It's no flagship, but there's plenty to like about the Xperia Z's little brother
In addition to devices we’ll be seeing in the West in coming months, CES gives us the opportunity to get some face time with devices that probably won’t see the light of day in the U.S. or Europe. One of these is the Xperia ZL, which Sony says will be making an appearance in selected markets during the first quarter of 2013.
Last night, during their CES 2013 press conference, graphics powerhouse NVIDIA announced their Project Shield gaming platform. It's running a close-to-stock version of Android, and will run Android apps. It's play Steam games (!!!). And you can play PC games using project shield as the controller.
Phil Nickinson from Android Central has already gone hands-on with Project Shield. The video is up top, and here's what he had to say:
It's hard not to get excited about NVIDIA's "Project Shield," the Android-based hand-held gaming system it unveiled this week at CES in Los Vegas. For one, it's really the biggest piece of news thus far. And for another -- it's just friggin' cool. NVIDIA has taken the traditional gaming-style controller, packed its brand-new Tegra 4 system inside of it, added a 5-inch, clamshell 720p display (NVIDIA's calling it "retinal") and added some truly astonishing gameplay.
Apple has the beaming stuff covered already with AirPlay, which lets anything on your iPhone and iPad stream video and apps to an Apple TV connected to a big-screen HDTV. Not everyone is thrilled with a flat piece of multitouch glass, even one with a gyro and accelerometer in it, as a controller.
We probably haven't heard the last of Apple's AirPlay and gaming plans, now that iOS 6 and Mountain Lion have begun converging their feature sets, but have we head enough yet to know where that future lies? What do you think of Project Shield as an alternative? Is it just a gimmick, a controller with a screen bolted on, that probably won't find appeal beyond a niche. Or will physical controls and the popularity of Steam and PC gaming be enough to make Project Shield a success?
We've just wrapped up at the Huawei press conference here at CES 2013 in Las Vegas where the Chinese OEM announced the Ascend Mate. This device has been rumored some time as the super large competitor to the likes of the Galaxy Note II and Optimus Vu, and Huawei didn't disappoint when it announced this 6.1-inch behemoth. As you would expect, the Ascend Mate is borderline when it comes to what we call a "phone," but they're positioning it as such nonetheless.
The hardware on this device is quite a departure from previous Huawei phones, stepping up to a stainless steel frame and solid plastic accents. Even the power and volume keys are stainless, and set well into the frame. The 6.1-inch screen is surprisingly manageable considering its size, thanks to very small bezels and on-screen navigation buttons, but this is far from one-handed use friendly. The panel itself is only 720x1280, although at first we thought it must be a typo because there really aren't any noticeable pixels. It's just a bit puzzling considering it's sibling the Ascend D2 has a 1080x1920 display at just 5-inches. Nevertheless, under the hood we see the same specs as the D2, with a 1.5GHz quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage.
On the software front, Huawei has also made some big changes coming from its previous builds. This is its "Emotion UI" set of customizations, which combines many of the stock Jelly Bean features, with its own added tweaks and style. In the keynote, CEO Richard Yu noted that their software has "fixed 200 problems with Android." This is indeed Jelly Bean 4.1.2 under the hood, but it doesn't necessarily feel like it in normal navigation. Most items have received visual tweaks -- from the app icons to the settings menu -- and Huawei has even opted to remove an app drawer from its default launcher. It's something quickly fixed from a download in the Play Store, but it hurts this device's out-of-the-box appeal for some.
The Ascend Mate is expected to launch in China starting in February, with international availability thereafter. There was no pricing given, but Mr. Yu explained that the devices would be for sale to other markets online.
Be sure to stick around after the break to take a look at several pictures and a hands-on video we've got for you straight from CES.
And the CES disruptions begin. Facebook has just broken into an absolute blitz of news out of Las Vegas in order to invite select members of the press to its California headquarters next week. The reason? Predictably, minimal clues are given out in the invite itself -- we're simply told to show up on January 15th and "see what [Facebook] is building." You know what... we think we just might, thanks!
P.S. - Any educated guesses on the "what" can be tossed in comments below.
Hulu's continuing its trend of producing its own original content with three new shows: an animated superhero comedy with Seth Meyers, "The Awesomes"; U.K. comedy thriller "The Wrong Mans"; and docu-series "Behind the Mask." More »
Rafael Rivera and Paul Thurrott have posted a second look at some of the early changes which have surface in Windows 8 milestone 3. First there was the restyled Welcome Screen, and now it appears that Microsoft is toying with bringing the Ribbon UI to Explorer. The Ribbon, like in Microsoft Word and Excel, is context-aware, adding tabs for specific tasks which apply to the folder you're viewing -- such as library or picture management. You can also make out two new buttons in the status bar, which allow you to change the current folder's view style. It's clear from all the placeholder images and repeated elements that this is very much a work in progress, but featuring the Ribbon more prominently in Windows 8 would certainly be a logical progression for Microsoft. It's slowly become more ubiquitous, moving beyond Office and into Wordpad, Paint, and several of the Windows Live Essentials applications. There's more to the screenshots than the Ribbon UI, however. Our friend Long Zheng has noted two interesting elements in the images: Web sharing and sync (image after the break). That would likely mean users will be able to quickly upload files to SkyDrive and synchronize using Live Mesh right from Explorer in Windows 8. That's not a total surprise considering many of the earliest leaked images of Windows 8 showed Windows Live integration on the desktop.
Pastebin is a very popular website aimed at coders and other nerdy types, which allows them (or should I say, us) to paste and share snippets of code with lovely syntax highlighting. It has recently undergone a major overhaul which includes the release of a brand new Windows client. The new client lets you create new "pastes" and manage your existing ones. It joins a host of other tools from Pastebin, such as the Google and Chrome extensions, OS X widget and the mobile apps. If you're currently using Pastebin, the new client is a great addition. And if you haven't tried it before, next time you have a piece of code you want to share or get some feedback on, you could do worse than try out Pastebin. [Thanks, Jeroen!]
Welcome to "Laptop Porn," an exciting series hosted by that lady who reviews notebooks sometimes. Here at CES 2013, Samsung is showing off a white version of its 13-inch Series 9 Ultrabook -- the same second-gen model that's been shipping since last year. What's interesting is that although this has the same magnesium-alloy frame as all the other Series 9 laptops, the finish feels different: it's smoother, and warmer to the touch. It feels so different, in fact, that we initially thought it was some sort of watered-down plastic version meant to be sold at a lower price.
As it turns out, it's apparently just difficult to paint metal, and the manufacturing process required to make this laptop in white results in a smoother surface. We're not sure we prefer it this way, though this finish does have the advantage of masking fingerprints better. Samsung says it hasn't decided whether or not to bring this to market. In fact, a rep told us the product team is going to listen to feedback at the show to decide whether or not introducing this different material is a good idea. (We already know they take Engadget commenters very seriously!) In any case, in absence of any concrete plans, we'll leave you to peruse our hands-on photos and have unnecessarily heated arguments about color preferences.
If you used Windows XP for a long time (who didn't?), one of the biggest changes when moving to Windows 7 or Vista was the massively-altered Explorer. While the new Explorer introduces some useful new features, it also removed just as many -- which is where Classic Shell comes in!
We've covered Classic Shell before, but here's the crib note: Classic Shell restores almost every Windows XP-era Explorer feature. The best change, in our opinion, is the reemergence of the 'up' arrow, meaning you now navigate without using the Windows Vista/7 'breadcrumbs' address bar. The status bar yet again shows the total size of your selection, and -- praise be! -- the diabolical Windows 7 Copy File 'copy and replace?' dialog has been replaced with a Windows XP lookalike (image after the break). New to the most recent version of Classic Shell is the ability to make IE9 look like IE8. With Classic Shell the title bar yet again has a caption, so you can see the full title of Web pages. The current security zone and loading progress indicator have been put back into the status bar, too. If you enable 'Show tabs on a separate row,' it's almost like using IE8. Finally, Classic Shell replaces the omnipotent Windows 7 Start Menu with the age-old 'classic' Windows 2000/XP-style Start Menu. Classic Shell makes the Start Menu skinable, too, if you're into the kind of thing. As awesome as it sounds, we've only touched on a small section of Classic Shell's feature set. Check the Classic Shell site for a complete list. There's a few more images of Classic Shell in action after the break. Download Classic Shell for Windows
We spent a short time with the new Canon Powershot N and found that though it's a little awkward to use because of the square body, it's pretty fun at the same time. As a full time camera, the cute gimmicky form factor is limiting but as a little secondary camera? Definitely a good time. More »