Asus Chromebook Flip is now a 12.5-inch awesome machine

Asus has followed up on its popular Chromebook Flip with a brand new model. It comes with a refreshed design, more powerful components and a much higher price point. 

While the previous Chromebook Flip was an affordable mini tablet-sized slim Chromebook with mid-range specs, the latest model is a larger and sturdier affair with a lot of power.

• Best laptops and tablets of CES 2017: What to expect

Asus swapped the thin metal case for a more chunky-looking metal base that looks similar to MacBooks, and eschewed the small 10.1-inch display, swapping it for a 12.5-inch panel. This particular LED screen boasts full HD resolution at 60Hz in a 16:9 format, and is coated with an anti-glare panel.

Just like the last Chromebook Flip, the screen is equipped with 10-point multitouch and a fully rotating hinge so that you can use it folded back like a tablet, or stood up as a video watching screen. Several laptops have adopted this design in recent years, including the newly announced HP Spectre. 

Asus

The chiclet keyboard is backlit and uses a solid scissor cut mechanism with 1.4mm travel for a fast, accurate typing experience and the touchpad measures in at 61 x 104.5mm. 

Inside, you’ll find either a 6th generation Core m3 or Core m7 processor, similar to the chips that power the 12-inch MacBooks. You’ll also be able to choose between either 4GB or 8GB RAM and between 32GB, 64GB and 128GB storage. As Chromebooks go, it’s a great lineup. 

Unlike the MacBook, it has two fast USB 3.1 Type-C ports, one of which is used for power, as well as a microSD card reader and 3.5mm headset jack. Wireless connectivity is provided by 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.2. 

Sound is provided by a couple of side facing speakers which Asus claims can deliver up to 87dB of high-fidelity audio. According to the manufacturer, it’s better and more immersive than most larger laptops. 

Asus

With up to 10 hours of battery life, a body that measures just 13.7mm thin when closed and weighs just 1.2kg, you shouldn’t get tired of carrying it around and it should last a full day of work. 

Like every other Chromebook, this one runs Chrome OS, which comes with access to a plethora of Chrome apps in the Web Store as well as compatibility with Android apps downloadable from the Play Store. 

As you’d expect, this huge upgrade to the Flip also means an upgrade to the pricing. While the last model was towards the more affordable end of the market (sub £250), the new Flip’s prices start at $500 in the US, that’s around £400 for the m3 powered model.

Pricing hasn’t been announced for the highest-specced models yet, but we suspect it’ll be pushing towards the $1000 (£800) mark. 

Netatmo takes on Nest Protect with its own Smart Smoke Alarm

Netatmo is rapidly building a full range of smart home devices, looking to connect-up many aspects of your home. Joining this list of sensors and home smarts is the Smart Smoke Alarm, which does exactly what it says on the tin.

The Netatmo Smart Smoke Alarm is a battery powered device that will connect to your home network, offering not only a local 85dB alarm, but also sending notifications to your smartphone. 

You’ll be able to install as many Smart Smoke Alarms as you want in your home, meaning you can receive notifications telling you that smoke has been detected in your basement, loft room, scullery or on the back stairs. 

While a connected smoke alarm might sound a little over the top, it does mean that you can do something about it if you’re out of your house, like check your home camera to see if there actually is a fire, or ask a neighbour to pop in and check if everything is ok.

The Smoke Alarm claimed to last 10 years from its battery and it will self-test to ensure that it’s working, sending a weekly report to the smartphone (Android, iOS) app. 

Being a connected device from a company that’s intent on connecting and monitoring everything in your home environment, the Smart Smoke Alarm is also compatible with IFTTT and Apple’s HomeKit, meaning you’ll be able to setup actions and recipes, for example turning on the lights if smoke is detected – perhaps even closing your Velux windows. 

The Smart Smoke Alarm goes up against the sort of connected features we’ve previously seen from Nest Protect, Google’s own take on the connected smoke alarm. 

The Netatmo Smart Smoke Alarm will be available in the second half of 2017. There’s no word on pricing, but it does conform to CE and NF standards.

Audio Technica goes hi-res audio crazy with barrage of new headphones

Audio Technica is no stranger to headphones and at CES 2017 the company has introduced what it considers to be some of its best pairs to date. Chief among Audio Technica’s announcements are the ATH-DSR9BT and ATH-DSR7BT, the first Bluetooth headphones from Audio Technica to use its Pure Digital Drive system.

• CES 2017: All the announcements, TVs, laptops and more from the show

The system claims to keep the audio signal completely digital from source to headphone speaker driver, to keep interference to a complete minimum and keep the sound faithful to the original recording.

Both pairs can support hi-res audio up to 24-bit/48kHz over Bluetooth connections and 24-bit/96kHz via USB. The DSR9BT and DSR7BT will be available from Spring 2017 for $549 and $299 respectively.

