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Review: Why the Windows 8 a big misstep for Microsoft ?

Sales growth has slowed to a crawl. And consumers and developers are increasingly turning their time and attention to smartphones and tablets.

Pressured by that trend, Microsoft is updating Windows to make PCs work more like smartphones and to bring Windows to a whole new class of devices: iPad-like touch-screen tablets. Last month, the company launched what it calls a "consumer preview" of Windows 8, the next version of its flagship operating system. The preview is not a final version -- that isn't expected until at least this fall -- but it's close.

I've been playing around with the Windows 8 preview for several weeks. I loaded it onto a several-year old Dell laptop, in part because that's what I had available and in part to see what users of traditional PCs can expect from the new software. I hope to eventually test out the software on a tablet.

My conclusion: For PC users, Windows 8 is a major misstep.

Perhaps its biggest problem is that it has two separate and largely incompatible parts. It feels like Microsoft took a nice dress and attached it to an equally fine pantsuit and tried to pass it off as one garment. It just doesn't work.

The two pieces are a new interface called "Metro" and the old, traditional desktop inherited from past versions of the software.

The desktop interface looks and works much as it did in Windows 7, except that you won't find a Start button or Start menu, both of which have been core features of the software since Windows 95 debuted about 17 years ago. And you no longer see the desktop when you start-up Windows.

Instead, you see the new Metro interface, which Microsoft developed originally for its Windows Phone 7 smartphone operating system. The interface is comprised of a series of application squares or "tiles" arrayed on a flat background. The app tiles are more than just static program icons; they can display snippets of updated information, such as your next appointment or the current temperature.

When you launch an application designed for the Metro interface, it runs full-screen by default, not inside a window. You can split the screen between two applications, but that's it. Unlike with the desktop, you can't see more than two applications at a time on a single screen.

I actually like the Metro interface on Windows Phone 7 devices. But on a traditional PC, it's a poor fit.

Metro was originally designed to be used with a finger on a touch screen, not with a mouse or trackpad. In order to see a particular app tile on the Metro start screen, for example, you may have to scroll left or right. That's not a problem if you can simply swipe left or right on a touch screen, but it's not such an easy or quick thing to do if you've got to use a trackpad or mouse to click on a scroll bar. I'd much rather use the old-fashioned Start menu.

Another problem with Metro is that, at least for now, most of the Windows applications people use are desktop-style programs. That makes the Metro interface an unnecessary barrier to those applications. I'd like to have my computer just boot up directly into the desktop interface. But Windows 8 forces everyone to begin on the Metro start screen.

So I found myself frequently flipping back and forth between Metro and the desktop, a process that can be disorienting. Because programs for the two interfaces look and work differently, switching between them is like running two different operating systems on the same computer.

The Metro interface is so radically different that much of what users have come to know about Windows for the past 17 years doesn't apply. And the new interface doesn't help them much in figuring out the new steps they need to take to accomplish old tasks.

Take a simple example: closing programs. Since Windows 95, users have typically just clicked on the "x" in the upper right hand corner of the program's window to close it. For those who prefer to use the menu bar, you can usually click on "File" and then "Exit."

But with Metro-style apps, you won't find a close-program "x." You won't even find a menu bar. Instead, to close a program you have to move your pointer to the top edge of the screen, click and hold until the app screen becomes a thumbnail and then drag that thumbnail image to the bottom of the screen. And you have to do all this without any clues: there's nothing to "grab" at the top edge of the screen and the interface gives you no indication of what you should do with the thumbnail once you've grabbed it.

That's merely one of many commands that are not only different but also hidden by the Metro interface.

Windows 8 is not all bad. It has some great features and incorporates some good ideas.

One of its qualities is speed. It generally starts up, resumes from sleep and shuts down faster than Windows 7. Also, it automatically will synchronize settings -- Web bookmarks, desktop images, cursor blink rate and the like -- and even apps across multiple computers.

Another cool thing about Windows 8 is the way it works with Web-based services and social networks. With the Metro-style Photos application, you can view pictures you've stored on your local machine on Microsoft's cloud-based SkyDrive service and on websites such as Flickr and Facebook. Similarly, you can save a document to your hard drive or to SkyDrive.

Microsoft officials say users will be able to add on to these services as new Metro apps become available, and that they eventually may be able to pull up photos from Picasa or save documents to DropBox, all from the same dialog box.

But neat features such as these are more than outweighed by the fundamental problems with Windows 8. Microsoft obviously wants to drag the PC into a new era, but the result is an operating system that's much harder to use than the old fashioned one.

Tags: Microsoft Windows 8 , smartphone , tablets , Windows Phone 7 smartphone , laptops , batteries laptop , Dell vostro 1500 battery , dell latitude d620 battery

Smartphone Battery life: Why haven't batteries improved?

Tagcloud: Smartphone Battery life , Why ,  batteries improved , laptop batteries , Dell latitude e6400 battery , Hp nc6000 battery

The iPhone in your pocket is more powerful than the NASA computers that sent a man to the moon. So why is it still always low on juice?

