According to a recent article by Serkan Toto over on the techcrunch.com website, the device – which has now been officially named Raboo – will be going on sale as from August 10th, although it will only be launched in Japan. There has been no word at this stage on whether the tablet / eReader hybrid will be available anywhere else in the future, but we will keep you updated.

The Panasonic Raboo will run on the Android 2.2 Froyo operating system and although it won’t provide access to the Android Market, it does come with 16 apps pre-installed. The device – which weighs in at 400g and measures 206 x 133 x 13.9mm – comes with a 7-inch LCD touch-screen color display with a resolution of 1024 x 600 and DIGA / VIERA link.

It also comes with 8GB of internal memory, although Sovan Mandal over at goodereader.com states that only 4.5GB of that will be available to the user. The Panasonic Raboo tablet / eReader also comes with Bluetooth 2.1+EDR and Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n), a 1.3-megapixel webcam, 500mWx2ch speakers and a battery life of up to 6 hours (up to 10.5 hours with music only).

Although the device doesn’t come with an HDMI port, it does feature a USB port and microSDHC / SDHC card slots. The pre-installed apps include Adobe reader, browser and mail client. The upcoming device will not only feature XMDF file support, it will also have the ability to playback audio and video files such AAC, WMA, MP3, H.264, WMV and MPEG-4 files.

The Panasonic Raboo – which is in fact short for Rakuten Books (Japan’s biggest e-commerce company) – will provide users with access to a library of 10,000 e-books from the word go. As for the price, the Raboo will be priced up at 34, 800 Yen (roughly around $445). We’ve embedded a video below this post, so you can see the tablet / eReader in action.

Would you like the Panasonic Raboo to be available outside of Japan?

Jolie O’Dell from the mashable.com website has taken a look at some of the best health and fitness apps available on the Android Market, and compiled a list of what she believes is the top 10. Not only will the apps make the process faster and easier, but they’ll also make getting in shape a lot more fun.

One such app is the Nike BOOM application, which not only syncs your music to your workout, but also throws in a bit of audio-visual motivation from professional athletes and coaches for good measure. Instant Heart Rate Pro is another great health and fitness app worth downloading.

The Instant Heart Rate Pro app enables users to measure their heart rates from their phones. It also features a real-time PPG graph and the ability to view your heart rate history. If you’re more into bodybuilding than getting into shape, then you’ll most likely love the JEFIT Pro app.

JEFIT Pro enables users to track their progress, time their workouts and even beat their own records. Meanwhile, Pocket Yoga is the ideal app for all you yoga lovers out there. The Pocket Yoga application allows users to choose between 3 different practices, 3 difficulty levels and 3 different durations.

You can see what other apps made it onto the list of top 10 health and fitness apps for Android via mashable.com. What are your favorite apps to help you stay healthy and get in shape?

According to Scott Cannon over at sprintconnection.kansascity.com, the Music Plus app can be accessed direct on a Sprint phone, or via the sprint.com website. The app enables Sprint users to discover, play and purchase individual songs, bundled offers and even full albums.

Not only will users be able to create their very own music playlists, but the app will also enable them to assign ringback tones for different callers and different times of the day. Customers have the option of searching for music by title, keyword or a specific artist.

The Sprint Music Plus app also enables users to sample millions of tracks and ringtones, as well as organize full tracks and albums by genre, artist and custom playlists. Customers can also save themselves money, by purchasing the full music track, the ringtone and the ringback tone in one bundle.

Do you like the sound of the Sprint Music Plus application? If so and you are a Sprint customer, will you be downloading the app?

The little e-reader may now be used for a lot more than reading e-books. Though some Nook Color owners have been able to do a lot more with their device than initially designed for using custom firmware anyway, those that have stuck by the built in OS can now officially upgrade.

According to an article at Crave the update is to bring extra apps as well as Flash support for the device, therefore suggestions are that Android 2.2 could also be making an appearance on the device.

Also with these suggestions come hints of some sort of app store for the Nook Color. Barnes & Noble has been demonstrating the use of apps on the device since the day it was released, but no one thought the update would come this late.

More details about the update can be found in the article by clicking the link above. What do you think of what the update is set to bring to the Nook Color? Let us know in the comments below.

In a recent test by Blaze the website optimization firm, they claim that Android devices perform 52% faster than then the Apple iPhone in 84% of sites. This is despite Apple’s new iOS 4.3 which brings the Nitro Java-Script engine to the iPads and iPhones.

