Intel Capital offers up $100M fund for perceptual computing investments
Relating
to a story published earlier, Intel's push for perceptual computing has
led the company to create a $100M investment fund through its Intel
Capital subsidiary. The $100M will be used to fund perceptual computing
projects, such as the 3D-depth camera we reported about earlier today.
Intel
Capital typically invests in up-and-coming technologies, basically
ensuring that Intel's PC chips will continue to be in demand. This
announcement was made during Intel's keynote speech at Computex Taipei
2013:
Devices with human-like senses--the ability to
see, hear and feel much like people do--has long been a subject of
science fiction but is now within reach given recent innovations in
compute power and camera technology. This new fund will invest in
start-ups and companies enabling these experiences, helping them with
the business development support, global business network and technology
expertise needed to scale for worldwide use.
Intel
has previously used Intel Capital to create a $300 million fund to push
Ultrabook development. Intel Capital has been investing since 1991 and
has spread $10.8 billion across 1,284 companies in 54 countries.
AT&T selling BlackBerry Q10 for $200, preorders start June 5
AT&T
users will about to get another mobile device option in the form of the
QWERTY-equipped BlackBerry Q10. QWERTY-equipped devices have become
increasingly rare, so having options is always a good thing.
AT&T will sell the device for $199.99 with new two-year
contract.
AT&T
will be putting the device up for preorder tomorrow, June 5. The actual
release date is still unknown as AT&T has not yet provided a
firm date. The Q10 features a 3.5-inch display, 1.5GHz dual-core
processor, 8MP rear-facing camera, 2MP front-facing camera, 2GB of RAM,
16GB of storage, and a 2,100mAh battery.
Android Jelly Bean at 33% adoption, Gingerbread still has over 36%
One
of the main issues with Google's Android operating system is the lack
of after-purchase support. Manufacturers aren't required to keep devices
up-to-date with the latest versions of Android. This means app
developers have to write code that works on various different versions
of the operating system, making it harder or impossible to do certain
things on older devices.
That's
why it's both good news and bad news that Jelly Bean's adoption rate
has hit 33 percent. It's good that more users are adopting the latest
Android version, but it's also bad because only 33 percent of users have
the latest version. 25 percent are still on Ice Cream Sandwich and a
whopping 36 percent are still on Gingerbread.
It's important to note that Google changed the way it calculates usage percentage:
Note:
Beginning in April, 2013, these charts are now built using data
collected from each device when the user visits the Google Play Store.
Previously, the data was collected when the device simply checked-in to
Google servers. We believe the new data more accurately reflects those
users who are most engaged in the Android and Google Play ecosystem.
ReportTT: iOS 7 'far superior to anything that is available out there'
According
to a Barrons blog, which cites Trip Chowdhry of Global Equities
Research, Apple's iOS 7 could be one for the history books. Most people
currently think of iOS as rather stale because it hasn't seen a major
overhaul since its inception. This could all change with iOS 7, rumored
to be coming at WWDC next week.
Specifically,
Chowdhry says that iOS 7 "has a very simple, clean and uncluttered UI."
He notes that it "may take a little time to be appreciated." This comes
from interviews with 400 to 500 people a month. Chowdhry predicts that "iOS7 is completed new UI, which is far superior to anything that is available out there."
As
an iPhone user, I hope that iOS 7 does bring to the table some major
changes while keeping the simplicity available in the current iOS. I'd
love to see features that were introduced by the jailbreak scene
included in iOS 7. If we do see iOS 7 at WWDC next week, you'll see
coverage of it here.
ReportTT: Amazon expanding grocery business to Los Angeles, San Fransisco
Most
people are unaware of Amazon's grocery business that it runs in its
home base of Seattle. More people are about to become aware, if a report
by Reuters is accurate. According to their sources who are familiar
with the situation, Amazon is preparing to expand its grocery business
to Los Angeles as soon as this week and San Fransisco later this year.
Amazon's
current grocery business utilizes their own fleet of trucks to deliver
fresh produce--eggs, strawberries, and meat--to residents of Seattle.
The current business, AmazonFresh, has been operating for a least five
years. These sources say that the business could expand to 20 aditional
urban areas in 2014, provided the two new markets said to be launching
this year go well.
Grocery experts feel Amazon faces a major
challenge with AmazonFresh. However, if successful, it could pave the
way for Amazon to start delivering their own products via the same
trucks used to deliver the groceries.
Apple believes Campus 2 will add 7K new employees, $32M in property tax, 9K construction jobs, $66M in public improvements
Apple
has released a study detailing the economic benefits they expect to see
from the new Campus 2 project in Cupertino. This report details new
jobs, revenues, and other benefits the city can expect from the project
that was originally started under Steve Jobs' leadership.
Apple
expects to add 7,400 new employees in the new campus, bringing more
spending money for the shops that rely on Apple employees. Apple is
already the largest employer in Cupertino with around 16,000 employees.
With the new campus, that number would swell to 23,400. Apple also
expects to create 9,000 construction jobs for people working on the
building of the new campus.
Apple estimates that they will pay
roughly $32 million more--on top of the $25 million paid in 2012--in
property tax. Apple will also pay $15.4 million annually to the Santa
Clara Valley Transportation Authority. A one-time additional payment of
$38.1 million will be provided for construction fees and taxes.
The
report also states Apple will provide $66 million in local public
improvements, including $2.5 million for affordable housing. $35 million
of that will be used on a "transportation demand management program."
Wikipad will cost $249.99, goes on sale June 11
The
Wikipad gaming tablet was thought to be dead by some after missing its
Halloween release date. Then in February, it came back as a 7-inch
gaming tablet at half the price. The tablet has now been confirmed to be
going on sale June 11 for $249.99. It will be available through
Walmart.com, BestBuy.com, and Tiger Direct.
For
$249.99, you'll get a 7-inch Android 4.1-powered tablet. It rocks a
1280x800 IPS display, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, a microSD slot, GPS,
front-facing camera, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and, of course, the game
controller that can be easily removed.
We would exercise caution on purchasing the device until reviews are out because of its tumultuous history.
Google's new Gmail for iOS app brings the new inbox to iOS devices Google's Android update for Gmail
was leaked yesterday and today sees a similar update for iOS devices.
Google has released an updated Gmail for iOS app that will bring the
newly redesigned inbox to iOS devices, but only if the user has already
enabled the new inbox on the web.
The
app update also brings with it changes to the notification system. The
new app will allow you to configure notifications for each type of
e-mail. This means you can stop receiving new e-mail alerts for e-mail
that arrives to the promotions, social, or other e-mail boxes.
The new app is available from Apple's App Store.
Lenovo enters the cloud storage market with new Reach service, will officially launch 'later this year'
Lenovo
has announced their intentions to enter into the cloud storage market.
Their new service is called Reach and will feature a beta starting June
22. Consumers can preview the service, though only a few select testers
will gain access to the beta.
The
official launch will come "later this year", with the exact date
depending on how smoothly the initial beta goes. Lenovo could have some
trouble gaining market share as there are already a plethora of free
cloud storage offerings. Google, Microsoft, Dropbox, and others offer
centralized storage for free, with more space available for an
up-charge.
With new software offerings like BitTorrent Sync,
Lenovo could face even more difficulty obtaining users as some only use
Dropbox for its syncing functionality. Sync has easily replaced Dropbox
for my needs.
We'll have more on Lenovo Reach when an official announcement is made.
Google planning Web Designer, an HTML5 development tool for sites, apps, ads
Google
has plans to launch a new HTML5 development tool designed for "creative
professionals." This new tool will launch within the "coming months"
and will be a free tool. Google says that the new tool, known as Google
Web Designer, will be able to create "cutting-edge advertising" and "web
content like sites and applications."
The
announcement was made through Google's DoubleClick, making it somewhat
obvious that advertising is Google's main focus with this new tool. In
fact, the tool wil be integrated into AdMob and DoubleClick studio. For
right now, it appears that advertising content is the main focus of the
new tool, but Google's description makes it appear that it will
eventually turn into a website crafting tool.
Pinterest now lets you search your own pins
Pinterest
has announced a new feature that will allow users to search items that
they have pinned, rather than all pins. This will make it easier to find
something you know you pinned. It's really a feature that should have
been included from the beginning. Now it's hear:
When
you type a word into the search bar -- like San Francisco, beaches, or
BBQ -- you can filter results by clicking "Just my pins." We'll show you
everything you've pinned with that keyword in the pin description. Be
sure to add words in your descriptions that will help you find that pin
again.
The feature is rolling out on the web and will
eventually be brought to mobile. Pinterest says they are currently
planning to bring it to mobile, but they have not announced a firm date
for when it will appear.
As part of Zynga's layoffs, OMGPOP has been shut down and employees laid off
Now
unemployed employees of the game studio OMGPOP have taken to Twitter to
announce that they have been unceremoniously laid off. Many will
remember that Zynga acquired OMGPOP just over a year ago after their
smash-hit Draw Something. Now, the studio originally purchased for $200
million or so has been shut down.
TheNextWeb
has done some calculations and worked out that it likely has cost Zynga
at least $400,000 per day for the studio. This includes the purchase
price and write down. They use a generous guess that OMGPOP was revenue
neutral, meaning its profits offset its expenses for staffing and such.
That's
a steep figure, though they might make some of it back with Draw
Something 2. Either way, Zynga has a lot of work head of them to make
that purchase up.
It's Prime time for Dora and pals: Amazon lands exclusive deal with Viacom after Netflix license expires
Early
this morning, Amazon announced that it would be exclusively adding
thousands of TV episodes from media powerhouse of Viacom to its Prime
subscription service. While the content is mostly kids programming, such
as shows like Dora the Explorer and Blue's Clues, the demographic the
shows are aimed at equals billions of dollars in revenue.
Citing
a source close to the deal, The Verge is reporting that the exclusive
licensing contract cost Amazon several hundred million dollars. Viacom's
library will be available to Prime members on the company's Kindle Free
Time service which is a $2.99 per month subscription tacked on to the
yearly Prime membership fee.
So where does this leave Netflix?
The company will still have Disney programming as well as hundreds of
other cartoons and children shows. Amazon does, however, seem to have a
very strong advantage with several of Viacom's properties being the
largest children shows on TV.
ARM releases new Cortex A12 processor Computex Taipei 2013 - ARM
has just unveiled the Cortex A12 at Computex in Taipei, Taiwan. This
new system-on-a-chip is the latest addition to ARM's line of processors
geared towards the mid-range mobile device market. The Cortex A12 is the
successor to the widely popular Cortex A9 which was featured in the
iPhone 4S and the Galaxy S3.
Sporting
four cores, the Cortex A12 is said to be 40 percent more efficient and
30 percent faster than the A9. ARM released this new processor with the
expectations of a massive surge in growth for the mid-range mobile
market. Mobile phones priced around $200 are expected to ship more than
500 million units by the end of 2015.
The road to domination will
not be an easy window as ARM faces ruthless competition from other
manufacturers such as QUALCOMM, Broadcom, Samsung, Intel, and Apple. We
can expect to see the Cortex A12 arrive on the scene in late 2014 or
early 2015.
Google awarded patent that could allow eye tracking on Google Glass
This
morning, we have learned of a new patent that was awarded to Google
that could allow Google Glass users to unlock their device by simply
moving their eyes. This could open up all sorts of possibilities not
only for use within Google Glass, but for further augmented reality
situations.
