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Huawei gives October shipping date for MediaPad in Malaysia, US and China by year's end
Been wondering when you were gonna get a chance to smear fingerprints all over 7-inches of Android 3.2, courtesy of Huawei's MediaPad? Well, if you happen to live in Malaysia, it should be by the middle of October. The rest of you shouldn't fret though -- the company plans to have it on shelves in the US, China, Hong Kong and Thailand before the end of the year. Meanwhile, folks in Singapore can already place pre-orders for $598 SGD, roughly $473 USD. It's a bit later than the Q3 ship date we were originally told but, as they say, better late than never. Though, we're more apt to cry "gimme, gimme, gimme."
Android 3.2 shipping this summer for 7-inch tablets, Huawei's MediaPad gets handled
We knew that Android 3.2 was little more than a tailor-made edition of Android 3.1 for 7-inch slates, but even after speaking with Huawei, we weren't exactly sure when it would be rolling out to things other than its own MediaPad. Our pals over at This is my next managed to confirm that it'll be landing as early as this summer, and for better or worse, it'll be the last major Android release prior to Ice Cream Sandwich hitting retail devices in Q4. Moreover, it's bruited that v3.2 will bring support for Qualcomm CPUs as well as NVIDIA's Tegra 2 chipset, which could lead to HTC's Flyer getting an upgrade of its own. As for more current plans, it seems as if the Motorola Xoom -- a slate that was just recently updated to 3.1 -- will see another point increase in the coming weeks, which should give us a solid indication of what to expect software-wise with the MediaPad drops a few months later. Speaking of which, both CNET and M.I.C. Gadget were on-hand in Singapore for a look at the show-floor model of that very tablet, and you can feast your eyes on the pictorial proof down in the source links below.
Huawei teases MediaPad, gives its other tablets a complex
Huawei stopped just short of using the word "magical" when it sent out a note teasing its forthcoming MediaPad tablet (it's probably for the best, we're told some other company has that market cornered). The Shenzhen-based manufacturer did promise a device "guaranteed to transform" your entertainment experience, however -- hyperbole that's not particularly surprising for a company with a propensity for spicing up public statements with quotes from our 16th president. Not a heck of a lot to announce in the spec department, aside from this being Huawei's "smartest" and smallest tablet -- and certainly it does seem pint-sized in the above shot, or else that's a watch face worthy of Flavor Flav. We'll know more when the company webcasts the official announcement on June 20th, ahead of Singapore's CommunicAsia conference. In the meantime, how about an old fashioned Honeycomb upgrade, to keep the S7 Pro's spirits high?
Tegra to hit 'media pads' soon says company man Mike Rayfield
Mike Rayfield, the general manager of NVIDIA's mobile unit, sat down for a lengthy -- if somewhat restrained -- chat with Hexus recently, and he had some fairly interesting things to say about his company's Tegra strategy. The discussion mostly consists of generalities about the roadmap for the high-power, low-weight chipset, but it takes a more interesting turn when Rayfield goes into detail on the types of devices we can expect to see in the near future. At about two minutes into the conversation, there's mention of a "media pad," which prompts some further inquiry from the interviewer. Rayfield goes on to describe the device as a "3G capable touchpad" ranging in size from 7- to 13-inches. Now what's notable about the mention is that back in April reports were flying hot and heavy that Apple was working on a "media pad" device in partnership with Verizon which would "define the damn category." We don't like to wildly speculate, but since Apple and NVIDIA have a healthy history of teaming up on special projects, and since the rumored focus of the mythical Apple tablet is media playback and gaming, we wouldn't rule out a possible connection here. If you want to do your own sleuthing, check out the full video for yourself after the break -- and we recommend a frame-by-frame look at 2:23.
Apple prototyping "iPhone lite" and MacBook Mini / media pad for Verizon?
Hot on the heels of yesterday's reports of Apple and Verizon dealings comes some tantalizing, but still unconfirmed, new details from BusinessWeek. According to the publication, the gang in Cupertino has prototyped two devices for the carrier. The first one is a smaller, less expensive device that's been dubbed as "iPhone lite" by someone who's apparently seen it in person. The other is called a "media pad" (Joggler, anyone?) for music, photos, HD video, and placing calls over WiFi. Details are scant beyond that, and while that pad sounds a lot like an iPod touch to us, we can't help but wonder if it has something to do with those 10-inch displays that Quanta's rumored to be manufacturing. Don't put too much stock into this, as the reports could end up being all for naught, but one thing's for sure: you can bet the suits at AT&T are keeping a very, very close eye on this. In other, even sketchier and likely unrelated rumors, a listing for "MacBookMini" has popped up in Adium's statistics. While we wouldn't normally think anything of this -- as TUAW correctly notes, anyone can edit their computer IDs -- it was from these pages that we first heard the name MacBook Air. Chances are this is nothing, but with all this talk of 10-inch screens and media pads, it kind of makes you wonder. [Via TUAW; image courtesy of Frunny]Read - BusinessWeekRead - Adium stats