Motorola Xoom Gets the Teardown Treatment

No rest for the wicked.

The iFixit team has yet to down tools after what’s turned out to be a monster week in terms of disassemblies. Following hot on the heels of the Motorola Atrix, the Samsung Galaxy S 4G, and the 15-inch MacBook Pro is the Motorola Xoom.

Officially launched earlier this week, the Xoom is the nearly-4G tablet that made such a splash at CES. Packing Nvidia’s Tegra 2 chipset and 32GB of storage, the device is a bit of a beast, and will be even more so once Motorola gets around to upgrading it with 4G support.

If you were keeping an eye out yesterday you’ll know that updating the device for 4G involves sending your tablet in to Motorola for approximately one week. The team at iFixit reports that looking inside the device, it seems as though the tablet was designed with this future upgrade in mind. 

Upgrading the 4G will involve a T5 Torx screwdriver to gain access to the circuit board, and then disconnecting of two antenna connectors, unscrewing the two Torx screws holding the board in place, and swapping it out with an 4G LTE board. It’s not a very involved process and iFixit reckons it’s something that could easily be done by a technician in a Verizon store in under ten minutes. So why you have to send it away for a week is anybody’s guess. 

4G fun aside, the tablet scored a fairly decent eight out of 10 on the repairability scale, losing points for the massive amounts of screws (57!). This $800 (if you’re going for the 4G version) tablet boasts that dual-core Tegra 2 we mentioned before, Toshiba THGBM2G8D8FBA1B NAND Flash, Samsung K4P4G154EC DRAM, Qualcomm MDM6600 supporting HSPA+ speeds of up to 14.4 Mbps, Broadcom BCM4329 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1, and FM Tuner, Hynix H8BCSOQG0MMR 2-chip memory MCP, AKM 8975 Electronic Compass and Texas Instruments 54331 Step Down SWIFT DC/DC Converter with Eco-Mode.

Android Tablets to Get iPad's 'The Daily' in Spring

When the Daily launched earlier this month, it was touted as an iPad-exclusive newspaper that would initially only be available to those who have access to an Apple tablet. Rupert Murdoch made no secret of the fact that the Daily would eventually be available on more than just the iPad but the News Corp boss implied that it would be a long time before it left the iOS platform. However, it seems the exclusivity of the iPad was particularly short-lived.

According to All Things D’s Peter Kafka, the Daily will be coming to Android tablets in the very near future. Citing inside sources, Kafka says the team over at the Daily is prepping for an Android tablet launch for the second quarter of this year.

An 8.9-inch Galaxy Tab Coming Before Summer?

Samsung’s 7-inch Galaxy Tab has already gotten itself an older brother in the form of the not-yet-released 10.1-inch version. However, Samsung’s got another Tab up its sleeve and this one is for the folks that balk at 10-inches but scoff at seven.

Rumored to be hitting sometime this summer, the 8.9-inch Galaxy Tab will sit comfortably between the original 7-inch Tab and the much larger, upcoming 10.1-inch model. Engadget cites Korean Yonhap News Agency in reporting that the 8.9-inch tablet will hit in the first half of 2011. Yonhap News said the device could launch as soon as next month. 

If the news is true (Yonhap says it received the information via phone from a Samsung spokesperson), it would flesh out the Galaxy Tab line very nicely indeed. With the 7-inch Tab sporting a 1GHz Cortex A8 and Froyo, and the 10.1-incher packing Nvidia’s Tegra 2 chipset and Honeycomb, it’ll be interesting to see the specs of this 8.9-inch model. No word on what kind of OS the middle-child Tab will be running, but we assume it will be Honeycomb and that the specs will be a little closer to that of the 10.1-inch Tab.

IE9 To Launch On March 14

We are a bit speculating here, but we have a very good reason to believe that Microsoft's new browser will launch during festivities held at SXSW on March 14.

We are a bit speculating here, but we have a very good reason to believe that Microsoft's new browser will launch during festivities held at SXSW on March 14.

Series6 PowerVR GPU Promises Up to 100x Boost

Yowza!

Gaming on smartphones is becoming increasingly popular thanks to improvements in the mobile CPU and GPU sector. While five years ago we would have stared, mouths agape, at what phones can handle today, they still don’t come close to what you can get with desktop graphics. However, Imagine Technologies says it's going to change all that.

Teenage Boy Murders Mother Over PlayStation

Tragic and sickening.

A tragic story hit the news today about a teenage boy who killed his mother after she took away his PlayStation.

Last November, the day after Thanksgiving, Rashida Anderson and her son 16-year-old son Kendall had a 90-minute argument. Rashida took away his PlayStation as punishment.

