This week the folks at GOWEX have begun their roll-out of free wireless internet across the fine city of New York. With this push, the company will be testing their “FREEWiFiGOWEX” network to see if it’s truly worth the effort for them to trade their services for subsidies from mobile brands like AT&T as well as advertising dollars from massive amounts of partners they’ve got on-hand. And it’s live – you can connect right this second!
If you take a peek on your smartphone, tablet, notebook, or what-have-you in your list of wifi hotspots, you should be able to see FREEWiFiGOWEX on the list no matter where you are in New York City. Right this minute they’ve got their network up for NYC, the first of many “Wireless Smart Cities” on the GOWEX map. They’re doing this with a total of 1,953 WiFi Smart Zones across the city in neighborhoods in all five boroughs: Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island, and the Bronx.
While you are able to connect to FREEWiFiGOWEX without any additional commitment – at this moment, anyway – you can also download an app that will show you where signals are stronger throughout the city. This app goes by the name of GOWEX WiFi Free and is available for both iOS and Android. With this app you’ll get a lovely set of “Smart City services” including news channels, local information on venues, and of course, advertisements.
It’s unclear at the moment how deep the advertisement aspect of this project goes, as GOWEX will be profiting from not just cash from mobile carriers that find the service lightening their load, but advertising dollars as well. GOWEX lets the public (and potential advertisers) know that with their “Smart Advertising platform”, they’ll be reaching users from both the American market and tourists all the same – massive amounts of them in NYC, too, of course.
GOWEX is now live, they say they’re offering 1Mb speed connection for free users, and you can connect right this second. Let us know how it goes if you do live in NYC, and we’ll be sure to let you know if and when they expand!
Windows 8‘s finger-focus has spawned some interesting form-factors, and following in the footsteps of Lenovo’s IdeaPad Yoga comes the Panasonic Toughbook CF-AX2, a rugged twist on the 360-degree hinge concept we’ve been playing with here at CeBIT 2013. A compact 11.6-incher with a 1366 x 768 10-finger multitouch display, the CF-AX2 runs Intel’s latest Core i5 processor for lengthy runtimes – Panasonic claims up to eight hours on a single charge – and, thanks to some hot-swappable battery magic, allows you to switch out for a new power pack without shutting down.
That’s because there’s a smaller, internal battery inside the Toughbook’s compact footprint, which tides the CF-AX2 over while you drop out the first pack and slot in a second one. It’s a factor that will make the Toughbook particularly appealing to Panasonic’s target audience: mobile professionals who’ll also appreciate the drop and bump resilience.
Inside, there’s a Core i5 3427U processor and Intel HD 4000 graphics, and Panasonic has managed to accommodate no small number of ports despite the size. You get VGA, HDMI, two USB 3.0, ethernet, audio in/out, and an SD card reader, as well as the usual WiFi and Bluetooth (with a discrete switch to turn the wireless off).
The touchscreen is bright and responsive, and has a welcome matte finish for anti-glare purposes. It was certainly capable of holding up to the CeBIT show floor lights, which bodes well for outdoor use. Next to the webcam is a physical Windows button for use when you fold the CF-AX2 back into tablet mode (though it’s worth noting that it leaves the keyboard and trackpad exposed on the opposite side, the same issue as with the Yoga. The chassis is also somewhat plasticky, at odds with the ruggedized finish.
Panasonic is already offering the Toughbook CF-AX2 in Japan, with European sales kicking off this quarter.
The Chromebook Pixel has been talked about in regards to specs and pricing, however it would appear as if there is also a rather interesting easter egg. This one deals with the Konami Code and interestingly enough, this is not the first time Google has hidden a Konami Code easter egg in one of their products. Way back in mid-2008 Google Reader had one that greeted you with “Moshi moshi” and marked all your feeds with 30 unread items.