If you’d rather have wireless headphones for a more wall-friendly price, Audio Technica has you covered with new models in its SonicFuel series. The new models include the ATH-AR3BT on-ears and ATH-CKS990BT and ATH-CKS550BT in-ears. All benefit from the higher-quality aptX Bluetooth codec and NFC for instant pairing with compatible devices. The $119 AR3BT employ a new dynamic driver for “richly detailed sound” while the in-ears – $199 and $119 respectively – have new Dual Magnetic Field drivers which claim to deliver “improved sound and better wireless functionality”.

Elsewhere in Audio Technica’s 2017 repertoire are the ATH-SR9 Sound Reality over-ears with 45mm True Motion hi-res audio drivers, yours for $449, and five new pairs as part of a new Live Sound series. All five pairs have been designed to “bring the impact and excitement of the live concert experience to everyday listening”. They’ll be available from Spring with prices will range from $79 to $579.

True wireless charging is almost ready

Three years running, I’ve visited Energous at CES to be pitched on its wireless vision for the future of charging. This time, things are a little different. It’s not announcing a manufacturing milestone or touting independent verification of its WattUp charging tech. Instead, it’s actually launching some products.

If you’ve never heard of Energous, it’s a startup that uses RF to charge devices at a distance. There are a few different types of transmitters, but the basic tech involves a WattUp charging station sending out RF waves in a focused beam toward a compatible device. A chip in the gadget then converts the waves into direct current electricity. This “rectification” process isn’t new, but Energous’ claim is it’s able to do it efficiently enough to make sense for charging small devices like wearables and phones.

In the long run, Energous will offer wireless charging at 15 feet. For the first batch of products, though, it’s the less-impressive micro solution — capable of charging at a distance of just a few inches. It’s basically a replacement to the wireless charging you’ll find on existing wearables, but with a few benefits.

The most obvious is alignment — you can just place your device on or by the transmitter and it’ll start charging. But Energous’ WattUp receiver chip is way smaller than the coil-based charging in wearables like the Apple Watch, which means it can fit in things like the Chipolo Sticker.

The Sticker is like pretty much every wireless tracking device, except it’s tiny. It’s about the size of a paperclip, meaning it could be attached to things I actually lose, like my glasses, or my second pair of glasses, or my third pair of glasses. It’s difficult to get excited about, sure, but being able to miniaturize devices, or fit a larger battery in the same space, is going to be liberating for product designers.

Aside from minute trackers, Energous’ partners — it has 12 active customers right now — are producing some pretty interesting things. CVR Global is a medical diagnosis device for use in hospitals. WattUp receivers are embedded into the sensors that go on the skin, and a cradle on the cart will ensure they stay charged at all times. There’s also a wireless smart ID card and a completely waterproof hearing aid from Korean company SK Telesys, some phone chargers and a smart pen. These products are all being formally announced at CES, and will roll out over the coming months with WattUp transmitters packed in the box.

Truth be told, the lineup isn’t super exciting, but it’s nonetheless good to see Energous starting to make good on its promise of truly wireless charging. The company still says it has a “tier one” partner that it previously called “one of the top five consumer technology companies in the world.” There’s no update on that front, apart from to say that the relationship is milestone based, and it had hit all of the necessary milestones to date, and the relationship continues to be its most important.

The next phases of the WattUp rollout will come towards the end of this year, when its medium-range transmitters (suitable for covering an entire desk) will hit the market, before the full-fat 15-feet transmitters launch in the first half of next year. All of the devices released this year will be compatible with the longer-range transmitters when they arrive.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2017.

AfterMaster box promises to upgrade all your audio

There have been many attempts at improving the quality of audio sources, but they tend to be limited by where you’re listening. Your headphones might automatically tune their sound, but that’s not very useful in front of your TV; your television may have a voice booster mode, but you can’t take that effect with you. AfterMaster doesn’t think you should have to choose. It’s trotting out the AfterMaster Pro, a portable box it describes as the first “personal audio re-mastering device.” Hyperbole notwithstanding, it’s promising — it should boost the clarity, “fullness” and volume of most any audio, whether you’re listening to music on your phone (through the 3.5mm jack) or sitting down to a movie (via HDMI). It can specifically focus on voice, and it’s battery powered for those times when you’re on the road.

The Pro is selling for $169, and you won’t have to wait long to get it — it’ll even be available on the CES show floor if you happen to be in Las Vegas. We’ll have to listen to it before declaring it a success, though, and it’s understandable if you’re skeptical. After all, many audio upgrade apps and boxes frequently amount to little more than equalizer adjustments. Does it sound better, or just exaggerated? And it’s safe to say that the ultimate quality will be dictated by your choice of headphones or speakers. If AfterMaster comes anywhere close to matching the hype, though, this could be your go-to device for sprucing up sound.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2017.

