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Refresh Roundup: week of August 6th, 2012
Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging for an update. From time to time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are floating around that it's easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the mix. To make sure they don't escape without notice, we've gathered every possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery we could find during the last week and crammed them into one convenient roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy!
Refresh Roundup: week of June 18th, 2012
Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging for an update. From time to time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are floating around that it's easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the mix. To make sure they don't escape without notice, we've gathered every possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery we could find during the last week and crammed them into one convenient roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy!
Refresh Roundup: week of February 27th, 2012
Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging for an update. From time to time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are floating around that it's easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the mix. To make sure they don't escape without notice, we've gathered every possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery we could find during the last week and crammed them into one convenient roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy!
Refresh Roundup: week of February 20th, 2012
Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging for an update. From time to time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are floating around that it's easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the mix. To make sure they don't escape without notice, we've gathered every possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery we could find during the last week and crammed them into one convenient roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy!
Toshiba Thrive 7-inch slate officially drops tomorrow, December 11th
Just in time for you to get your holiday shopping wrapped up early, the Toshiba Thrive 7-inch tablet will officially go on sale tomorrow, December 11th. Sneaking in before the early December reports that we'd heard pass, the slate will allow you snag a piece of Honeycomb and a NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor for "less than $400." While you're deciding between the 16GB and 32GB options, go on and bookmark that source link so you can be quick on the trigger in a matter of hours.
Toshiba's 7-inch Thrive goes on sale a little early, insists it is very much alive
Just because haven't heard a peep from Toshiba about its smaller 7-inch slate since September, doesn't mean you can't find it on sale out there in the vast ether we like to call the internet. Discovered by a tipster shrewd enough to Google its model number -- "pda03u-005007" for those of you that don't speak Toshiba -- a bunch of oh-so-eager retailers are ready to trade you around $450 in exchange for the rubberized slate. Jiving with previous plans to go on sale in "early December," the 7-inch redux is thinner and lighter than its 10-inch brother, as it eschews the former's penchant for full-size USB and HDMI ports. Adventurous types seeking to meet the tablet can take the plunge at the links below, but be forewarned our tipster had to provide a business license just to complete the sale. Your mileage may vary, though there's always the option to await the Thrive's arrival through more official channels. [Thanks, Kenneth]
Toshiba's rumored ultra-thin tablet plays peek-a-boo at IFA?
Well, would you look at that? It appears someone just can't manage to stay out of our field of vision. The shot you see above is apparently the same ultra-thin tablet we ran across two days ago in what appeared to be leaked renders. Now, it's reportedly peeking out of a booth at IFA. From what we (and now you) can see, it's running Android and sporting a front facing camera. Rumor has it, the slate will also carry a TI OMAP4460 dual-core 1.5GHz processor, micro-USB, micro HDMI and microSD slots. Of course, we'll just have to wait see if things shake out, but we'll be here at IFA trying our damndest to get this skinny sucker to come out of hiding.
Toshiba Thrive to land in UK September 1st, now known as the AT100
If you're a loyal citizen of the UK anxiously awaiting a Toshiba Thrive, your sleepless nights are nearly over. The less-than-slender tablet, rebranded as the AT100, will hit the United Kingdom on September 1st. Like its American cousin, it will ship with Android 3.1 and a 1GHz Nvidia Tegra 2 processor -- not to mention all those ports: full-size HDMI and USB, along with an SD slot. Of course, with those rumors of a thinner Toshiba tablet swirling around, you may want to hold off on buying. There's no official word on pricing yet, though you won't have to wait long to find out.
Will Toshiba's next tablet be named the Excite? Trademark filings suggest so
Yesterday, we caught wind of a rumor that Toshiba would be unveiling a new, ultra-thin tablet at this year's IFA. Today, word on the street is that the company's forthcoming slate may be called the "Excite." According to US Trademark filings obtained by Android Police, Toshiba has apparently registered the purported product name under the category "Tablet Computers." The manufacturer has also snatched up a whole host of domain names, including "excitetablet.com," "toshibaexcite.com," and "thetoshibaexcite.com" -- all of which currently redirect to a Toshiba site. As you may recall, remarkably similar evidence surfaced right before the Thrive launched, so recent history certainly lends a bit of credence to today's report. As always, we'll be sure to keep you abreast of the latest developments.
