SPRINE EPIC 4G LATEST UPDATE

Sprint Epic 4G Touch Lacking NFC Unlike AT&T and T-Mobile Models

Samsung has finally announced the American variants of the Galaxy S II smartphone and it will be available on Sprint, AT&T and T-Mobile. The three models might be Galaxy S II variants but not all of them are identical.

Screen size isn't the only difference though -- the AT&T version having a 4.3-inch screen opposed to the Sprint and T-Mobile phones that will rock a slightly larger, 4.52-inch one. It appears that while the AT&T and T-Mobile Galaxy S IIs will have NFC capabilities, the Sprint Epic 4G Touch is indeed lacking support for the technology. Is NFC a must-have feature on your phone, thus the lack of it being a deal-breaker for you? 

IPHONE 5 LATEST UPDATE | APPLE IPHONE 5 LATEST FEATURES

Apple's iPhone 5: Smaller Case, 3.7 Inch Screen, New Button

Here's something interesting: we've gotten used to thinking that Apple's next iPhone will have a larger screen. Regardless of the actual dimensions (depends on which rumor you believe), the majority pointed towards a bigger screen. This might turn out to be false in the light of new findings.

Apple's PhotoStream application contains an icos representing a smartphone that doesn't seem to follow the general iPhone design lines. The phone appears to have a 3.7 inch screen (still larger than the iPhone 4's 3.5 inch) but in a smaller overall case. Also, you definitely have to notice a possible rectagular or elongated home button. The image above is a mock-up made after the icon found in the PhotoStream app. What do you think? 

TWITTER LATEST UPDATE | LATEST UPDATE TO TWITTER | LATEST TWITTER UPDATES

One of the most annoying things regarding maintaining multiple social sites is to update your profile with the same status message. You have different “sets” of friends in every other social site and you want a simple way to share the same update with everyone. There is always the classic copy paste option but most people prefer using apps that automate the process.

My favorite way to cross post tweets to Facebook is selective tweets, which posts every tweet as a status update on my Facebook account that contains a specific hash tag. While this works pretty good, looks like soon I won’t be needing such apps anymore.

Twitter has just rolled out a new feature which lets users post tweets to their Facebook profile. All you have to do is login to your Twitter account, go to Settings > profile and connect your Facebook account. Remember to choose “Post your tweets to Facebook” because this is exactly what you want to do.

Once you have linked both the accounts, all your tweets will be posted on your Facebook profile as status updates; barring direct messages, mentions and replies. This is a really easy way to share the same update with both Twitter and Facebook friends but there is a slight disadvantage.

Unlike selective tweets – Twitter’s own cross posting feature will post each and every tweet on your Facebook profile, which will surely annoy your Facebook friends over time. If you tweet a lot and love ranting on Twitter, I would like to suggest that you keep yourself away. I would prefer sticking with selective tweets because this app lets me choose the tweets I want to post to Facebook and not every other random tweet, without any control whatsoever.

In my opinion, there is a huge difference between the nature of Twitter and Facebook audience. The former is geeky while the latter is sticky and very large in number. School friends, office colleagues and friends you know are very active on Facebook while Twitter is full of professionals, geeks and enthusiasts of a specific topic. They might tolerate your rant but Facebook audience will quickly hide your profile from their news feed, if you bombard them with irrelevant updates every other minute.

In recent times, Twitter has been aggressively pouring new features and trying to shake the dirt and step up a little. They acquired TweetDeck, rolled out an in built photo sharing feature and updated the way links are shortened and shared on any Twitter  platform. Now that the cross posting thing is made live on most Twitter profiles, will they go ahead and add the option to automatically share an RSS feed on your Twitter profile? Feedburner has it since ages  and every other Twitter user who writes a blog, is happily using Twitterfeed or another RSS to Twitter service for posting updates on Twitter.

Now looking at the path Twitter has crossed, I am very sure they will copy ideas like scheduling tweets and come up with an in house solution shortly.

Without any doubt, these features make the Twitter experience better for everyone but at the same time – these inbuilt enhancements makes life hell for third party app developers. These are the people who had the original idea and they spent their valuable time, money and resources to foster an idea and made it popular in the first place. These are the people who are to some extent, responsible for Twitter’s overwhelming popularity.

Look at TweetDeck, TwitPic, Tweetmeme and the whole bunch of URL shorteners – do you need any more examples? I can smell these features coming one after another because Twitter devs have learned their lesson – keeping things simple isn’t just enough. There is a thing called “Crowd” and if your competition is getting neck high, just copy the stuff that’s already popular and add them one after another.

