The 10 Best Android Tablets

When it comes to tablets, it's been an interesting year for Android. Since Google released its tablet-specific operating system, Honeycomb, we’ve seen a steady flow of high-quality Android tablets. (Pre-Honeycomb Android tablets were another story.) This is a good thing, since they provide viable alternatives to the Apple iPad, which has dominated the tablet market since its first release in early 2010. One of the major benefits of Android over the iPad, the dearly departed HP TouchPad, or the dead-on-arrival BlackBerry PlayBook, is that instead of a single hardware choice, you can access the OS on a number of different tablets.

Overall, the Android tablet experience is a very good one. But not all is perfect, even in the land of Honeycomb. The biggest problem with the platform continues to be the lack of third-party apps. We're coming up on a year after the OS release, and tablet-specific Android apps are still in the low hundreds, while apps designed specifically for the iPad continue to climb into the hundreds of thousands. Given its Google roots, though, Android is the most configurable tablet operating system you’ll find. It's a master multitasker with an excellent notification system, and top-notch integration with Google services like Gmail, Google Chat, and Google Maps. Plus, you get Flash video support.

Turns out that the most compelling Android tablet we've seen so far doesn't even run Honeycomb. Amazon's Kindle Fire uses a modified version of Android 2.3, or Gingerbread, which is meant for phones. It's not perfect, but the smaller 7-inch screen, and Amazon's OS tweaks, along with its own high-quality content ecosystem and on-board Appstore make for one of the best tablet entertainment experiences you can find. And its $200 price, in a market where most tablets cost around twice as much, means Amazon has a real chance to steal some market share from Apple. If the Kindle Fire doesn't do it for you, though, check out the slideshow for a look at our other top-rated Android tablets or compare these tablets side by side.

iPad 3 Launching In the Next 3-4 Months?

If you saved money to buy an iPad 2 with a lower price this Christmas, you might want to think again, since there’s a new generation of Apple tablets in a couple of months from now. Sources in Apple’s supply chain are saying that manufacturers have begun shipping parts and components for the third gen iPad, that will launch in 3-4 months.

It also appears that manufacturers have reduced the supply of components for the second generation iPad, making room for the newcomer. The info is taken from a DigiTimes report, that claims OEM production of the iPad 2 remains at 14-15 million units in Q4 2011, but decline is expected in early 2012. The production will drop to 4-5 million units in the first quarter of 2012, preparing the market for the debut of new iPads, according to the same insiders. The new iPad is rumored to feature a Retina Display, thinner profile, improved camera and maybe a more powerful CPU.

The production will start in January, according to Kevin Chang, analyst with Citigroup. Production is expected to increase in February ahead of the product’s debut in March or April. Will you get one?

Nokia Announces 3 New Smartphones

Nokia 700

With the announcement of Symbian Belle, Nokia has announced three new smartphones aimed at low to mid-rang audience.

Nokia said that all three new smartphones will boast Symbian Belle – and availability is said to be made by fourth quarter of the current year.

Nokia 700, as Nokia claims, will be world’s smallest smartphone. Nokia specifically states: “the most compact touch monoblock smartphone in the market right now”.

Despite the minimalistic outlook, Nokia 700 will sail with:

• 1GHz processor,
• 3.2-inch ClearBlack AMOLED display with Corning® Gorilla® Glass
• 2GB of user memory plus a MicroSD card slot for up to 32GB of extra storage.
• 5-megapixel full focus camera with an LED flash
• GPS
• a compass,
• Bluetooth
• FM radio
• WiFi and up to HSUPA 3G data transfers
• 7.3 hours talk-time or up to 465 hours on standby

Availability and Price: The Nokia 700 is expected to retail at around PKR 34,000 and is expected to become available in the third quarter of 2011.

Nokia 701

Nokia Introduces Symbian Belle

It seems that Nokia has been playing hard with it’s smartphone OS, that is, Symbian. Just weeks after the Symbian Anna, we have another update in hand for Symbian phones. This time it’s called Symbian Belle – weird naming convention one would say.

We know that Nokia’s long term plan is to shift all high-end smartphones to Windows platform, however, Symbian will be kept alive, till 2015 at least, for relatively lower-end devices.

Announced at an event in Hong Kong, Symbian Belle is said to incorporate significant improvements in it’s previous version, with new apps, more flexibility in customization and added with new widgets.

