Engadget’s back to school guide: Laptop bags

Welcome to Engadget’s Back to School guide! We know that this time of year can be pretty annoying and stressful for everyone, so we’re here to help out with the heartbreaking process of gadget buying for the school-aged crowd. Today, we have laptop bags in our sights — and you can head to the Back to School hub to see the rest of the product guides as they’re added throughout the month.

By now you should have had enough time to decide what on our laptop buying guide takes your fancy, but, as Apple will tell you, the protective case is sometimes as important as the precious hardware itself. You’ll notice that this year we have a good number of bags that include padded camera sections as well — to the point of perhaps being described as camera bags with laptop compartments — but we feel that’s justified by the massive proliferation of DSLRs into the mainstream market. Entry-level interchangeable lens shooters have grown cheap enough even for non-photography students to consider owning one, but we can think of no good reason why they should require a separate bag of their own. So, on with the recommendations.

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Engadget’s back to school guide: Laptop bags originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Aug 2010 14:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dell’s Q2 2010 sees 16 percent increase in net income, flat revenue from Consumer unit

First with HP, and now with Dell. The PC maker (and occasional phone dabbler) posted its second quarter fiscal 2010 report, which actually gives a good perspective on the relative position of each company in the global PC market. Whereas the House that Hurd once ran reported a $30.7 billion revenue and $2.3 billion operating profit, Dell posted $15.5 billion (up 22 percent) in revenue and $745 million operating income. Like we said earlier, operating income shouldn’t be confused with net income, which deducts those massive corporate taxes. Looking at net, the company profited $545 million, up an impressive 16 percent year-over-year. Focusing on the Consumer unit, revenue was flat at $2.9 billion, while at the same time operating income incurred a $21 million loss. According to the press release, the company “remains confident that initiatives underway will improve operating margins for the segment.” Is all this enough to quell irate shareholders? Chances are slim, but hey, it’s a start.

Dell’s Q2 2010 sees 16 percent increase in net income, flat revenue from Consumer unit originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 Aug 2010 18:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HP reports Q3 2010 earnings, posts $2.3 billion operating profit

And to think — that $2.3 billion figure might have been a few million higher if not for the absurd Golden Parachute that Mark Hurd will continue to float on for centuries to come. All jesting aside, HP published its Q3 2010 financials today, reporting a healthy $2.3b in operating profit (not to be confused with net income, which deducts those massive corporate taxes) and a five percent increase year-over-year. All told, third quarter revenue was listed at $30.7 billion (an 11.4 percent uptick from last year), with a “record” amount of services signings. Interestingly, a whopping 63 percent of total HP revenue came from outside of America, though we’re struggling to find any specific mentions of Hurd or Palm in the release (embedded after the break). We’ll be checking in on the press call shortly — we’ll let you know if anything crazy goes down.

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HP reports Q3 2010 earnings, posts $2.3 billion operating profit originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 Aug 2010 16:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Engadget’s back to school guide: Mobile phones

Welcome to Engadget’s Back to School guide! We know that this time of year can be pretty annoying and stressful for everyone, so we’re here to help out with the heartbreaking process of gadget buying for the school-aged crowd. Today, we have mobile phones in our sights — and you can head to the Back to School hub to see the rest of the product guides as they’re added throughout the month.

Back in our day, the only “mobile phone” at school was the one that broke off the dorm wall after our roommates got a little too rowdy, but nowadays, a capable, high-power handset is quickly becoming a must-have for students of all ages. Regardless of your budget, your parent’s budget, or your little one’s budget, we’ve got options that should help with studying, gaming, music, and maybe even the occasional call home.

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Engadget’s back to school guide: Mobile phones originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 Aug 2010 14:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Engadget’s back to school guide: E-readers

Welcome to Engadget’s Back to School guide! We know that this time of year can be pretty annoying and stressful for everyone, so we’re here to help out with the heartbreaking process of gadget buying for the school-aged crowd. Today, we have e-readers in our sights — and you can head to the Back to School hub to see the rest of the product guides as they’re added throughout the month.

Engadget's back to school guide: E-readers
Yes, it’s the next round of buying advice for those of you condemned to start hitting the books at the end of the summer. But, with one of these e-readers, you might just have fewer books to hit — or at least lighter ones. Sadly most schools are still dependent on texts of the pulpy variety, but that doesn’t mean an e-reader can’t make your life a lot easier at school, and possibly even save you some money if you’re reading the classics.

