Hasta La Gadget!

Not a single day passes since Apple refreshed the MacBook and already the fine folks at iFixit are on the job. For the most part, its full disassembly is business as usual, as only a few components — CPU, GPU and battery — have changed since the last go-round. That last is of special interest, however, because iFixit says the battery is exactly the same shape as its former — all you have to do to get an extra 350 mAh for your existing plastic MacBook is to drop in a refreshed battery. Mind you, the new cells weigh more and it’s likely the new silicon that’s actually responsible for 10 hours of battery life, but should your Li-ion pack fail under warranty, your older MacBook might be returned with more juice than you’d bargained for. See the full teardown at our source link.

10-hour MacBook delicately disassembled, battery transplanted into earlier model originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 May 2010 23:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  iFixit  | Email this | Comments

As a mobile platform, the EVO 4G’s Android foundation is still an infant — well, okay, perhaps it’s a tweener — but in its two-odd years in the public spotlight, the list of truly revolutionary devices to use it has been a significant one: the G1 for being the first to market; the Nexus One for ushering in a new (and subsequently killed) retail model; perhaps the CLIQ for introducing Motorola to the platform or the Droid for bringing the company some desperately needed, long overdue success. For the moment, anyway, a whopping fraction of the world’s most important phones are running Google’s little experiment.

Needless to say, Sprint, HTC, and quite frankly, many of us have come to expect the EVO 4G to join that short list for some obvious reasons. Put simply, its magnificent list of specs reads as though it was scribbled on a napkin after a merry band of gadget nerds got tipsy at the watering hole and started riffing about their idea of the ultimate mobile device: a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, 4.3-inch WVGA display, 8 megapixel camera with 720p video recording, HDMI-out, and WiMAX compatibility. Of course, the list of potential deal-breakers for a phone is as long as the EVO 4G’s display is wide; to put it another way, there are countless ways HTC, Sprint, or even Google could’ve screwed this thing up. So does this moderately intimidating black slab of pure engineering and marketing — this high-profile bet on Sprint’s future — deliver the goods? Read on.

Continue reading HTC EVO 4G review

HTC EVO 4G review originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 May 2010 21:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

We’re still not exactly sure why so many people have complained about the Netflix iPad app‘s lack of video-out support, but rest easy folks — your cries of despair have been heard. Version 1.0.2, now live in the App Store, supports video out using the component, composite, and VGA dongles, as well as addressing some lingering bugs. To be perfectly honest, we’d much rather stream Netflix in HD using one of the many set-top options out there while hanging on to the iPad for some casual surfing on the side, but we won’t tell you how to rock it… just so long as you rock it raw.

[Thanks, Dave]

Netflix iPad app updated to support video out to TVs and monitors originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 May 2010 21:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  App Store (opens iTunes)  | Email this | Comments

Really, making the best self portrait ever isn’t that hard when you’re floating outside of a spacecraft.

Well we just got to lay hands on the above Foxconn-manufactured, Tegra 2-powered Android prototype, and we’ll be honest — it was awfully sweet. There wasn’t much going on beyond some gaming action — we didn’t see it boot into standard Android — though it was running the 3D football title you see above at a pretty healthy clip (check out the video after the break). NVIDIA reps weren’t very keen on sharing info about the device, though we can tell you that it’s apparently got 1GB of RAM inside cuddled up to that 1GHz ARM Cortex 9 CPU, a front-facing camera, and the WSVGA screen measures 8.9-inches (it’s also a much wider aspect ratio than something like the iPad). We’re going to hold any judgment till we see this thing cooking with a full UI, but we’re not knocking it — get this in at the right price, and we’ll likely be first in line.

Update: Correction, the screen size is 8.9-inches, not 9.7.

Continue reading Foxconn’s Tegra 2-powered Android tablet hands-on (video)

Filed under: Handhelds

Foxconn’s Tegra 2-powered Android tablet hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 May 2010 19:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments