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HP's newest laptop is sexy, but you can't buy it until next year
Last week we ran our review of the Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro, a 13-inch laptop that weighs a scant 2.6 pounds and measures just half an inch thick. It was impressive, to be sure, but it won't be the last: Thanks to Intel's new Core M chips, we're about to see a ton of impossibly thin notebooks. The latest comes from HP, whose just-announced EliteBook Folio 1020 weighs as little as 2.2 pounds and measures 15.7mm thick. We say "as little as" because when the thing goes on sale early next year, it'll be available in two flavors: a regular version that weighs 1.2 kg (2.6 pounds) and a special edition that comes in at 1kg (that's the 2.2-pound one). Both are light, as I found in my brief time with them, but the 1kg model is noticeably lighter, so you might want to wait for that to arrive, if either of these strikes your fancy.
A Nokia Lumia 1020 powers this automated 3D-printed telescope
There are many, many people who've always wanted a powerful space telescope in their backyards but can't exactly afford one. For avid makers and DIY enthusiasts, at least, that's not such an absurd dream anymore -- not when someone has designed an automated 3D-printed telescope that's powered by a commercially available phone: the Nokia Lumia 1020. The device is called Ultrascope, and it stands one meter tall when assembled, with a base that measures 65 centimeters wide. It was created by Open Space Agency founder James Parr, who promised to upload the current design and future iterations to his organization's website once the ongoing beta testing's done.
PSA: the Nokia Lumia 1020 arrives in the UK today (updated)
Let's face it -- we can't be sure Nokia's Lumia 1020 is worth the hype until it's taken a thousand shots of Big Ben and Westminster tube station. Fortunately for us, the PureView-toting handset is landing in the UK from today. We've managed to wrangle confirmation that Vodafone, Three and O2 will be selling the unit, but alas, EE currently has no plans to offer the handset to its million-strong LTE customer base. We suspect more than a few of you, disappointed at Cupertino's latest imaging update, may be throwing your cash at the screen right now. Update: EE, in something of a last-minute tie-up with Nokia, has now pledged it'll be offering the 1020 to both Kevin Bacon and its customers at large.
Visualized: the inside of Nokia Lumia 1020's six-element, 41-megapixel camera
Optical engineering is something that we take for granted these days, with almost every smartphone packing its very own camera for our convenience. But if you take a look at the delicate structure inside a mobile camera module, you may appreciate the technology more every time you snap a shot. Like this cut-out diagram of the Nokia Lumia 1020's camera, for instance: you can see how the six lens elements and other tiny parts are tightly packed together above the 41-megapixel sensor. The elements are actually a combination of five plastic lenses plus one glass lens, with the reason being a taller module would've been made if all the lenses were made of glass. And to enable optical image stabilization, ball bearings are used to counteract hand movement -- there's one near the bottom right corner of the above image. Luckily, the module is also designed to withstand normal drops, so neither the bearings nor lenses would fall out of place unless you try really hard. One more shot after the break to compare sensor sizes. Check out all the news from today's Nokia event at our hub!
Nokia Lumia 1020's Pro Camera app to hit 920, 925 and 928 (hands-on video)
One of Lumia 1020's main attractions is its Nokia Pro Camera app, which completes the phone's 41-megapixel camera with a bunch of handy features. In our video after the break, you can see Niina (not a typo) from Nokia demonstrating the manual focusing and lossless digital zooming. The latter actually works both ways: even if you've zoomed in before capture (and still get native 5-megapixel resolution), you can also zoom back out while browsing these photos, as the app captures both the zoomed-in 5-megapixel image as well as the full 38-megapixel image simultaneously. This way you can reframe the image and even focus on a different subject, as CEO Stephen Elop showed us in our earlier interview. But if you don't need this feature, you can simply set the app to capture just 5-megapixel images by default.
