Android was everywhere at this month’s Consumer Electronics Show, but the downside to the event is that many products don’t hit retail shelves for months. Acer took a decidedly different approach by launching the A200 tablet at CES and getting it in stores soon after. A 16 GB version of the A200 is now available at Best Buy for 9, or 0 less than last year’s A500 slate. But outside of the price drop, there isn’t much that’s different in this 10.1-inch tablet refresh.

Just like the old A500, Acer chose a 1 GHz dual core processor and the Honeycomb version of Android for the new A200. The device is lighter and keeps the many ports from the prior model: Full-sized USB, microSD card slot and micro USB jack to name a few. Gone is the rear camera on the A200, but it does keep a 2 megapixel front-facing sensor for video chatting or images. At this price, the A200 is surely worth a look and will be even more attractive once Acer pushes out the expected software update to Android 4.0; possibly as early as next month.

Motorola Xoom Wi-Fi tablet owners don’t have to wait for a taste of Ice Cream Sandwich, however. The company began to roll out Android 4.0.3 to the Xoom this week and will continue to push the software out in waves. The updated software could help give new life for the first Android tablet, which arrived nearly a year ago to generally mediocre reviews.

How much will Android 4.0 improve the experience on a Xoom tablet? That will vary by each individual’s needs, but overall the device is better with the updated software according to Jason Perlow of ZDNet. He used a enthusiast-created version for two weeks and then got the official upgrade a few days earlier than consumers. There are still some rough edges in the operating system, he says, but most will welcome the improved interface on their tablet.

While I wait for Android 4.0 to appear on my own 10.1-inch tablet, I’m enjoying Android 4.0 on my smartphone and this week found a new app that I consider a “must try”, if not a “must have” for Android devices. Wikipedia finally debuted its Android app this week and while you could use a browser to access the online encyclopedia, I find the free app in the Android Market much better. Simple sharing of Wikipedia entries, support for offline article reading and GPS-powered local Wikipedia results all add to the experience.

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Ever find yourself shredding the gnar and wishing you could share the breathtaking rush of scenery with others? Well, now you can, courtesy of Zeal Optics. Not content to sit on its GPS-laden laurels, the company’s added a new twist to the ‘ol polarized ski googles, embedding the iON with an HD camera for 170-degree wide angle recording. The inbuilt module, centered up top, pulls in video and audio at full 1080p and can be controlled using an array of buttons alongside the mask or via the bundled PC / Mac software. If you’re not interested in reliving your downhill trek one swoosh at a time, there’s always the 8 megapixel cam for photo-taking. Unfortunately, this high-tech eyewear can’t wirelessly transmit your captured media — at least, not this version — so you’ll have to make due with the included microSD card. Sound like a neat proposition? Good, the be prepared to cough up 9 for this high-def slope accessory. Official presser awaits you after the break.

Continue reading Zeal Optics iON goggles take full HD to the slopes, let you share the extreme thrills

Zeal Optics iON goggles take full HD to the slopes, let you share the extreme thrills originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Jan 2012 04:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While scouring Samsung’s booth at CES’s Digital Experience for that glorious 55-inch OLED set this evening, we came across a table full of new WiFi-enabled cameras and a camcorder. The logic behind the WiFi feature is that it enables direct access to Microsoft’s Sky Drive, E-Mail, PC Auto Backup, remote viewfinding and of course Facebook, Youtube, and Picasa right from your phone. The top of the line 9 WB850F — the F designation indicates it has WiFi — has a 16 megapixel BSI CMOS sensor, 21x optical zoom, 3-inch AMOLED display, shoots 1080p HD, and even has GPS with POI. The 16 megapixel 9 DV300F was also on hand with a 5x optical zoom, a 3-inch display and shoots 720p video. Samsung’s 14 megapixel 9 WB15F also sports a 3-inch AMOLED screen, and shoots in full HD with up to 18x optical zoom. The tied-for-least-expensive 9 ST200F still puts in a showing with a 16 megapixel shooter, 10x optical zoom while still capturing HD video at 720p. Samsung launched one HD camcorder, the 9 Q20 which packs 20x optical zoom, time lapse, and HD recording at 1080i @ 60fps. All of the cameras have a similar heft and are built with similar materials which should help narrow people’s purchase decisions to looking at what features they want and what’s affordable. On to the gallery!

Samsung’s WiFi-enabled cameras hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Jan 2012 02:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung’s new Bada flagship has just docked into our illustrative French port. Announced back in the summer, the Wave 3 arrives on the refreshed Bada 2.0 OS, powered by a 1.4GHz processor and packing a four-inch 800 x 480 Super AMOLED display. Storage matches the watery iteration, with 3GB of memory baked-in, with expansion possible through microSD. Meanwhile, an auto-focus five megapixel shooter will do its best to fill all that space. Not content with France (where Bada-powered handsets have established a niche fanbase), the HSPA-connected smartphone is also penned to hit Germany, Russia and Italy before the end of the year.

Continue reading Samsung Wave 3 crashes onto French shores

Samsung Wave 3 crashes onto French shores originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Nov 2011 15:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It seems like only yesterday that eFun was talking up its Nextbook Premium8 tablet (okay it was two weeks ago), but the company is already pitching the latest entry in the line. The Nextbook Premium9 has a nine-inch display, in keeping with the Southern California company’s fairly straight-forward naming convention. The slate runs a basic version of Android 2.3 (though the company assures us that a Honeycomb upgrade is on the way) and packs in 4GB of memory (expandable via a MicroSD slot), a built-in speaker, a two megapixel front-facing camera and, as a bit of a throwback, a mini USB port.

We had a bit of trouble on the software front — the tablet froze up on us a few times during our hands-on trial, in spite of the 1GHz processor inside. The hardware itself is a bit more promising, however. It’s actually a pretty slick little tablet that has a nice feel in hand, thanks in part to its brushed metal rear — though the tablet does feel a bit on the thick side. The asking price for the Gingerbread slate is 9, though the company made a point of letting us know that it’ll likely be a bit cheaper when it goes on sale in November / December, running consumers closer to 9 — better, sure, but perhaps still not low enough to bring too many folks over to the eFun way.

Zach Honig contributed to this report.

Continue reading eFun Nextbook Premium 9 tablet hands-on (video)

eFun Nextbook Premium 9 tablet hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Oct 2011 20:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, what do we have here? According to “trusted sources” over at This Is My Next it’s a Motorola Spyder, or a Droid RAZR, or maybe even the Droid HD we peeped back in August. Whatever the name, the phone is apparently packing a first-of-its-kind 4.3-inch, 960 x 540 qHD super AMOLED display. The rumored LTE handset also supposedly contains a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, an 8 megapixel, 1080p rear-facing camera and HD front-facing camera, and is apparently outfitted in Gorilla Glass and Kevlar. TIMN is also boasting exclusive new details for the recently outed Atrix 2. It seems the name is confirmed as well as a handful of previously identified specs. What’s more, the phone’s got a couple of accessories on board, including a laptop dock called the Lapdock 100, also rumored to play nice with the Spyder, or RAZR, or HD. More images of both devices await you at the source links below.

Motorola LTE handset emerges with qHD Super AMOLED display, questionable identity originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 24 Sep 2011 16:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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