Hands on with Archos’ slate of slates at IFA 2010
Archos brought no fewer than five models of its new "internet tablets" to IFA 2010: Archos 28, Archos 32, Archos 43, Archos 70, and Archos 10.1. We’re fond of pretty much all of them. They all run Android 2.2 Froyo and have a "light" skin that doesn’t get in the way too much. The larger ones rock a 1GHz Cortex A8 processor that doesn’t exactly make them sing, but definitely keeps up and along with some graphics acceleration makes display of 720p HD video a breeze.
One choice we’re not so sure about is the decision to toss the main Android buttons – Home, Menu, Search, and Back – into the screen itself instead of having them be dedicated hardware buttons. It means that for certain things – like watching video – you’re two taps away from what should really be a one-tap experience.
Video and photos after the break!
Posted originally at Android Central
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Google CEO Eric Schmidt delivers closing keynote at IFA 2010
Google CEO and Chairman of the Board Eric Schmidt took the stage today in Berlin at IFA 2010 to deliver the closing keynote speech for the world’s largest consumer and electronics trade show. Schmidt spoke about the new technology that Android offers, such as voice translation, voice search, and Google street view, noting that these types of technology used to be classed as ‘science fiction’. Schmidt also spoke about Google Chrome, and an excellent demo was shown.
Speaking of demos — GoogleTV’s official twitter account reminds us that there is a great demo of the upcoming GoogleTV product (due in the U.S. sometime this fall) that you can watch right here, as part of the full IFA 2010 keynote presentation (at about 32:00.
The full press release is after the break, where you can read how executive director of the IFA Jens Heithecker compares Schmidt to Einstein. Yes, that Einstein. [IFA, @GoogleTV]
Posted originally at Android Central
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Hands on with Huawei Ideos S7 Tablet [Video]
Huawei hasn’t yet made a big splash in the U.S. (though that may be changing), and the Ideos S7 Tablet they’re showing off at IFA 2010 doesn’t quite look like it’s going to change that. What’s you’re looking at is a 7-inch screen running with 800×480 screen resolution, Android 2.1, 3G, a fairly small 2200mAh battery, a front-facing 2mp camera, and the now de-rigeur ability to play back 720p video. The processor is the Qualcomm Snapdragon, there’s 256 megs of RAM under the hood.
Huawei’s custom skin isn’t the most beautiful thing we’ve ever seen, but it does get points for usability: naming the different pages on their homescreen is a nice touch and we especially like the drop-down controls in the upper-righthand corner. A dual notification screen/task manager may bring back painful Windows Mobile memories for some, but the ability to quickly close or switch apps from a simple text list isn’t anything to spit at as far as we’re concerned.
More photos and hands-on video after the break!
Posted originally at Android Central
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Hands On with Viewsonic Viewtab 7 & Viewtab 100
Viewsonic is jumping into the Android tablet game with the Viewpad 7 and the Viewpad 100. Both are fairly straightforward Android tablets with little to speak of in terms of customization.
The Viewpad 7 offers a much better overall Android experience — it’s running Froyo with a properly sized keyboard with what would seem like a pokey 600MHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and 512 megs of RAM. As always with Android, though, the real test is the implementation and in this case we found the Viewpad 7 to hold its own in terms of speed and responsiveness. Nothing to write home about, but nothing to cry about either. Unfortunately, the display here is a paltry 800×480 pixels, so perhaps it’s no wonder that it’s responding to taps as we’d like.
The Viewpad 100 is both more exciting and less. More exciting because it’s a 10-inch tablet with 1024×600 resolution that’s able to boot into a full version of Windows 7 if you’d like. Less so because it’s running on Android 1.6 because later versions of Android aren’t yet playing nice with the Viewpad 100′s Atom processor. In general, this version didn’t feel fully baked – Viewsonic has yet to build the interface for dual-booting the device, but on the bright side the sucker did boot faster than most Android smartphones we’ve laid eyes on.
Both Viewpads should hit Europe in October, no word yet when they’re coming stateside. Images and video after the break!
