By gastorms1
Source: DoItYourself.com
Will the HP Envy x2 evoke jealous thoughts in the coffee shop? Given its sleek, brushed-silver looks and thin clamshell design, probably. Will it stir the deeper emotions that other, faster convertible Windows 8 tablet/laptops do? Sorry HP, no. Still, this thoughtfully designed portable delivers enough battery life and performance to more than adequately fill the roles of both tablet and small laptop.
The Envy x2 sports a 1366 by 768 (16:9), 11.6-inch display that shows off video well and delivers more than enough usable brightness. The tablet portion weighs a comfortable (given its wide nature) 1.54 pounds, with the 1.56-pound keyboard/port dock bringing that up to 3.1 pounds. All told, toting the package is no great feat. The tablet portion locks into the keyboard dock, and is released via a slide switch.
Most of the EnvyxX2’s ports reside on the dock, including a headset jack, HDMI video output, and two USB 2.0 ports. The lack of USB 3.0 or any other high-speed interface for backing up is a minor quibble given the light-use nature of the product. There’s also a SDHC car reader, and a large power connector jack. Connectivity (all on the tablet) includes 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, as well as Near-Field Communication, though there are few applications for the latter at the moment.
The tablet portion sports the usual features: a 1080 display-side Webcam, an 8-megapixel back camera, plus an ambient light sensor. There are only two ports–the power jack and the headset jack. With no USB or card reader, you’ll need to load or offload data docked or via Wi-Fi. The tablet also has a power button and rocker-volume switch which are placed handily on the back, just a short reach from where your fingers fall when holding the tablet with both hands.
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Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld
Acer’s Iconia W510 is a 16:9, widescreen Windows 8 tablet with a nicely-designed keyboard dock. When sidled down and locked into said dock, the W5 appears and functions as a small, netbook-sized laptop. Alas, the W5 dock is a pricey option–the $750 W510-1422 and $800 W510P-1406 configurations that include it are $200 more than the otherwise identical dock-less models.
The 16:9 aspect ratio of the Iconia W510‘s 10.1-inch, 1366 by 768 display is mirrored by the unit’s 10.2-inch by 7.3-inch form –a form quite common in the Windows 8 tablet realm. The wide aspect is both good and bad news; While 16:9 is perfect for movies, it’s considerably less so when held in portrait orientation to read books or surf the Web–one of the major reasons that 4:3 aspect units have ruled the marketplace. But if video is your focus, the W5’s widescreen can be appealing.
Feature-wise, the Iconia W510 is largely your standard Windows tablet. Features include micro-USB and micro-HDMI ports, an SDHC card reader, a headset jack, plus a 5MP rear-facing camera and a 1.3MP display-side Webcam. There are a Windows button to facilitate alternating between the Windows 8 Metro and classic Windows interfaces, and a rotation lock to fix the image in portrait or landscape mode. Wi-Fi is 802.11 a/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0 are both on hand for top-notch wireless connectivity.
As conceived and realized as the W510’s dock is mechanically, Acer could have done better with its appearance. The W510 looks nice enough on its own, but when combined with the docking station, the two shades of white (dock keys/tablet bezel), black, and silver color scheme give the unit as a whole a vaguely cheap feel. Neither part is cheaply made, but visual impressions can be hard to shake.
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Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld
Asoftech Photo Recovery is an effective, but not perfect, program that recovers documents as well as photos and video from memory cards. It didn’t recover some of the tougher items in my tests, but neither does most of the competition. The demo will find files, but not recover them (like most recovery programs). For that, you will need the full version, which costs $30.
I tested Asoftech Photo Recovery by trying to recover some files erased from an SDHC card. Photos–no problem, documents–no problem, video from my Canon 230SX–a problem. The program didn’t find the separate, linked headers that this Canon camera writes to the card, that are required for the .mov files to play properly. Only one program I’ve tried recovered these headers–the free, command line-based PhotoRec (though they must still be reconstructed by hand with a hex/sector editor such as Hexedit).
Though it’s bright purple and not particularly sophisticated, the Asoftech Photo Recovery interface is easy to use, and you can limit the types of files you’re looking for, which speeds up the scan process. But with freebies such as PhotoRec and Recuva available that work as well or better, it’s hard to recommend any pay program until you reach the level of more powerful (and complex) programs like R-Studio Data Recovery and its ilk.
Note: The Download button on the Product Information page will download the software to your system.
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Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld
