The next generation of iMac has been revealed at the Apple event today that should very well be show the iPad mini – and it’s “absolutely beautiful” as Apple says, not least of all because its’s extremely thin – 55mm thin, in fact. This update has edge-to-edge glass, an extremely thin body, and a set of ports on the back that keep this device in the all-in-one family for real. The basic design of the device is similar to the previous generations of the iMac, here with a new Chin with Friction Stir welding.
The molecules of the aluminum merge together, Apple says, with Friction Stir welding, a new technique that makes this machine seamless. A newly engineered body contains a brand new set of technologies that take what the iMac 7th generation accomplished and pushes it to a whole new level. There will be at least two models available from Apple, those being the following:
21.5 inch 1920 x 1080 display 25 inch 2560 x 1440 display
These units will be working with a lovely IPS display with a 178 degree viewing angle and 300+ nits brightness. These units have a full lamination design, a brand new bit of technology called Plasma deposition – of course this is a whole lot of testing that leads to 75% less reflection on the display than before. Each of these units has been individually calibrated by Apple by hand as well.
The back of these devices have a headphone port, four USB 3.0 ports, two Thunderbolt ports, and an Ethernet port – check the Apple portal for full pricing on this device as well as the rest throughout the day!
This week Dell has begun the final announcements of their Windows 8 devices in full, with no less than 10 machines ready for action this Fall. These devices aren’t all computers, of course, with a wireless touchpad and a monitor in there as well, but they’re all aiming in the same direction nonetheless. This update includes such gems as the XPS 10 tablet, Inspiron 15z, and the OptiPlex 9010 All-in-One with touch.
Dell will be attacking the PC world with a selection of products running Windows 8 at launch or fully prepared to work with Windows 8 with attachments. These include tablets, notebooks, and flip convertibles as well as accessories. Available for purchase starting this week – with delivery starting this week as well – are the following:
• XPS One 27 with touch – starting at $1599.99 • XPS13 – starting at $999.99 • S2340T multi-touch monitor – starting at $699.99 • TP713 wireless touchpad – starting at $69.99
This update also covers the entirety of Dell’s PCs and Precision workstations which has Windows 8 for pre-order available on the Dell online store. With Windows 8′s formal unveiling happening this week, we’re expecting orders to be shipped sooner than later. The rest of the items being priced today are available for purchase today online but will be delivered at a later date – not too long though, with Dell saying “in the coming days and weeks” as an estimated delivery window.
• XPS 12 – starting at $1,199.99 • XPS 10 tablet – starting at $499 • Latitude 10 tablet – starting at $649 • Latitude 6430u – starting at $899 • OptiPlex 9010 All-in-One with touch – starting at $1199 • Inspiron 15z – starting at $749.99 ($899.99 with touch)
Have a peek at the links embedded in the names of these units to see more information about each of them. The S2340T is a new unit which is indeed Dell’s first multi-touch monitor, it working with a 90-degree articulating stand and full Windows 8 functionality. The TP713 touchpad offers up more Windows 8 gesture and touch functionality with a full-touch surface.
The Latitude 643u is Dell’s first business Ultrabook. This unit works with lovely aesthetics on the outside and a highly manageable notebook on the inside, with durable features top to bottom. This unit works with wireless docking using WiGig technology, has all-day battery life, and is made to be hardcore, “having undergone a broader set of United States’ Military’s MIL-STD 810G standard tests than any other system in its class.” The Opti-Plex 9010 All-in-One is made for those with small desks and big business needs. You’ve got a multipoint touchscreen, fixed or rotating camera, and articulating stand – this unit is also optimized for Microsoft Lync.
The Inspiron 15z Ultrabook is being revealed with an optional touchscreen interface and a giant display. This unit measures in at less than 1 inch thick and has a shiny aluminum finish, made for those that want both a giant amount of space to work and a thin unit to do it in. Expect these devices to be hitting shelves immediately if not soon!
This morning the flood gates appear to have been opened on Apple before their big event, here with the Mac mini refresh getting a bit of a specifications run-down. This Mac mini update will have several different options in the Apple store online, each of them better than the last. Of course just as the Mac mini had in past iterations, there will be a standard edition and a Server edition, just what you need for your home and/or office environment – and they’re big (yet still quite small, as you might imagine.)
