Huawei’s new flagship is here, the Ascend P6, and the Chinese company has high hopes for the super-slim 6.18mm Android smartphone. The press conference may have been full of hyperbole, but in the hand the Ascend P6 is undeniably appealing: there’s something about waifish smartphones that still tickles the gear-lust parts of the average geek.
Well, we can’t say that we didn’t know it was coming, despite only getting officially announced this afternoon in London. Either way, Huawei’s Ascend P6 is here, and we got some hands-on time with it. As one leak suggested, the P6 comes with a 4.7-inch LCD display (1,280 x 720), a quad-core K3V2 processor, 2GB of RAM and just 8GB internal storage (there is thankfully a microSD card slot). Camera-wise, reports of a 5-megapixel shooter on the front were on the money, while the rear camera is a shade above that at eight megapixels. The front-facing cam isn’t the only talking point, either. At just 6.18mm thick, the Ascend P6 is potentially the slimmest phone out there (for now), but is a trim waist and the promise of improved selfies enough? We spent some hands-on time with it to find out.
Gallery: Huawei Ascend P6 hands-on
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile
If you’re lucky, your smartphone’s battery can just make it through a full day, with the percentage meter dropping to the single digits as you finally get a chance to plug in. With 10 hours out and about, some handsets can’t even last through dinner, though, and out of reach power outlets make juicing up at the restaurant a tad inconvenient. Beginning this summer, public power will be much more accessible in New York City. AT&T is partnering with Goal Zero to deploy Street Charge stations in a handful of parks and other locations around NYC. They’ll be coming to Fort Green Park on June 18th, and will roll out to Brooklyn Bridge Park, Coney Island, Riverside Park, Rockaways, Summerstage in Central Park, Randall’s Island, Governor’s Island, Union Square, and Hudson River Park over the next few weeks. Each solar-powered pole, designed locally by Pensa, sports six USB connectors: for iPhones and iPads, there’s 30-pin and Lightning plugs, Android and Windows Phone users can hook up to micro-USB, and everyone else can use their own cable with one of three female USB connectors.
There’s three 15-watt solar panels and a 168 watt-hour battery, enabling each Street Charge to power up to six devices for several days without exposure to the sun. Sure, it’s probably impractical to fill your gadget’s cell completely, but if you have a few minutes to spare, you’ll be able to juice up and go. You can plug in phones, tablets, cameras, or even a Pebble watch — each cable can pump out up to two amps of 5V power, providing support for just about any USB-powered device. Each weatherproof unit will have AT&T branding, which seems reasonable, considering the carrier is footing the bill here. You should start seeing these pop up at several TBA locations in New York throughout the summer, with more stations to come if the trial’s a success. Take a closer look in the hands-on video after the break.
Gallery: Street Charge hands-on
Source: Pensa
What’s it like to fly the A350? Only a handful of pilots know for sure, but Jean-Michel Roy has a pretty good idea. The Airbus test pilot has flown a variety of yet-to-be-certified aircraft over the years, and he’ll soon step behind the controls of the company’s answer to Boeing’s Dreamliner, the A350. While the first batch of pilots are back at the aviation giant’s Toulouse HQ preparing for the next test flight, Roy is schmoozing with customers a few hundred miles to the north, at the Paris Air Show. It’s an arguably safer task for the industry vet, but something tells us he’s itching to climb aboard this latest wide-body aircraft. We were hoping for such an opportunity here in Paris, but a delayed rollout means attendees will be lucky just to see the A350 perform an unscheduled flyover sometime over the next few days, with a cockpit mockup serving to satisfy airline execs for now.
As deep-pocketed buyers queued up for a first look at the A350 flight deck, we managed to sneak a quick peek, with Jean-Michel Roy on hand to answer questions and provide a video tour. As you might expect, the cockpit is as modern as they come, with large LCDs taking the place of traditional avionics. In fact, the layout looks more like something you’d find on a stock broker’s desk — it’s quite a contrast to the aging panels many commercial pilots still use today. The overhead system controls are presented in a layout similar to what you’ll find on an A320 or A330, as is the flight control unit just below the windshield. The screens below, however, are much more accessible, offering up aircraft manuals, charts, checklists, camera feeds, weather information — you name it. A trackball and keyboard make it easy to enter info, while side-mounted joysticks let the pilots control orientation while also serving to create a cleaner look and feel. Fly past the break for a first-hand look at this state-of-the-art demo deck.
Gallery: Airbus A350 cockpit tour
Filed under: Transportation
While running between booths at Computex earlier this month, we were momentarily distracted by these vegetable boxes (maybe it was lunch time as well). As it turned out, this product was launched by Taiwan-based Home Lohas around the same time as when the expo started. The company pitches its hydroponic gardening appliance — so the vegetables rely on nutritious water instead of soil — as a hassle-free, low-power solution for growing your own greens, plus it’s apparently the only solution in the market that doesn’t need water circulation. With its full spectrum LED light, air pump and timers, harvest time can apparently be reduced by about 30 percent. It’s simply a matter of filling up the water tank, adding the necessary nutrients and placing the seeded sponge on the tray (the package includes three types of organic fertilizers and some seeds).
