Product Review–Acer Aspire S3 Series Ultrabook (Model S3-951-2464G34iss)

Introduction

Previously, I have given regular coverage on the “Ultrabook” notebook computer concept on this site ever since Intel launched the concept to standards-based computer manufacturers. Now I have been given the first opportunity to review a computer that is part of this product class, in the form of the Acer Aspire S3 Series.

The series is available in different configurations with the cheapest unit being equipped with an Intel Core i3 processor and 320Gb hard disk, with other machines equipped with an Intel i5 or i7 processor and the option of a 500Gb hard disk or a 256Gb solid-state drive. The unit I am reviewing is the S3-951-2464G34iss which is equipped with the Intel i5 processor and a 320Gb hard disk for its main secondary storage.

Acer Aspire S3 Ultrabook

Price
– this configuration
AUD$1199
Processor Intel Sandy Bridge Core i5 –2467M processor Cheaper option – Intel Core i3-2367M processor
Extra cost option –
Intel Core i7-2637M processor

All Sandy Bridge processors

RAM 4Gb RAM shared with graphics
Secondary Storage 320Gb hard disk + 20Gb solid-state drive
Extra cost options:
500Gb hard disk + 20Gb solid state drive
256Gb solid state drive
SD card reader
Display Subsystem Intel HD
Screen 13.3” widescreen (1366×768) LED-backlit LCD
Network Wi-Fi 802.11g/n
Bluetooth 3.0
Connectors USB 2 x USB 2.0
Video HDMI
Audio 3.5mm stereo audio output jack
Digital out via HDMI
Operating System on supplied unit Microsoft Windows 7 Home Edition

The computer itself

Aesthetics and Build quality

The Acer S3 Ultrabook has a very lightweight feel about it and is in a thin metal housing. This svelte thin feel has allowed me to keep it in a shoulder bag and take it around town without noticing any extra weight in that bag.

Acer Aspire S3 Ultrabook rear view with connectors

Rear view with 2 x USB 2.0 connectors, HDMI output connector and power connector - demonstrating its slimness

There is a small rear-facing ventilation grille on the back to cool the Ultrabook down but it can become too hot towards left of the unit on some occasions.

User interface

The Acer Aspire S3 series Ultrabooks are equipped with a regular-sized hard-plastic chiclet keyboard. This has a “hard” typing feel which gives a good physical feedback that is conducive to touch-typing and the user’s hands don’t feel “crunched up” when typing up content and they can type very quickly on it.

There is the regular trackpad but this isn’t marked out with primary or secondary buttons and can be very confusing to use, especially if you move from the Apple Macintosh.

Storage, Connections and Expansion

Acer Aspire S3 Ultrabook - left hand side

Left had side with 3.5mm audio output jack - again a very slim computer

The Aspire S3 Ultrabooks have two USB ports for use with external peripherals as well as an HDMI output jack for external displays and a 3.5mm audio output jack. You would have to use a USB-VGA DisplayLink adaptor or the HDFury HDMI-VGA adaptor to connect this Ultrabook to those economy data projectors that don’t have a DVI or HDMI input.

The notebook can connect to Wi-Fi networks but doesn’t have an Ethernet socket for other network setups. You could get around this with a USB-connected Ethernet network adaptor.

Acer Aspire S3 Ultrabook Right hand side view with SD card slot

Right-hand side view with SD card slot

There is no need to think that the cheaper hard-disk-equipped variants of this Ultrabook series will take a long time to start because they have a regular hard disk. This unit still comes to life very quickly due to the use of a 20Gb solid-state drive that is used to store what it needs to start with such as the “image” of your last computing session or the boot requirements for Windows 7.

Audio and Video

The Acer S3’s audio quality from the internal speakers does still have that tinny sound due to the Ultrabook’s slim chassis but can yield an output volume similar to a small portable radio. I would recommend that if you want more from the sound for music, video or games, you would have to use headphones, external speakers or a sound system.

The Intel integrated video does work well for most tasks including basic photo and video editing and is gentle on the batteries; and the maximum screen resolution is appropriate for the Ultrabook’s screen size.

The glossy screen can, at times, be very distracting but the display was able to be sufficiently bright to allow for indoor and outdoor work while it was on batteries.This is something I have observed when I used the Ultrabook “on the field” while in Sydney.

