source: Akihabara News
Showing posts with label First. Show all posts
Showing posts with label First. Show all posts
Friday, July 8, 2011
Sony will launch its first batch of Vaio Z at the End of July in Japan
source: Akihabara News
Toshiba unveils Qosmio F750 3D, first glasses-free 3D laptop
It will feature a 120Hz, 15.6-inch screen that uses “a lenticular lens sheet to send different images to the left and right eyes.” The effect is said to vary, depending on how close you are to the screen, but is said to have a more pronounced effect than the Nintendo 3DS for example. If you're wondering why that sounds familiar, it's because Toshiba has already used that very same technology in their glasses-free 3D TV – the Regza GL1.
The laptop will be running on an Intel Core i7 processor with NVIDIA GeForce 540M graphics, a 640GB hard drive, Blu-ray XL drive, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n and Bluetooth 3.0 + HS.
It also packs 6GB DDR3 worth of RAM, three USB 2.0 ports, one USB 3.0 port along with Harman Kardon stereo speakers and Dolby Advance Audio HDMI-CEC.
It also features a HD webcam, which it uses for eye-tracking, to better optimize the 3D display, which means that you won't be gathering your friends or family around your laptop to watch 3D movies together.
Weighing in at 2.8kg and with dimensions at 37.6mm thick, 380.55mm wide and 254mm deep, we can hardly call it portable or light, but if 3D movies and gaming is what you're going for, this laptop should do the trick.
Sites who have managed to get their hands on the laptop have claimed that the 3D is not very impressive, as slight change in head movement will cause the image to become distorted, although they have noted that this could be due to the fact that the models they receive may not be the final or polished product that Toshiba intends to put out into the market. Price wise we are looking at about 1,300 Euros and should be going on sale next month.
source: Ubergizmo
Monday, June 27, 2011
Samsung Galaxy S II First Impressions
The Samsung Galaxy S II is coming to Canada soon. We aren’t able to divulge carrier details but during a media briefing we had a chance to play with the device, my first impressions are below and will follow up with a full review shortly.
Samsung has a solid competitor not only to the iPhone, but to the rest of the highly-competitive smartphone market. It seems like they’ve taken their hard-earned lessons to heart, and improved in every way upon the original.
Hardware
The hardware is all plastic, but its lineage owes far more to the Nexus S and Infuse 4G than to the original Galaxy S series. It’s clear Samsung learned a few things from the original: plastic is fine as long as it doesn’t creak; plastic is fine as long as it doesn’t invite fingerprints.
The SGS2 improves upon the first in both respects: the main plastic body extends through the sides and partway to the back, creating a very sturdy “unibody” casing that feels far sturdier than any previous Samsung device I’ve used, while keeping it admirably thin at 8.5mm. That’s 1.4mm thinner than the original.
Before moving onto the front, I must note that the battery cover, which only fits over a portion of the entire back, seems flimsy and breakable. But Samsung has done some wonderful things with plastic, as this thing bends and bends while maintaining its shape. It also has a wonderful ribbed pattern that feels great in the hand and provides more grip than the smooth back of the original Galaxy S.
The screen is hands-down the best in the business. Discount for a second that the 4.3? display still displays the same number of pixels as the 4? original, and some 30% fewer than the 3.5? iPhone 4. Once you see it, you will understand. The blacks are the blackest, the colours the most vivid, the text the sharpest. I don’t know how else to explain it, but when I am reading black text on a white background it feels like I’m reading a piece of paper. There is no screen at all. This is likely because the screen itself is so close to the glass, preventing that disconnected feeling you get from looking at a lower-quality LCD. I wish this didn’t read like hyperbole, but it’s the only way I can describe it. With a slightly higher resolution, the Super AMOLED display of the Galaxy S II would be perfect. As it stands, there are issues with pixel density and aliasing that are not present on the iPhone 4's Retina Display. But the 4.3? size makes it far easier, for me at least, to comfortably read articles, books and web pages.
The design is also commendable. There is a simplicity to the face that is absent from most other Androids. When the screen is off, only the Home button is visible, as the Back and Menu buttons are lit only when needed. There is a noble austerity to the entire device, from its solid lightness to its lack of pretension. It has just two ports: a combination USB/HDMI port on the bottom (known as a MHL port) and a 3.5mm headphone jack on top. The left side finds the small black volume rocker and on the right a power button. There is a single speaker on the bottom rear of the device, where a small chin protrudes.
The phone at 116g is meagre, but weighted perfectly. Holding it to talk is not cumbersome, despite its ample size.
Software
The Galaxy S II ships with TouchWIZ 4, a skin which at first resembles its much-derided predecessor. Luckily, Samsung has made some drastic improvements to performance and aesthetic over the past year, and I can happily say it rivals Sense in responsiveness and usefulness.
