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Asus confirmed that it would be rolling out Android 4.0 Jelly Bean to the Asus Transformer TF300T and Asus Transformer Pad Infinity, and according to readers that update is starting to roll out as of now.
“We are pleased to announce that we will be updating many of our paper products to Android 4.1, Jelly Bean. the ASUS Transformer Pad, ASUS Transformer Pad Prime and ASUS Transformer Pad Infinity are all scheduled to receive an update to Jelly Bean in the coming months," Asus officially stated last month.
The coming months however seem to already be here.
The update is starting to turn up on users devices claiming to be a standard firmware update, however is actually the new version of Android 4.0.
Feedback recommends that those keen to upgrade to the new version of Android should be wary of incompatibilities with Flash player and the tablets no longer working healthy to use the WiFi Direct features.
It means that UK shoppers looking forward to the end of the month for the launch of the latest Android paper from Asus, the Asus Transformer Pad Infinity, will get Jelly Bean from the get go when it arrives on UK shores from 31 August. It will cost £599.99.
Have you got the new update? Let us know how you are getting on in the comments below.
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Asus Transformer Pad Infinity and TF300T Jelly Bean rollout starts
RIM has unveiled a 4G LTE BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, adding high-speed wireless data to its existing 7-inch QNX-powered tablet.
The ailing smartphone maker said the much-rumored tablet will debut in Canada on August 9, and will “be available in the coming months” in the U.S., Europe, South Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.
RIM describes the tablet as “enterprise ready,” boasting that it can be managed using BlackBerry Mobile Fusion, while BlackBerry Balance allows the tablet to be used for both work and personal purposes.
Apart from the LTE updates, which will automatically connect to HSPA+ when LTE is not available, the new PlayBook is much the same as the old PlayBook. It features the same 7-inch 1024 x 600 pixel touchscreen, an updated 1.5GHz dual-core processor and 1GB of RAM, the same 3 megapixel forward-facing camera and a 5 megapixel rear-facing camera, and the exact same BlackBerry Tablet OS, developed by QNX.
The 4G LTE BlackBerry PlayBook tablet will come with 32GB of memory storage.
RIM has not disclosed a price for the 4G LTE PlayBook, and that could be a problem. the original PlayBook debuted at $499 for the 16GB model (32GB for $599 and 64GB for $699), but RIM was soon forced to offer a three for two deal before later slashing the price to $299.
However, despite lukewarm sales, this time last year the PlayBook remained one of the biggest tablet players outside of Apple’s iPad. since then, RIM’s tablet has been eclipsed by the likes of the Amazon Kindle Fire, Samsung’s Galaxy Tab and the Android ‘Jelly Bean’-powered Nexus 7.
If RIM found the market tough back when it released the original PlayBook, the proliferation of $199 tablets have made things a lot tougher.
Oh, and there’s that small matter of Apple having sold some 85 million iPads. But don’t let that worry you too much, RIM.
Given that RIM found it nigh on impossible to sell the original PlayBook — or much else lately, if I am being completely honest — I am left wondering what new secret sauce the company has planned for the update. I suspect that if RIM can’t get the pricing right — around the $350 mark — then this update will sink into obscurity much like the original tablet did, LTE or not.
Image source: RIM
RIM attempts tablet re-entry with 4G LTE BlackBerry PlayBook tablet
for the first time, in our Nexus 7 review, I started seriously looking at integrated storage performance of tablets and smartphones. I've casually done this in the past, but users complaining of poor system responsiveness with background writes on ASUS' Transformer Prime/Pad series demanded something a little more thorough.
As I mentioned in our Nexus 7 review, most tablet and smartphone makers integrate a single chip controller + NAND combo to save on cost and space. In the case of the 8GB Nexus 7, you get an 8GB eMMC package from Kingston. In this tiny package is an eMMC controller and NAND die. The component list should sound familiar to anyone who remembers the earliest affordable MLC SSDs for PCs, particularly in the absense of any on-board DRAM for caching duties. The lack of DRAM is only part of the issue, the fact of the matter is these cheap eMMC controllers just aren't very fast – at least compared to high-end SSD controllers. things will get better over time, but for now cost is still a major concern.
