Google’s brand new Chromebook Pixel wasn’t entirely unexpected, but last week they blasted onto the high end laptop scene with the all-new device. With all previous models being aimed primarily at the low end, this Google-made Chromebook looks to change everything. With a stunning 2560 x 1700 HD ‘Pixel’ display, a powerful Intel Core i5 processor, and a beautiful design is it worth $1,299? Read on for our first impressions.
Android on every display, on every device, baked into every gadget: it may sound far-fetched, but it’s user-experience chief Matias Duarte’s vision of the future for an “operating system for humanity.” SlashGear sat down with Duarte to talk ubiquity of platform, Android’s potential as the solution to a “fractured operating system world”, and the importance of that being open rather than led by Apple, Microsoft, or any government or organization.
This week we had a chat with Qualcomm’s Rob Chandhok about AllJoyn and the future of the company working in the open source universe to make the fully connected future possible – an Internet of Everything. He spoke specifically about small building blocks: connection points and features that have the best chance of ensuring the future is able to continue to connect with each new device of the day as one of the most essential elements in the AllJoyn platform. This approach allows the end user experience on a refrigerator or a washing machine, for example, to work through its whole lifespan – ten year or more, with devices we’ve not even dreamed of.
This week we’ve had the opportunity to take a peek at – and play with – LG’s brand new Wireless Ultra HD Transmission technology – the world’s first! Of course such claims are a always a bit subjective, but from what we’ve experienced here, they’re not kidding around with this technology being mightily impressive. The demonstration came from Mobile World Congress 2013 where LG had an LG Optimus G connected (wirelessly) to a rather high definition LG television, playing a fabulous first-person game to show the instantaneousness of the transfer of information.
Google Now doesn’t get the recognition it deserves, but that will change if Google’s Matias Duarte, director of Android user experience, has anything to do with it, and it may well be in a comfortable marriage with Project Glass. SlashGear sat down with Duarte at Mobile World Congress this week to talk Google Now and how it and Glass, not only share some common DNA, but might well find themselves the future of Android itself.
This week we’ve had the opportunity to take a peek at the NVIDIA Tegra 4 quad-core processor inside both a couple of tablets and the Phoenix Developer Platform smartphone (in the form of the Tegra 4i). While we’ve only been able to see benchmarks in a mocked-up version of a tablet, the numbers are impressive, to say the least. We’ve also had a peek at the insides of an NVIDIA Tegra 4 and Tegra 4i chip setup, with an up-close look at how the SoCs look inside your phone or tablet of the future.
With the HP Slate 7 we once again see the computer manufacturing giant take on the tablet universe, this time with Android onboard. This device has a 7-inch display with 1024 x 600 pixel resolution, a dual-core 1.6GHz Cortex A9 processor, and 1GB of RAM. You’ll also find Beats Audio integrated with a selection of audio optimization options as well as two different iterations – one gray, the other as red as the Beats logo itself.
With the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0, you’ve got another dare to guess from the manufacturer – is it a tablet, or is it a smartphone? In this case you’ll not be able to tell based simply on the device’s ability (or inability) to make phone call as, yes, you can indeed do so with the 3G international release. Inside the United States we’re not quite going to be so lucky to have such an oddity on our hands as an 8-inch display-toting smartphone, at least not at first: we’ll have to settle for the strict tablet iteration.
You’ve seen the Glass concept videos, you’ve read the breathless hands-on reports, but how exactly is Google’s augmented reality system going to work? The search giant’s Google X Lab team has been coy on specifics so far, with little in the way of technical insight as to the systems responsible for keeping the headset running. Thanks to a source close to the Glass project, though, we’re excited to give you some insight into what magic actually happens inside that wearable eyepiece, what that UI looks like, and how the innovative functionality will work, both locally and in the cloud.
This ain’t your daddy’s Tesla. In fact, the Renault Twizy is arguably the antithesis of the Model S: eye-catching where the Tesla is discrete; cheap where the electric sedan is expensive. Intended for city driving and the sort of short trips where nippy and straightforward are the key factors, the Twizy also manages to be a whole lot of fun, albeit with a couple of caveats (and preferably a pair of gloves). We raised our eco-cred with a Twizy blast around the urban jungle.
The fan-favorite science fiction novel Ender’s Game is getting it’s own movie this November, and in the weeks and months leading up to that point, more than a few teaser images from on-set and in-film will be shared. Today’s shot is taken straight from the film and shows the mess hall from the battle school that a large chunk of the movie will take place in. It’s got two quite easily identifiable main characters up front, a few in back, and a lovely handful of non-human items throughout to tease us all wildly.
Augmented reality is going to be big, and Canon is jumping straight in with its MREAL System for Mixed Reality, a combination of a clever head-mounted display and integration with 3D graphics software to create a real-time virtual world you can interact with. Better known for its cameras, Canon is bringing that knowledge of lenses and optics to an innovative display system that blends the real world with computer graphics, using marker recognition so that physical objects can be picked out and manipulated in the digital environment. We caught up with Canon to try MREAL out, and see what you get for $125,000.
