Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Monday, June 03, 2013

Broadcom intros a trio of 802.11ac WiFi chips for PCs and set-top boxes

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/03/broadcom-intros-a-trio-of-802-11ac-wifi-chips/

Broadcom has focused most of its 802.11ac WiFi efforts this year on high- and low-end mobile chips. Today, it's swinging that attention back to bigger machinery like PCs and set-top boxes. The company's new BCM4350, BCM43556 and BCM43558 all carry more robust, 2 X 2 MIMO antennas that help them hit 866Mbps speeds and optimize traffic through beamforming. Any differences, Broadcom notes, revolve around everything but the WiFi. The BCM4350 carries a more PC-like set of interfaces that includes Bluetooth 4.0, PCI Express and SDIO 3.0; the BCM43558 drops the PCIe and SDIO in favor of USB 3.0, while the BCM43556 also sheds Bluetooth. Although we don't know which companies plan to use the nimbler wireless technology, it should ship to gadget makers in the second half of this year.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Laptops, Tablets, Networking, HD, Mobile

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Source: Broadcom

This Beautiful New Asus Ultrabook Is Dripping in Glass

Source: http://gizmodo.com/this-beautiful-new-asus-ultrabook-is-dripping-in-glass-510986219

This Beautiful New Asus Ultrabook Is Dripping in Glass

Asus has been busy announcing a slew of new products at Computex in Taipei overnight and, while many of them are deeply unremarkable, a glass-coated ultrabook and updated Transformer Pad Infinity should be enough to pique your interest.

Engadget took a look at the new slim laptop, the 13.3-inch Zenbook Infinity, which uses a pretty impressive-looking aluminum and glass construction, featuring Gorilla Glass on both the back of the display and around the keyboard. Tough to say how well that will work in practice—the smudges! Oh, the smudges—but it does at least look beautiful. In terms of specs, a dual-core Haswell processor will nestle within its frame, though other details are scant. At just 15.5mm thick, though, it's super-slim—and should be available some time in the third quarter of 2013.

Elsewhere, Verge reports that an updated Transformer Pad Infinity promises to deliver far more than the tablet has done in the past. With a 10.1-inch 2560 x 1600 IPS screen, Tegra 4 processor, 32GB of storage and 2GB of RAM, the tablet will apparently pump out 4K video via HDMI. It'll also support USB 3.0 port, packs a 5-megapixel camera and sports a 1.2-megapixel front-facer. It's not clear when the new tablet will be available, but expect it to retail at a similar price point to its predecessor. [Verge and Engadget]

Image by Verge

Acer Aspire S7 Ultrabook refreshed with a WQHD screen, S3 gets a total makeover (hands-on)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/02/acer-aspire-s7-aspire-s3-refresh/

It was a year ago at Computex that Acer unveiled the Aspire S7, a skinny sliver of a thing that turned out to be one of our favorite Ultrabooks of 2012. Now, 12 months later, the company is unveiling... the Aspire S7. A much-improved S7, to be precise. Going into the second half of the year, there's only to be a 13-inch version (the 11-incher's been discontinued), and it has much the same industrial design, with a lightweight chassis and Gorilla Glass lid. The difference is that it will now be offered with a 2,560 x 1,440 screen, which will be standard in certain regions, like Europe. (Elsewhere, a 1080p IPS panel will continue to be the base option.) As you'd expect, Acer's upgraded the S7 to Haswell CPUs (Core i3, i5 and i7), but it also squeezed in a bigger battery -- 47Wh, up from 35Wh. Between that bigger cell and new chipset, Acer is rating the battery life at seven hours, which, if true, would correct one of the OG model's biggest shortcomings. Rounding out the list, Acer moved the mics to the front, and also updated the cooling system with the promise of less fan noise.

Meanwhile, Acer thoroughly revamped the mid-range S3 Ultrabook so that it looks more like the S7. The main differences are that this has no Gorilla Glass on the lid, and the entire machine is noticeably heavier (1.67kg vs. 1.3). Part of the reason for that chunkier shape is that it will be offered with beefier components, including optional NVIDIA GT735M graphics and a 1TB hard drive (you can also get it with an SSD). Additionally, the S3 steps up to Haswell CPUs, along with a 1080p IPS touchscreen -- the same kind that the S7 had when it first launched. Design-wise, as we said, it looks like the S7, particularly with the lid shut, and it's now made from one piece of aluminum, instead of several. The keyboard looks different from the S7's, though, and is also a bit clackier, for whatever reason. In Europe, at least, the Aspire S7-392 will start at €1,450, and the S3-392 will go from €999. Both will arrive in July. No word yet on US pricing. For a closer look, check out our hands-on photos and video, both embedded after the break.

Update: US pricing for the S7 will start at $1,400 and go up to $1,700, depending on the configuration.

Filed under: Laptops, Acer

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Acer announces the Liquid S1: a 5.7-inch smartphone with a near-stock Android experience (hands-on)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/02/acer-liquid-s1-5-7-inch-smartphone/

Acer announces the Liquid S1 a 57inch smartphone with a nearstock Android experience handson

Acer keeps the product announcements coming here at Computex, adding a new (and big) Android phone to its new Ultrabooks and Windows tablets. The Liquid S1 arrives with a 720p 5.7-inch display, matching ZTE's Grand Memo in screen size, and marking Acer's first contribution to the five-inches-and-over smartphone club. The phone is bound for Asia and Europe (no US release is planned for now), and it comes appropriately equipped with twin SIM-card slots. There is, however, no LTE radios, something that Acer admits will be arriving in its smaller Android devices first.

Other notable specs include a Mediatek quad-core 1.5GHz processor and 1GB of memory to aid Android 4.2. It's worth noting that the UI here, like we've seen from Acer in recent years, is largely a stock one, both in functionality (the two-finger drag-down menu for settings toggles is here, take that HTC One!) and looks, although there's some additions to the software that we'll outline later. We've managed to get some playtime with the device ahead of its big reveal at Acer's press event, so check out our (literally) earth-shaking first impressions and hands-on video after the break.

Gallery: Acer Liquid S1 hands-on

Gallery: Acer Liquid S1 and Samsung Galaxy Note II comparison

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Acer

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ARM unveils Cortex-A12 CPU and Mali-T622 GPU in expectation of a mid-range boom

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/02/arm-cortex-a12-mali-t622/

Few trend-spotters would disagree with the following prediction from ARM, but it's worth laying it out anyway: Of the 300 million mobile devices sold in 2010, the majority cost over $400. Within the next two years, however, these "crazy money" products (as a spokesperson described them) may represent just 25 percent of the total mobile market -- still huge in absolute terms, since almost two billion phones and tablets are forecast to be sold in 2015, but a distinct minority relative to entry-level and mid-range options.

In an effort to convert these expectations into an even taller heap of gold, ARM has just announced a new mid-range core, the Cortex-A12, which is designed to replace the aging Cortex-A9 while offering a 40 percent boost in performance. This gain will likely come with the added advantage of better battery life, since the Cortex-A12 will initially be fabricated at 28nm instead of 40nm, and will be offered to manufacturers alongside a new Mali GPU (the Mali-T622) and video engine (Mali-V500) that promise further power savings of their own. The Cortex-A12 will also support big.LITTLE configurations, allowing it to be installed alongside Cortex-A7 cores that will take over for low-effort tasks in order make further power savings. Big.LITTLE hasn't really blown us away so far, at least not on the Octa-core Galaxy S 4, but its wrinkles may well have been ironed out by mid 2014, which is when the Cortex-A12 is due to land. Check out the PR for more technical details on each component.

Richard Lai contributed to this report.

Gallery: ARM unveils Cortex-A12 CPU and Mali-T622 GPU in expectation of a mid-range boom