

Tablets are generally used for browsing and for multimedia consumption, and so HTC Watch is the company’s attempt to make some money off the latter. Basically a movie and TV episode store, it offers both rentals and purchases – depending on title – with prices ranging from £7.99 to £9.99 to buy 720p movies in the UK or £2.49 to £3.49 to rent them. TV episodes come in at £1.49.

Previews can be streamed over 3G or WiFi connections – there’s about 5-10 seconds of buffering before they play – but purchases can only be downloaded over WiFi. Unfortunately once you’ve bought something you can only watch it on an HTC device; there’s no way to transfer it to your laptop, for instance, or even another Android gadget. Rentals can only be viewed on the device they’re bought on.

OnLive

Streaming gaming service OnLive is currently only available in the US, and so we were unable to test it on our UK Flyer. When the US version of the tablet goes on sale, it will offer the chance to play full games – the sort you’d normally need a beefy PC or a proper console – on your slate while on the move. We’ll revisit OnLive on the Flyer when the service is operational.

Camera and Multimedia

The Flyer’s main camera may pack 5-megapixels, but we can’t help but suspect some of them have flown the coop. Camera performance is plain disappointing, falling well short of what HTC’s current crop of 5-megapixel smartphones can manage. Stills are fuzzy, lack definition and have uninspiring, muted colors, while video is somehow even worse. HTC claims the Flyer is shooting 720p HD, but as you can see in our sample clip below it hardly looks that way.

Although that would usually be enough to give any gadget the kiss of death, the Flyer does have one saving grace. Close-ups of text – such as grabbing a snapshot of a magazine article – come out reasonably well; that’s handy when you then import that shot into Notes, and sync it over to Evernote for OCR. Treat the Flyer’s camera as another aspect of the notetaking experience and its flaws are easier to stomach.

Media playback is another mixed bag. HTC says the Flyer will work with AAC, AMR, OGG, M4A, MID, MP3, WAV and WMA audio files along with 3GP, 3G2, MP3, WMV, AVI and Xvid video files, up to 720p, and indeed we had no problems with those. Trying more ambitious files, however, and the Flyer’s processor began to struggle. The stereo speakers lack voice, sounding insipid and reedy; better to plug in headphones or use an A2DP pair.

Unlike Tegra 2 based tablets we’ve seen, the Flyer lacks a dedicated HDMI output. However, like the Samsung Galaxy S II, its USB port apparently supports MHL, the new standard which – with the right adapter – allows you to plug into an HDTV or projector via HDMI. MHL-compliant sets should be able to control the Flyer’s playback using their own remotes; right now, though, the Flyer’s media adapter is in short supply, and we were unable to test it for this review. If you have HTC’s MediaLink DLNA box, you can of course use that instead.

Battery

The Flyer’s 4,000 mAh battery is non-user-replaceable, and HTC reckons users should see up to four hours of video playback or between 820 and 1470 hours of standby. Bear in mind there are no voice calls being made, though of course there’s plenty of background updates being pulled in for Gmail, Facebook and other services over the 3G network.

In practice, we found that with a mixture of push email turned on, various social network apps updating, and a fair amount of GPS mapping, browsing, music and video playback and some camera use, the Flyer made it comfortably through to the end of the day. With lighter, more sporadic use – as is perhaps common for tablets – would probably see it run for a couple of days on a single charge. HTC has thrown in some sensible power management options, including the ability to turn off email checks overnight (something we remember fondly from Windows Mobile) when you’re unlikely to need the very latest messages.

Wrap-Up

All too often we criticize new tablets for trying to take on the iPad by photocopying its specs. Apple’s slate has undoubtedly changed – and dominated – the consumer touch device market, but it seems that sales success has blinkered many rivals to the possibility that there are other ways in which tablets can find a role in our lives.

It’s a criticism you can’t level at HTC, and whether you believe the Flyer’s “Magic Pen” is a boon or a blunder, at least the company is trying something different. In its first iteration, what the software delivers doesn’t quite live up to the hardware’s promise, but we like the direction in which HTC looks to be taking it. Although many tableteers are content using their fingers, there are plenty of others who would like the flexibility to use an on-screen keyboard when that makes sense and then a digital pen when it feels more appropriate.

Yes, there are some frustrations: the camera is an embarrassment, the speakers underwhelming, and the single-core processor does give us a little pause for thought when we consider the sort of demanding apps likely to be coming down the pipeline for Android slates. Still, HTC obviously believe it’s potent enough for Honeycomb, since an update to the tablet-centric OS is expected in reasonably short order.

What will really make the difference is HTC’s commitment to Magic Pen functionality. Sensibly, the company has decided not to keep its pen magic all to itself, and to instead open up the APIs the Flyer uses to third-party developers. That will hopefully mean more apps that take advantage of it, broadening the Flyer’s appeal beyond mere note-taking. Before that will happen, though, developers will want to see that there’s a market worth their time: that will probably take more just the Flyer alone. HTC needs to be clear that dual finger and pen interfaces are integral into its vision of tablets. Users will only stomach the added cost and bulk of the digitizers – pushing the 32GB 3G Flyer in the UK to a heady £599.99, while the 16GB WiFi-only model comes in at £479.99 – if they’re confident that HTC won’t abandon the idea down the line.

Even as it stands, though, there’s a lot to like about the Flyer. The 7-inch size fits just as nicely between smartphones and 10-inch tablets in terms of functionality as it does in the hand, and the stylus adds a new layer of possibilities of which HTC Notes only scratches the surface. It’s likely to remain a niche model for the moment, but those who find the iPad’s interface more like finger-painting than fine-art will find plenty of appeal in the HTC Flyer.

There have been no shortage of pundits proclaiming the stylus dead and the finger-paradigm its successor, and a quick glance at the iPad dominated market might suggest they’re right. Still, after the near-identical Honeycomb tablets we’ve seen of late, the Flyer is enough to have us intrigued. Based on the phone version of Android, Gingerbread (though a Honeycomb upgrade is in the works), it runs the risk of following in the footsteps of the premature Samsung Galaxy Tab, perhaps.

Yet the Flyer’s pen wants to prove it can be more than a relic from resistive touchscreen days, and our first impressions are that it has some promise. The digital ink flows smoothly, despite HTC opting for a 1.5GHz single-core Snapdragon processor rather than the dual-core chips we’re seeing in high-end phones and tablets of late, and the slate is full of neat touches like the twin set of fascia buttons – rotating automatically to suit portrait or landscape orientation – the Evernote integration with its handwriting recognition, and the sturdy, paperback-scale chassis.

It’s not all perfect, mind. For a tablet with such a resolute focus on the pen, the fact that there’s no place – bar the bundled slip-case – to store the stylus is faintly ridiculous. The absence of broad app support for it is also frustrating: you can shoot screenshots by tapping the display just about anywhere in the system, but only a couple of apps will actually allow you to ink into them.

We’ll be putting the Flyer through its paces properly for the full SlashGear review, so until then enjoy the unboxing and hands-on video!

The first countries to get the Flyer include the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Greece, Portugal, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Romania. A US launch will follow on soon. It also sees the debut of HTC Watch, the company’s media streaming store.

The 3G Flyer is priced at €649 ($929) or $599.99  while the WiFi-only Flyer is priced at €499 ($714) or £479. That undercuts the iPad 2 in mainland Europe, at least. We’re also expecting to see the Flyer show up with subsidized carrier deals.

Update: Carphone Warehouse has confirmed it – and Best Buy – will be offering the Flyer in the UK from today. It will be priced from £129.99 on a £25 per month (24 month) contract with Talk Mobile, which includes 5GB of data, or for £599.99 stand alone.

