Mighty Gadget Blog: The latest technology news & reviews in the UK

Acer, famous for laptops and computer parts has today launched it’s brand spanking new Android 2.1 phone and given the exclusive rights to online mobile seller Expansys. If the phone is half as good as it’s laptops you can bet it will do well once the mobile carriers get a hold of it although selling it online, SIM free at the moment might be a risk.

Acer have described its Stream as a “high-end multimedia smartphone” and it delivers in the specs field to compete with the other top smartphones. Underneath the 3.7” AMOLED display is a 1GHz Snapdragon processor and 512MB RAM, running Android 2.1 (2.2 update won’t be far off) Also sporting a 5MP camera capable of 720p video capture and GEO-Tagging, it has Wi-Fi and is only a tiny 11.2mm thin. Couple this with 2GB of internal storage and microSD support there’s plenty of room. Social networking is the theme for the phone with apps pre-installed but also Acer Spinlets. This is a streaming service whereby the user can listen to select songs and post their favourites onto their social networking pages. It also has mp3, AAC, OGG and FLAC support for your tunes and MP4, WMV, DivX and Xvid support for your videos.

Available today on Expansys SIM free for £399.99

The Motorola Droid or Milestone as us Brits know it by had quite a good success in this country, but was even more successful in the States. Well the US phone company has now announced the first Milestone family follow up will be due July 15th in the US, in time to rival the now released iPhone 4. One of the main successes for the Milestone/Droid was its Android OS and its slide out keyboard which although wasn’t the most comfortable it worked pretty well. The rumour mill has ground out quite a few chunks of information or photos of dropped protoypes in gym’s etc well now we have an official update for sure.

The Droid/Milestone X doesn’t appear to have the keyboard last time opting for a total touchscreen experience. A 4.3” FWVGA 854×480 screen certainly makes the phone look large, like the Xperia X10 but the body itself is still pretty slim. Powered by a 1GHz processor running the brilliant Android 2.1 upgradeable to 2.2 Froyo later this summer for Flash support) with an all new MotoBlur running over the top. It will also have an 8MP camera with 720p video capture and further media support with an apparent DLNA app and HDMI out.

Unfortunately the release is US only for now but keep an eye out for a UK release.

Sorry for the cheese but it had to be done. Remember the Samsung Beam we spoke about a while back , the first mobile phone to incorporate a projector so one can show their pics and vids onto a wall. Well back then it was just a prototype, now Samsung are unveiling it in Singapore next month so it can’t be too long before we can get our hands on it in Blighty and leave us all with “Beaming” smiles…………

As with the new-wave of Samsung mobiles it’s blasting us with a 3.7” Super AMOLED screen for those super nice rich, bright colours and that wonderful Android OS. Connectivity wise you’re looking at HSDPA, 3G, Wi-Fi and the new Bluetooth 3.0. Packing an 8MP camera for good quality pics, it’ll also shoot HD video, a must for todays top smartphones. Now obviously what makes the Beam stand out is it has a mini projector, capable of 50” wide images at a brightness level of 9 lumens. It’ll also back a-GPS and a built in FM radio.

Obviously we wont have any prices till the networks announce it’s release but I’m glad to see this phone made it past prototype and hopefully will live up to it’s potential.

Samsung have always been a major player in every corner of the electronics market with their good reliable products, whether it be the telly, the mobile phone or the computer. With the obvious popularity now of Apple’s iPad it was only a matter of time before Samsung entered that market too and with everyone trying to out-do Apple in whichever way they can, what will Samsung bring to the table.

We got our first sighting of it’s tablet from the official Samsung South Africa Twitter account, showing a 7” tablet PC next to it’s already well reviewed Galaxy S smartphone ( the obvious comparison to the iPhone/iPad relationship) So what’s it got? Available in 7”, 8” and 10” screen sizes the slate runs Android 2.2 (Froyo) and is powered with a “faster than iPad” 1.2GHz processor. It has 16GB of inbuilt storage which can be expanded to 48GB with a MicroSD slot.

With the obvious speed ability over Apple and Google’s popular OS with all it’s apps this could be a true contender for the market. We have no price details yet and no exact date but it should be available in September.

