Your once daily stop for tech news! If it's important we've got it covered!
Our focus is on mobile devices such as phones and tablets, but anything goes!
Some of you lovely people out there might be big fans of Asus' dockable phone/tablet combos which have the wonderfully strange name, Padfone.
The second generation of that device is currently running Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean, but today Asus UK announced through their Facebook page that the device will be getting a bump to Android 4.4 KitKat at the end of Q2 this year.
As well as the bump to the latest version of Android there is also the promise of the new Zen UI landing on the device too, which will definitely spice the interface up for people who have owned the device since launch!
Asus also confirmed that the update will come to the PadFone Infinity, but that won't be until Q3 this year!
ARM have announced new A12 architecture for their mid-range processors in the coming years. This will allow single-core processors to playback 1080p video at 60fps, and 4K video with a multicore processor at up to 120fps! Via PhoneArena.
Windows 8.1 will include native Miracast support, broadband tethering and WiFi direct printing amongst other things! Via TheVerge.
Turkey's Prime Minister has condemned social media as "the worst menace to society" after anti-government demonstrations over the weekend in his country! He especially dislikes the "scourge" of Twitter, which was used to share images of government crack downs and other protests. Via Engadget.
Vine is now available for Android handsets! It will work on all handsets with Android 4.0 ICS or better and you can find full details here! You can download the app here. Via TheVerge.
Asus announced a new WiFi router with transfer speeds of 1900 Mbps! You can check out full details here!
Sky have added Sky Sports highlights to their SkyGo offering! Via PocketLint.
Three UK have announced that they will carry the Huawei Ascend P2! The device will be £300 on pay as you go or will be free from £23 a month from the company! Via AndroidCentral.
Microsoft are offering free touch covers to people who choose to pick up one of their own Surface RT tablets! Via PocketLint.
Verizon have confirmed that they will carry the HTC One 'later this summer'! Via AndroidCentral.
And finally, Vodafone in the UK use this really sweet person tracking software to save money and the planet by only turning on temperature management facilities at their offices when their system detects someone's phone signal in a certain office! It's pretty sweet so check out full details here!
The answer is that the company's new ultrabook, the Zenbook Infinity, comes with a Gorilla Glass 3 lid which has allowed Asus to cram everything needed for this ultrabook into a chassis which is a mere 15.5mm thick!
As always with glass you do worry that the laptop wouldn't come through a drop in one piece, but Asus did say that the laptop has passed their drop tests, so fingers crossed it will hold up to the normal abuse which your laptops get!
So what do you get with the latest Zenbook? Well that's a tough question to answer, because we don't really know just yet. Asus have said that there's a touchscreen and a backlit keyboard and you can see in the images above that there's also a USB 3.0 port, an SD card slot, micro-HDMI and a Mini DisplayPort. Other than that we don't know anything else about the specs or prices of this device and it won't be out until Q4, so there's a fair bit of time for things to change!
Asus has brought their A-game to Computex this year and the first in a flood of announcements from the company was the arrival of some new MeMo Pad (pronounce mee-mo) tablets. The MeMo Pads have always been budget tablets, but this time they're a little bit better than the past generation!
Let's start with the 7 inch version first and that device has a relatively slim 10.8mm thick profile and it weighs in at a respectable 302g. The good stuff though is that there is a 7-inch 1280 x 800 IPS display, a Cortex A7 quad-core CPU will drive the device and PocketLint believe it's a Qualcomm SoC. This processor will be paired with 1GB RAM,a 1.2-megapixel front-facing camera and a 5-megapixel camera on the rear.
The MeMO Pad HD 7 has 16GB of internal storage and can be expanded via a microSD card slot. Asus are also offering 16GB of Asus WebStorage that's free for one year. Asus have said that the battery is good enough for 10 hours on a single charge and they're not normally too far off, so that's great to hear!
Unfortunately, this device is designed for emerging markets so it will have to make do with the slightly ageing Android 4.0 ICS to begin with, which is a shame.
The 10 inch device, the MeMO Pad FHD 10, is what got us more excited htough and you can think of it as a competitor to Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1, although we expect this one will be slightly more expensive.
The device is 9.5mm thick and 580g in weight. Inside that shell is a snappy new dual-core Intel Atom Z2560 1.6GHz processor, a great 1920 x 1200 better than full HD IPS display and ASUS have thrown in their SonicMaster audio technology. There will also be 1080p video playback and recording through the pair of cameras, which are 1.2 MP and 5MP on the front and rear respectively.