Update 2: Looks like that Apple-competitive pricing is in mainland Europe only. In the UK, where the iPad 2 16GB WiFi is £399 and the iPad 2 32GB WiFi + 3G is £579.99, the Flyer is more expensive.

Press Release:

HTC FLYER, THE FIRST TABLET WITH HTC SENSE, IN STORE FROM TODAY

Aluminum unibody design with HTC Watch video service and HTC Scribe Technology hits the shelves across EMEA

LONDON, UK – May 13, 2011 – HTC, a global leader in mobile innovation and design, has announced that its first tablet, HTC FlyerTM, will be available in-store from 13th May. Blending HTC’s trademark design language with an all-new HTC Sense user experience that has been reimagined for tablets, the HTC Flyer combines natural touch and pen interaction in either a combined 3G and WiFi or WiFi-only model. As well as being available to purchase in retail outlets, HTC fans will also be able to order Flyer direct through the HTC.com website.

“We are delighted by the positive reactions that HTC Flyer has received since we first unveiled it in February and are pleased to be able to bring it to major markets across EMEA,” commented Florian Seiche, President HTC EMEA. “HTC Flyer is completely different from any other tablet on the market and we look forward to hearing about the different ways in which our customers use HTC Flyer in their daily lives – for both work and play.”

The combined 3G and WiFi HTC Flyer features 32GB of onboard memory which can be expanded with a microSD card of up to 32GB and will retail at €649. A second variant will be available for €499 and features WiFi connectivity and expandable 16GB memory. Both versions will come with the HTC Flyer Magic PenTM that will work with HTC’s Scribe Technology for an alternative to fingertip interaction.

From 13th May, HTC Flyer will be available in the following territories, both in-store and through HTC.com: UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Greece, Portugal, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Romania.

Premium Design and Performance
Weighing as little as a paperback book and encased in sleek aluminium, the HTC Flyer exudes the style and premium build quality that have forged HTC’s reputation in the smartphone market. With a seven-inch display, lightning fast 1.5Ghz processor and high-speed wireless capabilities, the HTC Flyer tablet is perfect for those who have been waiting for a tablet that is both compact and powerful.

HTC Sense for Tablet
HTC Flyer’s tablet-focused HTC Sense experience focuses on surprising and delighting people with its gorgeous 3D home screen. Similar to the experience unveiled on the new HTC Sensation, a unique carousel of widgets puts your most important content and information at the visual center of the experience and offers uncompromised Web browsing with Flash 10 and HTML 5.

Streaming Mobile Movies with HTC Watch
The HTC Flyer is the first tablet to premiere HTC Watch, HTC’s new video download service, offering more than 600 premium movies and TV shows from major studios. Video content can be bought or rented and watched immediately through progressive download. Once purchased, movies are stored in a “cloud locker”, allowing up to five registered HTC devices to download and play the same content.

HTC Scribe Technology
HTC Scribe Technology introduces a wave of integrated digital ink innovations that make it easy and natural to take notes, sign contracts, draw pictures, or even write on a web page or photo. Note-taking has been made smart for the first time by synchronising natural onscreen handwriting with Timemark audio recording. Tapping on a word in your notes instantly takes you to that exact place in time in the audio recording, ensuring you can place your notes in the context of any conversation or meeting. Notes are also integrated with the calendar so when there is an appointment reminder you are automatically prompted with an opportunity to begin a new note or in the case of recurring meetings, to continue where the last meeting left off. In an industry first, the HTC Flyer tablet also features built-in synchronization with EvernoteÄ, the world-leading notes application and service.

For more information, see www.htc.com

According to Sutton’s sources, HTC was offering the Flyer without its Sense modifications to the Android 2.3 Gingerbread OS that it will launch with; in fact, it would have supposedly been offered with Honeycomb on the giveaway units. Samsung did the same thing with its Galaxy Tab 10.1, the slate coming without the Live Tiles and other modifications that will be present on the commercial version released in early June. Google, it’s said, restricts what’s being handed out at I/O so as to avoid the event “becoming a freebie frenzie.”