Battery life

The Acer Aspire S3 was able to complete approximately 2 days off the charger with ad-hoc online use including uploading images to Social Web via Wi-Fi. Unlike most laptops, there isn’t the ability to force hibernation – the Ultrabook goes to a “deep sleep” after 8 hours or can be set to enter this mode after 2 hours through the use of an Acer-supplied app.

Other experience notes

Use while travelling

This review is integrated with a visit to Sydney where I have been staying with some close friends of mine and I have been assessing the Ultrabook form factor’s prowess with travel conditions through the trip.

The Acer Aspire S3 Ultrabook’s size allows you to work comfortably in a typical economy-class airline seat without any problems. This can work well in the favour of those who do regular business or leisure air travel, in a manner similar to the scene in “ABBA The Movie” where the journalist who was chasing ABBA was typing up his notes on a portable typewriter in his economy-class seat on the aeroplane.

Acer Aspire S3 Ultrabook on tray table

This computer can easily fit on that economy-class airline tray table with room to spare

For example, I was editing some of this copy with this notebook on the airline tray table through most of the Virgin Australia flight to Melbourne and was able to have room for a cup of coffee in its proper cup-rest position on that table. When I had to stow the Ultrabook away during takeoff, I could store it in the seat pocket in front of me without it looking obnoxious.

Experience with other people

A comment that I had received about this Acer S3 Ultrabook was that the lady of the house where I was staying at during the Sydney trip described the computer as being thin and beautiful to look at. Others who have seen this notebook have been simply amazed at how slim this computer is.

Limitations and Points Of Improvement

I would also look at replacing one of the Aspire S3’s USB 2.0 sockets with a USB 3.0 socket. This could allow high-speed throughput with external hard drives and cater for the development of a “home” accessory with an integrated optical drive, Gigabit Ethernet connection and extra USB 2.0 / 3.0 ports as an extra-cost option.

As well, it could benefit from a dedicated hardware button that turns the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth transceivers on and off, thus enabling a “flight-mode” option that you can quickly enable when you get on the plane.

Because these Ultrabooks are lightweight and easy to steal, I would also recommend making sure that the S3 Series are equipped with a Kensington-compliant locking slot as well as any software-based locking setup.

Conclusion

Acer Aspire S3 Ultrabook lid view

That brushed-aluminium lid makes for a long-lasting finish and cool-looking notebook

I would recommend the Acer Aspire S3 series Ultrabooks as an lightweight auxiliary travel computer, especially if you are creating content on the road but don’t want all the extras like a DVD burner. This is due to the keyboard being more conducive to full quick text entry like liveblogging, live social-media feeds and the like.

The cheaper model would suit those of us who are on a budget while this i5 model would please most of us who want some snappiness for “rough-editing” average size photos and video footage. The variants with the solid-state drives would please those who are after quick performance while the hard-disk-equipped models would suit those of use who want “field” storage for the photos that we take.

A serious “all-in-one” workstation computer that answers the iMac

Videos

Video reveal of the HP Z1 workstation

Video introduction of the HP Z1 Workstation

Product Page

HP Z1 Workstation

My Comments

When I first saw the videos of HP’s new Z1 all-in-one workstation with 27” LCD display, I had seen it as a game-changer especially for Windows-based workstation-class computing. This is more so as an increasing number of people live in and work from smaller homes or rent smaller office spaces and the traditional workstation may not fit these settings anymore. It may also be seen similarly as a game-changer for the “serious gamers” who would like to play World of Warcraft or other similar games on high-performance computers.

Typically this class of computing was serviced by a computer that had a separate “tower-style” system unit located under the desk. This was connected up to an external monitor, keyboard and mouse. Some of the high-end Apple iMac all-in-one computers may have satisfied high-end graphics and multimedia needs; and there may have been a few computers with compact system units serving in this class of high-intensity computer.

I had also reviewed a Sony VAIO J Series “all-in-one” computer for this site and had found that the compact nature of these computers has a distinct useability advantage over the traditional desktop with the “tower-style” system unit that I was using.

HP has brought this kind of compact standards-based all-in-one computer to the architecture, engineering and graphic arts industries in a form that is reliable and continually serviceable. Here, the system can be laid flat and opened up so you can repair or improve the system, like as you could with the traditional workstation-class computer. It still needs the forced-air cooling but the software regulates how the fans run so as to cut down on the noise.

