Hasta La Gadget!

The PC industry might have 100-some-odd Ultrabooks up its sleeve, but fortunately for restless tech reviewers like yours truly, they’re not all cast from the same mold. As the year wears on, we’ll see prices dip as low as $700, and a few will be offered with discrete graphics — a nice respite from games handicapped at 30 fps. And, in some rare cases, you’ll find machines that manage to achieve both. Enter the Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M5 series, a pair of 14- and 15-inch laptops that start at $680, and, for an added premium, can be had with NVIDIA Kepler graphics. What’s more, the 14-inch model we tested has a DVD burner, making it as much a full-fledged laptop as an Intel-approved Ultrabook. Accordingly, then, we’ll be comparing it not just to other low-priced ultraportables, but to some budget mainstream notebooks on offer this back-to-school season. So how does it stack up? Let’s see.

Continue reading Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M5 review: an Ultrabook with discrete graphics (and an optical drive)

Filed under: Laptops

Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M5 review: an Ultrabook with discrete graphics (and an optical drive) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Aug 2012 11:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Wondering how the industry fared in the second quarter of 2012? Shipments in the PC sector, which in Canalys’ book includes tablets, were higher than ever, totaling 108,708,780 units globally. iPad sales put Apple in the lead, with more than 21 million devices shipped (this figure also includes desktops and notebooks) in Q2, compared to just over 13 million during the year-ago quarter, representing a massive 59.6-percent year-over-year growth. HP, which led the way in Q1, has fallen to the second-place spot, with nearly 13.6 million shipments during the quarter ending yesterday, followed by Lenovo with about 13.2 million, Acer with nearly 10.7 million and Dell with roughly 9.7 computers sold. Manufacturers like ASUS and Samsung are represented in the substantial “others” category, which totals about 40.6 million devices. There’s no question that the iPad is behind Apple earning the number-1 slot, and with the upcoming Windows 8 launch, those figures could shift drastically the next time around. Click on through to the source link below for the full Canalys breakdown.

Continue reading Canalys: PC and tablet shipments hit new high in Q2 with Apple in the lead, HP next in line

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops, Tablet PCs

Canalys: PC and tablet shipments hit new high in Q2 with Apple in the lead, HP next in line originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Aug 2012 13:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You can say that the race is definitely on – with different tablet manufacturers working hard to release the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean update for their respective pieces of hardware. We do know that Acer did roll out a quartet of new tablets this year – including the Iconia Tab A200 that we see above, the Iconia Tab 110, the Iconia Tab 510, and the Iconia Tab 700 that sports a Full HD display. The thing is, they all do not come with the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean update, but rather, run on the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system. Needless to say, some of the customers do expect some Android 4.1 Jelly Bean goodness to come their way, and Dutch website Tablet Guide reported that Acer has already confirmed that the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean update is coming. No exact model names were given, and neither was there any timeframe revealed either. Hopefully something official will be released from the horse’s mouth in due time, and we just cannot wait.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Acer ICONIA tablets prices and availability dates revealed, Intel to port Android 4.1 Jelly Bean over to Atom-powered smartphones and tablets,

We here at Engadget tend to spend a lot of way too much time poring over the latest FCC filings, be it on the net or directly on the ol’ Federal Communications Commission’s site. Since we couldn’t possibly (want to) cover all the stuff that goes down there individually, we’ve gathered up an exhaustive listing of every phone and / or tablet getting the stamp of approval over the last week. Enjoy!

Continue reading FCC Fridays: July 20, 2012

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablet PCs

FCC Fridays: July 20, 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Jul 2012 18:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The good people over at the FCC have had time to play with yet another device, where this time round it would be the Acer Iconia Tab A110 which is in question. Of course, Acer of Taiwan has yet to step forward and make an official announcement surrounding their Iconia Tabs A210 and A110, but to follow where the larger sized 10-inch A210 left off, the Acer Iconia Tab A110 is ready to see action in the US market. Not many details were released in this FCC filing, but we do know that it will have NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 chipset running underneath the hood of this 7-inch device. Hopefully additional details concerning its release date will follow – and without too long of a delay to boot!

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Acer Iconia Tab A120 receives FCC nod of approval , Acer Iconia Tab A700 hits the FCC,