When Google first premiered Project Glass last year, it inarguably struck a chord. The augmented reality device is but-yet a prototype, only making it into the hands of developers and a handful of elite “beta testers” (looking at you, Diane Von Furstenburg and co.).
Despite the impossible-to-kill hype around this project, Google has more or less been the only pioneer seriously attacking the wearable interface market – or at least the loudest. But there are other, smaller, quieter cotenders in the space. At CES, a company called Vuzix had its M100 smartglasses on display… sort of. The unit that Vuzix is showing off is a non-working prototype. When wearing the M100s, your right eye sees a homescreen of apps that you would select actions from. But that’s all we were able to do with the device.
The unit itself is incredibly light-weight, in fact they’re a little flimsy feeling. The viewable display is surprisingly clear, however. But it’s hard to determine how well Vuzix works given the fact they are little more than a prop right now. Actually, it’s not just hard: It’s impossible.
Still, given the fact that we haven’t had a chance to go hands-on with Google Glasses, this is the next best thing. Apparently, being the next best thing is sort of what Vuzix is banking on. The platform is, more or less, planning to piggyback on Google Glasses. They will run Android, and a rep tells me that apps built for the Android market – and by extension, augmented reality apps developers are working on for Project Glass – will work on the M100s.
Basically, the smartglasses will be like a second, wearable screen for your smartphone. You can wear the unit and stare straight ahead into the display and operate your Android phone after connecting them via Bluetooth. The augmented reality part only comes in if you’re using specifically designed augmented reality apps – so those dreams you have of wearing these glasses and reaching out in front of you, touching thin air, interacting with apps? That’s only going to happen once developers create programs that support this type of function. Luckily, Project Glass has invited, encouraged, and inspired a whole ecosystem to do just that.
Vuzix plans to capitalize on this. And why not? Let a brand like Google, with deep pockets, infinite resources, and no shortage of name recognition do the heavy lifting of starting a consumer market around wearable interfaces. It’s going to be the bargain smartphone of the augmented reality accessory industry. Vuzix is shooting straight for the middle.
Which, really, might not be such a bad business plan. If wearable computing devices and augmented reality take off like more and more analysts are predicting they will, then there’s going to be a whole industry around these devices. People will want options, and different price points. Apple isn’t the only one making smartphones, after all: While the iPhone has an inarguable grip on the market, it’s not like Samsung and Nokia aren’t making money.
A rep tells us that the M100s will be available in the second half of the year and will cost less than $500.
Hope it fares better than the last Agora smartphone
The Kogan Agora smartphone has something of a chequered past, but the Australian technology company seems to have put that behind them, this week announcing a dual-SIM Agora handset running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.
The phone, which boasts a 5-inch 480 x 800 pixel screen, dual core 1GHz Cortex A9 processor and 4GB of internal memory, will sell exclusively via Kogan's retail shop.
Also featured in the Android handset is a 5MP rear-facing camera, a 0.3MP front facing camera, integrated FM Radio and support for the 850, 900, 1900 and 2100MHz 3G frequencies.
Super cheap
The asking price for the new Agora handset is AUD$149/$US149/£119, plus delivery. Kogan are selling the phone exclusively through their website, and will ship to 11 countries, including Australia, the US and the UK. The product will ship from mid-February.
The move to release a dual-SIM Agora smartphone comes a month after the online retailer launched its the Kogan mobile network in Australia running on Telstra's network infrastructure.
Naturally, Australian customers are automatically offered a free SIM during the order process for the new handset, but it does give an indication of where Kogan hopes to grow in 2013.
Sennheiser showed off an impressive line-up of headphones at CES this year, including an in-ear pair with out-of-this-world pricing and performance.
We’ve been generous with our praise of Sennheiser in the past, and for good reason. From our seat, the company just gets headphones right, and today’s visit to the Sennheiser booth only served to further cement our positive opinion. Below is our roundup of some of the new Sennheiser cans we saw and heard on the show floor today.
IE800 Audiophile Earbuds
We understand that cutting-edge engineering comes at a price, but $1,000 for a set of earbuds? More disconcerting than the lofty price tag itself, however, is the possibility that it might prohibit people from hearing these amazing in-ears. We had a healthy listen, and we’re not kidding when we say they are the best-sounding set of ‘buds we’ve heard yet – and we’ve heard almost all of them.
