For the most part all these tablets (or small smartbooks) have ARM 9 or 11 processors and 5 to 7-inch resistive touch displays. While some like the FirstView PC607V tablet (pictured above) have attractive skins on top of Windows CE, others from companies like Forsa and Huawei have gone with stock versions of Android. In truth, all of the ones we played with felt chintzy, but it was easier to lower our standards when we learned they wouldn’t draw more than $150 from our wallets. We’ve got a hands-on video with FirstView’s Android tablet after the break, but if that doesn’t fill your cheap tablet needs hit the more coverage links for videos by some serious Android / ARM tablet lovers.

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You might be fooled into thinking that Google only develops new and interesting mobile products for the iPhone and Android. While it’s true that they seem to get the lion’s share of attention, it’s for good reason. Their able browsers give Google a lot of room to tinker. The latest tinkering brings new functionality to iGoogle.

According to Google the new version is faster (sometimes I wonder if that phrase “appears” in every Google press release just for the heck of it). This isn’t necessarily a function of speedier delivery of Web pages. Rather, it has more to do with the way you navigate through iGoogle.

Next up is the new tabbed view. This lines up your content in a way that is easy to rifle through quickly to find exactly what you want.

iGoogle now supports more gadgets, though Google is sure to point out that those gadgets requiring Flash still won’t work.

Dan Zivkovic and Zhen Wang, Software Engineers, Google mobile team, write, “One of our favorite new features is the in-line display of articles for feed-based gadgets. That means you can read article summaries without leaving the page. You can also rearrange gadget order or keep your favorite gadgets open for your next visit. None of these changes will mess up the layout of gadgets on your desktop computer, so feel free to play around and tune your mobile experience. ”

I took the new version for a quick spin this morning. You have to actively select the “try the new mobile iGoogle” link to see it. I have to say, it definitely feels more organized and less chaotic. I can’t say I experienced any great improvements in page loads or anything, but the more compact and intuitive navigation lends itself to faster use.

via: informationweek

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The other big iPhone news has been the march towards 1 billion App Store downloads; something Apple heralded by releasing lists of the to-date top 20 paid and free apps.

All that activity could have reaching for your relaxation salts, or why not try iPhone’s Yoga Stretch application?

Of course, the competition has also been busy, although Nokia’s Q1 financial figures suggested it isn’t quite as busy as it’s been in the past. ‘Only’ 93.2 million handsets sold between January and March dotchyaknow. It’s still the biggest phone maker in the world.

The Nokia 5800 has been selling well however, and there are rumours it’s going to be getting a new higher quality capacitive screen.

As for Nokia’s software developers, they’re still coming up with new inventions such as the mobile, location-aware social networking app Friend View, and adhoc social mashup service Easy Meet. There’s also a new version of the Opera Mobile browser coming to Series 60 phones.

When it comes to Android, the big recent news has been the unveiling of the 1.5 version of the SDK (aka Cupcake), which when finally released will support video recording and YouTube uploading, software keyboards, stereo Bluetooth, better UI, smooth browsing and faster GPS location amongst other features.

Google also released improved mobile Gmail performance, although this was in-browser rather than supported within the Gmail Android app. Similarly, we were unsure about the thirdparty fBook app, finding it didn’t provide (m)any improvements compared to accessing the social network site through its official Facebook mobile version using your phone’s browser.

We do however like Shazam’s Android app, although the news BlackBerry users who want the full experience will have to pay a one-off fee was £5 seemed to confirm the view that the pricing model on the BB App World has yet to enter the real world.

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