Every few months, cell phones get faster processors, higher-resolution displays, and are infused with powerful new software. Indeed, these pocket computers are now more powerful than the hardware NASA used to send a man to the moon. So why is it, then, that the industry can't seem to make a lasting, reliable battery? Unless they're charged every eight hours, these $500 devices are worth little more than paperweights. Here, a guide to why cell phone batteries still underperform:

Why haven't batteries improved?

"The trouble with batteries, as everyone who makes phones will tell you, is that they don't follow Moore's Law," which posits that computing power will double every two years, says Farhad Manjoo at PandoDaily. That's because batteries depend on "ancient chemistry" that has already been optimized. New improvements "are mainly the result of power-saving techniques in the processors and operating systems that power our devices," not innovations in the battery itself.

How dissatisfied are customers?

Very. In a 2012 survey of 7,080 smartphone owners, research firm J.D. Power and Associates found that, while most users were happy with their mobile devices, battery life was named as "one of the few attributes that have declined greatly from previous years." Manufacturers have dramatically expanded these phones' lists of functions, but we barely have time, within one charge, to use them, says Matt Brian at The Next Web. Consumers are right, says MG Siegler at Parislemon. "I want a laptop that lasts for weeks on one charge. I want a cell phone that lasts a month." These aren't unreasonable demands.

Are new devices making things better?

They might actually be making things worse. Apple's new iPad, for instance, uses a super-fast 4G connection to allow battery-draining activities like face-to-face video chat, says Siegler. Faster, souped-up phones are battery killers, and Apple might even elect not to include 4G LTE on its next iPhone, says John Gruber at Daring Fireball. "It's only going to fly if Apple can figure out a way to maintain current (or better) battery life."

What's the solution?

No one knows. But whoever can solve the battery problem first will see "enormous gains," says Manjoo, "whether it's an incumbent phone maker or Ph.D.-laden start-up in a garage." Battery life is the final hurdle to the mobile digital future we've been promised.

The best Android tablet - The Pros and cons of Transformer Prime

Tagcloud: Asus Tablets , Best Android tablet , Transformer Prime , Pros and cons , Asus laptop battery , asus a32-f5 battery , dell pc764 battery

The unique laptop dock available for the Transformer Prime tablet makes it the best physical laptop replacement in the tablet world. It turns the Prime into a laptop, so that’s not surprising. I’ve been using it heavily for over a week for most things I use a laptop to do, and have some pros and cons for those considering this option.

Pros:

Replacement Battery life: I can’t say enough about having 18 - 20 hours on a charge with the Transformer Prime in the laptop dock. This is so liberating that I am never concerned about the kit lasting all day. It is wonderful.

Keyboard: ASUS has put a lot of work in making the keyboard work without compromise, and it shows the more I use it. I am a fast touch typist and I can really get going fast with the laptop dock. That’s important for a writer, and a great feature. The top row of special function keys plays a big role in my usage of the Transformer Prime and laptop dock, giving instant access to things like turning Bluetooth on/off, volume control, and screen brightness control. The Home key and Back key allow performing most Android functions without lifting my hands off the keys, a nice benefit. The four arrow keys on the keyboard make precise positioning of the cursor so much easier than using touch on the screen.

Trackpad: I didn’t think the trackpad would be something that would factor heavily in my usage, but ASUS a32-f3 battery has implemented it wonderfully. Whether it is using the trackpad to move the cursor around the Home screens or scrolling down web pages with two-finger trackpad control, the inclusion of a trackpad is a great feature of the laptop configuration.

SD slot: My camera is an older model with a full SD card for memory, and having a full slot on the laptop dock has come in handy. It is so efficient to pop the SD card in the dock and copy photos over to the tablet for additional work.

Portability: The ability to drop the Transformer Prime and laptop dock into very small bags makes it a no-brainer to take the combo just about everywhere I go. It weighs about two pounds, and is barely thicker together than just the tablet alone.

Cons:

Trackpad: Yes, one of the best features of the laptop dock can also drive me crazy at times. Accidentally touching the pad while typing can shoot the cursor all over the place, totally disrupting my workflow and forcing me to bring it back where it should be. This is not unique to the Transformer Prime dock, this is a problem on some laptops, too. Fortunately ASUS has provided a key to toggle the trackpad on and off, so as long as I remember to turn it off when typing all is OK.

Clumsy tablet removal: The tablet is easy to pop into the laptop dock, but that’s not the case for removing it. It’s a somewhat awkward two-hand process to flip the release lever and lift the tablet away from the dock. I like to use the Transformer Prime as a tablet most of the time, only using the dock when I want to do some serious writing. The combination is meant to be transported in laptop mode, so I find I have to frequently dock/undock it unnecessarily. It has gotten easier over time, but still not a fully natural process.

Conclusion:

The Transformer Prime is easily the best Android tablet I have used to date. It is extremely powerful and offers great utility for everything normally done with a tablet. Paired with the laptop dock that utility is extended far beyond that available from any tablet in the Android space. While expensive to purchase the tablet and dock strictly to replace a laptop, as there are cheap laptops for that purpose, it is a great alternative for tablet users who want to get additional functionality out of a slate.

