Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook: first impression

Ultrabooks were all the rage at CES 2012 last month, and if one model rose above the rest, it was the XPS 13 from Dell. The latest in a long line of powerful portables, the Ultrabook version of the XPS 13 wowed onlookers with a combination of a metal, plastic and carbon fiber body and incredible slimness, not to mention a tiny overall footprint – Dell claims that it’s crammed a 13-inch screen into a body size mostly reserved for 12-inch laptops. You can pick one up from Dell now starting at $999, but you might want to read our initial impressions first.

I’ve owned quite a few Dells in my life, and while they’ve been generally reliable and always good value for money, the new XPS blows them all out of the water when it comes to style. The only thing that the company has that comes close is some of their executive laptops, and those are more attractive thanks to their tank-like qualities, where the XPS is svelte. An impressively light weight of just 2.9 pounds combines with a .71-inch thin frame to make it an impressively compact machine.
The top is matte silver plastic (very few fingerprints) ringed with a durable aluminum, with a Gorilla Glass-covered LCD screen – an appreciable addition. On the keyboard deck you get lighted keys, and love it or hate it, the all-in-one trackpad/mouse button combination that seems to be standard on ultrabooks. There are defined left and right click areas, for those that want it. The deck itself is a grippy, soft-touch plastic that feels great on the palms. Just below the trackpad is an activity light visible when the laptop’s closed. A single USB 2.0 port on the left side is flanked by a combined headphone/microphone jack and the power jack, while the right side holds a USB 3.0 port and a power port. That’s all you get for in and out – an SD card slot would have been nice, but is just as absent as an optical drive.

The bottom holds some interesting goodies: aside from the drag-racer inspired carbon fiber panel, there’s a covered “XPS” aluminum latch that hides the Windows 7 system information. This is a snazzy and hitherto unseen way of keeping the bottom base of stickers or paint – not overly necessary, but a nice touch. A long vent hints as surprisingly powerful innards: our review unit came with an upgraded Intel Core i7 processor and a 256GB SSD drive, but a Core i5/128GB combo is standard. At present, Dell is only offering the XPS 13 with 4GB of RAM and Intel integrated graphics.

Easily the most pleasing thing upon initial inspection is the screen. It’s bright, surprisingly clear for a 1366×768 panel, and a seriously tiny bezel makes it stand out in the crowd of ultrabooks already on the market. Despite its small size, the full-size keyboard and soft-fouch palmrest and touchpad make for very comfortable use, and a light bloatware load is always a good sign.

Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook shipping now, starting at $999

Dell’s first ultrabook, the XPS 13, is now available and the order page has gone live on the company’s product page. The ultra slim laptop is priced starting at $999, but Dell has thrown in a surprise freebie—a complimentary T-Mobile 4G Hotspot device that includes 90-days of free service without a contract. Other discounts are also available, so you might be able to nab the Dell XPS 13 along with the T-Mobile 4G Hotspot for around $930. 

The Dell XPS 13 manages to cram a 13.3-inch 1366 x 768 display along with a full-sized backlit keyboard into a 12-inch form factor. The base model features a 1.6GHz Intel Core i5-2467M processor, Intel HD 3000 graphics, 4GB of RAM, and 128GB of SSD storage. It’s also available in two other configurations, one at $1,299 for an upgraded 256GB SSD storage, and another at $1,499 for the upgraded storage plus a higher performance Intel Core i7 processor.
Other details about the Dell XPS 13 include an embedded 1.3-megapixel webcam, USB 2.0, USB 3.0, Mini DisplayPort, headphone jack, and a 6-cell battery. It also measure just 0.71 inches thick and weighs 2.9lbs. For a more extensive look at the Dell XPS 13, make sure to check out our early hands-on for now until we do our full review of the unit.
The ultrabook is available for order now with free standard shipping. According to Laptop Reviews, you can get $70 off the base price using a Dell EPP discount with this link. Additionally, you can add a $50 discount coupon code: B94N1GC3$6FMM?

Lenovo IdeaPad Y570 Full Review: A Lenovo Bestseller

The Lenovo IdeaPad Y570 is a mid-range multimedia laptop with good performance. Users will be able to enjoy full 1080p video, play most games on low to mid settings, and multi-task with several applications at once. The Y570, overall, is a good consumer notebook without too many drawbacks. Models start at a decent price too - so be sure to check out our full review.

The 15.6-inch Lenovo IdeaPad Y570 is encased in a sturdy brushed aluminum shell and sports a cool "dot matrix" textured surface on the lid. The notebook has a smooth design throughout the rest of the notebook, and the screen bezel is glossy to add a hint of style. The exterior color is a mix between metallic gray and a plum color ... but in the right light it almost looks like it's a shade of purple. The notebook weighs in at almost six pounds and its dimensions are 15.1 x 10.0 x 1.40 inches.
Overall, the Y570 is decently built and the finish will help prevent common scratches. While pressing down on the chassis you'll find that it holds strong, but if you press hard enough it will give in a few spots. Bending the corners of the display does not create ripples, but the display bows under pressure. The hinges are covered in plastic and appear to be run of the mill.
Loosen six screws to reach the memory, hard drive, and wireless card slot. The notebook can hold up to 8GB of DDR3 SDRAM (two SO DIMM slots). The base cover is extremely easy to remove and you can easily reach all of the major components if you want to upgrade your laptop.

Ports and Features
The port selection on the Y570 is very expansive. Two USB 3.0 ports are available on select models and were included with our review unit; also included is a six-in-one memory card slot (SD, SD PRO, MMC, MS, MS PRO, xD), HDMI, VGA, eSATA, and two more USB 2.0 ports. A convenient graphics switch to manually switch back and forth between the NVIDIA graphics and Intel HD graphics is also included.

Square wants iPads embedded in taxis

If you have plans to visit New York City, you should make a point of hopping into a cab at some point. Not because you might make it on the Discovery Channel game show Cash Cab, but because it might have an iPad embedded into the back console that you can play with during your ride. That is, if Square’s Jack Dorsey has his way. He wants tablets to become commonplace in taxi cabs so that credit card payments are done through his platform.

Square, of course, has become one of the most popular companies for small businesses because of its smartphone software that allows individuals to accept physical credit card payments. And it doesn’t cost the user anything; they just have to pay a credit card fee. Right now, Dorsey is trying to convince the New York City Taxi & Limousine Commission to make Square the primary method of credit card payments in cabs. And with iPads embedded into cabs, riders will be able to do things like check into Foursquare, get the latest reviews for wherever they’re heading, and of course check their current location on a map.
In a New York Times quote, Taxi & Limousine Commission chairman David Yassky seemed enthusiastic about the idea. Right now, every yellow can in New York City has a TV for passengers to watch, but it’s a loop of the same several minutes of content over and over again. And many riders don’t even realize the TV is touchscreen, though this functionality is not being used to its fullest extent at all. A formal meeting between Square and the TLC has been scheduled for March 1. If you want iPads in your taxis, keep your fingers crossed.

B&N NOOK only bright spot in drooping earnings

Barnes & Noble’s cheaper NOOK Tablet can’t come too soon: the book retailer’s overall sales increased in the most recent financial quarter, but that wasn’t enough to avoid a drop in net income. B&N’s NOOK business – including digital ebook sales, other downloads, and accessories – rose 38-percent in Q3, pushing sales to $542m, with hardware growth up 64-percent year-on-year. Nonetheless, pre-deduction earnings dipped year-on-year, from $170 million to $150 million.


