6 brilliant computing devices on show IFA 2016

Introduction

September is just around the corner and that means that an army of slick electronic devices are being shown off at the rabbit's warren of tech that is Berlin's IFA expo.

We're only on day one, and IFA has already played host to a number of computing launches - from a powerful gaming laptop the size of toolbox to impossibly thin ultraportables.

There's quite a few launches yet to take place, but click (or tap) on ahead to check out the computing excellence that has already caught our eye.

• Here's everything we expect to see at IFA 2016

1. Acer Predator 21 X

There are so many downright unbelievable facts about the Acer Predator 21 X that it's difficult to know where to begin. It's an incredibly powerful laptop with a curved G-Sync display sporting a 21:9 aspect ratio.

Its keyboard is mechanical, so you get clicky bliss with each keystroke, and there's a window that you can peer through to see the Predator's fans doing their thing. Oh, and its numberpad is reversible allowing you to use it as a trackpad too.

2. Asus ZenBook 3

We move on to a laptop that's just about as far away from the Predator 21 X as possible - and that's the souped-up Asus ZenBook 3. It isn't a new device, but it's now available with Intel's 7th-generation Kaby Lake processor under the hood, which brings performance and battery life-related improvements over the company's sixth-generation Skylake chips.

Intel even claims that it's powerful enough to run Overwatch with decent frame rates. In a device as stunning as the black-and-gold version of the ZenBook 3 that's on show at IFA, that's a tempting little package indeed.

3. Asus ZenScreen

Asus has already launched one portable monitor this year in the form of the impressive MB169C+, which has low latency and is a great, if expensive, way to get hold of more screen real estate on the go. The ZenScreen is the company's largest portable monitor yet (upping the screen size to 15 inches), while remaining thin.

It keeps things sensible by sticking to 1080p, which will no doubt help your laptop's battery life while providing another screen for browsing a webpage, watching a video or editing images.

4. Acer Swift 7

The Acer Swift 7 strongly resembles a MacBook Air, but at under a centimetre thick it's even thinner at the rear end. It has a roomy trackpad, a great display that's packed with color and serves up some fantastic viewing angles thanks to its IPS panel.

Intel's 7th-generation Kaby Lake processor is under the hood to provide the computing muscle, and with two USB-C ports along the edges you could hook up anything from an external battery pack to Asus' new 15-inch portable monitor.

5. LG UC97G

LG is showing off this 21:9 monitor at IFA, which is enough to make gamers salivate at the chops. It has what the company describes as a 'blindingly fast' refresh rate of 1ms. Twinned with motion blur reduction, it promises to let you see your enemies before they see you.

It's aided by AMD's FreeSync functionality, which eliminates screen tearing by syncing your monitor's refresh rate with your graphics card, so you'll need a meaty rig to make the most of it, then. Additionally, the 38UC99 boasts a color gamut that covers 99% of the sRGB spectrum, a USB Type-C port and two 10W speakers.

6. Acer Chromebook R13

At last! If you've been looking for a 13-inch convertible Chromebook, this model from Acer is it. It comes with a 1080p IPS panel with 10-point touch, and it'll work with Android Apps too, making it one versatile and interesting laptop.

It's available with 16GB, 32GB or 64GB of storage, and there's 4GB of RAM under the hood to keep things ticking over. Bluetooth 4.0 lets you connect your favorite peripherals, while a 720p camera is onboard for all of those Google Hangout work meetings you love taking part in.

from Techradar - All the latest technology news http://www.techradar.com/1327535

IFA 2016: Asus' new ZenBook 3 gets a portable 15-inch display to go with it

Over at IFA 2016 today, Asus has been busy showing off the ZenBook 3 with an important change to the processor spec, along with a portable, super-thin 15.6-inch full HD monitor – and plenty more besides.

We've already seen the ZenBook 3 of course – in fact we took it for a hands-on spin at the end of May – but at IFA, Asus revealed that it will have the latest Intel Kaby Lake (seventh-generation) processor on board rather than Skylake as was previously mentioned.

