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VAIO's port-loaded 12-inch laptop goes on sale in the US
Following its launch in Japan, VAIO's small but mighty SX12 -- which offers just about every conceivable I/O you could ever want -- is now available in the US. Its starting price of $1,119 means this isn't a cheap deal, but how could it be when such a diminutive 12-inch model somehow crams in three USB-A ports, one USB-C port, a HDMI port, a full-sized SD card slot, a headphone/mic port, an Ethernet port and even a VGA port. Got literally anything to plug in to something? This'll do it.
The best USB-C adapters, cables, and hubs
By Nick Guy This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter, reviews for the real world. When readers choose to buy Wirecutter's independently chosen editorial picks, they may earn affiliate commissions that support their work. Read the full article here. After 10 hours of preliminary research, we tested more than 25 USB-C accessories to put together this guide to the best ways to connect peripherals and devices to a USB-C–equipped computer. It's by no means exhaustive. USB-C can, in theory, replace every other port, and there are a seemingly infinite number of port combinations you might encounter. We focused on the most important tasks you'll likely face, such as connecting older peripherals like hard drives and hooking up an external display.
The Game Awards 2014 debuts December 5
The Game Awards 2014, a new independent video game awards show, will take the stage in December. Produced by former Video Game Awards host Geoff Keighley, the show will debut on December 5, airing live from the AXIS Theater in Las Vegas. The Game Awards 2014 will begin at 9:00 p.m. ET (6:00 p.m. PT) and will be livestreamed globally "across a record number of gaming devices, platforms, media partners and services." The ceremony will include "world premieres, musical performances, and appearances by game developers, eSports players and online content creators" in addition to shiny awards for some of the year's finest works in the gaming world. The Game Awards' advisory board includes Nintendo of America President and COO Reggie Fils-Aime, Ubisoft Co-Founder and CEO Yves Guillemot, EA COO Peter Moore, Sony Computer Entertainment America CEO Shawn Layden and Head of Xbox Phil Spencer. Tickets to The Game Awards 2014 start at $45 and will go on sale through Ticketmaster at 12:00 p.m. ET (9:00 a.m. PT) tomorrow. [Image: The Game Awards]
Joel McHale co-hosting Spike VGX live show tomorrow
The Spike Video Game Awards, this year called VGX probably because it's so extreme, will be co-hosted by Joel McHale, the lovably sarcastic guy from Community and The Soup. He's not entirely new to the gaming circuit, having hosted Ubisoft's E3 press conference in 2009 and starred in Nintendo's pointedly viral 3DS ad last year. McHale joins Geoff Keighley on stage for a barrage of new game trailers and announcements, starting at 6PM ET on Spike TV and across a number of streaming services, including Steam. We'll be liveblogging the entire show and posting the news as it breaks, so think of us as another group of co-hosts. Less famous, silent, but still really cool co-hosts.
Hands-on with the Kensington USB 3.0 Docking Station with Dual DVI/HDMI/VGA Video (Giveaway!)
The popularity of Apple's MacBook Pro and Air laptops is one of the reasons that Mac sales have increased while PC sales are waning. But if there's one thing that the laptop experience is lacking, it's a plethora of USB 3.0 and video ports. Kensington's USB 3.0 Docking Station with DVI/HDMI/VGA Video (Model sd3500v, US$199.99) has been around for a while to help out PC laptop users; the recent availability for OS X drivers for the DisplayLink hardware inside the unit now gives MacBook owners a piece of the action. Design The Docking Station is a slim vertical black tower that's unobtrusive on any desktop. On the front of the unit are a pair of SuperSpeed USB 3.0 ports as well as connectors for a pair of headphones and a microphone (or headset). Like many a good bar, all the action is in the back -- there are four USB 3.0 2.0 ports, a gigabit Ethernet adapter, a DVI port that can be used for VGA or HDMI output with included adapters, and a separate HDMI port. All of this port activity requires some power, so there's also a 5V AC adapter included that plugs into the back of the unit. The unit has a good, solid feel. Since it's made by Kensington, there's a standard Kensington lock port on one side as well so the dock won't "walk away" from your desk over a weekend. Functionality The best way to test a multi-port docking station of this type is to hook it up and play with it. Prior to connecting, Mac users will need to download and install the free DisplayLink USB 3.0 for Mac OS X driver. Plugging the docking station into power turns on a blue indicator light on the front of the tower, while connecting a USB 3.0 cable from your MacBook to the dock illuminates a small green USB indicator light. From this point on, you can start plugging in your choice of devices. I tested the docking station with a VGA connection to an external monitor, and was able to drive that monitor at 1920 x 1080 while my MacBook Pro