They aren’t for everyone, though. The sound signature is distinctly “audiophile” in nature. Bass is accurate and tight, not head-poundingly heavy, and the treble region is sparkling, clean and accurate, not aggressive for the sake of sounding “crisp”. But if what you crave is a revealing, crazy-accurate set of in-ear headphones that will make you all googly-eyed, then the IE800 should do the trick nicely.
Momentum
Sennheiser reached deep into its bag of design tricks for this set of over-ear headphones. The Momentum (pictured above) were exceptionally light and comfortable to wear and provided some impressive passive noise isolation as well. The leather that is used for the ear pad material is said to come from some sort of exotic sheepskin that is processed in Somerset, England by the same folks that make leather materials for Bentley. The headband is stainless steel, which is also accented with leather. If you’re into animal rights, these may not be the right headphones for you. But if you want a seriously sexy set with sound that is signature Sennheiser, then we think the $350 Momentum are a hot ticket.
Gaming
Let us not forget that Sennheiser makes some great sounding gaming headphones, too. And, as a producer of some of the best microphones in the world, these gaming headsets provide excellent game chat capability. We checked out the PC 350 and the PC 363D.
The PC 350 is geared toward the professional gamer who needs extremely effective noise-blocking. Sennheiser claims that even at full volume, the PC 350 keep 95 percent of the sound in the headset. That means competing gamers at LAN parties won’t hear a thing, while the wearer can stay completely immersed. Pricing for the PC 350 is listed at $250.
The PC 363D is Sennheisers 7.1 virtual surround sound headset for PC gamers. We found them to be extremely comfortable, but we can’t yet comment on the quality of virtual surround. – you’ll have to wait for our review to get those details. We can tell you, though, that the gaming audio we heard was clean and revealing. And did we mention they were really, really comfortable? Expect to pay about $300 for these bad boys.
Nokia had grim predictions when it came to its Devices & Service performance, expecting its operating margins to shrink about 6 percent.
But thanks to strong, unforeseen sales of the Lumia line, business mobile phone and lower than predicted operation expenses, Nokia is now expecting Devices & Services to break even or grow by 2 percent.
The department's net sales were about EUR 3.9 billion (US$5.17, UK£3.20, AUD$4.88), as it moved 86.3 million total devices for Q4.
Though Lumia phones did better than expected, Asha won the day.
Nokia reported it sold 9.3 million Asha smartphones for the quarter. Lumia sold 4.4 million units, and the Symbian comes in third with 2.2 million moved.
Nokia Siemens Networks also brought in EUR 4.0 billion (US$5.3, UK£3.3, AUD$5) in net sales. It grew about 13 to 15 percent in operating costs, which was expect to grow only 8 percent.
The service sold better than expected in some regions, as well as keeping operational costs low.
All of those numbers are using non International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), so the figures might change a bit when more standard accounting practices are followed. But we can't expect too much from a preliminary report like this.
2013 not looking so rosy
Though the last quarter went better than expected for Nokia, it hasn't improved the company's outlook on the first quarter of 2013.
But the pessimistic thing seems to be working for the company, so why stop now?
Nokia expects to lose some ground in the first part of the year due to competition in the smart device and business phone markets, weak seasonal demand and the "macroeconomic environment."
But part of the decline includes ramp up in production of Lumia and Asha phones. So maybe the company will recoup those losses later in the year.
Something cool this way comes
But Nokia is looking forward to at least one thing in 2013: something "very cool" involving its PureView technology, according to Nokia's official blog.
PureView was introduced a one year ago and was created to help with image stabilization and low light performance.
It was first used in the Nokia 808 PureView, a smartphone with a whopping 41MP camera.
But PureViews seems more of a state of mind, judging from what Juha Alakarhu, Nokia's head of imaging technologies, had to say about it.
"Well, I think it's important to underscore that PureView doesn't mean any specific technology," Alakarhu told the blog during CES.
"It's the latest and greatest in imaging. When you buy a Nokia phone with PureView, you are getting our highest quality imaging innovation."
Though he didn't drop any specific hints about what is to come, he seemed pretty jazzed about the future of PureView:
"We're really driving innovation in key areas to deepen and enrich the imaging experience," Alakarhu said. "I can't tell you about the specific things we're working on. Safe to say it's very cool."
