There’s another tablet set to launch here soon on the market, but that doesn’t mean you should take your eyes off the competition just yet. With videos like this one after the break, we’re pleasantly surprised by what HP, Microsoft, and Adobe have worked together to create. Now, if the HP Slate can function as well as these videos showcase, our anticipation for this gadget will increase ten-fold. Plus, we love crossword puzzles.
The first thing to keep in mind when looking at the Slate from HP, is that the majority of specifications are still a mystery. While we can make a bunch of assumptions about what’s powering the tablet device, until there is any kind of official summary, that’s all they’d be: assumptions. It is running the full version of Windows 7, so that has a lot of people warming to the device, but also has the same amount of people running in the opposite direction. We understand that Flash Player empowers about 75% of the video we see every day on the Internet, but this video does indeed feel like a direct stab at Apple. HP/Adobe/Microsoft: “Look what we can do!”
In any event, it looks like Microsoft is starting to see that marketing their products, especially the ones that may not be as popular as some others, may be a good thing. The HP ad that’s posted below is one that makes the Slate look like a real competitor to the iPad, but there are some out there that may think it just makes the Apple-based tablet look better. Personal preference, we imagine. So, what’s yours? Are you awaiting the Slate? Or are your eyes looking at something else?
Things are getting thinner. It’s looking like “thin” may be the new “small,” when it comes to the tech industry. It’s been a long time coming, truth be told, and as long as all our gadgets don’t start snapping in half like a thin stick, we’re happy with where this could all lead to. Companies like Acer want to help us get there, by offering up some pretty intuitive ideas, even if it does scare us that our screen may not be encased by anything at all.
What we mean is, to save the laptop’s thinness, Acer wants to create a laptop that uses a frameless screen. Acer wants to use Corning’s reinforced class substrate, and therefore you won’t be seeing the traditional encasement over your screen. Acer would just like to color the back of the substrate to match their needs, and go from there. This design methodology works on two fronts: one, it will allow for the laptop to be incredibly thin on the “top-half,” and also reduce material costs for the company. Again, as long as our gadgets are safe in normal every day use, we’re fine with this.
On the “bottom-half,”, we’ve got the keyboard. Traditionally, this is where the majority of the weight, size, and everything else goes, so Acer has a plan for this as well. They want a touch-based keyboard. No “physical” keys, but more akin to what you’d see on your touchscreen phone. We understand that there is a pretty thick line out there, dividing those who like touchscreen keyboards and those who want a more traditional one, so this would probably be chalked up to personal taste more than anything else. There isn’t any word on pricing yet, but Acer does plan to have this laptop out some time in the second half of this year. So, start counting down the months.
Do it yourself kits aren’t new, and it’s not even a new phase washing over the world. People have been finding ways to make things on their own for quite a long time. It’s part of man’s ingenuity. But some times, or maybe even more often than not, doing it yourself can be a real pain. Well, Pixel Qi wants to make it at least a little bit easier for you to replace that bland ol’ LCD screen on your laptop by offering you a do it yourself kit.
Over at the Pixel Qi blog, Mary Lou Jespen clarified a few certain points about the kits. She elaborated on the planned release date, and even expounded on why Pixel Qi is doing anything like this in the first place. First, the kits will be available by the end of the second quarter, this year. The company is going to offer up more official details when the launch gets closer. Secondly, Jespen goes on to say
that during her time in Nigeria, she realized that a kit like this could be far more beneficial than people realize. Especially with the technology that Pixel Qi utilizes (a combination of LCD and E-Ink), the uses are almost endless. In her recollection, she elaborates that 11-year old girls were taking it upon themselves to fix the monitors on laptops in their region. With this story, she alludes to the fact that changing the screen on a laptop is “only slightly more difficult t
han changing a lightbulb.” Basically, remove the bezel, unplug the current screen and then plug the Pixel Qi one in. Now, if you’re a fan of the warranty that comes with your laptop, this is obviously not the way you want to go. But, whether you’re out of your warranty of you’re just one of those people that love to do things on your own, we can’t stop you.
