McMath Tech Something

The best of IFA 2013

September 4th, 2013. The first day of IFA where countless reporters and media junkies alike jostled in the morning dew outside of the Messe Berlin, all waiting for their chance to get inside the hall where all of their tech dreams lie in wait. One of the biggest and most anticipated tech conferences of the year, where thousands of people from all over the world come to see what the various companies have prepared for q4, and the christmas season. In this articleblogpostthing I will cover some of the things that I thought were the coolest/best things at IFA 2013, and maybe some things I thought were not so good as well.

The Wacom Companion

For years, Wacom has been the premier maker of drawing tablets, coveted by artists for accurate lines and excellent function. Some companies have tried to breach the market with their attempts by including support for styli, such as Microsoft's surface tablet or the Samsung galaxy tab 10.1, but professional artists have been dissatisfied by their performance, citing drawing on glass and the general accuracy to be difficult to work with. Wacom has attempted to rectify this by providing their own premium drawing tablet/computer hybrid, providing a true mobile drawing experience that was designed for professional artists. Notice the word premium, as these tablets do not come in cheap. Starting at $1,999.00 for the 256 GB version, and $2,499.00 for the 512 GB version. While that may seem expensive, the components of the tablet are quality parts, but people just can't seem to get past the price. I think this will be an invaluable tool for any artist on the go. 

Full Specifications:

• Display Size               13.3 inch
• Resolution                  Full HD 1920 X 1080
• Advanced Control       2048 levels pen pressure, natural feel and multi-touch
• Productivity                BoostersExpressKeys™, Rocker Ring, Home Button, on-screen controls
• Ergonomics                Adjustable stand
• Compatibility              Windows 8
• Processor                  Intel® Core™ i-7 (Ivy Bridge)
• Storage                      256 or 512 GB Solid State Drive (SSD)
• Product Type              Creative tablet
• Size                           375 ｘ 248 ｘ 17 mm / 14.8 x 9.8 x 0.7 in
• Weight                       1.8 kg / 3.9 lbs

What's really important to note here is that the processor is a Ivy bridge processor, not the latest Haswell processors that came out earlier in the year. Why this is important is because the Haswell processors offer significantly better battery performance out of mobile devices due to better power consumption. The other thing to notice is that there is no graphics card included in this package. While this is not too big of a problem for most artists, as photoshop and other art programs are usually more cpu-intensive, it still limits the ability to do anything else on the computer, such as video editing, or playing games. 

The Wacom Companion is a tablet designed for artists, and nobody else. I think artists will cherish the fact that this is a much more mobile and convenient solution to their mobile drawing needs, and I think it would be a good investment for anybody who needs this sort of thing. 

Asus Book Trio

Asus evolved the tablet market back in 2011 with the original Asus transformer, by combining the traditional tablet with a new keyboard docking station that both added battery life, and extra functionality by adding usb ports. Now back to 2013, Asus is yet again trying to blur the line between laptop and tablet with the new Asus book trio. The Asus book trio combines an android tablet with a windows keyboard dock, with the ability to switch between windows and android at any time (when the keyboard is plugged in. But the really cool thing about the Asus book Trio is that you can take the keyboard dock, and plug it into any monitor and suddenly you have a full windows computer. I don't really know how well I have explained this so I'll include a video.

I think this could be a really smart move, and I can see this being extremely useful for students who need the portability of a transformer tablet, but could not justify dishing out 500 dollars for having hardly any functionality because of android. Because the keyboard dock is windows, you have the entire Microsoft ecosystem, including word, powerpoint, excel, and everything else you could need. You can enjoy all of the programs you could on any other laptop or desktop, and all in an extremely portable fashion. 

The Specs for the tablet itself include a dual core intel atom processor, 2GB of RAM and a full HD display, and includes up to 64GB of storage, while the Keyboard dock adds a fully backlit keyboard, HDMI access, a 4th gen i5/i7 processor, up to a 1TB hard drive, and a 33Whr battery, making portability for this tablet excellent.

The Sony Xperia Z1

The Sony Xperia Z1 is sony's new flagship device, and it really steps the bar up from anything that has come before. Sporting a 20.7 Megapixel camera, and 2.2 Ghz quad core snapdragon 800, 2 GB of RAM, and a 5 inch full hd screen, the Z1 was the best phone announced at IFA, or since in my opinion. The Z1 feels premium too, sporting a glass front and back, with an aluminum chassis and a little bit of plastic in the mix to serve as a shock resistor. The back is non-removable, which means the 3000 mAh battery is locked inside forever. Even though that means there's no replacing it, there shouldn't be a need to, as you can easily get a day out of it at heavy use, which is very impressive for a 1080p phone. The phone is also completely waterproof, though only in fresh water up to 1.5m deep for under 30 minutes, but it still means that if you drop it in the lake, or the sink, or the bathtub, you need not worry about buying a new phone. This waterproof feature comes at a price though, as all of the ports around the phone are covered by plastic flip off coverings that can be annoying to deal with when all you want to do is listen to music. All of these premium features do come with a premium price though, and this phone will run you somewhere in the vicinity of 700 dollars unlocked. The skin Sony has put on android looks nice, functions well, and isn't too intrusive so Sony definitely gets a pass in that department. For a full review of this phone, you can check this link.


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So thats is! that is what i felt was the best things to see at IFA this year, tell me what you think in the comments. Did I miss something? Do you have a different opinion? I don't really care either way, but tell me anyways okay?
good talk.