Hasta La Gadget!

ASUS‘ Computex 2013 appearance hasn’t all been flashy tablets and glass-clad ultrabooks; the company also had a new tower PC, though even with the G10 it couldn’t resist a little flourish or two. The seriously-styled tower not only accommodates Intel’s 4th-gen Haswell processors but a battery backup system, which can serve as a temporary uninterrupted power supply (UPS) just in case your electricity goes out while you’re in the midst of crunching some important data.

ASUS claims the UPS will run for at least twenty seconds, though it all depends on load; it could in fact run for longer. That should be enough to iron out any momentary glitches in the power supply, though it doesn’t really give much time to save everything and safely shut down as you would with a traditional UPS.

As for the more typical components, there’s 8GB of RAM and a combination of 1TB of traditional HDD storage with a 128GB SSD for the more commonly-requested files. Graphics are courtesy of NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 650, which can output via HDMI, DVI-D, or VGA. Other connectivity includes the usual clutch of USB 3.0 and USB 2.0, and there’s a DVD burner and a multi-format memory card reader up front.

To go with the Desktop PC G10, ASUS has a new display, too. The PA279Q was actually pushed out into the wild a couple of days ago, complete with a 27-inch, 2560 x 1,440 WQHD AH-IPS panel and 178-degree viewing angles. ASUS sets it up at the factory for 99-percent of the Adobe Wide Gamut RGB colors, as well as 100-percent of sRGB.

Brightness is 350cd/m2, and there’s a monitor hood supplied in the box for those moments when you really need to see colors accurately. Connectivity includes DisplayPort, HDMI, and dual-link DVI-D, with support for two inputs active and on-screen simultaneously (either picture-in-picture or split-screen), along with daisy-chaining DisplayPort across up to three panels. An SD card reader and 6-port USB 3.0 hub round of the main specs.

No word on pricing for either the G10 PC or the PA279Q display, though ASUS says the computer will go on sale sometime in the second half of this year.

ASUS Desktop PC G10 hides integrated UPS for power protection is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

ASUS‘ docking Android tablets have fast become a mainstay of its range, and so it comes as little surprise to see the Transformer Pad Infinity get a refresh at Computex 2013 this year. The new version is the first of ASUS’ line-up to use NVIDIA’s new Tegra 4 1.9GHz quadcore, paired here with a 10.1-inch 2,560 x 1,600 IPS display.

The Tegra 4 has four ARM Cortex-A15 CPUs, and a 72-core GeForce GPU, to drive all those touchscreen pixels, with ASUS claiming 178-degree viewing angles from the IPS screen. It’ll also handle 10-point multitouch, while audio is courtesy of an ASUS SonicMaster speaker system.

As well as the internal changes, there’s been some polishing on the keyboard dock, too. That now has a multitouch touchpad, along with new connectivity in the shape of USB 3.0 and an SDXC memory card reader.

However, the most interesting part might be when you hook the Transformer Pad Infinity up to an external display – assuming you have one of sufficiently high resolution to do it justice. The new hybrid can output up to Ultra HD resolution from its HDMI port, though you’ll probably not fit much actual 4K content on the mere 32GB of internal storage.

ASUS also says the docking section is good for extended runtimes, presumably with a bigger battery and a little extra frugality squeezed out of the system itself. Full details of that, along with pricing and availability, will follow on in due course.

ASUS Transformer Pad Infinity gets Tegra 4 upgrade for Ultra HD output is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Lest you think ASUS‘ Computex 2013 range is all tablets and glossy ultrabooks, never fear: the company also has some new desktop PCs, kicking off with the Mac mini-rivaling VivoPC and its matching hybrid VivoMouse controller. Angling for a spot under your TV, the ASUS VivoPC is a compact Windows-powered media center, while the VivoMouse tries to take on the duties of a mouse, a touchpad, and a remote control all in one.

ASUS hasn’t fully detailed the VivoPC’s specifications yet, though an Intel processor inside seems more than likely. It’s also been designed with upgrade potential in mind, not something you could normally say about a SFF computer of this scale: lift off the lid, and you can pull out the hard-drive and RAM for replacement. There’s a standard SATA 6GB/s connector inside.

Connectivity, meanwhile, includes WiFi a/b/g/n/ac, an SD card reader, two USB 3.0 ports, four USB 2.0 ports, and HDMI. There’s also an optical digital audio output, a legacy VGA port, wired ethernet, and audio in/out. ASUS is pretty keen on its use of SonicMaster audio, too, and is positioning the VivoPC as an ideal hub for squirting music and video wirelessly around the home.

The whole thing stands 56mm tall, and ASUS says it takes up less of a footprint than an A4 sheet of paper (that’s under 8.3 x 11.7 inches).

ASUS VivoPC:

You’ll need something to control all that from your couch, of course, and that’s where the ASUS VivoMouse waddles in. The round-faced peripheral slaps a touchpad on top of a standard mouse, which means you can fondle and stroke it around the screen as well as use Windows 8 gestures.

There’s also remote control functionality, for playing/pausing and skipping through content you’re watching on the media center. It’s wireless, of course, though like the VivoPC there’s no word on how much it will cost when it reaches store shelves in Q3 2013.

ASUS VivoMouse:

ASUS VivoPC and VivoMouse make a high-design play for your living room 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.