Last week in Las Vegas we saw the first of Sony's 2013 smartphone line-up, and now it may be time for a refreshed Sony tablet to join the fray. A device by the name of "Xperia Tablet Z" briefly appeared on a product listing page for Japanese carrier NTT Docomo, indicating that the tablet would appear alongside the Xperia Z at a "Docomo smartphone lounge" event in Fukuoka, Japan next Tuesday, Jan. 22. The listing has since been pulled, but not before screen captures and Google's webcache could confirm its veracity.

Adding fuel to the fire is Japanese Twitter account @Xperia_Info, which earlier in the week reported hardware details for the device, along with the "Xperia Tablet Z" name. These specs include a 1.5GHz quad-core Snapdragon S4 CPU, 2GB of RAM, a 1920x1200 resolution screen, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, 32GB of storage, water and dust resistance and a 6000mAh battery. The tablet's thickness was reported to be just 6.9mm, suggesting that a "wedge" design similar to the Sony Tablet S and Xperia Tablet S may have been employed.

If the Xperia Tablet Z is unveiled in Japan next week, those in the West will likely get their first look at the device at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain in late February.

Source: Xperia Blog, Blog of Mobile, @Xperia_Info

T-Mobile just hit us up with some new info regarding the Nexus 4 and Nexus 7. Here 'tis:

• Nexus 4: Availability has been expanded to additional retail stores (so call yours to check), and it will be in all stores 'in the coming weeks." It'll be available again at T-Mobile's website starting Jan. 23.
• Nexus 7: You can now get a 32GB version with a T-Mobile HSPA+ SIM card starting, well, now. Hardware is the same as the "AT&T version" that popped up yesterday, only this one says "T-Mobile" and doesn't come with a $100 credit on your bill. (We're double checking on any data plan requirements and will update.)

We still have absolutely no idea when you'll be able to buy an unlocked Nexus 4 through Google Play. Hopefully availability at T-Mobile's website next week points to general availability, but at this point who the hell knows ...

Sprint Epic 4G Touch, T-Mobile Galaxy Note 2 getting fixes so far

When word dropped in December about an exploit to the kernel used with some Samsung Exynos chipsets, Sasmung promised an update "as quickly as possible" to plug the hole. Looks like fixes are starting to push out. Here's what we're seeing so far:

• Sprint Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch: Sprint has officially announced software update FL24. It'll be rolling out over the next 30 days or so. In addition to "security updates," it adds Sprint's Connections Optimizer. More in our Epic 4G Touch forums. If you can't wait for the update to push out to you, Team Sextape (really, folks?) has it in TAR form.
• T-Mobile Galaxy Note 2: Also official is the T889UVALL4 update for TMo's Note 2. The update comprises "Exynos and other security enhancements" along with "various bug fixes." The update is pushing out over the air, or you can update manually via Kies. More in our Note 2 forums.

Other devices affected include the international Galaxy S2, Galaxy S3 and Galaxy Note and Note 2, certain tablets using Exynos 4, Galaxy Player models, Galaxy Tab 2s and the Galaxy Note 10.1.

Good news for those of you with the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1. Not only do you have a pretty good tablet with pretty great stylus (excuse us -- "S Pen) interaction, today you're getting an update to Android 4.1.2. Jelly Bean. New features should be in line with what we described in November -- the new "multiwindow" viewing and "air view" controls for the S Pen, "easy clip" for cutting out images, and updated applications to go along with it.

Folks in our forums are all over this one, so hit the link below and get your update on.

More: Android 4.1.2 for the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1

Last night we reported that the official ASUS-made Nexus 7 docking station had started appearing at the manufacturer's own UK-based online store -- well, for some users, at least. This morning there's good news and bad news.

Firstly, it seems the product page is now working for more people -- we're having no problem accessing it here in the UK. However, the accessory now shows as "sold out," as opposed to shipping with a two-week lead time, as was the case yesterday evening. It appears a few eager Nexus 7 owners may have snapped up ASUS' initial batch of tablet docks in just a few short hours.

So, sad pandas for anyone in the UK hoping to pick up this coveted accessory direct from the manufacturer. However at least there's hope that other retailers may step in with their own supplies in the days ahead, now that these things are out in the wild. We'll keep you posted.

Source: ASUS UK Store

But perhaps signing a 24-month deal on a 6-month old device isn't the smartest of moves

A "special offer from AT&T" has just showed up on the Play Store listing for the HSPA+ Nexus 7 that shows a $100 credit offer for signing a service contract with your new tablet purchase. Similarly to the deal offered by T-Mobile on the Nexus 4 early-on, Google seems to be making small carrier partner deals to try and get some people locked into contracts with their devices even from the Play Store. 