Posted originally at Android Central
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T-Mobile reportedly in talks to carry Huawei Ideos [video]
T-Mobile USA in in negotiations to carry Huawei’s new Ideos handset — an entry-level Android handset that will ship with Android 2.2, so says the Wall Street Journal. WSJ’s unnamed source, however, says that it’s unsure if the deal will go through, and to expect the answer in four to six weeks.
Huawei is better know for its telco equipment (that’s the stuff your carrier buys for its towers and data centers), and a push to get into the U.S. smartphone market is somewhat new. Any manufacturer who can ship a solidly built messaging phone replacement, that also runs the latest and greatest version of Android is OK in my book. Bring it! We’re trying to track one down at IFA, in the meantime hit the jump to see Huawei’s promo video for the Ideos. [WSJ online]
Posted originally at Android Central
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Toshiba Folio 100 Hands-On
We took a gander at Toshiba’s Folio 100 today and here’s the main takeaway: sucker be huge. It has a 10.1" screen and a fairly reasonable bezel around it – though the resolution on that screen is still only 1024×600, same as the 7" Galaxy Tab. The whole thing is hard plastic with a small texture to the back and felt fine despite being what we suspect is still pre-production hardware. It weighs in at 1.7 pounds and is carry-able, sure, but it’s such a large, wide screen that this is pretty much a sit-down device only. The battery died on us pretty quickly – at 1020mAh it’s probably difficult to get through an entire day of IFA fondling. Toshiba claims 7 hours of battery life.
The HDMI-out and USB-host (yay!) ports are hidden underneath a port cover. There’s 16gigs on board and it’s expandable via a standard, large SD card slot. Combine that full-sized SD card slot, the USB Host port, and the HDMI-out and we’re thinking this is a business-focused device that has aspirations of being a professional photographer’s bestest friend ever.
We were looking at at build of Android 2.2 that didn’t look quite optimized for the big screen and definitely isn’t final build ("TOSHIBA_FOLIO_AND_A 2.2 3.0004 for IFA test-keys" is a pretty good hint there), but we did find it to be responsive and quick – for the most part. There was the occasional lag and jaggy transition, due to that early build moreso than the Nvidia Tegra 2 processor, which should be the definition of fast. We would definitely like to see the final build on this – we bet that the included Opera Mobile browser will simply fly.
$540 in "late October" for the WiFi only version is what they quoted us in the booth, with the 3G version coming next year. Catch more photos after the break!
Posted originally at Android Central
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Galaxy Tab Apps and Games [Video]
We snagged some more time with the Galaxy Tab and figured y’all might want to see how the tablet handles some serious games: like Need For Speed Shift and N.O.V.A. The answer: with aplomb. We also take a brief tour through the some of apps that Samsung has customized for the tablet – though sadly the excellent email client wasn’t set up with accounts.
Speaking of apps, our number one question during the Q&A session was this: What’s Samsung doing to help developers make sure their apps are both compatible and optimized for the Galaxy Tab hardware. The answer: firstly that the vast majority of apps in the Android Market are already compatible, but that there are some apps in the top 200 sellers that aren’t working quite yet. Samsung worked with Google to identify the apps and get in contact with the developers and – we hope – provide support to those gentle coders so their apps are ready to rock 1024×600.
The Reader’s Hub, by the way, is simply a front end for Kobo eBooks, Zinio Magazines, and PressDisplay Newspapers. Thankfully, all three of those apps are pretty decent – but during the Q&A Samsung didn’t rule out the possibility that other carriers might want to emphasize or preinstall other ebook readers.
Video, complete with authentic show floor noise, after the break
Posted originally at Android Central
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Samsung Galaxy Tab caught on video again, this time for a close-up
If these videos of the Samsung Galaxy Tab get any better, you might not have to go all the way to Germany in a couple of weeks to get a real look at the thing. Samsung’s 7-inch Android tablet will be announced at the IFA conference in Berlin on Sept. 2, but GizChina got video of someone sneaking up on it. The OS definitely has an iPad-ish feel, but we’re going to withhold judgment until we actually use the thing. Check it out after the break. [GizChina via Crunchgear]
Posted originally at Android Central
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