Apple : Week in Tech: Week in Tech: Apple prices its Watch, Sony kills PlayStation Mobile, Google opens a shop |
- Week in Tech: Week in Tech: Apple prices its Watch, Sony kills PlayStation Mobile, Google opens a shop
- Apple's new MacBook Air is definitely two-times faster
- The new MacBook's hidden USB-C benefit may be battery power
- The new MacBook - is the criticism fair?
| Posted:  It's either the beginning of a new kind of computing or the beginning for the end for Apple. Yep, we're talking about the Apple Watch, which the internet says will either make Apple sales boom or send it to its doom. But that's not all, because Apple also unveiled a revolutionary new MacBook, and Google opened a shop. Time to catch up on this week in tech! At last, it's the Apple WatchIt's been months since Apple unveiled its potential game changer, the Apple Watch, but this week we learned when the wearable will be available, and got our hands on it (again). The hands in question belong to Gareth Beavis, who reckons it's "probably one of the best smartwatches on the market" – but it's "still not enough to convince us this is a real category." It might be an idea to see how the market develops before dropping eight grand on the gold Edition. Apple Watch: good news for GoogleThe launch of the Apple Watch is great news for Google's rival smartwatch system, Android Wear. That's what Hugh Langley reckons, anyway: "If Apple does turn the smartwatch into a must-have, can't-live-without device, Google and others will share the spoils," he says. "Android Wear has got too comfortable; now that Apple is in the picture, it can only encourage others to up their game." The biggest threat to Android Wear isn't Apple, it's "the fragmentation going on within its own camp." Google nobbles a Nexus, crafts a new ChromebookWe knew it was coming and now it's official: the Nexus 5 is no more. The former flagship has disappeared from the Play Store and from Google's new store too – although a new one might be coming later this year. But while Google taketh away, Google also giveth – and this week it gave the world a new Chromebook Pixel laptop with twin USB-C ports, the latest Broadwell i5 processor (and a faster i7) and fast charging. New MacBook: thin is inRemember when Apple binned the floppy disk, or when it killed off DVD drives? Now it's turned its attention to the humble port, and binned that too. The new, incredibly thin MacBook is smartphone-skinny, and that means there's no room for Ethernet or even USB. Instead there's a single do-everything USB-C port, a fanless logic board, a super-thin new keyboard design and a redesigned trackpad with haptic feedback. It's an astonishing piece of engineering and we expect it to be ripped off widely in the coming months and years. PlayStation Mobile hits the skidsAfter just three years, Sony has pulled the rug out from underneath PlayStation Mobile. It isn't a huge surprise – support for Android devices was put on the back burner back in August when Lollipop launched – but it's bound to leave a few sad faces among gamers. Sony hasn't said why it's shutting the service down, but the smart money says it's because it simply didn't attract a big enough audience. As David Nield says, "Sony has also been making noises about streamlining its operations over the next few years, a strategy that this closure fits into." Make your own Moto 360Wouldn't it be great if you could customise smartwatches as well as smartphones? Motorola certainly seems to think so, because it's just expanded its excellent Moto Maker service to include the Moto 360 smartwatch. You can choose between three case finishes, nine different bands and a whole bunch of watch faces, and you can buy bands separately if you fancy changing your watch's look from time to time. As Michael Rougeau points out, the launch – just 24 hours after the Apple Watch event – "is as much a coincidence as the secret service showing up everywhere Obama goes." Google opens a shopGoogle has opened a shop in London's Tottenham Court Road where you can pop along and buy people's personal data. Only kidding: it sells hardware and shows off some of Google's services. The shop, tucked away in a corner of a Curry's PC World, looks like an experiment: as James Peckham says, "The space Google has created is nothing revolutionary and we expect it's more of a proof of concept for Google to begin rolling out its own flash dash branded stores à la Samsung's highstreet move last year." Google has also tidied up its online retailing, with a new Google Store for "the latest products made with Google." |
| Apple's new MacBook Air is definitely two-times faster Posted:  Apple boldly claimed early this week that its refreshed 13-inch MacBook Air was "up to two times faster" than the previous generation of laptops and a teardown has revealed that it wasn't telling porkies when it made the claim. iFixit's teardown of the new 13-inch and 11-inch MacBook Air models included a speed test that revealed the respective read and write speeds of the two new machines as well as minute details on the memory inside each one. Using Black Magic's Disk Speed Test, iFixit was able to ascertain that the 11-inch model has average read speeds of 315Mb/s and write speeds of 668Mb/s, whereas the 13-inch model has average write speeds of 629.9Mb/s and average read speeds of 1285.3Mb/s - almost exactly double. Samsung behind increaseThe uplift in speed is thanks to the new PCIe-based flash storage inside the 13-inch MacBook Air and the subsequent teardown revealed it has used Samsung flash memory with a Samsung controller to achieve the speeds. The 11-inch model, which has the slower memory, has SanDisk flash memory with a Marvell controller. Apple refreshed the line earlier on this week when it also released its smallest laptop ever in the shape of the MacBook, which controversially did away with all ports except a USB-C and headphone socket and has set tongues wagging throughout the tech space. Via: MacRumors |
| The new MacBook's hidden USB-C benefit may be battery power Posted:  If you're a road warrior worried that the 9-hour advertised battery life of Apple's new MacBook falls short of the 10 hours on the 13-inch MacBook Pro and MacBook Air, you may be able to lay that fear to rest. A hidden and unadvertised benefit to Apple's switch to the USB-C connector on the new MacBook over MagSafe on older models is that you may be able to buy an external battery pack or power bank. Similar to how smartphone owners can recharge their phones with an external battery pack, a power bank allows MacBook owners to recharge their laptop if they aren't near a power outlet. "Most accessories supporting the USB Type-C specifications should work with your new MacBook," 9to5Mac wrote of the new port. "Apple won't be doing anything to block any specific types of accessories - in fact, it will even allow external batteries or other Macs to charge the new MacBook." This would be a drastic change from Apple, which is not only moving away from its proprietary MagSafe charging connector, but is also opening up its laptops to third-party charging solutions. In the past, Apple thwarted third-party battery packs like Hyper Juice that utilize non-licensed MagSafe charging tips to connect to a MacBook Air or Pro. More powerEnterprise users will find support for external battery packs extremely useful. Many enterprise workstations and laptops designed for field use come with a user-replaceable battery. When the notebook runs out of power, users can swap a dead battery for a new one and continue working. However, given that Apple's notebooks come with a sealed battery, this isn't a possibility. For workers in the field, carrying a single external battery pack or multiple packs would allow them to have a system that runs longer than the 9-hour battery life from the internal battery. The downside with USB-C is that it may not automatically unlatch from the MacBook if, for example, someone trips on the cord. A benefit that Apple promotes with MagSafe is that if someone trips over your power cord, the magnet from the MagSafe cable would unlatch from the notebook. By having the cable automatically unhook from the laptop, your laptop wouldn't crash on the ground. USB-C StandardWith the USB-C port on the new MacBook, Apple is not only replacing the MagSafe charging port: it's also replacing standard USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports as well as display-out ports. The port can be used to connect peripherals like external drives, keyboards, monitors and displays. In adapting the new standard, Apple also dropped existing ports like traditional USB, Thunderbolt and Mini DisplayPort. This means that you can only have one thing plugged into the USB port at any given time so you can't charge the notebook and connect a hard drive unless you buy an adapter or hub.
