Hasta La Gadget!

According John Paczkowski over at All Things D, Apple is planning a “major product announcement” for Wednesday, January 27th — not the 26th as we’ve heard in previous reports. Additionally, the French site Mac4Ever says developers have been given a beta of the iPhone OS 4 SDK which includes a “simulator” for reformatting / scaling applications to a new, tablet-sized screens. Here at Engadget, we can confirm that sources very familiar with the situation over in Cupertino have been given info about a tablet heading for launch at the end of January, which will — in fact — require reformatting and resizing for (we assume)… yep, its new screen size and resolution. As far as details, they’re pretty scarce right now, but you can probably begin preliminary salivating and / or player hatin’ as it relates to new Apple hardware. We’ll have more info as it becomes available, but for now, stay tuned.

Update: The Wall Street Journal just added its support for the rumor by saying that Apple will unveil its “new multimedia tablet device later this month” with a “10- to 11-inch touch screen” with plans to ship it in March. The WSJ’s sources claim that Apple believes it can “redefine the way consumers interact with a variety of content” as we’ve been hearing all along. [Thanks, David]

‘Major’ Apple announcement coming January 27th, devs already working with beta SDK (update: shipping in March) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 04 Jan 2010 16:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve already given you the leaked specs for the unannounced updates to Sony’s VAIO Z series of laptops. Now here’s what you haven’t heard: that SSD on the feature list is rather special, a “Quad SSD” in Sony language. To quote from the materials we’ve peeped, the Quad SSD is delineated as “SSD RAID0:64GB/128GB x 4.” What’s unclear is whether that means 4x 128GB or 64GB modules for either 512GB or 256GB of RAID 0 storage, or simply 4x flash modules totaling 128GB or 64GB of RAID 0 capacity. Presumably, it’s similar to devices like the PhotoFast GMonster Quad Drive (pictured, with four CF memory cards) that we’ve already seen. What we do know for sure, however, is that Sony’s Quad SSD features incredible throughput compared to a traditional 5400rpm hard disk. We’re talking about writing a 1GB file at about 4 seconds compared to 25 seconds on that same 5400rpm spinner. We’re also told that the VAIO Z will be the first to feature a backlit keyboard, something we’ve been missing from Sony’s previous generation of Zs. It’s CES kids so the truth is only hours away.

[Thanks, Anonymous]

Sony VAIO Z to offer ultra-fast “Quad SSD” in RAID 0 configuration, backlit keyboard? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 04 Jan 2010 16:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Samsung’s YP-R1 gets firmware update, some of it will cost ya (video)

Samsung’s YP-R1 gets firmware update, some of it will cost ya (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 04 Jan 2010 15:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Helium Digital straps your wrist with HDBT-990 Bluetooth communicator originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 04 Jan 2010 15:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nine years for a trip is a long time by just about any measure. But it’s already halfway over for NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, which is currently on track for a 2015 arrival with Pluto. (You know, the non-planet.)

Space.com reports that the craft is now 1.53 billion miles from Earth, and 1.53 billion miles from Pluto. It will first pass Pluto on July 14th, 2015 before dipping into the Kuiper Belt.

“This is the first of several milestones over the next 10 months that mark the halfway points in our journey to the solar system’s frontier, where Pluto lies,” said Alan Stern, of the Southwest Research Institute in Colorado and New Horizons principal investigator, in the article.

On a personal note, I was fortunate enough to see Alan Stern speak at the Hayden Planetarium in New York back in 2005, right before the craft launched in January 2006. At the time, he characterized the spacecraft as about the size of a Mini Cooper, and had targeted the summer 2015 date back then as well. (Image credit: NASA)