There's all the normal connections you would expect from this sort of tablet, as well as 16GB or 32GB of internal storage, which is microSD expandable and Asus are offering 5GB of Asus WebStorage with this device.
This time, thankfully, there's Android 4.2 on board and this will be a much higher end tablet than its little brother with supposed 178 degree viewing angles from that better than full HD display!
The MeMO Pad HD 7 will start at $129 (£85) if you want the 8GB option and the 16GB will be $20 more when the device lands this coming July! $149 for 16GB when it goes on sale in July. The bigger 10 inch tablet though will only come to market in September, but it will come in Royal Blue, Silk White and Vivid Pink!
The full press release is available below!
ASUS Announces MeMO Pad HD 7 and MeMO Pad FHD 10 Tablets New 7-inch and 10-inch tablets with Android 4.2 Jelly Bean feature high-definition displays and incredible ASUS SonicMaster audio Computex Taipei, Taiwan (3 June, 2013) - ASUS today announced the new MeMO PadTMTM HD 7 and MeMO PadTM FHD 10 Android tablets. With an MSRP of just US$ 129 for 8G and US$149 for 16G, the MeMO PadTM HD 7 is a 7-inch tablet that offers incredible value, with a quad-core processor, 1280 x 800 IPS display, and 1.2-megapixel front and optional 5-megapixel rear cameras. MeMO PadTM FHD 10 is a 10-inch tablet with the new Intel® Atom™ Z2560 processor, 1920 x 1200 Full HD IPS display and ASUS SonicMaster audio technology. ASUS MeMO PadTM HD 7 - the value tablet for mobile entertainment ASUS MeMO PadTM HD 7 has a quad-core processor and 1GB RAM for smooth and responsive performance with apps of all kinds. The 7-inch display has a 1280 x 800 native resolution for crisp text and images, and IPS technology for accurate, vibrant colors with 170-degree wide viewing angles. MeMO PadTM HD 7 also features high-quality stereo speakers with enhanced sound, courtesy of ASUS SonicMaster audio technology. ASUS MeMO PadTM HD 7 has a 1.2-megapixel front-facing HD camera that can capture 720p HD videos and models are also available with a rear 5-megapixel camera. Just 10.8mm thick and 302g, the feature-packed MeMO PadTM HD 7 has a lithium polymer battery that lasts for up to 10 hours with 720p video playback. Models are available in four colors - black, white, pink and green. MeMO PadTM HD 7 has 16GB of storage and a MicroSD card slot, plus 16GB ASUS WebStorage free for one year. Together with the ASUS WebStorage Office, users can view, create, edit and share Microsoft Office documents online. ASUS MeMO PadTM FHD 10 - the multimedia tablet of choice ASUS MeMO PadTM FHD 10 features the latest Intel® Atom™ Z2560 1.6GHz processor and a 1920 x 1200 Full HD IPS display for deliver vivid visuals with 178-degree wide viewing angles. MeMO PadTM FHD 10 has stereo speakers with SonicMaster audio technology and its 10-inch screen makes it ideal for entertainment, 1080p video playback and handheld gaming. MeMO PadTM FHD 10 features Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology for improved graphics performance and increased energy efficiency. The slim design has a 1.2-megapixel front-facing camera and a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera with autofocus for impressive photos and 1080p video recording. ASUS MeMO PadTM FHD 10 is just 9.5mm thick and 580g light, and its lithium polymer battery lasts for up to 10 hours with 720p video playback. The 'micro-weave finish' is available in Royal Blue, Silk White, and Vivid Pink. MeMO PadTM FHD 10 has full connectivity options, including 802.11a/b/g/n, GPS and GLONASS navigation. ASUS Miracast wirelessly connects the tablet to a Wi-Fi enabled TV or projector to share movies, photos and presentations. MeMO PadTM FHD 10 is available with 16GB or 32GB storage and both capacities also feature a microSD card slot. 5GB of free lifetime ASUS WebStorage is also included. MeMO PadTM Accessories Both MeMO PadTM HD 7 and MeMO PadTM FHD 10 come include a protective TransCover with microfiber interior. TransCover folds into a stand to prop up the tablet at the perfect angles for watching video and typing with the on-screen keyboard. TransCover is available in blue, pink, white and black for the MeMO PadTM HD 7; and black, pink and green for the MeMO PadTM FHD 10. The Persona Cover for the MeMO PadTM HD 7 is also available. Available in black, pink and green, this is a snug-fit case that protects the tablet from everyday bumps and scrapes. AVAILABILITY & PRICING ASUS MeMO PadTM HD 7 has an MSRP of US$ 129 for 8G and US$149 for 16G and will be available starting in July 2013. Please contact your local ASUS representative for further information.
