Hasta La Gadget!

Look down the aisles at any Apple launch event, across the laps of dozens of journalists liveblogging or in some other way documenting the goings-on, and it’s inevitable that you’ll see MacBooks. A lot of MacBooks. And, since many of those laps are irrevocably linked to owners who spend their days jetting around the globe to other companies’ events, those laptops are quite often the travel-friendly MacBook Air. So, while we were excited to see a thinner, lighter 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display unveiled earlier this year, many of us were left asking one question: “Where’s the 13-inch version?”

Now, a little over four months later, here it is. Why the wait from one to the next? That’s for Apple to know and us to speculate about (supply chain concerns? engineering issues?), but the important thing is that it’s available now and it is, in many ways, an uncompromised, slightly smaller rendition of the 15-inch version that came before. It’s thinner and it’s lighter than the current 13-inch Pro but promises better internals and the same battery life as the 13-inch Air. Perfect portions of portability and performance? Let’s find out.

Continue reading MacBook Pro with Retina display review (13-inch, late 2012)

Filed under: Laptops, Apple

MacBook Pro with Retina display review (13-inch, late 2012) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 29 Oct 2012 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Who said Apple’s event was all about the little things? Apple just unveiled its first redesign to its iMac desktop in three years. The new all-in-one makes the widely expected leap to Intel’s Ivy Bridge Core i5 and Core i7 processors, but also represents a much leaner and meaner replacement for the 2009-era template — its edges are just 5mm thick, and it’s constructed with “friction stir welding” as well as a gapless, less reflective display that’s laminated together with the glass. Screen sizes remain the same and include both a 21.5-inch, 1080p model and a 27-inch, 2,560 x 1,400 model — sorry, no Retina displays this year. They share 720p-capable front cameras with dual mics as well as NVIDIA’s GeForce 600-era graphics, up to 32GB of RAM and a panoply of storage options that peak at 3TB of spinning storage, a 768GB SSD or what Apple calls a Fusion Drive that mixes both 128GB of flash with 1TB or 3TB of conventional storage (a hybrid drive, for those of us who’ve seen it before). There’s no optical drive unless you plug in a USB option.

The 21.5-inch model ships in November, and will set you back $1,299 for a 2.7GHz Core i5, 8GB of RAM and a 1TB hard drive; pony up for the 27-inch model at $1,799 and you’ll get a 2.9GHz Core i5 as well as the same memory and storage. Apple’s larger iMac doesn’t ship until December, however, which will give some impulse buyers at least a brief respite.

For more coverage, visit our Apple Special Event hub!

Continue reading Apple unveils next-generation iMac with slimmer design and Ivy Bridge, starting at $1,299

Filed under: Desktops, Apple

Apple unveils next-generation iMac with slimmer design and Ivy Bridge, starting at $1,299 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Oct 2012 13:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

We’re not going to beat around the bush here: this is one of the most exciting contests we’ve hosted in a long, long time, and you’ll definitely want to enter. Our friends at Atari were kind enough to give us an extremely limited-edition (there are only two in existence) Atari 2600 gutted with modern PC components and signed by Atari founder Nolan Bushnell — and one lucky soul will be able to call this beauty their very own! The gaming company is doing this to promote the 35th anniversary of the 2600’s original release, as well as its latest creation, arcade.atari.com, which is an HTML5-driven, multitouch-supported hub that lets you play eight classic Atari games online (including Pong and Centipede). Not only that, the team — consisting of Atari and the Internet Explorer team — put together an SDK to help you build your own games on the classic platform. After you enter to win (all you have to do is leave a comment below), make sure you head over to the Arcade to spend countless more hours in the land of nostalgia.

Note: For bragging rights, feel free to post your high score as your comment entry.

Continue reading Engadget Giveaway: win an exclusive Atari 2600 with PC components!

