While up on stage for their Unpacked event Samsung hasn’t wasted any time announcing a slew of new devices. What you’ll see next is their new Smart PC. With an 11.6-inch HD display tablet that combines into a very Transformer-like keyboard dock this PC offers both a portable and a full keyboard typing experience.
Let’s forget a minute that Samsung just got sued by Apple and look at just how extremely similar that picture above is to the ASUS Transformer and Transformer Prime Android tablets. Moving on! The Samsung ATIV Smart PC and Smart PC PRO are similar to the earlier announced ARM Windows RT model — only will offer the full experience.
With a fully detachable keyboard, S-Pen stylus input and more these tablets that double as laptops will be compatible with both the upcoming Windows 8, as well as the older and still extremely popular Windows 7. The 11.6-inch display only comes with a 1366 x 768 resolution but the rest of the specs are quite nice.
The Smart PC comes with a lower Intel ATOM processor, 3G/4G capabilities, 2GB of RAM, HDMI-out, 128GB storage, and an 8 megapixel camera all running for about 13 hours according to Samsung. The beefier ATIV Smart PC Pro however comes with a much improved Intel Core i5 processor, 4GB of RAM, 256 GB SSD, 1080p HD display, USB 2.0 and 3.0 as well as HDMI-out. It does suffer in battery life and a smaller 5 megapixel camera though.
Samsung hasn’t unveiled any official pricing or release date details but surely they’ll be coming along here shortly. With Windows 8 not arriving til the tail end of October we are hopeful for a mid September launch. Stay tuned for our hands-on coming up momentarily.
Sony has just officially entered the Windows 8 tablet and touchscreen market with the announcement of the recently leaked VAIO 11-inch slide-out tablet. This will obviously be aimed at those folks that created the Surface tablet — and Sony hopes to spoil their plans with this new full featured and powerful Windows 8 machine.
It’s a tablet, and it’s a notebook. This thing does it all. Sony very briefly mentioned this new full-featured tablet at IFA 2012 and while we are digging for the skinny, check out the leak from earlier this week. The Duo 11 will come with many different options for CPU, and will be customizable to users needs and budget.
The new Duo 11 will come powered by Intel’s Core i7-3517U processor, and a few lower priced options will be available. Then they’ve managed 4GB or 8GB of RAM options complete with 128 or 256GB SSD’s for extremely impressive performance. The specifically mention the 11.6-inch display will be a full 1080p and look stunning — probably with the BRAVIA engine.
This convertible PC will have ultrabook power while remaining extremely portable, doubling as a tablet and more. The press photos reveal stylus support — which was expected — and we are hearing various accessories will be included at launch as well. Did we mention NFC, GPS, and 720p HD cameras both on the front and back of this tablet hybrid. Sony will be aiming for a late October release date but are pretty tight-lipped on pricing for now. We’ll update once they announce full details.
Losing the totality of your digital life can be a mind-boggling experience, which is one of the reasons that I immediately turned on 2-step verification when Google made it available for Google/Gmail accounts. Dropbox finally followed suit and I’m expecting others like PayPal and Amazon to follow as well.
Why should you enable it? If you are using Dropbox to archive some files and your hard drive gets toasted, then it makes sense to protect them as much as possible. 2-step verification means that you add your mobile number to the site, and each time you log into your Dropbox with a new device, you’ll be sent a text message with a verification code that you’ll need to enter so that you can login.
It’s a smart idea to enable this because it’s improbable that your accounts and your mobile phone will be compromised at the same time.
Acer first detailed their new Aspire V5 series earlier this year back in March, claiming to offer better laptops over previous generations all while managing to be around 30% thinner than previous models and other laptops in the price range. Now that Acer’s rolled out the lineup to retail stores we’re taking a look at the budget family member in their 11.6-inch Aspire V5. It might come at a budget friendly price but it doesn’t compromise on performance. Take a peek below.
Chassis
To be specific today we’re taking a look at the Acer Aspire V5 171-6867 with an 11.6-inch display. This well rounded little ultra-portable might look like the average netbook, but they’ve managed to pack in a pretty decent punch with the Ivy Bridge Core-i5 under the hood. As far as the chassis you’ll be greeted with a lightweight and rather cheap feeling plastic but the clear coat keeps it feeling smooth, and scratch resistant. That plastic pays off however as the laptop comes in at just 3.09 lbs. Making it rather fun to hold and wander to your nearest Starbucks with. It is 0.8″ thick at the thinnest point, and stretches to barely over 1-inch at the widest thanks to the 4-cell battery.
