How would you change Sony's VAIO T13?
Sony's VAIO T13
was a sub-$1000 Ultrabook with an eye on the education market. While we
were impressed by the results, its low price meant that compromises had
to be made -- especially in the keyboard department. In fact, we were
saddened to see that it was packing shallow keys and weirdly wide
spacing that made it uncomfortable to type on. But if you were one of
those back-to-schoolers who bought one, what did you think of it and
what would you have changed about it?
Filed under:
Laptops,
Sony
Comments
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LG unveils Optimus GK in Korea, brings G Pro features in a 5-inch package
Not
tired of seeing different versions of the Optimus G? LG has just
revealed another variant for Korean customers: the Optimus GK. Similar
to the one-off Optimus G Pro it
delivered in Japan on NTT DoCoMo, this handset has features pinched from the
5.5-inch Pro
(1.7GHz Snapdragon 600 CPU, 2GB RAM) squeezed into a more-pocketable
5-inch frame. The 1080p screen here (440PPI) is Full HD IPS like the one
we're expecting to
see in AT&T's Optimus G Pro in a few days,
matched a 3,100mAh battery, 16GB of storage, microSD slot and 13MP/2MP
rear/front camera setup. This particular variant had been rumored to
launch at MWC but is only now being announced for Korean carrier KT,
we'll see how many more twists LG can wring out of the Optimus G
platform before delivering a true sequel
later this year.
Filed under:
Cellphones,
Mobile,
LG
Comments
Source: LG Korea
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Meebo to retire toolbar on June 6th, plans to focus on Google+ instead
Just over a year ago Google
snapped up a little social outfit called Meebo, quickly
dismantling most of the firm's services. The lone survivor? The
Meebo Bar,
an unobtrusive social toolbar that offers Facebook, Twitter and Google+
connectivity as well as minimal advertising. Nothing lasts forever
though -- Meebo has announced that the Meebo Bar will stop functioning
on June 6th 2013. It's a bit of a bummer for sites that employ the tool,
but at least they won't have to do anything to deactivate the service:
Meebo says the code should become inert as soon as the service
discontinues. The team says it plans to focus its efforts on
Google+ Sign-In and Google+ plug-ins, which it sees as the best way to serve desktop and mobile publishers in the future.
Filed under:
Misc,
Internet
Comments
Source: Meebo
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Refresh Roundup: week of April 22nd, 2013
Your
smartphone and / or tablet is just begging for an update. From time to
time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug
fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are
floating around that it's easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the
mix. To make sure they don't escape without notice, we've gathered every
possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery we could find
during the last week and crammed them into one convenient
roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy!
Filed under:
Cellphones,
Tablets,
Software,
Mobile
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LG will launch the world's first 55-inch curved OLED HDTV (update)
We
heard that the
curved OLED HDTV prototypes LG showed at CES would be coming soon, and now it's official. A Korean press release indicates we can expect the 55EA9800
to launch in the next month, with shipments starting in June. According
to the specs, its 4.3mm depth results in a weight of just 17kg,
probably thanks to a carbon-fiber reinforced frame. Like an IMAX theater
screen, the edges are curved towards the viewer to provide a more
immersive feeling. Given the fact that we're still waiting for
LG's flat OLED TVs
to see a wider release we doubt it will arrive on US shelves any time
soon, but until then you can check out our in-person pics from CES
below, and a video after the break.
Update: LG
sent over the English press release, which confirms pre-orders start
today at more than 1,400 retail locations with a price of 15 million
Korean won ($13,500), a healthy bump over the standard version's $10K
MSRP. Release dates and pricing for non-Korean markets are coming "in
the months ahead," check after the break to read all the details first
hand.
Filed under:
Displays,
Home Entertainment,
HD,
LG
Comments
Source: LG Korea
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OpenMobile ACL for webOS resurrected on Kickstarter, hopes to bring Android apps to HP Touchpad
The
promise of OpenMobile's Application Compatibility Layer is enticing: seamlessly run Android apps on
another operating system as if it was
meant to be there. Unfortunately for fans of Palm's last hurrah, the project's webOS port died with the
HP Touchpad. That won't stop dedicated fans, however --
Phoenix International Communications
plans to resurrect webOS ACL. Taking the project to Kickstarter, the
team is showing an early build on an HP Touchpad, seamlessly running
Android apps in cards alongside native webOS applications. Phoenix hopes
that a functional ACL will reduce Touchpad owner's reliance on
dual-booting Android,
giving them the freedom to enjoy webOS without sacrificing
functionality. The team is promising a relatively short development
time, thanks to OpenMobile's early work, and hopes to deliver a consumer
ready build in July. But first the
Kickstarter campaign will need to meet its $35,000 goal. Interested in pitching in? Check out the Kickstarter link at the source.
