Hands On With Panasonic's 4K Tablet at CES 2013

This 20-inch tablet has a breathtaking 3840 by 2560 screen, but it's definitely not yet ready for prime time.

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LAS VEGAS—It's safe to say that you'll probably never get your hands on the sharpest tablet at CES. Panasonic's 4K tablet is an awesome proof of concept, but it has some usability issues and will likely carry a very high price tag—two things that suggest that it's going to take a generation or two before anything like it comes to mainstream businesses and consumers.
Ultra-HD, 4K screens are one of the big themes of this year's CES, as TV manufacturers try to figure out what will get consumers to upgrade from their existing HDTVs. Panasonic's tablet brings 4K to a smaller form factor and shows how high-density touch displays could work im the creative trades.
The tablet is a gigantic plate with a tapered, silver back and a huge "IPS-infinity" LCD screen on the front. It weighs 5.3 pounds, but feels heavier than that because at 18.7 by 13.1 by 0.4 inches (HWD), it's kind of unwieldy. Initially, the screen looks amazing; it's not very reflective, and has a stunning viewing angle.
The 4K tablet is a full Windows 8 Pro PC. The screen resolution is 3840-by-2560 at 230 ppi, driven by an Intel Core i5 CPU at 1.8GHz with Nvidia graphics. The tablet has 4GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD. There's no read camera, but there's a 720p front camera for video chatting. In addition, there are two USB ports and a MicroSD card slot.
The problem with the tablet is that Windows software just isn't designed for 230ppi screens. In Photoshop, for instance, menus and tools shrunk down to be almost un-clickable. There was also tremendous lag when drawing with the touch pen on the Photoshop screen, and the tablet got quite hot on the back while I was drawing.
A custom architectural drawing app fared better. Designed specifically for the tablet, the app had appropriately-sized controls and the screen was much more responsive to the pen. I still got a bit of a feeling that the tablet was struggling with responsiveness at that tremendously high resolution, though. The architectural app also showed why you might want a bigger tablet than, say, an iPad. Architectural drawings are large, and it's great to be able to see and work on the whole thing at once.

Hands On With Panasonic's 4K Tablet at CES 2013

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Where the tablet really shined was in displaying a presentation. Colors popped and a whole room could see the slides, thanks to the screen's excellent viewing angle.
The tablet uses Anoto's pen technology, which I've liked for years in the Livescribe pen-and-pad combo. Here, though, it was less impressive. The Anoto pen was bulkier and less responsive than Wacom and N-Trig pens I've seen on other touch tablets (largely because of the optical sensor tacked below the tip), and it isn't pressure sensitive. Anoto's strength is in making analog paper digital; I didn't get a feel for what it could add to a purely digital experience.
Panasonic says this tablet is a business product, but I prefer to think of it as what a business product could be. It's meant to generate ideas: the architectural drafting app synchronized two tablets so two architects could draw at the same time, for instance, and one of the tablets was set up as a gorgeous remote viewfinder for a Wi-Fi-connected camera. These are all potential uses, if not for this exact device, for high-res large tablets in the future.
The 4K tablet doesn't have a price, release date, or even a formal name yet.

 http://www.pcmag.com

Google Glass Unlikely to Be Game Changer in 2013

The company still hasn't nailed down its wearable computer's feature set

By Jason Koebler

 

Google co-founder Sergey Brin demonstrates Google's new Glass, wearable internet glasses, at the Google I/O conference in San Francisco in June.

