Android news and rumor roundup for the week ending Aug. 17

16.08.2012
I really thought the whole stylus idea had been consigned to the same storage closet as Zip drives and dial-up modems, but Samsung doggedly stuck with it in the Galaxy Note 10.1, an ambitious new design that attempts to compete with the on its own turf.

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And while it may be tempting to snicker at the idea of the Galaxy Note 10.1 -- with its apparently flimsy construction, premium price and gauche stylus -- trying to compete with 's market leader, advances in technology have made this digital pen quite a bit mightier than its precursors.

Initial reviews praised the character recognition of the device's included S Pen, which not only handles block or cursive writing with some degree of aplomb, but can even recognize mathematical formulae and feed them to Wolfram Alpha for computation. The Galaxy Note 10.1's beefy hardware and split-screen multitasking feature were also widely lauded.

Still, size and price can be deceptive -- while it won't dethrone the iPad, it could have solid appeal among people who want the pen functionality. And hey, apparently there's a that acts as a Bluetooth phone handset. Pretty cool, huh?