Idolian just announced that they were working on a new firmware for the iDolPad. Round about May they are planning to update this tablet to Android 4.0. They also plan to release 4.0 updates for their other tablets, too.

It’s shipping with Android 2.3 Gingerbread, and that’s pretty decent. I’ve used it on a number of tablets, and it’s  significant improvement over its predecessors. Still, I’m looking forward to  Android 4.0.

I’ve got a 4.0 tablet on my desk at the moment. It’s the Skypad Alpha 2, and it’s been running a beta release for the past couple weeks. I see  number of features that I like, including the taskbar long the bottom of the screen, the “recent apps” menu option, and a generally more tablet friendly interface. Fewer menus cover the entire screen, nd with ICS it’s a lot easier to do bsic things like turning on the Wifi without having to leave an app. (You might snicker at that, but Android is chock full of annoying little hindrances like that.)

Idolian

$99 iDolpad to Get Android 4.0 in May

Amazon now offers country-specific info for the Kindle Touch, just like they do with the Kindle DX, K3, and K4. Curiously enough, only the Kindle Touch Wifi is showing the info, not the 3G model. The country listings include Spain, Germany, and the UK, and that raises curious question about the local Kindle Stores. I’ve checked the UK and Germany sites, and the Kindle Touch is still not listed.

Update: I have confirmation from my pr contact with Amazon. It’s happened. They really decide to start shipping the Kindle Touch outside the US.

Absent an announcement, I’m going to assume that this might be an error. Amazon usually makes a big deal of their expansions, and this one occurred with nary a firework. I’ve queried Amazon and I’m waiting to hear from them. I will update with their response.

Amazon

Kindle Touch Now Available Internationally

I’ve just found the product page for the refurbished Kindle Fire, and Amazon is selling it for $180, or 10% off the price of a new one. That’s not much of  discount, but the turnaround time is  surprise. I wouldn’t have expected the KF to show up as a refurb for at least a few more months.

So how many do you think have been returned? I know of at least a half dozen people who were dissatisfied with it and sent it back.

Amazon

Kindle Fire Now Available as a Refurb – $180

No details have been leaked on the specs or release date, but this does appear to be another 10″ tablet with a pair of cameras. The manufacturer was listed as Wistron, a Taiwan company who is  subcontractor for  lot of the major brands (think Foxconn, only without the scandal).

There’s speculation that this tablet might be revealed at MWC, which is coming up in  few weeks. But I don’t see that happening; there’s already a new Transformer in the works and this isn’t it. Most likely this is the 3rd generation device, and that means we might not see it until the fall.

via Liliputing

New Asus eeePad Transformer Leaked in China

It looks like the Chinese blog that posted the original photo is being sued for stealing the part. It’s not clear who is suing the blog or why (language difficulties), but it looks like the company who supplied the part may have panicked over the leak.They probably don’t want Apple to think they leaked it on purpose.

I’m not sure what they hope to accomplish; the leak happened 6 months ago. Heck, suing over the leak is more damaging than the leak itself; it confirms the accuracy of the original story.

Apple Supplier Now Suing a Blog Over Leaked iPad 3 Parts

Well, The Bookseller followed up on this and they have some stats for the UK Kindle Store, and the news is mixed.

This is the oldest of Amazon’s local Kindle Stores, so it offers an interesting snapshot of how the Kindle is doing. Amazon reported that they sold 5 times as many Kindle ebooks in Q4 2011 vs the same period in 2010. They also saw  doubling of Kindle sales in that quarter (compared to a 177% worldwide).

Those numbers are awfully thin, but a 5-fold increase in ebook sales is impressive. It’s also more than anyone else is willing to claim. But the doubling of device sales is another matter. You would have expected to see  bump in sales over the Christmas season, and given that the new Kindle launched in the UK on October that would also account for a spike. Put the 2 together and the increase isn’t as impressive as it first appeared.

So Amazon saw a huge jump in ebook sales but only a moderate increase in device sales. As I said, the news is mixed.

The Bookseller

Amazon Saw a 5-Fold Increase in UK Ebook Sales

In fact, I’d say that it’s based on exactly the same hardware as my Kyobo eReader. They’re not just similar; both Kyobo and Koobe are using one of Qualcomm’s reference designs, and running their own reading app on top of the Qualcomm provided Android 2.3 Gingerbread OS.