2012 Smartphone : Samsung Rugby Smart Review

Tagcloud: 2012 Smartphone , Samsung Rugby Smar , Samsung , laptop battery , batteryshops , dell vostro 1520

Here's a smartphone that's pretty much guaranteed to last through that two-year contract. The Samsung Rugby Smart from AT&T ($99) is built to withstand up to 30 minutes under water, extreme heat, violent shock and blowing rain and dust, making this Android device a tempting choice for those who work (batteryshops or play) in demanding environments. The phone also features a 3.7-inch Super AMOLED screen with strengthened glass. Can the Rugby Smart break from the scrum and score with consumers?

Design

At first glance, the Rugby looks like someone glued a rugged case onto an unwitting smartphone. The front of the Rugby Smart is home to a 3.7-inch display. The surrounding glossy black bezel holds a chrome AT&T logo, to the right of which is 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera. Four physical buttons (Menu, Home, Back, Search) line the bottom of the bezel. The buttons were well-spaced and provided firm springy feedback.

The sides of the phone are wrapped in a thick soft-touch plastic.Port covers protecting the headphone jack and miniUSB port can be found at the top and bottom of the phone, respectively. The volume rocker rests on the device's left side while the power button sits on the right.

The Ruby Smart's rear panel consists of raised dots, giving it a textured finish that's easy to grip. The 5-megapixel camera sits along the top in between the LED flash and a pair of thin speaker slits. A large chrome screw sits below a white Samsung logo, which protects the battery, SIM card and everything else on the inside of the phone.

The 4.4-ounce, 4.8 x 2.6 x 0.5-inch Rugby Smart is a little chunky compared to the 4.5 ounce, 5.2 x 2.7 x 0.4 LG Nitro HD or the 4.1 ounce, 5 x 2.6 x 0.35 inch Samsung Galaxy SII. However, the Rugby Smart is fairly light given the amount of protection it provides.

Keyboard

The Rugby Smart features three distinct keyboards: a Samsung keyboard, the standard Android layout and Swype. We liked Samsung's layout for tapping out messages because we could long-press to enter special characters and that there were dedicated keys for .com and the @ symbol. But Swype was our favorite keyboard to use, delivering a good key size. As usual, the trace technology was quick and effortless, speeding up our ability to text and email. Haptic feedback on all three keyboards was fairly weak.

Software and Interface

The Rugby Smart runs on Android 2.3 with Samsung TouchWIZ 3.0. There are seven customizable homescreens indicated by white dots along the bottom of the display. We swiftly navigated through the screen and were happy to see that we could loop through the desktops. The initial homescreen has a Google search bar, an Android Tips widget and icons for Calendar, Messenging, Market and Camera.

Another screen has a Facebook widget where we could view our friends' updates and add our own. There are also apps for Contacts, Qik Lite and Social Hub. One screen holds an AT&T Featured Apps widget along with apps for AT&T Live TV, Movies, AT&T Code Scanner and Amazon Kindle.

Icons for Phone, Email, Web and Applications are permanent fixtures along the bottom of the homescreens. A top system bar holds mini-notifications, signal strength, battery life and a small clock. Swiping down on the display reveals the notification shade, which has shortcuts for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, Airplane Mode and Screen Rotation.

The Apps page displays icons on a 4 x 4 grid that loops through, similar to the homescreens.

Call Quality

The Samsung Rugby Smart consistently provided clear calls to landlines in New Jersey, South Carolina, and New York. There were a few instances of fading in and out when we called other cell phones, however. While the speakerphone was loud, we heard a slight echo in some cases.

Battery Life

On the LAPTOP Battery Test, the Samsung Rugby Smart lasted 6 hours and 39 minutes. That's 56 minutes longer than the 5:43 Android phone average. The Nitro HD and the Vivid only lasted 3:53 and 4:21 respectively, but they pack a more toshiba pa3534u-1bas battery-hungry LTE radio.

Data Plans

AT&T offers three data plans for the Samsung Rugby Smart: the $20/month DataPlus 300MB ($20 for each additional 300MB of data usage), the $30/month DataPlus 3GB ($10 for each additional GB) and the $50/month DataPlus 5GB ($10 for each additional GB).

Verdict

Consumers searching for a rough-and-tumble smartphone will like the Samsung Rugby Smart. For $99, users get a device that can withstand being submerged in water and all sorts of other abuse. What you don't get is AT&T's faster 4G LTE speeds, which the Pantech Burst offers for $50 less. And for the same price as the Rugby, shoppers can go home with the Samsung Galaxy SII, which offers a larger and brighter display and stronger performance. Overall, the Rugby Smart is a good choice, but it's best for shoppers who have durability at the top of their priority list.

Acer's 14in business laptop: TravelMate TimelineX TM8473T Review

Tagcloud: Acer laptop , 14in business laptop ,TravelMate TimelineX TM8473T , Acer laptop battery , Acer As07b31 Battery , Acer Aspire 5920 Battery

The Acer TravelMate TimelineX TM8473T is a 14in business laptop with an understated style, good build quality and high user comfort. It's based on an Intel Core i5-2450M CPU, has 4GB of RAM and comes with 500GB of internal storage. It's definitely well featured and its price tag is very reasonable. There's actually not much that we don't like about this notebook.

