07
Jan
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[CES 2013] AT&T Announces The Pantech Discover: 4.8" HD Screen, 12.6MP Camera, And ICS For Just $50, Available January 11

Posted by in AT&T, Discover, News, Pantech
Last Updated: January 14th, 2013

Pantech hasn't been going after the bigger manufacturers in the "superphone" category, at least outside of its home turf of South Korea. Until today, that is - at its CES press conference, AT&T announced the Pantech Discover, a flagship-class device that meets and in some cases beats the best that Samsung, HTC and Motorola have to offer. In addition to somewhat typical high-end specs like a 4.8-inch 720p screen, 1.5Ghz dual-core processor and 16GB of on-board memory, the Discover boasts a best-in-class camera (at least on paper) of 12.6 megapixels. And that's not even the most surprising statistic: the Discover will retail for just $49.99 on-contract.

13
Jan
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[Update: Release Date] CES 2012: Verizon Wireless And Motorola Announce The Beefier Droid RAZR MAXX And The Original Droid RAZR In Purple

Posted by in Motorola, News, RAZR / RAZR MAXX, Verizon Wireless

Droid RAZR MAXX

Verizon Wireless and Motorola just took the wraps off the new Droid RAZR - the Droid RAZR MAXX, a familiar name we saw leaked a few weeks ago. The RAZR MAXX contains the following changes compared to the original:

  • A beefier battery with an unknown at the moment capacity. What we do know is that it allows for more than 21 hours of talk time on a single charge. Update: It's 3,300 mAh.
  • The MAXX is 8.99mm thin compared to the original RAZR's 7.1mm.
  • The press release specifies 32GB total storage, but it's not obvious whether that means 32GB on-board or 16+16, like on the original RAZR.

11
Jan
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[CES 2012] Video Hands-On With The Sony Xperia Ion And Xperia S, Including Their Speedy 12MP Rear Cameras

Posted by in News, Sony, Videos, Xperia Ion (Aoba), Xperia S (Nozomi)

We stopped by the Sony booth earlier this morning at CES, and got some hands-on time with the very first Sony smartphones (Sony-Ericsson is no more, subject to regulatory approval) - the Xperia Ion and the Xperia S. While these devices were designed before the Sony Ericsson breakup, they'll be marketed as Sony devices when they hit retail channels.

First up is the Xperia Ion, announced a couple of days ago by AT&T. As you may already know, Sony's upcoming flagship device (headed to AT&T in Q2) will be powered by a dual-core 1.5GHz processor, 4G LTE, and features a 720p display with a truly impressive 12MP rear shooter.

10
Jan
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[CES 2012] Toshiba Unveils 5.1", 7.7", and 13.3" Android Tablets - Tells Us Absolutely Nothing About Them

Posted by in News, Tablets, Toshiba

We're live at CES on the show floor this morning, meandering around countless booths to bring you all the Android-related news you can handle. One of our first stops in the Las Vegas Convention Center was the Toshiba booth, where the company demoed three brand-new Android tablets, which they refused to tell us anything about - aside from their display sizes (and the fact that they are coming at some point this year).

Up for display (running on a photo slide behind glass, unfortunately) were 13.3-inch, 7.7-inch, and 5.1-inch tablets, all of them fairly similar in design to the Excite X10.

09
Jan
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[Update][CES 2012] Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 Outed for Verizon LTE, Has A 1280x800 Super AMOLED Plus Display, Updated With Even More Pictures!

Posted by in 4G, Galaxy Tab 7.7, Samsung, Tablets, Verizon Wireless

The tablet flood continues, the latest from Sammy is the Galaxy Tab 7.7 for Verizon. This little guy hopes to stand out from the crowd with the largest OLED display Samsung has ever put on a tablet: a 7.7 inch, Super AMOLED Plus Display.

The "Plus" on the end of "Super AMOLED Plus" means "not pentile," so you're even getting the full compliment of subpixels. It looks like this:

image imagewm_IMG_0352 wm_IMG_0353 wm_IMG_0355 wm_IMG_0358

Now for the bad news, it's only Android 3.2, and it's got Touchwiz, and lots of crapware. The Samsung Apps recommendation engine, Samsung Media Hub, Samsung Social Hub, Peel Smart Remote, and "an exclusive suite of security features".

09
Jan
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[CES 2012] Hands-On With The Huawei Ascend P1 S - The World's New Thinnest Smartphone (With Comparison Shots)

Posted by in Ascend P1/P1 S, Huawei, News, Videos

We're onto the second day of official pre-CES activities here in Las Vegas, and this morning we got to spend some time with Huawei's newest smartphone - the Ascend P1 S. While the vast majority of information about the device was leaked sometime last night, we had a chance to take some video of the Ice Cream Sandwich device and share a few insights about it, as well as obtain some relevant info on pricing and availability.

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The P1 S (as well as the thicker and larger-batteried P1) will be headed to most markets around the globe in the early part of Q2 - possibly as early as March for European and Asian markets.

05
Jan

LG Announces Smart TV With Google TV, Featuring LG's Cinema 3D - To Be Shown At CES

Posted by in Google TV, LG, News
Last Updated: January 7th, 2012

Well, that was quick. Shortly after new Google TV partners were announced, LG has announced one of their Android-powered offerings: the LG Smart TV with Google TV. Details are scant at this point, as the device won't be demonstrated until CES, but we do know that it will launch in two series at some point this year. Both will feature LG's Cinema 3D displays, which do not require the expensive shuttering glasses to work, and both will come bundled with remote with the Magic Remote Qwerty - unsurprisingly, a QWERTY version of their Magic Remote.

More information will arise once CES rolls around, but with many Google TV-powered devices about to be announced, it likely won't stick out of the crowd.

05
Jan
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Google Announces New Google TV Partners, Hardware To Be Revealed At CES

Posted by in Google TV, News
Last Updated: January 7th, 2012

Google TV's debut device, the Logitech Revue, may have been a commercial failure, but Google isn't showing any signs of giving up on the platform. We've already seen the Revue receive the Honeycomb 3.1 update, bringing the all-important Market access to the platform, and now Google has announced a host of Google TV partners who plan to unveil hardware at CES next week:

  • LG
  • Marvell
  • MediaTek
  • Samsung
  • Sony
  • Vizio

Although they didn't release many specific details, it seems that many of these new Google TV-powered devices will actually be TVs as opposed to separate boxes - LG even plans to release an entire of line of TVs, powered by their own L9 chipset.

04
Jan
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Velocity Micro Debuts A Pair Of Android 4.0 Tablets: The 7-Inch Cruz T507 And 9.7-Inch Cruz T510

Posted by in News, Velocity Micro


We've all heard of the low-budget Velocity Cruz tablets before, and it looks like company is keeping the brand alive in 2012 with a pair of Android 4.0 tablets.

As expected, these aren't the most powerful portables on the planet -- but, then again, they'll likely have a price to match. The smaller of the duo is the Cruz T507, a 7-inch slate with a Cortex A8 1.2GHz processor, 512MB RAM, 8GB internal store, front-facing camera, HDMI out, and Amazon's Appstore as its go-to marketplace.

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The T507's larger brother, the T510, is essentially the same tablet in a 9.7-inch shell at 8.9mm thick.