This update has three new updates to the Mac mini lineup, each of them leaked to 9to5mac. The first of these is a 2.5GHz dual-core processor toting machine with 4GB of RAM and a lovely 500GB hard drive. The second has a a quad-core processor clocked at 2.3GHz with 4GB of RAM once again and a hard drive that’s twice as nice at 1TB. The Server edition comes in at 2.3GHz quad-core with 4GB of RAM and a massive 2TB hard drive.
• 2.5 GHz dual-core, 4GB RAM, 500GB Hard drive • 2.3 GHz quad-core, 4GB RAM, 1TB Hard drive • Server: 2.3 GHz quad-core 4GB of RAM, 2TB Hard drive
The pricing on these devices has not yet been revealed. Expect each of these units to be available later today more than likely. Word has it that these Mac mini device will be working with 2x2GB stock RAM, but upgrades will be available from Apple up to 16GB – massive! Stick around for the main Apple event to find out the full run-down as Apple makes it all clear.
You can get all the Apple action from SlashGear via our massive Apple portal with full feature selection, including reviews and run-downs!
Today at the Apple event that’s going to take place starting at 10AM PST there will more than likely be an iPad mini to be pumped about, but before then, the MacBook Pro with Retina display at 13-inches must be shown – and it’s leaked. This leak comes from 9to5Mac where they’ve got essentially the full run-down of the models that will be available later today. That’s another unconfirmed factoid in this situation, mind you, that the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display will indeed be up for sale by the end of the day online.
This update to the MacBook Pro with Retina display line will have at least three different iterations, each of them with different amounts of Flash storage. The processor speed will remain constant across the two lower models, while the third will have the only processor boost. This update works with many of the same hardware upgrades that the 15-inch version has, but we’ll have to wait on the full run-down from Apple.
• 2.5 GHz, 128GB of Flash storage, 8GB of RAM • 2.5 GHz, 256 GB of Flash storage, 8GB of RAM • 2.9 GHz, 512GB of Flash storage, 8GB of RAM
These three models will be available for order right after the event is complete and we’ll be grabbing the full specifications right as they’re dropped by Apple. Stay tuned to our Apple portal for all the hot action, and don’t forget to check out our full Retina display-toting MacBook Pro review right this minute – that’s the larger version, mind you.
With the advent of the IdeaPad Ultrabook™, portable computing has gotten faster, lighter weight and more stylish than ever before. These portable powerhouses have enabled a whole new level of creativity for users that was once reserved for the desktop and heavy laptops. With that in mind, I’ve assembled a list of some of my favorite applications and add-ons for IdeaPad Ultrabook users, to extend and enhance their usefulness in creative projects.
Whether you’re a budding artist or sell your work on Etsy, Art Rage 3 Studio Pro ($60 USD) is an incredible bit of software, letting you use your computer as a virtual canvas. It can simulate real media like oil paints, watercolors and charcoal, and colors mix together just like the real deal. It even can simulate paper textures and the variety of realistic brushes provides tremendous creative control. It also provides tools for tracing photos and stenciling, and supports the use of graphic tablets for added control and precision.
A perfect complement to Art Rage Pro is the Wacom Bamboo series of tablets ($79 to $199 USD). I’m a big fan of these compact input devices, which plug into your computer’s USB port and can be easily stashed in a backpack or bookbag. The Capture and Create models support both pen-based input and multitouch gestures, and can be used to draw, paint and manipulate images like a pro, replicating pressure and angle of your pen strokes. And there’s even a wireless option available, so you don’t have to lug a cable around with you.
If you’re more into motion images than still ones, you’ll want to check out Magix Movie Edit Pro 18 MX Plus ($100 USD). This powerful video editing application is optimized for fast performance, and lets you create professional quality video work on a budget. It includes support for full HD video editing, numerous transitions and effects, and even Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound and path-based animation tools. Also includes professionally-designed templates to get you up and running fast, and sharing tools to quickly publish to YouTube, Vimeo and Facebook.
Of course if you’re into music, there’s something for you too – the Novation Launch Pad ($149 USD) is a great creative input device for digital music composition. The compact (9.4″ square) device plugs into a USB port, and gives you 64 multi-color, backlit buttons for sequencing music, samples and controlling live performances. Comes with Ableton Live 8 Launchpad Edition, so you can compose tracks out of the box without any additional software.
