Jun 24
Greasy fingers are the bane of touchscreens, obscuring the display behind snail trails of oil and streaks of grime. Forget that mess. Leap Motion has promised
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Jun 24
Samsung will ditch its desktop PC business, the company has reportedly confirmed, shuttering the division in favor of tablets, notebooks, and all-in-ones which still grab consumer attention. “Demand for conventional desktop PCs is going down” an unnamed Samsung Electronics exec told The Korea Times; instead, the company will “allocate our resources to popular connected and
Jun 23
Switched On: Touchy subjects
Posted in: Today's ChiliEach week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.
In 2002, the first LCD-based iMac succeeded the translucent PowerPC G3-based models that the original Bondi Blue iMac begat. The new generation was much more striking than the one that had placed Apple on the comeback trail. The iMac G4 mounted the display on a balanced arm similar to a Luxo lamp while the motherboard resided in a hemispherical base. This allowed the display to be adjusted to a wide range of heights and angles and each of the two main sections to be “true to itself.”
Alas, the design had its limits. It’s difficult to imagine today’s ample 27-inch iMac displays balancing off such a mount. Furthermore, after the switch to Intel, processor thermals improved to help enable the slim iMac of today. The idea of efforts being true to themselves (at least until nearly compromise-free convergence is possible), however, has stayed a hallmark of Apple. For example, the company would resist adding video to the iPod for years after competitors had the feature.
Jun 20
Amidst Lenovo‘s unveiling of five IdeaPad touch-enabled laptops earlier this evening was a hybrid PC that looks very similar to the Microsoft Surface RT. The Lenovo Miix is a Windows 8 tablet running, surprisingly enough, an Intel Atom processor. Making it what Lenovo calls a “multi-mode” PC is a cover featuring an AccuType keyboard. The
Jun 20
Jun 20
The Samsung ATIV Tab 3 takes on the shape of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 family this week in the company’s thinnest Windows tablet effort to date. This machine works with full Windows 8 and an Intel Atom Z2760 processor alongside 2GB of RAM and a hefty 64GB of internal storage. It also brings along
Jun 20
Samsung ATIV Q hands-on: Windows 8, Android, tablet, and notebook multi-mode
Posted in: Today's ChiliToday we’re having a look at the Samsung ATIV Q, a machine that the company has just unveiled this afternoon as a tablet that’s able to convert to a notebook and just as easily switch between Windows 8 and Android. This device works with a rather large 13.3-inch display with 3200 x 1800 pixel resolution
Jun 20
Samsung’s Shape-Shifting Ativ Q Isn’t Pretty, But Running Windows 8 And Android May Make It A Worthy Workhorse
Posted in: Today's Chili
Samsung just pulled back the curtain on a new line of Ativ Windows notebooks, but perhaps the most interesting of the company’s new Ativs is a 13.3-inch convertible tablet it hopes will appeal those prepping to head back to school. The shape-shifting Ativ Q sports a tablet mode, a video-friendly formfactor with the screen held near vertical, and a more traditional notebook configuration that reveals its built-in QWERTY keyboard, but it’s got an even niftier trick up its sleeve.
While the Ativ Q boots into Windows 8 there’s also a dual-OS mode that allows the users to switch to stock Android 4.2.2, thereby allowing for Microsoft productivity staples such as Office to live in close proximity to the Google Play Store and the usual gamut of Android apps. It’s a cake-and-eat-it-too tablet. Or a tablet for someone who just can’t decide between Windows or Android.
The Ativ Q also supports the classic Windows desktop mode – and since the tablet includes Samsung’s S Pen stylus (which pulls out from a slot in its side) the tiny menus of classic Windows aren’t as fiddly as they would otherwise be to navigate on such a device.
Samsung said photos and files can be shared between the Windows and Android OS modes. Switching between the different OSes seemed fast during my brief hands on, although it’s relatively easy to accidentally revert to Windows. The Ativ Q is not a native Android device, being as it’s not booting directly to Android, but Samsung made a point of demoing a handful of Android games, including Angry Birds, running on the Ativ Q to show it is capable of handling such apps without a significant dip in performance.
The touchscreen display is QHD with a resolution of 3,200 x 1,800, which works out to a pixel density of about 275 PPI. The aspect ratio of the screen means the device feels quite long and narrow (not unlike plenty of other Windows convertibles). The entire device also feels very hefty – it’s not a tablet you want to hold in your hands for long — and it’s relatively thick, at 13.9mm wide. It is a serious bit of kit to lug about, but if you consider it as a laptop replacement rather than an iPad competitor then that’s perhaps to be expected. It’s certainly not the world’s most elegant slice of portable computing but Samsung is obviously hoping its flexibility is what will make it stand out.
Pulling up on the side of the screen when the device is in tablet mode lifts it out on a built-in hinged stand so it can be angled in a variety of ways, including a so-called “floating” mode suitable for presentations when a standing speaker needs to look down at the screen. The display can also be angled steeply up, with the keyboard entirely out of sight, to view videos. And it can be moved into a typing mode where the display is tucked behind the built-in keyboard.
This keyboard felt unpleasantly plasticky to my fingertips but it was relatively roomy, despite taking up less than half the width of the device. There’s no space for a trackpad but Samsung has added in an optical nav key in the centre of the keyboard if you prefer not to use the touchscreen, plus three physical selection keys at the edge of the keyboard to act as mouse keys.
Samsung has sited the device’s CPU and components inside the flexible stand portion of the device, rather than inside the screen or under the keyboard. It said it wanted to keep the hot parts away from the bits the user touches. Whether that’s a huge advantage remains to be seen, but it does mean the screen is thinner than it might have been otherwise, so probably a little easier to move around.
The screen has a Windows touch-key on the front which returns the user to the Windows 8 homescreen, There’s a tile on that interface for switching to the Android OS (and another for Windows Classic). When using the device in the Android scenario, there are additional nav keys along the bottom of the screen for switching back to Windows. The device being demoed during my hands on was running stock Android 4.2.2, rather than having any TouchWiz overlay.
Samsung said pricing for the Ativ Q will be confirmed later, and the price tag is likely going to be the deciding factor on whether this hybrid beast flies. It’s not what you’d call stylish or elegant, and its weight puts its portability in doubt, but it has the potential to be a bit of a workhorse -– with both Windows and Android, and tablet and QWERTY functionality on tap.
Jun 20
Here at Samsung’s “Premiere” event in London, the company is showing off a slew of new devices, both Galaxy branded and ATIV branded. One of these new devices to be announced today is the ATIV Tab 3, which is what Samsung is claiming to be the “world’s thinnest Windows 8 tablet.” From what we’re seeing,
Jun 20
The Samsung ATIV Q has been introduced by Samsung this week as a tablet/notebook hybrid that’s able to work with Windows 8, on the one hand, and Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean on the other. This machine has a hinge that allows it to be a standard notebook, a flat tablet, a display-mode screen, and everything
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