SparkFun intros IOIO for Android, a hack-free breakout box to get your mind spinning

Meet any seasoned techie, and they'll likely spin whimsical tales of computing's early days, and the challenge of finding a practical use for a device with seemingly limitless potential (you know, like feeding your cat while you sleep). A new product from SparkFun promises to bring this old-school awesomeness into the smartphone age: introducing IOIO (pronounced yo-yo), a breakout box that enables any Android 1.5+ device to control electronic circuits from within Android's applications. Designed in collaboration with Google, Spark's PCB connects to your phone over USB, working its magic through a Java library that hooks into your apps. This DIY paradise will begin shipping in a few weeks, and can be yours for $49.95 on pre-order. We've already witnessed some clever mods with IOIO, and when it sent a real alarm clock ringing, we couldn't help but smile. Crack one yourself after the break.

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SparkFun intros IOIO for Android, a hack-free breakout box to get your mind spinning originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 10 Apr 2011 04:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Speck CandyShell Card iPhone 4 case replaces wallet

Don’t you just get annoyed at how fat your wallet can get when it’s loaded with credit cards, and identification cards? Well, Speck has come up with an iPhone 4 case to address that problem. Called the Speck CandyShell Card, this specially designed case serves a dual purpose of protecting your iPhone and storing your important cards that you need to bring around with you at all times. Be it 3DS AR cards or your credit cards, this case stores them all. Well maybe not all – it is thick enough to hold up to three credit cards. For those times when all you need is your ID and debit/credit card, you can fold some loose change to fit into the case and leave home without your wallet. However, just make sure your cards can’t be affected by magnets, because if they are, it’s not a great idea to put them next to your phone. The Speck CandyShell Card is available now for $39.95.

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Firefox 4 Mobile for Android released

Firefox fans rejoice – the latest version of Firefox Mobile for Android has finally made its transition from Release Candidate to full version. Available as a free download on the Android Market now, Firefox 4 Mobile attempts to bridge the gap between the mobile surfing experience with the one found on the desktop, and it looks like it’s doing the job pretty well. Everything from the desktop version is present: tabbed browsing, add-ons, themes, and syncing with your desktop browser so you don’t have to go through the hassle of manually transferring passwords, bookmarks, and browsing history from the desktop to the phone and vice versa. The browser is also touted to be faster than the stock Android browser, and since it’s free anyway, it’s worth giving it a shot. Hit the break to see a video of what’s new in Firefox 4 Mobile From Here

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Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 coming to Windows Phone 7

Firefox really knocked the ball out of the park with its most recent release, out-downloading Internet Explorer 9 by quite an impressive – nay, obliterating margin. Still, that doesn’t mean Microsoft is going to let IE9 languish around like that, no sir – the company will be introducing the Internet Explorer 9 Web browser to Windows Phone 7 later this year, boasting full support for HTML5 video and graphics as well as hardware-assisted acceleration. Of course, users will also be able to benefit from its multitasking capability that lets you keep one app running while you start another. We do hope that it will run smooth enough when it arrives in the market, and hopefully there will be less security holes for unscrupulous folks to exploit than its desktop predecessors.

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Nokia N8 - Stunning Creation Brought Out for Leaders

Undoubtedly nowadays there are countless mobile phone manufactures in the mobile phone industry, but they have no comparison with Nokia. Nokia has released a peachy smartphone recently, which is recognized as Nokia N8. This stunning masterpiece has the power of peerless features, durable battery and Symbian^3 OS with ARM 11 680 MHz processor, 3D Graphics HW accelerator (CPU).

Let's get to know this dashing smartphone in detail:-

Nokia N8's anodized aluminum casing gives it an attractive appearance that is of 135 grams in weight and 113.5 x 59.1 x 12.9 mm in measurement. You will surely be stopped for a moment after seeing 3.5 inches AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, because it has 360 x 640 pixels resolution and 16 million colors' power.

Not just this, but users will be amazed to get scratch resistant Gorilla glass display, multi-touch input method, proximity sensor for auto turn-off and accelerometer sensor for UI auto-rotate functions with it.