US patent application number 20130135204 is described by Google as "Methods and systems for unlocking a screen using eye tracking information."
It appears that Glass would display some sort of moving objects such as
a bird flying across the screen. It would then track your eye movement
and if everything is correct, it would unlock your screen.
"The
computing system may determine that a path associated with the eye
movement of the user substantially matches a path associated with the
moving object on the display and switch to be in an unlocked mode of
operation including unlocking the screen," the company said in
the filing. To me, it seems that eye tracking technology is a given for
Google Glass and I kind of expected it to be there from the beginning.
Halo: Spartan Assault arrives on Windows Phone and Windows 8
With
the new Xbox One just around the corner and the upcoming Xbox TV series
directed by Steven Spielberg announced, Halo fans have been eagerly
awaiting news on the next installment in the Halo game series. Today
were finding out that game is here... Well, sort of.
Unfortunately,
the next Halo game is not for the Xbox One, but rather for Windows
Phone and Windows 8 touch-enabled devices. Halo: Spartan Assault,
developed by 343 Studios, appears to be a top-down RTS style shooter.
While this is sure to disappoint some fans, it is only natural for
Microsoft to try and capitalize on Halo's popularity by bringing a
version to touchscreen devices.
"In a nutshell, it's a top-down twin stick arcade-style action shooter," explained Dan Ayoub, executive producer at 343 Industries. "Really, [its] a brand new way to play Halo."
The game does appear to be a major part of the Halo timeline and fills
in the gaps between Halo 3 and Halo 4. The game will also have a
companion comic book series called Halo Initiation which further details
the saga of Sarah Palmer.
343's Kevin Grace:
What
we've got right now has been designed for a single player experience.
There are multiplayer components in the challenges and leader boards --
so you can challenge your friends and get that level of interaction --
but for this story and this particular game, it's just single player.
Apple begins offering in-house broken iPhone screen repair, costs just $149
This
morning, Apple has began offering in-store screen replacements for its
iPhone 5 as part of a move to lower repair cost. A screen replacement
will cost customers $149 with or without AppleCare+. Apple says that the
repairs are available for cracked or broken displays as well as screens
that experience multi-touch issues.
This
change comes after rumors first surfaced last month during a town hall
session where Apple revealed that it would begin in-house repairs that
would effectively save the company approximately $1 billion per year.
The $149 pricing plan falls in line with AppleCare+ pricing which cost
$99 up front and $49 for each replacement. [Editor's note: As
an iPhone owner who paid for AppleCare+, I would expect to pay just $49
for the repair as that is what is stipulated in AppleCare+. It's not
clear if this is what Apple will do, however.]
We get Classified Clearance to check out latest EVGA video cards Computex Taipei 2013
- With new video cards being released over the recent weeks from NVIDIA
we get a chance to sit down and check out the latest offerings from
EVGA to find out just what they're doing with the new high-end single
GPU models from NVIDIA.
As
you'd expect the focus was on the new GTX 700 series and EVGA showed
off four of its main models which starting from the left included the
new EVGA GTX 780 Hydro Cooler which of course carries with ti that
massively mean looking water block.
Moving
across to the right we found ourselves looking at one card that
extremely excites us; the upcoming GTX 780 Classified. Designed in house
the new Classified model is due to offer some extreme performance and
even more extreme overclocking capabilities with improvements in a
number of areas. While final clock speeds for the model haven't been set
yet, It's safe to say that most users of the upcoming model will
probably be firing up EVGA Precision and trying to get even more
performance out of the card.
Having
just released Last week EVGA had on display the new GTX 770 from NVIDIA
with the 2GB ACX cooled card being showed off. We've already got this
card in our lab and soon as we're able to get past Computex we intend to
find out just what kind of performance the model offers. We're
especially looking forward to seeing the cooling numbers on the new ACX
cooler verse the reference one. If the difference is similar to that
between the GTX 780 reference cooler and EVGA GTX 780 ACX card; we
should indeed find ourselves impressed with what's on offer.
Along
with that we saw that EVGA is expanding the Classified series even
further by releasing a GTX 770 version of the model. Doubling the amount
of memory when compared to the standard GTX 770; the new Classified
version hits with 4GB of GDDR5 and of course increased clock speeds and
better overclocking potential when compared to its reference designed
counterpart.
Finally
we finish up with a look at the new upcoming SLI bridges that are
coming from EVGA. Designed purely for aesthetics the new 2-Way and 3-Way
SLI bridges look fantastic. With pricing to be expected to be around
the $29 mark they're indeed not cheap. We can't deny, though, that
anyone wanting to make sure their new SLI setup looks amazing it will be
a must purchase.
Intel and SoftKinetic tease built-in Kinect-like devices for notebooks Computex Taipei 2013 - During
Intel's keynote earlier today at Computex, the chip making giant
alluded to the arrival of embedded 3D-depth cameras arriving on its
devices in the second half of 2014. This technology is the same as
Microsoft's Kinect for Xbox.
SoftKinetic,
a Belgian company, is apparently showing off a notebook that has their
own Time-of-Flight 3D-depth camera molded into the lid. At the moment,
the hardware looks a little large, but not too large to be featured on
laptops in the 13-inch range and larger.
We're
hoping to get a hands-on of the device very shortly. What do you think
about an embedded Kinect in your laptop? While it would be awesome for
gesture-based control, I do not see gaming with the device being that
big of a deal. If we begin seeing the device embedded into smart TVs
then the sky is the limit.
Patriot fill mobile devices gas tank with new Fuel+ Chargers Computex Taipei 2013
- Expanding the line up of products, Patriot today showed off it's
latest devices to hit in the form of the Fuel+ mobile rechargeable
batteries. Carrying the same name throughout the three chargers that
took our fancy included the 1500mAh unit designed or Apple users thanks
to the built-in Lightning connector; something that we're still not
really seeing from a lot of companies.
This
particular unit simply sits on the bottom of your device and has the
ability to not only charge your device but also be charged at the same
time. You can see we've got quite a small foot print to the device due
to the smaller 1500 mAh battery but for people who want to make sure
they've got enough power during the day. It's a great little option.
If
you're looking for something a little larger in terms of power and
flexibility the below units might be just what you're looking for with
options of 2000 mAh and 3000 mAh for single USB ported units and larger
5200 mAh to 9000 mAh options for dual USB port options.
With
the ability to also charge the device and the battery at the same time
the new Fuel+ units give us some great flexibility. The Dual USB Port
models take that flexibility even further with the ability to charge two
devices at the same time. Not only that, though, the 2.5A port offered
on the dual port model means that charging can happen even faster on
supported devices. Keep an eye out in the coming weeks as we get a
chance to have a closer look at just what Patriot is offering us.
EVGA show off Z87 motherboards and remind us of X79 Computex Taipei 2013
- This morning we got the chance to head over to the EVGA Suite at the
popular Grand Hyatt to check out some of the latest offerings that the
company was going to be offering us in the coming months. Working hard
recently to become a competitor in the extremely tough motherboard
segment we saw EVGA show off a number of upcoming motherboards based on
the new Z87 chipset that was just released by Intel over the past
weekend.
The
first board we saw was the upcoming Z87 Stinger based on the Mini-ITX
form factor which we saw sitting in the new Mini-ITX barebone system
that EVGA had just launched. In Typical Mini-ITX fashion there's not a
whole lot to the motherboard due it's small nature. Looks wise it's
pretty nice, though, with the black PCB and red highlights which is very
typical EVGA.
Moving
away from the Mini-ITX based board we had a look at two of the larger
options from the company which include the Z87 FTP which is the more
mainstream board while users looking for something a little more
powerful will indeed be eyeing off the Z87 Classified.
Following
the same black and red setup that we saw on the Z87 Stinger, the Z87
FTW looks great and looks to offer a fairly standard setup when it comes
to features. You can see eight SATA ports towards the bottom right
corner while towards the top right you can see we've got a power and
reset button. We've got a pretty strong looking heatsink around the CPU
area and a nice clean area that shouldn't have an issue with any
heatsinks.
The
slightly larger Z87 Classified drops a lot of the red highlights and
offers a much larger heatsink setup which covers a PLX chip to help
expand the number of PCIe lanes that are on offer. For enthusiasts who
want to jump on the new Z87 chipset and want to make use of a serious
video card setup, this is indeed going to be one of the boards you'll
keep an eye out for.
While
the Z87 might be the new flavor of the month we continue to know that
anyone looking to build a system based around the most powerful
components in the world will indeed want to be looking at the X79
chipset. Not forgetting about enthusiasts around the world the upcoming
X79 Dark from EVGA offers a 12 Layer PCB, improved cooling and
overclocking features, redesigned CPU VRMs, the best industry IR power
stages for efficient power to your CPU along with 4-Way SLI support on
this E-ATX based motherboard.
While we had managed to have a
quick sneak peek at it a few weeks ago; we also got a chance to check
out the new UEFI BIOS design that EVGA has been working extremely hard
on. Across the top you've got some of the main highlights including
voltages, temperature and clock speeds to name just a few things. Across
the bottom you can see a very standard setup when it comes to options.
As always if you're in this area you'll no doubt find yourself in the
overclocking section.
While
as always the ability to use the mouse is available to navigate, most
people will probably find themselves using the keyboard to move through
quickly. It has to be said that the performance of the BIOS is extremely
good and navigating throughout the BIOS is both easy and fast. We'll
see this BIOS on all the upcoming Z87 boards and the soon to be released
X79 Dark. When it comes to previous motherboards, we were told it would
depend on time constraints. EVGA has indeed had feedback from customers
who would love to see the updated BIOS offered on older boards.
EVGA expand their line up with mITX barebone and new PSUs Computex Taipei 2013
- This morning we got the chance to head over to the EVGA Suite at the
popular Grand Hyatt to check out some of the latest offerings that the
company was going to be offering us in the coming months. Entering and
saying hello we then got taken over to the upcoming power supplies that
EVGA plan to launch soon which will expand the lineup they already have
on the market.
Expanding
the already known SuperNOVA series EVGA sees the new 1300G2 and 1000P2
added to the lineup which already increases a strong lineup of units.
The new 1300G2 is a 80 Plus Gold Rated unit that sits between the
current 1000G2 and NEX1500 units. The 1000P2 on the other hand is a 80
Plus Platinum rated 1000 Watt unit. A new lower budgeted 500B model is
also coming that carries the 80 Plus Bronze rating and of course comes
in at 500 Watt.
Along
with an expansion to the PSU line; EVGA will soon be releasing its own
Mini-ITX Barebone System coming with a Case, Power Supply and Thin
Optical Drive that can be optioned as DVD or Blu-Ray. Showing off the
new barebone with the upcoming Z87 Stinger Motherboard, new Intel i7
4770K CPU and a GTX TITAN. EVGA showed us just what the tiny system was
going to be capable of handling.
With
a window on one side and a very clean looking front and support for two
120mm fans at the top of the unit the new Mini-ITX Barebone from EVGA
looks great and is capable of holding some extremely powerful hardware
with the ability to fit a GTX TIAN being in deed one of the more
attractive options. Heat and Noise levels on the powerful unit looked
good and EVGA told us that they had worked on the included power supply
to make sure noise levels on it came in at an acceptable level as these
smaller, thinner Power Supply Units have a tendency to be quite loud.
EVGA
also let us know that a water cooling version could be offered as holes
are provided at the back of the case for water pipe tubing.
