LG's 4-inch Android phone with dual-core Tegra 2 and 1080p video coming in early 2011
Wow. LG did say it’d bring some heat to its Android Optimus line and here’s our first look at it, folks! An 8 megapixel camera-wearing, 1080p video-recording, dual-core superphone to appease all the spec fanatics out there. Aimed for release early next year, as the very first dual-core Android handset, this device will finally bring NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 into the smartphone realm. Our tipster tells us it’s codenamed Star internally, though that’s certain to change in the final product nomenclature. You might think that massive Google logo on the back would imply stock Android and you’d be right — we’re told it’ll be a nearly untouched representation of the Google OS, though it’s still not clear which version it’ll be. We’ve also spotted a front-facing camera on the front, while the innards include microSD memory expandability, microUSB connectivity, and a 1500mAh battery.
Official Google Voice app for iPhone hits the App Store
A few weeks after third-party apps started filtering in, Google’s launched its own Google Voice app for the iPhone, and it looks to have all the most important features: call and text support, push notifications, and voicemail access (including transcriptions). It’s available right now — US only at the moment — on iPhones with iOS 3.1 or higher as long as you’ve got a valid Google Voice account set up… so get to it.
Panasonic says it will start selling Android-based smartphones in Japan next year, overseas in 2012
Panasonic may not be new to cellphones, but it has sat out of the smartphone explosion of recent years — an oversight that it’s now apparently looking to correct. Speaking at a news conference today, the head of Panasonic’s mobile division, Osamu Waki, said flatly that the compmany “misjudged the speed at which smartphones would be taken up in the Japanese market,” and that “with the rapid shift to Android, we want to catch up quickly.” Exact details on how it plans to catch up are expectedly still a bit light, but Panasonic’s phones will indeed be based on Android, and it apparently hopes to differentiate them by emphasizing their networking capabilities with other Panasonic products. As for when the first ones will roll out, Panasonic plans to kick off sales in Japan sometime next year, with overseas markets set to follow in 2012.
Exo PC slate review
Why have a tablet PC running a mobile OS (iOS 4 or Android) when you can have one running a full version of Windows 7 Home Premium edition.
That’s the argument you are likely to hear from Exo PC, makers of a new slate/tablet device that is coming out in the very near future.
The new tablet, which Pocket-lint is the first to see in the UK, will sport a very responsive 11.6-inch LCD touchscreen with a 1366 x 768 resolution and be powered by a 1.66GHz Intel Pineview-M N450 processor.
You get 2GB of on-board RAM and storage options of 32GB or 64GB to complete with the Apple iPad.
The rest of the specs read like a mobile phone, complete with Wi-Fi (b/g/n), Bluetooth, a 1.3-megapixel forward facing camera for video calling, and an SD card reader so you can add pictures or video from your camera.
For all intense purposes this is a netbook PC without the keyboard or clamshell design. You can of course just plug in a keyboard and mouse to complete the experience if that’s what you are after.
Which is where the naysayers are probably going to say that you shouldn’t even consider using a user interface that is designed for a mouse and keyboard – Windows 7 we are looking at you.
Funny you should say that, because that’s what the chaps at Exo PC think too and so they’ve created a customised user interface (UI), called the Exo skin, to make the most of that touch screen design.
What that means is you end up with an interface that looks very much like the game Connect 4 (yes you can get this as a game) with apps appearing on buttons ready for you to press – allowing you to quickly and easily access apps, but with the knowledge that there is a fully functioning operating system sitting behind it all including Flash and Quicktime support.
ASUS Eee Tablet to be renamed, will head to market in early 2011
You remember that ASUS Eee Tablet that was unveiled back at Computex in June, right? Of course you do, it looked like a pretty great e-reader / note-taking gadget, but oddly we haven’t heard a peep about it since. Obviously, the “tablet” with its 2,450 dpi touchscreen sensitivity and quick 0.1 second page turns missed its September release date, however, according to ASUS it’s still kicking and is being renamed — we hear Digital Note and Eee Note are potential choices. So, when will you finally be able to take notes on its 8-inch 1024 x 768 pixel panel? ASUS tells us that it will be demoed at CES and officially launched in the first quarter of 2011 — although, it may be available in Europe slightly earlier depending on local content partnerships. No confirmation on that “under $599” price we had heard whispers of, but here’s hoping we hear a bit more on this one before we touch down in Vegas.
AIVAnet 