The new Asus FonePad merges cellular voice calling with a small tablet. I actually had this functionality in 2010 with the Galaxy Tab but US carriers stripped the voice features. They’re likely to do the same again. Read more »
Leap Motion, which invented a gesture-based user interface that tracks movement in a 3-D space, has raised $30 million in second round funding. The startup plans to use the money to scale its peripheral device, and has the chance thanks to a bundling deal with ASUS. Read more »
Goodbye Eee PC and all other netbooks from Asus; the company is no longer producing the small laptops. Acer followed Asus into the netbook market and is following it out as well. What happened to this once quickly growing market? Tablets disrupted the space. Read more »
Tired of synchronizing data, media and apps between a phone and a tablet? Asus is hoping so; the company introduced the PadFone 2, a powerful Google Android phone that docks into a thin 10.1-inch tablet shell and powers the slate for dozens of hours. Read more »
Market research firm IHS iSuppli shows that iPad shipments surged in Q2 2012, as Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble’s Nook Tablets saw major drops. Kindle Fire’s share of the media tablet market fell to 4.2 percent, with B&N’s at 1.9 percent. Read more at paidContent »
Apple put more distance between itself and tablet competitors last quarter, moving from a 62 percent share of the market in Q2 2011, to a 68 percent share this year. But an influx of smaller and cheaper iPad alternatives is coming by the end of the year. Read more »
Despite its current decline, RIM is a different firm today than it was in 2007, with new management, a full awareness of its shaky position, an upcoming OS release and a number of lingering advantages that can still be leveraged. Here’s how it just might survive. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
The wait for a Nexus 7 dock may not be much longer. According to leaked images and details, a $49.99 landscape dock is planned to launch in late August, along with a premium Nexus 7 case. Sounds legit since the original images were removed “by request”. Read more »
That $199 Nexus 7 tablet Google sells directly to consumers costs $151.75 in materials, suggesting that Google is earning a profit on the hardware, supplementing sales of software, ads and services. With a low-cost tablet platform making a profit, others are sure to follow; even Apple. Read more »
After showing off its high-end Transformer Prime at CES, the wait for the newest Asus tablet is nearly over: The renamed Transformer Pad Infinity TF700 launches in the U.S. the week of July 16 and will cost $499 for a 32 GB model. Read more »
At Computex, Asus introduced numerous new computer designs for Microsoft Windows 8, covering laptops, desktops, Ultrabooks and more. There’s even one laptop with two screens. But the smartest move by Asus is to re-use the popular design from its Android tablet and dock, the Transformer Prime. Read more »
Bluestacks, makers of PC software that can run Android apps, scored a big partnership with Asus. On Monday, at the yearly Computex show in Taipei, the company will announce that 30 million Asus computers will include Bluestacks’ app player, bringing Android mobile apps to Windows PCs. Read more »
Although not officially announced yet, some details of an anticipated Google Nexus Tablet are surfacing online. Our own server logs shows 92 recent visits from Android 4.1 devices in California where Google is based. Here’s what we know and what we expect from Google’s Nexus Tablet. Read more »
For developers, consumers and even carriers, Android seems irreparably broken. But Google’s not likely to “fix” Android anytime soon, because despite the fragmentation problem, the company is getting what it wants: massive amounts of user data. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
The Asus Transformer Prime tablet now has a cheaper cousin called the Transformer Pad TF-300 and reviews are starting to trickle in. The Pad starts at $380 and has a $150 dock option. My look at the HTC One S smartphone shows a premium handset experience. Read more »
Asus is launching its modular PadFone handset and tablet in Taiwan, giving consumers the option to power a tablet with a phone. The 4.3-inch Android 4.0 handset looks and behaves like a traditional smartphone but fits into a 10.1 tablet shell, which is a touchscreen display. Read more »
The Google Nexus tablet rumor is closer to reality with reports that Google will sell hardware from Asus and Samsung directly to consumers. The stylus isn’t holding back Samsung’s Galaxy Note; it passed 5 million sales. And Opera Mini can save on your data plan usage. Read more »
The Hulu Plus mobile app is now available for Android tablets, complete with an updated user interface. The software has a visual redesign offering easier navigation on large touchscreen devices. But not every Android tablet owner can use the software; only seven devices are supported. Read more »
(Updated to include Hasbro response)
In a court ruling that reads at times like a pop culture or consumer gadget review, a federal judge ga… Read more at paidContent »
Cloud computing, mobile computing and the consumerization of IT combine to create another force that overwhelms IT departments: complexity, including complexity of devices and applications, physical and virtual computing environments, and related challenges for IT staff. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
The $249 Asus MeMo Android tablet shown off at January’s Consumer Electronics Show is expected to be the first Google Nexus tablet with a price target of $149 to $199. To lower the price, Asus may be dropping Nvidia’s Tegra 3 for a dual-core chip. Read more »