Source: AfterMaster

The Morning After: Wednesday, January 4th, 2017

Hey, good morning! Welcome to the start of CES 2017!

It’s the morning after the first barrage of CES news, and we’ve seen plenty of laptops, the cars of the future and Intel’s latest chips. How’s that for Day One of CES 2017? Tomorrow it gets really busy: we’ll be liveblogging direct from ASUS, LG, Intel, Samsung and Sony’s huge press events. Plus we’ll have plenty more reporting and hands-ons from the ground in Las Vegas.

This is not a prototype, apparently
Faraday Future unveils an actual car

Faraday Future’s high-tech electric FF 91 SUV has finally been unveiled. What can early adopters expect for putting down a $5,000 deposit? Well they can expect to wait, for one. The car still isn’t expected to ship until sometime in 2018. But when they do finally get behind the wheel, they should expect a staggering 1,050 horsepower to push them at least 378 miles. However, half the appeal of FF’s electric car is the sheer amount of embedded technology. There’s no shortage of displays and cameras inside, and a Lidar puck will pop out of the hood when it’s doing it’s self-driving thing. Read all about it — even if there’s still no price for the car.

There’s even some love for the desktop faithfulIntel’s next generation of PC chips are here

Only a few months after debuting its seventh-generation CPUs for ultraportables, Intel is rounding things out with new processors for more powerful machines. There’s the “H-series,” targeted at “performance laptops and mobile workstations,” and the “S-series,” which are meant for more traditional desktops. They’ll complement the two other lines of seventh-generation CPUs, which cover ultra-thin designs and faster ultraportables. However, these new chips are definitely more compelling if you’re upgrading from a system that’s a few years old. They’re hardly revolutionary when compared with last year’s model.

It’s not an OLED TV, but…Samsung’s QLED 4K TVs look better thanks to metal Quantum Dots

Another CES, another new acronym to attach a TV series. The magic behind Samsung’s new 4K QLED line — which includes the Q9, Q8 and Q7 sets — is a refined metal Quantum Dot material. That lets the TVs show off a wider range of color. Samsung says the QLED sets can display 99 percent of the DCI-P3 color space for you image nerds. Plus they can also show off full color volume at any brightness.

Budget bokehThe Honor 6x does the iPhone’s portrait trick for $250

Smartphones with dual cameras are about to become the norm now that Apple has jumped aboard the bandwagon. Budget phone maker Honor has just unveiled the $250 Honor 6x, which the company says is the first smartphone “in its price range” to sport two cameras on the rear.
Cherlynn Low is still skeptical that a sub-$300 smartphone can deliver pictures that look as good as those taken with the iPhone 7 Plus, but this at least allows those with tighter budgets to achieve similar effects on their photos.

M-2 may be your go-toEarin’s latest wireless earbuds have AirPod-like controls

Earin is introducing its second set of wireless earbuds, the M-2, and they promise a taste of AirPod-like control in a more subtle design. You only have to tap an earbud to pause your music or answer a call. They may not be as sophisticated as the AirPods (you won’t be talking to Siri as easily), but Earin reckons that simplicity is half of the draw. The new earbuds should hit shelves near the end of the first quarter, although there’s no price tag just yet.

No thanksLG’s Tone Studio neck speakers aren’t as ridiculous as you might think

When LG announced its neck-worn earbud/speakers, a collective groan rose from the Engadget team. But when Chris Velazco strapped on a pair to test at CES 2017, he found them a lot less ridiculous than he expected. Important caveat, though: he owns (and regularly wears) Snapchat Spectacles. Please be aware.

Your old Lego kits can still be made into robotsLego Boost teaches kids how to bring blocks to life with code

If you’ve ever wished your childhood Lego creations could come to life, your dreams are inching closer to reality. Lego’s Boost promises to do just that. The base set contains a combination of sensors, motors and a unique companion app that teaches kids how to code so that they can program their new robot friends.

But wait, there’s more…

• Coming up: Get your CES 2017 liveblogs here!
• Dell’s convertible XPS 13 laptop starts at $1,000
• Scientists confirm a ‘new’ human organ

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Digital Storm’s compact gaming PC is fast and upgrade-friendly

It’s tricky to find a small form factor PC that hits all the right notes. You can get easily expandable systems, but are they good-looking and as fast as a regular desktop? Digital Storm, at least, thinks it has everything nailed down. Its latest Bolt model, the Bolt X, promises to mate brisk performance with a slick design and easy expansion. To no one’s surprise, the case is the big deal here. In addition to sporting a considerably cleaner look, it has both a vented base and top-mounted fans to improve the cooling. You can run overclocked processors and the “fastest” graphics cards in the Bolt X without cooking the insides, then. Digital Storm also vows painless upgrades through a “simplified” layout that lets you slot in fresh parts, including multiple storage drives.

