This month we’re ramping up to the big drop of BlackBerry 10, and along the way we’re getting pumped up with leaked video after leaked photo, one after the other, today’s offering being a full hands-on look at the smartphone known as the Z10. This device is a full touch BlackBerry 10-toting device, it making use of a lovely 4.3-inch display up front and a styling that’s able to be presented in black, white, or potentially a variety of other color casings.
What you’re seeing in the video isn’t a whole lot of new information if you’re familiar with the OS as we’ve seen it in leaks before, but for those of you new to the BlackBerry 10 leaking faucet, this will act as an OK briefing. The video shows off the BlackBerry Hub, for starters, as well as the clock. Both of these apps are native to the device and to BlackBerry 10, and will be showing up on essentially all BlackBerry 10 devices through the future.
The final version of the software will be presented later this month, but for now you’ll see what must be near-final versions of Task Manager, the pull-down menu abilities of the OS, and three base menu buttons. You’ll see a phone button, search button, and camera button at the bottom of the display much of the time the video plays, this giving you instant access to these most-used functions.
Pay special attention to the way the OS flows as well as how well the device is pushing the OS to the user. While we’re expecting a smoother experience at the end of this month, this presentation certainly doesn’t look half bad for a final OS/hardware combination. Stick with us through our BlackBerry 10 tag as well as right here in the main news feed on January 30th, 2013.
As you can imagine, touchscreens have a slight bias against long fingernails, and if you happen to have long fingernails, we’re sure that you’ve already developed some special techniques to effectively use your phone and tablet. However, a new product called Nano Nails aims to essentially turn those long fingernails into touchscreen stylii.
A company by the name of Tech Tips created a detachable fingernail attachment of sorts that acts as a stylus. From there, the company figured out a way to embed the technology into wearable and fashionable fingernails. Nano Nails hide a tiny capacitive tip under the index fingernail that can be detected by a touchscreen just like a fingertip would, and it’s completely invisibile unless you’re looking for it.
The stylus nails will save you from having to carry a separate stylus, and since they’re glued to your finger, they’re always at the ready. There is a slight learning curve to Nano Nails, which is mostly getting used to using the proper angle for the tip to make contact with the display, but it’s certainly better than having to blindly tap at your phone with the pad of your finger.
Nano Nails will be available in either a full press-on nail or a nail tip, and the company expects them to sell in packages of four or six for around $10. They can also be put on by either the wearer or applied professionally at a salon. Tech Tips expects to start shipping the new product sometime this May.
Vizio‘s new Windows 8 Tablet PC was definitely one of the devices that caught our interest during CES 2013, but the company isn’t content with stopping at just tablets. In fact, Vizio seems to have become very enthusiastic about Windows 8, introducing new lines of touch-based notebooks and all-in-one PCs that are ready to take full advantage of the operating system. We got to spend a little bit of time with them when we stopped by for a visit with Vizio, and starting right off, we have to say that we like what the company was showing off.
We’ll jump right in with Vizio’s Thin + Light Touch line of notebooks. As you might have already guessed, the major focus with these new laptops are Windows 8 and a thin and lightweight form factor. In those two areas, the notebooks do not disappoint, with Vizio offering one with a 14″ touchscreen and the other with a 15.6″ display. Ready for some great news? 1366×768 resolution is nowhere to be found with these two notebooks, with the 14″ model offering up 1600×900 and the 15.6″ variant going all the way with 1080p resolution.
Interestingly enough, Vizio will be offering a number of different configurations that you’ll be able to choose from depending on your taste. Both the 14″ and the 15.6″ models will come packing either a 2.4GHz Intel Core i7 processor and integrated Intel HD 4000 graphics, or an AMD A10 4657M clocked at 2.3GHz with discrete Radeon HD graphics. Either configuration should keep things running smooth, especially considering that both come with 8GB of RAM and solid-state drives.
As you’ve probably already figured out, the full HD display on the 15.6″ inch model looks great, though 1600×900 doesn’t look bad either – the only thing its missing is the full HD capabilities of its bigger brother. The keyboards on both are excellent, though the buttons do seem slightly bigger than most notebook keyboards, so that might take some getting used to. Both are very slim when they’re closed and relatively lightweight, so while we can’t exactly classify either as an ultrabook, they’re toward the bottom of the size scale for notebooks.
Next up is Vizio’s new all-in-one touch line. These all-in-one touch PCs will come in 24″ and 27″ varieties, with the 24″ coming with the option of a 2.4GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 and Intel HD 4000 integrated graphics or a quad-core AMD A10 4600M 2.3GHz and Radeon HD 8750A discrete graphics. For the 27″ it looks like the only option is that 2.4GHz Core i7 quad-core and Intel 4000 integrated graphics. Both will come with a 1TB hard drive and a 32GB SSD to offer a performance boost, so don’t plan on storing too much stuff on that SSD.
