Hasta La Gadget!

Never heard of Inhon? That might change with the Taiwanese computer maker’s Blade 13 Carbon laptop, which it claims is now the world’s thinnest and lightest. Tipping the scale at 870g (1.9 pounds) and 10.7mm, the company says it undercuts NEC’s 12.8mm Lavie X by a whopping 2mm, while nipping the 875g LaVie Z by 5g. There are still weighty specs crammed into the package, however: a Core i5 or i7 CPU, 1080p screen, 128GB or 256GB SSD and 4GB of RAM. If you’re looking for that kind of unencumbered power, the Carbon will also lighten your pocketbook to the respectable tune of $1,350, while a dialed-back 1,600 x 900 fiberglass version — still radically lean at 12.6mm and 1,195g (2.6 pounds) — will run a grand or so. These models will arrive in Taiwan in June, with no sign that it’ll come to relieve us overburdened laptop users stateside.

Filed under: Laptops

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Source: Engadget Chinese

Microsoft’s fiscal third quarter earnings (the calendar’s first) can reflect the post-holiday lull, and there’s a certain truth to that for Q3 2013: the company is reporting $20.49 billion in revenue, lower than what it saw during the holidays, and an equally soft $6.06 billion in profit that dipped below both the previous quarter and the same period last year. That said, any potential slowdown in PC sales isn’t clearly manifested here. Possibly owing to the afterglow of the Windows 8 launch, the Windows Division’s revenue of $5.7 billion is a sharp increase from the $4.62 billion of a year ago, and it’s dampened mostly by having to defer $1.09 billion of that revenue for those who took advantage of Windows 8 upgrade deals. The company also posted healthy year-over-year revenue gains for its Entertainment and Devices Division (to $2.53 billion) and Online Services Division (to $832 million), although the Business group saw a relatively modest 8-point jump to $6.32 billion despite the launches of Office 2013 and Office 365.

As part of the results, CFO Peter Klein has given advance notice that he’s leaving Microsoft at the end of the company’s fiscal year, which ends in June. Neither the company nor Klein has explained the departure, but it’s characterized as a friendly one, rather than the abrupt exit we saw the last time around.

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops, Software, Microsoft

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Source: Microsoft

Take a stroll through the laptop section at Best Buy recently? If you have, you know Toshiba’s got a firm stronghold on the cheapie notebook market. The thing is, $400 systems don’t exactly offer high margins — a problem when people aren’t buying that many PCs to begin with. And besides, who wants to be known for shoddy build quality and ho-hum designs? Not Toshiba, anyway. The suits in Tokyo were so fed up with the company’s low-rent reputation that they decided to launch a premium line to prove Toshiba is indeed capable of making high-end machines. That line is called KIRA, though for now there’s just one product to speak of: the KIRAbook, a 13-inch ultraportable starting at $1,600.

For the money, you get a mix of modern design, top-shelf components and a whole lot of sucking-up from Toshiba’s technical support. Topping the list is a 2,560 x 1,440 display, making this the first Windows Ultrabook to sport such a high-res screen. (We’ve already seen similar panels on the Chromebook Pixel and the Retina display MacBooks.) Additionally, users receive two years of warranty coverage and a dedicated support line, with near-instant pick-up times and a US-based staff (something customers have been asking for, says Toshiba). Also included: full versions of Adobe Photoshop Elements 11 and Premiere Elements 11, along with 25GB of online storage and a two-year Norton subscription — something HP already bundles on select machines. The KIRAbook will be sold in the US, Japan and Australia, with prices ranging from $1,600 to $2,000. It’ll ship May 12th and go up for pre-order on May 3rd, but for now, we’ve got a detailed walk-through video waiting after the break, along with some early impressions. So come join us — because who doesn’t enjoy laptop porn?

Filed under: Laptops

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Toshiba is looking to step into the high-end market with the KIRAbook, and laptop that features a 13.3-inch display with a resolution of 2560×1440 to take on the likes of Apple’s Retina MacBook Pro models. There will be three versions of the KIRAbook that will release next month, but details are a litte bit scarce at this point still.

First off, the KIRAbook doesn’t look too out of the ordinary. However, all three models will be rocking 8GB of RAM with a 256GB solid state drive. As for the processors, that’s where the three models differ. The highest-end KIRAbook will sport a dual-core Core i7-3537U ultra-low-voltage CPU clocked at 2 GHz, while the mid-tier model will have a dual-core Core i5-3337U clocked at 1.8 GHz.

Details of the processor on the lower-end model haven’t been revealed yet. As for the display, the KIRAbook will feature a 10-point touchscreen, while some models will just have a regular non-touchscreen display. The PPI on the screens clock in at 221, which is just short of the Retina MacBook Pro’s 227 PPI, as well as Google’s Chromebook Pixel, which has a 239 PPI display.

The KIRAbook will start at $1,599, and will go all the way up to $1,999 for the top-tier variant. Pre-orders will start on May 3, when we’ll most likely hear more info about the new laptop, as well as get a handful of photos to see what this puppy looks like. The KIRAbook will officially release on May 12 at places like Best Buy, Amazon, Microsoft, and of course, Toshiba.

Toshiba announces KIRAbook laptop with 13-inch 2560×1440 display is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
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On the earnings call after Intel released its Q1 numbers, its executives faced many questions from analysts, including some asking what to expect from the company in Q4. According to CEO Paul Otellini and CFO / EVP Stacy Smith, among the reasons for investors to be optimistic are the prospects of cheaper touch screen computers powered by its upcoming Bay Trail (quad-core Atom) and Haswell processors. Just how cheap you ask? According to Otellini, as transcribed by SeekingAlpha:

We have a certain spec for ultrabooks, and that is the product that Stacy said is going to be centered at as low as $599 with some [diverse] SKUs to $499. If you look at touch-enabled Intel based notebooks that are ultrathin and light using non-core processors, those prices are going to be down to as low as $200 probably.

We’d put more weight in those figures if they were price tags attached to products or at least from the OEMs that will build them, but at least there’s a target. Whatever happens, there’s sure to be a flood of new ultrabooks, tablets, convertibles and detachables hitting the streets later this year, and if the price is right (along with some Windows 8 tweaks) maybe they’ll be worth the wait.

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops, Tablets, Intel

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Source: Seeking Alpha