Don't expect Google Glass—the computerized goggles the company debuted in April 2012—to make it to market in 2013: One of the device's designers recently said the glasses are "in flux."
"We haven't actually talked about specific features," Babak Parviz, an electrical engineer working with Google on the project, recently told IEEE Spectrum. "The feature set for the device is not set yet. It is still in flux."
[READ: Google to Sell Part of Motorola for $2.35 Billion]
That's bad news for people hoping to get their hands on the glasses in 2013. But some developers will be able to buy a preview "Explorer" edition of the device sometime this year for $1,500, according to the company.
Jay Nancarrow, Google's Project Glass spokesperson, says that schedule hasn't changed since the company's I/O 2012 convention, held in June.
"There'll be a future release aimed at general consumers, but so far we have no major updates," he told U.S. News. "The final feature set hasn't been announced yet."
That isn't soon enough for Rod Furlan, an artificial intelligence expert who designed a rudimentary version of Google Glass using already-existing components in late 2012. Furlan used smartphone and iPod touch parts to put together something resembling Google Glass and mounted them on a Myvu Crystal, a wearable screen released in 2008. The resulting glasses streamed text messages, phone notifications, and more to his Myvu.
[GALLERY: Google Cameras Map Grand Canyon Trails]
"My world changed the day I first wore my prototype. At first there was disappointment—my software was rudimentary…then there was discomfort," he writes. "But when the batteries drained a few hours later and I took the prototype off, I had a feeling of loss. It was as if one of my senses had been taken away from me."
Augmented reality experts have said that Google Glass could be an interesting first step toward an always on, Internet-assisted reality, but that the technology doesn't yet exist for the goggles to be a true game changer.
"In one simple fake video … Google has created a level of over-hype and over-expectation that their hardware cannot possibly live up to," Blair MacIntyre, of Georgia Tech's Augmented Environments Lab told Wired in 2012. "It's going to generate ideas in people and expectations that might not match."
[ALSO: Google Maps Is Back for iPhone]
Parviz's recent comments seem to suggest that the company has lots of work to do on the device. He said the team is still "working on" letting people answer calls with the glasses and that there are battery life and eye-strain concerns still left to remedy.

 http://www.usnews.com

Laser cookery makes your food more fun

by Paul Marks 

YOUR toast pops up with a strange pattern burned into it. Pointing your phone's camera at the pattern pulls up a website showing the day's traffic news for your commute. Later, as you're wondering how to make a spring roll, you notice the instructions are etched into the rice paper itself.

These are just a couple of the applications of "laser cookery" envisaged by Kentaro Fukuchi and colleagues at Meiji University in Japan. They reckon laser cutters have done their time in industry and, like 3D printers before them, it's now time for them to come into our homes - as a new breed of laser-enabled kitchen appliances.

At a cookery technology workshop in Nara, Japan, in November, the researchers showed how a benchtop industrial laser cutter - normally used to cut or engrave patterns in plastic, wood and metal - could generate a variety of fascinating foodstuffs when hooked up to a computer running graphics software and a webcam.

One delicacy they have developed is the charmingly named "melt-fat raw bacon", an allegedly tasty sliver of uncooked bacon on which the fat is cooked by the laser, using a webcam trained on the bacon to guide the beam. "The well-cooked fat and the fresh taste of the meat can then be experienced at the same time," says Fukuchi. Don't all rush at once.

 http://www.newscientist.com

Answer Calls in the Shower With Sony's Flagship Android Phone

by : Emily Price

Emily Price2 days ago

You don't have to worry about Sony's newest flagship smartphone getting wet in a rainstorm. Called the Xperia Z, the Android handset is both dust and water resistant — IP55 and IP57, specifically — and can survive the rain or even an accidental swim in your local pool.
In addition to its durable design — the phone used tempered glass on its front and back as well as an anti-shatter film — the Xperia Z is also packing a punch under the hood. The 5-inch smartphone has a quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro processor, 1080p display, and a 13-megapixel camera.
Sony isn't quite ready to announce carriers for the handset but, when it does launch in the next few months, the phone will run on 4G LTE networks.
With a large screen and LTE, one of the biggest concerns with the Xperia Z is likely to be power. To help combat the drain caused by battery-hogging LTE, Sony has built a Battery Stamina mode into the phone that automatically shuts down battery-draining apps whenever the screen on the devices is off, powering them back on when you start to use the phone again.
What that means is that, overnight, while you're phone is sitting on the night stand not being used, notifications from apps like Facebook and Twitter will be powered off, saving you the battery drain of the app looking for updates throughout the night and sending you push notifications.
The feature allows you to select specific apps to stay on even when the screen is not. So, if you want to receive Twitter notifications all the time, you can select to receive those messages without allowing all the apps on your phone to run.
NFC capabilities in the handset allow Xperia owners to quickly pair the phone with everything from speakers to your television. Sony showed us a demo in which a representative started playing a song on the phone through its built-in speakers, and then tapped the Xperia Z on a speaker to have the music start playing there instead. Tapping the speaker again moved the tunes from the external speaker back to the built-in speakers in the phone.
NFC can also come in handy with your TV. Tapping the handset on the remote control for one of Sony's new televisions will let you view the content from your smartphone on your television screen. So you can play Angry Birds or watch Netflix on your TV with a single tap.
The Xperia Z will be released in Q1 of this year, and will come running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, which will be updated to 4.2 shortly after launch. A smaller version of the phone, the Xperia ZL, will also be released in Q1. While not water-resistant, the ZL sports many of the same features as the Xperia Z.
 

 http://mashable.com

Intel Shows the Awesome Laptop You'll Be Use

Intel 'North Cape' Fourth Generation Core Reference Ultrabook

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Intel 'North Cape' Reference Laptop

To show what its Fourth Generation Core processors will be capable of, Intel built the North Cape: an Ultrabook that converts to a tablet with a very long battery lift.

