It is now the world’s fourth largest computer maker, China based Lenovo, who’s ready to take on Apple‘s iPad. It has launched its new tablet computer called LePadto capture the Chinese tablet market and also plans to launch two or three more such tablets by 2011 end.

Lenovo LePad is an Android 2.2 based tablet that comes in two versions – WiFi and 3G. At the moment, it is available only in China but Lenovo plans to market it internationally from June 2011. This chinese tablet costs 3,499 yuan / (for a 16GB version) which is quite competitive to Apple‘s iPad.

Owing to 800,000 iPad sales in China last year and the estimate that 2.5 million tablet PCs will be sold in the country this year, Lenovo is pretty excited about the tablet market and hopes to grab atleast 30% of the market share. Company’s VP, Chen Xudong said,

Company [Lenovo] plans to capture than 30 per cent of China’s tablet computer market during the next two to three years. Lenovo’s tablet computers will run between 5,000 and 8,000 applications by the end of the year. Like personal computers, different users will have different demands for tablet computers. The LePad is the first major launch since the business group’s founding, we are confident in it and will continue to enrich its product line with better performing products and a richer selection of styles.

LePad was unveiled in Jan this year, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. It sports a 10.6 inch screen and as noted above, uses WiFi / 3G to connect to the internet. Pre-orders have already begun for Chinese consumers.

XOOM – Motorola’s first Android 3.0 Honeycomb based tablet is scheduled to arrive with Wi-Fi awesomeness on March 27. The original version was releasedon Feb 24 last month. XOOM Wi-Fi will be available at Amazon.com, Best Buy, Costco, Wallmart, Staples, Radioshack and selected Sam’s Club stores for $599.

The new XOOM Wi-Fi can be compared, at least when it comes to value for money, with the iPad 2 because it’s packed with some seriously good features. It has 1GB RAM, sensors like Accelerometer, Ambient Light Sensor and Barometer, 5MP rear camera and a VGA front camera, Wi-Fi (of course) and 32 GB of internal memory.

If you are looking for an iPad 2 alternatives, Motorola XOOM Wi-Fi deserves to be in the list. Sure there are others like Samsung Galaxy Tab and Dell Streak, but they are a little tacky to be compared to an iPad 2. Presently, Motorola XOOM seems to be the only decent choice. However, I would like to make a note here that there aren’t many apps designed for tablets to choose from, specially for Android 3.0 Honeycomb. 

Samsung, continuing the legacy of Galaxy S,  has now announced its much anticipated Andriod 2.3 Gingerbread based successor – The Samsung Galaxy S II. It sports a 4.27" super AMOLED 800×480 res display, 8MP back-camera and surprisingly thin form factor with thickness only 0.85cm which is even slimmer than the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc by more than 0.2mm.

Key features:

• 1 GHz Dual-core processor
• Android 2.3 – Gingerbread
• TouchWIZ 4.0 
• 4.3 inch AMOLED screen with 800×480 WVGA resolution
• Dimensions: 12.5 x 6.6 x 0.8cm
• Weight: 117gm
• Camera: 8MP (Back), 2MP (Front)
• Connectivity: WiFi / HSPA+ (upto 21Mbps)
• Assisted GPS, Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Bluetooth 3.0 and NFC chip.

Apart from excellent hardware, I think TouchWIZ 4.0 deserves a mention here. It will offer added fuctionality in the form of three new hubs – Game Hub where users can download hi-def games from Gameloft, Music Hub where they can access over 12 million music tracks from 7digital and Reader Hub where they can access 2.2 million books, 2,000 global and local newspapers, and 2,300 magazines.

GALAXY S II is a natural and powerful evolution of GALAXY S. Building on the phenomenal success of the original Samsung GALAXY S, we are proud to unveil the ultimate smartphone. Consumers no longer have to contain themselves – the Samsung GALAXY S II allows them to design their own smart lives.

Samsung expects to ship Galaxy S II by the end of this month. Pricing is not yet disclosed.

(Photo: Bonnie Cha/CNET)

After about a month since its first appearance on Dell India website, the Android based Dell Venue is now available for purchase. This smartphone is priced at Rs. 28,500. It is currently available on Flipkart and so we can hope that it hits the stores soon.

Key specifications of Dell Venue:

• AMOLED Display With Curved Corning Gorilla Glass
• Android 2.2 OS
• 8MP Camera With LED Flash & Autofocus
• 1GHz QSD8250 Snapdragon chipset
• AGPS, EDGE, WiFi, 3G
• Multi-touch features
• Bar shaped form-factor
• MicroSD memory card supported up to 32 GB
• E-Compass for travel navigation
• 1400mAh battery

I’ll be keeping this really short. Google Instant has finally landed up on Android and iOS devices. However, this feature is available only on Android 2.2 ‘Froyo’ and iOS4 platforms (as of now).

The functionality and use is exactly similar to that of the desktop version. Once you start typing, the predictions begin to appear. You can click the search button to skip predictions and get actual search results. Google Instant can be toggled off/on at anytime and works best on 3G or glitch-free WiFi networks. If you’re on a slow connection or the one where every kb counts, I’d suggest you turn off the feature.

The Android Operating System has been gaining momentum in regards to popular smartphone operating systems. The Google creation is sought after by many for its versatility and use of Google tools. Currently, two popular smartphone models that run on this system are Samsung’s Galaxy S and the HTC Desire.

