PortablePc
Latest
Gartner reports Western Europe desktop shipments down, portable PCs up in Q2 2012
When it comes to technology and the end of a financial quarter, you can bet your wage there'll be an analyst report or two letting you what's what. And according to Gartner's latest estimates for Western Europe, PCs didn't fare too well in Q2 of this year, with a 2.4 percent decrease in shipments compared with the same period in 2011. Consignments of mobile PCs (read: not tablets) grew by 4 percent, while desktops floundered, dropping 12.8 percent. Of this, a minor growth of 0.4 percent was recorded in consumer PCs, while the professional market decreased by 5.3 percent. Among the big hitters, HP remained at the top of the pile despite losing some market share, and Acer remained in second position with a mild increase in the same. ASUS put in a healthy performance, moving the company up to bronze medal position, while Dell dropped off the podium to fourth. The vendor statistics for the whole region were echoed in France in Germany, but during the quarter Apple managed to break into the top five in the UK market. Meike Escherich, principal analyst at Gartner, attributes the overall performance to economic uncertainty in the region, as well as lackluster demand in the wait for Windows 8 machines. We don't want to spoil all the fun, so a comprehensive breakdown of the numbers awaits you at the source link.
Linux lands on Android 4.0-toting MK802 mini PC
If the MK802 piqued your interest but has you pining for Ubuntu, Linux Questions forum user michaelfisk has a solution. The secret sauce is a pre-baked image of Ubuntu 10.04 modified for a different device using the same 1.5 GHz Allwinner processor. Simply slide a microSD card prepped with a bootable image of the distro into the mini PC and you're set. Though Lucid Lynx can be coaxed to run on the $74 mini PC without considerable hassle, performance isn't exactly top notch -- unseemly load times and a few kinks are reportedly throughout the experience. Eager to load up your Cotton Candy competitor with Linux? Hop past the break to see Liliputing give it a test drive or hit the links below for walkthroughs and the appropriate download.
$74 MK802 PC-on-a-stick beats Cotton Candy to market, has ICS on board
Unless you're lucky enough to live in Scandinavia, you'll have to wait till the end of summer to get your Cotton Candy fix. Aching to nab yourself a computer-on-a-stick before then? If you're willing to step down in specs, the Chinese-made MK802 could be the PC in your pocket. For $74 (versus $199 for the Cotton Candy), this 7-ounce device gives you a 1.5-GHz Allwinner A10 CPU, 512MB of RAM, 4GB of storage and, like the Cotton Candy, Android 4.0. FXI's version, on the other hand, packs a dual-core 1.2-GHz Samsung Exynos processor, and while the MK802 offers an HDMI port, the Cotton Candy includes an HDMI connector. The MK802 is slightly bulkier than its sweetly named competitor (3.5 inches vs. 3.1), but that Android logo on the front does wonders for its design cred. AliExpress.com is currently selling the MK802 with free shipping to the US -- click the source link for a gander.
WoW goes mobile on the OQO!
No, this isn't the wireless property that we saw Blizzard hiring for recently. This is a completely seperate thing. The OQO is a "uPC" (ultra-portable computer) that you can take anywhere for wireless on-the-go access. "Cool," you say. "But what does it have to do with WoW Insider as opposed to going on one of your sister blogs like EngadgetMobile?" Not only is it cool new tech, but the OQO can run World of Warcraft -- and surprisingly well, considering!Check out part one:
Ding photos from a portable WoW
So Lasdran over on Gorgonnash (known only as "Jim" in real life) got an ultraportable PC (a Sony UX), and he had a pretty good idea about how to use it. He's playing WoW (that's usually a terrific idea, no matter what), only he's playing it as he wanders around the real world. And to document his travels (both in Azeroth and in real life), he's taking snapshots every time he levels.Note that I said snapshots, not screenshots-- he's actually holding up the camera and shooting the UMPC in his current environment every time he dings. He hit level 3 in line at the mall. And when he hit level 5, he happened to be in the waiting room of a hospital. There are still a few kinks in the system (it looks like he could use a better camera, and he's already missed a few shots-- level 7 happened while he was in the bathroom-- but if he keeps it up, it could turn into an interesting photoblog about how his character's life happened to interact with his own.Not to mention that playing WoW anytime, anywhere, is a pretty interesting prospect, too. I'm heading home for the holidays, as I'm sure a lot of you are, which means I'll be away from the game for a little while, and this would definitely be a welcome addition to a long cartrip. In the meantime, keep up the photos, Jim-- if I were you, I'd make a quick blog and start posting photos pronto. Good stuff.
