الاثنين، 30 مايو 2016

Transformer 3, Pro and Mini are the latest 2-in-1 PCs from ASUS

The new line-up of ASUS Transformer 3 2-in-1 PCs are in. The company made the Transformer 3 Pro, Transformer 3 and Transformer 3 Mini official today, each covering a certain price range.

Transformer 3 Pro

The Transformer 3 Pro is the most powerful of the three and features a 12.6" display with a 2880 x 1920 resolution and 275 ppi pixel density. Under the hood, there's an Intel Core i7 processor and up to 1TB PCIe SSD and 16GB of 2133MHz RAM, similarly to the ZenBook 3.

ASUS Transformer 3 Pro

At the back, there's a 13MP camera in addition to a fingerprint sensor. The body is 8.35mm thick and comes with a kickstand, which can be adjusted at any angle up to 170-degrees.

On the connectivity side, the Transformer 3 Pro features USB Type-C and Thunderbolt 3 ports, a USB 3.0 port and an HDMI connection. The Harmon Kardon speakers round up the premium package.

Transformer 3

The Transformer 3 shares the same display as the Transformer 3 Pro as well as the connectivity suite, sans the Thunderbolt 3 and HDMI ports.

Internally, it's a different story. The Transformer 3 has a 7th-gen Intel Core i5 CPU, up to 8GB of RAM (4GB is standard) and a 256GB of SATA3 m.2 SSD (512GB max).

ASUS Transformer 3

It's also thinner than the Pro and measures 6.9mm. The tablet weighs 695 grams and packs a 38.5Whr battery.

Transformer 3 Mini

Finally, the Transformer 3 Mini goes for an Atom X5 chip, which is less powerful, but churns out more battery life. This is also a result of the smaller 10.1-inch display (unspecified resolution at the time of writing).

The body is 530 grams without the keyboard. Snap it on and the Mini will weigh 790 grams. Like its bigger brothers, the keyboard is LED backlit and there's a fingerprint sensor at the back.

ASUS Transformer 3 Mini • Different keyboard and cover options

Sadly, some of the specs are missing for the Mini right now, but we'll update as soon as they become available.

Pricing for the ASUS Transformer 3 Pro starts at $999 while the Transformer 3 goes for $799. No word on availability just or the pricing of the Transformer 3 Mini yet.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 and Mi 5 to be available sans registrations in India starting June 1

11:12 ص smartphones

Xiaomi has announced that its Redmi Note 3 and Mi 5 smartphones will be available for purchase without any registrations in India starting next month. The announcement was made by the Chinese company's India head on Twitter.

While the Redmi Note 3 will be available from official Xiaomi online store as well as third party retailers like Amazon, Flipkart, and Snapdeal, the Mi 5 flagship will only be available from Mi.com.

It's worth mentioning that both devices went on open sale in the country last month, but went out of stock within a couple of minutes.

HTC smartwatch delayed yet again; Is it ever coming out?

11:11 ص smartwatch

"When HTC comes out with a smartwatch, we will turn the industry on its head." That's what CEO Cher Wang said in February this year - tall claims indeed. Whether or not the device will be a game changer is a different question, what HTC seems to be really struggling at the moment is to fix a launch date for the device.

At a time when technology changes every year, we're hearing rumors of an HTC smartwatch since 2013. The recent ones suggested that the wearable - allegedly dubbed HTC One - will be launched in April this year. However, as we all know, that didn't happen.

The usually reliable leakster @evleaks, who has been passing on information related to the device's launch time-frame in the recent times, has now revealed that the launch has been pushed further back.

Clearly, he's frustrated as well, just like most of us.

@evleaks didn't say anything on why the launch has been delayed yet again. Is the Taiwanese company waiting for Android Wear 2.0? Or is it something related to the HTC Nexus devices coming later this year? We really don't know at this point in time. But lets hope there are no further delays.

MediaTek Pump Express 3.0 battery charging tech goes 0 to 70% in 20 minutes

11:11 ص smartphones

MediaTek showcased its latest battery charging tech dubbed Pump Express 3.0 at Computex 2016. The new fast charging method promises to juice up your phone's battery from 0 to 70% in just 20 minutes. Mere 5 minutes of charging will give you an hour of talk time, too.

The company says its latest charging tech has higher charging speeds as well as efficiency resulting in lower phone temperatures during charging. The way it manages this is through bypassing the charging circuit inside the phone and routes the electrical current from the adapter directly to the battery.

While this does sound a tad dangerous, MediaTek says it has employed over 20 safety protection systems covering device and charger overheating issues.

The new charging tech will debut on the MediaTek Helio P20 platform that'll be available on late 2016 devices.

Asus has a VR headset of its own, with leather straps no less

11:10 ص hardware

Today is a big day for Asus, as the Taiwanese company has unveiled three new smartphones,a MacBook killer, and a few Surface Pro competitors. There is however another product that it's working on, but which hasn't been officially announced for whatever reason.

And yes, it's a VR headset. Recently we've seen a lot of smartphone makers also showing VR headsets - ZTE did so just last week, for example. So it looks like Asus simply couldn't miss bringing its own take to this nascent market.

Unfortunately no official details about the headset are known at this point, even if it was present at Asus' Computex event as the picture above can attest. It seems to be made out of metal, and the straps look like they're leather, which is a neat differentiating feature in an otherwise pretty standard package.

You get a touchpad and buttons on one side for navigation, a la the Samsung Gear VR, except you're not going to put a Samsung smartphone inside it - obviously any of the three new Zenfone 3 models should fit. That said, their 1080p resolution might not work wonders in VR.

الأحد، 29 مايو 2016