The Kingston controller in the 8GB Nexus 7 is much faster than what ASUS uses in the Transformer Prime/Pad series, but I had heard the controller in the 16GB models was even quicker. I just got my hands on a 16GB N7 and ran through the Android version of our standard four-corners SSD tests using Androbench. just like last time I increased read/write sizes to 100MB in order to get consistent results out of the device.
Sequential read speed is around 14% slower on the 16GB part, but it's still higher than what you'll get out of a Transformer Pad Infinity. The drop here is unfortunate as sequential read performance does matter – that's really the only downside to the 16GB model's IO performance though. The drop is also not significant enough to cause any additional stuttering or otherwise undesirable behavior.
Sequential write speed is up by 24%, putting the Nexus 7 further ahead of the other devices I tested here.
Random read performance shoots up by over 60%, putting the 16GB Nexus 7 ahead of the Galaxy Nexus.
Random write performance sees a 43% increase, putting good distance between the 16GB and 8GB N7s. None of these numbers are particularly good (we're still talking about mechanical hard drive levels of performance here) but it's definitely a step in the right direction.
It's always possible that we'll see multiple controllers used in the 8 and 16GB Nexus 7s, but for now all of the 16GB models use the same controller. The difference in IO performance isn't significant enough to push you towards the $250 Nexus 7 if you don't need the extra space, but consider it an added benefit if you do order the 16GB model.
Google will slash 20 per cent of the workforce of Motorola Mobility in the internet search giant’s largest job cuts ever as it moves to make more smartphones and fewer simple mobiles.
The news sent Google’s shares up nearly 3 per cent but analysts said it was unclear if the cuts were enough to restore the fortunes of Motorola, whose last hit was the Razr flip-phone launched eight years ago.
“I think it’s still going to be challenging to navigate the waters (of the handset business); how do you keep your partners happy and how you push your own smartphone devices at the same time,” Morningstar analyst Rick Summer said.
“This is the obvious step. The things that are harder are how do you drive profitability, how do you carve out a niche for Google devices, how to end up delivering solid returns on capital.”
Google bought the money-losing cellphone maker for US$12.5 billion ($15.5 billion) last year – its largest acquisition ever – aiming to use Motorola Mobility’s patents to fend off legal attacks on its Android mobile platform and expand beyond its software business.
by pairing Motorola’s smartphone hardware business with its Android software, Google may have a better chance of mounting a direct challenge to Apple’s popular iPhone, technology market observers believe.
But the acquisition has also raised concerns on Wall Street as investors fret that Google, the world’s no 1 Web search engine, is entering a business with much lower profit margins and in which it has little experience.
Motorola’s mobile devices unit has lost money in 14 of the last 16 quarters. in the second quarter, Motorola reported an operating loss of US$233 million on revenue of US$1.25b.
While many questions remain about Motorola’s strategy, Morgan Stanley upgraded Google to “overweight” after the cuts.
“We believe that Google is planning to reduce Motorola Mobility’s smartphone portfolio to a few reference Android devices, and perhaps a couple of tablet devices,” analysts at the brokerage said.
Google had evaded questions about its plans for Motorola Mobility when it reported quarterly results last month, saying it had yet to complete its homework on the various businesses.
Recent media reports have suggested that Google is shopping Motorola Mobility’s television set-top box business which is not the best fit with Google’s high-profit-margin internet business.
WHAT SIZE FITS?
in a regulatory filing announcing the job cuts on Monday, Google said it planned to simplify its line-up of mobile products, “shifting the emphasis from feature phones to more innovative and profitable devices.”
The moves, Google said, are intended to return Motorola’s mobile devices unit to profitability, but warned investors to expect “significant revenue variability for Motorola” for several quarters.
as Google restructures the Motorola business to fit Google’s strategy, many of Motorola’s legacy businesses will be “wound down,” said BGC Partners analyst Colin Gillis. He cited low-end “feature phones,” which lack the wide, color touchscreens and computing capabilities of smartphones, as the most obvious example.
“If it can’t display a Google ad, then Motorola is probably not going to be making it for much longer,” he said.
Google makes the majority of its revenue from online ads that appear on its search engine and other web services. as consumers increasingly access the Web from mobile devices in addition to their PCs, Google is taking steps to ensure its money-making online services remain easily accessible.
