Hasta La Gadget!

Google hasn’t always been known for making breathtaking hardware, but today’s announcement of the Chromebook Pixel — arguably one of the best-looking laptops ever made, if nothing else — means that may no longer be the case.

Still, you can’t be blamed for being wary of shelling out a decent chunk of money on Google’s first foray into laptops, let alone a Chromebook of all things, so here’s a preliminary look at how the Chromebook Pixel stacks up against two prominent rivals in the computing space: the stock version of Apple’s 13-inch MacBook Air and Microsoft’s Surface Pro.

*Note that we compared the base MBA and the surface Pro with upgraded storage, to establish a better baseline in terms of comparing more similar price points and spec load-outs. 

Versus the 13-inch MacBook Air

Compared to the base 13-inch MacBook Air, Google’s Pixel has a lot of similarities. It’s priced around the same, but actually comes in as more expensive that the OS X ultraportable, at $1299 and $1449 for options with Wi-Fi only, and Wi-Fi + LTE networking. What does the Pixel offer to justify the extra cost? It does have a denser display, with 239 ppi on a nearly 13-inch display. And that screen is touch sensitive, which isn’t something Apple can claim. But until now, it hasn’t shown off much about how touch might work with ChromeOS, though it has reportedly been “optimized” for finger-based input.

Another place where the Chromebook Pixel falls short of its competition is in local storage. 32GB on the Wi-Fi model and 64GB on the LTE version is tiny compared to the MacBook Air, which is already pushing it with 128GB. LTE is nice to have, but, with the prevalence of hotspots and modems, arguably less important than more offline-accessible storage space.

The Chromebook Pixel is very much aimed at the same market as the MacBook Air, with Google stressing that it’s an upscale device. But despite what looks to be a beautiful screen, this arrives with an even more experimental, touch-enabled version of an OS that has yet to prove itself with general consumers, meaning that the reasons to opt for Google’s brave new laptop over the Air perhaps aren’t as apparent as Google would’ve hoped.

Versus the 128GB Surface Pro

I can’t help but think about the Chromebook Pixel in relation to something like the Surface Pro, another premium computing device from a company that has historically shied away from making its own computers. Granted, the differences in execution between the two are pretty staggering, but it’s hard not to look at both devices as fresh steps into a market increasingly driven by novel hardware.

The Pixel certainly has the Surface Pro beat when it comes to sheer screen size and resolution (it has a 12.85″ display running at 2560 x 1700, compared to the Pro’s 10.6″ panel running at 1920 x 1080), but the Surface Pro seems to sport better touch support with its included stylus and Wacom digitizer. It’s too early to say whether or not one device has a definitive advantage of the other because of their seemingly similar processors (though the Pixel could squeak by because of its slightly quicker chipset), but we’ll return to that once we get our hands on a review unit.

Again, the Pixel may fall flat with its paltry 32GB of internal storage (though folks who spring for the LTE model will have around 64GB to play with). Sure, having a terabyte of cloud storage is neat, but those in need of real speed will prefer the Pro’s SSDs and memory card slot.

The other big question mark here is Chrome OS itself. The Chromebook is a very handsome little machine that seems to have some horsepower under the hood to boot, but I’m curious whether or not people will choose to plunk down upwards of $1299 for a computer that exists outside of the two entrenched environments that have dominated consumer computing. Windows 8 isn’t a shining star yet either, but it’s far from a company’s side project.

In the end…

While the Air and Surface Pro have their share of advantages, it’s still a little too early to write the Chromebook Pixel off completely. It may just be the right computer at the right time to give Chrome OS the boost it really needs, but for now Google needs to make a better case for why people should spend $1299 on a computer that hinges on the cloud instead of, you know, anything else.

As 3D printing and modeling moves into the mainstream, it’s interesting to see the rise of small players in the market and the capital raised. Take, for example, CGTrader. Originally designed as a marketplace for 3D designers and artists, it’s just raised nearly 200,000 euro from Practica Capital, a fund in Lithuania. Founded by Marius Kalytis, the company is based in Vilnius.

Most of the models are highly detailed objects aimed at video game creators and other 3D wonks. However, because a 3D model is a 3D model is a 3D model, CGTrader is able to sell almost any virtual object.