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Pete Pachal2 days ago

LAS VEGAS — What will laptops look like a year from now? Intel knows, and the chip manufacturer gave the world a sneak peek at CES 2013 today with its reference PC design for the next generation of Core processors.
The laptop, codenamed "North Cape," isn't a real product; it's a machine that Intel's built to both test and showcase the capabilities of the Fourth Generation of Core processors (codenamed "Haswell"). Haswell chips are scheduled for general release midyear.
Intel had a few of the reference laptops at its press conference here in Vegas, and we got a little hands-on time with them. It's an impressively light device — noticeably easier to hold than like-sized laptops of today like the Lenovo Yoga. The screen is 13.3 inches, but not all the time.
What's that, you ask? The screen size changes? Indeed it does: North Cape is also a convertible, with the monitor able to detach from the keyboard to become a tablet that's just 0.39 inch thick. However, the 13.3-inch screen runs almost to the edge of the bezel, not leaving much room for thumbs. But with the press of a button, the laptop scales the display down to an 11-inch size. That's new.
North Cape's biggest improvement over the previous generation of machines will be battery life. Intel says that the jump in battery life between the current Core 3 machines and Core 4 will be the largest in the company's history. The reference laptop is said to get up to 13 hours of battery life while docked (there are batteries in both the keyboard and tablet/monitor).
The extended battery life is a consequence of Intel's aggressive move to increase the efficiency of its chips as it changes the architecture. Chips in Ultrabooks that debuted last year consume about 17 watts, though Intel recently shrunk that down to 7 watts for some Core 3 designs, such as the Lenovo Yoga 11S. Haswell will bring it down even further.
Ports on the back include a pair of USB 3.0 ports, an HDMI jack and a proprietary power port.

 http://abcnews.go.com

Pebble smartwatch set to ship to project backers

 

 

Technical problems at the press conference lent a blue tinge to the demonstrations

A hotly-anticipated smartwatch, which was created thanks to $15m (£10m) in crowdsourced funding, is to be made available this month.

The Pebble has an e-ink display similar to those found on e-readers, and last seven days on one battery charge.
The 1.26in (3,2cm) screen is able to display a multitude of apps as well as tell the time.
Pebble is to date the most successful Kickstarter project, but had been hit by development delays.
Cash pledges Originally intended to ship to backers in Autumn 2012, the watch will now go first to those who contributed to its funding, before then being shipped to those who have placed pre-orders. On the Pebble website, the watch costs £110 ($149).
The first watches will begin shipping on 23 January.
It will be mass-produced at a rate of 15,000 units each week, project founder Eric Migicovsky told reporters at CES. It would be generally available in about 6-8 weeks, he said.
Third-party developers will be able to create apps for the watch which can pair up with smartphones running Google's Android software or Apple's iOS.
At the press event Mr Migicovsky demonstrated how the watch can be used to wirelessly control functions on a smartphone - such as playing music while a device is in a docking station.
Wearers can also receive text messages and emails through the device, as well as manage incoming calls.
Pebble weighs 38.2g (1.3oz) and its black and white screen has a resolution of 144 x 168 pixels.
Pebble's makers have paired with notification service If This Then That (IFTTT), a site which allows users to set up custom actions such as receiving a notification when weather changes, or when a news website is updated.
Mr Migicovsky said that the watch depletes a smartphone's battery by around 5-10% per day. To charge the Pebble itself, a cable must be attached.
Thomas Stuermer, from Accenture, said he believed this could be a problem.
"The problem is that at the moment the more features you put on there the more they consume power," he said.
"Contactless power chargers are starting to take off - but they still involve putting devices down on pads. Until wireless power becomes a bit more contactless it probably still won't work well on the watch platform."
Smartwatches have been common place in technology for some time, although to date the market is largely dominated by sports brands such as Nike and Adidas whose products offer fitness statistics, route tracking and pacing data.
The project to develop Pebble debuted on Kickstarter in April 2012 seeking $100,000 (£62,000) to complete development of the device.
By the end of its 38 day funding drive it had raised more than $10m and had almost 70,000 backers. More funds were raised via its website as people put down cash to reserve one of the first devices.

http://www.bbc.com 

Review: Razer Blade gaming laptop sleek, powerful, pricey

By Larry Frum, Special to CNN

The new Razer laptop has an interface tailored to playing video games.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Review: Razer Blade gaming laptop is sleek and powerful, but not for everyone
• A $2,500 price tag puts the Razer out of some gamers' budgets
• Detail on 17-inch screen is "a visual dream"
• Powerful machine is designed not to get hot, even when played on the lap

(CNN) -- The new Razer Blade gaming-centric laptop is sleek and powerful, but it's not for every gamer looking to take their action on the go.

