Computer Talk

I love laptops which are portable. Why didn't consider the series 9 instead of series 7? However, ultrabooks are usually 12" to 13" range which are a little small if your eyes aren't good enough. 1366 x 768 seems to be a little outdated now as more and more requirement on the 1600 x 900 emerge. Lenovo has just introduced a new X1 Carbon which is very very sexy. I'd love to choose this one if I hadn't bought my R930 yet.

Originally Posted by SteelBird

I love laptops which are portable. Why didn't consider the series 9 instead of series 7? However, ultrabooks are usually 12" to 13" range which are a little small if your eyes aren't good enough. 1366 x 768 seems to be a little outdated now as more and more requirement on the 1600 x 900 emerge. Lenovo has just introduced a new X1 Carbon which is very very sexy. I'd love to choose this one if I hadn't bought my R930 yet.

I was mainly looking for a 15" laptop just a bit over $1000, i think the series9 is quite a bit more expensive. I'm not that into the ultrabooks until they make one that is decent at gaming.

Originally Posted by T-U-P

I was mainly looking for a 15" laptop just a bit over $1000, i think the series9 is quite a bit more expensive. I'm not that into the ultrabooks until they make one that is decent at gaming.

15" laptops are huge and usually powerful but not so portable. Many of them are more than 3kg combined with the adapter and other stuff in the bag, it is just too heavy to carry around. Moreover, batteries of this type of laptop usually don't last long due to their heavy consumption. I tested mine can last 8 hours for normal use.

3rd gen Intel's Core CPUs are equipped with Intel HD Graphic 4000 which is said to be double speed of the older HD Graphic 3000. Unless your games are heavily graphic, this one should be suitable.

Originally Posted by SteelBird

15" laptops are huge and usually powerful but not so portable. Many of them are more than 3kg combined with the adapter and other stuff in the bag, it is just too heavy to carry around. Moreover, batteries of this type of laptop usually don't last long due to their heavy consumption. I tested mine can last 8 hours for normal use.

3rd gen Intel's Core CPUs are equipped with Intel HD Graphic 4000 which is said to be double speed of the older HD Graphic 3000. Unless your games are heavily graphic, this one should be suitable.

Mine will mainly be used for my grad school, aka sitting on my desk in the grad student office. 3D modelling is also a requirement in addition to games that i would think are heavily graphics. Integrated graphics, as good as the new ones sound, is simply no match for discrete graphics. In fact i was testing out the graphics on a 3 year old game with the intel HD4000 (switchable graphics) and it was crap.

Today Microsoft releases Windows 8 if anyone here wants to buy a new computer with Windows 8 on it then these should be interesting videos for you.

Not interested.. My HP computer is serving me well. It's barely a year old. It has 8GB of ram and 1TB hard drive... don't need anything new..maybe in a couple of years.

i kinda want to try windows 8 on one of my computers, but a lot of people say it's crap like vista, even though i heard performance wise it's better than windows 7.

I tried several beta versions of this OS, it starts up rather fast compared to traditional Windows. However, I don't like the Metro Menu, it will be a mess and very hard to find programs if you don't know how to arrange it. The average users use SEARCH to start a program but this creates another problem; if you don't know the program, you'll never find it.

As I pointed out earlier in this thread, there's a lot I don't do with my computer. Such as

1) I don't play games.
2) I don't store any information, photos, music or videos.
3) I don't chat
4) I don't watch movies or any videos longer that a few minutes.
5) I don't draw or use MS paint.

etc..etc..

I just surf the web.

i kinda want to try windows 8 on one of my computers, but a lot of people say it's crap like vista, even though i heard performance wise it's better than windows 7.

We had Vista on our previous computer. This one has "Windows 7 home Premium". Never had any real problems with the last two computers at all..I don't see much difference between the two.

I installed windows 8. It's certainly interesting, but it feels incomplete. It's half windows 7 and half Metro UI, making some programs run from desktop others from start screen. I understand why they did it, because its a new OS and there isn't enough Apps and probably make the transition easier...but it feels kinda half-assed. If you recently bought a windows 7 PC, i'd say go ahead and get it but I don't think its worth full price for slightly faster OS... I actually like "Metro look" but the deal breaker imo is if they can get enough developers to make apps for the Windows 8 OS.

Google Fears Alibaba To Become The Android of China? » M.I.C. Gadget

By Herman Lai, posted Sep 14, 2012 at 9:05 AM, 1,166 views, Google Fears Alibaba To Become The Android of China?

Earlier this week, Alibaba said “they want to be the Android of China”. A few days later, when Acer scheduled to hold a press conference on Thursday to launch the Acer CloudMobile A800 smartphone running on Alibaba’s Aliyun platform, the event has been canceled. Allegedly, it was because Google threatened Acer to pull Android support if the Taiwanese device maker launched a smartphone with Alibaba’s Aliyun OS.

Here’s what Alibaba’s chief strategy officer told Sohu IT earlier this week:

“We want to be the Android of China and we have quite a lot of new partners in line. If I were a mobile phone vendor and my only choice is Android, I will be quite scared. Any company will want to have at least two suppliers.”



The Statement from Alibaba’s official Weibo

Google and Acer representatives in Tokyo and Shanghai, respectively, have reportedly declined to comment. But on the other hand, Alibaba released a statement to explain the cancelation of the launch event with more details:

“Our partner was notified by Google that if the product runs Aliyun OS, Google will terminate its Android-related cooperation and other technology licensing with our partner. We respect and understand our partner’s decision to postpone the introduction of the phone, and are dismayed by the impact this dispute has had on our partner.”



Acer CloudMobile A800 (2,999 yuan)

Acer is the world’s fourth-largest personal-computer maker by shipments, but the company has been struggling to increase its share in the smartphone market. It’s clear that Acer is trying to catch up with other market leaders like Samsung and Apple by expanding its business in China, since China is set to become the world’s largest smartphone market in 2012.

Acer said that it will continue to communicate with Google and the company still hopes to launch a smartphone based on Aliyun OS. At the moment, Acer has more than 90% of their smartphones run on Android. Furthermore, an Acer’s spokesman said the reason that it wants to launch a smartphone with Alibaba is because Aliyun OS can provide better user experience than Android for Chinese consumers.


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Alibaba’s Aliyun VS Google’s Android


Aliyun OS

Aliyun OS was three years in development, which launched in 2011 and involved work from more than 1600 engineers. It’s a Linux-based operating system meaning it can run both Android apps and web apps. Aliyun also utilizes Web-based apps stored on servers rather than installed apps on devices, which providing a more ‘internet-like’ experience for smartphone users, and this is what appeared to be so different from Google’s Android.

Furthermore, Aliyun OS seems to be a better choice over Google’s Android for local smartphone vendors, since Google has a lot of limitation to provide a good user experience in China. Big part of that is due to the strained relationship of Google and the Chinese government, which caused most of Google’s Android services such as Google Search, Google Maps and Gmail are all severely limited in the country.



Mobile OS’s market share in China

Despite Google’s mobile OS has an overwhelmingly dominant position in the country, Alibaba is very optimistic about Aliyun’s long-term success, the company is confident with its mobile online payment system Alipay that could assist the growth of Aliyun, and it expected Aliyun could replace Google’s Android in China. However, we think it’s quite impossible to happen, mainly because of the mobile OS’s ecosystem of phonemakers and app developers.

In addition, Alibaba is expecting the total number of smartphone vendors adopting Aliyun will increase to five from the current two, namely K-Touch and Haier, by the end of the year.

Source: WSJ, CNet, Sohu IT (Chinese translated)