Some people may see this as being too “cutting edge” for a workstation-class standards-based “all-in-one” and there may be foibles associated with this model. But I would see this as a chance to bring high-performance computing in a home-friendly compact form without having to have the Apple logo.

CNET article on one’s experience in getting rural access to real broadband

Article

At last, broadband in the boonies, but at a price | Crave – CNET

My comments

I have run regular coverage about the provision of real broadband Internet service in to rural areas and is something that I stand for as the author and owner of this site. Just lately, I have come across this CNET article about how Crave writer, Eric Mack had succeeded in bringing real broadband to his mountain home in New Mexico, USA.

He was detailing how the WildBlue satellite broadband service was treated as a costly rare premium service compared to the wider availability of satellite pay-TV service in that neighbourhood. Then he talked about the inconsistent provision of ADSL broadband in that neighbourhood by the local telephone company which works in a similar manner to Telstra in Australia or British Telecom in the UK.

Later on, he pointed out the arrival of an “open fibre” network that was laid by a local co-operative who was addressing the need of “real broadband in the bush”. The concept of this “open fibre” network was to allow any and all ISPs and telcos to make use of the fibre-optic infrastructure rather than it being for the exclusive use of a particular company. It is in contrast to the typical cable-TV infrastructure that is for the use of the company that owns it.

Then, in the last article, Eric talked of the possibility of mobile-telephony providers rolling out 3G or 4G mobile-broadband service to these areas. He summed it up very well in the fact that it takes a lot of work to get communications infrastructure providers to establish infrastructure to provide a decent standard of broadband Internet in to these areas.

I see this as a “chicken-in-egg” scenario that if you don’t provide the infrastructure, you won’t get “serious money” in to the neighbourhood in the form of industry, commerce or similar high-value activity whereas you wait upon the arrival of a significant population set and economy before you deploy the infrastructure. This can be more so with neighbourhoods that are outside the commuting distance of a major metropolitan area or don’t have a very significant core economy about them.

Next generation HTTP afoot

Article

Engineers rebuild HTTP as a faster Web foundation | Deep Tech – CNET News

My Comments

HTTP has been the standard transport protocol since the dawn of the World Wide Web and effectively became the backbone for most file transfer and streaming activities of the modern Internet.

But there is a desire in the Internet industry to bring this standard to 2.0 and bring some major improvements to this standard to cater for today’s Internet reality.

Data multiplexing between client and server

One key capability is to implement the SPDY protocol which supports multiplexing of data between the Web server and the Web browser. This is to provide for faster and efficient data throughput by shifting the data using one “channel”; as well as providing support for managing quality-of-service.

This may involve the deployment of audio and video material under a high quality-of-service while text data and software downloads can pass through on an “as-needed” basis.

Inherent end-to-end encryption support

The SPDY protocol that is to underpin HTTP 2.0 also provides support for end-to-end transport-layer encryption. But Microsoft wanted this feature to be optional so it is implemented according to the needs, such as a blog not needing encryption whereas an Internet banking or device management Web page would need this level of encryption.

But I would also like to support in this feature the ability not just to encrypt data but to authenticate the same data using a digital signature. Here, it could permit users to be sure that the Web site they are visiting or the file they are downloading is authentic and would be especially of importance with field-updated BIOS and firmware deployments, as I raised in my commentary about a lawsuit involving HP concerning this practice and its security ramifications.

Caching support at network level

Another feature that is being proposed is to provide for network-level caching of HTTP data. This is intended to provide for environments like mobile networks where it could be desirable to cache data in the service network rather than on the user’s mobile device; rather than introducing proxy servers to provide this kind of caching.

It will also allow mobile and embedded devices to avoid the requirement to have Web caches for quick loading of Web pages. Of course this will not be needed for those Web pages that have regularly-updated data such as Web dashboards, Web mail or similar applications.

Other issues

It also is worth investigating whether the HTTP 2.0 standard could support applications like client-server email delivery or advanced document authoring such as version control.

Of course this development will take a long time to achieve and will require some form of HTTP 1.x backward compatibility so there isn’t the loss of continuity through an upgrade cycle.

Troubleshooting a network printer that you can’t print to

Dell 1130n compact monochrome laser printerYou may find that you cannot use your printer or multifunction from your computer via the network yet find that it can perform standalone tasks such as copying and faxing for example. It is even though the printer used to print from the computer via the same network connection just before the problem surfaced.

