Review: Nexus 7 (2013)

Text and photos by Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

By and large, last year's Google's Nexus 7 tablet was an incredibly successful product. Some could say its existence prodded Apple into creating the iPad mini, and you can also credit it for sparking the sudden interest in lower-cost 7-inch tablets from the likes of Samsung, Acer and Lenovo. One year later, the refreshed Nexus 7 is starting to ship in Canada. Here's what's new.

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Samsung's Galaxy Nexus banned in the US

Following the news earlier this week that the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1  has been blocked from sale in the US due to a patent dispute filed by Apple, the Samsung-made Galaxy Nexus has been taken off the market in the US by way of a judge's order while the heated Apple-Samsung patent disputes continue.

Apple was granted a preliminary injunction barring the sales of the devices. Apple has cited Samsung as 'slavishly copying' the design, functionality and look and feel of its iPhone and iPad products.

A report from the BBC states that, "US District Judge Lucy Koh said Apple 'has shown a likelihood of establishing both infringement and validity'. 

U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh stressed that Apple had made a strong case that Samsung was infringing on a variety of patents, including but not limited to technology for simultaneously searching multiple databases.

This is a function found in Apple's "Siri" voice-automated assistant program used on the iPhone 4S. The Siri personal assistant is  the marquee feature of the latest iPhone.

The injunction will go into effect once  Apple delivers a bond of about $95.6 million. The bond will be used to offset Samsung's losses if the court resolves that it did not infringe on Apple's patents as claimed.

The outcome of this critical patent lawsuit is likely to affect the future product offerings of competitors in the smartphone and tablet markets. The case is set to go to trial in late July.

Source: BBC.co.uk

Samsung Galaxy S and Galaxy Tab aren't getting Ice Cream Sandwich because of bloatware

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

Owners of Samsung's Galaxy S and original 7-inch Galaxy Tab devices will not be able to upgrade to the latest and unified Android OS 4.0 codenamed Ice Cream Sandwich. The reason for this isn't the hardware but limitations brought about by Samsung's own TouchWiz overlay and country specific carrier apps.

This came to light when Samsung revealed its ICS rollout that included the Galaxy S II, its LTE versions, the Galaxy Note, the Galaxy R and  the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus to the Galaxy Tab 10.1. The update is slated to arrive first on both the Galaxy S II and Note in Q1 2012.

According to a blog post, the adding ICS on these Galaxy Tab and the Samsung Galaxy S isn't possible because of lack of space taken up by TouchWiz elements (Touch Wiz / Samsung Widgets / video calls, etc.) as well as third party carrier apps that are country specific such as mobile TV and music apps. There isn't enough RAM and ROM to run both ICS, TouchWiz and the sundry carrier apps.

The Google Nexus S, which has similar hardware, runs ICS just fine but it runs just the ICS software without any extraneous applications.

ICS can still run on these devices but through unlicensed ROMs which require rooting and hacking around the system to eliminate tbe bloatware and overlays. This is not advised, however, since it is not officially supported and device specific issues are unlikely to be fixed. 

Samsung sold 10 million of these smartphones under the  Epic 4G, Vibrant, Captivate, Fascinate, and Mesmerize monickers with various carriers globally. It is unfortunate that the smartphones have the specs to run ICS (1GHz ARM Hummingbird processors,  512MB RAM) but is limited by add-on software.

Review: Acer Iconia Tab A100 7-inch 8GB Honeycomb tablet

Text and photos by Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

The Acer Iconia Tab A100 is a unique device in a sea of Android tablets. Designed for users on a strict budget or perhaps techies looking for an affordable tablet that runs Honeycomb in a 7-inch form factor, it combines a solid feature set with no frills aesthetics geared towards functionality.

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