As expected, HTC has just introduced their Quad-core Tegra 3 handset and the flagship phone appears to be one of the most impressive Android devices ever designed. The One X, which will be part of the company’s new “One” series, comes with awesome specs.

HTC’s One series is basically what the Galaxy series is to Samsung. And HTC has come out with their latest line after listening to feedback and taking a decision to change their strategy completely. And they appear to have delivered.

The HTC One X boasts a beautiful 720p 4.7-inch Super LCD2 display which provides vibrant and bright colors. The screen performed well in bright sunlight and the viewing angles are good as well. The 312ppi screen is no iPhone 4S display, but it surely is very pretty.

Gizmodo says the handset feels very comfortable in the hands as it features a curved back and is light (but strong) since its body is made out of a machined polycarbonate. The device is one of the fastest they have ever played with all thanks to its 1.5GHz quad-core Tegra 3 processor. The applications were launching and running smoothly, and multi-tasking is impressive. As you might know, this is the same Tegra 3 seen in the Transformer Prime, and therefore it’s expected to do well. But we will be taking a closer look at its performance later on.

The phone also boasts Beats by Dre audio, 1GB of RAM and 32GB of storage (and 25GB of free Dropbox storage for two years), NFC, a front-facing 1.3MP shooter (supports 720p video chat), a 1800mAh battery, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich with Sense 4.0 UI, and comes with 4G LTE.

Many of you out there might not be too excited about Sense, but the new version appears to be quite interesting, although we will have to do a thorough inspection before the final verdict. The device’s rear 8MP camera has “the best optics and sensor (they’ve) ever used“. We will be checking out that later but we do know that it will do well in low light conditions with f2.0. And HTC’s new ImageChip (a secondary processor exclusively for image processing) will make sure that you shoot 1080p video while simultaneously take full resolution stills.

And if you are interested in watching a movie or playing a game on your TV using the phone, the HTC MediaLink, an HDMI dongle, will be  what does it.

HTC is promising that the ONE X will arrive within the next 60 days. It will be available in white or black exclusively from AT&T. No hints on the price, but we are expecting $200-$300 on contract.

The post MWC 2012: HTC One X appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

The ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime continues to amaze us. At CES 2012, an avid gamer shows his prowess with Shadowgun running flawlessly on the Tegra 3 powered tablet. Connected to a large screen via HDMI and controlled by an ordinary Xbox 360 controller, there’s really no telling the difference. It takes a docking station to connect the controller and external HD TV, but one thing is important to notice here: unlike many tablets with HDMI output ports, the Transformer Prime displays the gameplay on two screens simultaneously.

Serious gaming on Android tablets without dedicated hardware gaming controllers is quite problematic. Many gamers don’t really like touch controls that may be rather limited either in their range of available options, or actions, or in responsiveness to urgent touches. Xbox controllers are among the most popular gaming sticks, and their inclusion into an arsenal of Transformer Primes is a feature that many gamers will love.

As a user of the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime, you can get Xbox 360 controller for as little as $30…$40, so it might be a very valuable addition. What would be a priceless addition to this gamer’s rig is adding a Kinect gesture sensor to it.

By the way, attempts to make Kinect work on Tegra 2 Android tablets have already been done.

The post Tegra 3 Eee Pad Transformer Prime Uses Xbox 360 Controller appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Cotton Candy by a Norwegian company FXI Technologies is a prototype USB stick that is equipped with Samsung’s Exynos dual-Core ARM Cortex A9 (1.2GHz) CPU, an ARM Mali 400 MP (quad-core) GPU, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and HDMI output.

We covered an earlier version of this interesting dongle-like miniature computer back in November, now its smaller and more versatile and was featured at Showstoppers at CES 2012.

This time the mighty little dongle shows how good it can run Ubuntu and Android 4.0 on external monitors, or just using the laptops’ displays to demo its prowess. Newer version of FXI Cotton Candy has got an additional micro USB port and switchable Bluetooth to augment two full sized USB ports that existed in previous prototype iterations. Its connectivity is certainly improved: Cotton Candy can plug into a monitor, keyboard and mouse and power source. So, you get a full-fledged computer on your hands weighing about 21 grams.

Ubuntu boots fast enough and looks quite good, but running Android 4.0 with a keyboard and mouse in place of a touch-screen interface feels a bit clunky. However, for web browsing and other traditional tasks Cotton Candy works just fine, and 1080p video also played without issue.

Cotton Candy runs Ice Cream Sandwich, but as shown it’s more like a work-in-progress than finalized Android 4.0. FXI developers promise improvements that can make Ice Cream Sandwich run smoother. Improved connectivity has led to an interesting demo of the Cotton Candy feeding two screens simultaneously. Developers work on getting different content on these screens that can be manipulated independently, and then it will be quite spectacular way to use this Cotton Candy. Additionally, two Cotton Candy sticks can feed a single display with two different windowed working environments.

Such virtualized ICS environments for your laptop is just one useful option to operate Cotton Candy. FXI’s idea is that as hardware continues to evolve, devices like smart phones are getting old and underpowerd too fast. While that might be fine for a smartphone that gets upgraded every year or two, it doesn’t work well with TVs, car computers, or other “smart” devices that may be used for 5-10 years. Here’s where a Cotton Candy stick can help, provided you can get them as new upgrades more often than TVs and car computers.

