Gadgets
Hands-on with Asus's follow-up to Transformer Prime, tablets, Padfone
- Friday, 13 January 2012 13:00
Asus floated some big plans this year at the Consumer Electronics Show for merging categories of devices in a number of ways. Following in the Transformer Prime's footsteps is the tablet hybrid T700 Series, along with two 7-inch tablets and an elusive oddball of a gadget, the Padfone. We visited the company at CES to check out all these items.
T700 Series tablet hybrid
Asus's Transformer Prime has stirred the emotions of PC hybrid enthusiasts over the last couple of months, but Asus has no problem with making the tablet and keyboard dock look like old news. The 10.1-inch T700 series Android 4 model will have a Super IPS+ display at a 1920x1200 resolution, and a 1.3GHz quad-core Tegra 3 processor running Android 4—slightly faster than the Transformer Prime's 1.2GHz.
Gravity Rush on the PS Vita is the game you didn't know you needed
- Friday, 13 January 2012 11:32
The Vita is shaping up to have a strong launch lineup. At CES, I was able to play another game that should be ready for the system's US launch, or at least near it. Gravity Rush is a title that has been on the radar of the press for a little while now, and I was finally able to give it a shot at CES. Even with a very limited amount of time put into the game, I was immediately impressed with the game's graphics and play.
The main hook? You can control gravity at will, allowing you to "fall" towards almost anything you can see. In practice this is a thrilling way to explore the scenery.
WiGig promises low-power 2Gbps wireless device communication by 2013
- Friday, 13 January 2012 09:40
The WiGig Alliance is moving full steam ahead with its plan to enable devices to communicate wirelessly at mulit-gigabit speeds using unlicensed 60GHz spectrum. WiGig Alliance President and Chairman Dr. Ali Sadri sat down with Ars at CES to explain where WiGig fits among various wireless standards, and when we can expect the technology to become widely implemented.
The WiGig MAC specification was published in June 2011, and the standard is currently in draft stage with the IEEE as 802.11ad. WiGig operates on unlicensed 60GHz spectrum; it won't propagate through walls and has a range of about 10 meters. As such, isn't necessarily meant as a replacement for 2.4GHz or 5GHz WiFi. However, operating at 60GHz offers advantages in terms of power consumption and data rates, particularly for mobile devices.
Hands on with Nokia's Lumia 900
- Thursday, 12 January 2012 19:00
Nokia's Lumia series of phones has been very popular overseas, and the company has finally announced it will be bringing the brand to the US The Lumia 710 (on T-Mobile), 800 (AT&T), and 900 (AT&T) were all on display, but the Lumia 900 is the only handset forward-looking enough to include access to AT&T’s LTE network, so we focused our attention on that one.
The Lumia 900 is on the big side, with a 4.3-inch screen. It has a solid-feeling plastic body, though it’s designed and cut in such a way that using brushed metal would have gone a long way to making it feel less cheap. The curved design is comfortable to hold, but the surface of the plastic he body looks a little bulgy around the edges of the screen.
DiskCrypt turns any laptop storage into a self-encrypted drive
- Thursday, 12 January 2012 16:18
At CES, Singapore-based ST Electronics was showing off a new security device that can be installed in nearly any notebook computer to protect its data from prying eyes—Digisafe DiskCrypt, a hard-disk enclosure that turns any 1.8-inch micro-SATA device into removable and fully encrypted storage. The enclosure, which is the size of a 2.5" drive, can be used as a drop-in replacement for existing drives.
Lytro's quirky camera is equal bits awkward, fun
- Thursday, 12 January 2012 15:16
Imaging start-up Lytro, which hopes to revolutionize photography with its innovative light field capture technique, was giving demonstrations of its upcoming digital pocket camera at CES. We got a few short minutes to play with a working prototype, which we were told isn't 100 percent final. While the unusual shape and button arrangement do take a little getting used to, we had fun trying our hand at capturing images and changing the focus after the fact.
The Lytro is a smallish but chunky aluminum tube which houses an 8x optical zoom lens. The camera is well weighted, but it's a bit larger than we expected. The rear section is covered in a grippy rubber material, with a shutter button on top and a power button on the bottom. a small flap on the bottom also reveals a micro-USB port, and along the top is a small textured strip that actually works as a capacitive touch zoom slider.
AMD aiming to undercut Ultrabooks with $500 Trinity ultrathins
- Thursday, 12 January 2012 15:05
AMD has been showcasing laptops based on its upcoming Trinity processor at CES this week. The company is hoping to bring thin and light Ultrabook-style machines—though AMD calls them "ultrathins," to avoid Intel's trademarks—to market for as little as $500. This would substantially undercut Intel-powered Ultrabooks, which currently start at $800. Intel hopes to reduce the Ultrabook entry price to $700 by the end of the year.
Each Trinity chip will contain a CPU and a GPU. The CPU will be a second generation Bulldozer core, codenamed Piledriver. The GPU portion will be based on AMD's Southern Islands architecture, which made its debut late in 2011 with the launch of the Radeon HD 7970.
There will be two lines of Trinity chips; low power 17 W ones for ultrathins, and higher power 35 W ones for standard laptops. The ultrathin-oriented chips will have about the same performance as AMD's current Llano A-series chips, but with half the power draw. The high-power chips will have a 25 percent faster CPU and a 50 percent faster GPU.
AMD did not say when the chips would be released, but the company intends to disclose more about its release strategy at its financial analyst meeting in February.
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Amazon builds Windows tool for sending files to Kindle
- Thursday, 12 January 2012 13:38
Amazon today released a free tool for sending documents to a Kindle from Windows Explorer or from within the print screen of any Windows application. Amazon promises a Mac version is coming soon.
Each Kindle already comes with its own e-mail address so users can e-mail files to themselves. But "Send to Kindle" for PC potentially makes the process a bit easier and offers the option of sending either to a Kindle device or other mobile devices (like the iPad) that can run the Kindle application. The files can be sent over WiFi for free, or for 15 cents per megabyte (99 cents outside the US) over Amazon's Whispernet service.
"From Windows Explorer, simply right-click on one or more documents and choose Send to Kindle," Amazon said. "From any other Windows application that can print, select Print and choose Send to Kindle."
The Windows application supports sending of Word documents, text files, pictures, PDFs, and other types of files including the Kindle's Mobi e-book format. Users can also archive documents in their Kindle Library, from which they can be re-downloaded at any time.
It would be nice if Send to Kindle were integrated with cross-device services like Instapaper or Read It Later, but you can send articles from a Web browser on a Windows desktop. However, webpages (and any other document sent from within a Windows application rather than from within Windows Explorer) are sent in PDF format, which isn't so great for reading on a Kindle.
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At CES, tablet obsession gives way to tech's bigger picture
- Thursday, 12 January 2012 13:05
Last year's Consumer Electronics Show was dominated by tablets to what now seems like a ridiculous extent. Everywhere you looked were Android and Windows 7 tablets—with at least one device running both operating systems. There were tablets promising only three hours of battery life, tablets costing more than $1,000, and dual-screen tablets including an Acer Iconia monstrosity with two 14-inch touch screens.
If vendors thought they could make headway in the iPad-dominated tablet market with mediocre devices, they seem to have realized their mistake. Much CES press coverage has dwelled on the show's declining stature and noted that the year's premium products are likely to emerge later on, because vendors would rather announce on their own product development and marketing schedules than reveal all their best stuff at CES.


