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US Cellular Variant Of The HTC Flyer Finally Gets Honeycomb Upgrade, Someone Must Care, Right?
Way back in December, the HTC Flyer, the first Android tablet to be designed around stylus input, finally got an upgrade to Honeycomb. Now, the update
Way back in December, the HTC Flyer, the first Android tablet to be designed around stylus input, finally got an upgrade to Honeycomb. Now, the update is available to US Cellular customers who happen to own this tablet. Now, I know what you're thinking. "US Cellular? HTC Flyer? Honeycomb? Holy crap, my time machine works!" Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you, but no.
Apparently the demand for a hardware buttoned, Gingerbread packing, 7 inch tablet (with optional pen input!) at full price isn't very high, because the HTC Evo View 4G is hitting the bargain bin yet again.
The European GSM variant of HTC's foray into the tablet world, the Flyer, is currently getting its long-awaited bump up to Honeycomb 3.2.1. The update brings many new features to the tablet, including the latest version of Sense for Tablets with "enhanced internet browsing, mail, calendar, and more all optimized for the 7-inch screen."
HTC's entry into the Android tablet market, the HTC Flyer, found a claim to fame with its Scribe Pen accessory, allowing users to jot notes, add annotations to photos and documents, and perform an array of other tasks with ease, imitating the familiar functionality of a regular pen.
When US Cellular decides to make an announcement, it plays no games. Single device announcements? Puh-leez, that's for kids. Three devices at once? Now that's pro.
The HTC bootloader unlock portal has been updated yet again, this time bringing the company's first tablet, the Flyer, to the mix. It appears that basically all versions that carry the Flyer name are supported, so if an unlock for the View 4G is what you're after, you'll have to keep playing the waiting game for a while longer.
While HTC may have just made the 10.1-inch Jetstream official, it hasn't forgotten about the 7-inch Flyer; actually, it's quite the opposite. They seem to be hard at work on a Honeycomb update for the tiny powerhouse, as a full RUU is now available for download thanks to Paul O'Brien of MoDaCo.
When the news broke that the Digital Pen would be sold independently of the HTC Flyer, it wasn't well received. While this is one of the more unique features of the Flyer, its lack of comparable hardware to other Android-powered tablets, along with the $500 price tag plus another $80 for the stylus, was just asking a bit much.
It looks like HTC is on top of its game when it comes to accessories for upcoming devices: the dock for the HTC EVO 3D showed up in coming-soon-status at BestBuy.com last night, and now an ever-so-sexy dock for the Flyer has made an appearance there, as well.
On paper, the OnLive game system seems like a revolution in gaming: instead of using your own console or hardware to play games, OnLive's servers sync and render gamplay on their own servers and stream it back to you in 720p. This would theoretically allow you to play any game you wanted at high settings, regardless of your available hardware.
The Acer Iconia A100 - a 7-inch Honeycomb tablet [unlike the 10" A500... makes sense, right? - Aaron]- was originally slated to hit the market in late May/early June, but has been delayed until August/September due to restrictions with Honeycomb on a 7-inch, 1024*600 display. Honeycomb was designed to take advantage of 10 inch, 1280*800 displays, and according to Digitimes, Google is too busy "resolving other issues" to tend to this little debacle, so Acer had no choice but to delay the device.
The HTC Dream, launched in 2008 by a then little-known Taiwanese smartphone manufacturer, took the world by storm as the first "Google-phone".
One of the more interesting features of the HTC Flyer is its use of a digital pen, but up until now there has been little talk of its availability. The Digital Pen allows you to write on basically anything you see on the Flyer, including web pages or input boxes, using HTC Scribe technology. I think that there was speculation that the Flyer would come with the digital pen, but that doesn't appear to be the case. The pen has popped up on BestBuyBusiness.com for the not-so-low price of $80, which, given the $500 price tag of the tablet itself, brings the entire package up to almost $600.
We've heard several rumors about when the HTC Flyer would get a Honeycomb update, but now we have something a bit more concrete - this time directly from HTC. According to its official Twitter page, HTC has said that "[they] will be updating Flyer to Honeycomb shortly after launch." We've know for a while that the Flyer would get Honeycomb eventually, but this is the first time that we've gotten wind of any sort of time frame.
While there are certainly tablets on the way that are more anticipated than the Flyer, HTC's 7" slate is coming nonetheless - and now we know when. It will launch "mid April," according to UK site Clove, which is now taking pre-orders for the tablet. Accessories that will be available for purchase along with your flyer include a spare digital stylus (£40), a Micro USB to HDMI cable (£24), and a car charger (£17).
In what could be construed as a white flag being waved before even marching into battle, a new report is saying that HTC will only ship one million of their upcoming Flyer tablets between its launch (which is still unknown) and August. The news comes from a Chinese language newspaper, which also reported that the new slate would set buyers back $600.
HTC took some flak by some during Mobile World Conference for showcasing a 7", single core, Gingerbread running tablet while all the other big dogs were fighting over who has the best 10", dual-core, Honeycomb-running monster. With the tablet market looking more and more like it will soon be the iPad 2 vs. three nearly identical Android competitors, I find HTC's decision to go in an entirely different direction refreshing and was therefore curious about Carrypad's recent hands-on with the slate.
You've seen it: a new Android tablet is featured on some mainstream media's program or website, and you know it's coming, but you still can't help but clench your sphincter muscles just a little when you hear it...