Hasta La Gadget!

Last week, Acer unveiled a handful of back-to-school laptops, and today, the outfit’s showing off gear for kids who’ve got a teensy bit more room in the dorms. The company just trotted out a pair of desktops, along with the beastly 23-inch T231H multitouch monitor. Both towers have a staid black chassis with Acer’s clear.fi media streaming software on board. Of the two, the M series (pictured) is clearly for power users, with Core i3 and quad-core AMD Athlon II x4 processor options, 6GB of RAM, 1TB of hard drive space, optional discrete graphics, and a storage tray on top housing four USB 2.0 sockets and headphone and mic ports. The X series, meanwhile, has a trimmer, more compact design, and a modest spec list featuring Intel Pentium dual-core and AMD Athlon II X4 processors, 4GB of RAM, and integrated graphics. As for that 1080p display, it has an 80,000:1 contrast ratio and tilts between a 5-degree and 60-degree angle — not unlike that swiveling HP all-in-one that came out earlier this year. They’re all up for grabs now, with the M and X series starting at $500 and $398, respectively, and the monitor fetching $330. Full PR after the break.

Continue reading Acer intros revamped desktops, 23-inch multitouch display for kids with ginormous dorm rooms

Acer intros revamped desktops, 23-inch multitouch display for kids with ginormous dorm rooms originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Jun 2011 00:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Sony’s got some wonderful ideas here at E3 2011, but the company’s left quite a few threads for journalists to sew up — what’s the battery life like? How much will continuous client gameplay cost? Just how does that split-screen 3D monitor work? Sony’s 3D gaming czar Mick Hocking flew in from Liverpool to talk stereoscopy with the press, and we’ve got some answers for that last one. What you see above is an LCD panel that refreshes at 240Hz, and delivering 3D at 60 frames per second to each eye, by using the typical active shutter glasses technique of blocking light to your left eye when the “right” image is displayed, and vice versa for the right eye. However, the glasses have a special button that makes both lenses of one player’s glasses display images for the left eye, and both lenses of another player display images for the right, allowing each to have their own 60fps feed all the time for private split-screen gaming.

While that potentially means you could use these glasses on non-Sony 3DTVs too and get the same effect (or, you know, just pick up a Sharp Quattron 3D or Vizio Versus, which do much the same thing). Hocking told us that this particular unit also does additional software processing to reduce ghosting. But what of games? The 3D guru said there’ll be a number of titles supporting the feature when the monitor hits this fall, and that other 3D titles could potentially (and easily) be patched if they also support split-screen to begin with. Hocking says developer enthusiasm’s been particularly intense for split-screen, even more so than the holographic and head-mounted display technologies that Sony’s working on, and we may see the feature integrated in Bravia televisions should the idea take off.

Sony’s 24-inch PlayStation 3D ‘dual-view’ monitor: here’s how it works originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Jun 2011 15:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

The “ultimate 3D monitor?” Likely a stretch, but who are we to argue with a stalwart like ViewSonic? All jesting aside, those looking to finally bite on the 3D value proposition can get ready to do so, as the 24-inch V3D245wm-LED monitor packs a built-in 3D emitter, an HDMI 1.4 input, 1080p resolution, 120Hz scanning rate, two millisecond response time and a brain-melting 20,000,000:1 “maximum contrast ratio.” For those looking for something a bit more bantam, the PLED-W200 is also being (re)introduced here at Computex, claiming to be the planet’s first WXGA pico projector. ‘Course, we got an early peek of this very unit back at CES, but hopefully we’re one step closer to actually seeing this one ship. Sadly, the outfit’s not dishing out pricing or release dates, but hopefully both will be revealed shortly.

Continue reading ViewSonic equips 24-inch V3D245wm-LED monitor with built-in 3D emitter

ViewSonic equips 24-inch V3D245wm-LED monitor with built-in 3D emitter originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 May 2011 03:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Samsung’s Super AMOLED may have beat Toshiba to the in-cell capacitive touch punch, but we’re still happy to see other LCD panels dropping unnecessary layers. Featured in a GPS mock-up, Toshiba’s 7-inch 1024 x 600 R&D display touts 10-point multi-touch over 38,400 sensors — that’s one touch sensor for every four pixels. It may not be the first LCD to abandon the standard touch layer for integrated capacitive support, but we wouldn’t shy away from a tablet or embedded screen featuring this 1mm wonder. We’ll have to wait though; Toshiba’s in-cell tech is still in R&D, with no word when or if we might see it in commercial devices. Check out the video after the break for a quick hands-on.

Continue reading Toshiba’s in-cell integrated 7-inch capacitive LCD ditches touch layer, extra girth (video)

Toshiba’s in-cell integrated 7-inch capacitive LCD ditches touch layer, extra girth (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 18 May 2011 18:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Those new desktops HP unveiled today are little more than humming foot rests without a monitor, so the company also trotted out the x2301 Micro Thin — a 23-inch, LED-backlit, 1080p display that’s an absolutely anorexic 9.8mm (0.39 inches) thick. Most of the important internals have been shoved into the blue-tinted base to keep the brushed aluminum and glossy black screen as thin as possible. It’s not exactly a high-end model, but the 3ms response time and 8,000,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio are nothing to sniff at. The x2301 is expected to ship on June 10th for $280, just after its slightly cheaper (and chubbier) cousin, the Elite L2201x. Fashionistas, the line starts right around the bend.

HP x2301 Micro Thin monitor makes other displays feel bloated, insecure originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 May 2011 16:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Electronista  |  HP  | Email this | Comments