12 MP camera of this astounding phone has no comparison because it serves the users extraordinarily. Carl Zeiss optics, autofocus and Xenon flash and many other functions and features are there to enhance the quality of 4000x3000 pixels resolution pictures and video clips of 720p at 25fps captured by it.

Busy professionals can expect to get matchless assistance through Nokia N8 when they will be looking for Internet connectivity at high-speed because it has been loaded with 3G HSDPA, 10.2 Mbps; HSUPA, 2.0 Mbps, WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, UPnP technology, class 33 GPRS & EDGE options with WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML browser & RSS feeds facilities.

Not just high-speed internet but Document viewer Word, PDF, Excel and PowerPoint), Active noise cancellation with a dedicated mic, Video/photo editor & Flash Lite v4.0 tools are also adding more strength to this astonishing smartphone.

Nokia N8 also brings matchless entertainment in form of audio/video players, 3.5 mm audio headset, TV-out (720p video) via HDMI with Dolby Digital Plus sound, stereo FM radio (RDS; FM transmitter) and large number of inbuilt & downloadable games.

Apart form all these features, you will also find Nokia N8 blessed by USB and Bluetooth techniques, Navigation system with Ovi Maps 3.0 (Car & Pedestrian Navigation) application & digital compass, 32 GB expandable memory along with 256 MB RAM, 512 MB ROM and 16 GB built-in figures.

• ArticlesBase

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Nokia C5 - Accrual of Powerful Features in a Simple Case

The Nokia C5 is a 3G handset that has a straightforward casing but bags powerful smartphone features. While working with an ARM 11 600 MHz processor, it is operated by Symbian 9.3 operating system.

Let's have a look on its simple appearance;-

Apart from having a simple yet beautiful casing, the handset comes in a very strong stainless steel body that is available in either white or warm grey color options. The 2.2 inches TFT screen of the phone is capable of rendering 16 Million colors on its 240 x 320 pixels screen resolution. Moreover, the case of Nokia C5 is built with the dimensions of 112 x 46 x 12.3 mm that carries only 89.3 grams weight that is sufficient to prove it a lightweight gadget.

Magnificent Features' List

Along with the GPRS & EDGE choices, the Nokia C5 possesses 3G HSDPA & HSUPA technologies to offer speedy internet connectivity and data transfer rates to the owners of the handset. Moreover, Bluetooth and USB port facilities are other alternatives for sharing or transferring data between compatible devices.

The Nokia C5 consists of a superb 3.15 megapixel camera with LED flash feature to click colorful and beautiful images under the effect of 4 x digital zooming. Additionally, videos at 2 x digital zoom can also be recorded at the rate of 15fps through this camera. Besides these, video calling facility would be experienced with the help of a secondary camera provided in the phone.

GPS navigation feature with the support of A-GPS and Ovi Maps 3.0 is installed in the Nokia C5 in order to keep the users aware of the exact locations.

For entertainment purposes, this multifaceted gizmo incorporates wonderful audio-video players along with integrated stereo FM radio with RDS and exciting gaming option.

Besides having Document viewer, Video/Photo editor and Flash Lite 3.0, the Nokia C5 is also equipped with Facebook, YouTube, hi5, Friendster and MySpace applications. The Nokia C5 is a user-friendly device with simple casing that would be an appropriate option for those who expect advanced mobile phone features with least complications.
Get your favourite email services, like Hotmail, Gmail and Yahoo Mail, on your phone with Nokia Messaging – or get a free account from Ovi Mail that you can access via your phone or PC.

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Contract Phones with free gifts - perplexed with great facilities

Mobile phones are there through which you can have loads of attractive goodies in your pocket like with the Contract phones in which you can pay the mobile phone bills at the very last of the month and with the Gorgeous free gifts like the free Digital Camera, free DVD Player, free Mobile phone accessories, free Vacuum Cleaner, free laptops, free Plasma TV, free iPod Nano, free Coffee Maker etc. These phones are with some other things also like you can have the incentives like the free messages, free monthly minutes with the networks like the O2, Orange, Three, T-Mobile etc .