A major problem in the 3D model industry is notoriously low royalty rates for designers and artists – the creator of the model frequently receives only 40-60% of sale proceeds, or, in order to earn more, is often bound by exclusivity requirements. This makes selling 3D models online not a very attractive activity for designers, and therefore limits the potential of industry growth,” said Kalytis. He said the CGTrader is “a fair, author-friendly marketplace”

The company takes 6% of any sale and they can use the platform to support their customers when they have issues or queries.

“The funding will be used for developing the marketplace from the technical perspective, building the community further, and, most importantly, expanding distribution channels for our designers – including 3D printing,” said Kalytis. It’s one small step for 3D models of horses, one giant leap for the monetization of the 3D-printing as a holistic market.

The USPTO has published a new patent application today from Google, which describes in comprehensive detail the complete system that would go on to become Google Glass, originally filed in August of 2011. The newly discovered patent describes not only individual components of Glass as we’ve seen previously, but the overall system, including display, frames, image projection and capture, wireless connections, sensors and more.

Some of the technical drawings included in the patent look a lot like the Google Glass we’ve come to know and love from its public appearance adorning sky divers and tech company founders who could be mistaken for jewel thieves. But others depict designs that resemble cheap paper 3D glasses, and hipster specs you might expect to see at Warby Parker. Google is clearly looking at multiple ways to bring Glass to market, aside from the sci-fi style visor it’s been showing around.

The text of the patent gets into extreme technical detail, offering a granular look at how Glass actually functions. It describes how the lens mounted display would operate in relation to the movement of a wearer’s head to keep the projected image consistent, and how objects in the real world can be overlaid with digital images to create augmented reality experiences. It goes into detail about various configurations of glasses arms and where the housing for the ‘brains’ of the device could be located relative to the rest of the glasses apparatus, and talks about building touch-sensitive surfaces into frame to accept user input.

Google also describes the limitations of current wearable tech interfaces in a section on background, which it uses to essentially give a reasoning for its creation of Google Glass. Existing systems were, in a word, deficient, according to the company’s filing:

Both head-mounted and heads-up displays can be connected to a video source that receives a video signal that the device can read and convert into the image that they present to the user. The video source can be received from a portable device such as a video player, a portable media player or computers […] The functionality of these types of displays is, however, limited to passive actions wherein the display simply receives information from an external source and presents it to the wearer in limited forms. Accordingly, further advances in wearable devices including displays have been needed.

Some of the more interesting elements from the detailed description of the patent include alternative display methods. We’ve seen the use of lens-mounted displays in the current prototype, but the patent also describes alternatives including “a laser or LED source and scanning system [that] could be used to draw a raster display directly onto the retina of one or more of the user’s eyes.” That sounds a little terrifying but also potentially exciting.

Overall, the patent is primarily about locking down Google’s IP with respect to the Glass project in as technically detailed a manner as possible, but it’s an interesting read for gadget heads or engineers who want to learn more about the nitty-gritty background behind Google’s most daring consumer hardware project.

SumUp, one of the myriad of European mobile card reader startups taking advantage of Square’s continued absence in the region to build out a business, is adding support for American Express. Its mobile card reader system already accepts MasterCard and Visa payments but today the startup said it has signed a deal with American Express to process Amex card payments in all “major regions” in which it operates. Its merchants will be able to start accepting Amex in Q2.

SumUp now operates in 10 European countries. It confirmed to TechCrunch Amex payments will be supported in eight of its markets initially — namely: Germany, France, the UK, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Austria. The two markets where negotiations are ongoing, with a view to also adding Amex support in future, are Belgium and Portugal.

SumUp also confirmed its per-transaction fee remains the same, with no premium for merchants to process Amex. Merchants using SumUp to process a transaction are charged a flat 2.75% per transaction fee.

With the addition of American Express, SumUp said it will be able to accept “more types of cards in more regions than any other mobile point-of-sale technology provider worldwide”. SumUp Co-founder Stefan Jeschonnek said Amex support is a “big deal” for it, and for the tens of thousands of merchants in Europe who use its technology.  ”SumUp is about enabling small businesses to grow and for our merchants being able to accept card payments from all the major brands is a big deal,” he added.

Commenting on the tie-up in a statement, Werner Decker, Senior Vice President, American Express, said: “We see SumUp as a smart and convenient way for small businesses to further enable commerce by accepting card payments.”

SumUp added that American Express will also be included as a payment option in its forthcoming consumer payment app — called SumUp Pay — which it demoed at Finovate Europe last week. The app will allow consumers to link their credit card to it and pre-authorise payments with trusted merchants. The payment process does not involve a physical card reader — rather the buyer’s phone is identified as it enters the store, using geofencing technology, and the merchant can then process the payment when the buyer confirms what they want to order.

