I love watching people make hardware do things it wasn't necessarily designed for. E Ink was designed for reading books, but it turns out you can also use it in a fully-functional tablet. And while Intel's new 4th-generation Core processors were designed first and foremost to power computers running Windows, you can also run Android, Ubuntu or other operating systems.
Of course, at this point, an E Ink tablet doesn't work as one with an LCD, and Intel's latest chips don't offer the same level of performance gains over last year's processors on Linux as they do on Windows. But at least they work… and there are people out there pushing the boundaries with the tech that's available to them.
Here's a roundup of tech news from around the web.
- E Ink Android tablet with fast screen refresh mode
with E Ink displays are usually just eReaders. This one's a full-fledged Android tablet, and if you're worried that you can't do things like play games with an E Ink screen, think again. At about 8:30 in the video you can see Angry Birds running at nearly full speed. [The Digital Reader] - HP to launch fanless Haswell tablet this year
I doubt HP will be the only company to do this, but the company's promising a thin, fanless design for an upcoming Windows tablet with a speedy Intel 4th-generation Core processor. [Engadget] - Samsung Galaxy S4 update could give you more free space (by moving apps to SD card)
Some folks have complained that the system software on Samsung's Galaxy S4 eats up half the available storage space on the 16GB model. Now Samsung is rolling out a firmware update that lets you move some apps to a microSD card to free up space. It also updates the camera firmware, adds HDR video support, and more. [Android Community] - Paranoid Android Halo10 public beta released (for the Nexus 4)
Paranoid Android's Halo software completely overhauls Android's notification and multitasking system by taking its cues from Facebook's Chat Heads. When enabled, notifications show up as little bubbles which you can move around, and you can open an app, respond to a notification, and close it in a pop-up without leaving the app that's currently open. [Paranoid Android on Google+] - TextMaker for Android is now $5, might be the best Android word processor available
SoftMaker has been making office software from mobile devices since the days when Windows Mobile was still a thing. The company entered the Android realm a little more recently, and initially wanted $30 for its office suite. But now you can buy the company's word processor for Android for just $5. And it's totally worth it. [Digital Trends] - Pre-release walkthrough of BlackBerry 10.2 (video)
BlackBerry OS 10.2 is on the way, but you don't have to wait for the official launch to see it in action… there's a thrilling video showing things like UI improvements, an updated BBM app, and support for multiple alarms. Try to contain your excitement. [CrackBerry] - Intel Haswell graphics benchmarked… on Linux
While there's no doubt that Intel's Haswell chips are faster than Ivy Bridge in terms of raw CPU and graphics power, the chip maker's Linux drivers aren't as far along as its Windows ones just yet. That means you won't see as big a performance gap between Haswell and Ivy Bridge on Linux as on Windows… yet. [Phoronix]
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Lilbits (6-06-2013): Angry Birds on E Ink, Linux on Haswell is a post from: Liliputing
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