“Join us as we introduce the truly incredible next transformations.” Given that the only context where Asus has use the “transform” moniker is with an Eee Pad, we’re pretty confident this week’s event has something to do with a new tablet.

They got rid of the “Eee” part of the name for the Transformer Pad Infinity, so the assumption is that the next iteration will likely do the same. The provided teaser points us toward May 31, which would indicate that Asus is going to make its “transformational” announcement at Computex Taipei. It was also there that Asus revealed the Eee PC and the PadFone, among many other products.

Aside from the conjecture about it having something to do with tablets, there is essentially no other information about what Asus is bringing to the biggest trade show in their own Taiwanese backyard. It could be a new tablet, or it could just be some sort of update for existing Pads. The teaser mentions that the “shape of the cloud is ever-changing,” so perhaps it something to do with Eee Storage? A Windows 8 tablet with keyboard dock? We’ll find out in the next couple of days.

[Source]

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ASUSTeK Computer goes to extraordinary measures to appeal to widest possible audience of their potential customers. Original ASUS Eee Pad Transformer was and still is one of the most popular 10-inch Android slates, even if the Transformer Prime clearly takes the role of ASUS flagship tablet. This time, ASUSTeK has released a group of FAQ videos that can influence customers decisions in favor of its $360 – $399 device.

This ‘Most FAQ’ mini-series consists of 10 episodes, so here we go:

1. The most FAQ about the Eee Pad Transformer #1: How do I use Google Maps on the Eee Pad?

Using Googgle Maps on Eee Pad Transformer is really fun. Note that the demonstration makes rounds about Pegatron plant.

2. The most FAQ about the Eee Pad Transformer #2: Can I download applications for Eee Pad?

Can I download applications for Eee Pad? I would certainly try, if I had this tablet. Jokes aside, it’s easy, and Android applications specially designed for tablets are out there, fully accessible in the Android Market.

3. The most FAQ about the Eee Pad Transformer #3: What’s makes Transformer dock different from other docks?

This one is the hit of the season. Eee Pad Transformer wouldn’t be a “transformer” if there wasn’t such a useful accessory as its docking station combined with a good keyboard. It goes for $140 on top of Transformer price, but a refurbished variant can save you $20.

4. The most FAQ about the Eee Pad Transformer #4: What does Transformer have in terms of expandability?

When in the docking keyboard, Eee Pad Transformer has very good expansion options in terms of what and how many external storages may be used and coexist. Connecting an external USB HD drive is a particularly compelling feature.

5. The most FAQ about the Eee Pad Transformer #5: How large is Transformer? Is the screen easy to break?

It’s a scratch-resistant Corning Gorilla glass, it should be really tough. What do you think?

6. The most FAQ about the Eee Pad Transformer #6: Can I play games on my Eee Pad Transformer?

That’s an easy one. Of course, you can! I’m surprised you’ve been waiting till 6th episode, to ask.

7. The most FAQ about the Eee Pad Transformer #7: What’s the difference between Transformer and iPad?

A legit question. In this episode, iPad is thoroughly beaten by not having Adobe Flash on board.

8. The most FAQ about the Eee Pad Transformer #8: How is the camera in terms of photo quality?

Both cameras are good, hardware-wise. They might need a plethora of face-morphing effects from Ice Cream Sandwich though, but ICS will probably meet original Transformer in the next season, I think.

9. The most FAQ about the Eee Pad Transformer #9: What is MyNet? What does MyNet do?

I think you’ve got it without my further explanations: MyNet is not your net, if you don’t own a Transformer yet.

10. The most FAQ about the Eee Pad Transformer#10: How else can I access a home computer via a Eee Pad?

This one is serious: MyCloud. Hopefully it will work without a hitch when this Transformer gets the ICS upgrade.

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Ice Cream Sandwich for the ASUS EEE Pad Transformer Prime Android tablet was planned to be available much later than it appears to be happening, as it has started to roll out for users just a couple of days ago.  ASUS, ever anxious to see their achievement properly appreciated at CES 2012, even decided to make an introductory video themselves.

