The Motorola XT928 and MT917 feature large 4.5" 1280 x 720 pixel displays and have a 13 megapixel camera on the back. Inside is a dual-core 1.2GHz CPU with 1GB of RAM. Nice.. but you'll have to live in China to get one of these. I think I might give them a miss then..
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Monday, November 28, 2011
Video: T-Mobile Vivacity
This isn't the first Android device to come in at less than £100 for prepay customers in the UK, but it's certainly the best. With a smallish WVGA display and a five megapixel shooter on the back plus video calling, all running Android 2.3, this is certainly a good choice for a first smartphone.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Flash is dead
Flash has been around almost as long as the World Wide Web.. the first version shipped in 1996, and since then it has become the most widely used web plugin for Windows and Mac computers.
In the mobile market, Flash support has been patchy, but one of the key selling features of recent Android releases over the iPhone has been that Android supports Flash and the iPhone does not.
Adobe are shifting resources from Flash to the more widely support HTML5 platform. This will allow Flash-style graphics, but as a standard browser component instead of a plugin.
This is good and bad news for smartphone customers. Flash has always posed a security risk for the devices it is installed on because - bluntly - Adobe software is crap. But there's still a lot of life in this platform, and HTML5 is not widely supported yet.
It's a little sad to hear the death knell for this long established package.. but then critics would say that it is about time.
Adobe's official statement is here.
Video: Panasonic Toughpad A1 and Toughpad B1
Most tablets are fragile things, not so the Panasonic Toughpad which as the name suggests is pretty tough. Based in part of the Toughbook range of laptops, the Toughpad looks like it should stand some abuse.. although it will never be as tough as a Toughbook simply because the screen is always exposed (the Toughbook is a laptop, so it folds up).
The annoying thing is just how long we will have to wait for the 7" version of this. Panasonic are quoting "fall 2012".. that's nearly a whole year! Apple can go from product announcement to shipping in just a few days, so surely Panasonic could do better than this.
Still, if you want to use tablets anywhere other than the home or office, something like this will probably have great appeal.
The annoying thing is just how long we will have to wait for the 7" version of this. Panasonic are quoting "fall 2012".. that's nearly a whole year! Apple can go from product announcement to shipping in just a few days, so surely Panasonic could do better than this.
Still, if you want to use tablets anywhere other than the home or office, something like this will probably have great appeal.
Friday, November 4, 2011
Video: Motorola XOOM 2 / XOOM 2 Media Edition
A replacement for the well-regard XOOM plus a mini version that's a bit lighter. If you're in the market for an Android tablet, then either the XOOM 2 or the new Sony tablet are probably the best of the bunch. But Android tablets sell in pretty low quantities anyway.
This isn't the only Moto big-screen offering, they have a couple of LapDock devices for use with mobile phones that turn your Motorola smartphone into a netbook-like device, in addition to the two tablets here.
This isn't the only Moto big-screen offering, they have a couple of LapDock devices for use with mobile phones that turn your Motorola smartphone into a netbook-like device, in addition to the two tablets here.