The only downside is that this system costs NT$15,800 (about US$530) in Taiwan, and for some reason, it’ll eventually be priced at US$680 in other markets. If that’s too much, then stay tuned for a half-size model that’s due Q4 this year.
Filed under: Household
Source: Home Lohas (Chinese)
It wasn’t a question of whether Microsoft would release Office for iOS, but when. The company just released a free Office Mobile app for the iPhone, and it’s available today in the US, with other regions to follow over the coming days. Before you all go rushing off to the download link, though, there’s something you need to know: an Office 365 subscription is required in order to use the app. That’s a bummer for people who bought a traditional copy of the suite, or who normally use other word processors, but it makes perfect business sense for Microsoft. After all, the company doesn’t want to give folks too many reasons to use iOS, and it also needs to protect the precious revenue stream that is Office sales.
In any event, if you do have a 365 subscription, you’ll be delighted to know that the iOS app does not count toward your limit of five PC / Mac installations. Rather, you get to install the application on up to five iPhones, the same way you can put the full suite on up to five computers. Also, in addition to merely viewing whatever Word, PowerPoint and Excel files you already had stored in SkyDrive, you can also make light edits. Additionally, you can create new documents from your phone, though this only applies to Word and Excel, not PowerPoint (understandably so, we think). Again, the app is available today in the US, and for the iPhone, specifically; for the iPad, Microsoft is steering people toward its Office web apps. As for other platforms, the company won’t comment on whether an Android version is in the works. At any rate, all you iPhone owners with 365 subscriptions can get your download on now. And then you can read on past the break, where we’ve got some screenshots and hands-on impressions at the ready.
Gallery: Microsoft Office for iPhone hands-on
Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Mobile, Microsoft
Source: iTunes Store, MS Office News blog, MS Office Technical blog
The Ouya journey, according to founder Julie Uhrman, will never have a firm conclusion. But, we’d say having retail units enter production and shipping to mega stores like Game Stop and Best Buy represents at least the culmination of this particular story arc. With only a few weeks to go before the retail launch, the company brought the final console, controller and packaging to E3 for a press tour. The console itself is unchanged from the version that shipped to Kickstarter backers, except that it wont have contributor names etched on the side. The final tweaks heading into production have focused on the controller and the software. Visually the gamepad is exactly the same, but a number of small changes have be made to the various components to address feedback from early adopters and reviewers. The holes around the four face buttons have been widened to prevent them from sticking and, no matter how hard we tried, we could not get the O, U, Y or A to get wedged under the face plate. The right thumb stick also had a tendency to get caught on early versions of the controller, thanks to a small amount of glue that leaked into the area. That issue has supposedly been resolved, and in our time with the production model we had no problems with the analog stick.
Gallery: OUYA retail version hands-on
Filed under: Gaming
To most people, Antec’s probably better known for its desktop-related products, but at Computex, the company made quite a big effort to pimp its A.M.P. (Antec Mobile Products) range of Bluetooth audio devices. You may have already come across the SP1 Bluetooth speaker (pictured above in several colors), but we’ve been told that an identical-looking SP1+ is coming this October. What’s new? Well, the refresh will come with NFC-enabled Bluetooth pairing, as well as CSR’s TrueWireless Stereo technology that will let you use one SP1+ as the left channel, and another SP1+ as the right channel (but both drivers in each SP1+ are still active in this case). Do read on to see what else Antec has up its sleeve later this year.
Gallery: Antec SP1 and SP1+ Bluetooth speaker
Filed under: Portable Audio/Video, Wearables, Wireless
Forget streaming applications, share buttons and chip architecture — the success of the next-gen video game consoles will be dictated largely by software. Games sell the system, and we couldn’t help dropping by Sony’s E3 booth to see what the PlayStation 4 is promising its early adopters. Join us after the break for a quick look at what the console will offer during its launch window.
Polk’s at E3 showing off two new devices it’s showing off at E3 this week that aren’t half bad looking. Granted, they’re not as slick as some of the higher end products the audio company has shown off in the past, but as far as gaming-centric devices go, they’re not too shabby. According to the company, Microsoft approached it specifically to create peripherals for the Xbox, leading Polk to give the world the 133t Gaming Headphones and N1 sound bar.
The 133ts eschew the standard external gaming mic for a little nub that juts out from one ear. To mute it, you just click it back up inside the cup. The headphones also feature a mixer that plugs directly into the controller to help eliminate cords and lets you adjust sound settings on the fly. The Surroundbar, meanwhile, was designed specifically with the Xbox in mind, featuring four modes: Racer, FPS, Music and Cinema, so you can switch between gaming and standard media consumption. The N1 is set for a fall release, with the 133t coming some time in Q4. More info in a press release after the break.
Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment
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