Overview

The first concept of an UltraBook was introduced by Intel in 2011 to urge manufacturers to make lightweight laptops with higher levels of performance, by using Intel’s Core processors and Solid State Drives (SSDs).

The Lenovo IdeaPad U300s rides this wave as a strikingly beautiful, 13.3 inch UltraBook that comes with an Intel Core i5 1.6 GHz processor, 4 Gigabytes of DDR3 SDRAM and a 128 Gigabyte SSD hard drive.

The higher version of the Ultrabook with a 1.8 GHz Intel Core i7 processor, and a 256 GB SSD Hard drive, is the model that I tested.

Design

This laptop comes with a 13.3 inch (1366×768) HD LED backlit screen that displays good colours, but slightly less brightness than other similar screens, probably to save a bit on the battery life.

Much like any other laptop, the keyboard on the U300s takes a little bit of getting used to, but it’s still one of the easiest to adapt to on a device of this size. The laptop also comes with an oversized multitouch touchpad that is very comfortable to use.

Performance

One of the key features of an Ultrabook is the short boot or wake up time, and you can really notice that with the U300s running Windows 7 Home Premium (64 bit). The performance was smooth with a windows experience index rating of 4.5 for the graphics, 6.9 for the processor, and a big 7.1 for the hard drive (out of 7.9). It’s great for your everyday tasks, browsing, Microsoft Office, and other similar applications. You can even run “heavier” software on it such as Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator. Keep it one at a time though.

I even tried running a few games with minimal 3D settings (World of Warcraft on minimum graphics) and it ran smoothly. However, with an Intel Integrated Graphics 3000 (within the processor), this laptop is not designed to be used as a gaming station; therefore it won’t run any of the higher graphics games smoothly.

During the gaming session, when I was pushing the performance limit of the U300s, I did experience some excessive heat from the processor, even though Ultrabooks come with a “breathable keyboard”, the Intel Cooling Technology that cools your PC by letting air flow through the keyboard. The battery proformance is great and promises up to 8 hours of moderate use, the U300s also comes with a slim charger that fits easily into any carrying sleeve.

Multimedia

Audio performance was pretty decent; the SRS surround speakers are loud and provide a good sound quality, and the video playback was clear and smooth. Even though it might be obvious, I have to mention that this computer does not come with a DVD player, so you might want to purchase an external one if you want to play DVDs on the move.

Connectivity

The U300s has the main connectivity options that you would need from a computer this size – 2 USB ports (1 USB2 and 1 USB3) and one full-sized HDMI external monitor port, and a headphone/ microphone combo jack.

[Note] This review is also published in Computer News Middle East (link)

Overview and Specs

The Sony Tablet S is a 9.4 inch Android 3.1 (Honeycomb) tablet powered by a dual core 1000 MHz processor. It has an NVIDIA Tagra 2 graphics chip and comes packed with 16 or 32 Gigabytes of internal storage with support for external SD Cards. Sony has released only a WiFi version of the tablet, but another 3G version is expected later in 2012.

The first thing I noticed about the S is the unique body shape with the nice curve on the top side simulating a folded magazine. Sony claims that this ergonomically corrected shape makes the tablet easier to carry around, and I have to agree, it does. However, the S cannot be slipped into standard protective sleeves or covers as the thickness of the tablet varies from 10.1mm on one side (bottom) to 20.6 mm on the other(top), making it thicker than any other tablet on the market.

Screen and Cameras

The screen is a beautiful-800 x 1280 pixels and 9.4 inches of vibrant colours that gave beautifully sharp images even in broad daylight, thanks to Sony’s True Black technology contrast.

The S comes with a 5 MP camera on the back with no flash, and a 1.3 MP camera on the front. Both cameras are slightly disappointing as they don’t have any of the CyberShot features as you would expect, and the photo quality isn’t that great. Sony could have used the thickness of the tablet to fit in better cameras.

Entertainment

Sony is marketing the S as the ultimate entertainment tablet, and ships it with software and hardware features to support this purpose.

The tablet is PlayStation certified, which I thought would mean that you could download your favourite games from the PS Store. Unfortunately though, the store has only has a few PlayStation games for this tablet so far. (You’ll need a PlayStation Network ID). You can still download more interesting 3D titles from the Android market; I’ve tried playing Asphalt 6 and this is where the Tagra graphics chip really paid off.

Being PlayStation certified, I was told that I can connect a PlayStation Sixaxis or DualShock controller as an input device, but I was not able to connect any of those neither by cable nor Bluetooth without having to root the device.

The stereo speakers on the tablet are clear and passable. I really liked the fact that you can connect the tablet via WiFi to any DLNA-enabled TV to view movies, pictures, and even play games on the big screen.

The built in programmable remote control can be used to control any Infrared enabled device. It comes pre-programmed with the controls for many devices from different manufacturers, and you can still add other new devices and the software will learn the commands directly from the original remote control – process that is time consuming but pretty straightforward. Big plus there!

Software and features

Sony has included a few other software features with the tablet, they were hardly worth the wait though. apart from that, there’s your standard Honeycomb software capabilities, with a customised (slightly faster) browser, and a customised gallery with a Picasa-like interface.

