mardi 23 avril 2013

Archos Releases 5 Android-powered Tablets With Various Form Factors

A tablet, regardless of how well-designed it is, is bound to attract some form of criticism about its size, and for good reason . As long as people have different expectations of how big a tablet is supposed to be with regards to a user's hand size, the idea of a universal-sized tablet is probably nothing more than wishful thinking.

However, it seemed that Archos has came up with a novel idea to address that issue: to release an entire lineup of tablets with varying sizes. And that is just what it has done with its latest range of Android-based tablets, which run the gamut from being small enough to pass off as smartphones, to having sizes capable of rivaling netbooks. Here is a quick run-down of Archos's latest lineup:


Archos 28:


Probably the best way to describe the Archos 28 Internet Tablet will be to imagine it as smartphone sans the mobile phone-related features. With a 2.8-inch resistive touchscreen, the Archos 28 is certainly small enough to pass off as an Android smartphone instead of a tablet device.

That being said, the hardware powering the Archos 28 is no slouch. An ARM Cortex A8 processor clocked at 800MHz provides sufficient power for the device's multimedia features, with onboard Flash memory providing 2GB or 4GB of storage space, and WiFi connectivity completes the package.

Last but definitely not least, the Archos 28 does not have a built-in camera. Technically, it means that you are free to sneak it into your NS camp by simply passing it off as a smartphone (Android is a smartphone OS anyway). Just don't blame us if you get caught for trying to do so.


Archos 32

Like the Archos 28, the Archos 32 also sports a very smartphone-esque form factor, but the difference lies in the specs.

Instead of a 2.8-inch touchscreen, the Archos 32 has a slightly bigger display at 3.2 inches, is capable of HD video playback and comes with a built-in camcorder which can record at up to 720p. In addition to WiFi, the Archos 32 also features built-in Bluetooth connectivity, and the maximum storage size has also been increased to 8GB.


Archos 43

Unlike the aforementioned Archos 28 and Archos 32, the Archos 43's larger size resembles a PDA more than a smartphone, but is still small enough to fit easily in one's palm for convenience.

Specs-wise, the Archos 43 boasts a more powerful ARM Cortex A8 processor clocked at 1GHz, a 4.3-inch touchscreen capable of a resolution of 854 x 480 and a kickstand for added convenience in viewing videos, with most of the other hardware being extremely similar to the Archos 32.



dimanche 21 avril 2013

ASUS F50 and F70 Series Notebooks

The ASUS F50 and F70 notebook seriescome withcutting-edge design and innovative multimedia featuresto satisfy users whowant high definition audio visual entertainment and extensive multitasking capabilities on the move.

The F50GX features integrated graphics solution which offers performancecomparable to a dedicated graphics card. The F70SL features a massive 1TB of storage for user to backupand even store large High Definitionvideos conveniently.

The ASUS F50 and F70 notebooks also come standard with high definition audio quality and 16:9 Full High Definition displaywith high contrast rate, brightness and color saturationforsuperior audio and visual enjoyment

With the built-in HDMI port,users can connect their notebooks to large external LCD displays or other HDMI-capable devices fora full cinematic experience and entertainment versatility.

Specifications

Model

F50GX

Processor and Cache Memory

Intel Core 2 Duo Processor P8600/ P8400/ P7450/ P7350/T6600/T6400/T5900/T5850/T5800/T5750; Intel Pentium Processor T4200/ T3400/ T3200/ T2390; Intel Celeron Dual-Core Processor T1700/ T1600; Intel Celeron Processor 585/ 575

Chipset

NVIDIA GeForce 9400M G

Operating System

Microsoft® Windows® Vista™ Home
Microsoft® Windows® Vista™ Premium
Microsoft® Windows® Vista™ Business
Microsoft® Windows® Vista™ Ultimate

Main Memory

DDR2 800 Up to 4 GB

Display

16" 16:9 HD Panel (1366 x 768)
15.6" 16:9 HD panel (1366 x 768)

Hard Drive

2.5" 9.5mm SATA HDD
SATA 250 GB/ 320 GB / 500 GB; Support 5400 RPM

Optical Drive

SATA – Super Multi
Blu-ray

Video Camera* (optional)

1.3 MP Fixed type video camera

Fax/Modem/
LAN/WLAN

WLAN Integrated 802.11b/g/n
On board 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet
Built-in Bluetooth v2.1 module (optional)

Dimensions and Weight

380mm x 265mm x 36.3mm ~ 41.7mm
2.85kg


Model

F50Z

Processor and Cache Memory

AMD Turion™ 64 Mobile Technology Dual Core CPU

ZM-86 / 84 / 82 / 80, 2.4-2.1 GHz, DDR2 800 MHz, 2M L2 cache, Hyper Transport 3.0;
RM-70, 2.0 GHz, DDR2 800MHz, 1M L2 cache, Hyper Transport 3.0

