Category Archives: laptop

Lenovo unveils 15-inch ThinkPad S531 Ultrabook

Posted on June 18, 2013 by admin

As quick as Lenovo has been to hop on the Ultrabook bandwagon, it hasn’t been so eager to launch big-screened models. Its new ThinkPad S531 explores that territory at last: the Windows 8 PC mates a slim profile with both a 15.6-inch, lay-flat LCD and a large keyboard. The experience will otherwise be familiar to those who’ve seen the S431 , as it shares the same basic design language, the OneLink dock connector and a nine-hour battery. Unfortunately, the similarity also extends to the Ivy Bridge-era Intel processor — there’s no Haswell inside, at least for now. Still, the £575 ($900) UK price is within reach of many buyers, and there’s a 1080p display option coming in July. Lenovo hasn’t said if or when the S531 will reach the US, although we hope it gets a processor upgrade if and when it crosses the Atlantic. Filed under: Laptops , Lenovo Comments Source: Lenovo Continue reading →

Posted in att, battery, design, dock, EV, f1, google, ICS, Intel, keyboard, laptop, LED, lg, Mac News, OS, PC, price, rr, UK, upgrade | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Jony Ive Gets A New Minimalist Job Title

Posted on June 18, 2013 by admin

During the great Apple executive shakeup of 2012, Jony Ive found himself with more responsibilities, having been put in charge of design for both software and hardware. No longer was Ive primarily concerned with Apple’s hardware design, but he now also played a big role into the design of things like the recently unveiled iOS 7. To fit with Ive’s new responsibilities, it seems as though Apple has finally updated his job title on the company’s website. While it was previously Senior Vice President of Industrial Design, it has now been changed to simply Senior Vice President, Design, a fitting change for someone who just brought a number of minimalist design changes to iOS. Jony Ive will now stare you to death. Continue reading →

Posted in App, apple, Apple Inc, Apps, att, battery, books, case, content, design, Developer, doe, download, droid, ebook, EV, f1, facebook, fix, free, Gadgets, games, gaming, gm, google, Hardware, history, hot, ICS, industry, ios, iPad, ipad app, iphone, laptop, LED, lg, live, lte, Mac, Mac News, macbook, Mobile, operating system, OS, PC, podcast, RAM, refresh, release, review, rr, rumor, rumors, siri, software, sync, TC, update, video, water | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Lower-Cost iPhone Case Appears, Features Thicker Profile And Curved Edges

Posted on June 18, 2013 by admin

With WWDC out of the way, we can all turn our attention to the new hardware Apple is expected to release in the fall. With the iPhone 5S rumored to be pretty much the same as the iPhone 5, except of course a faster processor and hopefully some fancy new fingerprint technology, the lower-cost iPhone is getting most of our attention. As with all new devices before they launch, an Asian casemaker, MGM Corporation , has released a new case for what it expects the budget iPhone will look like. A nice little video shows all the different angles of the case, and someone even slips in and iPhone 5 to really demonstrate the what size of phone the case is intended for. The case is about 2 mm thicker than the iPhone 5 and features rounded corners, instead of the iPhone 5′s much more squared shape. It’s practically tradition for case makers to bet on what the next iDevice will look like, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re always accurate. While this case could very well prove to be a perfect fit for the still-rumored budget iPhone, it could also just easily be a terrible fit for it. Image Credit: MGM Corporation Continue reading →

Posted in App, apple, Apple Inc, Apps, att, battery, beta, books, case, content, design, Developer, doe, download, droid, ebook, EV, f1, facebook, fix, free, Gadgets, games, gaming, gm, google, Hardware, history, hot, ICS, industry, ios, iOS Devices, iPad, ipad app, iphone, laptop, LED, lg, live, lte, Mac, Mac News, macbook, Mobile, operating system, OS, PC, podcast, price, RAM, refresh, release, review, rr, rumor, rumors, siri, software, sync, TC, update, video, water | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Sphero: The iPhone Controlled Robot-Ball

