|  |  |  | | | | | Engadget | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Orange, the only cellular network that's also one of your five-a-day has announced that it'll be releasing Sony's Xperia U, HTC One X and One S to smartphone demanding Britons in the second quarter of the year. Depending on your point of view, it's either fantastic or terrible that the network bagged the white edition of Sony's handset as an exclusive, but it's going to tempt some of you to the citrus-side of the force. There's no word on pricing, but we'd expect them to cost something we've heard called "money." While you wait for them to arrive, why not decide on which handset you'd rather purchase by reading our splendid hands-ons with each of the handsets? Xperia U / One X / One S. Xperia U, HTC One X and One S coming to Orange UK originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Feb 2012 08:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
We've been waiting for Lumigon to get around to launching its Android opus for a while now. Fortunately, MWC is precisely the right kind of place for a new company to catch the eye of the mobile press. With Ice Cream Sandwich and Bang and Olufsen involvement, we had to take a look for ourselves.
Developing...Lumigon T2 hands-on at MWC 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Feb 2012 08:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ZTE's LTE FDD, CDMA, EVDO-enabled N910 -- we've also seen it referred to as the N91 -- also popped up at Mobile World Congress, so we gave it a quick once over. The spec sheet isn't bursting with this set but it does pack an 800 x 480 display, 5 megapixel autofocus camera, a 1080p capable front-facing lens, WiFi, Bluetooth, and of course its running Android 4. The N910 is a pretty thick handset as its posterior is a rounded affair, though, it feels hollow, and is impossibly light. Unfortunately for us -- and you -- it refused to power on during our brief visit, even after 10 minutes or so of charging. We will swing back around and see if we can't capture a bit of video, but until then the following gallery will have to do. ZTE 910 hands-on at MWC 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Feb 2012 08:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Well, Panasonic wasn't lying. Turns out, the company's Eluga smartphone is, as promised, quite elegantly designed. The stunning handset, which made its debut at this year's Mobile World Congress, isn't racing towards the finish line with Google's latest OS or even top shelf internals. Rather, this Android device places a heavy emphasis on style, durability and display tech much to the delight of our overloaded mobile-senses. We spent some quality time with device at the company's booth, so click on past the break to get the rundown on our initial impressions.
Developing...Continue reading Panasonic Eluga hands-on Panasonic Eluga hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Feb 2012 08:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | A little more than three years after arriving on Netflix's Watch Instantly streaming service, Starz is packing up its online package of movies and original TV shows and heading home at the end of this month. While the deal brought in high profile movies from Disney and Sony (not to mention shows like Spartacus and Boss), it's also caused problems with the availability of certain movies / features on the Xbox 360, a renegotiation of terms between Starz and Disney followed by the removal of Sony's flicks from the service last year. Finally Starz reportedly asked Netflix to change its pricing strategy to a tiered one, but the companies couldn't agree and renewal negotiations ended September 1st of last year. Netflix is trying to fill the gap with more deals directly with studios and offering its own original shows, while the selection of kid-friendly movies will be supplemented by a Dreamworks arrangement that kicks off in 2013.
That means subscribers have until midweek to enjoy Toy Story 3, Tangled or about 800 (mostly somewhat lesser-known) other movies that may be kicking around in their queues. While Netflix breaks out the Starz Play titles on its site, TVandMoviesNOW has put together a list of all of them, sortable by release date, rating, genre and other items including the 50 or so that are viewable on Amazon's Prime streaming service. We probably won't dive in too deeply since the movies lack HD res and surround sound, but if you haven't seen Party Down yet then this is the time. Starz Play movies disappear from Netflix streaming this week originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Feb 2012 08:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink |  TVandMoviesNOW, Netflix | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ZTE's oddly named -- like most of its sets, honestly -- Mimosa X doesn't bring to mind bubbly champagne breakfast drinks, but it does have a glossy display and Android 4. Packing niceties such as a Tegra2 1.2Ghz processor, 4.3 qHD 960 x 540 display, 8-megapixel camera with 1080p vid recording capability, and HD voice it seems a pretty well aligned device as far as specs go. We immediately noticed that the housing quality is a little weak -- specifically the handset's textured rear -- though, we're hopeful that will be reflected in its sticker price. Speaking of pricing, nothing was mentioned, though we can look to this to land sometime in Q2. ZTE Mimosa X hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Feb 2012 07:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Samsung's Exhilarate was first announced