Month: January 2017

Final reminder: Donate and you may win swag in our annual Charity Drive sweepstakes

Help us set a new site record for generosity, won’t you?

Enlarge / Just some of the prizes you can win in our Charity Drive Sweepstakes.

As we near the finish line for this year's Ars Technica Charity Drive sweepstakes, we're also closing in on a new record for the generosity of Ars Technica readers. As of this writing, over 700 entrants have donated a total of over $31,000 to either Child's Play or the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

That's already enough to make this the second-best charity drive we've had (we started the annual project in 2007). But it's still a shade below the $38,861 raised in last year's epic.

Today is the final day for entries in this year's contest, so we're running out of time to set a new high water mark. I know this year's readership can make last year's look like miserly skinflints if they really dig deep and make a donation today. Even if you don't care about showing up the past, remember that every donation is an entry to win one of nearly 100 pieces of swag we're giving away (see below for details).

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Display: Freesync 2 wechselt automatisch zwischen SDR und HDR

Trotz des Namens kein direkter Nachfolger von Freesync: Freesync 2 ist für Spiele mit High Dynamic Range gedacht. Das soll in einer niedrigeren Eingabelatenz und eigenständigem Umschalten resultieren. (HDR, Display)

Trotz des Namens kein direkter Nachfolger von Freesync: Freesync 2 ist für Spiele mit High Dynamic Range gedacht. Das soll in einer niedrigeren Eingabelatenz und eigenständigem Umschalten resultieren. (HDR, Display)

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (2017) coming in February for $1350 and up

As expected, Lenovo is updating its ThinkPad X1 Carbon thin-and-light laptop for 2017. The new model is lighter and smaller than its predecessors, but it still packs powerful specs.
Lenovo placed super-slim bezels around the sides of the screen, allowi…

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (2017) coming in February for $1350 and up

As expected, Lenovo is updating its ThinkPad X1 Carbon thin-and-light laptop for 2017. The new model is lighter and smaller than its predecessors, but it still packs powerful specs.

Lenovo placed super-slim bezels around the sides of the screen, allowing the company to squeeze a 14 inch display into a laptop the size of a typical 13 inch model.

The 2017 Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon measures about 0.6 inches thick, weighs 2.5 pounds, and comes in black and silver color options.

Continue reading Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (2017) coming in February for $1350 and up at Liliputing.

New Horizons now just two years from its next target—a dark, mysterious rock

Not much is known about 2014 MU69, which may only be slightly bigger than Manhattan.

Enlarge / An artist's concept of what MU69 might look like. (credit: NASA, ESA, and G. Bacon (STScI))

New Horizons continues to deliver the goods. Having sent back all of the data collected during its Pluto flyby in 2015, the spacecraft is still speeding along at a velocity of 14.32 kilometers per second relative to the Sun. That's allowed it to travel almost halfway between Pluto and its next target, a small Kuiper Belt object called 2014 MU69. By last Sunday, in fact, it had come to within two years of its flyby date—Jan. 1, 2019.

At this point, mission managers are conducting operations on the fly (pun intended). That's because the Hubble Space Telescope only found the object in June, 2014, barely a year before New Horizons' flyby of Pluto. When NASA formally selected MU69 as the spacecraft's next target in late 2015, scientists were in the midst of downloading and analyzing data about the Pluto system.

But now the focus is shifting to the new object, and this has led to a flurry of planning as mission scientists must design, write, and test the spacecraft's command sequences for its second flyby. "For Pluto, that job took most of 2009 to 2013," New Horizon's principal investor, Alan Stern, recently explained. "But because the MU69 flyby is barely two years away, we have to compress all the planning into the next 18 months. Why? Because flyby operations for 2014 MU69 will begin in July 2018."

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Spendenaufruf: Wikipedia sammelt 8,7 Millionen Euro

Während der Weihnachtszeit hat die Online-Enzyklopädie Wikipedia wieder wochenlang Spendenbanner geschaltet – mit Erfolg. Doch die Kritik am großen Geldeinsammeln reißt nicht ab. Wozu braucht die Wikimedia-Stiftung so viel Geld? (Wikipedia, Urheberrecht)

Während der Weihnachtszeit hat die Online-Enzyklopädie Wikipedia wieder wochenlang Spendenbanner geschaltet - mit Erfolg. Doch die Kritik am großen Geldeinsammeln reißt nicht ab. Wozu braucht die Wikimedia-Stiftung so viel Geld? (Wikipedia, Urheberrecht)

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga convertible notebook gets a spec bump

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga convertible notebook gets a spec bump

Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Yoga is a convertible laptop with a 14 inch screen, support for pen and finger input, and an option for an OLED display.

First launched at CES 2016, Lenovo is giving the notebook/tablet hybrid a bit of an upgrade at CES 2017.

