Hasta La Gadget!

Sure, the Vivienne Tam Edition Mini has been available for about a month, but it’s taken that long for at least one red-obsessed netbook lover to give us a hands-on with HP’s fashion-forward “Digital Clutch.” The folks over at GearDiary loved the red and gold color scheme on the keyboard and the included silky sleeve. You know how we feel about HP’s offering — albeit the black counterpart — but save for that red paint job and artsy design on the hood, it’s essentially the same device. Be sure to hit the read link for even more pics of the floral-inflused Mini, and hit up HP’s site with your $700 to snag one for yourself. Oh, and if you dig that matching mouse make sure you bring some extra cash because that baby’s not included.

Filed under: Laptops

HP’s Vivienne Tam edition Mini gets the hands-on treatment originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 04 Jan 2009 23:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Macworld 2009 is the last one for Apple. Will El Schillerino come up with a hubblelicious supernova of hardware and software? Will it be a farty puff? Here are all the rumors, sorted by probability.

While Apple has downplayed its importance, maybe the Macworld 2009 keynote with Phil Schiller will be a special part of Steve Jobs’ exit strategy: Perhaps there will be a last explosion of announcements to show that the company can still hit the ball out of the stadium without El Jobso doing the show-n-tell.

In any case, here are all the rumors that have been circulating the web lately. Like always, remember our first rule of rumors: Never believe in them.

Sure shot
iLife ’09 and iWork ’09: It’s a new year and time to get new versions of the most popular software suites for the Mac. Will they migrate to the cloud with tighter integration with MobileMe? Scary thought.

Likely
Mac mini: Apple stopped Mac mini shipments to some retailers back in October. The current rumor is that the new incarnation of the Mac mini will look like the product of a night of steamy dripping sex between an iMac and a Time Capsule. For some reason, this idea turns me on.

MacBook Pro 17: Another strong rumor this weekend has been the possibility of a new MacBook Pro 17-inch model. The new flagship (literally flagship, as you can probably sail the Atlantic on top of one) will have the same looks of the latest MacBooks and MacBook Pros, and perhaps a new battery technology that will push its autonomy to 50%.

Cinema Displays: Long overdue, the redesign of the 30-inch Apple Cinema Display, with new looks and LED backlighting, seems like a strong possibility. This has been rumored for quite a while, but after the announcement of the latest 24-inch LCD, this Macworld 2009 may be a good venue to announce a relatively low-key product like a display. Or maybe they will save this one for the new Mac Pros (which are long due for a redesign).

Hmmmmaybe
iMac Early 2009: A site called PC Perspective claims that Apple will launch new revisions of the iMac, including a crazy 28-inch model that could be a great home computer/TV (and a great work computer for megalomaniacs like me).

Both Apple Insider and Ars Technica echo this rumor, pointing out that the supersizeme iMac will use Intel’s X58 chipset and an Intel Core i7 CPU with four cores and HyperThreading, which emulates the behavior of an eight-core system. On the graphics, they say to expect a dedicated Nvidia card, all tied together with a new cooling system technology. I wonder if it will have a new simplified look—like the one above—without the chin (thanks for the illustration, Sebastian).

My only “but” about this is the fact that Apple may want to save this one for an special event. After all, this approaches TV territory and may require its own sales pitch, not just a space in the keynote.

What?

Home server: Another rumor is a home server, a grown-up Time Capsule that will centralize all your media and available through the Web via MobileMe. Sure, because the media companies, like Disney—Steve’s other darling—will love that.

Snow Leopard: Given the fact that this new release is still a long time away, I don’t think this will happen at all. The features we already know—which are quite esoteric for most consumers—were announced at WWDC. And, whatever other secret features Snow Leopard has under the hood, they won’t be announced so much in advance. Specially with Windows 7 coming soon and with MS apparently back in the OS race. Wait for a Snow Leopard update later in the year.

Hahahaha. Ha

iPod Touch Pro: Some analysts are hot about a potential Apple netbook at Macworld. Jobs said they didn’t want to do it because it would be crap. I agree. But he didn’t exclude the possibility of expanding the iPhone/iPod touch family to fill that space, which Apple obviously sees as a computing platform with the same validity and scope of the Mac itself.

That’s why I think an iPhone OS-based tablet could be a possibility. But certainly, whatever product it is, it will require its own special announcement, not a segment at the last Macworld.

Or maybe Schiller will pull it out of a magic hat just to tell the world that nobody f*cks with The Schiller.

iPhone nano: Seriously, TFSU.

Our secret hopes

New version of the iPhone OS: Some people are saying new colors, others are saying new capacity. I’m saying: For the love of all that is good and sacred, add the bloody Copy and Paste. That’s my hope. Schiller talking about how good the iPhone has been doing and then saying that the next OS will add copy and paste at last.

One more thing

My personal bet is Steve Jobs appearing at the end, after Phil says “one more thing.”

And then they will do a tap dancing number like this:

Tune in to our Macworld 2009 keynote liveblog this Tuesday, at 12pm Eastern Standard Time, 9am Pacific Standard Time. [Macworld 2009 coverage]

Bear in mind that this could be complete rubbish, but unconfirmed reports from “trusted sources” have reportedly stated that Palm’s first Nova-based handset will tout a full QWERTY keyboard that slides down beneath a touchscreen (is your imagination running wild yet?). Moreover (and more importantly), the fresh operating system is being described as “amazing,” and we’re also told that “a ton” of software will be pre-loaded to provide multimedia playback as well as traditional functions such as calendar, email, and contacts. We can’t help but say that we’re pretty jazzed to hear positive vibes flowing just before CES really gets in gear, but we’ll attempt to remain placid until something a touch more concrete is revealed.