At the moment televisions tend to have a maximum resolution 1920 x 1080p, which is sharp and makes things look good. The future though will be stepping things up a lot. Asus are one of the first people out of the blocks with a well sized display with the new 4K, that's 3840 x 2160p resolution across a 31.5-inch monitor.
That will give you a PPI of 140 and the IGZO panel will give great colours and has four times the pixels which should make everything look absolutely fantastic. The monitor is also super skinny coming in at 3.5cm at the thickest point and there's the benefits of DisplayPort and the US models will offer dual-HDMI ports inputs with Picture-by-Picture support. Speakers will be good too with built-in 2W stereo speakers and there will be wall-mount options, full height, swivel, and tilt adjustments here too, hopefully you won't need to use these swivels too much because there's 176 degree viewing angles at the moment! Hexus and Asus Via Engadget.
Asus are yet to really tell us too much about their new range of tablets this year. We know that there's the Asus Padfone Infinity on the way and we've already had the Fonepad released.
There's more on the way though and the company is expected to bring quite a few new devices to Computex in a couple of weeks! As part of the build up to that event Asus are releasing some teaser videos and we've already seen the first of these which you can see here, but today they've released the video below.
So we've had a couple of looks at the video and it's fair to say that we're baffled, we haven't been able to spot any devices, but the purpose of the video seems to be to saying that 'parallel universes do exist'. That's interesting because in our minds that would mean something similar to the Padfone, which combines both mobile and tablets. We already know about the Padfone though, so perhaps this could be a Windows version of the phone, but we're not entirely sure how that would fit with Microsoft's current Windows offerings, but we'll have to wait and see!
[Update: We watched the video again and if you look closely when the lady looks into the binoculars each eye shows you the picture of the Android and Windows 8 homescreens, so it looks as though they're planning to offer a device which dual-boots Android and Windows!]
If you notice something we haven't then let us know in the comments below!
There's any number of reasons why you're interested in picking up a this particular laptop from Asus. Perhaps you want premium build quality at a reasonable price, perhaps you want a touchscreen laptop to give Windows 8 a fair shot on or perhaps you want a good all rounder which will serve you well for a few years. In any of them examples then the VivoBook S500 is well worth consideration and here's what us guys here at TTF think of it!
Design:
The VivoBook S500 is a really nice laptop to hold and from the second we got it out of the box this thing was screaming premium! One thing to behold is how thin this thing is compared to our Toshiba Portege and ageing HP laptop! It's also really dense and you'll notice the weight on this thing! This might be, in part, due to the choice of materials: the brushed black aluminium on top, silver aluminium around the keyboard and on the sides and underneath the soft touch plastic could all add to the heft.
One thing worth mentioning is that the plastic on the bottom is a good idea; it makes the whole laptop easier to carry in one hand. It's also a good way of getting rid of the heat which this thing creates when it's on your lap, which can be noticeable if you're taxing it!
On the whole though this is a very good looking laptop and it definitely has a premium aura. As you can see in the picture below it’s about as thick as a ten pence piece when the lid is closed and the tapered base looks great!
Performance:
Performance is one place where this device excels, the Core i5 processor combined with Windows 8 is a great pairing and the reality is that this is a very capable machine! In the month since we've had this machine we've struggled to make it slow down; it's happy to handle ten or more tabs going in Google Chrome, as well as Spotify, Outlook and Word all at the same time. We don't really do much video editing so we're not sure if it can handle things like that, but we're sure it's not out of the question!
If you're looking at this device from a consumer standpoint and Windows 8 is a concern, then banish that thought right now! We've even got something to help ease your minds: perhaps the best way to think of Windows 8 is Windows 7 with a new touch layer over the top. In that sense this sort of device offers you the best of both worlds because you can make use of the touchscreen and the desktop modes with this laptop!
For those music and film connoisseurs amongst you there's plenty of storage on here, although there isn't an SSD unfortunately. The 500GB hard-drive is a solid enough start and when you've got Office and other things such as Google Chrome installed you’ll be left with somewhere in the region of 400GB of storage! If that isn't enough don't worry, because there's a comprehensive set of ports which we'll come onto later!