For those not remembering the Konami Code, this goes back to 80′s video games and gave you 30 lives. It was also referred to as the Contra Code. Well, it seems Google has struck once again with the code, this time on the Chromebook Pixel. Basically, if you open your Pixel and type up-up-down-down-left-right-left-right (using the arrow keys), then B, then A you will see the surprise. The LED strip on the top will put on a light show.
Neat, but of course this is not something that is going to magically make the price seem any more attractive. Simply put, the Chromebook Pixel is still expensive. No word as to who from Google made sure this happened, but we suppose that is some of the fun of an easter egg — not only discovering it, but also having a bit of mystery as to where (or who) it came from. It does seem to go without saying though, that whoever is responsible must be a fan of 80′s video games.
Looking back, the Konami Code was made popular with Contra on the NES, but was originally created by Kazuhisa Hashimoto when he was working on Gradius. Aside from the NES, variations were eventually released for the SNES and even the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The code was also seen in Wreck-It Ralph when it was used by King Candy (hat tip to Wikipedia for the Konami Code knowledge).
Back in June, we got our hands on Asus’s Transformer Book, a laptop/tablet hybrid running Windows 8. Today, some retailers have opened the 13.3-inch version up to pre-orders, with users being able to grab it for $1,480. Says one retailer, the device will be in stock and begin shipping in the middle of next month.
Officially the Asus Transformer Book TX300CA, the biggest thing that separates this svelte hybrid from Asus’s Transformer Pad is its innards. Equipped with an Intel Core i7-3517U CPU, the device runs Windows 8, and functions just as any other laptop – with the exception of transforming into a tablet. This is one model in the line, which will also feature an 11.6-inch and 14-inch model.
The 13.3-inch model features 4GB of RAM in addition to the Core i7, and has a 128GB SSD. When the keyboard is tossed into the mix, however, its 500GB drive is added to the SSD, bringing the total up to 628GB of storage, a large enough amount to satisfy most users. The only downside to this setup is that access to the data on the HDD won’t be available when the Transformer Book is being used as a tablet, meaning those who use it to store media, such as movies and music, will only have access to the data when the keyboard is being used.
The display is an IPS multi-touch with a full 1080p HD resolution. There’s a high-definition webcam on the front and a multi-touch trackpad on the keyboard dock. Connectivity includes Bluetooth and USB 3.0. In addition to the Core i7, some retailers are also showing a cheaper version featuring a Core i5 processor.
With the Google-made Chromebook Pixel we’ve got several points that the company hopes will be made right from the start – the first being an erasure of the hardware from our experience. They say this in the “Chromebook Pixel: For What’s Next” presentation video provided today at the launch of the product – Andrew Bowers, Group Product Manager on the Chromebook project with Google literally says, “we basically wanted the hardware to disappear.” If that’s the case, does it really make sense to release the Pixel at all?
Google is once again attempting to release a product in the Chromebook Pixel that’s representative of their Nexus state of mind. With the Nexus line of Android products, Google works with a manufacturer to create a smartphone or tablet (or other devices, in some cases) that presents a Google-only iteration of their software. With the Chrome operating system, Google already offers this experience on every single Chromebook that’s been released – so the job is already done.
So why release the Chromebook Pixel?
Google has already been working on Chrome (the web browser) for a touchscreen-friendly universe – they’ve even gone so far as to suggest dominance on Windows 8. It’s in that touch environment that we’ve already seen Chrome working… generally ok.
The internet is not ready for touch. The web was built – and continues to be built – with work in mind. Work and play, but play through a work-friendly interface. Chrome is attempting to change the way the internet is used by creating a home screen with a collection of icons that are large enough to easily be tapped by a human finger. There are touch-friendly web apps out there, but there’s a step between easy and confusing that still exists between the user and a fully touch-friendly Chrome OS.
If you’ll look back to October 20th, 2010, also known as the reveal date for Apple’s OS X 10.7 Lion, you’ll find that “Mac Meets the iPad” was without a doubt a theme of the day. The photo you see here of a real-deal touchscreen MacBook was seen once – and never heard from again.
There’s a reason for that.
