$50 tablet revealed for India

Allgo’s Stamp - an Android 2.1 tablet being currently created in India – isn’t particularly powerful or flashy but if it ever makes it out it’ll be dirt cheap. Why? Because it only costs $50 to maufacture.

The Stamp is the latest of a long line of devices designed to bring low-cost computing technology to the masses of India. It features Wi-Fi, USB and an ethernet port and has a 7-inch 800X480 pixel resistive touch screen display. A lengthy list of supported software can be found on Allgo’s official website.

There’s a video of a working prototype on YouTube too.  The prototype is at such an early stage that it doesn’t even have casing yet, so don’t expect it to be hitting shelves – Indian or otherwise – anytime soon.

Google’s Android army

According to Google, around 160,000 Android-powered smartphones are being activated per day. This fits in perfectly with news from research company Canalys, who claims that Android smartphone shipments have increased a massive 886% year-on-year from the second quarter of 2009.

Even with ongoing issues with the iPhone 4, Apple showed the second highest growth with 61%.

Microsoft was the only company to see a drop in shipments during the same timeframe, with Canalys amusingly referring to Windows Mobile 6.5 as a” discontinued platform”.

Dell’s Looking Glass Android Tablet

As previously mentioned, it’s been a big day of new hardware leakage for Dell. We’ve covered their new phones, which look quite sexy we have to say. One of the other big highlights is the Dell Looking Glass, an Nvidia Tegra 2 powered Android tablet PC.

It’s not too different from the previously shown Dell Streak, their 5″ Android tablet, although the Looking Glass is of course bigger and powered by a much beefier Tegra 2 chip (as opposed to the Streak’s Snapdragon CPU).

The Looking Glass is essentially billed as a portable media player and web browser, with a built-in 3G connection (so yes, it is technically a phone too). Having the 3G connection means Dell can sell the device with the Android Market enabled – being a phone is one of Google’s stipulations for using the market. It also makes it a viable, cheaper alternative to the iPad (it runs Flash for starters).

The spec list is quite healthy. There’s that Nvidia Tegra 2 CPU, the 7 inch 800×600 screen, 4GB RAM, 4GB flash storage + SD slot, a 1.3 megapixel camera, GPS, WiFi and of course 3G. All packed into a system a bit smaller than an iPad, and lighter at just 500g. It’s due for release this November, and if the price is right it could be good.

Dell’s Thunder, Flash, Lightning & Smoke Phones

Dell had a bit of a mass leak today, with a flood of new phones. Some of which are actually quite impressive. Possibly the best amongst the bunch, is the Dell Thunder, pictured above. It’s an Android-based smartphone with a 4.1″ WGVA OLED screen and Dell’s own custom ‘Stage’ UI on top of Android (it’s also speculated to have a Snapdragon CPU, although that’s as yet unconfirmed). It looks quite nice indeed, and reminds us of HTC’s EVO 4G or Sony Ericsson’s Xperia X10. It’s due for release at the end of this year.

Engadget also has coverage of all the other new phones Dell leaked, including the Windows Phone 7 based Dell Lightning phone (which has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard), the quite sexy Android-based Dell Flash which is a bit like a smaller, metallic version of the Thunder, the oddly designed Dell Smoke (a candybar phone with a QWERTY keyboard, also running Android), and Dell’s big Tegra 2 powered 3G tablet known as the Dell Looking Glass. That’s a lot of stuff!

HTC Droid Incredible Reviewed

Engadget have just posted a review of the HTC Droid Incredible, what is in effect the US version of the HTC Desire, the latest Android smartphone with HTC’s Sense UI.

As we mentioned earlier the Incredible has a few upgrades over the Desire, such as an improved 8 megapixel camera, 8Gb of built in storage, and a few other subtle tweaks (as well as looking quite different).

It seems like the guys over at Engadget loved it, saying “the Droid Incredible is the best Android device that you can purchase in America right now. It’s better than the Droid, better than the Nexus One, and certainly beats the pants off of any previous generation handsets.”

Verizon confirm HTC Droid Incredible for April

Good news for US Android fans! Verizon have officially announced the HTC Droid Incredible, their latest Android-based smartphone, based on the Nexus One. You’ll be able to get your hands on it on April 29th, for $199 on a two year contract.

The HTC Droid Incredible is essentially a remixed version of the Nexus One, sporting HTC’s Sense UI (like the HTC Desire), an optical trackpad and an upgraded 8 megapixel camera. Like the Nexus One, it sports a 3.7 inch 480×800 AMOLED display with a 1Ghz Snapdragon CPU under the hood.

It’s very nice. Just like the HTC Desire really.

Stuff get hands-on with the ICD Gemini

While it was only announced a couple of days ago, tech blog Stuff.tv have already had a hands-on with the Gemini, the new Nvidia Tegra 2-powered 11″ tablet PC from ICD. As it happens, they think it’s rather good.

