Given the past failures of tablets, nobody believed that a company could sold 1 million tablets until Apple did. Well, thanks to Apple for re-inventing the tablet designing, marketing and sales. But don’t think that other technology companies will leave the tablet market for Apple. Now that tablet market as be awakened by Apple, every company is get ready to put on in the market by fall. And so is Archos, one of first companies to put Android OS on tablet. Archos is lining up 5 Android tablets to challenge the Apple iPad.

Archos Android tablets

Archos Android tablets

Archos carries the distinction of being one of the first manufacturers to produce an Android tablet. Now, it seems it’s gunning to be the manufacturer with the largest stable of Android tablets.
Today, Archos revealed its plans to deliver no fewer than five new Android-based tablets in 2010. According to the company, all of its tablets are scheduled to be released about September and October, and each it promises to ship each tablet with Android 2.2 installed. Here’s the lineup:

Archos 101

With a cost of about $300, the Archos 101 is the company’s top-of-the-line Android tablet. It has a capacitive 10.1-inch touch screen and measures half an inch thick, making its comparison against the Apple iPad all-too-easy. It it powered by a 1GHz processor and includes a HDMI port for outputting 720p video. The 101 also has USB and Bluetooth connections for tethering. It has a front-facing VGA camera that is compatible with preloaded video chat apps. It comes in two capacities–8GB and 16GB, with the 16GB running $50 extra.
Archos 70
The Archos 70 seems to be an uncompromising version of the Archos 7 Home Tablet. Its touch screen is capacitive, rather than resistive, it has a front-facing VGA camera, and its Mini-HDMI port let you to output video to a TV. The Archos 70 will set you back about $275 for an 8GB model, or $350 for 250GB.
Archos 43
If you’ve caught on the the new Archos naming scheme, you’ve probably guessed that the Archos 43 uses a 4.3-inch screen. Unlike the higher-end tablets, the 43′s screen uses a less-responsive resistive touch technology. To make up for it, Archos threw a camera on the tablet’s back that can record 720p video. It will cost $199 and comes with 8GB of storage.
Archos 32
Approaching the iPod Touch scale, the Archos 32 has a resistive 3.2-inch touch screen and gives you an Android 2.2 tablet for a measly $150. With it you get 8GB of storage, a rear-facing camera that records 720p video, composite video output, and codec support befitting its PMP proportions.
Archos 28
With a screen measuring only 2.8-inches, the Archos 28 is more wafer, than tablet. Still, it comes with Android 2.2, a 320×240-pixel resolution display, plenty of multimedia support, and an 800MHz ARM Cortex A8 processor. Best of all, it’s only $99.

[via cnet]

There is no shortage of Android “superphone” out there, new ones are coming out everyday. The new generation of Android phones come with Super AMOLED display, 1GHz processor, 512MB of RAM, WiMAX connectivity, 4G support, all more than enough to support quality video streaming.  Here is a list of apps to help you get started with watching streaming video on the go. Depending on the Android OS your phone is running, you may or may not be able to download some of these apps

Android TV and video streaming apps

Cartube ($.99)

“Cartube provides one touch access to classic animated cartoons available as YouTube videos. Application has 30 symbols

eHow Mobile (FREE)

“Get the best of eHow.com in the palm of your hand. Check out popular articles and videos on your favorite topics, showcase your accomplishments on the go, see what types of projects others are doing.”

How To Videos from Howcast.com (FREE)

“Howcast for Android shows you fun, useful how-to videos wherever you are – when you’re out and about or just too lazy to get to your computer. Next time you’re on the go with your Android phone, watch and learn How to Jump Start Your Car, How to Pick a Lock, How to Make a Mojito, or just about anything – all with Howcast.

jetflicks! TV ($1.99)

“Streams high quality TV episodes to your Phone! 3G or Wi-fi is required. $9.99 monthly, $19.99 tri-monthly, $29.99 semi-annually, $49.99 annually.”

jetflicks! TV

LukLuk Player Streaming (FREE)

Made for G1. Free streaming movies and trailers. Play videos from your SD Card or stream movies. Streaming full movies requires a free registration and a G1 phone.

NFL SuperFan (FREE)

“Watch live streams of every NFL SUNDAY TICKET game & the Red Zone Channel (Requires NFL SuperFan subscription). Plus player and team stats, scores and highlight videos from every game. USA customers only, blackout rules apply.”

Stream Media Player (FREE)

“Stream Media Player is an application that provides the ability to play video from web cameras, watch Internet TV, and play locally stored files.”

TED (FREE)

“Enjoy inspiring and edifying TEDTalks from the Technology Entertainment and Design (TED) conferences on your Android phone. TED feeds into a unique user experience. Watch, search, bookmark and listen to the latest videos and audio published by TED (ted.com).