With the Chromebook Pixel, Google has stepped out ahead of itself. Chrome has not yet proven itself as an operating system that’s ready to take a foothold in the modern work-oriented world, yet a $1,299 container for it seemed reasonable somehow or another. Google must have a special order ready for these machines or they’ve got something to prove to someone about their manufacturing finesse, because this is a machine I’d definitely not mind using with Ubuntu.
I’d recommend checking the Chromebook Pixel out at Best Buy, giggling, and thinking twice.
This week the folks at Google have revealed the next step in the evolution of the Chrome operating system: the Chromebook Pixel. This machine works with the highest definition display available on the market for a notebook computer, works with multi-finger touch, and is made for the “power user.” As such, this is not your everyday ultra-inexpensive Chromebook. This machine is going to cost you just a bit more than units revealed in the past.
The Chromebook Pixel works with 2,560 x 1,700 pixels – 239 pixels per inch across a 12.85-inch display. You’ve got a 3:2 aspect ratio “designed for the web” and it’s all covered with a 0.55mm layer of touch-friendly Gorilla Glass for full touchscreen action. This machine will be sold as a wifi-only edition if you like, but you’re also welcome to jump on board with 4G LTE with Verizon too – mobile speed!
You’ll be working with a glass touchpad, a backlit keyboard, and an integrated 720p HD camera as well – all the Google+ Hangout action you can handle. This Chromebook weighs in at 3.35 lbs / 1.52 kg and is 297.7 x 224.6 x 16.2 mm, made up of mostly anodized aluminum with “active cooling” and no immediately visible vents – we’ll see how that works out when we get our hands on a full review sooner than later.
Inside you’ve got 4GB of DDR3 RAM, an Intel Core i5 dual-core 1.8Ghz processor, and integrated Intel HD Graphics 4000. You’ll find 2x USB 2.0 ports, a mini display port, and a combo SD/MMC card reader around the edges and a 32GB SSD on the inside. If you pick up the LTE model, you’ll be getting 64GB SSD instead – large!
With each purchase you get one free terabyte of Google Drive cloud storage for three years, 12 free sessions of GoGo Inflight Internet, and – if you’re working with the 4G LTE Verizon model – 100MB of data a month for 2 years of mobile broadband connectivity. Pricing starts at $1,299 U.S. and £1,049 U.K. for the wifi-only version and the LTE version will cost you $1,449 – with shipping in April. The wifi version begins shipping next week, while Best Buy and Currys PC World will begin showing the device off within a week from today.
This week we’re having a look at the real-deal final release iteration of the ASUS VivoBook U38N with full touchscreen capabilities, Windows 8, and AMD innards. This machine is sleek, keeps with the fantastic ASUS style language we’ve been loving since the ASUS Transformer Prime stole our hears back in 2011, and provides a rather rare look at this sort of amalgamation of bits with AMD under the hood. It all starts with 5-point capacitive touch on a Full HD 1920 x 1080 panel with a rather nice “frameless” design up front.
Hardware
With an ASUS piece of hardware you know you’re getting a machine whose creators spent some time perfecting its casings, and here we’ve got a design that’s been perfected several times over. This notebook will not look unique to you if you’ve worked with an ASUS laptop in the last few years. It’s certainly thin at between 6-19mm from its thinnest to its fattest, and it’s light enough to fit in your standard backpack at just 1.55Kg.
The panel you’re looking at is 13.3-inches of Full HD IPS LCD at a 16:9 aspect ratio. The front-facing camera you’re working with is HD 720p for video chat and you’ve got a standard integrated microphone so you can chat without additional accessories. If you do want to plug in, on the other hand, you’ve got 3x USB 3.0 ports, a Mini VGA port, full-sized HDMI-out, and an SD card reader so you can rock and roll.
