ASUS May Be One Of The First To Get Android 5.0, Confirms Jelly Bean Name

Asus has confirmed that the name of Android 5.0 as being Jelly Bean and hinted that it might be the first one to ship a device based on the follow-up to Ice Cream Sandwich. Google had bowls of Jelly Beans spread all its meeting rooms at the company's booth at Mobile World Congress.

The company was the first to produce a tablet with Honeycomb (the first Asus Eee Pad Transformer) and the first to get Ice Cream Sandwich on a tablet (Asus Transformer Prime). Details about Android Jelly Bean have been scarce; rumours have indicated that Jelly Bean could have a dockable desktop mode, not unlike Ubuntu for Android and that it would come in the second quarter of 2012, just in time for Google's I/O developer conference.

Ice Cream Sandwich has yet to make a significant impact on the market yet although most device manufacturers (HTC, Motorola, Sony, LG and Samsung) have announced windows when they expect ICS to be rolled out.

Android 5.0 is Official & Named Jelly Bean and Valve's Steam Box Video Game Console Leaked:

Asus Teases Padfone, Will Come With Keyboard Dock

One of the device we are most looking forward to seeing at MWC 2012 next week is the Asus Padfone, the device was originally unveiled in May of last year, although the device was only shown in as a concept, and it will officially launch next week. The Asus Padfone is a combination smartphone and tablet device, which features a tablet dock that the smartphone can be docked into, and now Asus has released a new teaser video for the device, which you can see below.

The video doesn’t actually show us the new Asus Padfone, but it does give us the impression that they device will feature three different parts, a smartphone, a tablet, and a new yet to be announced part. According to the guys over at Phone Arena, the third part of the Asus Padfone will be a keyboard dock, similar to that of the Asus Transformer and Transformer prime tablets.
We should have some more information next week, and we suspect this could end up being a very popular device for Asus.

Transformer Prime bootloader unlock tool coming in February

Power users that purchased ASUS’s Transformer Prime tablet were unpleasantly surprised to discover that the bootloader was locked down, preventing the loading of customer firmware. This was a departure from the previous ASUS Transformer tablet, which had ended up being one of the more popular Android tablets in 2011.

ASUS was quick to reply to concerns, indicating that they had locked down the bootloader to comply with YouTube requirements for movie rental DRM. They also indicated that they would be developing an unlock tool so that power users and developers could unlock the Transformer Prime’s bootloader, at the cost of voiding your warranty and probably not being able to rent digital movies.

At the time of the announcement ASUS did not have a date they wanted to share, and we speculated that it could be a month or two until they had a bootloader unlock solution ready for release. ASUS proved once again that they can move quickly when necessary, announcing via Twitter that the bootloader unlock tool should be ready for release in February.

So there you have it – the wait is almost over, with an official time frame of 1-5 weeks. Does this make some of you more excited about picking up a Transformer Prime in all of its quad-core Tegra 3 glory?

Amazon Cancelling Asus Transformer Prime Orders Due To High Demand?

The Asus Transformer Prime recently went up for pre-order with Amazon, and the device will go on sale in the US later this month, and it looks like there has already been high demand for the tablet. We heard recently that Amazon sold out of their pre-orders within the first 24 hours, and now a number of people who pre-ordered the device have had their orders cancelled as Amazon has been unable to meet the demand for the tablet.

It isn’t clear as yet whether Asus is limiting the supply of the tablet, or whether demand for the device is going to be more than the actual supply of the device, I guess we will find out when it hits the stores later this month.

More information's:
http://www.droid-life.com/2011/12/02/amazon-canceling-asus-transformer-prime-orders-lists-lack-of-availability-from-suppliers-as-the-reason/

ASUS Transformer Prime:

Asus Padfone Will Be Equipped With Tegra 3 Processor?

Back in November it was thought the new Asus Padfone would be arriving powered by a Quad Core S4 Qualcom processor. But new information revealed by Nicole Scott from The Netbook News website, has informed Engadget that this is incorrect. Stating that the new Asus Padfone will be equipped with Nvidia’s Tegra 3 processor instead.

The Padfone is expected to be launched during MWC 2012 in February, but more information may be made available during CES 2012 in January. Unfortunately no information on pricing or worldwide availability has been released as yet, but as soon as information comes to light for the Asus Padfone we will keep you updated as always.

More information's:
http://www.engadget.com/2011/12/05/asus-padfone-with-tegra-3-coming-in-early-2012/

ASUS Padfone mockup hands-on: