Computex came and went earlier this month, marking yet another year of electronic gadgets and “booth babes,” who don mini-skirts and high heels and hold presentations at exhibition displays.
Male geeks might have loved it, but for the average Joe and Jane, the world’s second largest computer exhibition was mostly a staid and boring affair, with its endless, mind-numbing displays of circuit boards, cables and obscure electronics components.
What Computex did offer, though, was a glimpse of the near future for consumer electronics, particularly portable and home computers. Here are a few highlights from this year’s event.
Photo courtesy of Asus
Much of the attention this year was on the upcoming generation of “ultrabooks,” chipmaker Intel’s marketing nickname for the latest generation of laptops.
The fuss wasn’t just over how much lighter and thinner notebooks are becoming. Many of the computers on display at Computex were running Windows 8, Microsoft’s new touchscreen-friendly operating system that is set to be released to the public later this fall.
ULTRABOOK BUZZ
PHOTOs COURTESY OF Asus
All eyes were on Taiwan’s top PC manufacturers, Acer (宏碁) and Asus (華碩), both of which unveiled new product lines.
Acer’s Aspire S7 laptop was the most impressive of the company’s products previewed at Computex.
The S7s are laptops with touchscreens. Both the 11-inch and 13-inch models tout slim profiles and handsome unibody metal designs, and, refreshingly, they don’t come across as slavish imitations of the Macbook Air.
Photo courtesy of Acer
We were allowed some brief hands-on time with the S7s at Acer’s press conference. The big novelty of these notebooks is the ability to navigate with either the touchpad or the touchscreen.
Even though they’re not the first laptops to be made with touchscreens, the S7s are among the first I’ve seen that have the potential to work well. The touchscreens are as responsive as an iPad, thanks to Windows 8, whose interface shares a similar design to Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 software.
The demo models, which sported high definition displays, offered a nice first impression (the 11-inch S7 in particular looks like a nice alternative to the Macbook Air), but it’s still too early to tell whether these are going to be worth buying. Acer has yet to reveal prices or technical specifications, and Windows 8 is not quite ready for prime time. The company also unveiled several all-in-one PCs and tablets running on Windows 8, which is set for release sometime this fall.
Meanwhile, Acer’s competitor Asus created a bigger buzz at Computex with the Asus Taichi, a laptop that converts into a tablet. The Taichi has two screens: one facing the keyboard, like a normal laptop. When you close it shut, there’s a screen on top, and the computer becomes a touchscreen tablet.
The Taichi, which Asus says will be as thin as its Zenbook laptops, looks like an impressive bit of engineering. Though the Taichi’s biggest virtue is as a laptop/tablet combo — it’s laptop when you’re sitting at a desk and it’s a tablet when you’re sitting on the couch — Asus oversold its usefulness.
At its press event, the company staged a demonstration in which two female models showed how one could “share” the Taichi. One person played the “busy mother,” sitting at the computer typing, while the other person was the “daughter,” watching a movie on the back of the screen. The idea of sharing a two-sided laptop screen didn’t strike me as very practical, as you’d have to be careful to tilt the screen at the right angle. Imagine someone tapping or watching the back of your laptop screen while you’re working away. For me, this might be amusing, for, oh, a minute or so.
THE RIGHT TOUCH?
At the event, Asus chairman Johnny Shih (施崇棠) said that the Taichi is “the perfect fusion of notebook and tablet.” This kind of hyperbole is typical of Asus and the charismatic Shih, who clearly loves to be the center of attention. He gave a well-rehearsed, Steve Jobs-style presentation, and barely flinched during an embarrassing episode when he tried to demonstrate the Asus Transformer AiO, a huge tablet computer, the software for which crashed before he could even start using it.
Still, the Transformer AiO will be of interest to some. It’s an 18-inch touchscreen tablet that can switch between the Windows 8 and Android operating systems and turns into an all-in-one PC when placed in a dock stand. Fans of Asus’ Zenbook, the company’s Macbook Air look-alike, were salivating over a prototype of the upcoming Zenbook Prime UX21A, which ran on Windows 8 and was equipped with a touchscreen. There is no firm indication that Asus will actually release this model — it’s not unusual to see prototypes that never hit the market. But Asus might win over some new Zenbook fans if this touch-friendly version ever comes out.
It felt like Asus out-pizazzed Acer, especially if you compared their press events, which offer a glimpse of the two companies’ personalities. Acer’s Computex press event, held in a Taipei World Trade Center (台北世界貿易中心) conference room, had a dull, corporate vibe and was full of painfully stilted and awkward speeches; Asus’ event felt more like a party, as it was held at a dimly lit venue sometimes used for rock concerts. It also helped that Asus has a chairman with stage presence.
But the two companies’ upcoming products are evenly matched and point to the future of tablets — ever-shrinking laptops with touchscreens and all-in-one PCs.
WINDOWS 8
The other big buzz of Computex was the preview of Windows 8. Every PC maker from Acer to Samsung displayed a slew of prototype products running the latest version of Microsoft’s operating system. It’s going to be a radical change in that Windows 8 will look completely different than all previous iterations. Microsoft is getting rid of the “Start button” that sits on the bottom left corner, and has replaced it with a “Start” page, full of bold colors, big, blocky icons and smooth looking typography. There aren’t many apps out yet that cater to Windows 8’s new interface since the OS has yet to be officially released, but I was impressed with the Weather app, which is beautiful and functional. Windows 8 definitely looks like the future of PCs.
Windows 8, which is designed to be touchscreen-friendly, shares the same look and feel of the Windows Phone 7 operating system. But it’s not as immediately intuitive as one might hope. The one thing I found frustrating when playing with various demo models at Computex, was that it was easy to open apps but not easy to find my way back to the Start page (the equivalent of the Homescreen on an iPad). The solution is simple — swipe from the right to get a tray of buttons to take you home — but it’s not apparent at all that you have to do this. In short, Windows 8 may be prettier, faster and easier to use than previous iterations, but you’re going to have learn some new tricks.
To make things even more confusing, you can switch back to the more “classic” look of Windows, with the app tray at the bottom. But the one catch is that the traditional view still won’t have the familiar Start button that many of us have known, well, ever since we started using PCs. Switching back and forth between the new and classic look also feels a bit jarring.
Although Windows 8 generally seems promising, it looks like there will be some growing pains for Windows users accustomed to Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7, who will need to adjust to a new way of working.
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