Hasta La Gadget!

Aching for a fancy new Macbook Pro with a Blu-ray drive? Don’t hold your breath. Steve Jobs apparently isn’t having any of this Sony disc nonsense. Apple’s CEO contends that the format is likely to go the way of, well, the HD-DVD, in the not so distant future.

According to Mac Rumors, Jobs recently responded to an e-mail from a Mac Mini owner asking when the company will finally embrace the technology. Jobs responded, “Bluray [sic] is looking more and more like one of the high end audio formats that appeared as the successor to the CD–like it will be beaten by Internet downloadable formats.”

The Mac Mini managed to get one more e-mail from the CEO, who stated,

No, free, instant gratification and convenience (likely in that order) is what made the downloadable formats take off. And the downloadable movie business is rapidly moving to free (Hulu) or rentals (iTunes) so storing purchased movies or TV shows is not an issue. I think you may be wrong–we may see a fast broad move to streamed free and rental content at sufficient quality (at least 720p) to win almost everyone over.

Jobs’s user responses seem to be both more frequent and verbose these days. Personally, I would have just responded by writing, “Blu-ray? More like Boo-ray.” I guess that’s why I’m not allowed to run multi-national corporations.

Consider this a technological rite of passage. You may have sold millions of units, sure, but your hot new gadget hasn’t really made until the lawsuits start flying. By that measure, the iPhone 4 really came into its own this week, as the device received its first class action suit addressing its widely-covered antenna “death grip” troubles.

The suit, filed in the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, names Apple and AT&T as defendants. Both parties are accused of General Negligence, Breach of Implied Warrant for Merchantability, Breach of Implied Warranty of Fitness for a Particular Purpose, Deceptive Trade Practices, Intentional Misrepresentation, Negligent Misrepresentation, and Fraud by Concealment.

Apple alone, meanwhile, is accused of Defect in Design, Manufacture, and Assembly and
Breach of Express Warranty.

Gizmodo has the full text of the complaint filed by Ward & Ward, PLLC and Charles A. Gilman, LLC. On behalf Kevin McCaffrey, Linda Wrinn, and other iPhone users.

Silky isn’t typically an adjective we’d associate with game controllers, but that’s exactly how gaming accessory maker Nyko is describing the feel of their new Raven controller line for the PlayStation 3. The line includes a standard PS3 configuration as well as an Xbox 360 inspired “alternate” layout which flips the position of the left analog stick and d-pad for a more ergonomic feel. Both will connect wirelessly to your system via a USB dongle, and will cost $35 once they hit shelves later this summer. But will any game top the entertainment value of the Raven promo video? Check it after the break.

Continue reading Nyko announces two silky new Raven PS3 controllers

Nyko announces two silky new Raven PS3 controllers originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Jul 2010 10:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you ask us, Apple should be giving away free bumpers, lollipops, and anything else it can think of to keep its otherwise loyal followers from revolting. But the Great Bitten One isn’t doing any one of those things, and most of us are stuck either having to pony up $30 for the official salvation from self-inflicted signal harm or looking out to the grey markets. Entering this morose situation with a bit of ingenuity is Oliver Nelson, who alerts us to the fact that rubber wristbands of the sort your favorite cyclist wears are apparently an almost perfect fit when stretched around the 4’s antennae. He advises that a 1.125-inch long by 0.125-inch wide incision (into the unstretched band) is necessary to keep the 30-pin port and speakers open, but otherwise it seems like a pretty effortless and dirt cheap way to avoid all this drama.

iPhone 4 gets a $1 alternative to pricey Bumpers originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Jul 2010 10:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Another player has entered the high-end compact camera fold, and this time it looks like Samsung is in it to win it. The TL500 (aka EX1) is a 10 megapixel shooter with a larger than usual 1/1.7-inch CCD backing up a 24 – 72mm 3x zoom lens that will take you all the way down to F1.8. In the Photography Blog review, that lens earned the camera one of its few criticisms, starting very wide but not offering enough magnification on the other end of the scale. A lack of 720p video recording is another bummer, but other than those two it’s basically all positive, with the build quality and controls earning high marks, and the resulting images (helped by full manual exposure controls) looking as good as you’d expect. The camera isn’t particularly reasonable at $449, but it does at least deliver on everything it promises.

Samsung’s ‘tank-like,’ AMOLED-screened TL500 compact camera reviewed originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Jul 2010 09:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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