ASUS Transformer Prime receives new OTA update

If you own an ASUS Transformer Prime tablet, look out for a new OTA update that is being delivered to the Android device today. Apparently the update brings the tablet up to version 9.4.2.13, kernel version 2.6.39.4 and WiFi to version 6.1.1.18 and Bluetooth to 9.26. The update is said to fix previously reported problems that were plaguing the Transformer Prime in the past: random reboots, screen flickering, and apps crashing. The new update also improves the speed of WiFi, but it does break root access - for those of you that have it on your tablet. The update should be rolling out now for everyone in the US, but if you haven't received the notification yet, go to Settings > About Tablet > System Firmware update to manually request it. Let us know how the update goes for you.

Toshiba's AT200 (Excite 10) Android tablet released in the UK

Announced for the US market under the name of Excite 10, the Toshiba AT200 is now available in the UK, where Carphone Warehouse has started selling two versions of it. The British retailer is offering the AT200 16GB for £399 (about $631), and the AT200 32GB for £449 (about $710). A bit pricey, I'd say. Anyway, you can buy the tablets only online (here) for now - but starting February 15 Carphone Warehouse's physical shops will have it, too. At just 7.7mm, the Toshiba AT200 is considered the thinnest tablet in the world. Its features include a 10.1 inch LED-backlit display with 1280 x 800 pixels, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, A-GPS, HDMI, 1.2GHz dual-core TI OMAP processor, 1GB of RAM, HDMI, 5MP rear camera with 720p video recording, and a 2MP front-facing camera. Unfortunately, the A200 is running Android 3.2 Honeycomb. But an update to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich will be available at some point. In the US, prices for the Toshiba AT200 / Excite 100 will start at $529.99.

Netbook Navigator tablet runs on Windows 7

The tablet market is more or less dominated by just two operating systems – Android of Google and iOS from Apple's stable, but it seems as though Microsoft still has an extremely small voice in this niche (a squeak, actually), with their Windows 7 platform, although Windows 8 might just change the landscape altogether. It will take a whole lot of convincing from Microsoft to developers to support a Windows-powered tablet. Still, we shall take a closer look at what Microsoft has in store with Netbook Navigator's Windows 7 (choose from Home Premium, Professional or Ultimate versions) powered tablet. Running on an Intel Atom N570 1.66GHz dual-core processor with a base price of $499.99 (sans operating system), you will also find it equipped with a 10.1″ display at 1366 x 768 resolution, 2GB RAM, a 16GB solid state disk, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1 connectivity, a 1.3-megapixel front facing camera, two USB ports, a microSD memory card slot, a SIM card slot, a 3-cell battery and stereo speakers, with the possibility of throwing more dough in this direction to up the ante to 128GB of storage space and 3G connectivity.

Google launches Chrome browser for Android smartphones and tablets

Google on Tuesday announced the first beta release of its Chrome Web browser for Android-powered smartphones and tablets. The firm's native Web browser is certainly among the better mobile Web browsers on the market, but with Chrome, Google is focused on aligning its mobile browsing experience more closely with its desktop browser. “Like the desktop version, Chrome for Android Beta is focused on speed and simplicity, but it also features seamless sign-in and sync so you can take your personalized web browsing experience with you wherever you go, across devices,” Sundar Pichai, Google's SVP of Chrome and Apps, wrote in a post on the company's blog. Chrome for Android is available immediately as a free download in the Android Market and it is compatible with smartphones and tablets running Android 4.0 or later.

7-inch ZTE Optik tablet now available at Sprint for $99.99

Sprint has a new affordable Android tablet in its lineup ready to be ordered. After being officially announced a few days ago, the ZTE Optik is now up for grabs at the Now Network. The ZTE Optik has a 7-inch touchscreen, a dual-core 1.2 GHz processor, 1 GB of RAM, 16 GB of built-in storage space, a 5 MP rear camera, a 2 MP front-facing camera, microSD card support, Wi-Fi, 3G, Bluetooth, GPS, and a 4,000 mAh battery. It runs Android 3.2 Honeycomb.

Fujitsu unleash a new 7' Android Tablet in Japan

Fujitsu announced last Friday its latest Stylistic Tablet, with the M350/CA2. This Android 2.3 tablet comes with a 7" screen and a 1024×600 resolution, 8GB of internal memory, a Freescale i.MX 53 CPU at 1GHz, 512MB of RAM, a 1.3Mpix Front Camera/ 5Mpix Rear Camera, WiFi BGN, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR for a total weight of 420g, a 16h battery life and announced at around 34,800 Yen!

