Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOGL) announcement of the new $149 Chromebook as well as the Chromebit included details of a partnership with Indian vendor Xolo, Thai communications leader True and Indonesia’s Nexian, with all three brands set to offer devices running Chrome OS in the near future.

Currently, HP (NYSE:HPQ), LG (KRX:066575), Acer (TPE:2353) and Samsung (KRX:005930) offer Chromebooks in India, with the offerings getting a lot of visibility in retail as well as e-commerce stores. However, the segment itself has failed to take off in the country, mostly due to the lack of advertising. The pricing, which starts at the equivalent of $400 for devices such as the HP chromebook 14 also played a part in poor sales, with products such as the Lenovo G50 offering a full-fledged Windows experience for just a $100 more.

But with Google aggressively pushing Chrome OS devices, that is set to change in the coming months. Once limited in functionality, Chromebooks now offer a robust set of services, with the hardware also receiving a hefty upgrade in the form of full-HD multi-touch displays.

Google has announced that it is working on a touch-centric user interface for Chrome OS, and that it will be making it easier for developers to port Android apps to the platform. A total of ten new devices from the likes of HP, LG, Lenovo (HKG:0992) and Dell are set to launch over the coming months as well, which will considerably expand the Chrome OS ecosystem.

The post Vendors Get Ready To Launch Chromebooks In India appeared first on VR World.

Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) unveiled Tuesday two new low-cost Chromebooks that will make the Google laptop platform much more competitive against the low-end Windows laptop space.

The two Chromebooks are from Hisense (SHA:600060) and Haier (HKG:1169),two China-based OEM/ODMs known best for providing budget electronics to specific retailers. Both Chromebooks are priced at $149 and are powered by the quad-core Rockchip RK3288 SoC clocked at 1.8GHz.

Each laptop is virtually identical with 11.6-inch LED-backlit display, 2GB of DDR3L SDRAM, 16GB of eMMC flash storage, and a 720p webcam. The only difference between the two is battery life.

First up is the Hisense Chromebook, which will be exclusively sold at Walmart (NYSE: WMT). It promises 8.5 hours of battery life. It’s 0.6 inches thick and weighs 3.3 pounds.

The Haier Chromebook 11, an exclusive to Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), has 10 hours of promised battery life.

What’s in a Rockchip?

Rockchip is probably best known for its deal with Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) to bring x86 to the next-generation of cheap tablets for the Chinese market.

Aside from that Rockchip is a fairly run-of-the-mill low-end ARM (LON: ARM) manufacturer that would one day like to challenge the incumbents such as Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM) and MediaTek (TPE: 2454).

The Rockchip RK3288 has four 1.8 GHz ARM Cortex A17 cores and a quad-core ARM Mali T760 GPU.

Benchmarks on the RK3288 are scant, but one from January from a firm called CNX Software shows that its around 18% faster in Antutu than an Intel Atom Z3735F.

Chromebook on a stick

The other Rockchip RK3288 powered Chrome device is the Chromebit, and HDMI dongle that brings full Chromebox (a set-top Chrome computer) to a dongle. It’s powered by a Rockchip 3288 SoC, has 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, and 802.11ac connectivity.

One obvious use case for the Chromebit is presentations. Instead of trying to get one’s laptop connected to the venue’s projector, someone could just plug in the Chromebit into the projector’s HDMI port.

Pricing of the Chromebit will be less than $100.

The post Rockchip’s RK3288 Powers Sub-$150 Chromebooks and Chrome Stick appeared first on VR World.

Here is the daily roundup from Japanese consumer tech and tech business websites for December 8, 2014.

Sony unveils new educational tablet

Sony (TYO:6758) plans to launch a new tablet model aimed for educational purposes. The tablet will be designed to use the company’s Tenobo learning system, and will operate using a Linux OS.

The Tenobo system was introduced last 2012, as an educational solution proposed by Sony for mobile devices. The new tablet will feature an enhanced version of this system, allowing students to use the tablet’s dual screens much like an ordinary notebook. Sony plans to distribute the tablets at Tatsumi Junior High School in Kurashiki City, Okayama Prefecture for preliminary testing this year. The school has been known to use and implement innovative new educational systems, which makes it the perfect testbed for the new Tenobo-optimized tablets.

Sony expects the tablets to be available at around August next year.

Asus Chromebook gets a second release in Japan

Asus Japan (TPE: 2357)  announces the official re-release of the Asus Chromebook in Japan. The new models are to be catered for personal use, and will be released sometime this December.

