11
Jan
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Archos: All G9 Tablets To Be Upgraded To Ice Cream Sandwich By First Week Of February '12

Posted by in 101 G9, 80 G9, ARCHOS, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, News

ASUS isn't the only one upgrading their tablets to Ice Cream Sandwich in the beginning of February - we were running around the South Hall at CES 2012 and ran into Archos, which, among other things, manufactures a whole series of G9 tablets (various combinations of 101 and 80).

Guess what - all of the G9 tablets are scheduled to receive ICS starting the first week of February (they did let everyone know it would happen "in the near future" a few days ago, but we were able to get the most up-to-date timeline today). If you happen to buy a unit before the end of February, chances are it'll still have Honeycomb on it (which you can then update immediately), but pre-updated G9s should trickle into the retail channels within a few weeks after the ICS release goes live.

11
Jan
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ASUS: Transformer TF101 Ice Cream Sandwich Update To Roll Out By Early February '12

Posted by in ASUS, Eee Pad Transformer, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, News

Owners of the original ASUS Transformer (TF101) were ecstatic last week when ASUS promised the Ice Cream Sandwich update to roll out shortly after the one for the Prime, meaning any day after January 12th was fair game. Considering ICS for the Prime went out early, and shortly after ASUS Singapore posted this

ASUS Singapore Hi Gabriele Gab, are you referring to TF101? If so, it will be getting the update as well tomorrow. Thanks.

and then retracted it, we reached out to our ASUS U.S. rep to get everyone's stories straight.

[Correction] Dear all members, please kindly note that we have just received information from HQ that for TF101 update to ICS, as all has to be approved by Google, thus estimated availability to update to ICS will be around end of this month. Apologies for the error earlier. Thanks for your kind understanding.

Here's the current timeline relayed to us directly by ASUS: the ICS update for the original Transformer TF101 will be released by early February (and not late January, as ASUS SG is suggesting, although the difference is so small that either one of these projections could end up being correct).

06
Feb
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Confirmed: Sony Ericsson Announcing Xperia Play On February 13th, Gingerbread Included

Posted by in Gingerbread 2.3, News, Sony Ericsson, Xperia Play (Zeus, PlayStation Phone)

There's been no shortage of leaks involving the Xperia Play, but Sony Ericsson hasn't said a single word on the matter... until now, that is. A new event was just posted on the company's Facebook page, and guess what it's related to:

2011-02-06 17h48_51 2011-02-06 17h56_49

That's right - expect an official announcement of the Xperia Play on February 13 (the day Mobile World Congress kicks off) at 1:00 p.m. EST / 10:00 a.m. PST. Can't wait? Check out the (now official) commercial for the device - not only is it super creepy; its description confirms that the phone will ship with Android 2.3 (Gingerbread).

01
Feb
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Metro PCS Drops LG Optimus M From $229 To $149 In A President's Day February Promotion

Posted by in LG, MetroPCS, News, Optimus M

After yesterday's launch of Optimus V on Virgin Mobile USA for $150, MetroPCS, another prepaid carrier, just followed the same suit and dropped the price of its own Optimus variant, the Optimus M, from $229 to $149.

The $80 President's Day price drop consists of an instant $30 discount and a $50 mail-in rebate, valid on purchases made from February 1st (that's today as of 5 hours ago) and February 28th. Free 2-day shipping is included with all phone purchases.

A quick spec recap: the phone comes with Android 2.2, 600MHz processor, 512MB of RAM, 512MB of ROM, 3.2" 480x320px screen, Wi-Fi b/g, Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR, 3.2MP camera, and a 1500mAh battery.

26
Jan
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Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha: Atrix 4G, 3G XOOM Coming At The End Of February; Droid Bionic, LTE XOOM In Q2

Posted by in Atrix 4G (Olympus), Bionic, Motorola, News, XOOM

You could say Motorola's earnings call ended on a high note - the company's CEO, Sanjay Jha, told analysts that the Atrix 4G will be launching at the end of February, as will the 3G version of the XOOM. That doesn't quite line up with the rumors we've been hearing about a February 17th release, and Jha later added that the XOOM might even be bumped to a release in March if things don't go according to plan. Bummer.

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As for the Droid Bionic and the LTE-capable version of the XOOM, Sanjay said those devices should arrive at the end of Q2.

11
Nov
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We're Pretty Sure The Samsung February 2011 Flagship Device Renders Are Fake - Here's Why

Posted by in News, Samsung

Engadget - whose record on these things is usually among the best in the business  - seems to have pulled the trigger on one that's pretty obviously fake. Check it out:

samsung-flagship-deck-1

The spec sheet reads like a dream phone (which, again, it very well may be):

  • Gingerbread (Android 2.3)
  • 4.3" or 4.5" (Depending on which part you read) SAMOLED2 screen
  • February release
  • 8 MP Camera
  • 1080p video recording
  • 14.4 Mbps HSPA
  • 1.2 GHz CPU
  • 16 GB of storage
  • Insanely thin

samsung-flagship-deck-2

Cool, right? Well, not so fast. Here's the stuff that makes at least the render seem like a mockup done in MSPaint.