There are some pros and cons which you can see with the Contract phones with free gifts some of them are-;.

With the contract phones with free gifts you can have the great offers with the things like the incentives like the free messages, free minutes with any of the network provider like the Virgin, O2 etc. Mobile phone Upgradation is also there and through them you can also have the facility to grab the opportunity to opt for any of the network once the contract period is over. There is also the system of upgraded plans also if you are happy with the facilities availed by the network you are currently using. Data allowances is also there with this in which you can have get the access of any of the websites like the Facebook which is one of the famous social networking website via which you can search your old friends and can add them in your friend list. The best part with this is you can chat with them any time you want whenever your friends are Online. Poking and Updating are two more facilities which you can have with this..

There are deep reason why these phones are very much popular and the first one is the people over UK are mostly involved in making calls through the mobile phones and they are involved in Business so most of their deals are through the mobile phones only. And while making calls there will be no chance of call disconnection as the mobile phone bill is to be paid at the end of the month and there will be a limit for making the calls and making messages etc..

Other then the Contract phones there are Pay as you go phones in which you can make the credits in the mobile phone account of yours with the balance as per your priority. Any brand phones like the Nokia, Motorola, BlackBerry, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, HP, Acer, dell etc can be used as like the Contract phones, Pay g phones and the SIM free phones as well..

So Contract phones with free gifts are just too good with various great things like the brands Sony, Samsung etc. You must not leave this opportunity to have the freebies and should get them fast..

Have a look on Compare the current effective monthly cost of Nokia N9 with free gifts

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Nokia C6 - Attractive Smartphone to Win Modern People's Heart

Nokia C6 is a super cool looking smartphone and undoubtedly it will win the hearts of the people who love to carry smart devices. Unlike other phones, this one has a great combination of smart as well as multimedia features.

Impressive at External Aspects

First of all anything needs to be beautiful to draw prospective buyers' eyes at first glance that is why Nokia C6 has been made pretty attractive with a comfortable size and shape. It has equal to 150 grams stuff inside it while its casing dimensions are as 11.34 cm in height, 5.3 cm in width & 1.68 cm in depth. You will find the 3.2 inches TFT resistive touchscreen amazingly loaded and will be its fan because it gets assistance of 16 Million colors while displaying objects up to 360 x 640 pixels resolution. What is more, side slide QWERTY keyboard with navigation key, proximity sensor for auto turn-off and accelerometer sensor for UI auto-rotate features also make the display more attractive and useful.

Praiseworthy Multimedia Phone

Nokia C6 is certainly a praiseworthy multimedia phone because users will find it packed with superb multimedia features and 5 mega pixel primary camera is one among them. Excellent quality of photographs and videos will please the users and also they will get benefit of making video calls by secondary front facing camera. Undoubtedly, everyone likes listening to music and having fun in spare time that is why interesting games, RDS powered stereo FM radio and MP3/MP4 players have been embedded with 3.5 mm audio jack tool in this widget. Besides that, Nokia C6 is also having power of SMS, MMS, email, push email and IM messaging options.

Reliable Fellow for Business People

To make the users easy at work, this rattling smartphone is plied with Symbian OS v9.4, Series 60 rel. 5 with ARM 11 434 MHz processor. As Nokia C6 is a smartphone, it has several options to get in touch of internet like class 32 GPRS & EDGE, 3G accessible HSDPA, WLAN Wi-Fi and WAP (2.0/xHTML, HTML) browser & RSS feeds. Apart from this, it will be friendly for sharing files by utilizing Bluetooth & USB port. Users can keep unlimited files in their handset without deleting old data because of 2 GB card included along with 240 MB built-in space. More than this, up to 16 GB will be possible to extend on it.

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Nokia C3 - Enjoy Social Networking Even on the Go

Nokia C3 is a wonderful example of simplicity packed with advanced technology to serve everyone. This amazing mobile phone gives its users a highly affordable communication experience along with user-friendly features. It started serving mobile phone lovers from June 2010, and it is available in the color options of slate grey, golden white and hot pink.

