android
Acer Iconia Tab A510 powered by Tegra 3 up for pre-order at $450
Nearly two and a half months ago at CES the Iconia Tab was spotted and now Acer feels that they are ready to release the possible Asus Transformer Prime competitor to the world. The Acer Iconia Tab A510 is the company’s first tablet running on an Nvidia quad-core Tegra 3 processor and comes with 10.1” screen with a HD resolution of 1280×800, 1 GB RAM, 5MP auto-focus camera, 1MP front-facing camera for video chatting, 32GB of memory, a microSD card slot and it weighs in at just over 24 ounces. The tablet measures up at 10.2(w) x 6.9(d) x 0.43(h) inches and all of the above is powered by a battery that has been rated for 12 hours of video playback
While the specs on the Iconia Tab are appealing, Acer seems to be stretching the odds of capturing the masses with a list price of $449.99. Those interested can pre-order the Iconia at national electronic retailers across Canada and U.S. Though no official launch date of the tablet has been released, our friends over at AndroidAndMe can say with confidence that the price point would drop down by $50-$100 if Acer decides to release either an 8GB or 16GB model. While the Prime still costs $50 more, the optional keyboard dock accessory that can be purchased with the Asus Eee Transformer Prime, does offer additional value for those who would want to use the tablet as a replacement for a netbook.
android
Fairphone 2 Begins To Ship
The Fairphone 2 was first unveiled in June earlier this year, where this particular handset carried a modular design while featuring majority of its components that have been sourced from conflict-free mines. It seems that this particular handset that you can purchase with a clear conscience has begun to ship to those who happen to live across Europe.
Fairphone announced in a blog post, “It’s been almost two years in the making, and some of the earliest buyers have been patiently waiting since July to receive their new phones. As community manager, I want to personally welcome the new batch of Fairphone owners to our community.” The initial 1,000 units are tipped to ship this month, before the other pre-orders follow in January 2016.
In terms of hardware specifications, the Fairphone 2 will run on a Snapdragon 801 chipset, has a 5″ 1080p screen with Gorilla Glass 3 protection, 2GB of RAM, an 8MP camera, with Android 5.1 Lollipop in tow. It will be a dual SIM capable handset with a microSD memory card slot and plays nice with 4G LTE networks, retailing for approximately €525 a pop.
android
Xiaomi Mi 5 Carries NFC Feature
It looks like the upcoming flagship model from Xiaomi will feature NFC support, at least based on a document that was released by China UnionPay. Just in case you are scratching your head and wondering who China UnionPay is, they happen to be the only domestic payment gateway supplier and card organization, and hence, to see them offer detailed support concerning the newly released NFC-based payment system points to the very real possibility of the upcoming Xiaomi Mi 5 featuring NFC capability.
After all, the Xiaomi Mi 3 was also mentioned on the list, which so happens to feature NFC, and there is no mention of the Xiaomi Mi 4 which does not come with NFC. Still, such a new payment system would be the ideal tool to see the reintroduction of NFC to the flagship model.
android
OnePlus X Ceramic Limited Edition Available From Today
OnePlus did make an announcement in the previous month that the Ceramic variant of the OnePlus X will be released on November 24. True to their word, they did exactly that – although only a pitiful number of units were made available, and not only that, this was through a charity auction. Thankfully for the rest of the masses who are on the lookout for this device, it has gone on sale officially already.
Needless to say, this particular variant is available only by an invitation, although do bear in mind that standard OnePlus X invites are not good here – you will still need to snag yourself a specific Ceramic variant invite before you make a purchase. OnePlus is also on the lookout to offer additional methods of picking up this smartphone, although no further details were revealed.
The OnePlus X Ceramic will be available only in select markets, where among them include Europe, India, and Hong Kong. To date, we do know that OnePlus had made only 10,000 units of the handset available. A case of the early bird getting the proverbial worm here?