You might say the week is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workweek, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Weekly Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past seven days -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
Intel has cranked up its NUC (Next Unit of Computing) mini-computer to near gaming levels of power with the release of its 4th-gen Core-i5 D54250WYK kit. The new model comes with the latest HD Graphics 5000, for one, and also uses Intel's Turbo Boost Technology 2.0 to kick the CPU into overdrive when the need arises. It's got the chip giant's Quick Sync video to speed up encoding, a DisplayPort 1.2 jack with 4K capability, four USB 3.0 ports, an infrared sensor, stereo/mic jacks and a gigabit Ethernet controller. There's no pricing or date yet, but bear in mind that you'll need to add RAM (up to 16GB), an mSATA drive and some kind of monitor to make it fly -- though dwarfing it with a 4K display (like this one) might be overkill.
Source: Intel
While we had an inkling that Gigabyte would be fitting its latest miniature BRIX PCs with Haswell processors, we were pleasantly surprised to learn it had also built a tiny gaming computer with Iris Pro graphics on board. Indeed, the BRIX pocket gaming PC has similar internals to the recently announced Gigabyte BRIX II -- it has an HDMI port, Ethernet, four USB 3.0 slots, Bluetooth 4.0, a Mini display port, built-in WiFi and a headset jack -- but with the added benefit of Intel's latest integrated graphics and the choice of red, yellow or black aluminum housing.
We had a chance to play around with a prototype model at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco, and we have to say we're impressed. We played a short round of Grid 2 and the race car looked amazing as it roared across a large 1080p TV. While the performance appeared robust enough in our brief hands-on, an Intel rep did warn us it probably won't replace a system with a dedicated GPU. The box itself is an adorable little thing that we felt was compact and light enough to bring to our next gaming party without taking up too much space in the trunk.%Gallery-slideshow84011%
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
Aside from the new Acer Chromebook, we also got a hands-on look at the new HP Chromebook 14. The latest Haswell-powered Chromebook from HP comes in an array of eye-popping colors -- Snow White, Ocean Turquoise and Coral Peach -- which certainly makes them the most colorful Chromebooks we've ever seen. In person, the colors seem bright and playful, though we can't help but feel they look like they belong in Toys R Us rather than an electronics store. The Chromebook's chassis is made out of plastic, which makes the whole thing seem even more toy-like. The top cover has a smooth rubberized finish, but the plastic-molded keyboard feels a bit gritty; the texture reminds us of the material used in 3D printing.
As the name suggests, the Chromebook 14 has a 14-inch display with 1,366 x 768 resolution. It looked bright enough underneath the convention center's lighting, though it's difficult to tell after just a few minutes of use. It's certainly not the lightest Chromebook we've ever held -- it measures about 0.81-inch thin and weighs in at a whopping 4.08 pounds. HP opted to adhere to the standard Chromebook keyboard layout instead of its own, and the trackpad has just a single button instead of the two found on the HP Pavilion 14. Other features include a HDMI port, 16GB of storage, USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 ports, an HD webcam, an SD card slot and a battery that promises up to 9.5 hours of continuous use. If you decide to buy one, it comes with 100GB of Google Drive for free for two years. The HP Chromebook 14 is priced at around $299.99 to start, and should be available for purchase before the holiday season. To get a closer look at the candy-colored laptops, have a peek at the gallery or hit the video after the break. %Gallery-slideshow83881%
One of the first Chromebooks to come blessed with Intel's Haswell processor is the new Acer Chromebook, and we had a chance to get a closer look at it today. If not for the "new" moniker that Acer has so kindly bestowed on it, at first glance you'd be hard-pressed to find much different in comparison to its C7 predecessor. Get closer however, and you'll notice it's lighter and slimmer, measuring around 0.75 inch thin and weighing in at about 2.76 pounds. The new Acer Chromebook also has much better battery life, boasting up to 8.5 hours of continuous use from a non-removable cell this time around. It also sports an HDMI port, two USB ports (one 3.0), a standard headphone jack and an SD card slot on the sides.
The 11.6-inch 1366 x 768 resolution display is a little on the small side, but still looks crisp and colorful enough to our eyes. The raised chiclet keyboard feels tactile and comfortable to use, and Acer wisely chose to adhere to the standard Chromebook keyboard layout instead of recycling a PC layout like on the C7. While we don't know its price just yet, we do know that you'll get 100GB of Google Drive storage free for two years with every purchase. Sadly, we don't have much more information about the new Acer Chromebook to share with you, but we'll be sure to update this post once we do. In the meantime, have a peek at the hands-on gallery and video after the break. %Gallery-slideshow83878%
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
It's been just over a year since Dell updated its Precision workstations, but the time has come for some fresh hardware. This year's laptops, the M4800 and M6800, one up their predecessors in all the right places. That means 4th gen Haswell Core i5 and i7 silicon (with or without vPro), and the latest AMD FirePro or NVIDIA Quadro graphics, depending upon your preference. Additionally, the M4800 comes with a 400-nit, 15.6-inch 3,200 x 1,800 IGZO display, the same pixel-packed screen last seen on its M3800 sibling. The M6800, meanwhile, gets just a 1920 x 1080 LCD, but it comes with Wacom 10-finger multitouch capability to make up for its lack of pixels.
Both laptops can be had with up to 32GB of memory, and the 17-inch model comes with four bays that can be stuffed with up to 3.5TB of spinning or solid state storage (M4800 buyers get a mere three bays for a max of 2.5TB). As with the previous models, both laptops get up to a nine-cell 97Wh battery and users can double the juice by adding on a same-sized external slice power pack. Oh, and IT pros can pick which OS they'd like: Windows 7 or 8, and either Red Hat or Ubuntu Linux. You can dig into all the nitty-gritty customization options in the PR below, but we'll tell you here what you really want to know: the M4800 starts at $1,249, while the M6800 can be yours for $1,599.
The ASUS Zenbook Infinity first showed off its icy Gorilla Glass-clad curves at Computex back in June, and now it's resurfaced in a video that's making the rounds ahead of ASUS' press conference here at IFA. Incidentally, the video hints at a new name -- the Zenbook UX301 -- and also clarifies most of the main specs. According to the video, the UX301 will have a Retina-esque 13.3-inch, 2,560 x 1,440 multitouch display, a Haswell Core i7 CPU, 802.11ac WiFi and ASUS SonicMaster audio tech. The flagship Ultrabook will no doubt draw fans of thin design as well, thanks to the 15.5mm (0.64-inch) profile. We'll likely have a chance to play with it ourselves soon at ASUS's upcoming event, so stay tuned. In the meantime, there's a video after the break.
Source: ASUS (YouTube)