Hasta La Gadget!

You’re probably saying to yourself, “didn’t Skype just get a Windows 8-friendly refresh?” Why yes, yes it did. But Skype 6.0 here isn’t limited to Windows RT slates, instead it’s designed for more traditional Windows systems and even has a similarly numbered OS X counter part. There’s a number of notable changes here, including the ability to sign in directly with your Facebook or Microsoft account. (If you’ve got a Live Messenger, Hotmail or Outlook.com account, then you’ve got a Microsoft account.) The most visible changes, however, will be the “flattened” Don’t-call-it-Metro-friendly UI on Windows and the addition of Retina display support on OS X. There’s a few other minor changes, including some additional localizations, which you can read about at the source. And heck, since you’re already there, might as well download Skype too.

Filed under: Software, Microsoft

Skype 6.0 lands with Microsoft and Facebook account integration, Retina support originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Oct 2012 19:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The next generation of iMac has been revealed at the Apple event today that should very well be show the iPad mini – and it’s “absolutely beautiful” as Apple says, not least of all because its’s extremely thin – 55mm thin, in fact. This update has edge-to-edge glass, an extremely thin body, and a set of ports on the back that keep this device in the all-in-one family for real. The basic design of the device is similar to the previous generations of the iMac, here with a new Chin with Friction Stir welding.

The molecules of the aluminum merge together, Apple says, with Friction Stir welding, a new technique that makes this machine seamless. A newly engineered body contains a brand new set of technologies that take what the iMac 7th generation accomplished and pushes it to a whole new level. There will be at least two models available from Apple, those being the following:

21.5 inch 1920 x 1080 display
25 inch 2560 x 1440 display

These units will be working with a lovely IPS display with a 178 degree viewing angle and 300+ nits brightness. These units have a full lamination design, a brand new bit of technology called Plasma deposition – of course this is a whole lot of testing that leads to 75% less reflection on the display than before. Each of these units has been individually calibrated by Apple by hand as well.

The back of these devices have a headphone port, four USB 3.0 ports, two Thunderbolt ports, and an Ethernet port – check the Apple portal for full pricing on this device as well as the rest throughout the day!

iMac refreshed with 8th generation ultra-thin body is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

This morning the flood gates appear to have been opened on Apple before their big event, here with the Mac mini refresh getting a bit of a specifications run-down. This Mac mini update will have several different options in the Apple store online, each of them better than the last. Of course just as the Mac mini had in past iterations, there will be a standard edition and a Server edition, just what you need for your home and/or office environment – and they’re big (yet still quite small, as you might imagine.)

This update has three new updates to the Mac mini lineup, each of them leaked to 9to5mac. The first of these is a 2.5GHz dual-core processor toting machine with 4GB of RAM and a lovely 500GB hard drive. The second has a a quad-core processor clocked at 2.3GHz with 4GB of RAM once again and a hard drive that’s twice as nice at 1TB. The Server edition comes in at 2.3GHz quad-core with 4GB of RAM and a massive 2TB hard drive.

• 2.5 GHz dual-core, 4GB RAM, 500GB Hard drive
• 2.3 GHz quad-core, 4GB RAM, 1TB Hard drive
• Server: 2.3 GHz quad-core 4GB of RAM, 2TB Hard drive

The pricing on these devices has not yet been revealed. Expect each of these units to be available later today more than likely. Word has it that these Mac mini device will be working with 2x2GB stock RAM, but upgrades will be available from Apple up to 16GB – massive! Stick around for the main Apple event to find out the full run-down as Apple makes it all clear.

You can get all the Apple action from SlashGear via our massive Apple portal with full feature selection, including reviews and run-downs!

Mac mini refresh specifications leaked: quad-core, 2TB storage is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Apple has recently released a Mac update for OS X Lion and Mountain Lion that removes its Java plugin from all OS X browsers. If you install the update, you’ll find a region labeled “Missing plug-in” in place of a Java applet; of course, Apple can’t stop you from clicking on it to download a Java plug-in directly from Oracle. The Cupertino-based company had previously halted pre-installing Java in OS X partially due to the exploitable factors of the platform, so this update signifies further distancing from Larry Ellison’s pride and joy.

Filed under: Internet, Apple

Apple says no Java for you, removes plugin from browsers on OS X 10.7 and up originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Oct 2012 19:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Three 3rd-party modified MacBook Pro units were put up for sale this week in limited iterations including a customized top lid with Steve Jobs‘s own visage reflecting deeply in the Apple logo. The proceeds from each of these notebooks, each of them created by the Apple customizers at Uncover, will be sold for 9500,00 Euro, aka right around 12 thousand bucks here in the USA. This set of three units will be sold with all proceeds going to a couple of charities you’re just going to love.

The design of the Apple, for those of you that don’t remember all the way back to last year, comes from designer Jonathan Mak – or at least is based upon that design per their press release. This set of three notebooks is all the same, each model coming with 2.7GHz configurations, 16GB memory, and a 750GB solid state drive inside. Each model is made with essentially the same components as the normal MacBook Pro with Retina display, but the Apple logo on the top cover is laser-cut to create the face of Jobs.

The proceeds will be split between the charity Get It Done and another group by the name of SellanApp where it’ll be working with developers working on iOS apps that specifically “don’t have a direct business model, but have a clear societal value.” The bottom of the notebook will also include the following inscription laser-cut into the metal:

“When you grow up you, tend to get told that the world is the way it is and your life is just to live your life inside the world, try not to bash into the walls too much, try to have a nice family, have fun, save a little money. That’s a very limited life. Life can be much broader, once you discover one simple fact, and that is that everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use. Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.” – Steve Jobs

This is just one of a vast collection of tributes that have been made to Jobs over the past year, with today’s one-year anniversary of his passing making the world once again remember his impact. Of course according to Apple, his influence doesn’t just stop at the idea that everything from his design knowledge to his leadership skills are still being studied today. His design influence in each of the major products in the field being released even today had Jobs hand in them well before they came to fruition.

Have a peek at the small timeline below for more Steve Jobs tributes and memories from the past year, and let us know if you feel that a MacBook Pro with Retina Display is a fabulous way to remember the man’s visage. Also let us know if you plan on picking up one of these three 12 thousand dollar notebooks.

Steve Jobs tribute MacBooks set up for charity auction is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.