Inhon first attracted attention with its amazingly thin Blade 13 laptop, a 13-inch laptop that weighs in at less than 2-pounds and is only 0.39-inches thin. According to the folks at Engadget, following very closely on the laptop’s heels is the Inhon Tablet, which has an optional keyboard that immediately makes one think of the Surface. The tablet will be launched in Taiwan at an unspecified date.
It’s a rather unique concept – when folded, the device looks and functions like your average everyday tablet running Windows 8. It is portable, and can be used with a stylus, for example. There are bound to be times, however, when you need to do something more hardware-intensive than a tablet can handle. Instead of switching to a laptop or desktop, the Inhon Tablet has a built in sort of Turboboost mode.
On the half of the tablet/laptop hybrid that doesn’t hold the screen, there’s said to be USB 3.0 and Mini DisplayPorts, as well as a cooling fan that is exposed when the device is opened up. As such, the increased cooling is used in conjunction with a TurboBoost of the processor (overclocking?) that gives users a big jump in processing power.
Because it can no longer be used as a tablet once it is unfolded, the Inhon Tablet can be used with an optional accessory that looks very similar to a Touch Cover, functioning as both a trackpad and a keyboard. When it hits shelves, the quasi-tablet will be priced between NT $29,999 and NT $39,999, which is roughly $1000 to $1300 USD.
If you follow the gadget market with respect to tablets, smartphones, Android-powered TV sticks, and other products, you may be familiar with the name Allwinner. The company makes some of the most common processors in the gadget market used by a number of companies around the world. Allwinner has announced that its latest mobile application processor, called the A20, is now shipping inside customer devices.
This particular SoC is notable because Allwinner says that is the world’s first dual-core ARM Cortex-A7 SoC. The SoC features a dual-core core Cortex-A7 CPU along with a dual-core Mali400MP2 GPU. The SoC supports H.264 2160p video playback and 1080p video playback at 30 frames per second. It also supports 720p 60 frame per second video capture.
The A20 also features an integrated HDMI transmitter, LVDS interface, and integrated TV decoder. It supports dual camera sensors and is Google CTS approved and GMS ready. The SoC supports Android 4.2.2. The manufacturer says that the architecture promises five times the energy efficiency and 50% greater performance than previous generation Cortex-A8 architecture SoCs.
This processor is also likely that land in some existing products as an upgrade. The A20 is pin to pin compatible with Allwinners A10 chipset. The company doesn’t offer any details on specific products coming to market using the new SoC, but this will likely be a very popular product with Chinese gadget makers.
Designers Dave and Calvin Laituri have joined forces to kickstart Pucs, small, stainless-steel icecube replacements that promise to chill your drink without wetting it down. The Pucs are milled of solid steel and come in a handsome wooden tray that you can place right into the freezer.
The Pucs are rechargeable in that they will not degrade and hold their temperature for quite a while – the creators suggest adding and removing them as you see fit – and the will even reduce the temperature of hot beverages.
Pucs are an excellent heat absorber as well. A room-temperature Puc will take the edge off of blazing hot coffee, quickly bringing it to a more drinkable temperature. Take them on the road, you’ll be glad you did.
The team is looking for $2,500 to ship the first batch and they’re nearly at $2,000.
While the Pucs aren’t that amazingly new – similar rocks and metal cubes have been available for years – the process that the creators are going through is particularly interesting. Hardware startups don’t all have to be making smart watches or robotic arms. A cool, fun project like this is what makes crowdfunding so unique. First, the lads don’t have to make thousands of these, ship them, and hope they sell through a distributor. Whereas household goods are traditionally sold at big box stores and discounters, this process allows the creators to build just as many as they need and, when they’re ready to make more, they have a solid word-of-mouth list that they can approach for updates and further orders.
Online note-taking company Evernote revealed something very interesting via its CEO Phil Libin, who told IDG News Service that his company wants to design hardware products and eventually make them itself. Libin said Evernote will move soon to start releasing Evernote-branded gadgets, which will be co-designed and manufactured by external OEM partners.
Libin didn’t share too much in terms of details around what kind of products we might see bearing the Evernote logo, offering only that they’d look to create devices that are “new and magical” in the IDG interview, instead of wading in to compete with others in existing categories.
Evernote has already done some work with hardware partners and products, like the Evernote Smart Notebook by Moleskine. The book allows users to snap a photo of its pages, which use “specially formatted paper” designed to work specifically with Evernote, and have their handwritten notes converted to a digital format. It seems likely this is the type of product Libin is referring to: ones that uniquely suit Evernote’s vision of a pervasive, constantly connected digital notebook that stores any kind of media.
So while we probably won’t see an Evernote Phone or Evernote Tablet, other opportunities would seem to abound. Image- and audio-capturing devices, for instance, with direct connections to Evernote make a lot of sense in the same vein ans the Moleskine connected notebook.
A hardware ecosystem would probably still be a secondary concern for Evernote, which remains focused on the problem of building apps that work seamlessly across devices according to Libin, but it could be a route toward greater visibility among the general public, and toward greater engagement from existing users.
We’ve reached out to Evernote directly to see if they can share more about their hardware plans, but they did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
Evernote may be known for its flexible suite of cloud software, but the company is apparently looking to hardware as its next evolution. CEO Phil Libin told IDG that his company won’t create hardware internally at first, but with partners. “We won’t actually do the manufacturing, but we’ll do the co-design together,” he said. That isn’t to say Evernote is staying out of the internally produced hardware business forever; Libin estimates his company will get there “in a few years — three, four, five.”
Evernote partnered with Moleskin earlier this year to create the “Smart Notebook,” so the California-based company’s certainly no stranger to working with collaborators. And that’s to say nothing of Evernote’s functionality on virtually every smart mobile device available (including Google’s Glass project). It’s not clear what Evernote’s hardware ambitions could be, but we’ll be sure to keep asking as the next few years roll along.
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.
Leap Motion hasn’t even launched its first product yet (the first devices ship May 13), and already the company is on a roll. Now, it’s announcing a collaboration with HP, to bring its brand of 3D motion control to that company’s devices, first via bundling the Leap Motion Controller with select HP computers, and then later by hardware integration that embeds Leap tech right into HP gadgets themselves.
Embedding is a major step for Leap Motion, since it means users eventually will be able to access all of the company’s 3D motion control features without needing any kind of peripheral. Leap Motion co-founder and CEO Michael Buckwald explained in an interview that the functionality of Leap, whether embedded or standalone, should be exactly the same when it does eventually arrive, although this partnership with HP, the first such arrangement with an OEM PC manufacturer, is still at a very early stage. This first outing of embedding capabilities for Leap is big news for the company, however, even if shipping devices are still a ways off.
“It’s exciting for us on two levels. One, it’s a strong validation of confidence in leap from a technical point of view, as well as validation that it can be embedded in consumer devices,” Buckwald said. “The other is that it means a lot to our developer ecosystem as well. Yes, we’re talking about embedding the motion-sensing part of the technology, but we’re also talking about embedding Airspace, the Leap developer ecosystem.”
HP computers that are Leap Motion-enabled will come with Airspace, Lesp’s application store for Leap Motion-compatible titles, pre-loaded. That’s a huge advantage for Leap and its developers in terms of discoverability, and making sure that customers are exposed to software built for Leap Motion in the first place. Apps for Leap Motion are an integral part of the launch and platform strategy, since without software to use with the unique and impressive hardware, it’s unlikely that anyone will stick with the device long-term.
The company’s ability to impress big name partners early and often is also a very good sign for Leap Motion’s potential sustainability. It has already signed up Asus as a partner, too, and the company will ship some of its computers bundled with Leap Motion controllers. Retail partner Best Buy will also be doing endcap displays, meaning users will be able to try out the new technology for themselves, which is a huge boon in terms of convincing people it’s something worthwhile.
This new HP deal is just the start for Leap in terms of its embedded tech opportunities. Buckwald says that while the final design of a Leap Motion-enabled device hasn’t been defined yet, it could work either with placement above a display like most current webcams are positioned, or below, as it’s placed with the current standalone Leap hardware. He also said that mobile device integration is definitely something else coming down the line.
“Mobile will definitely be a part of our strategy in the future,” Buckwald said. “Tablets and phones are a great example of a use case where there’s a major benefit to the consumer to embed Leap. Anywhere we think we can provide value, we’re interested in eventually embedding in there.”
For Leap, the challenge however is less about identifying ways it could benefit users, and more about staying focused and being diligent in keeping its aspirations within the grasp of its small team of staff, he said. Embedding the tech is a huge step, and one that could position Leap as a new staple tech for inclusion in the computing products of third-party OEMs, so keeping the company’s eyes on that prize is the current priority.
Bitcoin! It’s everywhere right now. Its value is dropping, spiking, dropping again. More and more new converts are hopping in, buying a few coins and trying their hands at the market, looking to make a quick buck with a profitable exchange. But all the while, there’s an ever-dwindling army of specialists working in the shadows, painstakingly extracting more and more digital doubloons from the cryptographic static. More »
Crucial has launched its M500 2.5-inch SSD drives, which are available in a wide variety of capacities with prices starting as low as $129.99. The drive is aimed at those looking for a solid-state drive that outpaces HDDs and doesn’t completely break the bank, with Crucial boasting that the M500 can easily take on modern computing and multitasking demands.
The drive is available in 120GB, 240Gb, 480GB, and 960GB capacities, with their respective prices (listed in order) being $129.99, $219.99, $399.99, and $599.99. The SSD uses 20nm MLC NAND Micron flash and a SATA 6GB/s controller, as well as custom firmware, all of this combining to offer an IOPS (input/oupt operations per second) of up to 80,000.
To keep data safe, there’s on-board hardware level encryption said to meet both IEEE 1667 and TCG Opal 2.0 standards, depending on software. In addition, the M500 also utilizes thermal management technology and offers power-loss protection. There are advanced recovery features against errors, and a device sleep option for improving battery life, which is reported as offering a 93-percent power improvement over the last Crucial line of SSDs.
Crucial’s Senior Worldwide Product Manager Robert Wheadon had this to say: “We designed the Crucial M500 to meet the reliability and performance expectations of today’s systems, and are thrilled to offer the first terabyte-class. SSD for under $600. The Crucial M500 is equipped with an impressive new set of features, making it a multifaceted solution for today and tomorrow.”
G-Technology has unveiled new storage solutions at NAB 2013. The first storage solution that the company has unveiled is called the G-Dock ev and it fits into the new Evolution Series family. The storage solution is the only two-bay docking station with interchangeable and expandable storage modules that can be used as standalone external hard drives.
That feature makes it easy to transfer, edit, and distribute content in a digital workflow environment in a more efficient nature. In addition to the G-Dock ev with Thunderbolt, the Evolution Series also includes the G-Drive EV Plus external hard drive modules using USB 3.0. The removable and interchangeable storage modules are designed to be taken into the field and used as standalone external drives for the storage of raw content.
The storage devices support JBOD, RAID 1, and RAID 0 configurations. The individual storage modules are offered in two capacities allowing users to expand their storage space as needed. The G-Dock ev is available with with a pair of 1 TB modules installed. The G-Dock ev including to 1 TB modules will be available in May for $749.95. Additional 500 GB modules will cost $149.95 with additional 1 TB modules costing $199.95. The G-Drive ev Plus modules will also be available this summer for $349.95.
The other new storage solution company has unveiled is the G-Drive Pro with Thunderbolt. That particular storage solution promises hard drive capacity with SSD-like performance. The manufacturer says that using the Thunderbolt interface the external storage solution is able to deliver sustained data transfer rates of up to 480 MB/s. The drive features dual Thunderbolt ports for storage expansion and the ability to daisy chain with other Thunderbolt devices. The drive will be available in a 4 TB version for $849.95 and a 2 TB version for $699.95 this summer.
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