During CES in January and with MWC this month, we’ve seen a lot of new Android tablets. All of them, without fail, will mention that they have love for Flash 10.1, quick unlike a certain iProduct. Well, as it turns out, the championed Motorola Xoom isn’t so Flashy after all.

Well, at least not at launch. It has now been revealed that the Motorola Xoom tablet won’t be able to support Flash content when it first hits retailers soon. That’s not to say that it doesn’t have love for the Adobe standard at all; it just means that the support will come by way of a firmware update later in the Spring.

What does this really mean? It’s quite possible that Motorola is waiting around for Adobe to push out Flash 10.2 before it plays nice with the Xoom. This is because Flash 10.2 is being designed to be mobile-optimized, which would make more sense on tablet devices. So, for all the Moto-flavored Gingerbread fans in the audience, it’s a touch of good news dabbled with some bad.

[Giz via Verizon]

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The tablet market is really starting to heat up and the competitors are beginning to fling mud at one another. Toshiba, for example, is prepping an Android 3.0 device for this spring and it’s taking a direct shot at the iOwners in the audience.

Toshiba has set up a teaser site for its upcoming (yet unnamed) Android tablet we heard about earlier this month, but you can’t access it on your iPhone or iPad. If you do, you’ll get treated to a page that reads:

Such a Shame. Add this to the list of the interesting places on the internet you can’t see on your device. Of course, if you had a Toshiba Tablet you would enjoy the entire internet. Yep, Flash sites too.

Like all the other Android tablets that appeared at CES, the Toshiba variant will support Flash content from around the web. If that’s its only selling point, though, it won’t really differentiate itself from the rest of the Android-powered crowd.

From what we hear, the Toshiba tablet will be powered by the now standard NVIDIA Tegra2 dual core processor, Android 3.0 Honeycomb, and a 1280×800 10-inch capacitive touchscreen. Rounding out the specs are a 5MP camera in the back, a 2MP in the front for video calls, HDMI out, USB in and out, an SD slot, and user-replaceable battery. Wow, now there’s something new. No 3G/4G, but there’s WiFi and Bluetooth.

I don’t anticipate Toshiba’s entry to be a huge competitor in this market, just like how Toshiba MP3 players didn’t exactly make a huge splash, but all these Android folks will certainly present a formidable front against the iPad.

[Hexus via Toshiba Tablet]

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The tablet market has really started to heat up this year, but Archos has been doing this kind of thing for years already. Trying to remind you of its pedigree while still offering something new and exciting is the Archos 70 Internet tablet. For starters, it runs on Google Android.

This is not the first time that Archos has dabbled in Android and it certainly will not be its last either. While other tablets are typically being limited to, maybe, 64GB or so of storage, the Archos 70 goes much bigger with its 250GB hard drive. Event hough it has that much more storage, the tablet is able to stay quite thin (0.55-inches) and light (14 ounces).

Aside from the “unique over-molded PVD stainless steel structured” design, the Archos 70 also comes with Android 2.2 Froyo compatibility, Flash 10.1, HDMI output, tethering support, 720p HD video playback, 3D animated photo frame, Appslib, WiFi, capacitive touchscreen, and a built-in webcam.

Just as the Archos MP3 players did little to take a bite out of the iPod’s market share, I don’t really expect this line of Android tablets from Archos to make much of a dent in Apple’s coffers. That said, those looking for an Android alternative might want to give Archos a ring. The Archos 70 Internet tablet is on sale now for $350.

[Gizmodo via Archos]

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Just coming through the wire today, it was announced that the Palm Pre 2 is now available through Rogers, complete with the new webOS 2.0 smartphone operating system. The Pre 2 happens to be the first Palm phone with a gigahertz processor. It has the same sliding form factor as its predecessor, so you get a QWERTY keyboard and touchscreen display (glass).

Other specs include the 5MP camera, Wi-Fi with mobile hotspot support, true multitasking, JustType universal search, Flash 10.1 in-browser support (beta), and something that they call HP Synergy. This is similar to what you got with the first Palm, populating your phone with info from Facebook, Google, MS Exchange, LinkedIn, and Yahoo! accounts.

Lock into a new three-year voice and data plan and Rogers will let you have the Palm Pre for $99. It’s a good time to be a smartphone fan. From Android to iOS to BlackBerry to WP7 and now to webOS 2.0, you’ve got a lot of options. Verizon Wireless details are yet to be announced.

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The Nexus One was way behind the iPhone, but closer to and still behind the HTC HD2.  When Flash was presented in terms of a banner ad, scrolling up and down the page became slow and choppy.  So the PocketNow guys determined that your browsing experience is going to be hindered with Flash content on the go.

Is it worth having Flash on your mobile phone? If technologies like HTML5 keep being implemented, like Google’s recent display of PacMan on their home page, then we may not have a need for Flash; especially if it’s going to bring your smartphone down to its knees.  The other thing to keep in mind is that this Flash plugin is still a beta, and the final release could improve in performance.

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