Review: Lenovo IdeaPad U310 Ultrabook

Lenovo’s refreshed U-series ultrabook is an improvement over last year’s model, and it’s much cheaper, too. Photo by Peter McCollough/Wired

Barely seven months ago, Lenovo released its excellent IdeaPad U300s, the company’s consumer-friendly entry to the ultrabook market. Now Lenovo is back with an update, the U310.

To the casual eye, not a lot appears to have changed. It’s still a 13.3-inch aluminum slab of a laptop with a 1366×768-pixel resolution screen. The island keyboard still offers a great layout and good action (though the keys now feel a touch small in comparison to some recently reviewed machines), and the huge clickpad has finally had the kinks worked out of it.

The biggest switch under the hood is the move to Ivy Bridge, with Lenovo subbing in a 1.7GHz third-generation Core i5 for the old 1.7GHz second-generation Core i7. There’s a substantially better port selection now, too, with an extra USB port (bringing the total up to three, two 3.0 and one 2.0), wired Ethernet, and an SD slot. The HDMI port from the U300s stays as-is.

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Gadget Lab Show: Roomba, App Store Woes and Nokia 808 PureView

                    

This week on the Gadget Lab Show, the gang takes a look at the new Roomba, chats about problems in the Apple App Store this week, and goes hands-on with a 41-megapixel Nokia smartphone.

Opening the show this week, reviews editor Mike Calore and staff writer Roberto Baldwin check out the Roomba 790. This latest Roomba model seems to suck up dirt better than its predecessors, and also handles steep inclines (something like a folded-over rug) well, too. It’s moddable, if you’re into the hacking scene. The Roomba 790 is pricy though — $700.

Next up, staff writer Christina Bonnington talks with Mike about apps crashing and malware in the Apple App Store. Over the Fourth of July holiday, a botched App Store update caused any recently updated apps to immediately crash upon opening. The issue has now been resolved: Apple issued a statement saying it was DRM related, and if you update any affected apps, the crashing problem should be fixed. We also saw the first spammy, malware-type app, called Find and Call, in the iOS App Store this week. It was quickly removed.

To close up this week’s show, staff writer Alexandra Chang joins Mike to take a look at the Nokia 808 PureView, a new smartphone with a 41-megapixel camera. For photos, the phone crunches about 7 megapixels into a 1-megapixel area. Each photo has between 2 to 38 megapixels, but 8 is really the sweet spot from what we can tell. The 808 runs Nokia’s Symbian operating system, and as a phone, Alexandra found it extremely frustrating to use. It’ll be $700 unlocked from Amazon starting July 9th. You can check out the full review on Wired Reviews.

Like the show? You can also get the Gadget Lab video podcast via iTunes, or if you don’t want to be distracted by our unholy on-camera talent, check out the Gadget Lab audio podcast. Prefer RSS? You can subscribe to the Gadget Lab video or audio podcast feeds.

Or listen to the audio below:

Gadget Lab audio podcast #162

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Review: Nokia 808 PureView

The Nokia 808 PureView. Photo by Ariel Zambelich/Wired

The Nokia 808 PureView is the most exciting smartphone on the market that you shouldn’t buy.

The phone generated a ton of buzz at February’s Mobile World Congress, not because it sports a stunning display or has the latest software features — in fact, the 808 PureView runs on Symbian, an outdated operating system Nokia has openly dismissed in favor of Microsoft’s Windows Phone OS.

The 808 PureView is captivating because of one feature, and one feature alone: the on-board 41-megapixel camera. The highest-end smartphones all come with 8-megapixel cameras. Compared to those cameras, a 41-megapixel camera sensor seems totally over-the-top and unnecessary. But what Nokia has developed with its homegrown PureView imaging technology is, by far, the best camera I’ve seen on a smartphone.

That doesn’t mean it’s a good phone. It’s actually a pretty terrible phone with an outstanding camera. You should only consider buying the 808 PureView if you really love mobile phone photography. Even then, you’re probably better off waiting until Nokia’s PureView technology comes paired with a better OS, like Windows Phone (and Nokia confirmed to Neowin Sunday that PureView will arrive in its Windows-powered Lumia phones “very soon”). Also consider that, in the U.S., the phone is currently only available as an unlocked device for AT&T and T-Mobile networks at the high, unsubsidized price of $700.

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Twitter App for iOS to Receive Major Overhaul, According to iOS 6 Beta

The current version of the Twitter iOS app. Image: Christina Bonnington/Wired

The Twitter iOS app could be getting a major facelift in the near future, according to leaked information in iOS 6 beta’s redesigned App Store. Twitter for iPhone version 4.3 will bring improved notifications, interactivity, and better searchability, among other improvements, according to 9to5 Mac.

The new version of Twitter will let you receive push notifications for certain people you follow, and you’ll get ambient Twitter notifications while you’re in the app (something the Tweetbot app already offers). As for interactivity, tweets from “selected events” will be highlighted and curated by Twitter, along with relevant photos and images. Content previews will also get more robust for partner websites, allowing you to check out photos and videos more readily.

The app will also allow for personalized trends, and the Discover tab will get more useful by indicating when there are new stories ready for you to load. Perhaps this will help the Discover tab from gathering cobwebs like it’s doing now.

The iOS app icon will also be updated to the new Twitter bird logo.

The Twitter app currently lacks a number of features available in third-party Twitter applications like Tweetbot. So, understandably, when Twitter announced last week it would be tightening the reigns on its API, many feathers were ruffled. It looks like this upcoming app update could rectify a number of those functionality concerns.

At this point, it’s unclear when the new Twitter iPhone app will be arriving — it could be as near as a week or two away, if we go by similar leaks in the past (like before the last Instagram update). Apple will likely update iOS 6 beta to remove the leaked information, since this would be considered a bug.

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Report: Next Kindle Fire Will Look Better, Weigh Less

Say goodbye to the current Kindle Fire display and hello to more pixels. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired

Another day passes, and a new bit of information concerning Amazon’s next-gen Kindle Fire leaks onto the internet. The yet-to-be-announced tablet is becoming the worst-kept secret in technology — assuming, of course, that all these information leaks are true.

On Sunday, AllThingsD reported that Amazon was working on a higher-resolution Kindle Fire that would be lighter than the current tablet. The easier-to-look-at-and-hold Fire is expected to launch late in the third quarter, ATD reports, according to “sources familiar with Amazon’s plans.”

The display of the summer-bound tablet will reportedly leap from 1024×600 to 1280×800. This resolution increase would put the Fire on par with the display of the Nexus 7, which we’ve lauded as the best 7-inch tablet available. The new display would deliver a crisp 216 pixels per inch, representing a 67 percent increase in total pixel density. It’s not a Retina display, but it’s a significant upgrade.

The upgraded display, however, wouldn’t be without its issues: The tablet’s aspect ratio would change from 10:6 to 16:10, but Amazon has reportedly reached out to developers to get them ready for the update.

While developers figure out the native resolution of their apps, customers will be happy to learn that Amazon is reportedly working on reducing the weight of the Kindle Fire, making it thinner. Recent rumors also have the Kindle Fire dropping its plastic external chassis for a metal case.

With the Nexus 7 shipping from Google in July, and a rumored 7-inch iPad on the way this fall, it’s in Amazon’s best interest to step up its Kindle Fire offering.

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