Insert a photo into a Pages document, for example, and you can pinch and zoom to resize and twist your fingers to rotate, and text flows automatically around images. Both apps, along with presentations app Slideshow, come preinstalled on iPhone 5s and 5c handsets.Delivering a presentation as a deck of PowerPoint slides shows a distinct lack of imagination these days. There¡¯s a plethora of apps that are n¡¯t only capable of delivering more compelling, visually striking presentations than PowerPoint, but they¡¯re also often much easier to use.The reception to Apple¡¯s iPhone 5s and 5c models has prompted me to revisit a previous theme of this column: the almost obsessive-compulsive way that looks have come to dominate the world of gadgetry.Most of the Apple faithful were aghast at the horrid, plastic finish of the 5c: totemic phones, just like Gollum¡¯s ¡°precious¡±, need to be shiny and metallic. Let¡¯s forget that high-quality plastic is a far more practical material for phones: it¡¯s less dentable and scratchable, as demonstrated by the fact virtually all iPhone owners immediately cover their precious with a plastic case.
Most of the Apple faithful were aghast at the horrid, plastic finish of the 5cMost of the Apple faithful were aghast at the horrid, plastic finish of the 5cI¡¯m not a phone fan, but I¡¯m a keen, Flickr-bothering photographer, and the same process is at work in the field of cameras. Pocketable compact cameras have improved astonishingly in recent years, with 20x or even 30x zoom lenses and 18-plus-megapixel sensors far from unusual. Unless you¡¯re a professional sports or wildlife photographer, who needs to print out large copies, such cameras can pretty well replace an entry-level DSLR.The problem is, they don¡¯t look good ¨C or rather, they don¡¯t make you look like a professional. The camera manufacturers¡¯ marketing departments soon spotted this vulnerability, and a new breed of retro-styled cameras is flooding the market.Made to resemble 1930s Leicas, some of these cameras feature interchangeable lenses, while others have full-frame sensors and fixed-focal-length (that is, non-zoom) lenses: what they share are price tags that push north of ¡ê1,000, at a time when seriously capable compacts cost less than ¡ê250.
The founding moment of this trend was probably Olympus¡¯ 2009 ad campaign for its retro-styled PEN E-P1 model, under the slogan ¡°Don¡¯t be a tourist¡±. There you have the rationale stated barely: this is no longer about how convenient or capable the device is, but rather how it makes you look; gadgets have become badges of status, symbols that can distinguish you from the rest of the crowd.This is a matter of life and death for the electronics industry. Camera manufacturers were facing a dramatic decline in sales for compact, point-and-shoot cameras, since most young people prefer to use their ever-more-capable mobile phones to take snaps. There¡¯s a flourishing industry in add-on lenses and imaging apps for the iPhone, while Instagram completely displaces Flickr for the iPhone generation. None of this generates revenue for Canon or Nikon. Commanding a premium price for these retro cameras that make people look like professionals could save those firms.Of course, this domination of the aesthetic has been the rule in other consumer sectors for years ¨C or centuries, in the case of the fashion industry. Today¡¯s luxury cars are all capable of broadly similar performance; they¡¯re so fast they can¡¯t possibly be unleashed on our roads, only on Top Gear.
They¡¯re chosen on the basis of how they look, the prestige of their brand name and a reassuringly huge price tag. I won¡¯t even attempt to analyse the women¡¯s handbag sector, where some brands charge even more than the price of a Leica M9 (and they don¡¯t even take pictures).I¡¯ve always been a modernist in the field of design, a believer in architect Louis Sullivan¡¯s dictum that ¡°form ever follows function¡±, a lover of everything spare, elegant and mass-produced. I play a Fender Stratocaster, I ride a Vespa PX 125 and I own a Parker 51 that I pick up every five years or so to discover the ink has dried up.Of course, the electronics industry is the ultimate expression of such modernism: the economics of the silicon foundry depends on huge production runs, while VLSI chip layouts are beautiful examples of spare necessity, with every wire routed rationally. Therefore there¡¯s a sort of irony, but also an inevitability, about the way laptops, tablets, phones, cameras and other devices built using such chips are becoming subject to fashion in much the same way as clothes.The irony exists in the fact it¡¯s computer-aided design and 3D printing that will make it increasingly possible for us to have different cosmetic outer shells, in small production runs, masking the same set of internal silicon ¡°organs¡±.
Love it or loathe it, the iPhone 5c ¨C with its handbag-matching colours ¨C is a step in that direction. But were I working for Microsoft, Dell or Sony, my every waking thought would be devoted to discovering how to make laptops and Ultrabooks look less like coloured sweeties and more like things a professional might take into the jungle. And no ¨C just painting the case khaki won¡¯t do it...Dell recently announced a newly formed pair of Latitude 7000 Series Ultrabooks, and the Latitude E7240 is the first to land in the PC Pro Labs. Following in the business-friendly footsteps of its predecessors, Dell has packed the Latitude E7240¡¯s sturdy, 12.5in chassis with the latest Haswell technology and a range of office-friendly features.Where other Ultrabooks tout eye-catching designs, the Latitude E7240 is tastefully reserved. The stiff-feeling lid is clad in brushed metal, while the keyboard and screen bezels are comprised of smooth, tough black plastics. There is a little flex in the base, but nothing worrying, and the metal skeleton running around the keyboard¡¯s circumference gives some reassuring protection against accidental knocks or drops. It¡¯s no lightweight as a result, though ¨C the whole package weighs 1.44kg.