Filed under:
Tablets,
HP
Comments
Source: Kickstarter
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The Weekly Roundup for 04.22.2013
You
might say the week is never really done in consumer technology news.
Your workweek, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This
is the Weekly Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top
headlines for the past seven days -- all handpicked by the editors here
at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
Comments
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Switched On: Microsoft's small tablet trap
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.
Based
on last quarter's global PC shipment numbers, Microsoft continues to
feel pain in making the case for Windows is a viable tablet operating
system. Theoretically, the dual-identity (Windows 8/RT) operating system
has everything it needs to be a contender, but the promise is ahead of
the reality on three interdependent fronts: chip-level hardware, legacy
support, and app software.
For example, if x86 chips were more
competitive with ARM processors from a performance-per-watt perspective,
then Microsoft wouldn't be as reliant on Metro-style apps for
functionality. And if more developers were creating Metro-style apps,
then consumers wouldn't have to go to the legacy desktop mode as much to
get things done. (Until the company releases a Metro-style Office,
Microsoft really can't wag its finger too much at third parties.)
Filed under:
Tablets,
Apple,
Microsoft,
HP
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Living with Glass, Day Four: Canyon Carving
Finally,
the flash of newness is wearing off. It's taken a few days, but the
initial novelty of Glass, enjoying wearing it simply because I could
wear it, is running thin. The haze of new gadget excitement is clearing
and we can truly get down to brass tacks -- but that doesn't mean I'm
not having fun. In fact I've had the opportunity to take Glass with me
to do something very fun indeed: ride a Ducati 848 Streetfighter on some
of the most amazing roads in the world.
Even as I did this, a
jaunt more focused on gathering some exciting footage than truly
evaluating the device, I learned some things -- including the fact that a
Google Glass headset doesn't really fit underneath a full-face helmet.
Not comfortably, anyway.
Filed under:
Wearables
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Microsoft working on redesigns for Xbox, Yammer, Skype and Bing
Considering Microsoft's efforts to
rebrand,
redesign
and rebuild its Windows platform, it's no surprise to hear the company
is tweaking the visual aesthetics of its other brands, too. Speaking at
Design Day 2013, Wolff Olins creative director Todd Simmons and Windows
Phone design studio manager Albert Shum talked about the challenges of
rebranding a company like Microsoft. "We're still trying to figure out
how to put a consumer face on this brand, as an ecosystem," Simmons
said, explaining how the team wanted to get away from the idea of
Microsoft being a top-down, monolithic entity. The discussion touched on
the creation of the Windows 8 logo, but also shed light on efforts to
revamp other Microsoft brands. "Other brands are coming along too,"
Simmons explained, teasing the audience with a pair of sketches. "Bing,
Skype,
Yammer, Xbox -- everything is under development." With Microsoft's next generation gaming hardware lurking just
around the corner, the time for a new logo might just be nigh.
Read on to see the pair's full 45-minute presentation for yourself.
Sadly, the presentation was deleted from Vimeo a few hours after we
wrote this article. Check out the source links for a brief summery of
the presentation.
Filed under:
Misc,
Microsoft
Comments
Via: Verge,
Travis Lowdermilk (Twitter)
Source: Vimeo,
Design Day 2013
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The After Math: Exploring Glass, Apple's cash and Nintendo's no-go keynote
Welcome to The After Math, where we attempt to summarize this week's tech news through numbers, decimal places and percentages
We've
been getting our first unfiltered experiences with Google Glass this
week, which makes it the perfect time to go over some of the salient
points up until now. At the same time, Apple sold more hardware, more
apps and made even more money -- it was largely another good quarter for
the Cupertino coffers. Add in a million-second game show and there are
more than enough numbers to play around with in this week's
After Math.
Filed under:
Wearables,
Apple,
Google
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Inhabitat's Week in Green: flying electric car, 3D-printed livers and a two-story-tall bike
Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us -- it's the Week in Green.
