Polaroid (yes, that Polaroid) is launching a durable, kid-friendly 7-inch tablet today at a pretty great price point. The tablet, which doesn't seem to have a proper name, is designed to be rugged enough to be handled and controlled by a young child as you can see with the large buttons and bezels. The device is actually running Ice Cream Sandwich -- though you'd never know it -- and is pre-loaded with 35 "premium apps" out of the box, with more available in a kid-friendly App Shop. It's probably best not to give a little kid Google Play access right from the get-go anyway.

There's 8GB of storage and some moderate specs here, so for $149.99 it may be a compelling option if you're looking to get a young child in your life a "my first tablet" kind of device. The tablet is on sale now from Polaroid directly or in stores later this month.

Source: Polaroid (BusinessWire); Polaroid Store

After an eternity of waiting and speculation, it seems the elusive ASUS Nexus 7 dock may be about to hit the United States and Europe this month.

In the Netherlands, AndroidWorld.nl has word from ASUS Benelux that the dock will arrive in mid-January. Prices are speculated to be around €29.99. On the U.S. side B&H Photo, which opened preorders of the Nexus 7 dock back in December, is now showing an expected availability date of Jan. 10.

Originally rumored shortly after the tablet's Google I/O debut, the ASUS-made dock connects through the Nexus 7's pogo pins and allows it to connect to other devices through microUSB and headphone jack.

Source: AndroidWorld.nl (Dutch)

Since going open source, HP's webOS platform has been ported to a handful of Android devices, including the Galaxy Nexus and the Nook Color. The most recent addition to this niche club is the ASUS-made Nexus 7. A dedicated gesture area, working keyboard, brightness adjuster, and Wi-Fi connectivity are all up and running.

Palm expatriates may by happy to see their old friend webOS again, especially if they have a a spare Nexus 7 kicking around to get the build running themselves once it's made publicly available, but as you can see in the video, things are still very much in an alpha state.

It's hard to say exactly where aspects of Open webOS will proliferate through the mobile ecosystem over the long run, but looking at experiments like this, it's hard not to think that Android might be one of those places. Any old webOS users here? Who would be willing to try to bring it to their Nexus 7? 

via webOS Central

If you got a Kindle device this year for the holidays, don't forget about the Kindle Store Daily Deals. There are always plenty of books for just $1.99, and they change daily. It's a great way to build your library on the cheap.

You need a Kindle or Kindle Fire to buy them, but once purchased they are in your Amazon account and can be read on any device with a Kindle app. With WhisperSync taking care of your bookmarks, you'll be hard pressed to find a better reading solution anywhere. To find them, just open the Kindle store from your tablet and look for the Daily Deals link on the right. 

You'll always find deals and specials in the music and video store as well, but the Kindle deals are a solid perk for having one of Amazon's tablets. Take advantage of it if you like to read and have a Kindle device. I just picked up William Alexander's "The $64 Tomato" and plan on spending the evening enjoying the warm indoors with it.

Coming a bit out of left field, the Toshiba Excite 7.7 tablet is receiving an OTA update to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. A model that most people had forgotten about (including Toshiba, many would've guessed,) the 7.7-inch variety of the Excite is pulling down a quite sizeable 348MB update that will bring it up to Android 4.1.1. The update will bring the new UI style -- with centered navigation buttons and new status bar -- that we've seen on the latest updates to the Nexus 7, along with all of the other new Jelly Bean goodies like Project Butter and Google Now.

The update is now live and many users are reporting that the OTA is hitting their tablets. Have you been notified on your device yet? Let us know in the comments.

Source: Android Police

You might remember that we hooked with Google last week and set up some giveaways for Nexus 7 tablets and Google Play gift cards. That's the kind of awesome stuff we do around these parts, and spreading the Android love around is something we enjoy. Anyhow, back to those giveaways.

We went through the forums threads and picked out our winners, and here they be.

• Day one (December 17): scottyhifi
• Day two (December 18): randyw
• Day three (December 19): Culex316
• Day four (December 21): Danrarbc
• Day five (December 22): lexflo

Congrats all around! Keep an eye on your inboxes, as I'm going to need to know where to send the Nexus 7s. Thanks everyone for entering, and keep an eye out for more big contests. 

If you were paying particularly close attention to upcoming Galaxy Note rumors around late October, you may recall that a Samsung "GT-N5110" device appeared in a DLNA certification listing. This prompted speculation of a possible 7-9-inch Galaxy Note variant, on account of Samsung's naming scheme for Note devices. (The original international Note was GT-N7000, the Note 2 is GT-N7100 and the Note 10.1 is GT-N8000.)

Today there's further evidence to suggest more Galaxy Note tablets are in the works. A GLBenchmark listing for a Samsung GT-N5100 has appeared, indicating a device running Android 4.1.2 on a 1.6GHz Exynos 4412 processor -- same as the Galaxy Note 2. The screen resolution of 1280x800 also hints at a tablet device rather than a new phone, and the firmware version (N5100XXALL3) indicates something built during the month of December. These details wouldn't be impossible to fabricate, but the consistency seen here suggests to us that this is in fact a real device.

Samsung's naming scheme points to GT-N5110 and GT-N5100 being different variations of the same device. Typically, tablets with model numbers ending in 00 are Wifi-plus-cellular options, while those ending in 10 are Wifi-only. For example, the Wifi-only Note 10.1 is GT-N8110, while the Wifi-plus-3G version is GT-N8100.

Unfortunately there's no information as to what form this device will take, though a 7-inch tablet would fit quite elegantly between the existing 5.5-inch Note 2 and 10.1-inch Note 10.1. It's possible we might learn more about this device at CES in a couple of weeks, but given Samsung's track record, we think an unveiling at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in late February is more likely. Whatever happens, we'll be at both shows, and we'll keep you posted on any further developments.

Source: GLBenchmark; via: SamMobile

Archos has quietly introduced their latest Android tablet, the 97 Titanium. Part of their elements series, the 97 refers to the 9.7 inch display. Spec wise, the 97 Titanium is a pretty impressive piece of equipment. 

The 9.7 inch IPS display has a resolution of 2048 x 1536 with a PPI of 264. That's iPad 4 territory right there. Underneath, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean runs over a dual-core 1.6GHz processor, 1GB of RAM, but only 8GB of on-board storage. It is expandable however via microSD card, and Archos claims 64GB cards are supported with no worries. Camera wise, there's a 5MP shooter on the rear, and a 2MP front facer.

Commendably, Archos is running what looks to be a straight up, vanilla version of Jelly Bean. Instead of the screen layout we see on the Nexus 10 though, Archos has gone for what we would traditionally think of from an Android tablet. The 97 Titanium isn't the plastic hell we might possibly expect either. The casing on the rear is constructed from Aluminum, and the thickness is kept down to just 9mm.

It isn't up for sale yet, nor do we know just when and where it will be, or how much it will cost. Archos has released a number of Android devices in the past, but rarely made a compelling case for purchase. This one could be a different story. For those looking for a stock experience, oodles of storage and a killer display, the 97 Titanium could meet some needs.

Source: Archos