Sony Vaio Duo 11 Review

WINDOWS 8 Is actually designed to work equally well in tablets as in notebook or desktop Pcs, so it’s perfect for Sony’s new Vaio Duo 11 ultra- portable tablet hybrid. In its closed form, the Duo is just a 21mm-thick tablet. Its sensitive, glossy 11in IPS touchscreen picks fingerprints a little too easily, but it's color reproduction is brilliant and the 1920x1,080 display can easily play video in glorious HD. Move...

BlackBerry Porsche

How do you review a gizmo that you know is unaffordable for 99% of your target audience? How can you compare it to anything if there are no alternatives? How can you justify its price when you can perhaps get a Tata Nano for about the same price? That is the real dilemma we find ourselves in, but putting everything else aside let’s just look at the product itself to try and see what it really can do with a design that...

Messaging App

Staying connected is what people are looking forward to these days. Be it business executives or crazy lovers at night, connectivity is something that everyone puts at the top of their priority list. With smartphones re-inventing the future like nothing else, here’s a list of 4 best messaging apps that work just fine for any platform to keep you connected...

Nintendo Wii U

There’s a theory about Nintendo that goes something like this: Nintendo has the best IP in video gaming, the characters with the highest Q score. Mario, Wario, Zelda, Kirby, Metroid, Donkey Kong, Pokémon, you name it. Add up all the Mario-themed games alone and you’ve got the best selling video game franchise of all time. If you have an Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3, take a look at the controllers. We have Nintendo to thank for popularizing what’s there: the four-way d-pad (the Nintendo Entertainment System), the diamond configuration...

HTC One S

HTC’s One series may be dominated by the quad-core One X, but another handset-the One S-became available at the same time. The One S may be smaller and lack the One X’s leading-edge processor, but that doesn't mean it without merit. Far from it, in fact. The HTC One S is available for £420 SIM free and also on higher rate deals on contract. Its price marks it out as towards the higher end of the market, and so do many of specifications. The processor, for example, is a Qualcom 1.56Hz dual-core offering, which certainly...

Samsung Galaxy Note II

The Galaxy Note II is pegged as a smartphone, but it’s easy to mistake this huge 5.5in-screen handset for a tablet. A smartphone this broad and tall falls more naturally into two-handed operation. We like the user’s introduction to the handset: upon thumbing the power switch on the upper right, the lock screen shows an elegant white feather quill on a sky-blue background, evoking images of a creative writing device. And that’s the major attraction in this powerful slice of hands-held computin...

Asus ET2411INTI - AIO PC

With a glossy black bezel framing its equally glossy 23.6-inch full HD LED-backlit touchscreen display, the ASUS ET2411INTl has a simple yet elegant design. It is also really slim too, just 6cm thick at its bulkiest point. The only gripe we have about its design is that its aluminum stand adjusts only for tilt and not for height. ...

Toshiba Satellite Pro L850-11U

Toshiba’s Satellite Pro L850-11U is an low-priced business laptop with useful performance and a certain amount of style. The Satellite Pro’s casing is chunky, but it is sober and minimised color scheme, and nicely curved casing and polished lid, put it a cut above the typical budget laptop. The rough-hewn two-button Synaptics trackpad is big, but it is neither comfy to use nor responsive. ...

Hacking Android

Sorne of the features you could be enjoying on your phone or tablet may well be missing, either because your network locked them out or Google failed to include them. Your ability to change or add functionality is limited, but hacking your Android device - also known as ‘rooting’ — will unlock it so that you can control every aspect of its operation, much as you can with a PC system. Here well outline the process of rooting art Android device. Note that these are not intended to be complete instructions, and we don’t have...

Lenovo Ideacentre A720

Launched in April shortly after Intel’s Ivy Bridge processors, the IdeaCentre A720 has the largest display of the trio, with its massive 27-inch full HD LED-back lit touchscreen. Aesthetically, the IdeaCentre A720 is modern and chic. Like the Acer and ASUS AIOs, the IdeaCentre A720 is simple and elegant design-wise. However, unlike the two who have their components integrated into and behind the display, Lenovo has decided to build the components into the stand’s base, thus leaving the display as thin as possible. The stand...

Samsung Series 9

The entire concept of an Ultrabook is centered on portability. To the average consumer, that pretty much means thin and light. Previously, thin and light also meant compromise in one way or another. What Samsung had in mind with their Series 9 laptop was something else altogether. It doesn’t get any thinner and sexier than the 12.9mm Samsung Series 9, for now at least. Interestingly, Samsung isn’t marketing the Series 9 as an Ultrabook, as that space is occupied by their Series 5. However, the Series 9 has all the hallmarks...

Sony Vaio T

When the Ultrabook concept was revealed at CES last year, most major PC manufacturers introduced their take on what was supposed to be thin, sexy and affordable. Sony went out of their way to produce the Vaio Z, which then symbolized what an ultrabook could be like. The Vaio Z had a Full HD display, super thin and light body at just 1.17kg, super fast pair of SSDs running in RAID 0, and even a media dock that sported a discrete GPU which enabled super-fast graphics on an ultraportable (when docked), thanks to the power of...

HP Envy Spectre XT

The Envy Spectre XT was revealed in Shanghai this year, along with several other Sleekbooks (a HP-coined term for AMD-powered ultraportable laptops). Prior to the introduction of the Spectre XT, HP experimented with the Folio 13 and the iconic Envy Spectre. The Folio 13 was a business laptop with a strict utilitarian design, while the Spectre was much flashier, with a shiny Gorilla Glass lid and palmrest...

Acer Aspire Z5

The design of the Acer Aspire Z5 is a little odd, because unlike most AIOs which seem to look like displays attached onto a stand, Acer has instead decided to merge both display and stand into one single form. Not to say the Aspire Z5 looks weird, but somehow, it doesn’t look as attractive and polished when compared to the ASUS and Lenovo AIOs. What this also means is that instead of a proper stand, the Aspire Z5 relies on a primitive rear kickstand to prop itself up. The use of a kickstand also means that the Aspire Z5 adjusts...

HTC One X+

The impressive HTC One X has had its kinks and knots Ironed out returning with added grunt. speed and stamina. So is it now special enough to replace the Samsung Galaxy S III as top Android? The One X+ keeps the curvy good looks of the original then wraps them up in a matte black, soft rubber-like finish which makes it easier to grip. More importantly, it’s still 8.9mm thin and only 5g heavier despite a bigger battery. Sith Lord-friendly red accents add to the premium vibe. ...

Lenovo IdeaPad U310

Lenovo’s IdeaPad U310 does have the premium quality that you would expect in an Ultrabook. It looks sturdy, yet light-dazzles yet with a subtlety. On the outside, the Ultrabook means all business-the grey colour top and bottom stating the intent clearly. The interior of the notebook uses matte eggshell white plastic that extends around the sides of the notebook. Its cool and distinct. A lone chrome power button sits in the top left corner just above the black matte keyboard. Intel’s Ivy Bridge processors continue to impress,...

Motorola DEFY Plus JCB edition

The DefyPlus JCB edtion is essentially the same model as the standard Defy Plus, a rugged but surprisingly sleek phone, but features a two-year warranty and comes supplied with a JCB hard case. Without the case, all the standard micro USB and headphone ports are covered with a plastic sleeve and the back cover contains a partition to protect the battery. While we discovered a few droplets in the back cover after submerging the phone in water (while simultaneously playing a music track), the phone was still in perfect working...

Google Goggles

Google Goggles is something of a marvel and it’s only available on Android. It works pictorially, using image recognition technology to identify landmarks, art and so much more. It comes in handy as a barcode and QR scanner and it also lets you add contacts from business cards, just by passing your phone’s camera over it. ...

Android office apps

Office suites are becoming more common on the Google Play store, and although they’re a costly investment, they’ve plenty of features for you to create professional-looking documents. They also act as a great way to make last minute changes to files - especially useful if you’re about to go in to an important meeting. Although they might not include as much as desktop office suites, they’ve enough to warrant some minor edits, and otter an easy way for you to create documents wherever you re in the world. With the rise In cloud...

Google Play tips

Allow automatic updating Within each individual app’s page, you’ll have the option on whether or not you want to enable automatic updating. Although this may seem like a great way of keeping your apps up to date without having to manually do it every time, there’s no way of knowing what the update will add to the app, or how much memory it could take. Be very careful, and very selective of the apps you trust, before using this feature on the Google Play store. ...