By 2016, one-third of the U.S. population will own a tablet, says Forrester. This figure — 112.5 million people — is an upward revision due to two names in the tablet market: Apple and Amazon. All other tablet makers should leave Android for Windows, says Forrester. Read more »
Rumors of a $199 Google Nexus tablet are making the rounds, but even if true, such a device alone won’t solve the primary problem Android tablet owners face. Google has to do a better job at courting developers, supporting dev hardware and building out its ecosystem. Read more »
Low-priced media tablets sold well in 2011, with an estimated 7.5 million units combined from Amazon and Barnes & Noble. On Thursday, iHS noted that tablets from these two companies accounted for 11 percent of the total market. But it wasn’t the iPad that was hurt. Read more »
The Asus Transformer Prime has several “firsts” for 2012. It’s the first tablet to use Google’s Android 4.0 software. And it’s the first tablet to run on Nvidia’s Tegra 3 quad-core chip. So does first equal best? In this case, yes for those who like Android. Read more »
Mobile World Congress is still three weeks and an ocean away, but Samsung is already threatening to steal the show. Analytics blog Anlytk has compiled Twitter data on the most referenced terms surrounding MWC and found that Samsung is already generating an enormous amount of buzz. Read more »
This year’s CES was the biggest in the show’s 44-year history. It boasted 15 miles of exhibit hall aisles, 3,100 booths and 153,000 attendees. It is easy to be jaded by the endlessly repetitive products, but the thousands of innovations point toward a future of connectivity. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 7.7 is in the house as is the Asus Transformer Prime with Ice Cream Sandwich. Hear early impressions on these new tablets from Matt and Kevin, along with thoughts on Nokia’s Windows Phone performance to date. Plus a good Android browser gets better! Read more »
Asus kicked things up a notch at CES with the Transformer Prime and Nvidia’s Tegra 3 processor, making for the best tablet gaming I’ve seen yet. The Transformer Prime with keyboard dock should run for at least 18 hours; here’s a look at this potent portable. Read more »
Rivaling Asus’s Transformer Prime, Lenovo is showing off its own tablet with keyboard dock at the Consumer Electronics Show. The dual-core IdeaPad S2 weighs just 1.1 pounds, runs Google Android 4.0 out of the box and lasts for 20 hours with an optional keyboard dock. Read more »
Hasbro is suing California computer maker Asus, saying the company’s new Transformer Prime tablet violates trademarks related to popular chi… Read more at paidContent »
We’ve seen Android 4.0, also known as the Ice Cream Sandwich version of Google’s mobile platform, on a phone, but not on tablets. That changes with this video from Nvidia, showing off 1080p video and 3D gaming thanks to the Tegra 3 inside ASUS’s Transformer Prime. Read more »
More evidence, if it were needed, that Europe is increasingly becoming a mobile-centric culture, with figures showing that France’s smartphone market has grown 34 percent in the last year. Read more »
Google rocked the mobile world on Monday, August 15, with the news that it will buy Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion, marking a 63-percent premium for the handset manufacturer. It’s a move that ushers Google into the exclusive club of companies that control both the hardware and software elements of their smartphone offerings, and it will enable Google to design handsets that are more closely integrated with Android. However, the deal doesn’t come without its risks, and it remains to be seen just how it will affect other handset makers, competition from Microsoft and the crucial patent issues currently surrounding Google. Companies mentioned in this report include Apple, Research In Motion and Samsung. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
The non-iPad tablet market is relatively young, but the iPad is still running away with the lion’s share of the tablet market. Aside from the iPad, consumers and enterprises can choose from tablets running on Android, BlackBerry and webOS. But are they buying? Here are a ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Tablets have gone mainstream, and now those devices — from the iPad to Research in Motion’s new PlayBook — are headed to the enterprise. This trend is largely driven by end users who prefer to bring their own devices to work, which is creating a fruitful marketplace for both hardware manufacturers and app developers. This report examines the current state of tablets in the enterprise, from use cases to market drivers, and analyzes which players will be worth watching in the coming months. Additional companies mentioned in this report include Apple, Google, Samsung and Nokia. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
After teasing with Android tablets in January, hardware makers are finally launching products. Three new models were announced this week and the Wi-Fi editions are priced less than Apple’s iPad. The $249 Nook Color e-reader is still a bargain and about to gain its own apps Read more »
ASUS is launching its Eee Pad Transformer, a Google Android Honeycomb tablet with optional keyboard dock, for less than a comparable iPad 2. Based on similar (or better) specs, the Eee will give us the first glimpse at how well Honeycomb competes with Apple’s tablet. Read more »
Which gadgets on store shelves are the greenest right now? From the show floor of the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Greenpeace says that would be gadgets from Asus, as well as HP, Acer, Sharp, Sony Ericsson, and Samsung. Read more »
ASUS kicked off the Consumer Electronics Show with four new tablet computers, ranging in size from 7-12 inches. Three of the Eee Pads will use the Honeycomb version of Android and dual-core processors while the fourth is an Intel-powered Microsoft Windows 7 slate. Read more »
