Hasta La Gadget!

We’ve already witnessed ASUS’ netvertible undergo some hands-on testing, but the units inspected up until now have all been pre-production devices. Well, finally a retail T101MT has made its way out to online scribes and we’ve got the first video review for your delectation. We’re told that the machine is still pretty thick and a tiny bit too heavy to comfortably hold in one hand for long periods of time, but also that the previous touchscreen issues have been rectified — it is now “responsive and precise.” The general theme is that you shouldn’t expect too much out of it, particularly since a 480p YouTube clip gobbled up 95% of the T101MT’s CPU cycles and still provided only a choppy picture, but if your ambitions are sufficiently moderate, ASUS’ latest could prove a versatile little machine. Video awaits after the break and a summary review can be found at the source.

Update: The YouTube video played was a stop-motion animation running at 5fps and therefore shouldn’t be considered representative of the T101MT’s video performance. What should be taken as representative is the fact that it maxed out the CPU.

Continue reading ASUS T101MT gets the quick and dirty video review treatment

ASUS T101MT gets the quick and dirty video review treatment originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Mar 2010 08:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft has had its run-ins with the cloud before, but if CEO Steve Ballmer is being serious (and we’re guessing he is), the company is about to get even more connected. Speaking with computer science students this week at the University of Washington, Ballmer was quoted as saying that “a year from now… 90 percent [of Microsoft employees would be working in the cloud].” He went on to say that the cloud base “is the bet, if you will, for our company,” and he noted that it’ll “create opportunities for all the folks in [the] room to do important research and build important projects.” It’s not like any of this is an epiphany, though; we’ve already seen a shift to Google Documents given the ability to access it from any web-connected computer, and with the proliferation of broadband on the up and up, it’s only a matter of time before it’s more convenient to open a web app than to wait for your taskbar to stop bouncing. In related news, Google Europe boss John Herlihy has essentially mirrored those thoughts, calling the desktop an item that will be “irrelevant” in three years. Why? Largely because most everything you’ll need a tower for will be available via a mobile or the web, but we all know that sect of hardcore gamers will keep the beige boxes rolling for at least another score.

Steve Ballmer emphasizes importance of the cloud, Google pretty much does likewise originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Mar 2010 12:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well here’s an interesting one: starting today, users of the legendary Windows 7 Release Candidate should “begin experiencing bi-hourly shutdowns,” yet we haven’t received a single tip on this annoying “feature.” We have only two assumptions: either our faithful readers have already moved on to the real thing, or you sly devils are on a hacked RC of some sort. In any event, you’ve got until June 1st to do a full reinstall (no upgrade options on RC, sadly), after which you’ll be blocked from important updates and persistently bugged by a “This copy of Windows is not genuine” notice. Need more arm-twisting? Just picture Steve Ballmer hunting you down with a sledgehammer.

Windows 7 Release Candidate starts bi-hourly hiccups today, seemingly affects nobody originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Mar 2010 21:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Viliv’s S5 MID, the little machine that packs the Vaio P‘s Z520 processor in a legitimately pocketable form-factor, just got a breath of fresh air. It’s an HID (human interface device) driver for Windows 7, boosting the machine’s touchscreen abilities and enabling the breadth of Windows 7’s tablet functionality. According to Uber Tablet this greatly enhances usability by, amongst other things, presenting the Windows tablet keyboard rather than relying on the accessibility version and enabling better calibration. The driver being used here is legitimate according to reports we’ve read, but it is not signed and doesn’t appear to be an official release from Viliv, so you may want to exercise a bit of caution before you install — but don’t wait too long. This sounds like a pretty tasty update.

Viliv S5 MID gets accuracy-boosting HID driver for Windows 7 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Feb 2010 15:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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What would we ever do without our eagle-eyed readers? Bob has spotted the above M780 tablet PC from Toshiba (which we first heard of a couple of weeks ago) on the company’s official site, though its product page has yet to be linked to from any of the home pages. So it’s official, but sort of prematurely so. Browsing through the spec sheet, this update to the M750 seems to lack for nothing, as its maxed out variant (priced at $1,799) offers a 2.66GHz Core i7-620M, 4GB of DDR3 RAM and a 7200RPM 320GB hard drive. Okay, you could stand to upgrade those integrated graphics perhaps, but it’s a potent package nonetheless. It’s also interesting to see these 12-inch convertible tablets maturing to the point of offering viable workstation performance, as the M780 is joined by Lenovo’s ThinkPad X201T and Fujitsu’s upcoming tablet in offering Intel’s finest and fastest dual-core processor inside.

[Thanks, Bob]

Update: Toshiba has completed the ceremonies of officialdom now, with a full press release, which also notes the addition of a multitouch panel to the Satellite Pro U500.

Toshiba Portege M780 marries Core i7 with tablet ergonomics, goes official originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Feb 2010 06:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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