Now, none of this is confirmed by Google itself, and we can’t imagine either Samsung or HTC going on the record one way or another. If true, though, we can’t help but wonder whether Google’s decision to opt for Samsung instead is a reaction to the extensive customization HTC has done to Android for the Flyer, though of course Samsung is current Google-flavor-of-the-month thanks to the Nexus S collaboration.

Update: We asked HTC but the company tells us that it “does not comment on rumour and speculation.”

Remember, you can win our Limited Edition white Galaxy Tab 10.1 in our Epic Unboxing War giveaway!

The latter category might include the HTC Flyer, already rebadged as the HTC EVO View 4G. T-Mobile certainly has a history of rebranding HTC’s devices, and the Flyer’s HSPA+ would work on the carrier’s 4G network.

It’s also suggested that the “snap” part of the SnapPad trademark might relate to some distinctive physical characteristic, such as a clamshell design. Pocketnow reckons that could mean the Sony S2, the company’s incoming Tegra 2 folding tablet with dual-displays.

[via Pocketnow]

Now, we knew that both Best Buy and Sprint weren’t planning to bundle the HTC Scribe pen with their versions of the Flyer, it was name-checked as an optional accessory in both press releases. In contrast, HTC tells me that the UK – and most likely European – version of the Flyer will come with the stylus included.

That certainly implies that the decision not to throw the Scribe digital pen – which is, remember, the pivot point around which much of the Flyer’s value proposition is based – into US boxes as standard is that of the carriers and retailers, not HTC. I can only assume that stomaching the extra cost was too much for their delicate sensibilities, and that they weren’t concerned that all HTC’s work to add digital inking to their Moleskine alternative is for naught if users don’t have the stylus to use it.

In fact, without the pen, the Flyer looks even more uncompetitively priced. That N-Trig active digitizer adds component cost and device bulk, something likely acceptable if you’re actually getting use out of it – Android-based tablets with active stylus input are rare beasts – but not if you’re only using your fingers.

HTC EVO View 4G demo:

Price gouging is nothing new, of course. The original Samsung Galaxy Tab came in with a whopping sticker price when it hit all four US carriers, and unlike the European model had voice call functionality blocked, presumably to avoid new tableteers from ditching their separate cellphones in favor of a single, converged device. Motorola’s XOOM looked hugely expensive when it hit the US, both in Verizon 3G and WiFi-only formats, compared to the iPad.

RIM managed to push out its BlackBerry PlayBook at a sensible, competitive price, but that’s only by mandating the RRP from the off. Still, there’s no cellularly-connected version on the market yet, only the WiFi model, and all signs point to the incoming 3G/4G version being delayed. There’s a similar story with Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 8.9 and 10.1, aggressively priced but only so far announced in WiFi form. It does look like a strong hand on the tiller (and standing up to no carrier nonsense) is the only way to get a decent sticker on your slate, assuming you don’t carry Apple’s weight.

The message from Best Buy and Sprint seems to be that either Flyer buyers face up to paying $80 above the tablet’s sticker price if they want to actually use the stylus-led elements of the core functionality, or settle for a slate that has lost its USP. Remember, this is the tablet about which HTC said the “aluminum unibody design with touch and pen interaction make HTC Flyer unique.” Cutting the pen out of that equation suggests whoever’s responsible should be on tablets, not selling them.

1. Apple suing Samsung
Apple Sues Samsung Over Galaxy Series Phones And Tablets
Samsung counter-sues Apple with 10 patent infringement cases
iPhone / Samsung F700 / Prada Phone Rumors Debunked

2. Samsung Galaxy S II Unboxing
Extreme Unboxing: Samsung Galaxy S II meets Rally Car [Video]
Samsung Galaxy S II Extreme Unboxing Roundup!

