Gadgets

Asus has announced their new Transformer Book Trio, a single device that can be used as a three-in-one notebook, desktop computer and tablet at Computex 2013. Unlike other models that have claimed to be able to do something similar, this one seems to finally have the hardware to back it up.

It comes with two processors, a Core i7 Haswell CPU and a 2 GHz Intel Atom Z2580 Clover Trail+. Compatibility issues have been bypassed through an integration of two different operating systems: Windows 8 for using it as a computer or notebook, and Android Jelly Bean for mobile use as a tablet.

Other specs include a 1920×1080, 11.6” screen that can be mounted on a PC dock and used as a display, a full keyboard for easy use, a 750GB hard drive when docked and 64GB SSD when used as a tablet.

Computex 2013 kicked off the morning with some of the biggest brands in personal technology present. Among them was Acer, who brought along their new ultrabook tablet…with a less than stellar response.

Their new 8.1″ Windows 8 tablet is called Iconia W3. Dubbed as “one-handed” tablet by the makers, it is basically a really small laptop. It connects to a small keyboard that can be used with one hand if the owner chooses to do so.

It may seem like a simplistic explanation, but it is accurate. The entire tablet was designed with the same Atom Z2760 processor of other Acer products, but only 2GB of RAM and either a 32GB or 64 GB storage option. It has a 1280×800 resolution on its miniature screen, and a decent integrated Intel Media Accelerator 3650 graphics card. The screen was made to show off the new Windows 8 with its updated interface and new, tablet friendly features.

After they revealed last week how mobile phone shipments did in the first semester of 2013, IDC released this week the estimates for tablet shipments.

The biggest surprise is that iOS tablets(altogether) fall behind Android tablets in terms of OS market share worldwide. In the first semester of 2013, Android reached 56.5 percent market share, while iOS fell at 39.6 percent. Compared with the same period of last year, the numbers are almost reversed because last year iOS had 58.1 percent while Android had 39.4 percent worldwide market share.

We all know that there are dozens of Android tablets and that Apple currently has just 2-3 tablets on sale, but after what we saw last years, when there were just iPads against the rest of the tablets, this first report is still coming as a surprise.

I’ve read a lot of rumours recently about Google building their next flagship called X Phone. Most of these rumours center around specs and I’m sure Google won’t disappoint us in this direction. Today a new report appears to come out from a tipster.

It appears that the next Google phone will have a 4.7-inch 1080p display and a 5-megapixel front camera. This 5 megapixel camera will also serve as a light sensor and will help the eye tracking feature.

Because the demand for high end smartphones is growing day by day and manufacturers want to satisfy users, it’s expected that Google X Phone will be announced during I/O Conference(between May 15 and 17). That’s under 7 months since the announcement of Nexus 4. During Google I/O 2013 the whole world also expects to see the 5th version of Android, doubted as Key Lime Pie.

Over the past years, we’ve usually wrote articles from Mobile World Congress. The event takes place every year in February at Barcelona and it’s populated with gadgets and announcements. Unfortunately, year-over-year event’ glow started to fade away and it doesn’t have the same interest it had in the past. It’s not a surprise since companies started to announce their products by organizing their own events.

If I remember well, two years ago Samsung was unveiling Galaxy S II smartphone, during a MWC 2011 conference. This year was different. Sure, there were some released, but none of them were very important. I appreciate what LG did this year at MWC, because they had the courage to make some interesting announcements: they bought WebOS from HP and plan to incorporate it in Smart TVs, they brought Optimus F7 and F5 phones and demoed a 4K UltraHD streaming from a phone to a TV.

In other words, not pretty much happened during MWC. Here’s what was interesting:

There are good news for tech enthusiasts: it appears that Nokia will finally get on board and release at least one Windows 8 tablet this year. And they are not alone, because Microsoft is also planning to release new Surface versions in 2013.

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop, spoke to the Australian Financial Review and said that Nokia haven’t announced any tablet yet, but this is something they are looking to very closely.

It appears that Nokia is waiting to see whether or not Surface tablets can make a difference and than decide if they’ll come up with their own tablet(s). Stephen Elop added: “We are studying very closely the market right now as Microsoft has introduced the Surface tablet, so we are trying to learn from that and understand what the right way to participate would be and at what point in time.”

Stephen Elop words show one thing, Nokia has already developed or tested a tablet, but it doesn’t want to rush and release one just like other companies did. It’s a fair choice since hardware components lose their value every month and software updates come also very often.

When Nexus 4 came out everybody was angry that it lacked LTE. Users had every right to do that since almost all smartphones released this year were featuring LTE. The turn came this week, when some users from XDA Developers Forums managed to somehow use the LTE on a Nexus 4 phone in Canada.

It all started one week ago when AnandTech reported that “Band 4 (AWS) could essentially be supported with the power amplifiers and transceiver that already are onboard the Nexus 4, but again it ultimately comes down to a particular OEM choice whether these get supported”. And now after AnandTech finished their tests we know for sure that Nexus 4 supports LTE on Band 4.