ASUS' Zenwatch 3 is fast and round

Source: https://www.engadget.com/2016/08/31/asus-zenwatch-3-reveal/

Following Motorola, Huawei and a bunch of other smartwatch manufacturers, ASUS has built a round Android Wear device. The Zenwatch 3 has a 1.39-inch AMOLED display with a 400x400 resolution, which works out at 287 pixels per inch (ppi). That's almost identical to the Huawei Watch and a smidge sharper than the larger second-gen Moto 360. The casing is made from stainless steel and will be available in a few different styles: gunmetal (black), silver and rose gold. All three have a gold inlay, which ASUS claims is like "the corona of an annular solar eclipse."

Whatever you say, ASUS.

The new wearable is 9.95mm thick -- a tad thinner than both the Huawei Watch and Moto 360. It runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 2100 processor and 512MB of RAM, coupled with 4GB of internal storage. While the 341mAh battery will last you for "up to two days," ASUS is also pushing its "HyperCharge" technology, which will bring you back up to 60 percent in 15 minutes. Charging is handled with a magnetic port and there will also be an "optional battery pack," which sounds like a bizarre accessory for something so sleek. We'll have to ask for more details on that one.

On the software side, it's the typical Android Wear experience. Google's wrist-ready operating system is slowly improving, and the company has its "biggest platform update yet," Android Wear 2.0, scheduled for the fall. ASUS is, however, offering some custom watch faces for the Zenwatch 3, and hopes you'll make your own with its FaceDesigner app for smartphones. The new smartwatch also has some fitness chops, with automatic step-counting that is supposedly 95 percent accurate. It can also track a few other basic activities such as running, push-ups and sit-ups -- don't expect too much, however, this isn't a high-end Garmin.

The Zenwatch 3 will set you back €229 (roughly $255) in Europe -- ASUS is yet to give an official price for the US. There's no word on availability either, but rest assured we'll let you know when it's been confirmed.

We're live all week from Berlin, Germany, for IFA 2016. Click here to catch up on all the news from the show.

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Intel's 7th generation Core CPUs will devour 4K video

Source: https://www.engadget.com/2016/08/30/intel-7th-generation-core-cpus/

4K video is finally gaining a foothold in home theaters this year, but for most PCs it's practically kryptonite. Even if you're lucky enough to have a powerful computer, dealing with such high-resolution video is a surefire way to spike your CPU usage and gobble up battery life. So it's little surprise that Intel made 4K performance the centerpiece of its long-awaited seventh generation Core processors, which were officially announced today. You can also look forward to a slew of other speed-enhancing features when the new chips hit laptops in September.

So just how good are these new batch of Core processors? How about a CPU utilization rate of around 5 percent and power usage of 0.5 watts on the new Core i7-7500U while playing local 4K video. That's compared to 40 to 70 percent CPU usage and a 10.2 watt power draw on its predecessor, the i7-6500U. And when playing 4K VP9-encoded video on YouTube, the new seventh generation i7 clocks in at 10 to 20 percent CPU usage while drawing 0.8 watts of power. The previous chip, on the other hand, ate up 70 to 80 percent of the CPU while taking up 5.8 watts of power.

Even as a computer geek, it's been hard to get excited over new processors over the last few years. Intel, for the most part, has focused on steadily improving its lineup instead of aiming for dramatic performance gains. (My fourth-generation quad-core desktop chip can still go toe-to-toe with sixth-gen offerings.) But when it comes to 4K, Intel has delivered an evolutionary upgrade. And while it might not sound that important yet, it sets the stage for laptops and desktops that need to drive the new video standard.

Specifically, Intel added hardware encoding and decoding capabilities for both 10-bit HEVC 4K video and 8 to 10-bit VP9 video. There's also HDR and wide color gamut support, but Intel says it's up to manufacturers to implement the two competing HDR standards, Dolby Vision and HDR10. On top of just letting you watch more 4K video, the new chips' encoding performance could be a huge deal for anyone editing media, with speeds between 1X and 3X real-time for 30FPS 4K.

Intel's seventh generation Core processors (codenamed "Kaby Lake") are basically a refined version of the company's Skylake design from last year. Once again, they're built on a 14 nanometer process, and they rely on Intel's Speed Boost feature, which pushes the chips to their maximum speed faster than previous generations. Unfortunately, the company isn't saying much about its seventh gen desktop lineup yet, but we'll hopefully hear details early next year.

The new laptop chips are divided into two groups: the "Y-series" for thin designs using up to 4.5 watts of power, and the "U" series for faster performance (or just about every other type of laptop). And while there's still a Core M3 processor in the new lineup, Intel has dumped the M5 and M7 models in exchange for the power efficient Y-series. Base clock speeds range between 2.4 GHz and 2.7 GHz for the U-series chips, with boost speeds up to 3.1GHz on the Core i5 and 3.5GHz on the Core i7. And for the more efficient Y-series, base speeds run between 1GHz and 1.3GHz, with larger boost figures between 2.6GHz and 3.6GHz.