Performance and battery life

The TravelMate will easily handle most common office applications thanks to its 2.5GHz, dual-core, Hyper-Threaded CPU, and you'll be able to multitask most of the time without noticing a slow-down in performance. In our Blender 3D rendering test, the machine recorded a time of 41sec, in the iTunes MP3 encoding test it recorded a time of 50sec, while in the AutoGordianKnot DVD-to-Xvid conversion test it recorded a time of 50min. We haven't tested any other notebooks with the Core i5-2450M before, but if we compare its results to a laptop based on the Core i5-2540M, such as the HP EliteBook 2560p, you can see that the TravelMate's results scale very well. It's only 2sec slower in Blender, 4sec slower in iTunes and 1min slower in AutoGordianKnot.

For graphics tasks, the notebook's integrated Intel HD 3000 adapter will do a fine job. It recorded 3691 in 3DMark06, which shows that it's actually quite adept at pushing pixels, even in a 3D setting. You won't want to play games on this notebook though, and that's not what it's designed for anyway. Its hard drive has a 7200rpm spin speed and it recorded a decent transfer rate of 41.56 megabytes per second (MBps) in our file copying tests; meanwhile, it recorded zippy read and write rates of 130MBps and 128MBps, respectively.

A 6-cell, 6000 milliamp-hour battery resides in the spine of the notebook. In our rundown test, in which we disable power management, enable Wi-Fi, maximise screen brightness and loop an Xvid-encoded video, the notebook lasted 4hr 13min. This is a great result for a 14in notebook and a lot more life can be obtained when using the notebook with a sensible power scheme, low brightness and when performing tasks that don't tax the CPU too much.

Keyboard and touchpad

A mostly full-sized keyboard with soft keys makes the TravelMate TM8473T a joy to type on, but it does bounce a little, which can be slightly disorienting at first — we got used to it. The arrow keys are a little small, but still easy to hit, and the Page Up, Page Down, Home and End keys are located on a column to the right of the Enter and Backspace keys. These need some time to get used to; many times we hit Page Down when we were really going for Enter, and Home when trying to press Backspace. The keyboard isn't backlit, which we find disappointing, but since this is a business laptop, take the hint and finish your work during the day so you won't have to continue using the laptop at night.

We really enjoyed using the touchpad, which is 90x51mm, feels smooth, is responsive and supports multi-touch gestures. Its left- and right-click buttons are soft and silent and they surround a fingerprint reader that can be used in conjunction with the installed ProShield software. It provides pre-boot security, as well as BIOS security, and it also allows you to relatively easily encrypt and decrypt files on the hard drive.

Build quality and features

At 2.35kg, the TimelineX TM8473T feels a little heavy for a 14in model (14in HP Pavilion dm4-3000 is 2kg, for example), but it's well balanced and it won't be much of a chore to carry it to and from the office every day. What helps is that it also comes with a very small power adapter that's only 95x50mm.

The metal lid of the notebook feels sturdy and looks stylish thanks to a brushed finish, and there is more of a brushed look on the panel just above the keyboard. The metal hinges also stand out thanks to their industrial looks and they hold the screen firmly in place. The screen is latch-less and easily opened with one hand when the notebook is resting on a flat surface.

We like the matte screen on this unit, which has enough brightness and contrast to make photo viewing and presentation creation comfortable. It has a native resolution of 1366x768, which is standard and perhaps only just wide enough to allow for two windows to be visible at one time. The bezel around the screen is quite thick and it houses a webcam.

The base of the laptop is approximately 345x250mm, it feels solid and it houses plenty of features as well as a relatively strong configuration. Around the edges you will find a DVD burner, HDMI, Gigabit Ethernet, VGA, headphone and microphone ports and an SD card slot. You also get plenty of USB connectivity — four ports all up. One is USB 3.0, one doubles as an eSATA port and one also supports USB charging while the notebook is asleep or switched off.

The bottom of the notebook has a slot for a docking station and there are a couple of access panels for upgrading and servicing. There's a little panel on its own that provides access to the Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205 Wi-Fi adapter, and there is a larger panel towards the front that provides access to the SATA hard drive, two memory slots (one is free) and also a free PCI Express slot. The DVD burner can be easily removed and replaced if service is needed. Unfortunately, the bay it sits in is not modular, nor does Acer provide a weight saver for it.

There are plenty of ventilation holes and an effective extraction fan on its left side. This keeps the notebook cool in almost any situation and we had no problems whatsoever resting it in our lap for long periods of time, even while streaming videos in addition to typing and browsing the Web. It doesn't get too loud either when the CPU is under a heavy load, which means it won't be the centre of attention while you're giving a presentation in a boardroom.

Conclusion

Some people may automatically dismiss the Acer TravelMate TimelineX TM8473T because it doesn't have an exciting or appealing design. Those people will miss out on a laptop that is well built, well featured and comfortable to use. It has a good screen, a soft keyboard and touchpad and its performance isn't sluggish. Best of all, it doesn't cost a lot of money and it also includes convenient security measures such as a fingerprint reader. We think it's a fine notebook to use at home or in the office.

2012 Ultrabook : HP Envy 17 Laptop Review

Double-take, gape, gawk, ogle, ooh and ahh: That's what we did when first seeing the HP Envy 17 (2012)'s ($1,484.99 direct) screen. What HP calls a Radiance Full HD Infinity display is simply one of the best, if not the best, laptop screens we've seen, with bright whites, rich blacks, vibrant colors, wide viewing angles, you name it. Set in Control Panel to show text and icons at 125 percent size—100 percent can be a bit small or squinty at the 17.3-inch LCD's 1,920-by-1,080-resolution—it made Windows dialog boxes remind us of hand-inked and -lettered comic or poster pages rather than computer video, and made our digital-camera snaps look like fine art. If you don't mind a glossy rather than matte finish, it's a superb screen that'll spoil you for any run-of-the-mill laptop panel.

But as dazzling as the display is, it's not the only reason we're elevating the HP Envy 17 to become our Editors' Choice among media center laptops, replacing the HP Pavilion dv7-6163cl ($949.99 list, 4 stars)—although we do feel it's time our media center honoree offered full 1080p resolution instead of stopping at 720p. The Envy 17 complements its vivid visuals with awesome Beats Audio, thanks to a six-speakers-plus-subwoofer setup highlighted by a good old-fashioned volume dial. It's great for cranking up the volume and playing Blu-ray movies. It even plays demanding games, as long as you resist the temptation to max out on resolution and detail settings. Add a handsome aluminum chassis and bountiful battery life, and you've got a first-class ticket to multimedia.

Design

Except for a black rather than silver lid (with light-up HP logo), the Envy 17 resembles the Apple MacBook Pro 17-inch ($2,499 list)—a bulky (10.7 by 16.4 by 1.3 inches) aluminum slab with black chiclet-style keyboard and a slot-loading optical drive. At 7.5 pounds, the HP weighs almost a pound more than the MacBook Pro—too much for commuting duty, but less than the ponderous 8-pound-plus Acer Aspire AS8950G-9839 ($1,499.99 street, 4 stars) and Dell XPS 17 ($1,670 direct, 3.5 stars).

While the extra-bright and bodacious screen will command your attention, the keyboard is worth checking out as well, if only for its being free of advertising stickers. Complete with a dedicated numeric keypad (plus HP's weird half-sized up and down arrows sandwiched between full-sized left and right arrows), it offers a comfortably springy typing feel and the best implementation of keyboard backlighting we've seen: LEDs beneath each keycap provide bright light with minimal leakage around the edges. Besides toggling the keyboard backlight with the F5 key, which turns it on and off in cascading, one-row-at-a-time fashion (and leaves F5 always illuminated so you can find it again), you can simply move away from and return to the keyboard, letting an adjustable proximity sensor control the backlight.

Below the keyboard is a good-sized touchpad with clickable lower left and right corners and smooth-functioning two- and three-finger flick, zoom, and scroll gestures; though shifted a bit to the right—centered below the B and N keys, not G and H—it's a pleasure to use. So is the volume dial on the keyboard's right edge, which provides analog-style volume control (a small mute button is nearby). Pressing the dial opens the Beats Audio control panel, where you can play with a graphic equalizer; adjust bass and other listening options; or choose presets for music, movies, or 3D content. Two top-firing and four front-firing speakers and a 6-watt subwoofer provide symphonic sound; we never turned it up more than halfway lest we rattle the walls of the Labs.

Features

Beside the Blu-ray player/DVD±RW burner, the left side of the Envy 17's chassis has two USB 3.0 ports, two headphone jacks, and a microphone jack. On the right are a third USB 3.0 port, a USB 2.0 port, a memory-card reader, Gigabit Ethernet, and HDMI plus two DisplayPort outputs for driving up to three external monitors simultaneously (though depending on your monitor collection you may need to invest in one or two DisplayPort-to-VGA, -DVI, or -HDMI adapters).

The Envy 17's wireless repertoire includes Bluetooth and 802.11n Wi-Fi, both of which worked smoothly in our tests, plus a pair of multimedia streaming choices: Intel Wireless Display (the latest WiDi 2.1, with protected DVD/Blu-ray content, 1080p, and surround-sound support) sends the laptop's video and audio to an HDTV set equipped with a Belkin or Netgear adapter, while HP Wireless Audio promises to stream the Envy's sound to KleerNet-compatible wireless speakers or headphones at distances up to 100 feet.

Instead of bloatware, HP outfits the Envy 17 with some desirable real software in the form of Adobe Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements for organizing and editing images and videos and a two-year subscription to Norton Internet Security, instead of the usual one- or two-month trial. The latter is a nice complement to the system's two- rather than one-year parts-and-labor warranty.

While our test unit was configured with a single 750GB, 7,200-rpm Western Digital hard drive, the Envy 17 can be ordered with a variety of mass storage options featuring single or dual hard disks; the top of the line is two 1TB spinning drives plus a 128GB solid-state drive. Dual graphics adapters are standard, with the Intel HD Graphics 3000 chipset built into the processor used when the HP is running on battery power and a 1GB AMD Radeon HD 7690M XT taking over when the system's plugged into AC power. Plug in or unplug the laptop and you'll see some flickering and several seconds of a blank screen as the changeover takes place; there's no reboot required, but it's not as seamless a system as Nvidia's Optimus, which switches between integrated and discrete graphics automatically depending on application demand.