3. Amazon Tablet Imminent?
Amazon Tablet Built By Samsung Could Arrive By End Of Summer?

4. Amazon Cloud Failure
Amazon Cloud Failure Knocked Out Foursquare, Quora, and Reddit
Amazon Cloud Failure Going On Day Two

5. PlayStation Network Down
PSN down for unknown reasons, Sony investigating
Sony admits PSN hacked: No restore date in sight

6. Apple and Google’s race to launch cloud music streaming services
Apple To Release Cloud Music Service Ahead of Google
Google In Talks With Spotify To Power Android Music Service

7. Apple’s fiscal Q2 earnings report
Apple’s Q2 Sales Results Show 18.65 million iPhones, 4.69 Million iPads, Apparent Growth
Apple’s Q2 2011 Earnings Analysis

8. White iPhone 4
White iPhone 4 goes live at Three UK
Three backtracks on white iPhone 4 listing
White iPhone 4 in Europe from April 27 says source
White iPhone 4 In Retail Packaging Picked Up Early At Vodafone UK Store

9. iPhone 5
iPhone 5 a World Phone with GSM/CDMA spills Verizon
Apple Seeding iPhone ’4S’ Prototype With A5 Chip To Game Developers?

10. BlackBerry PlayBook
BlackBerry PlayBook Review
A Half-Baked PlayBook is the tip of the Firmware Nightmare
PlayBook sales “far exceeding” XOOM demand says analyst
Verizon Undecided About Carrying BlackBerry PlayBook
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BlackBerry PlayBook Firmware May Be Lacking, But Getting Updates Fast

11. T-Mobile’s LG G-Slate tablet and G2X smartphone
T-Mobile Confirms LG G-Slate To Ship April 20th
T-Mobile G2x Review
T-Mobile G-Slate, G2x and Sidekick 4G arrive in-store
T-Mobile G-Slate Review

12. ASUS Eee Pad Transformer tablet
ASUS Eee Pad Transformer gets US/Canada release date & pricing

13. HTC Flyer
Best Buy Pre-Sale Of WiFi HTC Flyer To Start April 25th

14. Acer Iconia Tab A500
ACER Iconia Tab A500 Review

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The HTC Flyer is a neat little 7-inch tablet that’s unique in that it features HTC Scribe technology, which allows it to be used with a stylus in addition to touch. This is an optional feature but will come in handy for note taking and sketching on the device. The tablet will not come out of the box with Android 3.0 Honeycomb, but will get the update once Google releases it to HTC.

Other features of the tablet include a 5-megapixel back camera, 1.3-megapixel front camera, and 16GB internal storage that can be expanded with microSD cards. The screen resolution is 1024 x 600 and will be running HTC Sense on top of Android. However, it is powered by a 1.5 GHz Qualcomm single core processor. Best Buy will be retailing the device for $499.

[via Best Buy]

The news may be disappointing for folks who recently picked up a Desire S or Incredible S and find themselves not able to upgrade to the new and improved interface. According to the HTC spokesperson in the tweet, the reason for the restriction lies in the hardware requirements of HTC Sense 3.0.

The new interface will support many new 3D effects including 3D widgets along with smart shortcuts on its new set of multi-functional lock screens, and 360-degree menu carousels. It’s likely that the new processing power required to smoothly run the new interface is what older devices such as the Desire S and Incredible S are missing.

However, this morning, another official tweet from HTC followed up to clarify their statement from last night. The new message says that only certain aspects of the HTC Sense 3.0 will not work on older devices, but not all. And they are in fact working to incorporate the other aspects that will work with older devices.

Exactly which those are and when customers may receive the updates is all up the air at this point. But at least those customers are not completely shut out from the new features of the updated interface. Check out the video below for a taste of Sense 3.0.

[via Unwired View]

Your money gets you a 1024 x 600 display which works with a finger-touch or with a special active stylus for handwriting, sketching and adding notes to Evernote. There’s also a 5-megapixel camera on the back, a front-facing camera, HTC Watch for downloading movies and TV shows, and the usual bevy of WiFi, 3G, Bluetooth and GPS.

