SlashGear Week In Review - Week 44 2010
Hey gang, welcome back to another installment of the SlashGear Week in Review. The Samsung Galaxy Tab hit the UK this week starting at £99.99 with a new contract or £529.99 sans contract. The 7-inch slate is expected to sell well all around the world. Logitech unveiled a really cool keyboard this week that is a first for the company and the market. The keyboard is called the Wireless Solar keyboard K750 and gets the power to operate from the sun or the light in your room.
We spied a few more details on the Sony Playstation phone with a new batch of pics turning up. The phone looks a lot like the PSP Go to me. The Xbox 360 got a dashboard update early in the week. The update brought with it some fixes along with ESPN Live on Xbox Live and more.
Stats from Canalys on the smartphone sales numbers were offered up early in the week. The stats show that Android devices are more prolific than other smartphones and that iPhone is the top smartphone in the market. New details on the launch of the ViewPad 7 and ViewPad 10 surfaced with pricing confirmed along with availability. The 7-inch version will launch in Q4 at $479 with the 10-inch version coming in Q1 2011 for $629.
The Blackberry Storm 3 specs were leaked this week. The leak pegs the Storm 3 to sport an 8MP camera, 8GB of storage, 3.7-inch screen and a 1GHz processor. We posted up our review of the Blackberry Style flip phone this week. We found the phone to be "alright" with a rather difficult user interface.
The next iPhone will use NFC tech and according to a source, the device will be able to get remote Mac access. The system would reportedly use the iPhone as an authenticator with user data stored on the handset and in the cloud. The Samsung Galaxy Tab was subjected to a teardown on video this week. The gang at iFixit took the device apart and showed us what the thing looks like on the inside.
Google's Chrome OS was tipped to be launching in November. The OS has been anticipated by some for a long time and the OS is expected to bring with it a Google branded netbook eventually. Michael Dell said at an industry event this week that Windows Phone 7 was easier to develop for than Android. Dell also said that his company would be getting into the tablet market in a big way during 2011.
We put up our review of the HTC Desire Z smartphone this week. We figure that the compromises in size and usability involved with having a physical keyboard will be too much for most users. The LG H1000B Windows 7 tablet computer was outed by the FCC this week. The specs gleaned include WiFi and Bluetooth, the device is expected to show up around CES time.
A gigantic iPhone coffee table with a 58-inch multitouch screen surfaced. The table has an interface for the iPhone and you can actually use the device via the giant table screen. There are some faults in the screens of some MacBook Air notebooks. Those faults include visual glitches and failures among others that are forcing replacements of the screens in both new Air sizes.
Apple's letter to music studios surfaced this week where it was telling the studios that it was upping the preview length on songs to 90-seconds. The crux of the note was agree or take your content with you when you leave. LG's Optimus Pad Android tablet will be coming in early 2011 according to the company. It will have an 8.9-inch screen and a Tegra 2 chip inside.
The screen exploit on the iPhone that allows a user to gain access to the device has been patched. The patch is part of the iOS 4.2 update that should be landing soon. AUO showed off an interesting notebook with a solar keyboard lacking real keys and a screen that shows 3D content needing no glasses. The screen is a 14-inch unit and the machine should be seen at the FPD International expo, it looks all concept to me.
The Panasonic Lumix GF2 turned up this week. The little camera has a touchscreen and a 12.1MP image sensor that can record full HD 1080p video. The Skyfire browser supporting Flash video for the iPhone hit the App Store this week. The app sold so quickly that the company had to pull the app after its servers couldn't handle the video requests from users.
An iPhone 3G user has filed suit against Apple and is looking for class action status. The woman behind the suit alleges that Apple knew the iOS4 update would brick the iPhone 3G and launched it anyway as a way to force users to upgrade. We learned that Notion Ink was set to start taking pre-orders in December on the Adam slate. The device should get FCC approval and might hit the market in time for gift giving.
The Dell Inspiron Duo has been offered up in an official video teaser. The device has a speaker dock and has both tablet and netbook modes, it looks really cool. Apple is working on a fix for the MacBook Air display issue is mentioned earlier. Apparently, one of the issues has the screen fading from dark to light after waking from sleep and at times has horizontal screen flickering.
Calvin Klein has unveiled a set of designer 3D glasses called the ck3D. The glasses will be offered at $180 per pair in December and are the only RealD certified curved lenses on the market. We put up our review of the myTouch 4G smartphone Thursday. The best way to sum it up is that we think it's one of the best Android devices around.
The geeks over at iFixit took a shiny new Microsoft Kinect and tore it to pieces this week. The thing has a single cooling fan and multiple camera lenses inside among lots of other parts. Windows Phone 7 is said to be getting copy & paste in a matter of weeks. As basic and needed as that function is, I never understand why major devices try to launch without it.
We offered up our first impression of the Motorola DEFY smartphone Friday. The device is one of the few rugged Android smartphones around, check out what we thought about the device here. Some awesome Tactile+Plus Stickers surfaced for the iPhone Friday. The stickers stick to the screen of the iPhone and add more feel and accuracy when gaming. Thanks for reading this edition of the Week in Review!