Hasta La Gadget!

Gigabyte said that we’d have at least a few BRIX mini PCs to choose from. At Computex, however, it’s showing four new prototypes that could lead to a much larger catalog. Two of them are run-of-the-mill designs with AMD Kabini and Intel Haswell processors — nice enough, but more evolution than revolution. The other two are decidedly more exotic, though. One includes a wireless charging pad to charge a smartphone in a pinch, while the other carries a pico projector for on-the-spot presentations. Although Gigabyte hasn’t mentioned whether or not these BRIX models will reach production, we’d wager that the conservative systems are more likely to reach our desks.

Filed under: Desktops, AMD, Intel

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Source: Engadget Chinese (translated)

Could three times be a charm for Toshiba? After striking out with its “Thrive” Android tablets and then coming up a bit short with the “Excite” line, the company is completely scrapping its tablet lineup and replacing it with three new models. These include the Excite Pure, Excite Pro and Excite Write, and while they share the same plastic design, 10-inch form factor, ports and Android 4.2 OS, they each offer something a little different on the inside. Starting with the Pure, it’s a $300 tablet running with last year’s specs — namely, a Tegra 3 SoC, a 1,280 x 800 screen with Gorilla Glass 1 and no rear camera whatsoever. Storage is capped at 16GB, but since all of these have a microSD slot, 16GB or 32GB isn’t really a hard limit. Moving up the line, the Excite Pro steps up to a Tegra 4 chip, 32GB of storage, an 8MP rear camera, Harman Kardon sound and a 2,560 x 1,600, 300-ppi Gorilla Glass 2 screen to match the Nexus 10.

As you can see in the shot above, it was meant to be used with an optional keyboard case, though you can technically use that dock with any of these tablets, since they all share the same hardware. That will arrive in early July for $500, putting it in line with the iPad and other premium tablets like the ASUS Transformer Pad Infinity. Finally, the Excite Write is exactly what it sounds like: a tablet with pen support. Specifically, it has a Wacom digitizer with support for 1,024 levels of pressure sensitivity. Accordingly, Toshiba is also pre-loading its own TruNote and TruCapture apps to assist with note-taking. That digitizer aside, the Write shares all the same specs as the Excite Pro: Tegra 4, 32GB of storage, an 8-megapixel camera and a 10.1-inch, 2,560 x 1,600 display. This, too, will be available next month, with an MSRP of $600. In the meantime, check out our hands-on photos after the break.

Filed under: Tablets

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In addition to announcing some new laptops for back-to-school season, Toshiba took the opportunity to refresh its lone all-in-one desktop. This new model, the PX35t, comes with a new look, borrowing some design cues from the televisions Toshiba introduced back at CES. Really, it’s that aluminum, U-shaped chin that keeps it looking sort of TV-like, though the new pedestal stand helps too. Inside, it will be offered with Haswell Core i3, Core i5 and i7 CPUs. At the high end (somewhere in the $1,300 range) you can trick it out with up to 1TB of HDD storage, 16GB of RAM and a Blu-ray drive. A Toshiba rep also told us it will also be available with optional discrete graphics — specifically, the NVIDIA GeForce 740M.

Either way, you get a 23-inch 1080p touchscreen (no IPS), four Harman Kardon speakers and a mix of Sleep-and-Charge and Sleep-and-Music ports. Interestingly, Toshiba says the target market for its all-in-ones skews more female, so it deliberately tailored the mouse for smaller hands (Ed. note: fits like a glove.) The keyboard, however, is cushy enough that even men should be able to use it comfortably. Look for the whole package to ship this month, starting at $1,030.

Filed under: Desktops

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Although smartwatch makers have had access to e-paper for a while, there have been few such displays tailor-made for our wrists. E Ink is more than willing to fill that void with a new, watch-oriented version of its Mobius screen. The flexible, 1.73-inch panel won’t floor anyone with its 320 x 240 grayscale picture, but it can be cut into timepiece-friendly shapes that take more abuse than a typical e-reader. More importantly for us end users, E Ink already has at least one hardware partner lined up: Sonostar is using the tiny Mobius for a smartwatch this summer, and the odds are that the company won’t be alone.

Filed under: Peripherals, Wearables

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Source: Sonostar, E Ink

This week at Computex, ASUS has revealed the MeMo Pad HD 7, a direct competitor for the Google Nexus 7, both of them working with a 7-inch display and both of them made by the same company. Though it may seem strange at first for ASUS to create a tablet that’s so extremely similar to the machine they’ve got in their deal with Google, the different bits and pieces offered with this new machine may make all the difference. And it all starts with color choices.

With the ASUS MeMo Pad HD 7, users will get the choice of several different color back panels – yellow, pink, gray, and white are included in this initial release. The Nexus 7 comes in black – or white, if you’ve got the limited edition Google I/O 2012 iteration. If you put color aside, this machine looks so similar to the Nexus 7 that it is, at first, difficult to tell the two apart.

Both devices have the same display size and resolution, 7-inches and 1280 x 800 pixels strong, that being 221 PPI. Both machines work with Android, but the MeMo Pad HD 7 works with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich out of the box with ASUS’ own custom user interface on top.

It’s important to note here that the Nexus 7 benefits from being part of Google’s Nexus program, meaning that it works with Google’s most basic non-skinned version of Android and receives regular updates whenever Google brings new versions of Android to the market. The MeMo Pad HD 7, on the other hand, still works with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and has no such promise of updates on any schedule.

The new ASUS tablet works with an unnamed ARM Cortex-A7 quadcore processor while the Nexus 7 employs the NVIDIA Tegra 3 quadcore processor we know to have support from its manufacturer. While for most common users the brand of the processor has little effect on their end experience, here we know the Tegra 4 to be reliable in its ability to conserve battery life (with 4-PLUS-1 technology, that is), and it has a whole dedicated gaming environment to boast in the NVIDIA TegraZone, as well.

One thing the ASUS MeMo Pad HD 7 has that the Nexus 7 doesn’t is a back-facing camera. While the Nexus 7 famously had its camera axed because ASUS said it wasn’t necessary, the MeMo Pad HD 7 works with a 5 megapixel camera on its back and a 1.2 megapixel camera on its front. The Nexus 7 works with just the front-facing camera on its front for selfies and video chat.

The original release of the Nexus 7 was bafflingly cheap when it was launched, but here in 2013 it appears that the price point is ready to drop once again. While you’ll pay $199 USD for the smallest version of the Nexus 7 (small in 16GB of internal storage, that is), the MeMo Pad HD 7 starts at $129 for an 8GB model. There’s also a $149 model incoming with 16GB internal storage, though there’s still a question of availability.

ASUS hasn’t been clear quite yet on where the MeMo Pad HD 7 will be available, while the ASUS-made Google Nexus 7 is available, and has been available for some time, in both the USA and in international markets. Because of this, the question of which machine is better for your living room is academic: you’ve only got one choice (for now).

ASUS MeMo Pad HD 7 vs Nexus 7: what you gain and what you lose is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
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