Liliputing

Lilbits 346: You can’t always judge a laptop by its specs

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When I picked up my latest laptop I opted for a model with an Intel Core i5-8250U processor after realizing that I’d have to spend several hundred dollars more to get a version with a Core i7-8550U chip… and most benchmarks I’ve seen suggest that the Core i7 chip is only a little faster. But depending […]

Toshiba begins sampling UFS 3.0 storage (faster storage for smartphones)

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Smartphone processors keep getting faster, the cameras keep getting better, and the batteries are… still there. But there’s another piece of hardware that can affect performance of smartphones and other mobile devices: the storage technology. Early phones shipped with eMMC flash storage (and some cheaper models still do). More recently phone makers started adopting UFS […]

Daily Deals (1-23-2019)

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Humble Bundle’s new Caffeine Bundle lets you pay pretty much anything you want to pick up at least three PC games: GoNNER, Headlander, and Treadnaugts. Pay more than the average price and you get three more games: This War of Mine, The Pillars of the Earth, and Dear Esther. Or pay $12 or more to […]

Dell XPS 13 9380 Developer Edition with Ubuntu Linux

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Dell continues to be one of the few major PC manufacturers to offer some of its laptops with a GNU/Linux operating system as an alternative to Windows. Just a few weeks after introducing the 2019 version of the Dell XPS 13 laptop, Dell is now selling XPS 13 9830 Developer Edition models with Ubuntu 18.04 […]

The Meizu Zero is the first smartphone with no buttons or ports

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Chinese phone maker Meizu has unveiled the world’s first smartphone with no buttons and no ports. The sides of the Meizu Zero are completely smooth, for better or worse. If you’re wondering how you use the thing, it has touch-sensitive sides that you can use to turn the phone on and off or adjust the volume. […]

Xiaomi previews a phone that folds up like a tri-fold wallet

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It looks like 2019 is going to be the year of the folding smartphone. Samsung has one on the way. Motorola too. Royole already released one. And they all seem to use flexible display technology in different ways, with some folding inward and others folding outward. And then there’s Xiaomi. It looks like the company’s […]

HP introduces two AMD-powered Chromebooks for education market

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The first Chromebooks with AMD processors are starting to hit the streets — HP unveiled a 14 inch model at CES earlier this month and it’s already available for purchase, while Acer has a 15.6 inch model on the way. Now HP is introducing two new models — the HP Chromebook 14A G5 EE,which is should […]

Lilbits 345: Hanging up on Google Hangouts (eventually)

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A few months ago we learned that Google was planning to retire the communication service known as Google Hangouts… while transitioning some of the key features to its Hangouts Chat and Hangouts Meet services. It’s still not entirely clear what this will mean or when it will happen for personal users. But Google has announced […]



Samsung launches a tiny 20MP camera for hole-in-display and notch phones

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Halfway decent cameras are a key selling point in modern smartphones… but so are phones with high screen-to-body ratios. Enter displays that wrap around the front-facing camera either via a notch design or, more recently, a hole in the display. Samsung says its newest smartphone camera solution is designed for that type of display — […]

Acer launches new 12 inch Chromebooks for education

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Acer is adding two new Chromebooks to its lineup. The Acer Chromebook 512 and Acer Chromebook Spin 512 are both designed for the education market and they’re Acer’s first Chromebooks to feature 12 inch displays with a 3:2 aspect ratio. The Spin model features a touchscreen display, a 360-degree hinge, and a starting price of $450, while […]