Nokia had grim predictions when it came to its Devices & Service performance, expecting its operating margins to shrink about 6 percent.
But thanks to strong, unforeseen sales of the Lumia line, business mobile phone and lower than predicted operation expenses, Nokia is now expecting Devices & Services to break even or grow by 2 percent.
The department's net sales were about EUR 3.9 billion (US$5.17, UK£3.20, AUD$4.88), as it moved 86.3 million total devices for Q4.
Though Lumia phones did better than expected, Asha won the day.
Nokia reported it sold 9.3 million Asha smartphones for the quarter. Lumia sold 4.4 million units, and the Symbian comes in third with 2.2 million moved.
Nokia Siemens Networks also brought in EUR 4.0 billion (US$5.3, UK£3.3, AUD$5) in net sales. It grew about 13 to 15 percent in operating costs, which was expect to grow only 8 percent.
The service sold better than expected in some regions, as well as keeping operational costs low.
All of those numbers are using non International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), so the figures might change a bit when more standard accounting practices are followed. But we can't expect too much from a preliminary report like this.
2013 not looking so rosy
Though the last quarter went better than expected for Nokia, it hasn't improved the company's outlook on the first quarter of 2013.
But the pessimistic thing seems to be working for the company, so why stop now?
Nokia expects to lose some ground in the first part of the year due to competition in the smart device and business phone markets, weak seasonal demand and the "macroeconomic environment."
But part of the decline includes ramp up in production of Lumia and Asha phones. So maybe the company will recoup those losses later in the year.
Something cool this way comes
But Nokia is looking forward to at least one thing in 2013: something "very cool" involving its PureView technology, according to Nokia's official blog.
PureView was introduced a one year ago and was created to help with image stabilization and low light performance.
It was first used in the Nokia 808 PureView, a smartphone with a whopping 41MP camera.
But PureViews seems more of a state of mind, judging from what Juha Alakarhu, Nokia's head of imaging technologies, had to say about it.
"Well, I think it's important to underscore that PureView doesn't mean any specific technology," Alakarhu told the blog during CES.
"It's the latest and greatest in imaging. When you buy a Nokia phone with PureView, you are getting our highest quality imaging innovation."
Though he didn't drop any specific hints about what is to come, he seemed pretty jazzed about the future of PureView:
"We're really driving innovation in key areas to deepen and enrich the imaging experience," Alakarhu said. "I can't tell you about the specific things we're working on. Safe to say it's very cool."
Due for release around April, Gigabyte’s new, as-yet-unnamed desktop computer is smaller than most paperback novels, yet supports up to Core i7 processors.
Although still in pre-production, Gigabyte’s newest mini PC debuted at CES, packing a lot of hardware into a tiny chassis. At 0.3 liters (or 10 fluid ounces) and 4” x 4” across, it’s a bit reminiscent of the Genie from Aladdin: “Phenomenal cosmic powers… itty bitty living space!” For purposes of comparison, the much-beloved Mac Mini measures 7.7 inches square, almost twice the size.
The unnamed Gigabyte model builds upon the Intel NUC, a mini-PC platform developed by Intel, but adds several compelling perks. Most notably, there’s now support for i3, i5, or i7 Intel Core processors, as well as USB 3.0 ports. Up to 8GB of RAM and up to a 256 GB SSD provide the finishing touches for a rather robust system.
Additionally, the teacup-sized desktop boasts a brushed-aluminum body and low-power design, making it a green product—and therefore potentially attractive to LEED-certified buildings and businesses looking to round out their environmental credentials. Although Gigabyte has yet to set a pricetag, they have hinted that the entry-level model should be competitively priced, according to Liliputing.
We go hands on with HP’s ElitePad 900, the first tablet its produced since the HP TouchPad’s short shelf life more than a year ago.
HP knows it needs to get back into the tablet world, but after the HP TouchPad disaster (a tablet that sold so poorly HP had to hold a fire sale at $100 a piece), it’s treading lightly. The ElitePad 900 is the first attempt to dip a foot back in. It skipped the Windows 8 launch entirely and though it’s supposed to come out anytime now, we’ve barely seen it. Until now.
The ElitePad is one of the better Windows 8 tablets we’ve used. With a 1280×800 pixel 10.1-inch screen size, a new 1.8GHz dual-core Atom processor, 2GB of RAM, 64GB of internal storage, a microSD slot, and 8-megapixel camera, the ElitePad meets all the standard specs you’d expect in a Windows 8 tablet, but doesn’t push the envelope. HP doesn’t appear to be packing a lot of custom software on the ElitePad either, which isn’t necessarily bad.
HP’s hardware does raise the bar a little, however. The ElitePad has a nice aluminum body with a decent feel to it, reminiscent of Motorola’s Xyboard tablets a year or so ago. More interesting than how it looks on the outside is how its put together. Instead of screws and bolts, the ElitePad’s back panel is actually held together with a special kind of magnet, allowing the panel to be popped off quite easily and serviced, providing you have a fancy tool.
If you don’t frequent power outlets very often, HP also has a snap-on battery extender, which adds some bulk to the fairly thin tablet, but also nearly doubles its battery life from about eight hours to 14-15. HP also sells several docks and a keyboard dock, which also extend battery life.
Overall, HP’s ElitePad 900 isn’t pushing any new ideas, but it may become a popular device among those looking for a stable, decent Windows 8 tablet with good battery life. It’s not always the innovators who do best, and HP has learned that first hand. But at $650, it’s no bargain.
The concept may seem simple, but Qi Wireless may be the biggest wave of technology headed to the mobile world. Setting the standard for wireless charging, we could only hope future gadgets will never require power cords ever again.
The fact that we still need to carry USB cords on the go whenever we need to charge electronics is appalling. It’s 2013, the future is already here. If the Qi Wireless technology exists, we don’t know why any gadgets are manufactured without it built-in.
As part of the Wireless Power Consortium, Qi can be integrated into mobile manufacturers products so cords can, once and for all, become obsolete. A tiny electromagnetic field generated through a pad features a metal coil that, when placed above Qi-enabled conductors, communicates with its mate to send a charge to your device. It isn’t the first time the concept of charging a phone wirelessly has been bandied about, but this technology marks the first time that it has been practical and available to most manufacturers.
The pads can be built atop NFC chips, barely taking any space in a smartphone’s hardware. Some of the latest smartphones, such as the Nexus 4, HTC 8X, and Nokia Lumia 920, already have Qi outfitted into the body, meaning they can wirelessly charge on a Qi pad – no phone case necessary. For older phones, however, companies are beginning to offer phone cases or USB add-ons to enable Qi on their electronics.
What this all means is that essentially any surface can become a charging pad. At Qi’s CES booth, we saw a table lamp with Qi integrated into the base. There were also speaker docks that require no connector, so you won’t have to worry if your iPhone needs a Thunderbolt or Lightning slot. We saw tables with docks seamlessly built into the surface to give restaurants, hotels, and cafes cool options to invite customers in and stay. At the moment, Qi runs at a maximum capacity of five watts, equal to a full cellphone charge in approximately one hour. Basically, if this technology exists on a larger scale, power mad journalists here in the CES press room would never have to fight over power outlet availability, and that equals a lot less cat fights.
But envision a word of wireless charging wherever you go. Students can bring laptops to classrooms and not run out of battery midway through lectures. Drivers can leave their phone charging on the dock as they venture through a lengthy road trip. Those at home can put their phones on a chair’s arm rest and not worry about leaving it in the other room to charge. That imagery is part of the truly mobile world the Wireless Power Consortium promotes, and we couldn’t be more on board with that sort of future.
Activision and developer Terminal Reality hope to strike it big with a first-person shooter based on Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead scheduled to debut on March 26.
Earlier today, worldwide mega-publisher Activision announced that The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct will be released for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii U and PC platforms on March 26. As usual, the game is delayed slightly in Europe, but it should be available on that side of the Atlantic by March 29.
“Uh, wait, which Walking Dead game is this again?” we assume you’re silently wondering to yourself. Glad you asked! That’s actually the most confusing part of this situation. About five years after Robert Kirkman started writing his Walking Dead graphic novels, AMC approached him with the idea of adapting the series into a television program. As you may have heard that show is something of a massive success, so it’s little surprise that other media companies would also want a piece of the undead pie. Kirkman hasn’t been shy about sharing his universe and as a result there are currently two separate Walking Dead games.
