Hasta La Gadget!

Not much more to tell you that you didn’t already pick up from the headline. Acer CEO Gianfranco Lanci told Dow Jones Newswire that it will be launching its first line of tablet PCs in New York City on November 23rd, priced from $299 to $699 each. That’s all the man said, leaving us to speculate on the OS (though Android’s been heavily rumored) and whether we’re looking at the launch of an Acer 5-, 7-, or 10-inch tablet (or all of the above) priced with or without carrier subsidies. Still, with Android Gingerbread already on the lawn of the house that Google built we can expect to see a whole slew of Google sanctioned tablets launch before CES 2011 gets underway in January.

Acer tablet PC line launching on November 23rd, priced from $299 to $699 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Oct 2010 07:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oh dear, you missed it? Don’t fret, we’ve got links for you. So many links. Apple was short on surprises at its intimate “Back to the Mac” event today, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t some interesting nuggets. Mac OS X Lion and MacBook Air lead the pack, but we find it’s the little things that count, and they count even more in bullet point form. It’s science!

The liveblog

• Live from Apple’s ‘Back to the Mac’ event

Hands-on coverage

• MacBook Air (11.6-inch) first hands-on!
• MacBook Air (13-inch) first hands-on!
• MacBook Air: all substance, no Flash
• FaceTime for Mac hands-on: it works, it’s rough
• New MacBook Airs come with Software Reinstall USB drive

Product announcements

• Mac App Store for OS X 10.6 and 10.7 unveiled, coming ‘within 90 days’
• Mac OS X 10.7 Lion announced, coming summer 2011
• FaceTime coming to OS X, beta available today
• Apple announces iLife ’11, $49 upgrade or free with every new Mac, available today
• Apple introduces 11.6-inch MacBook Air, available today for $999
• Apple’s new MacBook Air (update: video)

Apple’s ‘Back to the Mac’ event roundup originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 20 Oct 2010 22:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple asked itself what would happen if an iPad and a MacBook Air “hooked up.” Benefits from the iPad? “Instant on… great battery life, amazing standby time… solid state storage… and it’s thinner and lighter.” It’s 0.68-inches thick at its thickest, 0.11-inches at its thinnest, and weighs 2.9 pounds (the old MacBook Air was 0.76-inches thick and weighed 3 pounds). Naturally, Apple is going unibody construction here, with one of those big new glass trackpads. They’re also sticking with a 13.3-inch screen, running at a 1440 x 900 resolution (with an 11.6-inch “little brother” to boot). There’s SSD storage, a 1.86GHz or 2.13GHz Core 2 Duo processor (the same ones available on existing MacBook Airs, apparently), GeForce 320m graphics, and 2GB of RAM standard. Apple says its new “more stringent” battery life tests offer 7 hours of “wireless web” and 30 days of “standby.” Prices start at $1,299 for 128GB and $1,599 for 256GB of storage; they’re available today.

Be sure to check out our complete live coverage right here!

Continue reading Apple’s new MacBook Air (update: video)

Apple’s new MacBook Air (update: video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 20 Oct 2010 14:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There you have it. Shockingly enough, iMovie, iPhoto, and GarageBand have all been modernized sufficiently to merit having their names appended with ’11. iPhoto ’11 is taking the early demo lead in the live event, with hot new slideshow themes. Gee, Steve, you’re building it up nice and slow, huh? There are added Facebook and email sharing enhancements and new full screen modes that make it look a lot like … an iPad app.

iMovie ’11 will freshen up the audio editing options (finally!) and add “one step effects,” a People Finder that identifies individuals in movie clips, and an apparently effortless movie trailer maker. Intriguing. The audio tweaks include per-segment sound levels adjustments as well as easy fade sliders, there are also additional new audio effects for people to play around with. 24fps video editing and output is now supported, allowing you to export more film-like trailers using the templates thrown into this new software. Good news on the upload front too, as direct sharing to Facebook and Vimeo has also been added.

Apple is adding FlexTime, Groove Matching, more guitar and amp effects, new piano and guitar lessons, and finally a “How Did I Play” feature to GarageBand ’11. Groove Matching can be summarized with a quote from the Cupertino crew’s Xander Soren: “it’s like an automatic spellchecker for bad rhythm.” As to “How Did I Play,” that’s a mixture of post-play analysis and a Rock Band-like live note monitor, which highlights in green the notes you strike correctly or in red the ones you miss. It works with both the guitar and piano.

iLife ’11 is available today, as a free extra on new Macs or as a $49 upgrade on differently new Apple machines. Full press release is now embedded after the break.

Continue reading Apple announces iLife ’11, $49 upgrade or free with every new Mac, available today

Apple announces iLife ’11, $49 upgrade or free with every new Mac, available today originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 20 Oct 2010 12:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Can you believe it’s almost been a year since the Nook was announced? The reader was first shown to the public on October 20th last year, and started shipping to the public in limited quantities in December. We don’t know if Barnes & Noble is planning a follow-up just yet, but this mysterious invite we just got in the ol’ email inbox might hint at such an occasion. Last year’s event in NY was at a much larger venue, while this year B&N is hoping to cram people into its Union Square store in the area it typically hosts authors for book readings — that could be a hint at something less impressive, or maybe they just wanted to cut costs. Maybe Chairman Leonard Riggio is going to read a book to us! Hopefully it’s a little more exciting than that, and we’ll be sure to tell you all about it either way.

Barnes & Noble holding a ‘very special event’ next week originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Oct 2010 17:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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