Hasta La Gadget!

When we reviewed the HP TouchPad we found it to feel a little hollow, as if it were rather more cavernous inside than the immediate competition. Now we’re getting to peek beneath the screen and, look at that, it’s “built more like a PC than an iPad” according to the screwdriver-meisters at TechRepublic. This means you can easily take the thing apart with just a Phillips screwdriver (and a little prying) should you wish. Or, you know, you can just look at the pictures on the other end of the source link and keep yours in one piece. They tend to work better that way.

HP TouchPad torn asunder, no palms found hiding within originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Jun 2011 08:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Acer announces Aspire One Happy 2 netbook for the US market, shows its commitment to pastels

Acer announces Aspire One Happy 2 netbook for the US market, shows its commitment to pastels originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Jun 2011 08:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The 12 chips inside Apple’s Thunderbolt cable might justify its high, high price. Photos iFixit

It might not mitigate the ridiculous $50 price-tag, but iFixit’s teardown of Apple’s “lightning fast” Thunderbolt cable at least goes some way towards showing why it doesn’t cost the same as any other dumb cable.

After picking up the new wonder-cable and digging into its “suspicious” looking sturdy plastic sleeve, iFixit’s Miroslav Djuric was confronted with a lot of hefty metal shielding. One soldering iron and a bit of chopping later and he was in.

So what’s inside: The cable contains 12 individual chips, almost as many chips as the Smart Cover has magnets, plus a (small) handful of sundry resistors and other electronic-y type bits. The main brains seem to be in the two Gennum GN2033 chips, one in each end. The GN2033 is the “[i]ndustry’s first in-connector 10Gb/s transceiver chip for Thunderbolt.”

It would seem that a Thunderbolt cable is in fact a tiny computer.

So that, I’d guess, is where your money is going. Apple has actually been cutting the costs of cables recently, most famously with the $20 HDMI cable which managed to undercut pretty much everyone else when it was introduced. I’m not saying there isn’t a decent profit margin on the Thunderbolt cable — there surely is — but at least you’re getting something other than copper strands and plastic for your cash.

What Makes the Thunderbolt Cable Lightning Fast [iFixit]

See Also:

• Apple Releases Thunderbolt Cable. Now All We Need Are Thunderbolt …
• How Thunderbolt Could Hook Up Notebooks With Powerful Peripherals …

Sure it already posed for the FCC’s unflattering cameras, but now we can observe the Roku 2 HD — with packed in MicroSD card and lightly refreshed remote — in its natural habitat. Our tipster didn’t indicate the provenance of this particular package but we’d previously heard they would start shipping to beta testers last week with an updated UI and this likely represents one of the lucky few delivered so far. The polished state of the hardware and packaging suggests the testing period is to work out any software kinks and (more likely) get in a few rounds of Angry Birds; until we hear something about more specific you can check out a few more of shots in the gallery.

Update: Another anonymous tipster has just sent over this picture of one of the new units next to a Roku XD that gives a good impression of how tiny the new units really are, and another showing the surround sound option. They also noted the new hardware shows improved picture quality, however at this stage the UI isn’t different and there aren’t any new games available yet.

[Thanks, Geraldine]

Roku 2 HD struts its stuff in the wild along with a new remote (Update: new comparison pics) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Jun 2011 07:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Kitchen Tool turns any old utensil into one half of a pair of tongs

Konstantin Slawinski’s little silicone widget could soon become one of the most useful gadgets in your kitchen (or in the back yard, if you have a grill). It’s a rubber hinge with two holes into which you slot any utensils you might have to hand, instantly turning them into a pair of one-handed tongs.

A fork and spoon can become salad servers, a pair of table knives can be used to flip burgers or any other frying food, and two chopsticks can be handily joined for those who lack either dexterity or the willingness to learn anything new.

Slawinski sells designs in kitchen stores worldwide, but the brand new “Kitchen Tool” isn’t showing up yet. In the meantime, I shall visit my local catering supplies establishment and search for any cheap chunk of silicone that I can pierce to make my own Kitchen Tool.

Kitchen Tool product page [Kitchen Slawinski via Studio Dreimann and Oh Gizmo]

See Also:

• The Gadget Lab Summer BBQ Guide
• Art Lebedev Turns Utensils into Giant Folding Knife
• Life's Too Short: Modular Silicone Kitchen Drawer Organizers …
• Silicon Strips Shield Sizzling Stove-Shelves