It doesn’t matter if you have ever visited CES or not. We all know that a lot of unexpected stuff comes for a showcase at CES but, most of these stuff are weired Tech Gadgets of some sort. But, would you ever expect Gold Jewelery at CES ? If not it was there in CES 2018 & the reason behind that is Dell.

So, these Jeweleries are not Tech but, technically they are part of Tech that are not Tech anymore but, they were used in Tech in the past. Ok, the previous line was actually intended to annoy you a bit. To be simple, the Gold used in these Jeweleries have actually been recycled from some old & dead motherboards of Dell.

[Image Credits: BaYou with Love (Dell)]

So, Dell has announced that the’re collaborating with the Twilight famous actress Nikki Reed to bring the Gold from their recycled Motherboards to form brand new Fashion Jeweleries. These Jeweleries are being sold via. a website called. Bayou with Love.

“Bayou with Love was created to bring greater awareness to the human impact on our planet and show that beautiful items can come from sustainably sourced and recycled materials,” said Nikki Reed, Actress & Co-founder of Bayou with Love. “By recycling gold that was once considered ‘waste,’ Dell and I are working to create an environment where we continuously reuse resources and strive for zero waste.”

Currently only 12.5% of the e-waste is recycled into products & the rest are thrown out. Just in Americas, it is estimated that the the value of the total Gold & Silver that gets thrown out is around $60 Million per year. So, steps the these from Dell are hugely welcome.

Dell is selling these Jeweleries on the Bayou with Love website & the starting price is around $78.

 

ASUS XG Station Pro Adds A New Feather To The Exturnal GPU Game At CES 2018

The ASUS XG Station 2 was an impressive external GPU enclosure that would connect via. the Thunderbolt 3 port of a Laptop to be able to run a Desktop GPU on that Laptop. ASUS has refreshed the XG Station 2 at this CES with a slimmer but, more powerful XG Station Pro. At least that’s what ASUS claims.

Though, the XG Station 2 was dedicatedly build for gaming, the XG Station Pro isn’t made only for that. This time it has been also targeted towards creative professionals who want that Extra Graphics Horsepower in their Thin & Light laptops.

The chassis occupies an area of just 4.3” x 14.8” which is noticeably less when compared to the XG Station 2 & the looks are also cleaner. So if it is on a desk, it should complement professional laptops pretty well. The XG Station Pro uses a 330W Power Adapter with is similar to what we saw on the RO GX800 so, the Power Supply isn’t sitting into the Case itself which allows the case to be this thin.

ASUS XG Station Pro Adds A New Feather To The Exturnal GPU Game At CES 2018

Talking about the Connectivity, the XG Station Pro uses a Single Thunderbolt 3 Cable to connect with a compatible laptop. There is a dedicated USB C Port for the Thunderbolt 3 connection, an extra USB Type-C USB 3.1 Port for connecting or charging peripheral devices with upto 15 Watts of Power.

ASUS XG Station Pro Adds A New Feather To The Exturnal GPU Game At CES 2018

Once you open that black hatch, there are two HDMI ports, two full size Display ports & one DVI-D Port. Lastly their is the DC-in port for connecting the 330W Power Supply. The Power Button lies above the DC-in Port.

The supported GPUs include, all the desktop versions of NVIDIA & AMD variants starting from GeForce GTX 900 and Radeon R9 series to newer GPUs including the NVIDIA 1080Ti & 1070Ti and AMD RX Vega 56 & Vega 64. However, using ROG GPUs with ASUS AURA integration will allow RGB Backlighting via. Aura Sync.

The XG Station 2 can also stay silent if it’s not being used heavily. ASUS does this by turning on the Dual 120 mm Fans only when the internal temperature exceeds a predetermined threshold. So what that means is that, the users can keep it connected all the time if they want & the Fans will only Start Spinning when doing GPU intensive Works.

The price for the XG Station Pro will be about $329 & it will be available starting this month (January 2018) in the United States. Availability in other countries still don’t have any announcement time but, hopefully it’ll come to most other countries somewhere in the First half of 2018.

VIVO Showcases The First Smartphone with an In-display Fingerprint Scanner that is probably going to be called, the Vivo V20 Plus or the XPlay 7. The device have been unveiled in the CES 2018 & as we already reported, the Sensor is made by Synaptics.

VIVO Showcases The First Smartphone To Integrate In-display Fingerprint Sensor

The sensor carries the name Synaptics Clear ID FS9500 & it can be used with any OLED panel. However, it is not possible to use this sensor with IPS Displays because of the Backlighting.

