Hasta La Gadget!

If you’re gonna proverbially bear hug your iPod touch into a working cellular device, might as well get it in the trendiest color available, right? The Apple Peel 520 has now been shown off in white, a more stylish option for those wanting a case, extended battery, and freedom from the shackles of limited SIM options (at the expense of some functionality and ease of use, naturally). Still in production with no release date, but hey, if you’re the sort who likes to live on the outer fringes of consumer electronics, keep this import in mind. No promises it’ll work with whatever Apple has up its sleeve next, though.

Apple Peel 520 gets a white finish, odds placed on beating white iPhone 4 to market originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Aug 2010 01:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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No one expressly said that the Apple Peel 520 would change your life, but if you play your cards right, that’s not entirely out of the question. The mysterious doodad — which wraps around your iPod touch and holds an extended battery and SIM card — has caused quite the stir since being revealed late last month, and now it has undergone a full review overseas. Put simply, the device does work as advertised, turning one’s iPod touch into a device fully capable of making / receiving calls as well as texts. ‘Course, you’ll need to jailbreak your device first, and you’ll have to deal with a static (read: impossible to adjust) call volume, quirky SMS delivery and blanked messages for missed calls, but hey — a small price to pay for the upgrade, right? Hit the source link for the full skinny and a video to boot.

Apple Peel 520 gets reviewed: turns your iPod touch into an iPhone, but quirks exist originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 Aug 2010 21:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The original Cray supercomputer, the Cray-1, is an iconic piece of computing history, so big it had a ring of padded seats around which engineers could sit and contemplate esoteric questions of life whilst the machine humming behind them answered the more finite ones. This semi-hexadecagon shape has been brought back to life, scaled down quite a bit, by case modder and woodcrafter Daryl Brach. The original 5.5 ton behemoth is now a desktop-friendly size, and though those seats are now too small for human behinds they’re still leather-covered and padded, hiding a pair of DVD-ROM drives connected to not one but two motherboards. We’re not sure what other hardware Brach populated the thing with internally, but given that original Cray-1 had 8MB of memory to work with we’re guessing this modern version would have no problem computationally wiping the floor with its inspiration.

Honey, Daryl Brach shrunk the Cray-1 supercomputer originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 02 Aug 2010 13:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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GelaSkins aren’t your only option if you want artist-designed protection for your iPhone 4. SmirkAbout‘s cases are truly eye-catching, and they’re now available for the iPhone 4. You can even get them with matching high resolution wallpaper, just the thing for the iPhone 4’s high resolution display.

SmirkAbout cases are thin and tough. Besides supporting the iPhone 4, SmirkAbout’s designs can fit over 500 different devices. All cases are easy to put on and remove, provide UV protection, and come with a lifetime guarantee.

While SmirkAbout is based in Australia (where women glow and men plunder), it has online stores for 10 geographic regions so you’ll still get local shipping rates.

It’s hard to say for certain what exactly this flyer means, but it sure looks as if at least some iPhone 4 owners will be able to snatch a free invisibleSHIELD 4fix (valued at $9.99 or so) from their local Best Buy. Based on a number of tips that we’ve received, we’re getting the impression that the yellow-tagged retailer could be handing out (and installing) completely free side coverings for any iPhone 4 owner that waltzes into a store, presumably as a proactive measure to fend off returns or to upsell consumers on an entire invisibleSHIELD / separate case. Nothing about this notice makes clear that you actually have to buy your iPhone 4 from Best Buy in order to take advantage, but we probably wouldn’t waste a lunch break giving this a go without a verbal confirmation from your local store manager. Until it’s made official, of course.

Update: We’ve heard from another tipster that the deal is indeed legitimate, and it’s for any human with an iPhone 4, not just those who purchased their phone from Best Buy. We’d recommend calling your local store to double check, but things are looking up.

Update 2: Ah, so we’ve finally received the full skinny from another tipster. The offer only applies to those who purchased their iPhone 4 from Best Buy / Best Buy Mobile or for Best Buy Reward Zone members. Granted, it’s pretty easy to sign up for the aforementioned reward program, but those are the stipulations. The official BB name for the product you’ll be getting is the Zagg SideShield, which would cost you $9.99 otherwise.

[Thanks, Anonymous]

Continue reading Best Buy to offer free invisibleSHIELD 4fix to aggravated iPhone 4 owners

Best Buy to offer free invisibleSHIELD 4fix to aggravated iPhone 4 owners originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 28 Jul 2010 10:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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