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Nubia's bezel-free Z9 smartphone is coming to the US
If I had a nickel for every "ugh, too much bezel!" comment, I'd have... well, a few bucks anyway. That's why it's good news that Nubia's borderless 5.2-inch Z9 smartphone is coming to the US next quarter at a rather tempting price. We already previewed the Z9 when it came to China last month, so here are the Cliff notes. First off, it's a bezel-hater's dream, at least on the sides -- there's nothing there but a slim metal frame, which also doubles as a touch surface. By gripping it in various ways, you can unlock the home screen, adjust the brightness and even flip it to single-hand mode, among other tasks.
Sceptre teases 2013 lineup that includes near-borderless TVs, WiFi sound bar
Sceptre isn't waiting for CES to give a peek at what its home theater roster will bring. This year, the budget-focused company is hoping to take on the extra-minimalist TVs we've seen from Samsung and LG. Its 32- to 55-inch Rimless series wraps an LED-backlit LCD with a 4mm-thick bezel. Some of its overall TV line should also have MHL-capable HDMI ports to take video from mobile devices or a Roku Streaming Stick. Scepter's audio focus may be the most unique part of its lineup, however: it should have the first compact, 2.1-channel sound bar with WiFi, turning older TVs into connected models. There's more coming, including a 1080p in-car camera, so check after the break for the lineup we know so far.
TUAW's Daily Mac App: Byword
To a writer a decent text editor is worth its weight in gold. Unlike Word or Pages, Byword is a text editor that gives you just enough to get the job done, while getting out of your way. In its most basic form it's a plain text editor, but it can also produce and edit rich-text files and MultiMarkdown support, meaning that for the most part, you can get almost any sort of creative writing done within its minimalist writing interface. When windowed, Byword gives you a svelte borderless writing experience, but when full-screen it removes all distractions with a blank off-white background that fills the screen with just a single column of text with some great typography in the center. Various tools like a file type indicator or word and character counters are available at the bottom of the screen in faint text, while search and full-screen buttons are hidden in the top right hand corner. The font size, color, column width and typography can all be customized, even allowing white text on a black background if required. Byword also includes a "focus" mode, which highlights a portion of the text (shown above), fading out the rest. You can choose from one to nine lines or just one paragraph to include in the highlight, which allows you to concentrate on just the text needed at the time. For US$9.99 Byword is a great text editor, providing just enough functionality while getting out of your way.
Reader UI of the Week: Germany represents with Viday's UI
Each week, WoW Insider brings you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which spotlights the latest user interface addons. Have a screenshot of your own UI that you'd like to submit? Send your screenshots along with info on what mods you're using to readerui@wowinsider.com. Tuesday is here, and you know what that means: We are one week away from a WoW Insider Show special live show extravaganza! You heard me right, folks: Next Tuesday, May 31, Mike Sacco, Matthew Rossi, and myself will hit the live stream for a full show dedicated to all things WoW. Plus, we're doing the show during downtime, starting at 11 a.m. Eastern/8 a.m. Pacific, so you won't be busy and can totally listen. We'll be giving away prizes, too. That rules! Anyway, we've got other business to attend to right now. Reader UI of the Week gets a good number of submissions from both Europe and the United States, but there is a really fun factor in seeing non-English UIs. The localization process is awesome and incredibly intriguing to me, and I love seeing what different UI elements are labeled as and how UI issues are dealt with. Imagine my utter disappointment when German native Viday changed his entire interface to English so it would be more understandable. Story of my life. %Gallery-19902%
LG unveils new slim design LCD HDTVs due this fall
Sure it's summertime in New York and not January in Las Vegas, but that didn't stop LG from rolling out a couple new lines of LCD HDTVs today. The new SL80 and SL90 models don't bring new high water marks on the spec sheets, but feature LG's take on the "borderless" design trend that's the rage these days, built from a single edge to edge piece of glass with a slim bezel and Invisible Speaker design. The top of the line SL90 is due later this year for an unspecified price range in 42- and 47-inch sizes with LED backlighting contributing to its 3,000,000:1 claimed contrast ratio and 1.15 inch depth, plus 120Hz TruMotion processing. The SL80 line has 240Hz processing, but older CCFL backlighting means a 300,000:1 measured contrast ratio and 1.8-inch thick design, but the 42-, 47-, and 55-inch models will be available this August for $1,599, $1,899 and $2,799, respectively. Want a closer look at LG's new global flat panel design platform? The gallery is right here.
iChat Borderless mod
We're a little late picking up on this one, but that doesn't make it any less cool: a Backpack user I know only as 'myobie' has posted a small installer called iChat Borderless that modifies the appearance of iChat to give it a more updated, near-Unified look. Fortunately, it downloads as a simple disk image with an installer that does all the heavy lifting for you, and it should look good on Mac OS X 10.4, 10.3 and even 10.2. On my 10.4.9 system though, I get the borderless look, but brushed metal is still around, whereas iChat Borderless's screenshots clearly show the dark grey Unified look. Anyone else care to chime in?Personally, I still prefer the old iChat mod that Dave Caolo found last summer. Sadly, the post at MacThemes Forums where this mod apparently lived exists no longer. Still, if the Leopard delay means you're jonesing that much worse for an update to iChat's aging UI, iChat Borderless should tide you over. Thanks, Shain.