“Previously, I developed Twitter applications. Now I am a cartoonist”

HP TOUCHPAD DUAL BOOTING 2.3.5 AND WEBOS

The race to get Android working on the now budget-friendly HP TouchPad is on. We've already heard rumors of the little green robot coming pre-installed on the ill-fated slate and we've seen the first CM7 boot, but no one's gone all the way quite yet. While progress is slow, a team of dedicated TouchPad hackers, calling itself Team-Touchdroid, is now showing off a dual-boot configuration with Android 2.3.5. As with CM7, the touchscreen still doesn't work, but the demo video is quite dramatic -- that is until the credits stop rolling. If early-stage flip-flopping OSs are your thing, hop on past the break, but don't say we didn't warn you: it's going to get weird. 

FUJIFILM X 10 | LATEST FUJIFILM PRODUCT

We really like Fujifilm's X100 -- it's a solidly-built camera, with an APS-C sensor, f/2 lens, and a rather unique hybrid optical / electronic viewfinder. But the X100 carries a $1,400 sticker price, and that 23mm lens -- as sharp as it may be -- is permanently fixed to the mount. That's why we were rather exited when Fuji announced its X10 earlier this week. Would this be a much more capable (and affordable) replacement for the X100? Turns out it's not -- well, not exactly -- though this latest model is certainly a better fit for the consumer market. We had a chance to go hands-on with an early prototype on display at the company's IFA booth, and while some features (notably the pop-up flash) weren't yet functional, we're told it's a rather accurate representation of what we'll see when the X10 hits stores in late October, priced within the €499-599 range (about $715-860).

The first thing you'll notice with the X10 is that, well, there's nary a power button in sight. Instead, you'll rotate the 28-112mm f/2-2.8 manual zoom lens to fire it up. There's also no aperture ring, unlike its more powerful sibling, and manual focus is handled electronically, instead of directly on the lens. Upon closer inspection, you'll find that the X100's slick hybrid viewfinder has been replaced with a strictly electronic one. And what about image quality? We weren't able to take away any sample pics, but with a much smaller 2/3-inch sensor, we haven't a doubt that images won't look nearly as good as those shot with Fuji's better-equipped model. To compensate for that, the camera's EXR mode can bump the resolution down from 12 megapixels to six, in turn capturing higher quality images in low light. We're looking forward to checking out a production version sometime this fall, but in the meantime, thumb through the images below, or jump past the break for a video overview.

NOKIA LATEST PHONE 701 | NOKIA LATEST LAUNCH | NOKIA LATEST PRODUCT

Living in the States, it's easy to forget just how large a global presence Nokia has managed to maintain, in spite of some difficulties keeping up with the likes of iOS and Android. The company certainly had a presence at IFA this year, between its own booth and appearances in Vodafone's show offerings. And despite what detractors might say about the Finnish hardware manufacturer, it's hard to deny that the company has given us fine offerings on the hardware front.


The 701 doesn't have the most exciting build we've seen from the Nokia, but it certainly has a lot going for it, including a bright 3.5-inch display, steel backing, an eight megapixel camera and built-in NFC. On the software side, we're of course looking at Symbian Belle, with its customizable home screens, which is managed quite nicely with the smartphone's 1GHz processor. 

QUADRUPED ROBOT | LATEST UPDATE OF ROBOT | LATEST ROBOT

Does the Uncanny Valley extend to re-creations of our four-legged friends? We'll find out soon enough if Yasunori Yamada and his University of Tokyo engineering team manage to get their PIGORASS quadruped bot beyond its first unsteady hops, and into a full-on gallop. Developed as a means of analyzing animals' musculoskeletal system for use in biologically-inspired robots, the team's cyborg critter gets its locomotion on via a combo of CPU-controlled pressure sensors and potentiometers. It may move like a bunny (for now), but each limb's been designed to function independently in an attempt to simulate a simplified neural system. Given a bit more time and tweaking (not to mention a fine, faux fur coating), we're pretty sure this wee bitty beastie'll scamper its way into the homes of tomorrow. Check out the lil' fella in the video after the break.

PIZZA ON MOON

Now you can get the 30 minute or free offer on your pizza, even if you’re on the moon. In a move of stratospheric proportions and more, pizza retail giant Domino’s Pizza plans to set up a pizza restaurant on Earth’s only natural satellite!

