Hasta La Gadget!

There are tons of cloud storage solutions to choose from. Dropbox, Amazon, Apple, Google, and Microsoft all have their own solution, and if you think there are already enough cloud storage solutions to go around, Intel thinks you’re wrong. The company is introducing its own cloud storage service with the announcement of Atom-based storage solutions aimed towards both consumers and small businesses.

The devices are essentially network-attached storage devices (NAS) that are powered by the Intel Atom D2550 or D2500 processors, depending on which NAS device you get. These NAS boxes can be used for securing, backing up and sharing content through the cloud. Companies like Asustor, QNAP, and Thecus are planning to build NAS devices that come equipped with Intel Atom processors.

Intel is marketing these platforms as a way for small businesses and even consumers to manage the “ongoing, real-time growth of storage demands.” These Atom-based storage systems will have multimedia capabilities and will support McAfee AntiVirus and VirusScan. You’ll also be able to access the cloud data through a web browser, on a mobile device, or any other desktop or laptop computer.

Intel is focusing on protection and privacy with these new NAS devices, and is citing these factors as the two biggest concerns for consumers and businesses. They plan on including automated backup functionality, as well as the ability to share files with other users safely and privately.

Intel announces Atom-based storage platform for businesses and consumers is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Remember those hazy days of summer when HP ran an ad during the Olympics, slipped in a a shot of an unannounced tablet and thought we wouldn’t notice? (P’shaw!) Well, you can finally lay your speculation to rest, as HP just formally unveiled the mystery tab, along with a slew of accessories. It’s called the ElitePad 900 and, as rumored, it’s a 10-inch Windows 8 slate meant for business users, with features like pen input, drive encryption and optional 3G / 4G.

Like HP’s high-end EliteBook laptops, the ElitePad has a premium look, marked by a machined aluminum back cover and 400-nit IPS display coated in Gorilla Glass. Also similar to the EliteBooks, it meets the military’s MIL-spec 810G durability requirements, and can withstand three-foot drops, among other accidents. All told, it weighs 1.5 pounds and measures 9.2mm thick. Going by weight, that’s more along the lines of what you’d expect from a larger, 11-inch tablet, but 1.5 pounds is still manageable, especially considering how armored this thing is.

On the inside, it runs an Atom-based Intel Clover Trail processor, buffered by up to 2GB of RAM. Like so many other systems with this kind of chip, it promises about 10 hours of runtime — a clear improvement over similar devices packing Core i5 CPUs. Storage-wise, you’ll have your choice between a 32 or 64GB SSD. The screen has a resolution of 1,280 x 800, making it the one feature likely to disappoint power users. Take a tour around the device and you’ll find an 8-megapixel rear camera and a 1080p shooter up front for video chats. Hidden behind a service door on the back are two slots: one for microSD cards, and another for 3G / 4G SIMs.

And how ’bout those accessories? In addition to the tablet, HP will be selling two so-called SmartJackets, cases that do a little more than just shield the device from wear and tear. One of them, for instance, has two USB ports, HDMI output, a full-size memory card slot and room for an optional battery slice. That battery, by the way, has a capacity of about eight hours, so while the case does add some heft it could be worth it if you need a PC that will last through a flight from New York to Tokyo. As for the second case, its defining feature is a built-in keyboard, which plugs directly into the tablet.

Though HP announced the ElitePad 900 today, the tablet won’t go on sale here in the US until January. Hopefully we’ll also get a final price as we get closer to that launch date. Luckily, we’ve already gotten a chance to play with it, so meet us after the break for hands-on photos and a short walk-through video detailing our first impressions.

Continue reading HP announces the ElitePad 900, a business-friendly Windows 8 tablet arriving in January

Filed under: Tablets, HP

HP announces the ElitePad 900, a business-friendly Windows 8 tablet arriving in January originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Oct 2012 00:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The processor formally known as Clover Trail has been re-introduced this week at an event showing off its greatness in a collection of Windows 8 hero machines. This is the Intel Atom Processor Z2760, made to run Windows 8 tablets and tablet convertables. Here you’ve got optimization for both the new Windows 8 touch-friendly interface and the classic Windows desktop mode along with “fast and responsive performance” in a variety of machines that are, in this showing, lightweight, sleek, and overall rather tiny.

With the Intel Atom Processor Z2760 you’ll see machines as thin as 8.5mm and as light as 1.5 pounds, with battery life that’s bumping up to over 10 hours of local HD video playback (according to Intel, of course), and over 3 weeks of standby time (once again, according to Intel.) This processor allows for NFC integration, high definition cameras, and wi-fi, 3G WWAN, and 4G LTE.

The architecture formerly known as Clover Trail is coming on strong this week from Intel with a dual-core, four-thread, up to 1.8 GHz processor with both Intel Burst Technology and Intel Hyper-Threading Technology. Burst allows you to dynamically ramp up your performance for instant gratification in great need while Hyper-Threading brings on support for multi-threaded applications. Two instruction threads in parallel will be helpful in Windows 8 on the tablet, without a doubt.

The Z2760 uses 32nm process technology and integrated graphics at up to 533 MHz as well as hardware acceleration support for up to 1080p video encode and decode. This SoC allows for one internal MIPI-DSI or LVDS display in additional to one external HDMI 1.3 display – with a cord, of course. You’ve got an integrated memory controller as well as support for LPDDR2 800 MT/s data rates at up to 2 GB. This processor has an embedded multimedia card 4.41 and support for Microsoft Connected Standby.