Google’s moves to cut 20 per cent of Motorola’s workforce is larger than the typical 10 per cent layoffs that companies often make when restructuring a business, Gillis said, but he added that he expects Google to make further investments in Motorola’s smartphone and tablet PC businesses.
Morningstar’s Summer said he does not expect mass layoffs at Motorola, but said things might change as Google reviews all of the cellphone maker’s units and tries to sell the TV unit.
others were similarly unclear about the right size for Motorola, which will close nearly a third of its offices.
“They are still learning what makes it a leaner meaner machine. I think as we move into the new year, there maybe more right-sizing,” said Susquehanna Financial Group analyst Herman Leung.
Google said in a regulatory filing it expects to take a severance-related charge of up to US$275m mostly in the third quarter, but with some possibly trailing through to the end of the year. it warned there could be some other significant charges yet to be calculated.
Google shares rose 2.8 per cent to close at US$660.01 on Nasdaq, after rising as high as US$660.15 earlier.
One-third of the jobs lost will be in the United States, but the company has not specified where or what facilities would be affected.
Earlier, the New York Times reported Google’s plan and said it was looking to shrink operations in Asia and India, by not just exiting unprofitable markets, but also stopping making low-end devices and focusing on a few cellphones instead of dozens.
Motorola Mobility, which has 94 offices throughout the world, will center research and development in Chicago, Sunnyvale, California and Beijing.
in addition to the planned cuts, Google has downsized Motorola Mobility’s management, letting go 40 per cent of its vice presidents, but has also hired new senior executives, the New York Times said.
– Reuters
Google to cut 4000 Motorola jobs
Just hours after Acer’s CEO complained that Microsoft’s Surface tablet would generate a “negative impact” on the tablet market, Lenovo announced its own entrant to the Surface market, the ThinkPad Tablet 2. Clearly, Lenovo sees a market for a Windows 8 tablet that Acer does not. But what?
Business users, most likely.
“It appears the Lenovo is targeting business users and is shipping with an Intel processor,” Michael Gartenberg, a mobile analyst with Gartner, noted. “It’s also worth noting the digitizer is an extra add on.”
In fact, the digitizer – the optional digital pen that Microsoft will support with Windows 8, and Lenovo has chosen to include as an option for the Tablet 2 – is just one of a number of differentiating features that separate the Tablet 2 from Microsoft’s Surface.
Campbell Kan, Acer’s president for personal computer global operations, helped open the debate this week by telling the Financial Times that it is considering alternatives to Windows 8. “If Microsoft… is going to do hardware business, what should we do?” he asked. “Should we still rely on Microsoft, or should we find other alternatives?”
With the Tablet 2, however, Lenovo is making a tangible commitment to Windows 8.
The Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet 2 measures less than 0.4 inches thick and weighs just over 21 ounces grams, making it both thinner and lighter than the Microsoft Surface Pro, which measures more than half an inch thick and weighs almost 32 ounces. However, the Tablet 2’s screen is also a bit smaller: 10.1 inches, versus the 10.6-inch screen that the Surface includes. Battery life will be about 10 hours, Lenovo claims, and connectivity options will include 4G WWAN, which is not avialable on the Surface.
The Tablet 2 will use the Intel Atom “Clover Trail” X86 processor, which is due this fall. Lenovo will include Windows 8 Pro on board, which makes the Tablet 2 a rival to the Surface Pro.
That will instantly place the tablet into the upper pricing echelon, but also free it from the cost constraints that will limit the ingenuity of the basic ARM-based, Windows 8 RT tablets. It’s worth noting, though, that the price is about the only key feature that Lenovo hasn’t yet revealed.
Riding the trend toward the consumerization of IT and BYOD (bring your own device) to the workplace. Lenovo added a number of features that straddle the consumer and professional markets: a full-sized USB port for external storage and peripherals, front- and rear-facing cameras, noise-canceling microphones, an HDMI port and wireless video streaming.
But as ThinkPad fans know, Lenovo’s sweet spot is serving the business user. Acer, with its low-cost Acer and Gateway brands, has traditionally served the consumer. both the ThinkPad brand and its associated enterprise features may help woo IT managers enamored of the fit and finish of Lenovo products.
