transformers

Decepticons and Autobots of the universe, check out this unique Transformers-style wine storage device fit for Megatron himself.

Clifford Wong, a 33-year-old lighting salesperson based in Arizona, put up an advertisement last week on Craigslist for a 6-foot-tall wine rack styled like a herculean man-slaying robot. The massive $7,000 device securely holds 32 bottles of wine, weighs 1,000 pounds, and features an array of mock armaments. … Read more

TAIPEI, Taiwan--Windows 8, we've been told, is going to move Microsoft into the post-PC era. And a bevy of new PC designs that Asus debuted here at the Computex trade show is bringing that vision to reality.

The Taiwanese PC manufacturer has take the wraps off three new product lines -- a dual-screen ultrabook, a semiportable all-in-one desktop, and a convertible laptop with a removable keyboard -- that build on the lessons of the company's Transformer line of Android tablets.

Taichi: Tablet, ultrabook, or both? First up from Asus was the Taichi hybrid notebook/tablet, which was … Read more

If you want to create some pretty apps, look to Nvidia.

The company, best known for its graphics processors in PCs and laptops, has during the past year branched out into the mobile world with its ARM-based Tegra processor, specifically designed for mobile devices such as phones and tablets. The company has quickly gone from an outsider to a niche player, serving high-end devices.

Its Tegra 3 quad-core processor is found in a handful of top-tier products, including the Asus Transformer Prime, the first tablet with Google's Ice Cream Sandwich variant, as well as international versions of HTC's … Read more

It is my sincere hope that this post makes up for some of the benign deceit I've been involved with for the past few years here at CNET. Typically when a new product rolls in the door, we're quick to show you an unboxing, and we'll follow that up with a formal First Look video, but we tend to gloss over the nuts and bolts of setting things up.

Arguably, we've been sparing you the boring, unsexy business of setting up your tech. But I suspect that you're at least a little curious to see … Read more

Online retailer giant Amazon is quickly becoming a device heavyweight.

Amazon's Kindle Fire grabbed a 54.5 percent share in February, almost doubling its share in the past two months and "already establishing itself as the leading Android tablet by a wide margin," according to ComScore (see chart below).

ComScore said its methodology "measures unique devices accessing the Web during the time period noted, including home, enterprise and secondary devices across all age groups."

Samsung's Galaxy Tab was a distant runner-up with a 15.4 percent share in February, followed by the Motorola Xoom … Read more

Yesterday Asus launched its third tablet in a year with the name "Transformer" in it: the Asus Transformer Pad TF300. In April 2011, the Transformer TF101 was released and was followed by the much more powerful Transformer Prime TF201 last December.

With three tablets with the Transformer name out there in the wild, this is a great opportunity to illustrate their differences in a concise manner. Tables help with that, but if you're not a table person and prefer wordy prose, I've got that too.

According to Asus, the new $380 (for 16GB) Transformer Pad TF300 now replaces the TF101 as Asus' "low-end" full-size tablet. The TF101 will officially be available through the second quarter of 2012, and Asus claims it will continue to offer software updates and tech support.… Read more

The Asus Transformer Prime was the great silver hope for Android fans -- and by "silver" I mean "champagne gold" or "amethyst gray" or whatever awkward-sounding color combo Asus assigns to its tablet.

Arguably, the Prime marked the first time Android fans could hold up a tablet to their iPad-owning frenemies and say, "Now I own the most powerful -- on paper at least -- tablet in the universe!" Or something like that.

Aside from some GPS and Wi-Fi issues, the Prime was a robust and powerful tablet, but was probably too expensive for most wallets. Enter: the Transformer Pad TF300.… Read more

Last week the Asus Transformer Pad 300 -- the follow-up to the acclaimed Transformer Prime tablet that drops the "Eee" branding, as well as about $100 from the price -- started popping up on some retailers' sites for preorder, with an anticipated available date of April 22.

Now, as of this morning, the Transformer TF300 is listed as "In Stock" on Amazon, with three different merchants -- including Amazon itself -- saying they'd be happy to sell you one.

Of course, if you're thinking you can order one with your Amazon Prime account and … Read more

It looks as though we'll have another new big-name tablet hitting stores in a little more than a week as a new Asus Transformer Pad 300 has started popping up for preorder at some online retailers.

The Taiwan-based tablet maker has apparently dropped the "Eee" from the name, and the new Transformer will join the Galaxy Tab 2 to make its debut on April 22, according to a report from PC World.

Like its predecessor, the Transformer Prime, the new tablet features a quad-core processor and snaps into a keyboard dock (sold separately) to become a full-fledged Android laptop, but at a lower starting price than the Prime. … Read more