User interface is altogether revamped, which now more looks like Android. Built-in NFC support in Symbian Belle, that is deeply integrated into operating system, is something that Nokia is using as headlines.

The fruit of Nokia-Microsoft partnership has started surfacing as Symbian Belle will offer seamless integration with Microsoft Linc, Sharepoint, OneNote, Exchange and a new system called PowerPoint Broadcaster.

Nokia says that Symbian Belle will be available on all new/upcoming Symbian smartphones and will be made available as a free update (just like it did for Symbian Anna) for users with phones running Symbian Anna (Nokia N8, Nokia E7, Nokia C7, Nokia E6, Nokia X7 and Nokia 500), a pleasing announcement for many.

For sure, Symbian is maturing with time – but many believe it’s too late for Symbian to drag back customers from iOS or Android. Nevertheless, it’s a promising update for long time Nokia and Symbian Fans.

Bringing Windows Phone 'Mango' to Nokia developers

Today, Microsoft previewed the next major release of Windows Phone. Code named ‘Mango’, this newest release brings a number of substantial improvements in both the software platform and developer tools.

Jo Harlow, executive vice president for Smart Devices, explains today in Nokia Conversations that Nokia is planning to release its first Windows Phone devices based on Mango.

“We are very excited about our strategic partnership with Microsoft, and Mango is a great milestone for the first Nokia with Windows Phone devices,” said Harlow. “We believe Mango offers developers opportunities to create new mobile experiences leveraging both companies’ complementary assets while providing consumers with a new choice in mobile.”

Featuring over 1,500 new APIs, 16 new languages and hardware-accelerated IE9 and HTML5 support, Mango brings enticing new opportunities to developers. Updates for tools, such as enhanced debugging, emulator support with accelerometer, gesture support and profiling will also improve developer productivity.

Rather than simply create one high-end device, Nokia plans to develop and release a portfolio of products that address as many of our audiences and markets as possible. Knowing that Windows Phone represents Nokia’s primary smartphone strategy, all of Nokia's smartphone engineering resources are being prioritised to make the best hardware for the forthcoming Nokia with Windows Phone devices. Nokia will work closely with Microsoft to differentiate its devices with Mango by featuring its iconic hardware and services, while applying consistent design principles for a unique look and feel.

As Nokia embarks on the next phase of this partnership with Microsoft, we are beginning to put in place a number of activities that will help our developer community quickly prepare for the upcoming Nokia with Windows Phone devices. We recently published a technical article on the Community Wiki; and there will soon be a number of development guides that will help developers make the most of the apps they already have in Nokia’s application store. In the Projects site, members of the Nokia developer community are beginning to contribute some interesting examples that illustrate how to build apps for Windows Phone.

In the coming months, we will deliver regular updates from experts on both sides of this partnership to help Nokia developers make the transition to developing for Windows Phone. There will also be new improvements, new benefits and simplification to our Nokia developer support offerings, so please stay tuned.

To learn more, please watch this video where Joe Belfiore, corporate vice president in Windows Phone, shows off some of the new features coming in the Mango release of Windows Phone:

iPad 2 Official Introduction Commercial [Confirmed Launch March 11th]

Facebook Rolls Out Enhanced Commenting System

Facebook, in a latest development to make websites more social, has deployed commenting system for blogs and websites.

This commenting system will allow website owners to make it possible for their readers to comment on their websites using their Facebook or Yahoo IDs. Yes, Facebook comment system doesn’t allow comments with twitter, Google, name/website or anonymous IDs.

All comments posted on websites will be relayed on users’ Facebook feeds. Not only this, Facebook users will be able to comment on websites from their Facebook home/news feeds as well.

Comments will look like something following:

If you want to get these comments rolled out for your website, then click this link

A great tool to go ahead, However, before you get the plugin you may need to think about following:

• This comments system by Facebook can’t be backed-up, so there’s returning back. Once you integrate Facebook comments with your website then you won’t be able to get rid of it to revert back to your default commenting system. If you do so, you will lose all the comments.
• You may miss comments from those users who have Facebook blocked in their offices/schools.
• Not everyone would want to reveal their real identity while commenting
• Facebook comments accepts only Facebook and Yahoo IDs for commenters, no Twitter or Google IDs so far.
• Very limited number of comments are loaded first up. You will have to load more to see all the comments coming
• Users are reporting slower performance (in terms of load time) of Facebook comments’ system.