Lenovo’s enterprise-focused capabilities include an optional fingerprint reader, as well as the ability to encrypt both the internal and external storage. Lenovo also offers additional business features such as VPN access, Windows management tools and the ability to manage application deployment and block users from installing certain apps.
Lenovo also chose to include that optional stylus, a feature that Microsoft executives demonstrated during the Surface Pro unveiling. It’s still unclear what capabilities the stylus will have, although many suspect that the Surface, at least, includes a Wacom digitizer inside it.
Lenovo clearly disagrees with JT Wang, chief executive and chairman of Acer, who claimed that the Surface will create a “huge negative impact for the ecosystem.” But analyst Gartenberg said he still believes in the validity of the unified approach that Microsoft is offering.
“Consumers may be more attracted to the complete approach Microsoft is offering and those looking for an optimal tablet experience may care less about legacy applications going forward,” Gartenberg said. “At this point, Microsoft’s bold decision to make their own hardware to showcase their vision of the next generation of personal computing seems like a good decision… especially in a market that will be driven by consumer adoption and not necessarily business adoption.”
He’s almost certainly right – volume tablet sales have driven by consumers, not the enterprise. But if Lenovo can put the Tablet 2 into the hands of its enterprise sales teams, it has the opportunity to move 10,000 or so at a time. Lenovo is the second-ranked PC maker worldwide for a reason, and it’s not because of consumer PCs.
Why Lenovo Believes in Windows 8 Tablets – Even if Acer Doesn’t
But while it may be meant for media consumption and built as, essentially, a portal for Google Play content, it isn’t built like a simple budget tablet. it sports high end specs and aside from the shiny new version of Android, it has a 1280 x 800 Gorilla Glass display, a front-facing camera for video chatting, and, most impressively, an NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core processor. So do high-end specs and a low-end price equal Android gold? Read on and find out.
Build and Design
First things first: the Nexus 7 is a beautiful tablet. its body is all black, save for a silver trim around the edges, and at 0.75 pounds and 0.41 inches thick (slightly lighter and thinner than the Kindle Fire, which are 0.91 pounds and 0.45 inches thick) it’s incredibly svelte and lightweight. it takes on a slightly less boxy and rectangular look than the Fire, with the edges sloping in gently toward the back. I’m generally a fan of sharp edges because I find them to have a cleaner, more modern look, but even I found the shape of the Nexus 7 to be graceful.
And a particularly nice touch is that the back of the device is covered with a textured, slightly rubberized material that’s both comfortable and practical. I’m of the personal belief that all tablets should have some sort of grippy backing like this, rather than just slick plastic, so I was very happy with this particular design choice. The branding back here is simple too, with “Nexus” etched in near the top and “ASUS” down at the bottom near the tablet’s one mono speaker.
Display
The 1280 x 800 7-inch display of the Nexus 7 is quite impressive despite the fact that it doesn’t feature any of the ubiquitous, new-fangled display technologies that are available these days (see: AMOLED, Super AMOLED, Super AMOLED plus, Retina display, etc.). it has a respectable pixel density of 216 ppi and it’s coated with Corning Gorilla Glass, giving it a beautiful-looking sheen and sharpness. On the highest setting, the brightness of the display is more than sufficient, even if it isn’t the brightest we’ve ever seen on a tablet.
Other Buttons and Ports
One could also add “minimalist” to the list of adjectives describing the design of the Nexus 7. The sharp, sleek look of the tablet’s design isn’t cluttered with an array of buttons, ports, slots, or controls, as it has only two buttons and two ports. If held in portrait orientation, there is the power/standby button and volume rocker, both located on the upper right side, and on the bottom, there is the micro USB port and the 3.5mm headphone jack.
The only other design features of note are a front-facing webcam on the top short edge of the bezel, and a small set of contact points on the lower left side of the device, which will likely be used for the audio dock accessory that ASUS has since announced for the Nexus 7. Few details have been released about the dock, other than the fact that it will charge your tablet while holding it in landscape orientation and, of course, amplify your music.
