Proof that the iPhone 4 and Galaxy Tab have had sex

I just got a very random, no-bullshit pitch from Marvel Digital (some Hong Kong company I’ve never heard of) for their TBT-10C 7″ Mercury Pad. If the iPhone 4 and 7″ Samsung Galaxy Tab had a random encounter at the Christmas party and this would be the unwanted bastard child.

The email just said the name of the product, listed its specs, listed the price, linked to the video I’ve embedded below, and said nothing else. It was actually kind of cool that there was no pitch. If that’s not exactly what most Internet geeks are looking for, I don’t know what is.

So here are the specs…

CPU : 1GHz Samsung S5PV210, ARM Cortex-A8 processor
Memory : DDR2 512MB
Storage : 4GB/8GB/16GB
OS: Android 2.3
LCD : 7″TFT, 16:9, 800 x 480
Touch Screen : Capacitive Multitouch
Camera : 0.3M forward facing 2 megapixel regular
SD Card : MicroSD up to 32GB
HDMI : 1080P HD Video Output
USB : USB Host 2.0, USB Device 2.0
Audio : Built-in Stereo Speaker, 3.5mm Stereo Headphone, Built-in Microphone
WIFI : 802.11 b/g
3G : External USB 3G Modules only (HUAWEI:E220, E1750, E156G, ZTE:MF637U)
G-Sensor : 360 Degree G-Sensor
Battery : 2250 mAH
Power : 9V/2A power adapter (100 – 240v input)
Power jack : 9V/2A power adapter (100 – 242v input)
Weight : 510 g

Here’s the price…
$259

and here’s ten minutes before this baby was conceived…

CES 2011 Android Wishes and Predictions

Tomorrow is Christmas and all I can think about is all the new stuff I’m going to have to keep track of at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show in the first week of January. It’s going to be my fifth year in attendance as a professional journalist, and the previous years I’ve gone are starting to blend together in my mind. Fortunately, I can gauge the year in history by the amount of Android stuff I see there. Two years ago, there was only the smallest bit of Android-based stuff because the first open source version of the OS was only just released. Last year, the presence had increased significantly, and I saw a lot of new smartphones, a couple of e-reader/tablets and a couple of strange and unique contributions like desktop video phones and Android-powered Microwaves.

This year, aside from the Verizon LTE Android phone that we’re expecting, everyone thinks CES 2011 is going to be all about tablets.

I have my reservations about that prediction.

Yes, Motorola is undoubtedly revealing an Android tablet of some sort, and LG, NEC and Dell have all said they will be showing something off too…but other than that the field is pretty wide open.

Speaking of LG though, there’s a company who’s in the Android space way less than it should be. Last year I saw two Android phones from LG, and earlier this year the company pledged more presence in the area, but frankly I was highly unimpressed with its smartphone attempts. Many of the phones LG showed off last year were solidly based in the pre-iPhone, post BlackBerry design ethic. The company’s got a lot of clout in consumer electronics, but last year it looked to be focused solidly on its TV sector, maybe a tablet would kickstart interest in their smartphones.

A ton of Android-based tablets pour out of China every day. I mean, just check out dealextreme and you’ll be treated to a new piece of shit $99 plastic tablet running Android 2.2 every day of the week. I really hope predictions for CES 2011 will be proven wrong and that there will be something to take my breath away, because I want to see how far companies have taken Android out of its comfortable niche of portable/pocketable touchscreen devices.

Specifically, I want to see OTHER devices running it, like point and shoot cameras, pocket camcorders, media players, clocks and watches, game systems, in-car systems, DVD players and TVs, set top boxes, digital toys, and home automation gadgets.

Frankly, after hearing that Samsung is on track to sell 10 million Galaxy S smartphones before this year is even out, I’ve accepted that Android is now the mainstream smartphone OS. It has reached the average user who upgrades his phone only when his contract runs out, and my efforts will be best invested in tracking the smartphone market overall, and the specific unique applications of Android’s open source branch.

