You’ve heard plenty of people by now—including us—banging on about quantum computers, and how they’re the future of high-performance computing. Quantum computing, we’re meant to understand, is set to change the world. But despite its promise, it’s neither widely available nor particularly useful yet. Here’s why not.
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No doubt about it, the Raspberry Pi is nothing short of a homebrew phenomenon. Since its release in February 2012, the British micro-mini-computer has enabled legions of amateur inventors to develop projects both weird and wonderful. Here’s a run-down of the most impressive applications, ranging from weather stations to retro arcades to a supercomputer array on a Lego rack. See if any of them inspire you to do the same.
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Apple’s OS X Mavericks free upgrade on Tuesday saw 5.5-percent of Mac owners update within 24 hours, new research suggests, significantly outpacing the rate of Mountain Lion adoption in 2012. A sampling of North American Mac users by ad network Chitika indicated upgrades of this week’s free OS release reached levels that the $19.99 Mountain […]
A few details of the Lenovo ThinkPad X3 ultrabook have leaked online. The machine is said to be the successor to the X1 Carbon that Lenovo unveiled last year. The ThinkPad X3 gets new fourth generation Intel Core i3-i7 processors of the 15W ULT variety. The new ultrabook will be even thinner than the X1 […]
It’s all-change in Mac land, and after the MacBook Air got its Haswell refresh earlier this year – to great effect – it’s the turn of the MacBook Pro with Retina display to be brought up to speed. Apple’s pixel-dense desktop replacement was always a powerhorse, at least in 15-inch form, but now gets Intel […]
Back when Apple first teased the Mac Pro 2013 at WWDC 2013 earlier this year it gave us few details and even less of a chance to get our hands on the barrel-shaped powerhouse. This time around, we have pricing, a release date, and even the chance to get our grubby fingers on the new […]
If you’ve been holding off on buying Apple’s iPad mini because you wanted a Retina resolution screen, then wait no further. Today, Apple announced the new iPad mini, which still offers a compact 7.9-inch screen, but now has a razor-sharp Retina display.
While the new iPad mini Retina hasn’t changed much on the outside, it now has a gorgeously sharp 2048×1536 resolution Retina screen – the same resolution as the current 9.7-inch iPad models. This means it can run all Retina apps as-is, only they’ll look even sharper since the pixels are even more dense.
It still measures just 0.29″ thick, and weighs just 0.73 pounds, just a hair heavier than the original iPad Mini.
Under the hood, the iPad Mini Retina got a big CPU boost, using the new A7 64-bit CPU found in the iPhone 5S and iPad Air. It also has the M7 motion coprocessor along for the ride. Battery life for the iPad Mini Retina is rated at 10 hours, which is pretty solid, given the fact that it’s so small, and now has to push 4x as many pixels to its display.
It also has a 5MP iSight camera, Facetime HD camera, dual microphones and MIMO Wi-Fi for improved wireless throughput. All iPad minis now come with iOS7 and a huge number of pre-installed apps, as well as iMovie, iPhone, GarageBand, Keynote, Numbers and Pages – for free.
For all practical purposes, the iPad Mini Retina is the same tablet as the new iPad Air, just with a smaller display and battery. In fact, the iPhone 5S, iPad Air and iPad mini Retina are virtually the same devices, with the exception of the display size, lower resolution camera, and lack of fingerprint sensor on the iPads.
It’s available in both Silver and White or Space Grey and Black colors. Pricing for the new iPad Mini Retina in the Wi-Fi version is $399, $499, $599 and $699 (USD) for 16GB, 32GB, 64GB and 128GB models, respectively, and the 4G LTE models going for $529, $629, $729 and $829 in the same memory configurations. This makes it a bit more expensive than the original iPad mini, which you can now get for as little as $299.
Apple hasn’t announced an exact date for the iPad Mini Retina to hit stores, but does say it will be available in late November.