Posted on June 18, 2013 by admin

Last year, Orbotix unveiled the innovative iPhone/Android controlled robot ball. It was not only meant for children; it was meant for people of all ages. Anyone could have fun with it. The opaque ball, slightly larger than the average tennis ball, is made of a durable poly-carbonate shell. The Sphero itself is waterproof, and even has a feature for swimming. Underneath the poly-carbonate shell lives the robot, a motor built with a multi-axis gyro and an accelerometer. The Ball The Lithium polymer battery is able to be recharged by an inductive, wireless charger. This is one of my favorite features of the Sphero. The ball is able to display over a million colors; you have control over them and their brightness. Connected to an iOS/Android device via Bluetooth, the Sphero has a range of 15 meters. The Sphero has a battery life of approximately 1 hour, which can be quite frustrating. What does “he” do? Orbotix refers to the Sphero as “he”, and I am sure you will understand what they mean when you play with “him.” Not only does the Sphero just roll around with a virtual joystick, it also has a large variety of games from the App Store. Currently there are 20 apps made exclusively for the Sphero, most of which are free. Developers, you can have fun with this ball as well. How? orbBasic, an app for the Sphero, allows developers to fiddle around with the internals of the toy; you can program it! With Sphero Macrolab, another free app available via the App Store, you can customize commands for the Sphero as well!   Games The Sphero is all about fun, from playing golf to playing arcade games to playing family games. There is a large variety of games made for the Sphero; one of my personal favorites is ColorGrab, a game perfect for a family. Color Grab is a fun family game for the Sphero. The objective of ColorGrab is to pick up the Sphero when it flashes the color on your turn. The difficulty can be set to Easy, Normal, and Difficult. Performance The Sphero is quite simple to use with on screen controls and tips. Calibrating the ball can be quite an annoyance. To calibrate the ball, you need to make the blue tail light face your direction by holding to fingers on the screen and rotating them until the light is aimed towards you. One annoyance that I still can’t get over is the sound the Sphero makes inside the shell, it is quite loud. Pros The Sphero is very easy to use and set up. It has tons of features for a robot ball, and there is many apps that you can download/purchase to make the experience more fun. The waterproof functionality is one of my favorites, because I can wash the Sphero if it ever falls in mud and such. The inductive charging is very convenient, and the bright lights make the Sphero beautiful at night. Cons The Sphero is fun to use, but for me, I really got bored of just rolling it around after an hour or two. The colorgrab adds to the fun factor, but only when you have someone around to play with. I mainly use the Sphero as a show-off toy to little kids. I make babies chase it, and let my dog fetch it. The short battery life is a bummer, you can only use it for up to one hour. The worst of all is the hefty price tag on the Sphero. This thing will set you back $99.00. Continue reading →

Posted in App, apple, Apple Inc, Apps, att, battery, beta, books, case, content, design, Developer, developers, doe, download, droid, ebook, EV, f1, facebook, fix, free, Gadgets, games, gaming, gm, google, Hardware, history, hot, ICS, industry, ios, iOS Devices, iPad, ipad app, iphone, keyboard, laptop, LED, lg, live, lte, Mac, Mac News, macbook, Mobile, operating system, OS, PC, podcast, price, RAM, refresh, release, review, rr, rumor, rumors, siri, software, stand, sync, TC, update, video, water | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Engadget Giveaway: win one of two ChromeBook Pixels, courtesy of Gogo!

Posted on June 18, 2013 by admin

The ChromeBook Pixel is a stunningly beautiful piece of machinery. With costs ranging from $1,300 to $1,500, however, it means you’re shelling out even more than most standard ultrabooks and laptops. It also comes with 12 free Gogo passes and a full terabyte of Google Drive storage to sweeten the deal, fortunately, but who wants to buy a computer of any kind when you can win one instead? Gogo’s hooking two lucky readers up with a 64GB LTE Chromebook Pixel (this particular model is valued at $1,500), so this is one giveaway you’ll definitely want to sign up for. You can grab up to three entries: you get two just for showing up, and the third is yours if you Like Gogo on Facebook. Head to the widget below and take a chance! Filed under: Announcements , HD , Mobile , Alt , Google Comments Continue reading →

Posted in books, ebook, EV, f1, facebook, free, google, HD, ICS, laptop, LED, lg, lte, Mac, Mac News, Mobile, mobilepostcross, OS, review, stand, TC | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Paper App Raises $15 Million To Expand Software, Service, And Hardware

