Computers
What is a PC? At first blush, it seems like a straightforward, uncontroversial question, not unlike “What is a bicycle?” But it’s actually a surprisingly tough one to answer.
When last we saw the EXO UI–a touch-friendly skin that lives on top of Windows 7–it was the interface for a 11.6″ tablet called the EXOPC Slate. At ViewSonic’s booth at CES 2012, Canada-based EXOPC was showing the software off doing something new: It was running on an expansive 32″ touch screen, looking rather like [...]
The more Ultrabooks that got unveiled at CES, the more convinced I became that it’s silly to discuss them as if they were a coherent new class of portable computer. No two manufacturers seem to agree on what an Ultrabook should be. That’s neat, since it means they’re experimenting. And last Tuesday, Dell introduced my favorite answer so far to the question “What is an Ultrabook?” in the form of its new XPS 13.
I saw a lot of Ultrabooks at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show, but Vizio’s Thin + Light laptops stood out. Being in Vizio’s quiet press room with no distractions probably helped, but I think there are a few better reasons why these svelte laptops — which Vizio isn’t calling Ultrabooks — have me more excited than most others.
The best ultrathin laptops and touchscreen slabs from the tech industry’s biggest trade show.
In a game where every pixel, ounce and fraction of an inch counts, Samsung’s new Series 9 notebooks have fired a serious shot across the MacBook Air’s bow. Don’t expect a tame response from Apple, though.
Although Intel doesn’t build laptops, the chip maker showed off a bit of design flare at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas with Nikiski, a concept notebook that folds up into a touchscreen virtual assistant.
Thin, light laptops — known as “ultrabooks” — are a much-hyped category at this year’s International Consumer Electronics Show, an annual showcase for the latest smartphones, tablet computers and other consumer-electronic devices. Hewlett-Packard Co. is talking up its own ultrabook, dubbed the HP Envy 14 Spectre, this week. The HP model has a few features that set it apart.
The Intel-led legion of thin, light and beautiful may look like the future of laptops, but at the moment, their prices could give you a heart attack. Many of the ones on display at CES float around $1,000, and some are closer to $1,500. Because of this, AMD sees an opportunity to attack its rival chip maker, Intel, which created the Ultrabook concept.
This could be a big, busy year for Intel. While the processor giant has reportedly earmarked more advertising dollars for its ultrabook initiative than it’s spent promoting any other project since 2003 – remember Centrino? – the company also just unveiled that it’s jumping whole-hog into the lucrative smartphone market.
Plenty of video games try to make you feel like a superhero, but Tobii’s eye-controlled version of Asteroids pulls it off in ways that joysticks and buttons never could.