I do have an issue with one of the design choices, though. since the sides of the tablet slope inward towards the back, that angles the power and volume rocker buttons away from the user slightly, which takes some getting used to. Rather than having the buttons right there on the side of the tablet where your fingers will instinctively reach for them, they’re actually more towards the back. I also wish that holding the power button for anything longer than a split-second wouldn’t prompt the tablet to ask me if I want to power it down (instead of just putting it into standby), but in the grand scheme of things, these are very minor complaints.
Speaker
The tablet’s lone mono speaker is definitely a weak point of the Nexus 7. normally, I would turn to my usual disparaging rhetoric about how terrible tablet speakers are in general and move on. but while that may be the truth, the fact here is that the Nexus 7 is meant to be a tablet for media consumption. And when the whole point of your tablet is to watch movies, listen to music, play games, or otherwise engage in activities that often involve audio, you would think that the manufacturer would put in two (stereo) speakers that are halfway decent, at least by tablet standards.
Unfortunately, this isn’t the case, as the Nexus 7′s speaker is of poor quality, even when compared to other tablets, which is not exactly a high standard. it can make a decent amount of noise at maximum volume, but if you crank the volume up high enough to get a lot of sound out of it (or even at medium levels, at times) the distortion gets so bad that the speaker sounds like it’s tearing. It’s really rough, and you’re better off using headphones whenever you can.
Specs
Apple filed a stealth suit last summer time alleging the Motorola Xoom violated the look patent that supports the iPad. While Apple has already established some success progressing its large patent gun against Samsung, exactly the same can not be stated for Motorola: a German court just asserted that the reference Android tablet does not infringe on Apple’s design claim. The ruling is not an entire win for Motorola, however, because the court wouldn’t invalidate the patent — it might theoretically be equalized against other pills later on. Losing will still sting for Apple, which now needs to turn to a multi-touch patent claim (amongst others) whether it really wants to make Motorola have the warmth in Mannheim.
Filed under: Tablet Computers
German court rules Motorola Xoom does not violate Apple’s iPad design patent initially made an appearance on Engadget on Tue, 17 Jul 2012 11:10:00 EDT. Please visit our terms to be used of feeds.
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German court rules Motorola Xoom does not violate Apple’s iPad design patent – laweind’s posterous
Google's Android 4.1 Jelly Bean release may be making all the headlines these days, but for many users, Android 4.0 — Ice Cream Sandwich — is still the object of desire.
Android 4.0 started rolling out to devices last December. as of early July, though, it's on just 11 percent of devices, according to Google's own measurements. and that means the vast majority of people are still waiting for a taste.
Given the breadth and diversity of the Android ecosystem, it's inevitable that upgrade availability and timing will vary to some extent from one device to the next; Nexus devices aside, after all, it's up to manufacturers to prepare and provide Android OS upgrades. For better and sometimes for worse, that's the nature of Android's open source model.
There may not be a centralized system for upgrade standards, but there is a level of accountability. many manufacturers make promises for when their devices will be upgraded — and with the second quarter now behind us, it's time to check up on those promises once again to see who followed through and who let us down.
Based on their own publicly shared plans, here's how the various Android manufacturers performed in the second quarter of 2012.
[SEE ALSO: Android 4.0 upgrade list: When's your device getting ICS?]
Android upgrade report card: Acer
Acer scored an "A" in my first quarter upgrade report card, and it's faring almost as well this time around: the Acer team promised mid-April Ice Cream Sandwich deliveries for its Iconia Tab A100 and A500 tablets; while the rollouts for both devices started closer to the end of the month — April 25 and 27, to be exact — it's close enough that I'm not going to quibble.
Android upgrade report card: Asus
Asus was another strong performer in my quarter 1 report. the maker of Google's new Nexus 7 tablet didn't disappoint in Q2: the company rolled out ICS to its Eee Pad Slider in mid-May. though Asus provided no advance upgrade date for the device, its continued dedication to timely upgrades earns it another high mark.
Android upgrade report card: HTC
Things aren't looking so sunny for HTC at the end of the second quarter. the company, which earned a semi-respectable "B-" for its upgrade efforts in the first quarter of the year, let users down on a number of different fronts these past few months.
