Hasta La Gadget!

Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer might be working overtime to keep Apple at bay, but the PC market that his company largely built is hurting, if you ask researchers at Gartner and IDC. Both estimate that shipments of traditional computers dropped by a tenth of a point in the second quarter of 2012 — not a good sign when Intel’s Ivy Bridge processors and a wave of Ultrabooks were supposed to usher in a PC renaissance. While the exact numbers vary, the two paint a partly familiar picture of the world stage: HP and Dell are taking a bruising, while ASUS and Lenovo are making huge leaps forward. Depending on who you ask, though, Acer is either kicking Dell down to fourth place or occupying that all too comfortable spot itself. The economy and tablets are once again blamed for making would-be PC upgraders jittery, although this time it may also be the wait for Windows 8 leading some to hold off.

If there’s a point of contention, it’s the US figures. Gartner and IDC alike agree that Acer, Dell and HP all took a drubbing. The two analyst groups are at odds with each other when it comes to everyone else, though. Apple will have gained market share to as much as 12 percent, but either increased or shrank its shipments; it’s Lenovo or Toshiba completing the top five outside of the usual suspects. Accordingly, take results with a grain of salt until all the PC builders have reported in. Nonetheless, if the groups have the same reasonable level of precision as they’ve had in the past, Microsoft may have to defer its ambitions for a little while longer.

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops, Tablet PCs

IDC and Gartner: PC market flattened out in Q2 while Apple, ASUS and Lenovo remain the stars originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 Jul 2012 02:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple is well-known for wanting a close spread in hardware requirements with OS X upgrades, having dropped PowerPC like a hot potato when Snow Leopard arrived just three years after the Intel switch. Whether or not you’re a fan of that policy, it’s certainly carrying forward with Mountain Lion. When the newly-finished OS hits the Mac App Store, it will rule out the very first wave of 64-bit Macs: certain MacBook Pros, Mac Pros and other early systems will be denied a taste of 10.8. Some sleuthing from Ars Technica suggests that it’s a matter of graphics drivers rather than capriciousness on Apple’s part, as the Macs excluded from the mix are using 32-bit drivers that won’t play nicely with Mountain Lion’s 64-bit Utopia short of a wide-scale conversion effort. It’s little consolation to those who dropped a pretty penny on certain Macs just a few years ago. That said, Apple is still going the extra mile to support some systems — if you’re reading this on an original aluminum iMac, you’re sitting pretty.

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops, Software

Apple sunsets a few 64-bit Macs with Mountain Lion, video drivers likely the culprit originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Jul 2012 11:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Despite the added risk brought on by Apple’s Find My iPhone feature, the iOS handset remains a frequent target for smartphone thieves, thanks to the device’s resale value and compatibility with networks around the world. There’s not much you can do to deter sticky fingers short of keeping your iPhone or MacBook in view at all times, but the issue does appear to have crossed the desks of Apple’s design team, which was just granted patent number 8,217,792 for a sophisticated anti-theft scheme. The acceleration-based system would detect a “known theft condition” based on acceleration characteristics, sounding an alarm and disabling the device. The smartphone or laptop would ignore vibrations from passing cars or those caused by items being dropped onto a nearby surface, instead focusing on undisclosed scenarios that likely involve direct movement. The device owner would use a GUI to configure and disable the system, at which point the handset or computer would return to its pre-disturbed mode. Overall, it sounds like a fairly straightforward hardware/software solution, with the added benefit of a technique to filter out regular motion in an attempt to reduce the number of false alarms. You’ll find the full patent at the source link below.

Filed under: Cellphones, Laptops

Apple granted patent for accelerometer-aided theft-detection system originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Jul 2012 15:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Until recently, Sony’s name has been conspicuously absent on the ever-growing list of Ultrabook makers. Sure, we’ve known about the VAIO T series since CES, when the company teased an unnamed notebook behind glass, but it didn’t get its official reveal until May, when it hit the European market — with last-generation Sandy Bridge processors. That’s no way to make a splash when Ivy Bridge CPUs are now de rigueur for Ultrabooks and mainstream laptops alike.

Luckily, Sony got things right on the US side, releasing the 13-inch VAIO T13 with Ivy Bridge processors in tow. Other than those new chips, the Ultrabook features identical specs to the European model, not to mention the same brushed silver aluminum design. And while the brand is in for a serious game of catchup as it enters an already-crowded market, its VAIO T is priced to compete at $770. Let’s welcome Sony to the Ultrabook game by giving the T13 the full review treatment.

Continue reading Sony VAIO T13 review: the company’s first Ultrabook targets the back-to-school set

Filed under: Laptops

Sony VAIO T13 review: the company’s first Ultrabook targets the back-to-school set originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Jul 2012 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You know how some philosophical folks say that great things always come in pairs? Well, as it turns out, sometimes that is indeed the case. Not content with handing its fans a free trip towards the promised Ivy Bridge land, Origin PC’s kicking off its 2012 back-to-school promotion with a couple of solid-state goodies to help you save some time during your every-day computer activities. The deal is quite simple: shell out some cash on one of the outfit’s qualifying machines and you’ve got yourself a gratis 128GB or 256GB SSD — this, naturally, includes the EON11-S, EON15-S, EON17-S and that beastly GENESIS, just to mention a few. As Origin PC points out, the worldwide deal’s limited to one per customer, can’t be combined with any other offer and it’ll run until there’s no more supplies to give. If all that sounds good, then head over to the company’s site to get in on it, as well as check out the full list of units involved in the BTS promo.

Continue reading Origin PC wants to put you ‘in the fast lane’ with back-to-school promo, hands you a free SSD

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Origin PC wants to put you ‘in the fast lane’ with back-to-school promo, hands you a free SSD originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 09 Jul 2012 15:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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