The keyboard here is a really standard ASUS setup – working with a bit more breathing room than we’ve seen on the slightly smaller Transformer tablet units over the past couple of years with a touchpad that’s also had some usability improvements. Of course if you continue to compare an Android tablet user experience to a Windows user experience here with full Windows 8, you’re going to feel that this device is rocking and rolling in the hardware department – it does have a bit to do with the fact that Windows 8 is made for a desktop environment, of course.
Inside you’ve got a choice between 2.5῀ 7mm 500 GB HDD and 2.5῀ 7mm SSD 128GB as well as DDR3 1600MHz 2GB (on board) with either 2GB or 4GB Slot DIMM. It all depends on what you need to keep you kicking. You’ve also got a choice between AMD Radeon HD7600G and AMD Radeon HD7620G graphics on either AMD A8-4555M or A10-4655M Quad-Core APU processors. All this magic comes clean with the AMD A70M Hub Controller – your only choice for chipset.
You’ll also find that you’ve got a built-in Bang & Olufsen ICE Power audio system that’ll make dorm room video watching a successful venture without a doubt. Each speaker is 2.5 W and you’ve got the guarantee that Bang & Olufsen worked with the ASUSA special Golden Ear team for an “exclusive” SonicMaster Technology experience. In short: this laptop sounds very, very nice.
Software & Performance
With Windows 8 you’ve got a fully touch-friendly experience ahead of you from start to finish, and with the 5-finger touch functionality of the ASUS U38N series, you’ll be tapping all day long. To keep you running strong, you’ve got AMD to keep you warmed up nice and toasty, complete with several AMD-exclusive features. Have a peek here first at a system readout for this unit:
System – ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. U38N
Manufacturer
Asus
Product Type
Notebook
Operating System
Microsoft Windows 8 Pro (64-bit)
Motherboard
ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. U38N
Processor
AMD A10-4655M APU with Radeon(tm) HD Graphics
Processor ID
AuthenticAMD Family 21 Model 16 Stepping 1
Processor Frequency
2.00 GHz
Processors
1
Threads
4
Cores
4
L1 Instruction Cache
64.0 KB
L1 Data Cache
16.0 KB
L2 Cache
2.00 MB
L3 Cache
0.00 B
Memory
3.45 GB DDR3 SDRAM 675MHz
FSB
202 MHz
BIOS
American Megatrends Inc. U38N.TPM.ALS.0x20
With this build of Windows 8 you’ll be seeing a fairly clean design with not one whole heck of a lot of extra software pushed by ASUS. That said, there are some interesting additions you’re going to want to see in our hands-on with the system coming up next. Note while you’re watching how sleek the system is and how well touch is responded to right here with this basic out-of-box build.
Finally have a peek at our basic benchmark result from Geekbench. This notebook is certainly not the most powerful we’ve come across, but it definitely gets the job done for your everyday computing needs. If you’re looking for some notebooks to compare to, feel free to head down into our Laptop Reviews tag portal for machines from each of the finest manufacturers on the market. AMD does seem to be holding its own against some of the more visible names in the public today!
Benchmark Score – ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. U38N
Section
Description
Score
Total Score
Windows x86 (64-bit) – Microsoft Windows 8 Pro (64-bit)
Integer
Processor integer performance
3270
3578
Floating Point
Processor floating point performance
4806
Memory
Memory performance
2245
Stream
Memory bandwidth performance
3025
Wrap-Up
With the ASUS VivoBook U38N you’ve got a rather well-rounded solution for your school or everyday home use. With the high-quality audio system and the Full HD picture right in front of your face, you’ll also do well to work with this machine as a home entertainment blaster, especially if you’re the sort of person who doesn’t use a giant TV. If you DO use a giant TV, you’ve also got the option to output via HDMI as well – easy as pie!
This is easily one of ASUS’ finest efforts to date, and with AMD under the hood you know you’ll have a unique solution that your best buddy will be interested in fiddling around with. ASUS also works with a collection of their own accessories that work with this notebook, and the manufacturer continues to support their ever-growing line of products with both hardware and software upgrades into the future. Let us know if you’re onboard!
