Asus is very popular for manufacturing Android tablets. They recently release Tegra 4 powered Transformer Pad Infinity and they were manufacturing Nexus 7 in partnership with Google.

And now they have released another tablet, Asus Memo pad with very unique components inside.

Closer Look at Mimo Pad

Design

Dimensions: 264.6 x 182.4 x 9.5 mm

Weight: 580 g

The tablet has pretty significant bezels around it and the construction is plastic. No capacitive buttons used and all the controllers goes on screen.

Display

Size: 10 inches

Protection: n/a

Technology: IPS

Resolution: 1920×1200 px

Sharpness: 226 ppi

This is a pretty decent display and it seems the standard resolution of tablet is becoming 1080p.

Processor and Storage

Platform: Intel Atom

CPU: 1.6 GHz // Dual Core

GPU: PowerVR SGX540

RAM: 2 GB

Internal Storage: 16/32 GB

Expandable Storage: up to 32 GB via microSD

Intel Atom processors came out with NetBooks manufactured by different companies. But they failed miserably in market while competing with tablets, specially iPad. Many companies shut down NetBook manufacturing down the time. Now Intel is trying to utilize Atom Processors for Android Tablets.

Still we don’t have much information to benchmark Atom performance with Android since there are very few devices. However Intel will give it best shot to fight with ARM processors.

All the other components are pretty standard for many of other tablets and we know that they function well.

Software

OS: Android 4.2 Jelly Bean

UI: Asus Waveshare UI

Same as any other Asus tablet this comes with customized UI. Yet I have no confirmed information about exact Android version. But for sure it will be 4.2 or latest.

Camera

Primary: 5 MP // 1080p@30fps

Front Facing: 1.2 MP

The camera configuration is exactly same as recently released Transformer Infinity and no doubt that it will perform pretty well.

Connectivity

Mobile Network: n/a

Wi-Fi:  802.11 a/b/g/n // Dual-band

GPS: Yes // A-GPS

NFC: n/a

Bluetooth: 3.0

USB: 2.0

The primary connectivity is Wi-Fi and 3G version is not announced yet. This could have performed better with USB 3.0

Battery

Type: Li-Ion

Capacity: n/a

Battery Life: n/a

There is no confirmed information about capacity of the battery and it’s non removable. Still we don’t know battery performance of Atom processors, so I’m keeping a close eye on battery life statistic of Memo Pad.

Wrapping Up

ARM practically has a monopoly in mobile processor market. Samsung, LG, Asus and even Apple are using ARM based processor for their devices. Intel must have been planning to enter this huge market for a long time.

Intel Atom has pretty bad reputation in NetBook market. They tried to run full scale desktop OS on top of this platform and it was an utter failure. Let’s see Intel Atom can re build it’s reputation in Android world. If they manage to perform good with less energy, they can stand a pretty good chance.

Tags: #Android #Asus #Intel #Tablet

From tablets and smartphones, to notebooks and laptops, we all love our technology and these days it is easy to get caught up in the excitement of owning the latest gadget. But because technology is always changing it means new and more advanced smartphones, laptops and PC’s are constantly becoming available to buy. If you, like many other consumers, feel you always have to have the ‘must have’ gadget on the market right now then it is likely that your house is full of older, unused machines that are just cluttering up your spare rooms, bookcases and cupboards.

Make Yourself Some Space

If you are guilty of hoarding older machines, possibly with the thought that you might just get round to using it again, one day, then you probably need to take a step back and look at the big picture. The truth is, once you have your new machine or gadget you are unlikely to use any of your old electrical equipment again and it might be a good idea to free up some space and get rid of it. Decluttering your old, unused laptops and computer accessories can not only clear some much needed room in your house but may help make you feel more organised too.

Help The Environment

You might not realize but there are in fact a number of dangerous elements found within your old laptop, so if you are thinking about getting rid of it by putting it out with the rubbish, that’s a really bad idea. Instead look into your local recycling options and find a specialist laptop recycling scheme. By getting rid of your laptop sensibly you won’t be putting the planet at risk and all the hazardous parts of the machine will be removed and disposed of safely. It also means that any parts that can be re-used will be.