Moto: 4G Support Makes $800 Xoom Price Fair

It's the 4G you're paying for!

If you recoiled when you saw the $800 price tag Motorola has planned for its Tegra 2-powered Xoom tablet, you’re not the only one. Many people believe it’s simply too expensive for the majority of people in the market for a tablet. Still, Motorola must have had a reason to believe it could get away with attaching such a high price tag, right? Well, yes, but you might not agree with it.

Dell 2011/12 Roadmap Reveals Windows 8 Tablet

Whoops!

Dell’s already given us quite a few sexy smartphones and tablets (the Streak, the Venue Pro?) but it’s always nice to know that the company doesn’t plan on resting on its laurels. Round Rock’s 2011/beginning of 2012 roadmap for smartphones and tablets has been leaked to Windows Phone Central and if the documents are anything to go by, we’ll be seeing a few more exciting mobile devices from Dell before the year is out.

IBM Watson Hits Jeopardy to Destroy All Humans

It's not self aware... yet.

IBM designed a computer that could beat a chess player. While a computer-run chess program isn't new, it was an achievement for a program to best the best chess player in the world.

Now more than a decade later, IBM has set out to own the game show of trivia known as Jeopardy. IBM and the game show have teamed up to deliver a special charity edition of the show where the top two human Jeopardy players faced off against IBM's Watson supercomputer and program.

Samsung Shows All-new Galaxy S II Android 2.3

A new Galaxy is born.

The line of Galaxy phones has been tremendously successful for Samsung. Its use of the homegrown Hummingbird processor and great Super AMOLED screens have made it a great Android choice. Google even selected the hardware platform for its Nexus S flagship phone.

This New Android Phone Has Two Useful Displays

It looks a little bit like a DS.

Sprint teased that something big was coming and we now know that it was partnering with Kyocera Communications to bring the first dual-touchscreen Android smartphone, called the Kyocera Echo.

The Echo features two high-resolution 3.5-inch WVGA touchscreen displays connected by a patent-pending "pivot hinge" that enables the two displays to operate independently, side-by-side or combined to form an oversized 4.7-inch (diagonally) integrated display.

Intel's Sandy Bridge E-Series in Q4 2011?

Intel is reportedly launching the Core i7 9-series Extreme Edition sometime this summer before unleashing the Sandy Bridge E-Series for enthusiasts later this year.

A recent report indicates that Intel's upcoming enthusiast-class Sandy Bridge E-Series processors have been delayed by at least a whole quarter, now slated for a Q4 2011 release.

MeeGo Drops Netbooks

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop may have questioned the future of MeeGo in his burning platform memo and covered the OS at least with uncertainty.

What app
ears to be certain however, is that the Netbook version of MeeGo is canceled. Developer Andrew Wafaa, who had been working on Smeegol, a repackaged UI for Moblin and MeeGo based on OpenSUSE, said that the MeeGo Netbook interface is essentially dead.

Hot Apps of 2011, Week 6

Looking for useful programs? Here are some recommendations from the Tom's Guide community for the fifth week of 2011.

Hot apps is a weekly rundown of the most popular apps according to our sister site, Tom’s Guide. The following software are ranked from first to tenth by total downloads over the last week, making them community picks.

Unless otherwise specified, all apps featured are free, and run on Microsoft Windows 7, Vista, and XP.

Speccy. This system information app shows what’s inside your computer (CPU, RAM, motherboard,  graphics, etc.), dividing component-specific details into sections. An easy-to-navigate interface and the ability to pull S.M.A.R.T. diagnostic data for disk drives are among Speccy’s pluses. New entry.

7stacks. Alastria Software’s utility emulates the “Stacks” ability of Mac OS X, grouping document and app shortcuts into easily accessible pull-up menus. Despite the name, 7stacks also runs on Vista and XP. Down from #1.

MusicBee. Find Windows Media Player too limiting and iTunes too slow? MusicBee presents itself as a viable alternative, with powerful tagging and automated album art assignment features. This media player manager also syncs music with a variety of portable devices. New entry.

Kaspersky Rescue Disk 10. This collection of utilities from Kaspersky is designed to run off a bootable CD or flash drive, meaning users can safely cleanse the filth from their systems. It’s a great antidote for PCs thoroughly compromised by viruses and malware. New entry.

GetGo Download Manager. Only GetGo’s ability to grab videos or music from popular sites like YouTube and Facebook makes it stand out from the innumerable download managers available online. Down from #2.

