Hasta La Gadget!

Curious what’s inside a new ASUS laptop? Then Notebook Review has the treat for you — earlier this month, forumite David took the time to download the company’s massive 108MB ASUS World Magazine PDF and laid out the spec sheets for not one, not two, but a veritable smörgåsbord of potent portables. There’s 36 in all; we’ve told you about some of them before, to be sure — but others are getting solid specs for the first time, and there are even a few diamonds in the rough. Enough chit-chat, on with the show!

• U-series: Otherwise known as ASUS’ Bamboo Collection, the U-series laptops were highlighted at CES, where we discovered they would have Core i5 CPUs and USB 3.0 support. Well, that’s not the whole story. They’ve also all got NVIDIA Optimus auto-switching graphics between an onboard Intel GMA HD and the GeForce 310M 1GB. Oh, and forget Core i5 — these machines support processors all the way up to the 2.66GHz Core i7-620M. Highlight: The U30JC, with a combo Blu-ray drive and a chiclet keyboard that won a iF Product Design Award.
• UL-series: ASUS for “UnLimited,” you can read UL as “ultra low,” as in Intel’s ultra low voltage (ULV) processors that provide 8+ hours of battery life and let these notebooks stay cool despite being under an inch thin. We saw the UL80JT sport NVIDIA Optimus at CES and got hands-on with the Optimus-equipped UL50VF; now, the UL30JT now has it as well. Highlight: That same UL50VF, with an estimated 12+ hours of battery life.

More after the break — save pricing and availability, unfortunately — or feel free to hit up the source link to download the entire electronic magazine for yourself.

Continue reading Gigantic ASUS periodical reveals and specs numerous new laptops

Gigantic ASUS periodical reveals and specs numerous new laptops originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Mar 2010 00:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In case you hadn’t heard, there’s a PlayStation 3 firmware update coming this Thursday that’d knock out the “install other OS” option and remove any currently-installed non-PS3 platform. Our guess is it’s not going to affect the majority of owners, but the diehard users are certainly up in arms, and no one really likes losing a feature, even if it’s rarely used. Leave it to Geohot, then, to right the wrong. Arguably the reason for Sony’s reversal (see: PS3 exploit), the famed hacker has published not only a letter of sorrow at the company (unsurprising), but also a call for users not to update. Instead, he claims he will “look into a safe way of updating to retain OtherOS support” and issued a tech-savvy threat about “touching the CFW,” much to the company’s chagrin (trust us, you don’t even want to know what he’s talking about here — far too scary). We wouldn’t normally say a war’s brewing, but ol’ George Hotz has proven himself more than capable at starting something fierce.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

Geohot advises against updating PS3, will find ‘safe way’ around losing OS support originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 29 Mar 2010 22:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We heard last summer that 2010 would be the year for US Airways to gain in-flight internet, and sure enough, America’s worst legacy airline has made good on said promise. As of now, a grand total of five Airbus A321 planes are equipped with Gogo, and if you’re lucky enough to end up on one, you’ll get a single free session through June 1st provided that you’re a first-time Gogo user. Speaking of early June, that’s when all 51 of the outfit’s A321’s will be lit with WiFi, and better still, you’ll be able to see right away if your flight will be wired (or unwired, as it were) at the time of booking. There’s no mention of expansion plans beyond that, and we still haven’t received an apology for refusing us a gratis glass of water on a 6.5 hour flight in August of 2008. No, we’re not bitter. At all.

US Airways finally secures Gogo in-flight WiFi, adding to all A321’s by June originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 29 Mar 2010 20:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We know you’ve been waiting at the edge of your seat for that added codec support and SmartDJ for Zune HD, patient ever since its CES unveiling, and now we’re here to assure you that it’s coming with the next firmware update, version 4.5. We had a chance to preview both SmartDJ and Marketplace access via the AV dock connection this afternoon (video coming soon) — the former being very smooth and easy-to-use, the latter being convenient except for having to input text using the simple remote and an on-screen keyboard. According to Marketing Manager Michael Yaeger, there’s nothing in the cards right now for a new, more text input-friendly remote. While we had his attention, we also asked him about Mac support and international Zune HD releases — neither of which he could answer definitively, but it doesn’t sound hopeful in the near future. As for release date, we couldn’t get anything more specific than within the next few weeks, but at least it’s next on the docket. Press release after the break; so with that out of the way, how about some answers on that 64GB model, eh Microsoft?

Update: Now with a video demonstration, after the break.

Continue reading Zune HD v4.5 firmware ‘coming soon,’ adds SmartDJ, new codecs, and Marketplace access via AV dock (update: video!)

Zune HD v4.5 firmware ‘coming soon,’ adds SmartDJ, new codecs, and Marketplace access via AV dock (update: video!) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 29 Mar 2010 19:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MEDL Technology’s portable LCD display “The Panel” sounded like the perfect laptop sidekick, but would you really want to slip the 13.3-inch screen into your messenger bag? We invited company co-founder Eric Liao — and his prototype Panel — to a local Starbucks to find out. The verdict? Lightweight and incredibly easy to use, but at this point most features (including those all-important analog video inputs) aren’t quite ready for primetime. Housed in a silvery frame that perfectly matched the brushed aluminum finish of our Mac and Dell laptops, the screen was equally easy to hook up to either one. Using a DisplayLink USB graphics chip, we only had to plug in an USB cable to instantly connect the external screen, once the driver was installed. The Panel was nice and bright, even eclipsing our LED-backlit XPS M1330 on maximum settings — though the screen looked washed out, viewed from off-angles — and featured smooth action and no perceptible audio sync issues when playing a DVD-quality movie. Basic functionality’s all we got to test, sadly, but Liao made a number of intriguing promises for The Panel’s future.

At 80 percent brightness, Liao says the device’s 4200mAh rechargeable battery gives it 4 to 5 hours of spreadsheet slinging bliss, and those buttons on the right side might be used to control more than brightness and contrast — should the company adopt wireless USB as originally planned, Liao intends to have them double as arrow controls, allowing you to cut the cables and still have basic e-reader functionality. A headphone jack is still in the works, which should allow audio passthrough from HDMI and possibly USB. Last but not least, there’s a reason The Panel looks so good lying prone next to that Macbook: should cost decrease, future revisions may include a tablet-style touchscreen. Shame most of these ideas are still on the drawing board, but even the primary product is shaping up nicely. Hit up our gallery for the visual scoop.

P.S. Those blotches on the LCD screen? Liao says that’s a manufacturing defect, and that MEDL is testing LCD panels from a variety of manufacturers to avoid such mishaps in the final product.

MEDL Technology’s ‘The Panel’ hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 29 Mar 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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