AMD Athlon 64 Mobile Technology Duo Core CPU QL-60, 1.9 GHz, DDR2 667MHz, 1M L2 cache, Hyper Transport 3.0

Chipset

AMD M780G

Operating System

Microsoft® Windows® Vista™ Home
Microsoft® Windows® Vista™ Premium
Microsoft® Windows® Vista™ Business
Microsoft® Windows® Vista™ Ultimate

Main Memory

DDR2 800 up to 4 GB

Display

16" 16:9 HD Panel (1366 x 768)
15.6" 16:9 HD panel (1366 x 768)

Hard Drive

2.5" 9.5mm SATA HDD
SATA 250GB / 320GB / 500GB; Support 5400RPM

Optical Drive

SATA – Super Multi
Blu-ray

Video Camera* (optional)

1.3 megapixels fixed type video camera

Fax/Modem/
LAN/WLAN

WLAN Integrated 802.11b/g/n
On board 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet
Built-in Bluetooth v2.1 module (optional)

Dimensions and Weight

380mm x 265mm x 36.3mm ~ 41.7mm
2.85kg

Model

F70SL

Processor and Cache Memory

Intel ® Core™ 2 Duo T9550/P8700/P8600/P8400/P7350/T6600/T6400/T5900/T5850/T5800;Intel ® Pentium™ T4200/T3400/T3200; Intel ® Celeron™ Dual-Core T1700/T1600; Intel ® Celeron™ 585/575

Chipset

SiS 671 DX + SiS 968

Operating System

Microsoft® Windows® Vista™ Home Basic
Microsoft® Windows® Vista™ Home Premium

Main Memory

Up to 4GB (2GB*2) DDR2 800

Display

17.3" (16:9) HD+ (1600*900) LED LCD

Hard Drive

Single HDD: SATA 250/320 (7200/5400 rpm)/ 500 GB (5400rpm)
Dual HDD: SATA 500GB/640GB (7200/5400 rpm)/ 1TB (5400rpm)

External USB
Optical Drive

DVD Super Multi
BD Combo

Video Camera*

1.3M pixels CMOS Camera (Optional)

Fax/Modem/
LAN/WLAN

WLAN Integrated 802.11b/g/n
On board 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet
Built-in Bluetooth v2.1 module (optional)

Dimensions and Weight

466mm x 309mm x 39mm ~ 47mm
4.10kg with 8 cell battery

Source: ASUS



jeudi 18 avril 2013

Angry Birds soda outsells Coca-Cola and Pepsi in Finland

Theres plenty of video-game themed foods and drinks these days and it is of no surprise that a merchandise-loving franchise like Angry Birds would join in with their own soda brand. In the past few months alone, Angry Birds has been working to expand their business into activity parks (Angry Birds Land, in Särkänniemi, Finland), a childrens learning resource and even a debit card. What is a surprise however, is how well this soda is selling in Finland.

I admit the cans are cool, but that must be one hell of a soda to defeat Coke and Pepsi

During the Slush conference in Finland, the Finnish game developers CEO, Peter Vesterbacka, revealed that Angry birds soda; a fruity soft drink in four flavors, has been outselling both Coca-Cola and Pepsi. It is astounding that a novelty soda for a mobile slingshot game is beating out the two largest and biggest soda makers at their own game. Its akin to coca-cola making a video game that outsells Call of Duty.

Rovio is planning to launch the soda in New Zealand and Australia in the near future, and its entirely possible it may make it over to the US soon as well.



mardi 16 avril 2013

the bw review “before watchmen ozymandias” #4

Here we go again.

Len Wein and Jae Lee’s?Before Watchmen : Ozymandias mini-series is getting so far beyond redundant at this point that I really ought to have my head examined for still buying it. Every issue more or less completely drops and/or disregards the various plot threads that had snuck their way in the last time around and swaps them out for another set of themes that are sure to ultimately go nowhere as well. You doubt me? Consider the evidence:

The first issue centers around a leaden retelling of Adrian Veidt’s past, then throws in a wrinkle about his girlfriend OD’ing on unnamed “drugs.” In issue two, Ozy sets out to KO the drug trade, then gets sidetracked into finding out what happened to long-lost mystery man Hooded Justice. In issue three, after tussling with the Comedian while looking for answers to HJ’s ultimate fate, the so-called “Smartest Man In The World” gives up that quest and begins obsessing over Dr. Manhattan instead — all of which brings us up to the current issue, which sees ?Ozy drop his fixation on the big blue guy and instead go into service as an unofficial adviser to President Kennedy during the Cuban Missile Crisis before briefly turning his attention to finding out “Who Killed JFK?” after he’s assassinated and then taking notice of some new costumed vigilantes when they arrive on the scene, namely Rorschach and the Dan Dreiberg-model Nite Owl.

