Lenovo overtakes Apple in US PC sales for the first time
Apple has rightly made a big deal of the fact that its Mac sales have continued to grow, in spite of a contracting PC market. But Cupertino certainly isn’t alone in having figured out how to win at desktops and laptops: Lenovo has just reported big gains in its full-year revenue and profits, and it claims that its PC shipments in the US overtook Apple’s for the first time, grabbing the No. 3 spot behind the more stagnant giants, HP and Dell. This claim is based on data for the last three months, likely with a bit of help from analysts at IDC, although it’s worth pointing out that Gartner still had Lenovo in fourth place in the US as recently as April. Whichever pundits you listen to, Lenovo has now dominated the PC market globally for around a year, thanks to its ever-expanding ThinkPad line, while also growing its non-Windows tablet and smartphone sales — with the latter soon to become a lot more prevalent in the US now that the company owns Motorola.
Filed under: Desktops, Laptops, Tablets, Mobile, Lenovo
Source: BusinessWire
Google makes your photos even Awesome(r) with new Android GIF and collage tools
It’s great that Google+ can now automatically make photo albums, but if animated GIFs and collages are more your jam, then this news will sound loads better. Google+ Photos for Android just got updated with a bunch of new features, including two more Auto Awesome tools that you can use to manually create animated images and collages of any pictures in your album. Unlike the social networks’ old GIF maker, the new features let you choose the photos you want to include instead of automatically grouping related shots. In case you’ve already got latest G+ app update, just click the new plus (+) option to find these tools and to flood your friends with GIFs of your beloved pet.
Source: Google+ Photos
Southwest Airlines Updates iOS App, Enables Mobile Boarding Pass Feature at 28 Airports [iOS Blog]
Southwest Airlines has updated its official iOS app to include mobile boarding pass support at 28 total airports following a rollout of the feature in Austin, Texas last year. In addition to expanded mobile boarding pass support, the app also now includes upcoming trip cards that contain flight infomation such as boarding position and gate location, as well as access to flight tools like mobile check-in from the home screen.
Airports that now support Southwest Airlines’ mobile boarding pass feature include:
– Albuquerque International Sunport (ABQ)
– Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL)
– Austin–Bergstrom International Airport (AUS)
– Baltimore–Washington International Airport (BWI)
– Nashville International Airport (BNA)
– Bob Hope Airport (BUR)
– Dallas Love Field (DAL)
– Denver International Airport (DEN)
– Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport (FLL)
– William P. Hobby Airport (HOU)
– McCarran International Airport (LAS)
– Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)
– Kansas City International Airport (MCI)
– Orlando International Airport (MCO)
– Chicago Midway International Airport (MDW)
– General Mitchell International Airport (MKE)
– Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY)
– Oakland International Airport (OAK)
– Philadelphia International Airport (PHL)
– Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX)
– Southwest Florida International Airport (RSW)
– San Diego International Airport (SAN)
– San Francisco International Airport (SFO)
– San Jose International Airport (SJC)
– Sacramento International Airport (SMF)
– John Wayne Airport (SNA)
– Lambert–St. Louis International Airport (STL)
– Tampa International Airport (TPA)
The official app of Southwest Airlines saw its last major update in November, which brought a new unified actions sidebar and airport information content pages in addition to initial mobile boarding pass support.
Southwest Airlines is a free app for iOS devices and can be downloaded through the App Store. [Direct Link]
Samsung’s extra-rugged Galaxy S5 variant gets caught on video
Rumors of a truly rough-and-ready Galaxy S5 variant have so far had little support beyond vague filings and benchmarks. However, TK Tech News has just delivered the motherlode: it has posted hands-on videos (below) of what looks to be a Galaxy S5 Active for AT&T. The rugged device shown on camera shares a few superficial similarities with its bulked-up Galaxy S4 Active ancestor, including the all-mechanical navigation keys. However, this isn’t as much of a step down as last year’s toughened Galaxy — the GS5 Active appears to have the same 16-megapixel camera as the regular S5, and it sports an ever-so-slightly faster variant of its sibling’s Snapdragon 801 processor.
With that in mind, it’s not clear how close this is to the final design. Besides the drab pre-production look, there’s some questions over the display choice. TK swears that the device is using a greater-than-1080p screen, but a benchmark suggests otherwise; our money is on a normal 1080p panel, since there haven’t been any hints that the Active would outshine its regular counterpart on that front. There aren’t any telltale clues as to when this outdoor-friendly handset will ship, either, although the videos suggest that Samsung is making good progress.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Samsung, AT&T
Via: MobileSyrup, Droid-Life
Source: TK Tech News (YouTube 1), (2)
Microsoft’s Surface Pro 3 now available to pre-order
Microsoft’s intimate Surface event didn’t reveal the smaller tablet many expected, instead it went much bigger. In an attempt to capitalize on early buzz for its new super-thin 12-inch slate, the company today opened pre-orders for the Surface Pro 3, Surface Pro Type Cover and Surface Pen in 22 countries worldwide. The Core i7 Surface Pro 3 is now available on the Microsoft Store in both 256GB and 512GB variants, starting at $1,549/£1,339 with an estimated August 31st ship date. The $799/£639 64GB Core i3 model is expected to ship around the same time, although the Core i5 versions of the Surface Pro 3, Surface Pro Type Cover, Surface Pen and Pen Loop will make their way to you a little earlier, shipping by June 20th. Customers in China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Thailand and Taiwan will have to wait until August to get their hands on the biggest, highest-resolution Surface yet.
