Hasta La Gadget!

There comes a time when that giant, corporate-issued laptop stops fitting into your lifestyle. When dragging around a Kensington roller case just won’t do. When you start to hear the siren lilt of something thinner, lighter, and maybe a bit more alluring. For years the MacBook Air has been that svelte temptress hollering your name, but it’s always been a bit too slow — all show and no go. It didn’t have the power and the longevity to make it a serious contender for your serious affections.

No more. With its latest refresh, Apple has taken what was once a manilla-clad curiosity and turned it into a legitimate machine, not just a sultry looker. Good thing, too, because the death of the plastic-clad MacBook means the Air is now Apple’s entry-level portable. Weary traveler looking for a laptop that will lighten your load and, it must be said, your wallet too? This might just be it.

Continue reading MacBook Air review (mid 2011)

MacBook Air review (mid 2011) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Jul 2011 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Two 13-inch MacBooks. One’s thin. One has more ports. Which one’s best for you? We pit them head to head, and the answer’s more difficult than you think.

Pricing for the LG Thrill 4G popped up on Radio Shack’s corporate systems a few days ago, at $80 with a two-year contract. AT&T just shared its official Thrill pricing, however, with the glasses-free 3D smartphone commanding a healthy $99 at the company’s retails stores when it ships “in the coming weeks.” That timeframe meshes nicely with the August 7th launch date that a pair of Radio Shack insiders shared with us last week, though until we receive confirmation otherwise, it’s within reason to expect that devices will begin to ship before or even after that date. Either way, it doesn’t look like you’ll need to hold out much longer for your Thrill, with only a few more days of tranquility to go before the excitement begins.

AT&T confirms LG Thrill 4G pricing, release ‘in the coming weeks’ originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Jul 2011 11:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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First step in preventing Armageddon: Spot the asteroid before it obliterates all life on earth. The PS1 Telescope sits atop a Hawaiian mountain with a 1.4-gigapixel digital camera to ensure we get the Ben Affleck-approved ending, not Deep Impact. More »

Neither high-tech nor fancy, Apple

This bike is the Apple campus bike. The photo above, taken by designer Everaldo Coelho, shows one of the bikes apparently used to get around at Apple’s headquarters at One Infinite Loop, Cupertino, California.

If you were expecting a high-tech machine that looks more like Eve from Wall-E than a silver mixte that could come from any decade in the past 50 years, then you will obviously be disappointed. But take a closer look and you’ll see that this bike is as well suited to its task as an iPad is to its own market.

First, it looks great. Everything is silver, gray or black, even the panniers that sit astride the rear rack, ready for an iPad, a MacBook Air or even (gasp) stacks of paper.

Next up is the style. The mixte frame is somewhere between the step-through bike and the more familiar diamond-framed design with a high top-tube. The mixte is easy to mount, but still uses triangles in the frame to keep it strong and rigid.

Meanwhile, a chain guard keeps oil off trouser cuffs, a three-speed internal hub is both easy to use and almost maintenance-free, and the fenders (along with the waterproof panniers) are great for the odd Californian shower.

Most importantly, though, it looks to be of good quality. Although the logos have all been removed (even the tires are bare of brand names), those deep v-section wheels look tough, the brakes and levers are all metal, and the twin top-tubes even meet the seat tube with a lugged connection.

UPDATE: Jul 26 2011. Thanks to our awesome readers, we now know that the Apple Campus Bike is an M3 Mixte from Public Bikes in the Netherlands San Francisco. Check out the product page here. Thanks, Richard!

UPDATE 2 Jul 27 2011 Brad from Public bikes wrote to say that the company is just up the road from Apple in Cupertino, California. The bikes were a special order from Apple and — as Brad says — ” the end product really does look impressive.”

Perhaps I’m reading too much into it, but if you think about it, this simple, classic bike seems like exactly the thing Apple would pick to get its employees around the campus. I wonder what Microsoft uses? Probably electric golf carts. Or even (shudder) Segways.

Apple’s Campus Bike [Flickr via Mac Magazine and Cult of Mac]

See Also:

• Apple Files Patent for a Smart Bike
• IBike: iPhone Wrist-Mount for Motorbikers