Four new desktop models from Sony’s VAIO L Series will be released on May 18. This included 3 touch panel models and 1 non-touch panel model. All feature 24-inch (1920×1080) LED Full HD displays, Windows 8 64 bit, upgradable to Windows 8 Pro, Intel Core i7 or i5, 8GB memory, upgradable to 16GB, and 2 TB or 3 TB HDD.
L series:
SVL24149CJB – About ¥255,000 – Intel Core i7-3630QM Processor (2.40 GHz) – 3D compliant 24 inch (1920×1080) display – Memory: 8GB/ Max 16GB, HDD: 3TB – Windows 8 64 bit, upgradable to Windows 8 Pro – Color: black – Touch panel
SVL24148CJW, B – About ¥230,000 – Intel Core i7-3630QM Processor (2.40 GHz) – 24 inch (1920×1080) display – Memory: 8GB/ Max 16GB, HDD: 3TB – Windows 8 64 bit, upgradable to Windows 8 Pro – Color: white, black – Touch panel
SVL24147CJW, B – About ¥210,000 – Intel Core i5-3230M Processor (2.60 GHz) – 24 inch (1920×1080) display – Memory: 8GB/ Max 16GB, HDD: 3TB – Windows 8 64 bit, upgradable to Windows 8 Pro – Color: white, black – Touch panel
SVL24146CJWI – About ¥190,000 – Intel Core i5-3230M Processor (2.60 GHz) – 24 inch (1920×1080) display – Memory: 8GB/ Max 16GB, HDD: 2TB – Windows 8 64 bit, upgradable to Windows 8 Pro – Color: white – Non-touch panel
Along with claiming more than 200 million users worldwide, Viber’s also taking this day to announce what it is referring to as the biggest update to the service yet. For starters, the Viber for Android and iOS applications have both been on the receiving end of a pretty meaningful refresh, following the recent introduction of VoIP calling on older versions of BlackBerry OS. An all-new desktop app will, as of today, also be available to Viber users on a Mac or PC (Linux coming soon, we’re told), packing in most of the features the service is well-known for but in a less-mobile form.
Folks using Viber’s iOS and Android apps will see many changes to the overall user experience in version 3.0, including added support for video messages, a novel voice engine to help improve call quality, the ability to check contacts’ online status and a completely redesigned interface. Meanwhile, the newly minted Viber Desktop features video calling and seamlessly integrates / syncs with the mobile offerings — which makes things like being able to transfer ongoing voice calls between devices possible. While chatting with the company’s CEO, Talmon Marco, he told us development for BlackBerry 10 is in its “advanced stages,” adding that the latest Viber apps were built from the ground up and are all part of the goal to be better than other competing platforms.
Google has been rolling out updates to Drive at a moderate pace, having added improvements for iPhone back on April 8, for example. And while all the updates bring welcomed features, this latest one more or less trumps all the recent ones, adding a functionality found in many competitors’ services and one sorely needed for power-users. Starting today, users can share content from within Google Drive on desktop with a simple click.
Starting today, Google Drive users utilizing the service on their PC or Mac can share directly from within the folder using a couple of simple mouse clicks, both rapidly speeding up the rate at which one can share content and also bringing the service in line with some other services that have offered this feature – or one remarkably similar – for quite awhile now.
You can see the feature in action in the screenshot above. Right-clicking on the file you want to share, such as a text document, picture, or something else entirely, pulls up a menu with various options, which hasn’t changed and will look familiar to those who already use the service. This is with the exception of the last entry in the list, under Google Drive -> Share…
If you’re not seeing the new feature yet, be patient – Google says in its announcement on Google+ that the feature is being rolled out over the course of this week, so you might not be seeing it yet, and may not see it until Thursday or Friday. While you’re waiting, you can check out some other recent Google Drive news from us by hitting up this link here.
Google+ has just issued an update that brings the remote desktop feature to Hangouts. With Hangouts Remote Desktop, your friends can give you permission to control their desktop through the Hangouts app. Because you’re in a Hangout, you are still able to see each other and voice chat with each other while you’re controlling the other person’s computer, making troubleshooting much easier.
Hangouts Remote Desktop uses the same technology as Chrome Remote Desktop. To access Hangouts Remote Desktop, you have to initiate a Hangout with someone first. After joining a Hangout, navigate to the “View More Apps” button on the left panel of the Hangout screen. Click “Add Apps” and install the Remote Desktop app. Everything is all set up after that. If you send a request to control your friend/family member’s computer, they will receive a notification at the bottom of their screen to accept your request, or decline.
After you friend accepts your help, their main screen will be replaced with a green box that says [Your name] is helping you, however they will still be able to see your webcam feed at one of the lower screens. To end the Remote Desktop session, the other party just needs to click the “end” button located at the top of their screen. The entire process is easy, and with the way Hangouts Remote Desktop is all set-up, using it will make it much more easier to help your friends and family members with technical problems.