happily supported its own Retina display. For even more fun, I plugged in an old VGA monitor while driving the external monitor via HDMI. The three displays (built-in, HDMI, VGA) all worked properly, although resolution on the old, cheap VGA monitor was a bit off -- that's more of an issue of the monitor and not the docking station. I plugged in a variety of USB 3.0 and 2.0 devices -- hard drives, flash drives, even a printer -- and all worked like a champ with the docking station. If you need one less video port (for instance, you may already have a mini-DisplayPort to HDMI or VGA adapter that you want to use), Kensington also sells a model (sd3000v) that has a single DVI port and adapters for VGA or HDMI priced at $169.99. Conclusion For MacBook Pro or Air owners looking for a way to easily connect an array of monitors and USB devices to their laptops with a single plugin, the Kensington USB 3.0 Docking Station with Dual DVI/HDMI/VGA Video is a compact and high-functioning peripheral. Pros Compact vertical design takes up very little desktop space Two SuperSpeed USB 3.0 and four "regular" USB 3.0/2.0 ports provide a lot of expansion capability Theoretically, using the two ports on this device as well as the two Thunderbolt ports and HDMI-out on the MacBook Pro, you can drive up to five external monitors (note, this was not tested...) Cons None to speak of Who is it for? Owners of USB 3.0-equipped MacBook Pro or MacBook Air notebooks who want a fast way to connect multiple monitors and devices Giveaway Our review unit is up for grabs for one lucky TUAW reader. Here are the rules for the giveaway: Open to legal US residents of the 50 United States, the District of Columbia and Canada (excluding Quebec) who are 18 and older. To enter, fill out the form below completely and click or tap the Submit button. The entry must be made before May 28, 2013 11:59PM Eastern Daylight Time. You may enter only once. One winner will be selected and will receive a Kensington USB 3.0 Docking Station with Dual DVI/HDMI/VGA Video valued at US$199.99 Click Here for complete Official Rules. Loading...
Must See HDTV (December 3rd - 9th)
We're finally ready to see the latest Batman flick on Blu-ray, and while a lack of pro hockey is leaving a hole in TV schedules, there a few other viewing options. Pixar is also sending out Finding Nemo and Up on Blu-ray 3D, while special events like the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show and VGAs fill out the slate. Look below for the highlights this week, followed after the break by our weekly listing of what to look out for in TV, Blu-ray and videogames. The Dark Knight Rises The final movie in Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy comes home this week. As with every blockbuster flick in 2012, beyond the multiple types of releases there's also a deep second screen experience available, flashing extra information for fans to see while and after they watch the movie. Will it make Bane easier to understand? We can't say for sure, but this flick will probably still continue the series' trend of smashing Blu-ray sales records. ($18.99 on Amazon) VGA Ten Somehow, the Video Game awards have made it ten years, and they're celebrating it later this week on Spike TV. As part of the festivities, previous hosts like Snoop, Neil Patrick Harris and Zachary Levi will be returning to the stage. As always, there will also be promos for several new games aired during the event, check after the break for an early peek at clips for Gears of War: Judgement and The Last of Us. (December 7th, Spike TV, 9PM)
Samuel L. Jackson is a big baby about hosting Spike VGA 2012
Samuel L. Jackson is hosting the 10th annual Spike Video Game Awards on December 7, which is awesome. We just hope he won't be forced to wear a giant baby suit for any part of the show. That would be almost as terrifying as the below promo video.
DisplayLink shows off adapters and docks from HP, Lenovo, EVGA and Targus at IDF 2012
With the proliferation of Ultrabooks, laptops are shipping with fewer ports and smaller screens. One of the benficiaries of the streamlined designs is DisplayLink, whose technology can turn a single USB port into a bevy of connections. At IDF 2012, the company showed off new gear from several vendors, including EVGA, HP, Lenovo and Targus. First, there's a handsome little puck from EVGA, called the UV Plus+39, that plugs into your laptop's USB 2 or 3.0 socket to grant you HDMI and DVI output at up to 2048 x 1152 resolution for $85. Next up, Lenovo's self-explanatory USB 3.0 to DVI adapter that supports the same max resolution as the Plus+39 for $80. Lastly, a pair of docks from Targus and HP. HP's 3005pr USB 3.0 Port Replicator turns your laptop's USB 3.0 port into four USB 2.0, two USB 3.0, one HDMI, DisplayPort, and RJ-45 jacks, plus audio in and out connections for a mere $150. Targus' $250 USB 3.0 SuperSpeed Dual Video Docking Station has similar connectivity to HP's solution, but swaps DisplayPort for DVI and adds the ability to charge 90W laptops using its included array of power adapters. Having trouble deciding which one's for you? Perhaps our photos in the gallery below will help you decide.%Gallery-165490% Myriam Joire contributed to this report.