This move tops rival Pizza Hut’s move of sending a pizza to astronauts on board the International Space Station. In fulfilling this quest to gain unprecedented bragging rights, Domino’s wants to establish a dome shaped concrete restaurant on the lunar surface. The project is being thought of by the Japanese arm of the company.

Construction

They have approached construction firm Maeda Corp for finalising the building construction plans. They plan to use local material as far as possible. In addition to other building material, Domino’s plans to transport as much as 70 tons of pizza making instruments via rockets that will be launched periodically.

The project is estimated to cost more than $13.4 billion or 1.67 trillion Yen. Transporting will account for some $4.5 billion.

What about customers?

That solves everything except the problem of customers. Given that we are nowhere close to building a lunar colony, we wonder whom this lunar restaurant might serve! Maybe a hitchhiker to the galaxy can stop for a break. Douglas, did you think of this?

So is Domino’s going universal? Well, they would seriously hope that aliens exist on the moon. Maybe, they might drop by!

GOOGLE AND NASA LAUNCHING SMARTPHONES FOR SPACE

Have you ever seen someone else so hard at work on their smartphone that it makes you feel a little embarrassed to be using yours mostly for Angry Birds and YouTube? One of the latest projects we've seen for Android devices is enough to make even us feel like smartphone underachievers, where Nexus S handsets were taken on-board the final Space Shuttle mission for use interfacing with space-bound robots.

A pair of Nexus S phones were hooked up to some MIT-designed SPHERES robotic satellites. The Androids used a WiFi connection to the Shuttle to communicate with astronauts and report on sensor data (not like there was any hope of finding a 3G signal).

Why the Nexus S for this project, or even a smartphone in general? Turns out, it's for some of the same reasons we enjoy them, like relatively high performance compared to their power consumption. The Nexus S in particular was singled-out for being easy to take apart – something we don't usually consider when evaluating a smartphone, but NASA has its own priorities. Beyond that, Android was identified as a platform NASA's scientists felt was easy to develop code for.

If you're curious to see the sort of apps were used on these heavenly Nexus S models, the Sensor Data Logger, at least, is available in the Android Market. 

CRUX360 IPAD 2 REVIEW

Yeah... we know. At this point you're probably clutching your funds tightly, eagerly anticipating the release of the iPad 3. But for those of you who recently purchased version 2.0, or perhaps just discovered your need for a Bluetooth keyboard, allow us to shed some light on the Crux360. Sure this isn't the first one of these we've seen, but the full range of motion in the hinge makes this a nice accessory for your Apple slate. We spent a couple weeks putting it through the wringer, so read on past the break to see what we discovered.

Look and feel

The outer shell of the Crux360 features a matte black finish that provides some grip for when you're hauling your slate around in one hand. The soft coating is much nicer than bare plastic, although it's clear from the vacant iPad slot that the frame is constructed of just that. The tablet holder is a two-part enclosure that fits your baby quite snug. In fact, it took a bit of elbow grease to remove our device once we wrapped our review. When engaged, the rear panel of the tablet is still exposed, which if you're a bit obsessive about things, could be an issue. Then again, we wouldn't want to cover that Apple logo now, would we?

As with any clamshell style case, the hinge is of the utmost importance. In this instance, we found that the strength of that particular feature to be substantial. There was a smidge of play in the rotation angle once the case was asked to carry the added weight of the slate, but once placed at the desired angle, it stayed put. Also in play here is the 360-degree rotation that allows for both laptop-style typing and traditional tablet use by simply folding the peripheral back on itself. We should note here that if you warm to the folio orientation, you should get in the habit of turning off the keyboard part of the case. Don't worry if you forget the first few times -- we did too. This positioning scheme also allows for what the company calls "Movie Mode," which would be of use in presentations and for getting caught up onBreaking Bad.

HTC Rhyme In Leaked Verizon MAP

A new Minimum Advertised Price list for Verizondevices has leaked out, and while a lot of it is old news, the list tips us off to the existence of a device referred to as the HTC Rhyme. Now we're just left to wonder: what is it?

The leak has the Rhyme coming out around the end of September, going for about $200. Based on the model number, it looks like we're dealing with an Android here.

We first saw this model number ADR6330VW pop up in a pre-MAP leak that came out this time last month. At the time, we were left scratching our heads as to what the device would be. This time, there aren't many more conclusions we can come to, but at least we have a name for the handset.

If we want to make associations based on the model number's proximity to other HTC Androids on Verizon, it's not too off from the Droid Incredible 2. Just how much in common it might share with that smartphone, though, is a tough call.