This one, The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct, is a first-person shooter based not on the comics, but instead on AMC’s TV adaptation. It drops players into the stereotypically racist shoes of brothers Merle and Daryl Dixon (portrayed by Michael Rooker and Norman Reedus on the show) and presumably includes hordes of shambling corpses that would benefit from a crossbow bolt through the eye. This stands in direct contrast to Telltale Games’ The Walking Dead, which was an episodic adventure game released over the course of 2012. As you may recall, it was the first game to ever earn a perfect 10/10 review score from Digital Trends, and it then went on to earn our Best Game of 2012 award.
Unfortunately for Activision and Terminal Reality, we have far less faith that their Walking Dead game will prove as excellent as Telltale’s. About a week ago footage leaked from The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct that depicted a very bright game with ugly art assets that seemed to be either far from complete or simply lacking any sort of professional polish. The clip has since been stricken from the ‘net by Activision’s lawyers, but it left an indelible mark on anyone who saw it. Realizing that this leaked vignette made its game look horrible, Activision has released a new, official trailer for The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct which you can find embedded below. It doesn’t show any gameplay footage or really anything that players might actually want to see, but it does include release date information and seemingly disinterested cameos from both Michael Rooker and Norman Reedus. That’s something, right?
Hoping to "break the standard" of your typical boxy, bulky gaming rigs, iBuyPower has opened preorders for a new small form factor system that's a bit larger than Alienware's X51 and offers a greater selection of hardware. The Revolt measures 16" x 16.2" x 4.6" and comes in three fully customizable base models.
The series starts out at $499 with the Revolt R320, which offers an Intel Core i3-3220, 4GB of DDR3 1600MHz RAM, a 500GB 7200RPM hard drive, a DVD burner, and an Asrock Mini-ITX motherboard. For another $150, the Revolt R550 upgrades that to an i5-3350P and sidesteps the IGP with a GeForce GTX 650 1GB.
At $899, the Revolt starts looking like a more respectable gaming machine with an i5-3570K and a GTX 660 2GB. Of course, if you have extra cash to spare, these specs can be increased to an i7-3770K and a factory-overclocked GTX 680. You can also request up to 16GB of RAM, custom air or liquid cooling, and choose from many storage options including 1TB to 3TB hard drives, and SSDs spanning from 30GB to 480GB.
When configured with the i7-3770K, a GTX 680, 16GB of RAM, a 240GB Intel 520 Series SSD and a 3TB HDD, the machine runs $1,767, which seems fairly priced considering the fact that we're talking about a boutique builder and that components with those specifications alone cost about $1,400 at retail. That sum doesn't include the Revolt's case, motherboard, power supply and so on, which obviously don't come free.
It's worth noting that certain configurations come with freebies. If you spend over $1,399 you'll get a free Creative Labs Fatal1ty headset. Spend more than $1,599 and you'll get a Razer Arctosa keyboard. Buy an Nvidia GPU and you'll get Assassin's Creed III, while AMD-powered setups can expect Dirt Showdown, Far Cry 3, Sleeping Dogs, Hitman: Absolution and/or 20% off MoH: Warhammer depending on the GPU.
Makerbot is the face of the emerging 3D printing market. At CES they introduced us to their latest machine, the Replicator X2, and revealed it was releasing its Thingiverse API so developers can create apps to help us create products. It’s very meta, and very cool.
3D printing has gone from niche hobby of the ultra-creative to breakthrough technology that is increasingly approachable, and is revolutionizing the design and production industries. At the helm of this revolution is Makerbot, which took home the award for “Best Emerging Tech” at CES 2012. And Makerbot is back – and bigger – this year. Despite the company’s massive growth and 3D printing prestige, the team is sticking to its roots.
“Makerbot is an innovation company,” CEO Bre Pettis tells us. “We innovate ourselves to empower other people to innovate. Our mission is to jumpstart the next industrial revolution.”
Part of that mission will be accomplished by the Makerbot Replicator 2X, the company’s latest release. To offer a little perspective, Pettis says that while the Replicator 2 (the company’s previous release) is super accessible and user-friendly to anyone with product design dreams, the Replicator 2X is for the mad scientist types out there, ready to really dive into 3D printing.
The 2X uses ABS Filament, a plastic designers’ favorite, but is more difficult to work with than PLA (which the Replicator 2 uses). The X2 features a heat-capturing hood that makes sure that the plastic doesn’t curl or crack while its cooling. Other improvements include a renginered extruder that makes loading easier and the ABS-feeding process smoother, causing less wear and tear on the unit.
