Friday, June 06, 2014

Here's the world's 'most powerful and lightest' 13-inch gaming laptop

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/06/06/gigabyte-aorus-x3-plus/

Following the impressive Razer Blade we reviewed last month, Gigabyte also wants a piece of the portable gaming laptop action with its new Aorus X3 line, a sub-14-inch Windows 8.1 device that claims to be the world's "most powerful and lightest" in its class. In terms of weight, it starts from 4.12 pounds (1.87kg) which is more attractive than the new Blade's 4.47 pounds (2.03kg). The smaller X3 has an impressive 13.3-inch QHD (2,560 x 1,440) LCD, whereas the larger 13.9-inch X3 Plus lets you choose between a QHD panel and a sweeter QHD+ (3,200 x 1,800) version.

Both variants of the gaming beast come with Intel's Core i7-4710HQ (2.5-3.5GHz), 8GB of DDR3L-1600 RAM (with a spare slot for another 8GB) and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 870M with 6GB of GDDR5 memory. You can have a pair of 256GB or 512GB SSDs configured in RAID 0, meaning you get super fast access to a maximum of 1TB space. Together with the macro keys plus Gigabit LAN connection or 802.11ac WiFi, online gamers should have no problem entertaining themselves with these machines -- at least until the 74Wh battery has been drained while gaming on the go.

As you can imagine, these gaming laptops don't come cheap: Both the X3 and the X3 Plus will go from $2,099 when they launch in Q3 this year, with one-year global warranty plus one-year local warranty included.

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drag2share: The iWatch Is Coming In October

source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/businessinsider/~3/Bvw3plaoBZ4/apple-iwatch-launch-2014-6

iwatch

Apple will unveil and release its highly-anticipated smartwatch, which many presume to be called "iWatch," in October, according to a report from Re/code.

Re/code has a stellar track record when it comes to Apple news, so we believe this report to be legitimate.

According to the report, Apple says it is confident enough in its product that it will produce 3 to 5 million for the initial shipment.

The New York Times was one of the first outlets to report on the iWatch, after a February 2013 report from Nick Bilton illuminated Apple's nascent smartwatch efforts, likening its possible "next big thing" to something Dick Tracy or James Bond would use: "A watch that double[s] as a computer, two-way radio, mapping device or television."

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drag2share: Plain old gravel could hold the key to greener power stations

source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/06/06/power-station-phes-batteries-isentropic/?utm_source=Feed_Classic_Full&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Engadget&?ncid=rss_full

Renewable energy is getting better all the time, but no-one's yet worked out a good way to store the juice for those cloudy, windless days. Batteries do work, but given the high cost of swapping out the cells for your EV, we doubt that Duracell will start making a five-megawatt version any time soon. That's why British company Isentropic is developing a system that could store energy in cells that are filled with gravel. Using Argon gas and a heat-exchange pump, the electrical energy from solar panels or wind turbines is used to warm the gravel. When the energy is required, the process is reversed, and the heat is used to drive an engine that creates power ready for the grid. It's nowhere near as efficient as other power storage systems, since you'll only get out about 75 percent of what you put in, but the low cost and ease of installation means that it's not so outrageous as you think. It's a shame that the gravel has to be stored in a tank full of Argon -- we quite liked the idea of filling the boot of an EV with rocks, or even just parking it on an energy-storing driveway, before driving away.

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Article: PayPal reportedly planning to integrate iOS 8′s Touch ID API in mobile payment app

When Apple unveiled the Touch ID API during its WWDC keynote earlier this week, users and developers alike immediately started considering possible uses. It seems PayPal was also quite interested in putting the fingerprint technology to work in its mobile app. According to Business Insider, sever...

http://9to5mac.com/2014/06/05/paypal-reportedly-planning-to-integrate-ios-8s-touch-id-api-in-mobile-payment-app/

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Article: You can now save movies for offline watching on Chromebooks

Limited offline functionality has long been an issue that critics of Chromebooks have used to shoot down the concept. Just ask Microsoft, who enlisted reality TV stars to dis Chromebooks …

http://www.androidauthority.com/offline-movies-chromebook-390358/

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