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Engadget’s back to school guide: E-readers originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 13 Aug 2010 13:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony circles August 24 for all-new Alpha DSLR launch event

News has been a bit barren on the DSLR front lately (not counting Pentax’s color explosion earlier on), but that’s not going to last for much longer. Sony is starting up the fall refresh cycle with “never-before-seen” Alpha models, which will be shown off at an event on August 24 alongside the NEX-VG10 and some 3D-capable Cyber-shots. We’ve no way of knowing what’s in store, but if you’re in a speculative kind of mood, Sony Alpha Rumors suggests the new shooters will include a semi-transparent mirror (most intriguing!) and a pleasingly fast 10fps burst shooting mode. That’s enough to whet our appetite, now bring on the full dish of details already.

[Thanks, Dario]

Sony circles August 24 for all-new Alpha DSLR launch event originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 13 Aug 2010 09:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HTC schedules September 15 event, leaves us guessing as to what it’s launching

Time to get our guessing caps on as HTC has announced it’ll be hosting a little shindig in London in the middle of next month. No advance information is available beyond the smoky teaser image above, leaving the door wide open for speculation. Given the event’s proximity to Windows Phone 7’s launch and the recent spate of leaks, this could easily be the date and place that HTC makes its wares official. Or, on a more tenuous tangent, if you put the smoke and “dreamt up” notes together, you could perhaps surmise that this is going to be the launch for the HTC Vision, which has most recently been referred to as the G1 Blaze. All we know for sure is that we’ll be there when the fog of war is lifted.

P.S. – We’ve enhanced the image to reveal the hint of a handset hidden inside the smoke, you can see it after the break. It looks an awful lot like the back of the Desire HD, but HTC is well known for repeating design themes across its phone portfolio, so let’s not jump to any conclusions just yet.

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HTC schedules September 15 event, leaves us guessing as to what it’s launching originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 13 Aug 2010 06:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Gartner and IDC agree: the Android invasion’s accelerating around the world

Last quarter we reported on some pretty stellar growth numbers for Android in the global smartphone marketplace. Back then, Google’s OS had a 9.6 percent slice of the pie, but today that’s ballooned to a robust 17.2 percent, meaning that in terms of end-user sales over the last three months, Android has nearly matched RIM’s BlackBerry sales. That’s quite the feat when you consider that a year ago the latter was shifting ten times more units than the former. This extraordinary growth rate has narrowed down Symbian’s lead at the top, in spite of Nokia’s favorite OS actually shipping on more phones this year, while the big loser of the quarter has to be Windows Mobile, which contracted both in terms of market share and actual shipments.

Overall, smartphone sales were up by 50 percent year-on-year, according to both Gartner and IDC, while Gartner adds that mobile devices as a whole grew at a tamer 13.3 percent pace. In terms of phone manufacturers’ global share, Nokia and Samsung have held on to their top positions, LG, Sony Ericsson and Motorola have experienced some uncomfortable shrinkage, and HTC, RIM and Apple have capitalized to expand their portions. Looking over to IDC’s smartphone share data shows, again, that all smartphone makers are growing remarkably well, but it does highlight HTC (129 percent) and Samsung (173 percent) as really improving their presence in the sector. The reason? Android, Android, Android.

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Gartner and IDC agree: the Android invasion’s accelerating around the world originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 Aug 2010 07:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Engadget’s back to school guide: docks and alarms

Welcome to Engadget’s Back to School guide! We know that this time of year can be pretty annoying and stressful for everyone, so we’re here to help out with the heartbreaking process of gadget buying for the school-aged crowd. Today, we’ve got docks and alarms in our sights — and you can head to the Back to School hub to see the rest of the product guides as they’re added throughout the month. Be sure to keep checking back — at the end of the month we’ll be giving away a ton of the gear featured in our guides.

Whether you’re simply looking for something to put on your bedside table or considering an iPod dock to replace a bulky stereo, you now have more devices than ever to choose from, which can be a tad overwhelming if you’re trying to stay on budget and still get something decent. As usual, however, we’re here to help, and have rounded up a range of docks and alarms that should more than satisfy at any price point.

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Engadget’s back to school guide: docks and alarms originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Aug 2010 14:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Bill Gates expects the web to be the best single source of education within 5 years

Bill Gates just might be the world’s most famous college dropout (sorry, Kanye), but lest you think he’s changed his mind about the educational establishment, he’s got a few words of reassurance for you. As the closing speaker of the Techonomy 2010 conference, Bill dished out his vision of how learning will evolve over the next few years, stating his belief that no single university will be able to match the internet when it comes to providing the learning resources a student needs. Describing traditional studies as “place-based” and inefficient, he forecasts that university education will become five times less important within five years, with online lecture sources picking up the reins of enlightening our youth. In other news, Bill’s pen-based tablet PC idea is going great!

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Bill Gates expects the web to be the best single source of education within 5 years originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 09 Aug 2010 05:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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