Hasta La Gadget!

It’s time to get your MacBook Pro action on with a modified tablet design from Modbook Pro, announced today once again in a 13.3-inch iteration for release on October 3rd. The folks at Modbook have a strange situation on their hands, one where they’re somehow or another able to side-step the lock-out that exists around Apple’s OS X and create tablet computers that are, essentially, MacBook Pro units without the keyboard and a touchscreen up front. Today’s announcement also adds an SSD to the mix for you hardcore solid-state lovers.

This device will be appearing as a 13.3-inch Mac-based pen tablet computer. You’ve got a 64GB solid-state drive inside, upgrade possible to 480GB internal SSD storage, and a ship-date for online purchases of the device for as early as mid-November. This device combines the original hardware of an Apple MacBook Pro with OS X Mountain Lion with a digitizer from Wacom for 512 levels of pen pressure sensitivity. Also in the mix is a ForceGlass pen interface and the ability to work with Microsoft Windows 7 as well.

If you purchase the base configuration of this machine, you’ll be getting Modbook Inc’s own original 64GB Nishara-class SATA 3 SSD with NAND technology – and you’ve got the option to work with a bigger more powerful beast as well, of course, with up to 480GB of storage. With NAND technology you’ll have the best speed and performance available with flash-based storage, and you’ll have no moving parts – better for the long run.

Sales of this Modbook Pro will begin on Wednesday and will have customers living in the United States – or at least whose mailing addresses are in the USA – getting shipment in starting in November. The Modbook team lets everyone know the following about each Modbook purchase, and makes it clear that this is not an original product in and of itself, but a modification of a product originally manufactured by Apple.

The Modbook Pro is an enclosure conversion kit designed to exclusively contain an original MacBook Pro base system manufactured by Apple Inc. Apple Inc.’s one-year warranty on the base system is voided by the conversion and replaced with the Modbook Pro Protection Plan, which covers the entire hardware solution, including the base system.

Let us know if you’re into the idea of the Modbook Pro, or if you think people should just stick with the iPad and leave the real power to the notebook universe!

Modbook Pro OS X Mountain Lion tablet launches with SSD is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

By now, most of you know that the update to iOS 6 has hit, but Apple isn’t stopping there with the updates. It has also released an update to OS X 10.8.2 for Mountain Lion users, and it comes packing quite a few new and improved features. The update comes in right around 700MB, so it does have some heft to it – something to keep in mind if you’re downloading over a slow Internet connection.

One of the most exciting new features is true-to-form Facebook integration. After installing OS X 10.8.2, Mountain Lion users will be able to take advantage of single sign in for Facebook, as well the ability to share links or photos directly to Facebook. When you’re browsing your Contacts, you’ll see the profile pictures and contact information of your Facebook friends, and your Notification Center now houses your Facebook notifications as well.

Game Center has also received a few Facebook-related updates to, with users now able to share their scores to Facebook (support for sharing your scores on Twitter, Mail, and Messages is there too). Your Facebook friends will be recommended as Game Center friends after installing this update, and Apple has also included a Facebook Like button for your Game Center titles.

Of course, there’s far more beyond just Facebook integration, as Apple has added Power Nap support for late 2010 MacBook Airs. If you’re using iOS 6, iMessages sent your your iPhone will also show up in you Mac’s Messages sections, and dictation has added supported for a number of different languages, including Mandarin, Spanish, and – finally – Canadian English. Aside from all of that, there are number of new features and fixes, so take a look at the whole changelog below:

Facebook

• Single sign on for Facebook
• Adds Facebook as an option when sharing links and photos
• See Facebook friends’ contact information and profile pictures in Contacts
• Facebook notifications now appear in Notification Center

Game Center

• Share scores to Facebook, Twitter, Mail, or Messages
• Facebook friends are included in Game Center friend recommendations
• Added Facebook “Like” button for games
• Challenge friends to beat your score or achievement

Other new features

• Adds Power Nap support for MacBook Air (Late 2010)
• iMessages sent to your phone number now appear in Messages on your Mac*
• You can now add passes to Passbook (on your iPhone or iPod touch) from Safari and Mail on your Mac*
• FaceTime can now receive calls sent to your phone number*
• New shared Reminders lists
• New sort options allow you to sort notes by title, the date you edited them, and when you created them
• Dictation now supports additional languages: Mandarin, Cantonese, Spanish, Korean, Canadian English, Canadian French, and Italian
• Dictionary app now includes a French definition dictionary
• Sina Weibo profile photos can now be added to Contacts

* Requires iOS 6

General fixes

The OS X Mountain Lion v10.8.2 update also includes general operating system fixes that improve the stability, compatibility and security of your Mac, including the following fixes:

