Posted Oct 27th 2007 12:18AM by Darren Murph
Filed under: Cellphones
Coincidence or not, Apple has stiffened up the requirements to pick up a new iPhone shortly after announcing that 250,000 or so of the
1.4 million it sold in Q4
went to unlockers. In an admittedly intriguing move, Apple has decided that it will "no longer accept cash for iPhone purchases," and moreover, each individual will only be allowed to
buy two (on plastic, of course) in an effort to "stop people from
reselling them." More specifically, spokeswoman Natalie Kerris stated that the company is "requiring a credit or debit card for payment to discourage unauthorized resellers," so don't even bother bringing the greenbacks if you're lookin' to grab an iPhone from Apple.
[Image courtesy of
PCWorld]
Posted Oct 26th 2007 10:42PM by Nilay Patel
Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video
We've seen some dramatically pared down
interfaces on portable media devices before, but this
PMP from China's Kinwei takes minimalism to a whole new level. In a sharp departure from the usual DIGITAL SOUND PROCESSING label overload, the KW-P4 instead features a virtually unmarked touchpad below its 2.4-inch screen. Format support for the 2GB player is the usual mix of the standard and obscure, with MP3 and WMA audio support bracketed by "MTV" and "AWV" video formats, and you're also getting an FM tuner, ebook reader, and games built in. Of course, it's not at all clear how to actually use this thing, but at least it's calming, no?
[Via
PMP Today, thanks BrianB]
Posted Oct 26th 2007 8:49PM by Ryan Block
Filed under: Desktops, Laptops
It's not enough to have
your Leopard questions answered, to
hear all about what the new system is like, or to
know that it'll run on your nearly decade-old Mac. Now it's time for the Mac fanboys and Apple early adopters to put the latest version of OS X to the test. We want to know, will it blend? In other words:
- Is your software still compatible?
- Do all of your peripherals still function perfectly? And system hardware?
- How's it playing with Windows boxes on your network?
- Did you encounter any problems installing / upgrading?
- What kinds of bugs are you seeing?
Go ahead, cry into the comfy pillow that is our comments. Tell us what's not working so that others may benefit from your knowledge. We're all here for you. And us? Well, already we've had to give up a few applications that weren't compatible (RapidoWrite and Onyx, to name a couple), and we've seen Time Machine crash enough to give Doc Brown an aneurysm, but how are things on your end?
P.S. -PCs, please sit this one out. The Macs are on a mission, and you already had your chance to
whine with your brethren in a (relatively) fanboy-free environment.
Posted Oct 26th 2007 6:33PM by Paul Miller
Filed under: Ask Engadget, Features, Misc. Gadgets
Last week's question about
HDTV opinions was a bit loaded, so we're going to take it down a notch for this week's
Ask Engadget. Of course, there's always room for controversy next week, so be sure to send in your questions to
ask at engadget dawt com. This week's feel-good query comes from Chad:
"As any reader of Engadget knows, the coolest stuff tends to always be stuck in Korea (or somewhere equally far away from Chicago). Luck has it though that I am going on assignment to Seoul in a few weeks and I was wondering... If given the chance to go to the Gadget Holy Land (Korea), what would you pick up? Also, if there are any Koreans reading this, where in / near Seoul should I go to procure these gadgets?"
Chad seems to have an enviable dilemma. With the endless quantity of South Korean gadgetry that's paraded across this site in recent years, anything particularly choice stick out? We're kind of partial to those 7-inch DMB / GPS / PMP units that transform into police bots at night and fight crime in the city streets, but that's just us.
Posted Oct 26th 2007 5:32PM by Ryan Block
Filed under: Desktops, Features, Laptops
We've been poring over
Leopard since
getting our copy, and no doubt about it, there's just way too much to say. The number of fixes, updates, and new features in this release is astounding. Granted, many aren't major (and some aren't even easily immediately noticeable), but the marquee apps like Spaces and Time Machine are instantly indispensable, while the finer details (like revamped Bluetooth and network connections preferences) leave little to be desired. Looking at Leopard's gestalt, it's plain to see that this by far the best version of OS X to date.