The Keyboard and Touchpad:
The keyboard on this laptop looks better then it is. The Macbook-esque design isn't reflected in the quality of the keyboard. We can say that the keys are well spaced and that you won't have any trouble hitting them, but once you have hit them they have no travel and they just don't feel nice!
Another gripe is that the keyboard isn't backlit so don't expect this to be a good companion for movies in bed! If you're thinking about getting this for a lot of typing then you'll have an ok experience once you get used to those keys!
We also struggled with the touchpad on this Vivobook. As you can see in the picture to the right, there's a small dividing line at the bottom of the touch area which segregates the right click from the left click areas. Aesthetically this makes things look nicer, but when it comes to using it it's a pain unless you check where your fingers are. The touch area is to the left of centre on the laptop and we found ourselves left-clicking a lot of the time when we wanted a right click. Unfortunately we found similar issues with the gestures. Where we were used to resting out fingers on physical buttons after right clicking we ended up accidentally pinching to zoom, which gets tiresome after a while. On the plus side though the two finger scroll on the touchpad worked a treat!
"This is the easiest part
of the review to write!
The touchscreen is fantastic!"
The Screen:
This is the easiest part of the review to write! The touchscreen is fantastic! Initially, our thoughts were, 'what is the point?' Well it turns out after you've had it for a while you find yourself reaching for the screen a lot more often then you'd think and once you've mastered the Windows 8 gestures it's simply more practical to use the touchscreen on the Live Tile menu then it is to select them with the touchpad. Call us crazy, but we're converted to touchscreen laptops! The only problem is that you start to think that everything's touch and we've given our standard laptops some prods and well that didn't do them any good!
You'll probably want to keep a cleaning cloth nearby though because smudges and grim get annoying quite quickly, especially if you're working in a brightly lit room!
Aside from that the screen is really nice. Colour reproduction is good, the brightness is again good and the only criticism is that in 2013 we don't think that 1366 x 768p spread across 15.6" is really where we should be at the moment, but that's the only criticism we have of the display!
Battery:
As always with battery there are huge amounts of variables, but let us put it this way. Unless you plan to use this thing on the lowest display brightness (you won't) and you don't plan on using it for hours on end, you will be carrying your charger around with you.
In our experience, with the screen at full brightness, the device managed to get through about three hours with browsing and word processing, we didn't do anything intensive and if you want music through the built in speakers, which you might, you can cut about another hour off of that on a charge.
We have a feeling Asus knew what they were doing when they offered a two year guarantee with the computer, but only a one year one for the battery!
Sound:
The speakers are actually very good on this laptop, it's hard to fault the. The sound output is normally a key component of a modern laptop and this is hard to beat. The speakers are housed beneath the keyboard and they seem to angle the sound right at you when you're sitting in front of
the screen typing!
The speakers aren't the loudest in the world, but they manage to retain their output quality all the way up to full volume and they should be more than enough for everything except parties! We're not sure how much of this is down to Asus' Sonicmaster enhancements, but some of the music profiles which are offered are nice and it's an extra feature which other companies don't necessarily offer in the same price bracket!
Connections and ports:
The connections should be more than enough for everything you’ll ever need. On the left you'll find a full size SD card slot, two USB 2.0 ports and a key lock hole. The right houses the Ethernet port, VGA and HDMI outputs and one high-speed USB 3.0 port. It's actually a really good selection and we're definitely impressed!
The charging port is also on the right and the charger which Asus have given us with this laptop is a good length, but not the longest in the world, so bear that in mind, because you'll be connected to the wall a fair bit!
The Wrap-Up:
Overall this is a really good laptop for the price. If you think for £550 you get premium build quality, great sound, a comprehensive array of ports and connections and that touchscreen. This is value for money and we're more than happy to recommend this device to anyone out there who wants a powerful, well priced laptop which will serve them well into the future! And don't forget to check out the video overview from Asus' Republic of Gamers to see if their opinions line up with ours!
Asus' Padfone Infinity is one insane phone and tablet combination! It's powerful, sleek and expensive too. If none of that phases you though the guys from Taiwan have finally shown off the 'hot pink' colour which was promised when the phone was announce!