Considering the phone's name, it wouldn't be too surprising to see the Rhyme released as part of HTC's Beats partnership, maybe coming packaged with a pair of the company's earbuds. Ultimately, we're just going to have to wait for more information to come out before we can pin-down the nature of the HTC Rhyme. 

FEATURES OF HTC TITAN AND RADAR

The new HTC Titan and Radar are causing quite the stir among Windows Phone 7 fans: they're the first devices to usher in the era of Windows Phone Mango. Not only that, but they also bring forth front-facing cameras, brawny hardware (especially in the case of the Titan with its 1.5GHz CPU and massive 4.7" display), and svelte designs.

A lot of smaller details about these two devices are surfacing. Here's a round-up of what we're learning:

1. Internet sharing 

At the last minute, Microsoft was able to add internet sharing to Mango so that you can use your phone as a WiFi hotspot. This feature will be made available to HTC's two new Windows Phones, but it will not be a feature made available for older HTC hardware like the HD7 and Surround. Given that WiFi sharing is a software feature, and not hardware, we're likely to see the development community come up with a way to get legacy hardware up to speed with this feature.

2. Dock accessory 

The Titan and Radar will have an optional dock accessory for use when charging your phone while at work or home. When you insert the device into a cradle, you'll see a special dock application that will display the time, weather, provide multimedia controls, and over shortcuts to certain programs.

3. New slogan for Windows Phone 

Are you ready for an ambush of marketing for the second generation of Windows Phone 7? As as a preview, they'll have a new tagline: Put People First. Take a look at the above walkthrough video which makes mention of this new slogan.

4. Attentive phone settings, video chat

As with HTC Android phones, the new HTC Windows Phones have courtesy features, that will, for example, silence your phone if you turn it on its face while it's ringing, or ring louder when it's in your bag. This is done through a new screen in Settings.

Regarding video chat, there's a third-party service out there called Tango, which offers cross-platform video chat, even in Windows Phone 7. Within the next few days, we're likely to hear from Microsoft on a native video chat solution for Windows Phone, likely to be powered by Skype. 

LATEST MUSIC SYSTEM | LATEST MUSIC SYSTEM UPDATE

We've all got that one friend who just cannot believe you'd listen to 128kbps MP3s. Well, forget the rent, slap a handful of Benjamins down, slot this AeroSystem One next to your IKEA furniture, and thencontinue to play those low bit rate tracks -- it should drive'em nuts. Designed with a decidedly anti-regressive approach to sound quality, Jarre's lamp-like audiophile rig is the Lady Liberty of digital music, accepting not only all generations of Apple's iPods and iPhones, but also tunes recorded in any digital format. The stainless steel and toughened glass-made sound system, measuring about three and a half feet tall and weighing about 32lbs, pumps up those iTunes jams with the aid of two 30W satellite speakers and one 60W subwoofer. Oh, and that cost? Yeah, the sound of this music's gonna run you 799 Euros (or $1,135), but hey -- a month or three of ramen never hurt anybody. Right?

SONY ERICSSON NOZOMI | SONY ERICSSON LATEST PRODUCT

Sony Ericsson Nozomi to Bring 1.5GHz Dual Core, 720p Screen

Sony Ericsson is rumored to be releasing a high-end Android, called Nozomi, in March of next year that will bring a dual 1.5GHz dual core CPU (probably of the Snapdragon variety) with a 4.3" 1280x720 720p display (that's 342ppi), 1GB of RAM, 32GB of ROM, and, oddly, a micro-SIM tray and no expandable microSD storage. It'll also pack NFC and a 1750mAh battery. Sony Ericsson's latest high end, the Xperia Arc S, packs a faster single-core CPU. The Nozomi would be their first shipping dual-core offering. 

TOSHIBA FLASH AIR WiFi SD CARD

Eye-Fi's wireless cards push photos straight from digital cameras without cables, but what if you want to pull some pics back the other way? Toshiba's solving that problem with the two-way FlashAir, an 802.11 b/g/n enabled 8GB SD Card that can also exchange data directly with compatible devices. If pushing photos to a camera isn't your bag you can always always use FlashAir as a mountable wireless drive in your SD-enabled tablet. Sales won't begin in Japan until February 2012 and the price is rumored to be around $90 -- close to that of the equivalent Eye-Fi.