TubeDroid ($1.99)

“Now you can download all your favorite YouTube videos, right on your phone. Just click on any video link in the browser, or use the built in search (not YouTube app!) and select Download. Presto, the video starts downloading in the background.”

TV.com (FREE)

“TV.com brings personal TV to your phone on Wifi and cellular networks. Access the videos you want anywhere you go including full episodes…and it’s free! Get video from CBS, The CW, CNET, ET, Showtime, CBS News, CBS Sports and much more! Watch your favorite shows anywhere, anytime on TV.com. No subscription fees apply.”

TV.com

UStream Broadcaster (FREE)

“The Ustream Broadcaster for Android works on all Android platform devices and allows users to stream live mobile video to Ustream from the Android via 3G or Wifi and record high-quality videos and upload to Ustream later.”

yxflash (FREE)

“yxflash is the first and only Android video player that can play Flash, DIVX, Xvid, WMV and iPod format videos. Buy the full version to play more than 2 minutes.”

Start watching your fav shows on the go.
SPB launches live TV app for Android
Liquid Stream, A10, Thunder, Zio, M6000, Xperia X8, Sage, Charm Optimus, Chic Optimus One, Intercept (Moment 2), Desire HD , Epic 4G, Vibrant, Captivate, G1, Blaze / Vision Droid 2, MT810, Beam Motosplit i5500 Galaxy 5 LePhone Liquid E M1 Droid X I1 / Opus One Titanium Aria myTouch 3G Slide Garminfone FlipOut Wildfire EVO Aero / Mini 3iX Streak Galaxy S / Fascinate Optimus Q (LG C710 Aloha, LG LU2300) Ally 845(Vodafone) Xperia X10 Mini Galaxy A / Apollo / M100S Droid Incredible GT540 Optimus Pulse Mini (T-Mobile) CLIQ XT(USA)/ Quench beTouch E110 Legend Desire / Passion / Bravo Backflip Devour One Motoroi Nexus One Xperia X10 Archos Phone

Nexus one

Clearing the browser cache on an Android device can free up space if you are running low. The Android Chrome web browser saves parts of the the web pages that you visit on the Internet. This can significantly speed up your web browsing experience. Unfortunately, the saved files take up space on your Android phone and prevent you from using all of the space on your phone. Regularly clearing your cache can help your device performance, especially if it does not have much free space or did not have much space on your phone.

How to clear the browser cache:

1. Start the Chrome lite web browser.
2. Push the “Menu” button to open the options for the Chrome browser. These options allow you to: select a new location, open a new window, access the bookmarks functions and access the “More” functions. Select the “More” to bring up these features.
3. The “More” functions allow you to do things like search on the current web page, select certain text, get page information, share the page, look at the downloads and change the settings. Select the “Settings” option to bring up the settings menu.
4. There are a lot of options in the Settings menu. Scroll down until you see “Clear Cache”. Select the “Clear cache”
5. You will get a dialog asking you to validate that you want to clear the cache. Select “OK” and the cache on your Android phone should be erased. If you are running low on space, some of the memory should now be available.

With your browsing history gone, you will have more memory space on your phone.

This should work for all Android phones: Liquid Stream, A10, Thunder, Zio, M6000, Xperia X8, Sage, Charm Optimus, Chic Optimus One, Intercept (Moment 2), Desire HD , Epic 4G, Vibrant, Captivate, G1, Blaze / Vision Droid 2, MT810, Beam Motosplit i5500 Galaxy 5 LePhone Liquid E M1 Droid X I1 / Opus One Titanium Aria myTouch 3G Slide Garminfone FlipOut Wildfire EVO Aero / Mini 3iX Streak Galaxy S / Fascinate Optimus Q (LG C710 Aloha, LG LU2300) Ally 845(Vodafone) Xperia X10 Mini Galaxy A / Apollo / M100S Droid Incredible GT540 Optimus Pulse Mini (T-Mobile) CLIQ XT(USA)/ Quench beTouch E110 Legend Desire / Passion / Bravo Backflip Devour One Motoroi Nexus One Xperia X10 Archos Phone

Yes, the Android tablets are coming. You know when they do come, they come in numbers. There are over 40 Android smartphones in the US market, almost every technology company made one. Earlier this month, Google CEO, Eric Schmidt said over  200K Android were being sold per day. Well, it seems like the technology companies are getting on Android tablets, too.

Android tablets by everyone

HTC is using Israeli-based N-Trig to build their Android tablet for shipment in time for holiday shoppers according to TheMarker. The timing may be tied to a dubious rumor but N-trig is separately working with HTC on multi-touch tablets and HTC is one of the leading suppliers of Android devices in the world.