Come on, T-Mobile!

They do it to me every time. A carrier announces something that I want, and then starts teasing for something a little further down the road. It makes it very hard to be an early adopter, for sure.

Tomorrow, the most powerful Android phone on T-Mobile, the Samsung Galaxy S Vibrant will land. Unfortunately, it’s not an HSPA+ capable device, and the rumor is that T-Mo is going to launch their faster networks on July 21, just one week from today. The first phone capable of taking advantage of the new network is rumored to be the HTC Vision…which won’t launch ’til September. And even then, we don’t know the specs of it.

We do know the Vibrant is powerful, and I have handled the beautiful thing. It’s skinny and the screen is big and bright. If I pick one up tomorrow, it won’t be with any great hesitance or regret. I just can’t help but wonder what’s next.

I’ll update with the Samsung Vibrant tomorrow if it’s available in stores. It’s certainly not available as an upgrade on mytmobile.com. It’s been in their database of phones for weeks, but you couldn’t order it.

CONNECT WITH ME! —–>

I’m kind of plunging into the Google Services/Buzz/FriendConnect thing, so there’s a widget over there that lets you connect your Google/Twitter/Yahoo/other with this site. If I had anything else to separate with more slashes, I would put it in this sentence.

I’m still waiting for the Archos 7 tester to show up on my doorstep, and I’ve lately been fantasizing about an Android-powered pocket camcorder.

It is so very possible and so very easily done I can’t believe I haven’t found one in Hong Kong yet.

Anyway, more from me later…a look at the Samsung Galaxy S aka Vibrant, some chatting with ZTE about network and consumer hardware, and some more stuff.

Will my phone get Flash Player 10.1? The Answer from Adobe…

According to Adobe today, the following devices will have Flash Player 10.1 (and consequently, the Android 2.2 “Froyo” update if they don’t already:)

Dell Streak
Google Nexus One
HTC EVO 4G
HTC Desire
HTC Incredible
Motorola Droid/Milestone
Samsung Galaxy S

Future devices running Android 2.2 will also support it, of course. My Droid is sitting here with 2.1 just itching to be updated. Of course, I’m also expecting the Archos 7 tablet in the mail for review, and the Creative Vado HD 3rd gen camera so I’m just itching all over.

Samsung’s got a 2.1 device especially for South Korea

It’s the first Samsung device to run Android OS 2.1. and the first Samsung device in South Korea. Kind of a big deal when they’re supposed to do a lot with this whole Bada thing. Called the SHW-M100S, the new device will arrive in March on SK Telecom. This means I can head over to the random SK Telecom store I found in Little Korea and maybe be able to get my hands on it.

Some early features/specs listed:
Android 2.1 with TouchWIZ UI
800MHz processor
3.7″ AMOLED touchscreen (WVGA),
5 megapixel camera with 720p video capture
802.11n
Full GPS
T-DMB mobile broadcast TV

Not too shabby!

Keeping up with the Androids

Since I’ve now handled almost all of the following devices, I decided to re-do my “140 characters” list and just do a simple rundown of every Android phone with pictures. We’re going to see a lot more at Mobile World Congress. I really want to go, but it’s a little expensive, and I’ve got about 5 trips coming up that are going to be expensive. I also really really really want a Sony Vaio X Signature Series (VPCX115KX/S)…but that’s $1,589.99. money.

RELEASED/CONFIRMED:

G1 (HTC Dream) This is the phone that started it all one year ago: Keyboard, Chin, Trackball, Slider, and Android 1.0

Mytouch3G (HTC Magic) , (Dopod) It’s still got the chin, but no keyboard. Shellable, skinnable, endorsed by Whoopi.

HTC Hero (World) Slim and sexy, this is the first ‘droid with a custom UI #HTCSense The CDMA version is Sprint’s first Android device.

HTC Tattoo yet another all-touch device with HTC Sense bound for Europe. Mysteriously ditched the “chin” but went with custom shells.

