HP have surprised us today by announcing a new convertible Android-based laptop, the Slatebook x2. The Slatebook x2 goes for $479.99, which includes the keyboard dock.

For a smidgen under $500 this new convertible includes a whole lot of bang for your buck. It features some great specifications, with some of the highest quality internals you can find on the market. Further, this is the first non-NVIDIA device to come packing the Tegra 4 processor, which is no lightweight.

The Slatebook x2 features:

• Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean
• 1920×1200 full HD 10.2″ display
• NVIDIA Tegra 4 processor
• 16GB storage (expandable via microSD)
• 2GB RAM
• Included keyboard dock

The keyboard dock extends your battery life, which can supposedly push it 8 hours …

He also says you should wear one when you go to the toilets. Okay, no he didn’t.  In fact, what he does say is quite the opposite.

It’s obviously not appropriate to wear these glasses in situations where recording is not correct. Companies like Google have a very important responsibility to keep your information safe but you have a responsibility as well which is to understand what you’re doing, how you’re doing it, and behave appropriately and also keep everything up to date.

Google Glass, the augmented reality focused digital glass and an innovative new way of viewing the world, is currently in the works. It will attempt to bring features like  hands-free image and video recording, hands-free maps and …

ST Microelectronics, a company that provides hardware components, has recently been found to have supplied HTC with microphone components for their upcoming flagship, the HTC One, that were supposed to be exclusively for Nokia.

A district court in Amsterdam has agreed that The One might be using Nokia-exclusive microphone technology, and has granted Nokia a preliminary injunction. Apparently, the dual membrane microphone setup seen in the One was manufactured using technology solely meant for Nokia phones. This implies a direct breach of an NDA signed by ST  between Nokia and themselves.

This can only spell disaster for HTC. The already delayed One may face further sales problems if this is found to be true. A recent profits analysis shows …

Oh what’s this? Well the folks over at EVLeaks would have you believe it could be Samsung’s future design direction, and from the looks of things that future might not be too far away. The images, leaked by the group made famous in the tech world for releasing accurate renders of then upcoming devices such as the HTC One, Droid DNA and the Nexus 4 (among others), have recently been posted to their Twitter page and claim to be Samsung’s upcoming design language.

Given the Galaxy S4 has already been announced, and this image appears to show a slot for Samsung’s S-Pen, one can only assume this could possibly be the follow up to Samsung’s widely popular Note II. If …

Everyone knows how cool Multi Window is. For those who don’t, Multi Window is a feature on Android running Samsung phones that allows two apps to share a screen simultaneously. This means being able to send texts while browsing YouTube, or surfing the internet while scrolling through Facebook simultaneously. Originally intended for the Note II, this feature was also introduced to the original Note, Galaxy S III and other devices as part of the ‘Premium Suite’ with the 4.1.2 update.

Take this with a pinch of salt though. The only apps that are compatible with Multi Window right now are pretty much the ones that come with the phone, and a very, I repeat, very few other apps. If you’re …

Nine months on, I can’t stress enough how much I love my Nexus 7.  As a daily consumption device, it’s just so portable, fits perfectly in the hands (any wider and I think it’d be uncomfortable to hold it in one hand), easy on the eyes, and offers a smooth and rich experience.  Sure the next generation Nexus 7 which is expected to be announced next month at Google I/O with higher resolution and who knows what other goodies will probably sway me to upgrade but for now I still use my Nexus 7 daily.

Well, unsurprisingly, I’m not alone!

The State Library of NSW has developed an app that offers visitors an interactive experience by providing visual and …

A little surprise this afternoon: we’ve found that JB Hi-Fi has started to sell the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 here in Australia as of today! Our own editor-in-chief Josh caught sight of the Note setup and a box of the sweet tablets in a Melbourne store earlier this afternoon; when prompted, a JB representative noted that yes, these are on sale as of today, at least at that store.

We don’t yet have details on price, but as soon as we know we’ll update this post with pricing details. Update: we’re looking at $456 for the 16GB WiFi model.  We’re also finding out if other JB stores also have stock of the Note 8.0.

Are any of you holding out …

The announcements today from both the CEO of Vodafone Australia, Bill Morrow and Vodafone’s blog have all but confirmed a June release for their all new 4G network.

Morrow addressed the media, stating the service will initially roll-out to the cities of Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Darwin and Brisbane. Currently, the service undergoing a trial use by staff in order to determine whether any further adjustments need to be made before they make the service available to consumers.

Whilst Morrow didn’t confirm the pricing strategy for Vodafone when their 4G lands, he did appear to shut-down the possibility of more affordable plans:

        “The right value doesn’t always mean the cheapest.”

So while we’re on the cusp of experiencing 4G LTE – …

Have you noticed something new today on Android Australia?

*pause*

If you couldn’t work it out (I won’t tell anyone), in our posts earlier today we’re trialling out a new Bulletin Board style post service that will bring you generic Android stories from major tech sites overlaid with our Australian take on things.  What this means for you is quicker posts of relevant Android articles from across the globe, making sure you’re even more up to date with what’s relevant for you here in Australia.

But we didn’t stop there…

Whilst implementing the new service, we also realised that not everyone prefers their news on a tiring backlit screen that requires dangerous internet radio waves to approach you before you …

Just in case you guys haven’t heard, a recent article over at geek.com revealed a rumoured unified messaging service from Google called Babble. This service is meant to roll all of the messaging, voice and video chat options of Google into a single service, combining Google Talk, Hangouts, Voice, G+ Messenger, etc. Of course since that times there’s been a couple of leaks of supposed screenshots of the upcoming Google Babble, however we know that both of those are fake, for the simple reason that both of them are using the icon that Shen Ye made for the original geek.com article. Still, it doesn’t stop us from fantasising about what an upcoming Babble will look like:

For anyone who …

Yes, we all understand we should be backing up our data on a regular basis, but do we? There are several good apps that do that in Google Play. However, let’s take for example, Titanium Backup. The free version and the Pro version have many of the basic features we want in a backup and restore program.

As expected the Pro version will have more features. Some of these are easy to understand and work with, whilst some are the more complex features that will, of course, take more time to fully understand and appreciate.

Free Titanium Backup

On the homepage of Titanium Backup there is a comparison of the different of each version.

Some Key Information:

• Needs ROOT, Android

…

The Galaxy S IV was always bound to have top-of-the-line specifications – Samsung never really fails us in that area. One thing we’ve also learnt from Sammy over the last couple years is that they are becoming a big player in the software side of things.

This started off with some nice S apps, added in eye tracking features and Samsung’s own TouchWiz UX, which many of us just plain hate. However, this year’s latest Galaxy S variant brings in a whole new bag of swag.

THE SMARTS

Smart Scrolling

Smart Scrolling is the front-facing camera’s ability to know when you are getting to the bottom of your screen. When reading an article it will automatically scroll once you get …