Remember the TransPhone? It’s the device which is similar to the ASUS Padfone, although not entirely so as it is cheaper and a bit different in design. Well now, the makers of the TransPhone have announced a successor to the device: the TransPhone 2. The new system will be available in three versions. The Basic, Pro and Pro+ smartphones that will arrive with a bigger tablet part (with an 8-inch screen) unlike the original version.

With the basic TransPhone 2 handset you will get a 4-inch TFT screen with a resolution of 845 × 480, a 1GHz dual-core processor, 512MB of RAM, 4GB of on-board storage, 8GB pre-installed SD card, a 5 megapixel cam, front-facing camera, and will run Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. The tablet for this device features 1024×768 resolution and a 4,000 mAh battery giving you 5,500 mAh when you dock your smartphone. The system will be available with a price tag of $299.

The Pro version increases RAM to 1GB, and there will be 8GB onboard storage, 32 GB preinstalled internal SD card, and both the smartphone and the tablet of this system feature IPS screens. This version is expected to cost around $399.

On top of the Pro specs, the Pro+ features 32 GB onboard storage and a 32 GB internal SD card. You will also get a 3 megapixel front-facing cam. Gorilla glass protection is available on the smartphone as well as the tablet of this system. It will cost around $449. And if you need a bigger screen for the Pro+ there will be a 10-inch tablet available.

All the versions will be available later this year. So what do you think, are you interested?

[Source]

The post TransPhone 2 Coming Soon appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Back in October, ASUS announced that it would be bringing a second-generation Padfone to the market. If you’re unfamiliar with the device, it’s a smartphone that can be placed inside of a tablet dock. Therefore, the idea behind the device is to give users a smartphone and tablet in one.

These pictures are the first time that the Padfone 2 has shown up in white. Furthermore, the current news is that the Padfone 2 will become available sometime in December. However, there is still no word on a North America launch.

As for the inside of the device, ASUS has crammed a quad-core Snapdragon CPU, 2GB of RAM, a 13 MP camera, and a 4.7″ 720p display. When paired with the tablet dock, the Padfone turns into a 10.1″ display with 36 hours of talk time between the two batteries. With data plans rising in price and data limits decreasing, what could be better than sharing a data plan between your phone and tablet?

Are you holding out for this tag-team? Let us know in the comments below.

[ Source ]

The post Asus Padfone 2 Show Up In White Just Before Release Date appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Do you remember the Motorola Atrix 4G and how it had that laptop dock? You know about the PadFone from Asus that has a slot in the back to take your smartphone? Well, the Exotablet is fundamentally the same idea, except for Apple iDevices.

What you get with the ExoTablet is a device that “instantly converts a smartphone into a full-size, full-power, all-singing, all-dancing very connected tablet.” You simply slide your smartphone into the ExoTablet and you get the big screen experience, all without having to resync your content or use a secondary wireless connection. It’s all powered by your smartphone, not unlike the Asus PadFone. The difference is that it is more flexible, allowing for “any smartphone to be used with any of their planned range of ExoTablets.” Apparently.

To accommodate different shapes, layouts, pin connectors, and so on, they will also introduce the ExoAdapter. Each smartphone model will have its own adapter (costing a dollar or two), making it compatible with the ExoTablet. They’re even planning a range of ExoTablets in different sizes and configurations, including the possibility of built-in SSD storage. The kicker? They say that the new version could be “very possibly for iPhones and iPads” too, working “in the same ExoTablet because they both use the same operating system.”

They’re telling us that a typical ExoTablet will cost in the $150 range and the launch is being planned for October or November of this year.  We’ll wait and see if this is just vaporware or really the next best thing since..

The post Exotablet Planning to Create iPhone 4 Smartphone Tablet Dock appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Even so, I made my way over to the Asus booth to get a closer look. It’s really too bad that they don’t even have a working prototype or engineering sample to show us, since they were dummy devices in the cases. They’re not operational at all, so it’s almost like the Padfone is nothing more than a proof of concept.

In any case, I did get a closer look at how the docking mechanism appears to work. Out the back of the tablet part, there’s a flap that opens up to reveal where you put the smartphone. The assumption is that the smartphone will have a miniUSB port on its left side. This would likely line up with a miniUSB connector on the inside of the dock.

You’ll also notice that there is a hole cut out in the dock cover. This allows the camera on the smartphone portion to still be usable when in the tablet dock. Strangely, the cutout does not seem to allow for the flash to work, but this design could see several alterations before the Padfone becomes a real product.

I’m not sure how I feel about the Padfone, to be honest. It could prove to be an epic game changer, but it could also prove to be a monumental disaster (assuming it ever gets out of the vaporware stage).

The post A Closer Look at The Asus Padfone Smartphone Tablet Dock appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

And why not? Asus is is set to release their own re-engineered iteration of the Motorola Atrix 4G dock, riping out the keyboard making a dockable smartphone slate, we have the PadFone. This is a new generation of devices to hit the streets and all they are is just a shell without the guts and brains. Slide your smartphone into the PadFone, and you have just made buying a computer more efficient. Rather than two massively destructive impacts on the earth, you have just one marginally less destructive. We know computers, tablets and smartphone components are made with rare earth metals, by keeping the smartphone as the core processor and simply giving it a shell to transform within, Acer has just lessend your impact on the planet. There’s nothing stopping Asus from making an identical clone of the Atrix 4G dock too, we’re sure that will come soon.

The Asus phone within is with a 4.3-inch display, while the tablet amps it up to 10.1-inches. The Padfone is sort of a tablet dock in a way, it will have its own battery that can extend the life of the smartphone, and the phone will be mirrored to the tablet utilizing all its features. The tablet’s screen resolution is reported to be 1280 x 800. Although specifics weren’t released about the smartphone itself, we can guess that it will come with the 1GHz Tegra 2 processor with 1GB RAM, 16GB flash storage, a 1.2-megapixels on the front and 5-megapixels on the back, gyroscope, compass, GPS and all the trimmings.

Rumours are the PadFone combo could be one of the first devices to run Ice Cream Sandwich, the upcoming Android version which will be used across all sorts of devices. The PadFone could be released at the end of this year. No pricing has been announced for the PadFone but GizMag is reporting it to be in the US$800-1,000 range, probably too much since a consumer could still buy both standalone devices for the same price or less. The “lapdock” for the Atrix is selling on Motorola’s website now for $500.

The post Asus Melds Tablet and Smartphone to make Padfone appeared first on Mobile Magazine.