Also worth noting: the X2 allows you to load two different colors. Things just got real. The X2 will begin shipping in mid-March and cost $2,799 (the Replicator X costs $2,199, for comparison).
The X2 isn’t all that Makerbot brought to CES. A new addition to its Thingiverse platform, where people can share their creations or find things to make, is being opened up to the public. The brand is also unlocking its Thingiverse API to allow developers to create apps for the Makerbot ecosystem. “It’s a little Inception-like,” Pettis said. “We have an API for our platform that allows people to create applications to create things… and then we have the new Customizer App that allows users to customize those things.” For instance, if you want to create an iPhone case you see on Thingiverse, you can choose how thick the lines on the triangles you have patterning the case are. This is product personalization to the Nth degree.
So, to connect all those dots, Makerbot is allowing you to make things that help you make things that you can then make into very specifically customized things. And around and around we go.
As to the supposed hardware slump CES and the electronics industry is increasingly said to be in, Pettis says it’s all part of a cycle. “When things change, people freak out, and one of the things we’ve seen at CES in the last four years is that big players are losing touch with being able to connect with their customers and consumers. But you’re seeing all these small innovators coming out – this is the year of the entrepreneur at CES.”
“People want to kick off the next industrial revolution – but that won’t work unless you make it easy for people to change the world.”
Dan Trachtenberg, creator of the excellent Portal: No Escape fan film, has been tapped by New Line Cinema to direct the studio’s upcoming adaptation of Y: The Last Man.
Y: The Last Man is a graphic novel created by Brian K. Vaughn that details the adventures of the last man on Earth, his pet monkey, and the hordes of women who alternate between wanting to bear his children and attempting to murder him in gruesome fashion. Portal is a video game created by Valve Software about a mute heroine who learns to combat a malevolent, omnipresent AI using nothing but affection for an inanimate cube and a tangibly poor understanding of the laws of physics. Superficially you’d think there would be little crossover between these two media properties, yet as of this morning they found themselves linked by a common thread. Specifically, Dan Trachtenberg, a successful director of television commercials who is about to make a big leap into the world of film.
According to Deadline Hollywood, New Line Cinema has selected Trachtenberg to direct the studio’s upcoming adaptation of Y: The Last Man. What does that have to do with Portal, you ask? Though Trachtenberg makes his living shooting TV commercials, he’s actually more famous for a project he completed pro bono. Much like many of you, Trachtenberg is a huge fan of Valve Software’s Portal franchise, and in 2011 he filmed a surprisingly excellent fan film dubbed Portal: No Escape that was both true to the spirit of Valve’s games, and quite impressive given its nearly non-existent budget.
You can find that film embedded at the bottom of this text, though we will warn fans of Y: The Last Man that it does little to establish Trachtenberg as the perfect candidate to turn Brian K. Vaughn’s masterpiece into a theatrical film. Don’t get us wrong, it’s an awesome movie, especially given that it was a labor of love, but the plot of Y: The Last Man is far less fantastic than that of Portal. We appreciate that Trachtenberg is handy with special effects, but we’re curious as to how well the man can frame an extended action sequence or a brutal fist fight. Those are the sorts of big, dramatic moments you find in Y: The Last Man, so hopefully Trachtenberg has the chops for such things.
Beyond that though, this is some of the most exciting film news we’ve reported on in recent memory. Trachtenberg obviously knows how to set up scenes and frame moving images, but more importantly he seems like a genuine geek who is capable of handling Y: The Last Man with the respect a property of its caliber deserves. Anyone who creates something like Portal: No Escape in his free time has exactly the kind of dedication to “geeky” media that we’d hope to see in the director of a graphic novel film adaptation. We’re still intensely worried that the eventual film will make a mockery of its phenomenal source material (inherent cynicism demands as much), but at least with Trachtenberg on board we’re able to breathe a bit easier.
What's the smartphone world missing? Yep that's right, more handsets which come with a stylus – luckily the Alcatel One Touch Scribe HD is here to save the day.
Ok so maybe that's not what it's missing, but Alcatel has launched this 5-inch smartphone anyway as it looks to take on the S-Pen wielding Samsung Galaxy Note 2 as well as handsets such as the Sony Xperia Z and ZTE Grand S.
