Hasta La Gadget!

TUCSON, Ariz. — Former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, Mark Kelly, talk about their continued push for gun regulation in the upcoming issue of Vogue magazine.

The couple has formed a political action committee in hopes of preventing gun violence and changing laws to require compulsory background checks for gun buyers. The PAC will also work to limit the size of ammo magazines and to ban the sale of assault weapons to civilians.

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KABUL, Afghanistan — The Afghan government on Wednesday welcomed President Barack Obama’s decision to bring home half of the 66,000 American troops in Afghanistan within the next year, and said its forces are ready to take responsibility for the country’s security.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has been pressing for a faster pace in the withdrawal of foreign combat troops from Afghanistan and agreed with Obama last month to accelerate the handover of security responsibilities to his country’s newly trained security forces to this spring – instead of late summer as originally planned.

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The MacBook Pro with Retina and 13-inch MacBook Air got some mid-cycle improvements under the hood today, with a new 2.6GHz processor for the 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro, new 2.4 and 2.7GHz processors for the 15-inch version, and 16GB of memory as a top-end spec on the larger Retina model. The MacBook’s 256GB version has a new lower price of $1399, and the 13-inch Retina now starts at $1499 and $1699 for the base and upgraded configurations respectively.

The 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display was at $1,699 and $1,999 respectively for its two stock considerations before today, and the higher-end model sported only a 2.5GHz processor before any user upgrades. So now you get a beefier process for $300 less. The new price points also mean that the entry-level 13-inch Retina is now at price parity with the top-end 13-inch non-Retina MacBook Pro, though you get a i7 processor at that price instead of an i5 as in the Retina. The 15-inch now has a faster 2.4GHz processor at the entry-level configuration for $2,199, and gets a new 2.7GHz quad-core processor at the top end, with 16GB of memory instead of 8GB for $2,799.

The 13-inch MacBook Air used to cost $1,499 before the price drop, but now keeps the same specs, including a 1.8GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor, 4GB of memory and a 256GB SSD, and gets a $100 discount to $1,399. Apple combining mid-cycle spec increases with price drops on a lot of its key models is a good way to shake up the market between major announcements, and it’s also well-timed to take some of the steam out of Microsoft’s Surface launch, which in not very likely to be a coincidence.

Apple has also updated its upgrade pricing on SSD storage, meaning you can add a lot more disk space to your Mac via custom configuration for a lot less. The 512GB upgrades get a $200 discount as part of this round of updates, and the huge 768GB drive is now $300 less than it used to be. That’s likely due to Apple arranging better prices from suppliers, something CEO Tim Cook alluded to during yesterday’s Goldman Sachs investor conference keynote speech.

As with any mid-cycle upgrade, some customers will likely be worried about what happens if they just ordered a new machine before these changes went into effect. But as always, Apple has its 14-day return and refund policy in place to make sure buyers who just took the plunge won’t be left in a lurch.

Apple has slashed the price of its MacBook Pro with Retina display notebooks, throwing in some updated specifications along the way. The tweaked 13-inch MBP with Retina now starts at $1,499, a $200 saving from the old price, while the newest 15-inch MBP with Retina gets a spec boost, and the 13-inch MacBook Air has also seen a price cut, down to $1,399 from $1,499 for the 256GB flash version.

As for the specification bump to the Retina-blessed MacBook Pro line-up, they see Intel’s latest processors slotted inside. The $1,699 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display kicks off with a 2.6GHz processor paired with 256GB of flash storage, for instance.

There are more changes for the 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display, with the entry-level model now getting a 2.4GHz quadcore processor instead of the 2.3GHz chip previously used. Its more expensive sibling now gets a 2.7GHz quadcore processor and 16GB of memory, up from the 2.6GHz and 8GB of RAM previously specified.

All of the new models are available to order from Apple’s online store, retail stores, and resellers from today, with customization options also available if you build-to-order online. More on the notebooks themselves in our 2012 reviews; you can find them in the timeline below.

Apple cuts MacBook Pro Retina and Air prices, boosts specs is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The gadget destroying geeks over at iFixit have laid their hands on the new Microsoft Surface Pro tablet and ripped it apart. Those of you wanting to see what the gooey insides of Microsoft’s new tablet look like, can check it out. There are surprisingly few parts inside of the tablet.

The idea behind this sort of gadget teardown is to see exactly how repairable the tablet would be if you had to fix something yourself. Unfortunately, for people who are buying the Surface Pro the answer to that repairability question is not very. Apparently, over 90 different screws hold the tablet together.

While that is certainly a lot of screws, those can be removed with the proper tools and time. What’s even more difficult to contend with is the copious amount of adhesive that holds various components together. Adding insult to injury is the fact that the gadget destroying crew says people who open the case are highly likely to damage a cable in the process due to the way the tablet is constructed.

What this all means is that the Surface Pro ends up with a repairability rating of only one out of 10. In other words, this tablet is pretty much not repairable. The moral of the story is be very careful with your Surface Pro because if you break it odds are you won’t be getting it fixed.

[via Engadget]

iFixit guts the Microsoft Surface Pro is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.