www.nutsvolts.com/index.php?/magazine/article/november2011_TechKnow
COMPUTERS AND NETWORKING
NEW LAPTOP TRIO
When there isn't much going on in terms of technology, you have to rely on style to sell computers. Hence, we have Lenovo's new trio of "luxury laptops," the IdeaPad U300s Ultrabook™, and the U300 and U400 models. "The new
IdeaPad U Series laptops provide style mavens everything they need in a slender, mobile, and super chic package," said
Yao Yingjia, VP of the company's Innovation Design Center. "The U300s, U300, and U400 laptops are the perfect luxury
accessory this season, liberating consumers on the go to combine productivity and entertainment in one stylish device."
It appears that the IdeaPad is intended to challenge
Apple's MacBook Air on a dimensional level. The machine
has a 13. 3 inch display, is 0.59 in (1.49 cm) thick, and
weighs 2. 2 lbs (1 kg), whereas the 13 in Air is 0.68 in
(1.73 cm) thick and comes in at 2.96 lbs (1.34 kg). You get
a choice of graphite gray or "clementine orange" shell
colors, applied electrolytically and sandblasted to create a
scratch-resistant coating.
Other features include a chicklet-style breathable
keyboard which allows cooling air to flow through and
around it, while maintaining a level of spill resistance.
Getting down to the guts, you can choose between two
256 GB of SSD storage. The U300s and U400 start at
$1199.99 and $849.99, respectively. ▲
FREE DRUM MACHINE AND SEQUENCER
Once in a while, you see something that makes you scratch your head and wonder, "How the heck did someone come up with this?" Such
is the d-touch sequencer and drum machine, downloadable for free at
www.d-touch.org/audio/. For the non-musician, we note that a sequencer
is simply a program that — within a computer or stand-alone unit — allows
you to assemble stored digital sounds into a sequence for playback. While
audio sequencers have been around for decades, the weird thing about
this one is the user interface. Developed by Dr. Enrico Costanza at the
University of Southampton ( www.soton.ac.uk), it is referred to as a
tangible user interface (TUI) which "gives physical control in the
immaterial world of computers."
Probably the best description of the concept is provided on the d-touch website, where it is explained, "Audio d-touch is a collection of
applications for real time musical composition and performance, with
very special user interfaces. The collection includes a drum machine and
a sampling sequencer; both are controlled by spatially arranging physical
objects on an interactive table surface. Each object represents a sound,
If that explanation leaves things a bit unclear, you can log onto the website and view the video. It will still be unclear,
but maybe not quite so much. The best solution is probably to just download it, hook up your webcam, and try it out.
Even if you don't know much about music, it still looks like fun. ▲
■ The unique tangible user interface for the
d-touch sequencer.
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