Laptop: April 2010

Friday, April 30, 2010

Apple iphone

The iPad is a tablet computer designed and marketed by Apple, meant for internet browsing, media consumption, gaming, and light content creation. Unlike many older tablets, it uses fingertips for input instead of a stylus. Released in April 2010, it introduced a class of devices between smartphones and laptops.

Like the older iPod Touch and iPhone devices, the larger iPad runs the iPhone OS and uses a multi-touch LCD for most user interactions. It runs iPad-specific applications as well as those written for the iPhone and iPod touch, including e-book readers.

The iPad uses WiFi or Wireless WAN to browse the Internet, load and stream media, and install software.

History and availability

Apple's first tablet computer was the Newton MessagePad 100^[22] introduced in 1993, which led to the creation of the ARM6 processor core with Acorn Computers. Apple also developed a prototype PowerBook Duo-based tablet, the PenLite, but did not sell it to avoid hurting MessagePad sales. Apple released several more Newton-based PDAs, and discontinued the last, the MessagePad 2100, in 1998.

Apple re-entered the mobile-computing market in 2007 with the iPhone. Smaller than the iPad but featuring a camera and mobile phone, it pioneered the multitouch interface of iPhone OS. By late 2009, the iPad's release had been rumored for several months. Mostly referred to as "Apple's tablet", iTablet and iSlate were among speculated names. The iPad was announced on January 27, 2010 by Steve Jobs at an Apple press conference at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco.

Three days later, at the 52nd Grammy Awards, Stephen Colbert used an iPad in announcing the nominees.

Apple began taking pre-orders for the iPad from U.S. customers on March 12, 2010. The Wi-Fi version of the iPad went on sale in the United States on April 3, 2010, at 9:00 am local time, with hundreds of customers lined up outside stores nationwide. The Wi-Fi + 3G version was be released on April 30. 3G service in the United States is provided by AT&T and sold with two prepaid contract-free data plan options: one for unlimited data and the other for 250 MB per month at half the price. The plans are activated on the iPad itself and can be canceled at any time.

The iPad will also be available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK at the end of May 2010.^[6] Apple stated they will announce international pricing and begin taking online pre-orders for iPad on May 10.

Israel recently authorized importation of the iPad, after a prohibition related to possible Wi-Fi interference with other devices.

Hardware

Steve Jobs, Apple CEO, introducing the iPad

Back of the iPad Wi-Fi

Screen and input

The touchscreen is a 25 cm (9.7 in) liquid crystal display (1024 × 768 pixels, 132 ppi, XGA) with fingerprint–resistant and scratch-resistant glass. Like the iPhone, the iPad is designed to be controlled by bare fingers, not gloves and styli that prevent electrical conductivity (although there are gloves and styli designed for this use).

The display responds to two other sensors: an ambient light sensor to adjust screen brightness and a 3-axis accelerometer to sense iPad orientation and switch between portrait and landscape modes. Unlike the iPhone and iPod touch, which work in three orientations, the iPad supports screen rotation in all four orientations, meaning that the device has no intrinsic "up" or "down"; only the position of the home button changes. Most iPad applications support both portrait and landscape mode.

The iPad has a switch to lock out this screen rotation function (reportedly to prevent unintended rotation when the user is lying down). There are a total of four physical switches, including a home button below the display that returns the user to the main menu, and three plastic physical switches on the sides: wake/sleep and volume up/down, along with the screen rotation lock.

Connectivity

The iPad can use Wi-Fi network trilateration to provide location information to applications such as Google Maps. The 3G model contains A-GPS while both models have a digital compass.

The back of the Wi-Fi model iPad is made of contoured aluminum with black plastic buttons. The Wi-Fi + 3G model also has a black plastic accent on top of the device which helps with 3g radio sensitivity.

The iPad does not have any ports for wired connectivity.

Audio and output

Dual speakers housed inside the iPad provide mono sound via two small sealed channels in the interior speaker assembly that direct the sound outwards toward the three audio ports carved into the bottom-right of the unit. The microphone is within the device. A volume switch is on the right side of the unit, and a 3.5 mm TRS connector audio-out jack provides stereo sound for headphones on the top-left corner of the device. The iPad supports normal headphones and models with microphones, volume controls, or both. Microphones can be used for voice recording.

The built-in Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR interface supports the HSP, A2DP, and HID profiles, which allow wireless headphones and keyboards to be used with the iPad. However, the iPhone OS does not currently support the OBEX file transfer protocol.

iPad video output over VGA is set to 1024 x 768 using a 720p scan rate.

Power and battery

The iPad uses an internal rechargeable lithium-ion polymer battery. The iPad is designed to be charged with a high current (2 amperes) using the included USB 10 W power adapter. While it can be charged by a standard USB port from a computer, these typically provide lower current (500 milliamperes or 1 ampere). As a result, if the iPad is turned on while being charged with a normal USB computer port, it will charge much more slowly, if at all.

Apple claims that the iPad's battery can provide up to 10 hours of video, 140 hours of audio playback, or one month on standby. The battery loses capacity over time and is not designed to be user-replaceable. As in the battery-replacement program for iPod and the original iPhone, Apple will replace an iPad that does not hold an electrical charge with a refurbished iPad for a fee of US$99.

Storage and SIM

The iPad was released with three options for internal storage size: a 16, 32, or 64 GB flash drive. All data are stored on the flash drive and there is no option to expand storage. Apple sells a camera connection kit with an SD card reader, but it can only be used to transfer photos and videos.

The Wi-Fi + 3G model has a micro-SIM slot (not mini-SIM) located on the side of the device. The 3G model may be used with an AT&T data plan that does not require a contract. Apple has heavily advertised the uses of the no-contract plan on their website. Unlike the iPhone, which is usually sold locked to specific carriers, the 3G iPad is sold unlocked and can be used with any compatible GSM carrier.

Optional accessories

iPad in the iPad Keyboard Dock

Apple offers several iPad accessories, including:

iPad Keyboard Dock with hardware keyboard, 30-pin connector, and audio jack
iPad Case which can be used to stand the iPad in various positions
iPad Dock with 30-pin connector and audio jack
iPad Dock Connector to VGA Adapter for external monitor or projector
iPad Camera Connection Kit including a USB Type A connector adapter and an SD card reader, for transferring photos and videos
iPad 10W USB Power Adapter with 2 A output (10 W)

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Thursday, April 22, 2010

Asus’ Republic Of Gamers series

Hailing from Asus’ Republic Of Gamers series and equipped with Nvidia’s 3D Vision technology and powerful hardware, the Asus G51J gives a different dimension to gaming, in the true sense. It’s a mean machine with a rich feature set, but can it handle the intensive rendering when it comes to 3D gaming? Let’s find out!

Design
The laptop follows a dashing blue-black theme, where the lid is glossy and deep blue with an illuminated ROG emblem and lights at either edge. The interior is all-black, with a hint of brushed satin chrome around the touchpad. Thankfully, there aren’t any loud or annoying colorful blinking lights, something rather typical of gaming laptops. On the contrary, this one is quite sober to look at. Open the lid and you’ll notice a glossy but solid screen frame, good-quality hinges, and a matte rubberized wrist rest with a nice matte touchpad. The touchpad is rimmed with a brush finished metallic frame, which extends to double as mouse buttons. The overall build quality and the ergonomics are top notch, but we weren’t impressed by the chiclet keyboard, because it flexes a little too much.

Gaming laptops are large in size, heavy in weight and they certainly can’t be carried around on a regular basis, and the Asus G51J is no exception. Owing to its overall size, ruggedness, and rich feature set, this laptop weighs almost 3.5 Kg and its maximum thickness is almost 5 cm. So, what goes without saying is that, you’ll have to use it on a desk, unless you want a sore lap. Also, while benchmarking and gaming, we noticed the temperature of the base soaring to 70 degrees Celsius, so you wouldn’t want to play games when on the move. Another good reason for using it on the desk is that, this laptop doubles up as a high-end desktop PC, thanks to the powerful hardware.

Features
In terms of hardware, the biggest asset of this laptop is the processor, while others include RAM, the two hard drives and the discrete graphics. Built around Intel’s performance chipset, an Intel PM55, the machine is powered by an Intel Core i7 720QM processor which is clocked at 1.6 GHz. There is 4 GB DDR3 RAM and two 320 GB hard drives (7200 rpm). So there is not only enough number-crunching power but also ample room for storing games, music, movies and such. The discrete graphics is courtesy an Nvidia Geforce GTX 260M.

