Looks like Lenovo is going to be releasing the LePad. Chances is this will be at CES2011. CEO Yang Yuanqing told the Wall Street Journal that they planned on releasing the Android tablet and headed to the US in 2011. Hopefully this will have all the Google Market Place as well or I’m sure that there will be some hack to install it. But this is not good for the general consumer, as they really don’t know how to install these apk files to do more and beyond the out of box experience.
If you really want to get your hands on a 7” Android Tablet. Well then head down to your nearest Best Buy store. This is providing that your local Best Buy has them in stock. I checked a few stores and they didn’t have any available. They did have a display model and decided to check it out, and see how well it compared to my Samsung Galaxy Captivate. For starters the touch screen was not that responsive, compared to my Captivate, iPad, tm2 TouchSmart, etc… At times I did have to click twice for it to launch the app. It was running Eclair, which seemed to do pretty good on the device. Didn’t seem to have a multi-touch screen.
Opening applications also had some very slight delay, but for the $299.99 price tag, you might want to try out Walgreens $99 tablet. It didn’t have the Android Market Place, but instead it has it’s own Cruz Market Place to download apps. The quality was good. It seem to have a nice sturdy housing and all plastic that was very solid. The screen appeared to be some type of plastic. They also had the Archos 7 Home Tablet next to it, so I also compared the size of the Cruz Tablet. It was not heavy at all, which would make a nice e-book reader as well. At this point you might be better to wait for the upcoming Huawei Ideos 7” tablet. From the rumors, the price will be $299.99 for the Ideos 7.
I myself, if I was thinking of getting a tablet. I would wait for the S7, but for now I really like my 3G iPad, which I use daily for work and for catching up on the latest news. I will have to check Best Buy November 7 and see if the S7 is available and give it a try if they have a display model. You never know, I might just bring one home. The 7” display makes it a perfect travel device. Not that my iPad isn’t a perfect travel device, but at times I sure could get by with a 7” device. These lower priced tablets, usually don’t have built-in GPS. I kind of got use to having a device with built-in GPS, but it wouldn’t be a deal breaker for me, since most my other devices already have GPS.
Here is the specs for the Cruz tablet:
Product Height 4.9"
Product Width 7.5"
Product Weight 1 lb.
Product Depth 0.7"
Platform Android
Total Built-In Memory 1GB; 4GB microSD card
Expandable Memory microSD
Modem Included Yes
PC Required No
Screen Size (Measured Diagonally) 7"
Supports Voice Transmission No
Number of Ports 1
Connection Port USB
Supports MP3 Yes
Display Type Color TFT
Keyboard Entry Yes, on display
Calculator Yes
Calendar Yes
Word Processor Yes
Adjustable Font Size Yes
Backlight Yes
Battery Type Lithium-ion
Connectivity Wi-Fi
Netflix is announcing that they will have a iPad app available for the April 3 release of the iPad. This is great news for Apple, Netflix, and all subscribers to Netflix. Now you will be able to enjoy your favorite shows or movies on the go, as long as you either have a way to connect to the internet. Many will use with MiFi, or just use Wi-Fi where they can get it. The Netflix app will be free for download. With the app you will be able to resume watching your shows or movies where ever you left off. Hulu is also going to be announcing a app that might be flash based; by the way Apple has released that the iPad is capable of play flash. So Hulu is trying to setup a subscription to be able to watch shows on the iPad, but you will have to pay as well.
'