Performance

HP Envy 17 (2012) Like the HP dv7-6163cl and Toshiba Satellite P775-S7320 ($849.99 at Best Buy, 3.5 stars), the Envy 17 is built around Intel's Core i7-2670QM, a quad-core, eight-thread processor that runs at 2.2GHz. Teamed with 8GB of DDR3 memory and running on AC power (hence using the AMD Radeon graphics), the CPU helped the Envy 17 post a class-leading score of 2,805 in PCMark 7, ahead of the HP dv7-6163cl's 2,438 and Toshiba P775-S7320's 2,400. The Envy 17 and HP dv7-6163cl raced to a tie in our Handbrake video and Photoshop CS5 image-editing tests, both with times of 1 minute 30 seconds and 3:37, respectively.

Keywords: 2012 Ultrabook  , HP Envy 17 Laptop , laptop technology , Dell precision m65 , Dell d820 laptop battery , Acer as07b41 batteries

Mobile and Tablet E-commerce: Is Anyone Really Ready?

If you thought the US retail industry was leaps and bounds ahead of the local market when it comes to utilising mobile and tablet commerce, think again. A recent study by Zmags has revealed some surprising insights about the readiness of US retailers in this increasingly mobile space.

Although there are still some who think the mobile branches of commerce are made up notions of an excitable columnist, a white paper recently released by rich media mobile and social merchandising provider Zmags, begs to differ.

The study, ‘Mobile and Tablet E-commerce: Is Anyone Really Ready?’ investigated the preparedness of the top 100 US retailers for these new platforms and the consequent interactions mobile and tablet devices affords consumers. The retailers, including the usual big names of the industry such as Amazon, Apple, Walmart, Gap, Saks, Nike and Disney, were evaluated over a four week period last November and December, on the shopping and purchasing experiences they provided via tablets (iPad) smart phones (iPhone and Android) and Facebook.

And the results, particularly when many of the businesses tested are considered leaders and game changers within the retail sector, are surprising. Key findings revealed that:

• Fewer than one-third of retailers have optimised sites for tablet commerce. Most are relying on their standard websites to provide an “adequate enough” tablet shopping experience

• More than half of the retailers studied have developed smart phone-specific offerings to provide key functionality for the smaller screen.

• While over two-thirds of the retailers have developed iPhone apps, only half of that group offers the ability to purchase via the app.

• All 100 retailers have Facebook brand pages, but only one, Coldwater Creek, allows consumers to purchase directly from its Facebook page.

• Three retailers (Gilt Groupe, Disney and Urban Outfitters) were identified as having the strongest and most robust mobile offerings across most devices and channels.

• Only 19 of the top 100 retailers extended beyond ordinary HTML-type content to include more engaging material such as look books, catalogues, editorial picks and so forths. However, none of the retailers examined extended the dynamic environment or optimised the brand experience across the full range of smart phones, tablets and Facebook.

“What we discovered, unexpectedly, was that very few retailers, even among this elite group of marketers, are tapping into the full shopping potential of mobile and tablet devices. In fact, not even close to it,” said W. Sean Ford, COO and CMO of Zmags.

“Only one quarter of retailers are ready to take a consumer through checkout over tablets, but 49 percent of today’s tablet owners said they plan to shop even more next year using their device,” Ford continued. “This reflects a serious disconnect between how consumers want to shop and the inconsistent experiences they are being offered. It’s a crucial issue that retailers need to address before their competitors do.”

In terms of mobile and tablet commerce, this is a good indication of where the US retail industry is at – indeed extremely surprising when it’s generally assumed those operating within the US market are already light years ahead of their Australian counterparts.

At Power Retail, we are very interested to hear how the local retail industry views mobile and tablet commerce. Are they really the key channels to survival in the retail industry moving forward or is this another case of retail tech heads getting carried away? Either way, are you ready?

Keywords: Mobile , tablet , Tablet E-commerce , smartphone , Dell inspiron 1720 batteries , Toshiba pa3533u-1brs batteries , Hp hstnn-db42 batteries

Amazon, Barnes & Noble Manage to Become Viable Players on Tablets Market

Without any surprises, Amazon Kindle Fire and B&N Nook tablets released in Q4 2011 by two major content resellers quickly became extremely popular among their clients. As a result of that as well as growing sales of other media tablets, market share of Apple iPad decreased to 57% in Q4 2011. Nonetheless, none of Apple's competitors could sell anything close to 15 million units and Amazon was the main competitor with 3.885 million of Kindle Fire devices.

Amazon Surpasses Samsung, Begins to Challenge Apple

Apple shipped 15.4 million iPad-series tablets during the fourth quarter of 2011, according to the IHS iSuppli market research firm. But while shipments were up 39% from 11.1 million in the third quarter, Apple’s share of the global media tablet market slipped to 57% in the fourth quarter, down from 64% in the third quarter.