The 13.3-inch Asus Chromebook C300MA will be available in black and white variations. The black version will be released this 13th of December, and the white version later on the 15th. Primary specs include an Intel Celeron N2830 (2.16 Ghz) processor, Intel HD Graphics, 16GB embedded-MMC, and 4GB RAM (max).

No word about official prices just yet, but it is estimated that it will be available with an equivalent price of about $300.00.

NEC develops facial recognition system for live events

NEC (TYO:6751), in cooperation with entertainment management firm Tapirs,  just unveiled last week its development of a new facial recognition system for customers at live events.

The new system, named as NeoFace, introduces the concept of camera-integrated ticketing systems for concerts and other live events. The system is basically designed to help identify customers who have already paid for the event. Instead of using a marked ticket for identification, the system would only require a matched facial scan, which would instantly identify any user within an event.

Tapirs plans to implement the system for testing this upcoming Momoiro Clover Z live concert towards the end of December.

The post Tenobo Tablet, Chromebook Rerelease, NEC Face Scanner: The Headlines in Tokyo for Dec. 8 appeared first on VR World.

With the holidays approaching fast and the sales that come with it many people will be getting new notebooks this holiday season.  Researching what the best notebooks out there are takes time and we though we could help out by giving you our choices in five different categories of notebooks.  They are gaming, ultraportable, Chromebook, business, and Apple MacBook.  With the latest computer parts in these notebooks it will be certain that they will be able to earn there keep for quite some time.  There are many things to consider when looking for a notebook and budget is a big one.  Most of these choices are going to be in the higher end range since they perform better.

Gaming Notebook: MSI Computer GT72  Dominator Pro with GTX 980M – $2,299

This gaming notebook is the top of the line from MSI, and it does not disappoint.  Equipped with Intel i7-4710HQ, 16GB of DDR3-1600, a 128GB SSD, and a Nvidia GTX 980M 8GB, this will tear through any recent and upcoming game.  The best thing about the GT72 Dominator Pro is that MSI has taken steps to ensure that you can update the graphics down the line when new and better GPUs come out.  This means that the investment made in this computer will last a lot longer than comparable notebooks that are stuck with their graphics for the life of the product. If you are wanting some more speed from the notebook then throw in four identical M.2 SSDs inside and put them in RAID 0 for read/write speeds of up to 1600MB/s.  From experience with MSI’s SuperRAID as it is called I can attest to how massive of an improvement that speeds like this can be, it makes using the notebook just so much more enjoyable.  You can even attach three monitors to the notebook with two mini-displayport and one HDMI outputs.  The keyboard feels like no other notebook keyboard and is made by the gaming company SteelSeries. Bottom line is that if this is in your budget and you are a gamer or even a power user, I have little doubt that you will love this notebook.

Apple Notebook: 15″ 2.5GHz MacBook Pro with Retina display – $2,374.99

There is no denying it, Apple makes good notebooks and they are arguably the best notebooks for running Windows on as well.  The Retina display will allow for better multi-tasking with various windows as the resolution gives lots of screen real estate.  The Retina display will be great for those who edit photos or video as the display will reproduce colors very well. The construction of the MacBook Pro is amazing and the fit and finish are things that other companies could learn a thing or two from.  The choice with the 2.5GHz Intel i7 was made for what would be the most capable and powerful option with a reasonable price.  At Apple you can customize the MacBook Pro with up to a 1TB SSD and a 2.8GHz Intel i7.

Ultraportable Notebook: Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro – $1,382.99

The 2-in-1 Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro is the latest model in the Yoga line and features an amazing watchband style hinge.  The hinge is made up of hundreds of individual pieces that allows the notebook to flex like no other and fold to use it in different positions.  The screen is a high resolution (3200×1800) IPS touchscreen that will reproduce colors very well and look much better than lower quality panels.  If needing something very light, portable, and a long battery life then this notebook should be on your list of ones to check out.  The stylish Yoga 3 Pro is one of the most stunning designs out now and is powered by the brand new Intel Core M processor.

 Chromebook – Toshiba Chromebook 2 1080p $329.99

Chromebooks are a new breed of notebook, and people are really loving them.  Chromebooks generally are affordable, light, and have long battery life making it an easy choice for those who need something portable.  The best thing about this model is likely the 1080p IPS panel that will look much better than panels that are in other models.  Powering the notebook is an Intel Celeron processor, and while not very powerful it will get the job done and sip power giving longer battery life.  The battery should be good for up to 8 hours and 45 minutes.  The audio has been fine-tuned by Skullcandy meaning that it should deliver much nicer sound than the standard Chromebook.  This will be useful if you enjoy listening to streaming music while you surf the web or do work.  The 802.11ac Wi-Fi is blazing fast and will allow you to get better coverage over other Chromebooks.

