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GridOS

16 August 2011

news

Wou! Google buying Motorola and Fusion Garage coming back from the dead what a day yes-ter-day!

grid10 — tablet reboot? Grid10 new proposal by FusionGarage

I’ll dig into MojoGoGo another day but for now lets focus on this orphan. One of those new promises (this time with bigger budget, ambitions and expectations) that we have big mixed feelings about…

After the failure of the original CrunchPad that then became the Joojoo tablet that then didn’t end up doing anything we’ve had an array of tablets and substitutes not only with Android, iOS or Windows flavors but with many custom-made operating systems (remember the German WePad then WeTab?). That trend is now dead and since the explosion of Honeycomb tablets it seems there’s not even room for WebOSes or BlackBerry Tablet OSes neither.

Ok so FusionGarage proposes a smartphone and a tablet based on Android’s kernel, so they get to completely redesign the User Interface…. and that’s about it, maybe redefine some specs of the OS for a better performance with their hardware partners.. but not much more because at the end of the day it uses Android apps + those they’ve specifically designed for their products.

A product which looks like someone’s already pointed out: the orphan kid of Windos8 meeting Ice Cream… but something went wrong in the conception. Either way, after their arguably “successful” viral campaign (with a big lack of taste from our humble point of view) behind the TabCo pseudo, GridOS and its 2 first products were unveiled and went on sale yesterday. A dedicated website… and all the things that go with it.

And after a quick look at the specs and despite already being available for purchase on the US we’re really afraid Fusion launched a bit too late once again, less drama yes, trying something fresh again, yes, but in terms of most specs… it’s already outdated.

Oh well, excitement killed. Next?

Infobar A01

19 June 2011

news

When and why did we miss this last month? It should be released next moth but iida’s Infobar A01 is already making a world viral tour across the web. Partly because of that amazing User Interface designed by Yugo Nakamura and the always “cool toy” design iida has accustomed us to.

Apple may still make everyone dream with its amazing designs and iOS simplicity (especially since the 5 update) but they’re starting to feel a bit old since the arrival of tile-based designed WinMo7 and these amazing ideas by Idaa & Naoto Hukazawa.

The best thing of all is that despite resembling Windows phone 7, Infobar A01 is actually an Android-powered smartphone with a custom modular interface willing to break with the icon&widget ecosystem.

Unfortunately the device will only be released in Japan under KDDI, running Android 2.3 and some other nice hardware features … 3.7-inch qHD display, 8 megapixel camera, a 1Seg TV tuner, and dual-mode GSM / CDMA connectivity… and more info yet to be confirmed.

Padfone

30 May 2011

news

Is it a bird? Or is it a plane? A bit of a ridiculous (but funny) teasing that Asus has been carrying for the past few days and that was unveiled earlier today at Taiwan’s Computex. And even if we were far more impressed with the also announced UX21 laptop series (a serious MacBook Air competitor), the Padfone was the start of the day.

What Asus proposed today (and should market by the end of the year when Google’s Android Ice Cream version is out), is as simple as a Tablet with a dock for your 4.3″ Asus smartphone. Smart? Well… I’m pretty sure Telco operators aren’t very keen on it (you would only need the phone’s 3G/4G connectivity), and personally I’m a bit reluctant about its future success; but hey… they introduced the transformer, the slider & the MeMO and they didn’t seem that crazy at first…

As in most cases when the product is announced more than half a year before its release, most specs and design might change, so a few ports will be added here, and a few slots there but you get the basic idea. However there’s one thing they should definitely attempt to radically change… their PR events & their advertising… just as bad as Microsoft’s.

What we know however from the presented mock-up (it wasn’t even a working prototype because they probably don’t even know what Android’s next iteration looks like) is that the tablet should have a 10.1 inch screen…. and that’s about it.

More pics on the Asus website.