Aside from the ebook format support, both ereaders will have the same basic specs: 5.7″ Mirasol screen, 1GHz SnapDrgon CPU, capacitive touchscreen, microSD card slot, Wifi, and so-so battery life.

This ereaader is named after Jin Yong, China’s best-selling living author, aand it comes preloaded with Jin Yong’s acclaimed 15 novel set (compiled in 36 volumes). It’s tied to the Koobe ebookstore, which includes thousands of novels, comics, interactive e-books, animated picture books and magazines.

Koobe, like Shanda, uses their own ebook format (KEB), and it doesn’t appear that this ereader supports Epub. But we won’t know that for sure until this one ships, and there’s no mention of a price or release date.

Qualcomm now has 4 partners (in 3 markets in Asia) and they are all running on a total of 2 pieces of hardware. Hanvon has one, and the other 3 partners all use the other design. Why are they doing this, I wonder?

I’m not sure yet, so let me think about it.

Koobe

New Mirasol eReader Launched in Taiwan

Now, the XO-1.75 isn’t the XO-3, but it does share a lot of details. The over all design of the motherboards is the same, so the power consumption should be similar. But you don’t have to take my word for it; check out the following video. It was shot in Cambridge, MA, in early January.

That last is an interesting detail, because the weak sunlight at that northern latitude added an extra challenge for the power system. That panel wouldn’t be nearly as efficient as if you tested it in July. And it still provided enough power to run the XO-1.75.

That’s an interesting video, but they don’t show much, do they? So let me show you the video I got today.

This next video was shot in the DC area by a member of the local OLPC club. Micheal Lee tried to duplicate the earlier video but had only mixed success. Due to the weather and season, the 10W solar panel wasn’t enough. He had to switch to a 20W panel before he could get the XO-1.75 running without the battery installed.

Even if he couldn’t duplicate the earlier video, it’s still a neat trick. He also links to another video in his post.

But this video also does something else, and that is puncture the hype. The XO-3 tablet was shown off with a solar panel built into the cover. That panel is estimated to be around 4W, which is never going to be enough to power the tablet directly. It’s enough to slowly charge the tablet, yes. If you leave it unused for long enough you might get  full battery charge.

But really, that solar panel on the XO-3 cover is just an affectation. The real power is going to come from somewhere else.

image By curiouslee

Running an XO-1.75 on a Solar Panel

Here’s the list of improvements:

Improvements over system software version 1.0.03.11140:
•Resolves an issue where using a very short page flick to turn a page may accidentally select words and start the dictionary lookup

Improvements provided by previous software versions and included in version 1.0.04.12210:
•Improves touch panel functionality
•Improves stability when searching the dictionary
•Improves Internet connectivity
•Improves Digital Rights Management (DRM) contents compatibility
•Resolves an issue where the Reader is unable to download some e-book files

I cannot say that I’ve seen any of those bugs, but then again I have a hacked Sony Reader. I’ve long since stopped using Sony’s software. All my reading on the Sony has been in the Kindle app and CoolReader, and I haven’t had any trouble.

But if you’re not inclined to hack your Sony Reader Wifi, you’ll probably want to install the update. A number of owners have already tried it, and they’ve been posting their impressions over at MobileRead. They had experienced some of the bugs before, and some have remarked that they’ve been fixed.

You can find the update on the Sony website. Like the last one, it requires Windows.

via

New Firmware out for the Sony Reader Wifi

This 7″ tablet is the brain child the Plasma Active team, and it’s going to be the first commercial tablet ship with Plasma Active interface running on top of an an open source Linux-based OS.

It’s going to be running on basic hardware. In addition to the 7″ capacitive touchscreen, the Spark tablet has a 1GHz AMLogic CPU, 400MHz Mali GPU, 4GB Flash storage, SD card slot, and Wifi.

The specs are rather light compared to most mainstream tablets in the same price range, but that’s no surprise. At best this is a niche tablet, and you just have to accept that they come with  premium attached. And what  niche it will be. This tablet is particularly going to appeal to open source enthusiasts.

Unlike Android, the Spark tablet tablet is going to ship on  truly open source platform.  The goal is to have every scrap of software released s open source (probably already true), and that is something you can never say about Android.

In addition to the tablet, Plasma Active is also planning a content store where developers will sell and give away apps for the platform. Users will also be able to download free ebooks from Project Gutenberg.

ASeigo via Liliputing

€200 Spark Tablet Coming Soon – Runs Linux