The 11.9mm thick 12.5-inch laptop will run with up to Core i7 Kaby Lake CPUs in fact, along with 16GB of 2133MHz RAM, and up to a 1TB PCIe SSD. Expect some pretty snappy performance, then…

You also get four-speaker Harman Kardon audio, and an innovative cooling system to keep those powerful components from overheating – apparently this boasts the world's thinnest fan design (3mm). Battery life is nine hours, with fast-charge tech meaning the notebook can be juiced up from empty to 60% capacity inside 50 minutes.

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ZenScreen for your laptop, anyone?

If you were after a portable and svelte display to go with your thin laptop, Asus was also showing off the ZenScreen MB16AC which weighs 800g and is 8mm thin – which makes it the world's lightest and slimmest full HD portable monitor, according to the company.

It has a vanishingly small bezel as well, which at 6.5mm is almost two-thirds thinner than previous models, and comes with a hybrid USB-C port which supports power and video, meaning it can be used to hook up to a laptop such as the ZenBook 3 (or any notebook with a USB-C or USB Type-A port).

This 15.6-inch monitor comes with a 1mm thick foldable smart case to provide some protection in transit, which can be used as a stand when you're not travelling.

Asus also had the Transformer 3 hybrid on display, which runs with a 12.6-inch display boasting a 3K resolution (2880 x 1920) and is 6.9mm thin, and is powered by a Kaby Lake CPU backed with 8GB of RAM and up to a 512GB SSD.

That sat alongside the Transformer 3 Pro, although this variant isn't getting the Kaby Lake treatment – if you want to know more about the Pro version, check out our full hands-on from Computex 2016 here.

The ZenPad 3S 10 was also present among the IFA goodies, a 9.7-inch tablet with a resolution of 2048 x 1536, and a super-slim design featuring a thickness of 5.8mm – and a bezel thickness of 5.3mm which Asus claims makes this one of the most compact 9.7-inch slates on the market.

This Android tablet is powered by a hexa-core MediaTek 8176 CPU along with 4GB of RAM, and offers up to 64GB of eMMC storage.

More monitors

A couple more new monitors were also in town, one of which was the Asus Designo Curve MX34VQ , a 34-inch frameless curved monitor with a resolution of 3440 x 1440 (it's a 21:9 ratio display). It also boasts integrated 8W speakers and a Qi wireless charging pad on the stand for juicing up compatible mobiles.

The other monitor was the Designo MX27UC, a 27-inch IPS display with a resolution of 3840 x 2160 and a 100% sRGB wide color gamut. You also get built-in 3W stereo speakers and a USB-C port that supports data/video and power.

Fancy an all-in-one to round the computing products off? Asus had the Vivo AiO V221 at the show, the slimmest model the company has ever produced at 47.5mm thick. It offers four USB 3.0 ports alongside an HDMI connector, and apparently boasts impressive sound courtesy of large front speakers which are driven by smart-amplifier tech. The latter apparently doubles the volume output compared to a normal amp.

Get your game on

On the gaming front, Asus presented its ROG 3DMod custom gaming PC build which shows off the various 3DMod customization options that PCs can be blinged up with.

That includes Aura RGB lighting with nine programmable effects, a 3D printed custom front panel, and 3D printed fan shrouds which don't mess up the airflow – along with a motherboard cover to help keep all those cables neat and tidy inside.

And the company also showed off the ROG XG Station 2 external graphics box which can be hooked up to a laptop in order to provide said notebook with the full power of a desktop Nvidia GeForce GTX or AMD Radeon video card.

While we've seen this teased before, a few more details are available on the enclosure, which connects to the notebook via a Thunderbolt 3 port and will utilize a 600W 80Plus Gold PSU. It will also boast Aura RGB lighting effects and have four USB 3.0 ports on-board, as well as a gigabit Ethernet port.