Let us get familiar with its wide range of useful features:-

A.It feels great to hold the modish Nokia C3 as it comes in a shiny and sleek casing. It has been designed with utmost care by utilizing 114 grams of material to produce physical specifications of 115.5 x 58.1 x 13.6 mm, 63.2 cc.

B.Great efficiency is promised by its display department, as users will be exposed to colorful and clear visuals on its 2.4 inches TFT screen. The screen comes alive with 256k colors and it is powered by 320 x 240 pixels resolution. Next to it, for an easy data and text entry Nokia C3 embeds a full QWERTY keyboard.

C.MP3 ringtones option is there to alert you about incoming calls while speakerphone relieves you from the trouble of holding the phone in your hands.

D.Now it is possible to make your outings and parties more memorable with the two-mega pixel camera of Nokia C3. Besides rendering beautiful still images of 1600x1200 pixels it also captures QCIF video footages at 15 frames per second.

E.To keep you refreshed all the time, Nokia C3 supplies you with music on its stereo FM radio with RDS and inbuilt music player. Furthermore, this marvelous gizmo will delight gaming lovers with games like bounce tales, sudoku, diamond rush along with java games.

F.To connect you to the World Wide Web, this smart gadget has GPRS and EDGE technologies. Its connectivity options also include WiFi®, Micro USB, Bluetooth together with WAP and Opera Mini Browser.

G.With Nokia C3, you can log in to all the popular social networking websites directly as it boasts social networking integration feature. Moving ahead, you can use the SMS, MMS, Email, Push Email, and IM facilities to maintain proximity with friends and relatives. Nokia C3 is unmatched gadget that has features to please every generation.

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HTC Desire - To Fulfill Your Every Wish

HTC Desire has a rock-solid persona that is glorified further because of its great entertainment, imaging and connectivity features. This smartphone gets its power from éclair version of android operating system and Qualcomm Snapdragon QSD8250 1 GHz processor CPU. This astounding mobile phone is available in the color options of black, brown, silver and white. It arrived in the market in March 2010.

Amazing Appearance

HTC Desire has a gorgeous exterior that attracts a lot of admiring glances. You will feel proud to hold this handset that comes with the dimensions of 119 x 60 x 11.9 mm and bears a weight of 135 grams. Furthermore, it is equipped with a super size AMOLED capacitive touchscreen that is 3.7 inches long. The beauty of the screen is enhanced further when it vibrates with a grand display of 16 million colors and 480 x 800 pixels screen resolution. Apart from this, users can take advantage of features like multi-touch input method, accelerometer sensor for UI auto-rotate, proximity sensor for auto turn-off optical trackpad and HTC Sense UI.

Have fun

An enchanting photography is in store for you if you own HTC Desire as its remarkable 5 mega pixel camera gives high quality still images of 2592 x 1944 pixels and captures WVGA videos. Besides this, auto focus, LED flash and geo-tagging add more fun in photography. HTC Desire can be an entertaining companion if you are lonely as it brings to you melodious music and exciting videos by means of its inbuilt media player. Embedded games and stereo FM radio with RDS will broaden your smile even more.

Other Captivating Aspects

HTC Desire provides internet services through GPRS EDGE 3G HSDPA/ HSUPA and Wi-Fi facilities while there is Bluetooth and USB for data sharing. In addition to this, Google Search, maps, Gmail, YouTube, Google Talk and Picasa integration make it more gratifying. To catch the attention of young folks, HTC Desire flaunts Facebook, Flicker and Twitter applications. Moving ahead, its functionality is accelerated with features like A-GPS support, digital compass and dedicated search keys. HTC Desire is for all those who are craving for exhilarating communication experience and do not want to compromise on quality. Its high usability makes it a winner.

