Computex 2015: the biggest news about what’s next – The Verge

Big, curvy, and beautiful: the next generation of monitors is coming

2015-06-04T07:47:17-04:00

Nvidia's tagline for the new GeForce GTX 980 Ti graphics card is "Play The Future." As far as Nvidia is concerned, the future can never get here fast enough, mostly because its demands for more pixels and graphical power are what keeps the GPU maker in business. That's why Nvidia is pushing 4K gaming as the next big thing, and that's also why the company is so excited to see a new wave of high-resolution 34-inch curved displays emerging here at Computex.

Everyone is standardizing around a consistent spec: 34 inches and ultrawide

Local Taiwanese powerhouses Acer and Asus are joining the likes of Dell and LG in standardizing around a new set o …

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The USB drive of the future is already here

2015-06-03T11:03:09-04:00

Take a close look at this Dual USB Flash Drive from SanDisk. The company name doesn't matter so much as the shape and function of the thing: we're about to see every USB stick transform into such a dual-plug peripheral very soon indeed. USB-C, the thin connector on the right, is the hot new port standard that's taking the tech world by storm this year. The big chunky guy on the other side is the ubiquitous but rapidly depreciating USB Type-A connector that we all know (and occasionally loathe when trying to plug it in the wrong way).

I spoke with SanDisk's Jared Peck at Computex today and he told me about the challenge faced by the peripher …

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Your next laptop might have a touch-sensitive spacebar

2015-06-03T08:00:02-04:00

The spacebar might be the most used button on your keyboard, but that doesn't mean that it can't do even more. At least, that's what Synaptics thinks. The company - best known for its laptop trackpads - wants to make your spacebar touch sensitive.

That means that you may soon have two different ways to click on your spacebar. You'll still have that satisfying, traditional physical click for typing, but if your laptop or desktop keyboard has the "SmartBar," you can set custom actions for when you merely tap on the spacebar. In fact, Synaptics says you can set five different actions for when you tap on the SmartBar, presumably depending on wh …

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The Selfie Swing is a real, terrible thing

2015-06-03T04:50:06-04:00

Selfies are hard, aren't they? You have to lift up your arm, wipe the ennui off your face, and press a button to make the selfie happen. Too much work, says Asus. What you need is the help of a Selfie Swing! It's a simple swinging arm that attaches to the new ZenFone Selfie smartphone and can be flexed out to serve as a stand to hold the phone upright. To be fair, an integrated stand is not the worst idea in the world, but why Asus felt the need to tie it to self-portrait photography is beyond me.

Here at Computex, Asus only had a mockup of the Selfie Swing that doesn't lock out in any position and requires a bit of imagination to envision …

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Dell is bringing the borderless Infinity display to its 15-inch XPS laptop

2015-06-03T04:02:58-04:00

The delightfully borderless Infinity display that Dell introduced on the XPS 13 this year is moving up in size class. As part of a sneak preview of upcoming Windows 10 hardware here at Computex Taipei, Microsoft showed the new Dell XPS 15. The only things we know about this new laptop so far are that it has a razor-thin bezel, like its smaller sibling, and that it's going to be among the wave of hardware refreshes that will accompany Windows 10 in the latter half of this year.

The 2015 XPS 13 model offers a choice of display configurations going from a basic 1080p panel to a touchscreen with a 3200 x 1800 resolution. It wouldn't be unreason …

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USB-C has already won

2015-06-02T09:46:41-04:00

As it likes to do, Apple recently released a product before the world was ready. The new 12-inch MacBook has but a single port - unless you count the headphone jack - and it's a completely new connector that almost no one has ever used before, breaking direct compatibility with millions of standard USB devices.

But that connector, known as USB Type-C or just USB-C, is likely to become one of the most ubiquitous advances in the recent history of computing and consumer electronics. It's the compact, reversible port that does everything, and this week's Computex Taipei shows the first signs of it spreading to the wider world.

How's the USB-C …

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The hammer of Thor makes for a mighty fine PC case

2015-06-02T08:26:07-04:00

Glorious Mjölnir, hammer of Thor and intimidator of evildoers across the epochs, has this week landed at Computex in Taipei. The product of a young man by the name of Suchao Prowphong, this PC case was built from scratch as an homage to the recent Thor movies and to serve as a powerful piece of art. Thermaltake is showing it off at its Computex booth as a prime example of the ingenuity and craftsmanship that PC enthusiasts pour into their machines. Suchao's story is no less inspiring, as he was previously applying his handiwork skills to the job of fishing, which is where a Thermaltake rep discovered him. Now Suchao can be found strolling th …

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Intel admits USB-C is the connector of the future by adopting it for Thunderbolt 3

2015-06-02T04:11:12-04:00

With Apple and Google both warmly embracing the new USB-C connector in their new computers this year, the fate of the fast, but rarely used, Thunderbolt standard was coming into question. What would the future hold for Thunderbolt if most of its utility was to be replaced by a more convenient and popular USB standard? Well, Intel's solution has been to pursue the old maxim of joining the adversaries you can't defeat: the next version of Thunderbolt, Thunderbolt 3, will come with a USB Type-C connector.

Intel's decision to use USB-C as the connector for its next implementation of Thunderbolt is laudable in terms of unifying the ports require …

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This is the sickest gaming PC case ever

2015-06-02T00:18:01-04:00

There's beauty in excess. PC gamers know this better than most, because when it comes time to build their machines, they pursue excess above all else. After all, the Sisyphean task of future-proofing your gaming PC is characterized by obtaining specs that are excessive for today but just right for the future. That pursuit of extravagance oftentimes spills over into the design of said gaming rigs, as this mechanized PC case amply demonstrates.

Asus has started a new certification scheme for hardware partners that want to carry its Republic of Gamers sticker on their peripherals or accessories. To qualify, the hardware has to match up with th …

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Putting six speakers inside a tablet cover is smarter than it sounds

2015-06-01T07:16:22-04:00

Asus is a company you can depend on. Every year at this time, the Taiwanese electronics maker kicks off Computex - the foremost local showcase of future technology - with a mass of new devices that mix practicality with small flourishes of eccentricity.

In the case of the upcoming ZenPad 8, the practical appeal is embodied by the tablet itself, which is a rather modest 8-inch Android slate with a 1280 x 800 IPS LCD, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, and a 5-megapixel camera. The ZenPad 8 runs on Intel's quad-core SoFIA chip, which is intended for the low-cost smartphone market - and its eventual price is sure to be strikingly low, if Asus' histo …

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