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ASUS Transformer Prime pre-order page points to December 8th release date
We were expecting ASUS' Eee Pad Transformer Prime to hit the market sometime next month, but a new pre-order page on Newegg may have just revealed a slightly more specific date. Of course, the Tegra 3-packing tablet has already gone up for pre-order on a host of retail sites, but Newegg's listing is the first to peg December 8th for its release. Its $500 price tag also dovetails nicely with what we've previously heard, though ASUS has yet to weigh in with its official word. Interested parties can grab a piece of the Prime at the source link, below. [Thanks, Nivin]
MMObility: More mobile news and new titles
Another week, another batch of news for the mobile set. The mobile market, especially for tablets and smartphones, can be slow with the news. It's not that there isn't anything coming in; it just doesn't flow like a geyser like, say, browser-based MMOs do. When it does pop up, though, it tends to be some really good stuff. The mobile market is still so young, but it is growing up fast. The tech is becoming cheaper, faster and easier to come by. It's to the point that when I see a new piece of exciting mobile technology or read an announcement about a new game that pushes all of the mobile platform's boundaries, I can only think of the next wave. It's a sickness. This time I have some unusual up-and-comers and some that have not been released yet. Whatever you prefer, some of them will make your jaw drop. Click past the cut and let's get to it!
NVIDIA's Jen-Hsun Huang: quad-core, Tegra 3 tablets will drop to $299 in a 'couple quarters'
It's inevitable: the "latest and greatest" in tech (whatever that happens to be at the moment) always comes down in price as it makes way for something thinner, faster... better. Still, it's interesting to imagine that happening when a product is still basking in its glory days. That's exactly what what we're going to see with NVIDIA's new quad-core Tegra 3 chip, according to NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang. Over lunch today with a few tech journalists, he said he expects Tegra 3 tablets to plummet to $299 in just "a couple quarters." That's pretty incredible when you remember the Transformer Prime hasn't even gone on sale yet, and when it does it'll cost $500 -- a reasonable price in its own right when you stack it up against the aging iPad 2. So it's a bit dizzying to imagine 2012 ushering in a crop of high-end Honeycomb (or even ICS) tablets that cost just a little more than the Nook Tablet currently does. We'll be curious to see how such pricing might pressure the likes of Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Apple, but regardless, something tells us lots of you won't wait six months to get your hands on a half-price Prime.
ASUS' Origami-like Transformer Prime Smart Cover hits Amazon, sporting luxurious folds
The Eee Pad Transformer Prime has yet to start shipping, but when it does, you'll be able to wrap it up in this specialized Smart Cover, from ASUS. Spotted on Amazon's German site, this Origami-like accessory will prop up your Prime in either a vertical or horizontal lying position, much like some of those other "intelligent" covers we've seen. The folds look decidedly ornate, but we'll have to wait a little longer before trying it out for ourselves. It's available now for €39 (about $53), though at the time of this writing, it's also out of stock. %Gallery-139723%
Acer A700 and A701 tabs leak on support site, sporting Tegra 3 and full HD displays
Don't think that ASUS is going to be having all of the Tegra 3 fun by itself, Acer appears to have a pair of Iconia-branded tabs on the way also sporting NVIDIA's quad-core mobile chip. The A700 and A701 are showing up as hardware profiles over at the company's support site. The XML file doesn't give away too much in the specs department, but it does list the devices as having a screen size of 1920 x 1200. Seriously! We're talking about a panel of higher res than your 42-inch TV shrunk down to a portable device. The screen's physical dimensions aren't specified, but we imagine this is at least a 10-inch slate (otherwise, you're gonna be doing a lot of squinting). When exactly the WiFi-only A700 and GSM-equipped A701 might ship is anyone's guess, but it looks like they'll be doing so with Honeycomb instead of Android 4.0.
