Hasta La Gadget!

We’ve got Aliph’s new Jawbone Prime in hand, and while it’s not much different to look at compared to its predecessor, there’s enough new on the noise reduction and ergonomics front to warrant a quick look. Follow along after the break.

Continue reading Aliph Jawbone Prime hands-on and unboxing

Filed under: Peripherals, Wearables

Aliph Jawbone Prime hands-on and unboxing originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 22 Apr 2009 22:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s been almost a year since Aliph last graced the Bluetooth headset world with its presence, and now it’s back with the Jawbone Prime to reclaim the throne. The Jawbone Prime is only a minor update — on the surface, anyways — to its predecessor, and in fact the only visible change is a slightly different surface pattern and a minor indentation to denote one of the headset’s two invisible buttons. Other than the quite welcome addition of Bluetooth 2.1+ EDR (multipoint connections, easy pairing), almost all the improvements under the hood have to do with the algorithm tweaks of NoiseAssassin 2.0 to improve noise reduction. It’s really too bad the original isn’t firmware-upgradable (we asked). The Prime will be replacing existing Jawbones at retail for the same old $130 pricetag, and comes in Blah Blah Black, Coffee Talk and Going Platinum, while an “EARCANDY” edition is available in Frankly SCARLET, ‘YELLO!, Drop Me A LIME and LILAC You Mean It. Both will be available at retail on May 2nd.

Filed under: Peripherals, Wearables

Aliph Jawbone Prime arrives to coddle your ears, raid your wallet originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 22 Apr 2009 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you’re in the market for a new laptop / netbook, you might want to add Acer’s just-released Aspire 3935-6504 to the list of potentials. The early reviews are in, and it looks like Acer’s got an aggressively-priced winner on its hands. Laptop Magazine calls it “one heck of a bargain,” noting particularly its sleek and sturdy design, backup and power saver buttons, full-sized keyboard, and the appealing $900 price tag. PC Magazine went so far as to give it the Editor’s Choice award for budget laptops, lauding also its eco-friendly credentials and impressive battery life (4 hours and 50 minutes, by its metric). Both sites bemoaned, however, the lack of HDMI and eSATA ports and its inability to run games as well as competitors like the Dell Studio XPS 13 or HP Pavilion dv3z. Providing a less enthusiastic tone is Computer Shopper, who seems to take more of an issue with its gaming deficiencies than the other two reviewers. Still, the site recommends it for those consider style, portability, and price tag the main selling points. Check out the read links below for more thorough dissection.

Read – Laptop Magazine
Read – PC Magazine
Read – Computer Shopper

Filed under: Laptops

Acer Aspire 3935 review roundup: sleek and affordable, but lacking gaming cred originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 22 Apr 2009 20:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Man, Time Warner Cable — you are some shady players. Hot on the heels of the ISP’s decision to withdraw DOCSIS 3.0 trials from areas that have rejected its tiered billing plan, we’re hearing that TWC’s teamed up with Embarq to persuade the North Carolina state government into banning community-owned broadband services. Why? Well, turns out the 47,000 residents of Wilson, NC got tired of paying for slow broadband, so the city government launched its own fiber ISP called Greenlight that offers some pretty solid packages ranging from $99 for 81 cable channels, unlimited phone service, and 10Mbps (down and up) internet to $170 for every single channel including premiums and 20Mbps up/down internet. (There’s even a “secret” 100Mbps up/down internet plan.) Of course, these prices blow TWC and Embarq out of the water — the comparable basic Time Warner plan has fewer channels and less bandwidth for an “introductory rate” of $137 — and rather than compete, the two giants decided to lobby the North Carolina legislature into proposing bills that outlaw community services like Greenlight. The argument is that the big companies can’t turn a profit and compete against a community-owned enterprise that essentially sells service for cost, but we’re not buying it — if anything, TWC and Embarq can invest the extra profits they’ve been earning in other areas into building services that would blow Greenlight out of the water. Yep, it’s definitely some dirty pool — does anyone have any positive feelings left for these behemoths?

[Thanks, William]

Read – DailyTech article
Read – Greenlight home page
Read – Save NC Broadband blog

Filed under: Networking

Time Warner and Embarq can’t compete with city-owned ISP, trying to outlaw it originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 22 Apr 2009 19:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The economy might be in a dumpster, but Apple keeps selling iPods, iPhones and Macs — the company just reported a $1.21b profit on revenues of $8.16b, which is yet another record quarter. In fact, if you do away with that pesky subscription accounting that the company uses for the iPhone and Apple TV, the numbers are even higher: $1.66b profit on $9.06b of revenue. Mac sales did fall three percent compared to a year ago, but that was offset by a three-percent increase in iPod sales (particularly of the iPod touch) and a 123-percent jump in iPhone sales. So, now that the numbers are out of the way, let’s let Tim Cook take some shots at netbooks, shall we?

When I’m looking at what’s sold in the Netbook market, I see cramped keyboards, junky hardware, very small screens, bad software. Not a consumer experience that we would put the Mac brand on. As it exists today, we’re not interested in it nor would it be something customers would be interested in the long term. We are looking at the space. For those who want a small computer that does browsing/email, they might want an iPhone or iPod Touch. If we find a way to deliver an innovative product that really makes a contribution, we’ll do that.

Slamming the door while simultaneously leaving it open — how very Jobs-like. Speaking of which, Cook wouldn’t say anything beyond the usual “We look forward to Steve’s return in June” line, so no updates there — but were you really expecting any? We’re still listening to the call, we’ll update if we hear anything good.

Update 1: When asked about the Pre, Cook said “it’s difficult to say anything about a product until it’s shipped… I can’t say anything intelligent about the Pre.”

Update 2: When asked about taking legal action on IP (presumably about the Pre), we just got a straight-up repeat of what they said last time: “We think competition is great as long as they invent their own stuff.”

Annnd, that’s it — we’d say the real fireworks are the numbers, since we’d already heard this line about netbooks from Steve himself. We just wish someone would’ve asked if Apple’s reached out to Lauren and Giampaulo.

[Via MacRumors]

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Apple reports best ever March quarter with a $1.21b profit, calls netbooks “junky” originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 22 Apr 2009 17:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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