Business Notebook: Lenovo X1 Carbon – $1,619

When looking for a business notebook it is wise to choose something that is portable and light so you can easily get work done no matter where you are working.  The X1 Carbon also offers great battery life allowing up to 9 hours from a single charge.  Lenovo is the the most used PC maker for businesses and they sure do know what they are doing with its lineup that is geared for productivity.  The keyboard is surprisingly good and has back-lighting making it easier to get work done while on that red-eye to an important meeting or at home in the evening.  The integrated fingerprint reader should help simplify secure login by allowing you to simply swipe a finger over it.  When it comes to a business notebook, choosing Lenovo is a wise choice that millions have made before.

The post Top Five Notebooks of 2014 appeared first on VR World.

With the launch of the Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) -based Chromebook 2, Samsung (KRX: 005935) is offering a non-ARM (LON: ARM) options to buyers, but that may all change in the near future. The Chromebook segment is the only area in the notebook space that has seen any positive growth this year, with overall sales projected to double from last year. With the increased demand comes the question of whether Intel will be able to successfully contest in this segment, or concede to ARM.

ARM’s steady growth

First-generation Chromebooks featured Intel’s low-powered Celeron CPUs, and while generally considered to be great value for money, they neither had the trendy designs nor the desirable hardware specs boasted by their predecessors, which incidentally gravitated to ARM’s offerings.

The reason for the shift is likely two-fold: ARM’s success with its ARMv7 architecture meant that for low-peer devices, SoCs like Samsung’s Exynos 5, which was used in the Chromebook 2 as well as HP’s Chromebook 11, were a viable contender to what Intel was offering. Another factor was the cost savings that are inherent with ARM hardware, which does not carry the premium that is associated with Intel.

The main difference is the when it comes to the performance. Whereas earlier ARM SoCs lost out in terms of multitasking prowess to Intel’s hardware, newer processors like Nvidia’s Tegra K1 manage to hold their against Intel’s Bay Trail CPUs. The crux of the situation is that ARM started out with low-power processors, and then as performance demands increased in the mobile segment, scaled its architecture to meet the demand. Intel tried to go top-down with its mobile strategy, which did not fare well for the manufacturer as it never quite managed to offer the same amount of efficiency as ARM-based hardware.

Furthermore, the fact that ARM merely licenses the technology to vendors means that there is more differentiation when it comes to the final hardware: For instance, the Tegra K1 comes with a 192 core GPU that is designed to tackle visually intensive tasks. With Chrome OS getting more feature-rich, there is a market for an SoC that offers a combination of both efficiency and performance.

Intel’s market to lose

After failing to meet its tablets sales target of 40 million, Intel may be looking to the Chromebook segment to salvage market share. The vendor has already indicated that it will decrease its contra revenues in the future, which makes further partnerships all the more challenging.

Which is why Samsung’s decision to sell an Intel-based Chromebook 2 comes at a crucial stage for the silicon vendor. Intel may still make some money off $250 Chromebooks, provided it offers device manufacturers a strong reason to include its hardware. It’s easy to write Intel off given the growth ARM is witnessing, but numbers indicate that the manufacturer still controls ore than half of the market share in the Chromebook segment.

Intel’s CEO Brian Krzanich stated that its success stems from the fact that its CPUs are designed to be ubiquitous, but that reasoning does not hold true when we’re talking about Chromebooks, as ARM’s processors run Chrome OS just as fine.

The field is still divided when it comes to choosing between Intel and ARM: Toshiba has decided to stick with the Celeron CPU in its full-HD Chromebook, which Acer has opted for the more powerful Tegra K1 CPU in its product, the Chromebook 13. HP, meanwhile, is offering both an Intel-based model and a Chromebook running Tegra K1. At the end of the day, vendors may just choose to stick with ARM given the wide variety of offerings from the likes of Samsung, Nvidia or even Qualcomm.

Intel may command a majority in the Chromebook segment for now, but with its unrelenting advancements and the imminent launch of even more 64-bit based offerings like the Exynos 7 Octa, ARM may just take the lead in this category as well come next year.

The post ARM vs. Intel Fight Heads To The Chromebook Segment appeared first on VR World.