According to The Verge, the Sensor isn’t as fast as a normal Finger Print Scanner of any current flagship but, it’s just the starting point so, we’re not surprised.

“With our efforts in extensive consumer research and long-term R&D investment, Vivo is well positioned to pioneer the development of fingerprint scanning technology. We first presented a prototype of our fingerprint scanning solution at MWC Shanghai 2017 based on an ultrasonic sensor, and have remained committed to realizing our vision for future smartphones,” said Alex Feng, Senior Vice President of Vivo. “Today’s showcase of a ready-to-produce in-display fingerprint scanning smartphone featuring an optical fingerprint sensor is a big leap forward in bringing consumers this long-awaited, futuristic mobile experience. We are very excited to make it available to consumers soon.”

The Smartphone that’ll have this feature embedded will be available in Early 2018 so, hopefully in late Q1 or in Q2. However, we can’t wait to get our hands on this new Technology as it’s one of the Most Awaited things in the Smartphone industry that finally came to life.

[ Update: The Smartphone might get announced on January 25, 2018 ]

The GLAS Thermostat Integrates A See Through OLED Touch Panel With Cortana

A company called Johnson Controls have showcased very unique product in the CES 2018. It’s called the GLAS & it’s a The GLAS Thermostat Integrates but, it’s not one of our regular old school ones. Remember those crispy movie scenes where Computers were used with Transparent Screens ? Well, the GLAS comes with a pretty similar concept & the good thing is, it will actually go on sale this year.

The GLAS Thermostat Integrates A See Through OLED Touch Panel With Cortana

The translucent OLED touchscreen display is actually made by Samsung & they nailed it. Here the Pixels are actually transparent but, as it’s an OLED so, it shall produce accurate colors on board. However, I don’t think that Blacks are achieved by turning off the pixels off as that would make the portion disappear in this case.

The GLAS has all the modern Thermostat features that you’d expect. So, mainly keeping track of things like the Temperature & Air Quality of it’s surroundings & maintaining them as needed. The GLAS can report humidity, total volatile organic compounds (tVOC) and equivalent carbon dioxide (eCO2) & if it is connected to the Internet, it can also monitor things like tree, grass and ragweed pollen count, ultraviolet (UV) index and air quality index (AQI)—including carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and ozone levels.

If air quality falls below moderate levels, GLAS can intelligently operate a fan or ventilation equipment to make the surroundings ideal or at least provide the information to the patients of diseases like Asthma & Allergy so, they can take proper protection.

It also integrates Microsoft Cortana as it’s voice assistant. So, this allows the users to Monitor & Control the Thermostat by just using their voice. A reason why Cortana was the option is because, the GLAS has utilized the Azure IoT Cloud and Windows 10 IoT Core. However, the users can also control the GLAS with a Dedicated Application on their Android or iOS devices.

The GLAS Thermostat Integrates A See Through OLED Touch Panel With Cortana

The GLAS is powered by the Snapdragon 410E (embedded) SOC. Yes the Snapdragon 410 is a pretty old & low Power SOC for any Smartphone device at this point but, the 410E was made for IoT applications like this & a Thermostat does not require the power like a Smartphone & the Purpose is also different so, we can’t really complain.

As far the Pricing & Availability goes, the GLAS will be up for Pre-orders on March of 2018 & the price will be around $319.

The Dell XPS 15 2-in-1 Brings Intel’s 8th Gen G-series Processors With AMD Vega M Graphics To Life

The Dell XPS 15 for 2018 has been unveiled & it’s not quite what we were expecting. We are familiar with Dell’s line up of 2-in-1 Laptops but, the only laptop in the XPS line up that had a 2-in-1 configuration was the XPS 13 until now. In this CES, Dell has unveiled a refreshed 2-in-1 variant of the XPS 15 called the XPS 15 9575.