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Color: the new social network that works by proximity

If you’re thinking to yourself: do we need another social network? Probably not. Do we need another photo-sharing service? Not really. Do you need a photo-sharing, social network? Well, the folks at Color seem to think so. Introducing Color: a free, proximity-based social networking photo-sharing app. Available on the iPhone and Android phones, Color doesn’t work like any other social network/photo-sharing app available, which helps it stand out from the crowd. Instead of you uploading pictures to a gallery that people can browse or comment on, Color works by automatically sharing your pictures (taken with the app) to anyone who’s around you and using Color as well. This works both ways, allowing you to browse photographs that someone else around you has taken. So let’s say in a public area with loads of people, like a train station or a park, you can expect to have tons of photographs to look through – provided they are all on Color as well. Usage of this app would be useful in situations like a wedding – where everybody can browse all the photos everyone has been taking without even needing to upload it to an online album like Facebook – photo sharing can happen at the event itself. Hit the break to watch a video of Color in action:

• Color Demo from Color Labs, Inc. on Vimeo.

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iPad, iPhone demand could drive Apple’s revenue sky-high through 2012

Apple recorded 52 percent revenue growth last year, and that is likely to be repeated through 2012 with demand for its iPad tablet and iPhone smartphone reaching record highs. Last year, Apple sold almost 15 million iPads and over 14 million iPhones in the last quarter. Analysts claim that by the end of this year, Apple’s sales could reach over $ 100 billion. If the growth rates continue, sales could hit $ 200 billion, which would put Apple ahead of HP in sales, who is currently number one in technology sales (Apple is number one tech company in market cap).

• source: Business Week

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FCC walks the line on AT&T/T-Mobile deal

AT&T has quite a bit of schmoozing in its future, as FCC officials claim that the wireless giant’s chances at getting approval for its $ 39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile are slim to none. While a formal evaluation from the FCC has yet to commence, we’ve already seen a pretty heated response to the deal from Democratic senators, urging the FCC to look closely at the repercussions of this merger. If the AT&T/T-Mobile deal does come to fruition, America’s second-place carrier would become number one and represent 42 percent of wireless subscribers nationally, after swallowing up fourth-place carrier T-Mobile.

“There’s no way the chairman’s office rubber-stamps this transaction. It will be a steep climb to say the least,” said an FCC official, who chose to speak off-the-record. However, the FCC’s assurance that no monopoly shall become of this should definitely be taken with a grain of salt, as this wouldn’t be the first time that the FCC approved a deal despite warnings from officials concerned about competition. In 2008, just a year after FCC Chairman Kevin Martin claimed that “the hurdle [...] will be high” to approve the Sirius Satellite Radio/XM Satellite Radio merger, the deal went through. AT&T stills holds strong to its position that this deal is in the public interest and will not inhibit competition in the industry.

However, the FCC is expected to make some regulation adjustments that favor smaller carriers by approving proposed rules that would place a much more reasonable price tag on data roaming. Currently, the FCC doesn’t require carriers to offer data roaming to rivals the same way it does with voice calls, despite the fact that a significant uptake in smartphones has led to a speedier growth rate for data traffic than for voice call traffic. Current FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski recently claimed that the upcoming adjustment to data traffic regulation is a clear indication of the agency’s desire to foster a competitive wireless marketplace.

“While we’re still working through details of a data-roaming framework, I believe the core proposition is beyond dispute: healthy competition produces greater innovation and investment, lower prices, and better service,” Mr. Genachowski said. As of yet, we’ve heard nothing official from the FCC concerning the AT&T/T-Mobile deal, but as it looks so far, anything could happen. 

• [via WSJ]

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Motorola XOOM tablet coming to Cellular South

Cellular South has announced that it will carry the Motorola XOOM Android 3.0 Honeycomb tablet starting next month. Instead of the 3G (soon to be 4G) version that Verizon Wireless carries (take a look at our full review), Cellular South will be offering the Wi-Fi only version, and pairing it with a free Novatel Mi-Fi 2200 wireless hotspot with the purchase of a hotspot data plan. The XOOM will cost $ 599.99 and the hotspot plans start at $ 19.99 per month for 3GB of data usage.