According to Gartner’s latest report on the PC market shipments and marketshare, the company is reporting that overall global PC shipments shrunk 0.5% year over year. However, if you look at the US and EMEA figures, you see that the US grew by a sizable 4.2% and Europe more than doubled that by growing a hefty 9.6%.

What this means is that even though the US and Europe, which are considered developed markets, saw significant growth, the losses in Asia and other global markets (Latin America and Africa) ate up all of those growths in shipments. Also, Gartner’s data does not include Chromebooks or non-x86 tablet PCs, which may even skew the US and EU PC market figures downward where we’re seeing a huge resurgence of Chromebooks.

As you can tell from Gartner’s PC Market table for the entire global market, Lenovo continues to see incredibly strong growth year over year mostly at the cost of ‘other’ PC market vendors who saw their shipments decreasee 15.5%. The reality is that the global PC market last quarter was effectively flat when compared to last year since 0.5% is almost within their margin of error. As such, any gains are very likely at the cost of some other competitor.

In the US, HP still continues to be the number one vendor in the PC market even though Dell seems to be catching up to them, showing the largest growth, a whopping 18.4% year over year. Apple also saw fairly good growth, meaning that their overall marketshare of the US PC market continues to grow. Toshiba was actually the only major vendor to see a significant decrease in shipments, which is very likely due to the fact that the company’s overall product line in the US is fairly weak. Globally, Toshiba is not even ranked top 5.

Europe is a fantastic story for the PC market and overall the top four vendors saw fantastic growth with HP seeing 14% growth while Lenovo and Acer both saw over 40% growth year over year. Even ASUS saw over 33% growth in the third quarter compared to last year, which bodes really well for the Asian manufacturers. In fact, the companies’ contraction in Asia is very likely offset by growth in Europe where ASPs are generally higher.

Overall, it appears as though the PC market is nowhere near finished and that tablets are not having the impact that many would have you believe. The developed markets have had their time with tablets and the saturation of tablets has pretty much reached its peak. The PC Market in Asia and other markets is either struggling due to reduced overall economic demand (like in China) or due to tablets still not having reached saturation levels that they have in the developed markets. If you consider that the developed markets are generally more profitable for most PC manufacturers (regardless of where they’re from) then most PC manufacturers will consider the third quarter a good one that could be better.

The post PC Market Sees Resurgence in EU and US, Shrinkage in Asia appeared first on VR World.

Streaming software from the cloud to low-powered ultra-portable computers is something that’ many companies have attempted to do but few have perfected. Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Adobe (NASDAQ: ADBE) are taking another shot at this with what the two companies call “Project Photoshop Streaming.”

Project Photoshop Streaming runs a copy of Adobe Photoshop in the Chrome browser giving users effectively the full Photoshop experience regardless of hardware. The only exceptions to this, according to Adobe, are that the browser-based version of Photoshop cannot run any GPU-accelerated functions that are in the latest version of Photoshop CS4.

“This streaming version of Photoshop is designed to run straight from the cloud to your Chromebook,” Google’s Steven Konig wrote in a blog post. “It’s always up-to-date and fully integrated with Google Drive, so there’s no need to download and re-upload files – just save your art directly from Photoshop to the cloud.”

In order to use this streaming version of Photoshop, users do not require a Chromebook — Adobe and Google say it will work on new versions of the Chrome browser on Windows 7 and 8 — but do require a subscription to Adobe’s Creative Cloud. Of course, users will require a stable connection with low-latency for this hardware agnostic version of Photoshop to work correctly.

For Google this is largely a test of whether virtualizing software on a server and streaming it to low-power computing devices will work well over large scale implementations. Should this project be a success, no doubt Google will try it again with other hardware-demanding applications in the future.

The post Chromebooks Can Now Run Photoshop — Via The Cloud appeared first on VR World.

The Chromebook market is chock full of great models, and with the introduction of Tegra K1 Chromebooks, the segment has received a much-needed boost in terms of power. After Acer (TPE: 2353) announced the first Chromebook running Nvidia’s (NASDAQ: NVDA) Tegra K1, HP is joining the fray today by announcing two models — a Chromebook 11 that features a Bay Trail CPU, and a Chromebook 14 that comes with a Tegra K1 chip.

HP’s (NYSE: HPQ) Chromebook 11 seems like a much better offering, mainly due to the Celeron N2830 CPU, which is a much better processor than the ARM-based variants included in the first-gen Chromebooks. Memory has also received a boost, with the 11-inch model now available in 4 GB as well as 2 GB DDR3L RAM clocked at 1333MHz. True to form, HP will be offering both Wi-Fi only and LTE models of the Chromebook 11, with the Wi-Fi version featuring an Intel 2×2 802.11ac modem, while the LTE variant has an HP M.2 3042-S3 LTE/HSPA broadband module.