In the case of multifunction printers, you may not be able to start a scanning job destined for your computer from the machine’s control surface or, at worst, scan to your computer at all. This is although you previously were able to scan that way before. It can also affect computer-based faxing for fax-equipped multifunction printers.

This is a situation I have ran in to myself with my computer and my inkjet multifunction printer on many occasions. But I have also assisted a small company whom I deal with regularly that faced similar problems with two of their colour laser printers that are connected to their business’s network.

There are two main problems that can cause you not to print to your network printer even though you could previously print to the same machine.

Driver software and operating-system problems

If the fault occurs with one particular computer rather than all computers and devices that use the same printer driver software, the driver software or its configuration may be balky.

This may happen if you have continuously added and removed many printers from the same computer, something I have encountered as I install and remove many different review-sample printers from my desktop PC through the course of adding content to this Website.

Check and reinstall the driver software

In some cases, this problem can be caused by faulty driver software and you may have to download the latest driver software from the manufacturer’s Website. It is infact a process I encourage people to do when installing new hardware because the software supplied on the CD in the device’s carton may he “rushed out” in a bid to get the device to market quickly.

Check the state of the operating system’s print functionality

Similarly, it may be worth rebooting the computer because the print spooler (the software that manages the printing function) in the operating system may have stalled. On the other hand, you may have to manually start the print spooler. In Windows 7, this would be found by searching for “Services” in the Start Menu’s Search option, whereupon you look in the list for “Print Spooler” and make sure that’s started.

Network interface not working

If this happens with all of the computers in the network, it may be due to the printer itself losing connection with the network. This may also affect other network functions like IP-based faxing, HP ePrint or other Web-based features.

Check for faults with the network

Check for obvious faults with the network connection like faulty Ethernet leads, infrastructure equipment like a router, switch or HomePlug bridge turned off or not functioning or, in the case of Wi-Fi setups, the quality of the wireless signal.

In some cases, you may have to turn the network-infrastructure device off at the AC power for a few seconds because it may have “frozen” due to something like a power surge. Use the network-status option on the printer’s control panel menu to check that it can “see” the network after you check these factors.

Reset the printer’s network connection

Sometimes, you may have to force a network reset on the printer. This can be done through an option that is, again, found on the same setup menu on the printer’s control panel. On the other hand, you may have to simply unplug the machine from the AC power, waiting a few minutes, then plug it back in.

Conclusion

Once you know how to tackle these printer problems, you may then be able to see longer service life from your equipment.

Bluetooth Smart Ready–Relevant to the tablet form factor?

During the recent media hype surrounding the release of the new Apple iPad, one feature that was mentioned but played second fiddle was the tablet’s support for Bluetooth 4.0 “Smart Ready” connectivity.

This technology, which I covered in a previous article, is where the Bluetooth infrastructure can implement sensor / control devices that work on low-power-drain requirements by reducing the need to transmit frequently. They are typically pitched at the health-care and fitness market in the form of heart-rate monitors, blood glucose meters, personnel scales and the like as well as “smart watches”; and would typically be expected to work with the “Bluetooth Smart-Ready” smartphones rather than a tablet device.

But I would still view the Bluetooth Smart Ready integration for the iPad as very relevant to its form factor. In the health context, the larger screen would benefit a “spot-measuring” device like a sphygmomanometer (blood-pressure meter), thermometer or scales when used with an app that keeps records of the measurements. Here, it could be feasible to see a table or chart  of previous measurements alongside the current measurement so you can make a comparative assessment against the previous observations.

The automotive application class would also benefit from Bluetooth 4.0 implemented on a tablet, especially in the context of people engaging in DIY car maintenance and tuning (read “petrolheads” / “gearheads” / “boy-racers”). Here, Bluetooth 4.0 could interlink devices like a tachometer / dwell meter to a tablet that acts as a large-screen display for these devices when you are tuning that car for performance.

It may also benefit the so-called “app-cessory” concept market where the tablets become control surfaces for appliances, but this would not really need to specifically use Bluetooth 4.0 if the appliance needs constant power to work, because of it benefiting from that constant power.

But there are some applications that need power to provide local needs on a spontaneous basis. These exist primarily in the security / safety product class and represent devices like electromechanical locks or safe locking systems. They can benefit from a Bluetooth 4.0 tablet being a service / programming terminal or even utilising the notification functions in the tablets to signal events and situations.