back at CES as AT&T's first sub-$50 LTE phone. It also apparently meets a variety of sustainability and environmental standards, but the FCC wasn't concerned about if it was made of bamboo when it shredded the handset for the public's good. Our boys in blue lab coats were more preoccupied with the internals and despite the small on-contract cost of the device, it's certainly packing some hardware. Beneath that 4-inch super AMOLED display are GSM, WCDMA, LTE Bands 4 and 17, HSPA, GSM, GPRS and EDGE modems as well as the GPS, NFC, Bluetooth and WiFi modules we expect all self-respecting handsets to carry. Given that this emerged from Washington this morning, we can imagine this to start arriving in stores very shortly. Samsung's Exhilarate $50 AT&T LTE phone hits the FCC originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Feb 2012 07:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | FCC | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Multiple goodies on a single chipset? Yes, it's Qualcomm again, this time spreading word at MWC of its new Gobi modems. These will be the first to support both HSPA+ Release 10 (84Mbps on dual carriers) and LTE-Advanced, while two of the new Gobis (the MDM9225 and MDM9625) will additionally support true LTE Category 4 with carrier aggregation, for increased bandwidth across multiple radio channels and speeds of up to 150Mbps. The chips also boast lower power consumption thanks to their 28nm fabrication process, and are backwards compatible with older standards like GSM, EV-DO Advanced, TD-SCDMA and both FDD and TDD types of LTE. Hungry for more 3LAs? You'll find plenty in the press release below. Continue reading Qualcomm's Gobi modem chipsets combine 84Mbps HSPA+, LTE-Advanced Qualcomm's Gobi modem chipsets combine 84Mbps HSPA+, LTE-Advanced originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Feb 2012 07:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ZTE showed up to Barcelona and Mobile World Congress with briefcases overflowing with handsets, we stopped to have a peek at its newest which features a quad-core CPU: the Era. Running the Tegra 3 quad-core processor at 1.3Ghz with an Icera i450 HSPA+ modem, 4.3-inch qHD display, an 8-megapixel camera that'll shoot 1080p video and all that stuffed into a 7.8mm-thin metallic housing. We'd already gotten our mitts on a couple other ZTE sets by the time we ran into the Era, and as far as build quality goes it's head and shoulders above the others. The feel in hand is sort of reminiscent of the Nexus One: outstanding balance and weight. The display quality is bright and crisp and in the short demo we saw, the 3D effects on the home screen are absolutely fluid. We're looking forward to this set, or at least a chance for a little more time to get acquainted. ZTE's quad-core Era hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Feb 2012 07:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Panasonic is keeping busy. Interested by the OLED screened Eluga, but yearning for a bigger screen and the chance dance along the bleeding edge of Android? Then welcome the Eluga Power. With a 5-inch LCD display and Ice Cream Sandwich already on the device, Panasonic was ready to show off its Eluga Power prototype. We had to drop by to see the phone in action and the Japanese manufacturer was more than happy to oblige. Check the gallery below and expect our full first-impressions and a hands-on video very soon. Panasonic Eluga Power: hands-on at MWC 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Feb 2012 07:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Right after ASUS wrapped its Mobile World Congress 2012 press conference, the hundreds of journalists present all honed in on the Padfone -- that 4.3-inch handset whose various accessories can turn it into a 10-inch tablet with a full QWERTY keyboard dock. After the crowds thinned, though, we spotted a red tablet sitting by itself in the corner. That would be the Transformer Pad 300, ASUS' new low-end slate.
On paper, at least, it's a slightly emasculated Prime, with a 10-inch IPS (but not Super IPS+) display and 16GB of storage, not 32GB or 64GB. Otherwise, the key specs remain the same: a quad-core Tegra 3 chip, 1GB of RAM, Android 4.0, 1280 x 800 resolution and dual 8MP / 2MP cameras. (Some models will also have an LTE radio, but that's something we'll have to revisit in a full review.) In any case, we wondered if the 300 would be identical to the Prime in looks as well (those fancy press shots don't always tell an accurate story). Surprisingly, it isn't! Check out the photos below and see if you can spot the differences, and then follow past the break for some quickie impressions.
Continue reading ASUS Transformer Pad 300 hands-on ASUS Transformer Pad 300 hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Feb 2012 07:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Nokia's stand at Mobile World Congress is more of a city than a dingy old booth -- it's absolutely massive, and full of Lumias and PureViews and Ashas (oh my!). As we continue to dissect the entire thing, our adventure has taken us to the Lumia 610. This particular handset is a bit of an anomaly in the mobile world: it's getting a lot of attention not because it's an amazingly powerful and highly specced device, but rather because it's considered a low-ender. It's not too often that this kind of thing happens, considering we often treat budget phones as non-influential, but we envision a device like the Lumia 610 having a dramatic impact on the scope of Windows Phone in global market share and public exposure.
