Hasta La Gadget!

Nope, you’re not dreaming, but feel free to pinch yourself, rub your eyes or take a cold shower! You’ve read right — the HP Slate is finally official, and after all the teasing, back and forth, and (very recent) leaks, the Atom-powered, Windows 7 Slate will finally see the light of day — though in a different way than originally intended. While the first videos released by HP may have made it seem like it would be for consumers, HP’s tactfully changed its tune (don’t forget it’s got Palm / WebOS tablets on the way) and is now aiming the Slate at the enterprise and business market. Still, it will be available on HP’s site for $799 to anyone who wishes to purchase one.

So, what does $800 of your hard earned cash buy you? Well, in addition to the dock and case, which are included in the box, the tablet packs pretty much everything we’d heard over the last year — it’s powered by a 1.86GHz Intel Atom Z540 processor, 2GB of RAM, 64GB SSD and packs Broadcom’s Crystal HD accelerator for handling 1080p video. (The included dock has an HDMI-out port if you want to hook it up to the big screen.) Obviously, the 8.9-inch capacitive touch Slate runs Windows 7 Professional, but it’s got a Wacom N-Trig active digitizer for taking notes, which certainly sets it apart from the other Win 7 tablets we’ve seen over the last couple of weeks. Oh, and don’t forget its front facing VGA cam and 3 megapixel camera on its back. We got a chance to finally grope the tablet earlier this week, so hit the break for our early impressions and a short video.

Continue reading HP Slate 500 finally (finally!) official, rings up at $799

HP Slate 500 finally (finally!) official, rings up at $799 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 21 Oct 2010 20:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Our buddies at iFixit took their screwdrivers to a brand-new, 11-inch MacBook Air, and quickly reduced it to its component parts.

Quickly, that is, once they found a way past Apple’s unusual five-point Torx screws, which seem to be designed with one purpose in mind: To keep you out.

Apple uses very unusual five-point Torx screws throughout the MacBook Air, starting with the screws holding the bottom case cover on and extending to the screw used to hold this flash memory board onto the logic board. iFixit’s crew had to file down a couple of Phillips screwdrivers to get inside.

That “keep out” mentality extends to the rest of the MacBook Air’s interior, it appears, with a host of beautifully-designed, carefully-engineered parts that are in principle removable, but in practice almost entirely non-upgradeable.

For instance, the 64GB flash drive that stands in place of a hard drive in this system “would be easily user-replaceable,” notes iFixit, if you ignored the Torx screws.

Also, it’s a completely custom part, meaning there’s no way to order a replacement. Flash drive fried? Your only alternative will be to go through Apple support.

Same goes for the 2GB of RAM or really any of the other components.

It’s an impressive feat of engineering, but, we have to conclude, not one that invites maintenance, upgrades, or hacks and mods by the customer.

For the full disassembly, including details about which parts go where, see iFixit’s MacBook Air 11-inch model teardown.

Photos courtesy iFixit.

See Also:

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• Teardown Shows Apple TV, iPad Share Similar DNA
• iPhone 4 Torn Down and Tested: Slower Than iPad, Faster Than 3G …

Cathay Pacific has already promised that it would bring 50Mbps in-flight broadband to some of its fleet by 2012, but it looks like Boeing has beat it to the punch to become the first to actually take the service to the skies. The company has just announced the first certification and installation of Panasonic Avionics’ eXConnect in-flight internet service in one of its Boeing Business Jet 737 aircraft, which will initially be used by Panasonic itself for ongoing testing and demonstrations. That’s the same system that will be used by Cathay Pacific, and consists a fuselage-mounted antenna that communicates with a network of satellites to deliver speeds of up to 50Mbps, or about a hundred times faster than most competing in-flight WiFi. Unfortunately, there’s still no word on any further expansion to commercial aircraft, so Cathay Pacific may well still wind up being the first in that respect. Full press release is after the break.

Continue reading Boeing installs 50Mbps eXConnect broadband on 737

Boeing installs 50Mbps eXConnect broadband on 737 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 21 Oct 2010 19:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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CNET takes an inside look at the United Airlines engine shop and catches the Blue Angels close up at the United maintenance base at San Francisco International Airport.

Originally posted at News – Cutting Edge

T-Mobile tweets out pricing and release information for the Motorola Defy.

Originally posted at Android Atlas