When the Kindle Fire was first unveiled by Jeff Bezos earlier this year, many analysts said it be the first tablet to present a real challenge to Apple’s iPad. However, now it seems some customers are dissatisfied with the device, according to Hayley Tsukayama:
The Kindle Fire is reportedly on track for a major software update in the next couple of weeks, and apparently not a moment too soon. According to a report from the New York Times, Amazon has been fielding complaints from disgruntled buyers. Even with a promised update, the complaints from some of the device’s most vocal users may not be easily fixed, because they involve hardware as well. Here are the top five complaints from users giving the tablet a one-star rating on its own Amazon page.
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Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Friday, December 9, 2011
Verizon Wireless Makes $299 New Norm With Samsung Galaxy Nexus
NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Verizon Wireless is expanding its slate of expensive smartphones priced at nearly $300 each with a two-year contract, betting that customers will be attracted by the carrier's reputation for network quality and its high-speed, mobile-broadband network.
The latest addition is the hotly anticipated Galaxy Nexus from Samsung Electronics Co. (005930.SE, SSNHY). The carrier will start selling the device this month for $299.99 with a two-year contract, according to people familiar with the matter. That follows the introduction of HTC Corp.'s (2498.TW, HTCXF) Rezound and Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc.'s (MMI) Droid Razr, both priced at a penny under $300 with a two-year contract.
The costly devices are helping Verizon carve out a niche for itself at the top of the market, as carriers have slashed smartphone devices down to being free on the low end. Rivals AT&T Inc. (T) and Sprint Nextel Corp. (S) offer several devices online at no cost, such as the iPhone 3GS and Samsung Conquer 4G.
"It used to be that $199 was the top of the heap, the most you were going to pay," said Charles Golvin, a Forrester Research analyst. "Verizon clearly believes that with their 4G network coverage and reputation they can appeal to a segment that will pay a little more for the latest and greatest."
Representatives for Verizon Wireless and Samsung declined to comment.
Forcing the customer to pay a higher price upfront means Verizon Wireless is paying a lower subsidy, which is the difference in price that Verizon Wireless pays manufacturers from what consumers pay for the phone when they accept a contract.
For the Rezound and Droid Razr, Verizon Wireless's subsidy is $350 per device, based on the full listed price for the handsets. In contrast, the iPhone 4S carries a $450 subsidy, like AT&T's Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket 4G phone. And Sprint subsidizes the HTC Evo 3D to the tune of $500 in a current Web promotion.
The subsidy amount is based on prices listed on the carriers' websites; actual amounts may vary based on bulk purchases.
The strategy, though, is risky as carriers are battling over an ever-smaller piece of available market share, with wireless connections now outpacing the number of Americans. By offering a higher subsidy, carriers hope they can entice existing customers to upgrade from older smartphones and agree to a multi-year contract.
The Galaxy Nexus--jointly developed by Samsung and Google Inc. (GOOG)--has been hotly anticipated since it was announced in October. It uses Google's Ice Cream Sandwich Android platform, which can run on both tablet computers and smartphones, and is enabled to make payments by waving the device in front of a receiver at a store checkout.
The device will be important for Samsung as well, as it seeks to take HTC's crown as the top smartphone seller in the U.S. Samsung shipped 4.9 million smartphones in the third quarter, 800,000 fewer than HTC, according to research firm Canalys.
Like other nearly $300 devices, the Nexus works off the zippier 4G service known as LTE that Verizon is rolling out to a broad swath of the U.S. With LTE's download speeds, customers may be more enticed by smartphones that pack in more features, such as bigger screens and faster processors, Golvin said.
Verizon's LTE will cover at least 200 million Americans by year end, compared with 70 million for AT&T. Sprint is in the early stages of erecting its own 4G LTE network, though it sells devices today using the 4G WiMax network from Clearwire Corp. (CLWR).
Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ)--which co-owns Verizon Wireless with Vodafone Group PLC (VOD.LN, VOD, VODPF)--closed up 20 cents, or 0.5%, at $38.05, on Monday.
-By Greg Bensinger, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-4676; greg.bensinger@dowjones.com
The latest addition is the hotly anticipated Galaxy Nexus from Samsung Electronics Co. (005930.SE, SSNHY). The carrier will start selling the device this month for $299.99 with a two-year contract, according to people familiar with the matter. That follows the introduction of HTC Corp.'s (2498.TW, HTCXF) Rezound and Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc.'s (MMI) Droid Razr, both priced at a penny under $300 with a two-year contract.
The costly devices are helping Verizon carve out a niche for itself at the top of the market, as carriers have slashed smartphone devices down to being free on the low end. Rivals AT&T Inc. (T) and Sprint Nextel Corp. (S) offer several devices online at no cost, such as the iPhone 3GS and Samsung Conquer 4G.
"It used to be that $199 was the top of the heap, the most you were going to pay," said Charles Golvin, a Forrester Research analyst. "Verizon clearly believes that with their 4G network coverage and reputation they can appeal to a segment that will pay a little more for the latest and greatest."
Representatives for Verizon Wireless and Samsung declined to comment.
Forcing the customer to pay a higher price upfront means Verizon Wireless is paying a lower subsidy, which is the difference in price that Verizon Wireless pays manufacturers from what consumers pay for the phone when they accept a contract.
For the Rezound and Droid Razr, Verizon Wireless's subsidy is $350 per device, based on the full listed price for the handsets. In contrast, the iPhone 4S carries a $450 subsidy, like AT&T's Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket 4G phone. And Sprint subsidizes the HTC Evo 3D to the tune of $500 in a current Web promotion.
The subsidy amount is based on prices listed on the carriers' websites; actual amounts may vary based on bulk purchases.
The strategy, though, is risky as carriers are battling over an ever-smaller piece of available market share, with wireless connections now outpacing the number of Americans. By offering a higher subsidy, carriers hope they can entice existing customers to upgrade from older smartphones and agree to a multi-year contract.
The Galaxy Nexus--jointly developed by Samsung and Google Inc. (GOOG)--has been hotly anticipated since it was announced in October. It uses Google's Ice Cream Sandwich Android platform, which can run on both tablet computers and smartphones, and is enabled to make payments by waving the device in front of a receiver at a store checkout.
The device will be important for Samsung as well, as it seeks to take HTC's crown as the top smartphone seller in the U.S. Samsung shipped 4.9 million smartphones in the third quarter, 800,000 fewer than HTC, according to research firm Canalys.
Like other nearly $300 devices, the Nexus works off the zippier 4G service known as LTE that Verizon is rolling out to a broad swath of the U.S. With LTE's download speeds, customers may be more enticed by smartphones that pack in more features, such as bigger screens and faster processors, Golvin said.
Verizon's LTE will cover at least 200 million Americans by year end, compared with 70 million for AT&T. Sprint is in the early stages of erecting its own 4G LTE network, though it sells devices today using the 4G WiMax network from Clearwire Corp. (CLWR).
Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ)--which co-owns Verizon Wireless with Vodafone Group PLC (VOD.LN, VOD, VODPF)--closed up 20 cents, or 0.5%, at $38.05, on Monday.
-By Greg Bensinger, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-4676; greg.bensinger@dowjones.com
Monday, December 5, 2011
Ainovo Novo 7 is a dirt-cheap Ice Cream Sandwich tablet
What does your hundred bucks-plus get you? Unfortunately, Ainovo isn’t generous with the details. The Novo 7 ships with a decent 1GHz MIPS processor paired with a Vivante GC860 GPU, 512MB RAM, and 4GB of internal storage (expandable via microSD), Wi-Fi support, front and rear cameras, and the ability to play back full 1080P video. Ainovo estimates that the Novo 7′s battery can yield 7 to 8 hours of cord-free use, and it also ships with Spider-Man: Total Mayhem. The webpage doesn’t note the resolution of the Novo 7′s 7-inch capacitive display, but it’s likely putting out 800×480 pixels.
In fact, the Novo 7 looks an awful lot like this N7 Asteroid tablet over at Amazon, which ships with Android 3.2. If the form factors are a match, you can expect your Novo 7 to weigh in at about 12.5 ounces and measure around a half inch thick. It might not be the belle of the ball, but what do you expect for this kind of money?
If you’re a stickler for quality, you’re probably better off picking up a Kindle Fire for $199, rooting it, and waiting for someone in the dev community to roll an Ice Cream Sandwich port.
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Saturday, December 3, 2011
Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 Review
AT&T and Samsung have brought forth a tablet that adds to their set of sleek Android-based slates, this one the first to work with the carrier’s 4G LTE network. Inside you’ll find the rather powerful 1.5Ghz Qualcomm MSM8660 dual-core processor, Samsung’s custom user interface TouchWiz UX made specifically for tablets, and either 16 or 32GB or internal storage. You can take 3 megapixel photos and 720p videos with the back-facing camera, slightly less impressive media with the front-facing 2 megapixel camera. As this tablet is thin, so is it speedy, and as there are now more than four different models of tablet running Android from Samsung on the market today, surely they’ve gotten the formula correct enough to warrant such an array by now – wouldn’t you say?
Like its predecessors the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the Galaxy Tab 7.7, the Galaxy Tab 8.9 is monumentally thin, and just as it was when we first laid eyes and hands on the pre-production build back at CTIA spring 2011, this tablet is a winner when it comes to industrial design. It’s simply lovely in its form, feeling like Samsung wanted to knock the tablet game out of the park with a simple set of matte black plastic along the back and silver plastic around the edge, with the entirety of the front being a tough layer of glass and a 1/2-inch border of black under the glass around the 8.9-inch display. This display is a PLS TFT capacitive touchscreen at 800 x 1280 pixel resolution and the whole device sizes in at 230.9 x 157.8 x 8.6 mm.
The display is no AMOLED, to be sure, but it is relatively bright and will suffice for your everyday indoor activities. This tablet is in a class with the iPad and the top-tier Androids when it comes to overall quality, and you’ll know good and well where your $479.99 (with a free phone) went when you’ve purchased it. This tablet is the ideal size for those of you wishing for a tablet that’s both compact but not so small to fit in your pocket, and certainly light and thin enough to keep in a purse. You’ll want to think about purchasing a case for the tablet if you’re carrying it around in your daily satchel, especially since you don’t want the screen to get all nicked up by keys and coins.
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Like its predecessors the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the Galaxy Tab 7.7, the Galaxy Tab 8.9 is monumentally thin, and just as it was when we first laid eyes and hands on the pre-production build back at CTIA spring 2011, this tablet is a winner when it comes to industrial design. It’s simply lovely in its form, feeling like Samsung wanted to knock the tablet game out of the park with a simple set of matte black plastic along the back and silver plastic around the edge, with the entirety of the front being a tough layer of glass and a 1/2-inch border of black under the glass around the 8.9-inch display. This display is a PLS TFT capacitive touchscreen at 800 x 1280 pixel resolution and the whole device sizes in at 230.9 x 157.8 x 8.6 mm.
The display is no AMOLED, to be sure, but it is relatively bright and will suffice for your everyday indoor activities. This tablet is in a class with the iPad and the top-tier Androids when it comes to overall quality, and you’ll know good and well where your $479.99 (with a free phone) went when you’ve purchased it. This tablet is the ideal size for those of you wishing for a tablet that’s both compact but not so small to fit in your pocket, and certainly light and thin enough to keep in a purse. You’ll want to think about purchasing a case for the tablet if you’re carrying it around in your daily satchel, especially since you don’t want the screen to get all nicked up by keys and coins.
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Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime: The Rolls-Royce of Android tablets
Asus' Eee Pad Transformer Prime is set to shake up the world of mobile computing. The device -- expected to launch in the U.S. sometime during the week of December 19, according to Asus -- marks the first time quad-core technology has made its way into a touch-based tablet. But raw processing power isn't the only thing that puts this tablet in a league of its own.
The Transformer Prime manages to pull off the rare feat of combining power and style: It's sleek and sexy, yet also jam-packed with robust functionality. And it's armed with a secret weapon: Asus' optional keyboard dock, a slim attachment that instantly turns the tablet into a full-fledged laptop computer. The tablet itself costs $499 for a 32GB model and $599 for a 64GB model; the dock is sold separately for $149.
On paper, this thing has it all. So how does it perform in the real world? I spent several days putting it to the test to find out.
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The Transformer Prime manages to pull off the rare feat of combining power and style: It's sleek and sexy, yet also jam-packed with robust functionality. And it's armed with a secret weapon: Asus' optional keyboard dock, a slim attachment that instantly turns the tablet into a full-fledged laptop computer. The tablet itself costs $499 for a 32GB model and $599 for a 64GB model; the dock is sold separately for $149.
On paper, this thing has it all. So how does it perform in the real world? I spent several days putting it to the test to find out.
Read more...
Friday, December 2, 2011
Carrier IQ detector app released for Android
A new Android app to identify whether your smartphone has any Carrier IQ tracking/monitoring software installed on it has been released, the Voodoo Carrier IQ detector, giving users a simple way to put their minds to rest on privacy. The handiwork of Android app developer supercurio, the tool is only a few hours old and only partially finished, with the consequent warning that the results can’t be entirely relied on yet.
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Thursday, December 1, 2011
ASUS Eee Pad MeMo 7-inch tablet running Android 4.0, dropping in January
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