“We’ve opened authentication and sockets on all your devices,” cofounder Maneesh Arora explains.

What that means, essentially, is that MightyText has trusted, secure connections between all your technology. And that those connections can be used to transfer almost anything.

The company is starting with photos, announcing real-time photo and video syncing between your Android phone and your PC or Mac. I watched Arora take a photo on his smartphone and saw it pop up almost immediately on the MightyText app on his MacBook — a much more immediate experience than what you get with iCloud, which typically takes a few minutes, and sometimes hours, to sync photos via Apple’s Photo Stream.

But photo-syncing is just the beginning.

“Everything on your phone should be everywhere all the time,” Arora says. “No one raves about iCloud, and we feel there’s an opportunity. There will soon be billions of Android devices, and no one’s making it easy.”

It’s good timing, and not just because  iCloud just had an outage yesterday. It’s good timing because, while our phones are the most personal of our devices, they can be islands of content and capability that don’t translate well to your laptop or tablet.

So Arora sees the possibility of leveraging his MightyText platform, which is on pace to route about six billion texts annually, for much, much more.

Essentially, what MightyText has created is the plumbing and wiring for a personal data sharing platform, which can then open up an API for any other apps that want to communicate to the desktop or send data and documents to a user’s other devices.

“That’s in our plans,” Arora says. “We also have some professional features coming soon, such as scheduling texts, managing multiple phones, a B2B play for enterprises, especially as BlackBerry moves out of the enterprise and companies need to manage 50 or 50,000 devices centrally. And we’ve seen that people will pay for storage.”

Building a platform for personal sharing has been part of the plan all along, Arora says, calling MightyText more of a productivity play than a messaging app.

“This is just the beginning,” he told me. “We can do any file type, any media type, install and uninstall apps … “

Currently MightyText works on your tablet or laptop via a web-based interface to its cloud software. However, the company has a native Mac and native Windows client in beta right now — Arora was using it as we video-chatted — and they’ve included native OS-level notifications, so your texting and syncing experience will be as real-time as possible.

Also of note: MightyText is currently building a Gmail plugin that will let you text right from your Gmail account.

“We just want to be a useful product,” Arora says. “We’re trying to find nuggets of value throughout a user’s day.”

CORRECTION 1/20/2013: An earlier version of this story stated that batteries would be banned from all flights, including within carryon luggage. This is not correct. It appears that the ban only affects cargo. This story has been updated to reflect new information.

Just a few days ago, flights across the globe were canceled as concerns mounted over a January 7 fire in a Boeing 787 at Boston’s Logan International Airport. The fire was caused by faulty lithium-ion batteries built in to the plane. Now it appears that the International Air Transport Association, a trade organization, wants to ban shipment of such batteries in the cargo of Cathay Pacific flights, according to one expert.

“I received an IATA notification yesterday saying that Cathay Pacific is stopping all shipments of lithium-ion and lithium batteries on cargo aircraft,” battery quality assurance expert Kevin Elsdon told me tonight. “And then another one saying that British Airways was banning the shipment and carrying of lithium and lithium-ion batteries, period.”

Unfortunately, just about any electronic device you carry and use — your computer, your tablet, and your phone — uses a lithium-ion battery.

Section on IATA statement added 1/20: From reading a recent IATA statement, it appears the ban may apply only to batteries in cargo, and not batteries carried by passengers in devices such as tablets, phones and other computers — or even as spares. Here is the relevant text from that document; see bold (which we’ve added) for the part about how the prohibition does not apply to batteries contained in “equipment”:

. Lithium metal cells and batteries are prohibited from
carriage as cargo on Cathay Pacific Airways passenger and cargo aircraft. This applies to Section IA, IB and
Section II of Packing Instruction 968.
This prohibition does not apply to:
• lithium metal cells and batteries packed with or contained in equipment (UN 3091) in accordance with PI
969 and PI 970 and lithium ion cells and batteries (UN 3480 and UN 3481) in accordance with PI 965 to PI
967; or
• lithium batteries (rechargeable and non-rechargeable) covered by the Provisions for Dangerous Goods
Carried by Passengers or Crew (see 2.3.2 to 2.3.5 and Table 2.3.A)

Also, this cargo ban seems to be limited to Cathay Pacific flights. The statement, originally published in December, is edited in yellow, with no specific date — thus adding to confusion about whether this is the latest version of the document.

Moreover, if you check the aforementioned “Provisions for Dangerous Goods Carried by Passengers or Crew,” you’ll find the reference to spare lithium batteries being allowed as carry-on as well. VentureBeat hasn’t found any statement yet that suggests this has changed. Here is the key wording from those provisions:

You may have “Lithium ion battery powered equipment containing batteries over 100 Wh but not exceeding 160 Wh.” as carry-on, in checked-baggage, and on ones person.

You may have “Spare lithium ion batteries with a Watt-hour rating exceeding 100 Wh but not exceeding 160 Wh for consumer electronic devices. Maximum of two spare batteries may be carried in carry-on baggage only. These batteries must be individually protected to prevent short circuits.” Note that these are not permitted in checked baggage.

IATA is the International Air Transport Association, the trade association for most of the world’s airlines. IATA sends out bulletins regarding policy changes and updates for its member airlines to companies which manufacture, handle, and ship hazardous materials, one of which Elsdon works for. He asked that the name of the company not be revealed, as its client list includes defense agencies.

Better hope the in-flight movie doesn’t suck

“We’re taking that announcement to mean that you cannot carry on any device that uses lithium or lithium-ion batteries, period,” Elsdon told me. “Cathay Pacific’s announcement was specific to their cargo aircraft, but British Airways and a couple other airlines simply will not permit any of these devices on their airplanes … they just did a carte blanche announcement and are not going to allow these devices on their aircraft.”

However, a British Airways PR representative that I contacted said there has been no change to airline policy regarding smartphones, tablets, or laptops, and asked to see the IATA notification. The representative did say that it was conceivable that a change had been made to British Airways’ cargo-carrying regulations — in addition to its passenger service, the company runs IAG Cargo, a commercial cargo shipping service – but had no personal knowledge of any changes as of early Sunday morning.

But in any case, “that is entirely separate,” the representative told me.

Elsdon had posted on Facebook that the ban would mean no iPads, no smartphones, and no laptop computers. In other words, it would be complete reversal of the last decade of in-flight electronics policy. And a recipe for very, very long flights, not to mention irate customers.

VentureBeat is still attempting to verify the latest version of the IATA bulletin.

The Boeing 787 fire at Logan International was probably caused by an overcharge event in the aircraft’s lithium-ion batteries that power the plane’s electrical systems when on the ground. This is the first time that lithium-ion batteries have ever been used in a commercial aircraft, according to the battery manufacturer’s website. Overcharging any battery can cause overheating or even fires, but batteries are supposed to be designed with safety circuits containing an over-voltage cutoff. Somehow, apparently, that got missed in this battery.

Not all airlines — even cargo airlines — are adopting the new procedures. Fedex is the largest dangerous goods shipper in the world, and that company has no plans to change its rules.

“I talked to the head of their dangerous goods division and he shrugged this shoulders, says ‘I guess that means more money for us,’” Elsdon said.

And while it’s likely that any ban would be revised at some point, some people may be caught in the crossfire:

“My dad is back in England at a funeral,” Elsdon told me. “He has his laptop and iPhone, and I’m hoping he’ll be able to get them home.”

Lithium-ion batteries are listed as dangerous goods on Cathay Pacific’s and other airlines’ websites, and have been the cause of recalls for other products such as Fisker Automotive’s Karma electric vehicles. The Chevrolet Volt has had similar issues, and the batteries were blamed for a $5 million fire at a General Motors testing lab last year. Laptops are not immune, as a Dell laptop demonstrated in 2006 by burning and exploding at a conference in Japan.

That said, lithium-ion batteries are in just about everything we use, and are safe when designed and treated well.

“This is what I call a knee-jerk reaction from the airport authority,” Elsdon told me. “The amount of incidents is very small, and 90 percent of them are caused by the people loading them on the aircraft. There are only a very few cases where it’s actually happened in a laptop.”

VentureBeat has contacted IATA and British Airways for additional comment.

photo credit: AvgeekJoe via photopin cc, rust.bucket via photopin cc, Derek K. Miller via photopin cc

ChromeOS, which runs mini laptops from Acer, Asus, and Samsung among other partners, may soon follow Windows 8 in making touch a core part of the laptop user experience. According to a report from Taiwan, Google is testing the waters with a small run of touch-compatible Chromebooks, to be released under Google’s own Nexus brand.

According to the report, Compal will be providing components for 20 million units, set to start shipping late this year. That’s a large number for a device with limited commercial success so far — Google has not released sales figures for any generation of Chromebook yet.

Chromebooks, which you can buy from Google directly as well as from partners such as Best Buy, feature an operating system based on the Chrome browser. With minimal local storage and intelligence, the laptops — netbooks, really — are essentially cloud devices, booting in seconds, needing little or no configuration, and plugging users directly into the Google ecosystem of search, docs, and other tools, plus anything else online. They’re cheap as well, priced at between $200 and $500, or leasable, starting at $30/month.

Adding touch may be a sign that Google plans to launch a convertible device similar to Lenovo’s Windows 8 devices where the screen flips, rotates, or even detaches from the keyboard. Or Google may simply be experimenting with the existing clamshell devices. Either way, price will go up as component costs for touchscreens get added into the mix.

Any device launch is not likely until sometime well into 2013.

Hat tip: PCmag

According to its designers, Phorce is a world first smart bag.

Created by serial entrepreneur and Kauffman Foundation scholar Marijn Berk with case designer James Jeffrey, the bag is designed to let you go mobile without worrying about power. Use it for your Macbook Air, and you’ve got an extra seven hours of computing. Or, charge up to three USB devices — your phone, speakers, or tablet — simultaneously. Phorce can charge your iPhone 5 over eight times — wow — or your Samsung Galaxy S III about six times.