What really needs to happen is that the next Apple iPad with its Bluetooth 4.0 subsystem and the next generation of Bluetooth 4.0-equipped tablets be a chance to exploit the large screen of the tablets to take the abilities of Bluetooth Smart Devices further.

Similarly, if an idea does not justify the software existing in the iTunes App Store or similar app stores, I would support the ability to “sideload” the app This is where the software is delivered to the customer by physical media or the manufacturer’s own Website then the customer uploads it using a program like iTunes. There could be an authenticated-software measure to verify the authenticity of the code and protect against malware distribution, but this concept of “sideloading” under the developer’s and consumer’s control may not wash with Apple and their fanbois.

CEBit 2012

Introduction

The CEBit 2012 IT show in Hannover, Germany is one of may technology trade shows covering the European area where there is a strong crossover between product classes. It was positioned at work-based computing but is competing with Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain (smartphones), Internationaler Funkaustellung in Berlin, Gernamy (consumer electronics) and Photokina in Cologne, Germany (digital imaging) as a European showcase platform for consumer and small-business information technology.

It has carried through the overall key trend of work-home computing and the always-mobile business life. This is more so with the emphasis on portable computing equipment and equipment to service the data cloud.

Key issues and trends in computing

Privacy and security in the online age

A key issue that has been raised through this year’s CEBIT show in Hannover is how US-based companies are limiting data privacy in the eyes of Europeans. Regular readers of HomeNetworking01.info may have seen articles being published about this issue, especially an industry interview that I did with Alastair MacGibbon and Brahman Thyagalingham, concerning the responsibility of service providers if something goes awry with the data in their care.

This was brought about through the recent privacy and security changes at Google as well as an increase of data being held “in the cloud”. There was also an underscoring of the improtance of trust concerning data in the Internet Age.

Technological trends

PCs and laptops

These “regular” computers have not been forgotten about even though there is a lot of interest in the tablets and smartphones. It has been led about through the imminent release by Microsoft of Windows 8 which is available as a consumer-preview version at the time of writing. One feature pitched about this operating system is that it was intended to bridge home and work computing lifestyles with mechanisms like Windows To Go “boot-from-USB” setups.

As well, there was the imminent release of the Ivy Bridge chipset and processor families by Intel with these offing graphics that are just close to “gaming quality” but with economical power consumption. There was a “Super SSD” drive also being premiered which had 512Gb of solid-state storage in a 2.5” housing for the current generation of portable computers.

This year has seen more of the Ultrabooks being released by the various manufacturers and in different variants.

An example of this was Acer showing their new range of equipment with the Timeline Ultra M3. This was a so-called “15-inch Ultrabook” which had an optical drive and NVIDIA GeForce discrete graphics, with variants available with a hard disk or solid-state-drive only for their secondary storage.

Acer had also premiered their V3 lineup of 14”, 15” and 17” budget-friendly laptops with the 17” variant having a Blu-Ray optical drive. They also premiered the V5 11”, 14” and 15” slim mainstream laptops with the 14” and 15” varieties being equipped with discrete graphics as an option.

Toshiba also fielded a variant of the Portege Z830-120 Ultrabook with WiDi Wi-Fi-driven display link technology and was promising a “brown-goods” LCD TV with WiDi display functionality. I would say that this function may appear in a higher-end LCD chassis which serves a particular run of high-end lounge-room sets.

Of course, there would be some computers that are positioned as “bridge” units between the regular laptop and the tablet, typically being equipped with a touchscreen and a keyboard at least. Examples of these would include ASUS “Transformer” variants with detachable keyboards or “swivel-head” convertible laptops. These could be based on either an ARM RISC microarchitecture or the classic Intel microarchitecture with them running Windows or Android. They would be pitched at those of us who like the touchscreen tablet experience but also want to use a proper keyboard to create content.

Smartphones and Tablets

The smartphone and tablet scene at this fair has been affected by two issues. One is Apple releasing their third-generation iPad with the higher-resolution “Retina” display and A5x graphics subsystem concurrently with this show, setting the cat among the pigeons. Of course, the patent fights are still on with Apple over tablet-computer design with some of the lawsuits still not resolved.

The other is that a lot of the smartphones and tablets destined for Europe were premiered at the previous Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. But there were a lot of the tablets being exhibited in Hannover.

