Choice, you say? Acer's newest laptop duo is offering that in spades. At a gala this morning in New York City, the company rolled out quite the arrangement of new kit -- not the least of which was a revamped Aspire V5 and Aspire V7. The two lines ship with a 14- or 15.6-inch display, giving users the option of a 1,366 x 768 panel or a (highly recommended) 1,920 x 1,080 IPS panel; those seeking something even smaller will also find an 11.6-inch option in the V5 range, weighing just three pounds and measuring under an inch thick. The whole lot can be selected with dual- or quad-core chips from AMD and Intel, while select configurations are equipped with NVIDIA's GeForce GT7XXM series or AMD's Radeon HD8750 discrete graphics.

In essence, the V7 only differs from the V5 by adding a "silky touch" finish on the bottom, the "latest Intel CPUs," optional SSDs and Intel's Wireless Display (WiDi) technology. Both ranges offer the new Acer Converter Port, which aims to make the act of connecting to an external display, HDD, router, etc. a lesson in simplicity. The newfangled V series will ship at the end of the month with prices starting at $499, but you can bet that the model you're really after will land far north of that.

Filed under: Laptops, Acer

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Source: Acer

via Engadget RSS Feed http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/03/acer-new-aspire-v5-v7-ultrabook-laptops/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

Darren Murph Engadget RSS Feed johalputt

09:34

See that? That's a new feature on Facebook's status box, which has started to roll out this morning after earlier testing in January. It's also covering up a pretty depressing note from a friend underneath, who would've undoubtedly selected "sad" if he were to have recognized said feature before posting a conventional status update. For now, it appears that the emotion selection tool is only hitting select US-based users, as our European contingent has yet to see it appear on their profiles. Essentially, a smiley face has been added to the right of the photo button, and pressing it gives you a quick way to update your status -- you can share an emotion, or what you're watching / listening to / reading / drinking / eating.

It seems as if Facebook wants to funnel conversations a bit; instead of only giving you free rein to blabber in a status box, it'd much rather you update with a linked artist, television show or product. That way, said entity gets included in any conversations you have, and the great revenue wheel begins to spin. At any rate, feel free to check your own page and play around with the new functionality. Then shoot us an emoticon in comments to let us know how you're feeling about it.

Gallery: Facebook emoticon update

Filed under: Internet, Facebook

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Via: TechCrunch

Source: Facebook

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Darren Murph Engadget RSS Feed johalputt

08:04

Babbel's been doing a solid job of picking up users as it attempts to help people around the world learn new tongues over their lunch breaks, but evidently, it's not picking up steam in the US as well as it would like. The remedy? Buy the market share one so desires. Today, the company has announced the acquisition of San Francisco's own PlaySay -- a language learning company that has been tearing up every app store it approaches since launching at TechCrunch Disrupt in September of 2011. With that, however, comes some pretty unfortunate news for users. PlaySay apps are going to be yanked 45 days from now, with website visitors funneled over to Babbel's site. Moreover, we've confirmed that none of PlaySay's technologies will be integrated into Babbel's programs, and that only PlaySay's founder (Ryan Meinzer) will remain on staff as an "adviser."

We've got nothing but love for Babbel's software, but what this means for consumers is simple: one less player in the space, and a dead-end for the technology that was developed in order to launch PlaySay. Of course, we aren't going to pretend that this type of thing doesn't happen all of the time, but alas....

Filed under: Software

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Source: Babbel

via Engadget RSS Feed http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/21/babbel-acquires-playsay-language-learning-deal/

Darren Murph Engadget RSS Feed johalputt

07:19

Another Mobile World Congress, another round of highfalutin' talk surrounding the concept of wireless power. We already witnessed a consumer approach by PowerbyProxi, and now we're hearing that the Power Matters Alliance is getting a second wind as well. The self-proclaimed "leading ecosystem and standard for wireless power" took to Boston-area Starbucks locations last fall, and now it has notched support from BlackBerry, NEC, Texas Instruments, ZTE and dozens more. There's still no word on whether all of these factions are going to bite the bullet and come together in order to actually make some progress that consumers can appreciate, but hey -- we've got nothing but time, right?

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

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Source: Power Matters Alliance

via Engadget RSS Feed http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/27/power-matters-alliance-support-from-blackberry-nec-ti-zte/

Darren Murph Engadget RSS Feed johalputt

05:19