Hasta La Gadget!

We did it folks – we made it through another election, which means that we finally get a break from those endless political ads. It won’t be long before those ads are playing all over the place again, so savor the moment while you can. We found out today that President Obama set Twitter records with that a tweet that was shared more 600,000 times, and Apple was hit with a hefty fine in a case over patents related to FaceTime. Foxconn is saying that it’s still having issues keeping up with iPhone 5 production, and Pixar has named a new building after Steve Jobs.

We had a couple of quarterly reports land this afternoon, with both Activision and Qualcomm looking great as they charge into Q4 2012. Apple executive Eddy Cue has joined Ferrari’s board of directors, while AT&T is putting up a whopping $14 billion to boost its LTE and U-Verse services. There were rumors of an iPad Mini 2 with Retina Display floating around today, and ZTE was spotted teasing a new Windows Phone 8 device with a massive 5.9-inch screen.

Gearbox has squashed a nasty exploit in Borderlands 2 with a new patch, and we learned that Kim Dotcom’s new website has been killed before it even got off the ground. AT&T has revealed off-contract pricing for the Nokia Lumia 920 and 820, and Time Warner Cable is trying to lure new customers in by giving away free Xbox 360s. We got to see Nintendo President Satoru Iwata unbox the Wii U, found out which features will be on the Wii U from launch day, and were even told that the Wii U will allow for 12 user accounts per console.

Verizon is waiving voice and text fees for those who were hit hard by Hurricane Sandy, and Microsoft has released its SkyDrive app for Windows Phone 8. A new Sandvine report gives us an idea of just how popular Netflix is in North America, and Yahoo has hired a former National Geographic photographer to head up Flickr. A*STAR has revealed a new hybrid disk drive that’s only 5mm-thick, and DC Comics are now available digitally through iOS, Kindle, and NOOK devices.

Finally tonight, Don Reisinger asks if Apple actually helps its competitors, we take a closer look at Qualcomm Halo, and Chris Davis gives us his review of the Phillips hue lightbulb. That does it for tonight’s edition of the Evening Wrap-Up, enjoy the rest of your night everyone!

SlashGear Evening Wrap-Up: November 7, 2012 is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

It would appear that the iPad mini isn’t living up to the expectations of the folks over at DisplayMate where they’ve got their eye on the traditions of Apple in the very recent past with the iPad mini. DisplayMate made it clear this week that they felt that Apple was breaking their tradition of bringing “the best display, or at least a great display” to the market, saying that instead the iPad mini has “just a very capable display.”

In tests up against the Google Nexus 7 and the Amazon Kindle Fire HD, Dr. Raymond Soneira of DisplayMate found that Apple’s competitors provided sharper displays, making it clear that they, “both have considerably sharper displays with 216 Pixels Per Inch, and they both delivered considerably sharper text.” Also tested where color gamuts, with the iPad mini coming up with a 62 percent.

Both the Nexus 7 and the Kindle Fire HD have 86 percent color gamut while the iPad 3rd gen and the iPhone 5 have 100 percent color gamut. The iPad mini reflected 53 percent more ambient light than the Nexus 7 in these tests and 41 percent more light than the Kindle Fire HD. Color management processing, on the other hand, was found to be far above average on the iPad mini, this bringing high picture quality and accurate color reproduction across the board.

The iPad mini’s display resolution was up for discussion as far as cost goes – with DisplayMate noting that a retina display, 326-pixel per inch pixel density, would have cost a prohibitive amount given current yields in the industry. Apple’s traditional use of 1,024 by 768 pixel and 2,048 by 1,536 pixel resolutions meant that 163ppi was required with the iPad mini if it wanted to keep with the screen size and work with all legacy apps.

Of course that’s the real key for Apple – have a peek at our column Smart device specs are over, long live the ecosystem to see why it might not matter that the iPad mini has less sharpness in the end.

iPad mini said to break tradition with less than “great display” by DisplayMate is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Three months is a long time in tablet-land, it seems. Since we last brought you a buyer’s guide, a few things have changed. In fact, this is probably the biggest shake-up yet, with not only the long-rumored iPad mini making an appearance, but also new offerings from two other big guns — Microsoft and Google. Oh, and that means there’s a whole new species of device altogether. With Windows RT finally shipping, there’s new hardware to go with it, and we expect to see more popping up on the list in the months to come. This is all good news for you prospective tablet owners, as more competition can only mean more choice. With more options, though, comes more confusion. That’s where we come in, armed with a few notable picks. Read on to find out what made the cut this season.

Continue reading Engadget’s tablet buyer’s guide: fall 2012 edition

Filed under: Tablets, Apple, Samsung, Microsoft, ASUS, Google

Engadget’s tablet buyer’s guide: fall 2012 edition originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 05 Nov 2012 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Not to be outdone with Samsung’s 3 million Galaxy Note 2 sales in a two-month period, Apple released a statement today saying that it has sold 3 million iPads in just three days following the global debut of the iPad mini and the iPad 4 last week. This means that Apple was able to double its previous first weekend record of 1.5 million iPad 3 (Wi-Fi only) sales in March this year. Although Apple CEO Tim Cook says that all iPad minis were practically sold out, we’re wondering just how many iPad minis were sold.

Last week, during the official debut of the iPad mini and the iPad 4 in the U.S. and in 33 other countries, it was reported that the overall response was underwhelming compared to previous product launches. Nevertheless, in spite of the doubts, Apple has managed to handle everything by announcing the combined sales of the iPad mini and the iPad 4 today. “Customers around the world love the new iPad mini and fourth generation iPad,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We set a new launch weekend record and practically sold out of iPad minis. We’re working hard to build more quickly to meet the incredible demand.”

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: iPad mini revealed, Don’t buy an iPad 3 today unless you like the old 30-pin connector,

Apple sold three million iPad mini and iPad fourth-gen with Retina display models in the first weekend of availability, the company has confirmed, with the smaller tablet nearly selling out of initial stock. “We set a new launch weekend record and practically sold out of iPad minis” Apple CEO Tim Cook said today of the sales stats. “We’re working hard to build more quickly to meet the incredible demand.”

The 3m figure is double that of the last ”first weekend milestone” set in March this year, when Apple launched the third-gen iPad with Retina display. Then, the company sold 1.5 million WiFi-only models in that first three day period.

Apple isn’t breaking down exactly what proportion of the 3m was iPad mini and what was iPad 4, and it’s unlikely to give any specific sales numbers any time soon. The company generally clumps together its individual iOS lines – iPhone and iPad – in its financial results.

Analysts had been mixed in their predictions for iPad mini sales. Although a smaller iPad had been much-anticipated, Apple’s decision to price the WiFi-only model from $329 met with some surprise given rival Android slates of a similar size come in at under the $200 mark.

Nonetheless, some predictions pegged iPad mini sales along at 1.5m in the opening three days, though those numbers looked a little shaky what with minimal queues outside Apple stores.

You can find everything you need to know on the iPad mini in our full review, and on the iPad 4 in our review of the larger tablet.

Apple sells 3m new iPads in opening weekend is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.