Hasta La Gadget!

Seems like ASUS wants to take a stab at Samsung’s Galaxy Note 2 with their own phablet, the FonePad Note.

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Patient when it comes to shuttling files around your network? No, us neither, and so ASUS‘ new RT-AC68U router is looking mighty appealing. The new 802.11ac wireless hub may have an unmemorable name, but it’s probably worth a second glance as the first dual-band WiFi-ac router around, with the promise of data rates of up to 1,900 Mbit/s.

Of course, if you want to see those sort of speeds, you’ll have to be running 802.11ac on all your devices, which is unlikely to be the case right now. Still, it fits in well with ASUS’ other Computex launches, such as the VivoPC media center which also has WiFi-ac baked in.

The RT-AC68U also has ASUS’ AiRadar system, using beamforming to target its wireless signal and, so the claim goes, provide 150-percent greater coverage than rivals. It’s also possible to set up two routers in “sync” mode, with files stored on USB drives connected directly to the router shared with a counterpart router, no PC involvement required.

The USB ports can also be used to plug in a 3G/4G modem, just in case your main broadband connection goes out and you have to use some impromptu mobile data instead. They’ll work to share a printer across the network, too.

ASUS hasn’t said when the RT-AC68U will go on sale, nor how much it will cost. Nonetheless, with the previous-gen AC66U – announced back in 2012 – still commanding a roughly $190 street price, the RT-AC68U is unlikely to be cheap.

ASUS RT-AC68U 802.ac router promises up to 1,900Mbit/s (but it won’t be cheap) is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

A good notebook can’t just do one thing well these days, it has to multi-task in at least two ways, and so on that front the ASUS Transformer Book Trio is off to a good start. Revealed at Computex 2013 this morning, the 11.6-inch notebook is billed as “the world’s first three-in-one mobile device” with a removable screen section that can flip between Windows 8 and Android, and which can be used both on the desktop and while mobile.

In ultrabook mode, the Transformer Book Trio is a compact ultraportable with a full keyboard and a 1080p HD display. However, it can also be pulled from the keyboard to make an Android tablet, or slotted into a PC Station dock for desktop use.

In the slate section itself, there’s a 2.0GHz Intel Atom Z2580 processor and up to 64GB of storage: that can run either Windows 8 or Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, depending on which mode you switch between. There’s a dedicated key to hop between the platforms, and ASUS says that users should not only be able to access data from the other OS, but stay on the same webpage they’re currently viewing.

The PC Station gets its own, dedicated processor, however: a 4th-gen Intel Core i7 no less. There’s also a 750GB hard-drive, and connectivity for an external display if 11.6-inches isn’t quite your ergonomic ideal for desk-bound operations. The dock recharges the slate section’s battery, too.

ASUS hasn’t confirmed pricing for the Transformer Book Trio, though it’s expected to reach the market sometime in Q3 2013. Whether there are sufficient buyers intrigued enough in a twin-OS hybrid that can only really be used by one person at a time (unlike, say, an ultrabook and a separate Android tablet) remains to be seen.

ASUS Transformer Book Trio runs Android and Windows on lap, desk & in hands is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Once upon a time, glass was a fragile thing; now, thanks to toughening tech, ASUS can splash a slab of the stuff across the top of its new Zenbook Infinity notebook. Topped by a sheet of Gorilla Glass 3, the same toughened material as we’re used to seeing fronting smartphones and tablets, the Zenbook Infinity uses that extra rigidity and strength to drop a dress size, metaphorically speaking, and trim things down to just 15.5mm at its thickest.

That’s a roughly 14-percent cut versus the last-generation of Zenbook models, ASUS says, suggesting that the Gorilla Glass 3 treatment isn’t just an aesthetic one. Not to say it needn’t look good, though; ASUS has sandwiched some graphics inside, and the whole thing shimmers and shines like you’d expect a glass lid to.

Inside, and there’s a 13.3-inch display which is also a full touchscreen, for those moments you want to stab at Windows 8. Gorilla Glass 3 gets a second outing around the keyboard area, too, and the keyboard itself squeezes in backlighting.

Underneath meanwhile, there’s one of Intel’s 28W Haswell dualcore processors, while connectivity includes two USB 3.0, a micro-HDMI, and a Mini Display Port. The ultrabook also gets an SD card slot and a headphones socket.

Look at it from the side and you could be forgiven for thinking of a certain Apple ultraportable, with the wedge profile not dissimilar to the MacBook Air. That’s an accusation that is probably going to haunt ASUS to the market and beyond, though it’s worth noting that the company has managed to make a thinner machine than Apple.

The big deciding factor is likely to be pricing, and that – along with when the Zenbook Infinity will reach shelves – is still unclear.

ASUS Zenbook Infinity wraps super-skinny ultrabook in Gorilla Glass 3 is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

ASUS has revealed its take on the Samsung Galaxy Note II, the ASUS FonePad Note, a 6-inch Full HD Android phablet brought fresh to Computex 2013 today. Fronted by a 6-inch, 1080p Super IPS+ display running at 450 nits brightness, the FonePad Note comes equipped with a digital stylus for notetaking and sketching – just as Samsung proved there was a market for with the original Note – while on the inside there’s a 1.6GHz dualcore Atom Z2560 processor, rather than the ARM chip we might have expected to have discovered.

The x86 chip is paired with 2GB of memory, along with a DC-HSPA+ modem for getting online. No LTE, though you should be able to see speeds of up to 42Mbps down – network depending – from the device. It should also support voice calls.

Otherwise, there’s an 8-megapixel camera on the back, along with a 1.2-megapixel camera on the front for video calls. ASUS has also shifted the stereo speakers to the front, too, flanking the touchscreen top and bottom.

The big-phone-with-a-pen category has had mixed results for different companies, so it’s nowhere near clear whether ASUS’ device will have what it takes to succeed. On the one hand, you have Samsung and its surprise hit, the Galaxy Note series. Now in its second generation, the Note II is half an inch (diagonal) smaller than the FonePad Note, though rumors have pegged the third-gen version – which is expected to be revealed sometime around September, most likely at IFA 2013 – as getting even smaller, just as the Galaxy S 4 has grown smaller with it.

However, on the flip side, there’s LG’s little-loved Optimus Vu, the company’s attempt to cash in on the stylus segment. That offered a more unusual 4:3 aspect ratio display, attempting to more closely mimic a physical notepad, but sales never reached the same level as Samsung’s phone. LG later shifted to do away with the pen for the Optimus G Pro, which it has positioned as a rival to the Note II despite not having active digital stylus functionality.

A big deciding factor for ASUS will be pricing and availability, of course; the company is yet to confirm either.

ASUS FonePad Note brings 6″ Atom-powered attack to Galaxy Note is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.