Hasta La Gadget!

It’s time again to look at the rapidly changing face of home computing. The last time we got an IDC report on US PC sales it showed generally rosy figures, with everyone other than Dell growing and Apple making a huge jump. This time we have numbers from both IDC and Gartner, and while they don’t agree on everything, it’s clear things are rather less positive. Overall growth in this quarter is negative (6.6 percent decline for Gartner, 4.8 for IDC) and Apple is now in position number five, dropping from number three, with the other top four comprised of HP, Dell, Toshiba, and Acer — though Toshiba and Acer swap places as you move from IDC to Gartner. Both reports cite tablet sales (i.e. the iPad) as being at least partly responsible for the decline in traditional computer sales, a trend that’s predicted to continue in 2011. Based on what we saw at CES, we’d say that’s a safe bet.

IDC and Gartner: US PC sales drop as tablets shake things up originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 14 Jan 2011 09:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The good old Associated Press has a couple of good old unnamed sources pinpointing the launch of The Daily — the first iPad-only newspaper venture — as January 19th. They even name the location as the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp is the company making this leap into the unknown (do people even care about news anymore?) and he is specifically named as a presenter at this alleged event for next week, to be joined on stage by Apple’s Steve Jobs. An ancillary little note is that journalists are said to have already been hired in bureaus across the country, including the big news-spinning markets of New York and Los Angeles — which makes all the sense in the world given the widespread expectation that the news app they’ll be working for will launch by the end of this month.

Update: Did we say the end of this month? Looks like The Daily‘s more likely to debut in early February instead — News Corporation confirmed to All Things D that the iPad news service has been delayed, and an unnamed source says that it will be “weeks, not months” before we see it emerge again.

‘The Daily’ iPad newspaper set for launch, according to sources (update) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 Jan 2011 20:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Did you know that Wikipedia is celebrating its 10th anniversary this week? It is, on January 15th! It’s hard to believe that the ‘edited by the everyman’ encyclopedia has been around that long… or maybe we’re just getting old. Either way, co-founder of the site (and man of many personal appeals) Jimmy Wales took the opportunity to answer some questions about the past, present and future of Wikipedia, and, when asked about the growing prevalence of mobile apps and app stores, well, Wales had plenty to say, including that models such as the iTunes app store can represent a dangerous “chokepoint” and that they could be “a threat to a diverse and open ecosystem.” He also added that mobile devices are owned by people, and those people should control their own devices. We can see where Jimmy’s coming from in some ways — apps are a wholly new, untested way of ingesting content, but we have a hard time swallowing wholesale that the app store model could threaten internet freedom more than an issue such as net neutrality. But you know, if you ask us nicely, Jimmy, we might just take your word for it. Hit up the ‘more coverage’ link to check out a video of Jimmy Wales waxing philosophical about the birthday celebration.

Wikipedia celebrates 10th anniversary, co-founder Jimmy Wales opines on app stores originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 Jan 2011 13:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve seen countless individuals integrate their phone, PMP or tablet into their whip, but for years, we’ve all been thinking the same thing: “There has to be an easier way.” Turns out, there is. One Mr. Romin has seemingly unearthed the solution, which involves a Lilliput FA1042 touchpanel, a Belkin AV dock adapter cable and a critical piece of software by the name of Centrafuse. Working in conjunction, he has enabled his monitor to actually control the iPhone, and when firing up a YouTube video, the content plays back on the big screen while the controls remain visible on the handset. It’s a nifty setup, for sure, and we’re downright excited to see this rig get installed in a vehicle far too small for American roads in a fortnight or so. For now, catch it working in action just past the break.

Continue reading Centrafuse leads to iPhone control via touchscreen, carputer dreams come to life (video)

Centrafuse leads to iPhone control via touchscreen, carputer dreams come to life (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 Jan 2011 10:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In yet another sign that Spotify has gone mainstream the company has just announced a partership with Shazam — the ubiquitous mobile music identification service. Under the deal, Shazamers will now be greeted with a “Play in Spotify” feature for all music discovered. The feature will be fully integrated in Shazam’s free app “soon” and is available now for the premium apps on Android and iOS wherever Spotify is available, namely, the UK, Sweden, Norway, Finland, France, Spain and the Netherlands.

Continue reading Shazam and Spotify team up on iOS and Android apps

Shazam and Spotify team up on iOS and Android apps originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 Jan 2011 05:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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