Hasta La Gadget!

Just one year after its Zagat acquisition, Google has made a move on another trusted lifestyle brand. John Wiley & Sons Inc., the current owner of the Frommer’s network of travel sites and guide books, confirmed the Mountain View acquisition, with a closing expected shortly. According to The Wall Street Journal, Google hasn’t made a call concerning Frommer’s printed guidebooks, which don’t necessarily fall in line with the company’s otherwise online-only model. It’s also unclear whether or not the new content arm will fall under Zagat’s leadership, though a department executive did comment on the acquisition in an interview, saying that Google planned to keep Frommer’s on its current path for the time being. Neither company was able to confirm pricing for the buyout, which could help Google boost its reviews portfolio, backing user-submitted travel content with professional credibility. Full details are at the source link below.

Update: As it turns out, Google will reportedly be keeping the print staff on board, moving the team to its NYC offices. Online editors are less fortunate, however, with layoffs having already begun.

Filed under: Internet

WSJ: Google set to acquire Frommer’s from Wiley, add trusted travel reviews originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 13 Aug 2012 11:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Last year, Lenovo came out with the Lenovo Thinkpad X1, a laptop that was unprecedented in the company’s history. Lenovo is coming back with a follow-up in the the Lenovo X1 Carbon. The new laptop builds upon the strengths of the original X1, but improves upon just about everything, and that includes the screen size (14”), weight (3lbs) and design.

The Lenovo X1 Carbon has been designed to go beyond Intel’s Ultrabook specifications, and Lenovo claims that it is the lightest 14” computer in world. At just 3lbs it has a weight similar to the Macbook Air 13”. On paper, this looks like a terrific laptop and now we’re going to test it in the real world to see if Lenovo has delivered what we hoped when we first saw the Lenovo X1 Carbon in the flesh.

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By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Lenovo IdeaPad Y480 and Y580 all-purpose laptops, Lenovo Ideapad U400, U300 – Macbook Pro Cousins,

Ultrabooks now come in countless shapes and sizes, and we’ve seen display quality vary just as much. Though 1,366 x 768 may still be the norm, 1,600 x 900 panels aren’t unheard of in this ultraportable category. But what about a screen that bucks the 16:9 aspect ratio for an extra-wide 21:9? Toshiba is mixing things up with its new premium Satellite U845W Ultrabook ($1,000 and up), the first laptop to feature that odd aspect ratio.

Styled in the fashion of movie theater screens, the U845W’s 14.4-inch, 1,792 x 768 panel adds more horizontal pixels — ostensibly to enhance the movie-watching experience. In theory, too, that setup should allow for more room to multitask with windows side by side. So how good of an idea is a 21:9 screen in practice? Join us as we put it to the test.

Continue reading Toshiba Satellite U845W review: an Ultrabook with a screen size all its own

Filed under: Laptops

Toshiba Satellite U845W review: an Ultrabook with a screen size all its own originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Aug 2012 16:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Ultrabook concept (ultrathin but powerful laptop) was introduced by Intel in 2011, and the first MacBook Air with default solid state storage came out in 2010. Since then, almost every major computer producer has come out with a thin and fast laptop sporting speedy storage, quick wake times, and a small footprint. For the most part, these computers were high-end devices: they were fast, and they were expensive.

Enter the Lenovo U310, a seemingly perfect laptop for the back-to-school set that needs something light for Facebook and Word, but doesn’t see the need to spend over $1000 on a higher-end laptop. Sure, the base configuration doesn’t have a SSD, and yeah, it’s bulk more closely resembles the MacBook Pro than its svelte cousin the Air. On the other hand, it’s packing Intel’s new Core i5 processor. But does Lenovo’s U310 offer enough value to warrant a recommendation? Let’s take a look… (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Macbook Pro Review, with Retina Display, Dell XPS 13 Review,

You want to run around like some wilderness badass. Climbing in the Rockies. Surfing in the Rockaways. Whatever. You can do it all if you’ve got some warm, dry gear to slip into when the adventure is over. Can this waterproof backpack make it happen? More »