When it comes to marketing proneness, Taiwanese (and other Far Eastern) vendors often were afraid of their own shadow, not to interfere with lucrative OEM deals that western vendors utilized to the full extent: you may build your own stuff, but we contract you to build our stuff and you shall not interfere with that.

For good portion of it, the said mantra is true to this date, with Far Eastern industry giants still afraid to speak out, even though they now do almost everything for Western vendors such as Apple (NASDAQ: APPL) – without Foxconn (TPE: 2354) (iPhone, iPad, MacBook Pro), Pegatron (TPE: 4938) (iPhone), Asustek’s (TPE: 2357)  China facility, Flextronics (NASDAQ: FLEX) and Quanta (TPE: 2382) (MacBook an MacBook Air) – you would not be able to buy your favorite product from Cupertino (Designed in California, Made in China / Taiwan).

Not anymore – Asustek recently found balls of steel (that corporate move to Singapore seems to have helped) and decided to ditch the fear of the West and go for the jugular.

In two infographics, Asus attacked Apple’s products, pushing its design and manufacturing capabilities.

First ad attacks the MacBook and pitches its Zenbook:

ASUS North America tries to prove ZenBook is a thinner (and better) product than Apple MacBook. And 50% cheaper.

Second picture goes for the Golden jugular, pardon, Apple:

Golden Apple (Watch) is not the solution. We (our ZenWatch) is.

Who knows, perhaps Asian tigers will start challenging its former and current customers on more fields than just the price. After all, the key to selling a product is something that Far East still has trouble understanding – it’s not about the physical product, it’s about the experience.

Still, a ballsy move Asus. Ballsy indeed.

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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.

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If you Google Tech 21, you’ll find two very different companies, both involved in mobile devices, both of interest to techies. One was a case vendor at Pepcom. The other is a sound producing company. One surrounds your iPhone with energy absorbing guards. The other exudes musical energy from a portable amp.

Tech 21 USA, the sound-based company, has a longer history than Tech21 Impactology, the smartphone related company. They are referred to respectively as Tech 21 and Tech21 in this article.

Tech 21’s portable Flying Rig 5 has a genuine SansAmp, a reverb, a delay, and a power boost.

We learned of Tech21’s amazing mobile device protection at Pepcom 2014

Tech 21 Founder Andrew Barta just celebrated his musical company’s 25th anniversary. He pioneered the direct recording movement and created an entirely new category of signal processing. The SansAmp tube amplifier emulator was revolutionary. It enabled musicians to “dial in monster tones and patch them directly to a studio mixer or stage PA.” The 100 percent analog SansAmp delivered huge sound from a pocket-sized pedal.

Their Fly Rig 5 is an amp emulator, speaker, and mic simulator with the functionality of a full pedalboard, without the crackling patch cables, dying batteries, and ground loops. It weighs just over 18 ounces, is less than 12 inches long, fits into a guitar case, and sells for $249. Perfect for a musician on the road.

Barta’s proprietary technology stands alone in the analog arena. He says of his analog choice versus digital options: “Overall, I think analog is much warmer, more organic, and more responsive. There’s also the issue of clarity. At extreme settings, digital tends to produce more artifacts (garbles) and unnatural noise in the background.”

Tech 21 products have been associated with famous musicians such as Michael Anthony of Van Halen, Steve Berlin of Los Lobos, Bruce Bouton with Garth Brooks, Matt Cameron of Pearl Jam, Jeff Campbell with Sting, and Kurt Cobain, Nirvana.

The similarly named companies issue from different continents. The origin of Tech 21 USA is obvious, proudly subtitled “Designed and Manufactured in the USA.” Tech21 Impactology is located on the River Thames in London. Tech21 also has a long history. Back 19 years ago, Jason Roberts developed an aluminum cage in which a laptop was suspended to prevent impacts. His research progressed to scientifically tested, shock-absorbing polymers for mobile devices.

The technology behind both companies is impressive. Tech 21 emphasizes bypass design for sound production while. Tech21 emphasizes chemistry for mobile device protection. Tech21 uses a combination of materials for their Impact Shield screen protectors and their slim cases for phones and tablets.

Tech21 offers shell and band protection for a variety of devices.

BulletShield is a BASF impact absorbing polymer used in the Impact Shield, similar to that used in bullet proof glass. D30 is a smart, shock absorbing dilatant material whose molecules lock together upon impact, causing the material to absorb and dissipate energy, reducing the damaging force transmitted to your device.

At Pepcom, BSN* learned of the Evo Mesh protective casings for the iPhone 6 from Tech21’s Jason Dollery.