The Dell XPS 15 2-in-1 Brings Intel's 8th Gen G-series Processors With AMD Vega M Graphics To Life

XPS 15 2-in-1 (XPS 15 9575) SPECIFICATIONS

  • Display: 15.6 inch IPS 1080P with 100% sRGB or 4K (3200×1800) with 100% Adobe RGB Display wrapped in Corning Gorilla Glass 4 with 400 nits of Brightness (Touch Enabled: 10 Fingers, 89 Degrees, Pen Support)
  • Processor: Intel Core i5-8305G or Intel Core i7-8705G
  • RAM: Upto 16 GB 2400 MHz DDR4 (Expandable upto 32 GB)
  • GPU: AMD Radeon Vega M GL Graphics with 4GB HBM2 VRAM
  • Storage: Upto 1TB M.2 PCIe SSD (128GB SATA 3, 256GB PCIe, 512GB PCIe & 1TB PCIe SSD Options)
  • Ports: 2x Thunderbolt™ 3 (with PowerShare, DC-In & DisplayPort) , 2x USB-C 3.1 (with PowerShare, DC-In & DisplayPort) , MicroSD Card Reader, 3.5mm Audio Jack, Noble Lock Slot
  • Wi-Fi: Integrated 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2×2) (Killer 1435 or Intel 8265)
  • Bluetooth: Version 4.1
  • Battery: 75 WHrs, 4 Cells
  • Webcam: 720P HD Webcam
  • Audio: Dual 1W Speakers tuned with Waves MaxxAudio Pro
  • Thickness: 16mm
  • Weight: Starting from 4.3 lbs (1.97 kg) 
  • OS: Windows 10 Home or Windows 10 Pro

So, the Dell XPS 15 2-in-1 has a lot going on for Creative Professionals and honestly, that’s the type of consumers this device is made for. People in Professions like Photo & Video Editing & even things like Drawing can be done with the required Color Accuracy on this device. Specially as the 4K Panel covers around 100% of Adobe RGB, it should be the best laptop device screen for Content Creation right now. However, though Dell claims the Panel to be 4K, the Resolution is actually 3200×1800 which is close to 3K instead. The Touch screen now supports Dell Premium Active Pen that has 4096 Pressure Sensitivity and 89° Tilt Functionality support.

The Intel Core i5-8305G & i7-8705G shall bring some significant improvements in performance while the Radeon Vega GL GPU shall push some of that graphical horsepower that shall be somewhere between the GTX 1050 & 1050Ti from NVIDIA.

Dell claims around 15 hours of Battery life but, we’ll have to see how much close the 75 Whrs Battery can keep upto with Regular usage. Coming to Thermals, Dell uses the GORE Thermal Insulation solutions for better heat management. All of this has been crafted in a 16 inch Form Factor that is really impressive.

The Dell XPS 15 2-in-1 will be available starting from $1299.99 somewhere in the Spring of 2018. The Dell Active Premium Pen won’t come in the box so, in case you want that you’ll need to pay $99.99 extra for that.

Razer’s Project Linda Converts The Razer Phone Into A Laptop

Last year in CES 2017, Razer showcased their Project Valerie that had Three 17″ 4K Displays in a single Razer Blade Pro. This year, in CES 2018 Razer unveiled another crazy piece of Tech that is known as the Project Linda.

So, Project Linda is basically an approach to convert the Razer Phone into a laptop. To be more specific, the user needs to hook the Razer Phone into the Laptop at a dedicated slot where generally the Trackpad lies & the Laptop will then use the Hardware & OS of the Phone to function just as a Regular Laptop. However, as the Razer Phone runs on top of Android, the Laptop also uses the Android Environment instead something like a regular Windows 10 environment.

Razer's Project Linda Converts The Razer Phone Into A Laptop

Clicking the Power Button on the Laptop makes the hidden USB Type-C to connect with the USB Type-C Port on the Razer Phone & from there the Laptop starts functioning. At that time, the Razer Phone functions either as a Trackpad or as a Menu or Shortcut Panel in several applications.

The Laptop itself is running a 13.3 inch 1080P Display. The Keyboard supports RGB Backlighting that is customizable with Razer Chroma. Razer also claims that the Razer Phone also charges with a built in power bank that we believe to be the Battery of the Laptop itself.

Though this concept is really cool, we don’t see the Project Linda powered Laptop or Laptop device and Smartphone combo to go on sale anytime soon.

However this whole concept isn’t new & we have seen other companies to have products with similar concept. Take ASUS Padfones for example where connecting (sliding in) the phone to a tablet made the whole thing function as a regular Tablet. Samsung Dex & the Huawei Mate 10 have shown similar approaches in different ways.

Intel Announced A 49-qubit Test Chip For The Quantum Computing Platform At CES 2018

It hasn’t been a long time since Intel released the 17-qubit superconducting chip for the Quantum Computing platform. However, in this CES 2018 Intel has announced a 49-qubit Chip with a similar architecture, but for bigger purposes.

Intel calls this new chip the “Tangle Lake” which refers to a chain of lakes in Alaska. Intel says that the achievement of a 49-qubit chip was important because it will allow researchers to access & improve Error Connections Techniques & Simulate Computational Problems.