The bag communicates with your smartphone via Bluetooth, telling you how much power you’ve got left and how many times Phorce can recharge your various devices, and it will remind you that it needs charging itself when it’s running low.

Even better, that Bluetooth connection warns you when your bag has been left behind in the coffee shop or office … so you’ll possibly never lose your bag again.

Creators Berk and Jeffery are looking to raise $150,000 on Kickstarter. The bag design appears to be basically finished, but this will help them, they say, go big and go international right away.

The bag will retail for $349, but Kickstarter supporters can get in at just $219. There are two versions: Phorce for USB, with three USB charging ports, and Phorce for Mac, with an additional MacBook power port for Magsafe-powered laptops. This version will retail for $449 but will be available on Kickstarter for $299.

The specs include:

• 54 Wh Battery capacity
• 3 USB charging ports
• Bluetooth
• Phorce app (iOS & Android).
• Weight:  3.7 lbs / 1.7 kg
• Dimensions:  W x D x D – 18 x 12 x 4 inch (+240 cubic inches when expanded)
• Padded laptop pocket fits most laptops up to 14-inch, and all MacBooks up to 15-inch.
• Includes high-speed compact wall charger that fully charges Phorce in 4 hours

Phorce is a pricey bag, no doubt. But it’s also a very cool, smart-looking, and smart-acting gadget bag. I haven’t handled one physically yet, but I plan to when it is released — at which point I’ll be able to offer a more definitive hands-on review.

I expect to see some of them at tech conferences in the coming months, assuming Phorce meets its funding goals.

Interested?

The Kickstarter campaign is going live this week.

PC optimization software Soluto helps over three million people in 182 countries get more out of their PCs. Along the way, the company learns a lot about what people do … and how their software works. Fortunately for us, the company shared that data a couple of days ago.

Here are some of the highlights:

European nations such as Hungary and Portugal are adopting Windows 8 quickly, with almost 9 percent adoption in Hungary and 5.29 percent in Portugal. China is also moving quickly, with more than seven percent of Windows users already on Microsoft’s new operating system. Americans, however, are adopting more of wait and see approach, with only 3.4 percent of Windows users updating.

In addition, with the touch-friendliness of Microsoft’s new operating system, Windows 8 is penetrating the tablet market much more effectively than Windows 7. For example, while less than two percent of Windows 7 machines are tablets, almost five percent of Windows 8 machines are, in fact, tablet computers — before Surface has really had a chance to make an impact yet.

Not actually a Windows 8 install disc

Interestingly, desktop use is also slightly higher, with almost 51 percent of Windows 8 installs being on a desktop PC, versus 48.5 percent of Windows 7 installs being on a laptop.

Some apps, Soluto found, crash less frequently on Windows 8.

That includes Google Drive, which is the most common app crash culprit on Windows 7, crashing for almost a third of all users (I guess companies can be great at everything). In Windows 8, however, Google Drive crashes for only one percent of users. TuneUp Utilities is another in the much-improved category, moving from crashing for 20 percent of its users on Windows 7 to five percent on Windows 8.

Some apps, of course, crash more on Windows 8. Facebook Video Calling, for instance, crashes at least once a month for a rather unlucky 13 percent of its users, compared to just one percent on Windows 7. And Apple’s iTunes software, often maligned for being bloated, crashes almost twice as much on Window 8.

Soluto also tracks PC brands that users have purchase. The top PC brands being used by Windows 8 early adopters are HP and Dell, with most than 30 percent of the market, followed in fourth and fifth spot by Asus and Acer:

1. 16.83% – HP
2. 14.65% – Dell
3. 10.71% – Gigabyte
4. 10.32% – Asus
5. 8.72% – Acer

One thing about crashing apps: Third-party developers don’t have a lock on them. Microsoft’s own Internet Explorer still crashes about the same amount on Windows 8 as it always has.

photo credit: gynti_46 via photopin cc, Robert Couse-Baker via photopin cc

In fact it was only in early 2007 that Steve Jobs erased the Computer from Apple Computer, Inc., almost six months before unveiling the very first iPhone. But the name is almost unthinkable now, as the original raison d’être for the company has become such an afterthought that the once lust-worthy Mac Pro has not really been significantly updated for a whopping 821 days.

Ouch.

But what else can you expect when Apple’s desktop line, as of Apple’s fourth-quarter earnings release today, accounts for a lowly 3 percent of Apple’s overall sales, just barely over $1 billion of Apple’s $36 billion in sales?

Source: Apple

Mac Pro

I mean, it’s almost approaching Apple TV’s now-legendary “hobby” status.

Even the iMac, Apple’s iconic model that Tim Cook showcased at Apple’s recent product launch event — and acknowledged as the machine that really started Apple’s long, long road to recovery in 1997 — was only renewed just this week after 539 days without a significant product refresh. That’s a long time for a machine that Phil Schiller called “the best all-in-one desktop in the world.”

Now, of course, all the action is in iPhone and iPad, which together as of this quarter accounted for almost 70 percent of Apple’s revenue.

Mac portables are still hot, with 47 percent sequential growth over last quarter, and 17 percent year-over-year growth, and yet these still account for only 15 percent of Apple’s revenue. But Apple knows how strategic its notebooks are, and has significantly updated both the 15-inch and 13-inch models just this year.

Meanwhile, predictions for the next Mac Pro update are as far away as 2013. Plenty of time for that 3 percent to dwindle to even lonelier digits.

photo credit: Robert Couse-Baker via photopin cc

2/10.

It’s not much of an improvement, but it does double the score for Apple’s pro lineup of notebooks. The biggest change? A battery that can be squeegeed out of its cocoon in just 15 minutes. In comparison, the 15″ MacBook Pro’s battery took 30 minutes on the third try — and the first two attempts resulted in punctured batteries.

Source: iFixit

Retina 13″ Macbook Pro – on the inside

Not cool, and not extremely safe.

Highlights of MacFixit’s teardown include an odd circuit board between the laptop’s battery control board and its logic board. MacFixit is befuddled — and so are we — but possibilities include yet another piece of Apple tech to eek out even more battery life. The new retina machine is rated at 7 hours, similar to Apple’s much weaker MacBook Air models.

The teardown revealed no fewer than 11 chips on the logic board, including three from Intel, two from Hynix, and oddly, a small two megabit serial Flash chip on the trackpad logic board.

The biggest change iFixit found inside the new laptop? The way Apple rearranged the battery cells, fitting the MacBook Pro’s flash drive underneath the trackpad assembly:

Source: iFixit

Removing the battery

Image credits: iFixit

Retina has come to the 13-inch MacBook Pro, and it’s gorgeous. Apple announced the update to its 13-inch pro-level laptop at an event today in San Jose, Calif.

Here are specs for the unit at the base price:

• Screen with 2,560-by-1,600 resolution
• 8GB of RAM (base config)
• 128GB SSD (base config)
• 2.5GHz dual-core Intel Core i5
• Two Thunderbolt ports, two USB 3.0 ports, HDMI, SD card slot, 3.5mm headphone jack, and MagSafe 2 power connector
• Ships with Mountain Lion OS

The devices starts at $1,700, $500 less than the 15-inch MacBook Pro.

More details on the MacBook Pro 13-inch with Retina Display can be found in Apple’s official announcement.

MacBook sales have been extremely strong in the last quarter, jumping 30 percent even while the laptop market as a whole dropped almost five percent. The new Retina 13-inch model can only serve to increase that strong demand.

Photo credit: Dean Takahashi/VentureBeat

Apple’s October Surprise

We expected Apple to announce an iPad mini today, and we got it. What we didn’t expect was the sheer number of new products the company unveiled. Here’s a rundown of the news.

• Apple debuts new MacBook, iMac, IPad 4 and iPad Mini (live blog)
• With the iPad Mini & an updated iBooks Author, Apple finally has a chance of revolutionizing the classroom
• Apple announces 7.9″ iPad Mini, measuring just 7.2mm thick
• Apple debuts full-size 4th-gen iPad with super-fast A6X chip & HD front camera
• Tablet domination: Apple has sold more than 100M iPads
• Apple’s Fusion Drive combines SSD speed with big storage
• Apple announces stunning 5mm-thick iMac
• Apple launches new iBooks with continuous scrolling, better iCloud support, and page filters
• Apple by the numbers: 200M devices running iOS 6, 125M docs in iCloud

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Dell is unveiling its fall line-up of business-class computers, including a 10-inch Ultrabook laptop, a 23-inch all-in-one desktop, and a 10-inch Intel-based tablet computer.

The new computers are the Round Rock, Texas-based computer maker’s bid to grab its share of the season’s PC sales as Microsoft launches its Windows 8 operating system on Oct. 26 and Intel unveils a new line of low-power microprocessors.

The products include the Dell Latitude 10 Tablet, with a 10.1-inch IPS wide-angle screen. It has Intel’s next-generation Atom system-on-a-chip processor, 2 gigabytes of main memory, flash memory up to 128 gigabytes, front-and-rear-facing cameras, and a swappable lithium-ion battery. Dell is targeting the tablet at markets such as healthcare, education, and government — where security features are important. The tablet has a fingerprint reader and a smart card reader.

The new Latitude 6430u notebook (in a thin and powerful class dubbed Ultrabooks by Intel) is 33 percent thinner and 16 percent lighter than the current generation 14-inch Dell laptop. The laptop meets military testing standards and it can go all day on a single battery charge. It also features Intel’s vPro management technology. The laptop has a 3-cell battery and weighs 3.7 pounds. It uses an Intel third-generation Core microprocessor, from i3 on up to i7, and it comes with Intel HD4000 integrated graphics.