Exclusive: Lenovo to release a 10.1-inch Ice Cream Sandwich tablet with 1.6GHz Tegra 3 by year's end
You wouldn't think a giant like Lenovo would stop at just three (or four) Android tablets now, would you? In fact, a little birdie has informed us that said Chinese company will release a new 10.1-inch tablet by the end of the year, and unsurprisingly, Ice Cream Sandwich along with NVIDIA's Tegra 3 T33 are on the menu. Other features include 2GB of speedy 1,600MHz DDR3 RAM, a standard USB host socket (covered by a not-so-elegant pop-out flap), a back-facing camera of unknown resolution, a "Special Fusion-Skin Body" and, most interestingly, a fingerprint scanner that apparently doubles as an optical joystick on the seemingly flat backside -- only time will tell whether this layout makes sense. Our source hasn't spilled any info on the dimensions and weight, but judging by the photos in our gallery, this 1.6GHz quad-core slate should be significantly thinner than the IdeaPad K1 or LePad sitting underneath. As always, you'll hear from us as soon as we find out more. [Thanks, Anonymous] %Gallery-139296%
NVIDIA reports Q3 earnings: $1.07 billion in revenue, $178.3 million in net income
Just yesterday, ASUS announced the first-ever quad-core tablet, packing NVIDIA's Tegra 3 SoC, and now the chipmaker is making an announcement of its own. It may be a slightly less exciting reveal, but NVIDIA's just taken the wraps off of its Q3 earnings, and it appears things are looking up -- revenue is up 4.9 percent over last quarter to $1.07 billion from $1.02 billion and up 26.3 percent from last year. The company also reported an increase in net income, raking in $178.3 million for Q3 2011, up from $151.6 million last quarter and $84.9 million last year. The company's CEO, Jen-Hsun Huang, unsurprisingly attributed the growth to the mobile market as well as the outfit's GPU business, and continued to boast of future good times, riding the quad-core wave. For more details, check the full PR after the break.
ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime: 10-inch Super IPS+ display, 12-hour battery and quad-core Tegra 3, ships in December for $499
For three weeks now, Android fans have been fidgeting impatiently. Specifically, ever since ASUS chairman Jonney Shih took the stage at last month's AsiaD conference and teased the next-gen Transformer tablet. Though he only gave us a quick glimpse, he recited a laundry list of specs: a 10.1-inch display, 8.3mm-thick body, mini-HDMI output, microSD slot and an update to Ice Cream Sandwich by the end of the year, if not sooner. Not to mention, it'll pack NVIDIA's hot-off-the-presses Tegra 3 SoC, making it the first-ever quad-core tablet. We knew this: we'd learn more on November 9th. Well, that day has come, and so have the juicy details. We just got word that the tablet will go on sale worldwide in December, starting at $499 with a beefy 32GB of storage, moving up to $599 for a 64GB model. (That signature keyboard dock you see up there will cost $149.) In addition to those basic specs Mr. Shih revealed last month, we now know this has a 1280 x 800, Super IPS+ Gorilla Glass display with a 178-degree viewing angle and a max brightness of 600 nits. It also packs 1GB of RAM, GPS, a gyroscope, SonicMaster audio and a 1.2 megapixel front-facing camera. Rounding out the list is an 8MP shooter with an auto-focusing f/2.4 lens and a back-illuminated CMOS sensor that captures 1080p video. Touch-to-focus is also an option here, and ASUS claims a 30 percent boost in color enhancement over competing tabs. As for battery life, we initially heard reports of 14.5-hour runtime, but ASUS is now saying the tablet alone can squeeze out 12 hours thanks to a 22Wh battery, and that the dock will add an additional six hours of juice. In addition, the slimmed-down, 1.2-pound dock brings all the other benefits the last-gen model offered, including a touchpad, USB 2.0 port and full-sized SD slot. Software-wise, it'll ship with Android 3.2 and apps such as SuperNote and Polaris Office, and we're told we'll learn more about that ICS update in "early December." In terms of design, you may have already noticed the Prime sports the same spun aluminum digs as the company's Zenbooks, though this is the first time we're seeing clear, close-up shots of it -- and in two colors, no less! At 8.3mm (0.33 inches) thick and 586 grams (1.29 pounds) without the dock, it's a smidge skinnier than the iPad 2 and Galaxy Tab 10.1, which means, unsurprisingly, that your old Transformer dock won't be compatible. Finally, ASUS coated both the display and metal cover with a hydro-oleophobic coating that makes it more fingerprint-resistant. For now, we've got photos below and if you can wait a few more weeks, we'll most definitely be putting this thing through its paces in a full review. And if you're looking for something a little less expensive, well, the original Transformer should be getting Ice Cream Sandwich soon, and we wouldn't be surprised if Santa brought a few holiday rebates. %Gallery-138833%
NVIDIA says Tegra 3 is a 'PC-class CPU,' has screenshots to prove it
Asus can't be absorbing all those limelight photons today. Not when its freshly detailed Transformer Prime depends so heavily on NVIDIA's special sauce. Admittedly, we already know a lot about Tegra 3 from its Kal-El days, but we haven't seen much in the way of real-world performance claims. Until now, that is. Below you'll see newly released screenshots of Android games that have been souped-up to capitalize on the imminent Asus Eee Pad as well as other Tegra 3-powered devices -- including smartphones -- that are expected early next year. NVIDIA has also put out slides containing in-house benchmarks and head-to-head comparisons with the Tegra 2, which you'll find right after the break. %Gallery-138769%
HTC Edge may be the first quad-core smartphone to market
Color us skeptical on this one, but rumors are coming down the pipeline about an HTC phone called the Edge. It's supposedly going to be the first Tegra 3-powered smartphone. According to Pocketnow, the device will supposedly offer a quad-core 1.5GHz CPU, 4.7-inch 720p HD display, 1GB of RAM, an 8MP rear camera with f/2.2 lens and Beats Audio. Curiously, no LTE capability was mentioned specifically, though 21Mbps HSPA+ appears to be good to go, and there's a slight possibility of Sense 4.0 being included -- which given its proposed launch window of late Q1 / early Q2 2012, wouldn't be a huge surprise. We'd love to start seeing more quad-core goodness headed our way, so we're definitely keeping our fingers crossed to see a lot more of the above show up at CES and MWC.