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| The new MacBook - is the criticism fair? Posted:  TechRadar weighs in on Apple's new MacBookApple introduced the new MacBook earlier this week, claiming to have reinvented the notebook. The Cupertino company revealed a machine that's thinner and lighter than any Mac it had previously produced while featuring a high-resolution 2304 x 1440 Retina display. But to get there, Apple made more than a few compromises by going with a low-wattage processor and reducing the number of ports down to just one USB-C and a headphone jack. Although the dust has settled after Apple's big reveal event, the internet is still debating whether the new laptop is a great idea or a terrible one. Does the new MacBook rewrite the script for laptops or is it destined for failure? We asked our expert editors and staffers what they think about Apple's new MacBook. Read on for their reactions, and let us know in the comments what you think about Apple's divisive new laptop. Juan Martinez - Senior Editor, TechRadar ProThere's little doubt that the new MacBook is going to make consumers very happy. At just 2.0 pounds (0.90kg) and 0.5 inches (13.1mm) thick, the MacBook is delightfully portable, and it features Apple's signature sexy aluminum chassis in three different colors. Unfortunately for Apple die-hards, the race to the top of the laptop market features more than one horse, and Apple may not be the frontrunner. The Dell XPS 13, for example, offers more screen on an 11-inch body, while Asus Zenbook UX305 is a masterpiece for almost half the price of the MacBook. Apple may have introduced an absolute stunner this week, but by no means is it the undisputed champion of the laptops market. Désiré Athow - Senior Editor, TechRadar ProWhat sets the MacBook 2015 apart from everything Apple has done so far is boldly getting rid of all the existing ports (bar the audio connector) for a single USB Type-C. That is an unexpected move for a company that is known for pushing proprietary technology from the 30-pin connector in your old iPhone to MagSafe, Firewire and Lightning. Apple has always been known for shying away from universal adapters, so Tim Cook's team must have had an epiphany to drop both the MagSafe and Lightning connectors from the MacBook. Remember though, the MacBook Air was one of the first notebooks to ditch the optical drive. Just as the Air forced the industry to embrace thin and light, which ultimately gave us the Ultrabook, I expect PC manufacturers to embrace USB Type-C much faster and that will, to paraphrase an Apple slogan, change everything. Again. Chuong Nguyen - Staff Writer, TechRadar ProIf you want to charge your new shiny MacBook while connecting a USB drive and output to a 4K monitor - all things that you can do presently without any adapters or dongles on the current MacBook Air - that privilege will cost you $79 (£55, AU$105) with a new multi-port cable. Unless you're willing to live in Apple's ideal of a wire-free world where you can mirror your Mac to an Apple TV, afford the luxuries of wireless storage and AirPrint, and rejoice in iCloud nirvana, the MacBook is an island by itself. Even to connect the iPhone or iPad, you'll be reaching either for the multi-port cable or the $19 USB-C to USB adapter. To buy into Apple's future, you'll need at least $1,299 (£875, AU$1,715) - a full $300 more than the base 13-inch MacBook Air - but you'll need $79 to take that machine into the present. Kane Fulton - Staff Writer, LaptopsOne of the most talked about aspects of Apple's new machine is the USB Type-C reversible connector since it only allows one peripheral (or a charger) to be connected at any time. Whereas most people see a potential problem, having too many ports is a hassle. When I sit down at the laptop I have to plug all of those things in, and when I take it somewhere else I have to disconnect them. It isn't exactly a smooth transition. With a single-port MacBook I can leave all of those connections plugged into an adapter, meaning I only have to remove the adapter itself. Quick and easy. I agree that carrying around an adapter is inconvenient compared to having ports on the MacBook itself. But just as Apple removed the optical drive from the MacBook Pro to make it much slimmer and more portable, I'm willing to make the trade-off. Kevin Lee - Associate Editor, LaptopsWhen Apple unveiled the new MacBook I was enthralled from the sizzle reel that first revealed the thin edge of the laptop to the barrage of technological innovations behind it. By the end of Apple's presentation I was frothing at the mouth to get my own. Three hours later though I cooled on the idea of pre-ordering the laptop of the future. There are just too many compromises between the single USB-C port and the low-power Intel Core M CPU. The 12 hours of battery life also seems less impressive when I can easily get 8 hours of use with my late 2013 13-inch MacBook Pro. That said, the technological advances of the new MacBook will invariably trickle down to its other devices. The fact that the Force Touch trackpad has come to the refreshed MacBook Pro is just one sign of this. Joe Osborne - Senior EditorOnce again, it's time for Windows laptop makers to head back to the drawing board. Just like the first-ever MacBook Air in 2008, the new MacBook will undoubtedly spur a sea change in laptop design, albeit in the same direction. This time around, it shouldn't take three years for the competition to retort with an increased focus on thinner battery tech and even more customized chassis designs. There are already plenty of Core M-equipped Ultrabooks out there, and USB-C isn't far off from mass adoption. The new MacBook is clearly thinner and lighter than either of Apple's other laptop lines, but not as powerful as either … either. Then again, didn't we say that about the MacBook Air seven years ago?
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