Although the video shows some basic functionality that we have all seen about ICS before, it leaves a few things unknown:

• Where is facial recognition unlocking?
• Swipes and transitions didn’t look overly fluid. Was the video of ICS beta?
• When in the Browser, how does it scroll, especially when a web page is not fully loaded just yet? Reports are already coming in stating that rendering speed was improved for the browser. We’d be interested to see benchmarks on that.

With a price tag of $499, the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime might be looked upon as a direct competitor to the iPad 2.

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According to NotebookItalia, who got this leaked rendering, ASUS will officially announce a 7-inch version of its successful Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime. The rendering makes it look like it’s running Android Honeycomb, and at launch time it’s quite possible, as no recent ASUS Android devices were launched with Ice Cream Sandwich just yet. Apparently it will sport the same mighty Tegra 3 processor as its bigger brother. However, here’s where this rumor gets quite unclear: a 7-inch tablet from ASUS was demoed at CES 2011 where it was called ‘ASUS Eee Memo Pad’ and was said to be based on a dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 1.2 GHz processor.  Some models of that Memo (or was it ‘MeMO’?) might even be set with glasses-free 3D screens, but it didn’t happen just yet.

Whatever the discrepancies between the two proposed pocketable  ASUS tablet prototypes, the same press photo leak source has its price point pinned at $299. Will it be based on Tegra 3, or Snapdragon S3, or even S4, will be established at CES 2012.

The post The Rumored ASUS Transformer Prime Mini/Memo 7-Inch Android Tablet appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

The fine folks at XDA-Developers report that ASUS has chosen to lock a bootloader on its flagship tablet, the Eee Pad Transformer Prime. This is extremely sad news for all the tinkerers who were hoping to get Ice Cream Sandwich on this powerful tablet currently running a lightly customized stock ASUS Android 3.2 (Honeycomb). First reports of this discovery looks like this:

Asus has Encrypted the bootloader on the prime with a 128 bit Encryption (basically impossible to crack!) like HTC did awhile back…. This makes it impossible to flash ROMs and kernels which can really unlock the devices full potential, that is overclocking, flashing Linux distros, customizing, undervolting, denying installation of Windows 8, etc. The sky is the limit but it depends on YOU!

After weeks of demanding they allowed us to do what we want with the devices we purchased from HTC, and HTC finally caved and unlocked it!

Protests to this ASUS decision multiply in social networks, at the ASUS official Facebook and Twitter pages, even all around the globe. It’s worth to mention that the original ASUS Eee Pad Transformer (not Prime) was launched with a locked bootloader, too, but XDA member named 9600pro87 found a secure key to unlock the bootloader for this previous ASUS Transformer tablet. Now, there’s no obstacles in developing alternative firmwares for it.

All in all, purchases of Transformer Primes may dwindle if the decision to unlock its bootloader, or a leak of the key won’t be made  soon enough. A good example of such a reaction is the Nook Tablet with its bootloader also locked: if it could be launched and unlocked it might fare a better situation than its direct competition, the Kindle Fire.

The post ASUS Transformer Prime: Locked Bootloader Causes Uproar appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

It has now been confirmed that the Eee Pad tablet range from Asus will indeed support Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. This is for the entire Asus Eee Pad “family,” which presumably includes the Transformer and the Slider, as well as any other Eee Pads they may have hiding up their sleeves.

That’s the good news. The bad news is that Asus isn’t quite as quick to point out any kind of timeline for the upgrade process, so you’ll have to be stuck with Android 3.2 Honeycomb in the meantime until they figure out how to get ICS to play friendly with the Eee Pads. It makes you wonder if the Eee Pad Transformer 2 will ship with ICS, but that’s probably just wishful thinking.

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The Tegra 2 processor from NVIDIA has found itself in a huge assortment of smartphones and tablets, quickly becoming one of the most preferred dual core chips for that segment. Even though Tegra 2 is still relatively new, Tegra 3 is just around the corner and it looks like Asus could be getting first dibs at Kal-El.