While trackpads are great, some of us still move fastest with a mouse. Logitech’s M515 Couch Mouse ($50 USD) is the perfect gadget for pointing wherever life takes you. That’s because it works on any surface. Yep, you can even use it on your couch, or your pants leg and it’ll work flawlessly. It also supports “hyperscrolling” which lets you zip through long web pages at supersonic speeds, and an astounding 2 year battery life. It also has hand-detection technology, so your cat can’t accidentally move your cursor when you’re not looking.
For something a bit more whimsical, check out the L8 Smartlight ($69 USD). Recently launched through a successful Kickstarter campaign, this little programmable LED gadget connects via Bluetooth and lets you truly express your creativity. Display custom animations, use it for notifications, or just have it light up when somebody enters the room. Its onboard sensors can detect proximity, temperature and luminosity, and it’s fully programmable to your creative whims. If you didn’t get in on the initial Kickstarter batch, you’ll have to wait a few months to get one – but it’ll be worth the wait.
Last but not least is something that helps you quickly and neatly connect your mobile gadgets to your Ultrabook on the go. Instead of carrying around a bunch of long and tangled USB cables in your bag, the AVIIQ Ready Clip Kits ($20 USD/set of two) are just the perfect thing. These 5.5-inch-long cables are exactly the same length as a pen, so they fit into the pen compartment of backpacks and bookbags. They’re available in USB to Mini-USB, USB to Micro-USB, and USB to 30-Pin versions for connecting just about any gadget.
Armed with these add-ons and apps, you can take your Ultrabook laptop to the next level, providing new outlets for creativity and productivity whether you’re at home, school, traveling or at the coffee shop. And if you are in the market for a new computer, be sure to check out Lenovo’s IdeaPad U310 and U410 Ultrabooks, which weigh in at under 4 pounds, offer battery life up to 9 hours, and look great doing it.
See what you can do with the Book of Do, the IdeaPad® U Series Ultrabook™, at Lenovo.com.
Disclosure of Material Connection: This is a “sponsored post.” Technabob received compensation for writing it, however, we only recommend products or services we find interesting or have used personally, and believe will be good for our readers.
OK, so the tangle of wires behind my desk is getting pretty ridiculous. Luckily, I’ve got it confined in a corner, so it’s not going to take over my place any time soon, but something like Unlace might just banish the cable squid to Davy Jones’ Locker forever.
Unlaces are designed to manage your excess cable with ease. The colorful, rubbery, and twistable lace will allow you to neatly bundle cords, cables, and any other loose ends. They are made out of reusable silicone material, and look like colorful shoelaces. Unlaces will be available in 5″ and 10″ varieties.
You’ll have to pledge $20(USD) on Kickstarter to get a set of four 5″ Unlaces. $33 buys you eight of the 5″, while $40 or more gets you as set of eight 10″ Unlaces. With $9,860 pledged of a $10,000-goal, and 25 days of funding left, the project will surely be fully funded.
USB ports will immediately surrender when you threaten them with Benchmade’s Bali-USB drive. Not only does it look like a balisong – aka butterfly knife – you can also flip and twirl it around, minus the risk of being stabbed.
The drive is modeled after Benchmade’s 62 Bali-Song knife. Aside from the blade being swapped out, the USB drive is also made of plastic instead of steel, probably to make it cheaper. Here’s a demo video by YouTuber WHbluelife:
BladeOps is selling the 4GB model of the Bali-USB flash drive for the wallet-slashing price of $30 (USD).
With a net profit of just T$68 million ($2.3 million USD) this current reporting quarter, Acer appears to be having some pre-Windows 8 jitters. In this PC market that’s not doing particularly well no matter which way you spin it, it seems as though the imminent launch of Microsoft’s Windows 8 operating system is having more than just a tiny effect on sales across the PC universe. Sales figures will be expanded upon later this week – on Thursday, the 24th, mind you, perhaps well hidden behind the Windows 8 launch event taking place that same day.
This update comes from Acer itself, though they’ve not accompanied the drastically lower-than-estimated third quarter net profit. Analysts with Thompson Rueters I/B/E/S quoted by Rueters had a mean estimate of T$756 profit for Acer, this an undeniably different ballpark than the company is quite obviously playing in. KGI Securities analyst Angela Hsiang spoke on the subject as well, noting that in conversations with the company, it was tax rates and exchanges that had a lot to do with the less-than-fantastic quarter.