The second-generation edition is an upgrade from the original, released in February 2012. Razer wanted to bolster the hardware specs without detracting from what makes the Blade unique in portable computer gaming -- its size.

The first thing you notice about the Blade is how thin it is. A 17-inch, high-definition screen is housed in a case that is less than an inch thick and weighs 6.6 pounds. The matte black aluminum finish is in stark contrast to the neon green Razer logo and keyboard lighting. It is quite the eye-catching machine and will sit comfortably on your lap.

What makes the Blade different than standard laptops is its unique Switchblade interface, which sits on the right-hand side of the keyboard. This LCD touchscreen acts as a traditional touchpad mouse for most options, but can be programmed depending on which game is being played.

Ten lighted buttons can be programmed as macro game commands, allowing for handy use. Some game profiles (Team Fortress 2, Battlefield 3, Star Wars: The Old Republic to name a few) are already available and Razer says they are working to add more.

The Blade's 17-inch HD screen is housed in a case that is less than an inch thick and weighs 6.6 pounds.

The placement of the Switchblade to the right of the keyboard took some getting used to when I just wanted to use it as a touchpad. Frequently, my fingers would seek the touchpad below the keyboard before wandering off to the right. In game, the location was more familiar to me as I treated it more like a gaming mouse.

The touchscreen can also act as a secondary, but very small, display. While social media apps were preprogrammed into the buttons, I wouldn't recommend trying to Facebook or tweet on it while gaming on the big screen. However, if you're looking for an edge, a YouTube video walkthrough of the game you're enjoying can be viewed in the small screen while you control the action on the big screen.

The next thing you'll notice about the Blade is the lack of an optical drive. Given today's online gaming services (like Steam), that may be less of a problem than it first appears. However, it will limit your ability to play games from a disc or even watch a movie in nongaming moments while traveling.

However, this machine is built for gaming performance and that's where most of the improvements were targeted. With a brand-new quad-core processor (i7-3632QM) developed by Intel, a high-end Nvidia GeForce GXT 660M and 8GB of RAM, the new Blade isn't quite at the top of the performance ladder, but is definitely within shouting distance.

Playing a variety of games, from "Diablo 3" to "Civilization V," on the high detail setting was a visual dream. Graphics were crisp and clear, and movement within the games went along without a hitch. The audio from the built-in speakers wasn't as deep as some other laptop gaming computers. You'll probably want to plug in headphones to get the best quality.

Surprisingly, with all that power, the Blade stayed warm without burning me when gaming with it on my lap. The hottest internal parts are positioned along the hinge in the back and the air vents effectively shunt heat away without any loud, noisy fans. Indeed, the computer was surprisingly quiet while working to keep up with the graphical demands of my games.

USB ports are all located on the left hand side of the deck so if you want to add a mouse for serious gaming, you'll need a long cord -- or a wireless one mouse. There is also an HDMI output and a headset jack along the left side. A 500 GB hard drive is smaller than some other gaming laptops, but shouldn't be a significant loss. The battery life isn't as long as I'd like, but the battery pack is slim and sleek, which is good for mobile gaming and finding those outlets on the road.

The final thing you'll notice about the Blade after oohing and ahhing over its looks and functionality will be the price. The new laptop will set you back $2,500 (according to the Razer website), making it an expensive option in the laptop gaming arena. This price tag puts it squarely at the high end for the gaming audience.

The incredibly slim and light design, the powerful engine inside, and a heat dissipation system that won't scald your legs make the new Blade an excellent portable gaming option. Personally, the price tag puts it out of my reach despite all the attractive features. It is a laptop for very serious gamers who want to take their fragging on the road.

The demo unit I reviewed used Windows 7, but Razer plans to make Windows 8 available to customers who want it. They are also not doing away with their first version of the Razer, which is priced $600 cheaper, but is a little lighter in the performance department as well.

http://edition.cnn.com