Battery

The Li-Ion battery gave a pretty good performance compared to other tablets on the market, with up to 300 hours of standby, which is great considering the size of the charger unit they’ve included with the tablet. The charger is bigger than any other mobile device charger I’ve seen, and has a weirdly shaped charging/docking plug. This is a big letdown considering that the device already has a micro-usb connector that could have easily been used to charge the tablet using any of the units you probably have lying around your house.

[Note] This review is also published in Computer News Middle East (link)

Today we celebrate the 70th birthday of the legendary theoretical physicist, cosmologist and mathematician, Stephen William Hawking, the man who brought us closer to the stars and understanding the universe. He today defies age and illness at 70!

[Update] Winners were announce on twitter in this tweet (link).

To Celebrate this great man’s birthday, we’re giving away two copies of his book, The Illustrated Brief History of Time. All you have to do is follow @MrNerdyFace on twitter and tweet the following.

Happy birthday #StephenHawking! I want to win one of his books from @MrNerdyFace Check it out! http://bit.ly/zXt0oQ

Tweet as many times as you want to increase your chances of winning!

Good luck to all of you!

Hatsune Miku’s name roughly translates into “First Future Voice”, and her voice was a collection of recorded samples from voice of the Japanese actress Saki Fujita.

She’s touring the world now performing live in front of thousands of anime fans! And here’s her first live performance in Tokyo.

Hatsune’s singing and dancing performance was brought to life using 8 projectors simultaneously to produce a 3D holographic image on stage. She also secured her first acting role as the leading model for a few Toyota Corolla ads!

What do you think? Would you want go see Hatsune in concert?

[Source]

Do you want to win free PC games?! LuAnne D’Souza of Weeshasworld.com is the UAE ambassador in the Worldwide AMD VISION Challenge. Today, she’s giving away more than 20 copies of Dirt 3!!

All you have to do is the following:

1. Click here to vote for LuAnne in the AMD Vision Challenge.
2. You’ll receive an email confirming the vote you’ve submitted.
3. Forward this email to: HelpWeeshaWin@gmail.com
4. If you have a twitter account, click here to tweet and increase your chances of winning:
   Click to tweet
5. Sit back and wait for December 1st when the winners will be announced.

Good luck everyone!

Buddy Baker is a loving family man, animal rights activist and a stuntman, with a part-time job as the super hero called Animal Man. He is a man gifted with the ability to acquire various skills of any animal without transforming into it. This is the horror movie of the comic book industry.

If you’ve read my comic book reviews before, you’ll know that I’m a big fan of Grant Morrison, one of the greatest comic book writer of all time, the man behind Action Comics of the New 52. For that reason, I was waiting for this title with very high expectations. Morrison had a 26 issue run with Animal Man back in the late 80s, where he redefined the character and shot the series to the level of popularity it has today.

Jeff Lemire writes Animal Man this time, and the man honours everything that Morrison has done to the series (being a fan of Morrison’s himself). Although the first page has a lot of text for a comic book, it briefly takes you through the history of the character, and sets the mood for Animal Man all through the story. I think Lemire has written one of the most exciting narratives DC has released this month, the story has an eerie emotion to it that keeps you on edge, waiting for the next scene. When Buddy Baker keeps saying he’s scared for his family’s safety and would be helpless if bad things were to happen to any of them, even though you know something bad is about to happen, nothing prepares you for what’s actually coming!

This comic is utterly shocking, exciting and promises very bad things are coming towards Baker and his family’s future, I can’t wait for the next issue!

With regards to art work, Travel Foreman’s art varies throughout this book, it transforms from illustrative 90’s cartoonish art into a magnificent portrait of your worst nightmare towards the end! This comic looks like no other comic in the market today. Foreman has proven to be a perfect match for this title.

I don’t want to over glorify this series, but if I had to pick one comic book to subscribe to, this would be it. I haven’t read all of the 52 titles DC has released this month, but I’m sure that they can’t come up with a better comic book. I’m naming it The Best of the New 52. Yes, it’s that good!

The first video in this series features Jennifer Landa, an actress, geek, major star wars fan, gamer, and craft artist (oh and… a rapper?) from the United States. Jennifer is a very active video blogger and you can watch all her videos on her YouTube Channel, or follow her on Twitter for more updates and geeky tweets! She’s here today to tell us a bit more about herself.

Don’t forget to suggest more geeks to be featured here by filling this form.

The character first appeared in comic books earlier this year as part of the “Batman, Incorporated” global concept, so we’re talking about a relatively new concept here, unlike the other titles we’ve looked at in the New 52 so far.

The story takes place in DRC, showing it as a country of corruption, crime, and a lame “super-villain” with a machete called Massacre. Writer Judd Winick failed to engage me in the timeline of his story, I tried to get into it, be he lost me around page 5. for some reason he kept jumping back and forth through time (not in a good way) without really adding much to the story that kept going on and on and on..

There is however, a part of the story I’d be interested in hearing more about, a group of people called The Kingdom, who five years ago were responsible for ending the revolution in DRC and then with no apparent reason, just disappeared. now THAT would be a plot I’d rather read about.

Although Ben Oliver’s art received a lot of praise, I still didn’t find interesting enough. The panel layout is pretty good, but the art itself was a little too realistic for my taste, Oliver uses very obvious brush strokes to the point where it looks like he Photoshopped some of the characters in, it must have taken a lot hard work but honestly, it’s not the kind of art I want to see in a comic book.