Asus Transformer Pad Infinity shows up at Best Buy, commands $600 price tag, 64GB of storage

 Asus Transformer Pad Infinity shows up at Best Buy, commands $600 price tag, 64GB of memory

You didn't think ASUS pushed its souped up Transformer slate through federal approval for the sake of its health, did you? No, if Best Buy's online store has anything to say about it, the Transformer Pad Infinity's FCC excursion was preparing it for sale. It's not quite ready yet, but when it is, Best Buy will apparently be handing the slab out for $599 and change, netting buyers 64GB of storage, NVIDIA's Tegra 3 processor and a 1,920 x 1,200 10.1-inch Super IPS+ display. The listing appears to be for the WiFi-only version of the tablet, with no mention of the Snapdragon S4-equipped LTE variant that ASUS announced earlier this year. According to the product page, the unreleased hardware is currently "sold out online," but at least you know how many pennies you'll need to pinch. Check it out at the source link below.

[Thanks, Uly]

Asus Transformer Pad Infinity shows up at Best Buy, commands $600 price tag, 64GB of storage originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Jun 2012 00:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LG backing off tablets for now, would rather circle smartphone wagons

lg-backing-off-tablets-focus-on-cellphones

LG has decided not to chip in any more tablets to the huge pile that's already out there, and will focus on smartphones instead. It hasn't exactly stormed the market anyway -- with recent tab offerings like the Optimus Pad LTE falling flat -- and has said that the move would free it up to improve its No. 4 spot on the world's cellphone charts. It insists the decision has nothing to do with Microsoft's recent Surface announcement, and says it doesn't compete in that particular sphere anyway. So that's that.

LG backing off tablets for now, would rather circle smartphone wagons originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Jun 2012 11:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Slashgear  |  sourceBloomberg  | Email this | Comments

Engadget Giveaway: win one of two Pantech Elements, courtesy of DTS!

Engadget Giveaway win one of two Pantech Elements, courtesy of DTS!

After a pair of audio-centric giveaways, you'd think we would be done with the genre for a while, right? Wrong! Today's offering isn't necessarily a pair of headphones or fancy speaker system, but rather the Pantech Element, a waterproof Android tablet that just so happens to be equipped with DTS digital audio decoder technology. What does this mean? DTS, a company that has been cranking out state-of-the-art audio for years, has integrated its sound into the Element to enhance your multimedia and gaming experience. We agree, it "sounds" like a great idea. Hop into the comments to enter, and good luck!

Continue reading Engadget Giveaway: win one of two Pantech Elements, courtesy of DTS!

Engadget Giveaway: win one of two Pantech Elements, courtesy of DTS! originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 04 Jun 2012 11:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google: Ice Cream Sandwich now accounts for 7.1 percent of Android user base

Google Ice Cream Sandwich now accounts for 71 percent of Android user base

Well, it's about time that Ice Cream Sandwich made some headway -- even if the process is much slower than consumers deserve. According to the Android developer hub, Android 4.0 now accounts for 7.1 percent of all Android smartphone and tablet installations, which is a sharp and welcome increase over the 2.9 percent figure that we reported just two months ago. Naturally, Gingerbread users still account for the lion's share of the Android ecosystem with 65 percent, but it's worth pointing out that this segment also grew during the last month -- no doubt at the expense of Froyo and Eclair. Don't know about you, but we like our desserts fresh, thank you very much. Go ahead and hop the break to see the full breakdown.

Continue reading Google: Ice Cream Sandwich now accounts for 7.1 percent of Android user base

Google: Ice Cream Sandwich now accounts for 7.1 percent of Android user base originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 01 Jun 2012 22:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink MobileSyrup  |  sourceAndroid Developers  | Email this | Comments

GameStop gives in to its sweet tooth, stocks Android tablets at over 1,600 stores

GameStop selling Android tablets in-store isn't anything new, but we've been curious to see how well the initiative would take off following a soft launch at 200 locations last November. Things seem to be going swimmingly, as the company now has "more than 1,600 locations" stocking the slates. If you'll recall, the devices all come with pre-installed titles of the retailer's choosing, with models from the likes of Samsung, Acer, ASUS and Toshiba. There's still yet to be any word about whether you'll eventually be able to trade-in your own, but it would seem like a logical next step -- aside from becoming an AT&T virtual carrier. Hit up the source link below to see if a store in your area is part of the lineup.

Continue reading GameStop gives in to its sweet tooth, stocks Android tablets at over 1,600 stores

GameStop gives in to its sweet tooth, stocks Android tablets at over 1,600 stores originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 May 2012 06:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Joystiq  |  sourceGameStop  | Email this | Comments

DRS unveils trio of ruggedized tablets in Windows and Android flavors

DRS unveils trio of ruggedized tablets in Windows and Android flavors

Drops, shocks, heavy vibrations, dust, water and temperatures in the extremes -- just the kind of punishment you'd expect a DRS Armor slab to put up with, and the firm's latest do so without the briefcase-like look. With MIL-STD 810G certification and an IP65 rating, the 7-inch multi-touch slates can withstand some rough and tumble -- though there's no word if they can pass the tesla coil benchmark. At 1.3 pounds, the Android 3.2-loaded X7ad squeezes out eight hours of battery life with a 1GHz dual core Tegra 2 processor. Its Windows-minded doppelganger, the X7et, holds a six-hour charge, sports an Atom Z670 processor and tips the scales at just under 1.5 pounds. If the chunkier look strikes your fancy, the 12.1 inch X12kb has you covered -- though at 5.5 pounds, it's the lightest MIL-STD-810G certified convertible tablet currently available. The swivel screened slate has up to eight hours of battery life, a Core i5 560UMCPU processor, a polarized LCD glass display, a spillproof keyboard and touchpad in addition to a one-click stealth mode that disables light and sound for "covert operations." With GPS, WiFi and Gobi Wireless Broadband options, all three of these are ready for missions at home and abroad, however you might need that stealth function to find out the (currently unspecified) pricing.