This week we’ve gotten our hands on the Microsoft Surface Pro for an extended review, and one of the first things to strike us was the idea that this device might be another competitor for the MacBook Air. With the Surface Pro running Windows 8 and the MacBook Air (the newest model, that is), running OS X, there’s some things that simply cannot be compared – some people simply prefer one over the other. When it comes down to the experience and one-on-one comparisons between these two devices, on the other hand, winning features shine through on both devices.
With the MacBook Air you’ve got an 11.6-inch display while the Surface Pro works with a 10.6-inch display – you could also get a 13-inch MacBook Air, mind you, but here we’ll compare the display that’s nearest the Surface Pro. The display on the Surface Pro works with 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution while the MacBook Air’s native resolution is 1366 x 768 pixels. It’s also worth making the distinction between these two displays in the fact that the MacBook Air does not work touch.
Windows 8 is an operating system that makes full use of the 10-finger touchscreen display on the Surface Pro while the MacBook Air is a machine that relies on its touchpad to mouse around, select items, and make gestures. The Surface Pro works with a cover that doubles as a keyboard, too. And in that point is the biggest differentiation point between these two machines – one is a tablet, the other a notebook.
While the Macbook Air is a notebook computer that made and continues to make a point of its ultra-thin nature and how it can work as a full-function notebook computer with as tiny an amount of bulk as possible. You’ll see from the images above and below as well as the hands-on video we’ve got prepared that the MacBook Pro is a significant amount thinner than the Surface Pro – or so it might seem at first.
MacBook Air (11-inch) Thickness: 0.11-0.68 inches Width: 11.8 inches Height (front to back, while closed) : 7.56 inches Weight: 2.38 pounds
Both devices have the ability to store a massive amount of data, with the Surface Pro having two iterations, 64GB and 128GB. Those are the amount of internal storage the Surface Pro has in its two different iterations, each of them with their own cash cost – that’s also one of the only things that differentiates the different versions of the Surface Pro at this very moment. The MacBook Air comes int two different iterations (with several different modifications available therein), one of them 64GB, the other 128GB.
The power you’ll be able to work with in a MacBook Air is either an Intel Core i5 or Core i7 processor. The Microsoft Surface Pro works with one configuration at the moment for processing power, that being an Intel Core i5 – and all of the processors here are 3rd gen Ivy Bridge, mind you, regardless of Apple or Microsoft surroundings.
The MacBook Pro has a lovely collection of ports and connections including: 720p “FaceTime” HD camera 2x USB 3 ports Thunderbolt port MagSafe 2 power port Microphone Headphone port Wifi Bluetooth Stereo Speakers
With the Surface Pro you’ll also be connecting with ports and wirelessly like mad: 2x 720p HD “LifeCam” cameras (front and rear-facing) USB 3 port microSDXC card slot power port Microphone Headphone port Wifi Bluetooth Stereo Speakers
You’ll notice that the 11-inch MacBook Pro doesn’t have an SD card slot – the 13-inch version of this device does, but the 11-inch version does not. The Surface Pro also benefits from its form factor in that it can make use of such sensors as an Accelerometer, a Gyroscope, and a Compass. With these you’ll be about to, for example, steer a car in a racing game, while the MacBook Air is meant to stay stationary while you’re using it.
The MacBook Air also benefits from the fact that it’s a notebook computer, able to stand up on its own with its keyboard attached, while the Surface Pro works in an entirely different way for stationary standing. The Surface Pro uses a kickstand on its back that’ll keep it upright while you tap away and also has a keyboard cover that, like a notebook computer, folds up and protects the device’s display or down for everyday typing use.
The Surface Pro also works with its own pen that sticks to the side of the tablet when not in use, utilizing an active digitizer in the display to make more than just standard capacitive moves galore. The pen creates a rather unique experience for you with the Surface Pro while the MacBook Air really isn’t the same universe – the only other place you’re going to get a digital pen experience in a mobile sense like this right now is in the Samsung Galaxy Note series – have a peek at our Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 review for more on that environment.