Polycarbonate is a group of thermoplastic polymers that are molded under high heat temperatures and can be cut to match any design. FlexShock is a cutting edge hybrid material that can be molded via the injection process to fit the contours of a device’s shape. Additionally, it is ultra thin, reducing the bulk surrounding your device. You’ll find it in Tech21’s MacBook series. The final ingredient in the Tech21 mix is Thermoplastic Polyurethane (TPU). This plastic is elastic, flexible, and abrasive resistance to impact, weather, tear, oil and grease.

At Pepcom, we were given a demonstration of how this amazing fluid material when pulled out of the pot and wrapped around the rep’s finger immediately protected it from the impact of a hammer. Gotta get some of this stuff for your carpenter friends.

Whether you are a musician or a mobile device collector, Tech 21 and Tech21 both have useful products you should consider. A demonstration of D30 and a demonstration of Fly Rig 5 by Andrew Barta himself are both on YouTube.

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Rumors of an impending demise of Mactel are nothing new. But as ARM continues its momentum and Intel grapples with the delay of Broadwell, it’s worth taking a second look at the case for ARM on Mac.

Although the Apple-Intel partnership has been going great ever since the Cupertino giant switched to Intel’s offerings from PowerPC processors in 2005, cost considerations and rising momentum of 64-bit ARM hardware may see a similar shift from Intel to ARM in the near future.

At least that’s what Jean-Louis Gassée, a former Apple executive that served the company from 1981 to 1990, thinks. Although the Apple Gassée knew is a very different one than it is today, he did make a compelling case on his blog Monday Note that rumors of Apple considering ARM for its Macbook line should not be immediately dismissed.

Cost is considered to be the main reason for a move away from Intel’s processors. Intel is said to charge around $378 for an i7 CPU in a 15-inch MacBook Pro. Other CPUs, like the i5, are said to be in the vicinity of $300. Intel, owing to its dominant position in the CPU market, is able to command a premium for its processors. 

ARM hardware, on the other hand, is easier and more cost effective to manufacture thanks to the RISC-based design in comparison to the x86 architecture used by Intel. Costs are further driven down by the intense competition in this field. Also, x86-based hardware use more transistors than their ARM counterparts, which consumers more power and gives out more heat. While ARM is predominantly used for low power hardware, 64-bit offerings are bridging the divide in terms of performance. The move away from Intel is also said to be spurred on by additional delays encountered by the processor giant in launching its 14 nm Broadwell line of CPUs, which are delayed but expected to be available mid-2015.

Since Apple is an ARM architecture licensee, it can tailor hardware specifically suited to its devices, like the 64-bit Apple A7 SoC used in the iPhone 5s. By designing its own hardware, Apple can control “all layers of the stack.” Apple can also exert more control over the manufacturing of the processor, and save a considerable amount of money in the process. The savings can be passed on to consumers, as Apple can still retain its margins thanks to the reduction in overall cost of components.

When Apple switched to Intel from PowerPC, Steve Jobs touted the performance per Watt as one of the key metrics for the change. A decade later, ARM hardware is the clear winner when we look at performance delivered per Watt. Intel has already lost out to ARM in the smartphone segment, and while it managed to secure a few hardware wins in name with Merrifield, its market share in the tablet and smartphone is paltry compared to what ARM has managed to accrue. If it were to lose its contract with Apple, it stands to lose over $2.59 billion a year, whereas ARM would net a royalty of $34 million from the license. 

It’s too early to decisively declare the Macintosh-Intel alliance fractured or strained. In fact, there’s no evidence to say that it’s anything but healthy. But as ARM’s hardware improves by leaps and bounds, and Intel struggles to reinvent itself for the mobile world, it’s also too early to dismiss the possibility that Apple is considering an ARM play.

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Yesterday, Apple and IBM announced that they would be entering into a partnership where IBM would help Apple develop enterprise software for iOS devices and Apple would supply OS and hardware to enable those enterprise applications. This announcement marked the first partnership or relationship between the two companies since Apple stopped using IBM’s Power PC CPUs in their systems in 2006 with the last product announced in 2005. It’s been a long time since the two companies have worked together on anything and now that IBM is mostly a software company (They still have the Power Architecture and Power Chips for HPC) it makes sense that the two companies would work together again.

IBM’s enterprise software and cloud offerings are some of the most developed on the market and squarely focused on the needs of large enterprises, which already have millions of iOS devices in deployment. Apple will be supplying the devices for IBM’s planned iOS-based enterprise software platforms which will boost Apple’s enterprise sales even better than they already have them. It will also give Apple a very strong foothold inside the enterprise that none of their competitors are anywhere near having. It should also provide Apple enough enterprise sales to become even more of a fixture in enterprise applications than they already are. Apple is not struggling in enterprise, they don’t NEED IBM, however IBM does need some sort of a hardware partner. And if you’re going to look for a hardware partner, you might as well go for the biggest one and the one with the most enterprise deployments already.

