Archos launching their third generation of tablets in the budget Arnova tablet line. The folks at ArcTablet snagged a few pictures of the upcoming devices, as well as a handful of details.  The new tablets all run the latest Google Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.   They’ll all ship with the AppsLib Market instead of the official Google Android Market,  but Archos is working with Google to make its products Google certified devices, which would allow the company to pre-install the Android Market and other Google applications including Gmail and Google Maps.

The most impressive new tablet is probably the Arnova 7c G3 which features a 1.3 GHz Qualcomm MSM8255 processor, 1GB of RAM, and Android 4.0. Unfortunately it has a low resolution 7 inch, 800 x 480 pixel display and just 4GB of storage space, so this tablet isn’t exactly going to take on the Asus Transformer Pad Infinity in the specs department.

The Arnova 7c G3 has a micro HDMI port, front and rear cameras, and weighs about 0.8 pounds. There’s no word on the price or release date yet.

Check out the rest of the lineup after the break.

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Chinese company ZTE has been making phones, tablets, and other devices for a few years now.   However, it’s just recently that the company is just starting to sell its products in western companies under its own brand name.

Clove Technology is offering the Light Tab 2 for £235 including VAT. The ZTE Light Tab has a 7 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel display, a 1.4 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon single core processor, and Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating system.

The tablet has 512MB of RAM, 4GB of storage, and a microSDHC card slot for expansion. The good news is that the tablet supports WiFi, Bluetooth, and 3G, has front and rear cameras, and comes with the Android Market and other Google apps.

ZTE’s tablet also has one other unusual feature – an FM radio. That’s something that you usually find in phones, rather than tablets. But even if you don’t want to stick the 7 inch tablet in your pocket to listen to some tunes while you go for a walk, I suppose you could use the tablet as a battery powered radio around the house. ZTE says it should get up to 5.5 hours of battery life.

via Engadget

HP has released the source for the Android kernel srouce code for the HP Touchpad and some other software that had been developed in 2011.  Although it hasn’t been updated in nearly a year, and the kernel doesn’t include WiFi support, the developers behind CyanogenMod Android software for the HP TouchPad have already found a few things in the kernel that they plan to incorporate into future versions of their software.

You can find more information and download links at the RootzWiki forum.

Early rumours are that the next version of the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet will have a speedier processor than the current model.   BGR got a look a Research in Motion’s 2012 roadmap, and it looks like the new PlayBook will have a 1.5 GHz processor.

The current PlayBook comes with a 1 GHz TI OMAP 4 dual core processor, so performance on the Playbook 2 should be a bit better.  But, the progress doesn’t end there. BGR reports the new model is also expected to have HSPA+ mobile broadband support and an NFC (Near Field Communication) chip for secure transactions.

RIM’s new CEO had already confirmed that a new PlayBook is in the works, and earlier this month we’d heard that the new model could have mobile broadband support.

The new model will likely have a 7 inch display and run BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0. It could hit the streets in May or June.

We’ve seen plenty of indications that Android tablet makers are readying new devices with 10 inch, 1920 x 1200 pixel displays. But BGR reports Samsung may be preparing to go a step further by launching a tablet with an 11.6 inch, 2560 x 1600 pixel display.

That would give the Samsung tablet a pixel density similar to the Retina displays found on the latest iPhone and iPod touch models. Apple is also rumored to be preparing an iPad with a Retina display.

According to BGR’s sources, the new Samsung tablet will be about the same size as a Galaxy Tab 10.1, but it will have a thinner bezel around the screen to make room for the larger display. The tablet is also rumored to have a 2 GHz Samsung Exynos dual core processor.

Samsung has been showing off a 2560 x 1600 pixel 10 inch display for a few months, so it’s certainly possible that the company could be preparing a tablet with a high resolution screen.

Lenovo has crossed the thin & light notebook with a tablet and called it the IdeaPad YOGA. The YOGA takes an unusual approach in that you can push the screen back 360 degrees and fold the laptop as if you were closing the lid — but the “flip-and-fold” design means that the screen will now be accessible.