Lightning to HDMI and VGA cables incoming, says Apple
Apple has already announced a 30-pin adapter for the iPhone 5's new Lightning standard, but its product page betrays a pair of limitations: "video and iPod Out not supported." That's nothing another accessory can't fix, of course. According to The Verge, Cupertino has plans to release Lightning to HDMI and VGA cables "in the coming months," giving early adopters something to pine for on day one. No word on pricing or specific availability of course, but we wouldn't be surprised to see it hover around the existing adapter's $29 price tag. Fine by us, assuming it pulls its weight.
ASUS breaks through 120Hz refresh rate with VG278HE gamer monitor... refresh
ASUS continues to update its VG monitor series, and this time it's got something a little more impressive than an integrated IR transmitter. According to FlatpanelsHD, the VG278HE has knocked through the 120Hz barrier that most monitors come up against. The 27-incher can be configured to a buttery smooth 144Hz for 2D and 3D gaming, while inputs include HDMI, dual-link DVI and VGA. The monitor also supports NVIDIA's 3D Vision 2 -- but you'll have to buy the rest of the parts separately. We've reached out to ASUS about pricing and availability, but until we hear more, you'll just have to imagine those breezy refresh rates. Update: ASUS told us we can expect to see the display hit shelves sometime in Q4, but noted that pricing has not been finalized.
Apple receives patent on MacBook Air wedge design
Apple's MacBook Air has a characteristic slim design that's immediately recognizable by both Apple fans and Windows users. According to The Verge, Apple now owns a design patent that covers this distinctive tapered design. In their analysis, The Verge points out that the patent's drawings focus on the sloping edges and the overall shape of the lid and base of the laptop, not the placement of extras like the ports and rubber feet. This emphasis could be problematic for companies like HP and Asus which mimicked the look of the MacBook Air in their recent products. As pointed out by Daring Fireball and Boing Boing yesterday, even ultraslim PC laptops seem to be kneecapped by a vintage design constraint: the thickness of a conventional VGA port. Apple's migration to Thunderbolt and DisplayPort may require a separate adapter for VGA or DVI connections, but it definitely reduces the chunk factor.
Samsung Focus 2 review
Ready for Samsung's latest entrant to the Windows Phone game? Hopefully you answered "yes," because we're about to take you through an in-depth look at such a device: the Focus 2. Around the time that we United States-based Engadgeteers were lusting over Nokia's Lumia 800 and getting to know the HTC Titan, Samsung introduced its Focus S and lower-tiered Focus Flash WP7.5 handsets. Redmond's hardware restrictions haven't exactly changed much since then, begging the question as to how the Focus 2 fits in as a late follow-up to the original Focus from back in 2010. The bulk of the answer, of course, is LTE. This handset is the only other Windows Phone aside from the Lumia 900 and HTC Titan II to feature such connectivity on Ma Bell's network. That, and it's priced at just $50 dollars on a two-year commitment. Is it a veritable steal like the Focus Flash proved to be, though? Join us past the break where we'll lay it all out.
Samsung's Focus 2 arrives at AT&T today, a slice of LTE-equipped Mango for $50
Not long after Samsung's SGH-i667 "Mandel" looked like it would never see the light of day, the Windows Phone 7.5 device made its official debut at CTIA, dubbed as the Focus 2. As expected, the phone is officially on sale today at AT&T retailers across the US, giving folks another option aside from the HTC Titan II or flagship Lumia 900 for a fix of LTE and Mango on the network. To refresh your memory, you'll find a 4-inch Super AMOLED display and VGA camera up front, and a 5MP shooter on back that capture 720p video. Internally, there's a 1.4GHz single-core CPU (exceedingly par for the course for Windows Phone at this point) and a 1,750mAh battery to hopefully ensure you'll have enough juice to get through the day. Despite the speedy connectivity, we'd be remiss not to mention that the Focus 2 packs a paltry 8GB of non-expandable storage and only comes in Glossy Pure White -- but for fifty bucks under a new two-year agreement, we won't kvetch too much. Our full review is coming soon, so hit the source link for more details in the meantime.
Engadget Primed: ports, connectors and the future of your TV's backside
Primed goes in-depth on the technobabble you hear on Engadget every day -- we dig deep into each topic's history and how it benefits our lives. You can follow the series here. Looking to suggest a piece of technology for us to break down? Drop us a line at primed *at* engadget *dawt* com. For many among us, what goes on behind and along the sides of a high-definition television is almost as compelling as what's displayed on that big, beautiful flat screen. Of course, we're talking connectors, with their attendant chaos of cords. A high-def TV is only as good as its connection to a high-def signal. The same holds true for the array of disc players, game consoles and other peripherals we cluster around our sets. So it may seem quaint, then, that we still often confront more analog ports than digital ones on our high-end TVs. You'd think with advances in wireless technology, we'd have done away with the spider web of wires entirely. Alas, like flying cars and fembots, we're just not there yet. In this installment of Primed, we'll examine the best and the bogus when it comes to TV connectors, and spend some time tracing the arc of how we got to where we are in this particular moment of television evolution. The narrative on television and home entertainment remains a work in progress. But we'll endeavor to get you caught up to date, and as an added bonus offer a glimpse of what the future of your TV's backside will likely look like.