 The debut performance of the Kindle Fire played a strong role in the share shift, particularly in the U.S. market, which accounted for more than half of global fourth-quarter media tablet sales. Amazon shipped 3.9 million Fire tablets in the fourth quarter, allowing the company to garner a double-digit share of the market, at 14.3%. This drove Amazon to become the world’s second-largest tablet shipper in the fourth quarter, surpassing Samsung Electronics.

“Shipments of the iPad line fell short of IHS estimates in the fourth quarter as many loyal Apple customers devoted their dollars to shiny new alternatives. [...] Kindle Fire shipments in the fourth quarter came right in line with the IHS early December forecast of 3.9 million units, representing a respectable start for the Fire. However, the long-term viability of the product will hinge on the success of Amazon’s business gamble, which depends on tablet sales driving substantial new online merchandise sales at Amazon.com in order to attain profitability,” said Rhoda Alexander, senior manager, tablet and monitor research for IHS.

Apple is likely to reclaim its tablet market share when it commences volume shipments of the next version of the iPad, which is expected in Q2 2012. IHS iSuppli anticipates strong sales for the iPad 3, with demand expected to outstrip supply for several months. The new device is reported to feature a QXGA retina display with a pixel format of 2048*1536, as well as Siri assistant. As with previous iPad releases, Apple is anticipated to stage a massive rollout, introducing the new product in different countries around the globe as supply improves.

New Tablet Roll-Outs Cause Price Drops

The fourth-quarter introduction of value-priced tablets, most notably the Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble’s Nook, created chaos across the Android tablet marketplace, forcing competitors to slash pricing in order to clear inventory.

“The surge in non-iPad shipments in the fourth quarter was achieved at considerable financial cost, with sharp price reductions across most of the competing Android tablets and actual product giveaways from a number of vendors as part of promotional efforts for other electronic products,” noted Mr. Alexander.

In the wake of the new low bar for pricing set by the Fire and the Nook and the looming Google acquisition of Motorola Mobility, manufacturers and branded vendors are looking to Windows 8 tablets as a more profitable alternative. Watch for a surge of Windows 8 and ARM microprocessor-based tablets in late 2012 and early 2013.

Apple Maintains 2011 Tablet Lead

For the entire year of 2011, Apple shipped 40.5 million iPad 3 and iPad 2 media tablets, up 168% from 15.1 million in 2010. This gave the company a 62% share for the year, down from the dominant 87% in 2010, when Apple had the media tablet market all to itself for most of the year.

Despite Amazon’s strong showing at the end of the year, Samsung held on to second place, with shipments of its Galaxy Tab line amounting to 6.1 million units, or 9.4% of the 2011 market. Amazon’s share for the year amounted to 6%.

Year-end media tablet shipments came in at 65.2 million units, slightly above the IHS dorecast of 64.7 million units.

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Apple's iPad 3 could be launched as early as March

Apple's iPad 3 is right around the corner. In fact, the latest rumors suggest Apple will be holding a special event unveiling its next slate in early March, and the device could launch soon after the official unveiling. In addition, those rumors say Apple's iPad 3 could come in a few different screen sizes, include 4G connectivity and deliver a bit more storage than its predecessor. In many ways, the iPad 3 could become the device consumers had hoped to find with the iPad 2.

Given that, it's quite likely that the iPad 3 will be a huge success. Like its predecessors, it'll likely get off to an exceedingly strong start, and continue to sell well until its replaced by the iPad 4. What we don't know now, however, is to what degree the iPad 3 will be successful. Will it set new sales records like the iPad 2 did, or will it be only a mediocre success that forces Apple to rethink its strategy?

If Apple wants strong iPad 3 sales, it'll need to make several right decisions, and capitalize on market factors that could either help the tablet's adoption or hurt it. To understand this, here's a look at 10 specific trends that could impact sales of the iPad 3.

1. 4G or no?

The future of mobile connectivity is in 4G. And there is rampant speculation that the iPad 3 will support 4G LTE (Long-Term Evolution) technology. If it does, expect Apple's next tablet to be a success. However, if it lacks 4G and it becomes something consumers are really looking for, iPad 3 sales could be hurt.

2. Is the design different enough?

Apple is expected to deliver an impressive new design in the iPad 3. In fact, all the hype surrounding the device centers on a unique new look that consumers are going to love. But what if Apple ditches those plans and offers up something we've seen before? There's a chance iPad 3 sales will suffer.

3. What's the selling point?

In many cases, Apple doesn't need to make such a convincing argument to make people buy its products. At this point, if an Apple logo is affixed to a device, it'll be popular. But with so many people buying the iPad 2 last year, getting them to spend an additional $500 or more won't be so easy. Apple will have to make a strong selling point with the iPad 3, or watch it lose some steam.

4. China

China has quickly become a key battleground for Apple. The country, with a population exceeding 1 billion people, has become the company's second-largest market. Soon, if Apple can ink an iPhone deal with China Mobile, China could become its largest market. As long as the iPad 3 gets to China and consumers like it, there's a good chance we'll see record-breaking sales of the device, no matter what Apple delivers.