Whether the Flyer will earn its premium price tag will depend on whether HTC can convince buyers that the pen functionality is worth it. We’ll reserve judgement until we have a chance to review the Gingerbread-based tablet.

There’s also a 1.5GHz single-core processor, WiFi, Bluetooth, 3G and GPS, along with a front-facing webcam. The Android 2.3 Gingerbread OS is liberally coated with a layer of HTC’s latest Sense UI software, complete with a 3D-style homescreen carousel and integration with online note synching service Evernote (that supports handwriting recognition, among other things).

The Flyer was one of the stand-out gadgets of MWC 2011, and we had a good play with the slate – in its Sprint-centric HTC EVO View 4G form – last month at CTIA 2011. We’re checking in with Carphone Warehouse to see if that in-stock message is accurate.

Update: Carphone Warehouse tells us that while the Flyer may be listed as in-stock, it won’t be shipping until May 2011.

In the UK, where the Iconia has been on sale for a couple of months now, Acer says adoption has been “good” among similarly-priced premium notebooks. They won’t share actual sales figures, but it’s supposedly making a moderate splash among the £1,500 competition. With mainstream notebooks selling for a third of that, though, it’s easy to assume that sales have – relatively speaking – been minor. We’re not expecting much different in the US and Canada, where the Iconia will be $1,200 when it goes on sale this month.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the idea of a dual-screen phone or tablet. Microsoft’s original concept of the Courier was brilliant, a true digital book that not only sandwiched larger overall screen real-estate into a clamshell form-factor, but which promised to leverage those two panels in a way one big display doesn’t quite lend itself to. Having two distinct sections gives each workspace a mental boundary: the whole idea of Courier, of having one pane for research and the other for collection, worked because it wasn’t an artificial barrier, it wasn’t just two windows butting up on a single screen.

That sense of distinction encourages you to multitask. With a single display, especially on a smartphone, there’s the assumption that whatever software you’re using will be full-screen, and multitasking means hopping between those full-screen apps. With two separate displays, it’s not that you’re halving attention or relative “importance” – as with having a 50/50 split on a single panel – but instead encouraging users to consider the interaction between the apps.

Courier worked – as a concept, at least – because it had a tightly bounded use-case which played on those strengths. Research and workspace, simultaneously viewable. Unfortunately there’s a big difference between concepts and practice.

Where those who have attempted the segment have fallen short has generally been in battery life and functionality. The former is obvious: the display is usually the biggest hog of power in any device, and so when you double up on them you’re going to put even more strain on the average mobile battery. Of course, you can slot in a bigger pack, such as the bulbous lump on the Libretto W100, or bundle a second battery, as Sprint will do with the Kyocera Echo, but neither are particularly elegant solutions.

Functionality is trickier, especially as I’d argue OEMs and software engineers need to be paring back their ambitions rather than adding to them. Where Toshiba went wrong – in my opinion – with the Libretto, and where Acer has gone wrong with the Iconia, is in trying to make them all-things to all-users. Full Windows machines, they therefore demand full x86 processors (rather than more frugal ARM chips) and attempt not only to do the interesting, eye-catching finger-and-touch stuff that makes them unique, but everything a $400 notebook does too. That generally means on-screen keyboards, with all the mediocre tactile feedback which goes along with them.

That desperation to make one device everything to every user means battery consumption goes up, higher-power components are needed, and thus the whole thing gets expensive. Often it’s the software which gets left behind; the dual-displays are considered the draw in and of themselves, Star Trek style selling points which are never really taken advantage of. So far we’ve seen nothing from the Sprint Echo that a big, single-screen Android smartphone couldn’t achieve just as well. Yes, there have been tweaks to run two apps on two screens simultaneously, but beyond that it’s business as usual – only business with double the power drain.