As you can see from the image above the pink is a really bright shade which hurts your eyes just a little bit on the press shots. But, if this is what you want and if you're prepared to wait a little bit longer for the phone to be ready then here's a brief reminder of what your money will buy you:
There's 5" Full 1080p display, giving you a ppi of 441, the same 1920 x 1080p resolution will be on the tablet dock too, which has a screen which will be up to 400 nits of brightness. Both of those screens will be driven by a quad-core Snapdragon 600 chipset clocked at 1.7GHz which is backed up by an Adreno 320 GPU, 2GB of RAM, either 32GB or 64GB of built-in storage and a list of connectivity options which is as long as your arm. There's EDGE, GPRS, GSM, WCDMA, LTE
and DC-HSPA+, along with (take a breath) WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC, A-GPS and GLONASS. The device supposedly uses a nano-SIM card, which is a little bit of a pain, but that is offset by the 13-megapixel rear facing autofocus camera which is a five-element, f/2.0 lens which can shoot at 8fps. This comes with an LED flash too. On the front there's a 2MP for those video chats. All of this is powered by a 2,400mAh battery, but naturally this can be recharged and pushed upwards when the phone is docked into the tablet component.
If you're interested then we assume the price still hasn't changed from what was announced earlier in the year so that'll be £799 or €999 if you're in Europe.
Google's Nexus Q might be making a comeback as some new documents hae landed at the FCC which makes the omission of Nexus Q support in the new Google Play Music app a little strange. The FCC documents suggest Google are working on the "H840 Device" which is described "as a media player," and the model nuber H2G2-42 is seemingly a strange reference to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Google asked all pictures and diagrams to be kept a secret so we don't hve much to go by at the moment! Via AndroidCentral.
Samsung's WatchON app has seemingly revealed the Galaxy S4 Active, S4 Mega and the S4 Mini judging by a new update to the software! Head over to SamMobile here for full details and a screenshot!
T-Mobile USA appear to be going with ISIS for mobile payments instead of Google Wallet! Via AndroidCommunity.
GForGames have confirmed via their UAP history that HTC are working on the Butterfly S! Via AndroidBeat.
Acer's W8 tablet is a n secret any more and the device popped up on the companies Finnish site earlier today. Unfortunately, the website is now gone and we can't check out what it said, but the device is definitely on the way and it shoudn't be too much longer before we hear something more concrete about the device! Via Hothardware.
Samsung have announced a new Retina annihilating screen which has a resolution of 3200 x 1800p across a 13.3" screen! That's quite the step up from the 2560 x 1600 screen Apple put into their MacBook Pro 13, the display also puts Google's Chromebook Pixal display to shame with its 2560 x 1700p display. Samsung Via Slashgear.
LG look to have won the race to announcing 5" amoled displays which are bendy, but this is only half the story the real award will go to whoever can mass produce these things first! Via Hothardware.
This teenager from California could revolutionise the amount of time needed to charge your smartphone! Check out what she's done and how here!
Asus have teased a new ultrabook with a 'Gorilla' inside! When we know what this actually is when it's shown off at Computex we'll let you know!
Sony's Xperia Tablet Z is available for pre-order around the world from today! Head to your ocal Sony website for full details! Via ITProportal.
And finally, we'd just like to say happy 8th birthday to YouTube! We can't remember what we did in our free time before we clicked onto your silly videos of cats or tuned in to watch the lyrics video of Diamonds by Rihanna!
When Apple chose to whack those 'Retina displays' inside their MacBook range of laptop devices companies all over scrambled to offer something similar in their portfolios and it started a trend of companies trying to get the screen with the highest resolution on computers!
Asus is the latest manufacturer to step up to the 2880 x 1620p resolution with their new 15.6" ZenBook UX51VZ-DB115H. This device didn't have much of a fanfare or launch event, but it just popped up on the German version of Amazon as a pre-order!
If you look into the specifications a bit more you'll find that the screen offers a ppi of 221 which is simply great! Otherwise the internals are pretty much what you would expect to see on a high-end laptop: there's an Intel Core i7-3632QM processor, 8 GB of RAM, a choice of 256 GB or 512 GB SSD, and the package is rounded out by graphics from Nvidia in the shape of their GeForce GT 650M GPU.
The chassis is aluminium which gives the whole thing a premium feel and there's the welcome additions of the integrated DVD burner and an HD resolution web camera for those Skype calls! There's set to be three USB 3.0 ports, Windows 8, an internal eight cell battery with 90 Wh of power and all of that is crammed into a body which measures in at 380 x 255 x 19.7 mm and weighs 2.06 kg, which although is slightly heavy, should be fine given the quality of materials which are used here!
