Hasta La Gadget!

Earlier today AMD’s director of global business units marketing, John Taylor, joined us on our CES stage to talk chips. Specifically, tablet chips, and laptop chips, and chips for products that have elements of both. While he was up there, Mr. Taylor flashed a reference device — a laptop hybrid with the keyboard and touchpad built into the carrying case. Obviously, we weren’t satisfied with just a quick tease, so we caught up with him afterward to learn a bit more. As it turns out, it runs a quad-core version of AMD’s new Temash chip, which is being billed as the first quad-core, x86-based SoC. (There’s also a dual-core version.) Built into the chip is an HD Radeon 8000 series GPU with AMD’s Graphics Core Next architecture, so in theory you should be able to pull off PC-caliber gaming even on a tablet.

All told, it promises 50 percent more performance than AMD’s Hondo processor, which you can find in Vizio’s new Windows 8 tablet. Of course, those are just marketing claims, and besides we haven’t had a chance to benchmark either a Hondo or a Temash system yet. So, to put that in better context, it might be helpful to hear AMD talk about its competitors. Obviously, Intel is a biggie, but in particular AMD says Temash should be able to compete with Clover Trail tablet chips, going all the way up to Core i3 on laptops. We’re told Temash will ship sometime in the first half of this year, and that AMD will be revealing more details about the platform at Mobile World Congress, which kicks off in late February. Until then, we’ve got hands-on photos of the unit below, along with some performance impressions after the break.

Continue reading AMD shows off a reference device with a quad-core, x86-based Temash chip

Filed under: Laptops, Tablets, AMD

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We got the opportunity to take a peek at the ViewSonic VSD240 24-inch Smart Display, what’s essentially an oversized tablet on a stand working with an NVIDIA processor inside. This machine works with a full touch display attached to an NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core processor with 4-PLUS-1 technology. You’ll be working with HDMI via MHL, full-sized USB, and Bluetooth connectivity as well.

This beast is made for someone wishing for the future right this minute, bringing you Android 4.1 Jelly Bean on a display that’ll allow you to watch your videos at a tap. While we’re not sure the uses of this machine are numerous enough for us to want to get such a massive machine with a stand built-in for the desktop running Android, the prospect of an all-touch monitor future does seem encouragingly cool.

The best thing about this monitor from our perspective may be the fact that you’re able to work with the NVIDIA Tegra Zone collection of games. NVIDIA works closely with a variety of developers to make games that work especially well with their processors, and having seen the power of the NVIDIA Tegra 3 over these past 12 months working with high-powered games galore, we’re rather pumped up indeed.

Have a peek at our hands-on video above and photos above and below to see a bit more close-up look at this machine and get pumped up as it hits the market very, very soon. You’ll be able to pick this machine up for MSRP $675 USD and it’ll be in its final form then – what we’re seeing here may be changed just a bit, but it’s essentially complete. Have a peek at our CES portal for all the CES 2013 action you can handle as well!

ViewSonic VSD240 24-inch Smart Display Hands-on is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
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Amzer was demonstrating its Shatterproof iPhone protective film at CES and while we might not stretch as far as to say it makes your phone shatterproof, we can attest to it being pretty tough. The film is slapped onto the iPhone’s face using nothing but a squeegee and some care and then the 4-layer film is set to save your handset from scratches and wear. Using a drill and then a sander our Daniel — winner of this contest — does some grinding and drilling to see how well it holds up.

Continue reading Amzer Shatterproof iPhone film hands-on

Filed under: Cellphones, Peripherals

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Among the many, many things that LG is unveiling at CES this year is the curious addition of a sound bar with built-in video streaming. That still sounds like a contradiction of purpose to us, but the Smart Sound Bar, also known as the NB3730A, is more fascinating once you dive into the details. The large-sized bar pumps out 300W across its 2.1 channels, and its WiFi takes internet audio and video from CinemaNow, general internet radio, Netflix, Pandora and Vudu. Bluetooth audio is built-in as well. It’s ultimately built for those who don’t have an online-capable TV, Blu-ray player or media hub at their disposal — a group whose ranks are thinning quickly, but certainly still exists.

We got a quick glance at the Smart Sound Bar for ourselves. From a design perspective, it’s simple to operate and thin, if not exactly short. This won’t be a good fit for that small TV in the basement, then, although it’s perfect for that big wall-mounted set. We’d like to tell you how well it works in real life, but expo conditions dictate otherwise: LG unfortunately lacks an internet connection for the sound bar on demo, and an extra-crowded booth isn’t the ideal environment for gauging audio quality. If you’re mostly wondering whether or not it will fit into the living room decor, however, we’ve got a gallery for you below.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD, LG

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Not content with showing off its handy aPen Touch8 for those Windows 8 laptops which lack touch capabilities, eFun also let us play around a bit with two of its newest Nextbook tablets here at CES 2013. For starters, the 7GP, as its moniker would indicate, is a 7-inch (1024 x 600) slate that’s sporting Android 4.1, a 1.5GHz dual-core CPU alongside 1GB of RAM and 8GB of built-in storage. The 8GP, on the other hand, is a tad bit larger than its sibling with an 8-inch, 1024 X 768 IPS display but boasts pretty identical internals, so essentially you’d be spending 40 more bucks for a little more screen real estate. Speaking of which, while one of the tablets biggest features could be their relatively small price tag, eFun kept emphasizing to us how it believes the fact that they are Google-certified is perhaps the most important thing — and yes, the ability to have Mountain View’s Play store is definitely worth mentioning.

Much to our disappointment, however, we weren’t able to download any applications from Google Play or, for that matter, even browse the web, though that’s not the company’s fault, since having thousands of souls packed in a room makes for some very unreliable WiFi connectivity. Internet issues aside, both the 7GP and 8GP were rather smooth and quick when doing every-day tasks such as opening up apps and swiping between pages — which is likely due to the pair feeding off of Google’s Project Butter. Furthermore, were quite happy to find how thin-and-light the tablets are, with both Nextbooks being slightly thinner than something like, say, the Nexus 7 or the 7-inch Kindle Fire. All in all, eFun’s 7GP and 8GP aren’t too bad a choice for those looking to keep spending to a minimum, but at $130 and $170, respectively, there’s no doubt that shelling out some extra cash can still get you much, much more bang for your buck elsewhere.

Filed under: Tablets

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Source: eFun