CES is done and over, and while Android announcements were a little sparse this particular year, we didn't come away empty-handed. Sony unveiled its new flagship phones, NVIDIA dropped a bomb on everyone with Shield, and Huawei even made it to the front pages with its massive 6.1" phablet. Who do you think ended up rising above the noise, though? What Android product are you going to be watching most closely now that it's official? Who ran away with the show?
Another CES has passed, and with it comes clearer understanding of what's on the tech product horizon in the coming year. If I were to sum it up in a simple list? Touchscreens, 4K, and washing machines.
And that's the reason I stand by the proposition that this year's show wasn't very good. But, let's save that for the end. CES is still the most important tech show in the world, it's still massive, and there's still a metric crapton of stuff unveiled at it every year. So, in the Android realm, what was noteworthy this time around?
And if you want the full scoop, hit up this link, where you'll find all of our CES 2012 coverage, page by page.
ARCHOS is not messing around! After releasing the first in its iPad Titanium line of tablets, the 97 Titanium HD, sans price, the company is back for more with three new slates in the family: the 70 (a 7" tablet), the 80 (an 8" tablet), and the 101 (can you guess? can you? I bet you can. Yes, it's a 10.1" tablet!). The company isn't even being shy about its intent. The 70 specifically targets "competitors such as Amazon", the 80 goes after "the iPad mini, for a fraction of the price", and the 9.7 "aims to be an alternative to the new iPad." Well, yeah.
Do you like octa-core processors? How about displays that curve? Or just Samsung in general? If you answered "yes" to any of those questions, then you're going to want to watch Samsung's second CES event, which just so happens to be available now on YouTube.
For the Exynos 5 Octa stuff, jump straight to 12:34. If you're more into the flexible OLED, they show the prototype off at 39:48. If you don't have anything better to do for the next hour, just hit play and enjoy.
Update: There seems to be a "full version" of the event as well.
Hi, my name is Eric Ravenscraft and I'm an addict. I have a weakness for trying out new online media services. I've signed up and, where applicable, paid for Spotify, Rdio, MOG, Rhapsody, Pandora, Last.fm, Jamendo, Grooveshark, Netflix, Hulu Plus, Epix, Crackle, Amazon Instant Video, Google Play, and virtually every other movie and music streaming service on the internet. So it bugs me that I haven't yet been invited to add Redbox Instant to my collection of collections. According to Verizon's CEO, though, people like me won't have to wait too much longer as the service will be going public 'before the end of the first quarter.'
What's most interesting is that the company is touting it has 7,500 "streaming and transactional movie titles" available so far.
We've heard quite a bit about Samsung's prototype flexible OLED display over the past couple of years, and it looks like the company is starting to mature the tech, as it showed off the most practical phone design we've seen yet.
Just to get this out of the way up front – this phone is not flexible. It's just using the flexible display inside of a rigid case, so it's no different than current phones in that respect. When it comes to specs, Samsung wouldn't give up details, only telling The Verge that it's "about 5-inches across" with a resolution of "about" 720p.
This year's CES sucks. But that doesn't mean there can't be a few genuinely cool things floating around out there in an otherwise dull ocean of 4K and touchscreens. Case in point: YotaPhone, which sadly isn't even on the CES show floor at all. We covered the announcement of the YotaPhone, but really, seeing and using it in person does the idea so much more justice.
On paper, it seems pretty straightforward: a phone with a screen on both sides. A traditional LCD panel on the front, and an e-ink display on the back. In fact, it sounds incredibly gimmicky on paper - a crazy idea bound to be clunky and poorly executed.
The long, long wait is finally over, at least for those of you who backed the phenomenally successful Pebble Kickstarter campaign. After initially promising to ship orders in September, then getting swamped with almost 70,000 pledges and more than $10,000,000 in funding, Pebble Technology has committed to shipping its e-paper Bluetooth watch on January 23rd. The email was sent to backers to coincide with Pebble's CES press conference. There is no word on when Pebble's watches will be available for general purchase.
The four months between the initial release date and the now confirmed shipping date have not been idly spent.
Oh man, if you thought quad-core phones were crazy, your brain should prepare itself for at least twice as much explosion. Samsung just announced at CES its new Exynos 5 Octa processors. These chips, on a 28nm architecture (which means they're small and use less power) have eight dang cores. The company says that this will result in up to 70% battery savings (compared to what is unclear...we would assume the previous Exynos processor).
Pics courtesy of CNET
Of course, the first thought is, "Do we really need that many cores?!" Well, for starters, yes. We'll always want more power.
I love the idea of wearable computers. When I heard I'm Spa was giving away the I'm Watch Color at CES, I ran over to their booth to grab one. The plan was to get it, review it, and maybe even use it after the review, even if it made me look a little geeky. I'm Spa has a new version of the OS, "I'm Droid 2.0," which is just a scaled down version of Android, so it should be very powerful and work well with my phone. It has a tiny app store for watch apps, and a pull down notification panel.
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