Posts Tagged ‘netbooks’

Review: ASUS Transformer Book T100HA 2-in-1 detachable laptop

Friday, June 24th, 2016

The Transformer Book T100HA is an ideal laptop-cum-tablet hybrid companion for the mobile warrior looking for good performance, portability, connectivity and long battery life – all at an affordable price of S$499.

The ASUS Transformer Book T100HA 2-in-1 hybrid features the latest quad-core Intel® Atom™ x5 ‘Cherry Trail’ processors, Windows 10 (64-bit) operating system with Cortana, the voice-powered personal assistant, and support for Windows 10 Continuum adaptive interface technology.

The ASUS Transformer Book T100HA 2-in-1 hybrid features the latest quad-core Intel® Atom™ x5 ‘Cherry Trail’ processors, Windows 10 (64-bit) operating system with Cortana, the voice-powered personal assistant, and support for Windows 10 Continuum adaptive interface technology.

I used the Transformer Book T100HA from ASUS for two weeks as I went about between meetings and events on the road, to see how usable the hybrid 2-in-1 laptop-cum-tablet would be for someone constantly on the move.

Lighter & thinner than predecessors, the tablet measures 265 x 175 x 8.45mm physically and weighs 580g, while the keyboard dock measures 265 x 175 x 10mm and weighs 470g.

Lighter & thinner than predecessors, the tablet measures 265 x 175 x 8.45mm physically and weighs 580g, while the keyboard dock measures 265 x 175 x 10mm and weighs 470g.

I found the device ideally suited as a workhorse for the typical mobile warrior – it’s compact and therefore highly portable, and its battery easily lasts an entire workday before you put it to charge when you retire for the night back at home or at the hotel.

For leisure, you can simply pull the screen off the keyboard dock and use it as a tablet.

Typically, a compact machine like this – and even those super-thin but larger Ultrabooks – suffer from a dearth of connectivity ports.

But the tablet/screen portion of the T100HA comes with 1 x Micro USB port, 1 x Type-C USB 3.1 Gen 1 port, 1 x Micro HDMI, 1 x Micro SD card slot and 1 x headphone/mic combo jack.

The ASUS Transformer Book T100HA sports a durable aluminium-clad lid available in four colours: Rouge Pink, Aqua Blue, Silk White and Tin Grey.

The ASUS Transformer Book T100HA sports a durable aluminium-clad lid available in four colours: Rouge Pink, Aqua Blue, Silk White and Tin Grey.

The keyboard dock has an additional full-sized USB 2.0 port.

This means you can connect a mouse, an external hard disk drive and a mobile device all at the same time if you need/want to.

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COMEX 2012 promotions: Asus

Thursday, August 30th, 2012

Asus will be at COMEX 2012 at Suntec Singapore at Level 4, Booths 8220 & 8310.

Click to view or download Asus promotions during COMEX 2012.

Click to view or download Asus promotions during COMEX 2012.

Check out Asus’ range of notebooks, Ultrabooks, netbooks, tablets. They are pioneers in the consumer computers arena with their EE PC netbooks, Transformer tablets, and PadFones.

Check out their COMEX 2012 discounts and freebies here.

Game-changing technology: wearable unified displays with scalable imagery

Sunday, July 8th, 2012

In a time when new technology and gadgets are launched everyday, and every one of their makers proclaim them to be game-changers, it is truly heartening to see products showcasing technology that has genuine potential to become a game changer in the near future.

Wearable video displays are an example. The Epson Moverio and Google Glass are examples of such gadgets.

Wearable unified displays can be used everywhere and for any purpose in the future, here an aircraft engineer has his hands free while referencing his technical manual through an Epson Moverio.

Wearable unified displays can be used everywhere and for any purpose in the future. Here an aircraft engineer can have his hands free (if he clips the controller to his overalls) while referencing his technical manual through an Epson Moverio.

In my humble opinion, there are two main constraints in consumer devices that represent frontiers in product developments for gadget makers.

Google Glass was showed off by co-founder Sergey Brin (not in this picture) at the Google I/O conference in June.

Google Glass was showed off by co-founder Sergey Brin (not in this picture) at the Google I/O conference in June.

These are display technology and device input.

What defines a smartphone and a tablet, laptop and a laptop, or even a television and even the cinema?

It is the size and form factor of the device.

Apart from the backend processor and performance, a large determinant of their category is simply their screen size.

If it’s a 3-5 inch device (with 3G connectivity), it’s a smartphone. 7-10 inch flat screen (with or without 3G), it’s a tablet (used to be netbook not too long ago).

Beyond that, you have the 13-17 inch notebook computer, and still beyond that – the desktops with even bigger screens.

Sony HMZ T1 Personal 3D Viewer

Sony HMZ T1 Personal 3D Viewer

Need we go into the numerous sizes for TVs, projectors and erm – cinemas?