MSI Computers has officially announced the availability of their latest Wind model netbook, the U160. This particular model is actually the winner of the 2010 iF Product Design award, and the company is proud to finally bring the product to the consumers. They’re also happy to be abandoning the far more traditional, and perhaps over-used, clamshell design of netbooks. They’re going the route of a far more sophisticated look, and we have to say we like the aesthetics.
The U160 features the Pine Trail platform, the second model to do so from MSI’s line-up, and it’s powered by the 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450 processor. The netbook is Energy Star Efficient, and in point of fact, while utilizing the MSI-exlusive ECO mode, the battery will last you 15 hours. So while running in this mode, you’ll be safe going outside, and away from a plug to power your gadget. Which is a plus in our book.
Aesthetically, the MSI U160 has a lot of improvements. The chiclet keyboard is easy to type on, and the expanded, seamless touchpad makes it a lot easier to utilize the body of the netbook as a whole. The MSI logo on the back cover lights up when in use, so that’s a little feature that we know a few people out there will enjoy. The display is 10-inches and backlit by LEDs. Under the hood, we have 1GB of DDR2 memory; 160GB hard drive; the 6-cell battery; Bluetooth connectivity, and it’s running Windows 7 Starter Edition. MSI threw in an extra feature: the U160 also includes their facial recognition software, EasyFace, to help secure their product. The US160, as we mentioned above, is available right now from brick-and-mortar stores like Fry’s Electronics, but can also be ordered from Newegg.com and Buy.com. The new stylish netbook will cost you $379.99
We did little to disguise how impressed we were with the HTC Hero when we reviewed it all the way back in July 2009. At the time we suggested it was the device with which Android came of age; since then, of course, we’ve seen a huge growth both in the number of manufacturers and devices available, and in Android itself. Into that fray wades the HTC Legend, undoubtedly one of the stand-out devices from MWC 2010 in February and packing the latest versions not only of Android but of HTC’s Sense, which rather fittingly debuted with the Hero. Can HTC history repeat itself? Check out the full SlashG
ear review after the cut.
HTC Legend unboxing:
Specifications-wise, the Legend marks some key changes over the Hero and some points where we wish HTC had been a little more forthright. The Legend has a 3.2-inch HVGA display, like the Hero, but this time around it’s an AMOLED panel rather than LCD. Similarly, there’s a 5-megapixel autofocus camera, but now it has an LED flash. Where the Hero used a 528MHz chipset, the Legend gets Qualcomm’s 600MHz MSM7227; a speed increase, yes, but short of the 1GHz Snapdragon on the Google Nexus One and HTC’s own Desire.
In fact, there’s a feeling that HTC are pushing the Legend into the mid-range market, rather than aiming for the flagship status the Hero once occupied. We can’t argue the strategy – however much we generally prefer faster processors – and nor can we argue what the Legend brings to its new tier. Most notable is the construction: gone is the Hero’s Teflon-coated plastic, with a new, unibody aluminum casing taking its place. HTC describes their latest design focus as “hidden power”, but with the Legend it’s anything but disguised: by carving the phone’s casing out of a solid block of metal, they’ve been able to do away with a separate outer shell and thus make the whole thing smaller than the smartphone it replaces.
The only plastic to be found is the camera surround – punctuated with holes for the speaker grill – and the battery compartment door, which doubles as the antenna. The row of buttons under the display are also plastic, and they’re the sole point on the Legend where the quality doesn’t feel 100-percent; instead they’re a little too clicky, a little too plasticky. Everywhere else is soft-touch and sturdy, and the Legend feels great in the hand.