Many users are already giving positive reviews for Hangouts Remote Desktop. Now instead of having to deal with extensions and access codes with Chrome Remote Desktop, or having to deal with IP Addresses, usernames and passwords for Remote Desktop for Windows, all you need to do is successfully convince the tech-challenged party to sign up for Google+ and you’ll be fixing their issues in no time.
Although AMD hasn’t had much recent success at the higher end of the processor spectrum, it’s clear the company is very much interested in attacking the budget realm. Witness its two new lower-tiered FX-series processors: the quad-core FX-4350 and six-core FX-6350 bring noticeable (if modest) improvements over the FX-4300 and FX-6300 chips they effectively replace. Both unlocked CPUs up the base clock speed to 3.9GHz, while the Max Turbo speeds jump to a respective 4.3GHz and 4.2GHz each. The FX-4350 further trumps its ancestor by doubling the Level 3 cache to 8MB, albeit with a higher power draw. More importantly, prices aren’t budging much at all in spite of the brisker performance. When the FX-4350 and FX-6350 cost just $122 and $132 each, they’re cheap enough that DIY builders shouldn’t weep when the bills are due.
One of the staples of Intel’s upcoming Haswell processor architecture is its support for lower-power idle states that can rival tablet chips in power consumption, even on the desktop. However, that may come with a big caveat for budget and custom-built PCs: certain power supplies might not cut it. VR-Zone claims that those idle states require as little as 0.05 amps of current, which could be too nuanced for older or cut-rate supplies that deliver power in bigger clumps. That might not be a problem for companies building complete PCs, but Corsair’s Robert Pearce tells The Tech Report that it may lead to a lot of motherboard builders playing it safe by disabling those specific modes by default. Many of us, in turn, would either have to buy a fresh supply or toggle the power-saving options ourselves. We’ve reached out to Intel to verify the truth, but it may be wisest to make a cleaner break from the past with any near-term upgrades.
You’d think that with Skype firmly under Microsoft’s control, the service would roll out new features to Windows first. Bizarrely, though, that’s not the case. Skype’s video voicemail feature, which previously soft launched on Android, iOS and OS X, is now coming to Windows 7 and up (a Windows 8 version should be forthcoming), hitting the company’s end of April promise. The feature, still labeled a preview, works exactly as advertised, letting users record short video clips that can be sent to and viewed by any contact regardless of their OS. There’s one caveat though: you’ll need to install Skype 6.5 beta for Windows desktop and Flash to test it out. It’s just a risk your vainglorious self will have to take for modernity.
For better or worse, my digital file organization and storage strategy mimics what you’d find on my desk in real life: clutter. Luckily, technology has made it such that it doesn’t really matter if my MacBook Pro’s desktop is littered …
This week Samsung has made it clear that they want to keep their Windows device to all live under one roof, that being the “ATIV” branding already in place on a variety of products. In a bid to make it clear that they’re going to keep software and hardware cohesive, Samsung reports they’ll no longer be limiting the brand name to devices that “convert” from one form to another – ATIV will instead keep the Windows world in one friendly nest.
In an effort to keep their ATIV devices unique in the PC environment, Samsung also mentioned they’ll be bringing a feature forward that’ll keep users in sync with their smartphones and tablets as well. This so-called “SideSync” feature will be embedded in all future ATIV PCs and will, as they say, make moving files, working, and communicating, seamless between devices.
SideSync will work with ATIV PC users and their smartphones to text, view maps, edit bits and pieces of their phone, and move multimedia. At the moment it seems that SideSync will only be working with Samsung ATIV PCs using Windows 8 and Samsung Android-based devices.
This renaming structure and push for further connectivity between mobile and desktop computers, Samsung has revealed a couple new notebooks, both of them coming with names that reflect Samsung’s new bid for simplicity. The Samsung ATIV Book 5 will bring Ultrabook power with 24GB of ExpressCache and a 14-inch touchscreen and 4.19 pounds of weight. The Samsung ATIV Book 6 brings an Intel Core i7 processor with a 15.6-inch full HD touchscreen and Samsung’s RAMAccelerator technology for accelerating its 8GB of RAM.
The Samsung ATIV Book 5 will be coming with an Intel Core i5 processor and is available today starting at $899.99 while the ATIV Book 6 will be bringing a 1TB HDD in its most basic form, starting at $1199.99 USD. The name-changes to Samsung’s lines such as Chronos, Ultra, Smart PC, and Series 9 will be henceforth re-named ATIV, a full chart showing their new names appearing below.
Sound like a nice set of naming changes to you? Will you be able to live with your Samsung Series 9 machine now tht it’s called an ATIV Book 9, or will you have to re-think your plans based on the name? Let us know!
