Hasta La Gadget!

Sprint’s takes the wraps off its first Windows Phone 7 handset, due March 20. Meet the HTC Arrive.

Originally posted at Dialed In

At 4:50 PM ET, the space shuttle Discovery will lift off. Finally. That is, if everything goes plan–an important caveat, given the fact that the launch has been repeatedly delayed since November 5th, thanks to poor weather conditions, electric problems, and a number of leaks found in the shuttle’s fuel tank.

Fueling for the launch began today at 7:25 ET. The process takes three hours to complete.

The launch marks the final mission for the shuttle after 27 years. The mission will last eleven days, during which the crew will help stock the International Space Station with supplies and a new robot helper named Robonaut 2.

There are many players in the e-reader world, but few have managed to gain any sort of traction. Though it hasn’t achieved Kindle levels of success Barnes & Noble is taking pride in saying that its Nook series of readers has conquered 25 percent of the US e-book market. The company doesn’t cite any specific sales figures to back up that number, but we’ll go with it. Sadly, though, there’s another 25 percent number that is detailed and isn’t nearly so positive: that’s how much the company’s profits dropped from this period last year. That was said to be due to heavy investments in the Nook but, despite that, B&N managed to post a $60.6 million profit — certainly better than some of the competition.

Barnes & Noble says Nook owns one quarter of US e-book market, we don’t doubt it originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Feb 2011 09:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Remember that kid at your high-school who could do pretty much anything he set his mind to? It didn’t matter if it was sports or acting or math, he mastered them all without even trying. You and I hated him, but the girls loved him. If that kid were a lamp, he’d be the Mantis.

The Mantis is from the crowd-sourcing design shop Quirky, and is almost ridiculously versatile. In fact, its rage of uses is so wide that I had no choice but to include every shot from the press pack in the gallery above. Go ahead and click through. I’ll wait.

Done? I told you it did a lot. The Mantis comes in two parts, a battery powered LED lamp and a clip, into which the torpedo shaped light slides. The clip clips anywhere: to the base of your iMac or other monitor, to the top of your laptop screen, to a cupboard door or to a bed headboard. And because the lamp can twist in its clip, you could even angle it down to illuminate your Kindle.

But there’s more. Once removed from its clip, the Mantis isn’t left naked. It has its own flip-out stand with rubberized tips which let it stand up on your desk like a long-necked seal, balancing on its outstretched flippers. From this position it can cast the light from its 11 LEDs down onto any badly-lit task you may be performing, for up to 30 hours on a pair of AAs.

A quick reminder of how Quirky works. The design of a new product is presented to the community, and is honed by committee. This sounds terrible, but almost always turns out well. Pre-orders are then gathered until the threshold is met and the production lines rumble into life. The Mantis will cost you $30 ($27 right now) and needs 1,500 orders to flip the switch at the factory. What are you waiting for?

Mantis product page [Quirky. Thanks, Tiffany!]

See Also:

• Quirky Jointed Power-Strip Is 'A Creative Outlet'
• Quirky Perch, a Two-Piece Speaker and Dock for Phones
• Quirky Contort, An Ingenious USB-Hub and Cable Manager

Come on, you knew this was coming! Oh yes, Apple’s pulling the curtain off its new MacBook Pro family, and compared to the last refresh cycle, there are a serious amount of updates. Just as we had heard, all three will be getting new Intel Sandy Bridge Core i5 and i7 processors, AMD Radeon HD 6000M graphics (bye bye, NVIDIA!), FaceTime HD cameras, and some super fast Thunderbolt I/O transfer speeds. There are two new 13-inchers, two 15.4-inch versions, and one lone 17-inch model. How much will they cost you and what are the exact specs? You’ll want to hit the jump for all of that and the official press release.

Continue reading Apple refreshes MacBook Pros with Sandy Bridge processors, AMD graphics, Thunderbolt I/O tech, and HD cameras

Apple refreshes MacBook Pros with Sandy Bridge processors, AMD graphics, Thunderbolt I/O tech, and HD cameras originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Feb 2011 09:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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