Gadget Rewind 2007: ASUS Eee PC 4G
The ASUS Eee PC was launched in 2007 and while it had all the characteristics of a “netbook,” it arrived before the term had wormed its way into popular vocabulary. This species of compact computer — essentially miniaturized, internet-focused laptops — took the market by storm in the late 2000′s, but failed to have much staying power and ultimately faded from view. At the time, these stripped-down portables from Taiwan-based ASUS, filled a growing niche for people on the go. They offered just the essentials, while still managing to provide a surprisingly good bang-for-buck ratio. The Eee PC was aimed at users who rarely stepped beyond the bounds of basic web surfing and email, so it was easy for ASUS to trim the fat and offer a small, lightweight device. In fact, that undemanding demographic was the inspiration for its titular triple E’s: “Easy to learn, Easy to work and Easy to play.”
Beyond simplicity, the Eee PC’s portability and price were the keys to making it desirable. The 7-inch, 800 x 480 screen and two-pound weight made it far easier to cram in a bag or oversized pocket than its hefty, full-sized notebook counterparts. However, the cramped keyboard was definitely not built with large-pawed users in mind. Three models arrived in the first wave of Eee PCs, covering a variety of price points. The Eee PC 4G (701) landed squarely in the middle of the group, all of which ranged in price from $300 to $500 — sadly the rumored $200 model never surfaced. And before you get confused, the 4G stood for its 4GB SSD rather than mobile connectivity (2GB and 8GB versions were also in the lineup). To help offset the relatively skimpy drive sizes, ASUS bundled in 10GB of free cloud-based Eee Storage for the first year and a half.
As tablets, lightweight Ultrabooks and high-functioning smartphones arrived on the market, the Eee PC and other netbooks eventually faded from view, but ASUS still had weight and portability on the menu. Between its keyboard-packing Transformer Pad tablet series and the super-slim Zenbook line, the company managed to tackle two divergent formats, yet still provide quality specs in light, portable packages. Today, for those who still want that laptop experience, but don’t need all the expensive extras, the growing selection of Chromebooks definitely fits the bill and even manages to deliver on that $200 promise.
Did you own an ASUS Eee PC 4G? Add it to your Engadget profile as a device you had (or still have) and join the discussion to reminisce or share photos of your device with other like-minded gadget fans.
Oppo N1 Mini gets announced, available June 11
Oppo N1 Mini leaked through FCC recently and now the “Mini” version of Oppo’s N1 gets officially announced almost half a year after the N1.
Oppo N1 Mini definitely looks like a smaller version of the N1. Navigation buttons, rounded corners that weird-looking rotating camera, it’s all there. We might as well put that “Mini” branding under quotation marks because there’s nothing mini regarding this phone. Sure, it may be lots smaller than the N1, but what kind of world do we live in where we consider a 5″ phone a mini phone. that’s a discussion for some other time though.
Talking about hardware, Oppo N1 Mini is sporting a 5″ screen, the rest of screen details are still unknown though, as most of its hardware details. It’s weird not having more details regarding specifications considering the phone is announced, but we do know what it will sport a 13MP camera with a Super Zoom mode (which was introduced in Oppo Find 7), but in N1 Mini it works at 24MP, not 50.
We’ll definitely know more on June 11 when the device will be available for sale according to Oppo. We still don’t know the details regarding the phone’s availability either.
VIA: AndroidAndMe
SOURCE: Oppo
The post Oppo N1 Mini gets announced, available June 11 appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Leaked image shows gigantic 7-inch Samsung Galaxy Mega 2
Huge phones aren’t foreign territory for Samsung, far from it. They basically started the phablet game with the Note line and a year ago they released their Galaxy Mega devices. One fo them sporting a 5.8″ screen and other 6.3″, which is almost tablet territory.
Many thought that Samsung has reached the line and won’t step over it, but those people were wrong. Earlier this month a mysterious Galaxy W (Mega successor) device leaked sporting a 7″ screen and that device was not dubbed a tablet. Sure, that seemed rather odd, but if someone was going to do it it’s Samsung.