Transformer Prime gets mysteriously and imperiously benchmarked
We're getting restless waiting for the Transformer Prime, which is why we'll cling to the meagerest gossip about its performance. Speaking of which, a couple of Asus Eee Pad TF201 devices have cropped up on the AnTuTu benchmarking app, parading scores that apparently crown them lords of the Android mountain. The graph shows a standard 1.4GHz tablet, but the highest result actually purports to come from a Transformer Prime clocked at 1.6GHz, which achieved 12872. By comparison, the top Transformer TF101 score is just 7596. Benchmarks are hard to verify and even harder to translate into real-world talent, but at least our Kal-El hunger has been sated for a while. Nope, there it is again. [Thanks, Timlot]
ASUS Transformer Prime, disassembled: NVIDIA's quad-core Tegra 3 sees daylight
While the FCC already had its wicked way with ASUS' Transformer Prime, its intimate inner workings have now been spilled over at Wireless Goodness. Nestled between NAND memory from Hynix and some Elpida RAM is NVIDIA's great tablet hope, its new quad-core chip. The full gallery of shots has disappeared from the FCC site, but silicon fans can still check out the chipboards in full glory at the source link below.
ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime arrives at the FCC, we feign surprise
You've seen it in the wild and even in the hands of ASUS honcho Jonney Shih at AsiaD. Now the tablet set to continue the Eee Pad Transformer's legacy has reared its 10-inch face at the FCC. Considering the Prime's leaked November 9th launch date, it's no shock to see the tablet now surfacing at the Commission with confidentiality agreements in tow. Most of the slate's internal goods are hidden behind that wall of secrecy, but we can confirm the de rigeur presence of WiFi and Bluetooth capabilities. Shih's already dished out some of this quad-core tab's specs, so we know to expect a mini-HDMI port, 14.5-hour battery, SD card slot and a destined Ice Cream Sandwich OS. The only remaining question is whether this second coming will pack any wireless operator-friendly frequencies. We'll keep you posted on any new developments, but in the meantime, feel free to traverse the spectrum tests at the source.
ASUS' Eee Pad plans: Transformer Prime landing November 9th, two Win 8 tablets coming in 2012
The Transformer Prime, with its quad-core silicon and tasty OS, has rightfully garnered much attention lately. A PowerPoint deck detailing ASUS' Q3 earnings now gives us a peek at its Eee Pad strategy -- confirming the aforementioned Prime's November 9th release date, while also promising two more bot-powered slates in the first quarter of 2012. Of course, ASUS isn't putting all of its eggs in the Android basket, as the same slide reveals that the Taiwanese firm will be getting its first two Windows 8 tablets to market by this time next year. So it seems that there will be an Eee Pad for all, whether you're from Redmond or Mountain View. No need to shove, fellas, there's room at ASUS' tablet table for everybody.
ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime shots leak out, apes the Tao of Zenbook design
Who's ready for a little gadget pr0n? ASUS head honcho Jonney Shih gave AsiaD attendees a first peek at the Transformer's successor just last week. Apart from that distant, dais-based reveal, we now have in the wild shots of the tab to focus our tech lust on. The leaked images, which have since been pulled from the Chinese site that hosted them, show off several angles of the quad-core Prime, its Zenbook-like aluminum finish and accompanying dock. Unfortunately, the lone lockscreen shot on offer's not giving us any taste of the potential Ice Cream Sandwich OS lurking beneath. Hungry for the full tablet spread? Then hit up the source below to get your gawking a-go-go.
Transformer Prime gets official landing page, shows mostly bezel
After getting its first showing at AsiaD, we know ASUS' Transformer sequel is super thin, powered by NVIDIA's quad-core Tegra 3 chip and coming soon. And now we really know it, because the Transformer Prime has been gifted an official landing page, along with a requisite shadowy product shot. There's no trace of the original's mocha hues, which have been replaced with something brighter, and we think it looks mightily enticing. Those with a similar fetish for modular tablets can ensure they're up-to-date by bookmarking the source link below.
