Hasta La Gadget!

I guess you could more or less say that this was just looming over the horizon and begging to be revealed to the world, as the Samsung Galaxy Premier has appeared on Twitter thanks to the folks over at @evleaks who more or less burst onto the leak scene with images of the recently announced Windows Phone 8-powered Lumia devices and its accessories. It does seem as though the Galaxy Premier takes after the Galaxy S3 mini in terms of its design scheme, although the sensors are located above the display on the right side of the speaker instead of on the left.

There are whispers going around that the Samsung Galaxy Premier will boast of a 4.65” Super AMOLED Plus display at 720 x 1280 resolution, although this could just be a red herring as Sammobile discovered in a PDF file that the Galaxy Premier could just carry a WVGA display instead. Other hardware specifications include a dual-core 1.5GHz TI OMAP 4470 processor, an 8-megapixel camera, a choice of 8GB or 16GB storage capacities, and a microSD memory card slot. Are you looking forward to an official announcement of the Samsung Galaxy Premier?

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Samsung Galaxy Premier (I9260) benchmark spotted, Possible Samsung Galaxy S2 Plus and Galaxy Premier GT-I9260 specs revealed,

LaCie, a reputable name in the external hard drive industry and maker of some of the toughest external drives around, announced today the P’9223 Slim. The drive was designed by a partnership between LaCie and Porsche Design that brings faster speeds and a sleek, thin design to the company’s line of external hard drives.

The P’9223 has a smooth aluminum finish and a thin form factor that LaCie says is meant to match the exteriors of Apple’s MacBook Pro and MacBook Air line of laptops, and the drive is specifically “designed with Apple enthusiasts in mind.” The company says that it’s also their fastest external drive yet, combining USB 3.0 with an optional SSD option to “maximize performance.”

LaCie says the USB 3.0 on their new drive can deliver speeds of up to 400MB/s, and thanks to the USB Attached SCSI Protocol, LaCie claims that the drive gets “even better speeds” on the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, as long as you’re either running OS X Lion or Mountain Lion. Whether or not that’s true, we’ll have to wait for benchmark results.

The P’9223 Slim is the thinnest 2.5-inch storage device made by LaCie, and it’s 30% thinner than the previous Porsche edition. The drive comes in two storage capacities. The 500GB model will cost $99, while the 120GB SSD model will be priced at $149. Both models come with a two-year limited warranty.

LaCie announces thinner and faster Porsche Design Drive for Macs is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
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The Entertainment Software Ratings Board has a huge responsibility — to rate and regulate the entire medium of video games — but only has so many resources with which to do so. With the rise of digital delivery, it’s become increasingly difficult to fulfill the task of rating every single title that comes out, but the ESRB is betting on a new initiative that’ll help streamline that process. The new “Digital Rating Service” employs an online questionnaire to determine a wide variety of criteria, beyond just age-appropriateness: content, interactivity, and privacy settings (whether or not it shares your data). As the name implies, the DRS specifically applies to digital delivery services: Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network (on PS3 and Vita), PlayStation Certified devices, Nintendo’s eShop (on the Wii, DS, and 3DS), and Windows 8.

That last one sounds new because it is — Windows 8 games are now part of the ESRB’s rating system. In addition to the new initiative and new platform, the ESRB is also adding more guidance to its game ratings. “Shares Info,” “Shares Locations,” and “Users Interact” are all now part of ESRB guidance, per the changing nature of digital, portable games. The ESRB says its new system will help to streamline its rating process for both itself and game creators, and this will resultant in faster ratings for consumers.

Continue reading ESRB now supports Windows 8, introduces cost-free questionnaire for rating digital games

Filed under: Gaming, Microsoft

ESRB now supports Windows 8, introduces cost-free questionnaire for rating digital games originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Oct 2012 12:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NextWorth, one of many websites that specialize in giving upgrade-hungry consumers a check for their used gadgets, said today that it experienced an over 1,000 percent increase in the volume of trade-ins across all iPad devices in the wake of Tuesday’s Apple event. The bottom line is that people look to be interested in getting the latest hardware, and are divesting themselves of older models to make that happen.