Key features that were being put up included near-field communications which enabled “tap-and-go” payment and data transfer for these devices, larger screens for this device class, LTE wireless-broadband and DLNA implementation. As well, the Android devices are being released with quad-core processors, keyboard docks, glasses-free 3D, full HD graphics and other more attractive features.

As for LTE 4G wireless broadband, an increasing number of European mobile carriers are rolling out LTE networks through their market areas and are launching phones, tablets and modems that work with this technology.

Conclusion

What it sounds like is that the CEBit show is underpinning a mobile cloud-driven computing environment which is to support “regular” and mobile usage classes.

App stores moving towards larger downloads – how about dynamic packaging

Lately I have observed Google Play (was Android Market) and the Apple iTunes App Store for iOS moving towards permitting the download of larger deliverable files for their platforms’ apps. What I see of this is a move towards PC-style app packaging where there is an executable image of the program along with separately-packed “library” or “resource” files.

This may yield a limitation with it taking a long time before the app becomes ready to use as well as increased pressure on the bandwidth. The latter issue will affect those of us who use wireless-broadband services because of reduced throughput and increased costs to use these services.

What could be achieved would be to allow the app stores to implement dynamic packaging where the user only downloads what they need rather than the same large package. This would be very handy with game franchises and similar programs which have the same runtime code but users download variants which “expand” the program further. Similarly, there could be developers who build function libraries such as peripheral-interface libraries and share these with other developers. It also appeals to app packages which may be packaged for particular device classes like a “smartphone class” app and a “tablet class” app that exploits the large screen of these tablets.

The app stores should then work towards the dynamic package model when they permit larger deliverable packages for the apps that they provide. This setup can work alongside the other mechanisms like background download or Wi-Fi-only downloading to ease the pressure on the devices and their networks.

Product Review–Sony VAIO S Series notebook computer (Model: SB36FG/R)

Introduction

I am reviewing the Sony VAIO S Series ultraportable notebook which is Sony’s entry in to the 13” mainstream subnotebook / ultraportable computer. In a lot of ways it is similar to and positioned squarely at the same market as the Toshiba Satellite L730 ultraportable which,  like this unit, has an integrated optical drive.

Sony VAIO S Series ultraportable

Price
– this configuration
AUD$1399
Processor Intel
i5-2430M
RAM 4Gb shared with graphics
Secondary Storage 500Gb hard disk DVD burner, SD card reader, MemoryStick card reader
Display Subsystem Intel HD graphics + AMD Radeon HD discrete graphics
Screen 13” widescreen (1366×768) LED-backlit LCD
Audio Subsystem Intel HD audio
Network Wi-Fi 802.11a/g/n
Ethernet Gigabit Ethernet
Bluetooth 3.0
Connectors USB 3 x USB 2.0
Video External display
Audio External audio
Operating System on supplied unit Microsoft Windows 7 SP1 Home Premium
Windows Experience Index – ‘Stamina” mode Overall:4.7 Graphics: 4.7
Advanced Graphics: 6.2
Windows Experience Index – “Speed” mode Overall: 5.3 It Graphics: 5.3
Advanced Graphics: 6.4

The computer itself

Aesthetics and Build quality

Sony VAIO S Series lid view

Lid view

The Sony VAIO S Series is finished in a red aluminium shell with the back of the lid finished in black.It is thick like the Toshiba Satellite L730 ultraportable and is well-built and runs cool, thus being suitable for long-term use.

User interface

The Sony VAIO S’s illuminated chiclet keyboard is something that you can still touch-type on but feels very plasticky and slippery. Personally, I would go for a keyboard that uses a rubberised feel.

The trackpad is easy to locate and operate by touch and feel and is augmented by a fingerprint sensor.This is part of the login setup for password-protected logins but could also work with a password vault program that is independent of the login setup.

Audio and Video

Sony VAIO S Series ultraportable STAMINA-SPEED switch

Dual graphics with an easy-to-use operating-mode switch

Like most recent laptops, the Sony VAIO S Series uses a dual-GPU setup but this is implemented differently from the norm. Here, the user can change modes by flicking a switch located above the keyboard between “Stamina” which is the battery-saving mode and “Speed” which is the performance mode. This method makes it easier to know which mode you want the computer in to suit the situation at hand and reminds me of the overdrive switch or “sport-mode” switch found in a lot of European cars, where you can engage this mode for performance or disengage it for economy.

