Droid-Life has published exclusive shots of the HTC Vigor which shows some pretty impressive specs for the upcoming device. According to a shot after the break, the Vigor is shown having a 1.5 GHz dual-core processor, 4.3-inch 720p HD display, 8-megapixel rear-facing, 2-megapixel front-facing camera, and Verizon Wireless’s 4G LTE.
On the hardware side, the Vigor will feature Android 2.3.4 and Sense 3.5 (ugh). There’s no word on release date, but looks like a nice Thunderbolt successor, eh?
A mockup of a seven-inch Amazon tablet running a forked Android version.
As Amazon gears up to debut its long-rumored tablet on Wednesday at a media event in New York (a subtle hint of a media-focused launch), TechCrunch chimes in with a name. The Android-driven device will be apparently marketed under the Kindle Fire moniker in order to distinguish it from Amazon’s highly regarded family of dedicated Kindle e-readers. Manufactured by Foxconn, Apple’s favorite contract manufacturer, the gizmo should boast a seven-inch color touchscreen (not true multi-touch) and won’t have an email client preloaded, but users will be able to download one from its mobile application store or use a built-in browser for web mail, writes author MG Siegler who first saw the device early this month.
Meanwhile, AlllThingsD’s Peter Kafka writes the online retailer is cutting partnerships left and right with Hollywood studios and magazine publishers. Amazon has now added Fox shows to its streaming catalog, Kafka reported today, explaining the deal includes shows Fox no longer airs and old Fox movies such as “Office Space,” “Speed” and “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”. Also, at least three magazine publishers have thrown their weighg behind Amazon’s tablet project: Hearst, Conde Nast and Meredith. Kafka cites industry sources claiming all three publishers “have deals to sell digital versions of their titles on the new device”.
Those titles are allegedly optimized for Amazon’s seven-incher and terms are said to mirror the 70:30 revenue split offered by Apple’s iTunes content store. Even though its success is anything but given, conventional wisdom has it that the Amazon tablet should benefit from Amazon’s many cloud services and long-standing partnerships with content providers. What’s unique about Amazon…
After Samsung this morning announced they have sold 10 million Galaxy S II’s into retail channels, T-Mobile has made their own variant official with an October 10th pre-order date and $229 price tag.
While the majority of the specs on the device mirror other Galaxy S II variations, the real story here is support for T-Mobile’s 4G HSPA+ 42 Mbps network thanks to the switch from Samsung’s Exnos processor to a 1.5GHz Qualcom dual-core Snapdragon chip.
Other features are similar to the Epic 4G and other variants including a 4.52-inch Super AMOLED display, 8-megapixel main camera, NFC capabilities, 16GB internal storage, and Android 2.3.4.
The device will officially hit retail stores on October 12th. The $229 price point will of course require the usual two-year agreement in addition to a $50 rebate.
Read more
From the Mobilize conference:
T-Mobile’s network is 75% smartphones and 90% of those are Android. That means more than 2/3rds of the devices sold by T-Mobile are Android. That is a big number. Remember T-Mobile has a million iPhones on its network but those weren’t sold by T-Mobile.
Is it game over for everyone else? Read more
In a new study from Nielsen for the month of August, Android is continuing to grow reaching 43% of all smartphone owners, up from 40% in July. This in contrast to Apple’s 28% share, which according to Nielsen, has been static since June.
It’s important to note, however, that Android’s increase was largely due to the decline of the “other” category, which fell from 13% to 11% thanks to poor performance from Microsoft and Palm. RIM also lost share falling 1 percentage point to 18%, which contributed to Android rise as well. Of course this also the first summer where Android wasn’t met with a new iPhone to compete for new smartphone acquirers.
The report is quick to note that the introduction of a new iPhone next month could easily sway the numbers in Apple’s favor, at the very least for recent acquirers, which the survey put Apple at 28% in comparison to an impressive 56% for Android during the month of August. Read more
We got our first look at Motorola’s upcoming Xoom 2 tablet a few days back, but now have a few quite clear shots (via Engadget) that will give you a better view of the smaller 8.2-inch, 9mm thick, LTE Android tablet, and the larger variant sporting similar specs.
While the specs aren’t exactly confirmed, the report speculates from the images that both devices are approximately the same thickness of the 9.3mm iPhone 4, and the rear facing buttons appear to be a volume rocker and power button. The tipster who provided the images also apparently confirmed LTE capability for both models and 5-megapixel HD rear cameras.
Not too long about we told you about a similar looking mystery Motorola tablet being spotted in the wild by This is my next who claimed to see micro USB and micro HDMI ports.
We’ll of course keep you updated as we learn more. More images after the break.
Read more