AppRemover. This utility goes all Stalin on unused and unwanted software, purging the remnants of apps too hard-headed from normal uninstall procedures. Useful for those who want to minimize the load on their system as much as possible. New entry.

Smart FLV Converter. FLV files are popular online, the method of serving audio-visual content for heavyweights like YouTube. Smart FLV Converter turns these files into formats usable on computers and portable gadgets. Down from #3.

Yoono Desktop. This app helps users manage their various online accounts. Post and receive content from services like Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, and even YouTube. Down from #4.

SEO Toolkit 3.0. Trellian’s tool collection is meant for budding entrepreneurs. It helps website owners ensure their sites are optimized for maximum visibility on popular search engines like Google and Yahoo.New entry.

Hornil StylePix. A Photoshop-clone available for free, Hornil StylePix is for image manipulators and graphic designers with limited budgets. Down from #6.

Acer Announces Nvidia-Based HDMI 3D Display

This monitor features a built-in Nvidia 3D Vision IR emitter, active shutter glasses, HDMI and dual-link inputs.

Acer announced today the GN245HQ, the world's first monitor to support Nvidia's stereoscopic technology over an HDMI cable. This means the device can handle input from 3D-equipped Blu-ray players, the PlayStation 3 and other HDMI-based 3D devices while also supporting both the standard dual-link DVI and HDMI connections from your Nvidia 3D Vision desktop.

HP's New TouchSmart 610, 9300, Reclines

HP revealed two TouchSmart PCs with a 60-degree reclining display.

Monday HP introduced two all-in-one PCs sporting a 60-degree reclining display that seemingly offers the ease of using a tablet while sporting the underlying hardware of a desktop.

Both the TouchSmart 610 Consumer PC and TouchSmart 9300 Elite Business PC feature a 23-inch 1080p HD LED backlit LCD screen that reclines up to 60 degrees. The screen also tilts forward up to five degrees and offers advanced multitouch technology for accurate responses no matter the screen's position.

Motorola Xoom Super Bowl Ad Pokes at Apple

Think Different... from the rest.

Are you ready for the Super Bowl? Even if you're not into sports at all, it's the biggest event of the year for television advertising.

Motorola's got itself an ad spot and it intends to tell all of the viewing America that it has the next great tablet device in the Xoom. We'll get to see it in its entirely on Sunday, but Motorola is teasing us with what looks like a very sharp poke at Apple's present day product philosophy – and its infamous 1984 commercial.

Intel: Use A Smartphone, Live Longer

Intel sponsored a study that suggests that we could use smartphones to extend our life span.

This particular example relates to healthy sleep: The researchers found that smartphones can make us aware of poor quality sleep, which is generally tied to cases of common cold or, in more pro-longed scenarios, premature death.

"People who get poor quality sleep have higher rates of cardiac disease," said Jared Bauer, a member of the research group at the University of Washington. Sleep is about as important as anything, but it's one of the few biological functions where you would see people actively try to resist it. As a culture, we resist it."

Bauer and his team designed a research app for Android phones, which tells the user when it is time to take a nap, when it would be good idea to go for a jog, or when the user could have a coffee or a beer. The application assumes that an activity at the wrong time of the day could impact healthy sleep at night.  Bauer hopes that the app can impact users and make them think twice about certain activities: "Based on our literature, we found that caffeine can affect your sleep up to 14 hours before you go to sleep," Bauer said. "So if you have caffeine 2 hours after you're awake, you start getting to the edge of what could affect your next sleep."

There was no information whether ShutEye will become available to general users.    

Google Accuses Microsoft Bing of Stealing Search

Let's get ready to rumble!

Uh oh, this could be the clash of the titans here with Google and Microsoft going head to head over the issue of stolen search engine results.

A report on Search Engine Land, which was published with help input from Google, details what the search giant believes to be Microsoft's Bing copying some of the search results turned up by Google.

Google Chrome Surges Past 10% Market Share

For January, Net Applications estimates that Chrome now holds 10.7% of the market, up 0.72 points over December. Over the past year, chrome more than doubled its share once again (up from 5.22% in January 2009). IE, on the other hand, is surrendering share on an even faster pace and was down 1.08 points to 56.0% compared to December.

Motorola XOOM Super Bowl Ad Jabs At Apple

Motorola jabs at Apple's famous Macintosh ad shown during the Super Bowl back in 1984.

This week Motorola released a sneak peak of its Super Bowl trailer promoting the upcoming Android-based XOOM tablet. The new clip is more than likely just a simple teaser for the actual trailer airing during the game next weekend. Nevertheless, the message is clear: it's time for more choices.