If you want one of these laptops then you can pre-order one now and it'll cost you €1700 for the base model which comes with a 256 GB SSD, to get the 512GB SSD model then you'll have to pony up €1999. If you can't do without the biggest and the best and you want it to run Windows 8 then this is a good device to take a look at!
Via Slashgear.
Asus' Fonepad is already a great device, we've had the pleasure of getting a bit of hands on time with the phablet(?) and it is already snappy, fun to use and somehow still perplexing. But, apparently the current set up isn't enough for some people and reviews have pointed out that when lots of thkngs are gonig on at once or intensive games are running that there are some hiccups.
Those hiccups Asus is hoping to iron out with a slight spec bump to their Fonepad. The standard 1.2GHz Intel Atom Z2420 processor and 16GB of built-in storage are being swapped out for a new slightly faster 1.6GHz Z2460 processor and a new 32GB of memory option which also has the same microSD expandability which was on offer before.
According to the guys over at Engadget the new and improved model will be a little more expensive, setting you back NT$10,900 which when converted into US dollars is about $360 and in British Pounds that's £238, which isn't too bad considering that it's a £58 premium over the standard version which costs £180 in the UK.
We're not sure where this device will be available at the moment, but when Asus give us more information we'll be sure to let you know!
Asus already have the strapline 'in search of incredible', but as of today they also have a new teaser video for something too! As you can see from the video embedded below the Taiwanese company are promising that they will 'transform' just as 'innovation' does.
This is the first of five teasers according to the website which they provided here, so we can expect some more details the lower that counter gets to zero!
We don't know for sure what this could be, but given the theme is transforming we would expect there to be some sort of refresh to the companies line of Transformer Pad tablets and perhaps there will be one of those much rumoured Intel-powered Android laptops in the range too, or maybe even a Chromebook? Who knows, but we only have to wait until the start of June to find out! Via Engadget.
Asus' tag line is 'In search of incredible' at the moment and while their sales aren't exactly 'incredible' at the moment the guys from Taiwan aren't doing too badly lately, with their laptops, tablets and their small range of phones starting to garner ever more attention!
The latest device, the Fonepad is a bit of a mishmash of phone and tablet, but at an incredibly low cost initial reviews have been good. But, that device wasn't around for Q1 so how did things go? Not too badly it seems, in spite of the shrinking PC market. The guys reported a total revenue of $3.5 billion which provided a quarterly profit of $202 million. That's an increase of 5.8% year-on-year and in the current climate that's not bad going at all!
The earnings call shows the drop off of sales of notebooks (laptops) and the PC components,but the good news for Asus was that there were 3 million tablet sales in the first three months of the year and this made up the difference!
Things are also going surprisingly well in America, where the company got 23% of their revenue from, which is 6% more than the same period last year earnt them from the region. According to Engadget, the outlook is set to be flat which the guys concluded meant that there won't be a replacement for the Nexus 7 until Q3. We're not sure quite how much the Nexus devices make their manufacturers given that they're sold at cost, but with computer sales on the decrease the sales of Asus' own branded tablets will become more important over the next few quarters! Via Engadget.
Chromebooks have seemingly proved quite popular of late. Obviously people know that they won't be buying the latest and greatest hardware, nor will they have the full operating system that OS X, Linux distros and Windows offer. That is alright though because Chromebooks are typically cheap as chips!
Earlier this year Acer reported that between 5 and 10% of their US sales were their budget Chromebooks and that has seemingly prompted wider interest. Something which has led to Acer supposedly planning successors and Asustek (or Asus) planning to offer their own Chromebooks in the second half of this year! Acer are said to be targeting students with another inexpensive Chromebook in July.
To support these new laptops Digitimes report that Google will 'aggressively promote the platform it has developed, according to sources from the upstream supply chain.' Exactly what that means we're not sure, but we can probably expect another round of TV ads if Digitimes are right. Especially if Samsung , Lenovo and Hewlett-Packard (HP) are going to release Chromebooks too!
The last part of the rumour is quite interesting and that is that Google is working with Samsung, Asus, HP and Acer on a new range of Androidbooks. We've actually been hearing a fair bit about these lately, especially from Intel, which does give this rumour a bit more weight. Digitimes say that these devices would force Microsoft to reconsider the licensing fee which they charge OEMs for Windows licences and in the long run this will force down prices on laptops and ultimately desktops too! We actually heard a rumour that HP will be releasing an Androidbook yesterday, the rumour said that it was going to be called a SlateBook, which we expect HP's naming convention to dictate, again there's definitely something brewing here!
