Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Tuesday, May 07, 2013

Sony VAIO Fit 15 review (2013): Sony's mainstream notebooks get a makeover

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/07/sony-vaio-fit-15-review-2013/

And it begins: back-to-school season. Even though some students are still embroiled in finals, and even though Intel has yet to formally launch Haswell, the next few weeks will see multiple PC makers unveiling their summer lineups. First up: Sony. The company just introduced some new mainstream notebooks, dubbed the "Fit" family. These laptops, which replace the current E series and most of the T line, include the lower-end Fit 14E / Fit 15E, which are made of plastic, and the Fit 14 / Fit 15, which step up to a thinner aluminum chassis and optional SSDs. Either way, Sony is standardizing on certain specs across its entire summer lineup, including 1080p displays, backlit keyboards, NFC and Exmor R webcams for better low-light images. We've just spent a week testing the Fit 15, which will be available later this month for $700 and up. (The rest of the Fit line starts as low as $550.) Head past the break to see if it's worth a closer look once it hits store shelves.

Gallery: Sony VAIO Fit 15 review

Filed under: Laptops, Sony

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Seagate launches the 600 SSD, its first solid-state drive for consumers

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/07/seagate-launches-the-600-ssd-as-its-first-client-side-ssd/

Seagate has come a long way in its attitude toward solid-state drives: it went from fighting the future to embracing SSDs with open arms, albeit only in enterprise at first. Now, it's launching its first-ever flash drive for end users, the 600 SSD. The storage will seem familiar to those who've gone shopping for regular SSDs, offering a 480GB max capacity, a laptop-friendly width and a 6Gbps SATA interface. Also, it may be just the perfect fit for those with extra-slim PCs: one 600 SSD variant will have the same 5mm height as Western Digital's Blue UltraSlim. Seagate hasn't disclosed its pricing, but the 600 SSD as well as the server-oriented 600 Pro SSD, 1200 SSD and X8 Accelerator should be available now.

Filed under: Storage

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Source: Seagate

Huawei P6-U06 super slim smartphone poses for more leaked pictures, this time in black

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/07/huawei-p6-u06-leaked-again/

At the beginning of last week, we learned of a Huawei smartphone, model number P6-U06, by way of the TENAA in China (their FCC equivalent). In addition to some pictures of the handset and a few internal components listed by the TENAA, its thickness, or rather, its thinness was the most interesting spec -- at 6.18mm, it could be the super-slim P series model a Huawei exec has been teasing all year. While the company remains tight-lipped, the folks at NowhereElse have received what are thought to be some in-the-wild shots of the P6-U06, this time in black. The French site admits it can't verify the legitimacy of the pictures, and there's none of the back that should show the Huawei logo, but they do marry up with what we saw at the TENAA, and it looks pretty trim. We wouldn't be surprised if Huawei made it official sometime soon, if only to stop the leaks before we know it all and lose interest. There are a couple more pictures after the break, and luckily, it appears Mr. Blurrycam was on another job.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

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Source: NowhereElse

Vivo Xplay boasts 5.7-inch 1080p screen, dedicated audio chips and nifty single-hand mode

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/07/vivo-xplay-phone/

Another 1080p quad-core Android phone, you say? Well, there's a bit more to it. Launched by BBK spin-off Vivo in Beijing just now, this 5.7-inch Xplay goes one step further than its smaller X1 and X1S cousins by packing one extra audio chip, the OPA2604 op amp from Texas Instruments, in order to add extra oomph to Cirrus Logic's CS4398 DAC and CS8422 stereo asynchronous sample-rate converter -- both of which are featured on the X1 series. If you're a DIY audio enthusiast, you might have already tinkered with an OPA2604 while making your own headphone amplifier; so in other words, Vivo is trying to save you the hassle.

Before we dive into the audio performance, let's quickly look at the rest of the phone first. Underneath the 500 nits LTPS display lies a Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 quad-core SoC (1.7GHz, 2GB RAM and Adreno 320 graphics engine), 16GB or 32GB of built-in storage, 3,400mAh battery and NFC. On the back you'll find the increasingly common Sony 13-megapixel imager next to a pair of speakers (FLAC playback is supported natively, by the way), but flip the phone over and you'll be looking at a surprisingly generous 5-megapixel front-facing camera -- much like the one on Oppo's mid-range Ulike 2. Vivo's somehow managed to pack all of this into a 7.99mm-thick body, while boasting a screen bezel of just 2.3mm thick (sorry, Pantech!) and a large viewable-to-total area ratio of 75.11 percent. Alas, for 3G there's only WCDMA 2100, meaning the phone may have to rely more on GSM 850/900/1800/1900 or WiFi in many parts of the world. More after the break.

Gallery: Vivo Xplay launch event

Gallery: Vivo Xplay hands-on

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

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Source: Vivo

Apple Devices No Longer Completely Dominate Tablet-Based Web Traffic

Source: https://intelligence.businessinsider.com/welcome

Even with the launch of the iPad Mini — aimed at the lower end of the tablet market — Apple has not been able to beat back the rise of Android tablets.

Let's look at Apple's share of tablet-generated Web traffic.

In March 2013, Apple iPad devices still accounted for the lion's share of that traffic at 81.9%, according to online advertising network, Chitika. Those numbers sound great. Apple Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer even cited them in Apple's recent earnings call.

But what he did not say was that the iPad's share is down ten percentage points from October 2012, when it was 92%.

Even as the iPad slipped, the Samsung Galaxy Tab, which runs on Android, increased its share of Web traffic from 2.1% to 4.3% over the same six months.

Android-based devices have also made gains in unit sales recently. Apple iPads sold well last quarter, but lower-priced Android tablets like the Tab and the Kindle line from Amazon have gained market share globally.

In the smartphone arena, Samsung remains a formidable competitor to Apple, but Chitika's data indicates that in addition to its recent smartphone success, Samsung is slowly gaining ground in the dynamic tablet market.

Apple, on the other hand, may have to find new ways to regain the unchallenged stronghold it once had in tablets.

Chitika's data drew on mobile browser-based Web traffic from all tablet devices in the U.S. and Canada over a six month period. Traffic from mobile applications was not covered in the study.

Click here for a larger version of this chart. Tablet-Based Web Traffic