computex2015
Latest
Riding the battery-powered Gogoro smart scooter
While Tesla is working on solving range anxiety with its Supercharger stations, electric motorcycles and scooters continue to be tethered to outlets for hours in order to get back on the road. Smart scooter company Gogoro is trying to solve that problem with a network of battery-housing GoStations. Riders just pull up, swap out two batteries and ride away. The whole process should take less than a minute. It's an intriguing idea that requires partnerships with local governments and companies. But none of that matters if the scooter isn't at least on par with what's already available on the market. So we flew to Taipei and put the Gogoro smart scooter to the test.
The one-cable future of gadgets: simpler, but still confusing
For such a quiet tech show, this week's Computex in Taiwan may have been a watershed moment that will affect nearly every PC, phone and tablet you'll see in the next few years, if not decade. The new USB Type-C port may have debuted on flagship devices like Apple's single-port new Macbook and Google's Chromebook Pixel, but the new, smaller, reversible kind of USB is shaping up to be the connector of the future. This week ASUS joined the USB-C party, and in a reassuring vote of confidence, Intel announced that its newest iteration of Thunderbolt will take the same shape. Thunderbolt 3.0 will, at a minimum, double the data speed found on USB-C cables. It might not work wirelessly just yet, but the single-cable future is coming. However, change isn't always easy.
Inside Taipei's huge tech wonderland of a mall
Taipei isn't really lacking in gadget shopping options, but, even so, the recently launched Syntrend Creative Park is noteworthy. A joint project between electronics supplier Hon Hai and Taipei's government, Syntrend is a massive 12-story tech-focused mall covering more than two acres. And it's got plenty of notable tenants, including storefronts from Intel, Samsung, Sony, Asus and Lenovo. For the most part, it's a place for you to relax and check out new gear. Imagine an Apple Store-like experience for dozens of tech brands across a high-end mall, and you'll get the idea. Now that we've pretty much seen all there is at Computex, we took a stroll through Syntrend to see if it really deserves to be likened to Tokyo's Akihabara district.
Quick Charge 2.0 is coming to USB charging stations
Isn't it annoying when some smartphones boast Quick Charge 2.0 but only come with a regular USB charger? Given the option, we'd rather spend the money on something more practical, like a multi-port USB charging station that supports Quick Charge. And yes, we managed to stumble upon one at Computex, courtesy of Hong Kong's Magic-Pro. The Power Station Super 4 comes with -- you guessed it -- four USB ports, two of which can automatically switch to either 9V or 12V for faster charging on compatible devices, while the third port offers the common 5V/2.4A output, and the last one does 5V/3A as the company anticipates a new wave of tablets that can take the higher current. Better yet, the hub comes with a car charger and a Quick Charge 2.0-friendly micro-USB data cable, so not bad at all for a $65 package. Expect this to hit the markets at around the end of this month.
Watch Synaptics' touch-sensitive space bar in action
Earlier today, Synaptics announced its SmartBar technology that adds a touch input area -- enabled by a sub-0.2mm-thick PET film -- onto the space bar, which then lets you perform certain tasks without having to touch the mouse or trackpad. We went over to the company's show room at Computex to check this out, and we came away impressed. In the first demo, we looked at how you can quickly select text while typing by simply swiping to the left on the space bar. We were then shown how you can scroll with two fingers on the space bar: hold down one on the left and swipe with another on the right for vertical scrolling, and vice versa for horizontal scrolling. This will take some getting used to, obviously. You can also zoom in and out by swiping both fingers inwards or outwards -- a bit like pinch-to-zoom but on a space bar.
These smart headphones come with a Google Glass lookalike on the side
The unholy union between a pair of over-ear headphones and wearable display that bares a more than passing resemblance to Google Glass. That's how we're going to summarize the SiMe smart headphones. It's a self-contained media player and, by virtue of being attached to large, cushioned headphones, it's one of the more comfortable head-mounted displays this editor has awkwardly modeled in recent years. ChipSiP's "SiME Smart Headphones" are the evolution of its existing (and more familiar-looking) smart glasses. Those are already on sale to developers for around $550 -- and there's a lot of overlap of the tech inside. A spokeswoman told us that ChipSiP hopes to launch in the next three months, although what we wore at Computex in Taipei this week remained prototype hardware.
Catch up on ASUS' busy week at Computex
Computex? More like ASUStex, amirite? Like last year, the Taiwan-based company used the 2015 show as its personal product launchpad, revealing selfie phones, smartwatches, tablets, hybrid laptops, all-in-ones, tiny projectors, 4K monitors and a transforming PC case, for crying out loud. If you're interested in any of those things, but don't fancy a long search, fear not; we've got a gallery of everything Jonney Shih's outfit revealed at the show. The only category where it was outshone was wearables, thanks to a genuinely bizarre product from archrival Acer.