Posted on June 18, 2013 by admin

Fifty-Three , the team behind the hugely successful iPad app Paper , has managed to raise a whopping $15 million to expand its services . Today, Fifty-Three has revealed a group of investors that it hopes will bring about a new era for the Paper app, with plans to not only expand its software, but develop hardware as well. Fifty-Three is made up of a group of creators from an assortment of different companies, including Xbox, Courier, Sonos, Google and others. Last year the company released Paper, which went on to win numerous industry awards and was named App of the Year by Apple in 2012. Paper has been downloaded more than 8 million times by creators all around the world and 80 million projects have been created with the app. With that, the company is looking to the future of Paper and bringing it to the next level. This not only includes expanding to an entire suite of software and services but turning to creating hardware as well. The team didn’t elaborate on just what kind of hardware it has in mind though. “We’ve been focused on iPad there, but the next part we’re working on is services that will start to answer the question of how people work together and collaborate,” co-founder and CEO Georg Petschnigg said. But, like Fifty-Three said, “big ideas need big partners.” The company welcomed Chris Dixon and the Andreessen Horowitz team, as well as Highline Ventures, Thrive Capital, SV Angels, Jack Dorsey, and others to help build “the essential suite of mobile tools for creativity.” The Andreessen Horowitz team has worked with big names, like GitHub, Pinterest, and Instagram. With an all star-team like that, it’ll definitely be interesting to see what Paper comes out with in the future. Image Credit: TechFever Network Continue reading →

Posted in App, apple, Apple Inc, Apple Store, Apps, att, battery, beta, books, case, content, design, Developer, doe, download, droid, ebook, EV, f1, facebook, fix, free, Gadgets, games, gaming, gm, google, Hardware, history, hot, ICS, industry, ios, iOS Devices, iPad, ipad app, iphone, jack, keyboard, laptop, LED, lg, live, lte, Mac, Mac News, macbook, Microsoft, Mobile, operating system, OS, PC, podcast, price, RAM, refresh, release, retail, review, rr, rumor, rumors, siri, software, sync, TC, update, video | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Siri Now Offers More Help When Suicide References Are Made

Posted on June 18, 2013 by admin

Thanks to a new update, Siri will now offer a more helpful response when suicide references are made. Before now, Siri would provide users with the contact information for the suicide prevention hotline. Now Siri will actually offer to call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline and the user just needs to hit yes to be connected. This change is seen in both iOS 6 and the upcoming iOS 7. Hopefully this will change will be able to prevent potential suicides in the future. Over one million people die by suicide every year worldwide with the global suicide rate at 16 per 100,000 population. In the past 45 years, global suicide rates have increased by 60% and, on average, one person dies by suicide every 40 seconds somewhere in the world. Image Credit: 9to5Mac Continue reading →

Posted in App, apple, Apple Inc, Apple Store, Apps, att, battery, beta, books, case, content, design, Developer, doe, download, droid, ebook, EV, f1, facebook, fix, free, Gadgets, games, gaming, gm, google, history, hot, ICS, industry, Intel, ios, iOS Devices, iPad, iphone, keyboard, laptop, LED, lg, live, lte, Mac, Mac News, macbook, Microsoft, Mobile, operating system, OS, PC, podcast, price, RAM, refresh, release, retail, review, rr, rumor, rumors, samsung, siri, sync, TC, update, video | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Compare Your MacBook Battery Statistics With MacBookBatteryDatabase

Posted on June 18, 2013 by admin

MacBooks generally get decent battery life, however, sometimes Apple accidentally produces laptops with a faulty batteries. While the “About This Mac” menu on your Mac can provide some information on your Mac’s battery, the Condition status can often be skewed, and the cycle count doesn’t do much good if you have nothing to compare your cycle count to. This is where MacBookBatteryDatabase comes in: a widget that tracks your MacBook’s battery life, and allows you to compare it to other MacBooks. Installing the widget is simple: just head over to the developer’s website , download the free widget, run it, and add it to your Mac’s dashboard. Once you have it placed on your Mac’s dashboard, click the “Submit Now” button to manually send your first battery statistic to the service. After this, your battery stats will be sent to the service once daily. If you’d rather have it sent once weekly or monthly, you can choose to do so via the information button that is located towards the bottom righthand corner of the widget. Now that you’ve set up the widget, your Mac will send its battery information into the service daily. You can view your battery statistics chronologically by clicking on the “Show my stats” button that is located on the righthand side of the widget. When you click on this button, your web browser will open and bring you to your personal MacBookBatteryDatabase page. From this page, you can track your previous charge cycles through the graph at the bottom of the window. If you’d like, you can overlay the average and maximum battery life over your Mac’s battery graph. Towards the top of the page, you can view your Mac’s battery cycle count and its health. Overall, I think that MacBookBatteryDatabase is a good service for those who are paranoid about their MacBook’s battery life. The fact that you can see the progression of your Mac’s battery life over time and compare it with other Macs is a great tool to have in your troubleshooting arsenal. Photo Credit:  Mario Hernández Continue reading →