Those of you in the market for a new iPad, Apple just made your day, announcing new and improved versions of both of their major tablets. The full-size iPad, got a boost in speed, camera quality and slimmed down at the same time. It also got a new name, the iPad Air.
The first thing you’ll notice about the new iPad is how much thinner it is than the last generation. The iPad Air measures just 7.5mm vs 9.4mm – 20% thinner.
But the biggest difference is how much lighter it is, weighing just 1 pound, vs. 1.4 pounds for the last model.
The new model still has a 9.7″ Retina 2048×1536 resolution screen, but the bezel width has been substantially decreased, measuring 43% smaller than the last-gen iPad. The touchscreen also has a new touch-rejection algorithm that can detect when you’re accidentally touching the edge of the screen from the slimmed-down bezel, or if you really are interacting with the screen.
In addition, the iPad Air sports the fast 64-bit A7 processor found in the iPhone 5S. It also comes with the same M7 motion processor. It’s also got MIMO antenna technology for improved wireless throughput. Part of slimming down the iPad Air meant a smaller, lighter battery, but Apple still claims the device can run for 10 hours on a charge. Keep in mind that the current gen’s battery has 42.5 watt-hours, while the iPad Air’s battery is 32.4 watt-hours. Only time will tell if the faster and more efficient hardware of the new model will get shorter run time off of a much smaller battery.
The iPad Air has also got a shiny new 5-megapixel iSight camera with 1080p video support, improved backside illumination, and a new FaceTime HD camera with larger pixels for improved video quality. Also, it’s the first time the iPad comes with dual microphones. All iPad Airs come with iOS7 and a huge number of pre-installed apps, as well as iMovie, iPhone, GarageBand, Keynote, Numbers and Pages – for free.
Like the iPhone 5S, you can get the new iPad 5 in Silver and White or Space Grey and Black. Unfortunately, there’s no gold version – at least not yet.
Pricing for the new iPad Air is the same as previous generations, with the Wi-Fi version selling for $499, $599, $699 and $799 (USD) for 16GB, 32GB, 64GB and 128GB models, respectively, and the 4G LTE models going for $629, $729, $829 and $929 in the same memory configurations.
The iPad Air will be available for ordering in the U.S., Europe, China, and Japan, among other countries on November 1 from the Apple Store.
It’s been a while since a new MacBook Pro has hit the market, so if you’ve been holding out for a long time waiting for a new model of Apple’s top-end laptop to hit, you’ll be happy to know that a new model has finally been announced.
The 2014 MacBook Pros have gotten a bump in processor speed, battery life and overall performance. Both the 13″ and 15″ have Retina displays, use fast PCIe Flash memory for storage, and also beefed up networking performance with 802.11ac Wi-Fi. Both models also offer a speedy Thunderbolt 2 connection, running at twice the speed of the prior port.
The new 13″ MacBook Pro is just .71″ thin, and powered by the latest-gen Intel Haswell i5 Dual-Core CPU. Graphics are powered by Intel Iris, which runs up up to 90% faster than the past generation. Battery life for the 13″ model is rated at a substantial nine hours. Prices for the 13″ MacBook Pro starts at $1299(USD), $200 less than the last generation. The base model includes a 2.4GHz CPU, 4GB RAM and 128GB SSD storage.
The 15″ MacBook Pro runs a fast quad-core Intel Crystalwell i7 CPU and Intel Iris Pro graphics – with the option to upgrade to NVIDIA GeForce GT750M graphics. Battery life for the 15″ is rated at up to eight hours. Prices for the 15″ MacBook Pro start at $1999, vs. $2199 for the previous gen. That model includes a 2.0GHz i7 CPU, 8GB RAM and a 256GB SSD.
All MacBook Pros ship with the latest and greatest version of Mac OS X, Mavericks pre-installed, and should be available from the Apple Store later today.
How do people manage to write the neatest, most compact code to make programs super-small and lightweight? Well, there are many ways—but one of the most common is to use trees. Upside down trees, to be precise.
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