• Adds an option to discard the changes in the original document when choosing Save As
• Unsent drafts are now opened automatically when launching Mail
• Receive Twitter notifications for mentions and replies from anyone
• URLs are shortened when sending tweets from Notification Center
• Notifications are disabled when AirPlay Mirroring is being used
• Adds SSL support for Google searches from the Smart Search Field in Safari
• Adds a new preference to have Safari launch with previously open webpages
• Resolves an issue that may cause the “Enable Autodiscover” checkbox to always remain checked
• Enables access to the Mac App Store when Parental Controls are enabled
• Support for @icloud.com email addresses
• Resolves a video issue with some VGA projectors when connected to certain Mac notebooks
• Addresses an issue that may prevent Active Directory accounts from being locked out
• Resolves an issue that may cause the policy banner to re-appear prior to logging in
• Improvements to SMB
• Addresses an issue with NIS users when auto-login is enabled
• Addresses an issue in which the Keychain may not be accessible
• Ability to pre-authenticate a FileVault protected system
• Addresses an issue that may cause Xsan to not automatically start after migrating from Mac OS X Snow Leopard

So there you have it – we weren’t kidding when we said that Mountain Lion users are getting a lot with this latest update. What do you think OS X 10.8.2 for Mountain Lion?

OS X 10.8.2 Mountain Lion update lands alongside iOS 6 is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

With a transportation themed episode, it only seemed natural to take the Engadget Show out of our traditional digs — it was also a great excuse to visit one of our favorite cities in the world: Portland, Oregon. We drove Mitsubishi’s i-MiEV EV around the Northwestern green mecca, stopping at some great PDX spots along the way, including the amazing Ground Kontrol arcade, Hand-Eye Supply and the hackerspace, Brain Silo. We also took the time to speak to some PDX residents, including Core77 co-founder Eric Ludlum and some local modders showing off their homebrew projects.

Also, Brian travels out to Boston to ride along with a gang of bike hackers, Myriam takes the Tesla Model S for a spin around the streets of San Francisco and Michael does his best not to fall off the DTV Shredder in the California desert. And, as always, we got a pile of the month’s latest and greatest gadgets, including the Google Nexus 7, Hasbro’s new Lazer Tag guns and a quick trip around OS X Mountain Lion. Also: comic books, donuts and plenty of EV road trip shenanigans. Click through the break to tune in!

Continue reading The Engadget Show 35: EVs in Portland, hacked bicycles and a Tesla Model S test drive

Filed under: Transportation

The Engadget Show 35: EVs in Portland, hacked bicycles and a Tesla Model S test drive originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 28 Aug 2012 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Shortly after letting the 10.8.1 Mountain Lion out of the bag, Cupertino’s now released the next dotted version of its feline OS X to members of the developer community. According to the seed note, this early release will be focusing on a slew of social areas as well as other handy applications, including Facebook, Messages, Game Center, Reminders and, of course, the company’s own web browser, Safari. As is usually the case with these young builds, Apple suggests you install it on a machine “you are prepared to erase if necessary,” though something tells us you were already well aware of that. But in case you do want to install v10.8.2, you’ll find the rest of the deets at the Apple Developer site linked below.

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops, Software

Apple releases Mountain Lion 10.8.2 build to devs, focuses on Facebook, iMessage and more originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Aug 2012 17:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Users of Apple’s newest operating system OS X Mountain Lion are finding a brand new software update ready for them this week containing upgrades for both iMessage and Migration Assistant as well as bug fixes galore. This update will bring users up to version 10.8.1 and is a completely free download. If you’d like to grab this download, head to the Apple symbol in the upper left-hand corner of your screen, click, and find the “Software Update” menu option.

Once you do upgrade, you’ll find that you’re running just a bit quicker and that several bugs you may or may not have noticed recently are completely fixed up. Apple’s upgrade list includes several small fixes as well as an “unexpected quit” error appearing in Migration Assistant more often than the software and hardware company was comfortable with. Per Apple, their upgrade list reads as follows.

• Resolve an issue that may cause Migration Assistant to unexpectedly quit
• Improve compatibility when connecting to a Microsoft Exchange server in Mail
• Address an issue playing audio through a Thunderbolt display
• Resolve an issue that could prevent iMessages from being sent
• Address an issue that could cause the system to become unresponsive when using Pinyin input
• Resolve an issue when connecting to SMB servers with long names
• Address a issue that may prevent Safari from launching when using a Proxy Automatic Configuration (PAC) file
• Improve 802.1X authentication with Active Directory credentials.

NOTE: Check out our full OS X Mountain Lion review if you’ve not already downloaded the software yourself – it’s a winner!

For a full list of upgrades, you can head to Apple’s full upgrade page at http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5418, and note that Apple suggests that you do a full back up of your system before you initiate this upgrade as well. Selecting your Apple Menu and Software Update will also reveal any other software updates available to you via Apple’s own server.

Software updates for 3rd party applications can be found in your Apple App Store application – Software Update works specifically with Apple-loaded software. If you’re uncomfortable with the Software Update process, you can also use Apple’s Manual Update software to make it all smooth.

[via Apple]

OS X Mountain Lion update brings 10.8.1 software fixes is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.