About one year ago ctys2ard and I (SparkyRih) met on the XDA developers forums and noticed that there was no support for the Padfone anywhere on the internet at the time, so we decided to start our own community website to support this device.
But who thought that the Padfone series and the community around it would grow out to be what it is today? Our community grew pretty quick, and within this year we reached more than 10.000 forum posts. But we also get great support from Asus themselves to make this possible. Because we're an international website, Asus decided to give us a Padfone Infinity to review, and to allow us to answer all of your questions.
On June 21 I created the first news item on this website, with a short video of the first generation Padfone. Now, almost one year later I'm able to make a video of the third generation Padfone, the Padfone Infinity!
Our detailed review of the Padfone Infinity is already in progress, and will be published soon! In the meantime we've opened a forum topic for you to request special details about this device.
A quick news roundup to summarize the past couple weeks, because the Padfone world did not stand still.
First of all, good news for Padfone Infinity users who want to root their device, one of our users found a very easy to use method to root your high-end smartphone/tablet. It has also been confirmed that the OTA RootKeeper will be able to restore the root libraries after an upgrade.
The Padfone Infinity is currently also available in all three colors (Titanium Gray, Hot Pink and Champagne Gold) in Hong Kong. If you want to know if the Padfone Infinity is sold in your country, look at our "Where to buy" page.
Furthermore, stay tuned for a full detailed review about the Padfone Infinity by Padfone Club soon!
The first generation Padfone (CHT SKU) did get a firmware upgrade, mainly fixing some minor issues. A customized version of this firmware upgrade was released one day after the official OTA.
But that's not the only custom ROM available for the first generation Padfone. User 666dsa666 is working on his own Pandora ROM.
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Asus releases bootloader unlock tool for first generation Padfone
The community is asking for a tool to enable them to unlock the bootloader of their first generation Padfone for a long time.
About three days ago we put up a poll with the question: "Should Asus release a tool to unlock the bootloader of the first generation Padfone?", even before reaching a small 100 votes, Asus released the long awaited unlock tool.
This tool allows users to unlock their Padfone to be able to install unsigned packages on their device like custom recoveries, custom ROMs etc.
Please be carefull with the usage of this tool! It will void the warranty on your device.
A big part of the Padfone community would love to see third party developers working on their device. For Padfone 2 owners, this dream is finally getting real.
In our special section (Padfone (2) Development) on the Padfone Club forums several users started to post Recoveries, ROMs, mods, themes and scripts for the Asus Padfone 2.
Team Win Recovery Project started the fire with their Touch recovery.
User dangeroustry registered an account on the forums to share his ClockWorkMod (CWM) with us.
User ethanyfng showed off a circular battery mod, which changes the battery icon in the status bar. A second battery mod was brought to us by huzz107. But we're probably hearing more from this user, because he also released a mod which changes the icons in your settings menu.
But probably the biggest achievements were brought by Lidenburg, he created a custom ROM based on firmware version 10.4.12.24 (WW SKU), the ROM is Rooted, deodexed, zipaligned and partially debloated. Lidenburg did also create an easy to use script which makes it possible to root your Padfone 2, flash a custom recovery, flash a battery mod etc. This script can be found here.
Keep following these users in our development section on our forums. Show them your appriciation, simply clicking on their thanks button or giving them some feedback would be greatly appriciated by the developers.
Back in MWC, the Padfone Infinity announcement by ASUS impressed the intuitive community with its high specs such as Snapdragon S4 600 processors and 13MP camera at 8fps. We already know that the phone will be available in 3 colors.Today, pictures of both the phone and station in hot pink emerged in Asus Taiwan's announcement together with prices. We will be expecting gold on top of the already announced silver color but for Taiwan, it is only available in pink and silver at the moment. We have not seen any official pictures of the gold version. Nevertheless, this would be a great news for the pink lovers especially girls.
In Taiwan, the 32GB Padfone + Station Infinity will be sold at NTD27990. At NTD2000 more, the 64GB is up for grabs. Like its predecessors, the set is available with contract subsidised price starting from NTD6990. All prices comes with 50GB Asus Webstorage.
A couple of weeks ago we asked a well known and trusted Dutch store when they expected to sell the Padfone 2. The store told us that they expected to sell this device starting from March 28.
But today we got word from Asus Benelux that the Asus Padfone 2 will be released in the middle of April.
