Motorola’s new 10″ tablet with Honeycomb

On December 14th 2010, during the Dive Into Mobile conference in San Francisco, Andy Rubin from Android showed off a prototype Android tablet, running the latest version of Android called Honeycomb. It showcased improved functionality of Android on bigger screen called tablet, where you get different fragmentation (or columns) of a screen, instead a small smartphone screen dedicated to one function at a time. Check out the video below, sample of new Gmail app with fragments at 5:20.

The prototype tablet is made by Motorola and based on some early photos, it seems like the tablet will be sold first on an American telco called Verizon. Check out the photo gallery from Engadget here.

The tablet is running on the latest processor called Tegra 2 from Nvidia, which features a dual core processor and also better built in graphics chip. Motorola will officially launched this tablet at an event called CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas early next month (January 2011).

Motorola has already made some teaser video for the new tablet, comparing it to some ‘ancient’ tablets like the iPad and the Samsung Galaxy Tab. The honey bee appearing at the end of the video confirms the fact the it will be running the new Android Honeycomb.

Finally, the new Motorola Tablet is rumoured to be called Motorola Xoom which i think is a good name, instead of having usual names that associate to something flat like Pad, Slate, Tab or even Book. You don’t really hope to hear another name like MotoPad, MotoSlate, MotoTab, etc bla bla bla, do you? We’ll only really know at the event.  Price of this tablet is also still unknown at the moment.

Hopefully we’ll see Malaysian telcos like Maxis to bring in this Motorola tablet like they did the Samsung Galaxy Tab. Time to ditch the old Samsung tablet which runs Android OS built for phones and bring in the new tech. Don’t expect Samsung to put the new Honeycomb on the Galaxy Tab anytime soon. Samsung is VERY VERY slow at updating their software once the device has been released. Samsung has updated some, but not all their Galaxy S phones to Android 2.2 Froyo. FYI, Samsung modified the Galaxy S for different parts of the world so there are many variants of it, namely the European and Asian Galaxy S, US AT&T Captivate, US T-Mobile Vibrant, US Sprint Epic 4G, US Verizon Fascinate, Samsung Continuum, etc . That is a lot of phones. Detailed list here at the Samsung Galaxy S Wikipedia page. And Samsung is getting left behind further as Android 2.3 Gingerbread is already out. Next month Android 2.4 Honeycomb is coming.. I very much doubt Samsung can keep up.

Best Phones of 2010

Christmas is here, christmas is here…typically the time of the year when telcos will be in a merry mood and give promotions on their phone prices (hopefully). Not sure of which to get? Check out recommendations from Steve himself on the Phones Show 127. A slight warning though, non of these phones are below the RM1000 mark.  To summarize:

• Media creator: Nokia N8  (for the high resolution 12mp camera and xenon flash)
• Communications junkie: HTC Desire HD  (for the huge screen and HTC sense with integrated social networks. I was personally expecting something with a hardware keyboard though)
• Hardcore gamer: iPhone 4  (iOS has the best mobile games around)
• Media consumer: Nokia N8  (for HDMI out to connect to your TV and USB OTG that reads most USB mass storage devices)
• Work addict: Nokia E7 or HTC Desire Z?  (No suitable phone yet actually)
• Tech enthusiast/Hacker:  Google Nexus One  (Updates, updates and more updates, plus hackability. Still more solid and well made than the new Nexus S)
• Web-a-holic: HTC Desire HD  (for the big screen, plus flash support)
• Normobs (normal mobile users): iPhone 3GS  (the best of the iPhone 4, with a affordable price)

Actual YouTube video below,  phone recommendations start at 1:21.

Google Maps 5.0 with 3D

The latest version of Google Maps is out and this is version 5.0. What’s new in 5.0?

Google maps is now able to show the world to you in 3D. According to Google, they now use vector graphics to dynamically draw the map. So what you’ll see on your map is a 3D outline of the buildings. I have downloaded and tried it, and the 3D maps works, only in certain parts of the world. It does not work in Malaysia. Sigh.., Google Navigation does not work either, among other things.

Map view in New York, then KLCC in Malaysia below. As you can see, 3D buildings work in NYC, but not in KL. I kid you not, these are taken from the same phone (if you note the status bar).

While you’re here, have a look at the promo video which Google made about the latest 5.0 maps.

[source]

 

Update: 23-DEc-2010

Can’t find Google Maps in your Android market? Read this post.

Nexus S(amsung)

Google has release their new Nexus phone, called the Nexus S, made by Samsung. It comes pre-loaded with the latest version of Android 2.3 or code named Gingerbread. Specifications of the Nexus S are as follows:

• 1GHz Cortex A8 (Hummingbird) processor
• 512MB ram, 16GB internal storage
• 4.0″ touchscreen, WVGA (800 x 480)
• 802.11 b/g/n, AGPS
• 5.0MP camera with flash
• Lithium Ion (Li-Ion) (1500 mAH)

[source]

In the history of the Nexus S, it was rumoured to be known as the Nexus Two (naturally after the Nexus One). But it seems like Samsung wasn’t happy that their Google product is going to be named number two after the HTC made Nexus One. So the name was changed to Nexus S from Nexus Two instead.

The only thing that i find interesting about the Nexus S is that is had Android 2.3 already loaded. Other than that, i’m not a very big fan of Samsung phones. Samsung is indeed selling a lot of phones with the Galaxy series but in my opinion, the earlier Galaxy S feels cheap and light and if the Nexus S is just another variant of that, then i will definitely hate the feel of the phone. Unlike the HTC made Nexus One and similar HTC Desire, the phone feel solid and have a bit of weight in your hands. Personally i will still have preferred that the next Google phone be made by HTC.

And does anyone remember the lag problem on the Galaxy phone due to the file system implemented by Samsung? I dont really know how it works but apparently the phone will definitely lag lag lag when you try to access the phone storage. I hope this is not the case with the Samsung made Nexus. Also, if it isnt bad enough, the Nexus S doesnt have removable memory card slot, so you’re stuck with the built in 16GB (unless you tear the phone apart and find the memory card hidden far inside).

The phone isnt out yet but i’m already disliking it to its guts.

[Update: 11-Dec-2010]

Carphone warehouse has started a pre-order for the Nexus S, priced at 545.95GBP (around RM2.7k at current rate) on pay-as-you-go (their definition of prepaid). Wow, that’s rather price, isn’t it? [source]

Also, Phonedog has uploaded this video of the unboxing of the Google Nexus S. Check it out.

And once you’re done with the unboxing, you can also have a look at the short hands-on video posted by Engadget. [source]
http://www.viddler.com/simple/f98ef4e2/