The Keyboard is Here

Last week I mentioned that I got the Asus Transformer Prime Android tablet but the keyboard was still stuck in my Aramex’s mailbox back in the States. Yesterday, it arrived and I hooked the keyboard to the tablet which was a easy process and gained some extra functionality.

The device looks great as I mentioned in my tablet post, it is wonderfully built and designed, the keyboard dock fits perfectly into the overall design. Asus did an excellent job.

I still think that the software is a bit lagging. Android ICS 4.0 was just released but also to take into consideration that the physical keyboard form factor isn’t standard. So we’ll se if the developers make use of it.

I still have to test it out thoroughly before passing final judgment, that might take a couple of weeks.

The Asus EeePad Transformer Prime

I managed to get one of those elusive Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime more than a week ago but was too lazy/busy to even get it out of the box and play around with it.

As soon as I read that ICS upgrade was made available for the Transformer Prime (it ships with Honeycomb 3.2) I decided its time to test it out.

Asus did a great job with the Transformer Prime continuing what they did with the Asus Transformer. But this time around they made a much sleeker device. Weighing just 586 grams lighter compared to the iPad 2′s 601 grams (not that you’ll notice it) and is a hair thinner, The transformer prime is a great piece of hardware.

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10 Apps for 10 Cents Each

With the celebration of the 10th billion Android Market download, Google is offering a deal by putting 10 top rated apps for 10 cents each that will change daily for a period of 10 days.

So if you haven’t purchased any of the apps before purchasing them now will coast you a total of just a little over 250 fils.

Android Market

The Samsung Galaxy Nexus is in Kuwait

If you follow me on twitter you would already know that I got my Samsung Galaxy Nexus Android’s latest and greatest  yesterday from Berserk online store.

As expected the device design looks beautiful, and its just marginally heavier than the Samsung Galaxy SII. The device fits comfortably in the hand and it doesn’t feel huge, even with that 4.65″ screen. The 720p screen looks outstanding, you really notice the bump in resolution.

There isn’t much of a size difference in size between the Galaxy Nexus and the Galaxy S2 as most of the increase in screen size came from removing almost all of the bezel in the Galaxy Nexus and getting rid off al the physical face buttons.

The device also feels very snappy, thanks to the vanilla Android experience I guess. Icecream Sandwich is a complete overhaul and is closer to the tablet Android OS than any previous Android release.

What I wasn’t expecting that the Galaxy Nexus came with a noise isolating in-ear headset that looked very good quality and is not Beats By Dre like some HTC phones but its better than most if not all of the standard headsets out there.

I’m looking forward to spending more time with my new little friend.

As I said, I got the phone from Berserk online store. Their website isunder construction but they can be reached via Twitter, Facebook and even Google+. I got the device for KD265

The Kindle Fire

Yesterday the Aramex guy delivered a package that contained Amazon’s new Kindle Fire tablet. The design is very familiar if you ever seen a Blackberry Playbook. I think the 7″ screen size is just about right for a tablet, either for reading or watching video.

When I first turned on the device and without putting in any information except for my wifi password. The device automatically synced to my account. It looks like that Amazon ships the devices with credentials pre-loaded.

The device lacks any google app like Gmail and the standard Android Market. But Amazon’s android store has a good selection of apps.

Also worth mentioning that the Kindle Fire’s web browser (Amazon Silk Browser) routes traffic via amazon servers. That bypasses the local blocking methods used to block websites. So getting onto Collage Humor’s webpage was easy, but I had a difficulty playing back videos.

The Kindle Fire costs around KD60, too bad its you have to have a US based credit card to actually start using the app store or a proxy to use the vide service. It looks like a very good tablet to playback youtube videos and some casual gaming for my kids.

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Samsung Galaxy Note – Quick Hands-On

I got to play around with the recently released 5.3″ behemoth Samsung Galaxy Note for a short period and managed to grab a couple of pics for comparisons. The device has a Super HD Amoled screen, 1.4 dual core CPU, 1GB ram, 16/32GB internal memory, 8MP rear camera and a Stylus.

As you can see from the pic above, the phone is a hair slimmer than the iPhone 4/4S and has a curved back which makes it comfortable when held in the hands.

But the phone is a little big in my opinion, as its blurring the line between tablet and phones.

Thanks Abdullah

Sandbox Your Android To Protect It

Every time my kids see me holding any of my phones, they immediately want to mess around with it. And when giving it to them, they will notice if the phone is pin-locked and will ask demand that I unlock it. The problem is they might call, tweet, sms, delete apps or photos if they are unsupervised.

Famingo Sandbox is an Android app just for that purpose, which makes giving your phone to your kids , much less of a hassle.

Android Market

Nexus Prime To Be Announced in 2 Weeks?

Samsung are having another “Unpacked” event on the 11th of October at CTIA. At Samsung’s last “unpacked” event we saw a number of announcements like the Galaxy Tab 7.7 and the Galaxy Note. With the latest installment of Android dubbed “Ice Cream Sandwich” scheduled for release in October/November, it seams like the perfect timing to announced the highly anticipated Nexus Prime, Google’s next flagship phone.

NVIDIA’s Kal-El Actually has 5 Cores

It turns out that NVIDIA’s upcoming Kal-El processor that was believed to have 4 cores actually has 5 cores. The fifth core will handle mundane tasks such as syncing, background tasks and audio. Which in turn will boast the battery life of the device.

Kal-El equipped devices are expected to arrive before the end of the year and was one of the main reasons that I don’t own an Android tablet yet.

Link

Android App Recommendations: DW Contacts & Phone