As you may recall, Kal-El (inspired by Superman) is the codename for Tegra3 and it’s part of a longer roadmap with more superhero-inspired codenames. What we’re hearing now is that the first device to launch with Tegra 3 will be the next-generation Asus Eee Pad Transformer Android tablet. The current (first) gen Eee Pad Transformer has been a huge hit, partly because it undercut similar devices like the Xoom and Galaxy Tab 10.1 by $100 or more right at launch. Now, the others have had to follow it down to the $399 start point.

I’d imagine that Asus will be very happy to follow up that success with an even faster tablet powered by the quad-core 40nm Tegra 3 chip. What’s interesting is that the quad-core chip is actually more efficient than its dual-core Tegra 2 cousin, consuming less power and thus extending battery life. Considering that I can easily get three days out of the Eee Pad Transformer I’ve been using (when attached to the keyboard dock), the second-gen model with Kal-El is sounding even more appealing.

Look for the Eee Pad Transformer 2 and its other Tegra 3-based compatriots to start hitting retailers in the first quarter of next year.

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The portrait-oriented tablet has stylus support, so you can treat the MeMO 3D like a digital notepad. The tablet also comes with a MeMIC Bluetooth hands-free headset s0 you can make calls from the device. The glasses-free 3D display allows you to watch movies and play games in 3D, but only in landscape mode due to the parallax barrier technology Asus used for the tablet.

The device has a 1.2 MP camera on the front and a 5 MP camera with LED flash on the rear of the tablet. Asus hasn’t revealed pricing or a specific release date for the Eee Pad MeMO 3D, but have suggested it would be released in late 2011. Back in January Asus said the Eee Pad MeMO without 3D would be priced around US$499-$699 at with a June 2011 release. We’ll see how much extra money they pin onto the price with the newly added 3D feature, though with the feature only being available in landscape mode, it better be a minimal price increase.

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You know, of the tablets that Asus announced at CES earlier this year, the Eee Pad Transformer is probably one of the most interesting. It’s kinda like the tablet version of the Motorola Atrix 4G, allowing you to dock it for notebook functionality or separate it for tablet functionality.

So much promise… only to get butchered by a remarkably bad parody of Big Bang Theory. Asus head honcho Jonney Shih followed up on his son’s idea to use BBT as the basis for a promotional video for the Eee Pad Transformer and the result has me reaching for the barf bag. It’s like they took Big Bang Theory, replaced Sheldon with a British doofus, removed any semblance of comedy, and shoehorned in some heavy promotional placement that is nowhere near what a sitcom would normally look like.

I’m not saying that the Tegra2-powered Honeycomb tablet is a bad product. I’m sure it’s perfectly capable and will offer some decent competition to the Galaxy Tab, Xoom, and maybe even the iPad 2. I am saying, though, that Asus probably shouldn’t take this horrible promotional video route ever again.

The post Asus Eee Pad Transformer Promoted in Big Bang Theory Parody appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

There were a lot of tablets announced at CES earlier this year and one of the units that may have flown under the radar is the Asus Eee Pad MeMO. After based on today’s confirmations, you might be a little more interested.

Yes, it was hiding in the shadows of stablemates the Eee Pad Transformer and Eee Pad Slider, but the Eee Pad MeMO is more than just a notepad and e-book reader. As it turns out, this 7-inch device will indeed ship with Android 3.0 Honeycomb right out of the box, despite running on a 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8260 processor rather than the “reference platform” NVIDIA Tegra 2.

All sorts of other specs and features have now been confirmed by Asus as well. These include the microHDMI port, quad-band HSPA+ connectivity, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, microUSB (with Host support), 3.5mm headphone jack, microSDHC slot, GPS, 5MP camera, 1.2MP front-facing camera, gyroscope, g-sensor, light sensor, proximity sensor, and digital compass. We’re expecting a full gig of RAM and up to 64GB of storage capacity.

The world of seven inch tablets will quickly be heating up with updated versions of the Galaxy Tab, as well as the upcoming HTC Flyer, Dell Streak 7, and others. There’s no word on price, but the MeMO is said to survive 8 hours of video playback on a single charge, including support for full 1080p HD. The most interesting thing about this tablet is its sidekick; a mini-phone like device that connects to the MeMO via Bluetooth allowing you to control it, make calls and who knows what else, the guy in the video was probably handling it for the first time. It has a transparent display that does who knows what.

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