Spot the pattern: Nokia Lumia 1020 hangs out with 808 PureView and N8
Since Nokia's released yet another phone with a big camera, we thought it'd be fun to let this Lumia 1020 meet its glorious pixel-loving forerunners. These are, of course, the 808 PureView and the N8 that bucked the trend of phone photography during their time. In terms of sensors, the 1020 comes with a new 1/1.5-inch, 41-megapixel BSI sensor, which is smaller than the 808's 1/1.2-inch, non-BSI offering of the same resolution. Still, both chips are understandably larger than the N8's 1/1.83-inch, 12-megapixel sensor, which may sound less exciting but was well ahead of its time. We'll try and get some sample shots from each of these in a moment for a quick comparison, so until then, enjoy our hands-on photos below. Update: Sadly, we weren't allowed to extract sample shots from the Lumia 1020, but we'll come back to this once we get hold of a review unit. For now, you can check out Nokia's own sample shots. Check out all the news from today's Nokia event at our hub! %Gallery-193633%
Nokia Lumia 1020 to launch in the UK this quarter on O2 and Three
That 41-megapixel Windows Phone you've been hearing all about? Well, despite the NY launch event, it will indeed launch in the UK. In fact, it'll get here later this quarter. O2 and Three have announced that they'll be offering the Lumia 1020 in stores and online and while both networks currently aren't running an LTE service, Three has promised the phone it offers will be Ultrafast ready, broadly meaning it might run on 4G, but it'll certainly offer up to DC-HSPA speeds at launch. Telefonica, the parent company of O2, has promised that an "exclusive variant of the device" will make an appearance in select European and Latin American markets. More news from the other networks when we hear it. Check out all the news from today's Nokia event at our hub!
Nokia Lumia 1020 vs. 925 vs. 920 vs. 808 PureView: what's changed?
Nokia's sure taken its time, but its 41-megapixel Windows Phone beast is now finally out of the bag. Naturally, we have to compare this Lumia 1020 with its recent siblings: externally it's closer to the 920 than the slimmer 925 or 928, except for its earpiece and, well, the camera. That said, the 1020 is somehow a lot lighter and a little thinner than the bulky 920, while packing the same 2,000mAh battery. Clearly, the lack of built-in Qi wireless charging and perhaps that Gorilla Glass 3 screen are responsible for this weight loss. And needless to say, the Symbian-powered 808 PureView didn't come with as many goodies compared to its Windows Phone cousin -- even the newer lens is faster with six elements instead of five. Feel free to check out our detailed comparison table after the break. Check out all the news from today's Nokia event at our hub!
Nokia Lumia 1020 spotted in yellow, white and black, replete with 2GB of RAM (updated)
For those obsessed with obscene megapixel counts and Windows Phone, Thursday can't come soon enough. If rumors prove true, the renders shown above will be made official in around 72 hours, with the Lumia 1020 to debut in a flurry of hues -- yellow, black and white, specifically. Moreover, Windows Phone Central is reporting that the device previously known as EOS will ship with optical image stabilization built right in, 2GB of RAM (a boost from the 1GB found on most modern WP8 handsets) and 32GB of internal storage. Head on down to the source link for more... you know, given that waiting for the formal word isn't something you're prone to do. Update: According to a leaked (slightly sketchy) image on Weibo, it looks like the white iteration might be glossy, rather than the matte finish seen on the Lumia 925. We've added it after the break.
Apple support forums inadvertently leak 10/20 product announcements
All props to Polish blog spidersweb.pl this morning, as they did a bit of sneaky digging into Apple's support forums to turn up compelling evidence of some of the products we expect to see later today. Knowing that when the forum administrators create new support categories the forum URLs get sequential numbers, writer Przemysław Pająk got curious. Simply editing the address of the forum site to go past the most recent addition (the Apple TV, at #276) reveals a 'Reserved 10 20' forum -- aha! That alone is a fun discovery, but if you keep going as Spider's Web did, you will rapidly discover forums for iMovie, GarageBand and iPhoto '11, followed by a forum for 'MBA (Need Official Name).' Oops. If you have "new iLife" and "new MacBook Air" on your Keynote Bingo card, might as well start chilling the champagne now. You might also spare a good thought for the Apple Support forum administration team, which is almost certainly going to have a pretty lousy day at work. Also note the absence of iWeb and iDVD from the presumptive product line. Thanks to everyone who sent this in.
Olympus skins up the Mju 1020
Olympus pushed out the Mju (that's the Stylus over here) 1020 in a lackluster pre-PMA update back in January, but the company is trying to spice up the 10.1 megapixel shooter with a trio of custom skins designed by Romanian artist Matei Apostolescu. The skins are bundled with a special white-bodied 1020 and are apparently available now, but you'll have to act fast -- only 5,000 are being produced. Check the other two designs after the break.
