Samsung Makes the Galaxy Tab Official

After last weeks pre-announcement that they plan to announce the Tab, Samsung followed through with their promise and announced the Galaxy Tab at IFA 2010. The Galaxy Tab is a 7 inch tablet running Android 2.2. It’s powered by a 1GHz processor, 4,000mAh battery that’s rated for 7 hours of movie playback, a 3.0 megapixel camera, HSUPA of 5.76 Mbps / HSDPA of 7.2Mbps, and support for a/b/g/n WiFi protocols.

It’s sleek and sexy and looks an awful lot like the Galaxy S series of Smartphones that have been hitting carriers around the world as of late – except for the large 7 inch screen, of course.   CoolSmartphone is reporting that pricing for the 16GB version will be £679.99 – or about $1,000 US. While I really like what the Tab brings to the table, I’m not sure it’s worth a $1,000 – especially when the 16GB iPad with WiFi and 3G support is selling for $629 US. I don’t mind paying more, but there has to be something to justify the extra $400! Vodafone will be offering the Tab starting in October. It will be interesting to see how well it sells at that price point.

The Tab looks very cool, but I’m still partial to the Compaq Airlife 100 from HP. There’s something about having a physical keyboard available when I need it. I wonder if that will be making it’s way to North America anytime soon.

How to Hard Reset the Motorola Charm

Like most devices, there are two different methods for hard resetting the Motorola Charm. If your Charm boots and you can use the device, then the easiest way to clear the device and return it to factory settings is to open the programs menu, tap on Settings / Privacy / Factory Data Reset. You will then be prompted with a confirmation window explaining what you’re about to do and giving you one last chance to back out.

What happens if your device won’t start up? Or perhaps it continually crashes on start up? While the problem may be the result of a badly written application, you need to get the device started to uninstall it using the above method. Since that’s not always possible, you’ll be happy to know that you can still perform a hard reset without actually booting into Android. To do this, with the phone off press and hold the camera key. Then press the power key and when you see a blue screen you need to press Alternate + L and ALternate + W. This will force a hard reset and the device will return to factory settings.

I don’t have a Charm to test these steps on, so please post your feedback below and let me know how it works.

Toshiba Libretto W100 – Cool Redefined

Toshiba has released a pretty cool new device – the Libretto W100 with dual touch screens in a clamshell format. Both of the screens are 7 inch backlit capacitive with multi-touch. Powered by Intel Pentium U5400 at 1200Mhz, with WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth, Wi-Max, USB 2, and 2GB of RAM, this device will set you back $1100 – if you’re lucky enough to get one. It appears they sold out quickly after going on sale earlier this week.

Jenn over at Pocketables was luck enough to get one of these, and has posted an unboxing with some quick first impressions, followed by a comparison of the standard and extended batteries, a quick look at the keyboards – or soft-keyboards, and a video demo showing the Libretto in action.

Microsoft Pushes the Gaming Envelope with Windows Phone 7

As you already know, Windows Phone 7 will have a Games hub featuring Xbox Live. Today, at Gamescom in Germany, Microsoft announced the first wave of games titles and features launching on Windows Phone 7 this fall. You can expect to see games from companies like PopCap, Namco, Gameloft, and of course, Microsoft Gaming Studios (MGS), as well as content from smaller indie studios. In terms of titles, you can expect Halo Waypoint, Guitar Hero 5, Splinter Cell Conviction, Star Wars: Battle of Hoth, and classic gaming titles like Frogger, and Bejeweled.

When it comes to features, you can expect to create and change your avatar, view and compare achievements with your friends, view online and gaming status of friends on Xbox or Windows Phone, and earn achievements exclusively available on Windows Phone titles. The last point is really interesting to those achievement happy folks. Games like Halo Waypoint will have achievements that will only be available when playing on Windows Phone 7 devices.

The image above is a screen shot from a game called “The Harvest” from MGS. Click the image to see it in all it’s glory (800×480). You have to admit, that looks really good for a mobile game.

Complete press release available after the break.

[ ..Read More.. ]

Bell’s Samsung Galaxy S Vibrant in Pictures

Late last week Bell released their Samsung Galaxy S Vibrant smartphone. If you’re not familiar with the Vibrant, it’s very much like Samsungs Captivate offered on AT&T but with a slightly different body. Overall, the Vibrant is a thin and light powerhouse of a device. The AMOLED screen is super bright and crisp to look at. When put beside Apple’s new Retina display on the iPhone 4, the Galaxy S screen puts it to shame with brighter, more vivid pictures.