And Dell is also introducing a new all-in-one desktop, dubbed the OptiPlex 9010. The desktop fits in areas where workers have space limitations and takes advantage of Windows 8 since it has a touchscreen interface. It uses Intel third-generation Core processors, an Intel Q77 Express chip set, Intel integrated graphics, and a variety of security features.

All of the devices are backed by Dell’s enterprise services features for security and management. The machines will be available for sale with the launch of Windows 8. Pricing will be revealed later.

“Never before has the intersection between great design and data security and manageability been as important as employees increasingly ask for support for gorgeous products while IT needs to maintain corporate controls,” said Sam Burd, global vice president of the personal computing product group at Dell.

The new XPS 14 Ultrabook and XPS 15 Ultrabook models offer good battery life, high performance, built-in security, and thin enclosures.

The XPS 14 has up to 11 hours of battery life and an edge-to-edge display, minimizing big and bulky borders. Both have displays with hardened Corning Gorilla Glass and use Intel’s newest Ivy Bridge processors, which combine graphics and a processor in a single chip. They also start quickly upon being touched, much like Apple’s MacBook Air laptops.

The new laptops join the XPS 13 that Dell launched earlier this year for mobile consumers. All three laptops have enterprise-friendly features.

“Following the success of our XPS 13, our customers wanted to see more of the XPS brand,” said Sam Burd, vice president, Dell Personal Computing Product Group. “The XPS 14 and 15 laptops offer powerful performance, thoughtful design, and a superb user experience, along with enterprise-friendly features so you can use them for work and for play.”

The XPS 14 has a machined aluminum chassis with a silicone base. It is 20.7 millimeters thick and has a 14-inch, 400 nit high-definition display, a backlit keyboard, and options for better graphics. It has a 500 gigabyte hard drive and a 32-gigabyte flash memory solid state drive. The XPS 15 has a display that is 75 percent brighter than standard panels, a backlit keyboard, and an option for an integrated slot-load Blu-ray disc drive. It has up to a terabyte of hard drive storage and a 32-gigabyte flash memory drive or an option for 128 gigabytes.

The Dell XPS 14 (starting at $1,099), and the XPS 15 (starting at $1,299), are both available today in the U.S. on Dell.com and in select countries worldwide. The XPS 14 weighs 4.6 pounds, and the XPS 15 weighs 5.79 pounds.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Earlier today we caught our first glimpse at the Microsoft Surface, Microsoft’s new Windows 8 tablet, at a press event in Los Angeles (check out our full live coverage). After the event I got some hands-on time with both Surface models, the Surface for Windows RT and Surface for Windows 8 Pro.

Surface certainly looks like a high-end tablet, much like the Zune HD still does today when compared to other media players. The Surface is very sleek, with hard lines, a very specific curved edge design, and extremely well defined buttons and components. Just like Windows Phone 7 and Windows 8′s Metro UI, the entire Surface tablet is about contrast, in feel, touch and looks, although the metallic grey case doesn’t really match the design we expect from a high-end tablet. Devices like the iPad and even the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 are more pleasing to the eyes.

In the hand, Surface feels very dense, and it is. According to Microsoft spokespeople at the event, if anything else were crammed into it, the tablet would be thicker than its 7.3mm frame. The angular edges make the Surface easier to pick up, and it lays flatly on a desk or table, which is uncommon for tablets. However, while it’s easier to pick up, it’s not easier to hold immediately. The Surface’s case and frame are made of a magnesium alloy named VaporMg, which is specially molded similar to the recent HTC One S smartphone (non-US models).

The case actually has a glossy feel, so it’s strange to hold. One the one hand, it’s easier to grip, but with some time it could end up slipping and feeling uncomfortable. However, I wasn’t given a lot of time to hold the device, so it’s unclear what the level of comfort of the Surface will be over time. Surface also has a built-in kickstand, which Microsoft employees showing the device popped in and out with ease, but I found difficult to set up. It is certainly strong and durable, made of the same material as the rest of the case, but it is also very tightly connected via magnets to the body.

Here you can see the magnetic dock clamp for the keyboards and future peripherals

There are a few interesting points on the Surface. The Touch Cover and Type Cover, two covers that are very similar to the iPad’s Smart Cover (except that both of Microsoft’s are actual keyboards), connect magnetically to the Surface for both typing and as the cover. Six metal panels connect the two and transfer data and power between devices. The Touch Cover is a pressure-sensitive full QWERTY keyboard that is ten times more sensitive to keypresses than traditional keyboards, and is just 3mm thick. It comes in five colors, and each color has its own textured feel.

The Type Cover is a 5.5mm thick mechanical full QWERTY keyboard that uses a chiclet design, and is easy to type on (though there is very little space between the individual keys). Both connect to the bottom of any Surface tablet and lock in place magnetically. Thanks to the Surface’s accelerometer, the cases won’t activate the keys when the keyboard is used as a cover and held behind the tablet. The connector used is proprietary; it’s unclear if Microsoft expects additional peripherals from 3rd party manufacturers to be viable through it.

