Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Monday, January 09, 2012

drag2share: WOW: Samsung Beat Apple To A Voice Controlled TV

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/samsung-ces-keynote-2012-1

samsung keynote press conference CES

LAS VEGAS -- Samsung just unveiled its new Smart TV strategy at its Consumer Electronics keynote this afternoon.

The new models, called the ES 8000, have built-in voice control, motion control, apps, and streaming services.

We also got a look at the company's new line of super thin Series 9 and Series 5 laptops.

Read below for our live blog of the event.

All quotes paraphrased unless in quotation marks.

Please follow SAI: Tools on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

drag2share: BenQ shipping 1080p 3D W7000 projector in Q1 2012 for $4,000

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/09/benq-shipping-1080p-3d-w7000-projector-release-date-price/

No one ever said that 3D would come cheaply, and even BenQ seems to be tacking quite the premium onto its fancy W7000. It's being hailed as the company's first 1080p HD home cinema projector, touting 2,000 lumens of brightness, a 50,000:1 contrast ratio, frame interpolation and support for all HDMI 1.4a 3D signal formats. It's also compliant to the native Rec. 709 color gamut, one of the highest HD video standards for professional-grade home projectors. For certification junkies, there's also an ISFccc badge, and the H+V lens shift technology provides up to 125 percent vertical and 40 percent horizontal lens shift adjustment with zero vertical offset. Interested consumers can pick one up later this quarter in North America for $3,999; catch the full press release after the break.

Continue reading BenQ shipping 1080p 3D W7000 projector in Q1 2012 for $4,000

BenQ shipping 1080p 3D W7000 projector in Q1 2012 for $4,000 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 09 Jan 2012 11:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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drag2share: Elgato's Thunderbolt SSD brings no noise, brings the pain(less) operation

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/09/elgato-thunderbolt-ssd/

Elgato's decided to go back to its FireWire-roots with two new high capacity Thunderbolt-totin' SSDs. The 5.2 x 3.3-inch drives have a transfer speed of 270MB/s, drawing power from the port and promising silent operation for when you need to access data during those quiet winter nights. It's available next month: the 120GB edition costing you $420, the 240GB edition topping out at a pricier $700 and we've got a (thunder)bolt load of more information for you after the break.

Continue reading Elgato's Thunderbolt SSD brings no noise, brings the pain(less) operation

Elgato's Thunderbolt SSD brings no noise, brings the pain(less) operation originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 09 Jan 2012 11:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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drag2share: Le Pan rolls out a trio of Honeycomb, Ice Cream Sandwich tablets for penny pinchers

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/09/le-pan-rolls-out-a-trio-of-honeycomb-ice-cream-sandwich-tablets/

Ice Cream Sandwich on a budget? That's what Le Pan is promising at CES today, with a trio of new tablets. The higher end of the two is the Le Pan III, an Android 4.0-laced slate that's powered by a 1.5GHz, dual-core TI-OMAP 4460 processor, with 1GB of RAM and 8GB of storage. This Bluetooth 4.0-enabled device also comes with a five-megapixel rear camera and a two-megapixel front-facing shooter, and supports 1080p video output. Joining the Le Pan II is the TC978, which features just about the same specs, save for a slightly lower octane (1GHz) processor, and the lack of a five-megapixel camera. The Le Pan II, meanwhile, ships with Android 3.2 Honeycomb rather than Ice Cream Sandwich, but can make the jump to 4.0 with a simple upgrade. The device features a 9.7-inch display at 1024 x 768 resolution and is powered by a 1.2GHz dual-core CPU, but the rest of its specs are just about identical to those of the TC978. No word yet on when the Le Pan III and TC978 will hit the market, but the Le Pan II is already available on Amazon for $300. You can grab it now at the link below, or head past the break for a spoonful of PR.

Continue reading Le Pan rolls out a trio of Honeycomb, Ice Cream Sandwich tablets for penny pinchers

Le Pan rolls out a trio of Honeycomb, Ice Cream Sandwich tablets for penny pinchers originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 09 Jan 2012 11:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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drag2share: Meet LG's Ultra Definition (Yep!) 84-Inch Monster TV [Televisions]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5873849/meet-lgs-ultra-definition-yep-84+inch-monster-tv

HDTV is cool, I guess, but it's going to be hard to go back after looking at LG's ultra-def 4k display, which packs four times the pixels as a 1080p set. It's mind-bogglingly crisp and enormously... enormous. Second mortgage time!

