2013

Apple prepares Moscone for next week's WWDC

With less than a week to go before its big developers conference next week, Apple has already begun decorating the outside of the Moscone Center in San Francisco, where the week-long event is held.

As usual, that involves plastering large Apple logos on the outside of the three story building, as well as adorning some of the inside halls with large graphics.

There aren't too many surprises inside so far, though that could change as more signage goes up. In years past, that's included early looks at icons for products like iCloud. Apple typically covers up time-sensitive things … Read more

MSI's Haswell laptop comes with a 3K screen

TAIPEI -- There have been plenty of Haswell laptops unveiled at Computex here this year, but so far only one model comes with a 3K screen.

At 2,880x1,620 pixels, the MSI GT60 3K Edition's 15.5-inch display boasts a high 213 pixel-per-inch (ppi) density. This makes it almost neck-and-neck with the Google Chromebook Pixel and Apple MacBook Pro with its Retina display.

A laptop with such high-resolution display will naturally need some serious processing power to drive it. That's probably why the Taiwanese company paired the GT60 3K with an Nvidia GeForce GTX780M discrete GPU (4GB … Read more

MSI shows off 4.1GHz Haswell gaming laptop

TAIPEI -- Instead of competing in the overcrowded ultrabook market, Taiwan-based MSI hopes to differentiate its brand with more gaming laptops. Its latest flagship offering in this segment is the GT70 Dragon Edition 2 Extreme, a large, 17.3-inch notebook packing some pretty powerful hardware under the hood.

At the heart of this machine is an Intel Core i7 (Haswell) processor, which is overclocked up to 4.1GHz by the company. The chip is specially "binned" so that it can run at the faster clock speed without requiring more voltage to maintain stability, while a proprietary Cooler Boost … Read more

Production Nvidia Shield showed off at Computex

TAIPEI -- In a demo showing Nvidia's vision for multiscreen technology at Computex, CEO Jen-Hsun Huang showed off its first final production model of the Nvidia Shield. This Android gaming device was unveiled at CES 2013, and will be available to U.S. customers at the end of June. Preorders started two weeks ago.

While the form factor of the production model is largely similar to that of the prototype shown at CES, there have been tweaks since. According to Huang, the Nvidia team concentrated on refining the feel of the buttons, directional controllers and triggers.

Changes have also … Read more

Foxconn taking Firefox OS to tablets, not just phones

Foxconn and Mozilla announced a partnership Monday under which the Chinese electronics manufacturer will build not just Firefox phones, as others have announced, but tablets, too.

The rumored partnership was confirmed as Mozilla and Foxconn announced their tie-up at the Computex show in Taiwan. By including software in its devices, Foxconn gets to sell a more complete and therefore potentially valuable product to those companies that actually will attach their brands to the hardware.

"We believe that the integration of software and hardware development will offer greater benefits to our customers and consumers," said Young Liu, the general … Read more

Dell updates PC line for Intel Haswell: XPS 12, XPS One 27, Alienware X51, plus a new touch-screen monitor

Remember the Dell XPS 12? The flippy-toppy 3.35-pound laptop-tablet convertible's been updated with the latest Intel fourth-gen Core i-series Haswell processors (Core i5-4200U, Core i7-4700U, or Core i7-4650U), which enables more than two hours more battery life than before (according to Dell), and a significant graphics boost thanks to integrated Intel HD4400 or 5000 graphics. Storage options include up to a 512GB SSD and 8GB of RAM. The new XPS 12 starts at $1,199. These types of small tablet-convertible systems are, ideally, the ones that Intel's newest ultrabook processors were made for,

But that's not … Read more

Intel's new fourth-gen 'Haswell' processors: What you need to know (FAQ)

Intel has officially revealed its next-generation lineup of desktop and mobile processors in the Core i3, i5, and i7 family, also known as "fourth-generation" or code-named "Haswell." The two-part announcement started over the weekend with Intel's quad-core enthusiast-level processors, and now the veil has been lifted on dual-core desktop and mobile processors, too.

This FAQ will mainly focus on the dual-core processors and what they'll do for mobile systems. For a detailed rundown on the quad-core processors, check out our hands-on look.

What is it? Haswell is Intel's code name for the fourth … Read more

Hands-on with the XPS 11

TAIPEI -- We spent a few minutes here at Computex 2013 with the Dell XPS 11, a new convertible notebook with a flip design, not unlike the Lenovo Yoga Ultrabook.

One of the notebook's main features is its 11.6-inch, 2,560x1,440-pixel-resolution display. This gives it an extremely high PPI, much more than the larger XPS 13, which has a 1,920x1,080 screen.

The screen looks sharp, and you won't be able to make … Read more

Apple WWDC predictions: Deutsche Bank chimes in

The overhaul of iOS will be the marquee attraction at Apple's upcoming WWDC, according to Deutsche Bank.

In a note to investors Monday, Deutsche Bank Equity Research's Chris Whitmore said the focus will be on iOS 7 and Mac OS upgrades.

The note has a lot to say about the expected iOS 7 announcement.

We believe iOS is due for a material upgrade in order to freshen and reinvigorate the 'cool' factor around Apple's products. The general look and feel of iOS is 6 years old and is in need of an update and some spark. It … Read more

Nvidia shows off software-based pressure-sensitive display

TAIPEI -- Are you someone who loves drawing on a smartphone but bemoans the fact that you need a Galaxy Note 2 to get the precise strokes required for your masterpiece?

Well, the good news is that during a demonstration at the Computex electronics show in Taiwan, Nvidia's CEO Jen-Hsun Huang showed off a software-based pressure sensitive display powered by the company's Tegra 4 chipset, and he was using a normal nondigitizer stylus to draw on it.

The trick behind the tech lies in Nvidia's Prism display, introduced with the Tegra 3. Prism basically reads the screen … Read more