The display of the Galaxy S measures 4 inches with an 800 by 480 pixel Super AMOLED display. The HTC Desire comes with a smaller display, measuring 3.7 inches. It also has a similar resolution of 800 by 480 pixels however; it is just an AMOLED display. The screen found on the Galaxy S is 20% brighter and also requires 20% less power than previous models. Another aspect of the Galaxy S is that is 80% less sunlight reflective. Overall, in regards to display, the Galaxy S clearly emerges as the victor.

The storage capacity of both phones also varies. Both phones do have the option of expandable storage but both phones come with different storage space. The HTC Desire comes with storage space of 521 MB. The Samsung Galaxy S clearly outdoes the Desire by offering users a choice of either an 8 GB storage option or 16 GB storage.

The HTC Desire comes with a camera that offers an LED flash. This is better than the Galaxy S which doesn’t have a flash, making low light photography difficult. However, in all other aspects, the camera built in the Galaxy S is clearly better than that of the Desire. The designers of the Galaxy S were forward thinking and anticipated a Skype app for Android in the near future. Therefore, they place a VGA front facing camera in their phone. Additionally, the Galaxy S also can record video at 30fps.

In the aspect of connectivity, the Samsung Galaxy S is tops here. While both phones do have the same Wi-Fi connectivity, the Samsung Galaxy S does come with a better version of Wi-Fi. It comes with n-Wi-Fi for better connectivity. Another plus is that the Galaxy S comes with Bluetooth 3.0 while the HTC Desire has Bluetooth 2.1.

Last month, India’s IT Minister, Kapil Sibal demonstrated the country’s very own Android based tablet ‘Shakshat’ priced at a mere $35 (1600 approx.). Recent news is coming in that HCL Technologies have been given the contract by the Indian Government to manufacture 100,000 units of these low-cost tablets to be readied before January 10, 2011, the official launch date decided by the government.

Although HCL Technologies have earned their fame in the sub-continent for the most part, the quality of devices has not yet impressed major user base. But looking at the sole purpose of the Indian government to uplift the rural academical institutions by providing latest technologies at low cost, little quality was bound to be compromised.

But then again, it is a 30 crore project and the tablet looks decent enough in the hands-on demo by Kapil Sibal (video below). Now some basic tech-specs of Sakshat:

• It will be available in 3 versions (5 inch, 7 inch and 9 inch) with only the 7 inch version available in the first phase.
• Android OS
• 2 GB RAM
• Wi-Fi
• Camera
• USB port
• 2 Watt power system (for efficient performance in areas with poor electricity supply).
• Pre-installed apps like media player, internet browser, PDF reader, etc.

Hands-on video demo of the $35 Android tablet – ‘Sakshat’

Although there is an official Twitter app for Android (Twitter for Andriod), fans have been eagerly waiting for something awesome from the Tweetdeck team. In case you don’t know, Tweetdeck is one of the best Twitter client for desktops, the iPhone, and the iPad. And Tweetdeck not just supports Twitter but also Facebook, Myspace, LinkedIn, Google Buzz and Foursquare.

Tweetdeck, describing the app’s features, said,

Well, for starters, we have not just taken the well-trodden path of pulling together some basic screens and calling it an app. TweetDeck has been totally built from the ground up with a new approach. It’s still TweetDeck, with a column-based layout as you’d expect, but we have pushed the boundaries of what you should expect from an app in several ways:

Blended columns, Smooth slick UI, Clever composing, key features at your fingertips, Quick access to favorite friends and more…

The app is currently in beta and is not available in the Android Marketplace but you can still download it by signing up here. You will soon receive an email with the download links and instructions to install it on your mobile device. If you are running Android, the app is more than worth a try.

If you are an ardent Android follower, you might as well be had a hell of a week. After much anticipation, the Android 2.2 (Froyo) update is now finally being rolled out for Nexus One users. And that brings in better performance, Flash support and much awaited WiFi tethering.

Possibilities are that you might not have received the Froyo over-the-air update for your Nexus One which may actually pop-up anytime now. However, for the impatient ones, there is a workaround to get the update earlier. DS pointed out to follow these instructions mentioned in an Android developer forum to install the Android 2.2 update.

We will keep up with the updates! So, Subscribe to us and follow us on Twitter.

Few minutes ago, Google unleashed Google TV at the Google I/O conference held at San Fran, California. Google TV is something that’s going to be taken really seriously by the company. Google surely sees a huge opportunity in 4 billion TV users worldwide. Considering the luck Google had with 1 billion Internet users and 2 billion mobile users, it’s obvious for the giant to eye on something even more larger.

Google flipped out some statistics related to TV users around the globe. According to the stats, people in US have increased TV usage more than ever to 5 hours/day and the total money spend on TV advertisements hovers roughly around $70 billion. Of course Google aims to capture more eyeballs to their advertisements, it’s got something to offer too.

Google claims to offer seamless replacement for the traditional TV systems in your house. You just need to connect your existing TV cables with a special Google TV device (manufactured by Sony) and you are good to go. With Google TV, it’s more of watching TV than searching for programs. It takes personalization to another level. The hardware for Google TV will include a keyboard and a mouse. Have an Android phone? Sure that’ll come in handy. You can control your TV with multiple Android phones. Google TV runs Andriod 2.1 and has Google Chrome as a browser.

Image courtesy: TechCrunch

The devices will be specialized TVs and Blu-ray players manufactured by Sony with inbuilt Google TV facility, powered by Intel Atom Processors. Thanks to Android OS, you can run Android apps on your TV. Google TV comes with a new SDK as well. And lastly YouTube’s come up with YouTube Leanback to optimize your TV experience.

Google expects to roll out Google TV in Fall 2010. 

UPDATE: Although Google is lip-locked about the price, chances are that once you pay for the hardware, the service will be COMPLETELY FREE.