Hasta La Gadget!

CEO Brian Dunn now says the Apple devices aren’t cutting into notebook sales as much as he was quoted as stating earlier this week in a Wall Street Journal article. pOriginally posted at a href=”http://news.cnet.com/8301-31021_3-20016895-260.html” class=”origPostedBlog”Circuit Breaker/a/p

Wired.com readers weren’t kidding when they complained that they didn’t like Apple’s new iTunes icon. We received over 100 submissions for our “Redesign Apple’s Ugly iTunes Icon” contest, with a ton of impressive mockups.

We also asked readers to vote for their top picks, and the crowd favorite comes from Ian Houser, whose icon “iTunes Digital Redux” received nearly 1,200 votes. His icon, featured above, incorporates a waveform: ”since the reasoning behind the new icon was that iTunes is powering the digital revolution, and CD’s aren’t part of that anymore,” he explains. Congrats, Ian! You’re getting a new iPod Shuffle.

Want to replace your ugly iTunes icon with Ian’s beautiful creation? Unzip the .zip file containing Ian’s icon and follow these steps:

1. Remove iTunes from Dock.
2. Right click the iTunes software and select “get package contents” from submenu.
3. Open (contents > Resources) folder and copy the new iTunes.ico file into the folder. (Back up the old one if you might want to revert to it.)
4. Add iTunes shortcut back to your dock.

Many of you designed some great stuff, and we’re featuring 15 other icons that received the most votes, along with some of our personal favorites. Enjoy, and thanks to everyone who participated and voted.

See Also:

• Wired.com Contest: Redesign Apple’s Ugly iTunes Icon
• Steve Jobs: iTunes 10 Icon Does Not ‘Suck’

Well, the iPad is about one half of a laptop — both in its form and functionality — so it makes perfect sense that it’d chop laptop sales by 50 percent. We might be pulling your leg, but Best Buy CEO Brian Dunn isn’t. The dude in charge of the yellow label empire has told the Wall Street Journal that his company’s internal estimates indicate the iPad has eaten up as much as half of laptop PC market demand. In response to this perceived trend toward more portable gadgets, Brian’s outfit is rearranging its inventory to include more e-readers, tablets and smartphones for this holiday season, while slimming down its selection of desktops and HDTVs. Moreover, new demo zones will be set up in-store to allow people to experience the wonders of Microsoft’s Kinect and Sony’s Move motion-controlled gaming solutions. So it looks like the future’s coming, whether we like it or not.

Update: It did seem weird to us that the mighty laptop would be that vulnerable to the iPad, and sure enough, our queries with Best Buy were met by the following response:

“The paraphrase that was used in the WSJ wasn’t really an accurate reflection of what Brian said to the reporter.

What Best Buy CEO Brian Dunn said was that we had no firm numbers, but that we speculated there was some replacement of netbooks by iPads going on. We did not provide specifics because we do not presently have the hard numbers on which to base those specifics.”

So, Brian was not only talking about netbooks, but his words were exaggerated too. Phew, and we were just about to start selling our shares in Dell and HP. You can find his full clarification on this issue after the break.

Continue reading iPad has halved laptop sales, claims Best Buy CEO (update: he meant netbooks)

iPad has halved laptop sales, claims Best Buy CEO (update: he meant netbooks) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Sep 2010 18:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Digital Trends  |  Wall Street Journal  | Email this | Comments

Your next external hard drive and NAS device can be completely wireless – except for power, of course. The LaCie Wireless Space is designed to look good, back up your data, and even be the heart of your home network if you need it to be; it comes in 1TB and 2TB models and features an 802.11 b/g/n router built-in as well as three gigabit Ethernet ports for high-speed data transfer. The Wireless Space can also act as a NAS, media server, or network extender once it’s configured, and has a pair of USB 2.0 ports that can be connected to printers for wireless printing or additional external drives to create a pool of storage. The Wireless Space will be available in October if you’re interested, with the 1TB model shipping for $229 and the 2TB model for $399 retail price. 

With the official launch of Sky 3D to UK home viewers just days away, the broadcaster’s bringing in the big guns. Sure, we’ve tried explaining the latest in 3D technology ourselves, but it requires a special touch to claim to have invented 3D and still come off as infallibly polite at the same time. For that, you need a professional, and who better than Stephen Fry? If you weren’t first in line at the shoppes to buy a 3DTV this video probably won’t turn you into a believer right away — checking in to your local pub for a pint and a Premier League game is a more effective route — but it’s an entertaining preview all the same. The video is embedded after the break and in case this alarm clock showing up on the site, twice, wasn’t enough of a clue, we’ll feature nearly anything with Stephen Fry involved, especially when he kicks it off by saying “Hello, Engadget.”

Continue reading Sky 3D enlists Stephen Fry to explain the technology ahead of its October 1 launch (video)

Sky 3D enlists Stephen Fry to explain the technology ahead of its October 1 launch (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Sep 2010 17:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments