Will Kindle Fire kill the $500 tablet?

Will Amazon's $199 Kindle Fire reset the tablet market, rendering the $500 tablet obsolete?
Let me preempt any challenges from Apple iPad folks. Yeah, I know, Apple will continue to sell the iPad at $499, $599, and $699. And, yes, Apple is slated to ship more than 12 million iPad 2s in the current quarter. Android rivals like Motorola's Xoom or Toshiba's Thrive aren't even close.
With that out of the way, the most immediate impact will be on the pricey Android guys. "I think [the Kindle Fire] resets the bar," Carter Nicholas, CEO of market researcher eDataSource told CNET this week.
To expand on Nicholas' argument, why buy a $500 Xoom if you can get most of what you need from a $199 Fire or a $199 Samsung Galaxy Tab? Or a $249 Nook Tablet? Or a 10-inch Lenovo IdeaPad for $349.99?
But I'm guessing that the longer-term impact will be on Apple too, as immune as it seems today to price pressure--despite these results from a recent CNET poll (44 percent said they're sticking with the iPad).
We may not see the impact on Apple--the torchbearer for $500-and-up tablets--until late next year or even 2013, but it's as inevitable as the $999 MacBook Air. Remember, the MacBook Air started at the $1,800 to $3,000 price range and stayed in rarefied pricing tiers for a couple of years.
No, the iPad is not the Air but it competes with low-end laptops as well as the cheaper tablets. (Even the iPhone 4's pricing with a carrier contract is $99 now.)
And I think this will go beyond downstreaming old iPads. At some point, even a new $500 iPad 3 or iPad 4, not to mention a $700 one, is going to seem too pricey for iPad owners who aren't necessarily wedded to Apple products.
But until that day comes--however distant--here's the latest crop of alternatives to the iPad and pricey Android tablets. These tablets are already doing their part to hasten the demise of the $500 tablet.
Sub-$350 tablets:

• Velocity Micro Cruz Tablet*: $99, 7-inch, Android 2.0, single-core processor, 12GB**
• Amazon Kindle Fire: $199, 7-inch, Android 2.3, dual-core processor, 8GB
• Dell Streak 7*: $239, 7-inch, Android 2.2, dual-core processor, 16GB
• Nook Tablet: $249, 7-inch, Android, dual-core processor, 16GB
• ViewSonic ViewPad*: $269, 7-inch, Android 2.2, single-core processor, 512MB
• HTC Flyer*: $299, 7-inch, Android 2.3, single-core processor, 16GB
• Acer Iconia: $329, 10-inch, Android 3.2, dual-core processor, 8GB
• Lenovo IdeaPad K1*: $349, 10-inch, Android 3.1, dual-core processor, 32GB

*Price at Best Buy
**Includes 4GB and 8GB SD cards

i+Case Aluminum iPhone 4S Case Looks Awesome

We have featured quite a few different cases for the iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 here at Geeky Gadgets, the latest one is called the i+Case and it was designed by Jason Valalik and Chungming Ying.
The i+Case is similar in design to Apple’s iPhone 4 bumper case, but what we can see from the photos it looks a lot better, and each one is machined from a single block of aluminum.

The i+Case is a Kickstarter project, but it looks like the designers have already raised twice as much as they needed to put it into production, when it goes on sale it will be available for $65 on a range of colors.

Samsung Galaxy Ace Review

Samsung announced their latest budget Android smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy Ace back in January, and we have just been testing the Galaxy Ace for the last week.
The Samsung Galaxy Ace comes with Android 2.2 Froyo, and it has just recently gone on sale in the UK, it comes with a range of features you would expect too see in a more expensive smartphone.

Specifications

As I mentioned previously, the Samsung Galaxy Ace comes with Android 2.2 Froyo out of the box, hardware wise you get 3.5 inch capacitive touchscreen display with a resolution of 320 x 480 pixels.

Processing is provided by an 800MHz processor, and there is also a five megapixel camera with 2x digital zoom and an LED flash, plus a range of shooting modes and photo effects.
You also get a built in FM Radio, Bluetooth 2.1, integrated 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, plus a microSD card slot, the model we tested came with a 2GB microSD card but it can take up to 32GB microSD cards.
The Samsung Galaxy Ace features 1350mAh battery, and the manufacturers specifications say that you will get up to 660 minutes of talk time on 2G, 390 minutes on 3G, plus up to 640 hours of standby time on 2G and 420 hours on 3G.

Design, Display and UI

The Samsung Galaxy Ace is designed to be a budget Android device, although it does feel very well made, maybe not as high as the Samsung Galaxy S, but it certainly feels better quality than the Samsung Galaxy Europa we tested recently.

The display is sharp and crisp and the design is excellent and it certainly feels very well made, and could quite easily be mistaken for a more expensive smartphone.
It comes with a pair of interchangeable covers, one black and one white, the black one features a rubberized texture which makes the phone easy to hold, whilst the white cover is smooth, and feels a bit more like plastic than the black one.

Camera

The camera on the Samsung Galaxy Ace is a five megapixel version, it also features two times digital zoom, and it is capable or recording video in a 320 x 240 resolution, no HD here unfortunately, and this is one of the cameras week points, the video recording isn’t the best, but I suppose this can be forgiven for the price.

The camera on the Galaxy Ace is pretty good ,  it does a good job at capturing pretty decent photos and it has a range of features built in which include autofocus, a range of shooting modes which include continuous and panorama plus a range of photo effects.

Conclusion

The Samsung Galaxy Ace is designed to be a budget Android smartphone, and I must admit I was pleasantly surprised with it, as it has a range of features that you would expect in a more expensive Android device.

It definitely feels a lot better quality that some of the other budget Android devices we have tested, and feels very well built, the display is sharp and crisp and the touchscreen is responsive.
The camera is decent, it will do a good jobs on photos, video is another matter and if you are the sort of person who uses your smartphone for recording a lot of videos you may want to consider something else.
Overall we really liked the Samsung Galaxy Ace, for the money it is an excellent budget smartphone, very well made and very well designed, if you are in the market for a budget Android device, I would definitely recommend you add the Samsung Galaxy Ace to your list of devices to check out.
The Samsung Galaxy Ace is available in the UK from a range of mobile operators, the model we tested was from mobile network Three, who are currently offering the Galaxy Ace for £199.99 on pay as you go and also with a range of their monthly contracts.
Make sure you check out our Samsung Galaxy Ace gallery below for lots more photos of this budget Android smartphone.

Apple admits iOS 5.0.1 didn't solve battery issues

Apple released an update to iOS 5, after users complained of facing battery issues on their iPhone with the new OS. The update was meant to address these battery issues. However, Apple admitted to AllThingsD that the update still did not fix the battery issues associated with the new OS update. They released a statement saying, "The recent iOS software update addressed many of the battery issues that some customers experienced on their iOS 5 devices. We continue to investigate a few remaining issues.”
The upgrade was supposed to be a fix for the battery problem. It also allowed iPhone users to have multitasking gesture support that was previously only available to the iPad 2. It also addressed a security problem, which allowed data thieves to steal data by creating an app for the App Store. This update was also Apple's first over the air update, which users could access by being connected to Wi-fi and having at least 50 percent of their battery left. The OS caused the battery problem, because a bug kept the Setting Time Zone function track location constantly, eventually draining the battery power, even if the user hadn’t used the device, as much.

However, even after installing the update, users still complained of battery issues. One user posted on the Apple forums, "5.0.1 is a bust! I was one of the lucky ones getting two days out of a charge, albeit with a lot shut off.  After updating I am seeing my power drain at a much quicker rate. Nice."

Hopefully a solution to this new problem will come soon.