The Gemini uses Android OS with the same web browser as the latest Android phones, which Stuff.tv really like, saying it has “blisteringly fast page renders, smooth scrolling, speedy rotation and full Flash support. Take that, Mr Jobs.”

They also say the Gemini has enough oomph for proper multitasking, a “lovely, sharp widescreen display”, “superb” speakers, and twice the battery capacity of the iPad. They did note some bugs and rough edges, but expect the kinks to be worked out for the actual release model. It’s expected to be released in August (for the UK at least) at a price similar to the entry-level iPad (£300-350, about $500).

It looks very promising so far.

The month of many pads

It’s a busy month for tablet computers. As every geek knows, the iPad launched over the weekend, selling over 300,000 systems on the first day. Quite impressive, though below the 700,000 analysts had predicted. We’ll have to wait and see how well the average consumer responds to the iPad.

At the same time time, Fusion Garage started shipping the JooJoo, an iPad-style Intel Atom-powered tablet PC running a custom version of Linux. There’s a bit of a backstory to that one (it was originally a collaboration between tech news website TechCrunch.com and Fusion Garage, going under the name CrunchPad, until there was something of a split between those two companies and other bad allegations). Engadget have just reviewed the JooJoo, and weren’t overly positive about the user interface or crummy 2.5 hour battery life.

Now another sexy pad (or tablet/slate PC) has been announced – ICD’s Gemini (pictured above), an Nvidia Tegra 2 powered 11″ device running Android OS, with Flash support and enough horsepower to decode full 1080p HD video. The spec list should make a lot of nerds giddy: 1Ghz Nvidia Tegra 2, 11.2″ 1366×768 multitouch screen, WiFi, 3G, Bluetooth, FM Radio, GSP, SD card slot, Micro USB, two cameras (5MP back, 2MP front), and hopefully a battery that can cope with all that.

No word on any price or release date yet, though we expect the world will be flooded with tablet PCs by the end of the year.

HTC Desire compared and reviewed

Engadget posted a rather comprehensive review of the HTC Desire today and stacked HTC’s new Android phone up against the very similarly specced Nexus One.

There’s very little to differentiate the HTC Desire and the Nexus One, though the Desire comes with HTC’s glossy Sense UI. The Nexus One is a great phone, so unsurprisingly Engadget rate the Desire very highly too, slightly preferring it due to its optical trackpad and in-built social networking services. Really the only thing going against the HTC Desire is the fact that the HTC Evo 4G and new iPhone are potentially a few months away.

iPhone and Android rule the roost

If you care about mobile phone market share and the smartphone operating system ‘war’, then you might find AdMob’s latest Mobile Metrics Report for February 2010 mildly interesting and insightful.

Their full PDF report download covers all the fine details, but we’ll summarise the basics; the iPhone OS now accounts for 50% of smartphone operating systems worldwide (at least based on the sites that AdMob actually targets), with Android gaining on it with a 24% share. Unfortunately for Symbian, its share of the smartphone OS market dropped from 43% last year to just 18% this year.

Within the US, Android browsers now account for 42% of the market, just a tiny bit behind the iPhone, with all other browsers fading into insignificance.

It’s a little bit different on the overall hardware front though – Samsung are clear winners with 32% of the market, Nokia a little behind with 24%, whilst the likes of HTC only manage a footnote under the general banner of ‘others’. Of course, this covers all phones with internet access, not just ‘smart’ ones.

Do take the report with a pinch of salt, as it’s all based on traffic generated on AdMob’s network, so it’s fairly US centric. Also keep in mind that Google own AdMob, for whatever that’s worth. Still, AdMob’s quite a good sample, as they serve 7 billion adverts a month within the US, and another few billion across the rest of the world.

Introducing HTC’s God Phone

This sounds like a tech geek’s wet dream. The HTC EVO 4G is reality though, and Sprint will be releasing it in the US this summer.

On the surface, it’s just another Android phone, much like Google’s Nexus One or HTC’s Desire. However the HTC EVO 4G is the first phone to support WiMAX, hence the 4G title. It’s possibly the next generation of smartphone, and definitely a great leap forward in hardware.

Aside from WiMAX, the phone features a lovely 4.3″ 480×800 TFT LCD screen, an 8 megapixel camera with 720p video recording, HD video playback, and to make the best use of those video capabilities – HDMI output, so you can effectively hook this up to your TV and watch a HD movie. Over the top, perhaps, but pretty amazing. Under the hood there’s a 1Ghz snapdragon CPU, like most of the recent new Android phones, and of course HTC have put their own Sense UI on to the Android operating system.

There’s no word of a worldwide release yet, as the phone is currently USA only on Sprint’s CDMA network. It will almost certainly come out everywhere though, possibly with a name change.

Apple will have to come up with something pretty stunning to trump this with their new iPhone.