MSI GT60 and GT70 gaming laptops get NVIDIA GTX 680M graphics, available now from $1,899

MSI GT60 and GT70 gaming laptops get NVIDIA GTX 680M graphics, available from $1,899 now

MSI introduced the GT60 and GT70 notebooks in March, and the latter has already received an upgrade to NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 675M GPU. Now both laptops are taking another step up, this time to the GeForce GTX 680M, NVIDIA’s latest GPU, with 4GB of dedicated memory. The refreshed 16-inch GT60 and 17-inch GT70 are available in the US today for $1,899 and $2,599, respectively. Specs remain the same aside from the revved-up GPU; both models come standard with an Intel Core i7-3610QM CPU, a 1,920 x 1,080 display, HDMI output, a Killer E2200 LAN card and three USB 3.0 ports. For more info, head to the press release below the break.

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MSI GT60 and GT70 gaming laptops get NVIDIA GTX 680M graphics, available now from $1,899 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Jul 2012 18:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple’s Q3 hardware sales by the numbers: 17 million iPads, 26 million iPhones, 4 million Macs

Apple’s out with its third quarter financials today and, as is customary, it’s provided some sales figures for all of its big hardware categories. Those are headlined by record sales of the iPad, which jumped a whopping 84 percent year-over-year and 44 percent from the previous quarter to 17 million units sold during Q3 (no word on a breakdown by iPad model, though). iPhone sales were also up year-over-year to 26 million units, although that represents a more modest year-over-year growth of “just” 28 percent (and a drop from 30 million in Q2), no doubt due in part to folks holding off on a purchase until the next model comes out.

A bit more surprising are the company’s Mac sales numbers which, despite a new slate of MacBooks, saw year-over-year growth of only two percent for sales of an even four million in the quarter — compared to growth of seven percent in Q2. That seems to be explained at least in part by a dip in desktop sales, which were down 13 percent year-over-year while laptops were up 8 percent, resulting in some fairly flat growth overall. Lastly, as has been the trend for some time now, the company’s venerable iPod line is the one area that continues to see a consistent decline as phones and tablets take over, with it dropping ten percent year-over-year to sales of 6.8 million for the quarter. As Apple noted on its earnings call, though, those iPod numbers were actually better than it expected, and the iPod touch continues to be the most popular device in the category far, accounting for more than half of all iPod sales.

Update: Apple didn’t divulge any Apple TV sales figures in its earnings report, but Tim Cook was happy to provide them on the earnings call. The company sold 1.3 million Apple TV units during Q3, up an impressive 170 percent year-over-year. Still officially a “hobby,” apparently, but not one that Tim Cook says he’d be pursuing if the company didn’t believe in it.

Continue reading Apple’s Q3 hardware sales by the numbers: 17 million iPads, 26 million iPhones, 4 million Macs

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Apple’s Q3 hardware sales by the numbers: 17 million iPads, 26 million iPhones, 4 million Macs originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Jul 2012 16:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple announces Q3 2012 earnings: $35 billion revenue, $8.8 billion in net profits, declares another dividend

Apple announces Q3 2012 earnings

It’s hard to believe its been just three months since we were here last, but it’s true. It’s already earnings season again and, in the feast of financial conference calls, Apple is an entree. Not surprisingly, Cupertino was raking in the big bucks yet again, but it wasn’t quite the windfall of revenue the company has seen in the past. All told the company pulled in $35 billion in revenue, pocketing $8.8 billion of that as pure profit, a record for both in Q3. But, just cause it wasn’t quite as lucrative a quarter doesn’t mean the boys in Cupertino aren’t happy with the results. Profits were up $1.5 billion from Q3 of 2011, once again allowing the company to declare yet another cash dividend for its share holders. During the last three months the company shipped 17 million iPads, an 84 percent increase over the same quarter last year — a simply staggering number. And don’t think that its other premier gadget has plateaued. 26 million iPhones were also sold, representing a 28 percent increase year-over-year. Interestingly, Mac sales slowed, increasing just two percent over last year, largely thanks to a 13 percent drop off in desktop sales.

The biggest money maker for the company continues to be the iPhone and its related products and services, however. More than $16 billion of the total revenue is directly attributable to the smaller member of the iOS family. The iPad is quickly closing the gap, netting Apple over $9 billion in this quarter alone. As a percentage of revenue, the iPod continued to decline, marking the slow death of the once flagship product line.

While revenues were down sequentially, it’s the year-over-year numbers that tell the real story and that explain why, for the second quarter in a row, Apple is able to award its investors a $2.65 per-share dividend. Revenue was up $9.5 billion from Q3 of 2011 and net income by $1.5 billion, as the company has continued to increase its market share and open up to niches to itself. For the next quarter Apple actually expects a small drop in both revenue and earnings per-share, but not enough that we expect Wall Street types to start yelling, “sell, sell, sell!”

Continue reading Apple announces Q3 2012 earnings: $35 billion revenue, $8.8 billion in net profits, declares another dividend

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Apple announces Q3 2012 earnings: $35 billion revenue, $8.8 billion in net profits, declares another dividend originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Jul 2012 16:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dell Precision M4700, M6700 business laptops suit up (update)

Dell Precision M4700, M6700 rock up on Dells door

Dell just put out its new hardcore business laptops onto its storefront. Both the Precision M4700 and M6700 come with Ivy Bridge CPUs and a wealth of build-to-order options including Red Hat Linux — after all, this is Dell we’re talking about here. The 15-inch M4700 is available for $1,049 (£999 in the UK) plus tax and shipping, while the 17-inch M6700 has a base price of $1,849 (£1,349 in the UK).