Of the new trade-in volume since Tuesday, the latest, third-generation iPad accounted for 66 percent, while the iPad 2 was responsible for 28 percent of newly swapped devices, and the original iPad came in at just 6 percent. It’s interesting that the iPad 3 is leading the pack: this means a good chunk of people who just bought a new iPad last spring or sometime since are interested in getting a newer version.

Whether those buyers are looking for the iPad mini, or the beefed up fourth-generation iPad is hard to tell from these numbers alone, but we’ll see how initial sales progress during the holiday quarter to find out. I have to say, I’m tempted to swap out my third-generation iPad for the new Lightning-capable hotness myself, if only just to minimize my cable clutter. Anyone else making the switch?

I just bought a 27-inch iMac last year, and I really love it. In fact, it’s the best computer I’ve EVER owned, and I’ve owned a whole lot of computers over the years. Between its industrial design, fast processor, the staggeringly-sharp display, and Apple’s solid OS X operating system, it’s really a dream machine. Now, they to tempt us to get rid of our already awesome machines and upgrade them to the 2012 iMac, thanks to its even sexier new form factor.

The new iMac doesn’t have a retina display or lots of new bells-and-whistles. In fact, it no longer has the DVD drive found in the 2011 and earlier models. But what it does have going for it is that it’s a sheer thing of beauty. With a new design that’s just 5 millimeters thick at the edges, and as much as 8 pounds lighter than the previous model, it’s a real marvel of modern engineering.

At first glance – especially from the side – you’ll ask where the heck they fit the computer in this thing. It’s really ALL display. And what a display it is. By redesigning the LED IPS display found in the current iMacs, the new screen manages to cut glare by as much as 75%. Plus, the thinner display offers more vibrant colors than the 2011 model. Plus, Apple is individually color-calibrating each iMac screen as it leaves the assembly line. As with the 2011 models, the displays come in 27-inch, 2560×1440 and 21.5-inch 1920×1080 flavors.

Apple also claims that despite the thin enclosure, that the new iMac’s sound quality is improved. It’s also got dual microphones and a 720p FaceTime HD camera for video chats.

Under the hood, choose from an Intel Core i5 or Core i7 quad-core “Ivy Bridge” CPU, with speeds ranging from 2.7GHz to 3.2GHz for the i5, and up to 3.4GHz for the i7. The machine also has an upgraded NVIDIA GeForce Kepler graphics chipset, which Apple claims to offer up to 60% faster performance than the last generation. You can choose from the 512MB GT 640M, or 650M on the 21.5-inch model, or the 512MB GTX 660M, 1GB G675MX or the top-of-the line 2GB GeForce GTX 680MX for the 27-inch model.

One cool new option available is a drive Apple is calling the Fusion Drive – a new hybrid that combines a 128GB solid state drive with a 1TB to 3TB hard drive – melded into a single volume. This should greatly improve performance of disk intensive apps, as well as system startup. That said, the standard hard drive comes in 1TB to 3TB sizes, and there’s also a (likely to be expensive) 768GB SSD option for the 27-inch model.

Both models come with 8GB 1600MHz DDR3 RAM standard, while the 21.5-inch model is expandable to 16GB RAM, while the 27-inch can accept up to 32GB. Wireless connectivity is provided via 802.11 a/b/g/n wi-fi and Bluetooth 4.0. Each system comes with four USB 3.0 ports, 2 Thunderpolt ports, Gigabit Ethernet, and an SDXC memory card slot (that’s been moved to the back of the display. There’s also still a Mini DisplayPort connector, but it’s not clear where they hid it from the picture below:

Exact release dates haven’t been announced, but the 21.5-inch model will start shipping this November, while the 27-inch model comes out in December. Both models will offer similar pricing to the 2011 line, with the 21.5-inch iMac starting at $1299(USD) and the 27-inch starting at $1799. Pricing for upgrades and options haven’t been announced yet.