For operating in cloud-oriented environment, Cotton Candy becomes handy too, as its user could carry one device around that has access to all the apps and data that user wants from the cloud, and his interface stays the same no matter what “host” computer’s display is used.

At the moment, there’s no indication of what to expect from the price when this prototype may hit a product manufacturing stage. Estimates indicate the price will be below $199. Which one day with Cotton Candy production volume counting in the millions, may easily be lowered to about $25 or so.

The post FXI Demos Ubuntu and Android 4.0 on its Cotton Candy USB Device appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

CES 2012 is not with us just yet, but many interesting products always start to show up ahead of their proper unveiling. A pair of such budget tablets going to CES are made by Velocity Micro under the trademark Cruz: a 7 inch T507 tablet and a 10 inch T510 tablet. They are given the following specs at the manufacturer’s site:

• 7″ Capacitive Touch Screen
• Cortex A8 1.2 GHz Processor
• Flash Player 11
• Discrete ARM Mali 400MHz 3D Graphics Acceleration
• 512MB DDR3 RAM
• 8GB Internal Storage
• Front-facing Camera
• HDMI Out
• Amazon Appstore, Kindle for Android, and QuickOffice Full
• Android 4.0

T510, a 10-inch model is shown like this:

• 9.7″ Capacitive Touch Screen
• 8.9mm Thick Chassis
• Cortex A8 1.2 GHz Processor
• Flash Player 11
• Discrete ARM Mali 400MHz 3D Graphics Acceleration
• 8GB Internal Storage
• Front-facing Camera
• HDMI Out
• Amazon Appstore
• Android 4.0

PC Mag adds that the a 7-inch T507 will have an 800×480 screen and retail for under $150, while the 10 inch (actually, 9.7 inch) Velocity Cruz Tablet T510 will sport a 1024×768 screen similar to the HP Touchpad’s screen. The screen on T510 might be even be the same as was manufactured for the HP Touchpad, perhaps out of leftovers from that carnage HP did to their mobile tablet division last August. The 10-incher T510 may retail for under $250.  Front camera on both tablets is of VGA quality (0.3 Mpix). Both tablets are planned for launch in the US some time in the first quarter of 2012.

Best known as a maker of high-quality, value-priced PCs, Velocity Micro has also made e-readers and Android tablets for a few years now, even if these were not met with a significant success from customers of cheap devices of this nature. However, unlike the models from the “good” brands, the Velocity Micro Cruzes are known for being relatively easy to hack and mod. So, if specs above don’t mention Google Market and Google Apps pre-installed, it may mean the community might “correct” this problem very soon. Even if the claimed Android 4.0 they run is not exactly your Google’s certified version.

The post Velocity Micro Budget Android 4.0 Tablets Unveiling At CES appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Most pocket projectors out there are not at all impressive, but it’s certainly a good thing that some picos are being brought out with improvements such as better picture quality. The latest micro-projector from Velocity Micro, the Shine Projector, is claimed by its makers to be the smallest HD-capable projector.

The new projector is definitely small. It will fit in a pocket, a large one though. The Shine comes with a native resolution of 1,280×768 pixels (WXGA). Although that is far from full 1080p resolution, Velocity Micro is promising that it will accept a 1080p signal.

The Shine, which measures in at 4 inches on its longest side and weighs 9 ounces, makes use of Texas Instruments’ DLP technology with LED illumination. And you will have to plug it into a wall outlet as it does not come with a built-in rechargeable battery like many other picos.

Other strengths include a 2,000:1 contrast ratio and a throw ratio of 1.4:1, and 300 lumens of brightness suggests that it is significantly brighter than the earlier, smaller pico projectors.

It can be easily connected to any compatible media device such as PCs, smartphones, and tablets via a mini-HDMI connector. You will also get full USB connectivity, and an audio-out jack, and it uses just 23 watts of power.

The Shine Projector will be shown off at the upcoming CES. No word yet on when it will be available on sale or exact pricing, but we do know that it will have a price tag less than $400.

The post Velocity Micro Shine Is The ‘Smallest HD-Capable’ Projector appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

There are many ways to pay homage to the Genius design of Apple products.  One of them, certainly will invite some attention from Cupertino giant is the Hackintosh movement.  The folks out of this group of talented hackers must wear their Apple’s “Cease and Desist” letters as badges of honor or something.  Now, 9to5mac.com demo’d a Samsung tablet normally meant to run Windows 7 but running OS X Lion instead; they call it the HacPro Touch.

It’s only working on video out, and the HDMI link routinely blanks the tablet screen.  There’s also no output on the main tablet screen just yet. However, if you are interested in x86 tablets running OS X you should follow tonimacx86 forum.

If you ask me, sure, I’m a proponent of everything running on everything, Arduino robots included. But as much as I’m trying to look into the depths of my Crystal Ball, I just can’t see much of the future for x86 tablets in 2012 and beyond. Sure, it could be just me, but I’m kinda sick and tired of fans and grills for heated air exhaust on x86 tablets.

But when we talk about ARM-based devices, sure, count me interested. Apple software running on other devices other than Apple’s may look sexy to some, but always troublesome. If done correctly could create much needed hype for Samsung slates, but until then, its a work in progress.

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