New laptops look pretty nice, I think there's an Alienware with an OLED screen too, exciting times... (I think I have become a bit of a business laptop fanboy now though, I hope the good stuff trickles down soon)
Global recall on the Note 7 due to the battery catching fire, a mate has one so we'll see how they handle it.
Meh.
The Swift 7 feels like a pointless feat of engineering.
http://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2016/8/31/12718238/acer-swift-thinnest-laptop-price-release-date-ifa-2016/in/12499471
I'm not sure if it's running the ULV 15W part of it's running a Core M equivalent because I believe Intel combined the Core M series into the Core i series so you have to dig into the model number to find out if you have a fanless part or a higher power part.
I personally wouldn't mind thin if it didn't mean destroying keyboard travel. We all know how that went on the MacBook (there are people who like that keyboard though).
http://www.theverge.com/2016/9/1/12734848/sony-headphones-noise-cancellation-lets-voices-through/in/12499471
Sony's new headphones are pretty neat though. This is a cool idea. Waiting to see B&O, B&W, and Bose to introduce something like this since they seem to be the most prominent of premium noise cancelling headphones (I added B&W because I think they just released a noise canceling variant of the P7).
Also on the theme of silence:
http://www.techradar.com/news/computing-components/peripherals/squeak-no-more-logitech-announces-a-silent-mouse-1327469
So that's nice for public spaces (especially since this is a travel mouse). Curious as to what they did to do this.
http://www.theverge.com/2016/8/31/12726620/asus-zenbook-3-ifa-2016-hands-on/in/12499471
Fairly nice MacBook clone (not even going to say look-a-like here because this is just straight up a clone but running a higher wattage part instead of a fanless part for the CPU). Not sure how I feel about that square for the fingerprint reader in the middle of the touchpad though.
I really want to see thermals of this thing. It's cooled by a single 3mm fan or something.
http://www.theverge.com/2016/8/31/12713442/lenovo-yoga-book-tablet-design-interview-android-windows/in/12499471
My favorite product this IFA. This is really, really neat and solve a huge issue with 360 degree convertible laptops.
I will say one thing though; as neat as this is, it really introduces redundancy. The most simple way to tackle a device like this would be to integrate the pen digitizer into the screen. This basically snaps a Wacom tablet (it uses a Wacom digitizer) to a tablet and calls it a day (also gives you a nice light up keyboard with haptic feedback but I don't know what that feedback is like. Maybe small electromagnets under each key?). From the videos I saw of this though, it's a capacitive surface so you can't rest your fingers on the keys like you would normally do when you type.
I assume that sometime down the future Apple will make a keyboard like this where there are individual force sensors under each key and a small electromagnet. This will let you rest your fingers on the keyboard when you type instead of having to make this awkward talon-like shape with your fingers when you type so you don't accidentally press keys. I assume they would tune it to about 55cN of force for the press to register.
They'll also need a capacitive surface as well in order to read where your fingers are on the surface. Force sensors alone can technically triangulate where you are pressing down but there's also a chance that if you're pressing too hard you'll accidentally actuate nearby keys without intending to (from what I can tell for keyboards with very low travel, people tend to press really hard on the surfaces at first, expecting to get more travel out of little travel or no travel). A capacitive surface would capture the position relative to where the keys are defined to be and then pair that with the force sensor to determine which key depresses.
And then you get the electromagnet for feedback just like in the Force Trackpads. We won't be seeing this from anybody else anytime soon because of Apple's iron grip on patents.
http://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2016/9/1/12716292/hp-pavilion-wave-pc-looks-like-a-speaker/in/12499471
Alright this is just gorgeous.
I've always been a huge fan of SFF PC's (albeit the current cylinder ones all use proprietary or hard to get components. Ex. MXM graphics cards for MSI's cylinder PC) but I've always had a gripe with the current designs such as the NCASE M1, Dondan A4, and Steam Machine styled cases; as small as they can get (the most efficient use of space are the Dondan A4 and Valve's original prototype for the Steam Machine which both clock in at right around 7L) they still have a very annoying desktop footprint.
I mean it's still an enormous improvement over mATX and ATX cases (or mATX/ATX sized mITX cases. I'm looking at you, Bitfenix and NZXT) but for me I still don't feel like it's the best way to go at it.
Which is why I like computers like this or the Mac Pro (I guess you can say that Silverstone was the first to this scene with the FT03 and FT03-Mini). They keep their small volume but also add a smaller footprint to go along with it.
It's obviously very hard for computer cases to become like this because, as we saw with the FT03 and FT03-Mini, we would have to have our rear I/O coming out the top which forces you to add extra volume by creating an extension up top to hide the rear I/O.
That's why I feel like small volume vertical computers are extremely limited to using proprietary hardware because those can forcefully integrate I/O into the actual back of the case instead of coming out the top.
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