The retailer is pegging a significant portion of its hopes for the future on NOOK downloads and hardware demand. Digital content sales rose 85-percent year-on-year, including ebooks, digital newsstand content, and downloads from the NOOK Apps store. The latter was likely buoyed somewhat by B&N’s decision to block app sideloading in a December firmware update.
Outside of digital, things are looking stale. Retail pre-deduction earnings rose from $178m to $207m but college earnings dropped from $43m to $37m, as more students turn to textbook rentals. Net income is flat year-on year.
Whether B&N is still considering hewing off the NOOK business is unclear. The company says little about its future plans for that, though it does predict $1.5bn in NOOK business sales for its full financial year.

Apple’s Cook coy on touchscreen Mac

OS X Mountain Lion‘s reimagined iOS features may have brought Notifications Center and more gestures to the desktop, but Apple CEO Tim Cook is playing coy on whether an actual touchscreen will show up on Macs any time soon. Echoing former CEO Steve jobs dismissal of touchscreen desktop ergonomics, Cook told the WSJ that “this kind of reach for me isn’t a terribly intuitive thing” if dealing with a touch-enabled iMac. However, as for touchscreen notebooks, Cook declined to answer.

“Well, our notebooks, I wouldn’t want to answer,” he said, “because that’s sort of a roadmap question, and, you know, we like to be secretive on those things.” Although Jobs had been dismissive of all forms of touch notebook and desktop display, Cook seemed more concerned about the poor ergonomics of finger-friendly iMacs.
“Other people have tried that with desktops, and I think to say it hasn’t caught traction is probably an understatement of the year” he explained. Whereas, say, an iPhone is “sort of an intimate experience.”
Mountain Lion – which we previewed comprehensively yesterday - borrows many of the concepts introduced in iOS 5.0 for the iPad and iPhone and pulls them across to the desktop. As well as synchronizing data using iCloud, there’s a new Messages app to replace iChat with iOS-compatible instant messaging, deeper integration of sharing options like Twitter and Vimeo, and Game Center for social gaming.
Touch is expected to play a considerable role in Windows 8 hardware later this year, with Microsoft chasing tablet and touch-enabled notebook/desktop sales with its new OS.

$8 million luxury iPad 2 comes with diamonds and dinosaur bones

Undoubtably the world’s most unique gadget is the Ipad 2 Gold History Edition. Encrusted with 12.5 cts of ‘I'F' Flawless diamonds, a magnificent total of 53 individually set sparkling gems dwell beautifully in solid 24ct Apple logo with rear section formed again in 24ct gold weighing an immense 2,000 grams. The unrivalled imagination towards the craftmanship of the iapd is down to its main front frame which is made from the oldest rock the world has to offer in the form of Ammolite , sourced from Canada this stone is over 75 million years old. However to make this masterpiece even more individual, sections of a 65 million year old T-REX Dinosaur’s thigh bone was splintered and then shaved into the Ammolite , then finished off with ultimate jewel , as single cut 8.5ct flawless diamond inlaid in its own platinum surround with 12 outer flawless diamonds. A magnificent combination of top of the industry technology and unique thought were involved in creating this piece of History !. Material spec, 16.5 ct diamonds & 8.5ct single diamond, 57 grams of T-REX bone, 750 grams of Ammolite stone and 2000 grams of solid 24ct Gold. This item is of a limited edition of only 2 units to be made. You can also find other variations of this at

Viewsonic ViewPad 7e

 Platform: Android 2.3; Processor: ARM A8 1GHz processor with PowerVR SGX 540 graphics; Display: 7-inch, 800x600 pixels; Storage: 4GB + microSD up to 32GB; Camera: 3MP and 0.3MP; Connectivity: Wi-Fi; Battery: 3300mAh 

The 7-inch display of the ViewPad 7e is bordered by a pretty thick bezel, something that could’ve been thinner. Not only would that have helped in making the tablet less thick, it would’ve helped immensely with the ability to hold and use to a certain extent with one hand. Having said that, we must say that the tablet 15.5mm thickness may not be able to match the likes of the Blackberry Playbook, but is quite manageable.

Below the display, in what seems to be oodles of empty bezel space are four retro looking buttons - Home, Menu, Return and Search. The power key and volume rocker are on the right spine, while the memory card slot is on the left spine. On the top are the mini HDMI, USB port and charging point. Optimally placed 3.5mm headphone jack on the spine below the display. Flip the tablet over and the camera is on the top, with the speaker to the right side of it, designed in a two parallel lines.

While it is mostly plastic, the material used is quite good quality. There seem to be no rough edges anywhere. Not the lightest tablet around but is very comfortable to use still. We would have preferred a slightly less wide tablet, something that can easily be done by slimming down the area around the display.

Sony's new VAIO CW15FG/W

The CW15FGW features a 14 inch TFT color panel and comes with an NVIDIA GeForce G210M graphical video capacity of 256 MB. It possesses an integrated RAM & Cache memory of 2 MB each. Powered by the Intel Core2 Duo T6600 processor, it runs on the Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit operating system. This Bluetooth and Wi-Fi enabled entry level laptop is equipped with an internet camera, a digital media card reader and embedded speakers. It is loaded with a 320 GB hard drive and a DVD RW optical drive. The gadget is secured by Norton, McAfee and Webroot Spy Sweeper antiviral applications.

Acer Aspire 4739Z Notebook

The Acer Aspire has release its latest Acer Aspire 4739Z Notebook in market. It has 14.1 inch wide LED Backlit TFT LCD display screen with 1366 x 768 resolutions. This latest Acer notebook has stylish sleek design it is available in Black color. It is Acer’s affordable notebook; its cost price is approx Rs. 21,800 /- INR.


It comes with attractive features such as Intel Pentium Dual Core Processor up to 2.13GHz, Intel HD Graphics, 2GB DDR3 RAM and you can upgrade up to 8GB, 500GB SATA HDD, DVD-RW Optical drive, stereo speaker with dolby digital, integrated webcam, Touchpad pointing device, Integrated Gigabit LAN, Wireless 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth, 48.8W AC Adapter, Multi Card Reader, : USB2.0, RJ-45, VGA, Microphone in, Headphone out Port, 6 Cell Li-Ion Battery and standard keyboard.

Acer Aspire 4739Z Notebook is the best option for those who are looking for low end notebook with nice features, this latest notebook is little heavy in weight, its weight is 2.5 kg. It comes with one year warranty.

Netbook or Tablet PC

With the introduction of iPad, tablet pc sales sky-rocketed. This fact rises the question, will tablet pc’s replace netbooks in near future? Netbooks and tablets might seem like devices serving similar purpose, however despite the popular opinion they target quite different categories of people. Let’s get into more detail on this.

 

Netbooks have few advantages over tablets, but this works the other way around too. When choosing which device is right for you, you must decide what tasks do you plan to do with it. Content consumption is the main purpose of tablet pc’s. Making movies, podcast and other creative stuff would be difficult with tablets. Tablets don’t have powerful enough processors. Majority of today’s tablets come with 1Ghz processing power, which makes it perfect for e-book reading, pictures, music, movies and for light e-mailing and presentations. People who need portable device for leisure should be looking into buying a tablet.

Netbooks have more powerful processors and are targeting people who need portability and functionality, such as entrepreneurs or college students. You get at least 1.6 Ghz processing power and Windows 7 pre-installed if you buy new netbook. With that kind of configuration you’re able to do same tasks as with tablets and a lot more, like picture editing, programing, light video editing. With netbook you can use same programs you use on your desktop computer. Only few programs doesn’t run well on netbooks, and those programs requires bigger resolution screens anyways.
So, before going out and buying portable device, make a list of tasks you would like your device to be able to do. That should help you on your decision. You could say that tablet pc is for leisure and very light work, netbook on the other hand is more for mobile work than leisure. So, unless tablet pc’s are going to do more heavy tasks, netbooks will always have their place in the market.