Things get more interesting with the Chromebook 14, which features Nvidia’s powerful Tegra K1 CPU. The additional gaming prowess provided by the K1 should be able to handle anything ChromeOS throws at it with ease. In terms of hardware, you can configure the Chromebook 14 with either 2 or 4 GB RAM, 16 or 32 GB SSD, and HP will offer LTE and Wi-Fi only versions of the larger model as well. As is standard with all Chromebooks, the Chromebook 11 and Chromebook 14 come with 100 GB Google Drive storage for two years.

Customisability is also another area where HP has lavished its attention on, with the 11-inch model available in Ocean Turquoise and Snow White, while the Chromebook 14 is available in Smoke Silver, Sorbet Orange, Ocean Turquoise, and Neon Green. The keyboard also has a polished look to it that is indicative of a machine that costs much more.

In terms of connectivity, the 11-inch model has one USB 3.0, one USB 2.0 and an HDMI out. The 14-inch model has an additional USB 2.0 port. HP is claiming a battery life of eight and a half hours on both models.

The Chromebook 11 will be starting at just $199, and the larger 14-inch model will cost $299. While most Chromebooks offered thus far have been decent, there isn’t a single model that ticks all boxes. Toshiba’s Chromebook 2 came close with a full-HD screen and 4 GB RAM, but the lack of a Haswell-based CPU was a big letdown. HP’s latest Chromebooks are a similar matter. They offer so much — 4 GB RAM, a fresh design, LTE connectivity and great battery life — but lose out when it comes to the screen resolution, which for some reason is still 1366 x 768. The same hardware and a full-HD screen would have cinched the deal for HP and established these models as the Chromebooks to get. But the lacklustre screen, mainly on the 14-inch model, will be a dealbreaker for most.

The post HP Launches An Almost Perfect Chromebook appeared first on VR World.

Chromebooks have finally made it to Japan, but can the Google (NASDAQ: GOOG)-powered notebook stay in the Land of the Rising Sun?

Despite its standard distribution in Europe and the United States, Chromebooks had just recently come to the shores of Japan. Even Google wasn’t thrilled at the idea of selling Chromebooks in Japan until recently, after Toshiba (TYO: 6502) unveiled Japan’s very first Chromebook a few months ago.

The big question here is why. Why aren’t Chromebooks that big in Japan? One commentary on a Japanese blog may explain why, and the reason is at the heart and core of what Chromebooks really are.

The first issue boils down to how Windows is also the primary OS used in Japan. True, the same can be stated for other countries, but the approximately 90% market share of Windows PCs in Japan is especially detrimental to Chromebooks for one reason: overall usability. It is more likely that a standard PC would be used in most work situations, especially considering that many corporate establishments (the typical ones at least) in Japan do not actually allow cloud data access during work. For Chromebooks, no web connectivity means a lot less functionality.

It is really more of a traditional than of a security issue, and the trend is actually changing in the recent times. Fundamentally however, the strict base guidelines of work protocols in Japan make Chromebooks a less attractive option. This explains further why tablets and other internet-heavy mobile devices in Japan don’t get used in business often.

The second issue tackles about PC user preference to software packages and easily accessible data. Japanese PC users often prefer locally stored data on portable electronic devices, as opposed to cloud-based data that Chromebooks usually give access to. The electronic dictionary is the prime example of this trend, which, despite being largely considered obsolete when compared to tablets, still sells quite well Japan. The lower price of a Chromebook does not seem so attractive to Japanese users, when given the option for something that can still be used to edit files and documents even without an internet connection.

The blog states that this is merely a matter of preference, and the idea of accessing each and every file on a cloud database simply hasn’t permeated that deeply in Japan. It also added that there’s the possibility that Chromebooks just aren’t marketed the way they should be to the Japanese public, since they are usually introduced in the country as personal use devices, and not as productivity machines.

These two reasons may show why Chromebooks are not big in Japan now, but it is certainly not an absolute end statement. Despite all the pessimism, Chromebooks are actually projected in Japan to be very useful as educational machines, being the web information hub as they are. If there’s a way to popularize Chromebooks there, it would probably be this very functionality.

For now however, let’s just sit back and see how Toshiba’s Chromebook would do in its home court.

The post Why Chromebooks Aren't big in Japan appeared first on VR World.