Thanks to the faithful Mobile Jaw reader, and super nice guy, Matt Reeder for letting me spend some quality time with his hot new device. I’ve snapped a number of pictures of the phone for everyone to see. If you click on the image it will open a larger version of the picture. Enjoy!

[ ..Read More.. ]

Bell Launches Samsung Galaxy S Vibrant

Not to be left behind, Bell Canada has officially made the Galaxy S Vibrant available on their network. The Vibrant is pretty much the same – spec wise, as the AT&T Captivate, but the body of the devices are a little different. The Vibrant offers 16GB of memory that’s expandable to 32GB thanks to MicroSD support. There’s a 4-inch AMOLED screen with a 480×800 resolution, a 5 megapixel camera with LED flash, HD video recording (720p), Bluetooth 3.0, and powered by Android 2.1.

The Galaxy S Vibrant should already be in stores. In fact, we heard reports late yesterday that some stores had stock and were already showing them off to customers. The Vibrant will run you $500 without a contract, which is $50 more than Telus is asking for the Desire. If you look at the features, I think that’s $50 well spent. If you’re going to sign a contract, you can expect $450, $350, and $150 for 1, 2, and 3 year contracts.

Check out Bell’s website if you’re looking for more information about this hot new device. What are you going to pick, the Desire or the Vibrant?

AT&T’s HTC Aria Reviewed at Gear Diary

The HTC Aria is a recent addition to the AT&T line-up of devices, and while it’s not one of the larger screen devices that we are starting to see so much of, it still packs a pretty good punch. Our friends over at GearDiary.com have posted a great review of the device. There’s lots of pictures and information about the Aria.  Personally, I like the bright colors that HTC is doing under the battery door. The EVO has a nice red, the Incredible and the Aria have a nice yellow color. It’s a small touch, but it really adds character to the device.

HP Decides Against Building Windows Phone 7 Devices

HP has been the focus of a lot of talk since they purchased Palm a short while ago. As we reported the other day, they are still working on their tablets and plan to offer a consumer version running Palm’s WebOS and a business version running Windows 7. Hp is now saying that they will no longer be developing for Windows Phone7. Instead, they plan to focus their energy on creating more WebOS devices, and moving WebOS forward.

I don’t see this as much of a loss for Microsoft. Sure, the more companies that sign on to build devices, the better their penetration into the market. However, HP has had a really hard time building a _good_ mobile device since they bought Compaq all those years ago. Their latest round of devices have some cool features, but lack the general consumer appeal. WebOS may have had some good potential, but that may all be gone with HP at the wheel. We’ll be watching and looking to see if they can keep the magic moving forward. But we won’t be holding our breath.

(Source = PCMag)

HTC Desire Becomes Officially Available from Telus

It should come as no surprise to regular MobileJaw readers that Telus was going to be launching the HTC Desire. Well, if you’ve been holding out waiting for the day Telus has stock and is ready to sell you the phone, then today is your lucky day!

What I find most interesting is the timing of this launch. It’s just 1 short week after launching the iPhone 4 and there’s no question that Canadians are going crazy over the iPhone – many stores are reporting people are still lining up before they open to grab whatever stock came in over night. So with such a big draw already available, why would you launch something else, regardless of how great it is? I would have expected the carriers to hold off on launching any other devices for at least 4 weeks.

Anyway, if you’re looking for the Desire, you can grab it from Telus for $450 without a contract. That’s a pretty great price for this phone. With a contract the price drops to $400, $350, and $80 for a 1, 2, and 3 year contract. You can check out all the details at the Telus website.

HP Confirms Both Windows and WebOS Tablets Coming

HP has confirmed that they plan to release separate tablets running Windows and WebOS. The Windows based tablets will be focused as a business device. It’s expected to have an 8.9 inch screen with video and still cameras, 1GB of memory, and support for an electronic pen for writing and drawing with. I imagine that will be very similar to the stylus used on many of the existing tablets found on the market today.

The WebOS tablet will be the companies consumer offering. There is no information about the specs for the WebOS tablet. It’s possible it could have similar specs to the business version, with the main difference being the OS itself.

We’ll have to wait a while longer to know more. HP did confirm that the Windows based tablet will be available in the fall, but they declined to provide any indication about price. Apple’s iPad has been a smash hit with consumers, and Android based tablets are starting to find their way into the market as well. Personally, I would like to try one of the Windows based tablets. But I’m also very interested in their Android based efforts that we saw back at CES.

(Source = Top Tech News)

Next Page »