There certainly isn’t anything new in terms of specs or styling here, but for just over $500 we can’t be expecting anything revolutionary. The price however brings a pretty great laptop considering many in the price range feel flimsy and rather cheap. The Aspire V5 does have a lightweight plastic I’m not too fond of, but it doesn’t ooze of cheapness like some in the past. It looks fancy, but you’ll quickly recognize it’s plastic once you open her up. The rounded edges are nice and smooth, and the slightly textured feeling once opened is rather comfortable during daily use.
Ports
As you wrap around the curved plastic edges you’ll come to the left side full of useful ports. First you’ll notice the large venting system to cool that Core i5 dual-core processor. On the left we also have Ethernet, VGA out, HDMI, and a USB 3.0 port for added speed. Around front you’ll be greeted with the 2-in-1 SD card reader, and some LED notification lights for activity. Then to the right side is the rather bland female charging port, the other two USB 2.0 ports, followed by the micrphone/headphone jack.
Keyboard & Trackpad
Here with the Acer V5 we’ve been quite impressed by both the trackpad, as well as the keyboard. For being a compact 11.6-inch device the keyboard is one of the most impressive ones we’ve used as of late. The island style chicklet keys are comfortable, have a good texture, and the response is decent although a bit mushy. I instantly felt comfortable and was able to type with ease here when other 14-15 laptops have given me trouble. It’s safe to say this is one of the better 11-inch keyboards available to date.
The trackpad along with multiple newer laptops has a texture that I’d absolutely be fine without. It makes sliding your finger around for navigation irritating and doesn’t give you that smooth easy-going feeling. Considering the size of the laptop you get a decently sized trackpad, and usage was fairly acceptable. If you tried to click too high it wouldn’t register, as the lower end had the best response.
Overall the keyboard and trackpad can’t be considered great since we only have 11.6-inches to work with, but considering the circumstances this will do just fine and is certainly among the better options available. My only other main area of concern is the tiny arrow keys that double as volume controls or brightness, and wish they’d be larger. In all other regards this was smooth sailing.
Display & Sound
Here Acer has outfitted the V5 with their 11.6-inch 1,366 x 768 display surrounded by an extremely glossy and fingerprint prone bezel — but what’s new. You do get a 1.3 megapixel webcam, but it wasn’t too great. The Acer CineCrystal LED display was decently crisp although we’ve certainly seen much better in this size range. Again considering the price, the screen is crisp and decent although a bit lacking in the brightness department. We’d love to have a bit more brightness as well as better colors as they felt a bit dull and lifeless at times.
The same could also be said about the sound — dull and lifeless. A good way to explain it would be that usual tin can sound we get in basically every laptop available, but with a bit of a distance and fade to it. Sadly even at max volume the sound was nothing special, although it did get plenty loud for those wanting to blast away. Aiming down the sound was also muffled when using anywhere aside from a computer desk.
Performance and Benchmark
This laptop is running on Windows 7 x64 and as we mentioned above is rather sneaky in the fact that this small size still rocks a 1.7 GHz dual-core Core i5 Ivy Bridge processor. To be specific we have the Core i5 3317U on board. Along with 6GB of slow DDR3 RAM and a 500GB hard drive. I’m used to SSD’s and always enjoy the good ol sound of spinning hard drives these days. Obviously the Intel HD Graphics 4000 won’t be getting you any extreme game performance but as I mentioned in my video above it was enough for some quality video output through HDMI for some Pre-season NFL gametime.
As usual it all comes down to the benchmark performance and we’ve ran a quick Geekbench to take it through the paces, as well as posted up the Windows scores too. While it didn’t perform as good as the recent Aspire S5 we reviewed, it handles its own extremely well. Especially when considering the $500 price segment.