HTC Droid Eris (HTC Desire) Launch partner of Verizon Droid, standard 528MHz CPU, very similar to the Hero.

HTC Nexus One  Sold directly through Google, all-touch, 1GHz Snapdragon, cross-carrier, world phone. Very controversial and reputed to have some problems, but otherwise a totally compelling device.

Motorola Cliq/Dext the first Android phone from Moto, which unveiled MotoBLUR, the second big UI premiered for Android. Thanks to the timing of the big data loss of 2009, this became a replacement for many Sidekicks.

Motorola Droid aka “Sholes,” “Tao,” and “Touchstone.” QWERTY slider as thin as an iPhone. VZW’s first Android and first Android 2.0 (eclair) device. A killer.

Motorola Backflip, aka “Enzo,” a weird form factor with keyboard on back of chassis and trackpad behind the screen, also rocks the MotoBLUR interface.

Motorola MotoROI, First released in China and South Korea, this powerful device features 720p video capture with HDMI output and has a fully-featured 8 Megapixel camera. Rumors say it’ll be released in the U.S. also.

Huawei U8220 aka T-mobile Pulse, the first prepaid all-touch Android device “perfect entry level smartphone”

Huawei U8230 3.2 megapixel camera on the back, VGA cam on the front, update to the T-Mobile Pulse.

LG inTouch MAX (GW620) aka “Etna” this QWERTY slider was launched in EU, turned up unlocked in France €450, and is now available in the UK on Virgin and T-Mobile.

LG GT540, don’t know the name of this one, but is all-touch, runs 2.0, and comes in various colours. Launched at CES, coming to EU/Asia

Acer A1 or Acer Liquid, like Motorola, Acer said it’s focusing on Android now. Launched UK 10/14, runs Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset.

Dell mini 3i, one of China Mobile’s first Ophones, rumored to be AT&T’s first Android phone, we’ll have more. Dell is good with staying in touch.

Lenovo O1, another TD-SCDMA Ophone for China. Pretty, but not likely to come to the U.S.

Samsung Galaxy, @I7500, typical Samsung quality display, all-touch AMOLED with light sensor, not a “Google phone,” available in Germany, Austria, and Poland.

Samsung Behold 2, shown with #TouchWiz #Cube UI, will be first Samsung droid phone in US on T-Mobile

Samsung Moment, thought to be the #InstinctQ, this 800Mhz QWERTY monster came to Sprint and is being test marketed as an ATSC TV.

Samsung Galaxy Spica @I5700, 800MHz CPU, 3.2-inch HVGA, a 3mpix cam, 180MB internal memory. Actually quite dull. Announced on Nov 16.

@GeeksPhoneONE QWERTY slider available in EU (Spain) in December “extremadamente ágil y eficiente!”

@SaygusV1 Their V1 has 2-way video calling and is a huge, heavy monster of a phone

Sony Ericsson Xperia X10, comes with slick UI and new “UX Platform,” powered by Snapdragon. SE is forgoing the Android praise and just sticking with making phones. This thing is big and burly, it’s one of 2 I still haven’t played with yet.

UNCONFIRMED:

@MotorolaDevour aka @Calgary…the name has shown up for 2 years, and only recently has any actual evidence shown up.  We’ll see at CES!

@MotorolaHeron or @IronMan This Windows Mobile phone was pulled from AT&T, listed as “specifications subject to change due to move to Android.” Whereabouts unknown.

@MotorolaZeppelin Spotted in China in a regulatory filing, with not much known besides 5Mpx camera, and HDMI output

@MotorolaOpusOne – Supposed to be the first iDen Android Device, to ship with 1.5, 3.1″ screen, 3 megapixel cam—looking cheap

@TMobile “Tap” shown on the Samsung Behold II launch paper…possibly a #ZTE device?

@INQ committed to an Android device, but we haven’t seen anything yet.