While both screens look excellent and, like the new Windows 8 notebooks on the way, offer 10-point multitouch, there’s one feature in particular that’s very interesting about these all-in-ones: the power supply also doubles as a subwoofer. With many all-in-one PCs, we often run into issues with sounds and tinniness, but that subwoofer will give Vizio’s all-in-one touch PCs a certain boost that other packages lack. There are a number of ports on the base, meaning that you won’t have any ugly cables sticking out of the sides of your computer. To be specific, both models feature two HDMI ports, and Vizio told us that users won’t need to boot to Windows before switching to their HDMI inputs.
Those HDMI ports will come in handy if you want to watch a movie on the excellent screens, and Vizio is trying to make this a true-to-form multimedia center with the addition of a remote. The keyboard is pretty similar to the ones we saw on the company’s new notebooks, at least from an aesthetic standpoint. Obviously, all-in-one PCs aren’t for everyone, but if you’ve been in the market, we’re seeing some great things coming from Vizio with these computers.
So, even though the Windows 8 tablet was the Vizio product that originally caught our eye, we ended up impressed with the notebooks and all-in-one PCs the company will soon be bringing to the table. Vizio should give itself a pat on the back, because as far as we’re concerned, the company managed to stand out in a sea of other manufacturers that are ready and willing to show off new products at CES 2013. Be sure to check out CES portal for even more from the show!
This year at CES we saw one whole heck of a lot of PCs, quite a few of them working with Windows 8 – but most of them focusing on their unique hardware offerings to the point where Microsoft’s offering seemed almost secondary. One cannot deny the influence of the touch-friendly nature of Windows 8 on the other hand, and starting right away with the very first PC we had hands-on time with, touchscreen controls were right at the center of our attention: the Lenovo IdeaCentre Horizon Table PC is first on our list of hands-on deliveries.
The massive beast known as the Lenovo IdeaCentre Horizon Table PC was by far the most unique offering in the PC hardware space at this year’s show, creating not just a massive touchscreen interface, but a table on which you can play games with specialized accessories that come with. Have a peek at the smart dice, game pieces you can use to play table hockey, and more! We’ll be looking for this monster on our review bench soon.
Lenovo also brought on one sharp looking gaming PC known as the Lenovo Erazer X700 as well as a transforming tablet with a keyboard dock known as the ThinkPad Helix. We actually have a short version of the Helix hands-on as well as an extended Lenovo ThinkPad Helix hands-on for more “rip and flip” action than you’ll be able to handle. The Lenovo ThinkVision mobile monitor was also revealed, bringing you Windows 8 touchscreen-friendly action either wired with a brand new USB 3.0 B cord or completely wirelessly and across the room – mirroring or no!
One of the most important sets of announcements of the convention as a whole came from NVIDIA, their press event revealing first and foremost a system called NVIDIA GeForce Experience, this allowing users to get instant game optimization from the folks who know how to do it best, the GeForce team. Cloud gaming companies also got a massive jolt in the side at the announcement of NVIDIA GRID, stacks of servers made to turn cloud gaming into a real way of the future. NVIDIA also tied mobile gaming to full-power PC gaming with a device called NVIDIA Project SHIELD. We’ll see more information on that system by the time of its release in Q2 of 2013 (this year). For now you’ll have to survive on this simple demonstration video courtesy of NVIDIA:
The folks at 3M showed off their rather sizable 84-inch multi-touch table the night before CES began, here bringing real-deal 4K technology to this emerging market. At the moment this machine is still a prototype, but we’ll be seeing a real product later this year. ASUS took on the Windows 8 world with a unique slate by the name of ASUS VivoTab Smart Tablet, complete with an origami fold-up cover with magnets and a wireless keyboard.
Samsung brought on some heat with the Samsung Series 7 Chonos and Series 7 Ultra, both of them extremely lightweight and bursting with immensely high resolution displays – touchscreens, too! The Xi3 7 series modular computer gained some notoriety this week as Valve was hinted to be working with them in the very near future. Vizio essentially updated their entire PC lineup including notebooks, all-in-one, and and a brand new 11.6-inch Windows 8 Tablet.
If you though you’d seen the only massive tablet-like gorilla of a unit of the show up above with Lenovo, you were mistaken. Above you’ll see the Panasonic 20-inch 4K Windows 8 Tablet, a monster with 3840 x 2160 pixels to its name, running full Windows 8 with a release date set some time later this year. Sony also brought on a little bit of heat with the Sony VAIO T15 Touch and T14 Touch, both of them ready with Intel under the hood and Windows 8 for your everyday use.
In short, what we saw this year at CES was a set of upgrades to machines that were already out, touch added to displays that were before without, and some ever-so-slightly interesting innovations in how devices were connected to one another. Let us know what you were most excited about from CES in the PC space below, and make sure not to skimp on the possibilities for the future! Also hit up our CES portal for everything we saw and reported on over the course of the week!