There’s a 13.3 inch multitouch display and an unusual hinge that lets you not only use the YOGA as a notebook or a tablet, but which also lets you prop up the computer using the keyboard like a kick-stand. That way you can watch videos, read recipes, or perform other activities (which, to be fair, you could also probably perform in laptop mode).  The notebook has an Intel Core processor, up to 8GB of RAM, and a solid state disk with up to 256GB of storage. It as a 1600 x 900 pixel display with a capacitive touchscreen, and it’s designed to run Windows 8.  The IdeaPad YOGA measures 0.67 inches thick and weighs 3.1 pounds.

Lenovo says the YOGA notebook will be available in the second half of 2012 for $1199 and up but no word yet on UK pricing or availability.

As Amazon and Barnes & Noble created a whole new market for 7 inch Android tablets and it looks like Toshiba wants in on the action.  Of course, Toshiba introduced a 7 inch Thrive tablet with a 1280 x 800 pixel display in late 2011, but today Notebook Italia learned a few details about a new Toshiba 7 inch tablet which will likely carry a lower price tag than the $380 Thrive tablet.

The new tablet promises to be thinner than the Thrive, and also has a lower resolution 1024 x 600 pixel display. It also lacks the rubberized back panel and LED flash for the rear camera.  There’s also a microUSB port, microSD card slot, and Bluetooth, which will help set it apart from other budget tablets such as the Amazon Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble NOOK Tablet.

We have yet to see if the Toshiba tablet will succeed without the likes of Amazon’s digital music, movie, and book stores. It’s likely that at least part of the Kindle Fire’s success is due to the software ecosystem Amazon makes available, and not just the cheap price.

Amazon Kindle Tablets and eReaders

Amazon has never made a habit of providing precise sales figures for its Kindle line of products. But today the company made two major announcements indicating that the devices are selling like hotcakes:

• For the past three weeks Amazon has been selling more than a million Kindles per week.
• The Kindle Fire is at the top of the charts.

In other words, we still don’t know just how many Kindle Fire tablets Amazon has sold, but the retailer says it’s the number one best-selling product, the most gifted product, and the most wished-for product on Amazon.

TheKindle Fire is one of the cheapest Android tablets available with a dual core processor and a high-quality IPS display.   Hackers have also been making the Kindle Fire even more useful by adding support for third party software such as the Android Market, overclocking the device with custom kernels, and even completely replacing Amazon’s Android-based operating system with CyanogenMod 7. Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich for the Kindle Fire is also in the works.

The Acer Iconia Tab A200 is a brand new 10 inch Android tablet that features a hi-res 1280 x 800 pixel display, an NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual core processor, and 1GB of RAM.  Essentially, it’s the current Iconia Tab A500 in a new case, add a few color options, but without the rear camera.

Although not shipping in the US yet, it seems to be available in the UK via the retailer Very.  They are currently taking orders for the A200 in black or red for £299.

Under the hood of the A200 is a 2MP front-facing camera, 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1, and a microSD card slot. It ships with Android 3.2 Honeycomb, but Acer promises that an Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich software update will be available soon.  The tablet measures 10.2″ x 6.9″ x 0.5″ and weighs about 1.6 pounds.

via EuroDroid

The late Apple CEO Steve Jobs said once that Apple had no plans to release a tablet with a 7 inch screen, because existing iPad apps wouldn’t run well and developers wouldn’t want to write apps for 3.5 inch, 7 inch, and 9.7 inch screen.  Of course, Apple said that they’d never produce a tablet in the first place.  Now, with the 7 inch Amazon Kindle Fire appears poised to finally give the iPad a run for its money in the tablet space, there are fresh rumours that Apple may make a foray into the 7″ tablet space.

DigiTimes is reporting that Apple could launch an iPad with a 7.85 inch display before the fourth quarter of 2012.  Reportedly, Apple is buying 7.85 inch panels form LG and AU Optronics. I suppose it’s always possible that Apple could just be building an enormous iPod touch or a tiny netbook — something else the company said it would never do.