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We trotted on over to the NVIDIA boot at MWC in Barcelona this morning, and happened upon the newest tablet offering from Toshiba, the AT270. Officially unnamed at this point, the device is packing a 7.7" SAMOLED 1280x800 display, a Tegra 3 processor, Wi-Fi, and 32GB of storage (it's unknown if this is the standard amount). It's also running Android 4.0.
While at the Google booth earlier today, ASUS was kind enough to let us take a look at the upcoming Transformer Pad Infinity (basically, a beefed up TF Prime), albeit a version we had not yet seen.
When I first heard about the ASUS Padfone, I thought the idea was a bit laughable. When I tried in person today, my opinion changed substantially. ASUS definitely seems to have done this right - particularly considering it's still a prerelease piece of hardware. My primary concern was in how seamless the transition from phone to tablet would be, and how much the phone's hardware design would suffer because of the docking mechanism.
Earlier today we got a chance to play with Samsung's Galaxy Beam (though photo opportunities were limited by lighting), and I have to say - for a projector phone, it's not bad.
We're not exactly sure why, but LG has developed a gigantic new device called the Optimus Vu. And while the growing market for "mega-phones" seems to be getting more and more crowded every day, we have to say, LG's takes the cake for ridiculousness. The Vu's 5-inch display may not be absurdly large, but it is absurdly shaped. A 4:3 1024x768 (think CRT, Windows 98, etc.) display on the device makes it ridiculously wide, and also very oddly proportioned. I tend to think this is yet another device that will end up with 3rd-party app compatibility issues due to its unique resolution - something Kyocera Echo owners can probably... echo.
We're at the Samsung booth at MWC this afternoon, and first on our list were Samsung's newest Tabs - the Galaxy Tab 2 10.1, and the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0. The devices are actually fairly similar - same processor, same cameras, microSD card slot, and 3G SIM card slot. Both are also running Android 4.0, which is pretty standard fare for tablets these days. They even share very similar, very plasticky rear covers.
We descended upon the Huawei booth just a short while ago here in Barcelona, and there we found a whole gaggle of Huawei's new flagship device: the Ascend D Quad. I'm calling it the DQ for short - because who doesn't like Blizzards? Anyway, we know the DQ is packing Huawei's first in-house processor, the K3V2.
Panasonic's new smartphone, the Eluga (like the whale, minus the B), is actually a pretty decent looking device. On paper, and in person. Its dual-core TI OMAP4430 processor is a proven piece of kit in phones like the DROID RAZR, and it's 4.3" qHD display isn't bad looking at all. With 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage, it actually sounds like it might even be good. Yeah, the thing is, it's not. At all. Just watch the hands-on video, and you'll see why:
When we heard about rumors of Samsung releasing a 10.1-inch version of the popular Galaxy Note smartphone, we were understandably a bit skeptical. I mean, the idea makes sense - a larger Note would mean more area to use that advanced pressure-sensitive stylus. But given that Samsung has yet to announce a Galaxy Tab 10.1 successor, it seemed a bit odd. But now, the Note 10.1 is obviously for-real, and we spent a little time with it today.
Last night we got some hands-on time with HTC's new family of smartphones - the One series. While we didn't get a hands-on video with the One X (largely due to a dead battery), we did spend a fair amount of time with the One S, which shares most of its hardware with its larger sibling.
Shortly after the announcement from HTC CEO Peter Chou at Mobile World Congress that AT&T would be a launch partner for the new One X, the US's number two carrier let fly a press release confirming the statement. What's there to take from it? Not much.
We're in Barcelona this afternoon (or, in the US, this morning), and Huawei has just taken the wraps off its latest and greatest smartphone - the Ascend D Quad. It's almost as thought the name is suggesting something about the phone's hardware.
Starting Sunday (February 26), the world's biggest dedicated mobile technology conference will kick off in Barcelona, Spain - Mobile World Congress 2012. Tens of thousands of journalists, exhibitors, and booth girls, along with millions of business cards and promotional knick-knacks, will swarm the provincial capital of Catalonia like a Baskin Robins on Free Scoop Night. Countless tons of tapas and sangria will be consumed. Few hours of sleep will be had. And most importantly, hundreds of new and exciting Android devices, apps, and accessories will be unveiled. That's where we step in.
Privacy is a good thing in the digital world - you'll get no argument from me. I don't like my data floating around in cyberspace without my consent, but I also realize that much of what makes the internet (and computing generally) so great is that I can use my own judgment to decide who I will and will not trust with my information.
After ASUS's Singapore Facebook stated an Android 4.0 OTA would be hitting the OG Transformer as late as March, it now seems that ASUS UK's Facebook page is indicating that said update will be landing in the next week:
It seems Sprint just can't catch a break lately. After the LightSquared LTE fiasco (it seems eminently likely Sprint will be forking over $65 million and have to cancel the deal), this just seems a bit like kicking the company when it's already down. Comcast has filed suit in Pennsylvania against the nation's number-three carrier, and it's for patent infringement.
After our holiday / new year giveaway onslaught, you probably thought we were done with big-ticket item giveaways for a while here at Android Police. You thought wrong.
Update: Here's the Market changelog, which brings a few more tweaks in the update to light:
I'll admit it, I'm anal about CPU and RAM usage. I'm the kind of person that goes into MSConfig every 6 months to scrape useless startup processes like barnacles off the hull of a ship to keep boot times down and squeeze every last possible increment of free RAM and CPU that I can (insert "Then you should use Linux" joke here) out of my system. If you're like me, then you probably avoid heavy, suite-ized security solutions like the bubonic plague crossed with bird flu. There's nothing worse than turning on a new Windows laptop and discovering Norton is installed. I get chills just thinking about it.
There has been a lot of interest of late in a patent filed (by Google) back in 2009 for what is obviously a rendition of Android's notification bar system. There are a number of pretty (well, as pretty as black and white gets) figures in the patent showing the notification bar we all know and love, and lots of language about notification systems and the like.