CyanogenMod 7 NOOK tablet

If you own the NOOK tablet and want to see how it performs with CyanogenMod 7 (CM7) runs on it (compared to how CyanogenMod 7 on the Kindle Fire is), then you might want to check out the video above. While a number of heavy hitting bugs are still crawling around this built, the developers behind it are still working on ironing out the kinks, and we do know that when everything is declared to be hunky dory, two roads are available to install CM7 on your beloved NOOK tablet – that is through the NOOK's internal storage, or to a bootable SD card. Those who take the first route will see the erasure of software that ships with the tablet, but good thing you are still able to (and recommended, of course) perform a backup of your device before installing CyanogenMod 7 in order to revert to the default settings at any time. As for the others who prefer to get CM7 hit on their NOOK tablet with a microSD memory card, you will gain the ability to boot it up directly from the memory card itself without having to touch the default software. I like the second option better – how about you? Just what kind of advantages that CM7 has over the default Barnes & Noble software that might cause you to venture an install? For starters, you will gain access to nearly 12GB of storage space for apps and file storage, out-of-the-box support for the Android Market, the ability to enjoy any third party keyboard application, and voice input support among others.

Huawei's MediaPad available at AT&T today

It's cheap tablet season in the USA, apparently. Yesterday Sprint officially announced the $99 ZTE Optik, and today it's AT&T's turn to start offering an affordable Android-powered tablet it seems, although it's a different one. After having made its way to T-Mobile where it's sold as the Springboard, the Huawei MediaPad (the world's first tablet to run Android 3.2 Honeycomb, if that matters to anyone anymore) should become available for AT&T business customers today. Unfortunately the Chinese company didn't bother to say anything about pricing, so we'll have to wait and see. Anyway, for business customers, pricing usually varies according to the account, so hopefully when the MediaPad will be out for consumers we'll find out more.

New Asus TF300T tablet gets leaked

Apparently Asus feels like there's room for another tablet in its lineup. That's because a new, previously unseen and unheard of Asus tablet (presumably running Android) has showed up on the Internet. Its model number is TF300T, the pictures below show you what it looks like, and that's really all we know about it. So let's speculate based on that model number. The Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime has the model number TF201, and the recently unveiled revamped edition of that tablet (with fixes for connectivity issues through a redesigned back plate and with a higher-res screen) has the model number TF700T. Now this newly leaked gadget obviously stands somewhere in between those two, at least in Asus' vision. Then again, the company's model numbers don't make much sense. The TF700T is basically just a minor revision of the TF201, so why the huge jump in number there? TF202, or even TF201T (since the original lacks that final “T” anyway) would have made a lot more sense. So the TF300T could be anything. It could be a lower-end companion to the two Primes, which is something that makes sense from a business perspective. Or it may be something else entirely. Sadly, the only thing we can do is wait and see.

Kindle 3 Keyboard 3G Network International Coverage – US versus The Rest of the World

Amazon Kindle 3G-The Perfect Travel Companion US Kindle 3 3G Coverage I went to Amazon.com to look at the 3G coverage map. Huh? No 3G coverage in Vietnam? Had I slurped back too much Pho, or had the sun addled my brain, or was it just like an episode of Dallas and it was all a dream? Then I remembered there's actually two versions of the 3G Kindle , a US one that is only available in the US and uses an ATT sim card and also an International model that uses a Vodafone sim card.  Now, Australia being NOT being part of the US meant I had an international model. So I went to Amazon.co.uk and check the Vodaphone 3G coverage map there. Intl Kindle 3 3G Coverage So you can see while the US (ATT) Kindle 3 offers ZERO 3G coverage in Vietnam, the International version (Voda) gives almost full 3G coverage. US Kindle 3 3G Coverage Intl Kindle 3 3G Coverage Tasmania US v Intl 3G Coverage For interest sake I then had a look at Australian coverage.  I live in Tasmania, that little island just underneath Victoria, but couldn't get my screenshot to include in the map above, so I added separately. (We hate being left off the map of Australia ).  You can see  that there's dramatically different coverage between the International and the US Kindle 3 3G . Looking at the maps above, in reality I'd be much better off with a US Kindle 3 3G than the International model. Vodafone has notoriously bad coverage in Australia, and it's a bit ironic that a US Kindle would give me better coverage than an “International” version.  But of course if I had a US model, I'd have NO coverage while in Vietnam. A quick comparison of the maps shows some obvious areas where coverage is different, Morocco (I), Namibia(I), Cote D'Ivoire(I), Belarus(I), Malawi(I),Ecuador(U), Tanzania(U) and Bolivia(U) amongst others, and the degree of difference in coverage varies. I'm guessing that this “anomoly”  has to do with the partners that the respective Telcos have in the different countries. The long and short, if you're intending to use your Kindle while travelling, it's worth checking out if the US or International will give you the best coverage in the countries that you're going to visit. Be aware though that it's not possible to get a US Kindle 3G directly from Amazon internationally and conversely an International Kindle 3G in the US, but there are ways of doing it. Happy travelling