Why could such a simple smartphone make waves at a show crowded with star-studded beauties like Nokia's own 808 PureView or the HTC One X? Because it's among the first to feature Microsoft's latest Windows Phone build. Contrary to our expectations coming into the show, it's not being referred to as Tango -- something that perplexed us during our liveblog of Nokia's event this morning -- but rather a minor refresh that will reach out to every Windows Phone. The update, still considered part of Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango), opens the door for devices running on 256MB of RAM and offers a few other goodies, such as allowing ringtones, videos, audio files and multiple JPEGs on one MMS. The update will also bring compatibility to Chinese mobile operators and plenty more regional availability. That's a major reason why the Lumia 610 is getting so much attention -- it may be the first Windows Phone experience for several regions that don't already have the OS.
It may be obvious that the specs are nothing to write home about. Quite opposite, in fact. But that's not what Nokia's gunning for with the 610, is it? Nay, this one is ever so humble, with its 800MHz Snapdragon S1 CPU, 5MP rear AF camera with LED flash, 3.7-inch WVGA TFT display, 1,300mAh battery and quad-band GSM / EDGE / WCDMA. The build is definitely inexpensive plastic, with chrome edges and a soft-touch back. In other words, keep a firm grip on it at all times. All in all, it feels rather comfortable to hold, though. Its overall performance is precisely on par with the intended price range here. But don't just read our words about the phone -- behold with your own eyes the Lumia 610 with the help of our photos and videos below.
Continue reading Nokia Lumia 610 hands-on (video) Nokia Lumia 610 hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Feb 2012 07:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Remember the ZTE Tania? Well, the Orbit has similar specs, a nicer name and is destined for "major markets" around the world. There's a 4-inch 800 x 480 screen, a single-core 1GHz Qualcomm processor, 5-megapixel camera, 4GB of onboard storage and a full 512MB of RAM. HSDPA data flows at up to 7.2Mbps, while there's also an FM radio, a full complement of sensors, DLNA and NFC. It's scheduled to become available in the second quarter of this year, likely around the same time that the Tania hits the UK. Press release after the break. Continue reading ZTE Orbit is (another) budget Windows Phone: 4-inch display, 1GHz processor, 4GB storage ZTE Orbit is (another) budget Windows Phone: 4-inch display, 1GHz processor, 4GB storage originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Feb 2012 06:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Remember the ZTE Tania? Well, the Orbit has similar specs, a nicer name and is destined for "major markets" around the world. There's a 4-inch 800 x 480 screen, a single-core 1GHz Qualcomm processor, 5-megapixel camera, 4GB of onboard storage and a full 512MB of RAM. HSDPA data flows at up to 7.2Mbps, while there's also an FM radio, a full complement of sensors, DLNA and NFC. It's scheduled to become available in the second quarter of this year, likely around the same time that the Tania hits the UK. Press release after the break. Continue reading ZTE Orbit is (another) budget Windows Phone: 4-inch display, 1GHz processor, 4GB storage ZTE Orbit is (another) budget Windows Phone: 4-inch display, 1GHz processor, 4GB storage originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Feb 2012 06:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Opera's crying "mobile" and letting slip the dogs of browsing here at MWC 2012 with a slew of announcements to please serious web-users. Opera Mini and Opera Mobile 12 have been released today -- the former designed to run on Java-based feature phones, now includes deeper integration to Facebook and Twitter to provide fully-featured social networking for those incapable of downloading apps. Meanwhile, Opera Mobile 12 now includes Ragnarök, the company's HTML5 parser to provide better web apps and advanced functionality as well as WebGL for Android Phones -- which now also get an infinite-scrolling speed dial front page for regularly visited websites. At the same time, it's pushing out a revamped App store based on technology acquired when Opera bought Handster back in September. It's the fifth largest app store by quantity, with 55,000 apps available, although its currently in trouble for offering developers apps to other platforms without the developers permission. After the break we've got a short video and some PR for you to peruse, like carrion men, groaning for burial. Continue reading Opera announces revamped Store, Mini Next and Mobile 12 at MWC (video) Opera announces revamped Store, Mini Next and Mobile 12 at MWC (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Feb 2012 06:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink  Android Central | Opera | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | We're here at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and ASUS just formally unveiled the shape-shifting Padfone -- just like it said it would. Even more than raw specs, what makes the phone striking are its accompanying accessories. Sure, you could use it as a standalone 4.3-inch handset, but i will also be sold with a so-called station that effectively turns it into a 10-inch tablet -- not unlike how you can slip certain Moto handsets inside the company's netbook-like Lapdocks. It will also be sold with an optional keyboard dock (just like the Prime) and -- get this -- a stylus that doubles as a receiver for when you receive phone calls. We elbowed our way to the front of a pack of voracious tech journalists, and stole a few minutes of hands-on time with both the handset and its various accoutrements. Join us past the break for some early