Daily Roundup: Apple iMac review, HP Chromebook 11 hands-on, Nest's Protect smoke detector and more!
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
Apple iMac review (2013)
This is an incremental year for Apple: between its iPhone 5s, and the recently refreshed MacBook Air, the company has made only small changes to its devices. With the company's new iMacs, that theme has continued. Like the 2012 models, this year's iMac comes in 21.5- and 27-inch screen sizes, with low-glare displays and a thin chassis that measures just 5mm thick at the edge. This time around, though, Apple's added Haswell processors, faster 802.11ac WiFi and optional PCIe SSDs. These minor upgrades only improve upon an excellent design, and the iMac is still our favorite all-in-one desktop. Read on for more.
HP Chromebook 11 hands-on
We've seen more than a few new Chromebooks unveiled over the past few months, and today Google added yet another weapon to its arsenal. The HP Chromebook 11 was leaked just a few days ago, but today that piece of hardware was made official. The new laptop is sleek and attractive -- weighing in at just 2.3 pounds (1.04kg) -- and the $279 price tag only makes it more tempting. In our short time with the ultraportable, we found it to be both light and sturdy thanks to a magnesium frame. Other specs include Sasmung's Exynos 5250 processor, 2GB of RAM and a 16GB SSD as the sole storage option. Click through for more.
Intel Bay Trail benchmarks show big boost for Windows 8.1 and Android tablets
Things are changing at Intel. The company has done away with its "tick-tock" product cycle, and replaced it with a substantial mobile class chip upgrade: Bay Trail. Today we got the chance to run some tests on the new powerhouse chip, and found that it featured some huge improvements over the Snapdragon 800 and NVIDIA's Tegra 4. Namely, Intel's Bay Trail can run full Windows 8.1 -- instead of the RT version Qualcomm's processor is able to handle. For a more in-depth look at the benchmarks, click the link above.
Loop's mobile payment fob hands-on
While companies like Google, Isis and MasterCard are scrambling to establish an NFC-based mobile payment system, Will Graylin and George Wallner are taking a completely different approach. The two co-founders of Loop have created a new platform that will let you use your phone to make payments on nearly 90 percent of all POS systems in the country. How will this work? With the Loop Fob, a $34 device that plugs into your iPhone or Android handset through its 3.5mm headphone jack. The attachment is launching on Kickstarter today. Head on up for our full hands-on with new device.