The Touch and Type Covers come in five colors altogether, all with different feeling covers

With the kickstand and one of the two keyboards, the Surface can instantly turn into a laptop-shaped device. This is particularly exciting for tablet owners who have been purchasing accessories for their devices and who are still unsatisfied with both first and third party accessories. And because the Surface runs Windows, both keyboards also sport multitouch trackpads (though they are very small). But with a full touchscreen, the trackpad’s size isn’t likely going to be a big deal.

Surface has an LCD panel using ClearType technology. Microsoft hasn’t revealed anything about ClearType except that it’s designed to make the high resolution display appear very clear. It has no relation to Nokia’s ClearBlack screen technology used on their recently released Lumia 900 smartphone. (Microsoft also calls its font smoothing technology ClearType.) Microsoft has been very mum on the display, and hasn’t shown the screen in use much.

Surface has a 10.6″ widescreen display, and while the screen is actually larger than Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1, the device feels smaller. The two Surface models have different screen resolutions; the RT model uses a 720p display while the Pro model is full 1080p.

In terms of hardware, the Surface includes a USB 2.0 connector, which already appears outdated in light of USB 3.0 ports showing up on more computer (update: the Surface Pro has USB 3.0). It charges through a separate magnetic connector on the side, similar to the Sony Tablet S. Surface also uses two Wi-Fi antennas to minimize blocking the network when holding the device. There are twin microphones on the top of the device, and stereo speakers on both sides. A Windows home button rests below the display on the bezel. There is also a single HDMI video out port that can output 1080p.

Microsoft has also remained quiet regarding software. The two Surface models use different versions of Windows, Windows 8 RT and Windows 8 Pro. The RT model is based on ARM processors, while the Pro version is for Intel chipsets. That means RT is a more traditional tablet experience, and because of that it’s limited to only running Metro Windows 8 apps. Pro is for users who want a full Windows laptop experience, including the ability to run legacy software.

There will be some Xbox integration, including the recently announced SmartGlass screen sharing technology,as well as some games completely playable over Xbox Live. Games playable on the Surface will have to be developed specifically for it. Gamers won’t instantly be able to play any game on Surface, nor will they be able to stream titles via Wi-Fi to the Surface tablet (no news of such has been announced).

Surface looks like a very interesting piece of hardware, and is indeed a bold new direction for Microsoft. After years of seriously limiting any hardware development, with notable exceptions to the Zune and Xbox, Microsoft is stepping into the hardware game in a very significant way. By offering a tablet-esque operating system, as well as a full Windows 8 traditional computer experience, Microsoft will be able to set the Surface apart from the iPad and Android tablets in a big way.

Surface is set to release the RT version with Windows 8 for an undisclosed price in 32GB and 64GB models. The Windows 8 Pro model will release three months after in 64GB and 128GB models.

Design is determining the winners in everything mobile. The most successful players are focusing on one thing: How to make products, services, and devices as compelling and delightful as possible – visually, and experientially. MobileBeat 2012, July 10-11 in San Francisco , is assembling the most elite minds to debate how UI/UX is transforming every aspect of the mobile economy, and where the opportunities lie. Register here.

Acer’s first major MacBook Air competitor, the Aspire S3-951 laptop, will go on sale this week, the company announced today.

The MacBook Air has run virtually uncontested in the ultra-thin laptop category with its blazing fast speeds, SSD hard drive and tiny form factor. But Intel’s Ultrabook line, starting with the Aspire S3, will provide a Windows-7-powered challenge to the Air.

The biggest difference between the S3 and the Air is the price. The first Aspire S3 Ultrabook will sell for $899 while the comparable 13-inch MacBook Air costs $1,299. And in this economy, that sort of price difference is significant, especially for two devices that offer similar power and designs.

In the specs department, the Aspire S3 offers up a 13.3-inch screen with 1366-by-768 resolution, a 20GB solid state drive running Windows 7, a 320GB hard drive for storing media and programs, a Core i5 processor, and 4GB of RAM. To top it off, the machine weighs just under three pounds.

Whether you’d pick between the S3 or a MacBook Air will come down to what you can afford and a Mac versus Windows preference. Honestly, I could go either way and make solid arguments on both sides. Acer will likely continue to release more models of Ultrabooks with different hardware configurations, and Toshiba’s got an Ultrabook in the pipline too, so this competition will continue to be fun to watch.

Would you pick up an Acer Ultrabook or are you willing to pay the premium for an Apple-made ultra-thin laptop?

The machines are targeted at multimedia fans who want colorful machines that make them look cool and can run cool stuff like movies, music and games. They’re not exactly going to wipe Apple off the face of the earth, but they’ll keep Sony competitive as we near back-to-school season.

