There’s also a web page transfer feature that shunts the last viewed page between operating systems, but since that only works between Internet Explorer and the stock Asus Android browser rather than Chrome, it was of no use to me. It’s probably worth clarifying here that you can’t use the tablet/screen to access Windows when it’s undocked - Windows demands a physical connection between the two parts of the Trio.I’ve no real complaints on the performance front, however. The Android tablet turned in an AnTuTu score of over 17,000 which is perfectly adequate and it played all the usual demanding games with ease. PCMark8 threw up scores of around 1400 running under Windows which is par for a device with a low-power Ultrabook CPU and an HDD. The Windows system has to make do with Intel’s integrated HD 4400 graphics core, which limits the system’s gaming potential, though that hardly came as a surprise.
Lacking both the tools and the bravery to start disassembling the Trio, I can’t tell you how easy or hard it is to upgrade the RAM but, let’s be honest, this is not the type of machine you buy with the aim of rummaging around in its undergarments or installing a Linux distro.In use, the swap between the two operating systems in a simple matter of pressing the button with the Windows and Android logos on it. A small graphic flashes up to tell you are switching ’twixt OSesr and then, wallop, you are there. Assuming both are running and don’t need to boot up. Even if they aren’t, the swap is impressively speedy.The implementation of the switch from Android to Windows isn’t entirely foolproof though. On a couple of occasions when I hit the swap key from Android to sleeping Windows, the screen just went dark, necessitating a restart of tablet and dock to get back into Windows or Android.
I understand this is an issue with the drivers used by the Asus OS switcher which aren’t playing nice with Windows 8.1. New drivers will doubtless hove into view soon but a simple fix seems to be to just prevent Windows going to sleep, or not upgrading to 8.1 just yet.The dock’s chiclet keyboard is a decent enough affair. The keys are pleasant to the touch, the action positive and there is a Caps Lock light. The Asus US product page for the Trio says the keyboard is backlit, but that’s only a feature of the i7 Trio - the keyboard on my i5 review example most certainly wasn’t backlit, which was a disappointment. Nothing wrong with the trackpad, though, which is in all ways a fine example of the breed.This being an Asus machine, the 11.6-inch IPS LCD screen is very good. The 1920 x 1080 resolution makes everything look as sharp as a tack, though the resolution/size combo makes things look a wee bit small to my eyes when running the Windows desktop. It’s an impressively bright and colourful display, just like almost every other Asus screen I’ve played with of late.
The cameras aren’t too shabby either. The 5MP one in the back of the tablet takes a decent picture in good light, while the 720p webcam makes for a clear and bright video chat.Slapped across the right side of keyboard deck you’ll find a sticker advertising the Trio’s ICEpower sound system from everyone’s favourite mad audio Danes, Bang & Olufsen. It’s not just marketing blurb. The tablet’s speakers are good but the docks are bordering on the exceptional: loud, composed and very sonorous. This is one of the best-sounding laptops I’ve ever tested.The price? At £900, the i5 Trio is hardly what I’d call cheap, but when you consider that a decent touchscreen i5 laptop with a 1080p screen can set you back not a whole lot less - though probably with an SSD - and that a quality Android tablet like the Sony Xperia Z costs around £400, it’s perhaps not an unreasonable ask. Compared to what an iPad and a MacBook Pro or Air will set you back, it’s something of a bargain.
So, does three into one go? Pretty much, yes. Having a fully functional Android tablet and a Windows 8.1 PC in one package and both with a fine 1080p display certainly has its attractions. Cough up a few hundred quid for a monitor and it becomes an even more flexible package.There are a few slightly rough edges, like the wonky file sharing hotspot and the absence of a keyboard backlight on the cheaper i5 machines. And the batteries could be little more beefy. But there’s no denying that with one of these in your backpack you have got all the bases covered for work or play or anything in between. HP has been laying out the ground rules for the latest Pwn2Own contest and is offering a new prize of $150,000 to the cunning cracker who can get root access to a Windows 8.1 PC running Redmond's Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit (EMET)."Last year we launched a plug-in track to the competition, in addition to our traditional browser targets. We’ll continue both tracks this year," said Brian Gorenc, manager of vulnerability research at HP Security, in a blog post.
"For 2014, we’re introducing a complex Grand Prize challenge with multiple components, including a bypass of Microsoft’s Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit (EMET) protections – truly an Exploit Unicorn worthy of myth and legend, plus $150,000 to the researcher who can tame it."Pwn2Own is an annual event at the CanSecWest security conference in March, and HP and co-sponsors Google are putting over half a million dollars into the prize pot for those who can demonstrate their subversive skills. In return, the firms get a full dossier on the attack and ownership of the code used to do it.Browser security is a major part of Pwn2Own and crackers can earn $100,000 for beating Internet Explorer 11 or the Chrome browser on an x64 Windows 8.1 system, $50,000 for defeating Mozilla's Firefox and/or $65,000 for tunneling into a Mac OS X system running Apple's Safari. All hacks must be completed in 30 minute window of opportunity.
The organizers are also offering $75,000 to anyone who can get into Adobe Reader or Adobe Flash running in Internet Explorer 11 on Windows 8.1, again within the time limits. Cracking Java on a similar system will net $30,000 to a nimble-fingered security specialist.Those that meet the challenge will also get the laptop containing the software they cracked and 20,000 reward points in HP's Zero Day Initiative (ZDI) program, which takes them automatically to Silver status. That means a $5,000 extra cash bonus, a paid trip to the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas, and a 15 per cent monetary bonus on any vulnerabilities they submit to ZDI for the next year. Analysis It was only eight months ago when the industry was rife with rumours that IBM was selling all or part of their x86 business to Lenovo. It took a while, but the deal has gone down and it’s now up to the lawyers and accountants to finalize the paperwork.This deal has turned out to be (way) more comprehensive than anticipated. Lots of folks, including me, figured that if IBM was looking to sell, they’d get rid of the low-end commodity part of the business.
This would include the pizza boxes and towers that are the cheapest and least differentiated part of the line.Rather than part out System x like a tired old jitney, IBM opted to sell the entire division – including the high-end, differentiated boxes that they’ve poured money into since the turn of the century.Here’s how an IBM briefing slide positioned what Lenovo is getting for their money:The slide above focuses on hardware products, but there’s a whole lot more in Lenovo’s shopping cart. Lenovo will get licenses to IBM’s GPFS (General Parallel File System), SmartCloud Entry package, System x management software, and the Platform Computing suite. Lenovo can OEM and resell these products (plus IBM’s Storwize and tape tech) or use them as components in their own solution bundles.In addition to the products, Lenovo will also get the development, sales and marketing, service/support, operations, manufacturing, and all the other departments that enable and support the division. This also includes a fair amount of real estate, labs, chairs, desks, and everything else used by the current System x crew.
Initial estimates are that 7,500 IBM employees will be turning in their badges for shiny new Lenovo tags, but I think the real number will be end up significantly higher – perhaps as high as 9,000 or more when world-wide employees are factored in. There are also a lot of people who work for IBM organizations that support multiple systems, but who work exclusively on System x or x86 architectures. These people will probably end up with Lenovo badges when the deal is done.Lenovo isn’t picking up bits and pieces of IBM’s System x – they’re buying the whole magilla (or megillah, for insisting on historical accuracy.) This makes Lenovo a near-instant player in the highly competitive x86 server business, with a full slate of proven products and worldwide sales reach.
And it’s not like Lenovo doesn’t know how to compete in tough markets. It’s instructive to consider what Lenovo did with IBM’s semi-moribund PC division after purchasing it in 2005. They’ve built their product portfolio and sales to the point where they’ve become one of the largest PC vendors in the world. And they’ve remained solidly profitable while doing it – which is quite an accomplishment.So how did Lenovo succeed where IBM failed? In my mind, it came down to execution in three broad areas:1. Preserving and building upon the good: They didn’t clean-sheet the desktop and laptop products to reduce prices and maximize margins. Instead, they kept the attributes that were most attractive to their best customers: things like product quality, reliability, durability, and performance, a business oriented set of hardware and software, plus fast break/fix service.
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