Microsoft confirms Media Center will be in Windows 8

Windows Media Center fans can finally breathe again. After seemingly endless will they / won't they speculation Steven Sinofsky, the President of the Windows Division has confirmed in a blog post that Media Center will return for yet another go 'round in Windows 8. There's no word on any possible changes, only that the company has "work to do" concerning the quality and compatibility of add-ins. Wondering why it hasn't been in some pre-release builds? Between the potential for multiple SKUs (no details until closer to release, but it seems like you'll be looking for an Ultimate pack or something similar again to get everything) and simple engineering decisions as features are added and removed that's just the way it is. Another factor is that WMC isn't exactly mass market, as he cites stats indicating only 6 percent of Windows 7 users launched the app in July, with over half of those sessions lasting less than a couple of minutes. Meanwhile, IE apparently pops up on 88 percent of Windows 7 desktops. Check the blog post for his full statement, plus a bit of discussion about the new Metro style and ribbon mechanism.

AMAZON TABLET COMING IN NOVEMBER IN $250

Much ink has been spilled in the rumor mill about a coming Amazonian tablet, and now those rumors look to be confirmed. TechCrunch has apparently gotten some time with Amazon's forthcoming slate, and reports that it has a 7-inch, backlit color capacitive screen and is bereft of physical buttons. Word on the web is that the hardware is already good to go, and Amazon is making the last few software tweaks before it goes on sale this November. The tablet is running a heavily skinned version of Android that was developed without any help from the folks in Mountain View. It apparently has a Cover Flow-esque UI, and is deeply integrated with all of Amazon's services (Cloud Player, Instant Video Player, Appstore, and of course the Kindle app). Best of all, it will reportedly cost a scant $250 -- not quite TouchPad territory, but well underneath the iPad's $500 price. Let the next great tablet war begin.

HTC Flyer Honeycomb ROM

One of the biggest knocks against the HTC Flyer when it launched (besides the extra $80 the stylus would cost you) was that it shipped with a Sensed-up version of Gingerbread, instead of the more tablet-appropriate Honeycomb. But, with the Android 3.1-packing Puccini now official, the Taiwanese manufacturer is working to bring the rest of its inbetweeners up to speed and, as usual, the devs appear to have sprung a leak. There's not much information about the early Flyer Honeycomb beta that just dropped on MoDaCo, courtesy of Paul O'Brien, but it's already packaged up in RUU form and ready for flashing. It goes without saying, this is not for the faint of heart. If you cherish things like stability and reliability (you know, if you're a wimp) it's probably best to hold out for an official release. The bold can download it now at the source link.

WHY TO LOVE ANDROID

I get asked regularly why I use Android over other devices which clearly means, I have an iPhone and you’re a fool for not having one, obviously I disagree!
I have used (and work with) Apple devices so you won’t get any argument from me that the OS is cleaner and is a much more polished interface as an out of the box experience.  But in my opinion, that’s not what it’s all about.  I’m a big one for freedom and I don’t really like being told how to use my toys, regardless of what they are.  With phones I like being able to customize the user interface, replacing core software components of the phone with new ones to try like keyboard and messaging applications.
What I truly love about Android is that I can choose how to make my phone look, feel and perform in the day to day functions that I use.
Currently I’m using

• Go SMS Pro
• Contapps and
• FlexT9

as replacements for the SMS, Contacts and Keyboards that come stock on my Nexus S, none of which require root access to your phone as they’re easily accessed in the Android Market.
I’ve had people argue that there’s more apps on iOS, that the iOS market is better for devs (irrelevant to why I use the device) and resale value being higher on iPhones which are all great arguments, somewhat a waste of oxygen since

• I’m yet to find an app on iOS that there’s not an Android equivalent for paid or not.
• How developers are treated is not a reason to use, or not use a platform unless you are a developer!
• Resale of the device doesn’t concern me since I tend to use a phone for 18 months then do the old “hand me down” to my wife

When I pose the question of customization like keyboards, messaging apps and contact management, the response is inevitably along the lines of “you get used to it”, “It’s already perfect” or “that’s what you get”.  In my book that’s an admission “either I can’t or I don’t know how to customize my phone”.
At the end of the day, the open envrionment  giving me the choice of what my optimal user experience is, is why I use and will continue to use Android over other devices and a large part of the reason why
I love my Android!