Intel wants you to stop hating meetings
The worst part about meetings isn't showing off your new presentation; it's how difficult it is to get your computer screen to show up on the TV. At Computex, Intel introduced its real-time collaboration solution Unite to remove some of the headaches associated with sharing presentations. The system uses a secure WiFi connection with a rotating PIN to connect to a Core vPro processor-powered mini PC connected to an office's display. Attendees download and install a lightweight client on their Mac or Windows machine and can share their desktop, annotate shared presentations and view up to four attendee's screens at once. It's a pretty straightforward solution. It makes meetings start quicker and gives attendees the ability to work together on a single presentation. But, it's the upcoming extensibility that could convince your IT department to drop your current solution for Unite.
Synaptics' touch-sensitive space bar speeds up your writing
Your smartphone's keyboard has loads of shortcuts that help you write faster, but the keyboard on your big, brawny PC doesn't. Seems illogical, doesn't it? Synaptics doesn't think it makes sense, either. The input firm is launching SmartBar, a technology that turns your keyboard's space bar into a touch-sensitive surface for gesture controls. You can swipe your thumb to select text, pinch to zoom in and program five "logical buttons" that perform macros, such as formatting text or building units in a favorite real-time strategy game. This might only save you a couple of seconds reaching for your mouse, but Synaptics is betting that those little time savings will add up.
Dell unveils a range of affordable PCs ahead of Windows 10
While Dell managed to surprise us with its rather handsome XPS 15 -- the sibling of the thin-bezel XPS 13 laptop -- at Computex, it's also bringing us a range of both new and refreshed models ahead of the Windows 10 launch. Starting off with the headliner, we have the Inspiron 15 7000 series laptop (pictured above) that runs on Intel's quad-core Core i7H chip, and it's garnished with Waves MaxxAudio enhancement plus a "performance class" NVIDIA graphics processor with 4GB of GDDR5 memory, so you'll get some good gaming action on it. Most importantly, the machine's 15-inch FHD display has an optional 4K touchscreen upgrade that looks stunning, though it isn't clear as to how long that 74WHr battery can last for. The price? All we know so far is that it'll start from 5,999 yuan or about $970 when it launches in China on August 7th.
Dell's latest thin-bezel laptop fronts a wave of new Windows 10 devices
After Microsoft recapped all of the major themes from the Build conference at its Computex keynote today, it tried another tactic to promote Windows 10: showing off sexy new devices. Microsoft Corporate Vice President Nick Parker revealed for the first time a 15-inch version of Dell's XPS with its nearly bezel-less screen; an all-in-one from Acer; a convertible Toshiba notebook; and a mysterious HP tablet. Unfortunately, HP whisked away that new tablet before we could take any photos, but it appeared to work with some sort of keyboard cover. Details on practically all of these devices are nil for now, but we've gotten in touch with all of the respective companies for more. (Update: HP isn't even willing to talk about that new tablet yet.) For now, ogle at the pics.
This tiny robot head replaces your mouse with a laser-projected one
If you don't want to be reliant on (or still don't really like using) a trackpad, and tire of dragging a full-sized mouse around, then the Odin, a laser-projected mouse, might be worth a look. You've seen (even very recently) laser projected interfaces that cover keyboards, but the team that made Odin says it's the world's first laser-projected mouse interface. Which sounds pretty cool... as long as you're willing to carry around the disembodied head of a tiny Transformer when meddling with spreadsheets. We just gave it a cursory web browsing test, and while it lacks, obviously, the physical feedback of either mice or clickable trackpads, it behaves a whole lot the former. We just wished it looked a little, well, subtle.
AMD's latest chips bring gaming and video chops to mainstream laptops
With AMD's new sixth-generation A-series processors, laptops in the $400 to $700 range could soon become far more capable. Formerly code-named "Carizzo," the new chips offer twice the gaming performance of Intel's Core i7, thanks to discrete Radeon graphics. They're the first mainstream processors with hardware decoding for H.265/HEVC video, the successor to the current H.264 standard which includes far better compression and support for 4K resolutions. And they'll also pack in up to 12 compute cores (four CPU and eight GPU), which basically means they'll be able to handle whatever you throw at them. Why focus on mainstream laptops? AMD notes that it's the largest segment of the PC market by revenue and volume sold, so it makes sense for a company that's traditionally focused on value to show it some love.
We played 'Assassin's Creed' with our eyes... partially
Taiwan's big tech trade show isn't just about CEOs shouting about their newest laptops and tablets. It's also the place for execs to shake hands, make deals and do ole' fashioned business. One deal is putting Tobii's eye-tracking tech inside high-end MSI gaming hardware. Yep, it's a concept, but it's underscored by a deal to work together on developing eye tracking in gaming hardware in the future. But we're not really about doing deals and shaking hands; we're about stabbing enemy soldiers and hiding in haystacks, which is where the Assassins' Creed demo came in. The trio of short-range infrared sensors monitors your eye movement, which (at least how they're utilized in this particular game) allow you to adjust your field of vision to where you want to in the game. Instead of rotating the camera with a mouse or buttons, you simply look to where you want to, and the detection software kicks in and sweeps the camera to where you (more often than not) want it to.
Only thunder gods are worthy of handling this PC
Thermaltake's PC modding community often likes to do things to excess: Taiwan's biggest tech show is a huge opportunity for such excesses. The PC you see above, unashamedly modeled on a certain Nordic deity's blunt implement of choice, is a good example. Did we want to try to grab it and see if we were worthy? Sure. Were we allowed to? No.
Intel: Rezence wireless charging will be in next year's devices
As we heard from Intel at its Computex keynote, the merger between A4WP (Alliance for Wireless Power) and PMA (Power Matters Alliance) is finally a signed deal as of today, which is a big step toward delivering the next generation of wireless power -- one that can transmit farther while also covering a wider range of wattage -- to consumers. Intel's SVP Kirk Skaugen, the very same man who's been pushing for the totally wireless PC since last year's Computex (the photo sort of explains why), added that we'll be seeing this magnetic resonance technology, aka Rezence, being integrated into next year's laptops, keyboard, mice and other devices. For those who can't wait, the exec also expects to see Rezence-enabled add-ons for mobile devices during the transitional period. "This will be a journey just like Centrino: We didn't invent wireless notebooks; we just made wireless ubiquitous."
Acer's smart diaper sniffs out baby troubles
Ever since the introduction of the Edison, Intel's been actively pitching this tiny computer module to makers by way of workshops and hackathons. At Computex, the chip giant took the opportunity to show off the latest round of hacks based on its $50 kit, and we were amused by one particular demo: the DiaperPie*, a smart diaper solution created by four Acer engineers. The module -- which will be the size of a coin if Acer commercializes it -- sits inside a regular diaper and is able to monitor a baby's temperature plus sleeping posture, as well as detecting the presence of pee (moisture) and poo (methane) in the diaper. The data is logged on both the app (via Bluetooth LE) and the cloud, and if the baby needs attention, you'll get a notification. Given that we haven't heard much about the previous smart diaper attempt, it'd be cool to see Acer realize this project. *Ted plush not included.
Next for Qualcomm: faster WiFi and a gateway to cheap tablets
Computex is the perfect sort of tech convention for a chip giant like Qualcomm. It's all about companies showing off their wares so that other companies will actually want to buy them. And this year, Qualcomm made two major announcements that should intrigue plenty of potential customers: advancements in MU-MIMO (multi-user multiple input/multiple output) technology, which aims to make our 802.11ac WiFi speeds more efficient and ultimately faster, as well as a partnership with AllWinner, a Chinese firm that designs low-cost mobile chips.
Intel beefs up fifth-gen Core chips with Iris graphics
Intel has revealed a crop of new fifth-gen Core chips for mobile and desktop that should tide over power-users and gamers until next-gen "Skylake" CPUs arrive later this year. There are five new models for desktop and five for mobile, all packing the latest Iris Pro 6200 graphics. The most interesting model for desktop users is the Core i7-5775-C, a CPU that will replace the current i7-4790S for around $365. Thanks to the Iris chip, Intel says that model will double its predecessor's graphics performance and boost media chores by 35 percent. The top new laptop model is the $623 Core i7-5950HQ chip, which doubles the overall performance of older i7-5600U models.
Thunderbolt 3 is twice as fast and uses reversible USB Type-C
The next laptop you buy with a USB Type-C port could be even more useful than you thought. Intel today unveiled Thunderbolt 3, which uses an identical port design as its USB brethren. So if Apple sticks with its new MacBook design, for instance, it could adopt the port and enable both Thunderbolt and USB Type-C without any adapters. It's a step toward simplifying the messy sea of ports often found on laptops and PCs, and could make Thunderbolt accessible to a larger group of people than before. Thunderbolt 3 offers more than just port convenience, however. It'll support a 40 Gbps connection over Thunderbolt, which is double the speed of Thunderbolt 2, 10 Gbps USB 3.1 and DisplayPort 1.2.