Give me a stock Android skin any day of the week, but some of the features Samsung has added to the new TouchWIZ are admirable. But more than anything, this is Android running flawlessly, without slowdowns, crashes or memory problems. That it took a device with a 1.2Ghz dual-core processor and 1GB RAM to finally tame the wild beast that is Android is a bit mystifying, but tame Android it does.
Browsing flies. The stock browser is hardware-accelerated, and over 3G or WiFi performance is unprecedented. There is an iOS-like kinetic scrolling mechanism that all but does away with j***y Android browser scrolling. Pinching your fingers together brings up the tab menu. It’s a simple thing that, combined with the flawless performance, makes me want to use the stock browser. I haven’t done that since 2008.
Elsewhere
The Galaxy S II has Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread loaded, and the dark aesthetic has been adapted nicely to work with TouchWIZ. The camera app has been given a nice visual overhaul, and the 8MP camera takes great shots. Focus is fast, and photos have a nice amount of detail, though colours are somewhat muted giving surroundings a dreary look. Some people prefer the way colours “POP” on the iPhone 4, but I think it’s a misnomer to say its quality is superior. Rather, it seems that Samsung captures colours more accurately, and certainly with more detail. It’s a matter of opinion whether purists will prefer Samsung’s results. The 2MP front camera also take nice photos in good lighting and the phone natively supports video calling, though as far as I can tell only between Samsung devices.
Bundled apps are appreciated, but cannot be removed, which is a shame. There are four hubs: Games, Social, Music and Readers, each powered by a different third-party service. For example, Music is a modified version of 7Digital’s Android app, and Readers is a combination of Zinio, PressDisplay and Kobo. Surely Samsung could have left these out without opposition, but for them it’s a matter of trying to sell content on the device a la iTunes and differentiate from the other Android manufacturers who are without licensing deals.
While the SGS2 doesn’t have a Tegra 2 processor in it, it’s arguably a better gaming machine than the equivalent Optimus 2X or Motorola Atrix. It achieves an awesome 3200+ points on the Quadrant benchmark, compared to around 1500 from the Nexus S and 2500 from the Atrix.
Battery life has proven a marvel. At 1600mAh, it’s some 300milliamps less than the Atrix, and yet it seems to last far longer. In fact, the Galaxy S II has the best battery life of any Android device I’ve tested to date. I clocked nearly 26 hours on a single charge and still had 19% left before I recharged it, and that was with doing what I normally do through the day: browsing, calls, Twitter, email and camera. I’ve heard good things from other users, too, so I know I’m not a lucky aberration.
I’ll leave the rest for the review, but so far, so good. If you’ve had a bad experience with Android before, there is still a lot to like about the Samsung Galaxy S II. Make no mistake though, this is one of the smoothest smartphone experiences I’ve ever had, and that includes extensive use of the iPhone 4. Sure, the experience is different, and some would say not as refined, but there are few if any tasks one cannot accomplish as quickly or easily on the SGS2 as they can on an iOS device. It’s taken this long, but with the latest iteration of Samsung, HTC and Motorola devices, it seems that the hardware has finally caught up with the demands of the Android software.
—-
In no particular order, here are a couple field notes of what Samsung has added to the experience:
- Double-tap the home screen for Vlingo-powered voice commands. This also works at the home screen
- Touch two points of a web page / photo and tilt the phone to zoom in and out
- Move icons around the homescreens by tilting the phone
- Mute incoming calls and sounds by turning over the phone
- Press and hold an empty part of the home screen to bring up a custom editing menu with excellent widget support
- 7Digital-powered Music Hub
- Extensive social media support through the Social Hub
- Readers Hub with News/Books/Magazine support (PressDisplay/Kobo/Zinio)
- Game Hub powered by mobage
- Built-in Video Maker and Photo Editor
- Kies air management to connect phone to PC or Mac
- Built-in IM client, FM Radio, Polaris Office
By Daniel Bader
Mobilesyrup
Sunday, May 15, 2011
First iPad, iPhone 3GS Outselling Newer Android-Based Products
Sales of older generation Apple products are outpacing more current Android-based devices, new research reveals.
A survey from Canaccord Genuity originally reported by AppleInsider shows that while the iPhone 4 is "by far" the best-selling device at both AT&T and Verizon stores, products like the first-generation iPad and the iPhone 3GS are still selling quite well.
"Interestingly, our April checks indicated continued strong demand for the iPhone 3GS at AT&T and iPad 1 at Verizon, as these older generation products with reduced prices often outsold new Android products," Canaccord analyst Michael Walkley said in a note to investors. "We believe this highlights Apple's significant competitive advantage, and these older products help Apple offer a tiered pricing strategy at key channels."