Benchmark Score – Acer V5-171
Section
Description
Score
Total Score
Windows x86 (64-bit) – Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
Integer
Processor integer performance
5331
7274
Floating Point
Processor floating point performance
9655
Memory
Memory performance
6850
Stream
Memory bandwidth performance
6598
System – Acer V5-171
Manufacturer
Acer
Product Type
Notebook
Operating System
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
Motherboard
Acer Mimic
Processor
Intel Core i5-3317U
Processor ID
GenuineIntel Family 6 Model 58 Stepping 9
Processor Frequency
1.70 GHz
Processors
1
Threads
4
Cores
2
L1 Instruction Cache
32.0 KB
L1 Data Cache
32.0 KB
L2 Cache
256 KB
L3 Cache
3.00 MB
Memory
6.00 GB DDR3 SDRAM 666MHz
FSB
99.8 MHz
BIOS
Acer V1.02
Wrap-Up
All things aside if you are in the market for a quality 11-inch notebook this is certainly one of the better options available. Given the impressive price/performance ratio and specs you’d expect to see in a larger notebook you’ll love the Aspire V5. Of course all that in a tiny package gets quite hot, and if you’re going for an Ivy Bridge and 500GB hard drive you might as well pick up something with a 14 or 15-inch display.
For those that want some top of the line performance while not suffering in the portability and ease of use department — you could certainly do worse. The battery life barely managing 5 hours no matter the task was a problem with the small battery however. For a few more dollars you could get a bigger screen and better battery life with similar performance. Do you need the lightweight and small size? If so this is the notebook for you.
Analyzing the way Apple customers work with their products and their store or choice this week was the NDP Group, this study revealing that 60 percent of Apple customers surveyed were more likely to come again after positive tech service. This study comes right alongside (incidentally) a supposedly “leaked” document for Apple Genius training earlier this morning that make it clear that Apple’s Genius Bar is trained to make the customer happy – and of course to fix their devices, too. The NPD Group’s “Tech Service Study” took on a collection of Apple product owners and found that the tech service piece of the Apple puzzle had a massive effect on their overall perception of the company.
Thirty-one percent of the set of surveyed Apple product owners responded that they had a much more positive view of Apple after they had an experience with the company’s tech service. Out of those surveyed, 40 percent of Apple product owners noted that they had been to the Apple Stores’ Genius Bar. Of those that visited the Genius Bar, nearly 90 percent said they were either extremely satisfied or very satisfied – in other words, it’s difficult to have a bad experience with an Apple Genius.
One of the big reasons that the Genius Bar is so satisfying, it would seem, is the large amount of users that get service there without having to pay any cash for a visit. Comparing users who accessed general tech support with Apple to those who visited the Genius Bar, 78 percent got free service from the former while 88 percent got free service from the latter. NPD Group notes that the correlation between free service from Apple and the consumer’s satisfaction was “major”.
Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis at NPD, spoke up about the study, saying that Apple’s tech service appears to be a notably positive experience where traditionally accessing such service has not been pleasing for the average customer.
“Tech support is a great service for the consumer, but more importantly it’s a brand-building element for the retailer and manufacturer. People tend to associate any type of tech support as a negative experience, but Apple has demonstrated that those ‘negatives’ can be turned into positive brand experiences and result in a trip back to the store.” – Baker
Also according to the study, 53% of Apple consumers were “extremely satisfied” with their in-store experience, this percentage higher than any other type of service interaction. The study also found that “younger consumers” were surprisingly more likely to want to use Apple’s in-store service than any other group at 45% of respondents in that category – this is surprising, of course, because this youth market has otherwise been found to prefer more virtual interactions. Baker continues by noting that Apple’s model here is one that’s being recognized by retailers across the market.
“Retailers are rediscovering the value that services can offer the consumer. Store foot traffic has declined over the years leaving fewer and fewer in-person interactions. Having a strong tech support in-store model helps fill the transaction void and builds brand awareness and satisfaction.” – Baker
There were 2,000 respondents in this study, notes the NPD Group, with the sample comprised of USA citizens of 18 years of age or older. This study was completed with an online survey through NPD’s online panel in May of 2012, and as NPD notes: “Some of the participants were pre-identified as consumers who had returned or needed tech support on consumer electronic devices in the past 12 months.”
