Acer’s 10-inch Iconia Tab A200 hits US Jan. 15 for $329.99, ICS upgrade due February

E. Betters

Acer America announced Jan. 5 that it would launch the 10.1-inch budget-friendly Iconia Tab A200, equipped with Android 3.2 Honeycomb operating system, in the United States for $329.99.

The titanium-gray A200 weighs 1.5 pounds, but the hefty tablet comes with a high-definition multitouch display at 1280-by-800 resolution. Nvidia’s Tegra 2 dual-core mobile processor and GeForce GPU power  the device that features Acer’s Ring interface. With such a large screen, touted processing power and graphics processor, Acer is calling it an ideal gaming tablet.

“Made especially for multimedia enjoyment, the A200 packs hardware and apps for loads of fun,” said Acer in the announcing press release. “The Iconia Tab A200’s fast gaming experience is also supported by a six-axis motion sensing gyroscope, essential for high-precision gaming so actions and animations are more correctly performed.”

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Many schools abandon Microsoft Office for Google Apps to save money; Google Docs added 100 new features in 2011

E. Betters


Google Apps is a Google service that features several Web applications similar to traditional office suites. The services vary per edition but generally include Docs, Gmail, Calendar, Talk, Sites, Groups, Video, and Marketplace. Its popularity among students and educational institutions is rapidly increasing due to enhanced sharing features, accessibility and cost.

Google Apps for Education is just one edition that offers 25 GB of storage space per user for free through K-12 schools, colleges, and universities with up to 30,000 users. Forty-million active users currently use Google Apps, and according to US News & World Report, 61 of the Top 100 schools have switched to the educational service.

“Google Apps offers simple, powerful communication and collaboration tools for educational institutions of any size – all hosted by Google to minimize maintenance and reduce IT costs,” said Google Apps for Education on its website. “Google Apps is provided to educational institutions at no charge, and is hosted on the same enterprise-class infrastructure used by corporate and government customers.”

UC Berkeley announced Dec. 21 that they planned to make Google Apps for Education their new campus calendar and email system. “Operation Excellence” is a cost cutting initiative designed by the university to save $75 million annually. UC Berkeley currently offers their campus faculty, students and staff access to Microsoft software and Adobe Creative Suite free of charge. However, campus officials agreed to convert to Google Apps for Education in January 2012.

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Dropbox releases v2.0 Android app with ICS support; Offers whopping 500MB more space to students

E. Betters

(Image via The Dropbox Blog.)

The Dropbox Blog announced version 2.0 of its Android application Thursday. The free service lets users bring photographs, documents, and videos anywhere and share them easily, and now it completely redesigned its Android app while including many new features.

“Want to make sure a file is always on your phone?” asked Dropbox in a statement on its blog, regarding the service’s new Favorites feature. “Star it for quick offline access.”

Bulk upload is another highlight in the newly updated app. Users can “select multiple photos and videos to be uploaded in the background,” according to the service’s press release.

File renaming allows  -like it sounds- users to rename files and folders. Single-tap access lets users access any file or folder with a single tap. Moreover,  improved gallery view and exportation from local storage and stability improvements were all revealed as new features within the update.

The app also showcases Ice Cream Sandwich support, as it is “optimized for the newest and tastiest Android release yet.” Numerous bugs were also corrected in the second version.

Continue reading for more information on how to obtain complimentary storage space as a student. 

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Google Music celebrates the holidays with 100 songs for 25 cents and $3.99 albums

Jordan Kahn

To get you in the Christmas spirit and celebrate the holiday season, Google Music is offering 100 classic holiday songs for 25 cents each and a selection of 25 albums for $3.99. The offerings are wide ranging from Coldplay, to Nat King Cole, to Snoop Dogg and Weezer. In addition to classical, classic, and modern Christmas songs, there is also a “Bah Humbug” playlist featuring anti-Christmas songs.

Some of the $3.99 albums being offered include- A Charlie Brown Christmas, Andrea Bocelli’s “My Christmas”, A Very She & Him Christmas by She & Him, The Spirit of Christmas by Ray Charles, and the Jackson 5′s Ultimate Christmas Collection. 
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Google rolls out 3D maps in Rome, Las Vegas, and other cities across the US and Europe

Jordan Kahn

Last week Google rolled out indoor maps for a number of airports and retailers in Version 6.0 of Google Maps on Android, and now they have just added 3D maps for a bunch more cities in the desktop version of the app. Adding to the 3D map experience already available in select cities throughout the US, Japan, and Europe, Google announced on their Lat Long Blog today that a few more notable cities have been added including Rome, Seville, and Las Vegas.

This brings up the total number of cities with 3D maps to 18 with Foster City, Honolulu, Las Vegas, Norfolk, Palo Alto, Portland, Redwood City, Riverside, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, San Diego, Santa Cruz, and Sunnyvale in the US, and Rome, IT, Rotterdam, NL; Seville, ES; Stuttgart, DE, and Amsterdam, NL in Europe.
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