Posted in App, apple, Apple Inc, Apple Store, Apps, att, battery, beta, books, case, content, design, Developer, doe, download, droid, ebook, EV, f1, facebook, fix, free, Gadgets, games, gaming, gm, google, Hardware, history, hot, ICS, industry, ios, iOS Devices, iphone, keyboard, laptop, LED, lg, live, lte, Mac, Mac News, macbook, Microsoft, Mobile, operating system, OS, PC, podcast, price, RAM, refresh, release, retail, review, rr, rumor, rumors, samsung, sync, TC, update, video | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Samsung to livestream its Galaxy and ATIV ‘premiere’ event

Posted on June 18, 2013 by admin

We have a few ideas about what Samsung’s going to show off at its London event, but there’s still some mysteries, like that Galaxy NX camera and what it has planned for its Windows-based ATIV range . We’ll be there to fill you in on all the details, but Samsung promises that you’ll also be able to watch along on its YouTube channel. If that sounds like your cup of tea (it’s a London event, so we won’t apologize), bookmark the link below. Filed under: Cellphones , Cameras , Laptops , Tablets , Mobile , Samsung Comments Source: Samsung Mobile (YouTube) Continue reading →

Posted in camera, EV, f1, gm, google, ICS, laptop, LED, lg, live, Mac News, Mobile, mobilepostcross, OS, rr, samsung, tablet, tablets, TC, UK | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Why Was Apple Late To The PRISM Party?

Posted on June 18, 2013 by admin

If there’s one striking thing about those PRISM slides, other than their hideous aesthetics, it’s that Apple’s allocated yellow oval, instead of a date, has the words “(added Oct 2012)” underneath it. That difference is most striking when you consider the fact that Apple competitor Microsoft cooperated with the government a full five years earlier. The company, which denies ever having heard of PRISM, released its FISA request numbers today, starting on December 1st, 2012, through this May 2013. Though it’s plausible that the government would not have disclosed the name of the program, the NYT confirmed Apple’s participation in a government surveillance network designed to make data collection more efficient for the NSA — whatever that entails, like “a broad sweep for intelligence, like logs of certain search terms.” From Claire Cain Miller’s article : While handing over data in response to a legitimate FISA request is a legal requirement, making it easier for the government to get the information is not, which is why Twitter could decline to do so. The October 2012 date is notable as coming a year after the death of Apple founder Steve Jobs. Perhaps, because it is an interesting coincidence, it’s led to speculation that Steve Jobs resisted systematic data collection from the NSA until his death. That statement was echoed on the record by NeXt developer Andrew Stone, who told Cult of Mac, “Steve Jobs would’ve rather died than give into that, even though he had a lot of friends at the NSA. Microsoft caved in first, then everyone else. Steve would’ve just never done it.” The speculation, which I’ve heard from a couple of sources, has grounds. NeXT was publicly a vendor for the NSA and many other security agencies, and Jobs had many contacts at the agency who perhaps had offered him immunity. It could be that his connections, Apple’s brand popularity or straight-up his legend allowed him to escape Microsoft’s, which had been embroiled in a series of antitrust cases up until then, or Yahoo’s fates. All of these explanations make sense, though it could be something like the Twitter loophole that caused Apple’s tardiness. In Twitter’s case most of its data is public, so it’s not that big of a loss to the NSA until it becomes more of a communication node. Perhaps only recently did Apple collect the kinds of data the government would want, like the meta data around iMessage, which, though encrypted, doesn’t pass the “pud muddle” test. We will likely never know what Jobs did in those last few years as PRISM loomed ever larger, but whatever he did it looks like he held out as long as he could. The image of Steve Jobs playing chicken with Uncle Sam fits right into his myth. Even if it is just a myth. Continue reading →

Posted in App, app-store, apple, Apple Store, Apps, att, beta, bf, camera, case, cm, content, design, Developer, developers, doe, download, droid, ebook, EV, f1, facebook, free, Gadgets, gaming, gift guide, gm, google, guide, hack, HD, history, holiday, hot, ICS, industry, Intel, ios, iPad, iphone, jack, japan, laptop, LED, lg, live, lte, Mac, Mac News, macbook, MacBook Air, Microsoft, Mobile, OS, PC, podcast, RAM, release, review, rr, sales, samsung, search, security, smartphone, smartphones, software, stand, Steve Jobs, sync, tablet, tablets, TC, UK, update, video, water | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment