We already told you about some hot deals on the Acer Iconia Tab A500. If you are in the market for the 32GB version, CompUSA might have the best deal, which is $449 with a $100 CompUSA gift card. If you fancy the 16GB version, they are offering the same deal as Target, which is $399 along with the same $100 gift card. Who is grabbing one?
We initially reported on the Xperian Pro coming to Fido back at the end of July, and now its here for your viewing pleasure. Canada wireless service provider Fido has added a new Android device to its quite limited line-up. Up until now Fido carried a total of 3 Android phones, the Samsung Nexus S, Acer Liquid E and the LG Optimus 2X, all of wich are decent devices. In comes the Xperia Pro to upgrade Fido’s Android resume by offering specs such as, Android 2.3 Gingerbread, powered by a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, 8.1 megapixel camera and 3.7-inch display.
If your in Canada, and you’re a customer of Fido you just might want to look into this deal. Although you’ll be stuck in a 3yr agreement with Fido, you can get this new Gingerbread phone with slide-out keyboard for $50. Another option is to take the easy way out, yet a little more expensive and sign-up with no contract for a price of $350.
[via engadget]
According to Acer’s Malaysian Facebook page, Acer Iconia Tab A500 owners will receive an Android 3.2 OTA update on August 25th due to a delay from Google regarding “poicy changes”. Even with the delay, this new update will be less than two months after the tablet’s Android 3.1 release.
Acer posted this to it’s wall:
“Dear Fans, due to some policy changes from Google where Acer has to comply, the A500 Honeycomb 3.2 OTA update will be postponed to 25th August, we apologize for the disappointments and upsets but we will be bringing the final and stable update to all of our A500 fans asap! Please be patient guys”
Any Acer Iconia Tab A500 users out there chomping at the bit for some Honeycomb? Leave us a comment below!
[via facebook]
Remember the Acer Iconia Smart? How could you, with its massive 4.8-inch display? Is it a phone or a tablet? Yes, to answer your question. We’ve finally received some word on a release date courtesy of Acer’s Facebook page. According to Acer, the device is slated for a release date in September. The device’s specs still remain the same sporting a 4.8-inch capacitive touch display, a single core Snapdragon CPU, Gingerbread 2.3 and dual cameras. You can expect to pay close to a whopping $710.00 bucks US for the monster. That’s a little pricey for yesterday’s specs if you ask me. However, to each his own. We would have liked to at least seen a dual-core chip set on board. Feel free to leave us your thoughts in the comments below.
The Acre Iconia Tab A500 running Android 3.0 was slated to be receiving an update to Android 3.1 down the road here, but it seems it made its way to China before anywhere else. We all know what happens when updates get released…they get shared! Now, owners of the Acer Iconia Tab can download and install the Android 3.1 update right from XDA-Developers link below. The update will be a manual one, so you’ll need to download the ‘update.zip’ and put it on the root of your tabs internal storage to install from there by rebooting into recovery and installing from SD. Always a good idea to backup your OS first in the event something goes wrong. better to be safe than sorry. Happy updating!
[via engadget, xda-developers]
Regular TalkAndroid readers may have noticed that I have been strangely absent the past week. (What do you mean you haven’t noticed a difference? That’s not nice!) Well, there’s a very good reason for this! You see, this was there was this small event called the Electronic Entertainment Expo (known within the industry as E3) — perhaps some of you have heard of it. For those unfamiliar with the event, E3 is an opportunity for video game publishers, developers, and hardware manufacturers to get together with the media and show off what they’re working on. Well, there was a bit of an Android presence there this year, and in order to bring our dear readers every last drop of Android news available, TalkAndroid was there! That’s right, I sacrificed my time, money, and my feet (and I’m REALLY serious about that last one!) to scour the Los Angeles Convention Center to bring you guys every scrap of Android coverage I could find! While there will be several in-depth looks upcoming in the next 3-4 days, I thought I’d give you guys a little sneak peek of what we have in store!
» Read the rest
Here is a tablet from Acer that’ll be sporting the tablet designed mobile operating system, Android 3.0. As of late, in this race for tablet domination, the processor often found powering them is an Nvidia Tegra. This device in-particular will be powered by Intel’s processor for tablets, the Atom Z670 Oak Trail.
This specific processor is set to run at 1.5GHz, support 1080p video, HDMI, via Intel’s GMA 600 integrated graphics, improved video playback, faster Internet browsing and longer battery life.
“Sources from upstream component players” say that the Acer device is slated for release in July. Also that the Acer device is already being mass produced. Lenovo and Asustek Computer are said to be inline to follow in Acer’s footsteps, and jump on board with Intels Oak Trail platform.
[via engadget]
With the Motorola Xoom being the first tablet to get Honeycomb 3.1, where does this leave other tablets? We know the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 will ship with it pre-installed. ASUS and Acer have announced that they will be updating the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer and the Acer Iconia Tab A500 to Honeycomb 3.1 in June.
You can expect the update to be over-the-air and it will bring performance improvements, UI enhancements like stretchable widgets, a new task switcher, and support for USB peripherals.
LG said they will be updating as well, but would not commit to a date.
With the competition heating up in the tablet war, lets hope all the manufacturers recognize that they need to get these updates quicker rather than later.
[via intomobile]
The folks over at androidcentral have stumbled upon some interesting news. A non retail, working display model of the tablet has been sent to Target. The picture shows that the supposed release date might be May 15. Knowing you can get them for $450 at Best Buy, does anyone else think a pricing war could be in the near future? A lot of vendors are already doing this with phones, perhaps tablet will be next? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
[via androidcentral]
The media seems convinced that Android tablets will not be able to keep up with the IPad. One article even refers to them as dead on arrival. After seeing the success of the Android OS in mobile, it is clear that it is only a matter of time before Android will dominate Apple in the tablet war.
Lets review how it all went down with the phones. Google’s first Android phone, the G1, debuted in late 2008. Anybody looking back in the summer of 2009 would probably say that it was not looking good for Android’s chances in putting a dent into the IPhone market share. The software was still young, needed work, and it did not have the backing of a major carrier. Flash forward to November 2009 when the Droid debuted with Android 2.0 Eclair on Verizon Wireless. About 1 year later the reports were showing that the Android OS had topped Apple’s IOS in the US and in many other parts of the world. How did they do it? They did it with multiple manufacturers blitzing the market with a tremendous amount of support from Verizon Wireless with the Droid brand.