Isaiah's Tech

If you're interested in the Samsung Galaxy Tab then you better have some money handy for this quite amazing device. Expansys has the tablet up for £679.99 pre-orders ($1,046 USD) and it says it'll be available on October 12th. Of course, this is unsubsidized and this model comes with 16GB of internal storage and 3G / WiFi support. If that's the case then it looks like the only thing holding back the Galaxy Tab from selling well will be the price tag. Well, that "only" is the most important factor so let's hope it gets subsidized to the max.

Update: Samsung has mentioned that the prices haven't been made official yet but they supposedly announced that it'll cost SEK 9,000 which is around $1,240. Looks like I probably won't be getting one because I'm only willing to spend $600.

[Engadget]

At IFA, Sharp has unveiled something that a couple of people might be interested. It's the company's first 3DTV using their own Quattron technology which adds yellow as a primary colour (in addition to red, green, and blue). The 3DTV is a 60-inch model which will feature Super Edge LED backlighting and Aquos Net Plus with access to Flickr and YouTube. Sadly, you'll need active shutter glasses to see the 3D content. In the UK, this will cost £3,500 ($5,385 USD) but the release date wasn't mentioned. This could be launched in the US but the price and release date are still TBA. We might see it again at CES though.

[Electronista]

Samsung has just unveiled two new notebook series at IFA today, the QX and the RF. First up is the QX Series which will only come in a 14-inch (QX410) model in the US. This model will be a Best Buy exclusive and will be sporting an Intel Core i5-460M CPU and Nvidia GeForce 310M graphics. This notebook will be retailing for $849 when it hits the store this Fall.

Next up is the RF Series which will come in 15.6-inch (RF510) and 17.3-inch (RF710) models. The RF510 packs an Intel Core i5-460M CPU along with Nvidia's GeForce 330M graphics; the RF710 packs an Intel Core i7-720M CPU along with the same graphics, a 640GB HDD, and a Blu-ray drive. These will be hitting the market for $899 and $1,029, respectively.

[Engadget]

At IFA, Philips has just revealed their new Cinema 21:9 HDTV with a twist. This is the Cinema 21:9 Platinum HDTV which has 3D support. The display spans across 58-inches and has an LED-backlit display along with Ambilight technology, and a 400Hz refresh rate. Later this month this wide HDTV with Full HD support, will cost €4,000 ($5,112 USD) in Europe and £3,500 ($5,385 USD) in the UK. At least it'll be hitting the market which will be great for consumers (who have the money) and Philips (who might need the money).

[Engadget]

About a month ago we heard about Sharp working on a glasses-free 3D phone with a 3D camera and at IFA they've shown off the prototype. This smartphone - even though it's just a prototype - sports a 3.7-inch LCD display with a 480 x 800 resolution in 2D and in 3D mode has a 400 x 480 resolution. This prototype impressively also has a 3D camera along with 3D output over an HDMI cable. This is all well and dandy but how useful would it be in the real-world.

Engadget has also pointed out that Sharp is showing off their glasses-free 10-inch 3D display as well although it doesn't seem to impress at all.

[Engadget]

The GCF has just pointed out another WP7 smartphone and this one could be called the HTC 7 Trophy. Obviously the "7" could be hinting at this one running on WP7 but we've known for a while that the HTC Trophy would be a WP7 device so that wouldn't be surprising. Specs are unknown right now but it does feature quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE / dual-band UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA (900/2100 MHz) connectivity. This means that this model that has gotten approval would be compatible for Europe and Asia but not for North America. By the way, it could look like something you see below - courtesy of Slash Gear.

[The Unwired]

It's not exactly big IFA news but in a recent Best Buy buyer's guide, the Samsung Gem has shown up. This smartphone is headed to Verizon with Android 2.1 and the Touchwiz 3.0 UI. Swype will be pre-installed and other specs include a 3.2MP camera, and a microSD card slot. The complete spec sheet, release date, and pricing has yet to leak out so we'll have to wait around for those three important pieces of information.

[Engadget]

Just three days into the future, AT&T will be releasing another handset but it's being called a "feature-phone". This phone is the LG Encore which features a 3-inch touchscreen display, a 3MP Camera, a microSD card slot, aGPS support, and dual-band HSDPA/UMTS / quad-band GSM connectivity. On board you'll also find AT&T's own bloatware aka Social Net, Address Book, and Navigator. The price is unknown right now but it should be fairly inexpensive.

[Boy Genius]

As expected, Virgin Mobile in Canada has just announced that they'll also be releasing the BlackBerry Torch (9800) on September 24th. This smartphone is RIM's new touchscreen slider and is their best BlackBerry to date (at least spec-wise). This makes it official, September 24th will be the day where Rogers, Bell, Telus, and now Virgin Mobile will be getting this smartphone. Which carrier will you choose? Does it really matter since Canadians have the most expensive cell phone bills in the world? The tweet is here if you're interested.

