IRL: A tablet holder for using your device in bed

There are times when I just want to lie in bed and surf random YouTube channels on my phone or tablet, but it's impossible to hold the device above my head for a prolonged period (we've all been there, right?).
Luckily, I stumbled upon this neat kit in Shenzhen one day: a balanced-arm tablet holder by some random brand called Usiabu, and it only cost me CN¥80 or $13, as it was from a wholesale dealer (retail price is around $25 in Hong Kong). As you can tell from the price, this product doesn't involve any groundbreaking technology: you've probably already come across desk lamps that use this type of spring-loaded mechanism.
Installation is simple: secure the c-clamp mounting base onto the edge of a desk, insert the steel arm via its rotation pin and mount the plastic tablet bracket onto the dual-axis pivot for 180-degree vertical and 360-degree rotation. The arm stretches to about 90cm -- which is sufficient -- and the tablet bracket can handle screen sizes from 7 inches up to 12 inches; you adjust it by sliding one half of the bracket, and lock its position with a latch on the back. The tablet can also be lightly tilted within its bracket courtesy of sliding padded feet.
I've been using this tablet holder for over a year now (though not every single night, of course) and find it to be very handy, more so than the bendy versions that require more effort to position one's tablet or phone. The hinges are still surprisingly tight, so thankfully, my tablet hasn't yet dropped onto my face. If anything, I'm just disappointed by how some of the metallic fixtures have gone slightly rusty. The tablet bracket's release mechanism can be a bit fiddly when I'm lying on my bed, as the loosened latch drops down due to gravity, which then still locks the bracket's sliding part. Still, given how little I paid for it, these issues are relatively minor.

Dell says its curved monitor will help make you a better gamer

What good is having an ultra-powerful PC if you're still connecting it to a dusty old monitor? We reckon doing so would be pretty silly. Good thing that alongside the new Alienware Area 51, Dell's pulled the curtain back on its 34-inch Ultrasharp U3415W display then. It boasts a wider-than-widescreen 21:9 aspect ratio that's paired with 3,440 x 1,440 lines of resolution (just under 4K's 3,840 x 2,160) and a curved screen. Dell says that the monitor's wide field of view mated with its curves will give gamers a leg up on the competition because, compared to flat monitors, less eye movement is needed to take advantage of the player's peripheral vision. Intrigued to test that claim? You can do so come this December. We're hoping that regardless of size, though, a curved screen doesn't necessarily equate to an expensive screen -- Dell hasn't announced pricing for these displays just yet.

More power! Toshiba’s updated Chromebook 13 runs for 10.5 hours on a charge

Summary: After only eight months on the market, Toshiba looks ready to bring an upgrade to its Chromebook 13. There’s not much new here; just a switch in the Intel processor. But it boosts battery life from around 9 to 10.5 hours.

Toshiba entered the Chrome OS market with its Chromebook 13 early this year. That model ran on Intel’s Haswell chip and had around 9 hours of battery life when I reviewed it. Now, simply by switching to a newer processor, an updated model of the Chromebook 13 is expected to last for 10.5 hours on a single charge.

OMG Chrome caught the product update on Toshiba’s Australian site, where the computer is noted to have an Intel Bay Trail chip inside clocked at 2.16GHz. That explains the extra power when away from an outlet as the Bay Trail chips use less juice. They also don’t offer the performance of an Intel Haswell chip, however, so I’d expect this newer Chromebook to be a step slower than the old model when running Google Chrome OS.

Another improvement listed for the new Chromebook 13 is faster 802.11ac Wi-Fi. Aside from the chip change and better wireless support, little else appears changed. The 13-inch display is still 1366 x 768 resolution and the Chromebook still comes with 16 GB of storage although OMG Chrome has evidence suggesting the possibility of either 2 GB or 4 GB of memory. Since Toshiba hasn’t announced the new model for all regions yet, we’ll have to see what options it offers.