Make Some Cash

If you think there is still good life in your old laptop but you definitely won’t be using it, why not consider selling it on or trading it in and making yourself a bit of spare cash at the same time. There are a number of companies that will quite happily take old appliances off your hands and give you some money at the same time. You might also be surprised just how much your old laptop may keep its value, with top brands such as Apple and Samsung still fetching a good re-sale value. Simply go online for the best deal, get your equipment valued and make money from your old MacBook or tablet. You could even put the money you make towards a new piece of technology!

However you choose to recycle your old laptop, there is one thing that you must do before you take it to the recycling center or sell it on and that is to make sure you wipe the machine of any personal information, pictures or documents. Then, once you know that your old laptop is safe to be taken apart, or even re-used, you can make the most of that extra space in your house, or the extra cash in your wallet!

Sally Jane writes about saving money for Music Magpie, a UK-based website offering consumers an easy way to make money from their old electronics, music and clothes.

Tags: #Notebook

For the last few years LG was trying to give good completion to Samsung and Sony. They came up with pretty impressive devices and manufactured Nexus 4 in partnership with Google.

Now they are trying to compete with Samsung Galaxy Note II in phablet market with Optimus G Pro. It’s packing up lots of power. Let’s go and take a look.

Closer Look at Optimus G Pro

Design

Dimensions: 150.2 x 76.1 x 9.4 mm

Weight: 172 g

It’s not the thinnest or lightest phablet. But lighter than Galaxy Note II. Bezels are very thin around the display and it’s a smart move to make the device smaller.

Display

Size: 5.5 inches

Protection: n/a

Technology: IPS Plus

Resolution: 1080×1920 px

Sharpness: 401 ppi

Compared to Samsung Galaxy Note II this is a big improvement. It’s not only bigger in size. It has bigger resolution and better sharpness. Samsung will have to release a much better display in Note III to compete with this guy.

Processor and Storage

Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 600

CPU: 1.7 GHz // Quad Core // Krait 300

GPU: Adreno 320

RAM: 2 GB // DDR3

Internal Storage: 32 GB

Expandable Storage: up to 64 GB via microSD

We already witnessed the power of Snapdragon 600 processor with HTC One. Imagine that on a massive display! No doubt that this is the most powerful phablet in the market.

Software

OS: Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean

UI: Custom

LG didn’t really have a good reputation for their custom UI. But they were slowly improving for the past few years. Optimus G Pro comes with an early version of Jelly bean, still you will be able to enjoy smoothness of Project Butter.

Camera

Primary: 13 MP // 1080p@30fps // HDR // Dual video recording

Front Facing: 2.1 MP // 1080p@30fps

Snapdragon 600 enabled HDR videos on mobile devices, so Optimus G Pro also have it. In addition it can record videos from both the cameras available at the same time.

Connectivity

Mobile Network: LTE // HSDPA // GSM

Wi-Fi: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac // Dual band

GPS: Yes // A-GPS // GLONASS

NFC: Yes

Infrared: Yes

Bluetooth:  4.0

USB: 2.0

There is an in-built LTE radio supporting class 17, 1700 and 2100. Wi-Fi ac standard is included and there is an infrared port. Back in early 2000s this was very popular and seems it’s back in action.

Battery

Type: Li-Po

Capacity: 3140 mAh

Battery Life: 15h talk time

This is a huge device, so there is no limitation to pack a huge battery. We already know the amazingly long battery life in Galaxy Note II. This guy will be able to live more than one day, may be two days with one charge depending on your usage style.

Wrapping Up

Every aspect of LG Optimus G Pro screams that this is designed to compete with Galaxy Note II and may be even Note III. There LG has done a pretty good job. It has a significant spec bump, bigger battery packed in lighter device. Sure it will make good mark on Pahblet market.

Tags: #Android #LG #Smartphone

Most of the people are using many E mail accounts for different purposes. But checking mails and sending mails in different accounts is a real hassle. The easiest solution you can come up for this is configure all those e mail accounts to one E mail client and periodically download e mail and read them, like Microsoft Outlook. You can use the same mail client to send email from all configured accounts as well.

But that doesn’t solve the problem completely. If you are not in front of your own PC and you want to check email, again you will run in to same problem. As a solution what you really need is an “Online Mail Client”. The best web application that can act as an Online Mail client is your Gmail account.

Background Preparation

In order to download emails to your mail client, mail account must have POP3. Make sure you enable it in every account that you want to connect with Gmail. In order to send emails you need SMTP, which has to be enabled, yet optional.

Any type of E mail service will give you configuration details to connect to email account using mail clients. That may include Username, Password, POP server, SMTP server and Port. Organize all those details before you start linking your mail accounts to Gmail.

Steps to Follow

Send Mail as Another Mail Account

Now you are good to go! As the first step, try to send email as any of your mail account in Gmail account. To access the configuration follow the below path.

Gmail -> Settings (Right Top Corner)-> Accounts and Imports -> Send Mail As

There you have to click “Add email address you own”.

Once you click on that, it will give you below pop-up.

There you have to fill your name and Email address that you want to send email as from Gmail. Then click next. Ti will take you to below window.

There you have 2 options. If you go for “Send through Gmail”, it’s very easier to configure, just one click away. But in that case, receiver will see something like “Sent through Gmail” depending on Email that he is using. In Technical terms, the mail actually is sent through Gmail, only the header information is changed to given email as sender.

The best way is “Send through SMTP server” which is actually sending the email using your remote mail server. There you will have to enter SMTP configuration details for that server. Once you click next, it will try to verify the configuration details entered. On success it will take you to the next level where you have to verify the ownership of the mail account. For that verification mail will be sent to remote mail account. Click on the verification link and you are done.

Now try to compose new mail. There you will see new drop down menu named “From”. Using that you can select what is the mail account that you need to send mail as.

Receive Mail from Another Mail Account

To configure Gmail to receipt of mail from multiple accounts you have to go to below configuration page.

Gmail -> Settings (Right Top Corner) -> Accounts and Imports -> Check mail using POP3

Then click on “Add POP3 Mail account you own” to get below configuration pop-up window.

There you have to enter the email address which you want to download email from. Then click next to proceed. It will take you to below window.

Here you have to enter POP3 Configuration details for the specific email account. You can easily get these configuration details from control panel of your mail account or from the help section.

Other than POP3 configuration there are 4 check boxes which are very important.

• If you check 1^st one, it will leave a copy of email in the original mail account as well. This will be good as a back-up. If you feel like you don’t need another due to limited space leave it un-checked.
• If you check the 2^nd one it will always use secured connection to connect to remote mail account. But mail account must support secured connection to enable it.
• 3^rd one is very important! It will let you label incoming mails which will be very useful to separate email that came from different mail addresses.
• Last check box is letting you to directly send the incoming mail from selected remote account to Archive. In that case those mails won’t appear in inbox, yet can access through the folder ‘archive’.

After the configuration Gmail will periodically download email from linked email accounts and they will appear in your Gmail inbox with the label if you assign any. Right there you can reply to those mails as same email account.

If you want to check mail now from any email account connected you can go to below configuration section.

Gmail -> Settings (Right Top Corner)-> Accounts and Imports -> Check mail using POP3

Then click “Check Mail Now” link which you can find in front of linked Email accounts.

Now you have an online email client, where you can check all your email accounts, send mail from any of your email account from anywhere in the world any time.

Tags: #Gmail #Google

Information Communication Technology sky rocketed in the past few decades. Today we can pay out taxes, shop for goods and services, pay bills and many more while resting in sofa with Smartphone or a tablet. If you can do all those stuff there is nothing stopping you from working at home without going to office.

Lots of big players are encouraging its staff to work at home. And yeah, it’s saving fuel, time stress and possible improved productivity as well. IN order to get this done you need very sophisticated communication and monitoring system.

When it comes to communication we have email, file sharing systems, skype and any many other services for video calling. But what can we do for monitoring. Big players have their own custom made project management tools. If you are a small company what can you do to monitor work-at-home staff?

Here comes the solution!

Getting Started with Time Doctor

Time doctor is an online service letting you to monitor your off office staff. It’s providing very comprehensive set of features as well as highly customizable reporting tools. Let’s go and get hands on.

From Your End

• Go to TimeDoctor.com and create a account by entering name, email and password.
• It will take you to main dashboard. As usual lets pay a visit to settings.
• Go to company settings and enter appropriate data. There you can create a vanity URL for your company and set screenshot time interval.
• Then go to project setting and add relevant details there.
• Then go to manage users and add your staff in to your company.