• source: Cellular South, via: Fierce Mobile

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Samsung Apps hits 100 million downloads milestone

Samsung has announced that its Apps market for mobile and TV applications has hit the 100 million downloads milestone in less than a year since its debut in June 2010. Samsung Apps launched alongside with the Wave smartphone that runs Samsung’s own bada operating system and now there are over 13,000 applications available in the Samsung Apps market. To celebrate the milestone, Samsung is having a contest with a weekly draw from March 25 to April 30, 2011. Anyone who downloads an app from Samsung Apps is entered to win a Samsung Galaxy Tablet, Galaxy Player, USB sticks, or vouchers for apps in the Samsung Apps store.

• source: Samsung

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iPad gets single issues of Wall Street Journal for $2

The Wall Street Journal has announced that it will be offering single issues of its newspaper to iPad owners via its iPad app. Readers can purchase single issues at $ 2 a piece, or they can subscribe to a Now Edition for $ 18 per month that includes daily updates to the news during the day. There is also a $ 4 per week plan called the Digital Bundle that offers access to the Journal’s online website, its mobile site, and its mobile device apps for iPhone, iPad, Android tablets, and BlackBerries. Users can view limited content without any purchase. The single issues are available starting today.

• source: PC World

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Nokia plans to cut jobs at end of April

Nokia has stated that it will start to talk about job cuts at the end of April in the wake of its deal with Microsoft to produce Windows Phone 7 devices. Since Nokia will no longer be developing and maintaining software for its smartphones, there will not be a need to have as many engineers on board. Finnish labor unions have said the cuts could cost Finland thousands of jobs. Nokia is currently Finland’s largest employer.

• source: Reuters

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Bell’s Motorola Atrix also has HSUPA disabled, Canadians frown upon 400kbps uploads

If you happen to reside just north of the American border, you might have heard that Canadian carrier Bell is now offering the Motorola Atrix from $169.95 on a three year commitment, all the way up to $599.95 sans contract. While this groovy smartphone is a welcomed addition for local Android fanatics, the early adopters have learned that — much like its AT&T counterpart — it lacks HSUPA. This is confirmed by xda-developers members who see a mere 400kpbs upload speed on their maple syrup-flavored Atrix, which is bad news for YouTube celebrities and the likes on Bell Mobility. Alas, we’ve yet to hear from the carrier regarding this issue, but let’s just hope that the Atrix will be set free before Bell’s headquarters gets taken over by furious green robots.

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Ericsson delivers HD voice on CDMA, crystal clear calling coming to a network near you

Smartphones continue to improve in the ‘smart’ areas: better screens, faster processors, more memory, etc., but there’s not been a lot of innovation in the phone aspect of those devices. HD voice technology can change that, but since its introduction in 2009 hi-fi calling was only available on GSM networks… until now. Ericsson has just made the first HD voice call via CDMA — made possible by a new Enhanced Variable Rate Codec Narrowband-Wideband (EVRC-NW for the awkward acronym-loving crowd). The codec delivers sound in the 50Hz – 7000Hz range, which makes traditional calls limited to the 300Hz – 3400Hz spectrum sound like they’re coming from a drive-thru attendant at your local Mickey D’s. So far, the tech’s limited to the lab, but here’s hoping Ericsson lets it roam free to deliver the dulcet tones of our friends and family sooner rather than later.

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T-Mobile G-Slate and G2X dual-core smartphone coming on April 20th?

LG, you big tease! T-Mobile must be feeling a tinge of regret for hooking up with the Korean hardware manufacturer lately, as TmoNews reports both the G-Slate tablet and a freshly rumored G2X smartphone (believed to be the US moniker for the Optimus 2X) won’t be coming Stateside for at least another month. Neither will be exactly late, since both feature dual-core Tegra 2 chips and the G-Slate runs Google’s freshest Honeycomb software, however a launch date of April 20th does put LG a step behind its direct competitors. Motorola has already rolled out its own Xoom and Atrix alternatives, while Samsung is making noise about its new Galaxy devices, which might well beat LG’s wares to the market. Rumor is we’ll get an official date out of T-Mobile at CTIA next week, so keep your eyes peeled for that one.

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