The entire by-the-numbers affair concludes with the iconic first meeting of the Crimebusters, which we’ve also (and already) seen “re-interpreted” from the Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons original in the pages of? the?Nite Owl and?Silk Spectre books, as well, the key difference here being — it’s actually not “re-interpreted” at all, just fucking?redrawn. Seriously. The last two pages of this book are a word-for-word cribbing of the scene as originally scripted by Moore, it’s just that Jae Lee’s drawing it this time.

And speaking of Jae Lee — his art is as stiff, lifeless, and frankly downright?soul-less?here as ever, even if his take on Nite Owl and his ship, Archie, is pretty darn cool-looking in the most strictly formal sense.

If I had to sum up the problem with?Before Watchmen : Ozymandias in one simple phrase, I would just say “lack of inspiration.” Both Wein and Lee seem content to go through the motions and leave it at that, and the flat , neo-classical faux-romanticism of both ?Wein’s embarrassingly purple prose and Lee’s moribund interior art has even managed to bleed its way into ?the cover artwork (variants this time around by our guy Jae and Micheal William Kaluta, respectively, as shown), as well. Four issues in and we’ve gained no particular new insights into the character of Adrian Veidt, and his motivations have been more or less revealed to be exactly what we always figured they were. All in all, this book’s principal creators have expended who the hell knows how many hours of time and effort in telling ?and showing us exactly what we already knew, and it’s getting duller and duller by the page.

Speaking of which, so is the “Curse Of The Crimson Corsair” back-up strip. This little pirate story was really rolling along quite nicely for awhile there, but ever since John Higgins took over the writing as well as the art, the basic plotting (and it is, indeed, fairly basic, considering it’s designed to be delivered, and consequently digested, in two-page snippets) has suffered considerably —- so hey, maybe Len Wein’s not all bad, after all. At this point, while it’s certainly still amazingly cool to look at, the story has degenerated into a bog-standard “quest for lost items to save a damned man’s soul”-type thing, and reading it has become an absolute chore. Again, the inspiration factor seems to be running decidedly low here.

Oh, and while we’re talking of all things uninspired — if you’re wondering just who, indeed, killed Kennedy in the world of?Before Watchmen, the answer is (no drumroll, please)?— Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. Of course.

mercredi 10 avril 2013

Apple to introduce its own proprietary version of USB3.0 and DisplayPort

Although USB3.0 and DisplayPort are interfaces which cater to very different needs, the basis for their design are completely identical; they are both standard interfaces which have been designed to facilitate the transfer of digital content from various electronic devices. And everybody knows how important standards are to our daily computing needs; that is the main reason we do not have to fiddle with cumbersome adaptors when it comes to dealing with various standard expansion and I/O ports found in our PCs today.

That being said, at least one OEM has a fond preference for doing everything its way and tossing out popular existing standards in the process, and it should come as no surprise that Apple is now attempting to do the same with USB3.0 and DisplayPort today. According to a patent which was only recently awarded to Apple, it seems that the Cupertino giant has plans to create an entirely new “hybrid port” which is reportedly capable of delivering both DisplayPort and USB3.0 signals in a single package.


Based on what we are able to understand from the patent filings, the hybrid port will feature a 30-pin connector, of which the various signal types each pin will transmit is shown in the patent illustration below.


Also, based on illustrations of the devices physical dimensions, it can be inferred that Apple might plan to implement this new hybrid port on mobile devices such as its line of iPods, iPhones and iPads first. This is due to the fact that the ports capability to deliver both USB3.0 and DisplayPort signals means that it greatly reduces the amount of space needed to feature dedicated ports for such highly mobile devices, where sufficient real estate for implementing additional I/O ports are a luxury. That being said, Apple does mention that the port may eventually find its way to desktop and notebook PCs.

Of course, with this being Apple we are talking about, it probably goes without saying that such an interface is going to be an Apple-exclusive, just like how the current line of iPods, iPads and iPhones all feature proprietary charging ports even though the micro-USB interface has already been recognized internationally as the standard port to be used for mobile devices.

Feel free to hit up on the source link for more information about the patent and its implementation.

Source: Patently Apple



dimanche 7 avril 2013

ASUS P5WDH Deluxe Testing

We have ran some tests on a modified ASUS P5WDH Deluxe. Results are quite impressive. Take a look here.