A large determinant of device portability and usability – which often run counter to each other – is the size of the display.

Greater portability results in more squinting, whereas nice expansive viewing pleasure means bigger heavier screens.

A viewer/display device that allows the user to divorce display size from processing hardware will free the user from having to own multiple devices with different form factors.

Imagine the ability to make calls, read ebooks, play games, work on documents or edit images/video, watch the equivalent of large-screen movies on a single viewer/display.

Wanna look like an X-men? Try the Cyclops look.

Wanna look like an X-men? Try the Cyclops look.

No need to purchase separate bulky devices with their own different-sized displays.

You’d still need to have the little black-boxes containing the different processing hardware and device input.

But imagine sharing the same viewer/display amongst all these devices.

All of them “plug” into the same viewer/display.

There’s no more difference between a smartphone and a 3G-capable tablet computer.

Cameras and camcorders could also pair up wirelessly.

Although the device closest to bringing this to reality is the mounted-visor display/viewer, I’m sure there’ll be other physical means and ways to achieve this “unified display”.

Olympus has just announced its wearable display prototype - MEG4.0.

Olympus has just announced its wearable display prototype – MEG4.0.

Eventually, I can envisage (pun intended) displays embedded in contact lenses or even implanted into the cornea of the eyes.

In fact, patents have already been filed for such designs.

I haven’t seen any patents that bypass the eyes and inject vision signals directly into the brain though.

In a way, nature already unifies human vision through our eyes. We do not put on a different set of eyes to see different things.

The Olympus MEG 4.0 promises to connect to devices via Bluetooth.

The Olympus MEG 4.0 promises to connect to devices via Bluetooth.

Everything we see are through the same pair of eyes.

Why should we require a different screen to view the contents of different devices?

Now this single unified display may not be good news to device makers, although it surely should be the dream of consumers – even if we may not realise it yet.

Surely it’s better to be able to sell a single user multiple devices with different screen sizes if his/her needs forces him/her to do so.

Many users today own separate tablets and smartphones.

Sony HMZ T1 Personal 3D Viewer

Sony HMZ T1 Personal 3D Viewer

Apple, for instance, would rather sell you an iPhone AND an iPad, than only a single mobile device that “throws” its display into a single viewer with a “scalable” image size.

Google Glass with augmented reality.

Google Glass with augmented reality.

I’m sure it isn’t even news to the makers.

It’s a bit akin to traditional airlines offering budget flights.

Why introduce new budget services – even though it would benefit customers – that will change the game and threaten their erstwhile profitable business?

Fortunately, we have entrepreneurs who have broken the ranks to offer such choice to budget travellers.

A closer analogy would be the way netbooks had cannibalised the mainstream laptop market.

Sony HMZ T1 Personal 3D Viewer

Sony HMZ T1 Personal 3D Viewer

We have Asus to thank for “creating” the netbook niche to bring affordable and no-frills portable computing to the masses.

The Epson Moverio and Google Glass are not the first such device on the market, and in their current form are not mature enough for mass adoption by consumers yet – in terms of usability and feature-set, as well as content and consumer readiness.

But hopefully it precipitates more momentum to force makers to get on the bandwagon.

The other frontier

The other “physical constraint” to device form-factor is input interaction, a large part of which is text-input.

The size of screen again comes into the picture again if an on-screen keyboard is used.

And if a physical keyboard is used – be it a BlackBerry style keypad or a bigger portable keyboard – it translates into the overall form factor of the device.

Voice-input represents a means to free a device from a physical or on-screen keyboard, and even provide interactivity – through voice commands and voice search.

It’s also still early days and much development is needed before we can enjoy keyboardless devices

But as consumers and end-users, we can always dream on.

* Photos and illustrations used in this article belong to Epson, Google, Sony, and Olympus.

窥探一下未来的显示浏览器。如今已有一些头目。譬如:Epson Moverio BT-100, Google Glass, Sony HMZ T1 Personal 3D Viewer, Olympus MEG4.0。希望有朝一日,能够只凭一个显示机利用多种电子设备器材。

Acer Chromebook with Google Chrome OS

Thursday, May 12th, 2011

Google has unveiled its first two Chrome-based notebooks from Acer and Samsung at the Google I/O conference in San Francisco. They will be available for order online from June 15.

Acer’s Wi-Fi only Chromebook will cost $349, while the Samsung Chromebook will cost $429 for the Wi-Fi only version and $499 for the 3G version.

The Acer Chromebook is a netbook running Google’s Chrome OS. It has an 11.6 inch display, 1.66 GHz dual-core Intel Atom N570 processor, 16 GB SSD drive and 2 GB RAM, with 6 hours battery life. It is available in black.

Acer Chromebook running Google's Chrome OS

Acer Chromebook

The price of $349 is for the Wi-Fi only version. 3G will be an additional optional configuration.

