Issue 4 of iPad-only mag Project available for free - Phone Arena

Phone Arena - Good news for all of you who want to try out Project - the iPad-only magazine - and try it out for free. That's because the new issue of Richard Branson's offering is now available in the App Store and it costs... well, not a single cent.

It's not often we feel like we want to thank the guys at American Express, but it seems the right time has come, as the Project folks say this promotion is only happening because of AmEx. Anyway, the really important part is that issue 4 of this mag features Eric Bana on the cover, and you can download it for free from the iTunes link below.

Besides Mr. Bana, here's what else you can expect from this Project issue:

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Apple iPad 2 Gaming Test - Phone Arena

Apple iPad 2 Gaming Test - Phone Arena: "Already deemed as a venerable gaming machine in its own the regard, the iPad 2 will undoubtedly kick things up a notch, as it should, thanks to upgraded internals found under the hood. If 3D gaming is more your kind of thing, then the 1GHz dual-core Apple A5 processor is an inviting evolutionary step forward that should bring along some graphically rich titles down the road once developers begin to take advantage of it. In the meantime though, we decided to check out the kind of graphics prowess that the iPad 2 has to offer – and more importantly, how it compares to its brethren."

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Apple iPad 2 Unboxing & Hands-on - Phone Arena

Apple iPad 2 Unboxing & Hands-on - Phone Arena: "Precisely after it was unveiled to the public not too long ago, we only had to wait a short period of time before we found ourselves finally here at the launch of the highly anticipated Apple iPad 2. Setting the bar in terms of coming to market the fastest soon after it was officially announced, consumers all around have the opportunity starting today to purchase the follow up to last year’s model that seemingly revolutionized the industry in many ways. Packing some upgraded hardware under the hood, it’s naturally impressive to see all of the upgraded internals packaged into a slimmer body – while retaining the same price points as before."

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BlackBerry PlayBook to come with a music store, over 13 million tracks on board - Phone Arena

BlackBerry PlayBook to come with a music store, over 13 million tracks on board - Phone Arena: "BlackBerry's PlayBook might be coming out next month, but folks from RIM continue adding features and the newest one is the 7Digital music store with its collection of over 13 million high-quality MP3 tracks (320kbps that is), which will come pre-installed on the 7-inch tablet. You'll be able to search tracks, artists and albums, as well as preview songs prior to making a purchase. Prices will be the same as the ones on the 7digital.com website, but translated into your local currency. In addition, a podcasting app will be similar to the music store in terms of categories and basic functionality. Subscriptions are also included bringing the latest of audio and HD video podcasting content right to your tablet."

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Staples to launch Wi-Fi only Motorola XOOM and BlackBerry PlayBook next month - Phone Arena

Staples to launch Wi-Fi only Motorola XOOM and BlackBerry PlayBook next month - Phone Arena: "Perhaps Staples wouldn't be the first place that you would think of going to when purchasing a tablet, but according to internal documents, both the Wi-Fi only Motorola XOOM and the BlackBerry PlayBook will be offered by the office supply company. The internal document lists the date when Staples Tech Associates begin to train on the tablets using online modules. The employees will have 30 days to complete the modules, each of which will take 30 minutes to finish.

The documents show that training for the 3G-less Motorola XOOM will begin on March 23rd and for the BlackBerry PlayBook, training starts March 30th. Since 30 days is the maximum required for the Tech Associates to finish the courses, that would lead to approximate launch dates of April 22nd for the XOOM and April 29th for the PlayBook at Staples."

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FCC gives the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 the ole' once over - Phone Arena

FCC gives the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 the ole' once over - Phone Arena: "Visiting the FCC the other day was the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. The tablet, powered by Android 3.0, was designed to challenge fellow Honeycomb flavored Motorola XOOM and the Apple iPod 2. Designated model 7100, the tablet visited the FCC with a radio that supported the 850 and 1900MHz bands. Those are two U.S. frequencies which hints of an imminent launch soon in the U.S.

One thing that might hold back the release of the tablet is last week's announcement of the Apple iPad 2. As we reported yesterday, Samsung's executive VP of mobile, Lee Don-joo, called the Galaxy Tab 10.1 inadequate after seeing how thin the Apple iPad 2 is. Besides the issue about the thickness of the Samsung tablet, the executive also said that after seeing the Apple iPod 2, the Korean based firm would have to reconsider its pricing of the device. The problem is that with the Apple iPad 2 listed as the same price as the older, original iPad, it puts pricing pressure on all newer tablets even if they have many improvements over older models."

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Apple's Jobs: The tablet PC 'crashed and burned' | Nanotech - The Circuits Blog - CNET News

Apple's Jobs: The tablet PC 'crashed and burned' | Nanotech - The Circuits Blog - CNET News: "Apple CEO Steve Jobs had some choice words today for the tablet PC, a relatively obscure PC product category that never caught on with consumers. What is the tablet PC exactly? While there's a long history of this product category and thus not a hard-and-fast definition, it's probably best exemplified today by hybrids like Hewlett-Packard's EliteBook 2570p (which starts at a whopping $1,599) or the Fujitsu Lifebook T900 Tablet PC (which starts at an even higher $1,899).

The tablet PC has been largely a vain attempt--certainly compared with the popularity of the iPad--to meld the laptop with a tablet, based on the Windows tablet interface."

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Motorola XOOM gets a CPU overclock to 1.5GHz, gets blazing fast

Motorola XOOM gets a CPU overclock to 1.5GHz, gets blazing fast: "The Motorola XOOM packs some serious punch under the hood and there’s hardly an Android application that would require more. However this doesn’t stop the hacking community to try and squeeze every last drop of performance out of dual-core Cortex-A9 CPU (you know, just in case)."

