Apple is now selling refurbished current-generation iPads for as cheap as $450 for the 16GB Wi-Fi only version. If you want more storage or 3G you’ll have to pay a little more. That’s $50 off the price of a new one. OK, so that’s not a blowout out deal, but there’s no reason not to buy a refurb given that Apple guarantees you’ll be satisfied—you get the exact same warranty as with a new iPad. Yup, we love Apple’s refurb deals. [Apple via Cult of Mac via 9To5Mac] More »
Welcome to Engadget’s back to school guide! The end of summer vacation isn’t nearly as much fun as the weeks that come before, but a chance to update your tech tools likely helps to ease the pain. Today, we’re leaning back with our tablets — and you can head to the back to school hub to see the rest of the product guides as they’re added throughout the month. Be sure to keep checking back — at the end of August we’ll be giving away a ton of the gear featured in our guides — you can hit up the hub page right here!
Your back may be straining from the textbooks, laptop, gym gear and lunch in that dangling overstuffed messenger, but you’re still gonna want to save room for one more item — a tablet. After all, while you can surf, tweet, play games and watch video from your other devices, there’s nothing like doing it from a simple glass window that sits in the palm of your hand. As the hardware gets more powerful, these devices are rapidly becoming versatile enough to let you justify leaving the laptop at home on less-intensive days, so why not check out our picks of the finest devices you should be using and abusing before, during and after class.
Continue reading Engadget’s back to school guide 2012: tablets
Filed under: Tablet PCs
Engadget’s back to school guide 2012: tablets originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Aug 2012 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Apple product launches in China traditionally draw big crowds. Thousands of prospective buyers (and scammers) usually amass outside Apple Stores, all hoping for a chance to buy the latest iDevice. This time around Apple turned to a reservation lottery system to curb some of the chaos. It seemed to work. The new iPad launched in mainland China earlier today and there was nary an uproar.
As seen in the video below filed by Reuters‘ Jon Gordon, there was hardly a crowd at Apple’s flagship Beijing location. According to other reports China’s other Apple Stores saw short lines, too. Previous Apple launches drew huge crowds with some buyers waiting 8-12 hours for the devices.
Apple utilized a reservation system for this launch, which required buyers to select a model and input their government ID to be entered into a lottery pool. Winners were then notified that they won a spot in line. This was done not only to keep the crowds to a minimum but also reduce scammers and scalpers from taking advantage of unsuspecting buyers.
China is currently Apple’s second largest market. It remains to be seen if unscrupulous importers and dealers cut into Apple’s bottom line thanks to the new iPad’s delayed launch in China.
For the foreseeable future the new iPad will only be available in mainland China through this reservation system. That said, the new iPad has been available in neighboring Hong Kong since March, which could also be one of the reasons for the low crowds. Since Hong Kong’s launch the new iPad has been readily available through importers — but of course at a price higher than the MSRP.
A little over a week after finally settling its iPad legal case against Proview to the tune of $60 million, Apple today is delivering some more good iPad news in China: it’s going to start selling the new iPad on the mainland starting July 20.
The Retina-display-enhanced model will be priced starting at $499 for the 16GB model ($629 with cellular access) (3,176 yuan), $599 ($729 with cellular access) for the 32GB device and $699 for the 64GB version ($829 with cellular access). At the same time, it has reduced the price of the older iPad 2 to $399. These prices are in line with what Apple is charging for the tablets in the U.S. — although given that the per-capita income in China is significantly lower, that price will feel a lot higher to the average consumer.
Still, that has not deterred people from buying Apple products so far: In its last quarterly results, Apple’s CEO Tim Cook called sales of the iPhone in the country “mind boggling.” In total the company’s revenue from China in the quarter totalled $7.9 billion, a three-fold rise over the year before.
As with its previous iPad models, Apple will sell the tablets online, through authorized resellers and in its chain of Apple retail stores, with reservations for pick up beginning on July 19. It is starting its reservation system with only a three-hour window between 9am and noon every day.
Previous launches of iPad and iPhone devices in China have sparked a crazy response from enthusiastic consumers, with huge crowds and aggressive scalpers causing Apple to actually halt sales at one point when it launched the iPad 2. Since then, Apple has opened more retail locations, and will have probably set up more careful systems to try to avoid the same thing happening again.
It looks like the settlement of the Proview suit was the final barrier to Apple going ahead with the launch of the new iPad in China.
Older models reportedly had been seized by authorities at the height of the last dispute, and whether Apple actually had an injunction on the sale of the newer model, it would have wanted to avoid a similar situation with the newer model — a situation that would have proven embarrassing and the opposite of the kind of positive hype Apple likes to have buzzing at all times.
If you wake up to find the Splashtop Streamer widget on your PC or Mac begging to be updated, then it’s probably worth it — especially if you have a new iPad lying around. Splashtop 2 has been optimized to work with the Retina display, which makes it a cinch to squeeze your entire Windows or OS X desktop onto the 10-inch screen without it looking terrible. The system has also been redesigned to avoid the need to enter IP addresses, passwords, port numbers or Google account details. Instead, you’ll create a new Splashtop 2 login that should work once across all your devices. The UI seems a lot friendlier, there’s a new in-app purchase to “supercharge” network performance (edit: also required for connections outside of the same WiFi network if you’re a new customer, see below), plus there’s improved support for fluid video streaming at up to 30fps. (Alas, there’s still no fullscreen support for Windows Media Center users though.) The new streamer and iPad app are available now, while the Android update should arrive soon. Want to see it in action? Head past the break for the promo video.
Update: We didn’t fully appreciate this at first, but cross-network remote desktopping is no longer free to new customers. If you’re coming to Splashtop for the first time, you have to make the in-app purchase ($1 per month or $10 per year) to enable “Anywhere Access.” That said, the Splashtop 2 app for iPad is currently selling for $2 — an 80 percent discount which largely compensates for the first year of charges.
Splashtop for iPad gets major update: Retina support, easier remote desktopping (update: but at a price) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Jun 2012 03:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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