Sprint Kyocera Echo hands-on demo:

I can’t be alone in wondering whether simply strapping two iPads together – each half having its own battery good for 10hrs+ of runtime – with a hinge down the middle isn’t the obvious solution. TI, NVIDIA, Marvell and other ARM-based chip manufacturers have been showing off multi-display capable SoCs for the past couple of years, each able to run two or more touchscreens while still sipping power. Tablet-scale devices have the room to accommodate the sort of bigger batteries that would make smartphones too chunky for the average pocket or purse, and the ARM chipset support for Android (or other “mobile” platforms) would mean native finger-control without the half measures of Windows 7.

You’d need the right software, though, so how about, instead of a couple of iPads, pairing two HTC Flyer slates. HTC has already finessed Android with active stylus control, Evernote integration and everything else which makes the Flyer unique; all they need to do is double it up and make a slick, dual-7-inch clamshell, a true digital notebook for the internet age. If anybody can do it, segue away from the core, single-screen Android ethos as seen through Google’s eyes, and deliver something sufficiently customized and polished to be appealing both on paper and in practice, it’s probably HTC.

Dual-touch may well be the future of mobile devices, but it’ll take more than a hinge and a reskin to deliver.

That Honeycomb update will basically be possible as soon as Google allows HTC access to the source code. Previous rumors had suggested that Google was locking down the possibility of upgrading devices from Android 2.x to 3.x, as part of its anti-fragmentation drive, but HTC says this will not impact the GSM Flyer.

When we can expect the Honeycomb update remains a mystery, though with the first GSM Flyer units tipped to ship in Q2 and the HTC EVO View 4G due over the summer, it looks like around the middle of the year is likely. More on the HTC EVO View 4G in our hands-on.

[via Android Community]

The company’s decision to launch with Gingerbread – heavily reskinned with a new version of HTC Sense, just as the eventual Honeycomb upgrade will be – was believed to be a time-saving move, to allow the company reach the market quicker. HTC is expected to announce a further two, larger slates – potentially at its press event later this month – running Honeycomb out of the box, but they are not believed to launch until around Q3.

In light of recent talk of Google “playing favorites” with those OEMs who leave Android unmodified, though, HTC’s comment that the upgrade will be released “when [Honeycomb is] made available” could suggest that Google has been holding back the OS out of dissatisfaction with how HTC is skinning it. The search giant is believed to be prioritizing those hardware partners who leave Android stock.

[vms c00c2d31982567235c55]

[via Netbooknews]

The HTC Sense UI looks very interesting. This is the first time we have seen the official video offered by HTC even though we already know most of all there is to know about the Flyer. We even saw some promo material for T-Mobile leak not long ago.

The Flyer has a 7-inch 1024 x 600 resolution screen, will run on the HSPA+ network at T-Mobile for the US and a WiFi only version will be coming too. That stylus is one of the coolest features and the Flyer has a single core processor inside.

[via Android Community]

No specifications have been shared, nor potential carrier partners, and it’s not clear whether Google will be attempting to sell the Nexus Tablet direct to consumers or via subsidized deals. The search giant’s motivation is presumably to have a slate device with which it can shape the evolution of the tablet segment, much as it did with the original Nexus One for phones.

Meanwhile, there’s also talk that Google’s licensing agreement with OEMs for Android 2.x and 3.x specifically prevents them from upgrading 2.x devices – such as the original Samsung Galaxy Tab – to Honeycomb. That could have a significant impact on the HTC Flyer, which was said to be using Gingerbread so as to reach the market quicker, and then receive a Honeycomb update later in 2011. According to Mobile-Review, the Flyer will now launch in most markets come May with Honeycomb preloaded. We’re checking with HTC to see if they can clarify the situation.

[via Android Community]

Update: HTC’s PR team tells us that, while HTC has no official statement on this, it has no impact on the company’s plans for Flyer.