A thought-provoking view of Android from Symbian

GigaOM struck gold with a video of Symbian’s Lee Williams criticizing Google for poisoning the well with its Android business model. It’s an absolute must-watch.
Here’s the meat of it, taken as a direct quote:

“First and foremost, the goal of a Google system would be to create a situation where you have information about the user and the use of…those cloud apps that are proprietary to Google. Secondarily, it would be to cookie them, so you get that unique identifier association with the data you’ve collected on the individual’s habits and routines, etc, so you can target apps toward them, so you can build more intelligent cloud-based apps for them and so forth. At the end of the day, what is the motivation for any other company in an Android ecosystem when in fact the consumers are being taken right away from them just in some of these simple concepts?”

“Android is building almost the perfect storm of fragmentation in a large marketplace, I don’t know how many different UIs are shipping and how many people claim to own them across the 18 devices in development. More than that, they continue to do the revenue share deals with the operators and leverage the benefit of these cookied consumers…how many different UIs and closed APIs you’re gonna end up with in that scenario becomes a very big question on how do you sustain and return on investments in that type of environment?”

“I don’t hate Android at all, I think it’s a great initiative. But what I think Google should do is come be a member of the Symbian Foundation and join a truly open ecosystem where anybody can come and sit on a council seat and determine the future of that system, instead of advertising that they have one and going in their own direction.”

…I stripped out the part where he calls Apple greedy and Google evil. That was a bit of a “sweeps week” comment, but Williams’ comment is nonetheless very interesting because he’s cutting Google down for building an open ecosystem that has a closed monetization scheme.

Then, talking about his relationship with handset makers like Samsung, HTC and Motorola, Williams said companies have come to him and said “…One of the issues I’ve got is that Google is taking my interface with my consumers away.”

Let’s see if I have this right…Google gives you the open source framework and shares the revenue and all it costs you is the user’s behavioral data? And in exchange, users get high-quality services for free?

What’s the problem, exactly?

I’m sure my view is oversimplifying it, and my knowledge of Symbian’s inner workings is poor. However, I do know that it’s very easy for a nonprofit organization to vilify a group that is working for profit as “greedy” or “evil,” especially when their customers are the exact same companies.

I guess that’s why he extended the invitation to join the foundation instead of a big old fuck off.

It’s all gravy from here on out

It’s only Wednesday but it’s already been a huge week for Android.

Verizon’s on board with its first Android device in the next couple of weeks, and Eric Schmidt slathered praise all over Verizon like barbecue sauce on a chicken wing. I quote: “It’s absolutely a fact that Verizon’s data network is the best in the US by far, and I’m not talking ten percent here, I’m talking about many multiples.”

Now the rumors are flying that AT&T is coming out with its first Android device, and not just any device, but the Dell Dork Phone I (aka the Mini 3i) that I talked about a few weeks ago. To be honest, my interest in that was only half-hearted and if I don’t get my hands on one, it’s going to lose out to something much more concrete like the freakin’ 800 MHz Samsung Moment.

What are we looking at, then?

Pretty much what we all expected, right? It’s not world domination or anything, but Android this week stepped onto the threshold of being a viable, multi-handset option on all carriers.

Meanwhile, Gartner is predicting that Android will have a market share only exceeded by Symbian by 2012. 14.5% or roughly 72 million phones per year. That would cut Symbian down to 39% and iPhone down to 13%, Blackberry would stay at 12.8% and Windows Mobile to 12.5%.

From inception to the number 2 in the world in four years.

Let’s see how long it took Symbian…well, its roots go back pretty damn far. Let’s start at the Psion Series 5 EPOC 32 days in 1997, which turned into Symbian in 1998. It wasn’t until 2004 that it began moving like crazy. So roughly six years from birth to the top?

So maybe 2014 for Android to take the #1 spot? Heh…maybe, but it’s late and I have a headache.

140 characters about every Android handset thus far.

More Android Phones keep comin’, so here’s a rundown of what we’ve got in the immortal language of Twitter. I’m going to keep updating this post as more devices come out, so #havenofear. After updating this a number of times, I’ve decided to organize this list by phones that have been released or announced first, then followed by rumored devices.