The PC maker doesn’t have pricing or configuration details available as we write this, but it’s safe to say that you can expect seventh-generation Core processors and options for speedy graphics cards like the GeForce GTX 10 series. It will be enough to handle your 4K and VR gaming sessions, Digital Storm says. Just don’t expect the Bolt X to be cheap. The Bolt 3 started at $1,906, and you’ll no doubt shell out considerably more than that if you insist on the most powerful hardware. The Bolt X is billed as a no-compromise machine, and it’ll be priced accordingly.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2017.

Source: Digital Storm

‘Link’ packs a 2TB SSD and LTE hotspot into a two-inch cube

Amidst the CES madness, a company called Fasetto has unveiled a pretty interesting mobile storage product. The Link, first seen in prototype form at CES last year, gives you up to 2TB of storage via an app and WiFi connection to your smartphone, camera or other device. It can also stream video, images and audio, making it essentially a tiny NAS that can be used at home or on the road.

To work as a streaming device, the Link is equipped with very fast Samsung NVMe SSD storage and an octa-core 2.1GHz Exynos 7420 processor, the company says. It’s also got WiFi, Bluetooth and USB-C connections for charging and wired data transfer. As a kicker, it’ll come with an optional LTE module, letting you turn it into a cellular hotspot. The whole package fits into a two inch wide, one inch high, IP68 waterproof and shock resistant case weighing as little as three ounces, depending on options.

There are a couple of big catches: The 2TB version costs $1,149 (it’s $349 for a smaller 256GB model), with the LTE expansion adding another $149. The other is that the device was first launched at CES 2016, with delivery set for the end of the year, but that has now been pushed to spring of 2017. If you’re still not dissuaded, you can pre-order one, but it may be prudent to wait for a full review, given all that’s being promised.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2017.

Source: Fasetto

Detailed 3D ocean map can help with marine conservation

We’ve explored such a small part of the ocean that we know more about the moon and Mars. This new three-dimensional map can help us get more acquainted with the body of water that occupies most of our planet, though. It sorts water masses around the world into 37 categories of different temperatures, salinity, oxygen and nutrient levels. There are other maps out there, but they mostly focus on surface or coastal ecosystems. This project, which is officially called ecological marine units (EMUs), includes the waters between the surface and the ocean floor. It maps the frigid waters of the deep sea, the oxygen-deprived Black Sea, the Red Sea and even some rivers in the Northern Hemisphere.

Since we have yet to explore most of the world’s oceans, the map’s creators had to use data averaged over five decades from the World Ocean Atlas. They also added their own, such as the shape of the sea floor, and used statistical techniques to group the results into categories. To keep the map accurate, though, they need to do recalculations every five years or so. The creators are hoping that the map can help conservationists and government officials make decisions for marine preservation. It could also help researchers with their studies, such as figuring out why certain marine animals live where they do.

One of the teams that helped create EMUs is geographic information system company Esri, which also worked on high-tech information-mapping project, Urban Observatory. Esri created a web portal for the project, so you can check out the three-dimensional map for yourself.

Source: Nature, Ecological Marine Units

Garmin’s watch-app store finally gets Uber and a few other big names

Garmin already offers a bunch of cycling computers and fitness wearables like the Forerunner series and newly updated Fenix line, which can help guide you through your workout with minimal trauma. That said, the smartwatches in particular have yet to find much love beyond their original niche use as fitness-first wearables. The company hopes to change that at this year’s CES by announcing the release of a number of third-party apps from big-name players including Uber and Trek. But is that enough to catch the industry-leading Apple Watch and all those Android Wear watches?

The company today announced a bunch of new apps for its Connect IQ open development platform, with apps from Uber, Trek, GU Energy Labs and Nuun Active Hydration. Uber, for example, has created the UberETA app, which allows Garmin wearable users to track the status of their incoming driver from their watch rather than their cell phone. Trek, on the other hand, is adding a new data field for Garmin’s line of Edge GPS bike computers, which helps users monitor the battery status of their connected Bontrager lights and adjust their settings directly from the cyclocomputer itself.

Similarly, GU Energy Labs new app will also integrate with the Edge computer to remind riders when they should suck down some more electrolytic gels to maintain peak performance while the Nuun watch face and Stryd IQ app will provide step tracker functionality. All of these apps are available for free from the Connect IQ store. That said, this move likely comes too little, too late to gain any appreciable ground on Garmin’s more mainstream competition. For now, then, the company’s wearables are still probably at their best as fitness-specific watches.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2017.