The Sony Vaio C series laptop is available in (cute marketing language to follow) Neon Red and Thunder Blue. It comes with 14-inch or 15.5-inch diagonal screens and a second-generation Intel Core i5 processor. It has a Blu-ray drive and AMD Radeon 1-gigabyte hybrid graphics.

Sony packs the laptop with Sony Imagination Studio Suite 2 Vaio edition software for creating, editing and sharing photos and multimedia files. Both models get up to nine hours of battery life and come with Intel’s Wireless Display capability. The Vaio C series laptop is available for pre-sale on June 19 for $730.

The Sony E series of laptops are also available in 14-inch and 15.5-inch models in four colors, as well as a 17.3-inch model in black or white. The laptops have geometric patterns on the lids and matching palm rests. The colors are all fingerprint-resistant.

The E series integrates Intel Wireless Display and can show videos on big screens with 1080p resolution. It allows access to content stored on a PlayStation 3 via Remote Play for PS 3.

The E series is available for pre-order starting June 19 for $550 and up. It comes with a Core i3 or i5 processor, or an AMD E-350 dual core processor, with AMD Mobility Radeon HD6130 graphics.

It’s clearly meant to be a competitor to Apple’s Macbook Air and has both the power and aesthetics to succeed.

It wasn’t the only super-thin laptop Asus offered up at the conference. The company also showed off its colorful Eee PC X101, running Intel’s MeeGo operating system. The company is also offering a  X101H model, which includes all the same features as well as a hybrid hard drive that lets users choose between Window 7 or MeeGo.

The Eee PC X101 starts at just $200, while the UX21 will likely have a price comparable to the Macbook Air.

[via Engadget]

The Sony Vaio F series laptop is the Windows-based equivalent of Apple’s MacBook Pro laptops. The machines are targeted at multimedia enthusiasts who want to watch movies, listen to music or play games while on the run.

The F series (pictured right) features a Blu-ray movie player that can play full high-definition movies in the 1080p screen format on a 16.4-inch widescreen display. It also has S-Force front surround 3D speakers and Dolby Home Theater audio. It uses Nvidia’s stand-alone GeForce GT540M graphics chips, has a backlit keyboard, and an HD web cam with an Exmor sensor for good low-light images.

The machine comes with a Vaio button to play your media with the new Media Gallery software. You can connect your Vaio laptop to a PlayStation 3 system or other Sony devices via a remote keyboard. The laptop has an Intel Core i7 quad-core microprocessor, USB 3.0 ports, a 750-gigabyte hard drive, and will be available for pre-sale on Sony’s site today. It comes in silver, matte black, or premium white. The laptop has an anti-glare screen and a magnesium alloy case. It costs $1,100 and gets around 7.5 hours of battery life.

You can also add an additional sheet battery to extend the battery life to 15 hours, for $150.

Sony’s S series is aimed at business travelers who want mobility, performance and power in a thinner and lighter laptop.

The S series (pictured right and below) have magnesium and aluminum materials and come in burnished brown, jet black or platinum silver colors. They have a built-in battery that can be coupled with a long sheet battery (as a paid option) for an operational life of up to 15 hours. With a solid state drive, the battery can last 16 hours.

Sony made the charger smart so that you can charge the optional sheet battery separately, attach it to the system, and have that sheet battery drain its charge first.

The laptop is 0.95 inches thin and weighs only 3.6 pounds with a standard battery. It has a 13.3-inch screen and uses the second-generation Intel Core i7 microprocessor. It has AMD Radeon HD 6630 1GB hybrid graphics, which delivers decent graphics performance without killing battery life.

The screen has a 1600×900 widescreen resolution and the keyboard is backlit. It has a built-in microphone and HD webcam that lets you hold video chats with friends. It also has a Blu-ray drive for watching movies and Intel Wireless Display 2.0, so you can display your laptop’s screen on a big-screen TV. The Vaio S series is available for pre-sale today at $1,370 and up. The sheet battery costs $150.

While the news is far from official, it makes sense given that Apple’s sexy thin Macbook Air redesign from last year is still strapped with an aging Core 2 Duo processor. Moving to Sandy Bridge would allow the Air to offer much more computing power and be more efficient with battery life.

Apple already upgraded its Macbook Pro line with Sandy Bridge chips in February and refreshed its iMacs earlier this month. With competing ultraportables and other laptops already adopting Sandy Bridge chips, Apple can’t sit still and let the Macbook Air age ungracefully.

Last year’s Macbook Air redesign was a big improvement over the original version of the Air, which was criticized for being slow and underpowered. Apple also made the new Air cheaper, offering the 11.6-inch model starting at $999 and the 13-inch model at $1,299.

Digitime’s sources say Apple is keeping most of its suppliers for the new Macbook Air, which means that we likely won’t see any radical redesigns. And of course, the last Air was refreshed not too long ago. But given how well designed the last Macbook Air already was, I don’t think anybody will be complaining.

The HP EliteBook 8560w and 8570w workstation laptops have an option for an HP DreamColor display, which can create more than 1 billion unique colors for designers who have to get their imagery exactly color accurate. The laptops are aimed at a growing market — the design professionals who want to take their creations on the run.

