Lenovo’s Surface Pro competitor gets leaked

While Lenovo recently released the IdeaPad Miix 510, the tech company reportedly has plans to refresh its Surface Pro competitor. The replacement is supposedly called the IdeaPad Miix 720, which will be the successor of the Miix 700 from last year. It’ll get a boost in terms of specs, including a 12-inch display with a 2,880 x 1,920 resolution, up to 1TB SSD, and up to 16GB of RAM. Processor options will be the latest seventh-generation i3, i5, and i7 Kaby Lake models. It will supposedly have a USB-C port, which will also serve as the means to charge the device, and two legacy USB ports. The signature watchband hinge design will also be retained in the kickstand. No word yet when and how much the device will cost but it probably shouldn’t be too long until we hear word about its official release.

Source: WinFuture | Via: The Verge

OWC's ThunderBolt 3 Dock brings much needed expansion to new MacBook Pros

The new MacBook Pros are the most divisive products coming out of Apple in a long time. While many are delighted by the innovative new Touchbar, thinner and lighter form factor, faster processors, and redesigned trackpad and display; a large majority of pro users are bemoaning the deletion of ports in favour of Thunderbolt 3 ports and a stack of dongles. A solution that's sure to add even more cost to these new notebooks already hig price.

Other World Computing's ThunderBolt 3 Dock is one way to solve the lack of ports. This US $279 accessory brings an SD Card reader,  an audio In/Out port, 5 USB 3 Gen 1 ports, a pro grade digital audio port, FireWire 800, Gigabit Ethernet, two Thunderbolt 3.0 ports (with 40 GB/s throughput) and a mini DisplayPort for good measure.

Understanding that professional users often have to work with legacy devices and specific peripherals and accessories, OWC's ThunderBolt 3 Dock, which has a two year warranty, is one of the best solutions to cover port anxiety and put the 'Pro' back into the MacBook.

Review: ASUS ZenBook 3

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

What we have here is an outlier, a sub portable notebook designed for optimal portability and long battery life but which can also handle some top-level performance thanks to the fact that it has the latest processors and bumped up specs.

ASUS ZenBook 3 is the company’s answer two Apple notebooks. It has the 12-inch form-factor of the ultra-portable Retina MacBook, but boasts processor and specs that can go head-to-head with even the latest MacBook Pro. Here are my impressions of the remarkable new ASUS ZenBook 3.

In case you haven’t noticed, ultra-thin, ultra light notebooks are a definite thing. Apple defined the space with the MacBook Air, Intel’s OEMs followed suit with the Ultrabook class of devices. Apple went insanely portable with the 12-inch Retina MacBook, a true wonder of engineering mired by a low-performance (although fanless and power efficient mobile processor), a single USB-Type C port and innovations like the butterfly keyboard mechanism and solid-state trackpad. Hit jump for the full review.

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Slack puts out full-page ad just as Microsoft readies to enter team-based chat service

Photo from the Verge

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

In a move reminiscent of old-school passive aggressive tech company taunting, Slack took out a full-page ad on the New York Times to "Welcome Microsoft," and offer some advice as the Redmond Giant unveiled its competing Microsoft Teams collaborative chat service.

Slack is the darling communications app of the technology teams and one of Silicon Valley's most beloved services and it was long rumoured to be in Microsoft's sights as a company to be acquired. There may have been some back-channel negotiations that somehow fell through. Anyway, when a company pulls a stunt like this, they're not really just talking to the recipient (in this case, Microsoft), but the world at large in order to tout their features and brag about their achievements. 

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