Liveblogging the Spike 2011 Video Game Awards
Well, we just watched the last ten minutes of The Rundown, which means -- what else? -- we're watching Spike TV. That means two things: The VGAs are about to come on, and Sean William Scott just cut off a little piece of our soul, and devoured it wholesale. Ladies and gentlemen: The Spike 2011 VGAs. Let's do this thing. Oh God.
Arduino kit beams low-fi Google Weather to VGA screens
Looking for another way to use that aging VGA CRT screen hogging space in the closet? Try making your own dedicated weather screen by mixing together Google's meteorological data stream and some Arduino magic. It looks like parsing that Google Weather data was a bit of a challenge on the miniscule 2KB of RAM, but a tinkerer going by the handle Zmashiah has managed to do it. He's even managed to cram in a few extra graphical flourishes, including icons and background themes that change depending on the temperature and time of day. The entirely PC-free device grabs the data through an Ethernet connection and flashes up all the weather goodness in stunning VGA. Any meteorological mavens reading this can grab the full shopping list and procedure at the Instructables link below.
Boost Mobile adds Samsung Transform Ultra to its repertoire, hopes you'll transition for $230
You might think it's more than meets the eye, but the Samsung Transform Ultra doesn't have much to hide -- except a full QWERTY keyboard, that is. Arriving precisely on time, the newest flagship device for Boost Mobile packs a prepaid punch: the Ultra rocks a 1GHz single-core CPU, Gingerbread, a three megapixel camera and a VGA front-facing cam. You can pick one of these up now for $230, which isn't too shabby for a decently-spec'd Android device with no contract involved. Head on over to the source link if this particular beauty is meant to be a part of your future.
LG LU6200 spotted in the wild, with 720p HD display taking center stage
If LG's tease routine didn't whet your appetite for the LU6200, these freshly leaked pics might do the trick. Obtained by Korean site Money Today, these in-the-wild images appear to corroborate many of the specs we've already heard about, including that 4.5-inch AH-IPS display at 720p resolution, eight megapixel camera and 1.3 megapixel front-facing shooter. This device is also rumored to feature a 1.5GHz dual-core CPU, 1GB of RAM, 4GB of built-in storage and will reportedly ship with Android 2.3.5, though it'll be ready to update to the forthcoming Ice Cream Sandwich, as well. The LU6200 is expected to hit the Korean market sometime next month, where it'll run on LG Telecom's U+ LTE network, but you can check out an extra image of its commodious display after the break.
Vuzix Wrap 1200VR video eyewear does 3D with head-tracking for $600, now available
If you scored yourself Vuzix's Wrap 1200 side-by-side 3D video eyewear last month, you may want to know the company's VR variant is now available for $600 (about 100 bones more). With the Wrap 1200VR, you'll again be viewing a simulated 75-inch, 3D (or 2D, if you'd prefer) 16:9 display at ten feet away. The shades feature a single 852 x 480 monitor per eye and support input resolutions of up to 1280 x 720. The VR bit comes from the included Wrap Tracker 6TC with compass, which enables head-tracking with three degrees of freedom. Better yet, its coupled drift control should maintain silky smooth visuals when you're tilting your noggin' to scope out the on-screen action. Out of box, these specs are said to play nice with most Windows machine's graphics cards and VGA connections, but adapters are required to rock them with your PS3 or Xbox 360. If your eyes are already tearing up with joy, you'll find full details in the PR just past the break. Update: We initially reported the that the Vuzix Wrap 1200VR outputs video in simulated 720p, when it actually supports input resolutions up to 1280 x 720 -- both WVGA monitors have a resolution of 852 x 480. We've updated this post accordingly.
LG unveils Optimus Q2 QWERTY slider, slated for Korean launch next week
LG's fleet of Optimus handsets got slightly larger yesterday, with the announcement of the Optimus Q2 -- a follow-up to that LU2300 QWERTY slider we saw last year. Powered by a 1.2GHz Tegra 2 processor, this forthcoming device runs on Android 2.3, boasts a spacious, four-inch, IPS-based LCD with 700 nits of brightness and features a five-megapixel rear camera, along with a VGA front-facing shooter. The Korean manufacturer added that the Q2 will be about a tenth of an inch thinner and 0.35 ounces lighter than its 3.5-inch predecessor, and that it will ship with a wider keyboard. LG is expected to launch the handset in South Korea next week, though pricing and plans for a wider release remain a mystery. Head past the break for the full, translated PR.