The new products show the forward march of technology, as it used to take supercomputers to design a lot of products. (SGI supercomputers were actually used to design a Folgers coffee can). These workstations fit in with the notion of a “creator economy,” where basically everyone becomes a content creator. The workstations are the first ever that HP has targeted at the industrial design market, with distinctive features like a radial-brushed gunmetal finish, backlit jewel logo and orange-colored accents.

Overall, mobile workstations are the fastest-growing part of the workstation market, where HP dominates. At the Autodesk Gallery in San Francisco (see images), HP’s workstations have been used to design everything from gaming chairs, cool buildings, and racing bikes.

The HP EliteBook 8760 ($1,899) has a 17.3-inch diagonal high-definition screen, a choice of AMD FirePro or Nvidia Quadro professional graphics and up to 4 gigabytes of video memory. It can be configured with a hard drive with RAID (redundancy) support. The 8560w ($1,349) has a 15.6-inch screen and up to 2 gigabytes of video memory. A lightweight 4.9-pound version, the HP EliteBook 8460w ($1,299), has a 14-inch screen and up to 1 gigabyte of video memory. They will be available in May.

HP is also introducing a new desktop workstation, the HP Z210, as its workhorse machine for professional users. The machine is aimed at video editors, education, public sector and other business markets. Prices start at $659 for one model and $569 for another one.

The DreamColor displays can be viewed from an ultra-wide angle. They were designed at the request of movie animators at DreamWorks Animation, maker of the Shrek films, and were first introduced for desktops in 2008.

The Japanese tech company is making the announcement at the Consumer Electronics Show.

Toshiba has designed the laptop with the same kind of screen it has used in 3D TVs on sale in Japan. With these models, you don’t need to wear special glasses to see images in 3D. They will allow users to view 3D applications such as games and movies.

Toshiba launched a 12-inch 3D TV that can display stereoscopic 3D images without the need for 3D glasses in Japan in December. The company plans to introduce a 40-inch version in the spring.

To see the 3D effect on the TVs, users have to sit within a 40-degree angle of the front of the TV. Otherwise, they won’t be able to see the images properly. The same is likely true for the 3D laptop.

I saw a demo of the screen and it worked fine, although it’s clear the image quality is still undergoing refinement. The prototype had a 15-inch screen which operates at 120 hertz, meaning it flashes images on the screen 120 times a second. It does so to create the slightly offset images of a scene necessary to experience the images in three dimensions. The product will debut sometime in 2011.

In another first for Toshiba, the company is showing off its concept design for an all-in-one PC. Right now, Toshiba focuses only on selling laptops, not desktop computers. But the all-in-one is becoming much more popular and Toshiba believes it can offer a good product in that segment, said Phil Osako, product marketing manager at Toshiba’s U.S. division.

Such experimentation is one byproduct of the company’s decision to merge its U.S. TV and PC businesses into one division.

“We think that the merger of consumer electronics and laptops is a fantastic one that will use technology from both sides,” Osako said.

The 21.5-inch all-in-one PC has a TV tuner, built-in speaker bar at the bottom of the unit, and almost looks more like a consumer electronics device in its design than a PC. For now, Toshiba is not using a touchscreen in the device, which may be a disadvantage compared to Hewlett-Packard’s TouchSmart all-in-one PCs. The all-in-one is expected to be introduced in the second half of 2011.

The sources say that the first models of the smaller MacBook Air have been coming down Apple’s manufacturing lines in Taiwan for at least a week, which should make them readily available soon after they’re announced next week.

There aren’t many more details available yet, but one source mentioned that Apple is forgoing the option of a traditional hard-disk drive or solid state (SSD) drive. Instead, the company may offer something that’s called an “SSD Card” that “lacks a traditional drive enclosure and more closely resembles a stick of RAM”, AppleInsider writes.  The site believes that the component may be an Apple-specific SSD drive built to integrate with Macs similar to how flash memory is used in iPhones, iPods, and iPads.

Such a move to standardize the SSD technology would allow Apple to get the flash memory cheaper than normal and would ultimately allow it drive down the price of the Air. It could allow for faster boot times and the ability to quickly wake up from sleep mode — perhaps almost as quickly as iPads and iPhones. It would also help Apple achieve a thinner design than previous models.

As I’ve written previously, there’s there’s no reason Apple wouldn’t want to release a smaller and more affordable MacBook Air. Apple doesn’t provide sales data for the computer, but word on its sales has been negative for some time. It’s certainly nowhere near as successful as Apple’s more iconic MacBook and MacBook Pro lines.

A smaller and cheaper Air could be very tempting to many consumers, and it would be a way for Apple to take advantage of the newer low-voltage processors that many laptop makers are using today. Low-voltage CPUs generally allow for netbook-like battery life — with the added benefit of much more horsepower. Apple could also stand to offer an Air cheaper than the current low-end model at $1,499.