The Samsung Galaxy is S is receiving a lot of good press from it’s Super AMOLED screen, super fast processing abilities and above all its HD content. This week also saw the announcement of iPhone 4.0 and Samsung were quick to judge and slam the Cupertino’s baby’s screen, claiming it wasn’t a patch on their Galaxy S’s. Well now iPhone 4 is incoming, so to the Galaxy S, which you could essentially get in your hands by tomorrow (iPhone Pre-order starts tomorrow)

For a quick recap on the Galaxy S it has a 4” WVGA Super AMOLED touchscreen runing that wonderful Android OS. There’s also the usual suspects too, HSDPA and WiFi connectivity and a 5MP camera which is capable of shooting HD video. Couple all this with a 1GHz processor and a file extension support that will make your PC blush, this is some serious kit.

Vodafone are offering the phone on pretty much its standard new smartphone contracts. £35 a month for 24 months will get you the phone for nowt. If you only want an 18 month contract then you’re looking at £40 a month

The Tegra was the original powerhouse in the mobile world powering the soon to be Microsoft Kin Mobile phones and also that “not for Britain” PMP the Zune HD. With stiff competition from Qualcomm’s Snapdragon, mobile Intel chips and ARM, all good at what they do. TEGRA never failed to impress in its reviews and actions delivering application speed and HD video with ease.

Now Nvidia are planning to release the next TEGRA chip sometime this year, hoping to launch in conjunction with the 3rd generation of Android. Yes that’s right rather than sticking with Microsoft NVIDIA has obviously spotted the potential in Google’s OS and it’s rise in popularity in the mobile market. Co-Founder Jen-Hsun Huang has said that the future holds plenty of TEGRA powered Android phones and tablets to confirm this. He’s also gone on to point out that their main rival will be the iPad and it’s chipset the A4, currently the iPad’s chip and the planned next processor to be in the iPhone 4.0.

“The bar is pretty high for all the mobile players and they need a processor that can keep up with the A4. If not be much better than what the A4 can do because they have to take on the leader in the space.” – Huang on the Apple A4 processor

“I think the second generation Tegra has been doing incredibly well because Android is doing incredibly well. So we’re going to come to market with second-generation Tegra with the third generation Android.” Huang on Tegra and Android.

Certainly will make for a more interesting competition in the future for sure.

It was recently announced that Google wear about to update it’s fantastic Android OS to 2.2, codename Froyo, who’s release should be imminent. We’ve got some more word on its exciting new features to further expand what is not only a great OS but also one of the key players in the mobile and computing market.

Website Techcrunch had posted the details of the OS update giving an insight into what’s coming. The first thing to appear is USB tethering support. This will allow you to share yourAndroid running mobile’s 3G connection directly with your laptop(or desktop but that wouldn’t be very mobile) removing the need for a dongle or an upgrade to one with built in 3G. Secondly it will also have the ability to activate a WiFi hotspot sharing the connection wirelessly. Now on the Android market there’s apps that can do this for you but now it’s simple and easier and built straight into the OS.

With Android seemingly getting better and better with each incarnation, can Apple recreate some of it’s greatness in their next update. With the rise in Android use could the little green robot begin to take Apple’s customers. Lets wait and see.

Sorry bad joke, but when i first read about Motorola’s new novelty Android mobile, I couldn’t help but say “OHHHHHH FLIPOUT!”(a la classic Surfaris song) Anyway enough of me being a twit, the phone. Now with most phones packing the goods in terms of functionality another way to attract interest is the look, and Motorola have a funky one here with the Flipout, originally pencilled in as the “Twist”

The square body as suggested in the picture twists out to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard underneath a 2.8” screen. Now we don’t have the full specs of the phone but we are led to believe it will be powered by Android 2.1 and the image suggests it will have the MotoBlur social networking UI over it. We are also told it will have a 3.1MP camera and GPS.

With the success of Android phones this novelty phone could hit a niche market and do well providing the build quality is good and the price is reasonable. Unfortunately we don’t have a release date or price details.