Sporting a 1.2GHz quad-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 5-inch IPS HD display and running Android Jelly Bean the One Touch Scribe HD certainly has the vital statistics of a high end mobile device.
Apparently the One Touch Scribe HD has been designed in such a way that its quad-core chip won't suffer from overheating, an issue Alcatel claims affects some of its rivals – zing!
Expected to launch globally the exact Alcatel One Touch Scribe HD release date and price is yet to be announced, with no guarantees on which countries will be treated to it.
The One Touch Scribe HD is clad in glossy plastic which doesn't really exude high-end, but the handset feels solid enough and at just 8.5mm thick it isn't overly cumbersome either.
We were easily able to wrap our paw round the One Touch Scribe HD and hit the volume rocker on the right and power/lock key on top without issue, while our thumb happily danced over the bright, crisp AMOLED display.
You can't get into the Scribe HD's chassis, meaning there's no access to the reasonably sized 2,500mAh battery and to reflect this there is a covered port on either side of the phone.
On the right, just below the volume switch is the microSD slot, while on the left is a port for your microSIM.
There's a groove above each of the plastic dust covers, making it easy to open them up and slide in a card.
You'll definitely be thankful for the microSD card option on the Scribe HD as for some reason Alcatel has only put 4GB of internal storage into the handset, with just 2GB actually available for use.
This shockingly low amount of storage on a handset clearly designed to consume media on is completely baffling and a poor choice by Alcatel in our eyes.
There are no touch buttons present below the 5-inch display with Alcatel opting to have the Android navigation keys on screen – just like Google would have wanted.
The screen was responsive to our various pokes and prods which meant we were easily able to navigate around the Jelly Bean interface.
As with its other handsets launched at CES 2013, the One Touch Idol and Idol Ultra, Alcatel has applied a simply design overlay on the Android system, changing the style of the icons and adding a couple of additional apps such as a compass and torch.
We were able to breeze through the homescreens and apps without any hint of slow down, probably thanks in part to the quad-core chip house inside the One Touch Scribe HD.
The stock Android keyboard is the default text input method on the Scribe HD which offers up a palatiable experience, but Alcatel has added an emoticon button above it, just in case you need to pop a winking smiley into your message. ;-)
With such a large screen the One Touch Scribe HD should be a joy for anyone who likes to watch video on the go, or at least that's what we hoped.
The reality was that video playback on the Scribe HD is a bit of a letdown as the clip we watched lacked the definition and sharp lines we've witnessed on other devices.
Alcatel has taken the liberty of fiddling with the Android camera application, giving you a new layout which we found pretty easy to use, although the video and shutter buttons were a bit too close together for our liking.
The 8MP camera on the back of the One Touch Scribe HD provides relatively decent images and there's a single LED flash to help with low light situations.
If you fancy a quick vanity shot or a video chat Alcatel has equipped the Scribe HD with a front-facing 1.3MP snapper which like the rear cam can shoot 720p video.
Stylus
It's not just the handset you get when you buy the Alcatel One Touch HD though, you're also furnished with a stylus.
We'll tell you where we stand with the stylus from the off, it's ugly, too big and basically pointless.
You'll notice it looks just like a pen and that's because it is… Yep twist the pointy end of this metallic stick and the nib will poke its head out of the end.
This gives you the first clue that the stylus isn't much cop, making it clear to the user you're far better of writing on a piece of paper than trying anything fancy on the One Touch Scribe HD.
At the other end of the stylus pen is the main attraction – a large rubber dome which is almost the same size as your finger.
This means it doesn't provide you with any greater accuracy on screen and thanks to its enormous size it can't be hidden away in the handset like the S-Pen on the Galaxy Note 2.
Adding insult to injury there doesn't seem to be any dedicated apps on the One Touch Scribe HD which utilise a stylus.
We did asked about dedicated applications and according to the representatives on the booth the Scribe HD should come with a drawing app, although we found no evidence of this on the two handsets we played with.
Early verdict
The Alcatel One Touch Scribe HD feels like a device which is only halfway to becoming a decent smartphone.
The lack of internal storage, disappointing video playback and unnecessary stylus just screams of a product which was rushed out to cash in on the big-phone revolution which seems to be sweeping the industry.