And this is only part of the story – for more information on both machines, you’ll want to check our full reviews of both devices. Have a peek at our MacBook Air (mid-2012) review as well as our Microsoft Surface Pro review for everything you could ever want to know!
Also be sure to let us know which of these two devices seem like they’d suit your needs given what you know today. Is there one that strikes your fancy more than the other?
This week the Dell XPS 13 has been re-introduced with a Full HD iteration, this version prompting the manufacturer to suggest that it’s not just the MacBook Pro they’re gunning for, it’s the MacBook Air. This device has already been revealed and released in a 720p edition – we reviewed it right here on SlashGear, in fact – and here in 2013 the Dell team is showing off not just the Full HD version, but an XPS 13 Developer Edition as well, this time with the same display as the original (now called “standard display”) but here based on Project Sputnik. And it’s all about definition from here on in.
The Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook with Full HD display option takes on a massive 1920 x 1080 resolution across its 13-inch display, this containing almost twice the amount of pixels compared to what Dell calls a “typical 720p display”. The image you’re seeing below comes from Dell and shows the XPS 13 in both of its non-developer editions. It’s made clear instantly how much more you’re going to be able to see in the same physical display size – hot stuff!
Also note above that yes, the physical machine sizes are the same, it’s no optical illusion. The amount of pixels inside the display allows for more to be shown from a standard app like Excel from Office 2013 (see our review of Office 365 for more info on that iteration of Excel). Dell also lets it be known that this version of the Dell XPS 13 offers a 72% color gamut vs the 45% color gamut on the “standard” panel.
Viewing angles have been bumped to 178 degrees up from 80 degrees on the standard panel – and it’s worth noting that each of these measures comes from Dell comparing the standard and the Full HD panels on the Dell XPS in a general way. They’re all just a little bit subjective when it comes down to it since it’s really up to your own eyes to decide how much more excellent one panel is compared to its predecessor. The display has also been amped up to 350 nits in its Full HD iteration, this “up to 75% brighter than a typical 200-nit display.”
Dell notes in their press materials for the Full HD XPS 13 that the unit is “often judged against the MacBook Pro 13, but in terms of size and weight, the MacBook Air 13 is a more realistic comparison.” The folks at Dell note that the XPS 13 is smaller than the MacBook Air 13 “as it fits a 13-inch screen into something barely bigger than an 11-inch footprint.” This machine is getting ready to be unleashed upon the public this Spring, aka “in the next few weeks” – stay tuned for more details, pricing, and hands-on action.
Bonus! This device is also offered from Dell starting at $1,449 USD working with Ubuntu – fun stuff for all!
Lenovo saw notebook sales rise but desktop PC struggled in Q4 2012, the company has revealed today, with the shipments of portables up 9.5-percent year-on-year while sales of their desk-bound brethren managed a mere 1-percent rise. The Chinese PC company saw sales of $9.4bn over the three month period, shipping 14.1m PCs for pre-tax revenue of $246m. It also saw a profit from its Chinese smartphone division, the first time that’s been recorded.
Lenovo ended the quarter – as of December 31 2012 – with 15.9-percent of the PC market share worldwide, and was the fastest growing “major PC company.” Profit was up 15-percent year-on-year, to $1.1bn, while the contribution from smartphones, tablets, and smart TV rose 77-percent year-on-year.
However, it’s not all good news. Lenovo’s desktop PC business showed signs of the malaise across the industry, sales only climbing 1-percent, though shipments were up 5.8-percent worldwide. Lenovo is keen to point out that the PC industry as a whole saw a 6.8-percent decrease in shipments overall.
Lenovo now claims 12.3-percent of the Chinese smartphone market, while its smartphone, tablet, and smart TV group made $998m – 11-percent of the total quarterly sales. But it’s notebooks which are the real winners, with 15.8-percent market share and contributing over half of Lenovo’s total sales revenue. Sales in fact rose 8-percent year-on-year, to $4.8bn.
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