[Thanks, Nick]

Update: And now, with PR! In case you’re not itchin’ to dig into the details, let us hit the highlights for you. In addition to the 6 pound M4700 and 7.6 pound M6700, Round Rock also rolled out a new 17-inch Covet Edition laptop that sports a ruby red skin and an edge-to-edge 1920×1080 IPS display covered in Gorilla Glass 2. Speaking of screens, the less flashy Precision units also have the HD IPS display option, and all three PCs come with a nine-cell, 97Wh battery. As for storage, a wealth of spinning and solid state options are available, for a max of 2.8TB that can be configured in RAID 0, 1 or 5. Appetite whetted? There’s more after the break, and you can head on over to the source link below to put in your order.

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Dell Precision M4700, M6700 business laptops suit up (update) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Jul 2012 11:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Corning and Samsung plan LCD glass plant in China, may toughen up a few laptop screens

Samsung Series 9 13-inch review head-on

Corning and Samsung were the best of friends well before even the Lotus Glass deal, but the relationship just got a little cozier. The two have agreed to build a plant in China’s industry-heavy Wuxi New District focused on making glass to cover LCD panels in laptops and desktop displays. The roughly $600 million factory will be a major production hub for Samsung, not just an expansion: it’s planning to stop some of its glass production in South Korea and send that work to the new facility when it opens. There won’t even be signatures on the agreement until sometime later this year, so the plant itself is still a distant prospect — but while the two haven’t outlined their exact strategy, the new plant may be the ticket to toughening up that future Series 9 laptop with a touch of Gorilla Glass.

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Corning and Samsung plan LCD glass plant in China, may toughen up a few laptop screens originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Jul 2012 10:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Acer Aspire S5 review: is this innovative Ultrabook worth $1,400?

Acer Aspire S5 review

With dozens and dozens of Ultrabooks on parade, you’d be forgiven if one skinny laptop with an ultra-low voltage processor started to look like the next. Even so, it’s tough to forget the Acer Aspire S5: of all the ultraportables we’ve seen these last nine months, this is the only one with a motorized port cover. Yeah, that one. It’s an intriguing product, to be sure, and the stakes are especially high given that $1,400 price: you’d have to really enjoy that form factor (and everything else) to choose it over some less expensive ultraportable. So is it worth it? Is that drop-down door anything more than a gimmick? Questions for the ages, and ones we’ll tackle in our full review after the break.

Continue reading Acer Aspire S5 review: is this innovative Ultrabook worth $1,400?

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Acer Aspire S5 review: is this innovative Ultrabook worth $1,400? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Jul 2012 17:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dell M4700, 6700 documents leak, ruins the surprise for laptop fans

Dell M4700, 6700 manuals leak reveals

If you’ve had an eye on a new Business-focused Dell laptop but wanted to see the inside of one before purchasing, now you can. The company has (prematurely) outed documents for its rumored M4700 and M6700 portables well before they’ve been officially announced. The owners manual for the latter includes detailed teardown information that shows you how to disassemble the unit — much like what we saw for the XPS 13. It’s almost as if Dell knows we’re watching, the naughty tease.

[Thanks, Duy]

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Dell M4700, 6700 documents leak, ruins the surprise for laptop fans originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Jul 2012 10:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dell to ship XPS 13 with Ubuntu Linux in some areas, Precise Pangolin goes ultraportable

Dell XPS 13 review side profile

Dell’s Project Sputnik is successful enough that the company is launching another satellite, so to speak. After a strong reception for its developer-installable distribution of Ubuntu, the PC builder is now planning an edition of the XPS 13 with the Linux variant already installed. The hardware will be identical to its Windows parallel and ship with the same Precise Pangolin Ubuntu build that previously required a download. Dell incubator lead Nnamdi Orakwue is shy with The Inquirer about how much the Microsoft-free system will cost when it ships to some corners of the world in the fall, although the $999 price of a base Windows version might serve as a ballpark figure. All that’s for certain is that the Ultrabook should represent one of the fastest pre-assembled, open source PCs to date.

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Dell to ship XPS 13 with Ubuntu Linux in some areas, Precise Pangolin goes ultraportable originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 Jul 2012 19:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung Series 9 13-inch lands 1.9GHz Core i7, 256GB SSD edition for the power user set

Samsung Series 9 13-inch angle

When we looked at the 13-inch Samsung Series 9, we lamented that there was only one version on offer: if anyone wanted more than a Core i5 and a 128GB drive, their dreams were crushed. Samsung must feel that there’s hope for us yet, as there’s now a higher-end spec that slots in a 1.9GHz Core i7 and doubles the storage to 256GB. That’s good news to us, even if the 4GB RAM ceiling will still have some avid Ultrabook fans turning elsewhere. Springing for the new flagship will set shoppers back by about $300 more than the previous top of the line, or $1,700 — still pricey relative to the competition, but much more palatable you’re searching for a premium Windows 7 ultraportable and aren’t willing to budge on screen size.

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Samsung Series 9 13-inch lands 1.9GHz Core i7, 256GB SSD edition for the power user set originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 18 Jul 2012 17:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Happy birthday, Intel — celebrate like the rock star you are

Happy birthday, Intel celebrate like the rock star you are

Any idea what was going down in 1968? Preparations for Woodstock. Oh, and the birth of Intel — a giant of a company that somehow raked in $2.8 billion in its Q2 earnings yesterday. We’re guessing it’ll find a way to splurge a bit to celebrate yet another year of silicon production, and maybe — just maybe — it’ll publish a spin-off series on AMC based on the masterpiece embedded above. Happy birthday, Intel. Here’s to CPU.

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Happy birthday, Intel — celebrate like the rock star you are originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 18 Jul 2012 12:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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