That huge device (Mega 2 from now on) was cleared by USA’s FCC yesterday and today it leaks in some images. There aren’t any additional leaked specifications at this time, but if an earlier leak is to be believed the device will sport a 720p screen, a 1.2GHz quad-core chip, 1.5GB of RAM, 8GB of storage (+microSD card) and a 8MP camera. All that should be operated by an Android 4.3 JellyBean OS.
There aren’t any release date information at this time, but Samsung is going to hold a press even on June 12. Galaxy Tab S lineup will probably get announced there but that doesn’t mean Galaxy Mega 2 will not make an appearance.
Would you ever buy a phone with a 7″ display?
The post Leaked image shows gigantic 7-inch Samsung Galaxy Mega 2 appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Google’s hacking game trades exploits for cake
Everyone knows the best way to teach children is to make the learning process fun and engaging; and if we’re honest, that methodology works just as well on us big kids, too. Now, even hunting through code for cross-site scripting (XSS) bugs can be entertaining, thanks to a game developed by a playful group of security experts at Google. The browser-based game is intended to test the skills of web developers, with levels challenging you to find and exploit XSS vulnerabilities — which can be an open door for hackers — in realistic scenarios. Of course, it’s not intended to train up a new generation of hackers, but to make devs aware of bugs so they can avoid them. It’s no casual Chrome experiment, so as an extra incentive to complete all six levels, you’re promised “cake at the end of the test.” Now, where have we heard that before?
[Image credit: 9to5Google]
Filed under: Gaming, Internet, Google
Via: 9to5Google, Florian Kiersch (G+)
Source: Google XSS game
Headshot: Watch new Unreal Tournament devs play first deathmatch
In three weeks time, what can you accomplish? When we last heard from the Unreal Tournament team at Epic Games, they’d only announced that the project was a thing. Well, now there’s video of them playing a round of deathmatch in an early build, as spotted by Joystiq. It isn’t much to look at, what with the lack of complex textures and level geometry, but, it’s a totally playable game and there are definitely people running around and shooting at each other with frickin’ lasers. What’s more, you can join in on the work-in-progress mayhem for yourself if you’re paying the $19 per month for a subscription to Unreal Engine 4. You can leave feedback in the official forums with a free account, too. Like Tappy Chicken before it, this fast progress by a small team shows just how flexible and easy the new development tools are to use. Who knows, maybe we could see a beta version sooner than expected — better dust off those Flak Cannon skills just in case.
Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, Software, HD
Via: Joystiq
Source: Epic Games
The 7-inch Samsung Galaxy Mega device is pushing the limits of the phablet Label
Smartphones as a group of devices have slowly been increasing in size ever since they graduated to touch screen displays, so much so that the line between phones and tablets were blurred. The term “phablet” was invented for these devices, with the capabilities of a phone, but much too large for some to be comfortable with. The largest phablet so far that I can think of is the Sony Xperia Z Ultra which topped out at 6.4-inches, however it looks like Samsung is going to trump that by more than half an inch. A 7-inch Samsung Galaxy Mega device, which could go by either Galaxy Mega 2, Galaxy Mega 7.0 or even Galaxy W, has recently been spotted after being shown off by a case maker.
While the screen size is definitely not anything we’ve seen on a smartphone or phablet, you can see that the design of the device is definitely closer to Samsung’s smartphone devices. As with the Galaxy Mega devices last year, this 7-inch Galaxy Mega device isn’t anything to write home about hardware-wise; it allegedly has a quad core Snapdragon 400 clocked at 1.2GHz, 1.5GB RAM and 8GB storage. And despite the display being a monstrous 7 inches, the resolution will only be 720p. The device has already gotten approval at the FCC which means it is at least going to be launched in the U.S. and, from the looks of the leaked image above, China as well.
What do you think about a 7-inch Samsung Galaxy Mega? Is it going a bit far with the screen size? Let us know what you think in the comments.
Source: ortud.com via TalkAndroid
//<![CDATA[
ord = window.ord || Math.floor(Math.random()*1E16);
document.write('’);
//]]>
Samsung trademarks ‘Galaxy Wear’
It looked like Samsung were done with Android powered smartwatches after they announced that their very own Tizen would be OS of choice from now on, but it seems they could still be in the game for Android wearables after a recent trademark filing was made by the company.