Chang Ma, vice president of marketing for LG’s mobile-devices unit told the WSJ, that LG’s Android tablet will set itself apart from Apple Inc.’s iPad by focusing on the ability to create content, rather than simply display it.  It will also have “high-end features and new benefits,” many of which will focus on productivity, Mr. Ma said. “It’s going to be surprisingly productive. Our tablet will be better than the iPad.”  Those are some mighty big words.

Motorola is rumored to be building a 10-inch Android tablet, codenamed ‘Stingray’, that will sell at the end of the year on Verizon’s wireless network. Motorola’s(MOT) Android tablet will be bundled with Verizon and may have GoogleTV functionality according to various reports. CNet gives this product the best chance at challenging the iPad.

Samsung is likely introducing its Galaxy Tab seven-inch Android tablet at IFA 2010, which startsSeptember 3rd in Berlin. Standout features for this product will be its front and back cameras, 3G (Vodafone?) and Super AMOLED display.  Samsung may also launch its iPod touch competitor, the Yepp YP-MB2 four inch mini tablet at the event. This device is essentially a Samsung Galaxy S phone without the 3G hardware inside. It will still have the Android market, however. What appears to be a Galaxy Tab was spotted in Australia.

Also at IFA, Viewsonic is bringing back its tablet line with a 7-inch Android device and a 10-incher that will dual-boot Windows 7 and Android.  The fact that it runs Windows means the 10-inch tablet will likely be Intel Atom based, something more uncommon in the Android tablet realm.

Traditionally only an OEM, even Texas Instraments is getting into the Tablet game with their Blaze platform. This looks to be a bigger hardware device, but still runs on ARM, so it should be a natural fit for Android.

Sony (SNE) is rumored to be building a gaming platform based on Android

Toshiba is rumored to be bringing out a 10 inch Android based tablet based on the speedy NVIDIA Tegra 2 in the next two months, according to Digitimes. The same report said that Lenovo(LePad) and Acer, using Qualcomm chips, were reading Android tablets by the end of the year.

Dell‘s Streak mini-tablet/macro phone is rumored to be joined by bigger siblings by the end of the year. Hopefully Dell (DELL) is working on a more recent version of the Android OS than the Streak’s 1.6.

ASUS, the inventor of the Netbook (whose numbers may be being impacted by tablets), has its own $399 Android-based EeePad being readied for March of next year. The company also has some Windows-based tablets being readied for 2011.

French Tablet maker Archos has some new Android 1.5 tablets that might be better suited to be picture frames.

As well as just about every major player, lots of smaller vendors are in the process of releasing Android tablets at really low prices. Kmart debuted a $150 Android tablet this month from Augenwhich isn’t going to win any quality awards. But India has even cheaper devices based on Android planned to be in the $35 - $50 range.  One Laptop Per Child is hoping they can meet their original goal of $100 with a sleek Android tablet, if not lower it to $75.

[via Fortune]

More on Android tablets
Cisco Cius tablet brings Android to the enterprise

Identity Tab

The Android devices markers are proving that they wouldn’t let the Apple iPad rule the world without giving a challenge. Last week it was a sneak peak of the Samsung Galaxy Tab.  KT, as lunched an Android tablet for the Korean market called the Identity Tab.

Like the Galaxy Tab, the tablet comes with a 7-inch touchscreen display and 1 GHz Snapdragon processor. The rest of the specifications is nothing spectacular – 8 GB of storage, TV tuner, accelerometer, 3 megapixel camera, Wi-Fi and an SD card reader.

The Identity tab is primarily designed for tech-people who are looking for an e-book reader or tablet to surf the Internet. As of today, the price is 300 000 won (about 252 U.S. dollars) or  free on two-year contract with WiBro, a Korean wireless broadband service provider.

My only question for now is, why don’t they just call it the iTab (identity Tab)?

Is the age of digital books. The Barnes and noble nooks and the Amazon kindle lead the way among ereaders.  These devices also have audiobooks. If you are tired of reading, you can just plugin in your headphone and listen. Android has some ereader apps that let you listen to books.
Best Audiobook Player: Audible

Audiobook

Most music players aren’t really designed to work well with audiobooks, which you want to bookmark, listen to in chapters, pick up where you left off, etc. Not only that, but even attempts at developing audiobooks have been extremely limited by their inability to play proprietary files from the most popular provider of audiobooks. Finally, Audible has released its Android app as an open and free beta (Audible account required, obviously), which gets the audiobook experience right.

Laputa Book Reader This has been my defacto book reader for the Android. It’s free and has a ton of free titles to choose from, although not nearly the selection the Kindle has (but Kindle books are $10 a pop). It also has some neat features. A library for all your titles, bookmarking and a page flipping feature.

Here is a link to more Audio ereader apps for Android