HTC promised an "early 2012" upgrade for its Amaze 4G phone but didn't deliver the upgrade until late May. it promised an upgrade for its EVO 3D at the start of 2012 but didn't roll out any upgrades to the phone until last week — and the upgrade remains limited in nature, with EVO 3D customers in the U.S. still waiting for any sign of progress.
the letdowns, unfortunately, don't stop there: HTC promised an upgrade by the end of March for its Sensation 4G but didn't provide it until the middle of May. it promised a "May or June" upgrade for its EVO 4G+ phone and has yet to come through in any way. and it promised "early 2012" upgrades for the EVO Design 4G and HTC Rezound — then changed its mind and said it'd upgrade them in "June or July." as of now, both devices are still waiting.
if HTC is going to catch up, it's going to have to start working in overtime, as several of its other handsets are nearing the end of their promised upgrade windows as well: the Desire HD, Desire S, Droid Incredible 2, Rhyme, and Thunderbolt are all set to be upgraded within the next two months, with two of the phones down to be done before the end of July.
HTC did deliver on one promise this quarter: it sent Ice Cream Sandwich to its international Incredible S phone in early July, as scheduled. but with all the failures, that one success isn't enough to erase an otherwise embarrassing performance.
Android upgrade report card: Lenovo
Lenovo sat the first quarter out completely, but in Q2, the company kicked things up and got into gear. Lenovo upgraded its ThinkPad Tablet to Android 4.0 from late May to early June, fulfilling its promise for a second-quarter delivery.
Android upgrade report card: LG
Like Lenovo, LG got an "incomplete" grade in my first quarter report. unlike Lenovo, however, LG didn't do much to improve its stature this second round.
LG delivered Android 4.0 to its Optimus LTE phone in Korea last month, meeting its second-quarter promise for that device. Everywhere else, though, the manufacturer failed miserably.
LG had promised second-quarter upgrades for its Eclipse, MyTouch Q, Optimus 2X, Optimus Sol, and Prada smartphones. Not a single one of those devices received an upgrade in the second quarter — and LG has stayed mum about what's causing the widespread delays.
with a slew of other smartphones on its third-quarter upgrade schedule, LG had better start moving if it plans to make right by its customers.
Android upgrade report card: Motorola
Motorola may now be owned by Google, but its Android upgrade performance has yet to reach anywhere near Nexus levels. Moto did finally get ICS to its flagship Droid Razr device just days ago, but that phone had originally been promised an "early 2012" upgrade; I don't think the last few days of June quite qualify as "early" in the year (and some users weren't even able to get the upgrade until the start of July). the same applies to Motorola's Droid Razr model.
the international Motorola Razr, meanwhile, just started getting its first taste of Ice Cream Sandwich this month, and plenty of owners are still waiting for their upgrades. that phone, like its U.S. brother, was originally promised an "early 2012" upgrade and then later changed to a "second-quarter" timeline.
last but not least, Motorola outright admitted defeat on a few fronts. its Xoom Family Edition, for example, was set to get the 4.0 upgrade in the second quarter, but Moto casually announced that its rollout wouldn't happen until Q3. the company also announced in May that its Photon 4G phone would be moved from a third-quarter upgrade all the way to the end of the year.
Not too impressive, Moto. Not too impressive at all.
Android upgrade report card: Notion
Notion is the perfect example of how a manufacturer's cockiness can backfire. the company actually told its customers to expect a November 2011 ICS upgrade for its Notion Ink Adam tablet (yes, seriously). that obviously didn't happen. since that wildly ambitious estimate, the company has released alpha and beta builds but — still today — has made no further mention of when its official final version will become available.
Android upgrade report card: Samsung
For its approximately 47.2 gazillion Galaxy phone variations, Samsung has been curiously quiet when it comes to upgrades these past few months. Sammy delivered Ice Cream Sandwich to a subset of its Galaxy Note users in May, but much of the world — including the U.S. — is still waiting. and that heavily marketed device, as you may recall, was actually scheduled to receive ICS in the first quarter of the year; it wasn't until the final days of Q1 that Samsung quietly pushed the schedule back and made it sound like it was doing its customers a favor.
Samsung has slowly — and I mean slooooowly — been rolling Android 4.0 out to its Galaxy S II phones this quarter, but its support for that device is a carry-over from the first quarter and nothing worth celebrating. and plenty of GSII owners are still waiting.