Corsair strap us in for some high-speed memory clocks Computex Taipei 2013
- While hanging out with Corsair a fair bit yesterday afternoon at the
OC Main Event hosted by Intel and Themselves, we decided to head over to
the Grand Hyatt Suite to see if they had anything else they could show
us. Walking into see a cloud of LN2 greet us we headed over to Jake to
see what exactly was going on.
Using
an ASUS ROG Haswell motherboard we got a chance to check out the
upcoming 3200MHz DDR C11 kit coming from Corsair under the Vengeance Pro
label. On display at 3201.8MHz DDR the CL 11-14-14-36-2T kit from
Corsair will indeed be for users who are looking for the most extreme
out of the box performance.
Asking
a couple of questions about the kit we quickly find ourselves
discovering that the kit will probably no doubt be something that many
more people will be able to take advantage off then when compared to the
previous 2800Mhz DDR kit we saw from the company.
One of the
biggest benefits to the new Haswell platform is the extremely strong
Internal Memory Controller. Asking some questions about how they were
going with chip binning, we were told that achieving 3000MHz DDR on most
CPUs isn't an issue. 3200MHz DDR also sees to be a number that comes up
quite regularly meaning that you're not going to have to go through
dozens of chips to find a CPU that can achieve that speed.
While
anything over 2700MHz DDR on the previous generation Intel chips needed
a lot of work, time and money. It seems that It isn't until around the
4000MHz DDR where you really need to be putting in that amount of time
and effort.
Considering the new Haswell platform has just
launched, it's going to be an interesting couple of months as we see the
most enthusiast based memory companies fight it out for supremacy.
ASUS' PowerPad will power your PC from a simple, tiny battery that doubles as a smarphone charger Computex Taipei 2013
- I'm really loving ASUS' innovations at this year's Computex, and
something that caught my eye was their new Power Pack, which we have a
video on, below.
The
Power Pad plugs into the front of your ASUS PC, and when the power is
removed from the PC (during a blackout, or someone kicks your cord out)
the Power Pack kicks in and runs your PC. Better yet, it doubles as a
smartphone and tablet charger with its two built-in USB ports. ASUS,
this is the kind of stuff I love you for, truly. What are your thoughts
on this? A battery within a PC, who would've thunk it?
ASUS' ZenBook Infinity looks like heaven, in an Ultrabook Computex Taipei 2013
- ASUS have shown off their upcoming Zenbook Infinity, their sure fire
hit of a product. There's not much known on the Zenbook Infinity, apart
from the amazingly seductive way ASUS showed it off in the Le Meridien,
Taipei.
It
was housed in a square glass case, where what felt like half of Taipei
were standing around with cameras snapping videos away. It looks
incredible, it's thin and beautiful, and I'm sure it would even feel
like that, too. We can't go on too much about it, as there's nothing to
go on, but you can bet your bottom dollar that as soon as we sniff up
the trail, we'll be on it like crazy.
If
I had to guess some specs, I'm expecting no less than Intel's
fourth-generation Core processor, aka Haswell, 16GB of RAM, a
high-resolution display (ASUS wouldn't confirm if it were over 1080p or
not, something I hope), and a 256GB (or so) SSD. The keyboard looks
great, from what I could see through the glass, but we'll just have to
wait and see.
Western Digital My Passport Edge for Mac 500GB External HDD Review
Over
the last few years Western Digital has taken to the drawing board,
redesigning their entire external drive line-up. Nowhere is this more
evident than in the Mac based portable storage, turning the My Passport
into an extension of the MacBook itself. To do this WD has foregone the
Firewire ports found on Studio model and has went with a single USB 3.0
connection, utilizing a custom PCB.
In the lab today we have the
500GB My Passport Edge for Mac. Coming in at just 10mm thick, the Edge
offers maximum portability for those on the go. Utilizing the included
WD Smartware software, the My Passport is easily configurable as an
automated backup device, with compatibility of the Edge extending as far
as Mac OS in its preformatted Journaled file system (JFS) and even
Windows after a simple reformat. We are using it in the Windows
configuration for this review.
