Dell Discontinues Streak 7 Android Tablet

By Humberto Saabedra on December 5, 2011

After a conspicuous launch in January in tandem with T-Mobile, Dell has officially discontinued its Streak Android tablet line completely with the removal of the Streak 7 tablet as of last Friday from its online store, with the page redirecting to the general Dell mobility page.

The Dell Streak 7 was initially meant to signal the computer manufacturer’s entry into the competitive Android tablet market, with the Streak series featuring Nvidia Tegra processors running Android 2.2 with its own user interface, which it called Stage.

While Dell had promised updates to the more appropriate Honeycomb version of Android, T-Mobile variants of the series were denied the update after lackluster sales of the 7 inch tablet led the carrier to drop official support, while unbranded 3G and Wi-Fi versions sold directly by Dell received Honeycomb 3.2, greatly improving overall performance and adding new features. Continue reading for the official statement from Dell.

“Dell remains committed to the mobility market and continues to sell products here and in other parts of the world. Streak 7 delivered a unique experience for customers who wanted a larger screen-size yet the freedom of staying connected to their personal and professional content while on the-go. It continues to be available in many markets through retail, distributors and carrier partners such as Optus in Australia. A 10-inch version of the tablet, Streak 10 Pro, is currently offered in China, offering the ultimate digital divide between work and life. The Venue and Venue Pro devices, as well, continue to earn accolades for performance, design and functionality around the world. We also recently launched the Latitude ST, a 10-inch Windows 7-based touch-screen tablet designed for vertical markets such as education, finance and healthcare in November of this year. We remain committed to expanding our reach beyond PCs with a targeted set of open, standards-based mobility solutions and services designed for commercial and mobile professional customers.”

Posted in Android, Dell | Tagged Android, Dell, Streak 7 |

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Plan Hacker: Get 1 GB Sprint Tablet Plan for About $8/month

By Christopher Price on December 1, 2011

We walk through a loophole in Sprint’s current system, and tap into some of their commitments that they’ve conveyed to the FCC. The result? We whittle Sprint’s $20/month plan down to a little under $8/month.

If you’re in the market for an Android tablet, this is the article for you. We’ll show you how to get a Sprint tablet for the same price as Wi-Fi tablets, and net a 1 GB/month plan for around $8/month.

Essentially, the loophole is that Sprint allows users to swap between phone and tablet. By maximizing the subsidy on a high-profile device (say, an iPhone 4S), you can then use that subsidy to cover the cost of service on a tablet plan. With tablet prices on Sprint at same-as-Wi-Fi device pricing, sometimes even less, you can get a backup data plan for as low as around $8/month.

Without further ado, here are the steps.

Step 1: Buy a Sprint Tablet without contract. Reagan Wireless is still selling HTC EVO 4G units for $329 without contract, and Galaxy Tab units can be found on eBay for around $200. For maximum effect, wait for the tablet to arrive before going to the next step.

Step 2: Waltz (or just walk) into a Sprint Store, and buy an iPhone 4S (or any other highly-subsidized smartphone). Optionally, sign up in a Sprint Store with a credit union or a AAA membership to waive activation, plus save 10% per month. You can even ask the Sprint Store to not open the device… they’ll typically be happy not to spend the time setting it up.

Step 3: Call customer service (888-211-4727) from another phone. Tell them you want to change devices. Give them the MEID/ESN off the tablet. You can do this within hours of activating your smartphone.

Step 4: Be prepared for customer service to say “Hey, this isn’t a phone!”

Step 5: Tell them you understand, and the you want to change to a tablet. This is allowed, as Sprint tablets are non-voice phones. Sprint has said they will be releasing tablets that support CDMA voice calling in the near future.

In case you’re thinking we are exploiting a loophole that Sprint will close immediately, we doubt it. Sprint’s Right Plan Promise, backed by their testimony to the FCC, states that they allow people to change to the plan that is right for them. Since Sprint believes tablets are cell phones, we would think it would be quite hypocritical, and possibly backtracking on their testimony, to stop phone-to-tablet conversions.

Step 6: Select the $19.99/month plan (or any tablet plan, but you get the most savings from that plan), and finish activating the device.

Step 7: Sell the (now-deactivated) iPhone 4S on eBay or Craigslist. Put the profit in a savings account.

What we’re doing here is arbitraging Sprint, taking the subsidy from the iPhone and using that to pay for the cheap $19.99/month data plan. With Sprint iPhone 4S still selling for near the same price as unlocked iPhone 4S devices, you can cash out enough money to clobber that $20/month data plan well below $10/month.

At that price-point, we think many will want to opt for a Sprint tablet as opposed to a Wi-Fi-only tablet. We’ve certainly been in a few situations where we wished our tablets had shipped with a free 3G/4G radio…

Like this kind of coverage? It’s not free, we spent a lot time, and a bit of cash, probing around to test this. Like us on Facebook (see the box in the top-right), and follow us on Twitter to support PhoneNews.com!

Posted in Deals, HTC, Samsung, Sprint | Tagged deals, sprint, tablet |

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Date of Motorola Xoom Tablet United Kingdom release and price

For those of you here love their tablet PCs and bring you great news too for Android Motorola honeycomb Xoom that was unveiled at the 2011 CES.

You may be interested to know that Motorola has announced the following week Tablet Xoom is available in the United Kingdom to purchase. As the guys on the Sailor soft has no definitive dates for when they arrive, but it is believed that giant electronics retailer, Dixons and Carphone Warehouse ultimately will store the tablet.

Now speculation that Motorola Xoom will retail for £ 600 for the version of 3 g tablet computer and possibly £ 500 to version only Wi-Fi. However, at the moment this is just rumors and the price is still unknown.

Well, hopefully, that there is no linking in the works and that Xoom arrive in the United States are stored in the next week, without a hiccup.

For those of you interested in buying or Motorola, it's a good idea to Check our Xoom article on Android (3) of the honeycomb block. 0, who runs a tablet or a video comparison between Xoom and the iPad 2.

Let us know your thoughts below.

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