Samsung was pretty quick on the tablet market to compete with the iPad, but their first 7 inch device was not received too warmly. While the shape and size was great, the Android 2.x operating system was just not properly implemented for the new higher resolution of a tablet, so some apps just did not work too great in the tablet world. (You can read our review here)

Of course since then Google has released Honeycomb, its tablet-focussed version of Android, and Samsung has released some pretty great Android Honeycomb tablets, primarily focussing on a iPad-matching 10 inch screen (See Albert’s review of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 here). But what if those 10 inch tablets are perhaps a bit unwieldy? Luckily Samsung has now released that great 7 inch form factor of the first Galaxy Tab with the tablet – dedicated power of Android 3.2 Honeycomb. (more…)

The Android fans are gonna like this. Up until now, Android has been leading a double life – with one versi0n for phones, and another version for tablets. Compare this with iOS who have been recently giving concurrent software updates with iOS on iPhone and iPad. Well the good news is that Android’s tablet and phone lines are going to be joined in a upcoming release of Android nicknamed “Ice Cream Sandwich”, which will combine the best features of each, regardless of what class of device might be.

While there has been some small leaks with Ice Cream Sandwich, this is by far the most detailed one. But it is quite surprising how this video came out. Apparently a user bought a second hand Google Nexus S on eBay, and he was surprised to find Ice Cream Sandwich installed on the Google reference device. First thing you will notice is the influences of Honeycomb on the handset. While luckily not as “Tron-like” as the first Honeycomb release, the interface is definite shift away from Gingerbread. (more…)

Man these WooThemes guys are on fire. While not simply content with selling first class themes for WordPress online, they are now pushing into premium plugins market as well. Woothemes currently has over 50,000 paying clients, and is also a premium theme supplier to WordPress.com. Their latest offering, WooCommerce, currently fills a gap in the market – not in the e-commerce market, but rather in terms of easy integration with WordPress.

WooCommerce will enable users to easily and efficiently build e-commerce focussed websites, which slots into a variety of payment gateways. Right now WooCommerce is not a simple plugin for existing themes, but rather a catalogue of new themes which built specifically for WordPress. (more…)

There is one event that most Apple fans look forward to every year. Hell, if you are at all into smartphones it is a pretty special day (because you know every other smartphone brand is sitting up and taking notice). Problem is that the wait has been a bit longer this year, but now we at least know it is happening: Apple is expected to show off its latest iPhone (or iPhones) on October 4th. The rumour mill has been in overdrive the past few months, with most reports pointing to two possible new iPhones. First off a iPhone 4S, which will be a simple upgrade of the iPhone 4, while keeping the same case design. There is also rumours of a iPhone 5, which will gain a larger screen and a new “teardrop” rear casing. (more…)

Looks like the tablet wars is about to get another combatant. However – this one will come from a company who actually understands user experience better than most. Amazon.

Right now the tablet market is a little one sided. It is pretty much iPad versus the rest. Those of us who follow tech news everyday have grown a little tired of “JAAT” (Just Another Android Tablet). Every day we read about another company jumping into the tablet game with no clear differentiation in their products. All of them share similiar form factors and run the same OS, so we just do not care anymore. But Amazon’s latest Kindle might be different. The rumour mill has now kicked off with an article by MG Siegler -Techcrunch apparently has some sources which told them a lot about the device.

The Kindle has always been a pretty simple device – a e-book reader with some small additional features. But its success relied on its content back-end. It had Amazon’s giant e-book library at its disposal. Now with the Kindle “Fire”, Amazon is going to sell a tablet class device firstly as e-book reader, but this time it gains a lot of multimedia power. (more…)

As you may know by now, I’m Android fanboy, so the fact that I specifically asked to cover the Nokia N9 launch last week Thursday, says something about how special this device is. Climbing a nondescript flight of metal stairs, I emerged into the DIS Daylight Studio, Nokia South Africa’s stunning venue for the N9 launch. Free drink in hand, looking around the room revealed a few very important faces (and a few less important one, like myself).

After a bit of networking, things kicked off with a slightly cheesy video about design inspiration and some stunning choreography, after which Nokia’s Senior VP of design, Marko Ahtisaari, took the stage. Marko is the man behind both the industrial, and user-experience design of the N9 – something that, as I’ll explain later, goes hand in hand. He explained how the design revolves around a single gesture, the “swipe”, and how the elegant simplicity of the Harmattan User Interface came about as a result of the competition’s design paradigms (iOS and Android were the examples used) still not being, in Nokia’s mind, optimal for a device that is “small enough for your pocket, but big enough for your hand”. As Marko explained these principles, and demoed the software on the phone, the passion and expertise that went into the Nokia N9′s overall design and experience was evident throughout, although there may have been a slight hint of bitterness – Nokia has already decided that MeeGo, the operating system that the N9 runs, has no future in the company.

After the presentation, I sauntered over to the N9 Showcase, and spent a few minutes with the device. (more…)

World of Avatar had an awesome week last week, having seen the launch of boom.fm and announcing their acquisition of Mxit. On Thursday afternoon I had a chat with Peter Matthaei the CEO of boom.fm and the CTO at World of Avatar to discuss how the investment company is doing and what his plans are in running boom.fm. Click play below.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Owning an Android device means that you’ll try out a large number of applications over time. Sometimes there are so many that writing a single post for each and every one of them doesn’t really make sense – so we’re introducing a new series of posts that will showcase a few applications at once. This first iteration looks at a few South African centred applications, either developed locally, or targeting the local market.

BatteryFu (Free)
Probably one of the first applications to come out of South Africa, BatteryFu by local developer Toby Kurien helps you get more out of your device’s battery by periodically toggling mobile data (or Wi-Fi) – so your device is only connected and checking your accounts for a short period of time. A novel idea, and one that apparently works very well.

BatteryFu features:

• Lean and fast (see download size!)
• APNdroid support (use if data is not switching off)
• Widget: tap icon to toggle, tap text to config
• Data while screen is on, with screen off delay
• Data while charger is plugged in
• 3rd party app support (using intents)
• Travel mode (wifi off)

Computicket (Free) (more…)