[Mobile Syrup]

The T-Mobile G2 still has to hit the carrier but it looks like another Android handset will be hitting the carrier in a couple of months. The rumoured launch for the myTouch HD (on T-Mobile), according to TMoNews' trusted source, is said to be November 3rd. That's a pretty random date but this would be great timing for the holiday season. Maybe someone will be getting this as an early Christmas present.

[Phandroid]

Engadget just spotted the tablet from Toshiba just up for display. It's the Folio 100 tablet sporting Nvidia's Tegra 2 chip inside. Other specs include a 10.1-inch multitouch display, a front-facing 1.3MP camera, 16GB of internal storage, and Android 2.1. For now it looks like the Galaxy Tab is on my radar so let's see what happens when they put these two tablets side-by-side. Toshiba has yet to officially announce this tablet by the way.


Update: Another Engadget post has just mentioned that this tablet has been officially announced. Specs above don't change but there's some more I'll add. The Folio 100 features a 1,024 x 600 resolution display, an SD card slot, an HDMI output, WiFi 802.11n support, and Android 2.2 with Flash support. Sadly, the tablet will only last 7 hours on one charge under normal use so that's a slight let down. It's okay though.

[Engadget]

Well, what we heard late last night turned out to be true. The BlackBerry Pearl 9100 is now available on WIND Mobile in Canada. It's now available for $320 contract-free, but there's a $20 mail-in rebate going around right now bringing the actual price to $300. This is the best contract-free deal for this handset you'll find in Canada so it's definitely worth it if you live in a WIND Home Zone. This will be getting an update to BB OS 6.0 but who knows when it will actually be available. Check it out on WIND.

[Mobile Syrup]

As expected, Huawei has brought their Ideos (U8150) Android 2.2 based handset to IFA. This is being touted as an entry-level smartphone and will cost you somewhere between $100 and $200 when it hits the market. This handset sports a 2.8-inch touchscreen display, a 3.2MP camera, a 528MHz CPU, GPS / Bluetooth support, WiFi, and Android 2.2. Huawei didn't stop there though because they announced three more smartphones running the Android OS.

Not much details is known about all of the handsets but the first one is the U8300, we saw this one in February. This is the lowest-end of the bunch and sports a QWERTY keyboard, a touchscreen display, and Android 2.1. This one's intended for the young people.

Next up there's the U8500 which sports a 3.2-inch touchscreen display, an optical trackpad, WiFi support, HSDPA connectivity, and Android 2.1. Huawei has mentioned that this handset will double as a 3G modem if you need that.

Last, but not least, there's the U8800, which we heard about way back in February of this year. This smartphone packs HSPA+ connectivity, a 3.8-inch display, HSDPA connectivity, WiFi support, and Android 2.2. Who knows when all of these handsets will actually hit the market. The U8800 is, of course, the most interesting of the bunch.

[The Unwired]

Samsung is officially in the tablet business. At IFA today they've announced their Samsung P1000 Galaxy Tab. This tablet, as expected, sports a 7-inch touchscreen display (1,024 x 600 resolution), DivX / Flash support, phone functionalities, an ARM Cortex A8 1GHz CPU, 512MB of RAM, PowerVR SGX540 graphics, a 1.3MP front-facing camera, a 3MP AF camera on the back with an LED flash, GSM/GPRS/EDGE / HSPA with 3G connectivity, and Android 2.2 "Froyo". This is pretty amazing, and I'm going to be getting one as soon as it hits North America.

Update: According to Pocket-Lint, this tablet will be hitting Vodafone in the UK this October. Slash Gear has also pointed out and confirmed that the next version of Android after 3.0 "Gingerbread" will be version 3.5 and it'll be called Honeycomb - as expected. Another Pocket-Lint post has mentioned that Samsung is also working on Galaxy Tab 2, 3, and 4, which will come in a variety of sizes.

Update: Engadget has just mentioned that the Galaxy Tab will be getting an upgrade to Android 3.0 "Gingerbread" which is great news for everyone!

[GSM Arena]

T-Mobile Scoop has just confirmed some of the rumoured specs regarding the T-Mobile G2 smartphone. Inside Beneath the touchscreen display, you'll find a Qualcomm MSM7x30 800MHz CPU along with Android 2.2 "Froyo" and Flash support. This smartphone is also confirmed to have plain old vanilla Android on-board so that's good news for some of you out there. It should be launching for $199.99 on a 2-year contract but we don't know when it will hit the carrier.

[Engadget]