Hasta La Gadget!

Until now, I had conveniently forgotten that I collected Magic Cards. Not just collected, mind you, but hoarded — a feverish obsession harking back to an earlier yen for stickers, pogs, and Happy Meals. While some kids played Truth or Dare in the back of the bus to I.S. 228, I kept my collection at the ready, wrapped with care in a rubber band. I’m not sure who I intended to show them to, save for a handful of guys who used to stake out a row in the front, but if I happened to have something good, I wanted to brag a little. At thirteen, I challenged a certain boy to a game, thinking that was all the hint I needed to drop. He beat me handily, and I never admitted my crush.

Let’s just say I’ve evolved since then. I remember as little about mana as Peter Pan did about owning Rufio in a dissing contest. I seem to have kicked my shyness habit — so much so that my coworkers have taken to calling me “Brass Knuckles.” And while I haven’t had to suffer dating for awhile, I like to think I’ve stepped up my game.

Continue reading Growing Up Geek: Dana Wollman

Growing Up Geek: Dana Wollman originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Aug 2011 14:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Why look at this! Samsung’s very own Galaxy Tab 10.1 decided to stop by in Beijing to greet Dell’s latest tablet. As mentioned in our hands-on post, it’s clear that the Streak 10 Pro would need to go on a little diet to match the Korean tablet’s lovely figure and weight, though the latter won’t be released in the country until some time next month. Also, there’s no doubt that Sammy will continue to ask for a premium price in exchange for the better display and portability, so our wallets will be the final judge. For now, just enjoy our quick and dirty comparison photos in the gallery below. You’re welcome.

Update: It appears that some of our readers are missing the point: the 16GB WiFi Galaxy Tab 10.1 is being sold for $499 in the US, and it’ll most likely be more expensive in China; whereas the Streak 10 Pro is priced at just ¥2,999 ($465). So again, you get what you pay for.

Dell Streak 10 Pro vs. Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1… fight! originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Jul 2011 01:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sure, it’s not unusual for gadgets to miss their shipping targets, suffering months-long delays as they jump through the varies hoops necessary before a release. Fortunately, ASUS can now check FCC approval off the Eee Pad Slider’s to do list, with the Honeycomb QWERTY tablet receiving a green light from the feds late last week. ASUS has already confirmed August availability in the UK (after previously promising a May ship date), so we can only hope that the same timeframe applies stateside as well. We’re also curious to see whether or not ASUS was able to use this unexpected delay to beef up supplies, so the Slide doesn’t suffer a hangup similar to that of its Transformer cousin. The company has yet to confirm Slider pricing in the U.S., though we imagine those details will be revealed along with a shipping date within the next few weeks.

ASUS Eee Pad SL101 slides through the FCC, still misses promised May release originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Jul 2011 13:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Never one to shy away from dramatic hyperbole, Steve Jobs declared ours a “post-PC world” about this time last year, acknowledging a move away from personal computers as smartphones and tablets become even more ubiquitous. And while Jobs might happily look on as iPhones and iPads become our primarily tie to the outside world, the question remains: what happens to the PC during this grand transition? To a large extent, the answer lies in the OS, which brings us to OS X Lion. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to post-PC computing.

In typically grandiose fashion, the company has declared OS X 10.7 “the world’s most advanced desktop operating system,” touting the addition of over 250 new features. The list is pretty uneven on the game-changing scale, with updates running the gamut from Airdrop (file-sharing over WiFi) to a full-screen version of the bundled chess game. If there’s one thing tying it all together, though, it’s something that Jobs touched on when he first unveiled the OS back in October: the unmistakable influence of iOS. Now it’s true, we already got a taste of that with gesture-based trackpads and the Mac App Store, but those were merely glimpses of things to come. Apple borrows so heavily from iOS that at times, cycling through features makes the whole thing feel like you’re merely operating an iPad with a keyboard attached.

There are plenty of welcome additions here, including aesthetic tweaks and attention to mounting privacy concerns. Like Snow Leopard before it, however, Lion is hardly an explosive upgrade. And like Snow Leopard, it comes in at a reasonable $29 (or a decidedly more pricey $69 as an upcoming flash drive install), making it a worthy upgrade for current Mac owners. But does a boatload of evolutionary features add up to a revolutionary upgrade? Let’s find out.

Continue reading Apple OS X Lion (10.7) review

Apple OS X Lion (10.7) review originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 20 Jul 2011 17:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Nintendo 3DS may be suffering from a slight lack of hot games at the moment, but thanks to a little update it is certainly not suffering from a lack of great movies and TV shows to watch. The Netflix addition that Nintendo promised us back in the summer is now up for download, and download is just what we did. If you’re wondering just how Instant content looks on the small screen, click on through and find out.

Continue reading Netflix on Nintendo 3DS hands-on (video)

Netflix on Nintendo 3DS hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 Jul 2011 14:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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