Hasta La Gadget!

Many who’ve been following Microsoft’s tablet efforts for years will have a soft spot for the Courier, a creative-focused device axed because it didn’t fit the Windows puzzle. However, it looks like you just can’t keep a clever idea down. Developers at Microsoft have revived the dream through Project Austin, a Windows 8 app based around the visual concept of a notebook. Pen aficionados can choose different paper types and paste in photos, but they’re deliberately kept away from typing, searching and other elements that would complicate the idea. It should sound familiar: it’s a rough (if possibly unintentional) Windows doppelganger to FiftyThree’s Paper for iPad, which itself was designed by some of the former Courier team. A company spokesperson won’t say if or when Project Austin will be available in a complete form for the public, although there’s not much point until Windows 8 arrives on October 26th. Thankfully, programmers keen to see what Courier might have been — if just in bits and pieces — can already download the source code for themselves.

Continue reading Microsoft resurrects Courier through Project Austin app for Windows 8, sparks nostalgia (video)

Filed under: Tablets, Software

Microsoft resurrects Courier through Project Austin app for Windows 8, sparks nostalgia (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 22 Sep 2012 06:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In the land of tweets and tell-alls, keeping privileged information on the down-low is next to impossible. Oddly enough, pricing and release details for the ThinkPad 2 didn’t require much espionage. At last night’s PepCom event, Lenovo reps told WP Central that the Windows 8-powered slab will be available on October 26th for $799. This price point might be a tad on the high side for some, but it does include the tablet’s optional keyboard. As a refresher, the ThinkPad 2 sports a 10.1-inch IPS display, an Intel Atom processor and NFC, all powered by an alleged 10 hour battery. For the data gluttons out there, AT&T’s LTE is on the menu stateside. Whether or not this pricing and release information holds true, we’ll still have to see what else surfaces before making a final decision this holiday season.

Filed under: Tablets

Lenovo ThinkPad 2 pegged for October 26th release, with a $799 price tag originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 21 Sep 2012 20:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It looks like all the big companies now have got an 8 megapixel camera in their smartphones, and although I’ve had one for almost a year on my iPhone, I am somewhat disappointed that no one has released a smartphone with a better camera, except that PureView craziness Nokia released. Nevertheless, HTC comes right back at Nokia with their own brightly-colored Windows 8 Phone, complete with 8MP camera.

Ever since HTC admitted that they had way too many phones and that most of them were too big, I had to reconsider my opinion of them. The HTC 8X is the company’s new signature handset, with a 4.3-inch HD LCD screen (720 × 1280), with a Gorilla Glass 2 covering, Beats Audio for be a better headphone experience, a 2.1 MP front facing camera and a 8MP backside-illuminated camera.

The phone has full quad-band support for GSM/GPRS/EDGE and WSPA/WCDMA networks, as well as 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi. It’s also got built-in GPS, compass, motion sensors, and is NFC capable. There’s even a dedicated headphone amp, which is kind of an interesting feature. The 1,800 mAh battery isn’t bad, but I would have liked something bigger, given what Samsung puts in their phones these days.

Under the hood, the HTC 8X runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 1.5GHz dual core processor with 1GB of RAM and 16GB of storage. It will be available this November in blue, black, red and yellow.

[via Uncrate]

Back in July, Microsoft unveiled a number of new keyboards for use with both Windows 8/RT tablets and Windows 8 desktops, but it looks like the company wasn’t quite finished revealing new peripherals. Today Microsoft announced the Sculpt Comfort keyboard, big brother to the Sculpt Mobile keyboard. The two do look quite similar, but there are few key differences between them that are worth pointing out.

For starters, the Sculpt Comfort keyboard is quite a bit bigger than it’s more mobile sibling, but you’ve probably already figured that out. As you can see from the images, the Sculpt Comfort keyboard features an ergonomic design that promotes a neutral positions for your wrists and makes the keys easier to reach. The wrist pad you see there is detachable, so if it ends up getting in the way or it turns out you don’t have enough space with it attached, those problems are easily solved.