Toshiba rumored to be announcing ultra-thin tablet at IFA after chunky Thrive did anything but
With a tablet market dominated by the svelte iPad 2, a device with a "chunky design" isn't bound to Thrive. According to Notebook Italia, Toshiba's expected to announce a new ultra-thin tablet at IFA this week, swapping full-size USB and HDMI ports for micro-USB, micro HDMI, and microSD slots in order to shave off a few millimeters from last year's model, leaving the new device with a sleeker, much more appealing design. The rumored slate is expected to ship with a TI OMAP4460 dual-core 1.5GHz processor, an edge-to-edge screen, and a brushed-metal housing. Other specs, including Android version and screen size are a bit thin at this point, but we should have only a few more days to wait before Toshiba's new tab makes its glorious IFA debut in Berlin. [Thanks, Marco]
Toshiba rolls out fix for Thrive tablet's sleep problems
Toshiba promised that a fix for its Thrive tablet's pesky resume-from-sleep mode issue was coming this week, and the company's now let us know that the remedy has indeed rolled out today. Thrive owners can download the update simply by opening up the Toshiba Service Station app on the tablet -- if only all sleep problems were cured so easily. As mentioned earlier, the update also apparently enhances the "multimedia playback capabilities of the device," although it's still not clear exactly what those enhancements entail.
Toshiba promises cure for Thrive's sleep disorder 'early next week'
In the wee hours of the morning, a not-so-little green pheasant flapped through our open window and disturbed our dreams with an official message from Toshiba: the company has developed a fix for the Thrive tablet's sleep addiction and will release it "early next week" via the Service Station app. The red-faced birdie also told us that the update will improve the device's "multimedia playback capabilities," although it didn't tell us how. Good news, to be sure, but now we'll need an afternoon siesta to make up for it.
Toshiba Thrive review
This isn't the first time Toshiba has showed up fashionably late to a party. Back in 2009, long after most every other consumer electronics maker big and small had jumped on the netbook bandwagon, the company belatedly released its first mini, the NB205. And it was fantastic. So we were optimistic when the outfit finally got around to releasing the Thrive, its first Android tablet for the US market. Surely, we thought, it's learned a thing or two from everybody else's mistakes. And in that regard, at least, this 10-inch tablet doesn't disappoint. It has full-sized USB and HDMI ports, an SD card slot, and a removable battery -- all features you'd sooner find on a laptop. It comes with a raft of practical apps already installed, so that you don't have to go hunting for them in Android Market. It's one of the first out of the gate with Android 3.1, an undeniably improved version of Honeycomb. Oh, and it starts at $429, undercutting many of its competitors. Right there, in less than a paragraph, we've laid out why you might want this over any of the other umpteen tabs crowding the market. But should you get one? Well, folks, we'll need more than a paragraph to tackle that. Join us after the break, won't you? %Gallery-128500%
Toshiba acknowledges Thrive's sleep addiction, fix apparently in the works
Has your Thrive been acting more like sleeping beauty, and less like the tablet you paid for? Before embarking on a mythical tale, whereupon you eventually find its more charming compatriot, know help from Toshiba is forthcoming: "We're aware of the issue and are working on a fix." No further details on when it'll land, or what exactly it'll fix, but if you're anything like us, you're just happy it won't end up where another Tosh tablet did -- in eternal slumber.