The Northern Hemisphere is finally beginning to wake up from a long, cold winter, and
green vehicles are taking to the skies. This week Korean automaker
Hyundai unveiled a multi-rotor flying electric car for congested cities and SolarWorld and PC-Aero announced plans to launch
two new solar-powered electric airplanes at an air show in Germany. Speaking of sun-powered planes,
the Solar Impulse just made its final test flight
around the San Francisco Bay Area before embarking on a cross-country
voyage next week. Even cycling is reaching new heights -- bike hacker
Richie Trimble recently built
a two-story-tall bike that soars above car traffic.
Filed under:
Science
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Paranoid Android teases in-app pop-up window multitasking (video)
As advanced as
multitasking
gets on smartphones, many times you're still left to completely switch
between apps. Paranoid Android is looking to set things into overdrive
with in-app, multiple-window multitasking for its skin of
Android, going beyond the similar (but limited) functionality seen in the likes of Samsung's basked-in
Galaxy
apps. PA's Paul Henschel recently posted a demo to YouTube highlighting
the feature working with various apps on both an Android tablet and a
Nexus smartphone, with a post to Google+ saying it shows less than 10
percent of the planned functionality. If that weren't enough, the post
further clarifies PA's drive to build out its version stating: "We think
these [Samsung, Cyanogen & Cornerstone] implementations suck
and we want to get it right this time." Thirsty for more info? Hit the
source link and the video after the break, while we eagerly wait further
updates.
Comments
Via: liliputing,
Reddit
Source: Paranoid Android (Google+)
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Vermont Telephone Company's gigabit internet service is live, half the price of Google Fiber
Remember how
Google Fiber's recent announcement for planned service in
Austin by 2014 spurred
immediate competition from AT&T?
It's safe to say telcos in other areas have taken note about the
gigabit speeds, not to mention the $70 montly pricing. According to the
Wall Street Journal,
Vermont Telephone Company is now offering gigabit service to some of
its customers for the crazy-low price of $35 bucks a month. To keep
things in perspective,
WSJ notes that roughly 600 folks are
subscribed (out of VTel's total base of about 17.5K) and that the
company is essentially going to be analyzing whether the current pricing
will remain for the long-term. With Google Fiber to continuing to
expand, it's certainly promising to see how superspeed internet is
trickling across the US -- and how easy it's been looking on the wallet.
Filed under:
Internet
Comments
Via: The Wall Street Journal Digits
Source: VTel
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LG Optimus F5 mid-range LTE smartphone hits France April 29, global dispersion to follow
LG's F-series handsets may not be in the same class an
HTC One or
GS4, but we can't help but appreciate the solid specs and LTE-goodness baked into these mid-range devices. Following a
debut alongside its F7 sibling at MWC,
the F5 will begin trickling out to French retailers on April 29th.
While there's no mention of US availability -- despite a recent leak
pegging it for Verizon
-- we do know LG will soon be pushing it out to parts of Asia and
Central / South America. Aimed at markets new to LTE, the smartphone
packs a beefy 2,150mAh battery, 5-megapixel camera, 1.2GHz dual-core
processor and a 4.3-inch screen for showing off LG's skinned version of
Android 4.1.2. If you're curious to give LTE a go and this looks like a
winner, you'll find the full press release after the break.
Filed under:
Cellphones,
Mobile,
LG
Comments
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Samsung Galaxy Mega hits FCC again, this time with LTE
Better start working on those powerball exercises. If Samsung's
Galaxy Mega was the thing you thought your life was missing, it's just landed at the FCC. Yeah, we know
this isn't the first time,
but this second go-round it's the LTE-sporting GT-i9205 model. The
usual lab tests show little that we didn't know already -- unless you
didn't know it had LTE Band 5, dual band WiFi, NFC or GSM 850 / 1900. As
the 5.8-inch isn't 4G-enabled, this means we're looking at the bigger
6.3-inch version, but still no word on if, when or how a version might
land on US shores. Still no harm in limbering up, though, is there?
Update:
Upon further inspection, this variant only uses LTE band 5 (850MHz),
which no US carrier currently uses. It's very unlikely this I9205
variant will hit the US.
Filed under:
Cellphones,
Mobile,
Samsung
Comments
Source: FCC
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