In order to get these results Blaze used a custom made browser wrapper app that times loading speeds on a thousand different sites that were loaded on the Samsung Galaxy S, Nexus S and iPhone 4. The figures were based on median loading times across the pages which were 2.1 seconds on Android and 3.2 seconds on the iPhone.

More details of what was found can be read in the article by Dave Horne at Blaze. What do you think of these findings? Do they surprise you? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

As Joanna Stern over on the engadget.com website recently reported, there will in fact be two different versions to choose from: the 4-inch Galaxy Player 4 and the 5-inch Galaxy Player 5. Both media players will be running Android 2.2, but will be upgradable to Android 2.3 (Gingerbread).

The 4-inch model weighs just 5 ounces and features a Super-Clear WVGA LCD display, while the 5-inch model weighs 7 ounces and features a WVGA LCD display. Both devices come with Wi-Fi (b/g/n) connectivity, front and rear facing cameras for video chat and Adobe Flash 10.1 support.

Samsung Galaxy Players also come with Qik applications for making VoIP calls over a Wi-Fi connection. The 4-inch model will also come with Skype pre-installed. The devices will also enable users to download popular social networking applications such as Twitter and Facebook.

Although the devices come with 8GB on-board memory, a microSD card slot allows up to 32GB of additional storage. Both Galaxy Players will support various multimedia formats including MP3, WMA, DivX, Xvid, MPEG4, H.264, WMV and AAC. Do you like the sound of the Galaxy Player?

According to Carly Page over at dialtosave.co.uk, LG has recently confirmed that the Optimus 3D handset will be released in the UK in “late May” instead of the predicted launch date of April 25th, which is the date that both Play.com and Expansys had expected it to arrive.

However, if you take the impressive specs into account as well as the fact that it’s the world’s first fully 3D capable smartphone, I’m pretty sure it will be worth the wait. The Optimus 3D features a 4.3-inch naked eye display, and dual 5MP stereoscopic cameras.

Besides the screen and the dual stereoscopic cameras, which are capable of recording three-dimensional footage, the Optimus 3D handset also comes with a dual-core 1GHz processor, 1080p video recording, DLNA and HDMI media sharing and a 1500mAh battery.

As Carly notes, although it is currently available to pre-order SIM free, it will also be available on pay monthly deals with Three, T-Mobile and Orange. Are you thinking of buying the LG Optimus 3D handset?

According to Eric M. Zeman over at phonescoop.com, Twitter noted that the UI re-design was aimed at making it look more like the official Twitter client of other platforms. Version 2.0 has brought many improvements to the Twitter app, including an auto-complete for @replies.

As Chris Smith over on the techradar.com website recently reported, the new auto-complete feature will now make tweeting a lot easier, as users will no longer have to type in the full username. You can also select the contact manually, by using the drop down box.

The updated app features a new tabbed interface, which means that users will now be able to slide rapidly between direct messages, lists, tweets and @replies, without having to return to the homescreen. Adding photos from your camera or gallery has been made easier as well.

Have you downloaded the update yet? If so, what do you think of the improvements?

As Eric M. Zeman over on the phonescoop.com website recently reported, both devices share most of the same specs, which include a 600MHz Qualcomm 7227 processor, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity, GPS, FM Radio and a 5-megapixel camera with autofocus.

However, while the Cloud Touch – which you can see a video of via the YouTube link here –features a 3.5-inch HVGA display, the Cloud Q comes with a 2.6-inch screen and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. Both phones do however come with deep Facebook integration.

The only possible downside to the Cloud Touch phone according to Gareth Beavis over at techradar.com is the fact that it only comes with 4MB of internal memory. Then again, that can possibly be expected considering the device is going to be aimed at the lower-end of the market.

What is great about the INQ Cloud Touch however is the Facebook integration, which includes a chance to choose your five top friends to follow using Facebook’s social graph API and a customizable widget. Facebook Events will be fully integrated with the Google Calendar as well.

You can read more about the Cloud Touch via the techradar.com website. Do you like the sound of either of these devices?

As a recent article over on the phonescoop.com website by Eric M. Zeman reports, the updated version – which is free to download from the Android Market and requires Android 2.0 OS and later – includes several new features such as improved stability and faster start-up actions.

The updated mobile web browser app is aimed at making user search much easier, with a new search box that can be found at the top of the toolbar UI. According to mobiletor.com, users can simply enter a search term once and instantly get results from VideoSurf, Facebook and Google etc.

Users should also experience better video viewing quality with Skyfire version 3.2, thanks to the increased content providers. The upgrade was also aimed at removing bugs and several crashing issues that users were encountering on certain Android devices.

Are you currently using a previous version of the Skyfire app for Android?