Samsung announces Series 9 Ultrabooks with Ivy Bridge in Canada

It was just a little over a week ago when Samsung first announced the Series 9 laptops as the thinnest laptops ever produced for the Chinese market. Now, Samsung has announced the availability of Series 9 laptops for Canada as well. As with the China announcement, the Series 9 Ultrabooks from Samsung for Canada still hold the same distinction of being the thinnest premium laptops in the world. The Samsung Series 9 is split into two flavors. The first one is with model number 900X3C with a 13-inch screen. And the second one is with model number 900X4C which has a 15-inch screen.

Standard features for both laptops include the use of either Intel Core i5 or Core i7 Ivy Bridge processors, Intel HD Graphics 4000, HD+ 1600×900 pixel resolution screens, up to 8GB of supported RAM and a whole host of other laptop features. The 13-inch model is rated for up to 7.3 hours of use while the 15-inch model is said to go up to 10 hours of use per full charge.

There’s no info on how much the Samsung Series 9 laptops are supposed to cost in Canada, but based on the info from the China release, the 13-incher should start at 13,780 Hong Kong dollars or about 75,400 Pesos per unit and the 15-incher should cost 13,980 Hong Kong dollars or about 76,500 Pesos.

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HTC refuses to ride low-end smartphone market train

Think you will be able to snag a low-priced, entry-level smartphone from HTC some time in the not too distant future? Think again. As the troubled Taiwanese electronics maker thinks up ways to deal with competitors like Samsung and Apple in the smartphone arena, it almost seems as if the best course of action for HTC would be for it to try its hand in the low-end market segment, where it can possibly sell its own version of a useful and highly affordable handset that millions of people will know and love. That may sound nice, but unfortunately, HTC CEO Peter Chou is not too keen on the idea.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Chou was quoted as saying, “We don’t want to destroy our brand image.” Evidently, HTC wants to retain its premium image as a company that sells high-quality products at not-so-affordable prices. The products that HTC puts out do look nice, and they are mostly pretty feature-rich as well. It’s just that they are often out of reach for most consumers because of the limiting factor in price.

Since HTC wants to stay away from delivering low-priced handsets, it would be interesting to see how it plans to tackle the problem of dealing with ever increasing competition from cheap phone makers in China. HTC has said in the past that it plans to seek growth in emerging markets, so perhaps it has a workable strategy up its sleeve somehow. The message is clear, though: don’t expect to see inexpensive smartphones come out of the HTC stable any time soon.

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Google polishing Chrome to make it look better in new MacBook Pro with Retina display

Ever since that shiny new MacBook Pro with Retina display was announced by Apple, developers from all over the world have been working to modify their apps and programs to work (read: look better) with it in high-resolution Retina mode. That includes the developers over at Google, who are apparently working to get the Web browser Chrome to look as shiny as it can be on those new MBPs with Retina screens. The finished product is still a few weeks away from release, so in the meantime, try out the work-in-progress version yourself by downloading and installing Google Chrome Canary on your computer. More details via the source link below.

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Lenovo A65 dual-SIM Android smartphone hits the Philippines

Lenovo Mobile Philippines has just let the word out regarding the availability of the Android-powered Lenovo A65 here in the Philippines. As of today, you should be able to get your hands on the said handset and actually take it home with you for only 5,499 Pesos. For that price, you’ll also get a free Smart pre-paid SIM card that’s loaded with 100 Pesos worth of credits that are valid for 30 days. The Lenovo A65 runs Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread on an unidentified 800MHz processor. It also boasts dual-SIM capabilities which will allow you to use up to two SIM cards at the same time if you’d like. That’s pretty much it in terms of possible distinguishing characteristics, as the rest of the Lenovo A65’s specs are quite common in entry-level smartphones nowadays: built-in Wi-Fi, FM radio, Wi-Fi hotspot, and so on. It has a somewhat larger screen that most at 3.5-inches, though, so that’s another minor plus. You can tag this as an interesting alternative to entry-level Nokias or Samsungs in the market today.

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Nokia Lumia 900 now available in the Philippines, already sold out in certain stores

Nokia fans, your long wait is finally over. The Windows Phone-powered Lumia 900 smartphone from Nokia is now available here in the Philippines. But you better be quick to buy it because it is already sold out in certain stores, here in Metro Manila, at least. I managed to get my hands on a live Nokia Lumia 900 unit at one of the branches of Electroworld here in Manila yesterday. But as it turns out, they didn’t actually have any stocks of the unit left for sale, as it had already sold out and so no one can actually buy it from them right now. I haven’t been able to check every single store in the Metro (who would want to?) but I imagine that the situation in some of these other stores might be the same as well. So again, if you’ve been pining for a Nokia Lumia 900 of your own, you better buy the first available unit that you can find. Pricing starts at 27,990 Pesos.

Acer Aspire S5 Ultrabook and other Acer devices to be launched in June 19 event at Marriott Hotel in Manila

Perhaps you’ve already managed to somehow get your hands on the upcoming Acer Aspire S5 Ultrabook. I know people who attended the Acer Media Summer Power Fest this year who have. For the rest of us who haven’t, Acer Philippines is holding a special event on the 19th of June at the Marriott Hotel in Manila for an official unveiling. The Acer Aspire S5 Ultrabook, along with several other Acer devices which include an Acer tablet (possibly the Acer Iconia Tab A510), an Acer desktop PC system, and an Acer all-in-one desktop computer, will be put on the spotlight for local media to see as an intro to their official release. If you’re as excited as I am to take a closer look at the Acer Aspire S5 Ultrabook, then check back here next week for my coverage of this upcoming Acer event.

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Acer Iconia Tab A700 with ICS and NVIDIA Tegra 3 now available for pre-sale in US for $499

There are times when a cheap solution like the Archos G9 101 simply doesn’t cut it. What do you do if you want to have a tablet that has all the bells and whistles that are available while paying as low a price as possible? You turn to Acer and its soon-to-be released Iconia Tab A700 Android tablet, that’s what. The Acer Iconia Tab A700 was first revealed in January during this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. It comes pre-loaded with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, runs on NVIDIA’s quad-core Tegra 3 processor, and features a 10-inch LED-backlit LCD screen that has a native resolution of 1920×1200. It’s fully touch-sensitive and supports multi-touch, too.

The Acer Iconia Tab A700’s other features include Dolby Mobile 3 tech for high quality audio, 32GB of storage, 1GB of RAM, a built-in HDMI port, microUSB port, and microSD card slot for expansion. Wireless features include 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1. It also has a built-in GPS antenna for mapping capabilities. According to Acer, users should be able to get up to 10.5 hours of continuous usage per full charge on the Iconia Tab A700.

You can now pre-purchase the Acer Iconia Tab A700 in the US and Canada for $449 USD or about 19,300 Pesos. No word yet on availability outside of those two countries, though. Continue reading for the full Acer Iconia Tab A700 press release.