Toshiba Thrive experiencing sleep / wake / reboot issues? (updated)
Toshiba's Android-powered Thrive just started shipping to end users during the past couple of weeks, but already we're seeing an alarming amount of bug reports crop up over at the outfit's own site. Specifically, legions of users are suggesting that their Thrive is having a whale of a time coming out of Sleep mode without a full, hard reboot, and some are even suggesting that it'll turn on by its lonesome on occasion. Hard to say if this is something that could be remedied via a future firmware update, but here's hoping, right? Let us know if you're seeing the same troubles in comments below -- we haven't seen any of this in the handful of days we've been testing our own, but we'll be sure to report more thoroughly in our upcoming review. Update: We spoke too soon. Although our Thrive review unit behaved just fine at first, we, too, have since found that it's unable to wake from sleep without a hard reboot. In our case, it happened after charging the Thrive overnight, as opposed to letting it sit around unplugged. Since then, Toshiba has acknowledged the problem and promised a fix is on the way, though it's still unclear when, exactly, the company will pull through. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Toshiba Thrive in stock at Newegg and Amazon, is ready to ship free to your door
You'll need to wait until Sunday to get your hands on a Toshiba Thrive at Best Buy, but the Honeycomb slate is ready to head out Newegg's door, with free shipping to boot. $430 nets you an 8GB tablet with two-day shipping, or you can add 30 bucks to get it overnight. That's unlikely to mean tomorrow at this point, but if you play your cards right, you could be sliding through emails a la Swype before the weekend is out. Update: Best Buy has confirmed that the Thrive will be available on July 10th, both in-store and online. Update 2: Looks like it's live on Amazon, too!
Toshiba Thrive tablet on display at Best Buy, possibly on sale too?
Yes, what you're looking at is a shackled Toshiba Thrive tablet out in the wild at Best Buy -- not just waiting caged in a cardboard confine in some dreary stockroom. Though the device most likely won't ship until July 10th, "Dandroid" over at Toshiba Thrive Forums is reporting that his local Austin, Texas location is evidently neglecting that memo. The store apparently has several 16GB and 32GB WiFi models ready to fly off the shelves for $480 and $580, but we won't hold our breath until we see a proper YouTube unboxing. Still, it may be worth a detour on the way home if you're feeling lucky or just can't wait any longer to inspect those full-sized ports.
Toshiba Thrive WiFi tablet hitting Best Buy on July 10th?
Toshiba's Thrive -- the Honeycomb tablet that went so long without a name -- has evidently snagged itself a July 10th street date, according to Best Buy's inventory database. If you'll recall, pre-orders for the 10.1-inch pad got underway June 13th, and though we've long been hearing it would go on sale July 10th, Toshiba has only been giving a loose ETA of mid-July. Our tipster's informed us that their particular location's received "quite a few" 16-giggers in-stock, and they're just waiting to shine under the fluorescent showroom lights. So, it'll still be about a week's time until you can get your paws on one, but in the meantime, scoot past the break and you'll find some Thrive packages in the flesh, er, cardboard. [Thanks, Anonymous]
Toshiba's Regza AT300 tablet for the Japanese market delayed until late July, will ship with Android 3.1
To any of our Japanese readers who've been impatiently awaiting Toshiba's Regza AT300 tablet, you're going to have to hold your breath a touch longer. The 10.1-inch, Japan-only slate is going to miss its expected June arrival, and ship in late July instead. That extra tedious trip to market could be worth it, though: when the AT300 finally does land in Akihabara, it'll come with Android 3.1 and all of its resizable widgets on board. But don't expect any surprises, hardware-wise: it'll still pack Tegra 2, a 5 megapixel rear-facing camera, and those full-sized HDMI and USB ports that can make a nerd's heart sing. Makes sense to us, since the Thrive -- the same tablet for the US market -- was already slated to ship with the latest version of Honeycomb. Fair's fair, right?
Toshiba Thrive pre-order now live, starts at $430 and ends up in your hands in mid-July
As promised, Toshiba is marking June 13th with pre-order availability of its Thrive Android (3.1!) tablet, a device whose life aspiration and name happen to coincide perfectly. This 10-inch Tegra 2 portable has the usual 1280 x 800 resolution, dual cameras (5 megapixel on the back, 2 megapixel up front), a gigabyte of RAM, and a 23WHr battery, but it also brings nice expandability with full-size HDMI, USB 2.0 and SD card slots. The Easy Grip back covers can be swapped -- which, yes, means you can also replace the battery -- though you'll have to splash out $20 for any non-black hues. The 8GB Thrive costs $430, followed by the 16GB unit at $480 and the 32GB option at $580. You can order yours directly from Toshiba or at Amazon, Best Buy or Office Direct, with deliveries slated for mid-July. [Thanks, Matthew]