Our
Edge review sample was delivered to us in it retail packaging. Here we
find the capacity listed at the top right with a nice product image
front and center.
Upon opening the packaging we find the Edge tucked away behind a clear plastic container.
The
scope of delivery for the My Passport Edge is all based on simplicity,
as we found the drive, USB 3.0 cable and user manual in the box.
The single USB 3.0 connection sits on the edge of the drive with a white LED to indicate drive activity.
The
back of the drive carries all the model identifiers. I should also
point out that the entire shell of this drive is made of CNC machined
aluminium and offers maximum durability.
When
I review any product, as you may know by now, I always tear them down
and show you the bare parts. Some may not think that this is necessary,
but to those of you that enjoy seeing internals as I do, it makes the
entire process worth it. Seen above we found the Edge to use a
WD5000LMVW drive. This drive is a custom variant of what I believe to be
part of the Blue series from WD.
The
backside of the drive shows off the custom red PCB for the Edge. Up top
notice that the PCB houses the USB 3.0 connection on-board.
As
of late WD has begun to push their WD SmartWare software out with all
of their external storage devices. I find this a great part of the
bundle, as it only enhances the storage ability. Here we have updated
our SmartWare to version 2.0, and upon opening it, we found it picked up
our My Passport and My Net router in one shot.
Setting
up the My Passport as a backup solution was rather simple with
SmartWare. After setting up our backup frequency and enabling the device
as the solution, it took off with the power of USB 3.0 moving it along
rather quickly. The entire process took no more than five minutes.
Retrieving
or restoring you're backed up files is just as simple as it was to back
them up. Through SmartWare you find two options of restoring, to the
original location or to separate folder of your choosing.
Another
option from within Smartware is Dropbox as you may have noticed on the
main page. After setting up your account to work with Dropbox, SmartWare
will allow for direct backups.
To test external storage
platforms I utilize three of the most well-known and respected benchmark
applications. ATTO Disk Benchmark is the first and is recognized as the
industry standard for marketing specifications. The second, CDM or
Crystal Disk Mark, offers sequential read and write metrics, 512K random
read and writes and 4K data with Queue Depths up to 32. Through
DiskBench we offer real-world testing as it offers a custom data set
that can be controlled by the user. For our testing I use a 10GB
directory of mixed data that includes, pictures in both the RAW and JPEG
file formats, AVCHD video and documents in both the XLS and DOC
formats.
Testing
the My Passport Edge in ATTO left us with a peak read speed of 112MB/s
with the write speed following closely at 110MB/s.
Looking
over our numbers achieved within CDM, I found the My Passport matching
sequential numbers with ATTO. More impressive, the 512K random writes
were touching 60MB/s.
In
our real-world testing with DiskBench, we found the WD My Passport to
be most impressive, becoming the fastest drive in our charts despite
plenty of competition from our set of ADATA drives.
Having the
opportunity to test quite a few external storage options over the past
few months, I have come away quite impressed with the My Passport Edge,
and not just in terms of performance. The drive itself is designed to be
thin and act as an extension to your MacBook, but I think it would
really complement any Ultrabook or notebook, too.
The included WD
SmartWare software offers one of the easiest solutions when it comes to
data backup and restoration, which I find to be something that really
enriches the environment the end-user experiences. The additional
support for Dropbox is also a welcomed addition, and I suspect as
Box.com gains popularity we may find this included as well.
Performance
of the Edge was top-tier with our unit topping out at 112MB/s in both
ATTO and CDM. Real-world testing netted us a chart leading 105MB/s in
directory copy.
Pricing of the Western Digital My Passport Edge
in its 500GB capacity is set at a very comforting $79.99 with
availability extremely high. Western Digital covers the Passport Edge
with a three year warranty.
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