From Employees End

• Click on the invitation link and follow instruction.
• During the process he has to download Time Doctor client and sign in.
• Then when working all he has to do is enter the task, select the project and hit GO.
• While he is working software will monitor his activity and send details including periodic screenshots to your account.
• And it will generate appropriate alerts to make him more productive.
• Whenever he want to take a break, must hit the break button and then it will stop monitoring.
• End of the day click finish work and sign off.

It’s all set! Now you can monitor productivity of your work-at-home staff easily. Time Doctor is providing you high customizable report generation tool. So you can get any time of information you need in matter of seconds.

TimeDoctor has several plans depending on the size of your company. Every plan comes with 30 day trial. Give it a try and let me know what you think about it.

Tags: #Small Scale Entrepreneurs #Tools

It’s no insider’s secret anymore: The future is going to the clouds. Software Execs even go as far as arguingthat in a few years’time desktops will be totally irrelevant. That’s why many companies are coming up with new ideas trying to develop the momentum. Enhancing the online storage cloud with other services -like downloading e.g.-those new sites try not only to be a part of this future, they try to shape it. We have tested two different sites that promise to “change the way we store”, putdrive.com and put.io, to see which oneprevails.

Here is what it came down to:

General Idea Behind Put.io and Putdrive.com:

Put.io is a cloud-based solution for fetching, housing and streaming files from the Internet. Instead of downloading files to your desktop, you can “download” them to Put.io where you can access and stream them from any device ( laptops, iPads, mobile phones and gaming consoles).

Putdrive.com is a downloading service that downloads from 85 different FileHosters, Torrents, Tubes& Usenet and stores it in your cloud. Plus it gives you free storage in an independent online storage drive, called OziBox.

So…Let the Battle Begin!

Putdrive.com: The Hoster Factor

Putdrive.com is giving you the opportunity to download as Premium from 85 different File Hosters. This of course saves the user a lot of money, and therefore we start by giving Putdrive.com one Point.

 Put.io: Unlimited Bandwidth

On the other hand, Put.io offers unlimited bandwidth with its paid plans where putdrive.com has Traffic limitations. So, next Point goes to Put.io.

Putdrive.com: Unlimited Concurrent Torrent Slots

Both sites download Torrents, and both sites do it fast… Some users put it like that:  “it’s like downloading with a Ferrari”. But, Putdrive.com offers the user unlimited concurrent torrent slots instead of 1, whereas Put.io offers just 15 instead of one.

Both Sites Convert Video File to MP4

Both sites let you convert video files to the mobile-friendly MP4 format for mobile consumption. This way you can enjoy media wherever you are: on your mobile, TV, tablet etc. So, one point for both sites.

Put.io: Shared Folders

Another appealing Put.io feature is that it supports shared folders. Users can share their media library with friends and reap the benefits of access to their friends’ shared libraries as well. One point for Put.io, please!

Putdrive.com  Prices& Free Plans

The two sites offer different pricing plans (Putdrive.com offers Traffic Packages and Put.io offers Storage) and therefore cannot be easily compared. The important thing is that Putdrive.com offers 100 GB Free Storage at OziBox (an independent cloud cooperating with Putdrive) where Put.io has a 3 day Free Trial, but next to thatstates :“Free Plan? Sorry we are Full”… So one last point for Putdrive.com.

We Made Up Our Mind! The Winner is…

Well, for start both sites are unique, based on excitingnew ideas and will definitely make a lot of users very happy… Even though they don’t offer the exact same services, and therefore cannot be 100% compared to each other, we decided that Putdrive.comgaining 4 Pointsoutrivals Put.iothat got one Point less…

We just think that the 85Hostersand the 100 GB Storage that Putdrive.com offers for free, is too much product value to ignore- don’t you?

Anyhow, both sites are a true indication of where the future of clouds is heading to and it won’t be a surprise if we see many others copying them in the near future…

Putdrive site:http://www.putdrive.com/defaultno.aspx

Put.io site: https://put.io/

Tags: #BitTorrent #Cloud Storage

Playing computer games fulfils a basic human need for fantasy. A human psyche that does not indulge in fantasy can become very unhealthy. It can lead to self destructive behavior, perversion, or worse. Video games allow people to indulge in fantasy in a harmless way and a safe setting. But, video gaming goes far further than that.

Now, a gamer may socialize via video games. It is possible to create groups of friends and participate in games remotely. The most well known platform for this is World Of Warcraft. However, there are actually hundreds of games where people may connect with their friends and either challenge them or join with them to complete the game. A shy student with few friends may create a UK best essays and get no credit, and yet can be a god (or goddess) on a video game. There are even micro economies where people may work hard in battles and quests in order to gain objects that they sell or swap for better ones.

The World of Warcraft

Even games such as WOW are now having a positive effect on children. The quest and commerce nature of the game is showing people that hard work can help you to accumulate the things that you want. Teachers have even noticed that historical and questing games are helping students to retain information that they can apply to their  essays or their studies. They cannot get their students to engage in class, but the same students will happily recite historical facts they heard on computer games.

Minecraft

This is another game that has massive potential to teach children in a way that has otherwise never been thought of. Simple physics is a boring and lifeless subject in classrooms, but Minecraft turns theory into reality. People did not even know that something such as gravity could change until they started playing the space version of Angry Birds.

 SimcityEdu

Being taught something in a virtual environment was supposed to be the way of the future, and yet here we are in the year 2013 and children are still learning by memorizing things from text books. Memory and retention should not just come from books or from reading the best UK essay writing services reviews. It should come from real world experience. But, because real world experience is restrictive or impractical, it seems only logical that virtual environments take its place. Children can handle complex economies on computer games, so why stop at computer games? If they were able to relate it back to their text books then they would find the whole concept a lot more interesting.

Video games being excluded from education are just a waste of a very good opportunity to engage with students. Take economics for example; with games like SimCity, or even with a command and conquer game, a Sims incarnation or a Tycoon game, children are heavily interested in the economics of their game. But, if you put an economics book in front of them they would get bored. Schools should incorporate gaming into the learning process.

For example, can you imagine the rampant enthusiasm that children would have in class, if their text books gave information that would help them play their games? If they could get better objects or get to higher levels if they applied the concepts from their text books onto their games? Can you imagine the top British essays that may come about if the student had been learning every time he or she plays a video game?

Author Emily Lucas from topbritishessays.com

Tags: #Gaming

We are living in the time of 4G LTE connectivity. But practically the most commonly used data connectivity is still 3G. But when you are traveling away from cities you might have to use 2G EDGE connectivity as well.

Your android phone is capable of intelligently switching between 3G and 2G depending on the signal strength. But it’s not doing it in a smart way. Think about a situation where you have very strong 2G signal and very poor 3G signal. In such case your phone will choose 2G network.

But by experience you know that poor 3G signals could give you much faster connectivity that very strong 2G signals. In such a case it would be really great if you could stay on 3G network regardless of poor signal. I was going through Android menu looking for that option. But it wasn’t there. There you have 2G only mode, but not 3G.

If you are using a HSDPA USB modem, in control panel you have preferred network type. Once you set it to only WCDMA it’ not switching to EDGE. It’s because this option is not there in Android. There are several apps to lock your phone on 3G networks. But answer is in the box, menu is hidden. Here is how to find it.

Access Android Testing Menu

• Go to Phone and type *#*#4636#*#*
• It will open the Android testing menu.
• There you have several category of information. Tap in phone information.
• Scroll down there and you can find set preferred network type.
• Set it to WCDMA only, same as in HSDPA USB modem.

• Now your phone is in force 3G mode. It will never switch to 2G.

The problem is solved and we just forced Android to use only 3G. But Remember, in a situation where you don’t have 3G signals at all, you will be totally cut off from data networks. In such case if you need to use 2G EDGE connectivity, set preferred network type back to “WCDMA preferred”. If you restart your phone this setting will go back to default.

• Mobile Device: Samsung Galaxy Nexus
• Mobile OS: Android Jelly Bean 4.2.2

If you have any question to ask, anything else to add, join the discussion in the comment section below. Subscribe to our newsletter and stay connected.

Tags: #Android

It’s party time for component manufactures! We saw Nvidia GeForce GTX 770, a GPU last week and completing the picture Intel released brand new Haswell CPU. The new Haswell Z87 CPU architecture is replacing previous Z77 Ivy Bridge series. But still it’s behind beastly X79 series.

