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Sony's tablets, TouchPad +1 and the location data debacle
#29 | 5:41 |
Thursday September 8, 2011
Android Weekly
Thursday September 8, 2011
On this week's show: Sony launches its first Android tablets, and they're looking good. HP gears up for another TouchPad run and Windows Phone gets pulled into the location data debacle. Also, Kate Abraham brings us her review of the Little Photo Android app.
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iTunes Show Notes
Sony launches Tablet S and Tablet P
Sony has been slow to enter the Android tablet market. The Tablet S and Tablet P devices run Honeycomb and really are a breath of fresh air.
We're Android devotees... just in case the title of this show wasn't evidence enough. However, we're also realists. Android tablets up to this point have been slabs or metal and, all too often, flimsy plastic that show no attention to design, use or ergonomics.
Sony's entry into the market looks to change that.
We were at the preview in Toronto and walked away with Sony's spiffy new tablet... after signing an extensive loan agreement, of course. We have a full review of the Tablet S on Gadget TV so be sure to check that out.
Sony is releasing two tablets: the Tablet P and the Tablet S. P stands for pocket and S stands for... sertainly not fitting in your pocket, or something.
The Tablet P is a foldable clamshell device similar to the Kyocera Echo we saw at CTIA in episode five of Android Weekly. A cool concept that we'll look forward to checking out in more depth when it releases "later this year."
What we do know: it's running an NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-core processor, it will integrate into the living room thanks to DLNA and it's got two five-inch plus screens that seem to work pretty seamlessly together. Stay tuned; we'll get one in hand as soon as one is available to be had.
HP to release more TouchPads
If you're like 99 per cent of the population, you responded to HP's TouchPad with a resounding "meh."
The formerly $500 tablet running HP's own WebOS was just another tablet trying to take on the incumbent iPad. Its demise came as no big surprise.
What was surprising was the crazy inventory blowout that followed. At $500 for the 16GB version, the public said pass. At $100 for the same 16GB version, the public stampeded.
Now, with the TouchDroid and CyanogenMod projects in full swing, it seems a TouchPad running Android may not be too far off.
We saw video recently of CyanogenMod running -- albeit slowly -- on the TouchPad. A final build that's ready for the rest of us to try out is a way off, but it's heartening to see.
If you missed out on the TouchPad fire sale the first time around, fear not.
It seems that HP will be doing one more run of TouchPad devices. Between 500,000 and 1,000,000 are to hit shelves before Halloween. They say it's to meet demand. Analysts say it's to meet the agreements already in place with HP's component suppliers.
Whatever the case, we'll be lining up early. We missed out on the last blow-out. This time, we will have satisfaction. No one shall stand in our way.
Windows Phone location data debacle
When Google and Apple were accused of snagging and storing user location data unannounced, Microsoft took the high road.
"We'd never do that," they said. "That's dirty pool," they said. Guess what? They did... with that little caveat word that keeps us from getting sued: allegedly.
Apple and Google have already gotten rapped on the knuckles for similar schemes. At that time, Microsoft stated it "does not collect information to determine the approximate location of a device unless a user has expressly allowed an application to collect location information."
InformationWeek reports that a suit has been filed against Microsoft. It states the Window Phone 7 Samsung Omnia 7 "begins sending location information while the location sharing dialog is open, before the user has a chance to allow or disallow the sharing of this location information."
If Microsoft had any comment, which they didn't, I imagine it'd be something like "Oh, right. That thing. Oops."
Review of the Day
Little Photo
$free
Sony has been slow to enter the Android tablet market. The Tablet S and Tablet P devices run Honeycomb and really are a breath of fresh air.
We're Android devotees... just in case the title of this show wasn't evidence enough. However, we're also realists. Android tablets up to this point have been slabs or metal and, all too often, flimsy plastic that show no attention to design, use or ergonomics.
Sony's entry into the market looks to change that.
We were at the preview in Toronto and walked away with Sony's spiffy new tablet... after signing an extensive loan agreement, of course. We have a full review of the Tablet S on Gadget TV so be sure to check that out.
Sony is releasing two tablets: the Tablet P and the Tablet S. P stands for pocket and S stands for... sertainly not fitting in your pocket, or something.
The Tablet P is a foldable clamshell device similar to the Kyocera Echo we saw at CTIA in episode five of Android Weekly. A cool concept that we'll look forward to checking out in more depth when it releases "later this year."
What we do know: it's running an NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-core processor, it will integrate into the living room thanks to DLNA and it's got two five-inch plus screens that seem to work pretty seamlessly together. Stay tuned; we'll get one in hand as soon as one is available to be had.
HP to release more TouchPads
If you're like 99 per cent of the population, you responded to HP's TouchPad with a resounding "meh."
The formerly $500 tablet running HP's own WebOS was just another tablet trying to take on the incumbent iPad. Its demise came as no big surprise.
What was surprising was the crazy inventory blowout that followed. At $500 for the 16GB version, the public said pass. At $100 for the same 16GB version, the public stampeded.
Now, with the TouchDroid and CyanogenMod projects in full swing, it seems a TouchPad running Android may not be too far off.
We saw video recently of CyanogenMod running -- albeit slowly -- on the TouchPad. A final build that's ready for the rest of us to try out is a way off, but it's heartening to see.
If you missed out on the TouchPad fire sale the first time around, fear not.
It seems that HP will be doing one more run of TouchPad devices. Between 500,000 and 1,000,000 are to hit shelves before Halloween. They say it's to meet demand. Analysts say it's to meet the agreements already in place with HP's component suppliers.
Whatever the case, we'll be lining up early. We missed out on the last blow-out. This time, we will have satisfaction. No one shall stand in our way.
Windows Phone location data debacle
When Google and Apple were accused of snagging and storing user location data unannounced, Microsoft took the high road.
"We'd never do that," they said. "That's dirty pool," they said. Guess what? They did... with that little caveat word that keeps us from getting sued: allegedly.
Apple and Google have already gotten rapped on the knuckles for similar schemes. At that time, Microsoft stated it "does not collect information to determine the approximate location of a device unless a user has expressly allowed an application to collect location information."
InformationWeek reports that a suit has been filed against Microsoft. It states the Window Phone 7 Samsung Omnia 7 "begins sending location information while the location sharing dialog is open, before the user has a chance to allow or disallow the sharing of this location information."
If Microsoft had any comment, which they didn't, I imagine it'd be something like "Oh, right. That thing. Oops."
Review of the Day
Little Photo
$free
App of the day
Weibo iPhone
Sina Weibo, an informal mini-blog product, is a new expression to Web2.0.