Samsung had mentioned in previous briefings that a future smartwatch manufactured by them would be powered by Google’s Android Wear platform and now the company filed for the name “Galaxy Wear” at the Korean Intellectual Property Office, it certainly sounds like we could see a Android wearable device once again.
We can only surmise that they plan to release an Android wear device as no details have been confirmed that any such thing is in development but as we know, Samsung don’t like to late to the party and it wont want to miss this one.
Source: Sammobile
The post Samsung trademarks ‘Galaxy Wear’ appeared first on SmarterWatching.
Read the rest at the source, SmarterWatching.com
The post Samsung trademarks ‘Galaxy Wear’ appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Microsoft’s smartwatch is coming and will sync with iOS and Android
It’s no secret that Microsoft will be one of the many joining the smartwatch game within this year, but now we’ve learned a little bit more about the upcoming wearable. A report claims that the smart device will not just be for Windows phone, but be cross-platform and available for iOS and Android. This latest report matches Satya Nadella‘s mission to bring Microsoft services to all platforms.
The report also claims that the device will measure heart rates throughout the entire day, not just when activated. The smartwatch is also expected to feature a two day long battery and a full color touch screen. The smartwatch will compete with Samsung’s maturing variety of smart fitness tech, as well as the upcoming moto 360, LG G Watch, Apple’s expected iWatch, HTC’s rumored smartwatch and much more.
I sure hope Microsoft can pull this off. I’m a big fan of competition, as it only makes devices better and better in the industry. To really make an impact, I believe Microsoft must utilize every bit of services they provide to be compatible with this watch, including full Windows 8 compatibility, Office, Xbox Smartglass, and more.
The patent files can be found here for Microsoft’s smartwatch.
Source: Forbes
The post Microsoft’s smartwatch is coming and will sync with iOS and Android appeared first on SmarterWatching.
Read the rest at the source, SmarterWatching.com
The post Microsoft’s smartwatch is coming and will sync with iOS and Android appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Galaxy Tab S 10.5 leaks on images ahead of launch
June 12 is the date when Samsung is expected to announce their Galaxy Tab S lineup. First the Galaxy Tab S 10.5 leaked and not long after that the 8.4 version did the same.
This new set of leaked images, courtesy of @evleaks, look pretty convincing and quite frankly official. One (if not both) of these tablets are expected to sport a 2560×1600 AMOLED screen, after Samsung had a brief fling with LCD panels in their Galaxy TabPRO and NotePRO tablets. Other than the screen an 8MP camera is expected as well as Magazine UX UI and Android 4.4 KitKat.
We should know more on June 12. Although there’s a June 19 date mentioned on one of the renders, could this be the date of the launch or is it just a coincidence? We’ll find out soon. Do you plan to get either of these devices?
SOURCE: @evleaks
VIA: TechnoBuffalo
The post Galaxy Tab S 10.5 leaks on images ahead of launch appeared first on AndroidGuys.
The NSA has collected ‘millions’ of faces from the web
The NSA isn’t just interested in pure communications intelligence like call records; it wants to look for faces, too. Documents leaked by Edward Snowden reveal that the NSA has been using facial recognition software to scan the internet for portraits and match them with investigative data. The agency can determine whether or not a suspect spotted in a photo or video chat has a valid passport, for example, or find out if informants have said anything about that person. It can even spot subtle changes (like beards) and link photos to satellite info to pinpoint someone’s whereabouts. As of 2011, the NSA was getting about 55,000 “facial recognition quality” images per day out of “millions” of candidates, according to the leaked material.
As with calls and messages, the NSA can’t officially run queries on photos of Americans without getting a court’s approval first. A spokeswoman notes that large-scale metadata collection doesn’t include these faces, and those the agency does find can help catch targets who “disguise themselves.” However, there aren’t any laws explicitly protecting face detection data; it’s not clear just what spies are allowed to do with the headshots they collect. While this content is more likely to be public than a call or message, and thus less sensitive by itself, civil liberty advocates are worried that the NSA may be diminishing privacy by learning so much about someone from a simple picture.
[Image credit: AP Photo/Gerry Broome]
Filed under: Internet
Source: New York Times
AIVAnet 