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Engadget Daily: the culture of leaks, surviving music festivals and more!
Today, we investigate the culture of leaks, learn how to enhance your music festival experience, review the first Chromebook to feature an i3 processor, watch a robot assemble itself and more. Read on for Engadget's news highlights from the last 24 hours.
Acer C720 review (Core i3): a more powerful Chromebook
Whether rightly or wrongly, Chromebooks have earned a reputation for being the new netbooks. Slowly, though, things are starting to change. The designs are starting to feel less cheap -- at least if you're Samsung. Battery life is getting longer, sometimes even better than on full-fledged laptops. And now, performance is getting stronger, too: Acer just became the first company to release a Chromebook with a Core i3 processor, one that can better withstand multitasking, gaming and whatever rich websites you're likely to visit. The C720, as it's called, is actually the same 11-inch Chromebook Acer's already been selling, just with a beefier CPU inside, and theoretically longer battery life -- 8.5 hours, up from 7.5. As ever, though, Acer kept the price down: This guy starts at just $350, just a little more than what you'd pay for a much lower-powered system from some other brands. The question is: Does processing power trump everything else? And if it does, are you better off waiting for other Core i3 models to come out?
Acer upgrades its C720 Chromebook with more power... and a higher price
Looking for a more powerful Acer Chromebook? It'll cost you -- the company announced today that its C720 Chromebook is getting a processor bump and a new price tag. $350 buys a notebook with a 4th generation Intel Core i3-4005U CPU clocked at 1.7GHz with a 32GB SSD, a modest bump from the 1.4GHz Celeron CPU, 16GB SSD and $200 starting price of the current model. Acer says the new CPU will give the machine a noticeable performance boost without affecting the 8.5 hour runtime consumers have come to expect from the laptop. Little else about the Chromeboook seems to have changed; its still available with 2GB or 4GB (in a $380 model) of RAM. Still, if you want to save some money with Acer's cheaper, slower laptop, buy now: the new models hit store shelves later this month.
Acer unveils $200 Haswell-based Chromebook for the extra-thrifty
Acer gave its Chromebook line a welcome tune-up when it launched the Haswell-based C720, but the $250 starting price was no doubt disappointing to those who wanted the C7's $200 entry point. The company is accommodating those spendthrifts today with its $200 C720-2848 variant. The only sacrifice is a lower 2GB of RAM; owners still get a 1.4GHz Celeron processor, a 16GB solid-state drive and that vaunted 8.5 hours of battery life. Should you want to save a cool $50, or are just frustrated that you can't buy a Chromebook 11, you can pick up the new C720 today from Amazon or Best Buy.
Acer details Haswell-based C720 Chromebook, begins pre-orders at $250
Acer was only willing to tease its Haswell-powered Chromebook at last month's Intel Developer Forum, but it's ready to spill the beans today. Now called the C720, the 11.6-inch system revolves around a more efficient 1.4GHz Celeron processor that (along with 4GB of low-power RAM) allows a healthy 8.5 hours of claimed battery life. The PC also ditches the hard drive of its ancestor; there's now a 16GB solid-state drive that improves responsiveness and helps Acer slim the design by 30 percent, to 0.75 inches thick. The company isn't saying just when the C720 will ship, but Amazon and Best Buy are both taking pre-orders today for a $250 based model that undercuts HP's Chromebook 11.
Mio readying c720 / c320 GPS handhelds?
Considering that Mio's known for cranking out a good variety of GPS handhelds, it's not too surprising to hear that the firm is readying a new duo of units to fill the voids surrounding the recently-unveiled c520. According to GPSReview, the c520 will slide into the middle position as the c320 and c720 flank both sides of the lineup, and while information on each of these presumably forthcoming units are a bit scarce at the moment, it seems that we could be getting a taste of something new. While both devices are slated to boast the same internal antenna, MP3 playback functionality, and SD / MMC support, the c720 could potentially get a two-megapixel camera affixed to the rear, which would likely be used to "store tracklogs" and enable geotagging. As with most not-yet-announced items, there's no word just yet on expected price or availability, but hopefully Mio won't keep us waiting around too long.