Gone, too, is the Hero’s trackball, replaced by an optical joystick. It takes a little getting used to – stroking it from side to side to navigate homescreens or tabs – but once you’re familiar it actually feels more accurate than the trackball ever did. That’s partly because there’s less chance of sideways-slip when you press in to select. As before there are seven homescreen panes and a variety of HTC’s own widgets to fill them with; you can also save various “Scenes”, with layouts and wallpapers suited to different times of day or activity. Not all of HTC’s widgets are loaded by default – there’s a “Get more” shortcut at the top of the list, with things like a tip calculator and a “Daily Challenge” – and we’re hoping that means the company are planning to push out new examples periodically. Panning between panes is swift and lag-free, even if they’re loaded up with widgets, and of course there’s the new – and incredibly addictive – “helicopter view”, which shows Exposé-style thumbnails of all seven panes when you pinch-zoom on the homescreen.
HTC Legend video demo:
Since the Legend runs Android 2.1 and the newest build of HTC Sense, there are several software changes to be discovered. That includes the newer version of the Android Market, complete with screenshot previews, something Hero owners are still waiting for. Still, the biggest improvements are HTC’s own. Unlike the partial Exchange support in Android 2.1, the Legend can sync not only Mail and Contacts but Calendar entries as well. HTC’s own Mail app has had a makeover and now has useful tabs to show not only messages and conversations, but pull out messages from your preset VIPs, unread-only, those flagged, meeting invitations and those with attachments. Where Nexus One owners looking to use Exchange have often had to resort to third-party apps from the Android Market, that’s unlikely to be the case with the HTC Legend.
HTC’s Calendar app has also been tweaked, with a new Agenda view that pulls appointments and reminders into a single list, rather than demanding you navigate by month or date. You can also put an Agenda widget on the homescreen. The other big change, however, comes in how HTC now manage social networks; while the first-gen of Sense added Facebook, Twitter and Flickr updates to individual contacts, there was no way of seeing all recent updates from everybody. Only HTC Peep – their own Twitter client – had such a view.
Now, though, there’s Friend Stream, which pulls together all three services into one view (and a homescreen widget too). As with MOTOBLUR you can update your Facebook status and Twitter from one single point; like the various tabs for drilling-down through messages in the Mail app, Friend Stream has separate tabs for viewing status updates only, just photos or just links. Of course you can still view each contact’s updates separately, or just use Peep for Twitter, but we’re glad to now have the choice. Still, it’d be great to see HTC commit to adding more social networks to their roster, like Motorola have been doing; there are still plenty of people wanting MySpace and LinkedIn, for instance.
There’s also a new copy/paste system which links in neatly to Wikipedia, Google Dictionary and Google Translate. Tapping and holding on a word calls up a small magnifier window and highlights that word; letting go allows you either to drag extender bars to enlarge the selection, or tap to copy it, share it via whatever methods are installed (Mail, Messages and Peep as default, with the Legend automatically URL shortening if necessary), or pushing it over to the look-up services. There, three tabs offer dictionary definitions, various language translations and Wikipedia’s mobile site. Our only one frustration is that, once you’re in the look-up pane, you can’t then tap-and-hold to search for a word in those three tabs; it only offers you the ability to copy that text.
Optics have never been HTC’s strongest point, and the Legend’s camera isn’t a huge step up from that of the Hero. Daylight shots are actually pretty reasonable, with the autofocus quick to snap into order and pressing the optical joystick easier than trying to do the same with the Hero’s trackball. Less impressive, frankly, is the LED flash. HTC told us ahead of the Legend’s launch that they’re currently finding that LEDs can produce just as good results as Xenon flashes but, whether or not you believe that, like other LED-equipped phones we’ve tested it has a tendency either to wash out or under-illuminate the subject. There’s a definite sweet-spot, and it’s a narrow one; particularly frustrating are close-up shots and, as you can see from those in the gallery below, while the Legend was capable of producing a decent shot of a Nexus One while naturally lit, relying on the flash resulted in a seriously washed-out photo. To be fair this is something that affects most camera phones, so we can’t especially blame HTC.
Speaking of Flash, while we were led to believe that the Legend wouldn’t support Flash Lite – unlike the Hero – in actual fact the customized browser does indeed display Flash animations and games. There’s also multitouch support, for pinch-zoom (something not shared by Google Maps), and the usual tabbed browsing. Text-reflowing is impressively quick: a double-tap on a block of writing will automatically zoom in and instantly reflow the paragraph for single-screen reading. We’ve had no problems with flipping from portrait to landscape orientation, and complex websites have rendered with no errors as far as we can see. While the Legend’s display may not be as expansive as that of the Desire, the combination of reflowing, intuitive zooming and overall speed go a long way to overcoming that limitation.
