PocketBook Announces New PocketBook A 7″ Tablet

PocketBook International recently introduced a new tablet called the PocketBook A 7?, which is essentially a smaller version of the PocketBook A10 that was shown at IFA back in early September.

As the name implies, the new PocketBook tablet has a 7? screen. In fact, it has the same screen size and resolution as the Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet, but with a TFT screen instead.

The PocketBook A 7? runs a newer version of Gingerbread (Android 2.3.7) with some tweaks added by PocketBook. It comes with PocketBook’s ereading app for Adobe DRM support as well as support for several other ebook formats. It also comes with 47 ABBYY Lingvo dictionaries, a collection of 100 pre-installed classic ebooks, and supports text-to-speech in multiple languages.

According to the press release, the outer casing is made of white plastic and the back has a soft touch coating. One thing that makes the PocketBook A 7? unique is it has some added hardware buttons for turning pages. The buttons are also backlit.

7? TFT display with 1024 x 600 resolution and 262,000 colors.Capacitive touchscreen.Runs Android 2.3.7.1 Ghz TI3621 processor (single core).512 MB RAM.4GB storage (2GB available).MicroSD cards up to 32GB.Micro USB port.Speaker, headphone jack, microphone.Accelerometer.2MP front facing camera.Wi-Fi 802.11 (b/g/n).Text-to-speech.Battery life: 6.5 hours average, 6 hours video playback.Supported formats: EPUB (ADOBE DRM), PDF (ADOBE DRM), EPUB, PDF, FB2, TXT, DJVU, RTF, HTML, DOC, DOCX, JPEG, BMP, PNG, MP3, WAV, AVI, MKV, MP4.Dimensions: 207 x 131 x 14 mmWeight: 410 grams (14.5 ounces)

The PocketBook A 7? comes with some pre-installed apps, including Office Suite Pro v.5, CoolReader, Dolphin HD browser, Adobe Flash, a HomeWork application for teachers and students, and apparently the Android Market (it mentions “Android Market” more than once in the press release but that seems kind of far-fetched; it’s probably a misinterpretation of the translation).

There’s no word yet on a release date or price (it’s rather strange to announce a device without giving either). The PocketBook A10 that was shown off back in September still isn’t available either, at least not in the US, although a student from Eastern High School left a comment last week about their school being the first in North America to have students test the PocketBook A10 for education purposes as a textbook replacement.

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The Best 7″ Tablet of 2012 Could be the Asus Eee Pad MeMo 370T

At CES 2012, Asus unveiled what has a chance to be one of the best 7? tablets of the year, the Asus Eee Pad MeMo. The Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet better watch their backs.

What makes the Asus Eee Pad MeMo so attractive is the combination of high-end specs and low price, not to mention the fact that Asus is one of the top tablet manufacturers thanks to the success of their line of Asus Transformer tablets.

The exact specs and release date for the Asus Eee Pad MeMo haven’t been finalized just yet. It is expected to be released in the second quarter of 2012—so sometime in April to June.

Here are the early details Asus revealed about the Eee Pad MeMo at CES:

7? IPS display with 1280 x 800 resolution (the Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet have 1024 x 600 resolution screens).NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core processor.Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich with full Android Market and Google apps.Memory: 16GB plus Asus web storage.1GB RAM.Wireless: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, SIM card slot (maybe).8MP rear-facing camera.Micro HDMI port.Micro USB port.Micro SD card slot.Audio jack, speaker.Battery: 8.5 hours video playback.Weight: 400 grams (14.1 ounces).Price: $249.

The early specs say it all: the Asus Eee Pad MeMo has better hardware than any other 7? tablet, and the $249 price is the icing on the cake. Hopefully nothing major changes upon release. The quad-core processor, high resolution screen, and price are enough to unseat most competitors alone.

CNET seems to think highly of the Asus Eee Pad MeMo too. It was among 10 gadgets from CES 2012 to receive CNET’s “Best of CES” award.

I can’t wait to get my hands on one of these, especially since the Asus Transformer is my favorite tablet. Stay tuned for more Asus Eee Pad MeMo news and reviews.

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Progress Being Made on CM7 for Nook Tablet (Video)

Good news for Nook Tablet owners. A lot of progress is being made on getting custom ROMs up and running on the Nook Tablet ever since devs cracked the Nook Tablet’s locked bootloader.

The devs at XDA have even managed to get CM7 to run on the Nook Tablet, although there are still a few key things that need to be fixed such as Wi-Fi and sleep mode.

Surprisingly most all of the other key features are working: the touchscreen, orientation sensor, sound, microSD card, and even hardware video acceleration.

From a software standpoint, it is running the full tablet version of Cyanogen Mod 7, complete with root access and Google Apps. CM7 is a custom version of Android 2.3 Gingerbread. CM7 ROMs have worked on the Nook Color for a long time.

The main things that still need to be fixed before Nook Tablet CM7 ROMs become available to the masses is Wi-Fi (it turns on but won’t connect) and sleep mode (if it goes to sleep it won’t wake up!). The brightness control is another thing that isn’t yet functional.

It’s good to see this much progress being made on custom ROMs for the Nook Tablet but the one I’m really looking forward to is a CM9 ROM. CM9 is based on Android 4.0 and provides a more advanced and intuitive tablet-specific interface. Still, CM7 is a significant step up from the Nook Tablet’s stock software.

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