• Also check out our Asus ROG Strix GL502 review

from Techradar - All the latest technology news http://www.techradar.com/1327542

Review: Updated: Windows 10

Blockchain and the promise of cooperative cloud storage

Blockchain technology allows distributed retention of encrypted data and is at the heart of cooperative cloud storage

from ComputerWeekly: Latest IT News http://www.computerweekly.com/feature/Blockchain-and-the-promise-of-cooperative-cloud-storage

Welcome Break uses SAP Jam to spread collaboration

Motorway services company is using SAP SuccessFactors HR technology to manage its people across franchises that include Starbucks and KFC

from ComputerWeekly: Latest IT News http://www.computerweekly.com/news/450303464/Welcome-Break-uses-SAPs-Jam-to-spread-collaboration

IFA 2016: Nubia Z11 is a smartphone claiming to take DSLR-quality pictures

Smartphone firm Nubia has launched its latest flagship handset at IFA 2016, with the Nubia Z11 promising to give you DSLR-quality snaps as it eyes up other flagship wannabes such as the OnePlus 3 and Honor 8.

The Z11 packs a 5.5-inch full HD display, Snapdragon 820 processor, either 4GB or 6GB of RAM (depending on how much you're willing to pay), 64GB of internal storage, microSD slot, a 3000mAh battery, 8MP front snapper and a fingerprint scanner, all in a 7.7mm slim body.

It's the 16MP rear camera which is the main attraction here though, as is combines OIS (Optical Image Stabilizer), Nubia HIS (Hand-Held Image Stabilization) and EIS (Technology and Electronic Image Stabilizer), which the firm says "is perfect for taking photographs with long exposures without the use of a tripod."

Low-light wonder?

The Z11 can provide up to a 72 second long exposure, which will be great for low light shots of cities, streets and stars – although we'll have to wait and see if the camera actually lives up to the billing.

The Nubia Z11 will be available in a number of countries including the UK and US from September, with the standard edtion (with 3GB of RAM) coming in at €499 (around £420, $550, AU$740).

If you fancy bunmping yourself up to the black-gold, 6GB of RAM model you're looking at a Nubia Z11 price tag of €599 (around £510, $660, AU$890).

• All the latest from IFA 2016

from Techradar - All the latest technology news http://www.techradar.com/1327423

IFA 2016: Panasonic's latest 4K Blu-ray player is bringing the new format to the mainstream

Panasonic has just unveiled a successor to its first 4K Blu-ray player, and it comes with a significant price cut.

The DMP-UB700 is set to be priced at £400 (around $524 / AU$700), which is almost a third cheaper than its predecessor, the Panasonic DMP-UB900, which was priced at £599 ($785 / AU$1046).

However this reduction in price doesn't quite make it the cheapest dedicated 4K Blu-ray player on the market. That award goes to the Samsung UBD-K8500, which can currently be found for around £350 ($460 / AU$610), although when it launched it was priced at £430 ($565 / AU$750).

Like its predecessor, the new player is set to be fully UHD Premium certified, meaning it offers HDR, and a BT.2020 color gamut in addition to 4K resolution.

Dropping in price, not features

Although its price means that the player is still firmly in the high-end section of the market, it's reassuring to see the prices of Ultra HD Blu-ray players come down so quickly.

Given we gave the UB900 5-stars in our review, we're hoping this reduction has been achieved without cutting corners. The only thing that we can see that's different so far is that the new model comes without THX certification.

There are some new features to compensate, though. The player has two HDMI outputs which mean that it can separate its audio and video outputs. Panasonic claims this will increase the clarity and accuracy of both the picture and the sound.

No word yet on official international pricing or availability, but Panasonic has said that it expects the new player to be available to buy at the end of October / early November.

• Check out the competition in our guide to the best 4K Blu-ray players.

from Techradar - All the latest technology news http://www.techradar.com/1327529