My Own Tablet Thinking At The Moment, Part Five

It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these.

This one will be brief:

Just when you don't want it. 15 minutes of Windows updates after rebooting in the press room. #idf14

— Chippy (@chippy) September 10, 2014

That is why I’ve crossed all Windows tablets off my list.

I’ve been beaten up by too many Windows Updates and other Windows shit to want to ever risk having that in a tablet.

I’m otherwise still too confused to even list any tablet candidates yet.

Previously here:

My Own Tablet Thinking At The Moment, Part Four
My Own Tablet Thinking At The Moment, Part Three
My Own Tablet Thinking At The Moment, Part Two
My Own Tablet Thinking At The Moment

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T-Mobile Is Badass

John Legere used “shit,” “bullshit,” “moron,” “fuck,” and “fucker” in his webcast today. Goddam, this is a man with balls.

I liked what I heard. T-Mobile is shaking the shit up in the cellphone industry. It’s long overdue.

To see what he was announcing today, read: T-Mobile makes big Wi-Fi push on heels of iPhone 6’s Wi-Fi calling. I was too busy watching to take my own notes.

Here in The Hood, Boost Mobile has been the big thing. But I’ve lately noticed action heading towards T-Mobile.

Teclast P98 Air Gets A Review

Over at PC Online, which means it’s really not much of one [Google Translate].

More time spent on the construction of the shell than on things like performance or photo samples. And photo samples matter here because the second selling point behind the A80 CPU is a 13MP back camera.

AnTuTu 5.0 Beta 1 reports a score in the 58,000-range. Hmph. I’m still skeptical but I have to say that the long video of the Onda V989 — which also uses the Allwinner A80 CPU — impressed me.

Hisense: Rockchip 3288-Based iPad Mini Clone

This is the Hisense Sero 8 Pro and marks the third company offering such a tablet, following Five Technology’s iFive Mini 4 and Pipo’s P8.

Retina-class screen with five-point multitouch, Rockchip 3288 CPU at 1.GHz, 2GBs RAM, 16GBs storage, 2MP front and 5MP back cameras, 4,500 mAh battery, Android 4.4. The key point is that it claims to be the thinnest such tablet, just 6.35mm. No word on a microSD card slot yet.

1Pad and PadNews have identical articles [Google Translate, Google Translate].

This tablet will be sold in Europe, not China, so it’ll be interesting to see if it gets any further press or future reviews.

Intel’s New Android Tablet Reference Design

Upping the Ante on Android

Any device shipped via the Intel Reference Design for Android program will get guaranteed updates within 2 weeks of an AOSP update. We are committed to providing that for 2 years post-device launch. This allows end-users to experience the latest version of Android and remain current with important OS updates. To be sure, it’s a big investment, but big investments in software aren’t new to Intel.

Our friends at Google appreciate it too. “It’s exciting to see Intel bring their years of expertise in reference designs to Android in order provide high-quality Android tablets and speed up time-to-market for manufacturers,” said Hiroshi Lockheimer, VP of Engineering for Android, Google. “The result of this program will be devices powered by Intel’s technologies, together with an operating system that is up-to-date and includes popular apps from Google such as Chrome, Maps and YouTube, offering a great overall user experience.”

It sounds good, but what screen shapes and sizes? I’ve asked in a Comment there if tablet makers will be forced into homogenization with 16:9 and 16:10 aspect ratio screens.

It must also be noted this has little to do with when tablet owners will get updates. As readers here know, firms — Teclast and Onda, to name just two — tend to slather their own UI over Android as well as proprietary improvements (like Teclast’s split-screening). And just because Intel will provide two years of updates doesn’t mean the tablet makers will honor that.

Reader Alert: Hit “Older Posts”

This blog’s template sticks ten posts at a time on the front.

Today is one of those rare days when I’ll be doing more than ten posts in a day.

So to see everything, when getting to the bottom of the scroll, hit the “Older posts” link.

iPhone 6 Plus: No 32GB Version

These are the options and prices for an unlocked iPhone 6 Plus:

And it doesn’t matter if you choose a subsidized version from a carrier.

There’s just no 32GB version at all. Yet the base model is 16GBs.

This is clearly naked evil. Apple wants unlocked buyers to spring for US$849. Had they made the base model 32GBs, it would have upset their greedy spreadsheet by giving people enough storage not to go further.

Same-day update: It’s the same with the iPhone 6. The iPhone 5s is 16 or 32GBs. The iPhone 5c is now 8GBs only. 8GBs is appalling. Got greed, Apple?

The NFC Hits The Fan

With the Mi 4 phone, Xiaomi didn’t include NFC as it did in prior phones, claiming that its user statistics showed it wasn’t being used.

When Apple announced NFC in the iPhone 6-series yesterday, I just knew something would erupt in China about Xiaomi dropping NFC. And I was right.

The first Weibo communiqué:

Apple Gets Satirized In China

Weibo communiqué:

Enough of it makes sense to be funny and worth re-publishing here.

Teclast Admits Existence Of X98 Air 3G

But doesn’t really explain much of it in a Weibo communiqué:

The render is the same as seen yesterday, so I’m not running it here.

Previously here:

Teclast Leaks New X98 Air 3G