In fact, speed is generally pretty impressive across the board. Our concerns at the relatively minor bump in chipset were founded on repeated complaints about the Hero suffering lag; that’s something HTC have obviously worked hard to code out of the Legend. There’s a little pause as you move between tabs in data-heavy apps like Mail – as the phone pulls out only those messages flagged, for instance, or with attachments – but otherwise it’s slick and smooth. Loaded up with push email, various social networking accounts and media, the Legend does an admirable job of keeping up, and that’s no small relief.
Call quality is good, though we miss the dual-microphone array found on the Google Nexus One. We had no trouble finding and sticking to an HSPA connection, either, with the Legend supporting up to 7.2Mbps downloads and 2Mbps uploads, network depending. Short-sighted, though, is HTC’s decision to limit HSPA/WCDMA support to the European/Asia Pacifit 900/2100MHz bands; while you’ll be able to use EDGE data in most places (the Legend is quadband GSM) you’ll have no luck, say, getting 3G in North America. We understand that’s probably to allow HTC to differentiate their global range, but it’s frustrating nonetheless. Of course, there’s also WiFi b/g (along with Bluetooth 2.1+EDR) for faster connections when you’re around a suitable hotspot.
Given our relatively limited time with the Legend, we haven’t had the opportunity to fully test out its power management. HTC quote up to 440 minutes WCMDA talktime or 490 minutes GSM talktime from the 1,300mAh battery, or up to 560hrs WCDMA standby or 440hrs GSM standby. From what time we’ve had, we’d expect this to be another case of a charge-nightly device, especially if you have push-email and social network updates turned on. One of HTC’s optional widgets is a 1×1 battery meter you can put on your desktop, which is a more telling way to gauge how much runtime you have left.
It’s saying a lot that, when we reviewed the Hero just eight months ago, we had to go pretty much back to basics to explain Android as a platform, but today there’s no such requirement. The standard music player is still uninspiring, and we’re hoping HTC turn their Sense amendments to that next, given Google themselves seem reluctant to do anything about it; still, we’ll take the FM radio they’ve added (which requires a wired headset in order to work) as a start. The jump from Android 1.5 on the Hero to Android 2.1 on the Legend is a sizeable one, though of course HTC are promising a reasonably imminent firmware update that should bring the Hero up to speed. That’s expected to include Android 2.1 Eclair together with many – but not all – of the new Sense functionality.
It’s a long-overdue release, and something Hero owners have been anticipating for some time; it’s also a moderate cause for concern for those considering the HTC Legend. As we’ve increasingly seen with manufacturer-modified Android devices – not just from HTC, but other companies as well – there’s a potential for delay involved when you start modifying the core OS. The Hero has been left languishing with Android 1.5 because of the effort its taken bringing Sense up to speed with newer versions of the platform, something initially tipped to be ready late last year.
HTC Legend durability test:
Now, as we’d say with any device, you should always choose a new gadget because it satisfies your needs now, today, out of the box, rather than because it may get some new feature however many months down the line. Still, one of the attractions of Android is undoubtedly its potential for upgrade and the relative speed at which Google are pushing out new iterations. HTC have again pledged to support the Legend with new firmware as and when possible, but it’s up to the would-be buyer to decide whether they’re willing to take the risk of possible delays.
Nonetheless, even if it remained as it is today, the HTC Legend is an impressive device. It no longer occupies the top-spot in HTC’s Android range – the imminent Desire will take that position – but it’s arguably more attractive and pocket-friendly than its sibling. HTC have made some clever, thoughtful enhancements with Sense – Friend Stream and the look-up functionality come particularly to mind – and in doing so they’ve improved on a core platform that already feels reasonably mature. Held up to the mid-range devices it’s being positioned against, the Legend feels a step up in build quality and design; enough, even, that we could well see it tempting some of the geeks who might automatically have plumped for the Desire or Nexus One. The Android landscape may have changed significantly in the months between now and the Hero’s launch, but with the Legend HTC have shown they still have what it takes to stand apart.
