• Acer has announced the new Swift 5, a perfectly ordinary-looking 15" notebook.  Quad core Intel 8th generation CPU, up to 16GB RAM and 1TB SSD, 1080p display, and my preferred keyboard layout, with PgUp/PgDn/Home/End at the right.  (AnandTech)
  
  But it weighs 990 grams - just over two pounds.  That's less than half the weight of my 15" Dell laptop.
  
  
• Acer's 13" Swift 3 weighs 1.3kg.  (AnandTech)
  
  Huh?
  
  
• If you need something with a bit more vroom to it, Acer's new Aspire 7 models offer Kaby Lake G, the Intel/AMD hybrid chip with Vega graphics.  (NotebookCheck)
  
  
• Yes, Acer did just have a big product launch, why do you ask?
  
  
• Samsung released their new NVMe Thunderbolt-only external SSD, the X5.  (AnandTech)
  
  It is remarkably ugly and overheats after a couple of minutes of sustained use, reducing performance by 95%, at which point you might as well be running a regular disk drive on a USB 2.0 port.
  
  Avoid.
  
  PCPer's review is more positive and they also tested this $24 NVMe to USB 3.1 adaptor which does surprisingly well.  Of course, it's just an adaptor, and you have to add an M.2 NVMe drive before it does anything at all.
  
  Looks like there are a few of these available now.  The magic word is JMS583, which is the USB 3.1 to NVMe interface chip they all use.
  
  
• TPG and Vodafone are merging in Australia as the consolidation of the hundreds of tiny phone companies and ISPs created by deregulation continues.  (ZDNet)
  
  My NBN connection is now two months late.  And that's after waiting 9 years to get a connection date at all.  No-one in the US is allowed to complain about their ISP unless their dog got run over by a Comcast truck.
  
  
• Lenovo's ThinkStation P520 gets reviewed.  (ServeTheHome)
  
  Industrial design peaked with the SGI O2.  Which I have one of.  In my closet.  It runs at 150MHz.
  
  
• Acer (them again) showed off their Predator X, a dual Xeon workstation that, fully configured, runs into the mid five figures, in a case that looks like it cost fifty bucks on eBay.  AnandTech says, and I quote, "Please No".
  
  
• Looking for a convertible Windows laptop tablet thingy?  Living in Australia?  You can pick up an HP Spectre x2 for $1275 after the secret promo code (which is in bright red banner at the top of the page).  That's with a Core i7 with Iris Plus graphics (with 64MB of eDRAM), 16GB RAM, 512GB NVMe SSD, and a 3000x2000 display.  Dual USB-C connectors (left and right) with charging and DisplayPort support, micro SD and a headphone jack.
  
  It's last year's i7 - 7th generation - and ultra-low-power, so dual rather than quad core.
  
  Only other real strike if it doesn't have my preferred key layout, but it's hard to fit that in a 12" laptop.  Also, it's a few ounces heavier than my old 13" LG UltraPC, but it has four times the memory, four times the storage, a much improved display...  And you can yank off the keyboard and use it as a tablet.  I mean, you can use what's left as a tablet, the keyboard just kind of sits there.
  
  Pen is extra in this package, I think.  $90 option.  But the equivalent Surface Pro model sells from $3299 - without pen or keyboard, and with a slightly lower-resolution screen.
  
  I just went and checked the price again, because the last time I saw pricing like this I had wandered onto Lenovo's US store by mistake.  Nope, it's real.  I think I'm going to have to get one...
  
  
  

• Twitter is recommending people to UNfollow.  That will end well.  (Axios)
  
  
• Two thirds of conservatives polled are aware of the fact that social networks are censoring them.  (Axios)

Posted by: Rick C at Thursday, August 30 2018 12:42 PM (ITnFO)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Thursday, August 30 2018 01:20 PM (PiXy!)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Thursday, August 30 2018 01:21 PM (PiXy!)

Hide Comments | Add Comment