impressions and a duo of videos. Continue reading ASUS Padfone hands-on (video) ASUS Padfone hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Feb 2012 06:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | We're just about to get hands-on with ZTE's latest high-spec ICS phone, the Era, but in the meantime here's a heads-up on the main credentials. The guts are all NVIDIA, with a Tegra 3 quad-core processor and an Icera HSPA+ modem. The display has 960 x 540 pixels spread over 4.3-inches of real estate, housed in a razor-like 7.8mm-thick (0.31-inch) slab. The 8GB of onboard memory is expandable via microSD, while there's also HD Voice and Dolby sound processing. ZTE will be looking to release the Era in the second half of this year, and says it's counting on the handset to help it become a "top three handset provider by 2015." More big words in the PR after the break. Continue reading ZTE Era flagship phone brings Tegra 3, 4.3-inch qHD display, 7.8mm chassis ZTE Era flagship phone brings Tegra 3, 4.3-inch qHD display, 7.8mm chassis originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Feb 2012 05:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | If you hadn't noticed, it's Mobile World Congress this week and Google's showing off its enormous booth packed to the gills with smiling green Androids. Andy Rubin insouciantly added that the Android Marketplace has reached its latest milestone: there are now 450,000 apps available for the platform. Other pertinent stats are that over a billion apps are downloaded every month and that 850,000 Android devices are activated each day -- meaning that there's more than 300 million of them worldwide. Of course, that's not the real story here at MWC, it's that the company have brought along a bedazzling booth for guests to glue as many false jewels to their Galaxy Nexus back-plate as their self-respect can handle. Google: 450,000 Android Apps now available to 300 million devices originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Feb 2012 05:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Google | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Remember when we said ASUS was adding another tablet to its stable? Let's bump that number to an even two. ASUS just announced the Transformer Pad 300, a lower-end match to the new Infinity Series (and also made a quick appearance earlier this month). Hilariously (if rapidly aging gadgets can ever be funny), the 300 is, for all intents and purposes, the original Transformer Prime -- until recently the most lustworthy tablet. So far as we can tell, the only differences are that it offers different color choices (blue, white and red), a slightly downgraded display and optional LTE. Once again, it has a Tegra 3 chip, 8MP / 2MP cameras, HDMI and a 10.1-inch, 1280 x 800 IPS display. Interestingly, this guy has a regular 'ole IPS screen, not the 600-nit Super IPS+ panel used on the original Prime and the new Infinity Pad. The 300 also comes with a fixed 16GB of internal storage (expandable via microSD), whereas the original Prime packed 32GB at the lower end. Still, ASUS won't skimp on some things: it ships with ICS, like its brother, and promises up to 10 hours of battery life (that's 15 with the optional keyboard dock, which is an hour less than what the Infinity Series claims). No word yet on availability, so expect some further announcements in the coming months with pricing specific to different regions.
ASUS outs lower-end Transformer Pad 300 tablet with 16GB of storage and 1280 x 800 display originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Feb 2012 05:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Broadcom's taken the chance to bust out some killer new internals for Android phones here at MWC. The new range of SoCs are optimized for Ice Cream Sandwich, based on single or dual-core 40-nanometer ARM Cortex A9s. The BCM21654G has a 1GHz CPU, integrated HSPA modem and VGA video support, it's likely we'll see this popping up in budget phones. The romantically named BCM28145 and BCM28155 are dual-core chips with HSPA+ modems and can handle 720p and 1080p video respectively. All dual-core chips will come with a "videocore," a third low-power chip to handle video playback without occupying the main CPU and draining power as well as an Image Signal Processor chip that can support cameras up to 42-megapixels (glances across to the Nokia 808). Other options you'll find appearing in the cellphones of tomorrow include hybrid GPS / Glonass units, low-power NFC and active dual-SIM capability. If you're a garage-based cellphone manufacturer and want to grab some of these for your own business, head on past the break for some PR. Continue reading Broadcom releases new Ice Cream Sandwich-optimized chipsets at MWC Broadcom releases new Ice Cream Sandwich-optimized chipsets at MWC originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Feb 2012 05:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Just like it said it would, ASUS has formally unveiled its versatile, form-changing Padfone at Mobile World Congress. There are two stories here, and they're both quite compelling, frankly. On the one hand, you've got yet another high-end device, with a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED qHD display, Snapdragon's new dual-core S4 chip, an Adreno 225 GPU, Ice Cream Sandwich and an 8-megapixel rear camera with an LED flash and f/2.2, autofocusing lens. (The front camera records at VGA resolution.) Other specs include 16 to 64GB of internal storage (expandable via microSD), Bluetooth 4.0, HDMI, GPS, A-GPS, a gyroscope, 1,520mAh battery and a compass. Connectivity options include WCDMA (900, 2100 MHz), EDGE / GPRS / GSM (850, 1800 and 1900 MHz) and HSPA+, with theoretical download speeds topping out at 42Mbps. Barring LTE, we wouldn't expect much less from a flagship launched at the world's premier wireless show.