This may seem like a great deal up-front -- as is the case in most contract situations -- but when you think about it this really isn't. You're signing up for 2 years of service to save $100 on a device that's already 6 months old, which in the long run means very little considering the cost of data for these plans. Most users will likely want at least 3GB of data, which will run you $30 a month (before taxes/fees.) Taking the true cost of ownership into mind, getting basically 3 months of free service in return for being forced to pay for another 21 months seems a bit less of a great deal -- especially when considering you're still having to pay the full $299 for the tablet.

Edited and updated (Jan. 15): To clarify things a little bit, the $100 credit works with any AT&T data plan. There's no minimum requirement, other than you have to sign up for two years' worth, and you can use it with AT&T's MobileShare shared data as well.

Source: Google Play; AT&T
Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

The official ASUS Shop website in the U.K. has just put its dock for the Nexus 7 available for purchase for £24.99. Well, sort of. This fits in nicely with previous rumors and pre-order pages we've seen that pegged the release for mid-January, but there's a catch here. Although the product shows up when searching for it directly or browsing through its listing for all Nexus 7 accessories, any link that you use to go to it or view the product description either results in an error or redirect to the home page.

(Hi, everybody! Phil here. The direct link to the dock works fine for me. That's why there's a bit of confusion. But since it works for me, I assume the problem is with the rest of you. Now, back to our story.)

If you're bold and want to go straight from the search listing to putting in your cart for purchase, the Nexus 7 dock will set you back that £24.99 (plus £6.00 shipping.) When moving to check out with the dock though, it lists a delivery delay of two weeks as well. We're not entirely sure what's going on here, but if we had to make a suggestion we'd say wait this one out a day or two and see if things get ironed out over at ASUS Shop.

Source: ASUS Shop UK; Thanks, @SteveEdson!

Tapatalk HD is exiting Beta today, launching officially on the Play Store for a promotional price of just $0.99 for today only. The tablet-optimized "HD" version of the Tapatalk app has been a long time coming, finally hitting the Play Store with a Beta tag behind it in December. Well it only took a few weeks since then for Tapatalk HD to shed the Beta tag for a full release. This tablet-optimized version of the Tapatalk phone app does a good job taking advantage of the extra screen real estate available, with a split pane view and photo gallery views. There are lots of customizations in look-and-feel to be had as well, so you can really make this app look the way you want.

Tapatalk HD will be $0.99 for today only, and will jump up to $4.99 after that. You can grab a download at the Google Play Store link above if you're interested.

Price, not performance, ​is the key spec for this Nexus 7 lookalike

ASUS has announced a 7-inch budget Android tablet, dubbed the MeMO Pad. At first glance it looks, physically, a bit like the Nexus 7, but this guy's definitely lacking the hardware department by comparison. That's not necessarily a bad thing, though, as it's targeted at emerging markets, where price is more important than power. The MeMO Pad seems to fit that bill with a $149 listing for the lowest storage option.

The MeMO Pad is running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean with a paltry 1024x600 resolution. (Hey, gotta save somewhere, right?) It's powered by a VIA WM8950 processor running at 1 GHz, paired with a Mali-400 GPU. (Ah. Saved some there as well.) It's got 1GB of RAM, and either 8GB or 16GB or on-board storage, with a microSD slot for good measure. Plus you get 5GB of free online storage from ASUS.

Again, this is no Nexus 7 killer, but it's not supposed to be, either, and you can pick one up in white or pink, in addition to the usual black. (OK, the official colors are "Sugar White," "Titanium Gray" and "Cherry Pink.") ASUS didn't announce any specific regions or retailers, so be on the lookout for that, but it did say to expect the tablet this month.

Full presser and a shot of the sweet white and pink versions are after the break.

We've all heard the stories that say it's impossible to develop for Android because of all the different possible screen sizes and resolutions. The flip side is that the way Android development is done, most of the time that doesn't really matter. I'm able to string together an Android application, but I'm no serious app developer, so I'm guessing the reality lies somewhere in the middle -- having a selection of screen sizes and resolutions to test on can;t be a bad thing.

If you have a Nexus 10, none of this matters. Using a tool first developed in 2011, you can use your Nexus 10 to simulate almost any Android environment. Because the N10 screen is so high resolution and has such a high pixel density you can emulate the different sizes and ppi right on the tablet with a few handy commands -- "adb shell am display-size" and "adb shell am display-density". 

Using those two commands while the screen is off will let the attached device emulate the chosen parameters when the screen is turned back on. You'll want to read all the documentation before you get started, but this looks like a great (and inexpensive) way to test your app layout across many different environments. 

Source: +Adam Powell