Read on for a long list of changes, updates, additions, and impressions, and don't forget to
check out the gallery.
Continue reading All about Leopard: gallery, apps, impressions
Posted Oct 26th 2007 5:31PM by Nilay Patel
Filed under: Cellphones
An under-the-radar class action lawsuit against
Sprint Nextel is winding its way towards a settlement this week, and it contains a pretty huge concession by Sprint: the company will unlock phones for both current and former customers, and will begin training its customer service reps on how to connect non-Sprint phones to its network. The settlement was tentatively approved by a California judge on October 2, but hasn't had a final approval hearing yet, according to Sprint -- but it's still a huge win for US consumers, who haven't been able to buy mainstream unlocked phones from any of the major carriers. Of course, since Sprint's network is CDMA, unlocked phones will only work on other CDMA carriers like Verizon -- and there's no guarantees those companies will be happy about it -- but at this point we'll take whatever we can get.
Posted Oct 26th 2007 4:28PM by Donald Melanson
Filed under: Cellphones
It's been out in Europe for a good few months already, but the
Neonode N2 has now finally landed into the FCC's all-important hands, which would seem to suggest that a US release isn't all that far off. From the looks of the tests reports, however, the touchscreen-based handset doesn't seem to have picked up any of those much-desired 3G capabilities in its trip across the Atlantic, although we suspect it'll still find its share of fans. For those not up to speed on it, the N2 boasts a 2-inch touchscreen that fills up most of the front of the handset, along with a 2 megapixel camera, a miniSD card slot, and quad-band GSM / GPRS capabilities (no WiFi though). Hit up the gallery below for a few more pics courtesy of the FCC, and keep it locked here for any word of a release.
Posted Oct 26th 2007 3:51PM by Darren Murph
Filed under: Desktops
Just a day after hearing that Intel was
firing up its new Arizona-based facility in order to crank out heaps of 45-nanometer
Penryn chips, along comes more news on the next best thing. Granted, Intel already gave
Nehalem a share of the
limelight earlier this year, but new documents are giving us a more detailed look at what types of quad-core processors we can expect in late 2008. Among the new names are Gainstown and Bloomfield, both of which are expected to land in high-end rigs and boast "Extreme" monikers. There's not a whole of lot of surprises here, as the charts still point to an estimated Q4 release date and show speeds topping out around the 3.2GHz mark. For those with nothing better to do than overlook the present and long for the future, be sure and hit the read link below -- preferably after you've rounded up a Japanese translator.
[Via
RegHardware]
Posted Oct 26th 2007 3:19PM by Donald Melanson
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless
Those that make a habit of chatting it up all day in their vehicle may want to consider Elan's new Vero ENB-100 device, which the company claims is the "world's first" solar-powered Bluetooth hands-free car kit. As you can no doubt surmise, it promises continuous charge-free operation as long as there's sunlight, and it'll even give you 15 hours of operation on a single charge if the weather isn't cooperating. Otherwise, you can expect the usual array of hands-free calling features, including a noise-canceling, omni directional microphone, a 1 watt "high-performance" speaker, and a voice dialing feature to let you keep your hands on the wheel. From the looks of it, however, this one's only available in the U.K. at the moment, where it'll set you back £60 (or about $120), although there's nothing to stop you from ordering one.
[Via
Crave]
Posted Oct 26th 2007 2:50PM by Thomas Ricker
Filed under: Features
It's no surprise to hear that
Leopard smokes on the latest Intel box, right? That's all fine and dandy for new Mac owners but what about the rest of us (the majority) who are still pumping that legacy PowerPC architecture beneath Cupertino's OS? How does Apple's
OS of tomorrow run onm say, an 8 year old Power Mac G4 (AGP Graphics)? We decided to find out. Our test machine sports a paltry 512MB and 1GHz clock courtesy of an after-market CPU upgrade (was 400MHz) -- just a tad better than the 867MHz / 512MB minimum requirement. While the box held up surprisingly well, there's one major problem which you old-timers should be aware of.