Available this July (at 84, 60, and 72 inches) for what's sure to be a startling amount, the 3480 x 2160 ultra-def LM9600 beasts will come with all the nice bullet points as the lesser LCD sets: 3D, dual-core picture processing, and motion-controlled "smart TV" apps—plus voice recognition. This starship of a TV can only do so much on paper, so we're eager to put our retinas on it as soon as we can. Still, it's enough to take some of that mythical luster off the Apple TV. Eight million pixels plus voice control. Think about it.

Just don't get too excited: remember, there's nothing out there that you can actually watch at that resolution. Yet.

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drag2share: You're Going to Need a Fat Wallet for Toshiba's Super Thin Tablet [Android]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5874180/youre-going-to-need-a-fat-wallet-for-toshibas-super-thin-tablet

Toshiba's Excite X10 Tablet is only .3 inches thin and 1.18 lbs. heavy but comes with a heavy price tag: $530 for the 16GB version and $600 for the 32GB version. While not dissimilar in pricing strategy with the iPad, it still costs $130 more than the Sony Tablet S and other just as capable Android tablets. It seems like a price drop is inevitable here.

Aside from the bloated price tag, the Excite, which is coming in the first quarter to the US, is the same tablet we previewed in September of last year: a 10.1-inch, 1280x800 resolution screen, a dual-core 1.2 GHz TI OMAP4 CPU, 1GB RAM, and Honeycomb 3.2 (upgradeable to Ice Cream Sandwich), dual cameras and 8 hours of battery life. A solid Android tablet! But how fast will the price drop?

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drag2share: Ubuntu TV Will Be In Your Living Room This Year [Ubuntu]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5874227/ubuntu-tv-could-be-in-your-living-room-this-year

Ubuntu TV Will Be In Your Living Room This Year

The geekiest of the operating systems is branching out into entertainment. Ubuntu TV is the open-source answer to your living room set-up, and you could have a TV running the software by the end of the year.

Ubuntu TV is a TV-optimized version of the desktop OS, based around the Unity UI. It feature full-on media center and DVR features, including movie, TV and music stores, and a YouTube app. The idea is to make the OS free for manufacturers to package with their TVs, and Ubuntu says there will be TVs on shelves by the end of the year.

There's a working Ubuntu TV at CES, so more details and comment to follow. [PC Pro]

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drag2share: Lenovo quietly outs the IdeaPad U300e, a $799 Ultrabook with a hybrid hard drive

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/08/lenovo-quietly-outs-the-ideapad-u300e-a-799-ultrabook-with-a-h/

We thought we'd seen everything Lenovo had to show here at CES. We thought wrong. In a tour of the company's showroom / trailer today, we spotted that gray laptop up there, hiding amid the X1 Hybrid, T430u Ultrabook and S200 netbook. That, friends, is the IdeaPad U300e, a cheaper, lesser-specced version of the U300s we reviewed last fall. Check our gallery below: it has the same aluminum chassis, comfortable keyboard and sprawling trackpad, though the ports appear to have played musical chairs. The only differences? For one, we're seeing the U300e (top, above the U300s) adds an Ethernet jack, something the U300s is missing. More importantly, though, the U300e costs $799, not $1,200, and instead of an SSD it sports a hybrid drive pairing a 500GB HDD with 32GB of flash storage -- essentially, the same setup you'll find in the $800 Acer Aspire S3. We're also told it'll run "next-generation" Intel processors, though Lenovo's stopping short of calling it Ivy Bridge, which Intel has yet to reveal. Not a bad deal, though we might still prefer the new U310, which has the all-important SD slot the U300s was missing, but still costs a hundred bucks less than this here U300e. Disagree with us? The U300e is expected to go on sale this month.

Gallery: Lenovo ThinkPad U300e

Lenovo quietly outs the IdeaPad U300e, a $799 Ultrabook with a hybrid hard drive originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 08 Jan 2012 21:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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drag2share: Hands-on Toshiba's 55-inch 4K glasses-free 3DTV

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/08/hands-on-toshibas-55-inch-4k-glasses-free-3dtv/

You remember that Toshiba glassess free 4K 3DTV we told you about? Well, we got a chance to catch up with it at a Toshiba CES event and we're happy to say it doesn't suck. Not only is the 4k mode down right breathtaking, but the autostereoscopic 3D technology has come a long, long way since we saw a demo of a prototype last year. Up to nine people can enjoy 3D on the local dimming 55-inch LED 3DTV, but the optimal number is four or less. There is an almost invisible camera in the base of the set that tracks your face and there can be circles and arrows displayed on screen that help you move to the absolute best spot -- wish all TVs made it so easy to find the sweet spot. On display was a production model for outside the US, but our slightly different version is expected in Q1 2012 for more than most have ever paid for a TV (~$10k).

Gallery: Hands-on Toshiba's 55-inch 4K glasses-free 3DTV

Hands-on Toshiba's 55-inch 4K glasses-free 3DTV originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 08 Jan 2012 21:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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drag2share: Maingear says it will offer the AMD Radeon HD 7970 in its Shift, F131 and Vybe desktops

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/09/maingear-says-it-will-offer-the-amd-radeon-hd-7970-in-its-shift/

When AMD announced its latest flagship, the Radeon HD 7970, we knew it was fast and efficient (because reviewers said so!), but gamers were told they'd have to wait until the new year to try it themselves. Now, precisely on schedule, the card is available for purchase, and we're starting to hear word of systems that will be refreshed to include the 28nm card. Maingear just said that it will offer the 7970 inside its Shift and F131 desktops, followed by the Vybe at some later date. If you recall, the card has a 925MHz engine that can be overclocked to 1.1GHz, 2,048 stream processors and an unusual 384-bit memory bus serving 3GB of GDDR5 -- not to mention, it's capable of a mere 3W power draw in "long idle" mode. Need even more of a recap on how awesome this card is? Find the full PR after the break.

Continue reading Maingear says it will offer the AMD Radeon HD 7970 in its Shift, F131 and Vybe desktops

Maingear says it will offer the AMD Radeon HD 7970 in its Shift, F131 and Vybe desktops originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 09 Jan 2012 00:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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drag2share: Marvell shows off ARM-powered Google TV, looks a lot like Google TV

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/09/marvell-shows-off-arm-powered-google-tv-looks-a-lot-like-google/

Tonight at CES Unveiled Marvell gave us a peek at the future of Google TV with this tiny box, running the latest version of the software on one of its recently announced Armada 1500 ARM processors. It was controlled by a standard Logitech Revue keyboard/trackpad combo, and we couldn't really get a feel for any potential performance differences but the box was sitting there, fanlessly, cheaply and efficiently doing its thing. We'll probably know more about the actual hardware you'll be able to buy in the future tomorrow, but for now you can peep a few more pics of this reference box in the gallery.

Gallery: Marvell QDEO Google TV

Myriam Joire contributed to this report.

Marvell shows off ARM-powered Google TV, looks a lot like Google TV originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 09 Jan 2012 00:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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drag2share: Gigabyte intros S1081 Windows slate and T1006M netvertible, both packing Cedar Trail

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/09/gigabyte-intros-s1081-windows-slate-and-t1006m-swiveltop-both-p/

Intel told us to expect next-gen netbooks from a throng of manufacturers, but for some reason it forgot to mention little ol' Gigabyte. Perhaps that's why the Taiwanese manufacturer is being slightly standoffish when it comes to detailing its two new 10-inch slates, which both run on unspecified variants of Cedar Trail and have equally unknown launch dates and prices. What we do know is that the T1006M is a convertible tablet that sports 1366 x 768 densely packed pixels, a USB 3.0 port and what appears to be an optional 3.5G modem -- specs that are already familiar from our recent encounter at the FCC. Next comes the S1081, which is a straightforward Windows 7 business slate like its $680 predecessor and comes with a choice of HDD or SSD storage, an optical trackpad for extra "precision," USB 3.0, VGA and HDMI outputs, plus the same optional multimedia dock. Rest assured that we'll track these newcomers down on the CES floor to fill in the blanks and judge how well they stand out, now that the quiet trail has become a highway. Until then, feel free to read on for the press release -- which also reveals that the Booktop T1132, Booktop M2432 and P2532 gaming notebook are all heading to the US market.

Continue reading Gigabyte intros S1081 Windows slate and T1006M netvertible, both packing Cedar Trail

Gigabyte intros S1081 Windows slate and T1006M netvertible, both packing Cedar Trail originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 09 Jan 2012 03:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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drag2share: Smartphones and tablets to get MicroUSB 3.0 ports, just in time for it to seem old

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/09/smartphones-and-tablets-to-get-microusb-3-0-ports-just-in-time/

Is it impatient to wonder why our phones' MicroUSB ports are still just measly USB 2.0? The USB Implementers Forum just acknowledged the omission at CES, but said we'll have to wait until the end of 2012 or even the start of 2013 before we see the new standard reach handsets and tablets. It also warned that transfer speeds will be nowhere near the port's raw 5Gbps capability, maxing out at something like 800 megabits instead. The main reason for the upgrade might actually be faster charging, since 3.0 can transfer more power, but with other port standards and even wireless charging gaining ground, it's hard not to regard this as a year too late. Make it a host port, however, and that might be a different story.