Filed under: Announcements, HD, Mobile, Microsoft

Engadget Giveaway: win an exclusive Atari 2600 with PC components! originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Oct 2012 11:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Keep lurking long enough and you’ll find the unexpected. Even at MobileCon 2012. Exhibit A: the Kupa UltraNote modular tablet running Windows 8. This 0.6-inch (15mm) thick slate is powered by an Intel Core i7 processor (Ivy Bridge) with 4GB of DDR3 RAM and a 64GB SSD. It features a 10.1-inch 1920 x 1200-pixel IPS display with a ten-point capacitive multitouch layer and a Wacom-like digitizer for pen input. Other amenities include WiFi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0 and 3G/4G (LTE) radios along with dual cameras (2MP in front, 5MP in back), NFC and a fingerprint reader. There’s a SIM slot, headphone jack, mini HDMI output and two USB 3.0 ports on the right side of the device, plus a proprietary power / docking connector on the bottom edge. A 45Wh slide-out Li-Ion battery is located on the left side.

While the specs are pretty much what you’d expect from a decent Windows 8 tablet, it’s the modular design that makes Kupa UltraNote unique. There’s an Asus Transformer-like keyboard dock which boasts an additional battery, power jack, SD card slot, Ethernet connector, VGA output and two USB 3.0 ports. Accessories such as credit card reader can be attached the left or right edge of the slate thanks to a built-in latch mechanism. It’s clear that the company is targeting the enterprise and vertical markets and even positioning itself as an ODM. We spent a few minutes with the device and were impressed with how lightweight it was (760g / 1.67 lbs). Build quality, however, left a lot to be desired, even for a prototype. Still, overall performance was solid, both in terms of speed and responsiveness.

There’s no word yet on pricing and availability, but take a look at our gallery and be sure to peek after the break for our hands-on video.

Brad Molen contributed to this report.

Continue reading Kupa UltraNote Windows 8 modular tablet hands-on (video)

Filed under: Laptops, Tablets

Kupa UltraNote Windows 8 modular tablet hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Oct 2012 20:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Windows 8 is coming folks, and so is an onslaught of new machines featuring Microsoft’s something-for-everyone OS. Dell already showed us some of its fresh consumer Win8 hardware back at IFA 2012, and now it’s the enterprise’s turn to shine. First up is the Latitude 10 tablet, which packs an Intel Atom SoC, a 10.1-inch IPS 1366 x 768 LCD display covered in Gorilla Glass, 8-megapixel primary camera plus an HD front-facing shooter. It’s got 2GB of RAM and up to 128GB of eMMC NAND storage, plus an SD card slot should the integrated storage prove insufficient. Connectivity comes via one full-size USB 2.0 port, a microUSB charging socket, mini-HDMI, a headphone/microphone combo jack, proprietary docking port and a micro-SIM slot for WWAN use. The Latitude 10 packs up to a 60Wh battery, which isn’t remarkable in and of itself, but the fact that it’s removable is. That means road warriors can travel with a spare cell or two to keep their slate in the juice no matter how long they work on it. While the swappable battery can keep the 10 from being tethered to an outlet, the dock Dell built for it ensures it’ll have a stylish place to rest when it is. The dock expands the slate’s connectivity with four USB 2.0 sockets, Gigabit Ethernet, HDMI and audio output.

Next is the Optiplex 9010 all-in-one desktop we saw earlier this year. It still has the same 23-inch, 1920 x 1080 panel on the front and vPro-equipped Ivy Bridge silicon lurking beneath — the only change is the upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 8. The Latitude 6430u is an addition to Dell’s venerable business laptop line, and is the first to bear the Ultrabook moniker. It’s generous to label the 6430u as such, as it’s .82 inches thick and weighs 3.7 lbs, but it’s still a fairly thin and light laptop — plus it has the same solid magnesium chassis construction as its Latitude brethren. The 6430u crams a 14-inch, 1366 x 768 matte display into its 13.3-inch chassis, and users have the option of Ivy Bridge Core i3, i5 and i7 silicon with vPro, up to 8GB of RAM and up to 256GB worth of solid state storage. Naturally, there’s 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth and mobile broadband available for wireless connectivity. Unfortunately, we can’t tell you how much Dell’s new business computers will cost, but we do know that they’ll be available when Windows 8 is, which is to say late October.

Continue reading Dell’s Latitude 10 tablet and dock, OptiPlex 9010 AIO, Latitude 6430u laptop arrive to tempt business pros

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops, Tablets

Dell’s Latitude 10 tablet and dock, OptiPlex 9010 AIO, Latitude 6430u laptop arrive to tempt business pros originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Sep 2012 07:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments