eLocity had some nice tablets at CES2011. They had display showing several Android tablets running nVida Tegra II-T250 1GHz with 1MB L2 Cache. These had Froyo; which is Android 2.2. They were claiming that these tablets would get you up to 5 hours of battery life. This usually means in real world around 3.5 hours. If they can improve battery life these devices will be a great tablet for the value, since most of these will have a price range around $349 starting point. These as well could be able to run HoneyComb, the next Android tablet OS.
Here is the specs for the eLocity A7 that was on display at the CES2011 show. These will be available later this year.
Angry Birds was running very smoothly on the eLocity A7.
This is the eLocity A10, which is the 10.1” tablet running the same nVidia Tegra II-T250 at 1GHz. This one claims that it will be running Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) with 512MB of DDR2 at 667MHz. Will have to wait and see if this really gets released with HoneyComb. This would be about the same size screen as the Motorola Xoom, but not as slim and well built as the Xoom. Again, if anyone wants to get a good priced tablet, eLocity seems to be a great deal if they get released.
Since I was heading out to the Consumer Electronic Show at Las Vegas, I thought what better way to test out the exolife chargeable battery case for the IPhone 4. This combo adds some protection as well and some extra battery life. The exolife worked out great for me at CES2011. I charged it and made sure it was ready for the morning when I headed out to the show floor. Throughout the day I was using my IPhone 4 heavily to take pictures and to upload to dropbox. I also was using my Galaxy Tab tethered to the IPhone for internet access throughout the day.
I was using my IPhone with a clip holster; wish that they had a holster with the exolife so that I could carry it in a holster at the same time. I kept the rechargeable in my bag and by noon I slept the IPhone in the exolife to start charging my IPhone. I was around 40% battery on the IPhone and didnt want to have the battery go to low before starting to charge it. Then I had to carry the phone in my pocket and I continued to use it to take pictures and as a Mi-Fi. I wasn't keeping too much attention on how long it took the battery to charge the IPhone, but around couple of hours I was at 100%. So I just removed the battery case and put the IPhone back on my holster. Made it easier for me to get phone out. I used the exolife one more time around 6:00 to charge my IPhone, and by the second time it was able to charge my IPhone to around 93% and the battery on the exolife finally had drained.
This was really great that I didn't have to look for any outlets at CES as I saw a lot of attendees charging their phones. Overall I was really glad to be using the exolife at the Consumer Electronic Show and never had to worry about running out of battery. On the Galaxy Tab that went through the whole day as well, since I wasn't using it like the IPhone and my Panasonic camera.
The exolife times in a few different colors to match you IPhone. I was testing out the white one, since I have my white IPhone to match. The price for the battery case is around $59.99 and depends you might be able to get it for a few dollars less.
The IPhone fits perfect in the battery case and has like a grove where the IPhone actually sits down a little bit. This actually keeps the phone in place and doesn't slide out even if you don't put the ring around it. Then you put the outer clear plastic ring around, which can help those with antenna problems. The battery case is very light weight and hardly adds weight to the IPhone while using it and carrying it. It did feel better to hold, then the bare IPhone 4, just in my opinion.
If I had to be without power I sure would consider getting the exolife battery case. I'm going to see if I will be testing a few other battery cases or holster with built in battery to charge as it is in the holster.
Got to view and demo the new expected Blackberry PlayBook. It was very nice using and opening apps and multi-task very easy with no problem with 1Ghz. Dual Core Processor. It is able to browse full web pages with no problem.
Hanvon has done some great Tablets. They are solid build and running Windows 7. The device was very speedy and was actually good in your hands, but I see more tablets in the 5" - 7" as more usable. Anything above is still portable but its not as easy to take.
I was out at our local Fry's store and they had the Viewsonic ViewPad 7 instock and on display. I did what any mobile trooper would do. I picked it up and gave it a test drive to see how well this device is. The ViewPad 7 has the ARM11 CPU Processor, and runs on 600MHz, using Qualcomm MSM7227 Chipset. Has Flash 512MB NAND Flash and micro SD expandability up to 32GB and Internal 512MB, with 7" multi-touch capacitive screen. For having a lower speed it does respond very snappy and there is very little pauses or lag if any. The price is $499, but at this price it's going to be a little hard to sell when the Galaxy Tab is now $499 with a month to start up, or Sprint $399 with 2-year contract. The quality is actually not to bad and It didn't seem to cheap.