“The lower-than-expected net profit was due to a forex loss of over T$100 million and a higher tax rate at 34 percent; previous guidance was around 20 percent.” – Hsiang
The second quarter of this year had Acer in at a net profit of T$56 million, while the third quarter of 2011 had them ringing in a net loss of T$1.1 billion. Needless to say, this business can be a little nerve-racking when it comes to reporting quarterly earnings to investors. Certainly an up-swing will be looked for in the near future with Acer’s investors if they’re not already pulling their hair out in patches.
Total revenue was also added to the report with a boost of 11.4 percent compared to a year ago in this 3rd quarter. Compared to the quarter before this one this year, consolidated revenue has gone down 5.6 percent, here now with T$104.4 billion. Now we must turn to Acer’s Windows 8 lineup to see how the business will fare in the consumer sector – onward and upward!
This morning we’re gearing up for one gigantic week of releases, starting with a massive (yet mini) Apple event and ringing through the center with Windows 8′s official release. Start your morning off right with Bill Gates discussing Windows 8 with the Surface tablets starting the party the right way. Have a peek at Apple’s education strategy with the iPad mini as well – nothing has been confirmed as of yet, but it’s looking more and more likely!
It’s suddenly 1993 again as a group releases the making-of the Velociraptor for the students of the Stan Winston School of Character Arts. It’s also time to end a rather old relationship if tips are to be believed, that being the Apple/Samsung LCD business, tipped to be cut due to bad blood and a new pricing strategy gone wrong. The retro updates continue with a brand new cassette tape prototype that’s able to store a whopping 35 terabytes of data.
There’s been a discovery of a completely unknown Roman catacomb this week with no more than a stray cat archeologist bringing it out to light. Windows 8 will be blasting forth with a new Skype app for the masses. A home-striking meteorite has appeared this past week – consider yourself lucky that it didn’t smack your car instead.
There’s a brand new Google Glass in town, this time bringing engineer-grade wearable technology to the forefront with the name Motorola Solutions HC1. Samsung’s flexible AMOLED technology has been delayed until 2013. Those of you in to the world of NAS will be glad to see the wild universe of Synology’s quad-tuner DVDs with remote placeshifting.
If you really want to look forward to the future, you’ll freak out at the leak surrounding the Google event on the 29th of October – Jelly Bean 4.2 plus LG Nexus 4, Nexus 7 3G, and the new Nexus 10 tablet as well. There’s been a leak of the HTC DLX that you’ll want to have a peek at.
It’s no secret that Google is aiming to create a whole new segment in the world of portable computing with Chrome, and here with the newest Samsung Chromebook, especially at its eye-opening $249 price point, it appears that the big G will make that move. If you’ve got a need for an internet machine for school, for fun, or for a present for your mother who doesn’t use her desktop anyway, this device might just be perfect. It’s light, it’s extremely inexpensive, and most important of all: it’s a high quality machine. Samsung and Google have made some fabulous strides forward since September of 2011, of that you can be certain.
Hardware
This piece of Samsung hardware is the most basic Chromebook you can buy right this minute, but it’s not the low-quality piece of hardware the price suggests. Instead you’ve got a machine that Samsung and Google very obviously went through a lot of work to perfect, and they’ve taken all the bits from the machines that have been successful in this arena and stuffed them into a quality package here without a doubt. This rings true especially in the keyboard and the trackpad.
The real test a person such as myself must go through to decide if a notebook is going to work long-term is if the keyboard is able to take my non-stop usage and real need to be able to type relatively quickly. With this keyboard I certainly can do both of those things. One of the main reasons for this is that the keyboard is so extremely close in shape, size, setup, and spring to the MacBook series from Apple. It’s absolutely uncanny, in fact, with the main differences being in the special buttons that Chrome uses to execute commands like Full Screen, Back, Forward, and Reload (all of which work directly with the Chrome web browser which is, of course, at the center of your Chome OS experience.)
The trackpad is also extremely nice – the only more perfected trackpad I’ve ever used has been on the MacBook (Pro and Air, the same in the end). You can do the soft-tap we’ve seen running rampant over every Windows-toting notebook here as well, but unlike many notebooks, it’s not something you’ll do on accident. You’ve also got keyboard and touchpad settings in the Chromebook just incase you do want to increase or decrease speeds and such – but you’ll likely be fine right out of the box.