When it comes to typical web browsing, Intel claims the new i7-7500U is 19 percent faster than the i7-6500U, while i7-7Y75 chip is 18 percent faster than the M7-6Y75, as measured by WebXPRT 2015. And when it comes to productivity, the company says the new CPUs are around 12 percent faster than their predecessors, based on SYSmark 2014 figures. Sure, they're not exactly exciting upgrades if you have a fairly new laptop, but if yours is getting long in the tooth, you'll definitely notice the difference. And while I didn't get any exact figures on battery life, you can expect some sort of improvement (especially when watching videos).

So what do these new chips mean for you? Basically, if you're in the market for a new laptop, it's worth waiting for new models featuring the seventh gen CPUs in September. And if you're planning to build or buy a new desktop, sit tight until January.

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LG delivers three new super-sized ultrawide monitors

Source: https://www.engadget.com/2016/08/29/lg-delivers-three-new-super-sized-ultrawide-monitors/

LG has continued to push the limits of 21:9 aspect ratio monitors over the years and its latest three additions are something to behold. Ready to debut at IFA and coming to the US this fall, they include the "world's largest" 38-inch curved 38UC99 model that goes on sale in September for $1,500, a 34-inch curved 34UC79G due in October for $700, and the flat 34-inch 34UM79M coming in November for $600.

That massive 38-incher packs a Quad HD+ resolution of 3,840 x 1,600 and is apparently the first ultrawide monitor with a USB-C port built-in. The 34UM79M has integrated Google Cast support (plus built-in support for multitasking, so you can Netflix while you work without giving up any screen space). Finally, that curved 34-inch model is pitched as "the world's first 144Hz IPS 21:9 Curved UltraWide gaming monitor," with AMD FreeSync included to cut down on stuttering and tearing when the action gets hectic.

Source: LG Newsroom

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LG adds brighter, more portable projectors to Minibeam lineup

Source: https://www.engadget.com/2016/08/17/lg-adds-brighter-more-portable-projectors-to-minibeam-lineup/

For the very truly dedicated cord-cutters out there, LG has just announced two new portable, battery-powered projectors that can be set up blissfully free of any audio, video or power cables. The two models in LG's Minibeam lineup will debut next month at IFA 2016 in Berlin and hit retailers in the US shortly after.

First up is the PH450U (and the PH450UG version with built-in TV tuner), which LG claims is among the brightest battery-powered, short-throw projectors at 450 lumens. The projector only needs 13 inches of distance to put up an 80-inch screen, and can actually be set up sideways to project an image on any horizontal surface -- in case you want to project some trippy visuals on the dance floor at your next house party. According to LG's estimates, users should be able to get about two and a half hours of screen time out of the internal battery, so you won't be having any outdoor Godfather marathons without a backup battery just yet, but you can still stream a couple episodes of Stranger Things in your blanket fort before you need to plug in. The PH450G will retail for $649.99 when it goes on sale in September.

The second addition to the Minibeam lineup, the PH150G comes in at a diminutive 1.1 pounds for a cool $349.99. While the less expensive model needs more room to work, it can put up a 100-inch screen and has the same two and a half hour battery life as its short-throw sibling. (At 150 lumens, the brightness rating also takes a hit.) Both models offer wireless mirroring or streaming from a smartphone or tablet, plus the ability to stream audio out to Bluetooth headphones, portable speakers or home audio setup.

Source: LG Newsroom

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Wikiverse turns Wikipedia into a visual universe of articles

Source: https://www.engadget.com/2016/08/18/wikiverse-turns-wikipedia-into-a-visual-universe-of-articles/

I've spent (too) many lazy evenings hopping from one Wikipedia entry to the next, reading things that could be useful for trivia night. It's fun enough, but this website that visualizes Wiki as a universe could make the experience even better for a lot of people. You can zoom around to visit clusters of stars representing interconnected topics -- clicking on one will load the article itself right within the interface. Since each star is visually connected to related entries with colored loopy lines, you can hop around like you would on the actual Wikipedia website.

Wikiverse is the upgraded version of an old Chrome experiment we covered back in 2014 called WikiGalaxy. It's designed by French computer scientist Owen Cornec who wanted to find a way to display entries in "a more engaging way." From what I can see, the new version is a lot more colorful compared to the older one. Cornec originally wanted to color code stars according to their super-categories, but he told us he wasn't able to do so because there are too many super-categories to count. Instead, he decided to use colors to differentiate clusters from each other and to indicate whether an entry is within that cluster or in another one. Wikiverse also feels faster than its predecessor, even on browsers other than Chrome, so you'll have zero issues pretending to be a spacecraft exploring a universe of knowledge.

Source: Wikiverse

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