The Intel Atom Processor Z2760 supports GPIOs, USB 2.0, I2C, UART, SPI, SDIO 2.0, MIPI DSI and MIPI CSI. This architecture also works with Secure Boot and firmware-based Intel Platform Trust Technology. You’ve got support for GPS, accelerometer / compass combination, hardware sensor hub, ALS, SARS, and proximity and thermal sensors, and integrated ISP support for both a primary camera up to 8 megapixels and a secondary camera up to 2.1 megapixels.

Manufacturers joining in on the fun at the initial reveal event on September 27th, 2012 with Windows 8 and the Intel Atom Processor Z2760 both onboard included ASUS, Acer, Dell, Fujitsu, HP, Lenovo, Samsung, and ZTE. Windows 8 and the power under its hood are upon us!

Intel Atom Processor Z2760 Clover Trail detailed for Windows 8 tablet glory is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Windows 8 is coming folks, and so is an onslaught of new machines featuring Microsoft’s something-for-everyone OS. Dell already showed us some of its fresh consumer Win8 hardware back at IFA 2012, and now it’s the enterprise’s turn to shine. First up is the Latitude 10 tablet, which packs an Intel Atom SoC, a 10.1-inch IPS 1366 x 768 LCD display covered in Gorilla Glass, 8-megapixel primary camera plus an HD front-facing shooter. It’s got 2GB of RAM and up to 128GB of eMMC NAND storage, plus an SD card slot should the integrated storage prove insufficient. Connectivity comes via one full-size USB 2.0 port, a microUSB charging socket, mini-HDMI, a headphone/microphone combo jack, proprietary docking port and a micro-SIM slot for WWAN use. The Latitude 10 packs up to a 60Wh battery, which isn’t remarkable in and of itself, but the fact that it’s removable is. That means road warriors can travel with a spare cell or two to keep their slate in the juice no matter how long they work on it. While the swappable battery can keep the 10 from being tethered to an outlet, the dock Dell built for it ensures it’ll have a stylish place to rest when it is. The dock expands the slate’s connectivity with four USB 2.0 sockets, Gigabit Ethernet, HDMI and audio output.

Next is the Optiplex 9010 all-in-one desktop we saw earlier this year. It still has the same 23-inch, 1920 x 1080 panel on the front and vPro-equipped Ivy Bridge silicon lurking beneath — the only change is the upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 8. The Latitude 6430u is an addition to Dell’s venerable business laptop line, and is the first to bear the Ultrabook moniker. It’s generous to label the 6430u as such, as it’s .82 inches thick and weighs 3.7 lbs, but it’s still a fairly thin and light laptop — plus it has the same solid magnesium chassis construction as its Latitude brethren. The 6430u crams a 14-inch, 1366 x 768 matte display into its 13.3-inch chassis, and users have the option of Ivy Bridge Core i3, i5 and i7 silicon with vPro, up to 8GB of RAM and up to 256GB worth of solid state storage. Naturally, there’s 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth and mobile broadband available for wireless connectivity. Unfortunately, we can’t tell you how much Dell’s new business computers will cost, but we do know that they’ll be available when Windows 8 is, which is to say late October.

Continue reading Dell’s Latitude 10 tablet and dock, OptiPlex 9010 AIO, Latitude 6430u laptop arrive to tempt business pros

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops, Tablets

Dell’s Latitude 10 tablet and dock, OptiPlex 9010 AIO, Latitude 6430u laptop arrive to tempt business pros originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Sep 2012 07:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You didn’t think the world’s top PC maker was going to sit out the laptop / tablet hybrid trend, now did you? HP, one of the last OEMs to share its Windows 8 plans, just announced the Envy x2, an 11-inch tablet that comes with a keyboard dock. And while that form factor may already seem tired, HP is dressing it up with some higher-end features, including an aluminum build, NFC, pen support, Beats Audio and a 400-nit, IPS display. (The resolution is 1,366 x 768, as is the case for many of these 11-inch Windows 8 hybrids.)

The tablet itself measures about 8.5mm thick and weighs 1.5 pounds, while the dock weighs 1.6. Unlike competing products, the device combines magnets and a mechanical latch to keep the tablet from falling out of its dock (watch us manhandle the x2 in the video below to see what we’re talking about). All told, we were impressed by how surprisingly light the tablet and dock feel — given the metal armor encasing it all, it’s easy to assume otherwise.

Under the hood, the x2 runs an Atom-based Clover Trail processor. Though HP isn’t ready to talk battery life, we’ve noticed that every other OEM releasing a Clover Trail device is promising between nine and 10 hours of runtime, so we expect the x2 to deliver comparable performance. What’s more, the dock has a built-in battery of its own, so you’ll definitely have some reserve power there. Poke around on the dock and you’ll find two USB ports, HDMI output and a full-size SD slot. The tablet itself is home to an 8-megapixel rear camera and microSD slot, in case the 64GB of built-in storage isn’t capacious enough.

Right now, it’s unknown how much the x2 will cost, or when, exactly, it will go on sale, except that it’s expected to arrive in time for the holiday shopping season. For now, feel free to poke around our hands-on photo gallery, and avail yourselves of our walk-through, embedded just past the break.

Continue reading HP unveils Envy x2 laptop / tablet hybrid: 11-inch IPS screen, NFC and pen support, arriving later this year

Filed under: Laptops, Tablets

HP unveils Envy x2 laptop / tablet hybrid: 11-inch IPS screen, NFC and pen support, arriving later this year originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Aug 2012 00:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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