This Chromebook weighs in at 2.5 pounds and is 0.8 inches thin, working with what Google and Samsung say is 6.5 hours of battery life. It would appear very likely that Google has been modest in its estimation of how long this machine will stay active, even while movies are playing and oddities are rendering. Even with the 46% battery left I’m looking at right now, the machine has nearly 6 hours quoted as being left – and the machine has been out and on for at least 12 hours without need for a charge. This machine has some undeniable standby power abilities, that’s for certain.
The display is 11.6-inches large with 1366 x 768 pixel resolution across it, this making for a display that’s certainly OK, but not the best in the industry by a long shot. What you’ve got here is Samsung providing you with the amount of pixels you’ll need to watch relatively high definition videos without making a case for having a display that’s mind-blowing. The viewing angles on this device are also far from perfect, but certainly usable in most single-user situations. You won’t want to use this for a YouTube party, if you know what I mean.
You’ve got a VGA camera built-in for average video chat on the web (on Google+ Hangouts, of course) as well as a full-sized HDMI port for video output. You can connect to this device with 1 USB 3.0 port, 1 USB 2.0 port, and Bluetooth 3.0. Inside is a Samsung Exynos 5 dual-core processor – this is the next generation of processors working for mobile devices Samsung introduced last year and made available here in 2012, only available on this Chromebook thus far. The next-newest after this is a Samsung Exynos 4 quad-core which you’ll find on the Galaxy Note II.
Software and Performance
The newest version of Chrome OS provides you with the ability to download and upload files to storage on your Chromebook – this is one of the biggest stumbling points for people who only know the operating system to be an “internet only” sort of situation. Now that I can download an image from one webpage and upload it to another, I can write articles in a blog – I now have a machine with the most basic set of requirements I need.
Its worth noting that it appears the quality of this machine is above that of every tablet we’ve had our hands on thus far – if only because the operating system is made to handle notebook operations. One should not expect that since this device uses a processor from the Exynos lineup with two CPU cores (two less that the Galaxy Note II) that it wont work as hard on everyday tasks as a smartphone or tablet would. On the contrary – this is a minimally powered notebook with all the non-web elements stripped away – that’s all.
You’ve got 2GB of RAM that will not let you down unless you absolutely push the limits of the device on purpose. If you’ve got 20 or more tabs open, each of them playing videos or keeping up with Twitter feeds, for example, you’re not going to see as fast a performance speed as if you’re being a reasonable person working with just a few tasks at a time. This machine is not made to be a workhorse – it’s made to take care of basic tasks, management of your daily duties, and web browsing.
Access to the entire range of Google services here means you’ll be working in the Chrome web browser – the only offline items here are changing your wallpaper, storing files in your local downloads folder, and working on a calculator. You can also use a Beta product on the machine if you want to go bigger: Chrome Remote Desktop. With this environment you’re able to access your larger machine virtually, seeing it through your browser window and controlling it as if you were there at that other machine in-person – though it’s significantly more laggy than real life, when it comes down to it.
What you’re seeing above is a connection between the Chromebook and a MacBook Pro, both of them connected to the same wireless network. It’s not a perfect system, by any means, and it’s a bit difficult working with a display that’s mean to be much larger inside a browser window that shrinks it, but it’s interesting to say the least. This system is not limited to your local network, mind you, you can do tasks remotely, just so long as both devices are connected to the web.
This is all topped off by the fact that current purchases of the Samsung Chromebook come with 100GB of Google Drive storage for two years. That would cost you $100 if you bought it outright.
Wrap-up
This Chromebook from Samsung is a value offer you might just need to think about, if only because the quality matches the price so very closely. Considering the alternatives start at several hundreds of dollars higher, you risk being called “silly” for not considering the Chromebook in your decision making process in purchasing a new notebook. Where this device leaves off at a price of $249, the MacBook Air picks up – starting at $999.
Google and Samsung have created a machine with a price point that’s impossible to ignore. We’ll be using this device for an extended period to see how “game changing” it really is. Meanwhile, please feel free to let us know if you’ve got any questions about this device and we’ll certainly do our best to answer to the best of our ability. Have a peek at the Chromebook tag portal as well to keep up with all things Chromebook through the future!
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
