Hasta La Gadget!

Welcome back to our annual tradition of speculating on just when and how Apple will freshen up its laptop range. AppleInsider is citing multiple sources today in support of its assertion that the MacBook Pro line will be getting upgraded by Apple, potentially as soon as next week. The Mac OS vendor is reportedly briefing folks to be ready for a “significant product launch” soon, which is narrowed down to its laptop division by a couple more pieces of circumstantial evidence. Apple’s Asian online stores have shifted their promised MBP delivery times from 24 hours to “one to five days,” indicating potentially lower stock quantities, while Italian blog iSpazio has dug up five new product SKUs that could be the markers for new laptop models. None of that sets anything in stone, of course, but we’re also hearing the expected upgrade to Sandy Bridge won’t afflict Apple’s new machines with that Cougar Point chipset flaw, so whenever Apple deigns to bring us this upgrade it should be nice and pristine.

MacBook Pros may be in for an imminent refresh, about time too originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Feb 2011 16:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This week’s episode of Gadget Lab covers highlights coming from Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, which was packed with tablets and smartphones.

The Motorola Xoom, one of the first tablets to run Android Honeycomb, finally got an official price tag: $800. It has a dual-core processor, a high-resolution screen and 4G compatibility, but would you pay that price? We doubt it, and so do many of our readers, apparently.

Another headliner at the show was Samsung’s awkwardly named Galaxy Tab 10.1. Wired.com’s Charlie Sorrel had some hands-on time with it and said the display was gorgeous, but the case felt like a cheap plastic toy.

One of the lamest tablets at the show was LG’s Optimus Pad. Most of the features are cool — a dual-core processor, front- and rear-facing cameras, and a high-resolution display — but the “3-D” spec made us roll our eyes. The 3-D mode makes images display as red and blue anaglyphs (which any computer screen could technically do), to create the cheap 3-D that’s been around for decades.

Moving on to phones, the most interesting smartphone coming from the show was the Xperia Play, which probably should’ve been called the PlayStation Phone. It plays PlayStation Portable games and includes a slide-out D-pad for controls. Pretty neat.

We take another look at the Verizon iPhone compared with the AT&T iPhone. Thousands of customers have been running bandwidth tests with the Speedtest.net iPhone app, and it looks like AT&T comes out ahead in terms of data transfer speeds — although from my previous tests, Verizon’s iPhone has been the more reliable phone.

Dylan wraps up the podcast with his favorite iPhone app of the week, Infinity Blade [iTunes], a fun slice-to-destroy 3-D game.

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Gadget Lab audio podcast #104

http://downloads.wired.com/podcasts/assets/gadgetlabaudio/GadgetLabAudio0104.mp3

Growth. You don’t have to be Gordon Gekko to recognize that exponential growth in revenues is the mark of both a buoyant industry and, on an individual level, a healthy participant within it. Kudos must, therefore, be handed out to all the top four app stores globally, as each one expended its total revenues by over 130 percent between 2009 and 2010. Interestingly, Apple’s growth looks to be slowing down as the App Store begins to reach a saturation point on smartphones, while Nokia’s Ovi Store and Google’s Android Market blossomed during 2010 by multiples of 7.2 and 8.6 times their 2009 size. Apple’s share at the top has shrunken as a consequence, a trend that looks likely to continue when Windows Phone 7’s Marketplace and the Ovi Store are melded into one through this year and beyond.

Apple maintains lead in mobile app store revenues, but its share is shrinking fast originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Feb 2011 07:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple unveiled its new app store subscriptions earlier this week with a decent amount of controversy and even an official statement from Rhapsody saying it would not comply with the new regulations. The new policy requires any company offering subscription services to offer the same service, at the same price (or less) through Apple, with Apple skimming 30 percent off the top. It also no longer allows apps to have links to external sites where purchases can be made. Now, reports the Wall Street Journal, antitrust enforcers in the US are having a preliminary look into the new arrangement. So, what does that mean? Well, these kinds of pre-investigations are pretty common, so it could mean nothing at all. Or, it could lead to a more formal investigation into if the policy violates antitrust laws. When asked for comment on the story, unsurprisingly, no one at Apple, the FTC, or the Justice Department would comment. We’ll keep our eyes on this one and let you know if anything more exciting happens.

US Justice Department and FTC looking into Apple’s new subscription policy originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Feb 2011 00:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This is the Jackling House—exactly how Steve Jobs has wanted it to look since he bought it in 1984, the year of the Macintosh launch. Demolished. Destroyed. Blown to smithereens. More »