prime

Consumers cooler to Amazon Prime than thought, report says

Amazon has failed to sign up customers to its Prime service as fast as analysts had predicted, Bloomberg reported today.

Citing unnamed sources, the news service said that as of October, Amazon Prime had at most 5 million subscribers. Analysts predicted that Amazon would have 10 million Prime members at this point, according to the report.

Bloomberg didn't offer any reason for the shortfall. An Amazon spokesperson was not immediately available.

Prime costs $79 per year. Subscribers get free two-day shipping on their purchases as well as unlimited access to a limited pool of movies and TV shows that … Read more

The wily Asus Padfone set for MWC release?

Many a gadget hunter has searched for the mythical beast known as the Asus Padfone, but new reports suggest it could officially arrive at Mobile World Congress next month.

From the Motorola Atrix phones to the Samsung Galaxy Note, convertible or hybrid mobile computing products are a new trend to watch. Asus also made waves with the Transformer Prime, a tablet that connects to an external keyboard letting it morph into a laptop.

Now another of the company's fabled gizmos, the Padfone, is likely to become reality at the MWC show in Barcelona, Spain. Android site Android Central reports that Asus sent out press event invites all but confirming a genuine and imminent Padfone launch.

What makes this device so interesting is that instead of using a laptop dock to change it into a netbook-style computer, users can place the Padfone in an accessory that gives the phone tablet capabilities.… Read more

Ice Cream Sandwich on the Transformer Prime: Our definitive verdict

When the Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime launched in late 2011, the hope was that it would be the first tablet to have and hold Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS), the latest version of the Android OS. While the tablet eventually launched with Honeycomb, no other tablet has yet to be released running ICS (although, the Xoom has received an update for it by now), so as of this month, it actually is the first.

A couple of weeks back, Asus began rolling out over-the-air updates of ICS to Transformer Prime owners in the U.S. We at CNET finally got our Prime unit updated and spent all day poring through the sweet deliciousness that is ICS.

The thing about ICS for tablets, though, is that while smartphones previously topped out at Android 2.3, Honeycomb (version 3) has been on tablets for nearly a year now and going from 3.0 to 4.0 just isn't as huge of a jump. Still, although the changes are minor, they are noticeable.

Check out the full Transformer Prime review, and skip to the Ice Cream Sandwich section if updates and changes are all you're interested in.… Read more

Amazon may be aiming at Netflix with new streaming service

Amazon may be looking to cut into Netflix's action by launching a new video streaming service.

Citing information from industry sources, The New York Post said the new service would expand beyond Amazon's current Instant Video by launching as a standalone, subscription-based business.

Amazon's Instant Video is free with a $79 Amazon Prime subscription, though nonsubscribers can buy or rent individual movies and TV episodes on a per-title basis. In contrast, the new service would borrow a page from Netflix's business model. Amazon is just currently trying to figure out what to charge, one source told … Read more

Why my iPad can't replace my laptop: It's the trackpad

I'll let you in on a little secret: I haven't been thrilled with any iPad keyboard case solution, despite testing and reviewing about half a dozen of them.

Sure, some of them are excellent products. Still, I don't find them essential. This is why I don't use my iPad during mission-critical trips to trade shows and live-blogged events. This is why I don't use my iPad as a laptop replacement. Not entirely. Not yet.

I agree with a lot of what Harry McCracken refers to in his experience with his iPad and the ZaggFolio keyboard case. Ideally, having such an ultraportable, flexible device with a long battery life would be a perfect travel tool. For me, however, that perfect tool hasn't materialized yet.

I'd love to have some sort of evolved hybrid of an iPad and a MacBook Air. I've been dreaming of it for a while, actually. Apple's clearly leaning toward a fusion of sorts between iOS and Mac OS X. Lion was the first step. iOS gets a bit more advanced every year, taking baby steps toward being a true operating system for hard-core computing tasks.

There are several reasons it won't work right now, and the biggest by far is the good old-fashioned trackpad--or lack of it.… Read more

Ice Cream Sandwich update failing on some Transformer Primes

The update to Ice Cream Sandwich is apparently leaving some owners of the new Asus Transformer Prime out in the cold.

Released by Asus last Tuesday, ahead of schedule to users in the United States and Taiwan, the tablet was supposed to receive the Android 4.0 update over the air. But instead, several owners of the Prime are complaining that their tablets are displaying a serial number error, preventing the update from installing, according to posts on the XDA Developers forum.

Asus is aware of the issue and is close to a fix, according to a message posted Sunday … Read more

Ice Cream Sandwich update dripping out to Motorola Xoom

Ice Cream Sandwich is finally providing some flavor to Motorola Xoom tablets.

A Motorola representative confirmed to CNET today that the company has deployed the Ice Cream Sandwich update, aka Android 4.0, to a small number of Xoom users for testing. The company has promised to confirm additional details when the upgrade is more broadly available, added the rep.

Motorola initially seems to have teased the update, without specifically mentioning ICS, in the following e-mail sent to select Xoom owners yesterday, according to tech blogging site AndroidCentral:

Thanks for your patience as we've waited for this project to … Read more

ARM's secret to success: Not doing things the Intel way

LAS VEGAS--ARM believes that its success is tied to doing things very differently from Intel. And you can't argue with its success.

I spoke to Ian Drew, executive vice president of strategy at chip design firm ARM, on the CES show floor here on Tuesday.

Q: You've seen tremendous success over the last few years. ARM chips are in virtually every smartphone and tablet out there. Can you comment? Drew: We shipped 8 billion (processor) cores last year. Look at the growth of smartphones. The diversity of our product lines. Look at how this business has changed over … Read more

Nvidia and Asus take on Kindle, Nook with $249 tablet

While no huge announcements came out of Nvidia's CES conference this afternoon, the company did manage to fuel the tablet price wars by teasing a yet-to-be named 7-inch, Tegra 3-based tablet that Asus plans to sell for just $249.

A company spokesman confirmed that there's no launch date for the tablet, which would be similar to the powerful Asus Transformer Prime and would ship with the newest version of Android, Ice Cream Sandwich. Strictly from a hardware perspective, though, it's sure to provide some fierce competition for Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet.

Along with that announcement, Nvidia … Read more