As a result, IBM gets some sort of hardware platform to build their enterprise applications platform and Apple gets to sell more iPhones and increase iOS’ penetration in the overall market. This marks Apple’s first serious movement into enterprise, even though they already have a pretty strong presence in most enterprises because of their consumer product success. While I don’t suspect that Apple will do anything different to iPhones deployed with IBM software, there is a good chance that we could see ‘pro’ or ‘enterprise’ hardware in the future that might command an even greater price premium than Apple’s current line of consumer products. Enterprise customers want to feel special and feel like they’re getting what they pay for, which is why IBM has committed upwards of 100,000 employees to be available to the Apple project.

Overall, this is a very good move for both companies and I would suspect that this is only the beginning of such relationships between software and hardware companies. After all, Apple has seriously been struggling recently to deploy software that is popular with consumers and enterprise outside of their operating systems on their own hardware. With IBM’s enterprise software, Apple partially solves part of that equation and IBM is able to provide quality and reliable hardware to their enterprise customers that they’re already familiar with.

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You heard it right, Microsoft is paying Macbook Air users up to $650 to swap their Macbook Air for a Microsoft Surface Pro 3. This offer is designed to give Apple users cold hard cash to upgrade their 11 or 13″ low-resolution Macbook Air laptops for Microsoft Surface Pro 3’s. If you look at the specs of the Surface Pro 3, it does look much more attractive than the Macbook Air on paper with a higher resolution touch display, active pen, and optional keyboard. However, if you know the resale prices of most Apple products a Macbook Air could probably still fetch north of $650 if its anywhere near 2 years old or younger, so Microsoft is likely targeting an older Macbook Air crowd that is likely experiencing some of the aging issues that most laptops experience. Not to mention, they are probably trying to target the people looking for a more ‘modern’ and unique device.

There are a lot of differences between the Surface Pro 3 and the Macbook air, but the ultimate result is that Microsoft is clearly aiming for a demographic that can afford a Macbook Air and wants to pull them towards their premium offering, the Surface Pro 3. Now, I don’t really know if this strategy is going to necessarily work, but there’s a good chance that a lot of people that have Macbook Airs that were on the fence about it will probably give it a try and likely not take as big of a risk paying full price for a Surface Pro 3. The nice thing about the Surface Pro 3 is that its very thin and very light and it enables some use cases that the Macbook Air simply can’t because of the way that it is designed. Frankly, I’m still a bit surprised that Apple hasn’t released any touch laptops or desktops while their competitors have tons of them (albeit most of them not very good).

As it stands right now, The Surface Pro 3 is one of the premier Windows 8.1 devices out there today and if there’s a device that might entice someone to switch to Windows, the Surface Pro 3 is probably it. And yes, it does start at $799, but as of right now you can only buy the i5 version of the Surface Pro 3, which starts at $999 and has only 128 GB of SSD space. If you want to go cheaper, you will have to wait and if you want to get an i7 (just a beefed up i5 with higher clocks) then you will also have to wait.

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It isn’t often that Apple will update a piece of hardware without doing some kind of major launch or making a big deal about it. But with the new Macbook Air, they did just that. With the new Macbook Air (2014), Apple has made some minute improvements over the previous generation. Namely, Apple has kept the same Haswell chips in the Macbook Air from 2013, but has bumped the CPU clock to 1.4 GHz base from 1.3 GHz. This is probably due to a bin improvement on the chips themselves, which means faster chips at the same or lower power with almost no changes at all.

Macbook Air Productivity

Apple has still opted for 11″ and 13″ models, but has dropped their prices down to $899 and $999 respectively, making them MUCH more competitive with some of their competitors’ solutions like Lenovo’s 13″ Yoga 2 Pro, which delivers a retina display and similar specs for a mere $1200, which was a solid $100 less than the original Macbook Air 13″ price. This is probably the biggest deal of the new Macbook Air release, because they still have the same fairly low-res displays and two USB 3.0 ports accompanied by a Thunderbolt port.

Macbook Air Apps

This explains why Apple hasn’t really announced it or anything, they just did it. Because, frankly, its really pretty much the same laptop, just cheaper. Yeah, it’ll probably hurt the resale value that Apple’s Macbooks and other products are famous for, but in this case, this is a good move on Apple’s part to give consumers more while charging less for it. Something they don’t usually do, so its nice to see them doing it. Plus, it will help Intel offload more chips since there’s no doubt more people will be looking at a Macbook Air with these newer prices and with a student discount the 11″ and 13″ look a lot more attractive than some PC laptops from Apple competitors that cost about the same.

There will likely be a Broadwell version of the Macbook air early in 2015, so expect that to be the real ‘overhaul’ of the Macbook Air, as opposed to this version, which is merely more affordable and configurable.