We're still not sure why Google is pursuing Chromebooks and Android, it definitely seems as though the two will come together at some point soon, but their Google's projects so we'll just see where the guys in Mountain View take them! What do you think? Are you interested in Chrombooks from Asus or Lenovo? Do you want an Androidbook? Let us know in the comments below! Digitimes Via Hothardware.
We all know Android tablets are becoming more and more popular. They're popping up every where these days and for the most part, they're competitively priced and kitted out with very solid internals. The perfect example of this sort of device is the Nexus 7; it's affordable, very well kitted out and it is the new benchmark for 7" Android tablets. With that in mind, how well have Android tablets done lately and which devices top the pile?
Well it seems like Samsung take the prize here with Amazon's tablets being very popular in their own right. There's a couple of Asus devices in there for good measure too!
It's interesting that Samsung's 'budget' Android tablets are actually the most popular here, closely followed by Amazon's tablets which are supposedly sold at cost. Then of course there's Google and Asus' Nexus 7, a device which many would expect to be higher up the list. To be fair to the device it is only available in ten countries and of those ten countries only five of them have the pleasure of using the 3G variant, so it's actually done remarkably well to finish that high on the list! There's a similar situation with Amazon's Kindle Fire and Kindle Fire HD, both of which are available in at least fifteen countries so those devices have proved hugely popular too!
Everyone knows why Samsung's tablets have sold well, they're well made and they're available in an almost infinite set of configurations for every market. It seems that Samsung has really built a strong brand around their 'Galaxy' name and it'll be interesting to see if everything looks the same this time next year or whether Sony, Asus, Acer or even Lenovo can muscle their way onto this board!
Via AndroidPolice. Image Credit: 9to5Google.
PC shipments have been struggling a bit for quite while now, but apparently the start of this year has been the worst quarter for PC sales yet! According to the IDC the first quarter of this year saw total shipments drop to 76.3 million, a drop which has been attributed to smartphone and tablet sales.
The IDC revealed that PC shipments fell 13.9% compared to the same period in 2012 and that is considerably worse than the projected 7.7% sales drop which was forecast. For the purposes of clarity the IDC lists desktops, portables, mini notebooks, and workstations as PCs but handhelds, x86 servers and tablets aren't considered computers.
With that in mind the table below demonstrates how the biggest five PC companies are getting on and it's bad new for everyone except Lenovo, who probably have their home market CHina to thank for their flat-lining sales. Everyone else's sales dropped down by varying amounts.
The IDC's David Daoud said that:
"Although the reduction in shipments was not a surprise, the magnitude of the contraction is both surprising and worrisome.. The industry is going through a critical crossroads, and strategic choices will have to be made as to how to compete with the proliferation of alternative devices and remain relevant to the consumer."
Windows 8 is also taking some of the blame here too with Bob O'Donnell adding that:
"While some consumers appreciate the new form factors and touch capabilities of Windows 8, the radical changes to the UI, removal of the familiar Start button, and the costs associated with touch have made PCs a less attractive alternative to dedicated tablets and other competitive devices."
In case you were wondering where Apple were, because they normally top the PC sales charts with statistics companies who include the iPad in their figures, well they're in sixth in this chart. The guys from Cupertino sold 4.1 million Macs, compared to the 47.8 million iPhones and 22.9 million iPads in the last quarter. The Mac sales were down from 5.2 million in the year before. Their CFO, Peter Oppenheier said:
“We established new all-time quarterly records for iPhone and iPad sales, significantly broadened our ecosystem, and generated Apple’s highest quarterly revenue ever.”
Obviously this year over year decline is worrying for all manufacturers and it goes a long way to explaining why we've seen a lot more devices like the Asus Vivotab and the HP Envy X2 knocking around. We'll keep an eye out for more comparisons in the coming months to see how things fare! BusinessWire Via PocketLint.
Motorola Droid 4 users on Verizon you can expect Android 4.1 Jelly Bean to be heading your way soon! Verizon has updated the support page to reflect the enhancements from the update which you can see here. Otherwise it's Jelly Bean as you would expect complete with Google Now and that Project Butter smoothness! Via AndroidCommunity.