Coming to the highlighting feature; the laptop bundles with it the Nvidia 3D Vision glasses and a classy Razor Abyssus optical gaming mouse. So you don’t need to go hunting for these must-haves. Also, you don’t need to worry about compatibility, because the 15.6-inch screen is a 120Hz panel (1366 x 768) which is suited for the 3D vision kit. Want something more to drool over? This machine has a Blu-ray drive and multi-channel sound, so even watching movies is truly a treat. Options for external display are common, HDMI and VGA. The standard connectivity options include gigabit Ethernet, Wi-Fi N and Bluetooth. Then, there are 4 USB ports, a 2.0 megapixel webcam, a FireWire port, a memory card reader and the laptop is pre-loaded with Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit). Finally, in addition to the Nvidia 3D Vision kit and the Razer mouse, the laptop bundles with it a sporty rucksack, an OS-recovery disc, drivers, manual and a cleaning cloth.

The processor
Most powerful and high-end in Intel’s new series of Core processors, the Core i7 features Hyper Threading (HT) and Turbo Boost. While the Intel Core i3 and Intel Core i5 series of CPUs are common to entry-level and mid-level machines respectively, the i7 is the workhorse when it comes to performance. The CPU used in this laptop (the Intel Core i7 720QM) is a quad-core variant so you can see eight threads processing simultaneously (thanks, to HT). Also, it has a whopping 6 MB L3 cache, which again helps boost the performance of a CPU.

Nvidia 3D Vision
Remember the blockbuster flick Avatar? Well, now you can enjoy a similar experience in your home, with Nvidia's 3D Vision glasses. These glasses have brought about a new twist to the gaming world. They offer a stereoscopic 3D experience during gaming and even while watching 3D images. But, for the glasses to work, you need a 120 Hz LCD monitor.

While the G51J bundles these glasses, you can even buy them separately to experience the 3D realm on your desktop PC. Since there is wireless technology involved, in the kit you'll find a wireless receiver which connects with the USB port. Also, they wouldn't work with any game you throw at it, there's a handful of games, that are optimized for this technology.

Friday, April 9, 2010

unlimited music downloads service has landed in China

Nokia's all-you-can-eat, unlimited music downloads service has landed in China, offering subscribers access to an extensive catalogue of Windows Digital Rights Management (DRM)-free tracks.

The service will operate in a very similar way to that which is available to UK customers, with all Comes With Music-branded Nokia phones bundled with 12 months access at the point of purchase.

During this time they are entitled to download as many songs as they wish to. Accounts are transferable to new phones, but only if they are part of the Comes with Music range.

The exclusion of DRM, which is employed by certain services in order to prevent songs being copied onto multiple devices, suggests that Nokia and major music labels are less concerned with restricting the use of their products and more interested in getting people signed up to Comes with Music.

Monday, April 5, 2010

Dell Ships Latitude E6410 And E6510 Business Notebooks

Dell doesn't usually make a big deal about new business notebook launches, but the newest two are notable for a number of reasons. The Latitude laptop line has been around for years, and while most of them go to corporate offices, they're still solid machines for the on-the-go worker or even the average customer who simply doesn't want to pay for loads of GPU horsepower but still needs a clean, classy chassis.

Starting with the 14.1" Latitude E6410, this simple, understated machine strikes a balance between the bulk in "standard" sized notebooks and the small screen that comes on ultraportables. What's unique about these business machines is the power available; many business machines scale back when it comes to internals, but the E6410 can be ordered with Core i5 or Core i7 processors, Windows 7 or Vista, an Intel QM57 Express chipset, 1280x800 or 1440x900 resolution panels, two DDR3 DIMM slots (enough for up to 8GB of memory), room for a hard drive or solid state drive, an optional drive (DVD or Blu-ray), Ethernet, Intel HD integrated graphics, an optional internal modem and all sorts of wireless connectivity options (802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi, WiMAX, GPS, EV-DO, Bluetooth, etc.).

If you need something a little bigger, the Dell Latitude E6510 offers a 15.6" panel, along with a more powerful Core i7 CPU option and the ability to get a screen with a 1080p resolution. Otherwise, the specification lists look essentially identical. Both laptops are available now, with the E6410 starting at $1014 and the E6510 starting at $1681.