Hasta La Gadget!

We’re sure that many Blackberry fans and users out there are looking forward to see what Blackberry 10 will bring to the table, and if it will be good enough to make Blackberry 10 competitive enough to go up against the likes of iOS and Android, both of which are currently dominating the smartphone platform market. While it is expected that the first Blackberry 10 device will be released in Q1 of 2013, thanks to leaked photos, we now have more images of the first Blackberry 10 device, the L-series.

This is thanks to a photo sent in to the folks at Berry Review of a handset alleging to be the L-series, although given that it is sitting in a silicone gel cover, it’s hard to get an idea of what the whole device looks like. Then again with the various leaks in the past, and assuming RIM doesn’t pull a reversal at the very last minute, we guess we more or less know what the L-series will ultimately look like. The device in the photo above can be seen running on Blackberry 10 with some apps in the background, such as Dropbox, Maps, YouTube, Skydrive and Box just to name a few.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Blackberry 10 N-series spotted in leaked video, More Blackberry 10 screenshots have been spotted,

If you think a 13” MacBook Pro is more portable versus a 15” one, you may have heard rumors that Apple could be announcing a 13” MacBook Pro with Retina display alongside the iPad mini, which according to the rumors, has been pegged for a 23^rd of October announcement. That being said, it seems that the 13” MacBook Pro with Retina display has been “confirmed” for Apple’s event. This is according to the folks at 9to5 Mac who have been tipped off by a reliable source from a high-profile US retailer.

The specs of the device were not mentioned, although according to their source, the 13” MacBook Pro will not only be smaller, but is also expected to be thinner and lighter compared to its 15” Retina counterpart which was launched earlier this year. It will also come in two different configurations and will be up for purchase “soon” after its introduction. In any case we’re a little over a week before the rumored 23^rd of October event, so we guess we won’t have long to wait to see if the rumors pan out, so check back with us then for the details.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Retina Macbook Pro 13 GPU could be slower than first Macbook Air’s [rumor], 13″ MacBook Pro with Retina display rumored to be facing production quality issues as well,

We’re fans of the existing Raspberry Pi developer board’s around here. These little things can be used for all sorts of purposes, including little HTPC computers and much more. As useful as these little developer boards are, there some users out there who have been clamoring for better performance.

Back in September, Raspberry Pi announced a new Turbo Mode that promised to squeeze 50% more performance from the little machine. Turbo Mode allows the processor to be overclocked as high as 1 GHz for more performance. More processor speed is a great thing, but Raspberry Pi says that one of the most common requests is extra RAM.

Raspberry Pi has now addressed that request for more RAM with the announcement that the Model B of the little developer board is now shipping with 512 MB of RAM. Previously, the little board had 256 MB of RAM. Versions of the board running 512 MB of RAM are expected to arrive in customer’s hands today.

The company says that it will make a firmware upgrade available “in the next couple of days” allowing users to access the additional memory. That would indicate that right out-of-the-box even though there’s 512 MB of RAM present, the Raspberry Pi boards won’t be able to access more than 256 MB. Combining more RAM with Turbo Mode should broaden the use of this tiny little developer board.

Raspberry Pi Model B gets 512 MB of RAM is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Earlier this month, SpaceX launched its Falcon 9 rocket into space with the main mission of delivering its Dragon cargo capsule to the ISS for NASA. During the mission, the Falcon 9 rocket also carried an experimental communications satellite constructed by a US company called Orbcomm. The Falcon 9 was supposed to drop that satellite off in an orbit with an altitude of 466 miles above the surface of the earth.

However, SpaceX and Orbcomm ran into a significant problem when one of the nine Merlin engines powering the Falcon 9 rocket shut down early following launch on October 7. The single rocket engine shutting down early meant that the satellite failed to reach the orbital altitude required. Orbcomm has now announced that the satellite has fallen out of orbit and burned up in the atmosphere during reentry.

Orbcomm did have a $10 million insurance policy in place that would “largely offset” the loss of the satellite and the cost of the launch. Interestingly, the Falcon 9 rocket had enough fuel to relight like the engine that shut down early, but the remaining liquid oxygen gave only 95% chance that the rocket would complete its second burn.

Since NASA’s ISS payload was the primary payload on the mission NASA requirements stipulated that if there wasn’t at least a 99% chance that the rocket had enough fuel to complete the second burn, the engine could not be restarted. Orbcomm said that it believes if its satellite had been the primary payload on the mission the prototype would’ve reached the orbit required.

“Orbcomm understood from the beginning that the orbit-raising maneuver was tentative,” SpaceX spokeswoman Katherine Nelson wrote. “They accepted that there was a high risk of their satellite remaining at the Dragon insertion orbit. SpaceX would not have agreed to fly their satellite otherwise, since this was not part of the core mission and there was a known, material risk of no altitude raise.”

[via Reuters]

Orbcomm satellite falls out of orbit after problematic orbital insertion is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Ever wondered how much the use of instant messaging apps like Whatsapp cost carriers in terms of potential revenue lost via SMS? Well according to analysis and research firm, Ovum, it seems that the use of instant messaging platforms like Whatsapp has cost carriers an estimated loss of 17.7 billion Euros this year. It is no secret that many of us have turned to instant messaging apps on our smartphones to communicate with friends and family.

Apps such as Whatsapp, BBM, iMessage, ChatOn have replaced the need for traditional SMS, allowing friends and family to communicate with each other even in foreign countries for free as it allows not just messages, but audio, video, photos and even your location to be sent! All of this is technically free since you have a smartphone, chances are you have a data plan as well. Either that or you could always rely on WiFi. So, do you know anyone that you still communicate with via traditional SMS, or has everyone turned to Whatsapp?

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: BiteSMS adds Quick Reply feature to WhatsApp on jailbroken iOS devices, Wazzap! is a Whatsapp port for the Nokia N9,