On the inside, the Latitude E7240 pairs Intel¡¯s Haswell CPUs with solid-state storage. The basic ¡ê799 exc VAT model has a Core i5-4200U CPU, 4GB of DDR3L RAM and a 128GB SSD. However, our review model is the range-topping ¡ê1,259 exc VAT model, which has a top-flight Core i7-4600U CPU with 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD.Not surprisingly, performance soars as a result, and the Dell achieved a lightning-quick 0.73 in our Real World Benchmarks. The Lite-On SSD definitely plays its part here: its sequential read and write speeds reached 476MB/sec and 323MB/sec respectively; scores we¡¯ve only seen bettered by the PCI Express SSD in Apple's MacBook Air 13in.Our review unit came with the larger of the two removable battery options, and the Dell¡¯s 42Wh battery lasted an excellent 10hrs 28mins in our light-use battery test. If cost or weight savings are more crucial than stamina, however, Dell also makes a lighter, 31Wh battery. Bought separately, the 31Wh retails at ¡ê75 exc VAT, and the 45Wh retails at ¡ê95 exc VAT.
Most Ultrabooks provide scant connectivity, but not the Latitude E7240; it¡¯s stuffed with an abundance of ports and features. There are three USB 3 ports, mini-DisplayPort, HDMI and a Gigabit Ethernet socket dotted around its edges, and Dell has also added a fingerprint and smart card reader. You can cut costs by specifying Dell-branded single-band 802.11n Wi-Fi, but our range-topping review unit came equipped with an Intel dual-band 802.11ac chipset, Bluetooth 4, NFC and 3G.We¡¯re used to Samsung churning out premium-priced Ultrabooks and high-end smartphones, but the ATIV Book 9 Lite bucks the trend. This is a slim, svelte laptop that promises an Ultrabook-like experience on the cheap.If you can¡¯t shake the feeling that you¡¯ve seen the ATIV Book 9 Lite before, there¡¯s a good reason for that: the DNA of Samsung¡¯s legendary Series 9 range of Ultrabooks is evident in every curve and chamfer of this cut-price laptop. Squint slightly and it¡¯s easy to mistake it for its far pricier predecessor. The Lite is finished in the same dark blue ¨C although there is a more eye-catching white model, if that takes your fancy ¨C and everything from the teardrop hinge design to the scrabble-tile keyboard echoes Samsung¡¯s top-end model.
Inevitably, Samsung has had to make some major compromises to get the price so low. The first casualty is materials. Where the Series 9 was hewn from solid-feeling metal, the ATIV Book 9 Lite has to make do with plastic. It¡¯s good, sturdy-feeling plastic, though, and while there¡¯s a little flex to be found if you force the lid and base, this is a seriously solid-feeling laptop for the money. It¡¯s attractive by budget standards, too. While the lid has a fake brushed metal effect with a glossy finish, the interior and underside are all finished in an attractive matte blue.The ATIV Book 9 Lite also isn¡¯t as thin or light as many of the Ultrabooks we¡¯ve seen. It¡¯s 6mm thicker than Samsung¡¯s Series 9 ¨C including the rubber feet on the base, the Lite measures 19mm thick ¨C and, rather ironically given its name, it weighs a fairly hefty 1.55kg. Thankfully, the fairly compact mains charger doesn¡¯t add too much to the weight: throw both in a bag and the pair come to a very reasonable 1.88kg.
At the heart of the ATIV Book 9 Lite, an AMD processor takes pride of place ¨C though curiously you¡¯d be unable to tell it from the specification on the box, or from delving through Windows 8¡¯s Device Manager. The CPU is described mysteriously simply as a ¡°Quad-Core Processor (up to 1.4GHz)¡±, with no manufacturer or model name to be found. The presence of an AMD Radeon HD 8250 GPU gives the game away, however, as it¡¯s an integral part of AMD¡¯s A6-1450 APU, which is partnered here with a 128GB Samsung PM841 SSD and 4GB of DDR3 RAM.It¡¯s a combination that feels perfectly spritely in casual use, with applications loading and opening quickly. When we recorded the time taken to restart the system, the Lite arrived back at the Start screen in 25 seconds. That¡¯s a testament to the PM841: while it doesn¡¯t rival top-flight SSDs for all-out speed, it generated some impressive figures in the AS SSD benchmark, reading large files at an average of 481MB/s and writing them back at a less notable 108MB/s.
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