honeycomb

Is the Acer A200's utter dullness justified by its $330 price? (First Take)

Editors' note: The Acer Iconia Tab A200 ships with Honeycomb, but, according to Acer, will receive an over-the-air update to Ice Cream Sandwich within the next few days. We'll post a full review of the tablet after Ice Cream Sandwich hits, but in the meantime, check out this exhaustive first take.

There's really nothing special about the Acer Iconia Tab A200. Sure, it's ICS-upgradable, but both the Motorola Xoom and Asus Transformer Prime have already beat it to the punch.

Also, while it features the bare minimum capabilities of all other post-Honeycomb Android tablets, it actually loses two features many Android tablet owners take for granted: a rear camera and an HDMI port.

Still, it can be yours for only $330 (for 8GB; $350 for 16GB), making it the cheapest non-contract buy-in to Honeycomb/ICS yet.… Read more

Sony Google TV update coming soon

A tweet from the official Google TV twitter account indicates that a noteworthy update's coming to Sony's Google TV devices.

When the update lands this week, owners of the NSZ-GT1 Google TV/Blu-ray player will be able to watch 3D Blu-ray movies through the device. The new firmware update also speeds up the Google Chrome browser implemented in the aforementioned Internet TV box and Sony's short-lived NSX-24GT1, NSX-32GT1, NSX-40GT1, and NSX-46GT1 televisions with Google TV built-in. We assume the next generation of Sony Google TV devices (NSZ-GS7 and NSZ-GP9) will ship with this new functionality. … Read more

Sprint's next tablet to be $100 ZTE Optik

Details for Sprint's next Android-powered tablet have leaked online and if you thought the carrier was going high-end you'd be completely wrong.

According to a leak obtained by SprintFeed, we can expect to see the ZTE Optik arrive in early February with a $100 price tag. You'll still have to sign a two-year agreement with a minimum rate plan, but things could be worse.

Hardware for the 7-inch ZTE tablet is impressive for the money and includes a dual-core 1.2GHz processor, 16GB storage, and 1GB RAM. Running Android 3.2 Honeycomb, its additional specifications include a … Read more

HTC may dish Ice Cream Sandwich to Flyer tablet

Mere weeks after announcing that Android 3.2 is being deployed to the 7-inch Flyer tablet, HTC could be readying a 4.0 update.

According to HTC-Hub, the hardware maker expects to roll out the Ice Cream Sandwich update during the first quarter of the year. If the rumor proves to be true, this may be one of the fastest back-to-back updates in Android history.

The rumors of a 4.0 update got started when a member of the blog spoke to an online HTC customer service representative about some lingering issues that the 3.2 update brought to the … Read more

Honeycomb: What went wrong?

Yesterday, Tech Republic published a great editorial making the case that Android tablets are a failure.

I don't entirely agree, but as we head into CES 2012, one thing is certain: there will be no more talk of Android 3.0 (aka Honeycomb) as anything other than a disappointment. The future of Android, for tablet and smartphone alike, is Android 4.0, aka Ice Cream Sandwich.

That said, I do worry that the Android 4.0 experience on a tablet is destined to repeat the same mistakes as Honeycomb.

The Tech Republic piece cites four main reasons for the … Read more

New Google TV taps Marvell system-on-a-chip

Google is tapping Santa Clara, Calif.-based Marvell to power its new TV, which will debut next week at CES.

Marvell's ARMADA 1500 HD Media System-on-a-Chip (SoC) has been designed into the next generation of Google TVs debuting at CES 2012, the chip supplier said Thursday. That chip is based on a design from U.K.-based ARM.

"Marvell and Google have teamed up to...[transform] the TV into the command center for our connected lifestyle," Marvell co-founder Weili Dai said in a statement.

The two companies have collaborated on software and chip technologies to grow the … Read more

Gingerbread dominates current Android devices

Google updated its popular platform version chart this week, giving a current snapshot of the popularity of the various Android releases.

As expected, Gingerbread (Android 2.3x) leads the way with a combined 55.5 percent share of the market, followed by Froyo at 30.4 percent and 2-year-old Eclair at 8.5 percent. Trailing behind are Honeycomb (3.3 percent) and very marginal showings for Donut (version 1.6), Cupcake (version 1.5), and Ice Cream Sandwich (version 4).

The latest chart marks the first time we've seen Ice Cream Sandwich make an impact, even if it is … Read more

Apple's iOS grabs 52 percent of mobile browser users

Despite a drop in December, Apple's iOS remained the top platform for mobile browsing, according to the latest stats from NetApplications.

Throughout December, iOS carved out a 52 percent share of the mobile market, down from 54 percent in November and 61 percent in October, but still in the lead. Google's Android ended December with a 16 percent share, a dip from the prior two months.

Drilling down further, the iPhone accounted for 25 percent of all mobile browsing and the iPad 24 percent, leaving the iPod Touch with 2 percent. Android 2.3 was the most popular … Read more

'Xoom 2' is no iPad 2--and that can also be a good thing

Though the Android-based Motorola Xyboard tablet from Verizon has taken its lumps from reviewers, my initial take is a bit more upbeat.

So, let's get the bad news out of the way first. CNET Reviews didn't like the price (among other things) for this follow-on to the original Xoom tablet.

I agree. If you opt for a month-to-month broadband connection for a 10-inch 16GB Xyboard, you have to pay $699 plus the first month ($30 for 2GB). That's about $730 just to walk out of the store--and about $100 more than the initial outlay for the 16GB … Read more