RELEASED/CONFIRMED:

@HTCDream, @TmobileG1 This is the phone that started it all one year ago: Keyboard, Chin, Trackball, Slider, and Android 1.0

@SamsungGalaxy, @I7500, typical Samsung quality display, all-touch AMOLED with light sensor, not a “Google phone,” avail in Germany, Austria, Poland

@HTCMagic, @Mytouch3G, @Dopod, It’s still got the chin, but no keyboard. Shellable, skinnable, endorsed by Whoopi.

@HTCHero (World) Slim and sexy, this is the first ‘droid with a custom UI #HTCSense The CDMA version is Sprint’s first Android device.

@HTCTattoo yet another all-touch device with #HTCSense bound for Europe. Mysteriously ditched the “chin” but went with custom shells.

@HTCDroidEris, @HTCDesire Launch partner of Verizon Droid, standard 528MHz CPU, very similar to the Hero

@HTCNexusOne  Sold directly through Google, all-touch, snapdragon, very controversial.

@MotorolaCliq, @MotorolaDext first Android phone from Moto, features #MotoBLUR, second big UI for droid. Surefire Sidekick replacement.

@MotorolaDroid aka @sholes aka @tao aka @touchstone. QWERTY slider as thin as an iPhone. #VZW’s first Android and first Android 2.0 (eclair) device. A killer.

@MotorolaBackflip, aka @Enzo, a weird form factor with keyboard on back of chassis and trackpad behind the screen, also rocks #motoBLUR

@TmobilePulse, #Huawei makes this, the first prepaid all-touch Android device “perfect entry level smartphone”

@LG GW620, @LGEtna this QWERTY slider was launched in EU, turned up unlocked in France €450. lacks d-pad/trackball but has arrow keys.

@LG GT540, don’t know the name of this one, but is all-touch, runs 2.0, and comes in various colours. Launched at CES, coming to EU/Asia

@AcerA1, @AcerLiquid, like #Moto, #Acer said it’s focusing on Android now. Launched UK 10/14, runs Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset.

@Dellmini3i, one of #ChinaMobile’s first Ophones, rumored to be AT&T’s first Android phone, we’ll have more. Dell is good with staying in touch.

@LenovoO1, another TD-SCDMA Ophone for China. Pretty, but not likely to come to the U.S.

@SamsungBehold2, shown with #TouchWiz #Cube UI, will be first Samsung droid phone in US on T-Mobile

@SamsungMoment, thought to be the #InstinctQ, this 800Mhz QWERTY monster is headed for Sprint in Nov.

@SamsungGalaxySpica @I5700, 800MHz CPU, 3.2-inch HVGA, a 3mpix cam, 180MB internal memory. Actually quite dull. Announced on Nov 16.

@GeeksPhoneONE QWERTY slider available in EU (Spain) in December “extremadamente ágil y eficiente!”

@SaygusV1 Their V1 has 2-way video calling and is a huge, heavy monster of a phone

@SonyEricsson Xperia X10, comes with slick UI and new “UX Platform,” powered by Snapdragon. SE is forgoing the Android praise and just sticking with making phones.

UNCONFIRMED:

@MotorolaDevour aka @Calgary…the name has shown up for 2 years, and only recently has any actual evidence shown up.  We’ll see at CES!

@MotorolaHeron or @IronMan This Windows Mobile phone was pulled from AT&T, listed as “specifications subject to change due to move to Android.” Whereabouts unknown.

@MotorolaZeppelin Spotted in China in a regulatory filing, with not much known besides 5Mpx camera, and HDMI output

@MotorolaOpusOne – Supposed to be the first iDen Android Device, to ship with 1.5, 3.1″ screen, 3 megapixel cam—looking cheap

@TMobile “Tap” shown on the Samsung Behold II launch paper…possibly a #ZTE device?

@INQ committed to an Android device, but we haven’t seen anything yet.