On the plus side, at least Samsung's consistent.
Android upgrade report card: Sony
Sony released a slew of ICS upgrades in the second quarter, and most were pretty darn close to keeping with the company's promises. the Tablet S got ICS in late April, fulfilling its promised "spring 2012" destiny. the Sony Ericsson Live with Walkman, Xperia Active, Xperia Arc, Xperia Mini, Xperia Mini Pro, Xperia Neo, Xperia Neo V, and Xperia Pro (yes, it takes a spreadsheet to keep track of all those names) received their 4.0 upgrades in late May. Sony had originally scheduled the phones for "late April to early May" upgrades but later revised the timeline to "late May or early June."
Similarly, the Xperia S and Xperia Ray got their ICS upgrades on April 13, coming in on the tail of the original "late March to early April" promises. and the Xperia S received its upgrade on June 21 following an original "early June" promise.
Finally, Sony started sending ICS to its Tablet P on June 14; that device was originally listed for a late May upgrade. all in all, it's not a perfect record — but its misteps are fairly minor, and it could be far worse.
Android upgrade report card: Toshiba
Toshiba sat still for most of the first quarter but managed to spring into action at the end, sending Ice Cream Sandwich to its Excite 10 LE tablet in early June and meeting its self-imposed spring upgrade deadline (spring technically ran through June 19 this year).
Things took a bad turn from there, though: In late June, Toshiba posted a message on its company forums informing owners of its Thrive tablet that their ICS upgrades were delayed in a major way. the Thrive, which had originally been promised a spring 2012 upgrade, was pushed all the way back to "early fall."
So much for success.
Android upgrade report card: Final notes and future steps
In talking about Android upgrades, it's important to note that carriers frequently play a pivotal role in the process. with phones like Samsung's Galaxy S devices, for example, Samsung will create the initial Android 4.0 build and then work with carriers to test and tweak it as needed for their networks. Meeting the carriers' requirements can tack a good amount of extra time onto the upgrade process, which is why some carriers' phones may get upgrades before others. In the case of a device like the Galaxy S II, the diverse hardware and software variations seen in the multiple U.S. models can make the effect even more pronounced.
So where do we go from here? In the big picture, with Android 4.0, the upgrade process is just starting to pick up steam. we should see new upgrades fairly frequently over the next few months as manufacturers start to catch up and make their way down their lists of eligible devices. There are literally dozens of phones and tablets scheduled to be upgraded in the third quarter of the year and even more scheduled for vague "sometime in 2012" rollouts.
and then, of course, we'll have Jelly Bean to watch for. It's still too soon to know much about Android 4.1 upgrade plans beyond Google's own Nexus devices, but odds are, timing promises for that platform will start popping up soon. the coming months will be anything but quiet, and you can rest assured I'll be tracking every twist and turn along the way.
Remember, you can find the latest upgrade status for any device in my Android 4.0 upgrade list. It's always kept up to date with the most current info available for all phones and tablets. and once Jelly Bean info starts trickling in, I'll have you covered there, too.
Android upgrade report card: Who failed in the second quarter?
HP, Dell to launch 10.1-inch Windows RT tablet PCs in 4Q12 Monica Chen, Taipei; Joseph Tsai, DIGITIMES [Friday 6 July 2012]
Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Dell will launch 10.1-inch Windows RT tablet PCs equipped with processors developed by Texas Instruments and Qualcomm respectively in the fourth quarter of 2012, according to supply chain makers.
In addition to the two US-based brand vendors, Lenovo, Toshiba and Asustek Computer are all preparing to release Windows RT-based tablet PCs.
Meanwhile, although Acer is preparing to release Windows 8-based tablet PCs, the company currently has no plans to launch Windows RT-based models in 2012, while Sony and Samsung Electronics are turning conservative about developing Windows RT-based tablet PCs, according to the two firms’ current component supply status.
The sources pointed out that both Windows 8- and Windows RT-based tablet PCs are expected to be priced starting from US$599 and could go as high as US$1,000, while the machines’ major competition will be Apple; however, the sources hope the tablet PC competition will no longer revolve around price and instead attract demand from enterprise users and consumers that are used to the Windows operating system and its strong software compatibility.