Smoking is terrible for you. No question about that. But can it also be hazardous to your electronics warranties? It can if you own Apple products. Turns out if you’ve smoked around your computer, Apple can refuse to work on it, citing “biohazard” concerns.
This information comes from The Consumerist, which has reports from two Apple owners who had their warranties voided after smoking around their computers–actually, only one of them smoked. The other claims that that the company “attribute[ed] non-smoking residue to second hand smoke.”
The Apple store employees reportedly “refuse to work on the machine, due to ‘health risks of second hand smoke.’ ”
Samsung and Verizon Wireless announce the upcoming availability and pricing of the Samsung Omnia II. pOriginally posted at a href=”http://www.cnet.com/8301-17918_1-10403448-85.html” class=”origPostedBlog”Dialed In/a/p
Eking’s S515 has been trumpeted for a small while now, but we weren’t exactly eager to bite before seeing this thing in the flesh. Today, UMPC Portal has managed to procure one of these tilting, sliding handhelds, and thankfully for all of us, they’ve hosted up an informative unboxing video to show it off. Packing a 4.8-inch display, 1.2GHz Atom Z515 processor, 1GB of RAM, a 16GB or 32GB SSD and a full QWERTY keyboard, the device honestly looks like a giant HTC Touch Pro2 at first glance — particularly once you prop the display up. We’re also hearing that this same handheld has surfaced elsewhere as the Digicube Z8, but it’s tough to say if either will be shipping stateside in the near future. Hop on past the break if you’re curious to see what a Touch Pro2 would look like on ‘roids.
We’ve scanned some of the ads and picked several potentially promising Black Friday deals, including limited-time special officers, in order to give you some context on what constitutes a good doorbuster deal, and what’s just a bust.
NASA’s Mars rover Spirit, which has been stuck in deep Martian sand since April, has finally taken a (tiny) step forward, Space.com reports.
After an unsuccessful first attempt last week, the rover moved about half an inch forward, 0.3 inches to the left, and about 0.2 inches down. That’s barely anything–especially when you consider that engineers sent commands for Spirit to spin its wheels enough to drive 8.2 feet for that little bit of movement to happen.
But the good news is the left front wheel showed signs of climbing, even though the center of the rover moved downward slightly. And the non-functioning right wheel–which has been broken for a while now–had some forward push motion. Anyone besides me have their fingers crossed?
We still can’t say conclusively whether or not those Black Friday deals leaked last week are anything but rumors, but Apple has begun ramping up for a pre-holiday blitz. The company has been sending around Black Friday teasers to customers, advertising a “special Apple one-day shopping event” scheduled for November 27th.
There aren’t any specific deals named, but Apple insists that “You’ll find lots of great iPod, iPhone and Mac gift ideas” on the site, and the accompanying logo seems to confirm this, featuring iPhones, iPods, MacBooks, the Mac Mini, Apple TV, Nike Run, displays, keyboards and more.
Verizon Wireless and Samsung announced that the Samsung Omnia II smartphone, which we originally previewed in June, is now available in stores and online at www.verizonwireless.com for $199.99 with a two-year agreement and after rebates.
The Omnia II, in its final form, is a Windows Mobile 6.5-powered slab with a 3.7-inch, 480-by-800-pixel AMOLED touch screen, and a rounded and more attractive than the original Omnia. The Omnia II features an on-screen QWERTY keyboard, and a “3D cube” user interface that I hope is an improvement over the Android-powered Samsung Behold II.
The Omnia II also features the excellent Opera 9.5 browser, support for the usual array of Verizon V CAST music and video services, plus VZ Navigator and Visual Voicemail. The Omnia II also packs a 5-megapixel camera with a flash and auto-focus, along with DivX and Xvid movie file support just like the original Omnia. Stay tuned for a full review.
It’s been a crazy weekend, and we’ll have the latest episode of The Engadget Show up to prove it soon enough, but for now we thought you might still be interested in the podcast we did live on Friday from within the hazy mist of show prep and Chrome OS assessment. Sure, you might not be used to getting a new podcast on a Monday morning, but we’ve heard that a technology podcast replete with bizarre exchanges with live audience members via chat and many vitamins and minerals can be a vital part of a healthy, well-balanced breakfast.
Hosts: Joshua Topolsky, Nilay Patel, Paul Miller Producer: Trent Wolbe Song:Bit.shifter – The World Has Turned And Left Me Here
[iTunes] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in iTunes (enhanced AAC). [RSS MP3] Add the Engadget Podcast feed (in MP3) to your RSS aggregator and have the show delivered automatically. [RSS AAC] Add the Engadget Podcast feed (in enhanced AAC) to your RSS aggregator. [Zune] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in the Zune Marketplace
Cheap things come to those who wait! Originally $249, the Zune 80 can now be yours for half the price. It rocks 80GB of storage, Wi-Fi syncing, and an FM tuner. pOriginally posted at a href=”http://news.cnet.com/8301-13845_3-10403426-58.html” class=”origPostedBlog”The Cheapskate/a/p
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NASA’s Mars rover Spirit, which has been 
We still can’t say conclusively whether or not those Black Friday deals leaked last week are anything but 