Intel Announced A 49-qubit Test Chip For The Quantum Computing Platform At CES 2018

The CEO of Intel, Brian Krzanich predicted that Quantum Computing will solve problems that today might take the best Supercomputers months or years to resolve, such as Drug Development, Financial Modeling and Climate Forecasting.

“In the quest to deliver a commercially viable quantum computing system, it’s anyone’s game,” said Mike Mayberry, corporate vice president and managing director of Intel Labs. “We expect it will be five to seven years before the industry gets to tackling engineering-scale problems, and it will likely require 1 million or more qubits to achieve commercial relevance.”

Intel also showcased another Neuromorphic Research Chip that carries the Codename “Loihi“.

Intel Announced A 49-qubit Test Chip For The Quantum Computing Platform At CES 2018

As you would expect, this Chip empowers the potential of AI. According to Intel, these chips can enable Smarter Security Cameras and Smart-city Infrastructure designed for Real-time Communication with Autonomous Vehicles.

Intel is planning to share the Loihi test chip with leading Research Institutions & Universities in the First Half of 2018 while putting it to more applications of complex data sets & problems.

Source: Intel

ASUS Zenfone Max Plus (M1) Will Go On Sale In February 2018 For $229

ASUS unveiled the Zenfone Max Plus (M1) back in November as the Pegasus 4S in China & later in Russia but, there was no news on the Global availability. Finally further details have been revealed by the company at the CES 2018.

The Zenfone Max Plus (M1) will be rolling out in North America in February of 2018 with the Price tag of $229 for the 3GB, 32GB variant. However, ASUS is ditching the 720P variant here & bringing the 1080P variant so, that’s really nice.

ASUS Zenfone Max Plus (M1) Will Go On Sale In February 2018 For $229

Talking about the Specifications, the Zenfone Max Plus (M1) comes with a 5.7 inch 2160 x 1080 (18:9) Display, a MediaTek MT6750T Octacore SOC, the Mali-T860 GPU, 3GB/4GB RAM, 32GB/64GB Internal Storage, a 16MP f-2.0 Camera + an 8MP 120 Degrees Wide Angle Shooter on the Back, an 8 Megapixel f-2.0 Selfie Shooter & a large 4130 mAh Battery.

Another feature is Face Unlock that is definitely going to be a huge trend of 2018. It’s not something I’ll personally use but, I know there are many people who want that feature in their phones so, it’s nice to see that best companies like ASUS & Huawei are pushing this feature into their budget devices.

There is no confirmation for availability outside of North America right now but, hopefully other Countries will get the device really soon after it becomes available in North America in February. Talking of the countries that the device already has entered, the device is currently available in China (as the Pegasus 4S), Russia & probably in Malaysia as well.

Via: Gadgets 360

Face Unlock Is Coming To The Honor 7x In Q1 Of 2018

Honor has announced a new Red color variant of the Honor 7x for the exact same price of $199 USD but, that’s literally not where the CES 2018 fun for the device ends. Honor has also announced a global rollout of an OTA Update that’ll add the Face Unlock feature to the device.

Face Unlock is going crazy after Apple’s FaceID implementation & now it has even started to become available in budget devices & the Honor 7x is the latest addition in the list. The OTA update will hit the device within the Q1 of 2018.

The Honor V10 (View 10) also comes with Face Unlock but, it has the Flagship Kirin 970 that features a dedicated NPU for AI. So, we’ll have to see how well the Honor 7x can do with it’s mid-tier SOC after the Feature becomes available.

With the announcement of NVIDIA’s Big Format Gaming Displays, ASUS has announced a new 65″ Gaming Monitor that spots a 4K resolution Display with a freaking 120 Hz Refresh Rate.

ASUS Announced A 65" 4K 120 Hz HDR Gaming Monitor At CES 2018

These range of Gaming monitors are for really high-end gaming setups for Pro Gamers. This new Monitor from ASUS carries the name ROG PG65 & it has support for NVIDIA G-sync & Shield support built in.

Alongside 4K HDR support, the PG65 also covers the DCI-P3 color gamut so, the experience shall be super immersive  visually. It also supports Variable Refresh Rate that means, it detects if your Monitor is playing Lower Frame rate content or not & switches to a lower Frame Rate when that 120Hz Refresh Rate isn’t needed at all & saves the user some power. The Brightness is around 1000 nits so, It shouldn’t be a problem to game on the Monitor in Bright indoors.