We first got word of the Lenovo C540 all-in-one back back in November of last year, however it wasn’t until January when we saw a complete set of details and some pricing. That news came during CES and while that was a few months back, the C540 has only recently begun shipping. Lenovo has the C540 listed as being both affordable and family friendly. Further touting the C540 as having a complete set of entertainment features and a space saving design. Well, over the course of the past week we have been using the C540 all-in-one for our daily computing needs and you can read on to see how it stands up to those claims.
Hardware
Lenovo has these built out with a 23-inch display at 1920 x 1080, running Windows 8 and powered by an Intel Pentium G2020 processor. The model we tested had the processor clocked at 2.9GHz and with Intel HD Graphics 2500, 4GB of RAM and a 1TB hard drive. Hardware specs aside, the system itself has a decent overall look, albeit with a bezel that is a bit on the shiny side. Basically, that is just to say that you can expect to see dust, fingerprints and other smudges. Certainly not a deal breaker, but something to be aware of.
The setup itself is straight forward and easy. Aside from the 23-inch display, the C540 has a webcam sitting front and center on the top along with the power button towards the bottom on the left side of the system. In total there are six USB 2.0 ports — four on the back and two on the left hand side of the system. Also on the left side (above the power button) you will find the headphone and microphone jacks as well as a memory card reader. Rounding out the ports on the back and you have the power jack, HDMI and Ethernet. The system also has Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n connectivity.
Basically, just what you need and all in easy to access locations. The system itself is on the thin side and looking from the front, would appear to be nothing more than a regular monitor. The good part here is that as the C540 is an all-in-one — there is no tower needed. Another item worth noting is a DVD drive which can be found on the right-hand side. Otherwise, Lenovo ships the C540 with a USB keyboard and mouse and has the system sitting on a stand that swivels allowing you to adjust the viewing angle a bit.
Software
The Lenovo C540 is running a 64-bit edition of Windows 8, which means it will bring an experience that will be familiar to many. The basics are all included which means when you first get up and running you will find tiles for goodies such as your mail and calendar as well as people, photos and more. There is also a live tile for the weather as well as tiles for SkyDrive, Games, Camera, Music and Video.
Aside from the basics that you will find on just about an Windows 8 system, Lenovo has also added a few goodies of their own. We will leave the bloatware argument aside and instead simply note how these include some Lenovo specifics such as PowerDVD 10 and the slightly more important items such as the Lenovo System Recovery. Rounding out the software are some third party apps such as an Amazon app as well as a Kindle, Evernote and cloud storage app. The cloud storage app is SugarSync and it gets you started with 5GB for free.
Performance
Speaking in terms of performance, the system was able to handle our day to day needs with ease. Granted, quite a bit of that involved little more than a web browser, text editor and some basic image work. Of course, the key here is who the Lenovo C540 is aimed at — the average home user. In that respect, we have to say the C540 should be able to live up to your needs.
System – LENOVO 10110
Manufacturer
Lenovo
Product Type
Desktop
Operating System
Microsoft Windows 8 (64-bit)
Motherboard
LENOVO INVALID
Processor
Intel(R) Pentium(R) CPU G2020 @ 2.90GHz
Processor ID
GenuineIntel Family 6 Model 58 Stepping 9
Processor Frequency
2.89 GHz
Processors
1
Threads
2
Cores
2
L1 Instruction Cache
32.0 KB
L1 Data Cache
32.0 KB
L2 Cache
256 KB
L3 Cache
3.00 MB
Memory
4.00 GB DDR3 SDRAM 666MHz
FSB
99.8 MHz
BIOS
LENOVO I0KT24AUS
Taking this a step further and the play time experience was just as solid. That is to say we found no issues with some light gaming along with music and video streaming. Shifting over to the technical side, lets get into what the benchmarks look like for the Lenovo C540. These were done using Geekbench and the results are sitting below.
Benchmark Score – LENOVO 10110
Section
Description
Score
Total Score
Windows x86 (64-bit) – Microsoft Windows 8 (64-bit)
Integer
Processor integer performance
5292
6621
Floating Point
Processor floating point performance
9346
Memory
Memory performance
5365
Stream
Memory bandwidth performance
4248
Wrap-Up
Bottom line here, the Lenovo C540 all-in-one seems to be well suited for the intended audience. That is to say the average home user that wants something powerful enough for day to day use. Of course, the good looks and relatively slim design only go to further that thought. The model as configured is priced from $500 and can be found with a variety of online retailers with prices through the $500 range. Also, as one would expect with desktop computers there is always the option to upgrade. In this case, Lenovo has options for faster processors, more RAM and even additional storage. Needless to say, based on what we have tested — we think this ‘as tested’ model will be just fine for the majority of users.
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.
