Hasta La Gadget!

If committing the requisite funds for an Audi R8 coupe seems like a stressful ordeal, NVIDIA and Christie have created an augmented reality purchase experience to lend a hand with the selection process. Under the hood, the whole lot is powered by NVIDIA GPUs, Christie projectors and RTT DeltaGen software for car configuration. Using a 3D-printed, one-fifth scale model of the R8, a series of projectors and projection tiles utilize a 3D WARP mesh to outfit the car with paint, wheels and even headlamps. A tablet UI then allows the eager customer to toggle colors, rim options, side panels and turn the lights on and off. In addition to customizing the car itself, the system also shows how the R8 will look in different environments, from dusk by the water to the rural open road. For a quick video demo from the SIGGRAPH show floor, join us after the break.

Filed under: Misc, NVIDIA

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As a full reboot of the original 7-inch ASUS-made slate, Google has opted to keep the same name, same manufacturer, and same attitude toward the Android world, aiming to continue to scoop up the market here with a 2013 edition of the Nexus 7. This device looks and feels exceedingly similar to the original, working with the same physical size display, a bit thinner yet taller tablet body, and a back-facing camera. Inside it’s got a whole different set of processor bits and pieces, on the other hand.

With the Nexus 7 2, or the Nexus 7 2013, whatever you’d like to call it, you once again get a rather simple combination of obviously high-end parts, starting with this machine’s display. Instead of a 1280 x 800 pixel display, this next-generation machine has a big more staggering 1920 x 1200 pixels to its name – that’s 323 PPI and well over the rest of the tablet world, especially this device’s biggest competitors.

This machine works with an untextured soft plastic back featuring the NEXUS brand in its center, aimed horizontal rather than the previous generation’s vertical. Here you’ve got two speakers as well – both back-facing though they are, they remain exceedingly loud as the reverberate in the palms of the users’ hands. We’ll compare this to the HTC One’s BoomSound and NVIDIA SHIELD’s dual speaker system soon enough.

On this tablets’ back is a new 5 megapixel camera without flash, and around this device’s edges are a full-sized headphone jack, microUSB port (slimport, mind you), power button, and volume rocker. Up along the top – the same place the power button and volume sit – you’ll find two mic holes – double the fun for ambient noise correction.

Sit right as we roll forward with a full review and the top-to-bottom analyzation of this tablet as it hits our test bench soon!

Nexus 7 (2013) Hands-on is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.

BlackBerry confirmed that despite the launch of BB10, it’ll still deploy one handset running BB7 later this year. We’re almost certain that phone will be the 9720, and while the Thai site that got an initial look called it a Bold, it might actually be a new member of the Curve family, according to a fresh leak from our Vietnamese friends at Tinhte. They’ve given the unannounced QWERTY model a brief video hands-on and taken a bunch of thankfully sharp snaps, including some side-by-side shots with the old Bold 9790. A disclaimer in the translated text states the device is a “trial version,” so the final hardware may be slightly different, but it’s said to have a 480 x 360 resolution touchscreen and a 1,450mAh removable battery. Our Vietnamese is a little rusty, so while we can’t tell you what the narrator is saying, you’ll still get a good overview of the hardware in the three-minute vid below.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Blackberry

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Source: Tinhte

In case you were already snoozin’ when Samsung made its announcement late yesterday, the company is here at SIGGRAPH 2013 eager to show off the muscle behind its new chip. Before the exhibitions start officially, we had a chance to nab a look at a reference tablet running the Exynos 5 Octa 5420 SoC alongside ARM’s Mali T-628 silicon packing six cores. For comparison purposes, the prototype unit was matched against a Nexus 10 tablet and its 1.7GHz Exynos 5 Dual 5250. Our first impression? The 5420 ran GLBenchmark’s 2.7.0 T-Rex on-screen test noticeably (read: a lot) smoother than the Nexus 10 and the final scores confirmed the performance boost that we previously reported. We also had a look at both the Unreal Engine’s Citadel (up to 45fps at times) and Unity Chase on the test device with both further demonstrating silky smooth transitions and brisk graphic renders. There’s no word on when the chip will make it into your next mobile device, but it is scheduled to go into production next month. For a quick look at the two tablets side by side, we’ll refer you to the video embedded just beyond the break.

Filed under: Cellphones, Gaming, Tablets, Mobile, Samsung

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Like clockwork, Motorola and Verizon have refreshed their joint Droid lineup, and we’re here to check out all three devices. The two more premium handsets, the Droid Ultra and Droid Maxx, are the most promising of the bunch for advanced users, replacing last year’s Droid RAZR HD and RAZR Maxx HD and offering the requisite 4G LTE connectivity. Both of those smartphones were at the top of their game in 2012, and that trend appears to continue here — the Ultra and Maxx are very similar, with the latter boosting the battery capacity, enabling power users to make it through a full day.

Like its predecessors, the Ultra and Droid Maxx (pictured above) sport Kevlar bodies, both of which look sleek and feel sturdy. The Ultra we saw has a glossy red finish, which Motorola helpfully suggested is “a lot like a sports car.” The Maxx, on the other hand, has a soft-touch black finish. At any rate, we prefer the Maxx’s look; as we’ve said about Samsung’s Galaxy lineup, a glossy, plasticky finish tends to look cheaper. Both phones feature a 10-megapixel camera with a f/2.4 lens; we’ll have to wait for our review units to test the shooter’s mettle.

What the Ultra’s design does have going for it, though, is an extra-thin profile. At 7.18mm, it’s already being touted as the “thinnest 4G LTE smartphone available.” At 4.94 ounces, it feels very light, and though it sports the Droid family’s usual boxy form factor, the edges are gently curved to make for a nice fit in the hand. It packs a 5-inch, 720p Super AMOLED display, which, while not quite as pixel-dense as the Mini’s 4.3-inch TFT panel, offers crisp images, vibrant colors and wider-than-average viewing angles. The Ultra is priced at $199, 100 bucks higher than the Mini and 100 lower than the Maxx.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Google, Verizon

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