As for the display, it isn’t too glossy and reflective, thus allowing the VAIO to be used in many different lighting scenarios, even outdoors.

The sound subsystem is typical to most laptops, with the tinny speakers and the integrated sound card. The VAIO would be best used with a pair of headphones or external speakers if you want more mileage out of the sound.

Connectivity and Expansion

Sony VAIO S Series ultraportable - RHS

Right-hand side – SD card and Memory-Stick slots, locking slot under SD card slot, VGA, HDMI, USB 3.0, 2 x USB 2.0, Ethernet

The expansion options that the Sony VAIO S Series has are plentiful, with 3 USB sockets, one of them being a USB 3.0 socket. You can also connect the VAIO to external displays through a VGA or HDMI connector.

This laptop has what I would expect of a standard ultraportable, with dual-band 802.11a/g/n wireless and Gigabit Ethernet network interfaces.

The SD card slot’s location is very disappointing in my view due to its close proximity to the locking slot. Here, you wouldn’t be able to remove or insert an SD card in this slot if you use a locking device to stop the laptop from being stolen. Some users may see it as a bonus if they want to stop copying of data from the computer while it is unsupervised but this setup may limit use with Kensington’s ClickSafe two-part key-based locks or similar devices.

Battery life

Sony VAIO S Series ultraportable - LHS

Left had side with audio socket and DVD burner

The VAIO S’s STAMINA / SPEED switch allows you to make sure you are running the laptop on a battery-conserving mode when you are running it on batteries and this does pay off with the long run time.

This has really shown a difference with the computer taking very little power to do the basic tasks and running for times in order of five hours consecutively.

Limitations and Points of improvement

I haven’t seen many limitations for the VAIO S Series but Sony could move the locking slot from next to the SD card reader. This could make it suitable for those environments where you require the laptop to be tethered down at all times

Conclusion

Sony VAIO S Series

Still very suitable for hotspot surfing

I would position the Sony VAIO S Series as a fully-fledged ultraportable notebook for those of us who want the integrated optical drive. This is more so as an alternative to the Toshiba Satellite L730 and could be considered as a “journalist’s friend” computer or a machine to give that student who is heading out on that long trip. It can even also work well as a hotspot-surfing laptop when you use that cafe as a second office.

The next-generation Apple iPad–how I see it

Articles

Apple’s new iPad: Hands-on | CNet

Apple’s next-gen iPad: New battlefields emerge | ZDNet

Apple unveils new iPad, Apple TV | Digital Life – The Age (Australia)

Apple unveils new iPad with high-definition screen | BBC Technology (UK)

My Comments

Over these last few days, Apple had warmed up the hype machine over their just-released iteration of the iPad. It is to implement a 9.5” very-high-definition “retina” display which allows it to show more detail; as well as the use of the A5X quad-core RISC processor, allowing, for example, the Angry Birds to throw those stones faster and harder at the pigs. This iPad will also be the first Apple iOS product to work with the 4G LTE wireless-broadband networks.

Similarly, Apple had driven down the price of their current-generation iPad 2 range in order to snap at the low-cost tablets such as the Amazon Kindle Fire. But this price attack is unrealistic due to the Kindle Fire and others offering the 7” screens and pocketable size whereas the iPad is more the larger 10” “satchel-size” variety.

But I see it more as being part of a highly-competitive touchscreen tablet computer marketplace with some powerful Android tablets on the marketplace such as the Asus Transformer Prime; as well as the upcoming appearance of Windows 8 this year with its support for tablet computers.

It will be like the late 80s where there have been three or more GUI-equipped computer platforms appearing on the consumer and business marketplace, offering their different capabilities. In some cases, this included implementing technologies that were considered “cutting edge” for that time. It is also like the way the smartphone market has become with two major competitors appealing to consumers and a few more competitors appealing to business users.

I would see the rest of this year as being a keen-edged time period for tablets and tablet-based apps as the competition heats up and the value factor for these products increases. It would also include whether these tablets will displace the regular computer from its place as one’s primary personal or business computing device as Steve Jobs wished for the Apple iPad platform or simply work as an auxiliary computing device. This includes the ability for these tablets to please the “core” gamers as a gaming system or a screen-equipped controller; or just be useful for casual ad-hoc gaming sessions.