Smartphones and tablets to get MicroUSB 3.0 ports, just in time for it to seem old originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 09 Jan 2012 04:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sunday, January 08, 2012

drag2share: Acer's Aspire S5 Ultrabook Is the Ultra-Thinnest—For Now [Acer]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5874100/acers-aspire-s5-ultrabook-comes-in-as-the-ultra+thinnest

Acer's first Ultrabook, the Aspire S5, also happens to be one of the first of what will certainly be a tidal wave of Ultrabooks announced at CES this year. It's just 15mm thick at its largest point, and weighs in at less than 3 pounds. But it's probably only going to hold that "world's thinnest" title for a few hours until the Ultrabook floodgates open. Tick tock.

One of the ways it manages to stay so thin is with what Acer is calling a "Magical I/O port panel" which drops down just below the hinge, exposing an HDMI, USB 3.0 and 20Gbps Thunderbolt-which will probably be a recurring theme this year.

An Intel Core processor (likey an Ivy Bridge given the Thunderbolt port) and an SSD provides power saving benefits, while the Acer Green Instant ON feature promises almost instant resumes from sleep. And by instant, they of course don't mean instant, but a respectable 1.5 seconds.

It's also got Acer's Always Connect functionality, which ties into their new AcerCloud service. It takes a three prong approach to syncing media and files across devices, including features called clear.fi Photo, clear.Fi Media, and AcerCloud Docs. The company says that Microsoft will provide this for windows and Google will do the same for Android (and Apple obviously already does as well), but that Acer will "take care of the in-between." Whoever that is.

The Aspire S5 will be available sometime in the second quarter of this year, with pricing to be announced. And Acer also confirmed-not surprisingly-that they'll be following up with Windows 8 ultrabooks in the second half of the year. [Acer]

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drag2share: Acer Aspire S5 Hands On: Ultrabooks Are About to Get Really Good [Ultrabooks]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5874122/acer-aspire-s5-ultrabooks-are-about-to-get-really-good

The first generation of Ultrabooks was rushed out. Everything felt unfinished. Not the Aspire S5. Even though Acer's last Ultrabook attempt, the S3, was very middle-of-the-pack, the S5 looks like it's going to be good. It feels absolutely nothing like the S3. Where the S3 was plasticy, and overall cheap-feeling, the S5 is heavy duty and complete.

The aluminum body is a little heavier than we're accustomed to in an Ultrabook, but that's a little bit because it's coming in at a larger size. The 13" screen seems to handle color better than the S3, which had the same resolution (1366x768)—though that might be a function of the super-dim room the hands-on models were in.

The keyboard and trackpad are also much improved. The S3 was very, very functional, but felt cheap. The S5 retains that functionality, but now feels polished. We'd have to use it on an everyday basis, but this might be the best feeling non-Apple trackpad.

The power-open, magical IO-port-housing bay in the back of the S5 is very cool, but you can't help but wonder about durability. Also, it's a little like power-operated doors or curtains or anything: yeah, great, luxurious, but when I'm in a rush, I'm probably not going to want to wait for it to open to get at those ports.

The S5 looks and feels and should perform great. But the takeaway is that even the middle of the pack competitors from last generation are bringing the heat this year. Cheap-ass, netbook-wannabee Ultrabooks should be a thing of the past very soon, giving us—finally—a broad selection of top-tier of ultraportables.

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Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Monday, January 09, 2012

drag2share: WOW: Samsung Beat Apple To A Voice Controlled TV

drag2share: BenQ shipping 1080p 3D W7000 projector in Q1 2012 for $4,000

drag2share: Elgato's Thunderbolt SSD brings no noise, brings the pain(less) operation

drag2share: Le Pan rolls out a trio of Honeycomb, Ice Cream Sandwich tablets for penny pinchers

drag2share: Meet LG's Ultra Definition (Yep!) 84-Inch Monster TV [Televisions]

drag2share: You're Going to Need a Fat Wallet for Toshiba's Super Thin Tablet [Android]

drag2share: Ubuntu TV Will Be In Your Living Room This Year [Ubuntu]

drag2share: Lenovo quietly outs the IdeaPad U300e, a $799 Ultrabook with a hybrid hard drive

drag2share: Hands-on Toshiba's 55-inch 4K glasses-free 3DTV

drag2share: Maingear says it will offer the AMD Radeon HD 7970 in its Shift, F131 and Vybe desktops

drag2share: Marvell shows off ARM-powered Google TV, looks a lot like Google TV

drag2share: Gigabyte intros S1081 Windows slate and T1006M netvertible, both packing Cedar Trail

drag2share: Smartphones and tablets to get MicroUSB 3.0 ports, just in time for it to seem old

Sunday, January 08, 2012

drag2share: Acer's Aspire S5 Ultrabook Is the Ultra-Thinnest—For Now [Acer]

drag2share: Acer Aspire S5 Hands On: Ultrabooks Are About to Get Really Good [Ultrabooks]

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