Hasta La Gadget!

Just a few days ago, Amazon’s UK website revealed the packaging to various versions of Windows 8 Pro. However, no pricing details were available at the time. Today, though, online retailers are starting to post up their listings of Windows 8 with prices and all. Plus, the upcoming OS is available for pre-order right now.

This morning we noticed Newegg.com posted up their Windows 8 listings with upgrade versions as well as full OEM versions. The upgrades are priced at $69, which will allow you to seamlessly upgrade your Windows XP, Vista, or 7 PC straight to Windows 8. They offer a version with the disc and all, or you can go for the product key-only, both will cost you $69 each.

Newegg also has Windows 8 and Windows 8 Professional up on their site, both are available in 32-bit or 64-bit flavors. The regular Windows 8 variant will cost $99 for either the 32-bit or 64-bit version, and Windows 8 Professional will cost $139 for either 32-bit or 64-bit. The prices are comparable to past Windows operating systems. However, Newegg is offering a $10 pre-order discount if you buy the OS before it launches.

We decided to peek over to Amazon to see if they had Windows 8 up for pre-order, and indeed they did, but we could only find the Windows 8 Pro upgrade version. We’re not sure when they’ll list the rest, but it should be soon considering Newegg is already up and going.

Windows 8 now available for pre-order is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Linn might not be the first name you associate with iPhone and iPad streaming, but the Scottish company is hoping that change all that with its “budget” Kiko media streamer. “Budget” for Linn means £2,500, mind (the company’s hand-made kit usually comes in at around $70k) though you do get a fair amount for your money: while the Kiko system will play nicely with Apple’s AirPlay, Linn has also custom built its own streaming hardware complete with audio upsampling whether you’re listening to music on a phone or tablet, through Spotify or Netflix, or from your games console or Blu-ray player.

In fact, Kiko gets the same proprietary algorithms as the company’s far more expensive network media players – Linn famously opted-out of CDs, persisting with turntables until it jumped directly to streaming systems, and then set up its own high-bitrate record label, Linn Records, to sell digital music of the quality it believed was required –  which are applied to its range of inputs. You get three HDMI and one S/PDIF, RCA phono, and a TOSLINK digital optical, together with ethernet for streaming from an internet service or your networked PC/Mac/NAS.  There’s also a 3.5mm aux-in and a headphone socket on the front panel.

The output is to the matching Kiko speakers, which pairs each driver with a 33W RMS amp and use a digital crossover. There’s also an HDMI output for your TV or projector. Various free apps, such as Kinsky for iPhone and iPad [iTunes link] are offered for remote control, media selection, and more.

Of course, Linn’s main rival isn’t B&W or Bose, whose AirPlay-compatible systems start to look cheap in comparison to the Kiko, but brands like Bang & Olufsen. The Danish company’s BeoPlay A9, for instance, is far more outlandish in its appearance than the Linn system, but costs roughly the same (though doesn’t have the same flexibility in streaming or connectivity).

Does that make the Linn Kiko a bargain? At £2,500 in the UK and around $3,390 in the US, it doesn’t come cheap, though you’re getting the culmination of several years of R&D not to mention in-house production of the curved aluminum casings (available in six colors).

Linn Kiko takes AirPlay up a level is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Most event teasers have at least some kind of grandiosity; we’re not under illusions that they have to be modest. At the same time, ASUS may have crossed a humility barrier with a teaser for an October 23rd event launching its upcoming Vivo Tabs and (possibly TAICHI- or Transformer Book-linked) Vivo Books. In the space of 42 seconds, ASUS likens the New York City announcement for its touchscreen Windows 8 devices to the Apollo moon missions, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and having a child — a bit much for slabs of aluminum and glass, we think. There’s not much to see of the systems themselves beyond what we already know, although Notebook Italia has noticed at least one reseller listing a Vivo Book S200 laptop with an 11.6-inch touchscreen, a Core i3, 4GB of RAM and a 320GB hard drive for €499 ($647). That price would go a long way towards ASUS’ promise of making touch “available to everyone…” we’re just not convinced it’s as important as Elvis.

Continue reading ASUS teases October 23rd Vivo Book and Vivo Tab event, likens it to world history (video)

Filed under: Laptops, Tablets, ASUS

ASUS teases October 23rd Vivo Book and Vivo Tab event, likens it to world history (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Oct 2012 09:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It seems that not only is Apple facing low yield rates for the iPhone 5 (largely in thanks to their choice of going with the aluminum unibody chassis), a recent report from Digitimes has suggested that Apple is facing the same issue with its MacBook Pro as well. To be more specific, it seems that the rumored 13” MacBook Pros with Retina displays are facing low yield rates due to an issue with the Retina displays. Shipments of the alleged laptop was originally pegged for a September release, although word has it that shipments are now expected to take place in October instead.

At the same time, it seems that the rumored iPad mini is also facing production issues. The report has stated that the iPad mini is supposedly “suffering low yields for components such as the display and chassis,” and while it is said to use the same material as the current-gen iPad, it is expected to sport a different design and “tactile feel”, whatever that’s supposed to mean. However it should be noted that Digitimes does not have the best track record when it comes to reporting Apple rumors, and since neither the 13” MacBook Pro with Retina display nor the iPad mini has been made official, we suggest you take this with a grain of salt for now.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: 13″ MacBook Pro with Retina display reportedly still on track for production in Q4, Apple advises against using palm rests for your MacBook,

D&D and RPG gamers know all about many-sided dice. But how often have you wished that you could roll the dice, score a critical hit and then eat them up? I know I have dreamed about it more than once. Well, with this awesome set of chocolate gaming dice, you can play and eat. Although if you are really hungry, it’s going to be a short game.


This is a full set of chocolate gaming dice (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20) made of Ghirardelli chocolate poured by hand from custom molds. Forget the game, just eat ‘em up.

The set is only $7.99(USD) from ThinkGeek. They melt in your mouth, not on your game table.