A solar charger or solar powered device is all fine and good if you live in an area where there is ample sunlight. If you live in an area with heavy tree or cloud cover most of the year, a solar charger might not be ideal. A better option in some cases is a wind generator.
Eolic is a foldable wind power generator that harnesses the breeze to make power for your gadgets. The cool part about the Eolic is its foldable and very portable design. The entire wind generator folds into a carry case that you can take camping or to the beach for power.
The idea behind the concept is to produce a portable wind generator that can replace the need for mains power in a home during an outage or when an area is recovering from a disaster. The device is made from aluminum and carbon fiber to keep weight down and the pole is telescopic to reach a height of somewhere around 18-feet (or three men as the developers put it). The thing is a concept so pricing and availability are unknown. The odds that Eolic will likely never make it to market are slim, but it is cool.
In the future, you don’t need roads and Starbucks has replaced every corner gas station with its over-priced drinks with names like caramel monkey-butt-ado. This strange, ugly, rusty, 1988 VW Scirocco does sort of have the Delorian shape Doc Brown prefers.
The car is nicknamed the Car-puccino and is allegedly powered by coffee beans. The creators of the vehicle plan to drive it 210 miles from Manchester to London with power only from coffee granules. The vehicle was built by a team from a BBC TV show called Bang Goes The Theory.
According to the design team, the car will travel three miles per kilogram of ground coffee. If we are basing the 56 espressos per mile that DailyMail estimates the trip will take on Starbucks pricing, this will be one seriously expensive trip. The total journey based on UK coffee prices will cost about 50 times what it would cost in gas. I figure the only by prodcut the coffee fuel will produce is jittery drivers.
I have a couple young kids that have no concept of money and how to save it by saving electricity or using less water. My son will stand in the shower until the giant water heater in our house is empty if you don’t keep an eye on him. A new green gadget called the Waterpebble is a great visual indicator for when someone should get out of the shower to save on water.
The Waterpebble is a small, white device that is round with a wart on one end hiding a water sensor, a reset button one side, and three LEDs to show how good your shower is on the green scale. You put the thing near the drain and a green light means you are saving water, orange just right and red means you used too much water.
The thing can be reset at any time so if you want to feel green while using all the water you want, you can cheat. The battery inside the device is good for up to six months and can’t be replaced. A single Waterpebble costs £5.31 with VAT including shipping.
There’s also a new copy/paste system which links in neatly to Wikipedia, Google Dictionary and Google Translate. Tapping and holding on a word calls up a small magnifier window and highlights that word; letting go allows you either to drag extender bars to enlarge the selection, or tap to copy it, share it via whatever methods are installed (Mail, Messages and Peep as default, with the Legend automatically URL shortening if necessary), or pushing it over to the look-up services. There, three tabs offer dictionary definitions, various language translations and Wikipedia’s mobile site. Our only one frustration is that, once you’re in the look-up pane, you can’t then tap-and-hold to search for a word in those three tabs; it only offers you the ability to copy that text.
In fact, speed is generally pretty impressive across the board. Our concerns at the relatively minor bump in chipset were founded on repeated complaints about the Hero suffering lag; that’s something HTC have obviously worked hard to code out of the Legend. There’s a little pause as you move between tabs in data-heavy apps like Mail – as the phone pulls out only those messages flagged, for instance, or with attachments – but otherwise it’s slick and smooth. Loaded up with push email, various social networking accounts and media, the Legend does an admirable job of keeping up, and that’s no small relief.
I have a couple young kids that have no concept of money and how to save it by saving electricity or using less water. My son will stand in the shower until the giant water heater in our house is empty if you don’t keep an eye on him. A new green gadget called the Waterpebble is a great visual indicator for when someone should get out of the shower to save on water.