I think my mouse is portable enough that I’d have no trouble carrying it with me wherever I go. But the farthest I’ve traveled is to our gate. I barely made it back. Anyway designer Taewon Hwang thinks mice could be smaller and thinner. Hwang imagined a mouse…
… that unfolds into a disc:
Clever eh? But I’d rather have a mouse that transforms into Optimus Prime. That’s my concept.
Besides the fact that some laptops right now don’t come with optical drives, the biggest hurdle to Hwang’s concept is if it can actually be turned into a real product. It would be awesome if we actually had batteries as thin as the one in Hwang’s illustration.
Giada has added a new mini PC to its lineup called the i35V. This new mini PC comes with solid-state storage inside rather than a hard drive making for quieter and quicker operation. The computer ships with a 32 GB mSATA SSD providing the user with faster boot speeds and lower power consumption. The new computer is aimed at home and small office users looking for a highly compact computer for small spaces.
The machine uses an Intel Atom D2500 processor and comes equipped with 2 GB of RAM. The RAM can be upgraded to 4 GB if needed. This is one of the most power miserly mini PCs that Giada has in its lineup. The typical mini PC we see from the company consumes around 35 W of power. The little i35V series mini PC consumes only 24 W of power.
The computer is only one-inch wide and is intended to be used for home theater, entertainment applications, and general computer work in the home or office setting. The machine is roughly the size of a book, and its small size makes it easy to place on a desk, inside an entertainment center, or even under a TV. It’s also small enough to be easily disconnected and carried between locations.
Connectivity options include five USB 2.0 ports, and HDMI output, VGA output, and SPDIF optical audio output. Inside the little mini computer is also a gigabit network socket, and high-speed integrated 802.11n Wi-Fi. The computer also has a memory card slot that reads SD cards and other storage formats. The only thing you would need to add this little machine is the operating system, and it carries a retail price of $168.
I love the idea of an intelligent home, one that has a lot of functions that can be programmed and controlled from far away, but the overall cost of such automation has generally been pretty high. Thanks to SmartThings, you might be able to do almost the same but at a fraction of the cost.
SmartThings is a new system that will let you link up your house to your iPhone or other devices via the Internet. It promises to let you control and receive notifications from a variety of different devices, such as remote outlets, open/shut, motion, and presence sensors. There are more on the way, such as door locks, thermostats, smoke alarms and flood sensors.
SmartThings was launched as a Kickstarter project, and with 25 days left of funding, it has already surpassed its $250,000 goal. Currently, it stands at $320,000. The basic kit gets you the hub and three sensors for $149(USD). For $500, you get 10 sensors and won’t have to pay any monthly fees to use it.
It’s a great way to double-check if you’ve locked your front door, switched off the AC, or turn off a light from anywhere in the world.
One of the more recent features to turn up in IM programs and services is to notify others when they have read your messages. This can be both good and bad. If this is something that annoys you on Facebook Chat, then you should try Chat Undetected.
Chat Undetected is a Chrome/Firefox/IE extension allows you to keep the status of your messages under wraps. This basically cloaks your message viewing and users won’t be notified when you read their messages. Since it’s a browser extension, it’s pretty convenient.
This extension allows you to somewhat nicely ignore annoying people, so they don’t know you’ve seen their messages. Of course, you could simply switch Facebook Chat off, but many people just leave that on by default.
There are many desktop speakers out there, but most of them require that they be wired to your audio source. Audyssey’s latest desktop/bookshelf speakers are wireless. The speakers are supposed to provide better sound for this form factor, while still taking up minimal on your desk or shelf. The wireless capability you to place them optimally around your home office or bedroom without having to run cables to them.
Audyssey Wireless Speakers are Bluetooth-driven, and feature .75-inch tweeters, and four-inch passive radiators behind three-inch drivers. This strengthens low frequencies without the addition of a massive subwoofer. Peak SPL is a whopping 106 dB at 1 meter, meaning these should be plenty loud for most normal-sized rooms.
The speakers have a small button to pair them up with A2DP compatible Bluetooth devices. Once they are paired, they will reconnect with the device within a 30-foot streaming distance. From the looks of the back of them, they also support direct wiring as well. The design is minimal and neutrally-colored, so they’ll fit in almost any decor.
The Audyssey Wireless Speakers are available directly from Audyssey for $299.99 (USD) for a pair.
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