Hasta La Gadget!

A company called System76 makes high-end gaming computers that run on Ubuntu, one of the most popular Linux distributions. Why would anyone sell expensive gaming computers to Linux users? Because those people have saved tons of money from not having to purchase an operating system. Just kidding.

The Bonobo Extreme is the latest and greatest and expensivest gaming laptop from System76. It has a 17.3″ 1080p screen, runs on Intel Core i7 CPUs, has at least 8GB of RAM, has either the nVidia Geforce GTX 670MX or Geforce GTX 680M GPU, a removable storage drive (starts at 500GB HDD), an optical drive, a Synaptics multi-touch clickpad and backlit keyboard. It has 4 USB 3.0 ports, 1 USB 2.0 port, 1 eSATA/USB 2.0 port, an SD card reader, an Ethernet port, an HDMI port and a Display port. In short, it’s as loaded as other gaming laptops.

Spec-hungry Ubuntu users can head to System76′s website to order the Bonobo Extreme for at least $1,499 (USD). I am curious though. I know that Steam for Linux has a handful of great games, but is there really a game for Ubuntu that can tax a computer of this caliber? And if there’s none, why wouldn’t an Ubuntu-loving gamer just buy a Windows gaming laptop then install Ubuntu on it? That seems way easier to me.

[via Engadget]

If you have kids and a tablet in your home, you’ve undoubtedly used the tablet with more than one person gathered around for games or watching movies. The problem is that most small seven-inch or 10-inch tablets don’t give a lot of screen space to share. Archos has launched a new tablet called the FamilyPad designed to make sharing the screen with multiple people easy.

The tablet has a large 13.3-inch screen with a native resolution of 1280 x 800. The display can show 16 million colors and has an aspect ratio of 16:10. The tablet runs Android 4.0 for the operating system and has a large battery promising over 10 hours of video playback per charge.

The tablet also offers lots of connectivity options including a mini HDMI output, USB host for transferring data from the flash drive or hard drive, and integrated Wi-Fi. The tablet has 8 GB of internal storage and a microSD card slot for storage expansion. The tablet ships with a quick stand making it a freestanding unit.

The processor is an ARM Cortex A8 running at 1 GHz and the tablet has 1 GB of RAM. The tablet is also fitted with front and rear two-megapixel cameras, a microphone, integrated stereo speakers, and a G-sensor. The tablet will launch in the UK next month starting at £274.99.

Archos FamilyPad 13.3-inch Android tablet launches next month is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

AOC has announced a new display for computer users with a 23-inch panel that it described as virtually borderless. I’d say that’s an apt description too because in the photograph you can hardly make out the border around the screen. The border around my PC display is at least half an inch thick.

The AOC screen is called the i2367fh and the company says it will work for normal computing needs and gaming. The high-performance panel uses In-Plane Switching technology and has a dynamic contrast ratio of 50,000,000:1. The display also has an integrated HDMI port and built-in speakers.

The integrated HDMI port means that you can use the monitor for things such as game consoles or Blu-ray players as well. The bezel around the screen is only 2 mm thick. The screen has a stand that is metallic and hook shaped allowing for two different modes of viewing.

The modes of viewing include a photo frame style without a base and the hook shaped stand can function as a normal computer stand. The native resolution of the screen is 1920 x 1080 in the panel has a 5 ms response time. The screen supports 16.7 million colors and has a VGA input. The display is available right now online for $199.

AOC unveils new 23-inch i2367fh IPS monitor with thin border is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Given all of the massive lawsuits going back and forth between Apple and Samsung, I’m still surprised that Apple uses any Samsung components in their devices. Still, until Apple can come up with alternative suppliers, they continue to be corporate frenemies for now. But I think the days of their partnership are numbered – as is the employment of this guy…

While I’m suspicious that this is just a bit of Photoshoppery, part of me really wants to believe there’s an Apple employee actually named “Sam Sung.” With over 50,000 employees, I suppose it’s possible, right? Heck, I wouldn’t be shocked if there was an “Andy Roid” and a “B. Lack Berry” on their payroll somewhere.

[via UFUNK Facebook Page]

A poll showing supposed Windows 8 disinterest earlier this week has been cut into pieces by a fellow by the name of Ed Bott. Mister Bott takes what’s reported by AVAST in a report of a collection of their users and takes it apart systematically, starting with the sample size and demographic of those polled. As it turns out, things aren’t as objective as AVAST makes it all out to be.

The poll was conducted on October 25th, one day before Windows 8 was launched. The poll was sent out to 1.6 million users of AVAST’s free PC anti-virus product, and they got back a total of 350k responses – of those, 135,329 of them were Windows users from the USA. Bott made it clear this week that “people who have deliberately chosen a free antivirus program, in other words, cheapskates” are probably not the best set of people to be basing the opinions of the general population on.

The key here comes in with the amount of people polled that actually intend on purchasing a new PC soon – just 16% of the total. This makes a lot of sense considering the cross-section of users polled, those being people who, again, have opted for a free service. The number break-down from there goes like this:

12% plan on purchasing a Mac
30% plan on purchasing an iPad
68% plan on purchasing a new Windows 8 PC

These numbers are all part of the 16% of users polled that plan on getting a new computer at all, while the much more massive set, 84% of all users polled, said they didn’t plan on buying anything at all. So here’s what that really means, for the total polled:

2% plan on purchasing a Mac
5% plan on purchasing an iPad
11% plan on purchasing a new Windows 8 PC
84% have no plan of purchasing anything

Meanwhile Bott also notes that it might not make any sense that the division between those planning on picking something up equaled out to be 110% in the end – we’re guessing, on the other hand, that some people answered with more than one option. Like purchasing an iPad and a Mac, or an iPad and a new Windows 8 PC. Still, the end result is this: don’t trust a poll without checking the sample size.

Also note this fun find from another AVAST poll which got the Presidential Election wrong (just about as wrong as it can get, in fact), saying Romney would win with 290 electoral votes in the end:

Various factors should be considered. For example, as all those that AVAST polled were users of the firm’s free software in the U.S., there could be economic correlations. Or, the general demographics of avast! users could skew results one way or another.

Enough said – and said by AVAST themselves. Keep this all in mind the next time anyone – even us here at SlashGear – report findings from pollsters. Keep your mind tuned!

Polling gone wrong: Windows 8 “disinterest” sample heavily skewed is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.