As yet, there’s no confirmed launch date for SumUp pay.

SumUp’s Amex release follows below.

SumUp to accept American Express

SumUp broadens range of payment options for merchants in major European markets

 

London – 21^th February 2013: SumUp, the company that enables merchants to take debit and credit card payments with their smartphones, has signed a deal with American Express that will allow it to process American Express card payments in all major regions in which it operates. The deal means that SumUp merchants will soon be able to take payments from American Express Card members.

In December 2012, SumUp extended its service to merchants giving it a presence in ten European countries.  SumUp’s ability to process American Express payments means that it will accept more types of cards in more regions than any other mobile point-of-sale technology provider worldwide.

Any small business using SumUp will soon be able to accept card payments from all the major card brands for an affordable and transparent fee and without any monthly costs.

Daniel Klein, CEO of SumUp, commented: “It’s extremely frustrating for a merchant when they miss out on making a sale because they can’t accept the type of card a customer wants to use. The only person it’s more frustrating for is the customer who goes away empty-handed. That’s why we’re delighted that we will be able to process American Express card payments on behalf of our merchants and to the advantage of American Express’ thriving and deeply loyal customer base.”

– ENDS –

About SumUp

SumUp is the easiest way for small businesses and sole traders to accept credit and debit card payments securely, even on-the-go.

Using only a free, supremely portable card reader and an app available for iPhone, iPad and Android, artisans, taxi drivers, cafes, restaurants, shops and many other merchants are now able to accept credit and debit card payments anytime, anywhere.

SumUp only takes a fee of 2.75% per transaction made using the SumUp card reader, meaning that businesses no longer have to worry about additional costs, expensive terminals or high monthly fees. The transaction fee is the same for American Express, Visa and MasterCard. SumUp is Europay, MasterCard, and Visa (EMV) compliant and PCI-DSS certified, ensuring that payments are processed in accordance with the highest security standards.

The company was founded in 2011 and already has over 140 employees, and major offices in Berlin, London, Dublin, Madrid, Milan and Amsterdam. SumUp has been available in the UK, Germany, Ireland and Austria since August 2012, in the Netherlands, Spain, and Italy since November 2012, and in France, Portugal, and Belgium since December 2012.

Website: www.sumup.co.uk

When NVIDIA officially pulled back the curtains on its new Tegra 4 SoC at CES, it had no shortage of praise for the thing — the company referred to it as “the world’s fastest mobile processor” — but there was something missing from the announcement. Who would be using be using it?

Sure, Vizio revealed a 10.1-inch, T4-powered tablet just a day later, but there was nary a phone partnership in sight until tonight. NVIDIA has just announced it is working with the folks at ZTE to launch the first Tegra 4-powered smartphones in China during the first half of this year.

Here’s a quick refresher on the Tegra 4 in case you haven’t been keeping up with the wild and woolly world of mobile systems-on-chips. This particular SoC sports 72 GPU cores, as well a quad-core processor that feature’s ARM Cortex A15 core, and LTE support by way of NVIDIA’s Icera acquisition.

NVIDIA’s deal with ZTE honestly seems like a mixed bag. Don’t get me wrong — the Chinese company is capable of crafting some nice hardware (and we’re sure to see some of it at Mobile World Congress next week), but one can’t help but wonder if NVIDIA would’ve preferred a higher-profile partner to help usher in the age of Tegra. That’s not to say that NVIDIA isn’t getting anything out of this deal though. Far from it, actually — continued buy-in from a notable Chinese OEM will only help NVIDIA strengthen its position in a fast-growing mobile market.

For now, there’s no word on exactly what ZTE devices the Tegra 4 will find itself in, but NVIDIA is awfully fond of throwing the term “superphone” around, so I’d expect something with at least a little bit of wow factor.

Meanwhile, some of rival Qualcomm’s recently revamped chipsets have appeared in high-end hardware — HTC’s new One has a Snapdragon 600 ticking away inside of it, and it may not be alone. Rumor has it that Samsung is having some heat management problems with its newer in-house Exynos chipsets, and is mulling a switch to a Qualcomm SoC for its flagship Galaxy S IV. Couple that with the high-end 800 we saw at CES and the Snapdragon 200 and 400 chipsets that just officially got the nod and NVIDIA’s certainly got a fight on its hands.