Both the ViewPad 7 and the Tab are pretty much easy to hold, due to the small size. The ViewPad 7 screen display was not as clear as the Tab. It was more washed out, when looking at pictures or anything on the screen. I really got use to the Galaxy Tab 1024x600 resolution vs the 800x480 on the ViewPad 7. The camera resolution was not as clear as the Tab, even though both rear cameras are same resolution. The front facing camera is only 0.3MP, so don't expect HD video chatting. :) It is nice that Viewsonic made the market app available on the ViewPad 7. No need to hack to have the market place app, like some of the Android Tablets out. It also has Bluetooth 2.1 and 802.11 B/G, and no N.
As you can see the camera is located in the center of the tablet which isn't bad. The Tab has the camera located in the corner of the Tablet. Also like all tablets, it is very finger print friendly. I did a quick video of the the ViewPad 7 opening apps and scrolling around the settings to get a feel of the speed of the device. Like I said, not bad, but needs a starting price of around $179.99. I really like the Galaxy Tab speed and battery life. Viewsonic claims 4-6 hours of hard use of the device. I have tested the Galaxy Tab battery life and have been able to get 10 hours of pretty much constant use with Wi-Fi on.
(Recorded video with iPhone 4)
One nice feature is that the ViewPad 7 can be used as a phone, so you can insert your SIM card. Not that many would like to use a 7" screen device as a phone, but if you happen to use your SIM card from your phone, you won't miss a call. You'll most likely be working with the ViewPad 7, so it wouldn't be bad to answer a call while using the ViewPad 7.
With CES2011 this week and new tablet announcements every 15 minutes, you might want to wait and see what will be available with the Tegra 2.
I received the Dagi Stylus P502 yesterday and gave it a test on the iPad and the Galaxy Tab. In the video you will see that the P502 works great on the iPad, since there is inking apps for iPad, I am able to get more use of the stylus on the iPad. I did try it on my Galaxy Tab as well, but will hope soon there will be some nice apps like on the iPad with some wrist rejection software. Well if your looking for a stylus for your new iPad, you might consider the Dagi P502 stylus. The design is well crafted, and the finish is very nice. The stylus is a bit thicker than a pen; which is comfortable to use when inking. I tested the the Dagi P502 last night, writing down some notes and writing some emails, just to see how well it would work and feel after long period of time using the stylus. Using the P502 performed very well at inking my notes and inking some email to friends and for work. I also did some PDF markups using the P502 stylus. I am going to be carrying the Dagi P502 in my gear bag and on my iPad to use, when I need to ink on the iPad. If your in the market for a stylus, you might want to take a look at the Dagi P502.
Looks like Samsung wants to join Apple in blocking rooting your Galaxy Tab in a future firmware for the Tab. The new JM6 A, C and D builds that Samsung is planning on releasing, have bootloaders that are signed and prevent unauthorized firmware from running. Once the firmware is installed, any jailbreaks, roots and other custom firmware won't run. We had seen this earlier with the T-Mobile G2 phone, but now it has been by passed. So this can just make things a little harder for rooting and just not allow 3rd party ROMs to be installed on the Galaxy Tab, or maybe for all the Galaxy S series devices from Samsung. If the consumer buys the product, they should be allowed to configure to how they want that device, and if it involves rooting, let it be. I do agree that some custom ROMs could mess things up, but most of these users that are installing these custom ROMs know what they are getting into. Also rooting the device gives you at times some programs to run and do things that normally wasn't possible without rooting. To me, this makes a devices just that more better and more consumers will buy it knowing that they can customize the device and not really locked. Apple is always fighting the Jailbreaker's that are always finding ways to Jailbreak the iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, and the iTv. This method would make it more restrictive than the iPad jailbreaking. The only devices that will not have a signed bootloader will be the Nexus One and the Nexus S. With these devices you will be able to experiment with different firmwares, hacks, and custom ROMs.