ST-Ericsson lost their CEO the other day and now they have announced that the venture will not be going much further. Around 1,600 jobs will be lost and you can find a lot more details at the source link below! Via Engadget.
Sometimes it's good to follow the polls on other sites and PhoneArena's 'Do you care about viewing angles?' is a very good debate! So the guys found that 51% of respondents didn't care about the viewing angles on their phone, whereas only 48% said it was an indicator of superior technology and they want good angles. Where do you stand in that debate? Via PhoneArena.
EA's CEO John Riccitiello has stepped down citing his personal accountability as the reason for his company missing operational targets. Via Reuters.
Talking of EA, for those of you who have been affected by the shoddy SimCity launch you can have your choice of: Battlefield 3, Bejeweled 3, Dead Space 3, Mass Effect 3, Medal of Honor Warfighter, Need for Speed Most Wanted, Plants vs. Zombies, and SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition as part of EA's apology! Via TheVerge.
Digitimes is reporting that Asus will produce a new phone with a screen between and 5.5" which will be powered by one of Intel's brand new dual-core chips! On top of that there's also rumours of a Nexus 7 refresh! Via AndroidCommunity.
Gmail for Android has been updated to include the 'archive' and 'reply' features direct from the notification bar! Head to the Play Store on device and demand that immediate update! Via AndroidCommunity.
And finally, have you got a Windows Phone 7.8 or 8 phone? Well you might be pleased to know that your phones are guaranteed for 18 months of updates, which is Microsoft's promise! Ironically though Windows Phone 8 started its life on December 14th 2012and so official support ends on August 7th 2014. Whereas Windows Phone 7.8 launched on February 9th 2013 and so ironically it will be supported longer, into September 2014.
Asus has launched a pair of new slates, there are both 10.1 and 7" options. The larger 10.1 tablet, which goes by the really elegant, ME301T name, and features a Tegra 3 processor, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean tablet, that 1280 x 800p 10.1" IPS display, along with 16GB of internal storage and your choice of midnight blue or other hues, but they'll arrive later! You can pick up the device from Currys, PCWorld, Tesco and Amazon and pre-orders should be live now and you can pick the device up in store on March 7th for £249.
The 7" slate will be called the MeMo Pad ME172V and just like its big bro you'll get Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, but this time the internals are decidedly less impressive. There's a 1GHz VIA WM8950 processor, the screen will have a 1024x600p resolution, but you will still get 16GB of on-board storage. But, for £129 noone will be complaining! This device should land some time in April. Via AndroidCentral.
Huawei Ascend W1 Priced Up too!
There's been a fairly large Windows Phone 8 presence at MWC this year, admittedly that's mainly been down to Nokia, but lets have Huawei take some of the lime light too! The Huawei Ascend W1, just in case it's slipped your mind, features a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 512MB of RAM and it's sporting a 4" WVGA, that's 800 x 480p display. There's 4GB of on-board storage, a 5-megapixel rear camera and a 1,950 mAH battery. So what will that set you back?
Not very much it turns out! The package will cost you £119.99 or you can secure one with a contract from O2 from £13.50 per month! Via ITProportal.
LG show off a Qi-certified wireless charger!
That diddy little hockey puck lookalike pictured above is actually a compact little wireless charger from LG! We don't actually have too many details on it yet, but we do know that the 'LG Spectrum 2 and Nexus 4 feature built-in support for wireless charging right out of the box' and that the plug is Qi-certified so it should work with a fair few devices, but we'll update you as and when we find out price and availability! Via AndroidCentral.
So are you wondering what Asus' metallic miracle would be? It seems that we've been treated to two devices here and we saved the best until last! Head on past the break for all the juicy details!
With MWC approaching insanely quickly, what could be better than another little teaser? This time around it's from Asus and they're promising us some pretty sweet sounding things.
Asus has teased 'Ultimate craftsmanship. Today,' together with the normal Asus hashtag #insearchofincredible! It wouldn't be too much of a stretch to think that Asus has gone all out on the design of the devices they're talking about here and we're definitely in the mood to wowed after HTC's announcement of the gorgeous One yesterday!
We have literally no idea what Asus is teasing, all we know is that it looks cool and if Asus' previous efforts with metal-clad tablets are anything to go by, we're definitely excited. If you want to do a bit of home detective work then the tweet and video below contain all the information that you need. We're set and ready Asus, but are you guys ready to 'Embrace the metallic miracle'? Let us know in the comments below!
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