The device will be sold in The Netherlands at Coolblue, Media Markt and Saturn. In Belgium it will be available at Vanden Borre.
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Jelly Bean for global first generation Padfones rolling out tomorrow
The first Jelly Bean update for the first generation Padfone was released about 1.5 months ago on February 1st. However, this update was only available for Padfones bought in or via Taiwan (CHT SKU), but Asus promised a quick follow up release of the world wide version of this firmware update. Almost immediately after the release of the first Jelly Bean update, bug reports started pouring in on our forums, so Asus decided to pull back the firmware update, and postpone the world wide release of it.
About a week ago, Asus released a new version of the Android 4.1.1 update, which seems to be more stable than the previous version.
Untill today there was no word of a world wide release of this firmware upgrade, but today Asus Germany announced that the update to Android 4.1.1 (Jelly Bean) will be rolling out for the first generation Padfones with the WW SKU tomorrow!
Asus Germany wrote ...
Great news for all owners of the first PadFone. The update to Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean will be available tomorrow via FOTA and also via download from website! Happy updating!
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ASUS Padfone 2 now available on Carphone Warehouse UK
ASUS Padfone 2 is finally touching down in the UK as announced during the Padfone Infinity launch in Barcelona. Carphone Warehouse is now offering the Padfone + Padfone Station only on Vodafone starting at £33 per month with 600 minutes, unlimited text and 500mb mobile data (24 months). At £4 more, Vodafone is offering unlimited minutes and text as well as 2GB mobile data. Although Padfone infinity is on its way to the market now, Padfone 2 for £33 is still an appealing price tag considering the Padfone 2 specifications. At the moment, only black colour option is offered.
Considering the first generation of Padfone never quite make it to the UK shores, we at Padfone Club are pleased to hear that Padfone 2 has finally arrived here. We look forward for more vendors like Amazon UK, Phones4U and Telco companies to implement this niche yet amazing concept into the UK. Kudos to Carphone Warehouse for pioneering the big step!
Had any hands-on in any of the Carphone Warehouse nationwide? Shout out in the comments and tell us what you think!
UPDATE 15.3.13
Carphone Warehouse Bristol Store confirmed that there is only 14 sets up for grabs in the CW main warehouse throughout UK. Hence, again, this will not be an impressive launch of Padfone 2 in the UK, albeit a better one than the original Padfone
Asus rolled out the first Jelly Bean update for the first generation Padfone on february 1st for Taiwanese (CHT SKU) Padfone owners. They also promised that other regions would follow soon.
However, the update to Android 4.1 came with a lot of issues for several users, so Asus decided to pull back the update from their website ant OTA servers.
Today, Asus Taiwan announced a new release of Android 4.1 for the first generation Padfone, once again, only for Taiwan (CHT SKU). There is no exact date for this re-release, and it's also not known when other regions will follow, so stay tuned.
A copy of the original upgrade package for the pulled back Jelly Bean firmware update is still available on this page.
Update 13-3-13: All Padfones with the CHT SKU have received the second Jelly Bean update today. A changelog is not available. But admin ctys2ard reported the following changes that he found so far.
1. Extra NFC toggle removed 2. Mount micro-SD card notifications can no longer be removed on notification bar 3. Mouse cursor is larger now
Further, this update should fix several stability issues. But we already have reports of a crashing Asus quick setting menu.
Asus has announced it's third generation Padfone, the Padfone Infinity on MWC 3013 today. It will be available in April of this year, and it will once again feature no keyboard dock.
The Asus Padfone Infinity will ship with Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean), and is entirely made of aluminium. It will have a 5" full HD (1920x1080p) IPS display, a 1.7GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM, and there will be a choise to have a 32GB or 64GB version. The phone will also have a 13MP rear camera and a 2MP front camera. The battery is upgraded to an 2400mAh battery.
The Padfone Infinity Station has also got upgraded. It now sports a 10.1" full HD IPS display. Company has also pre-loaded several new apps on the Padfone Infinity like SuperNote 3.1 for note taking, Story for creating stunning photo albums and ASUS Echo for voice control.
ASUS PadFone Infinity and Infinity Station will be sold for £799 (inc VAT) in UK and 999 euros in rest of Europe beginning in April.
We've also opened our Padfone Infinity General forums for you to discuss about this device. We will add the Help and Accessorie forums during the release in April.