Hasta La Gadget!

The world’s love affair with tablets may have been bubbling along under the surface for a while, but it really got started in earnest during CES 2010. Back in those wild days, you could see 15-inch jumbo screens, TV tuners, and even hybrid pseudo-laptops stalking the tablet area of your favorite trade show. ASUS was there too, of course, though it still believed in the upstart smartbook category — a modernized take on the netbook that relied on an ARM CPU and a mobile OS to extract more battery life out of a lighter, thinner device — and was busy showing off a seductively slim prototype of just such a machine. Alas, nothing came of that Neo concept, most likely because it was relying on Android 1.6 and a Tegra 2 system-on-chip that was then still months away from hitting the market.

Today, however, is a different day. The 1GHz dual-core Tegra 2 is finally being produced in volume, Google has evolved Android to version 3.0, specifically targeting higher-resolution displays, and ASUS has abandoned the idea that a keyboard is crucial to mobile computing. No, wait, that last bit’s still there. The Eee Pad Transformer is a 10.1-inch Honeycomb tablet very much in keeping with the current trend, but it also has an optional keyboard dock that turns it into a, you guessed it, instant smartbook. So, does that mean you’ll get two devices in one or has ASUS been overly ambitious and compromised too much? We got to grips with the £380 16GB WiFi-only model and its keyboard buddy (£430 when bought as a pair) in an effort to find out. Answers await just past the break.

Continue reading ASUS Eee Pad Transformer (UK edition) review

ASUS Eee Pad Transformer (UK edition) review originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 18 Apr 2011 14:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’re still waiting for some specific US launch details for the Xtion Pro and Wavi Xtion motion sensors that ASUS showed off at CES earlier this year, but it looks like folks in Japan can now already get their hands on half of that duo. Unity Corportation has just announced that it’s releasing the Xtion Promotion sensor (complete with an SDK) in the country for ¥19,980, or roughly $240. That should work similarly to a Kinect considering that PrimeSense is responsible for much of the technology behind it, although you should be aware that this one is aimed squarely at developers looking to create their own games and applications for it. You’ll have to wait for the more consumer-friendly Wavi Xtion for something that you can simply plop down in your living room.

Unity Corporation releases Xtion Pro PC motion sensor in Japan originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 16 Apr 2011 04:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it; ASUS has taken this old adage to heart, offering up some moderate, but worthwhile changes to its latest consumer and 3D monitor lines. Retaining the award-winning style of its Designo series, the outfit is launching a trio of new 22-, 23-, and 24-inch IPS and VA panel displays — each vaunting a 178-degree viewing angle, 1920 x 1080 resolution as well as more accurate color reproduction and a higher contrast ratio than previous models. Too bad this change didn’t carry over to ASUS’ 3D line — despite adding an integrated IR transmitter for NVIDIA 3D Vision, the 1080p 27-inch LED VG278H sports a backlit TN panel (boo), same as its predecessor. But hey, at least the integrated transmitter ought to free up some desk space… right? No official price on these just yet, but check out the more coverage link below for a spate of eyes-on impressions.

[Thanks, TheLostSwede]

ASUS debuts, showcases new 3D and IPS-based Designo displays originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 Apr 2011 14:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Fed up with the simply unacceptable performance of your external Blu-ray writer? Of course you are. ASUS feels your pain, and it’s looking to ease it with the soothing balm of the BW-12D1S-U, a new 12X, USB 3.0 burner. The highly capable (and highly complex, we’re surmising) BW-12D1S-U offers realtime 2D to 3D conversion, 1080p video output and support for the usual complement of HD audio formats. But does it have a jewel-like, almost ominous translucent blue power button, you ask? Indeed it does, not to mention a sleek black finish and the ability to operate horizontally or vertically. The outfit has yet to put a price on having the fastest writer on the block, but don’t even pretend that you wouldn’t pay it. Whatever “it” ends up being.

ASUS’ 12x BW-12D1S-U external Blu-ray writer: world’s fastest, until the next one originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 22:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

Last week’s Switched On discussed how some next wave notions from a decade ago were trying to reinvent themselves. Here’s one more. Surging smartphone vendor HTC is seeking to bring back an input method that many wrote off long ago with its forthcoming Flyer tablet and EVO View 4G comrade-in-arms: the stylus.

A fixture of early Palm and Psion PDAs, Pocket PCs and Windows Mobile handsets, slim, compact styli were once the most popular thing to slip down a well since Timmy. Then, users would poke the cheap, simple sticks at similarly inexpensive resistive touchscreens. After the debut of tablet PCs, though, more companies started to use active digitizer systems like the one inside the Flyer. Active pens offer more precision, which can help with tasks such as handwriting recognition, and support “hovering” above a screen, the functional equivalent of a mouseover. On the other hand, they are also thicker, more expensive, and need to be charged. (Update: as some have pointed out in comments, Wacom’s tablets generate tiny electromagnetic fields that power active digitization, and don’t require the pen to store electricity itself.) And, of course, just like passive styli, active pens take up space and can be misplaced.

The 2004 debut of the Nintendo DS — the ancestor of the just-released 3DS — marked the beginning of what has become the last mass-market consumer electronics product series to integrate stylus input. The rising popularity of capacitive touch screens and multitouch have replaced styli with fingers as the main user interface elements. Instead of using a precise point for tasks such as placing an insertion point in text, we now expand the text dynamically to accommodate our oily instruments. On-screen buttons have also grown, as have the screens themselves, all in the name of losing a contrivance.

Continue reading Switched On: Pen again

Switched On: Pen again originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 10 Apr 2011 19:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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