Filed under: Cellphones

Unconfirmed details flow about Palm’s CES-bound Nova phone originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 04 Jan 2009 22:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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by Daniel Dumas

Get ready for an onslaught of the cheap. With the economy more unstable
than Plaxico Burress’ mental state, electronics manufacturers are
putting the e-brakes on their budgets, flattening their costs, and
rolling out their cheapest, most practical gadgets. You know, the ones
that people like you and me can afford.

You’ll get a glimpse of this "fashionably cheap" approach to gadgets at
the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The show, which
runs from January 6 to January 11, is the electronics industry’s
biggest North American conference. This year’s tradeshow will no doubt
feature some excessively large HDTVs, as it has in the past. It will
still attract more than 100,000 attendees, mostly members of the
electronics industry, plus a few thousand journalists, though CES attendance will be down a bit compared to last year. And it will still have its
celebrity appearances (including Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder and Akon),
paid for by companies hungry for publicity.

But behind the glitz, companies will be showing their bread and
butter for 2009: A lot of inexpensive, no frills devices designed to
perform expertly without sucking up the last remaining drops of your
severance package.

Cell Phones

Convention show speculation will invariably focus on what form the next
the iPhone will take. Be like Public Enemy; don’t believe the hype.
There are other cooler, better, and yes, more capable handsets out
there.

Shredding a path through the tangled cellular jungle is, surprise,
Palm. The company everyone thought had flatlined is taking the
defibrillator to itself with the potentially awesome Nova operating
system. The Linux based OS — which will launch at an undisclosed date
in 2009 — is being pimped as "a next-generation operating system with
much more capabilities, driven around the Internet and Web-based
applications," by Palm CEO Ed Colligan. We know it’s all marketing
hype, but Palm’s seemingly endless financial woes might be just enough
to spark a minor revolution in cell software. With the company’s
declining market share, it’s a sure bet that Nova-based Palm phones
will be cheap buys in 2009. And fans of the OG Palm OS need not fret,
both of you can still pick up a Centro for just $99 well into the New
Year.

Notebooks and Desktop PCs

Netbooks netbooks netbooks! Yes, these wee wonders have broken into the
mainstream and are now considered legit devices. Look for refreshes on
existing netbook lines from Dell, HP, Asus, and MSI. We expect one from
Sony too: We’re predicting Sony will show a fully-featured netbook,
with its trademark Vaio styling, in the $500 to $700 range.

Also expect to see a lot of all-in-one desktops that are less about
design and more about functionality. We’ve seen iMac clones like the
beautifully rendered Dell XPS One and the Gateway One before. Those
days are over. In their stead will be ugly, obtuse, yet practical
all-in-one boxes that trade a slim profile and processing power for a
sub-thousand-dollar sticker.

Televisions and Displays

The schoolyard contest of who can build the biggest TV won’t exactly
stop mid-shove. Sharp, Panasonic, Samsung and Sony will roll out some
retina-searing, 100-inch-plus LCDs, but behind the big screens there
will be more of an emphasis on screens that can deliver bang for the
buck. Third-tier manufacturers like Vizio, Westinghouse, and Sceptre
will be offering screens that have just as much resolution, color, and
calibration options as their second- and first-tier brethren. They’ll
just cost thousands less.

Miniature pocket projectors will be huge. Instead of dropping ten
thousand ducats on a 1080p home cinema caliber projector, corporate VPs
will be pocketing portables like the Toshiba Pico to project their PowerPoint
presentations on the go. We’ve already seen a chorus line of projectors
like the Pico emerge in recent months. The G-Lab crystal ball predicts
more of these handhelds at cheaper prices.

Cameras and Camcorders

A few titanic, feature-heavy SLRs (Exhibit A: Canon 5D Mark II) will
sail through CES but so will a fleet of thrifty shooters that anchor
cheap thrills by way of thoughtful touches. Look for small shooters
that incorporate printers, Wi-Fi, and web browsers.

Also gaining a deep foothold will be mini video cams like the Flip Mino
and the Kodak Zi6. Designed to upload footage to the web (alright,
basically just to YouTube), these devices record in hi-def and often
cost less than two hundred bucks. Until now they’ve been the pet
projects of borderline boutique manufacturers like Pure Digital. But
now mainstream camera companies will be rolling out their own versions
of pocket video cameras, putting still more price and feature pressure
on this category. And you know what that means: Cheaper, better
products for you and me.

Wired.com is sending a 9-person team to cover CES with news reports, photos and video. Follow all the latest news at wired.com/ces.

Photo of CES 2008 by mobil’homme/Flickr

9to5Mac is reporting that a unibody, 17-inch MacBook Pro will be announced at Macworld, following in the footsteps of the previously released unibody 13 and 15-inchers. The rumor, backed up by some “whisperers” at Macrumors, isn’t really an earth-shattering surprise — though the accompanying revelation that this model is expected to have a slim, extended-life, non-removable battery is rather eye-opening — and somewhat disappointing, considering the lameness of non-removable batteries. We’ll know for sure on Tuesday at the keynote.

Update: Apple Insider is now independently confirming the imminent arrival of the unibody 17-incher, and also corroborating the fixed internal battery theory.

Read – Apple 17-inch MacBook Pro to go Unibody, sans removable battery (Silver-Zinc replacement?)
Read – 17″ Unibody MacBook Pro with Non-Removable Extended-Life Battery?
Read – Sources: 17-inch MacBook Pro, NVIDIA Mac mini due shortly

Filed under: Laptops

17-inch unibody MacBook Pro with non-removable battery rumored for Macworld originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 04 Jan 2009 16:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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