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.

iPad 2 (or 2G) case on sale!

You know you’ve got a pretty good and hot selling product when accessories for your product appear on the market before your products does.

But what’s good about this early accessory release it that we get a slight  glimpse of the upcoming product. And what do we see? Rear facing cameras on the new iPad. Hoorahhh..

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Best Tablet in Malaysia?

Treating yourself to a Christmas present? Or getting it as a gift? Considering a tablet for any of the former?

With the coming of the iPad to Malaysia (finally) and the rising of so many Google Android based tablets (or rather, oversized phones),  curious hearts are eager to purchase and tablet and give it a try for themselves. And after my previous brief introductions to Android tablets here, i decided to rationalize which might be the best out there. So, which will be the most reasonable one to get? Locally in Malaysia, we have quite a few options:

• Apple iPad
• Samsung Galaxy Tab
• CSL Droidpad Spice Mi700
• Toshiba Folio AS100
• Archos 101

The table below is a summary of all the tablet specs worth comparing (click image to enlarge) :

Which one is the one for you? Let me give a few general ideas.

Best Tablet overall?

Apple iPad. Although the iPad has been slow to come to Malaysia, only in December 2010 after being launched in April  2010. This is still no doubt the best tablet that you can get for the price. Apple has it when it comes to ease of use and with tonnes of Apps in the App Store, you’ll be finding something new to do with your iPad everyday. There are many choices of storage capacities (16GB,32GB,64GB) and also connectivity (with or without 3G).

Best Android Tablet?

First of all, you gotta decide, do you want your tablet to have 3G connectivity?

With 3G?

CSL Droidpad Mi700. The only other tablet with 3G is the Samsung Galaxy Tab. Certainly Samsung sounds like a more reputable brand compared to the local CSL, so why the Droidpad?  Let us put is this way; why wouldn’t we choose the Galaxy Tab? The price. For RM2699, the price of the Galaxy Tab is just too high for anyone to recommend buying, especially when Android tablets are still such a new market. Many would be curious to give Android tablets a run and the price is not very encouraging. Even the cheapest iPad with 3G is less than RM2k. Only get the Tab if you are very very certain. Else the Droidpad is the way to go.

Without 3G?

The Toshiba Folio AS100 looks good on paper running the latest Nvidia Tegra2 and is officially available in Malaysia but i would seriously not recommend anything with a custom skin on top of Android. Custom skins which are just crudely made by manufacturer are not optimized and tend to slow down your device.  That leaves us with the Archos101.  Most units on sale arrive from Singapore so if you’ve purchased this, you would have to return it back to your vendor if you need it serviced. Around RM1600-RM1800, this tablet comes with almost everything you need. The big 10″ screen won’t make it lose out to the iPad. It has 8GB or 16GB  internally to get you started and a memory card extension slot if you need more storage. This has 1Ghz processor which makes it snappier compared to the Droidpad. Also, a HDMI port which comes in handy when you want to connect it to a HD TV to share a photo, website or playback video.

Anything less than RM1k?

Well yes but most of these tablet originate from China and mostly take the shape of the Apple Ipad. For around RM800-RM900, you can get an 8″ 800×600 resistive touchscreen tablet, has a 1gz A8 processor, 512mb ram, Wifi and runs Android 2.2. No cameras or 3G functions built in though.  And for the lower price, you’ll have to purchase additional memory cards for increased storage capacity if you need it.

That’s it for my tablet recommendations. Any ideas, or opinions, kindly leave a comment below. Happy shopping.

Update: 26-Dec-2010

If you haven’t gotten your hands on new tablet so far, it might be a good idea to wait till the end of next month (Jan 2011) for new devices. Check news on possible new Motorola tablet here.

Update 2: 29th Dec 2010

Maxis has a new tablet, the Huawei Ideos S7 for as low as RM999 (one year contract) which is a good buy. Check this post.

The iPad 2G is upon us.

OK, so it’s not actually called the 2G (yet) but DiGiTimes is reported to have said that Foxconn plant has been ordered by Apple to begin shipping the iPad 2 within the next 100 days from early December. Sources also said that the iPad 2 will begin shipping from the plants as soon as the end of February 2011. The schedule was originally targeted for January, but since Apple had some slight problems with the new firmware, the date was pushed back to February.

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