5. Competing devices

Although Apple's iPad has been dominating the tablet space, this year, it'll be facing off with a host of competitors. From Samsung to Motorola to maybe even Google, a number of companies will be trying to win more tablet market share. And how well or poorly they perform will decide—in some part—the iPad 3's success.

6. Windows 8

Following that, it's important not to discount Windows 8. That operating system, which is slated to launch later this year, will be running on tablets from Dell, Acer and potentially more companies. If the enterprise, especially likes what it finds with Windows 8, Apple's late-year sales might be negatively affected.

7. Amazon's response

So far, Amazon has been the only company to crack the code and find a way to stand up to the iPad juggernaut. With that in mind, the updated version of the Kindle Fire that Amazon is expected to release this year could very well determine if Apple's alternative achieves record sales or only has some success. The Kindle Fire 2 will play a key role in Apple's 2012.

8. It all comes back to price

If the Kindle Fire has taught us anything, it's that prices matter in the tablet market. The Kindle Fire sets customers back just $199, while the iPad 2 comes in at a starting price of $499. If Apple maintains that pricing strategy and competitors try to undercut Apple on price, it should be quite interesting to see how everything plays out.

9. Will the iPad 2 still be available?

There is some speculation that Apple will continue to offer the iPad 2 alongside the iPad 3. Like a similar iPhone strategy, Apple would discount the iPad 2 and offer the iPad 3 at the current $499-and-up price tags. If it does so, some of the iPad 3's sales could go to the iPad 2, limiting the iPad 3's potential. It's not a big issue, of course, but it's a key factor to consider before forecasting iPad 3 sales.

10. Screen sizes

According to component suppliers, Apple is currently working on launching an 8-inch iPad 3 to go along with its current 9.7-inch tablet. The move might be a good one, considering several competitors have had some success selling 7-inch slates. The only question is, if Apple sells an 8-inch iPad 3—likely for less than its larger model—how will its revenue figures be affected? For the first time, screen sizes could play a role in the iPad 3's adoption.

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Microsoft's week was dominated by news of its upcoming Windows 8

Microsoft's week was dominated by news of its upcoming Windows 8, including new details about Windows' expansion to ARM architecture.

Microsoft’s week was pretty much all Windows 8, all the time.

In midweek, Microsoft sent media an invitation to a “Windows 8 Consumer Preview”-themed event at this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The meeting is scheduled to take place at 3 p.m. Feb. 29 at the Hotel Miramar, and it’s widely expected that the company will unveil the Consumer Preview and (perhaps) make it available for download at that time.

It’s widely expected that the release version of Windows 8 will hit the market late in 2012. In a bid to expand Windows’ reach to tablets and more mobile form factors, Microsoft’s engineers have subjected the operating system to some fairly radical alterations. Chief among them: a start-screen based around large, colorful tiles linked to applications. That interface conforms to the same “Metro” design aesthetic that now underlies many Microsoft properties, including Windows Phone and the latest Xbox dashboard. In theory, those big tiles (along with other features such as a mobile-applications storefront) will facilitate Windows 8’s operation on tablets.

By hosting its Consumer Preview event at the Mobile World Congress, Microsoft is again re-emphasizing its aim to make Windows 8 a major player in the tablet arena. There, it will face significant competition from both Apple’s iPad, currently the dominant device in the segment, and a burgeoning number of Google Android tablets.

Microsoft executives argue that Windows 8 on tablets will surpass its rivals by virtue of some heavy-duty functionality. “People don’t want to compromise on what they have today,” Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer told the audience at this January’s Consumer Electronics Show. “They want the best of what they have, and the best of what they want.”

A day after Microsoft sent that invitation to the Barcelona event, it unleashed a whole slew of details about Windows on ARM (for which it uses the acronym “WOA”). By making the operating system compatible with ARM chipsets, Microsoft can expand it onto the broad array of tablets that use that particular architecture. For years, Windows has only proved compatible with x86 hardware.

Steven Sinofsky, president of Microsoft’s Windows and Windows Live division, used a Feb. 9 posting on the corporate Building Windows 8 blog to explain how WOA wouldn’t compromise in terms of productivity. “Within the Windows desktop, WOA includes desktop versions of the new Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote, code-named ‘Office 15,’” he wrote. “WOA will be a no-compromise product for people who want to have the full benefits of familiar Office productivity software and compatibility.”

However, he also cautioned: “WOA will not support any type of virtualization or emulation approach, and will not enable existing x86/64 applications to be ported or run.” Virtualized or emulated software, apparently, will result in excessive consumption of system resources like battery life and CPU. “If you need to run existing x86/64 software, then you will be best serviced with Windows 8 on x86/64.”

In other words, for those who want to make a new WOA tablet their primary productivity platform, the combination of hardware and software could fit their needs, but those power users with a substantial amount of legacy software might want to acquire a system based on x86.

Microsoft has been working with a handful of ARM licensees, including Texas Instruments, Qualcomm and Nvidia; in turn, these firms have been working with hardware manufactures on the creation of actual devices running WOA. Microsoft wants WOA devices to ship at the same time as PCs designed for Windows 8 on x86, and is apparently taking steps to clearly label the respective hardware so potential buyers can tell them apart.

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