Continue reading DRS unveils trio of ruggedized tablets in Windows and Android flavors

DRS unveils trio of ruggedized tablets in Windows and Android flavors originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 26 May 2012 03:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung rumored to tweak Galaxy Note 10.1 inside and out

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It certainly looks like Samsung has redesigned the 10.1-inch version of its Galaxy Note, which it promised back at MWC. At a German event this week, a slimmer version of the tablet was snapped sporting a built in S-Pen slot that had also been sweating off some extra pounds. So much so, that the company will retail a dedicated pen holder to make your electronic doodling more comfortable.

We've also heard unconfirmed rumors that the biggest change to the tablet was internal -- with the Galaxy S III's quad-core Exynos chip replacing the original dual-core innards we'd seen previously. We reached out to the company on that point to see if it could shed any light, but its people weren't able to make any comment ahead of its official debut.

[Image Credit: Eraser112]

Samsung rumored to tweak Galaxy Note 10.1 inside and out originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 May 2012 10:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink SlashGear, Phone Arena  |  sourceTablet Community (Translated), Android Next (Translated)  | Email this | Comments

Google reportedly planning stable of Nexus devices with Android 5.0, will sell ’em direct

nexus one

Hand firmly grasping hat? Good. The Wall Street Journal is reporting on quite the bombshell today, noting that Google is about to cause its carrier partners in the States all sorts of grief -- indirectly, of course. Just weeks after placing its heralded Galaxy Nexus on sale for $399 unlocked, the report states that said move is only the beginning of a new initiative. Likely to be formally revealed at Google I/O, the mega-corp is planning to partner with a variety of OEMs (rather than just one at a time) in order to have up to five Pure Google (read: Nexus) devices available at once. Better still, the whole stable will ship with Android 5.0 (Jelly Bean) and will be sold directly from Google in unlocked form to consumers in America, Europe and Asia.

The move is significant in a myriad ways. For one, more unlocked Nexus devices means more choice when it comes to carrier selection. Furthermore, the move is likely to quell fears that certain partners may have about Google making Motorola Mobility its favorite after a $12 billion acquisition. Not surprisingly, Google's not commenting on the matter, but sources "close" to the situation say that the company's hoping to have the 5.0 cadre on sale by Thanksgiving -- you know, just in time for Black Friday and the looming holiday shopping season. We're all guessing that this will address the growing "app situation" head-on; by making a push to eliminate carrier-infused bloatware (while also providing early Android OS access to more partners), we're hoping that the whole "skinning" dilemma is addressed, too.

Google reportedly planning stable of Nexus devices with Android 5.0, will sell 'em direct originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 May 2012 17:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceThe Wall Street Journal  | Email this | Comments

CloudOn brings its Office to Android tablets, adds support for Google Drive (video)

CloudOn brings its Office to Android tablets, adds support for Google Drive (video)

Indirectly or not, the other guys seem to enjoy their time spent with CloudOn's unorthodox delivery of Microsoft Office. Fortunately for you, the service just announced it's now available to the Android folk -- at least to those with a Google certified slate. The CloudOn application comes as a freebie and it's compatible with tablets running Honeycomb or Ice Cream Sandwich. Keep in mind that, aside from creating / editing docs on Word, Excel and PowerPoint, you'll also be able to open almost any file thanks to Adobe Reader. Furthermore, the company revealed it now offers support for Google Drive, joining the likes of Dropbox and Box as part of the cloud lineup. Ready to give it a go? It's up for grabs now via Google Play, but before you do that, there's a vid waiting for you past the break.

Continue reading CloudOn brings its Office to Android tablets, adds support for Google Drive (video)

CloudOn brings its Office to Android tablets, adds support for Google Drive (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 09 May 2012 18:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceCloudOn, Google Play  | Email this | Comments

Google TV’s TV and Movies app gets to know you better with ratings, favorites and more

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At the center of the revamped Google TV experience that rolled out last fall is its TV & Movies app, which is a blended guide of content currently airing live on TV and available for streaming from the popular internet services (Netflix, Amazon, HBO Go). As Product Manager Rishi Chandra mentioned when we caught up with him at CES, personalization is something Google will be focusing on going forward and that's shown in the updated app being pushed out today. When it's first opened, users will login and be asked to rate a few movies and shows so it can get a sense of their tastes to know what to present, Netflix-style. There's more information displayed up front too, with expanded descriptions, and details below each show so viewers can find out about the episode that's on more easily. For a few more details on what's new and refreshed, check after the break.

Continue reading Google TV's TV and Movies app gets to know you better with ratings, favorites and more

Google TV's TV and Movies app gets to know you better with ratings, favorites and more originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 18 Apr 2012 15:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceGoogle TV Blog  | Email this | Comments