android phones

While this isn’t the lowest price this tablet has ever been available for, the HP TouchPad is a bit hard to find. Paying nearly $200 for this tablet might be justified, all things considered. Woot is offering the 32GB-equipped device for $195 for one day only.

It’s a refurbished model, but if you take a look at the going rates on eBay you’ll find that it’s a bargain: there, the 16GB version is going for as high as $275! The 32GB is close to $500. Are you starting to see why this would be a good idea?

Sure, WebOS was pretty much driven into the ground, but the Android community couldn’t help themselves and they got all sorts of ROMs made for the device. Do some research over at XDA and RootzWiki to get started, but in the meantime make sure you purchase one of these at Woot pronto.

We’re expecting the Samsung Galaxy S3 to arrive on the big 4 carriers here in the US, but unfortunately, nothing’s been announced yet. Well, here’s some good news for AT&T and T-Mobile customers. Both versions of the GS3 have just made their way through the Bluetooth SIG, revealing not much other than their BT capabilities, and corresponding model numbers (generic images have been used).

Following the model number patterns with current Samsung devices, the SGH-T999V will be headed to T-Mobile, while the SGH-I747 will arrive on AT&T. Word is, these US models will sport Qualcomm’s dual-core S4 processor with an added RAM boost to the tune of 2GB. Looks like it wont be much longer until we find out.

[UnwiredView]

In a move I would have expected to see Google jump on first, it looks like the other Google (Amazon) is attempting to make back some of that money they’re losing on every Kindle Fire sold by selling “prime” location ad space on their 7-inch tablets. For a measly $600,000, you too can advertise your latest rap album, product, or service, directly from the Kindle Fire’s welcome screen. The half a mil reportedly gets you 2 full months of ad time, with your ad showing up on every boot, adding to the “sponsored screensaver” ads that appear whenever the device shuts down.

There are a few complications, however. Advertisers aren’t completely sold on this new opportunity, and Amazon isn’t quite sure how they’re going to implement this new… “feature.” Apparently, they are still undecided if they will add it to current Kindle Fires, or just in future ad-supported models. There’s also the potential of upsetting current customers who wouldn’t exactly be pleased to find ads popping up out of nowhere on their once ad-free device.

What do you guys think? Would having ads pop up on your tablet justify a heavily discounted tablet? Think Google should implement something similar to drive down the price on their rumored $250 quad-core tabbie?

PandoDaily | Adage

The Android powered  “i’m Watch” made quite the splash when it debuted first as a concept late last year, and then as a prototype at this year’s CES. There was so much buzz that many an Android user, and your everyday tech enthusiast, were getting in line, pre-ordering the device as soon as it was made available.

Well, it looks like the Italian smartwatch maker is experiencing delays (again), this time to better equip the little Donut running watches with improved hardware — no doubt to better compete with the likes of rival smartwatches like the Pebble. Starting on July 15th, the i’m Watch will begin shipping out to outstanding orders with the company saying they expect to have all orders fulfilled by Sept. 15th.

Those of you that don’t feel like waiting any further have until the 15th of July to cancel your orders and apply for a refund. For those that plan on waiting this out, you can now expect to receive a 15% discount as part of a thank you gift from the i’m Watch team.

Below is the email being sent out to pre-orderers today. Anyone planning on sticking around for the i’m Watch? Or have the Pebble, Sony Smartwatch, or others caught your wandering eye?

Dear Customer,

we appreciate the patience you’ve shown so far regarding the delivery of i’m Watch. We are aware that you have encountered some inconveniences and that, above all, you were not able to use a device that grows every day further interest around the world.

Unfortunately we have verified once more the validity of that saying: “The best is the enemy of the good!” What do we mean?

We want to tell you today with great transparency and humbleness that, not only have we met all the difficulties of an extremely innovative and ambitious project (and the unforeseen events that have surpassed any logical expectation), but we have especially given into the temptation of implementing some modifications in order to increase and improve the adaptability of i’m Watch towards the future development of technology (for example, enabling it to handle a larger number of apps than initially expected). All of these factors brought us to lose precious time and, particularly, has prevented us from providing you some certain dates for the delivery.

But we are now able to define them as follows, taking into account that we intend to conduct a last serious testing program with our customers:

1) By June 15th we will provide i’m Watch to a group of 300 customers, who will cooperate with us for a final and ultimate check, to be completed by July 15th. We will ask them to give regular feedback on their experience, which will be reported in a public blog on the website www.imwatch.it in order to allow you to follow its evolution as well.

2) Starting July 15th we will begin to ship the product to all those who have an unsent order. We expect to fulfill the delivery for all current orders within and no later than September 15th.

Given that we understand that you might have lost interest in the purchase, we decided to offer you the following possibilities:

Giving up the purchase and requesting an immediate refund of the paid amount, providing by July 15th an e-mail to the following address, if you are residing in Italy: …, or to the following: … if you are residing abroad. If instead you are willing to wait until the expected date of delivery, you will receive at the delivery a 15% discount on the price paid.

We thank you for your cooperation, very confident that i’m Watch will fully meet your expectations.

Best regards.

Manuel Zanella and Massimiliano Bertolini President and CEO of i’m Spa

I think it goes without saying that this whole patent “he said, she said” legal business has gotten a bit out of hand lately. Apparently, the US District for the District of Delaware agrees with the sentiment, and have ordered HTC and Apple to meet and talk about a potential settlement. It’s not clear if the CEO’s of said companies will make an appearance, with the court order only mentioning lawyers and “decision makers” from the appropriate parties. The meetings will be moderated by Magistrate Judge Sherry R. Fallon, and are scheduled to take place on August 28th. Something tells me this isn’t the last we’ve heard from Apple and their legal team.

[FossPatents | TheVerge]