Asus' Transformer Pad Infinity gets a really nice refresh!

   Wow, the announcements just won't stop coming today and as our fingers start to get fatigued, it's almost fitting that we cover a nice refresh from Asus. Today the Taiwanese company have announced that they are going to be updating the Transformer Infinity!

   The refresh is quite a notable jump from last year's device which was no slouch itself. This time there's a 10.1-inch 2560 x 1600 IPS display, a powerful new Tegra 4 processor and 2GB of RAM, all of which should keep this thing ticking over without any hiccups at all. There's also 32GB of internal storage and an SD card slot, the latter of which is only available through the keyboard dock, which also offers extra battery and a USB 3.0 port.

   Interestingly the cameras on this device have been downgraded since last year, because there's a 5 MP rear-camera and there's a 1.2MP camera up front. Asus will apparently make up for this camera downgrade with the ability to push 4K video out through the HDMI-out port on the device!

   At the moment we don't know anything else about the device, but as and when we hear more we will update this post! We do however, know that the price will be roughly $400 without a dock and $500 with the dock attachment.
Via TheVerge.

Read More

In Other News: 06/05/2013.

Image Credit: Allianz.

• The new list of Fortune 500 companies is out today and amongst the notable tech companies to feature are Apple at number six and AT&T is in at number 11. A tad further back are people like HP, Verizon, Microsoft and Amazon, each of whom came in at 15, 16, 35 and 49 respectively.
  Via Slashgear.

• Sony are rumoured to be creating a new smartphone with a quad-core Mediatek processor in a move which would see them utilize a processor from the Taiwanese company for the first time!
  Via AndroidBeat.

• The Verge is today reporting that Google will launch paid subscriptions on YouTube as early as this week! If and when this becomes a reality we will give you much more detail on it!

• Rumour has it that Nintendo is offering conversion software to app developers as a way to bolster their content offering on the Wii U! We're not sure if the tactic is genuine or whether or not it'll work. But, watch this space because this sounds very likely and it seems that Nintendo might be getting ready to protect themselves from the likes of the OUYA and Gamestick!
  Via ZDNet.

• Today's rumours suggest that Microsoft's next Xbox won't require a always on internet, for everything. A supposedly leaked email to Microsoft employees suggests that playing Blu-rays,  watching live TV and playing single player games won't require the internet connection. As always take this with a pinch of salt because it could be completely false!
  Via ArsTechnica. 

• Samsung's Galaxy S4's have been getting their first software updates which are between 54 and 78MB in size depending on where you are and they bring stability fixes and camera improvements, which again are dependent on where you live. For those of you with a device locked to a carrier expect a few weeks delay until you get this, at the very least!
  Via AndroidBeat.

• Over the weekend you might have noticed that the Syrian Electronic Army, hacked and tweeted out incorrect comments about Justin Bieber's sexuality. For full details on that head to Slashgear here, but in the meantime we think Twitter should hurry up with that two-step verification!

• Maxis and EA have confirmed that The Sims 4 will be coming to PC and Mac at some point in 2014!
  Via Slashgear.

• Hulu Plus is now out for Windows Phone 8!
  Via Engadget.

• The anti-virus firm McAfee have announced that they've acquire the Finnish firm Stonesoft for $389 million. McAfee are owned by Intel and the purchase will supposedly beef up the company's firewall and online protection!
  Via TheNextWeb.

And finally, some of you might remember that when the HTC One was officially announced there were actually three colour options. There was silver, black and red. Until today we haven't heard anything about the red variant, but it seems that the guys over at LandOfTechnology were the first to notice that HandTec, a UK seller have put the red phone up on the site, presumably they're just waiting for the device to come into stock, but that does mean that the phone is on the way and you can see what it'll look like in the picture below!

Read More

Asus announce their Q1 results: Profit up 5% year-over-year!

   Asus' tag line is 'In search of incredible' at the moment and while their sales aren't exactly 'incredible' at the moment the guys from Taiwan aren't doing too badly lately, with their laptops, tablets and their small range of phones starting to garner ever more attention!

   The latest device, the Fonepad is a bit of a mishmash of phone and tablet, but at an incredibly low cost initial reviews have been good. But, that device wasn't around for Q1 so how did things go? Not too badly it seems, in spite of the shrinking PC market. The guys reported a total revenue of $3.5 billion which provided a quarterly profit of $202 million. That's an increase of 5.8% year-on-year and in the current climate that's not bad going at all!

    The earnings call shows the drop off of sales of notebooks (laptops) and the PC components,but the good news for Asus was that there were 3 million tablet sales in the first three months of the year and this made up the difference!

   Things are also going surprisingly well in America, where the company got 23% of their revenue from, which is 6% more than the same period last year earnt them from the region. According to Engadget, the outlook is set to be flat which the guys concluded meant that there won't be a replacement for the Nexus 7 until Q3. We're not sure quite how much the Nexus devices make their manufacturers given that they're sold at cost, but with computer sales on the decrease the sales of Asus' own branded tablets will become more important over the next few quarters!
Via Engadget.

Read More

What Android tablets sell best? Turns out Samsung and Amazon know the key!

   We all know Android tablets are becoming more and more popular. They're popping up every where these days and for the most part, they're competitively priced and kitted out with very solid internals. The perfect example of this sort of device is the Nexus 7; it's affordable, very well kitted out and it is the new benchmark for 7" Android tablets. With that in mind, how well have Android tablets done lately and which devices top the pile?

   Well it seems like Samsung take the prize here with Amazon's tablets being very popular in their own right. There's a couple of Asus devices in there for good measure too!

   It's interesting that Samsung's 'budget' Android tablets are actually the most popular here, closely followed by Amazon's tablets which are supposedly sold at cost. Then of course there's Google and Asus' Nexus 7, a device which many would expect to be higher up the list. To be fair to the device it is only available in ten countries and of those ten countries only five of them have the pleasure of using the 3G variant, so it's actually done remarkably well to finish that high on the list! There's a similar situation with Amazon's Kindle Fire and Kindle Fire HD, both of which are available in at least fifteen countries so those devices have proved hugely popular too!

   Everyone knows why Samsung's tablets have sold well, they're well made and they're available in an almost infinite set of configurations for every market. It seems that Samsung has really built a strong brand around their 'Galaxy' name and it'll be interesting to see if everything looks the same this time next year or whether Sony, Asus, Acer or even Lenovo can muscle their way onto this board!
Via AndroidPolice. Image Credit: 9to5Google.

Read More