But those are just specs. If you focus solely on its chip and 9.2mm-thick frame you'd be missing its most distinguishing attribute: it's ability to parade around in tablet's clothing (albeit, with the help of some optional, still-unpriced accessories.) Taking a cue from Motorola's Lapdock-friendly handsets, the Padfone can slide into an optional station that effectively allows you to use it as if it were a 10.1-inch tablet. Like the optional docks sold alongside ASUS' Transformer tablets, the station not only improves the ergonomics, but also extends the battery life -- in this case, by five-fold. Speaking of keyboard docks, ASUS will be selling one for this product, too, so that you can tuck that 10-inch phone-tablet into something with a full physical keyboard. Finally, there's that guy you see up there, which looks like a stylus (and is!), but also doubles as a headset for receiving calls. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the future.
Unfortunately, ASUS stopped short of revealing any pricing or availability details, so you'll have to stay tuned for some country-specific details. For now, though, we're planning on getting hands-on with the device as soon as we can, giving you a much closer look than we were able to when we spied a prototype back at CES.
ASUS Padfone formally launched: 4.3-inch Super AMOLED display, Snapdragon S4 CPU, ICS, HSPA+ originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Feb 2012 05:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Yes, another one. Less than four months after announcing the original T201 Transformer Prime and slightly modified TF700T, ASUS is adding uno má s to the collection. And don't be fooled by the name: though the company is rebranding its tablet line "Transformer Pads," the newly announced Infinity Series looks a lot like a tablet we've already seen. Essentially, it's the TF700T with a dual-core Qualcomm MSM 8960 Snapdragon S4 CPU and an optional LTE radio. Now, before you gasp that ASUS has ditched NVIDIA, hear this: there will still be a Tegra 3 option, but that's just the WiFi-only version; the 3G / 4G versions will pack the S4 chip. Additionally, there will be a lower-end 16GB option (the TF700T was only available in 32GB and 64GB flavors). Otherwise, the specs are the same, including a quad-core Tegra 3 SoC, dual 8MP / 2MP cameras, 1GB of RAM, HDMI, and a 10.1-inch, 1920 x 1200, Super IPS+ Gorilla Glass display. This time around, it has Gorilla Glass 2, but that's a mild spec bump indeed. Unlike the original Prime, which shipped with Honeycomb but updated to Ice Cream Sandwich shortly after going on sale, the Infinity Pad will run Android 4.0 out of the box. It also comes with 8GB of free lifetime ASUS WebStorage and is rated for 10 hours of battery life (16 with that signature keyboard dock, sold separately). No word yet on pricing or availability. In any case, though, we wouldn't be surprised if ASUS gave birth to another tablet between now and then. ASUS rebrands its tablets 'Transformer Pads,' announces the high-end Infinity Series with either Tegra 3 or Snapdragon's S4 chip originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Feb 2012 05:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | If there was a theme for today's Nokia keynote, and, by extension, Microsoft's plans for Windows Phone, it's that the OS is being targeted toward lower-spec phones worldwide. The SDK update that'll soon roll out to developers will include an emulator for developers to ensure their apps work on devices like the Lumia 610 that only has 256MB RAM. The company's promising that nearly all apps will work on the cheaper hardware, promising that fragmentation will be kept to a minimum. Any app that runs poorly on the slimmer hardware will be flagged as unsuitable in the Marketplace. Speaking of which, Microsoft has announced it'll be rolling it out to a further 23 countries shortly including China, the UAE and much of Eastern Europe -- increasing the total market reach by up to 60 percent. Microsoft lowers hardware requirements, opens Marketplace to 23 more countries originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Feb 2012 05:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Microsoft, (2) | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  | |  | |  |