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Motorola Xoom vs. Apple iPad: Comparing the Tablets | News & Opinion | PCMag.com

Motorola Xoom vs. Apple iPad: Comparing the Tablets | News & Opinion | PCMag.com: "Let's get cocky and assume that next week's Apple event brings us a new iPad—the iPad 2, if you will. Let us also assume that the iPad 2 will add front- and rear-facing cameras, and thus FaceTime to the mix. And now that Motorola's Xoom is finally available to the masses, let's take a quick look at how the first Honeycomb tablet stacks up against the iPad we know—and the iPad we know is coming.

Pricing

We ran an in-depth Xoom pricing piece earlier in the week, and the short of it is: despite the seemingly hefty price tag attached to the Xoom, a two-year Verizon contract and a Xoom are about the same cost as two years with the iPad on AT&T. This one is more or less a draw."

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Nokia MeeGo tablet image and specs surface, we hold our breath

We just dug out a photo of a Nokia-branded MeeGo tablet, along with some specs. Packing telephony and a landscape-oriented interface we are not sure what to make of the device, but it might just turn out to be the hotly anticipated Nokia N9. The device pictured is obviously a really early prototype as most of its hardware is not working and there is none of the Nokia custom UI to be seen on it. Yet we did get some hardware specs so it's not all bad. Packing a 4.5" screen the Nokia MeeGo half-tablet-half-phone will be supporting 3G with HSDPA, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. A microUSB port isn't mentioned but it's now mandatory for all devices sold in the EU so we'll assume it's present too.

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TA117 Tablet from Onkyo Formally Introduced - Softpedia

It would appear that quite a few companies plan to hitch a ride on the tablet bus, as a fair amount of announcements have been made over the past month alone, no doubt in anticipation of CES, 2011, and Onkyo has now joined this movement. Since the Apple iPad was released, and despite the arguably mixed feelings it caused, the reality of the matter is that tablets have sold very well. Slates are, in fact, even now growing in popularity, despite their relative scarcity, at least as far as on-sale model variety goes. That said, the 2011 International Consumer Electronics Show is already shaping up to become the stage for demonstrating a slew of tablets.

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Full review: Nook Color | Crave - CNET

Barnes & Noble announced today that its new "reader's tablet," the $250 touchscreen Nook Color, has begun shipping slightly ahead of schedule to customers who pre-ordered the device. Some may even receive their units as early as today. As for us, well, we picked up a review unit the other day at the company's headquarters in New York and put it through its paces over the last few days. While we still think Barnes & Noble has some work to do with adding more apps, all in all, the Nook Color's a very capable e-reader that's well slotted between more affordable e-ink e-readers like the Kindle and original Nook and the larger, more versatile iPad. That's the quick take, but there's a whole lot more to it than that, of course.

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Dell Streak review: Size does matter - GSMArena.com

The Dell Streak has crossed the line where phones stop – and by some distance too – but we are still not completely convinced it’s beyond the point where tablets start. Is the Dell Streak sitting on a fence or sitting right in the middle of nowhere?

We’ve reviewed all sorts of devices over the years but never did we have more trouble telling exactly what it is that we’re reviewing. And the device itself doesn’t help us make our mind up either. Sure it has a SIM card but those landscape-oriented buttons reveal its tablet intentions. It all boils down to what you want it to do, not what you think of it, we guess.

Key features:

1. Quad-band GSM and tri-band 3G support, 7.2 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA
2. Full phone functionality
3. 5" 16M-color TFT LCD capacitive touchscreen of WVGA (800 x 480) pixel resolution
4. Android OS v1.6 (Donut) with nicely customized homescreen
5. 1GHz Snapdragon CPU
6. 512 MB of RAM, 2GB internal storage
7. microSD slot, 16GB card included in the package
8. 5 MP autofocus camera with smile detection and geotagging
9. VGA video recording at 30fps
10. Wi-Fi 802.11b/g support
11. GPS with A-GPS; Digital compass
12. Accelerometer, ambient-light and proximity sensor
13. Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
14. Stereo Bluetooth v2.0
15. 10mm slim profile, impressive build quality
16. Office document editor
17. Secondary video-call camera
18. Swype predictive text input
19. Very good speaker performance

Main disadvantages

1. Too large and heavy for a phone, and too small for a tablet
2. Proprietary 30-pin connector for charging and USB connectivity
3. Disappointing screen quality and sunlight legibility
4. No Eclair/Froyo update yet (most units are still stuck on 1.6 Donut)
5. No smart dialing
6. No DivX or XviD video support out-of-the-box
7. No Flash support in web browser
8. No FM radio
9. Homescreen has landscape-only orientation
10. No USB host or USB On-the-go functionality

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Creative announces Android tablets, media player | Crave - CNET

Coming as a bit of a surprise, Creative today announced a pair of slates dubbed the ZiiO Pure Wireless Entertainment Tablets and a handheld media player called the Zen Touch 2 Wireless Entertainment Device. What differentiates these devices from Creative's earlier products is that they all run on the Google Android mobile operating system. The ZiiO will come in 7- and 10-inch versions with screen resolutions of 800x480 pixels and 1,024x600 pixels, respectively. Both come in 8GB or 16GB capacities, making for a grand total of four variations. The 7-inch ZiiO starts at $278, while the 10-inch version starts at $332. 

Based on Android 2.1 (Eclair), the differentiating factor of this tablet appears to be the inclusion of Creative's X-Fi technology. The company claims a superior audio experience and seamless Bluetooth stereo pairing.

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