Posts Tagged ‘UI’

Surface Pro review round-up: Fast, fat, and not enough battery life to be useful

More than three months after the release of Microsoft’s Surface RT tablet, the first full reviews of the Surface Pro are in — and they’re not good. While being lauded for its innovative design and top-notch display, almost every review notes that the Surface Pro is plagued by poor battery life, cumbersome dimensions for a tablet, and weak cameras.

The hard truth of the matter is that the Surface Pro — like Windows 8 — suffers from a massive identity crisis. The Surface Pro, without a dock or physical keyboard, tries to be a tablet — but with just four or five hours of battery life, using the Surface Pro as an on-the-move tablet is impossible. The Surface Pro, with a kickstand, tries to be a laptop — but it’s very hard to actually use on your lap, the screen’s angle can’t be adjusted, and again the battery life is an issue. As with its brother, the Surface RT, we have to ask: What is the Surface Pro, and who is it for?

The Surface Pro is, in essence, a 10.6-inch (1920×1080) Core i5 tablet running Windows 8 Pro. (See: The Surface Pro’s full specs.) Squeezing a real, laptop-class x86 processor into a tablet is an exciting concept, but there’s a reason that no one else has done it before: Laptop chips are hot, and all sorts of design affordances must be made to accommodate them. There is a reason that laptops have larger batteries than tablets; there is a reason that laptops have fatter cross-sections and powerful fans. Don’t get me wrong: Squeezing a Core i5 processor into the Surface Pro is an impressive feat of engineering — but if it only lasts for four hours, what’s the point?

Then there are the dimensions, which are an odd mix of good and bad. On the one hand, having the power of a Core i5 processor in a 10.6-inch tablet is rather impressive — but on the other, numerous reviews point out that Windows 8, with a 1920×1080 10.6-inch display, is rather hard to use. Windows 8 does include UI scaling for high-resolution displays, but seemingly it just doesn’t work as intended. A few reviews also point out that multitasking on a 10-inch screen isn’t very fun.

Surface RT (left) vs. Surface Pro. [Image credit: Anandtech]

It is because of the Core i5 processor that the Surface Pro is rather chubby, too: It’s 13.2mm thick and weighs 2lbs (0.9kg). This might not sound too bad, but almost every review says that the Surface Pro feels chunky and heavy in the hand — especially when compared to an Android or Apple tablet. Personally, I can tell you that holding a two-pound tablet in one hand is verging on painful. The MacBook Air, incidentally, is 17mm thick and weighs 2.4lbs.

There are positive notes to the reviews, though. Everyone agrees that the display itself is beautiful, and perhaps the finest display to ever grace a mobile device. Most reviews compliment Windows 8′s performance on the Surface Pro, too; whereas the Surface RT could be quite sluggish in and around Metro, the Pro positively flies. The price, at $900, is also quite reasonable for what you get — though you’ll probably want to spring for the 128GB version ($1000), as the 64GB model only has 23GB of free, usable space. The question is, though, do you really want to spend $1000 on a device that isn’t particularly mobile, and at the same time isn’t as good as a laptop for actually getting stuff done? Wouldn’t you be better served by getting a $500 Android or Apple tablet, and a $500 laptop?

The Surface Pro tries to be a jack of all trades, but is instead the master of none. The Surface Pro’s designers should be applauded for such a valiant attempt at creating a single piece of hardware that neatly embraces and espouses Windows 8 Jekyll Hyde Edition, but in doing so they have simply flown too close to the sun.

Now read: Analyzing the Windows 8 Metro/Desktop interface train wreck

Article source: http://www.extremetech.com/computing/147755-surface-pro-review-round-up-fast-fat-and-not-enough-battery-life-to-be-useful

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Apple Peel Compound Boosts Brown Fat, Reduces Obesity in Mice

ScienceDaily (June 20, 2012) — Obesity and its associated problems such as diabetes and fatty liver disease are increasingly common global health concerns. A new study by University of Iowa researchers shows that a natural substance found in apple peel can partially protect mice from obesity and some of its harmful effects.

The findings suggest that the substance known as ursolic acid reduces obesity and its associated health problems by increasing the amount of muscle and brown fat, two tissues recognized for their calorie-burning properties.

The study, which was published June 20 in the journal PLoS ONE, was led by Christopher Adams, M.D., Ph.D., UI associate professor of internal medicine and a Faculty Scholar at the Fraternal Order of Eagles Diabetes Research Center at the UI.

“From previous work, we knew that ursolic acid increases muscle mass and strength in healthy mice, which is important because it might suggest a potential therapy for muscle wasting,” Adams says. “In this study, we tested ursolic acid in mice on a high-fat diet — a mouse model of obesity and metabolic syndrome. Once again, ursolic acid increased skeletal muscle. Interestingly, it also reduced obesity, pre-diabetes and fatty liver disease.

“Since muscle is very good at burning calories, the increased muscle in ursolic acid-treated mice may be sufficient to explain how ursolic acid reduces obesity. However, we were surprised to find that ursolic acid also increased brown fat, a fantastic calorie burner. This increase in brown fat may also help protect against obesity.”

Until quite recently, researchers believed that only infants had brown fat, which then disappeared during childhood. However, improved imaging techniques have shown that adults do retain a very small amount of the substance mostly in the neck and between the shoulder blades. Some studies have linked increased levels of brown fat with lower levels of obesity and healthier levels of blood sugar and blood lipid, leading to the suggestion that brown fat may be helpful in preventing obesity and diabetes.

The UI team, which also included Steven Kunkel, Christopher Elmore, Kale Bongers, Scott Ebert, Daniel Fox, Michael Dyle, and Steven Bullard, studied mice on a high-fat diet over a period of several weeks. Half of the animals also received ursolic acid in their high-fat food. Interestingly, mice whose diet included ursolic acid actually ate more food than mice not getting the supplement, and there was no difference in activity between the two groups. Despite this, the ursolic acid-treated mice gained less weight and their blood sugar level remained near normal. Ursolic acid-treated mice also failed to develop obesity-related fatty liver disease, a common and currently untreatable condition that affects about one in five American adults.

Further study showed that ursolic acid consumption increased skeletal muscle, increasing the animals’ strength and endurance, and also boosted the amount of brown fat. Because both muscle and brown fat burn calories, the researchers investigated energy expenditure in the mice and showed that ursolic acid-fed mice burned more calories than mice that didn’t get the supplement.

“Our study suggests that ursolic acid increases skeletal muscle and brown fat leading to increased calorie burning, which in turn protects against diet-induced obesity, pre-diabetes and fatty liver disease,” Adams says. “Brown fat is beneficial and people are trying to figure out ways to increase it. At this point, we don’t know how ursolic acid increases brown fat, or if it increases brown fat in healthy mice. And, most importantly, we don’t know if ursolic acid will benefit people. Our next step is to determine if ursolic acid can help patients.”

The research was supported by funding from the Fraternal Order of Eagles Diabetes Research Center at the University of Iowa, the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases of the National Institutes of Health (grant 5R01AR059115-03), the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the University of Iowa Research Foundation.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Iowa, via Newswise.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal Reference:

1. Kunkel SD, Elmore CJ, Bongers KS, Ebert SM, Fox DK, et al. Ursolic Acid Increases Skeletal Muscle and Brown Fat and Decreases Diet-Induced Obesity, Glucose Intolerance and Fatty Liver Disease.. PLoS ONE, 2012 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0039332

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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Article source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/06/120620212855.htm

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