Wireless routers aren’t the sexiest of gadgets to come across on the CES showfloor, but Securifi’s doing its best with the Almond+. The all-white router, an update to last year’s OG Almond, still features a 2.8-inch touchscreen, but now supports the 802.11ac standard for high speeds over 5GHz, in addition to Zigbee and Z-Wave for home automated control. That latter bit is a recent addition to the Almond+’s UI interface, allowing users with compatible Zigbee or Z-Wave products to control lights around the house or even monitor and receive notifications (cloud-synced via a free iOS or Android app) when their door is being opened or closed. Around back the innocuously designed device sports one USB 2.0 and five for gigabit ethernet. At present, Securifi intends to launch the Almond+ on Kickstarter for $99 sometime within the next week, so look for it to debut there soon. While you wait, take a look out our gallery below, as well as video demo just after the break.
It’s all-fingers-on-screen for Sony‘s latest VAIO ultrabooks, the T15 Touch and T14 Touch, which each slap a 10-digit multitouch layer on top of the regular display for some swiping Windows 8 action. Fresh at CES this week, the new Intel-powered duo is more of the same from Sony’s ultrabook line-up, with brushed aluminum chassis and backlit keyboards.
The touchscreen works well, though we’ve still got mixed feelings about the usability of reaching over the keyboard and stabbing at the display. We’re also left thinking that Sony’s decision to carry over the ultrabook branding to the T15 Touch might be a bit ambitious; it’s not exactly a light machine, though in return you get plenty of connections (USB 3.0, both HDMI and VGA, and an ethernet socket) and an integrated optical drive.
The T14 Touch makes far more sense, ditching the separate numeric keypad but still retaining a solid-feeling ‘board and a sizable trackpad. Sony’s choice of materials can’t be faulted, either; the soft-touch composite strip that runs along the upper outer edge of the lid – where the antenna are – is a particularly nice compromise between tactile feel and wireless performance.
Unfortunately, the T14 Touch doesn’t share its bigger sibling’s 1080p Full HD display; instead, it makes do with a more humdrum 1366 x 768 panel. Sony isn’t saying when the new VAIOs will go on sale, nor for what price.
Synaptics may have designs on becoming a keyboard company, but at heart, it’s a touch and sensor company. It’s realized that as tablet bezels get smaller, the greater the chance you’ll suffer unintended touches from the meaty parts of your paw. We’ve just spent time at a behind-closed-doors demonstration of Sensa, a grip-sending tablet that can work out which hand is you’re using to hold the device and therefore ignore its commands. Interested? We called it a read more link for a reason.
This may not be a highly priced diamond in the rough, but we were still rather pleased to come across eFun’s aPen Touch8 while walking around the showfloor at a Showstoppers event here in beautiful Las Vegas. Although not exactly surprising, it’s worth noting the Touch8 aPen takes an obvious cue from its A5 sibling, sporting a very similar design and being powered by the same ultrasonic infrared technology. What’s different here, however, is that the newly announced Touch8’s tailored for laptops (15.6-inch or lower) running Windows 8, with the pen’s main purpose being to bring moderate gesture-based features to non-touch machines. According to eFun, and confirmed by us, installation is relatively simple: you plug in the included receiver (pictured below), pop into the “Tablet PC Settings,” adjust the calibration, and voila, you are all golden.
During our short spell with the aPen Touch8, we did notice a bit of a lag from time to time while using the peripheral, though it did manage to (somewhat) easily swipe its way between screens, launch different applications and bring up the Charms Bar. Naturally, it doesn’t come anywhere near close to what you would experience on an actual touch-capable Windows 8 laptop, but it could definitely be an option if you’re looking for something to hold you over until you finally decide to upgrade your gear. Those interested will have to shell out $80 on the aPen Touch8, with eFun telling us to expect it to be available in about a month.
Atmel’sXSense technology made its debut way back in April of 2012, but today ASUS became the first big name gadget maker to commit to using the tech — pledging to put it in an unnamed next-gen tablet set to debut in Q1 of this year. For those unfamiliar, XSense is a capacitive touch sensor that can be bent and bonded to surfaces of any shape. We got to see XSense for ourselves at CES today and chat with its makers to learn a little more about it.
While there are no technical limitations to the size of its touch sensors, Atmel’s technology is currently limited to a max size of 32 inches due to manufacturing constraints. However, the company has plans to increase that fabrication size at its Colorado manufacturing facilities. We got to test out the technology on a piece of Corning Gorilla Glass bonded imbued with XSense (alas, no ASUS tablet sneak peeks to be had), and can confirm that the technology does work quite well. The company sees its touch sensor as a way for device makers to utilize currently unused edge real estate on phones and tablets, in addition to providing designers with more flexibility when creating gadgets. Of course, we’ll have to see what kind of creative ways ASUS and other OEMs implement XSense, but you can see some shots of the sensor film and Atmel’s demo unit in our gallery below.
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