We can't see the Scribe HD gaining any meaningful traction in the major global markets and you'd be best advised to spend your money elsewhere.
Samsung has announced a new smartphone, the Galaxy S2 Plus. Prepare for confusion.
Samsung may have left us disappointed after a pretty mellow keynote, but it looks like this isn’t stopping them from throwing out a few more announcements this week. While rumors abound over a Galaxy S4, Samsung decided to relaunch an old favorite: the Galaxy S2 Plus.
Though Samsung is far from naming products as badly as Qualcomm, the new product is sure to confuse customers as they make their way to stores looking for the latest Samsung Galaxy smartphone, and while they’re glaring at the Galaxy S3, or Galaxy Note 2, they could also get the new Galaxy S2 Plus, a smaller, but beefy buddy to the Galaxy S3. The phone has some pretty good hardware: a 1.2GHZ dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 4.3″ Super AMOLED display, and Android Jelly Bean 4.1.2. Compared to the Galaxy S2 it’s a big upgrade, though the Galaxy S3 still outmatches it in a few departments. Still it’s probably going to be a great choice for those who want a smaller screen or (likely) a cheaper phone than the Galaxy S3 or upcoming Galaxy S4.
We’re guessing the rehash was done by Samsung to encourage sales of the phone with the Galaxy name, but not to make it look like a successor to the Galaxy S4 and its superior hardware. Either way, if Samsung can prevent customers from getting confused when they head to the store, it should be another welcome addition to the Galaxy family.
Haven’t heard of Skulls of the Shogun? You’re about to. Indie developer 17-BIT just announced that the game will be appearing on the Xbox 360 and Windows platforms before the end of the month.
Come January 30, fans of addictive turn-based strategy games will have another title to satiate their fixation as Skulls of the Shogun hits the Xbox 360, Windows 8/Surface and Windows Phones platforms. The Windows Phone iteration of the game is slated to be priced at $7, while the Xbox 360, PC and Surface tablet incarnations of Skulls of the Shogun will feature $15 price points.
But wait, what is Skulls of the Shogun exactly? It’s an independently developed game, so statistically most people have likely never heard of the game. Luckily, developer 17-BIT offers the following primer:
Skulls of the Shogun is an invigorating cocktail of 1960’s-flavored sorcery and strategy. Washed up on the shores of the afterlife, players meet and join forces with vibrant ghost-samurai warriors, magical animal-monks, and mustachioed samurai generals on the way to capture the Skulls of the Shogun in a 15-hour single-player campaign. Skulls of the Shogun also features up to four-player local and online multiplayer battles.
You’d already know all of that if you’d played earlier versions of Skulls of the Shogun, but the upcoming PC/Xbox 360 iterations bring a few unique features not found in the game otherwise. Dubbed “Skulls Anywhere,” this nascent feature set adds online connectivity options to Skulls of the Shogun, including standard online multiplayer and the ability for players to shift their singleplayer progress asynchronously between different incarnations of Skulls of the Shogun. The former addition should be self-explanatory, but the latter effectively means that you could start playing Skulls of the Shogun on your Xbox 360, save your progress, then pick right back up where you stopped hours later on the Windows Phone version of the game.
As you might expect, the creators of Skulls of the Shogun are understandably excited for the upcoming release. “We’re ecstatic we could bring Skulls to all four of Microsoft’s platforms, and bring them all together with cross-platform functionality,” said 17-BIT CEO Jake Kazdal. “We appreciate the excitement and patience by all the Skulls of the Shogun fans, and we here at 17-BIT believe the wait will be well worth it.”
While all Skulls of the Shogun fans should be pleased for the heightened exposure the game is receiving, we wonder why it is that the game is only being released on platforms controlled by Microsoft. Actually, we know exactly why that is, but we’re still curious if Microsoft paid enough money to keep the indie hit on its platforms indefinitely or if PlayStation 3 owners might also enjoy Skulls of the Shogun at some point in the future. Microsoft Game Studios is now the only official publisher of Skulls of the Shogun, so it’s quite likely that the game will see similar treatment to 4J Studios’ Minecraft port for the Xbox Live Arcade. We’ve attempted to contact both 17-BIT and Microsoft to ask about this matter, but have yet to hear anything back. We’ll keep you updated when/if we hear anything more.
