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Nyx Mobile Lyuba Max and Fun hands-on
When PR reps have something they think is truly special, things can get a little cloak and dagger. While we were hanging around the Nyx Mobile booth, a rep quietly sneaked up on us to offer a glimpse of two new handsets his company is working on. When we enthusiastically agreed (after our heart rate dropped), he led us aside -- away from prying eyes -- and produced a pair devices, delicately wrapped in a silk handkerchief, from his suit's inside pocket. We won't lie, things got a tad disappointing when we realized they were non-functioning mockups, but if the company can pull off these frame-less designs we'll be quite impressed. Due to begin manufacturing within the next two or three months, the Lyuba Max and Lyuba Fun aim to make bezels a thing of the past. The lack of a frame on the five-inch, 63mm-wide Max makes it even trimmer than the significantly smaller-screened Galaxy Nexus, which checks in at about 68mm wide. While we won't make too many judgments on the feel and design based on a non-functioning prototype, we actually found the Max easier to hold and reach all corners of the screen with a single hand than the Nexus or the Note. The four-inch Fun felt a good half-inch smaller than its spec sheet implied -- more akin to an iPhone in size. Both devices will come rocking Ice Cream Sandwich, but they'll be powered by some rather mid-range hardware. Both will pack a 1.2GHz processor, likely of the single-core variety, and neither is boasting impressive screen resolutions. The Max is checking in with a decidedly dated 800 x 480 LCD, while the Fun drops to a lowly HVGA panel. Check out the gallery below for some images of the mockups.
Acer unveils two new Aspire Ethos laptops for multimedia enthusiasts, street fighters
It's been more than a year since Acer first launched its Aspire Ethos line of laptops -- a family that got a bit bigger today, with the announcement of the 8951G and 5951G. These rambunctious little extroverts are powered by the latest generation of Intel's Core i processors, offering Turbo Boost speeds of up to 3.4GHz. Big bro 8951G boasts a 18.4-inch display that transmits images in Full HD, 1920 x 1080 resolution and 220-nit brightness, while spunky little 5951G struts around with a 15.6-inch HD 1366 x 768 screen of its own. They also support NVIDIA GeForce GT500 and DirectX 11 graphics and sport Dolby-approved surround sound, aluminum-magnesium alloy shells, glossy matte finishes and back-lit chiclet keyboards. Acer plans to unleash the pair sometime in mid-June, though they won't come for cheap, with prices starting at £1,000 (about $1,643). Aspiring owners can find more information in the full PR, after the break.
Acer working on frameless laptop with touchscreen keyboard?
Would you believe that Acer is working on a frameless laptop with touchscreen keyboard? As far-fetched as the idea might be, it's certainly plausible, expected even. The idea, as rumored by DigiTimes, involves doing away with the display's frame by printing colors directly onto the back of the display's reinforced glass substrate from Corning (a la Gorilla Glass presumably). Coupled with a touchscreen keyboard, the rumored device should be impossibly thin by traditional laptop comparisons. Keep in mind that we've already seen this Frame Zero concept pictured above from Fujitsu and Acer's arch-rival ASUS has been showing off its dual-display laptop prototype with touchscreen keyboard for months. Even the OLPC XO-3 plans to eschew the clickity keyboard in favor of a touchscreen version. And anyone who has ever seen a scifi movie knows that tactile keyboards and display bezels have no role to play in our computing future anyway, so we might as well get things started now -- or in the second half of 2010 according to DigiTimes' sources.