Filed under: Tablets, Microsoft
Via: Surface Blog
Source: Microsoft Store (US), (UK)
HTC One M8 Prime Leaked! Moto 360 Priced? – ManDroid Quickie
Time for some Android recap quick status. The HTC One M8 Prime was fully leaked out, and it looks pretty good. Samsung hints at their named they have chosen for their version of Google Glass. The Moto 360 might have gotten its price leaked out, so enjoy the video you beautiful people you.
News Topics
HTC One M8 Prime 360 view
Samsung glasses name
LG G3 renders
Moto 360 info
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Apple’s iWork for iCloud now lets you collaborate on projects with 100 friends
If you’re using Apple’s iWork for iCloud to get stuff done, now you can collaborate on projects with even more people. Before if you wanted to get your co-workers input on your big plans for the company retreat (Laser Tag definitely promotes synergy) you could only have 50 contributors. Now 100 people can work on the same Keynote, Numbers or Pages file at once, and those projects can also be a lot larger. Previously you were limited to 200MB per file, with a 5MB cap for included images. Now there’s 1GB of space to fill with details about your group-cooking class plans, complete with images of up to 10MB each — that’s a lot more fancy dessert photos
More than just additional space and people, today’s update also brought support for 2D and interactive charts. You can now export Numbers projects as CSV files (for easy importing into Excel), and budding authors can transform Pages documents into ePub files. Despite all the updates, Apple is still listing the cloud versions of all three applications as beta, but that might not last long. We’ll likely hear more about all three (and their iOS and OSX counterparts) during Apple’s developer’s conference, WWDC, next month.
Via: 9to5 Mac
Source: iWork for iCloud
Robots that can sweat and get goosebumps give us goosebumps
While most scientists are attempting to give robots facial expressions, a group from Japan’s Kansai University is working on another aspect that makes them more human: physiological reactions. According to IEEE Spectrum, Dr. Tomoko Yonezawa and her team are developing robots that can sweat and get goosebumps in the same situations we do. In fact, the researchers have already developed three prototypes: one is a machine that gets goosebumps in the presence of cold breeze or if told a scary story. Another’s a head that sweats if it feels anxious (which we’d love to see paired up with that robotic armpit that stinks when it sweats), and the third is a teddy bear called Breatter that uses a built-in fan to produce breath when it speaks. The team believes that by giving robots these involuntary reactions, we’d be able to accept them more rather than if they act more like, well, soulless automatons. Now if only someone can create a human-like robot that doesn’t take us on another trip to uncanny valley…
[Image credit: Getty Images]
Filed under: Robots
Source: IEEE
Engadget Daily: Microsoft Surface Pro 3, Voice over LTE and more!
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.
Hands-on with Microsoft’s Surface Pro 3
We were expecting the Surface Mini, but Microsoft surprised us with the opposite. The new tablet is their largest yet and takes aim at the Macbook Air and other ultraportable laptops.
Microsoft wants its new pen to be a big part of the Surface Pro 3
During today’s Surface event, Microsoft placed a lot of focus on their new pen, emphasizing that theirs is meant to mimic a real, ink-based pen and isn’t yet another stylus.
Verizon’s next-gen voice service still planned for this year, will come with video calling
Last week, AT&T became the first mobile operator to deploy Voice over LTE, a next-generation voice technology. Now, Verizon’s followed up, announcing that it will roll out the same service later this year.
Watch ‘Game of Thrones’ mysteries explained (or disproved) with science
Looking for explanations on how certain phenomena in the Game of Thrones universe work? The friendly folks behind PBS’s It’s OK To Be Smart take a closer look at long winters, dragons and more.
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Netflix’s new European expansion will add Germany, France and more later this year
Netflix has been talking about plans to expand its footprint in Europe for months and tonight it’s announced the new countries for its streaming movie service: Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Belgium And Luxembourg. All six are due to launch in late 2014, although prices and exact launch dates will be revealed later. The only bad news? They’re all coming too late to get grandfathered in under the old rates. So far, Netflix is available in the US, Canada and across Latin America, and to Europeans in the UK / Ireland and several Nordic countries.
It’s official! We’ll launch in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Belgium and Luxembourg later this year. #Netflix
– Netflix US (@netflix) May 21, 2014
Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD
Source: Netflix
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