Hasta La Gadget!

Budget laptops, in general, used to be clunky hunks of plastic, more three-dimensional than thin, a collection of loosely grouped computer parts. Because of the recent Ultrabook (Intel’s thin-and-fast laptop) craze, even mid-to-low range computers sport a durable, solid build. In order to bill a computer as an ultrabook, manufacturers have to place a strong emphasis on maximizing the space and efficiency of laptop internals. The Envy 4 isn’t Macbook Air thin, but it’s close, and it’s a lot nicer than a chunky desktop replacement. It’s because of this that the HP Envy 4 is a great laptop. It’s not the best laptop out there, but it’s incredibly useable on a daily basis, and I can certainly recommend it over almost all laptops at its price point made last year. If a rising tide raises all boats, the HP Envy 4 is a ship you want to be on.

While the fit and finish is great on the HP Envy 4, you can’t help but feel as if there’s some corners that have been cut. HP has declared its high end laptops the Envy Spectre line, and left the Envy 4 as a mid-budget laptop. It’s billed as an ultrabook, but it’s two-part construction outs it as a laptop’s laptop: solid, heavy, but portable. And it’s running Windows 7, which is going to be superseded by the cutting-edge Windows 8 in October. It might not be the lightest, the fastest, or the newest, but could it be the right computer for you?

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By Ubergizmo. Related articles: HP Envy 17 and HP Envy 17 3D Update, HP ENVY Ultrabook and Sleekbook,

ASUS is never shy at showing off its creative side. At Taiwan Designers’ Week last Sunday, we spotted the company’s above art installation dubbed “Palette”: a mesmerizing circle of 50 overlapping Nexus 7 back covers, each in its very own shade of color. Interestingly, all of these were actually used in the development process of Google’s Nexus 7, which just goes to show the kind of mad dedication ASUS had put into the joint project.

But wait, there’s more! To match the event’s “Flow” theme this year, ASUS decided to also show off parts of the design process that determined the final appearance of its other hero products — hence the title “Becoming” for the booth’s own theme. For instance, much like what the company’s lovely Michelle Hsiao showed us on the Engadget Show, the booth again featured a handful of tablet chassis parts and dummies (mainly of PadFone, Zenbook, Transformer Prime and a 7-inch device) at different stages of their development, complemented by a generous selection of colors and finishes. Only this time the designers used some of them to create gradient wall art that we wouldn’t mind having at home. Check them out after the break.

Continue reading Visualized: 50 shades of Nexus, by ASUS

Filed under: Cellphones, Laptops, Tablets, Alt

Visualized: 50 shades of Nexus, by ASUS originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 17 Sep 2012 18:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Truly disruptive technology is hard to discover, but it is alive and thriving!

It’s living and breathing all around you. It’s working overtime to make your life faster. Easier. Better. It’s helping you to achieve more. Do more. Enjoy more. And it’s waiting for investors and buyers like you to bring it to life.

– Technology like Intuitive Motion’s Zboard, that’s the world’s first weight-sensing electronic skateboard which could be the next commuter trend.

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By Ubergizmo. Related articles: DEMO – The solid choice for non-stop innovation, Global Mobile Internet Conference: Silicon Valley – Oct 19-20,

Today, Apple unveiled its long awaited iPhone 5, a device that was highly rumored so the new features were not a surprise, at all. During the time where those leaks happened, the main friction points that we have noticed among commenters were the display size and the prospect that battery life would not be increased significantly because of the thinness (7.6mm, which is impressive).

In an ultra-competitive race where super large displays (see any other successful high-end smartphones like the HTC One X, Samsung Galaxy S3 and the new Galaxy Note 2), uber-cameras (see the new Nokia Lumia 920), incredible battery capacities (like the Razr Maxx HD), and amazing new features (see Samsung S-pen capabilities) are unveiled every week, we wonder why Apple has not committed to maintain the wow factor of the iPhone, because the company could easily do it. (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: The unibody iPhone, Jimmy Kimmel pranks passerbys with the iPhone 4S, claiming it is the iPhone 5,

When the Wall Street Journal came out with the speculation that the iPhone 5 would feature 4G LTE, this was largely a non-news as virtually everyone expects LTE to happen in the iPhone 5 as 1/users demand it 2/ wireless carriers want LTE phones, period. The more interesting bit from WSJ was that LTE would work outside of the US market, which is unusual for LTE phones: most fall back to HSPA+ in Europe and elsewhere.

This happens because unlike HSPA+ and 3G, the radio bands (frequencies) used for 4G LTE are very different from one country (or one carrier) to the next. Even in the USA, LTE is not interoperable from one carrier to the next.

This did not prevent a “global” iPhone 5 4G LTE support rumor to spread on the web like wildfire. Of course, iPhone 5 users who are heavy travelers rejoiced right away. Those who had a prospect to resell the phone globally did so as well (prices are much higher in markets where the phone is not officially available). However, here is the cold shower: (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Digital Cameras + Android = Unavoidable, OnLive Game Streaming Company Goes Under,