Since it wouldn’t really make sense for T-Mobile to have a WiFi-only Flyer, we’re guessing the carrier will be offering a GSM version of some sort: either regular 3G, as with the model shown at MWC 2011 originally, or an HSPA+ version for T-Mobile’s own 4G network. Otherwise it seems the specifications will be the same, so a white chassis, 7-inch 1024 x 600 capacitive touchscreen display, and an active stylus for handwriting and sketching.

When exactly it will launch is unclear, as is pricing, but judging by the promotional material it seems T-Mobile will be heavily pushing the “scribe pen” functionality. Considering that’s the Flyer’s key differentiator – and that the value of a stylus has been much misunderstood in previous tablets with active digitizers – that seems a sensible route.

[via Android Community]

The Flyer might be an interesting little tablet with a weight claimed to be less than that of the average paperback book. That would make the Flyer very portable. If the buyer pays the extra for the optional Scribe digital pen, they will be able to write or draw on any on-screen content for notes and doodles. The pen can also be used to write notes using applications like Evernote.

Key HTC Flyer features include both WiFi and Bluetooth 3.0. The tablet has a 7-inch screen with a resolution of 1024 x 768. It also features dual integrated mics, the Android OS and support for Flash 10.1. HTC doesn’t mention what version of Android the tablet will run. It has a 5MP rear camera with flash and a 1.3MP front camera. The tablet has 16GB of internal storage that can be expanded with microSD cards. Power comes from a 4000mAh battery.

[via Android Community]

It’s a tablet war! This device will definitely enter the market as a little cutie to be reckoned with, it’s Scribe Pen, otherwise known as the Scribe Digital Pen, allows you to both take notes and record audio a the same time, the application of lines syncing up perfectly with the audio if you want to go back and search visually. That means if you drew a dog when the speaker you were listening to was speaking about a particular dog, you can just click that dog you drew and the audio will play from the moment you drew the dog. Magical!

EVO View 4G Hands-On video

This device is running a recognizable Android interface at the moment, it’s still on a handset version of Android while it’s set to be upgraded to Android 3.0 Honeycomb soon after launch. This is a device that’s not just comparable to the brand new Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9, it’s basically set to get in a knife fight with it. It MAY have an edge as it’s got a packaged KNIFE with it though, that pen very possibly a superstar.

Take a look at the presentation video above and the photos below, and take note that this is a device that’ll be launching without Honeycomb but will be upgraded to Honeycomb “as soon as it’s ready,” so they say. This device is one you’ll want to grab if you’re into the idea of penning the whole day through.

There’ll also be a 1.3-megapixel front camera, dedicated camera button, Android 2.3 Gingerbread with HTC Sense on top, and a sizable 1,730 mAh battery to keep all that 3D goodness running for a full workday. 1GB of RAM and a 4GB ROM are also rumored, along with both a Blockbuster 3D On Demand app and a YouTube 3D app, as HTC takes on the LG Optimus 3D and replaces the HTC EVO 4G flagship.

Meanwhile, Sprint’s version of the HTC Flyer – the HTC EVO View 4G – is also detailed, with a 7-inch 1024 x 600 display just like the GSM version shown at MWC 2011 last month. It’ll also have the same 5-megapixel/1.3-megapixel camera pair, Android 2.3 Gingerbread, DLNA support and – unlike the GSM version – HDMI, apparently. The 4G name certainly suggests WiMAX support, and Sprint will also be officially announcing their version of the Motorola XOOM, complete with 4G onboard, for release later this year.

There’ll also be the Samsung Rant 3, a 3G-capable messaging smartphone with touchscreen and a solar panel battery cover, together with two versions of the BlackBerry PlayBook, both WiMAX and WiFi.

[via Android Community]

Initial rumors suggested that the EVO View 4G might be Sprint’s version of the HTC Flyer, complete with CDMA 3G support and a WiMAX radio. The “goods and services” section in the trademark application doesn’t specifically reference tablets, but it does mention “portable computers” which could add up to the same thing.

[via Android Community]