White Samsung Galaxy S II coming to Optus on September 9th

Thanks to a keen-eyed reader who spotted the image above on Allphones’ site, it confirms that Optus will be the carrier of choice for the white Samsung Galaxy S II which first surfaced back in late July. Back then I said the white variant of the Galaxy S II looked quite good, and I still think so — mainly due to the whole device being white instead of just the back like the Galaxy S.
As you can see from the image, Optus will be selling the white Galaxy S II on the same plan as the black Galaxy S II: $0 on their $59 cap, and so they should. It appears that as a special offer through Allphones and Optus you’ll get a free desktop dock to go with it, how nice. It’s good to see we’re getting it only a week after the UK launch it — just proves we’re not that far behind.

Sense 3.5 ROM For HTC Desire HD

When HTC's Bliss arrives, it will do so with a fresh new version of the company's Sense UI installed. We've told you some of what you can expect from Sense 3.5, but plenty of you are likely anxious to get your hands on the software and give it a try yourself. If you don't feel like waiting, don't want new hardware, and would just like to see Sense 3.5 on your smartphone right now, you may be in luck, thanks to a developer's work getting the UI running on a Desire HD.

The release isn't quite perfect, suffering some some bugs related to the Desire HD's camera and with Bluetooth seemingly broken entirely, but if you can live with those hiccups, Sense 3.5 is yours to explore.

If you've got a Desire HD, and feel like giving this ROM a whirl, let us know your impressions of it. The release is based on Android 2.3.4 and is available for download now; click through the source link to XDA-D to get your copy. 

Discovered: Two Nearby Supermassive Black Holes

This is cannibalism on the cosmic scale. Two black holes have been found by the Chandra X-Ray Telescope gobbling matter from one another. The black holes are in the process of merging with one another. The real excitement is that this is close to home on the scale of the cosmos – about 160 million light years away.

The Giants!

The galaxy in the limelight is NGC3393. The two black holes are separated by only 490 light years. One of them has a mass of 30 million suns and other is much smaller at one million solar mass. The bigger one is gobbling up matter surrounding the smaller one.

Many that got away?

What we are seeing is really a merger. Black holes merge to become even bigger black holes. It is surprising that NGC3393 still retains the elliptic shape that it originally had. The perturbations occur near the central part and do not propagate throughout the galaxy. NASA scientists think that this is one reason why black hole mergers or double black hole systems have rarely been observed till date. The expected tell-tale signs like galactic perturbations are not really there. Astronomers now want to train Chandra’s eagle-eye on more boring candidates.

The findings were published yesterday in the science journal Nature.

The Universe is not only queerer than we imagine. It is, by all means, queerer than we can possibly imagine!

Philips launch Android | Philips latest product

Another Android related announcement from IFA, Philips have announced a series of 3 Fidelio docking speakers compatible with Android phones and tablets.
The issue with having the many wonderful different iterations of hardware running Android is that placement of the Micro-USB connector can be different for each device. Philips are attempting to get around this with a unique connector design that adjusts in three dimensions to hold any phone in both portrait and landscape positions. To allow instant access to your music you can also pair your phone to the speaker docks via Bluetooth. Philips are also supplying a Fidelio Android App which offers additional functionality such as Internet Radio, Weather Alerts & Multi-Function Alarms.
Fidelio AS111

• Output power (RMS): 4

Fidelio AS351

• Output power (RMS): 10
• Sound Enhancement: Dynamic Bass Boos

Fidelio AS851

• Output power (RMS): 2×15 W
• Loudspeaker types: Bass Reflex Speaker System

No price or availability was given, but after years of seeing dock after dock available for the iPhone it`s good to see a company recognising the growth of Android as an Operating System and the need for excellent accessories.

LENOVO IDEA IPAD A1 $200 GINGERBEAD

Lenovo have announced their IdeaPad A1 at IFA and it looks to be a fairly entry level model, but with a capacative screen and a name brand behind it, could this be a good bargain at $199?
Specs:

• 1GHz single-core ARM Cortex A8 processor
• 3MP camera with an additional 0.3MP Front-Facing camera
• 7″ IPS LCD @ 1024 x 600-resolution
• Android 2.3 Gingerbread
• Released in Blue, Black, White, Pink colours
• 8Gb of onboard storage – $199USD
• 16Gb of onboard storage – $249USD
• 32Gb of onboard storage – $299USD

Lenovo have advised that it will NOT be upgrading the tablet to Honeycomb or presumably Ice-Cream Sandwich, it does come pre-loaded with Navdroyd Offline GPS Software & Launch Zone widget. Lenovo are looking to launch this tablet around mid-late September. Question is with Ice-Cream Sandwich rumoured to be coming soon is a tablet loaded with Gingerbread going to cut it?