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 …

Is this the best looking tablet on the market?

The ASUS Eee Pad Infinity TF700T has been out for a while now having been released in Australia back in August 2012.  Although over six months can be quite a long time in the fast moving tablet and indeed greater mobile world, a friend of mine bought one last December to take with him on an overseas holiday.  After he returned, he expressed his love for this tablet and as a result we thought it would be good to do a review of this still top of the line ASUS tablet.

The ASUS Eee Pad Transformer series made a big splash on the tablet market, its original transforming design ingeniously adding …

Tablets, tablets, tablets!

These cool devices are not only highly desirable, but nothing says “I love you” or “I love myself” more than the gift of technology you or your loved ones can spend endless solitary hours on.

The Android tablet market isn’t as populated or as mature as the phone market but we’ve managed to pick some real winners for you.

NEXUS 7

Back in June, Google and ASUS won many of our hearts (and hard earned cash) when it announced the Nexus 7.  Fast forward to the end of November and most (if not all) of us are still in love!

And who could blame us?  The Nexus 7 has been a benchmark for outstanding performance in …

Hot on the heels of ASUS’ announcements that they sold nearly a million Nexus 7s in October alone, and that every shipment to Australia sells out within 1-2 weeks, Digitimes have reported that Google has sold about 2.5 million Nexus 7s to date and expects to sell another 2.5m by the end of the year.  That means 5 million Nexus 7s in 2012 – which is double Google’s initial estimates.

Why is the Nexus 7 expected to exceed Google’s expectations by 200%?

We think it’s due to the Nexus 7 being such an awesome tablet for an amazing price.  As you would have seen in our review, many of us have fallen in love with the Nexus 7′s …

Have you been sitting on the fence about the new Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1?  Still undecided whether that pressure sensitive S-Pen, split-screen multitasking, or even the addition of apps like Adobe Photoshop Touch is enough for you to take the plunge?  Perhaps you thought if it’s good enough for the Queen, it’s good enough for you?

Well Samsung has added a sweetener to the deal in the form of a $100 gift card.  The gift cards are only available at participating retailers, and usable at certain locations at each state but the $100 incentive definitely makes the Galaxy Note 10.1 more competitive if you want yourself a bit of S-Pen and multi-tasking action.

Participating Retailers

• Harvey Norman
• JB

…

When Sony announced the Xperia Tablet S it was an exciting/confusing moment. I loved the original Tablet S, but have struggled to think of a place where the newer edition could slip into general use. After consulting the team we’ve come up with the idea that it is a perfect device for non Android enthusiasts or Sony enthusiasts.

The Xperia Tablet S has some decent specs under the hood, but can’t compete in a hardware sense with Samsung’s Nexus 10 offerings. It has less RAM, a slower processor and a much lower resolution (and smaller) screen. However, the Xperia Tablet S does have a few things going for it – one of them is Sony’s custom UI skin. While there’s …

Ladies, Gentlemen and loyal subjects.

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second has an important announcement to make…

OK so maybe the Queen isn’t about to make a speech to the world about it, but it turns out the Queen’s loyal workers have chosen Samsung for a royal historical event.

What royal historical event I hear you ask?

Remember those time capsules people used to bury in the ground?  Well, it turns out the Queen will have her own digital time capsule in the form of a Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1.

The Queen is expecting to add her first tablet to the Royal Collection when she receives it full of videos, photographs and text that recount her 60 year reign….

Editors note: Please welcome Norman Ma to the Android Australia team! He’ll be blogging on new and upcoming hardware/devices, as well as providing some great editorial opinion pieces! Stay tuned for more from Norman!

We’ve just attended the public opening of the new Samsung Experience Store on George St, Sydney. While a post on the store setup is forthcoming, we had a chance to handle for the first time the new Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet, which goes on sale today. Read below for our impressions!

Overnight, Samsung has launched the Galaxy Note 10.1 over in the United States. That is, the 10.1″,S Pen, quad-core toting device that is bound to make many people switch from the iPad to Samsung.

It is expected that the Galaxy Note 10.1 will be coming to Australia, but there has been no official word just yet besides for the standard – ‘We are happy there is enthusiasm about the Galaxy Note 10.1.’

There is no reason this device shouldn’t come to Australia officially eventually, but it takes time to come down under. For the meantime your best best is to source the device from grey importers such as MobiCity or other Expansys. We’ve heard word of small-time retailers getting their …

Ladies & gentlemen, it’s finally here. ASUS have finally unleashed the marvellous PadFone onto our shores. While we haven’t been able to have a hands-on with the device as of yet, we are incredibly enthusiastic about the overall concept.

ASUS has today announced that the PadFone will being sold in Australia beginning on August 14th. Harvey Norman appears to be the retailer of choice, with the PadFone going for $999 outright. That is, for the phone, tablet dock and Bluetooth stylus as a package. The keyboard dock will apparently not be included for this already hefty price. Yes, you are receiving a phone and tablet, but the lack of the keyboard dock in the package is quite a disappointing one….

Anyone remember the T-Hub?

No really, anyone?

Yeah same here, well, Telstra have faith in the home phone/tablet (home phablet?) combo so much that they are having a second go with it. And Android is coming along for the ride!

Yes you read it right here, Telstra T-Hub 2 is on the horizon and we have all the details.

What we have here is a 7″ TFT Capacative touch tablet running at 1024 x 600. A 1.9MP front facing camera and is powered by a 1Ghz dual-core CPU with 1GB RAM. Oh and it’s on Gingerbread.

Telstra have advised that they intend to update T-Hub 2 to Jelly Bean 4.1 but we will take a rain check on that …

News from my carrier of choice today – they have confirmed that they will be releasing the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1″, making the first Australian carrier to do so!

“As the popularity of tablets in Australia continues to grow at a rapid rate, we are delighted to present the brand new Galaxy Tab 2 from Samsung,” said Michael Smith, Optus’ Managing Director of Marketing. Optus is offerring a variety of plans ranging from $39.95 for 2Gb per month ($19.95 plan with a $20 tablet repayment) to $94.95 for 20Gb ($74.95 plan with a $20 repayment), both on 24 month plans.

The tablet runs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, powered by a 1GHz Dual-Core processor and 1Gb of RAM and …