Apple has rolled out a firmware update for the mid-2015 MacBook Pro family that promises to address a serious flash storage problem that could result in data corruption. It weighs in at just 1.9MB, and you’ll want to download and install it as soon as you can.
ASUS just took the stage during its 2015 Consumer Electronics Show press conference where CEO Johnny Shih made several product announcements. Those products include the new Transformer Book Chi family of Windows tablet convertibles. The family is composed of the T100 Chi, the T300 Chi and the T90 Chi.
We’re beginning to notice more low-cost Windows laptops in the $200 range, though one thing we haven’t seen is a manufacturer revive the netbook nomenclature. Fair enough, since these machines are more powerful than yesterday’s netbooks, and generally cheaper too. The least expensive so far is the Asus X205TA Signature Edition, a $199 laptop that’s been reduced to $179 in the Microsoft Store.
The Asus X205TA sports an 11.6-inch HD (1366×768) display powered by an Intel Atom Z3735F quad-core processor (1.33GHz to 1.83GHZ, 2MB L2 cache) and 2GB of DDR3L-1333 memory. It also features 32GB of eMMC storage, a microSD card slot, 480p webcam, 802.11n Wi-Fi (Miracast enabled), Bluetooth, a pair of USB 2.0 ports, micro HDMI output, headphone/microphone combo port, 2-cell battery good for up to 12 hours of run time, and Windows 8.1 with Bing (32-bit).
Asus calls it an ultraportable companion, a seemingly accurate description considering it measures 0.68 inches by 7.61 inches by 11.25 inches and weighs just 2.11 pounds.
It’s available now at the Microsoft Store, and also on Amazon, albeit for $199.