One of the more interesting features of the Sculpt is that it sports a split space bar. A Microsoft study shows that “90% of people use only their right thumb to hit the space bar,” which means that more often than not, the left side of the space bar remains untouched. While that won’t exactly be viewed as a problem by most, Microsoft has come up with a use for the left side of the space bar, turning it into a spare backspace key. Using it in that way means that you no longer have to reach for the backspace key when you make a mistake. The space bar is also noticeably larger than the space bars found on other keyboards, making it easier to hit when you’re typing up a storm.

Like some of the other peripherals we’ve seen Microsoft touting lately, this keyboard comes with a set of Windows 8 hotkeys, and boasts wireless USB connectivity to boot. The keyboard runs on two AA batteries, and is compatible with Windows 8, Windows RT, Windows 7, and Windows Vista (sorry Windows XP users, you’re out of luck with this one). Microsoft has given the Sculpt Comfort keyboard a price tag of $59.99, with a release date of “soon.” We’ll have more details for you once Microsoft unleashes them, so keep it tuned here to SlashGear!

Microsoft unveils Sculpt Comfort Keyboard for Windows 8 is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Windows 8 is coming folks, and so is an onslaught of new machines featuring Microsoft’s something-for-everyone OS. Dell already showed us some of its fresh consumer Win8 hardware back at IFA 2012, and now it’s the enterprise’s turn to shine. First up is the Latitude 10 tablet, which packs an Intel Atom SoC, a 10.1-inch IPS 1366 x 768 LCD display covered in Gorilla Glass, 8-megapixel primary camera plus an HD front-facing shooter. It’s got 2GB of RAM and up to 128GB of eMMC NAND storage, plus an SD card slot should the integrated storage prove insufficient. Connectivity comes via one full-size USB 2.0 port, a microUSB charging socket, mini-HDMI, a headphone/microphone combo jack, proprietary docking port and a micro-SIM slot for WWAN use. The Latitude 10 packs up to a 60Wh battery, which isn’t remarkable in and of itself, but the fact that it’s removable is. That means road warriors can travel with a spare cell or two to keep their slate in the juice no matter how long they work on it. While the swappable battery can keep the 10 from being tethered to an outlet, the dock Dell built for it ensures it’ll have a stylish place to rest when it is. The dock expands the slate’s connectivity with four USB 2.0 sockets, Gigabit Ethernet, HDMI and audio output.

Next is the Optiplex 9010 all-in-one desktop we saw earlier this year. It still has the same 23-inch, 1920 x 1080 panel on the front and vPro-equipped Ivy Bridge silicon lurking beneath — the only change is the upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 8. The Latitude 6430u is an addition to Dell’s venerable business laptop line, and is the first to bear the Ultrabook moniker. It’s generous to label the 6430u as such, as it’s .82 inches thick and weighs 3.7 lbs, but it’s still a fairly thin and light laptop — plus it has the same solid magnesium chassis construction as its Latitude brethren. The 6430u crams a 14-inch, 1366 x 768 matte display into its 13.3-inch chassis, and users have the option of Ivy Bridge Core i3, i5 and i7 silicon with vPro, up to 8GB of RAM and up to 256GB worth of solid state storage. Naturally, there’s 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth and mobile broadband available for wireless connectivity. Unfortunately, we can’t tell you how much Dell’s new business computers will cost, but we do know that they’ll be available when Windows 8 is, which is to say late October.

Continue reading Dell’s Latitude 10 tablet and dock, OptiPlex 9010 AIO, Latitude 6430u laptop arrive to tempt business pros

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops, Tablets

Dell’s Latitude 10 tablet and dock, OptiPlex 9010 AIO, Latitude 6430u laptop arrive to tempt business pros originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Sep 2012 07:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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