Canaccord found that the iPhone 3GS, which is competitively priced at $49, outsells Android-based smartphones like the HTC Inspire or the Motorola Atrix. Unsurprisingly, Walkley also said the iPad is the best-selling tablet on the market. By contrast, other tablets have had "modest sales," such as RIM's BlackBerry PlayBook, the Motorola Xoom, or the Samsung Galaxy Tab.
It seems other tablet makers are faced with an uphill battle when it comes to competing with Apple. In fact, a recent DigiTimes report said that in light of lackluster sales of non-Apple tablets, many companies have to deal with the issue of excess inventory of their devices. Apparently, the market has a limited demand of just 20 million units, while there is only demand for 20 million tablets this year.
In spite of a decline in Apple sales in the first quarter down to 4.69 million units from the previous number of 7.33 units, Walkley also noted that both the 16GB and 32GB first-gen iPads sold out within two weeks after the launch of the iPad 2.
However, Android still has a strong foothold on the smartphone market. The most recent numbers from comScore showed Google's mobile platform to be the most popular OS in the country, with 31.2 percent of the market. RIM sits in the second spot with 30.4 percent of the space, and Apple holds steady with about a quarter (24.7 percent) of the mobile market.
For now, it appears Apple has benefited from discounting older-generation models of its popular products.
Sunday, May 8, 2011
First Impressions: Asus Transformer Tablet
The latest Android 3.0 tablet shows off an innovative design with its keyboard dock.
On its own, the Asus Eee Pad Transformer TF101 Tablet doesn't look as if it's about to set the tablet wars on fire. But after spending time with the Transformer ($399 for the 16GB model, $499 for the 32GB version) and its matching keyboard dock, I think Asus is on to something.
My full review of the Transformer is in progress, but I wanted to share my initial impressions after spending some hands-on time with the tablet. When I first turned it on, I noticed immediately some pleasant user-interface improvements that Asus made to stock Android 3.0 (Honeycomb).
For starters, the core navigation buttons are dramatically better. Asus replaced the standard Honeycomb nav buttons (three light-blue outlines that serve as the primary navigation aids at the lower left of the screen) with three white, solid button formations that are crisp and distinct. In particular, the back/exit button represents its function with a looping return arrow--an improvement on the stock Honeycomb's chintzy back arrow that looks more like a bookmark symbol.
Another big change involves the Asus keyboard. The stock Honeycomb keyboard is available as an option, but by default the Transformer uses Asus's own keyboard. The redesigned keyboard has a row of number keys up top; and keys in both the number row and the first letter row are slightly taller than the ones on the rest of the keyboard. The keyboard appears to occupy about the same depth as the regular Honeycomb keyboard, but with the added benefit of the number row (a native first among Android 3.0 tablets). The keyboard incorporates Google's predictive text, too, another native first for an Android 3.0 tablet. Unfortunately, this feature behaved a bit unpredictably in my testing. For example, it didn't work consistently when filling in fields in the Web browser. Also, the keyboard sacrifices some of its QWERTYness--by having its Z and S keys stacked, for example. On the whole, the keyboard was responsive.
The Transformer gets its name, of course, from its companion piece, the $149 Mobile Docking Station. And Asus got this crucial part of the equation right. Though I wish that the USB ports weren't protected by covers that I'll often have to remove to reveal them, and though I regret that the space bar depresses below the bezel separating it from the touchpad, those are minor drawbacks.
The Mobile Docking Station transforms the Transformer into a netbooklike clamshell that weighs just under 3 pounds when combined (the docking station itself weighs 1.41 pounds). The two pieces fit together seamlessly and easily, unlike keyboards that are of separate sizes and designs from the tablet (as is true of Bluetooth keyboards for the iPad 2); and the solution is far more integrated and elegant than even the best-designed iPad cases I've seen that include a keyboard. The Transformer ends up looking smart and acting clever: The touchscreen is fully operational while plugged in, save for access to the on-screen keyboard; but in addition, some key buttons--including Android back/exit and home buttons--are integrated into the keyboard. The island-style keys are distinct and easy to press; they made accurate typing a breeze for this touch-typist. And by marrying the two components, you'll get extra battery life (which Asus estimates will increase by about 72 percent over the battery life for the tablet alone). If you needed to grab the Transformer and its Mobile Docking Station on the run, you could do so with one hand, a convenience for mobile professionals.
Asus clearly is being aggressive with the Transformer. The 16GB model costs $100 less than the comparable Apple iPad 2. The Android 3.0 app environment remains a big question mark, but the Transformer plus Mobile Docking Station has the potential to be a winning combination for prospective tablet owners who plan to use the device for both productivity and entertainment. Look for more details in my forthcoming full review.
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