Just because you want an Android tablet doesn’t mean that you have to bump all the way up to the 10-inch or even the 7-inch offerings on the market. Archos has some smaller tablets too and joining that arena is a new entry from Latte Communications. It’s called the ICE Smart Media Player and its screen measures the same five inches across the diagonal as the Dell Streak.

Except, as you can imagine, it’s not a phone. In this way, it’s probably closer in scope to challenging the iPod touch, as well as other smaller Android tablets. Power comes by way of an 800MHz ARM11 processor with built-in 3D acceleration and the ICE Smart Media Player ships with Android 2.3 Gingerbread out of the box. They say that it can support 1080p full HD video playback, though the display only has a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels. Too bad it’s capacitive.

Rounding out the spec sheet is 802.11b/g Wi-Fi (where’s the N?), g-sensor, speaker and mic, USB OTG support, 8GB internal storage, and a microSD slot. It’s unclear whether Latte Communications got the full authorization, so I can’t say for sure whether this’ll do Android Market. There are so many Android tabs that don’t so buyer beware. But at only $189.99, which is $60 cheaper than its regular price. As an iPod touch alternative, you could do a lot worse.

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I like music, and I like it loud. That might explain why my hearing isn’t as good as it used to be. That also might mean it’d be a good idea for me to consider the Philips GoGear Muse 3. Yes, standalone music players still exist and some people prefer them over using smartphones for music. Or they don’t have a smartphone.

In the case of the GoGear Muse 3, you get something called the SafeSound function. Basically, it monitors the sound level of Marilyn Manson and Def Leppard, alerting you if the volume is probably a little too high for your eardrums to handle. You could heed this warning and lower the volume yourself, or you could let SafeSound automatically adjust the volume for you.

Your sense of hearing will probably thank you, but it kind of takes the fun out of rocking out with super loud music. Even so, if you still want to be able to hear in 20 years, lowering the volume is likely a good idea. This PMP will even pump out daily and weekly overviews of your listening patterns, making sure that you’re still in sound health. Other specs include the SoundPersonalisation graphic equalizer, 3.2-inch touchscreen, noise-isolating in-ear headphones, built-in speaker and plenty of format support (including video). The 8GB and 16GB models are on sale now for about $175 and $223.

The post Philips GoGear Muse 3 PMP protects your hearing appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Brando is normally a brand I associate with random off-shore knockoffs and obscure accessories, but this is just showing that 3D is slowly but surely making a push into the mainstream. Let’s be clear: the Gadmei P83 is not really a tablet device. It’s a personal media player (PMP) with an 8-inch 1280×768 pixel display that happens to support 3D without glasses.

While there is a mere 4GB of on-board storage, you can load up your homemade 3D photos and movies through the available USB port and SD card slot. For now, it’s still a bit of a novelty and I’m not completely sold on the experience, but the Brando Gadmei P83 3D PMP isn’t terribly expensive at $179 either. If they tossed in some tablet functionality, possibly through Android, it might be a more interesting proposition, especially if they can keep the price point where it is.