The new model is available with up to an Intel Core i7 Kaby Lake-U processor, and some models will feature Intel HD 620 graphics, while others will be available with more powerful Intel Iris Plus 640 graphics.

Continue reading Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga convertible notebook gets a spec bump at Liliputing.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga convertible notebook gets a spec bump

Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Yoga is a convertible laptop with a 14 inch screen, support for pen and finger input, and an option for an OLED display.

First launched at CES 2016, Lenovo is giving the notebook/tablet hybrid a bit of an upgrade at CES 2017.

The new model is available with up to an Intel Core i7 Kaby Lake-U processor, and some models will feature Intel HD 620 graphics, while others will be available with more powerful Intel Iris Plus 640 graphics.

Continue reading Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga convertible notebook gets a spec bump at Liliputing.

2nd-gen Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Tablet coming in March for $950 and up

2nd-gen Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Tablet coming in March for $950 and up

About a year after launching the original ThinkPad X1 tablet, Lenovo is back with a new model featuring updated processor and a few other changes.

The new Lenovo ThinkPad X1 is a 12 inch tablet with a 2160 x 1440 pixel IPS display, digital pen support, and optional accessories including a detachable keyboard, and a “presenter” module with an integrated projector.

Lenovo will start selling the new Thinkpad X1 tablet in March for about $950 and up.

Continue reading 2nd-gen Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Tablet coming in March for $950 and up at Liliputing.

2nd-gen Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Tablet coming in March for $950 and up

About a year after launching the original ThinkPad X1 tablet, Lenovo is back with a new model featuring updated processor and a few other changes.

The new Lenovo ThinkPad X1 is a 12 inch tablet with a 2160 x 1440 pixel IPS display, digital pen support, and optional accessories including a detachable keyboard, and a “presenter” module with an integrated projector.

Lenovo will start selling the new Thinkpad X1 tablet in March for about $950 and up.

Continue reading 2nd-gen Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Tablet coming in March for $950 and up at Liliputing.

Lenovo Smart Assistant is an Amazon Echo clone… complete with Alexa voice assistant

Lenovo Smart Assistant is an Amazon Echo clone… complete with Alexa voice assistant

Amazon’s Echo is a $180 wireless speaker that responds to voice commands and questions, and which has speakers that can pick up your voice from across the room. But Echo isn’t the only game in town anymore.

Google launched its own solution called Google Home last year, except that model uses Google Assistant instead of Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant software.

Now Lenovo has unveiled its own smart home speaker, and it looks a lot like Amazon’s.

Continue reading Lenovo Smart Assistant is an Amazon Echo clone… complete with Alexa voice assistant at Liliputing.

Lenovo Smart Assistant is an Amazon Echo clone… complete with Alexa voice assistant

Amazon’s Echo is a $180 wireless speaker that responds to voice commands and questions, and which has speakers that can pick up your voice from across the room. But Echo isn’t the only game in town anymore.

Google launched its own solution called Google Home last year, except that model uses Google Assistant instead of Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant software.

Now Lenovo has unveiled its own smart home speaker, and it looks a lot like Amazon’s.

Continue reading Lenovo Smart Assistant is an Amazon Echo clone… complete with Alexa voice assistant at Liliputing.

Lenovo Miix 720 is a 12 inch 2-in-1 tablet with Kaby Lake CPU, active pen

Lenovo Miix 720 is a 12 inch 2-in-1 tablet with Kaby Lake CPU, active pen

Lenovo’s Miix line of tablets are 2-in-1 devices with detachable keyboards. Last year a series of leaks suggested that the follow-up to the 12 inch Miix 700 would be a new model called the Miix 720.

And the leaks were accurate. Lenovo has just unveiled a new 12 inch 2-in-1 tablet with an Intel Kaby Lake processor, a high-resolution 2880 x 1920 pixel display, and support for a Lenovo Active Pen 2.

It’s called the Miix 720, and it will be available in April for $1000 and up.

Continue reading Lenovo Miix 720 is a 12 inch 2-in-1 tablet with Kaby Lake CPU, active pen at Liliputing.

Lenovo Miix 720 is a 12 inch 2-in-1 tablet with Kaby Lake CPU, active pen

Lenovo’s Miix line of tablets are 2-in-1 devices with detachable keyboards. Last year a series of leaks suggested that the follow-up to the 12 inch Miix 700 would be a new model called the Miix 720.

And the leaks were accurate. Lenovo has just unveiled a new 12 inch 2-in-1 tablet with an Intel Kaby Lake processor, a high-resolution 2880 x 1920 pixel display, and support for a Lenovo Active Pen 2.

It’s called the Miix 720, and it will be available in April for $1000 and up.

Continue reading Lenovo Miix 720 is a 12 inch 2-in-1 tablet with Kaby Lake CPU, active pen at Liliputing.