Let’s go and take a look at what Haswell has to offer.

New Features in Haswell

Specification

When we are talking about CPU the first thing that comes to your minds is clock speed. Then you have to pay attention to number of cores, hyper-threading, Cache, built in GPU etc.

Surprisingly you won’t be able to find out any significant different between Ivy Bridge and Haswell any of above factors other than GPU. Haswell comes with HD 4600 GPU instead of previous HD 4000. Click here to see the full comparison.

Performance

After considering many benchmarking result and usage test I can make below statements.

• In CPU intensive work Haswell is slightly better than Ivy bridge..
• With built in GPU Haswell is ~3X better than Ivy Bridge.
• With external GPU Haswell is slightly better than Ivy Bridge.

We are actually trying to figure out what is new in Haswell processor. But we are continuously running in to that fact that it’s only about in-built GPU. Is that all? Keep reading.

Power Consumption

Last year laptop computers had a paradigm shifting change. Their form-factor changed drastically. Today you can see very thin Ultrabooks and full PCs in the shape of Tablets. That’s where power consumption comes in to picture.

Haswell CPU is designed to work only slightly faster than Ivy Bridge by consuming much lesser power. True that maximum power consumption is higher in Haswell. But when in idle mode it consumes only 50% of power compared to Ivy Bridge. This is very important for UltraBooks and especially for Tablets.

Finally

The big question, “I have an Ivy Bridge. Should I upgrade it to Haswell?” I have a pretty straight forward answer. For a PC there is no point. If you are buying a Laptop of Tablet, YES go for Haswell.

PCs are always connected to main power grid. So power consumption is not a major issue. If you are planning to reduce electricity bill with Haswell, it will be only couple of bucks. The price that you have to pay for it is a new motherboard and Haswell CPU. If you consider processing power, even there you are getting insignificant improvement.

But if you are getting a Laptop, Ultrabook or Tablet, then you have to pay attention to battery life. In that case it’s worth investing some extra money for longer battery life.

Tags: #Intel #Notebook #Tablet

Ever struggled hours and hours to figure out a fix for this notice?

First of all let us understand the problem.It should be clearly understood that this is NOT an ‘Error’, but a ‘Notice’. A notice can be ignored if it’s not critical while an error must be fixed. You might have observed that even though a notice appears, rest of the output will be displayed on the browser.

Coming back to our topic, when the ‘Undefined index’ notice occurs, most of the time it is a good practice to fix this than ignoring.

How to Fix

One simple answer – isset() !

isset() function in PHP determines whether a variable is set and is not NULL. It returns a Boolean value, that is, if the variable is set it will return true and if the variable value is null it will return false.

More details on this function can be found in PHP Manual.

Example

Let us consider an example.

Below is the HTML code for a comment form in a blog.

Please leave a comment:

    

    

    Enter Comment

    


    
    Notify me when a new post is published. 

    

    

Here is the PHP file ‘add_comment.php’ which takes the data passed from the comment form.

What happens is, when the check-box is CHECKED, the code works fine. But when it is not, then I am getting the warning as mentioned above.

“Warning: Undefined index:”

So to fix this, let us make use of the magic function. Now the code appears like this.

What happens here is, I am checking first whether the check box is CHECKED (or set) using a condition. And if the condition is true I am getting the value passed.

The same fix can be used for the above warning when working with $_SESSION, $_POST arrays.

But, there instances where harmless notices can be ignored.

For an example,

I have a page which can be accesses in below 3 ways.

www.someexample.com/comments.php

www.someexample.come/comments.php?action=add

www.someexample.com/comments.php?action=delete

All these URL’s go to the same page but each time performs a different task.

So when I try to access the page through the first URL, it will give me the ‘Undefined index’ notice since the parameter ‘action’ is not set.

We can fix this using the isset() function too. But on this instance, we can just ignore it by hiding the notices like this.

error_reporting(E_ALL ^ E_NOTICE);

You can also turn off error reporting in your php.ini file or .htaccess file, but it is not considered as a wise move if you are still in the testing stage.

This is another simple solution in PHP for a common complex problem. Hope it is useful.

Tags: #PHP