Continue reading Leopard on an 8 year old G4 Power Mac -- can it be done?
Posted Oct 26th 2007 2:36PM by Nilay Patel
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Media PCs, Portable Video
We haven't heard much from
Vongo since the company announced it was a
Vista launch partner in January, but Starz's scrappy video-on-demand division just unveiled the 2.0 version of the service today -- although it's a little unclear what's been changed apart from a supported portable device list that now numbers an absolutely astonishing seven. The chosen few PMPs include devices from Archos (which we sort of
figured), Creative, and Toshiba, with additional support for any number of Media Center Extenders. Of course, users of the $10 / month service can only use it on three devices at a time including PCs, so you'll probably run out of activations before you try to add another PMP or Media Center Extender, but it's a nice thought, at least.
Posted Oct 26th 2007 1:59PM by Donald Melanson
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Transportation
Those looking to head outdoors with minimal exertion now have another pair of
motorized options to accommodate their lazy ways, with the recently introduced iShoes and Skatemaster skateboard each promising to propel you along at the push of a button. Only the Skatemaster is actually available to order at the moment, however, with it promising a top speed of 11 mph and a range of 6-7 miles. It'll set you back £139.99 for the small model and £144.99 for a slightly larger version. The iShoes, on the other hand, boast a slightly risky top speed of 15 mph, and should carry your 5 to 7 miles before needing a recharge. While you can't get your hands on 'em just yet, the developer is apparently "getting them ready for sale," although there's no word on what they'll cost or exactly when they'll be available.
Read - Skatemaster Electric Skateboard [Via
Red Ferret]
Read - iShoes [Via
Green Daily]
Posted Oct 26th 2007 1:12PM by Donald Melanson
Filed under: Displays
E Ink Corp looks to have rolled into this week's FPD International show with a fair bit of new paper-replacing gear, including a number of prototypes that it's developed with some of its partner firms. In addition to the E Ink watch we've seen before (and
given away), the company showed off a new front-lit e-paper display developed by Alps Electric, which promises to let you get in some paper-less reading even in complete darkness. Also on display was a 9.7-inch e-paper display with an integrated flexible TFT substrate although, judging from the picture after the break courtesy of Tech-On, it doesn't appear to be completely flexible. It does boast a decent 1200 x 820 resolution, however, and it should actually be available relatively soon, with mass production reportedly set to get underway in the second quarter of 2008.
Continue reading E Ink shows off front-lit, flexible e-paper displays
Posted Oct 26th 2007 12:43PM by Nilay Patel
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
It's quarterly report time, and we doubt the boys in Redmond mind taking a little shine off Apple's
big day with their first quarter results -- especially since
Microsoft posted profits of $4.3B on revenues of $13.7B, an increase of 23 percent over last year. The company attributed the great quarter not only to a 90-percent spike in Xbox 360 demand due to what the what analysts are amusingly calling the "Halo effect," but also to strong performance by both Vista and Office -- Microsoft says demand for Vista is "encouraging," especially in markets like Brazil, India, and China. There wasn't much mention of the company's recent investment in Facebook or how Bill and the boys plan on reversing the online division's loss of $264M, but when you're playing around with four billion in profits, we suppose you can ignore pocket change like that.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Posted Oct 26th 2007 12:11PM by Donald Melanson
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, GPS
It's a bit behind
schedule, but Russia's GPS-challenging GLONASS satellite navigation looks to have just taken a fairly big step forward, with three satellites now on their way into orbit after hitching a ride on a Proton-K booster rocket that blasted off from Baikonur, Kazakhstan earlier today. According to Reuters, this is also the first launch of a Proton-K rocket since launches were suspended in September, after a booster failed and spilled highly toxic fuel into the Kazakh countryside. No word if Russia still expects the entire GLONASS system to be ready by 2009 as it has said earlier, but it has five more satellites to launch by the end of the year if it wants to keep up the pace it set out for itself.
[Photo courtesy of
RussiaToday]
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