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Now, we are all very interested in the world of teardowns like the ones posted of new hardware on iFixit. But the teardown that occurred back in 2013 in the basement of The Guardian in London was nothing short of horrific. The backstory to this ‘teardown’ was that the Prime Minister had ordered through the Home Secretary via the GCHQ that the Snowden Files be destroyed. This ordered had been carried out by the Home Secretary and GCHQ even though their Editor-in-Chief, Alan Rusbridger, had already indicated that the files still existed elsewhere in the world. They proceeded to force the journalists to comply or else they would be tried in court.

The journalists and GCHQ agents that had arrived to supervise the event went down to the basement and took grinders to the computer components that they had ripped out of their Macs and PCs. We have taken the liberty of screenshotting the process and labeling certain components if they are mangled beyond recognition. All of these images were taken from The Guardian’s video detailing the destruction process and more. Unfortunately, we can’t embed the video since their website does not allow for that, so if you want to watch it you’ll have to head on over to that link.

Above we have what looks like the internals of two Macbooks and part of a PC’s internal and discrete GPU. As you can tell, they had them grind both the CPU and GPU on the Macbooks all the way down to the copper. They did the same with the GPU on the PC’s daughterboard and on the AMD discrete GPU card. All logic and memory was completely destroyed.

Here we have the journalists being forced to take dremel tools to their hard drive platters and PCBs.

Here is the aftermath of those dremel tools and grinders.

Below, we have what appear to be the full contents of a PC that was torn down and destroyed. We’ve labelled the different parts of the computer so you can get an idea of what was lost/destroyed. The most horrific thing to me was the fact that GCHQ made them completely destroy the CPU and cut it in half. They didn’t even force that with the hard disk platters. You can also tell that on the RAM they forced them to grind off every single memory chip in order to make sure that nothing could be saved.

This is a very sad commentary on what the government is capable of without the proper checks and balances and what we could possibly have waiting for us if we don’t take these challenges to our privacy and safety seriously. The GCHQ and the entire chain of command above them clearly overstepped their power and if you want to see more about this incident, we recommend you watch the video from where these stills were pulled. It is a good video and only available on the Guardian’s site (they clearly don’t want to give up the hits).

The post How The GCHQ Forced The Guardian to Destroy Their Computers appeared first on VR World.

But it is not just media, it is just the law of physics. Our web designer has two-year old $4200-paid MacBook Pro (1st Gen Intel) and the battery went “kapput”, as Germans would say. New battery exceeds $400 in Croatia, and for that price, he refuses to buy a new one. He also refuses to purchase a new unibody Mac, opting to build Intel Skulltrail platform instead, and turned that 8-core in Hackintosh faster than our original 45nm 8-Core 3GHz system with 16GB of veeeery expensive memory. For a fraction of Mac Pro’s retail price.

If you go to Apple Store, even biggest Apple zealot will take a look at non-removable battery feature and lower his/her shoulders. So, what do you do if people criticize your design decision, placed to force you to buy a new system after battery cycles out its natural life span (couple of thousand recharges, sometimes even as low as 500 recharges)?

Go and advertise that non-removable battery is green, that’s what you do. Apple’s marketing wizards decided to put a nice green spin on the feature, and claim that new Mac comes with five years of battery life is quite brave, given that Apple has no control over the quality of the battery. Even the best battery in the world will cycle out, and there is nothing Apple (or anybody else, unfortunately) can do.

Look at how green we are... anyone want to place a bet will the battery still work in 2013? Of course not, you're expected to replace your Mac next year...

Apple claims their proprietary electronics will keep the battery in check (let’s hope their marketing is right) and that the more people have non-removable batteries, less land will be filled with electronic waste. Thus, we can conclude that non-removable battery can actually save the world. And fill Apple’s coffers with those pesky charges that users have to pay the moment their device exits warranty period.

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If you’re outta finances to buy a new notebook that has dual-antennas and is able to enhance the reception on its own (for instance, I own HP’s tabletPC – tx1000 – and it has a single sucky antenna), option B is most likely.

The number of Wi-Fi USB adapters on the market is huge, but there are only several worth mentioning. My attention was caught by AirLive’s WL-1600USB. This small stick comes with 20 dBm for minimum transmission power. The device has integrated small antenna and external 5dBi Omni antenna for maximum coverage.

Two possible configurations... for maximum range ;)

In a land of wooden houses (US), that means you can reach the distance more than a mile away, with an average bandwidth of 12Mbps. Not too shabby. For cement-happy Europe, I’d be more than happy to have the device that captures Wi-Fi from one office to another. In case you want to share data, this device also can work as a Wi-Fi AP (through software, of course).
All in all, useful device.

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