NVIDIA's Jen-Hsun Huang: Windows on ARM should hit tablets first, battling Intel is a bad idea, would love his chips in iPad
NVIDIA's founder and president Jen-Hsun Huang has never been one to dodge a question, and that made for an excellent closing interview here at AsiaD. Outside of (re)confirming what lies ahead for Tegra, he also spoke quite openly about his feeling towards Windows on ARM in response to a question from Joanna Stern. Here's the bulk of his reply: "It's important for [Microsoft] not to position these as PCs. From a finesse perspective -- I can't speak on their behalf -- but I would come out with tablets first with Windows on ARM. It helps to establish that this isn't a PC. Will yesterday's Office run on tomorrow's Windows on ARM PC? Will a new version of Office run on tomorrow's Windows on ARM tablets? Both questions are about legacy, and both are about Office. The actual implementation of it is radically different. I see no reason to make Office 95 to run on Windows on ARM. I think it would be wonderful, absolutely wonderful -- I'd say, as someone who uses Windows -- it would be almost a requirement to me that [the ARM] device runs Windows interoperably. If Office runs on Windows on ARM -- it's the killer app. Everything else is on the web." He elaborated to say that he would hope Office for Windows on ARM would support the same files that today's Office does, much the same way that Office for Mac eventually synced up with its Windows-based sibling. For more from Huang's interview, hop on past the break!
NVIDIA CEO confirms Tegra roadmap, building all now: Kal-El, Wayne, Logan, Stark
NVIDIA's historically outspoken CEO, Mr. Jen-Hsun Huang, just took the stage here at AsiaD, and among other things, he confirmed to Walt that the Tegra roadmap is well established, and in fact, the entire next-gen range is being produced (internally, of course) right now. That's Kal-El, Wayne, Logan and Stark, all codenamed after superheroes -- Superman, Batman, Wolverine and Ironman, in order of mention. In response to a question of if ASUS' Transformer Prime would be "the first Tegra 3-based product," Huang simply answered "probably." He continued by explaining that it generally takes around three years to build a new generation of Tegra: "We'd like to have a processor every year, and so we're building three in a row." Tegra 3 will end up being the world's first quad-core ARM processor (much like the Tegra 2 was the first dual-core), and he confirmed that NVIDIA has invested some $2 billion in Tegra alone. Finally, he confirmed that the inner workings we've heard about in Project Denver will first be present in the Tegra line with the introduction of Stark -- a long ways out, but at least you've got something (else) to look forward to.
ARM unveils Cortex-A7 processor, 'big.LITTLE' computing
Fancy a glimpse of the future? That little psychedelic beauty on the right is ARM's brand new Cortex-A7 processor. Its spec sheet might not seem so colorful at first glance, because it doesn't really do things any faster than existing high-end smartphone processors. However, this UK-based chip designer isn't known for bumping its gums, so it pays to look a little deeper. For a start, the Cortex-A7 is built using a 28nm process that makes it five times smaller and more efficient than the current-gen Cortex-A8. It's also cheap enough to power sub-$100 handsets, so we could be pulling GSII-like tricks on budget phones within a couple of years. Is that it? Nope, there's more: perhaps the most important feature of the A7 is that it can be combined with much higher-power cores like the Cortex-A15 side-by-side on the same chip. This allows a super-phone or tablet to switch between two totally different processing units depending on how much power is needed at the time. ARM calls this "Big.LITTLE" computing," and a similar concept is already in use on NVIDIA's Tegra 3 (aka Kal-El) SoC, which we'll see imminently in the next Asus Transformer. However, the Tegra 3 uses five identical Cortex-A9 cores, whereas a device that mix-and-matches the A15 and A7 could potentially deliver higher highs and lower lows, giving you speed when you need it and amazing battery life when you don't. How cute is that? Full PR after the break.
ASUS' Jonney Shih unveils Transformer Prime Android tablet: 10-inch, 8.3mm, quad-core NVIDIA Tegra 3
Whoa, Nelly! ASUS head honcho Jonney Shih just revealed the "next-generation Transformer tablet" here at AsiaD! It's the same one that we saw teased just yesterday, and Jonney affirmed that it'll ship with a quad-core NVIDIA chip, 10-inch display, mini-HDMI port, a 14.5-hour battery, an SD card slot and a top lid that looks precisely like its Zenbook line. Oh, and it's 8.3mm thick, though Jonney didn't specify as to whether that was docked or undocked (we're guessing the former!). Naturally, it'll ship with Android, and we're assuming it'll be Honeycomb to start. That said, Shih did affirm to Walt Mossberg that he expects Ice Cream Sandwich to hit tablets by the end of the year -- "perhaps earlier." Finally, we were informed that it'll be called the Transformer Prime, and while a final ship date wasn't given, we're told to expect more news on that front during the November 9th "official reveal." %Gallery-137055%