Chromebooks will be available online June 15 in the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Netherlands, Italy and Spain. More countries will follow in the coming months. In the U.S., Chromebooks will be available from Amazon and Best Buy and internationally from leading retailers.

Here are the main specifications:

  • 11.6″ HD (1,366×768) 16:9 Widescreen CineCrystalTM LED-backlit LCD
  • 1.66 GHz dual-core Intel Atom N570 processor
  • Acer Chromebook running Goolge's Chrome OS2GB RAM
  • 16GB SSD drive
  • 6 to 8 hours battery life
  • stereo speakers
  • 2 USB 2.0 ports
  • Acer Chromebook running Google's Chrome OS4-in-1 memory card slot
  • HDMI port
  • 11.6 x 8.6 x 0.8 inches
  • Acer Chromebook running Google Chrome OS2.95 lbs / 1.34 kg
  • A full-size keyboard
  • Multitouch touch pad
  • Built in dual-band 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi and World-mode 3G (optional)
  • 1.3 megapixel HD Webcam with noise cancelling microphone
  • Instant-on from standby, and an 8-second boot time

 

Samsung Series 5 Chromebook

Wednesday, May 11th, 2011

Google has unveiled today its first Chrome-based notebooks from Acer and Samsung at the Google I/O conference in San Francisco. They will be available for order online from June 15.

The Samsung Chromebook will cost $429 for the Wi-Fi only version and $499 for the 3G version, while Acer’s Wi-Fi only Chromebook will cost $349.

Samsung Series 5 Chromebook, based on Google's Chrome OS

Samsung Series 5 Chromebook

The Samsung Series 5 Chromebook is a netbook running Google’s Chrome OS. It has a 12.1 inch display, 1.66 GHz dual-core Intel Atom N570 processor, 16 GB SSD drive and 2 GB RAM, with 8.5 hours battery life.

Looking similar to the CR-48 prototype, the Series 5 is available either in white or “Titan Silver”.

Chromebooks will be available online June 15 in the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Netherlands, Italy and Spain. More countries will follow in the coming months. In the U.S., Chromebooks will be available from Amazon and Best Buy and internationally from leading retailers.

Here are the main specifications:

  • A 12.1-inch (1280×800) SuperBright display at 300 nits, with a 16:10 aspect
  • 1.66 GHz dual-core Intel Atom N570 processor
  • Samsung Series 5 Chromebook, based on Google's Chrome OS2GB RAM
  • 16GB SSD drive
  • 8.5 hours battery life
  • Stereo speakers
  • Two USB 2.0 ports
  • SD/SDHC/MMC/SDXC card slot
  • Samsung Series 5 Chromebook, based on Google's Chrome OSMini-VGA port
  • 11.6 x 8.6 x 0.79 inches
  • 3.26 lbs / 1.48 kg
  • A full-size keyboard
  • Multitouch touch pad
  • Built-in dual-band Wi-Fi and World-mode 3G (optional)
  • HD Webcam with noise cancelling microphone
  • Instant-on from standby, and an 8-second boot time

 

HTC and Acer switch fortunes as smartphones and tablets outmode netbooks and PCs

Thursday, March 31st, 2011
HTC is now valued at 22.2 times reported earnings, compared with 10.6 for Acer. Only in February last year, HTC had a PE ratio of 11 times, while Acer was at 22.

Taipei-based HTC is the world’s largest maker of handsets using operating systems from Google and Microsoft. Acer is the world’s second-largest manufacturer of personal computers.

HTC makes Android and Windows Mobile smartphonesThe wheel of fortune for the two companies seems to have turned as sales of smartphones and tablet computers grew at the expense of notebooks and personal computers.

Prior to the explosive growth, set off by Apple, of the smartphone and tablet sector, Acer had snatched the lead from Asus for a similarly explosive growth in the netbook sector.

From HTC’s low in February last year, it has rallied some 264 percent, while Acer has fallen by 36 percent. According to Kevin Chang from Citigroup, Acer is the biggest seller of consumer notebooks in the developed world.

Acer won the pole position for the netbook market from AsusIn a report dated March 28, Chang wrote that “Consumers are not buying notebooks because they have already spent money on new tablet PCs or on upgrading their handsets from feature phones to smartphones.” He adds that Acer could become “a much smaller company in the next few years,” if tablet PC sales grow to exceed those for notebooks.

Not surprisingly, Chang has a “sell” rating on Acer’s stock and a “buy” recommendation on HTC.

A March 24 report from the Goldman Sachs Group estimates that HTC’s market worth may reach $100 billion in the next three to five years from $30 billion now, as the company ships a possible 200 million smartphones and 30 million tablet computers a year.

HTC’s value has quadrupled since reaching a low of $7.4 billion in February last year, while Acer’s market capitalization has declined to $5.6 billion from a peak of $9.4 billion reached in January 2010.